Chapter 23
Chapter 23
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 23
Chapter Title: Genius Divine Archer Who Became a One-Man Legion
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Once the sun fully set, they would slip down the hill under the cover of darkness.
They would cover the rock piles with branches and bushes to create ambush spots and lie in wait there.
Messengers had already been dispatched to the main force heading toward Saleron. If everything went according to plan, they would strike the barbarians arriving here from both directions.
If everything went according to plan, that is.
“Lian.”
“Squad Leader.”
Watching the fading sunset, Tyler sought out Lian.
The operation was about to begin, but there was something he absolutely had to ask first.
“Why?”
“...Pardon?”
“This operation. If it succeeds, the Eagle Company will receive great praise and credit. But... if it fails, even by a slim margin.”
Tyler bit his lip hard.
The outcome after that was all too obvious.
Even if Raymond was an upright soldier, there were platoon leaders who harbored resentment toward this operation.
Talk would inevitably arise, and they would point to Lian as the one responsible.
“Why choose this reckless path? What do you stand to gain?”
Tyler had served in the military far longer than his rank suggested.
But among his subordinates and superiors, he had seen far too many upright souls shatter along the way.
“If it fails, you won’t escape responsibility. Even if we win, the rewards won’t match the merits.”
“I’m fine with that, Squad Leader. I’m just... doing my utmost in what I can do right now.”
“There are too many who view your ‘utmost’ negatively.”
“It will succeed. And even if it fails, I believe this is the method that minimizes damage to our own forces.”
“What?”
“I just... want us all to return home together.”
It felt different from what he had expected.
The reason was so simplistic that Tyler, facing Lian, felt bafflement turn to bewilderment.
‘This kid is only fourteen...?’
He was no novice who could be dismissed as green just because of how he thought.
Tyler knew all too well the weight of those casually spoken words.
“Together... all of us.”
It was a phrase that warmed the heart.
Tyler nodded at those words.
“Let’s make it succeed, no matter what.”
“Yes...!”
* * *
“Are you saying we’re using this insane plan? Did Raymond really come up with this strategy?”
“Yes, sir.”
Baron Biovan Terol, who led the 2nd Battalion of the Artian Kingdom’s 5th Legion.
He read the letter from Raymond’s messenger and curled his lips into a long grin.
He had always seen Raymond as the epitome of a soldier, but with a somewhat rigid air.
Yet Raymond was executing this audacious plan?
“Kukukuku, it’s been ages since my blood last boiled like this.”
In this situation, it was truly a race against time.
Biovan immediately summoned all the company commanders. And he declared,
“We’ll leave the supply wagons here and post two platoons to guard them. The rest will lighten their personal rations as much as possible and move at maximum speed.”
“Suddenly, sir?”
“The troops are exhausted. Increasing speed might be difficult!”
One company commander spoke up about the current state. Biovan furrowed his brow and clicked his tongue.
“If there are soldiers who can’t move over something this trivial, abandon them. They don’t deserve to be in the kingdom’s army. Or is this just you speaking from your own convenience?”
“Th-that’s...”
“Of course not, sir.”
The company commanders immediately backed down under Biovan’s sharp tone.
Biovan now wore the expression of a man who had made a firm decision.
They knew well that in such moments, he wouldn’t listen to a word.
Biovan mounted his horse at once.
“We depart immediately! Whether we arrive on time decides the fate of our comrades!”
This probably wasn’t entirely Raymond’s idea.
‘I’m curious about the face of whoever egged this on.’
With his long-dormant fervor ignited, Biovan led his two thousand troops and began accelerating.
* * *
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
“Wooooaaahhh—!”
The thunderous drums ignited the atmosphere completely.
Garel, eyeing Saleron, wore a look of utter leisure.
‘The relief force still hasn’t arrived.’
Among the barbarians, Garel had exceptionally keen eyesight.
He could clearly make out the expressions of the soldiers on the walls.
Spears gripped clumsily.
Eyes filled with unease.
Faces betraying utter confusion about what to do.
They weren’t even properly trained soldiers.
Likely just local peasants.
The emergency had dragged them out, forcing ill-fitting helmets and armor onto their bodies—it was plain as day.
“We’ll seize Saleron in an instant.”
Even if relief arrived, they couldn’t stop the barbarians—let alone Saleron, with no trained soldiers, which was little more than a sandcastle.
They would become the wave that swept it away in one go and claim Saleron.
And Garel’s order fell.
“Attack.”
“Waaaaahhh—!”
“Slaughter every last kingdom dog!”
Rumble rumble rumble—
As two thousand barbarian warriors charged, the ground began to quake.
But there were those holding their breath, watching the barbarians finally move.
‘They’re coming...!’
‘It’s starting.’
They held their breaths as tightly as possible, but their pounding hearts thundered in their ears like they might burst.
Their grips tightened on their spears, and their lips parched dry.
Squeeze.
Lian too gazed at the barbarians charging toward Saleron.
They had split into over a dozen groups around the fields they passed through, hiding behind the rock piles.
Having divided nearly into full platoons, the barbarians hadn’t detected the Eagle Company’s ambush.
“We start when the signal comes from where the Company Commander is.”
The crucial signal: the explosion of gunpowder.
Once ignited, the real battle would erupt.
Everyone held their breath, waiting for the signal.
And the moment the barbarians trampled mercilessly through the fields—fiiisssshhh—!
It was drowned out by the barbarians’ roars, but the Eagle Company soldiers knew.
The long fuse burned rapidly toward the gunpowder in the field, and then—
KABOOM! KABOOM! KABOOM!
Explosions chained one after another, unleashing massive flames skyward.
“E-enemies!”
“Enemy attack!”
“Where’s it coming from? Find the enemies!”
In an instant, the barbarians’ cheers turned to screams as some collapsed, bleeding.
As the momentum shifted and they panicked in disarray—
“Now!”
“Wipe out the enemies!”
“Kill every last barbarian!”
“Waaaaahhh—!”
From all around, tremendous roars erupted as the ambushing Eagle Company soldiers charged at the barbarians.
Though outnumbered nearly seven to one, they had completely seized the initiative.
And at that moment, Lian climbed atop a rock pile and drew his bowstring.
From the start, Lian had his sights on just one target.
‘Carefully...!’
But accurately.
Creak.
The fully drawn string stretched taut, as if it might snap.
Lian nocked the arrow, twisted the string slightly to press it against his cheek, and held steady.
He couldn’t yet unleash Aura, but through training in the Child Mana Circulation Method, he had reached the level of reinforcing his body with mana.
‘Now... I can...!’
His former self could never have drawn the string this far. Moreover, the barbarian leader’s figure was crystal clear in his vision.
Even the agitation flickering in the man’s eyes—and then, whoosh!
Fweeeeeeee—!
The arrow Lian loosed whipped forward like a gale toward the barbarian leader.
Aimed solely at his head.
Lian’s eyes widened at the arrow that seemed poised to pierce clean through. But—thud!
Just as it neared the man’s skull, the barbarian leader jerked his head down, barely dodging.
How close was it? His helmet was pierced straight through.
“You bastard—!”
The barbarian leader, spotting Lian, bellowed in rage.
His eyes blazed blood-red with fury.
‘That was a once-in-a-lifetime chance...!’
Lian bit his lip in regret. But he swiftly descended the rock pile and turned his gaze elsewhere.
‘Follow me, you bastard.’
Yet his every nerve focused on him.
For one simple reason.
Lian knew the barbarians all too well.
“You dare... turn your eyes from me?”
As Lian spun toward another direction, Garel felt his blood surge in outrage.
Provoking him like this, only to ignore him?
“Raaaaagh!”
Thud!
Garel kicked off the ground fiercely and charged at Lian.
As the Aura user Garel moved in earnest, his presence was utterly overwhelming.
“Waaaaahhh—!”
“Annihilate the enemy!”
But then, fresh roars echoed from somewhere, and a great host appeared.
It was the 2nd Battalion relief force, waiting just outside Saleron, now fully engaging.
“Slaughter those filthy savages to the last!”
“Form ranks! Raise shields!”
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Unlike the guerrilla-fighting Eagle Company, the 2nd Battalion advanced in the kingdom army’s signature square formation, shields to the fore, pressing the barbarians.
Only then did the expressions of Saleron’s watching soldiers brighten.
“Allies! Our allies!”
“Archers, nock arrows! We have to thin their numbers before those brutes reach our lines!”
“Archer unit—fire!”
Shwoooosh!
Dozens of arrows arced into the sky toward the barbarians.
The initial gunpowder blasts had sown chaos in their center, and the Eagle Company’s piecemeal strikes had utterly shattered their ranks.
The arrival of over a thousand from the 2nd Battalion was pressure enough to crush them.
“Come... on.”
Amid the utter chaos of the battlefield, Lian’s eyes fixed solely on the barbarian leader, Garel.
No one knew better than he how vital it was to kill him.
‘The barbarians’ strength stems from their chief.’
But no matter the method, Lian alone couldn’t defeat Garel.
‘It’s not perfect... but he can use Aura.’
That meant he was on par with the barbarian leader from the Felon Gorge fight.
One unlucky axe swing could cleave Lian in half.
‘I have to draw him in as far as possible.’
Lian dashed swiftly while nocking another arrow.
Even while stationed, he had never skipped daily archery alongside stamina training.
Unlike before, calluses now toughened his arrow-holding fingers.
Mid-stride, he smoothly raised his bow, halted abruptly, and spun around.
“...!”
Rapid fire, pure and simple.
From draw to loose, barely a second?
Garel’s eyes bulged at the arrow hurtling toward him; he swung his axe.
Crack!
He batted it away instantly, but a chill crept up his spine.
“These aren’t the only ones coming?”
A novice-looking boy pulling off shots like that.
Even among the greatest barbarian archers, those who handled bows so freely could be counted on one hand.
The power was weak, sure,
‘But dead accurate.’
Garel was certain.
In three years... no, two, that boy would grow into a massive threat.
“You must die here.”
Now closing in tight behind Lian, Garel declared. But,
“Will I?”
“What?”
Even with him right there, Lian stared without a tremor.
Then the boy shouted.
“Now!”
At his cry, what he’d thought was discarded rice straw erupted with dark shapes.
Rustle!
A steel net spread like a spiderweb over Garel’s head.
“Pull! Pull!”
The 6th Platoon members yelled as the net ensnared the thrashing Garel.
This was the trap Lian had prepared here with the 6th Platoon just for Garel.
And as Garel writhed, bound in the net, Lian raised his bow.