Sword Art Online Volume 17 – Alicization Awakening Chapter 20 - Each of their Battles 22 In other words, to Emperor Vector, the fifty thousand people of the Dark Land army had been expendable pawns from the very beginning! Before that moment, Iskahn, the young chief of the Fist Fighters’ Guild, had merely been a young man uninterested in anything other than training his own skills, and the rise of his tribe. But in this very second, his thought process had, for the first time, risen to a point from which he was able to view the entire Dark Territory, the Human Empire, and the entire Underworld. This perspective created an unsolvable conflict in his mind. The Emperor was the strongest one. He must obey the strongest one, unquestioningly. But. But — “Gurgh…!” Excruciating pain, like nothing he had ever felt before, pierced his right eye. Iskahn groaned as he covered the right side of his face. The Fist Fighter Chief stumbled, and dropped to his knees. With difficulty, he could make out over thirty thousand crimson soldiers beginning to run, speaking an unintelligible language. At the location they were running to, nearly one thousand Human Empire soldiers quickly combined with the Integrity Knights and arranged themselves into a counterattack formation. Between the two sides, five hundred Fist Fighters and Dark Knights stood still, utterly lost. It seemed that, despite the mercilessness of the Emperor’s strategy, he had at least saved the lives of these five hundred warriors. Iskahn consoled himself as he massaged the intense pain in his right eye.