Chapter 201
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 201
Chapter Title: The Dragon Soldiers' Rampage
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"Honestly, it gives me the creeps."
The soldiers of Coral chatted as they gazed at the dozens of wagons lined up in neat rows.
"What does?"
"I mean, those things look alive, but they don't move at all."
From the viewpoint of rank-and-file soldiers, those things were profoundly bizarre and unsettling.
The higher-ups claimed they were game-changing strategic weapons, but there was a world of difference between intellectually grasping that and feeling it in your gut.
Besides, every time they laid eyes on those dragon soldiers, an inexplicable unease gnawed at them.
"Ugh, damn it. I get nightmares every time I see those things."
"Yeah, everyone says the same."
"Word is, they dug them up from some ruins. Imagine how freaky it'd be if they suddenly sprang to life and went berserk."
"Forget it, let's just drink. Opportunities like this don't come often. Count our blessings. They say those things are insanely strong. Even just two hundred of them could turn the whole area into a wasteland."
"What if they rampaged right here?"
"It'd be a catastrophe. But that'll never happen."
To boost morale on the eve of war, the command had distributed booze and meat to the troops.
Everywhere, soldiers were rowdily drinking and devouring meat without a care.
"Everything's great, but it's so drab with nothing but guys around..."
"You think we can afford that in times like these? Cut the nonsense and take it. What we need to focus on is leading those things to crush Bata, grabbing the spoils, and heading home."
"Heh heh heh, you're right. The Bata bastards are probably shaking in their boots right now, wondering when we'll strike."
"Kuh huh huh."
As the alcohol flowed, the mood grew boisterous.
Some belted out songs in drunken revelry, while others tore into their meat.
That was when it happened.
A bizarre sound echoed from beyond the dark foothills.
Buuuuuuuuuuu!!!!
It resembled a horn blast yet carried an eerily distorted tone, snapping the eyes of partying soldiers and non-coms toward it in unison.
"What the hell is that noise?"
The pitch-black night offered no glimpse of what lay beyond the mountains.
Still, the sound reverberated clearly across the entire encampment.
And then.
The moment the sound cut off after its first blare.
Something they never imagined unfolded.
The dragon soldiers loaded on the wagons began to stir.
As they abruptly climbed down from the wagons one by one, confusion clouded the soldiers' faces.
"Wha... why are they suddenly moving on their own...?"
Whooooong... Kwajik!!!!
The soldier's question was silenced forever as a dragon soldier's razor-sharp halberd smashed his skull in an instant.
The horn's power was designed solely to control the dragon soldiers.
No one knew what method was used, but Coral had secured the dragon soldiers' bodies while failing to obtain their control horns.
Evidently, Coral had been confident they could secure the horns, but with things going awry, the dragon soldiers had become nothing but liabilities.
Even so, they couldn't just ship the front-line-ready dragon soldiers back now that they'd come this far, so they'd kept them loaded on the wagons.
But now, they were moving.
The dragon soldiers thrust their weapons mercilessly at the nearby Coral forces.
The camp descending into pandemonium was inevitable.
As the soldiers had said, each one was a powerful engine of war.
Meanwhile, the soldiers weren't even armed—they'd been throwing a booze-and-meat morale party.
A standard ambush would have been deadly enough; with most troops already plastered, no proper battle line could form.
In the one-sided slaughter, soldiers and non-coms tried to resist, but the dragon soldiers ruthlessly reaped their lives.
"Damn it! The crazy dragon soldiers are rampaging!!"
"Stop them!!"
"Aaaagh!! Help me!!"
Blood sprayed, screams filled the air, and fires spread, turning the place into hell—yet some still fought back.
Kaaang!! Kang!!
A few unleashed auras to parry the dragon soldiers' heavy blows, but their expressions were grim.
The dragon soldiers possessed a strength utterly beyond their expectations.
"Damn! Can't even cut them properly with aura..."
Even hard-won slashes were futile; somehow, the dragon soldiers regenerated in the blink of an eye.
At this level, anything short of Expert rank struggled to cope.
Most terrifying was their utter lack of fear—and their eerily perfect coordination.
I quietly observed the camp crumbling in moments.
They had no bandwidth left to pursue me, the one who'd swiped their horn.
They were too busy scrambling for survival amid the screams and blood.
"Coming across dragon soldiers a lot lately."
The twisted ones created by the dragon Varil in the Holy Kingdom were the first; this made two.
Dragon soldiers were relics of the dragon race to begin with, so encounters were rare in this dragonless era.
In that sense, it was a truly curious situation.
"Let's head back, Luna."
"Unwelcome guest has arrived."
At Luna's words, I turned to see a knight gripping his sword, radiating killing intent, standing before me.
He'd slipped out of that chaos to track me down, it seemed.
"From Bata? You filthy invaders."
Luna and I exchanged glances at his question.
Then I turned back to him and spoke.
"So?"
"You bastard! The gall! You think you ghosts will get away with this!!"
His shout dripped with fury.
But regardless of his position, we were in the same boat.
Who were the real ghosts, coming to slaughter us out of the blue when we were just living our lives?
No wonder words weren't flying politely.
"So."
"What?"
"So, what can you do about it?"
His eyes bulged at my question.
"Besides glaring like that, screaming, and fighting the dragon soldiers you brought."
If I do it, it's romance; if they do it, it's adultery? They were the ones planning to drown Bata in blood with those things, yet they were outraged at the tables turning.
"You son of a bitch, I'll rip you apart!!!!"
Unable to contain his rage, he charged us. Luna glanced at me.
Kill him?
No, I'll handle it.
We communicated without a word— we synced that well.
His agile thrust, laced with potent aura, came at me, but I simply took one casual step into his guard.
Kwak!!
"What?!"
Kwajik!!
Water Gang cloaking my outstretched hand let me snap his sword barehanded, his eyes widening in shock.
Sensing mortal peril, he tried to pull back, but my thrusting hand wrapped his throat first, twisting tight.
"You brought them to trample Bata, didn't you? Should've managed your weapons better."
"Grrk..."
Kwang!!
I hoisted him up and slammed him into the ground; his body convulsed violently before going limp.
"This should keep them from starting a war lightly."
Vanguard or not, losing the dragon soldiers and all twenty thousand troops would hobble Coral's ability to even open hostilities.
Time would reveal their choice.
Coral's advance ground to a halt.
Having suffered devastating losses from an unforeseen quarter, they deemed it wisest to freeze before war even began; military movements ceased, replaced by silence.
They hadn't abandoned the war outright. They'd likely resume their invasion lust once regrouped to some degree.
But not anytime soon.
In the meantime, Bata had bought time to stockpile strategic supplies and drill its forces.
Of course, if actual war broke out, I'd have to join the fray— at which point, it'd just be a matter of taking heads.
"So it was a sudden ambush, they weren't armed, and they took near-total annihilation?"
"Pretty much. The survivors scattered every which way, so plenty will end up as deserters."
"The dragon soldiers were that strong? Wasn't the garrison there twenty thousand strong?"
Twenty thousand was no small number.
Just arrayed in formation, they'd fill the landscape thickly—a massive force.
Yet they'd been reduced to near annihilation by a mere two hundred dragon soldiers.
"Not just any—they were enchanted dragon soldiers."
"Enchanted? You mean holy magic... Oh, right, Luna was there."
Luna had been strutting around with her nose in the air lately.
Her shoulders practically floating made me want to pinch her cheeks out of sheer annoyance.
"Anyway, good work. Get some rest now; I'll handle the rest."
"Then I'm on vacation."
"Good work, Big Brother."
Melissa's faint smile sent goosebumps rippling across my skin.
"Call me that crap one more time, and I might pluck you bald. You look like a paradise bird on a shoulder perch."
"What're you on about, you ant ghost? If you're done, get out. Someone's here to see you."
As usual, after trading barbs, I exited Melissa's office to find a black-haired, blue-eyed girl waiting with a welcoming smile.
"Young Master Leon."
"Miss Aurora?"
"You seem awfully busy. Did I time this poorly?"
If someone from the trading company sought me out amid their hectic schedule, it had to be business.
"I'm free now."
"Perfect. Mind if I give you a progress report? I could handle it at my discretion if you'd rather not."
She giggled with a playful expression, but I knew she never slacked on work, so I nodded.
"Good news? Bad?"
"If I had to say, the former."
I led her to my room.
Luna was sprawled on the bed, engrossed in a game inside the Paradise Artifact for the first time in ages.
"Oh my."
She smirked slyly, hand over her mouth as she eyed Luna.
"Have a seat."