# Chapter 27: Brandon Kaos
Under normal circumstances, for a Silver-rank warrior who trained his body and battle qi techniques day and night, running vertically along the city wall against gravity was not particularly difficult. After all, Gold-rank warriors could fly by repelling the ground, and while a gravity-defying charge was surprising, in this world filled with magic and battle qi, holy light and bloodlines, it was nothing too extraordinary.
But reversing gravity for oneself alone, and doing so while bringing one's mount along, were two completely different levels of difficulty—not to mention doing so on such a fierce battlefield with absolutely no time to prepare.
Clatter clatter clatter—
Leading the charge, after killing four Chaos-possessed Silver Peak-rank magical beasts, Joshua showed no signs of fatigue whatsoever. Instead, he was full of energy, with an endless stream of power flowing from the Azure Orb, granting him boundless stamina and vitality. The black-armored warrior led his knights with a momentum as overwhelming as an avalanche, smashing through the beasts' blockade, crushing the few magical beasts still clinging to the city wall into bone and meat paste, and then, under the dumbfounded gazes of the defending soldiers, stepped directly onto the inner side of the wall.
"Halt!"
Pulling on the reins, letting Black slow down gradually, standing atop the massive fortress wall, Joshua patted his warhorse's head. A gentle force mixed with battle qi flowed into its body, causing the exhausted creature to dispel its berserk transformation. He then immediately dismounted, turned around, and said to the knights behind him: "Alright, dismount. We've arrived."
"Yes..."
As if only then coming to their senses, the knights woke from their daze as if from a dream. They instinctively dismounted and then stared blankly at their lord, their eyes containing no other emotion—only pure disbelief.
This... just now, how did we manage that?!
Their minds churning wildly, these Silver-rank knights had no idea where they were or what they were supposed to do next. Their thoughts were in complete chaos.
After all—from the moment they charged with burning passion, breaking through at the edge of the beast tide to reach the current location of the wall, it had been at most half an hour!
They had actually charged straight through?! Not through the city gate, but by running directly up the wall against gravity?!
The knights had imagined many scenarios, the most common being dying gloriously while facing the beast tide—none of them were fools, and none thought themselves heroes. Facing such a terrifying, powerful army of frenzied beasts, even relying on the fortress for defense, no one dared guarantee they would survive, let alone charge into the beast tide with a mere fifty-man formation. If not for their trust in their lord's formidable strength, none would have dared boast they could survive. They had even imagined various tragic ways they might die.
But now... looking up ahead, the black-armored warrior held a greatsword and a longspear, with the massive corpse of a demon wolf impaled on the spear shaft. Even in death, its frenzied aura stimulated everyone. The knights believed that any one of them, facing this giant wolf one-on-one, would be plunged into a bitter struggle.
Yet the four equally powerful magical beasts, when facing their lord, could not last even a single breath.
And the knight whose horse had been injured earlier was now looking at Joshua with reverence—no, it was already worship.
Under the effect of the charge, his warhorse's injuries had been immediately alleviated. Though not healed, they had not worsened before the charge effect ended... Even if they had been prepared to die, not dying was naturally the best!
As for Joshua, he simply stood there, slightly calming his breathing, restoring his muscles, which had bulged somewhat from the earlier eruption, back to normal.
Although it had appeared that the warrior had single-handedly brought the group of knights up the wall, Joshua knew that he had actually borrowed the power of everyone present to accomplish this. He had merely taken the lead; maintaining the charge effect afterward was mostly the knights' own strength.
At the end of the day, the warrior was still only a Gold-rank beginner. No matter how strong his combat ability or how well he fought, in terms of pure battle qi level, he would not be particularly high.
And on the city wall.
The exhausted defenders were actually even more bewildered than the knights.
If the knights, following Joshua, could not see the full picture of the battlefield and did not know the specifics of what had happened, the defenders had seen everything clearly.
From not long ago, when a certain elven archer spotted the distant Radcliffe family reinforcements, until the moment these damn reinforcements ran up the city wall, only thirty-five minutes had passed—and most importantly, from the hill to the fortress, these beasts had traveled in a straight line through the frenzied beast tide!
In the distance, only a red light was seen shooting forward, advancing rapidly. Up close, this formation of merely fifty-one men was as indestructible as a steel fortress. On their path forward, ordinary magical beasts that encountered them were crushed into bone and blood. Even giant beasts as powerful as Silver Peak-rank were killed by the leading Gold-rank warrior with a single sword strike and spear thrust.
No wonder only fifty-some people dared to come as reinforcements—what kind of monster army was this?!
Amidst a murmur of astonishment and disbelief, Joshua turned to look back at the beast tide.
Now, this army of frenzied beasts had completely lost any formation. The original arrangement of two thousand magical beasts per layer, advancing layer by layer, was in complete chaos. This was because the Gold-rank mage in the fortress had earlier used the power of Glory, drawing upon the magic of the stars to instantly flatten at least three thousand monsters.
Actually, if it were just that, it wouldn't have caused such a situation. However, because the warrior had stirred things up with his fifty knights... now, many magical beasts still thought there were enemies surrounded within their ranks, and were searching everywhere for traces of the enemy.
But no matter how long these brainless monsters thought about it, they would never imagine that Joshua and his men were already standing on the fortress wall.
Withdrawing his thoughts.
Where was that Gold-rank mage, the master of this fortress, the Count of the Skarant family? His charge had been so conspicuous that it absolutely could not have been overlooked.
Just as he was thinking this, Joshua suddenly felt a strange aura behind him.
It was one of absolute order, of the same origin as the power he had inherited, yet completely different. Turning his head, the warrior saw a handsome swordsman with golden hair and red eyes, a pair of swords at his waist, wearing brown leather armor, walking toward him.
Joshua frowned.
This was a Gold-rank swordsman, not that mage... But that wasn't the main point. The most important thing was that face.
"That face, those eyes... and the style of those two swords."
Muttering to himself, he felt this person looked strangely familiar: "I feel like I've seen very similar attire in my past life."
But Brandon did not know what the black-armored warrior before him was thinking. He simply walked very formally to Joshua, saluted with traditional noble etiquette, and said: "Thank you for coming to assist, Lord of Moldavia in the Northern Lands, Imperial Count Joshua Radcliffe. Please accept the respects of Brandon, Baron of the Kaos Family of the Imperial Capital."
Kaos, Brandon... Brandon Kaos?
Not returning the salute immediately, upon hearing this name, a flash of lightning seemed to strike through the warrior's mind—he finally remembered why this person looked so familiar.
This guy, these two swords—wasn't this the famous Sword of the Northern Lands' Defense from his past life, [Sword Saint of Ruin] Brandon Kaos!