Chapter 133: Coastal City Alliance
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 133: Coastal City Alliance
The weakest part of a castle is its gate. Therefore, towers called gatehouses are built on either side to protect it.
The roof of a gatehouse, thicker and higher than the parapet, can accommodate many soldiers, making it effective for defense.
It also has arrow slits on the inside, allowing them to check enemies outside the city and those entering the gate.
The soldier who made me do this twice was right inside that gatehouse.
Humans are curious creatures. After doing something, they always have to check the result. The soldier who’d screwed me over was no different.
The eyes I met through the arrow slit widened slightly, then were promptly replaced by a sharp arrowhead.
It was a stationary crossbow mounted inside the gatehouse.
Shwwwiik.
I dodged it with a single step. My slowed perception made an arrow fired from point-blank range seem as slow as one shot from a thousand li away.
"Now you're shooting arrows?"
The soldier's eyes, having confirmed the result, trembled minutely.
"Shit! He dodged it!?"
"You fucking idiot! How could you miss at this range!"
"He's the one who dodged it!"
"Fire again!"
Light glinted from arrow slits all over the left and right gatehouses. This time, it wasn't just one man.
My slowed perception doesn't activate for arrows aimed at the back of my head.
So I pressed myself against the wall of one gatehouse. They couldn't get an angle to shoot from the one at my back. Now, I only had to worry about the arrows from the opposite gatehouse.
"Fire!"
A volley of arrows immediately followed. And the soldiers inside the gatehouse realized their comrade hadn't been at fault, and that my dodging the arrow had been no coincidence.
"H-How...!?"
The soldiers were horrified as they watched me evade several arrows fired straight at me from such a close distance. To them, it must have looked as if the arrows were avoiding me on their own.
"Is this really something to be so surprised about?"
Crossbows take time to reload. That was true even with various loading aids.
I didn't waste that brief moment of respite. I turned to face the gatehouse wall I'd had my back to.
Even if I struggled to lift the portcullis, it would be all for nothing if they released the locking latch from the gatehouse again, just like before.
But I couldn't just storm the gatehouse either. If the enemy soldiers occupied the main gate in the meantime, I'd face the same result.
So, I had only one option left.
"W-What are you trying to do!?"
I met the eyes of the soldier spying on me from inside the gatehouse and gave him a grin.
"We'll be meeting soon."
The massive structure, made of brick and mortar, was sturdier than the parapet. It was so tough you couldn't guarantee you could destroy it even with a battering ram.
But I didn't hesitate. The troll I caught before had smashed a castle wall, and it was weaker than me. There was no reason I couldn't do the same.
Besides, my stamina had steadily increased to withstand the recoil of my transcendent strength, and I had Trollsblade, a sword that would never break and could perfectly transfer my power.
'It's possible.'
The moment I made that judgment, I spread my feet shoulder-width apart and raised my sword high. Then, I put all my strength into a textbook overhead strike.
CRASH!!!
The gatehouse shook as if it had been struck by a stone from a catapult. But aside from a shower of stone dust, the structure remained intact.
"You crazy bastard! Do you really think you can do anything to a massive brick and mortar structure with a sword!"
The soldier inside the gatehouse mocked me. But why was his voice trembling?
I focused on Trollsblade. True to its 'unbreakable' trait, it didn't have a single scratch. It was a sword whose durability was second to none.
Instead, my joints ached from the immense recoil, but it was bearable considering the result I would achieve.
'I can do this.'
The moment I came to that conclusion, I began to swing my sword with determination. I swung, and swung again.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
As they say, no tree can withstand ten swings of an axe. The continuous attacks began to dent the wall. Now, not just dust, but chunks of brick were falling away.
"S-Stop it! You son of a bitch!"
I ignored him completely.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
Soon, larger bricks began to fall away, one by one. Just as a small crack can bring down a dam, the collapse of the gatehouse accelerated once a small hole appeared.
"Aargh! It's collapsing!!"
"Get out! Everyone, get out! Quick—"
The soldier's decision was a little too late. The collapse wouldn't stop now even if I stopped swinging, and soon, an entire section of the wall came crashing down.
The inside wasn't safe either. The floor near the wall gave way, and soldiers fell along with the bricks.
"Uwaaack—!"
The soldiers flailed like drowning men. But this wasn't water.
They screamed as they landed on the brick rubble below. At least the fall wasn't high enough to kill them. Not immediately, anyway.
"G-Get out of the way—!"
The bricks that rained down after them crushed the fallen soldiers.
A moment later, when the dust settled, a tomb of bricks was revealed. A soldier's arm, sticking out from a gap, hung limply.
Meanwhile, the surviving soldiers were scrambling down the stairs from the parapet.
Before they arrived, I pulled the rope connected to the portcullis again. Then I jammed Trollsblade into the toothed crank to lock it in place.
Even though it was connected to a pulley, the portcullis had to weigh over a ton, yet Trollsblade showed no sign of strain.
"Insane! How can a human...!"
"Hiiik—! It's a monster in human skin!"
With the reopened gate at my back, I faced the enemies who had surrounded me. The soldiers from the parapet and the gatehouse were pointing trembling swords at me.
"Surrender. And I'll let you live."
I drew a war hammer from my belt.
"You madman! You're the one who should surrender! You're alone, and there are dozens of us! Besides, we've sent word, and reinforcements will arrive soon! So surrender! Now!"
"If you're so confident in your superior numbers, why do you hesitate?"
"Shut up—!"
The soldiers had me surrounded but couldn't bring themselves to approach. They were terrified after seeing me demolish the gatehouse with a sword.
"My soldiers, camped outside the city, will be storming in soon. It'll be too late to surrender then. There's a right time for everything. If you miss your chance like this one, you won't even get the opportunity to regret it."
I calmly stepped on the arm of the corpse sticking out from the tomb of brick rubble.
The soldiers' faces turned red and blue with rage at the sight of me desecrating their dead comrade. But none of them charged.
"You bastard...!"
Just then, the ground trembled slightly. A force of a thousand men had finally begun to move.
The faces of the enemy soldiers turned deathly pale as they witnessed the approaching army kicking up clouds of dust. It was then.
"Why do you hesitate with the enemy before you!"
A contingent of troops appeared. At their head was a knight on horseback. He was a city knight, one who had sworn to protect the city for pay, like a mercenary.
That wasn't all. Enemies continued to pour in through the web of connected streets.
"You! You dare harm the mayor and the city councilors!"
It seemed word of the massacre of the mayor and councilors had spread. They had gathered for revenge. Their numbers easily exceeded a hundred.
"The mayor and councilors were the ones who drew their swords on me first, an envoy. I was merely defending myself."
"Nonsense! They would never—"
"They seemed quite excited at the thought of collecting a hefty ransom for me. And I'm sure there are people here who know about that scheme. After all, the captain of the guard who escorted me never returned."
Some of the wall guards flinched. A few even avoided my gaze. Among the newly arrived reinforcements, some nodded their heads.
"Well, if it's them, I could see it..."
Their reputation must not have been very good. The knight, facing the murmuring crowd, roared.
"Silence! Is this the time for that? An enemy force of over a thousand is approaching! If we don't close the gate now, our families and friends will be trampled under their boots!"
"The Merchant's Guild and the Guard Families will bestow a great treasure upon whoever kills him!"
For a knight, he was certainly earning his pay. The eyes of the motivated enemies gleamed fiercely. Their grips on their swords tightened, and the muscles in their thighs tensed.
"Kill him—!"
At the knight's command, the enemies rushed forward, each trying to be the first. Aron and his troops were still advancing slowly, as if they weren't yet sure of the situation.
In other words, I'd have to hold out for quite a while longer to get help from my allies.
I clicked my tongue and swung the war hammer. After batting aside a spear that a soldier had thrust, trusting in its longer reach, I immediately closed the distance and swung again.
"One."
The skull struck by the war hammer exploded, scattering fragments of bone, white brain matter, and blood everywhere.
"Gasp—!"
The surrounding enemies gasped at the gruesome sight. I didn't miss the opening and swung the war hammer again.
An enemy struck in the side reflexively bent over, and I swung the war hammer upward, shattering his jaw.
"Two."
The enemies who had regained their senses thrust their swords. I kicked up the shield held by a fallen enemy and caught it. Then I angled it to deflect their swords outward, exposing their torsos.
"Three."
The soldier whose chest was caved in by the war hammer couldn't even scream.
Having killed three in an instant, I exhaled the breath I'd been holding. There was one who aimed for that opening.
"The treasure is mine—!"
Opportunists are everywhere. A vile smile spread across the face of the man who had used his comrades as sacrifices, as if he were imagining a future of wealth.
I swung the war hammer in reverse, catching his sword with the hook on the back and pulling. Unable to let go of his sword, he was dragged forward, and I smashed his face with the shield.
The iron boss in the center of the round shield caved his face in, making it monstrously misshapen.
"Four."
With every swing of the war hammer, an enemy soldier died far too easily.
Even the corpses weren't left intact. Skulls were shattered, spilling white brain matter, or holes were punched through bodies, revealing twitching entrails.
"N-No. This isn't right..."
When the number of corpses strewn about surpassed ten, the enemy soldiers began to falter and step back.
Regardless, I kept swinging the war hammer again and again. When the handle finally snapped, I picked up a fallen soldier's sword and thrust.
"Gurgle..."
The soldier, his throat pierced, collapsed, spewing blood. I pushed his torso away with my foot to pull the sword free.
"Twenty. No, twenty-one."
The sword I threw embedded itself in the face of a soldier whose eyes showed he was torn between charging and fleeing. He collapsed on the spot. The surrounding soldiers jumped back in shock, widening the distance.
In that time, I took another sword from one of the nearby corpses and adjusted my grip.
"Who's next?"
The soldiers' gazes turned to the knight who was urging them on from the rear. When I pointed my sword at him, his face crumpled like a piece of paper.
"You fools! Out of my way—!"
As a knight, he couldn't back down in a moment like this. No one would hire a knight who turned his back in fear. Losing his honor was only a secondary concern.
"My name is Osvaldo! As Mayor Marco's champion and son-in-law, I will now carry out the vengeance that is my right, granted to me by the Lord! You, villain! Do not blame my sword for its lack of mercy!"
"Is that all for your last words?"
"You honorless—!"
The man roared and kicked off the ground, charging. True to his title as the champion of a metropolis's ruler, his sword tip didn't waver as it aimed for my face.
From my high guard, I immediately brought my sword down in a diagonal slash. Sparks flew as our swords met, and his blade was knocked aside.
But the resistance was less than I expected. It felt as if he hadn't put any strength into it at all.
Furthermore, even though he'd lost his sword, his eyes were smiling. His charge showed no signs of stopping. Instead, his torso leaned forward, bringing him even closer.
"Die—!"
A dagger had appeared in the hand that had been holding the sword. If not for my slowed perception, I would have never noticed the hidden device in his sleeve that had placed the dagger in his hand.
'He was pretending to be enraged.'
His enraged charge was an act. It was a ploy to make 200% use of this hidden trump card.
His face was flushed with ecstasy. Judging by his expression, this trump card of his had never failed before. It was, admittedly, a difficult trick to avoid if you didn't see it coming.
The pitiful thing for him was that, with my slowed perception, I saw everything.
The moment the dagger appeared, I threw myself backward to buy a little time. Unwilling to lose this chance after playing his trump card, he pressed forward.
In that opening, I forced my sword back on course. The blade screamed as the force of my swing clashed with the force of me pulling it back.
The sword, its trajectory forcibly altered by my monstrous strength, sliced off his arm on its way toward the sky. The hand clutching the dagger rolled across the ground, spraying blood.
Then, as I stepped aside, my follow-up swing sent his head rolling after it. His face was still frozen in an expression of absolute certainty in his victory.
"S-Sir Osvaldo... in a single exchange...!?"
He must have been a fairly renowned knight. A great stir went through the enemy soldiers who had expected him to kill me. The remaining knights also faltered and stepped back.
Several more knights remained, and the number of soldiers had been reinforced to over a hundred, but not one of them dared point their sword at me.
I drove my sword into the ground and faced them.
"Surrender. I'll spare your lives."
"Don't fall for the devil's sweet talk! The enemy will plunder our families and fortunes! What's the point of living if we lose everything!"
A knight with at least some spirit left tried to rally their will to resist.
The soldiers' grips on their swords tightened. Befitting a city of merchants, it seemed the soldiers also tended to value money more than their lives.
However,
"The targets of any plunder will be the few wealthy families who ruled this city. I give you my word that the common people will not be harmed."
The moment I made that promise, they began to drop their swords, as if on cue.
A few knights with deep ties to the families I mentioned resisted to the end, but they too failed to stop my sword and became cold corpses.
Aron and his troops arrived after the surrendered soldiers had finished clearing the corpses littered around the gate.
"Whoa, whoa! What is all this...?"
Aron couldn't hide his bewildered expression as he took in the sight of me, sitting on the collapsed ruins of the gatehouse, and the disarmed enemy soldiers standing awkwardly around me, watching my every move.
I glanced between Aron and his horse, which was breathing easily, then clicked my tongue and got to my feet.
"You're a little late, aren't you?"