If You Fall Behind, You’re Dead! (3)
“Dieeeee!”
“Aaaaargh! You bastard bandits!”
“I’m gonna kill you!”
The disciples of Mount Hua came charging in with their eyes practically rolled white.
“W-what the hell?”
“Why are these bastards like this?”
It was one thing to raise one’s momentum against an enemy.
But there was a huge difference between fighting with spirit and fighting with murder in your heart. The disciples of Mount Hua came at the water bandits as if they’d run into the killers of their parents.
“Aaaargh, you sons of bitches!”
“Why the hell are you all acting like this?”
The water bandits were the ones who should have been stunned, but from the Mount Hua disciples’ point of view, this was perfectly natural.
Just how hard had they trained all this time?
Ever since the spar with Wudang, they had keenly felt their own shortcomings and devoted themselves to training so fiercely they’d forgotten to eat and sleep. And hadn’t they even gone so far as to learn Zahashin Gong?
It still lacked the heat and maturity for its full power to emerge, but it was Zahashin Gong all the same.
Given how much they had learned and how much effort they had poured in, they had no doubt they would shine in this battle.
And yet…
“Getting dragged around on their backs like sacks!”
“Caught in nets and flopping like fish!”
“Poisoned to hell and back!”
“Who the hell does that to people? You damn bastards!”
Of course, none of those things had actually been done by these particular bandits. But to the Mount Hua brats, who hadn’t lived deeply enough to care about such distinctions, one water bandit was the same as any other.
With eyes as fierce as Chung Myung’s, the Mount Hua disciples swung their swords wildly. The bizarre arcs and ferocious momentum of their blades were enough to make it look like not the righteous sects, but some demonic faction had invaded to settle a blood feud.
“Haaah!”
Jo Gul’s sword spun like it wanted to grind a human being into minced meat.
“M-madmen!”
“We can’t handle them! Jump off!”
“Where do you think you’re going, you bastards!”
The Mount Hua disciples, practically showing the whites of their eyes, charged in with terrifying force, and the water bandits, driven into a corner, flung themselves into the river just to escape.
“They’re running?”
“Hey! Cross over, cross over! The next boat’s over there!”
“Right!”
Seeing those crazed eyes, the Green Forest men quietly shut their mouths.
Let’s not provoke them.
Maybe it’s because they live in the mountains too…. Compared to them, we look like nothing at all.
We should tell everyone never to pick a fight with the Mount Hua Sect.
Leaving aside the chief over there rampaging all by himself in front, the men under him were no less savage.
If you threw a bear skin over the lot of them, they looked like they could swallow an entire mountain whole. If that happened, the balance of power in the Green Forest would change completely….
“Cross over! Cross over!”
“There are a lot of those water bandit bastards over there!”
“Kill them all!”
“D-daoists over there… maybe you should calm down a little….”
“What did you say?”
“N-no, it was nothing….”
Who was the bandit, and who was the Daoist?
The fortunate and unfortunate thing was that there wasn’t a single bold enough soul here to ask that question out loud.
“Hyarrrrraaaagh!”
Rumble!
In the meantime, Chung Myung at the front had sunk yet another boat.
While he flitted about like a flying bird, smashing ships apart, Baek Cheon and the others, with the monks among them, led the mountain bandits across the decks and swept through the water bandits like a tide.
“Kraaaaaagh!”
“Damn it!”
The faces of the bandits abandoning ship were plain with panic.
From the beginning, the water bandits were no match for Mount Hua unless they overwhelmed them with sheer numbers. The Mount Hua Five Swords were now stronger than the average senior experts of most famous orthodox sects.
Once Mount Hua got onto the boats, there was no answer for the water bandits. On a boat, with so little space, they couldn’t make use of numbers, and it was hard to use all sorts of weapons.
So they had to rely purely on skill. But no matter how much the deck swayed beneath their feet, the Mount Hua disciples were not the kind to struggle against this many water bandits.
And more than that…
“Aaaargh! Follow the bosses!”
“Mount Hua! Mount Hua! Mount Hua’s Mountain Stronghold!”
“It’s Mount Hua Sect, you idiot!”
“Who cares!”
The mountain bandits, who adored anyone strong and followed without thinking, were swept up in the Mount Hua disciples’ momentum and began shouting along as they charged the water bandits.
Im So-byeong, who had stayed on the bow of the ship and watched the whole thing without crossing over, scratched the back of his head with his fan.
“This is….”
His head tilted slightly to the side.
“Does this make any sense?”
He wasn’t dissatisfied, of course. If anything, this was clearly something to celebrate. But he couldn’t help feeling absurd about it.
This battle shouldn’t be flowing like this.
The other side had secured favorable terrain and chosen the most sensible way to wage war. Even if he had been the one directly commanding a comparable force, he would have had to accept a certain level of damage.
At the very least, I should have had to accept losing half the boats.
Getting pummeled by artillery while closing in for melee was unavoidable. Even if Kongming himself came back to life, he might reduce the damage, but he couldn’t reverse the situation entirely.
And yet that utterly ridiculous man had leapt in by himself and turned the whole battlefield upside down.
“Hah hah. This is insane.”
It was the moment when everything he had learned and built up was being negated, but rather than being angry, Im So-byeong found it oddly enjoyable.
“Yes. That’s what makes you the Mount Hua Divine Dragon!”
That man was best when he was just a little off his rocker.
“Pull out the ram! Attack the next boat!”
“Yes, sir!”
Whoosh!
Im So-byeong swept his open fan in a wide arc.
“Don’t let the momentum drop! Push straight through and support them! Archers! What are you doing? Shoot every last one of those bastards who fell into the water!”
“Yes, sir!”
As the whistles shrieked through the air, the archers stationed on each boat began loosing arrows.
“Gaaah!”
“Arrows! Dive!”
“N-no!”
The current here was brutally fierce.
“Aaaagh!”
Those pierced by arrows let out miserable screams. The ones struck in the throat died instantly and sank, but even those hit in the arms or legs couldn’t feel safe.
The raging current swept up anyone who could no longer move properly and dragged them into deep whirlpools in an instant.
“P-please save me!”
“Save meeee! Pleaaase!”
Watching the slaughter unfold on the river, Jo Seung clicked his tongue.
“If you underestimate the river, this is what happens.”
That was why proper water bandit work required waterborne combat.
“Th-the Green Forest King.”
“What is it?”
Jo Seung spoke with obvious caution.
“In this humble one’s limited judgment, it would be wise to station spear users along the edges of the boats.”
“Spearmen?”
“Yes… Once people fall into the water, they stop caring about friend or foe and just scramble up anywhere they can. They have to live first.”
“Hmm.”
Im So-byeong looked at Jo Seung with interest.
“A good suggestion. Do that.”
“Thank you!”
Jo Seung hurriedly bowed low.
He had never been this courteous even to Zanpo Heuk-eo, the lord of Daegyeong Fort, but Im So-byeong was a giant beyond comparison to that sort of man. He was on the same level as the Black Dragon King, practically the emperor of the Yangtze River, wasn’t he?
The very fact that the Green Forest King had accepted his opinion made him so honored he felt ready to burst.
“You’re quite intelligent.”
“Th-thank you.”
“The fort lord didn’t look especially clever, though. You must have had a hard time.”
“……A little….”
“How about working under me?”
“Pardon? Is that all right?”
“Ah, for the record, I don’t think you have a choice. If you don’t come under me, you’ll probably get dragged off by that gentleman over there and spend the rest of your life seeing hell.”
At Im So-byeong’s words, Jo Seung turned his gaze dumbly. On the boat, Chung Myung could be seen springing up and roaring as he rampaged.
“Hahahahahaha! Die! Die, you bastards!”
“……”
With a blank expression, Jo Seung turned back and promptly prostrated himself on the spot.
“If you’ll only accept me, I shall be forever in your debt.”
“Good, quick on the draw. Then change your clothes first. That gentleman over there has a terrible memory for faces, so he might beat you the moment he sees you.”
“……”
“Tsk tsk. How ruthless.”
A mountain bandit chief was condemning a Daoist for being ruthless, but no one on the boats thought that was strange.
It was a truly pitiable thing.
“W-we retreat!”
“Return to the stronghold! We can’t possibly win here!”
The boat carrying the survivors began turning its bow with all its might.
The absurd sight of water bandits fleeing to land while avoiding mountain bandits and mountain-dwelling Daoists was happening right here, in reality.
“Y-you bastards!”
“Take us with you!”
“Good heavens….”
Those who had fallen into the water and were being showered with arrows stared after the retreating boat with desperate eyes. Retreat was something that could happen anytime when the battle turned against you, but abandoning nearly half your men as they floated helplessly in the water—was that something a human being could do?
“W-we’re all dead now….”
There was no way out.
Anyone who scrambled onto an enemy ship to save themselves was immediately struck by spears and knocked back down. Now it was either drown in the water or get shot to death by arrows. Some might manage to swim to the riverbank, but even then, they would be a tiny minority.
And just as despair began to settle into the eyes of the water bandits—
“Those bastards are running?”
A voice full of malice exploded across the river.
“Chase them! Go after them!”
“The remnants first, make sure—”
“Forget making sure, just chase those bastards! Why aren’t you moving?”
“W-we’re going. Leave these bastards and pursue those boats! No! Stop shooting, you idiots! Chase them!”
The oars came down again, and the boats surged forward.
“If you fall behind, you’re dead! Keep up!”
“Yes, sir!”
The boats carrying the Green Forest men broke through the wreckage of sinking ships and began advancing at full speed. In the midst of this, the Green Forest men who had boarded the enemy ships scrambled back onto their own boats as fast as they could.
“Did you swallow boiled caterpillars or something? Why are you so slow?”
“W-we’re doing our best right now.”
“Your best? What, you can’t even do the one thing you’re good for—looting and rowing? And you still expect to eat your fill? What, should I just stop feeding you now?”
“W-we’ll pick up the pace immediately!”
“Hurry up!”
A water bandit rushed in and bolted into the cabin. Grabbing the pole fixed inside the cabin, he dropped straight down to the lower deck and shouted.
“Row! Row faster, you bastards! If that man comes down into the oar room, we’re all going to get beaten to death!”
Who could possibly not know who “that man” was?
“Hiiik!”
“Drummer! Beat the drum faster! Faster!”
Thud! Thud! Thudthudthudthud! Thudthudthudthudthudthud!
The sound of the drummer seated at the very front of the rowing chamber grew faster and faster. In response, the rowers gripping the oars rowed more and more rapidly to match the rhythm.
Rowing was grueling labor beyond imagination, but since these were still martial artists with some internal cultivation, their speed was absurdly high.
“Faster! Even faster!”
“Aaaaargh!”
“Gaaahhhhhh!”
Fear only added to it, and the bandits at the oars rowed as if they might spit up blood at any moment. The oars made crackling sounds as if they were about to splinter apart, and the boat shot forward at a monstrous speed.
“Good!”
Chung Myung nodded in satisfaction. The distance between them and the fleeing boats was shrinking fast.
“Let’s gooooo!”
Chung Myung, standing on the lead boat, drew his sword and pointed ahead.
Soon, the fleeing boats came into view, docking almost as if they were ramming straight into an island thick with reeds.
“Huh?”
Rumble!
RUMBLE!
The boats that slammed straight into the sandbar began tilting wildly with thunderous crashes.
“W-wait! Hey, slow down! Slow down! Stop, you bastards!”
Of course, once a boat had gathered momentum, it couldn’t stop on a dime.
“I-it’s going to crash!”
“Hold on tight! Hold on—no, just jump!”
“Aaaagh! What the hell are you doing, you lunatics!”
The oars were lowered in desperate haste, but there was no way they could stop the ship now.
Watching the enemy ship grow rapidly closer, Chung Myung smiled with obvious delight.
“Did I maybe overdo it?”
BOOOOOOOM!
The boat Chung Myung was on smashed straight into the rear of the enemy vessel and was reduced, quite literally, to splinters.
“Aaaaargh, you fucking bastard!”
Jo Seung’s miserable cry, hurled into the sky as he was launched upward unable to withstand the impact, rang faintly over the flowing river.