Martial Might Forged by Terror and Groin Agony
A memory from his academy days suddenly surfaced in Jinhyuk's mind: the Northern Song records of seventeen elite cavalrymen annihilating two thousand infantry.
'Save me, please! Let me live, you crazy horse-headed bastard! Stop! Just stop, damn it!'
Of course, Jinhyuk's vision and mind were far from normal by now.
The wildly pitching landscape flipped sky and earth with every jolt, while the horse's ragged snorts tore at his eardrums, mingling with the roars of thousands to bleach his thoughts white.
'Fuck my mom! I wasn't even cavalry to begin with!!'
Blocking his path was a massive wall of man and horse formed by two thousand nomadic warriors encircling the fortress in layers.
Hot breath from two thousand mounts rose like mist, and between them gleamed curved blades and sturdy bows gripped by eyes soaked in bloodlust, densely packed toward the fortress.
Among the ten thousand refugees, these—the ones fit for battle—gnawed at the fortress walls with beastly ferocity, while beyond them, eight thousand elderly, women, and wounded filled the horizon like a vast grave mound, casting an ominous shadow as they awaited the slaughter's outcome.
What Jinhyuk had to pierce was that dense barrier of leather, muscle, and thundering hooves shaking the earth.
Kuuuung!
Hiiihiihing~!
For Jinhyuk, who'd only tried horseback riding once at a Jeju resort in the modern world, the Northern saddle—without even stirrups—was no seat but a torture device straight to hell.
Without stirrups to brace his feet, his body floated into the air with every flex of the horse's muscles.
The primal terror of falling and being trampled into meat paste by the fifty following cavalry and two thousand nomadic hooves raced up his spine.
That raw fear and pain ignited Jinhyuk's survival instincts.
“Aaaagh! If I fall, I'm dead! Dead!”
To avoid falling, Jinhyuk mindlessly clamped his thighs around the horse's flanks until they felt ready to burst.
It was a fatal mistake.
The horse he rode was a war steed nurtured by nomads on the harsh plains, one that reared against wolf packs with aggressive spirit.
To the horse, the pressure from its rider's thighs was no mere signal.
It was the fuse of killing intent igniting toward its heart.
Judging its master had gone mad to slay the enemy leader, the warhorse snorted fiercely, eyes flashing.
Purrrr!
Kwakwakwa!
It bit down on the bit and charged straight into the heart of the warriors' man-horse wall.
“Uwaaaah! Stop! Stop, you insane horse fucker!”
The insides of his thighs, raw from the merciless saddle leather, burned like fire.
Jinhyuk's desperate scream, amid the agony of his groin being crushed, rang out to the front-line nomads like a demon's roar freezing the battlefield.
Heeng~!
Even in the chaos, his hands moved for survival.
Jinhyuk desperately drew the string of the Black Wolf Bow to steady himself on the bucking horse.
His blurred vision made aiming impossible, eyes barely open, but the Black Wolf Bow—carved from Great Snow Bear bone—combined with the rampaging horse's momentum turned it into a catastrophe.
Kwajik! Kwaang-!
The close-range arrow pierced a nomad warrior's chest, shattering the head of the horse behind it.
One corner of the sturdy two-thousand-man-horse wall crumbled, splattered in blood.
The enemies panicked at first but quickly regained their wits and held firm.
"Kill the Central Plains dogs and plunder them all!"
“The Yan bastards are here! Kill them! Feed them to the steppe jackals!”
Nomad warriors on left and right raised curved swords and charged at Jinhyuk.
“Y-You fuckers! Stay back! Get out of the way! Uwaaaah!”
With no time to draw the string, Jinhyuk gripped the massive bone bow like a club and swung at the head of a charging warrior.
Whiiik, peok! Kwajik!
“Gurgh!”
A heavy thud warped the leather helmet, caving in the skull.
The Black Wolf Bow, now a savage bone club, mercilessly crushed enemy heads and shoulders.
Jinhyuk's mount responded in kind, ripping at blocking foes' faces with teeth and battering them with forehooves, carving a brutal path.
Kwajik!
Puhihihhing-!
Enemy horses screamed and tumbled, their riders crushed under Jinhyuk's hooves.
What allowed Jinhyuk to survive at the forefront of this mindless charge was Jo Pil guarding his back.
“I'll guard the brigade commander's rear! Not one gets close!”
Jo Pil thrust his spear from his blood-soaked saddle, supporting Jinhyuk perfectly.
As Jinhyuk swung the Black Wolf Bow to clear the front, Jo Pil deflected curved swords slipping into blind spots and drove spear tips into hearts.
Chaeng! Chaengrang! Puk-!
“Who dares target his back!”
Jo Pil's spear tip plunged deep into an enemy's throat in retaliation.
To Jo Pil, Jinhyuk's desperate 'roars' looked like advanced psychological warfare crumbling the enemy lines—a display of true martial might.
Amazed, Jo Pil bellowed to the surrounding fifty cavalry.
“See that! The brigade commander feeds on enemy fear! Shall we not raise our own morale? Shields up!”
The cavalry raised shields in unison, batting away incoming nomad arrows to secure Jinhyuk's path.
Thud! Tang-! Peok! Kyaak!
At the heart of this hell, Beom Dal stuck close to Jinhyuk.
He instantly grasped the situation from Jinhyuk's pale face begging "save me" and eyes nearly all whites.
Beom Dal began broadcasting Jinhyuk's screams in real-time as perfectly tuned battlefield commands.
“Uwaaaah! Get out! Before I kill you all! Save me!”
Jinhyuk's wail, born of groin agony and falling terror. Beom Dal turned it instantly into a booming roar from his lungs, scattering it across the field.
“By the brigade commander's order! Fail to save Wiji Gang and Iron Blood Unit, and this is our grave! Want to live? Trample the enemy!”
That ignited the fifty cavalry and the Iron Blood troops desperately holding the fortress.
“Commander Kang is here! Reinforcements have arrived!”
“Don't die! Hold together until rescue comes!”
Waaaaaa!
On the walls, sounds blended: broken spear shafts swung like clubs, shields bashed with roars, stray dogs tearing throats—creating a massive wave of noise.
Kuuuung-!
Finally, the fortress gate groaned heavily and split open. Of Iron Blood Unit's 196, only about 120 poured out. The rest had fallen with foes from the walls or become corpses biting enemies after spears snapped.
But the survivors' eyes burned with venom.
"Counterattack!"
“Kill! Let none escape! Avenge our brothers!”
“Uwaaaah! Die! Die, you beast scum!”
Peok! Kwajik! Kyaak-!
The Iron Blood troops burst from the gate like starving wolf packs, charging the enemy.
Exploiting the gap Jinhyuk's cavalry had torn in the man-horse wall, they smashed horse legs with shields, speared throats of fallen riders, fighting desperate close-quarters.
“My arm... my arm! Aaaagh!”
“No arms? I've got teeth! Die, you bastard!”
Kwaduk!
No spear? Use shield. No shield? Fists and feet. No fists? Headbutt or bite. Like ghosts from hell, they butchered foes.
The gate area turned instant slaughterhouse: severed limbs and horse guts mixing with mud.
Chiiik- shwaaa-
Horse blood sprayed like rain, turning earth to red mire.
The warriors began retreating, hit by sudden rear cavalry raid and fortress counterattack.
Busting through the blood-stinking chaos, Jinhyuk's horse snorted roughly and halted before Wiji Gang.
Hiihiihing-!
Purrr!
As the horse reared, Jinhyuk nearly tumbled off backward but clung to the saddle using the Black Wolf Bow as a staff.
His inner thighs had gone beyond burn to numb.
Thud, thud.
Jinhyuk's face was corpse-pale.
Gripping the saddle with trembling hands, he looked down at blood-drenched Wiji Gang staring up.
“Hey... huff... Wiji Gang... you... huff... alive?”
Jinhyuk asked because he truly felt near death, wanting confirmation. But Beom Dal, seeing the shaking shoulders and pale lips, worked another translation miracle.
“Wiji Clan Head! Glad you're safe! The brigade commander confirms your and Iron Blood's survival—now it's our time! Leave none; dry their seed!”
Uoooooh~!
Kang Jinhyuk! Kang Jinhyuk! Kang Jinhyuk!
Iron Blood and cavalry chants shook the fortress.
Wiji Gang grinned through blood-matted face and approached Jinhyuk's horse.
“Cough... A bit later, and I'd have grabbed your collar in the afterlife. Kang Jinhyuk, when did you get this armor... Too many of my men died... Reinforcements aren't just this, right? I must repay this grudge.”
Wiji Gang's voice dripped deep grudge and sorrow. Jinhyuk lacked breath to reply, but the feeling transmitted.
He raised a trembling hand, pointing southeast across the plains.
Thump, thump, thump, thump.
Finally, faint marching drums reached the fortress front.
Crossing snowy plains appeared 1,200 vanguard in jet-black child-leather armor, followed by 800 main force.
Even jogging, their ranks were ruler-straight, sunlight swallowed by cold armor without reflection.
"Hurry to protect the brigade commander!"
“Save our comrades left in the death zone!”
Behind trailed 500 Demon Horse Freaks led by Dokmun, clattering eerie ritual tools with mad cackles.
“Heehee! Sacrifices! Fresh sacrifices everywhere!”
“No manners, but we'll honor you—with death!”
To the Demon Horse Freaks' eyes, the ten thousand nomads were no longer human, just ritual fodder.
“...They're here now. That's my answer.”
The nomad warriors, already halved, finally realized.
The forces they'd fought and the fifty cavalry that ravaged them were just the beginning.