Chapter 43
Chapter 43
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 43
Chapter Title: Flanking the Demons
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Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
From early morning, a loud racket echoed throughout the village.
The villagers, along with the soldiers under Barus's command who were staying in Bieltuna, began poking their heads out one by one at the completely unfamiliar sight.
"What the hell are those bastards doing this early?"
"...They're not gonna last a few days anyway."
They hurled negative remarks at the Arrowhead Unit soldiers who were busy making something.
Everyone who had come so far had been the same.
They'd start off making a big show of it, but after the first battle, they'd always tuck tail and run.
"Heh heh heh, they'll only crumple once they realize they've stepped into hell."
"Useless busywork... Ptui!"
Amid all this, Isaac's expression was complicated as he directed the soldiers.
Last night, after returning to the barracks with Lian, he'd heard about his plan.
'...What exactly are you planning?'
And though he was making them as ordered, what the hell was he supposed to use these for?
Not to mention, they weren't even complicated.
Just long wooden planks with stones embedded so they protruded slightly.
There were only two key points when making them.
First, hammer the stones in from the back of the plank to ensure the protruding stones were securely fixed.
Second, make sure the protruding stones were short, about 1-2 cm.
His unit members all harbored doubts, but not a single one voiced any complaints.
If Lian said they were needed, then they were needed.
The work itself was simple, but gathering the required wooden planks and stones took quite some effort.
Still, with around a hundred unit members working together, by the third day, they'd produced a substantial pile.
Lian nodded as he looked at the heaping stack of wooden planks.
"This should be enough."
"What are these for?"
"Training tools."
"Training tools?"
Isaac asked. Lian glanced toward the direction of Porhen Gorge.
'Passing through that gorge as is... is practically impossible.'
Its width was less than 20 meters.
That meant only about twenty armed soldiers could pass through at a time.
If they stationed archers in ambush along the inner walls of the gorge alongside shieldbearers, no ordinary force could even attempt to subjugate them.
'Blow open the path... or scale the gorge walls.'
But both were impossible.
To blast through the gorge would require mages or siege weapons to collapse it, then clear all the rubble.
But doing that under the noses of the barbarian tribes already dominating the gorge was out of the question.
Scaling the walls was an even crazier notion.
Climbing over a hundred meters straight up with no safety gear—how could any human manage that?
Of course, a master-level knight who had honed body and mana to the limit might pull it off.
If such a master knight had been deployed, this place would have long been reclaimed as kingdom territory.
But one man had accomplished it.
[Derek Henorikt]
The once-prospective baron's family, House Henorikt, elevated to marquis in record time by this once-in-a-generation genius.
He scaled the walls of Porhen Gorge—what was called the Wall of Wailing—and struck the barbarians from behind, pacifying Bieltuna.
A tactic that utterly defied common sense.
It was possible only because he had a hundred soldiers willing to stake their lives following him.
Of course, it wouldn't have been easy.
There was a chance of failure.
But they couldn't give up before even starting.
'I'll end it within a year.'
Even the genius Derek had spent over three years in Bieltuna.
Lian's plan might be overly ambitious. But how would he know without trying?
"Isaac, nail all these planks to thick logs in all four directions and secure them with ropes. We'll do this training every single day starting tomorrow, no skips."
"What kind of training is this?"
"Well..."
Lian started to explain to Isaac. But at that moment,
Bwooooooooom—!
A thick horn blared loudly, and Lian's expression hardened.
He knew that horn sound.
"Isaac."
"Yes! Everyone, battle stations! Battle stations!"
Isaac hurriedly issued orders to the ten-man squad leaders.
The Arrowhead Unit scrambled to grab their weapons and move to their assigned positions.
Meanwhile, the villagers working outside the walls rushed inside in panic.
"Run! Run! The gates are closing soon!"
"Hurry up and run! The demons are coming!"
Most of those outside were farmers tending fields and crops.
In supply-strapped Bieltuna, self-grown food was absolutely vital. That's why, despite the barbarians ravaging fields and dragging people off, they had no choice but to keep farming.
"Come on, hurry!"
"Run, you slowpokes!"
"The demons are attacking! Everyone to your positions!"
"What are you doing? Move it! Wilson! Quit dawdling and get to your spot!"
The moment the horn sounded, Bieltuna turned into utter chaos in an instant.
Lian watched Barus's soldiers scrambling about.
Every one wore a grim expression.
"They're all men who've lost comrades here."
Barus approached Lian and spoke. Then, eyeing the barbarians charging from afar, he added,
"We don't call them barbarians. We call them demons."
They truly were demon-like.
Moving purely on slaughter instinct, without a shred of intellect.
Lian replied,
"I've seen this plenty of times already."
"...What?"
The grueling war against the barbarians hadn't even ended in Lian's previous life.
Meaning, for over twenty years from now, they still wouldn't be subjugated.
'How many... people died.'
Call them demons?
He'd been through far worse.
Lian's eyes, now calmly settled, fixed on the approaching barbarians.
Various thoughts flashed through his mind, but he soon turned to Barus.
"How do you plan to fight?"
"...What?"
"I'll follow orders. Tell me the plan."
"..."
Barus looked slightly taken aback by Lian's words.
Whenever a new unit arrived, they always took heavy losses in the first battle.
Simple reason.
The newcomers always charged in with some grand plan, acting on their own.
Eager greenhorns who didn't grasp that enthusiasm alone couldn't win this war.
"I'm about to ask something tough. Think you can handle it?"
"No matter what it is, there's nothing the Arrowhead Unit can't do."
Barus looked ahead and said,
"They keep attacking us because they suffer no real losses."
"No losses in battle?"
"Fifty casualties is a disaster for us, but not for them. They've got numbers several times ours."
That's how barbarians fought.
Not just skill, but fundamentally overwhelming numbers.
Otherwise, a primitive people like them couldn't hold such vast territory.
The kingdom would have taken it long ago.
Anyway, what they needed now was to inflict solid 'damage.'
Make them realize that reckless attacks would cost them dearly too—burn it into their minds.
"Can you circle behind the walls while we hold them off and hit their flank from the side?"
"A flank attack, then. To move without them noticing, you'd have to swing wide—can you hold the defense in the meantime?"
"If we take heavy losses, it'll be your fault for moving too slow. Blame your own incompetence."
He spoke casually, but Barus was committing to heavy casualties himself.
Endless half-hearted stalemates were devastating for Bieltuna too.
They needed at least one decisive rout.
Lian nodded.
"Don't die."
With that, he hurried to the Arrowhead Unit.
They had already finished battle prep, looking utterly reliable.
Before setting out, Lian addressed them.
"We'll swing behind the walls and hit their flank the moment they strike here. To avoid detection, we'll have to loop wide, and if we're late, our allies here die."
Everyone's faces turned resolute at his words.
They knew all too well the gravity of their situation.
It was a desperate moment, but that's why they needed to breathe deep and move.
"But remember: no matter how fierce today's battle gets, it'll be easier than the training you've endured."
Lian had subjected the Arrowhead Unit to brutally intense drills—murderous, even.
There had been grumbling, but not one quit; they all stuck it out.
"I ask only one thing of you."
Lian turned.
The unit members gripped their weapons tight.
"Not a single one of you dies."
""Oorah!""
A short shout.
But it conveyed everything.
"Arrowhead Unit, charge."
* * *
"Uwaaaaaah—!"
"AHEN cJ WNRDFK!"
"DMRO—!!!"
The barbarians' charge was ferocious.
An assault by roughly three hundred was always sharp and unrelenting.
Barus defended with sharpened wooden stakes in traps and piled stone walls as shields.
The defense line was terribly narrow from years of fighting, but without it, Bieltuna would have fallen long ago.
"Loose arrows! Keep them from getting close!"
"Die, you demon scum!"
"Fire! Fire your bows!"
Ammo was scarce, bows in short supply, but they couldn't afford to hold back.
At Hommel's command, the archers loosed.
Swoosh! Swish!
Arrows sliced through the sky, felling a few barbarians, but it barely registered against their numbers.
Over three hundred barbarians charged Bieltuna fearlessly.
Then, the front-runners suddenly veered.
"Moving to the flank!"
"Shifting to the left wall! Move forces there!"
Attackers could focus on one spot, but defenders had to cover everywhere.
Otherwise, variables could prove fatal.
Some barbarians might even be waiting on the mountain paths.
Still, they had to divert troops to the side.
"Run! Run!"
"Archers, hurry! Grab poles and hand axes! We gotta shove off any climbing the walls!"
Barus's soldiers shouted and scrambled. By then, the barbarians had reached the side wall.
"RJFDKFK—!"
"TKFL RJFDJ—!"
"Ugh! Ugh! Ugh—!"
With savage yells, the frontrunners hurled long ladders and hooked ropes over the wall.
Thud!
The moment ladders hooked on, agile barbarians leaped up.
They scaled like they were flying. Wall-top soldiers thrust spears.
"Die, demon!"
"You dare!"
Stab! Stab!
A barbarian pierced by two soldiers spewed blood from his mouth. Yet even falling, he lunged at them.
"Argh!"
"Shove the ladders! More coming!"
Soldiers hacked ropes and pushed ladders, sending climbers plummeting amid the endless ascent.
Over ten soldiers died in the process.
"Urk! Where's the support?!"
"Where the hell are those bastards?! Gah!"
An arrow from below pierced a soldier's left eye; he tumbled off.
A shoved ladder hooked back on.
"DHKTEK—!"
A barbarian warrior climbed through the chaos, roaring and swinging his sword.
Bieltuna soldiers atop the wall freaked at the sight.
"They're up! Block them! Hold the line!"
"If they break through, we're all dead! Don't let them up!"
They somehow repelled the first, but despair gripped them at the horde following.
Bieltuna would bleed again. But then—Pheeeeeew!
An arrow whistled through the air from somewhere, shattering a climbing barbarian warrior's head.
The unexpected kill sent him crashing back, smothering those below on the ladder.
"Wh-what?"
"What's happening?!"
Flank defenders were stunned, but someone yelled,
"Allies! Reinforcements!"
The Arrowhead Unit, having looped behind the walls through brush, burst from the side.
"WJR RLEK, WJRDL—!"
"DUVDMF AKRDK!"
The sudden appearance threw the wall-climbers into disarray.
They'd never dreamed troops would be spared for a flank.
"Those bastards! We're screwed!"
"You dog bastards!"
Arrowhead soldiers engulfed the barbarians' flank, howling as they slaughtered.
Lian leaped atop a small tree for a vantage, sniping wall-climbers.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
One shot, one body tumbling down.
They flailed in resistance, but couldn't stem the tide.
At the center, a man dual-wielding swords charged.
"No prisoners! Kill them all!"
"Uwaaaaaah—!"
"Die, you mongrels!"
Just a hundred men.
Yet three hundred barbarians crumpled helplessly before the Arrowhead Unit.
And when the moon emerged from behind clouds, bathing the earth in light,
"...Impossible."
Over three hundred barbarians lay dead before Bieltuna's side wall.