223. The Highest Branch, the Imugi That Leapt into the Sky.
223. The Highest Branch, the Imugi That Leapt into the Sky.
[Kwaang-!!]
"Aaaagh-!"
The sensation snagging at my toes was not unpleasant. The feeling of something heavy being smashed and shoved into the void.
With one powerful kick, the East Frankish warriors who had been charging at me from the front all tumbled together across the parapet, and the most unlucky of them went rolling right off the wall.
"Uwaaaagh-!"
[Thud!]
Groans of pain were heard here and there, and the enemies around me, already incapable of rational thought, charged all at once, howling in every manner of voice as if swallowing poison.
"Yaaaaa!"
"Uwaaa!"
But as I had said, a warrior's roar alone could not stop the inevitable laws of nature.
Though they said that will was important in all that a person does, that did not mean will could accomplish everything. That was a lie.
By human strength alone, I could no longer be killed.
"Yaaa-"
[Hwooong- Kuk!]
"-Agh!"
An East Frankish warrior who opened his mouth wide, rattled his uvula, and charged in to see. With all my might, I brought the iron cudgel in my Örn hand crashing down toward his head.
[Thud!]
Then, with a single sharp scream, the East Frankish warrior drove his head into the parapet hard enough to snap his neck at once.
Confirming the blood seeping out from the inside of his already crumpled and shattered iron helm, I immediately swung my shield, snapped the several spear shafts thrusting from my left, and at once swept the iron cudgel sideways with all my strength.
[Tadatak! Hwooong- Ppak! Peopuk!]
"Uk!"
"Tup!"
My long arm harvested two more heads without much trouble, and unable to withstand the force of my lateral swing, the body of the enemy whose neck had broken in the same direction the cudgel had passed floated into the air, spun about half a turn, and then fell.
[Thud! Thud!]
"Yaaaaa-!"
But felling about three men was not enough to quell the frenzy of the battlefield.
At once, at the vicious killing intent, keen spearheads, axe blades, and sword edges I sensed at my back, I moved my feet softly and spun my body around.
Binggeul-
I poured the rotational force into my left arm, swept away every blade, spearhead, and axe edge, and then drove my fist forward to collapse the jaw of the swordsman who had bravely thrust his sword at me.
[Uwoong- Peoseok!]
As a force too great for the human body to bear struck in an instant, the enemy crumbled down with a sound of something bursting.
"Eu- Euaaaa!"
Then, I flattened the head of the brave spearman who had sensed the fate about to befall him with my iron cudgel.
[Hwoong- Pak!]
"-Euk!"
"Iyaa!"
I dodged the axe that flew at me anew with unbroken spirit by slanting my head aside, and at once drove a heavy middle kick into the empty abdomen of the enemy who had wielded that Örn-hafted weapon.
[Kwang!]
"Keok-"
With the sound of a drum bursting, blood poured from the lips of the enemy whose entrails had largely ruptured. Still hunched over and with his head driven into the parapet, the enemy writhed and finished what little life remained in agony.
[Hwooong- Kuk!]
Five to ten minutes, at most. I gave mercy to the enemy thrashing in pain.
I turned my body and observed the enemies around me, whose hands and feet were beginning to tremble.
"Shoot!"
[Swaeeaek- Swaeeaek-!]
A little way from the terror-filled scene, a quavering voice cried out from where the enemy archers were gathered. And at the same moment, sixteen or seventeen arrows flew all at once.
[Pababak! Pabak!]
"Aagh-!"
"Keok! Keo- Kolok!"
I raised my large shield and blocked those arrows, but the East Frankish warriors behind me had to pay the price for their complacent assumption that they could not possibly be hit by their own side's arrows.
It was striking how arrow fletchings, slightly different from those of our North Sea, were lodged into throats and chests and trembled faintly. The enemy warriors, coughing blood and slowly crumbling as they groped at the arrows in their own bodies with expressions of disbelief.
"Shoot! I said keep shooting!"
"Stop! Shields! Raise your shields, everyone! We have to kill that monster! It's going to kill us all!"
[Swaeeaek- Swaeeaek- Pababak! Pabak!]
"Aagh!"
I had wondered if distance had allowed them cold judgment, but the enemy sub-commander screaming with a teary voice like a stubborn child already seemed utterly seized by terror.
Naturally, the next volley of arrows could not pierce my thick shield, and only struck down the unfortunate Frankish warriors behind me, one by one.
"Fylkir! Follow the Fylkir!"
"Hel-! Val-hal-la-!!!"
Even I, my spirits thoroughly roused, was dumbfounded by this bloodless, ruthless Broken Arrow-operation I was experiencing in the ninth century, and amidst it all, the spirited voices of the Northmen reached me from beyond the parapet where the ladders were set.
These berserkers, who sought an honorable death so they might fight even after dying, had climbed the ladders at a rapid pace without a shred of hesitation or fear.
Because the gaze of every warrior who should have been checking them was fixed entirely upon me, Stórolf, his blue eyes gleaming, thrust his head over the wall alongside the flag of Hel he had stubbornly brought all this way.
"For the Fylkir! Euryaaaa-!"
Onto the parapet already strewn with fallen enemy bodies and hot blood. Stórolf, his eyes meeting mine, moved his great body nimbly, scaling the wall in an instant and charging straight at the enemy without any need for waiting.
"Yaaaaa-!"
"Stop them!"
"Kill him!"
[Puk!]
"Aaaagh!"
The flag bearing the symbol of Hel was naturally far longer than any common spear, and though he was in my shadow, Stórolf, one of the mightiest warriors in the North Sea, had no trouble at all driving that long spear into the center of an enemy's chest with one arm.
Then, at once drawing the axe from his waist, Stórolf plunged into close combat.
Trusting his sturdy, massive frame, Stórolf practically threw himself forward with his shield, and several Frankish warriors cried out and tumbled this way and that under his attack.
"Fylkir! Fylkir-!"
"Attack! Attack!"
"Odin! Watch well how I fight!!"
One by one, the North Sea warriors scaling the wall behind him flung themselves into the brawl that Stórolf had created, and a few charged toward the enemies who were frantically raising their shields in the opposite direction.
"Yaaaa-!"
"Iyaaaa!"
"Die!"
[Pak! Chaeng! Peok! Aagh!]
In an instant, chaos descended upon the battlements.
Wondering how it had come to this, the pupils of the East Frankish warriors sliding backward, trembling ceaselessly, darted between the brawl erupting right beside them and my own silently standing figure.
"Fire! I said fire! Fire—!"
[Swish! Swish! Swish!]
Again, arrows flew in.
'Hup!'
[Clang! Thud! Thud! Crack! Crunch!]
This time, with my warriors behind me dealing with the foes at my back, I took a short, sharp breath, summoned all the strength in my body, and swung the iron bar swiftly from side to side.
At the same time, the shield I hurled leftward blocked several arrows, and every arrow that entered the reach of my iron bar was struck down, but a few arrows that managed to slip through my defense struck a couple of East Frankish warriors and one of my own.
[Thunk! Thwack!]
"Ngh!"
"Gah!"
Except for the East Frankish warrior who died instantly with an arrow through the eye, the warriors simply snapped off the shafts where they had been hit and kept fighting.
Soon, beyond my field of vision, Frisian warriors began to appear one by one on the ladders touching the long stretch of wall, and the battle grew ever more chaotic.
Once again, keeping my gaze locked on the face of the enemy officer urging another volley, I pushed off hard with my foot.
[Tap! Tap-tap!]
"Uhh— here it comes! The monster is coming!"
"Block it! Block! Block!"
The attacks of the East Franks, who looked ready to burst into tears at any moment, were so feeble I almost suspected a trap.
"Uwaaah—!"
[Tap! Taptap! Taat—!]
With my free left hand I roughly slapped aside the paths of thrusting spears, then straightway leaped up, planted my foot on the very shield of a man who had squeezed his eyes shut and raised it high, and pressed forward.
[Taptaptap—]
"Urk!"
"Ack!"
"Wha—"
Those who raised their shields, I stepped on their shields; those who tried to thrust their swords in the chaos, I stepped on their shoulders.
"Block them! I said block them! Fire! Fire, I say!"
My figure, advancing over the heads and shoulders of the tightly packed allies, must have been quite a sight, for the enemy commander's voice, screaming for arrows, grew shriller still—
"Die!"
[Whirr-whirr-whirr-crack!]
In an instant, the iron bar that flew from my hand silenced the noisy bastard's mouth.
[Thud!]
"Uh— uhh—?"
"Tha— tha—"
[Shhk—]
Before the enemy officer's body—its head snapped backward by the brutal force of the iron bar—could even touch the wall, I had kicked off the shield with all my might, leaped forward, and a sharp hand axe was already in my grip.
[Whish—whish—whish—whish—]
The axe that fell mercilessly in every direction carved, cleaved, crushed, and in an instant sent dozens of limbs and heads spinning into the air.
[Slash! Thud! Snick! Rrrip!]
"Uhh—"
"Euh—"
Struck speechless by the sheer suddenness of it all, the enemies were hit again by the flying axe-blade before they could even register the pain, briefly felt as if floating in the void, and then sank forever into the darkness that arrived with a vicious slumber.
"Fylkir! Fylkir!"
"Helgi Helason! To the Fylkir!"
[Waaaaah—!]
I tossed aside the axe, its edge now completely ruined after just a few swings, and all around me the shouts of Northmen and Frisians filled the air, calling my name.
"Yaaaugh—!"
"Kill the demon!"
In the midst of it all, the East Frankish archers—who, rather than finding courage, had had their eyes roll back from sheer terror—drew daggers and hand axes from their clothes and charged at me all at once.
[Whoom! Crack! Smack! Crunch!]
The steel-reinforced leather gauntlets were as good as any blunt weapon, and before my fists, which shot out far faster than their charging speed, human faces were reduced to unrecognizable pulp.
Beyond the Frankish warriors who collapsed like puppets with cut strings before the brain-shaking shock, I heard and saw the sound of Frisian warriors finally breaking into their high tower and fighting fiercely, and the enemy ranks swaying violently.
Now what was needed was to strike at the head of the crumbling enemy.
My racing brain and senses never stopped, tracking the enemy's signal system. Banners fluttering this way and that; the direction every head turned toward with desperate eyes.
Beyond this place, where a cloud of sweat and blood seemed to rise, beyond the wall that was thick with heat and screams,
passing below the supply-packed ramparts, I could see the cross banner fluttering high atop a tower that rose a little higher than the wall itself.
'That spot?'
Was that where you looked down and resolved to resist?
"Yaaaugh—!"
[Boom!]
"—aaaaaaugh—!"
I kicked an enemy, who was charging with his eyes now showing only the whites and drool flying, with all my might, sending him flying off the wall, and narrowed my eyes sharply to enhance my sight; atop the majestic tower, only the cross banner fluttered noisily—there was no sign of the enemy commander.
'Where did you go, Heinrich? Let us end this. Only when you die will the others live.'
"Fylkir!"
The wall was already becoming ours, and the more it did, the more I twisted my head like an owl, striving to find any trace of the enemy commander.
To my sharpened senses came the voice of Stórolf, swallowing harsh breaths.
"Stórolf! What is it!"
Turning his head toward me, Stórolf shouted loudly.
"Konungr Hrorek saw a large enemy force heading for the east gate! The enemy is fleeing! Fylkir! You have won again!"
Stórolf shouted as he stabbed down fiercely at the foes still caught between us.
On his face hung a bright smile, and Stórolf's great voice, brimming with joy, at once drew an ardent response from the Northmen and Frisian warriors.
"We have won!"
"Uwahahaha! Revenge of the Saxons! This is for you, Franks!"
"Hel! O Hel! Behold your sons fighting here!"
'He ran away, then. Heinrich.'
He had not been an easy opponent—whether sending his cavalry straight into my charge on the Bremen riverbank, or rallying his broken troops and immediately seeking a defensive battle here at Verden.
And then the skill to flee without a backward glance.
'When we meet again, you'd better bring your master.'
I swallowed my regret and drew a deep breath of the air, thick with the smells of the battlefield.
"Surrender! Warriors of East Frankia! Lay down all your weapons! Those who do not surrender will all die!"