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Chapter 82: Kaiji
Kaiji was a Spirit Creature among Spirit Creatures. It had ruled the grasslands intelligently, placing all living things on the grassland except humans beneath its feet. There was no way it would act like this without reason.
There was definitely something over there.
'The black monsters? Is it because of that?'
That might be it. Its terribly sensitive sense of smell must have caught the scent of death wafting from that pile of corpses over there. That must be it.
Mamorota thought so. It was difficult to think otherwise.
"Don't worry. We won't go anywhere near the corpses. We just need to destroy those Huihui Cannons."
Mamorota gently stroked Kaiji's neck once more.
Trembling.
Kaiji trembled as if saying that wasn't it.
However, Mamorota didn't know. Or rather, pretended not to know. If it was afraid of the black monster, how could they go over there? Either way, they had to go there to destroy the Huihui Cannons.
He pulled the reins again. The second departure signal.
Huff.
Kaiji snorted loudly once, then as if having made up its mind, began slowly walking forward.
One step, two steps...
Kaiji quickly picked up speed as if it had never hesitated.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
Was this what people meant by storm-like momentum?
Storm charge! Kaiji raced forward like mad.
Rat-a-tat!
The Gray Wolf War Squad ran right behind it.
Currently, in the direction they were heading, there were only seven hundred mercenaries including Dong Bong-su, five thousand gunners, and a few soldiers moving corpses.
Timur Khan hadn't recklessly sent out Mamorota and the Gray Wolf War Squad. He had carefully observed the surrounding situation and had finished assessing how Li Zi-song's entire expeditionary force was currently moving.
The enemy's main force was relocating their position to the Yellow River bank, somewhat distant from Guisui—though Timur Khan couldn't understand why. Naturally, there had to be a power vacuum among the Whirlwind Artillery Gunners in front of Guisui, and he knew well that if he missed this moment, the black monsters would fly over the ramparts into Guisui.
However, there was one fact he didn't know.
That the actual commander of the enemy right now was not Li Zi-song but Dong Bong-su—that was it.
Dong Bong-su had stopped all work and been watching that direction from the moment the Gray Wolf War Squad descended the Guisui ramparts.
Rat-a-tat! Clang! Clang-clang!
Noisy wolf sounds spread widely across the wilderness in front of Guisui. Those sounds were carried on the harsh wind and spread completely across the wasteland. Of course, where Dong Bong-su was located was also part of that whole.
Huuuu—
The white vapor leaving Dong Bong-su's mouth scattered in the wind and soon dissipated.
"So he knew about the disease and Trebuchet quite well after all."
A voice full of certainty.
It was clear that the enemy leader Timur Khan already knew very well about the disease and had definitely masterminded this entire plan. In addition, it was certain he also knew about the Trebuchet. Otherwise, how could he have reacted so swiftly?
Well.
Given the nature of the nomadic people as a warrior race, even if not a Khan from that other world, they would have gone on expeditions far to the west. Naturally, there was no way they wouldn't know about those two things, was there? After all, the established theory was that the disease first originated in this Mongolian region.
Whether that world or this world, they would be similar.
But even so...
He hadn't anticipated such a combination even for Dong Bong-su.
A combat unit that rode wolves. He had expected at most that the cavalry would open the fortress gate and sortie out a bit.
For cavalry to sortie, they had to open the fortress gate. From the defending side's perspective, that was never a light burden. Therefore, even in a situation like now where the encirclement was somewhat loose, absolutely many couldn't come out. At most a few hundred.
However, who would have thought the sortie force would be a Wolf Cavalry Squad rather than cavalry?
Because of that, over a thousand came out of the fortress without even opening the fortress gate. As a bonus, a thousand wild beasts together.
Wolves were wild beasts that didn't tame well. Yet to breed this many wolves, to use them so well in war like that...
Certainly surprising, but he wasn't actually surprised. Dong Bong-su didn't even really know what the emotion of being surprised was in the first place. However, he found it novel. Should he say that an extremely slight interest arose?
Especially that Giant Wolf with one eye that didn't even look like a wolf, running at the very front, recognized him. From that far away. And with one eye at that. Animals were much more sensitive than humans, so sometimes they would tuck their tails after seeing his hidden nature.
The creature recognized him at once. Despite that, it didn't tuck its tail but bared its teeth.
It was a predator. A terrifying beast confident enough to bare its sharp teeth at him.
However, it seemed not to know that sometimes knowing how to hide one's teeth was even more frightening.
As expected, being a beast, it couldn't be helped.
Well, it was an interesting creature.
Because the creature was being watched with interest not only by Dong Bong-su but also by the New Murim Online system.
Dong Bong-su's eyes, or more precisely the system's cursor, was surrounding the creature's entire body and diligently analyzing something. Strange characters and Arabic numerals constantly appeared and disappeared in the upper right of Dong Bong-su's field of vision. The system was trying to analyze that wolf, but this error was probably occurring because analysis was difficult.
'Why was the system suddenly taking interest in that creature?'
Various inferences were possible, but Dong Bong-su had no choice but to pause his thoughts about it there for now.
"Sweep them all away! Make it so their traces can't be found anywhere in the east, west, south, or north under heaven—chew and eliminate them down to every last bone fragment!"
Awooo—!
Because Mamorota and the Gray Wolf War Squad were already almost upon this place where the Trebuchets were.
Simply looking at numbers alone, this side had several times more, but among the Whirlwind Artillery Gunners, the majority were non-combat personnel. Their combat capability was truly pitiful. In reality, it would be the Mercenary Corps versus the Gray Wolf War Squad.
"Everyone in double horizontal formation."
Dong Bong-su said.
It was a voice that fell flatly, but it was engraved in the minds of all the mercenaries.
Rumble.
The formation that had been gathered in a square quickly changed into two horizontal lines.
"All gunners surround the artillery."
The Whirlwind Artillery Gunners surrounded each Trebuchet in a circle while dilly-dallying.
The soldiers who had been carrying corpses in the back were already carrying out another order without Dong Bong-su's command.
They threw away the corpses they were holding carelessly and were running toward the Yellow River bank where the new position was. Naturally, upon receiving this news, Li Zi-song would lead the main force and soon come to help.
Now the span of that time interval would determine the success or failure of this war...
Dong Bong-su stood at the front of the rightmost side of the formation. It was to secure an escape route in preparation for an emergency.
Clang-clang! Crash!
Thud-thud-thud!
"Kyaaaah—!"
The wolf sounds and their footsteps, the shouts of the Gray Wolf War Squad suddenly grew much louder in an instant, and the size of them, which had looked like beans, also grew large enough that their forms were now distinct.
Along with that, the ground trembled. The bodies of Dong Bong-su and the mercenaries with their feet on the ground also swayed along with it. Tension shook everyone's bodies.
'They're stronger than the Northern Ghost Group.'
It became even clearer now.
Each and every Gray Wolf War Squad member was the finest elite. The Mercenary Corps couldn't handle them. In the worst case, all personnel here except himself might be annihilated before Li Zi-song's main force came to rescue them.
"Heh heh heh."
How long had it been since he'd made such a meaningless grumble?
Dong Bong-su found it rather welcome.
Because it was proof that the higher the enemy's strength, the higher the experience points he could gain.
Whoosh!
Dong Bong-su's figure flew forward lightly like a soaring hawk.
Slash!
Clang! Crunch!
With a single simple horizontal slash, two Gray Wolf War Squad members running at the forefront of the enemy's left side were cut in half.
Of course, the two Gray Wolves they had been riding were still alive. They continued running forward without knowing their masters had died.
The upper and lower bodies of the bisected Gray Wolf War Squad members naturally separated. The bones and flesh of their upper bodies had already lost their connecting link, but due to inertia, they continued moving forward. Organs and intestines spilled out and scattered disgustingly through the air.
At that moment!
Crash—BOOM!
Finally, the Mercenary Corps and Gray Wolf War Squad collided. As expected—no, more than expected—the Gray Wolf War Squad was strong.
No one except Dong Bong-su could properly block the Gray Wolf War Squad's attacks.
Even though they had the momentum from charging, they were no match from the start. A single clash. The power difference between the two was starkly revealed.
Mercenaries having their heads torn off in the Gray Wolves' jaws, gunners with their sides pierced like skewered meat by Gray Wolf War Squad members' spears, soldiers turned to pulp by Mamorota's Iron Club.
They were trampled. To borrow the mercenaries' crude expression, the mercenaries were being... by the Gray Wolf War Squad that moved as one with the Gray Wolves.
Raped.
It was merciless gang rape.
Rip-rip-rip! Thud!
Time enough to take a few breaths passed.
Aaaagh! Ugh! Ghk!
Hundreds died.
Was this indeed the Northern Plains' greatest military force? The Gray Wolf War Squad was thrilling. Unlike herbivorous animals such as horses or camels, the Gray Wolves' movements were incredibly elastic, so the mercenaries' attacks didn't work at all.
Even though Dong Bong-su had all the mercenaries prepare spears in case there might be a cavalry attack, it had little effect. Had they been horses, they would have been unable to overcome their charging speed and been pierced like skewered meat on the spears.
However, the Gray Wolves lightly avoided all the mercenaries' spears through direction changes or crouching. Moreover, since the Wolf Cavalry soldiers—the Gray Wolf War Squad members—were also masters each, the burden on the mercenaries increased several-fold.
Slash! Clang! Aaaagh!
Disjointed and annihilated.
What other expression was needed? The mercenaries and gunners were scattering in all directions and being swept away. Some attempted to flee, but even that didn't go well. The Gray Wolf War Squad was literally a combat unit riding wolves. With the mercenaries' pathetic Movement Techniques, they could absolutely never escape.
Thud! Thud! Whoosh—!
Battle lines everywhere collapsed in an instant.