109.
109.
Amid the vibrations and sounds that shook the earth, I looked out at the vast battlefield spread before me.
[Dugu- dugu- dugu- dugu-]
Beyond the synchronized sound of hooves striking the ground, the faint din of a scene of utter chaos reached my ears.
The clang of steel and shouts, the sound of something thin and swift flying through the air.
Soon, a breeze carried a scent like thick iron—the smell of blood.
Beyond hearing and smell, the sight of the battlefield gradually came into full view.
'As expected, superiority in numbers was the best strategy. Our troops were fighting well, but in the end, they were surrounded.'
My warriors were fighting well. So well that if you placed any fighting force of this era before them on equal terms, I would wager on their victory every time.
But war and battle were not a game of fair, even exchanges.
Historically brilliant commanders were revered because they had overcome situations that were, by all common sense, insurmountable.
What I needed now was precisely such a feat. Specifically, the power to smash the enemies who had already formed an encirclement.
'The enemy encirclement was not perfect. Refil, Ubba, and Oleg were holding out better than I'd expected. Our training had not been in vain.'
As I drew closer to the scent of blood, the situation on the battlefield became ever clearer.
Our Norsemen's ranks were holding back the enemy in a formation like an open, round fan.
Meanwhile, whether because they thought they had seized the upper hand, or because they were in a hurry to finish off my main force, the Mercian ranks had lost their initial order and were continually rushing toward the Norsemen's shield wall.
Looking at their disordered ranks, it appeared they had maneuvered several times to break the flanks, but the fundamental disparity in fighting strength was so vast that they had not been very successful. Rather, their rash attempts to envelop us made it seem as if the Mercian center itself was in peril.
'Good. I would cut them all down.'
The judgment was swift; once my resolve was set, all that remained was execution.
"It is the time of harvest! We shall gnaw away at the enemy's right flank!"
"Ride! Follow the Konungr!"
"Don't fall behind! Stick close!"
"Spears! Raise your spears! Don't lower your shields!"
"My spear is already broken!"
"Then pick up an axe at least!"
[Buuuung- uuuuung-!]
[Dugu-dugu-dugu-dugu-]
There was a continuous, irregular thunder of hooves, and the long, resonant blast of horns.
The enemy, belatedly realizing our approach, turned around in alarm and shouted.
"Enemy! Enemy cavalry!"
"Enemy behind us! Enemy at our backs!"
In the chaos, a few brave or quick-witted Mercian warriors hurried to turn around and form a defense, but if they could have done so in that brief moment, then, to put it bluntly, the Norsemen's shield wall would already have splintered.
[Dagak-dagak-dagak- seogeok!]
The gap in the sense of distance between cavalry and infantry was this drastic.
They might have hurriedly raised their shields and spears in their own way, but as the look on the face of the enemy whose throat I had just cut showed, my cavalry, having closed the distance in an instant, struck the defenseless enemy rear in a single rush.
[Dugu-dugu-dugu-kung! Kwajik! Peok!]
The force of weapons striking down from horseback was lethal, but once I had opened a path, the sheer speed and weight of the horses crashing through it sent human frames, even flimsier than I had thought, hurtling into the air.
[Kwajik! Dugu-dugu-dugu- pu-hihihihing! Keok! Peok!]
The shock force of cavalry had its limits, so from the edges of the wedge-shaped assault formation, one by one riders began to halt and horses fell, but as if encountering no resistance, I and the riders behind me plunged forward and tore through the enemy's ranks unhindered.
[Seogeok! Peok! Keok!]
Any enemy standing obliquely in the path of my charge I cut down. Those frozen like frogs in a terror they had never known, I bludgeoned aside with the flat of my greatsword.
I had ridden only a short while like that.
Finally, before my eyes, large shields bearing familiar designs appeared.
'Had I broken through?'
There was no time now to assess the damage we had taken, nor to joke with the warriors who were uniformly gaping at me and my cavalry in awe.
We had to move quickly.
"Cavalry! Dismount!"
"Dismount!"
"Off your horses!"
"The wounded, fall back!"
"Rally to the Konungr! Rally!"
If our charge tactics had been more practiced and the horses had been in better condition.
If we could at least have kept a steady supply of spears.
It would have been easier.
But our situation fell short of that, so in the end, we had no choice but to fight on foot.
[Cheok! Cheok! Cheok! Pu-hi-hihihing!]
"See you in a bit, Camembert. Go!"
[Chalssak! Pureureuk! Dagr-dak-Dagr-dak-!]
After slapping Camembert's rump and sending him off, I saw the warriors hurry to form a shield wall in front of the herd of horses that followed him, all fleeing the battlefield.
They were warriors still more accustomed to fighting on foot than on horseback.
Having broken all their spears in the two charges, and with even some sidearms like swords and axes shattered, they were each picking a weapon from the dead Mercian warriors strewn about.
"A-r-o-s-!"
[Seureureung-!]
The Mercian warriors wore expressions like they had been clubbed over the head with a heavy sledge.
To exploit their confusion, I raised my sword overhead without delay and shouted.
"Glory awaits! Charge!"
"Charge!"
"Forward! Forward!"
"Yaaaaa!"
[Tat! Tatat!]
Behind me, who had bounded out first, the warriors ran as one, and the main army's warriors, responding fervently, likewise pulled back their shields, tightened their grips on their spears, and began charging at the enemy.
'Hooowup—'
The deep breath I had drawn supplied blood to every part of my body at a frantic pace, and my heart, pounding as if it would burst, sent tremors through my brain, goading me to expend every ounce of my ability.
The command that spread through the body's signaling pathways then powerfully wrung the muscles ablaze with berserk strength.
[Huuung-]
My supple wrist and firm fingers transmuted the surging power into a fluid technique, tracing a single line through the greatsword.
[Hwiii- seogeok! seogeok! seogeok!]
"Huh...?"
"Urk!"
Moments later, the bodies of the hapless men who had been standing where I moved like a thunderbolt and cleaved the wind, slid down in a spray of blood as I passed between those who stood there in a daze, realizing something had gone terribly wrong.
[Chwahak!]
"Keuk.."
"Grgh...! Keok!"
[Fwoong- seokeok! Fwooo- fwoong-!]
Soon, behind me as I surged forward at a speed far faster than when riding a horse, an unending fountain of blood erupted, and just when the warriors' roars, growing more and more frenzied as they watched that magical sight, overwhelmed the cries of the enemy—
—the enemy ranks on the periphery, finally noticing the disturbance, all wavered at once, and conversely, the Northmen's line, realizing the Konungr's charge, immediately shifted to the offensive.
"Now! Push the enemy back! Attack!"
Refil, who had become quite seasoned through our many shared experiences in a short time, was closest to my breakthrough, so he immediately advanced the left wing he commanded.
"We need not rush out ourselves! We will keep the enemy from escaping this place! Understood!"
"Yes! Jarl!"
In truth, if we considered only experience, Ubba might seem inferior to Refil, but Obba, born a cold-blooded creature, suppressed even the heat in his own voice and assessed the situation dispassionately.
'I still couldn't hear Oleg's voice. Was he too far away?'
It had been a long time since I had experienced the limits of my senses.
If I couldn't hear because it was far, then I just needed to get closer.
'Fwooo-'
You might not believe it, but after finally releasing the deep breath I had drawn, I drew another breath.
"Hel-!"
The war cry I unleashed, mustering all the strength in my body, swept through every space in front of my nose, and soon beyond a few staggering Mercian warriors, the Northmen responded in unison.
"Hel!"
"Helgi Ragnarsson!"
"To the Konungr!"
"Kill them all! Push forward!"
Amidst the Northmen who were now fully in high spirits and the Mercians who were no longer simply wavering but collapsing, a cluster of warriors wearing exceptionally neat armor and helmets came into sight.
'Burgred...!'
Whether he had intended to fight himself, or to rally his forces—
The Cyning of Mercia had dismounted and was standing on the front line.
The moment I saw that sight, something in my head snapped with a click.
By the time I came to my senses, my body was already springing forward.
[dadadada-]
"S-stop him!"
"Step aside!"
[Puk!]
"Keok!"
Without even swinging my sword, I slammed into the Mercian warrior who bravely stepped forward to block me and sent him flying with a body check.
"Hiyah!"
[Hwik- fwoong! Seokeok!]
The enemy who recklessly thrust his spear at me, I cut him down, spear and all.
[Teolsseok! sswaeaeaek- sswaeaeaek- pook! Peobeok!]
"Aghh!"
A downpour of arrows fell at the perfect timing upon the officer and enemies who were trying to form a defensive line in front of my charge, and all the Mercian warriors who had dared to focus solely on my assault while their main force was right before them collapsed on the spot with arrows lodged in the left side of their heads.
'Thank you! Leofric!'
"What...?"
[Seokeok!]
"Keok!"
Confirming that the arrows embedded in the heads and flanks of the enemies had a slightly different shape from ours—those of our marshland friends—I thought that I should give Leofric a chest full of silver, and then cut down the enemy who had survived the arrow baptism and was letting out a sigh of relief.
At last, with the cavalry including Stórolf and Thorbjörn still racing after me about forty paces behind, and Refil advancing from my Örn's side about fifty paces away.
Half determined expressions, half terrified ones.
I saw about twenty warriors in shining armor huddled together like a hedgehog before my eyes.
"Konungr Helgi..."
"Burgred Cyning."
Voices that cut through the battlefield noise and reached each other's ears precisely.
Gazes and voices intersected, emotions intersected.
Just as Burgred was about to speak, two warriors who could no longer contain their fear charged at me.
"Y-you minion of the devil! Blood-soaked beast! Die!"
"Die!"
'You die.'
"Hyaaaaa-!"
[Fwoong- hwik! Pook!]
"Keok!"
I dodged the sword that came slicing down at my neck as he dashed at me nimbly, and thrust my sword into his exposed right side.
"Kurghk!"
"Yaaaaa-!"
[Fwoong- seuk- ppak!]
"Keok!"
Taking the opportunity of his comrade, impaled on my greatsword and vomiting blood,
the blade that came for my Örn-side flank with a mighty kiai—I slightly twisted my body to let it slide past, then instead grabbed his wrist and pulled him in, and headbutted his exposed jaw.
[Teolsseok!]
"Keu... gurgle...!"
"Farewell. Brave warrior."
"Eu... eueu..."
[Seureureung- seokeok! Teolsseok!]
After offering my final farewell to the warrior who kept spitting blood and looked at me with eyes that seemed to plead, I pulled out the sword embedded in his body and at once beheaded him.
A body collapsed like a marionette with its strings cut.
Having laid two warriors low in the literal blink of an eye, the pupils of the Mercian warriors who had all drawn their quality swords and were aiming them at me began to quiver ceaselessly.
[Waaaah-! Konungr Helgi! We must reach the Konungr! Sweep them without pause!]
Before the ever-closer, maddened roar of the Northmen, Burgred's mouth was at last allowed to utter his will without any hindrance.
"Helgi Konungr... If you would only accept it, I... Mercia— will surrender."
[Taeng-!]
Along with Burgred's words, the sword that fell from his hand gave a heavy sound and bounced once.
[Taeng! Taeng- taeng! Taeng!]
Had that sound been the signal?
At the sight of the warriors lowering their swords one by one, even the other Mercian forces who had clung on without routing, their expressions terrified, began lowering all the weapons in their own hands.
"Burgred Cyning. I shall swear before your god and my god. From this moment on, I will not harm any Mercians who do not take up arms. I hereby accept your surrender."
At my words, though he had already let his sword fall, Burgred's head, which had been held straight, at last bowed.
"I thank you for your mercy... Helgi Konungr. All warriors of Mercia, lay down your arms... We have been defeated."
Surrender-! Surrender-!
Victory-! We have won-!
Soon, within this space thick with the scent of iron, only those two sounds echoed on and on.