Floor 16: The Battle of Pogoren Fortress (3)

Damn it.

The enemies had appeared faster than I'd anticipated. I'd meant to adjust the climbers' formation before they arrived... but every second counted now.

I hurriedly channeled mana into the microphone.

"Attention all climbers. We are reorganizing formation, effective immediately."

My voice rolled out across the four-kilometer length of the fortress wall. Whether it was the quality of the magic tool or something else, the sound carried far better than I'd expected, so I dialed it back a little.

"The Svren race in the center of the fortress will deploy into the sky above the wall."

The Deiorn Empire's initial formation had been laid out as follows: Earth on the left, the Svren and Turina in the center, the Koshak on the right.

But it was a badly flawed arrangement. It ignored the strengths of each race entirely. Either the Empire's command was incompetent, or they simply hadn't had enough time to study the other races' combat characteristics yet.

"Furthermore, the Koshak on the right will move to the center of the fortress, and the Turina will shift to the right flank."

My reasoning was simple. The ghost-like Svren could fly. Rather than having their flight paths tangle with everyone else's above the fortress, they were far better used taking on the wyverns from the open sky. And the Koshak, built like centaurs, had superb mobility — positioned at the center, they could rush support to the left or the right whenever danger threatened. Meanwhile, Earth's humans and the Turina would hold the flanks and anchor them solidly.

"The gap left behind by the Svren ascending into the sky will be filled by all three races, widening the climbers' spacing slightly. Everyone, move quickly."

The moment I finished speaking, a massive movement swept across the fortress. The Svren in the center shot straight up into the air, the Turina shifted right, and the mobile Koshak were already streaming toward the middle in droves.

They moved faster and smarter than Heejeong and I had predicted. The first order was a success. It seemed my duel with Turen had been worth something after all.

"What in the... Kwon Suhyeok, sir!"

When I unilaterally rearranged the climbers' formation, Katley Monaka came sprinting over in a panic, abandoning her post among the Empire's commanders. She looked a little angry that an order had gone out without passing through her first.

But there had been no time to ask Katley's permission before adjusting the formation. Besides, she might have refused.

"You cannot simply rearrange the troops as you please!"

"Commander, trust me. This is the best option. The Empire doesn't yet understand each race's combat traits."

"Aren't you an unfamiliar alien race yourself, Sir Kwon Suhyeok?"

"Then I suppose that means I've grasped the other races' traits better than your Empire has, despite seeing them for the first time today."

I laid out my reasons for the new arrangement exactly as they were: the Svren's air superiority, and the Koshak's mobility. Katley's expression showed she understood the logic, but the anger hadn't quite left her face.

"Even so, you should have informed me first. Deploying the reinforcements is a matter for His Majesty the Emperor and the Grand General."

Ah, so that's why she came running over in such a panic.

But I had no intention of following orders just because the Emperor gave them. This was a decision Heejeong — the climber who'd reached the 91st floor — had hammered out with her own head. The formation we'd set was far superior.

Perhaps reading my expression, Katley added, "No matter how untalented His Majesty the Emperor may be in matters of war, it was still an imperial decree. You needed to go through me."

The more of Katley's words I heard, the more certain I became that staying silent had been the right call. If this was her reaction now, she'd have flatly refused if I'd asked beforehand.

"Commander, what matters right now — the imperial decree, or the lives of the climbers and the Imperial Army? What we need to focus on isn't the decree. It's holding this fortress."

"You still could have consulted me!"

"There was no time. Besides, he's your Emperor, not mine. Our lives are on the line in this too."

"But—!"

"Krraaaooooar—!"

The dragon's roar shut Katley Monaka up mid-sentence. The enemy was closing in, accelerating. There was no more room for pointless squabbling among ourselves — and though I hadn't said it out loud, Katley Monaka knew it too.

"Commander, we'll settle who was right and who was wrong later. Focus on the battle now."

"Yes... you're right."

"Oh — would it be possible to get some throwing spears?"

"Spears?"

Katley Monaka's face went quizzical. It was as if she were asking what on earth an axe-and-lightning fighter planned to do with a spear.

"They're for the wyverns. With a dragon up there too, the Svren alone won't be enough to hold the sky. The more spears you can bring me, the better..."

"Understood. One moment, please."

"Thank you."

Katley nodded and ordered an ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Imperial soldier to bring crates of throwing spears. The soldier, still pale from the sight of the lizardman horde, answered a beat late and hurried down beneath the wall. Less than three minutes later, a large crate of throwing spears arrived at the center.

I tossed the whole crate into my inventory.

"Kieeeek—!"

By then, the wyverns' shrieks had begun ringing out above the gate as well.

The battle had begun.

Before the fighting started, Katley had given a short speech through the microphone to rouse the soldiers' spirits — a cry to repel the invaders for the sake of their families, the continent, the Emperor, and the gods.

But it wasn't particularly effective. The enemy army was simply too overwhelming, and she was a newly appointed commander. On top of that, more than half the forces on the wall were climbers who had no reason to share her devotion to Empire or Emperor.

Not that I could have raised morale with a speech of my own. If I tried, I'd get a worse response than Katley did. I hadn't yet built any deep bonds with the Earth climbers, let alone the other races and the Imperial Army, whom we were meeting for the first time on this floor.

So in the end, there was only one thing I could do: perform, as spectacularly as possible, and seize their respect. Nothing lifts ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠an army's morale like watching their allies dominate the field.

"Loose!"

Katley shouted the order and released her arrow. A single shaft streaked out against the red sunset. Immediately after, the soldiers along the wall loosed theirs as well, and the crimson sky vanished beneath a storm of black arrows.

A rain of darkness fell on the lizardman army's heads.

"Kieeeek!"

The wails of wyverns struck down by blind volleys were pitiful. Along with those cries, the lizardmen in the front ranks dropped in swathes — but their advance never stopped. They climbed over the corpses of their own kin and kept coming. The numbers were so absurdly lopsided that even with the front lines falling, the horde showed no sign of thinning.

Another volley went out. Again, it accomplished little. The lizardmen simply used their fallen comrades as stepping stones and pressed further forward.

They looked like a black tidal wave.

KA-BOOM!KA-BOOM!

The fortress shook violently as the bombing brigade — the Witches of the Night — dropped their payloads. One lizardman, scrambling up a ladder to reach the wall's edge, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠lost his balance and plummeted to the base of the fortress.

"Push! Push the ladder off!"

"Damn it! It won't budge!"

One ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of the Koshak heaved and groaned, shoving against a ladder, but it didn't move an inch. That was to be expected. The tips of the ladders curved like hooks, hooked over the wall's edge — and with lizardmen already swarming up them, their combined weight made them impossible to tip.

"Argh! They're coming over!"

I sprinted over and swung my axe at the lizardman hauling himself over the wall, then grabbed the ladder itself and heaved backward, toppling it.

"Graaagh!"

The lizardman about to clear the wall flailed his arms as he went over backward. As he fell, the creature reached out toward me, the spear in his grip slicing through empty air — so close, yet hopelessly out of reach. Even as he dropped, he jabbed the spear at me again and again. A futile gesture. With a dull thud, the ladder I'd pushed over crashed into the earth.

Whew.

I'd tipped one ladder with ease, but I couldn't afford to fixate on ladders alone. There were far too many of them latched onto the wall. And those lunatics aren't even climbing normally.

They weren't just planting ladders and scaling them. They were loading lizardman soldiers onto the lying ladders and hoisting the whole thing up like a serving platter — so that the instant it caught on the wall's edge, the soldiers could leap straight over.

A ladder reached the wall, and a lizardman leapt down from it. I swung my axe at the one bursting out from my left.

"Krruk!"

The blade sank deep into his abdomen. The lizardman couldn't take a single step before collapsing. I then drew a throwing spear from behind me and hurled it skyward — my target, a red wyvern diving toward the wall. A single lightning-wreathed spear tore across the heavens.

Hm. Looks like a superior version of Magic Missile, honestly. If I had to name it, I'd call it Thunder Spear (Physical). While I wasted a moment on the stupid thought, a wyvern that had been chasing the bombing brigade was skewered through and plummeted, its falling weight crushing several lizardmen beneath it.

My spear-throwing's improved a lot too. There really was nothing like live combat. I'd missed a few times at first, but once I found the feel of it, nothing escaped me anymore. Sure, my high combat focus helped — but it was remarkable progress all the same.

Whew. Still, this won't do.

Barely any time had passed since the battle began, and Pogoren Fortress was already a madhouse. Fighting raged at every point along the wall. The lizardmen swarming up the ladders were bad enough, but the real problem was something else entirely.

The dragon, and the wyverns.

The Svren and the bombing brigade held the sky, but it clearly wasn't enough to stop the wyverns empowered by the dragon's buffs. The dragon is the biggest problem. Every time it wheeled through the air and breathed fire across the wall, hundreds of soldiers died. The soldiers and climbers hurled spells and weapons at it, but nothing seemed to leave a mark.

And it had been less than ten minutes.

If this dragged on, the dragon would destroy our defense of the fortress outright. First, I had to deal with the dragon somehow.

Heejeong and I had put our heads together and come up with two plans: use the insignia we'd received from the two black dragons, or launch a full-power ambush.

Back on Floor 14, before we'd ever met the dragons, Heejeong had opposed the idea of me fighting one at all. But after Floor 14, she'd changed her mind. If we had room to retreat, she figured it was worth attempting an attack once.

After all, the dragon we'd faced hadn't been the untouchable, heaven-and-earth-shaking existence her memories had made it out to be. Just because she regressed doesn't mean she sees everything objectively. I suspected the dragon had been one of the traumas that clung to Heejeong from her early-floor days.

Fighting it head-on, I'd lose — that much was certain. But with what Heejeong had given me, a single ambush was worth trying.

I channeled mana into the microphone and asked the bombing brigade to send one of the Witches of the Night to the center of the fortress. In under thirty seconds, Erendil — the Night Witch we'd met on Floor 14 — arrived overhead.

"Wondered what lunatic was calling for a Night Witch, and it's you? This isn't another 'let's go see a dragon' thing, is it?"

"Actually, it is exactly that. Let's go see the dragon."

Erendil stared at me in open horror.

"...Did you pull the same trick on that red dragon as you did last time? You just need a lift over there, and everything works out somehow?"

I briefly debated whether to be honest or tell a well-meaning lie. Hm. If I'm honest, she probably won't fly me there...

"Well, yes. That's right."

"Really? Then hop on quick! Let's move!"

Erendil brightened at once, swinging her broom around to make it easy for me to climb aboard.