Pivot of the Sky
chapter-125

Three supreme warriors together weren’t able to defeat Enkidu, not even stop him from attacking. Enkidu focused his attacks on Amon. With the help of two other supreme warriors, Amon was able to persevere until now by relying on his strength and incredible stamina. Although Enkidu had not landed a proper punch on him, his shell armor still suffered damage in many areas. Gradually, he started to feel nauseous. This was a sign that he had reached his limit.

During the fight, Amon suddenly had a realization. Although his original intention was to trap Enkidu, he in turn became the trapped one in the center of the battlefield. As a result, he was unable to command the Ejyptian army and issue orders. If they continued fighting like this, the first person to be exhausted would surely be Amon. Enkidu would be the last one to fall down.

Idu had commanded the army well enough so far, but there were certain things where he could not make the decision. This included orders to retreat as well as the mobilization of forces currently stationed in Khenmet’s defense line. This was only the first battle, so it was impossible for both sides to be utilizing their entire strength right now.

Despite their best efforts to bog down Enkidu, the battle prowess of the continent’s top warrior had greatly exceeded their expectations. One slight mistake in the coordination between the three of them could easily result in their defeat. Right now, Amon’s top priority was to escape from Enkidu. If the Commander-in-chief were to fall here, the Ejyptian army would surely collapse.

Suddenly, Enkidu gave a great shout and threw a punch at Amon, directly hitting the tip of Amon’s staff and knocking him back several feet away. Next, he spun around and punched out with both fists simultaneously. This time, it was Gabriel and Metatro’s turn to be knocked back quite a distance away. Gabriel’s shield finally shattered into pieces after blocking this punch.

The coordination between the three was dismantled in an instant. Right now, Gabriel and Metatro had already reached their limits. Could it be that Enkidu was trying to put an end to the fight and finish off Amon?

Just then, something unexpected happened. Letting go of his staff for the first time, Amon took out something with his bleeding fingers and tossed it to the front while he was flying backwards. An avalanche of huge boulders suddenly appeared from thin air and fell right upon Enkidu! A small hill was formed instantly, trapping Enkidu underneath the boulders.

Golier had once mentioned to Amon that Enkidu was a pure warrior who only practiced body arts while completely ignoring magic, reaching the peak that others can hardly reach. Knowing that he would encounter Enkidu eventually, Amon had constantly been thinking about ways to deal with him. The suicidal scroll, Tiamat’s Wrath, naturally would not be taken into consideration, not to mention the difficulty of activating a scroll in close combat. Being a supreme mage at the same time, Amon naturally wanted to take advantage of his strengths.

Amon learnt the arts of war systemically from the textbooks. When it came to commanding and training the troops, Amon followed the rules strictly. However, the body arts and magic arts which he learnt were completely different to what most warriors and mages learnt. It was exactly because of this that he could come up with the idea of infiltrating hundreds of miles into the enemy’s territory to capture the King of Hittite.

Recalling all his fighting experience, Amon felt that there was only one trick that would be effective. Back at the Nile River, he had used this trick during the tough battles with his pursuers.

No mage had done this before in a battle. Besides, Enkidu did not know any magic. Amon reckoned that this trick would definitely catch him off guard.

This time, what he had placed in the bone was not a random assortment of items. Instead, he had filled the bone with huge boulders up to the limit that his magic power allowed. When he was knocked back, he knew that it was the only chance he had to use it, so he did not hesitate.

Unable to react in time, Enkidu was buried under the boulders. Amon was not expecting this sneaky attack to be able to kill Enkidu, so he immediately grabbed his staff again and waved it. The soil and rocks from the surrounding area flew towards the small hill and formed a tough layer of outer shell, sealing all the gaps.

This was an advanced defensive earth magic: the Wall. Right now, Amon is not using it for defensive purposes, but to solidify the boulder hill and seal Enkidu inside. An ordinary supreme warrior would most likely have been crushed to death by the falling boulders. Even if that failed, the warrior would be suffocated to death eventually!

However, Amon was not confident that this would be sufficient to hold Enkidu for long. He immediately gave the order: “Retreat!” Along with Gabriel and Metatro, they rushed back towards their camp, charging through any enemy in their way.

Previously, Amon’s personal guards were unable to get close to the place where the four of them fought. At this moment, seeing that their Commander-in-chief was out of danger, they immediately escorted Amon back to their base. Seeing everything clearly from the sky, Idu shouted: “Soldiers, our Commander-in-chief Amon has slain Enkidu! We won!”

His voice was immediately overwhelmed by an angry roar. A golden light erupted from inside the small hill and a burly figure burst out from the boulders before landing. Pointing at the Ejyptian army, he shouted loudly: “Amon, you despicable coward!”

A great laughter was the response to his curse. Sitting on his chariot, Amon replied: “Oh, it’s Enkidu. You survived? My apologies, I thought you were killed and returned too early!”

After saying this, Amon coughed twice and held his chest. He felt dizzy in the head and his whole body was sinking. From afar, a horn was heard. Gilgamesh had given the orders to retreat. Amon also raised his left hand with his palm facing backwards. The blare of horns arose from the Ejyptian army as well, and they started retreating.

Today‘s battle was just the first battle. Since neither side had managed to overwhelm the other, no matter who won, it was not the final result. Both the two armies needed to take a break before fighting again. The commanders of both sides agreed to retreat. Retreating was not a simple matter of moving backwards. First, the forces wielding long spears and large shields rushed to the front while holding their shields upright. Standing side by side, they formed walls of shields in groups of ten while stabbing forward with their spears, like a hedgehog.

After that, soldiers in the midst of fighting gathered under the command of their respective squad leaders and retreated to their camp from the spaces left between the walls of shields. Finally, the walls of shields closed up and returned in order.

……

Amon had been sitting in a chair with his eyes closed, breathing very evenly and deeply, not saying a word. Returning from the fierce battle, once he relaxed his mind, the feeling of fatigue and weakness is indescribable. All he wanted to do was to lie down and sleep for several days. Unfortunately, being the Commander-in-chief meant that he had to remain vigilant till the end of the war.

Right after he opened his eyes again, Amon issued an order for the two ninth-level supreme mages, Lykwid and Wadj-hotep, to take turns casting healing magic and theurgies to assist him and the other two supreme warriors in recovery.

Lykwid was the high priest of Horus Shrine while Wadj-hotep was the high priest of Isis Shrine. Both of them were also elders of the Ejyptian Academy of Magic, As the Ejypt Empire only has a total of six ninth-level supreme mages, they naturally held an incredibly high status. But now, Amon was using them like common priests to heal his fatigue.

Being exhausted, Amon was unable to care too much about it at this moment. All he wanted was to recover as quickly as possible. In his opinion, wasn’t magic supposed to be used in this way? If he did not make use of their superior abilities now, when else would he do so?

These two supreme mages did not participate in the battle today. Amon’s primary battle plan was to defend from Khenmet. However, he could not possibly allow the enemy to attack without restrain and simply defend all the time. Therefore, he had mobilized the army to meet them in the battlefield today while leaving behind sufficient forces to defend the town.

The most unexpected thing that had happened on this day was the death of Urhiya. Furthermore, it had happened while he was protecting Amon. No matter what kind of enmity the supreme mage and Amon had, he had died in battle for the empire’s sake. Thus Amon sent people to return his relics and wrote a letter to the Pharaoh praising his contributions.

……

Amon sat in a chair with his eyes closed and was directly carried into the meeting hall of Khenmet where the commanders of the legions had gathered.

Idu described what happened that day to the two ninth-level supreme mages. There were also priests on the battlefield who specialized in the recording of messages, and they had recorded the events of the battlefield using message magic. Watching the scene in which Urhiya was killed, the two of them were speechless for a long time.

Idu sighed. “Everything happened too quickly. If I had been in Urhiya’s position, I probably would not have survived either!”

Wadj-hotep frowned. “If I had been alert, I might have managed to block the punch. However, I would probably lose control of my body and fall from the sky. If there is no expert nearby to catch me from the ground, I will most likely fall to my death.”

Lykwid added: “Urhiya sacrificed himself to ensure that Enkidu did not fall into the ranks of the priests behind him. He probably blocked Enkidu just before he died. Enkidu’s first three punches is unimaginably powerful. He obviously came well prepared. The third punch was clearly meant to kill Commander-in-chief Amon on the spot. Fortunately, Lord Amon is also among the strongest of the strongest, thus Enkidu did not make it. Otherwise, we would have been defeated before the battle even started.”

Ankh, the Head of Isis legion and an eighth-level supreme warrior, sighed. “I may be the chief warrior of the Isis Shrine, but even then, I am unable to deliver a punch of such power. Such an incredible outburst of power is extremely energy-consuming. After three such punches, Enkidu was most likely tired, but he still managed to fight three supreme warriors for an entire day. At the end of the fight, he was still capable of exerting his strength. Enkidu is too terrifying!”

Rod Drick said with widened eyes: “I have personally seen Gabriel in action, and I already thought that she is almost invincible. I didn’t expect to see the terrifying power of Enkidu today. Although there are many more warriors in the continent compared to mages, it is also much more difficult to reach the peak of body arts. That is why there have been much less ninth-level warriors compared to ninth-level mages.”

Amon, who had been silent, suddenly opened his eyes and said: “This result of this battle is already the best that we could have hoped for. Although our forces suffered nearly forty percent more casualties than the enemy, we are not defeated. Gilgamesh was merely testing our combat power today. In the end, it will come down to a war of attrition where we are defending and they are attacking.”

Rod Drick reminded him: “Defending from Khenmet, we have the Ejypt Empire at our back so it is naturally beneficial to fight a war of attrition. However, don’t forget that the Uruk legion has occupied large areas of territory. If the war gets drawn out, they can also establish a base and even officially rule over the occupied area as part of Bablon. When that happens, our advantage will be minimized.”

Amon nodded. “So this war can’t be ended in a short time, but at the same time we cannot let it drag on for too long. Therefore, we must not only defend but also launch tentative counterattacks so that Gilgamesh is unable to use his main force to operate a base in the occupied lands with ease… if the Geb legion manages to arrive at the Khenmet defense line, this battle will be easier.”

Rod Drick smiled bitterly. “The Geb legion will require another half a month to arrive. Gilgamesh will not wait idly for them to come. He will most likely start attacking Khenmet very soon.”

Amon looked at Rod Drick and said slowly: “As far as I know, the sepat of Cape has stockpiled some scrolls. Distribute them to the fighting forces at the battlefront.”

After Nero, the most outstanding scroll-maker in the history of Ejypt Empire, became a supreme mage, he served as the oracle of Cape for more than 40 years. Some of his scrolls are gifted away while some were sold at high prices. After Rod Drick became the governor, he stored the scrolls which Nero left in the temple and deliberately collected his relics for future use.

Amon was certainly aware of that, and right now, he wanted Rod Drick to bring the scrolls to the battlefield. Rod Drick said: “Scrolls are one-time consumable items. Once it is used, it will be gone. The timing of usage must be thoroughly considered.”

Amon sighed. “The enemy has already arrived at our doorsteps. As you have seen, Enkidu is invincible. If he leads an elite squad to attack Khenmet, do you think that the twelve-feet high, four-feet wide walls can stop them? If he is allowed to break into the defense line and create an opening for the Uruk legion, we will lose everything. What better time is there to use those scrolls than now?”

Rod Drick nodded. “Alright, I will immediately transfer the scrolls stored in the shrine of Cape to the battlefront. After all, it is for situations like we have now that I collected Nero’s relics and various scrolls so hard.”

Amon added: “Not just the scrolls in the shrine of Cape, you should also have some in your private collection. Including those that the Ramose clan received, take all these scrolls and distribute them. You can claim the expenses for these scrolls from Ejypt Empire after the war has ended.”

Ankh asked: “Is Lord Amon intending to use the scrolls to deal with Enkidu? But how would you know which area Enkidu will strike at?”

Amon shook his head and said: “I certainly don’t know, so I need enough scrolls. On the front of the wall, I will send groups of people who can use these reels. Every group should have three persons. I don’t need them kill Enkidu with one scroll. As long as they can fend off Enkidu’s first punch, such a group can earn us one precious moment so that the nearby forces can come to the rescue in time.”

Ankh asked again: “Who does Lord Amon wish to distribute the scrolls to?” As he spoke, he glanced at the two supreme mages beside him.

Amon said: “I wish to find a group of warriors who have gone through the second awakening of power, and place them on the city walls facing the front lines. After witnessing the power of Enkidu’s punch, the supreme mages in our army must take care to remain vigilant at all times.”

Ankh and the rest looked at each other in silence. Amon asked: “What’s the matter, is there a problem?”

Ankh replied: “Lord Amon, it is not possible to find so many qualified warriors according to your request.”

In theory, advanced warriors were able to carry out the second awakening of power. If they succeeded, once they had learnt basic magic and meditation skills, they were able to use their magic power to a certain extent. They would be able to release advanced magic scrolls. For supreme warriors who had succeeded in the second awakening of power, once their magic practice had reached the advanced level, they would be able to use supreme magic scrolls.

But this was only a theory. In reality, it is not easy to succeed in the second awakening of power. A supreme mage was required to hold the ceremony for the warrior. Amon’s ceremony of second awakening was personally held by the Adoratrice. For ordinary warriors, such an opportunity was too rare.

Since the supreme warriors possess high society status, as long as they were willing to, they would usually have the opportunity to experience this ceremony. However, the supreme warriors were few in numbers. As for the supreme mages, they were even rarer. For example, in the sepat of Cape, there had been no supreme mage since the death of Nero thirty years ago until the arrival of Urhiya.

For the advanced warriors, unless they had a particularly distinguished background, or that they were qualified by their military exploits, or that they had some special skills, it was difficult to find a supreme mage to hold the ceremony for them. For the supreme warriors it was easier to find such an opportunity, but the ceremony could fail. Anyway, only a small number of advanced and supreme warriors out of all succeeded in the second awakening of power.

In order to be able to use supreme magic scrolls, a warrior must first achieve the supreme level, went through the second awakening of power and then reached an advanced level in the practice of magic power. There were only a handful of people in the army who fulfilled that requirement. There were also only a few dozen advanced warriors who had studied primary magic, and since they could only use advanced magic scrolls, there wasn’t much they could do against Enkidu.

Amon realized that he had taken things for granted according to his own experience when he suggested the requirements, so he said: “It seems that we have to send mages onto the ramparts after all. Place three persons in every group at the battlements. Each group should carry with them one scroll that attacks, one scroll that defends and one spatial magic scroll that can block or lock. Enkidu is too fast We need spatial magic to lock him down before we can hit him with powerful magic.”