Pivot of the Sky Chapter 128

Translator: adomman

Editor: Snorri

After repelling the enemy's fierce siege with the scrolls, the exhausted mages finally retreated from the walls. The warriors defending the city also took the chance to rest. The reserve forces took the turn.

Amon sighed. This tactic could only be used one time, but they had failed to kill Enkidu. He was just like an invincible god!

Turning around, he helped to support Lykwid, who was unsteady on his feet, and ordered his men to escort him back to rest. After expending all his magical power to cast powerful magic consecutively, Lykwid was weak at the moment. Even though he seemed energetic most of  the time, he was already over ninety years old.

Standing on the platform, Gilgamesh wore a grim expression. This was the most devastating attack that the Uruk legion had suffered thus far. Even though he had expected Amon to use scrolls to deal with Enkidu, he did not think that Amon would actually use all the scrolls at the same time on the troops sieging the walls without any hesitation.

By now, Enkidu had returned to Gilgamesh's side. A burnt smell emanated from his body and there were multiple damaged areas on his scalemail. His eyes were burning in anger as he held the tower shield and broadsword that he had always used.

In this exchange, the Uruk legion had lost nearly six hundred elite siege troops. On the other hand, the Ejyptian army also suffered significant losses, including a total of twenty priests. The priests that fought on the battlefield were different from ordinary mages. If a mage wanted to fight on the battlefield, they had to undergo special training for a long time, so it was not possible to replace these priests within a short period of time.

Just as peace returned to the battlefield briefly, a rumbling sound could be heard once again from the plains in the distance. A large number of chariots and horsemen were charging towards the Uruk legion from the left and right sides. This was part of the plan devised by Amon as it would be difficult to win the battle if they simply defended the city walls and did nothing else.

The chariots and horsemen were divided into two divisions, the left division was led by the Head of Isis legion, Ankh, while the right division was led by the Head of Horus legion, Vadin. Some time ago, the Pharaoh had taken up the position of Head of Horus legion during the attack on Hittite Kingdom so Vadin had no choice but to become the field commander temporarily. Now that the Pharaoh was no longer here, he had resumed his original position as Head of Horus legion.

Gilgamesh had long anticipated this move from Amon, so he had arranged the Uruk legion's formation in the shape of a horseshoe. The troops placed at the front attacked flanked by the heavy infantry in order to defend against any attacks. Gilgamesh's platform had returned to the center of the formation by now while the teams of priests were all gathered below the platform.

The biggest advantage that chariots and horsemen possessed were their mobility and speed. If they were placed in a stationary formation, it would be difficult for them to make turns or adjust their position in the midst of a chaotic battle. 

Amon had left all the infantry in Khenmet for defense, thus the troops attacking the Uruk legion from both sides were purely chariots and horsemen. Amon's order for them was simple. Ankh and Vadin simply needed to launch a charging attack from each side and run through the enemy forces all the way to the other side, then return to Khenmet. The only purpose was to disrupt the Uruk formation and create chaos. Victory was not a must.

Each division chose a different line of attack, their routes parallel to each other. Their only focus was the rear part of the Uruk legion. It was where the soldiers would rest and reorganize as well as resupplying the frontlines, the weak spot of the formation. Gilgamesh naturally could not let the Ejyptians do what they wanted. The heavy infantry on the sides charged towards the Ejyptians too.

As the troops on both sides crashed into each other, the sounds of fighting could be heard once more. Suddenly, the front gates of Khenmet opened. A squad of armored horsemen charged out, the one leading them being Amon.

Now that Gilgamesh was dealing with the flank attacks, the sieging from the front had halted temporarily. Amon was not going to give them any chance to rest, so he personally led a small elite squad to attack from the front, taking the opportunity to destroy as many arrow towers and throwers as he could. The squad was comprised of his personal guards and a hundred heavy armored horsemen. The command of the defending forces in the city was handed over to Wadj-hotep temporarily.

As the three forces attacked the Uruk legion simultaneously, the fiercest battles happened at the sides. Under Amon's leadership, the horsemen and his personal guards swiftly destroyed numerous arrow towers and throwers.

Enkidu who had been standing on the platform suddenly roared in anger and leaped down with his tower shield and broadsword, his burly figure creating a small crater where he landed. Without stopping, he sprinted towards Amon. Behind him, a squad of horsemen also rushed out. They actually were made up of Gilgamesh's personal guards.

Amon was slightly surprised. Gilgamesh had not moved from his platform, but here, Enkidu was leading his personal guards to attack Amon's squad instead of focusing on the more important battles at the sides. Was it simply confidence, or did they think that targeting Amon was more important than the whole battle?

Originally, Amon had not intended to stay for long. He only wanted to take advantage of the attacks from the sides to make some damage to the arrow towers and throwers. However, Enkidu was too fast. In just several huge strides, he had appeared right in front of Amon, the tower shield in his hand even knocking down an arrow tower in his way.

Seeing Enkidu jumping forward and slashing towards Amon with his heavy broadsword, Amon could only smile wryly. Enkidu must have regarded him in the same way as Humbaba! He had expected Enkidu to suffer serious injuries from his arrow previously, but it seemed that his attack was even more powerful than before.

Amon could not possibly hope for his personal guards to block this attack for him, so he leaped off his horse with a great shout and swung his iron stick towards Enkidu. The ferocity of Enkidu had also ignited the fighting spirit in him. At the same time that Enkidu swung his broadsword, he hurled his tower shield. With a loud boom, the shield crashed onto Amon's horse like a shooting star, bringing down several guards nearby in the process.

As Amon leaped forward, sounds of chanting could be heard behind him. Several guards behind him raised their staffs, casting countless rays of light onto Amon and Enkidu. The iron stick in Amon's hand became blindingly bright in an instant, while an immense majestic, oppressive feeling emanated from his body, which was at the same time surrounded by various invisible shields.

This was the effect of the theurgies jointly casted by the priests to boost Amon's confidence and strength while providing the greatest defensive protection. Theurgies could be used as offensive support as well, and the rays of light falling onto Enkidu did the exact opposite of what they did for Amon. Enkidu at once felt giddy and drowsy. His movement was hindered, his reaction was slowed down.

There were a total of eight advanced mages disguised as Amon's bodyguards. They had worn bright armor, hidden their staffs and disguised themselves as part of the cavalry. They had waited until this moment to show their true identity and to make a joint attack to assist Amon.

However, Enkidu had done the same thing. The sounds of chanting came from the squad of cavalry led by Enkidu as well and countless rays of light once again appeared. This time, only a small portion of them descended upon Enkidu's surroundings while the majority of the rays gathered on his broadsword. The huge broadsword vibrated with violent energy, seemingly unaffected by the negative effects previously casted on it.

As the broadsword and the iron stick collided in midair, producing a deafening boom which resembled the sound of a large hammer smashing onto a huge bell. Powerful waves of energy erupted from the impact of the collision, distorting the rays of light in the surrounding air and causing the troops nearest to the location to fall off from their horses.

In the midst of the explosion of energy, several scrolls flew into the air and unfurled, releasing various attacking magics which had large areas of effect. However, the location of attack had not been set properly, causing both sides to descend into a chaotic battle. The mages waved their staffs furiously while the warriors attempted to defend against the magical attacks with their shields.

Before Amon leaped forward, he had activated two scrolls which targeted the troops behind Enkidu. Enkidu's mages had done the same and used several scrolls to attack Amon's troops.

After all, scrolls were not magic casted by the mages themselves and did not consume the corresponding amount of magic power. The user just needed to activate the scroll and then point the magic flow in the right direction. The rest was done by the scroll itself. Due to the incredible force of impact resulting from the collision of Amon's iron stick and Enkidu's broadsword, all the scrolls activated ended up deviating from their original targeted location.

After the broadsword hit the iron stick, a loud ringing appeared in Amon's ears and sparks appeared in the air in front of him. As he landed on the ground, the immense force from the collision caused the solid earth below his feet to seemingly turn into soft flowing quicksand instantly. Immediately casting spatial magic and earth magic, he was able to prevent his feet from sinking into the earth, but several deep cracks appeared nevertheless on the ground hardened with magic.

“Retreat!” As Amon shouted an order, he threw two more scrolls towards Enkidu.

Amon did not have much supreme scrolls left. During the siege, some of the mages died before they could use their scrolls. Amon had gathered these unused scrolls and added them to what he had left.

The scrolls activated with a loud boom, but they were unable to cause much damage to Enkidu because he had already left his previous location. With the grace and agility of a cat, Enkidu moved at lightning speed. Holding the heavy broadsword, his burly figure dashed towards Amon from afar and slashed towards him once more.

Spinning around and hold his ground, Amon attempted to parry the attack with his iron stick. Before the two weapons collided, another powerful explosion of energy erupted and Amon flew backwards along with the waves of energy. Instead of receiving the attack with brute force, he had softened the force of the attack using a martial technique and used spatial magic to dissipate the rest of the force. Nevertheless, several parts of his scorpion-shell armor still broke from the impact of the explosion.

On the other hand, Enkidu resorted to using brute force relentlessly. Without even stopping for a moment, he leaped forward again and made a cleaving attack towards Amon's head. Before the blade arrived, an immense aura of pressure enveloped Amon, restraining his movement and making it impossible for him to dodge the attack. This restraining aura was produced as a result of Enkidu's physical power after reaching the peak of body arts, not conjured by magic.

Ignoring everything else on the battlefield, the only thing Enkidu wanted was to kill Amon!

Amon had been cautious in everything that he did thus far. For this surprise attack, he had only brought along the elite units. He even disguised eight mages holding scrolls among them to deal with any unexpected counterattack from the enemy. If anything happened, they could just use the scrolls for cover and retreat back to the city. Wadj-hotep was also standing by on the city tower to assist with retreating at a moment's notice.

The only thing that he had failed to account for was that although Enkidu had been injured at the walls earlier, it did not reduce his fighting power at all. On the contrary, Enkidu had been angered by the injuries and was currently in an enraged state, making him even more powerful and dangerous.

Two mere attacks were all it took to force Amon far away from the cover of his mounted guards, turning it into a duel between the two. Now that the troops led by both of them were embroiled in a chaotic battle, how could there be anyone who could still assist Amon in dealing with Enkidu? Even if there were, they wouldn't be capable of blocking Enkidu's attack anyway.

Only by standing in Amon's position could one truly experience how terrifying Enkidu's attack was. Even if he wanted to perish together with Enkidu, he could not do so since it was too late to activate any scrolls right now. Gritting his teeth, Amon channeled all his magic power into conjuring a layer of energy shield as he raised his iron stick slowly towards the air in defense.

Right at this moment, one of his guards rushed to his front and blocked the attack with a sword.

Amon could not believe his eyes. Who could this person possibly be? However, this person had indeed came from his squad of bodyguards. During Amon and Enkidu's first exchange, he had leaped off his horse in the chaos. When Amon was sent flying off by Enkidu's second attack, this person had sprinted madly towards Amon with an incredible speed. And on the third time when Enkidu cleaved downwards from the air, he had managed to jump in front of Amon in the nick of time to block the attack.

Judging from the person's fast response and immense strength, he was definitely a supreme warrior. He also seemed to be fearless in the face of Enkidu's terrifying attack and was completely unaffected by the restraining aura. Amon could not recall having such a person among his personal guards. Even Metatro was not capable of such a feat!

However, this person was indeed wearing the armor of his bodyguards and had also rushed here from where the squad had been. As the helmet he was wearing covered the face entirely, Amon was unable to identify him. The sword he used was made from Damasc iron and the blade was long and tough. But in front of the huge broadsword enveloped in a golden light wielded by Enkidu, it seemed as thin as a blade of grass and ever so fragile.

The next thing that Amon saw was even more unbelievable. The two swords collided in midair, but the long and thin sword used by the guard actually managed to stop Enkidu's broadsword without suffering any damage at all!

Strangely though, the collision was not that loud. The energies which should have erupted seemed to be drowned by a mysterious power which seemed capable of freezing time. Enkidu roared: “Who are you?!”

The appearance of the new opponent stimulated Enkidu's fighting spirit, and without waiting for a reply, he stepped up and slashed diagonally forward. Whoever hindered Enkidu from killing Amon must die as well!

Although this attack did not seem to be as powerful as the previous three attacks, a faint sighing seemed to come from the broadsword as it moved with a speed that was neither fast nor slow. It was as if time had frozen in place as the broadsword slashed through the air, approaching like an inescapable fate.

The guard lightly pierced forward, the tip of the sword touching the blade of the broadsword with a clear metallic clink. The sound was not loud, but it flooded Amon's mind with echoes of chaotic noise, causing his heart to tighten and his body to be overwhelmed by numbness. Although he was standing behind the guard, the repercussions of this strike still had a great impact on him. This showed how incredibly powerful it was.

Retreating half a step, the guard remained standing upright. At the same time, Amon also retreated half a step involuntarily seemingly due to an invisible force. Enkidu's eyes blazed with fury. He shouted: “Nice one!” Then he advanced half a step and attacked again.

A clink rang out once more as the guard parried Enkidu's broadsword and retreated half a step together with Amon. The way the two fought did not seem like a fight between two warriors but simply an exercise. The two swords hit and blocked each other. There wasn't any techniques or tricks. With a series of consecutive clank, Enkidu advanced steadily. He clearly had the upper hand.

Chapter end