74
Chapter 74: Opening Battle
In front of Manhan Mountain where grass grew sparsely. A barren field stretched endlessly. As everywhere on the grasslands including Guisui, strong winds were blowing here too.
On the opposite side of the mountain.
Facing the wind, about a thousand mercenaries stood in a line.
"Looks like about five hundred."
A mercenary standing beside Dong Bong-su spoke. Though the mercenary's voice scattered easily due to the strong wind, it wasn't to the extent that Dong Bong-su couldn't hear.
"Four hundred and seventy-seven."
Dong Bong-su immediately corrected the mercenary's words.
500 or 477.
Right ahead, that was the number of Northern Ghosts who had come out to greet them. Dong Bong-su had already finished confirming the Northern Ghosts' number with his eyes before the mercenary spoke.
He had led the mercenaries here after just one day's march. Having crossed the open plains, there was no way the Northern Ghosts wouldn't know of their approach.
Eventually, the Northern Ghosts had come out in such a group to meet them. They must not want to allow the mercenaries' approach any further. In fact, an envoy had come from the Northern Ghost side a moment ago.
The envoy said: Put down everything you have and pass, or quietly turn back the way you came.
Dong Bong-su's answer was to put down the envoy's neck forever.
The immediate objective was to annihilate Manhan Mountain.
Negotiations were meaningless anyway. He had no intention of giving money, and he had never even thought about turning back. Right now he was simply leading the mercenaries as Li Zi-song had ordered.
Whoosh—
Since it was the steppe region, once the sun began to set dimly, the temperature dropped so much that breath puffed out with each exhale. Perhaps, no, certainly it had dropped below freezing.
Dong Bong-su exhaled a deeply drawn breath once more while counting the enemies' number with his eyes again.
...475, 476, 477.
Still 477 people. It was far fewer than originally expected. As he knew, the Northern Ghost Group's personnel numbered at minimum 700, at maximum about 1000. Yet the number that appeared here was only 477.
Should he be happy they were few?
Absolutely not. Differing from expectations always carried danger. It meant roughly 220 or about 520 swords outside his calculations were hiding somewhere.
A danger signal.
Where?
Even while coming here, Dong Bong-su had sent mercenaries far in all directions to scout and steadily observe the terrain.
First, ambush was impossible with this terrain. Not only was there nowhere to ambush anywhere on this barren grassland, but he also hadn't discovered any artificially dug ambush sites.
Then where the remaining Northern Ghosts were...
Dong Bong-su slightly raised his head. Following that, his gaze naturally shifted to the clay-colored mountain rising imposingly behind the Northern Ghosts. It was precisely Manhan Mountain.
'Are you saying the remaining personnel stayed there? Why? Why on earth didn't they move together?'
Dong Bong-su couldn't understand.
They came out to face the opponent head-on on the grasslands, yet about half their full strength remained at the main base?
It was a bit excessive to consider them forces to guard the mountain stronghold. Frankly speaking, if they could sortie with all personnel without guarding the stronghold and completely wipe out the mercenaries, there would be no need to guard their stronghold.
This battle was neither a siege nor a defense. Though it was part of a border dispute, strictly speaking it was a fight between Martial World people. Forcibly consuming forces to guard something like a stronghold was what idiots did.
Dong Bong-su knew well that the Northern Ghosts were no idiots. Surviving so long in this barren land was impossible with just superior military force alone.
'But why?'
Dong Bong-su watched the enemies for a while longer, observing their movements.
But there was no movement from the enemies at all.
Eventually, he sent several more mercenaries to scout toward the rear. It was to prepare for a possible rear attack. He expanded the scouting area that currently covered about ten meters to thirty meters.
Then he arranged the mercenaries in ten horizontal rows centered on himself, Dong Bong-su. Since the mercenaries' number was almost double that of the Northern Ghosts, a situation was created where they faced off 1 to 1 in confrontation. However, this side's 1 was precisely 2 people overlapped front and back.
It was a confrontation situation with many uncomfortable points, but since they had faced the enemy like this anyway, they had to fight. There was no reason to avoid it, and there was nowhere to avoid it on this grassland. From the start, it was impossible for the mercenaries to match the Northern Ghosts' mobility. It meant escape was fundamentally impossible.
From any perspective, this side's strength was clearly below the other. What this side led in was only head count at best. Though the other side was missing nearly half their total forces, they were still far superior in strength compared to the mercenaries.
Dong Bong-su had experience facing Northern Ghosts several times during previous Harvests. They were fast and strong. Incomparable to the lower-rank Wanderer mercenaries. Three per person, perhaps even four or five rushing in might barely defeat one Northern Ghost? The mercenaries knew this fact well too. No matter how much they liked money, it wasn't worth more than their own lives. If the mercenary captain weren't Dong Bong-su, perhaps several would have already fled.
Dong Bong-su swept his indifferent gaze over such mercenaries. Then he quietly opened his mouth.
[Don't be afraid.]
Dong Bong-su's voice was strange. No, strictly speaking it wasn't a voice. His voice was just oddly embedding itself in all the mercenaries' heads. That's right. How else could it be explained? The voice was directly carved into their brains. Yet the voice pattern was definitely Ear Ghost's, Dong Bong-su's.
Thousand-Mile Sound Transmission? Six Harmonies Voice Projection? Or perhaps Wisdom Light Mind Speech?
The mercenaries stirred for a moment. But the noisy situation didn't last long. Because they all could see Dong Bong-su walking forward alone step by step.
[Everyone close your eyes.]
A strange command following strange behavior. But the mercenaries all followed his words. The appearance Dong Bong-su had shown until now made them do so.
Just why such a master was doing mercenary work was a matter for later. What mattered to them was the fact that the peak or pinnacle master called Ear Ghost was their captain.
Now they wouldn't be greatly surprised no matter what Dong Bong-su did, and would willingly follow his orders.
[Even if the enemies charge, absolutely don't open your eyes. The signal for you to open your eyes is light. When bright light shoots through and penetrates your closed eyes, then open your eyes. And...]
Dong Bong-su continued walking alone toward the enemy. And his strange language 'area chat' also continued to be activated.
Over the past year, Dong Bong-su hadn't merely grown physically stronger. He had endlessly researched the system, discovered many things, and become able to use them. This area chat was also one of them.
Dong Bong-su knew well how the mercenaries were receiving this. It was a tremendous technique, and also something that shouldn't be casually revealed. But Dong Bong-su had already made his decision and put it into action.
And...
That decision didn't contain only the area chat function.
[Begin the massacre.]
When Dong Bong-su had said this far, the enemies finally began moving.
Originally the distance between the Northern Ghosts and mercenaries had been roughly one hundred meters. When Dong Bong-su walked forward alone about ten meters, one person also slowly stepped forward from the enemy camp.
A vicious-looking person with the northern nomads' characteristic and various rings on his nose, ears, tongue, etc. This person's body and face had various scars as numerous as the rings, proving how many battlefields he had roamed.
Dong Bong-su and the Northern Ghost finally faced each other in the middle of both camps.
"Kill!"
"Kill!"
Though quite a distance away, the Northern Ghosts' killing shouts could be heard. At this, the Northern Ghost struck together the crescent moon blades worn like knuckles on both hands, making a loud noise.
On the other hand, Dong Bong-su stood quietly with both hands hanging loosely. Because of this, the Wanderer's Sword gripped in his right hand appeared as if planted in the ground.
"Kekeke."
The Northern Ghost growled lowly while looking at Dong Bong-su's appearance. It wasn't contempt. Just a low roar like carnivores such as tigers or lions send when suppressing prey's morale.
But such things couldn't work on Dong Bong-su. Because Dong Bong-su was a predator on a different trajectory from felines like lions or tigers.
Swish!
Perhaps disliking how Dong Bong-su indifferently deflected his killing intent, the Northern Ghost initiated a preemptive attack at an early stage.
Fast. Befitting the vanguard, his body movements were extraordinary.
The distance where Dong Bong-su and the Northern Ghost faced each other was about ten steps, but when the Northern Ghost stomped once and leaped, he was falling down above Dong Bong-su's head in an instant.
Compared to that, Dong Bong-su was slow.
Half a step.
The moment the Northern Ghost jumped, he moved only half a step sideways. But that alone was sufficient. Greater movement had no meaning for Dong Bong-su.
Move only as much as needed when needed.
If he could avoid an attack with just a wriggling motion, Dong Bong-su's movement would have ended at merely wriggling. No excess beyond that was necessary for him.
Having avoided the Northern Ghost's crescent moon blade with half a step's movement, Dong Bong-su lifted his shoulder upward. Crescent moon blades were weapons used by gripping crescent-shaped blade frames on the fists. Therefore, the moment the attack missed, the Northern Ghost's fist and wrist area were passing over Dong Bong-su's shoulder.
Dong Bong-su's shoulder struck the Northern Ghost's wrist. An extremely light motion. However, the result was not light at all.
Crack.
"Kuk!"
Dong Bong-su's shoulder had given a momentary shock to the Daling Point, a vital point on the wrist area. Then paralysis symptoms came over the Northern Ghost's entire body for an instant. Though he had been thinking of swinging the crescent moon blade worn on his opposite fist the moment Dong Bong-su dodged, that plan had already become useless.
That brief moment. That short time was enough to determine victory.
Swish.
Dong Bong-su's other arm that had been lowered rose upward. Following it, the hand gripping the Wanderer's Sword rose.
Thwack!
One arm of the Northern Ghost was cleanly severed from the shoulder blade.