Chapter 126
Chapter 126
The Iron Emperor — Chapter 126
Chapter 35 — The Reaper of Water
The North Roselin command headquarters, directing an army of eighty thousand, had already lost the ability to function properly. The field commanders were at least managing their respective units and responding to the surprise attack as best they could. But even that was crumbling now that the Black Armored Ghost Cavalry had begun rampaging through the camp.
War is a game of numbers.
But there are times when numbers lose all meaning.
Even when an arrow buries itself in a man's torso, even when the comrade running beside him is skewered like meat on a spit and sent tumbling—a commander does not forgive the breaking of the line. That is how you win. That is the best way to survive.
Whether it's a million or ten million, to win you must not let the line scatter.
The side that shatters the enemy's line first is the victor.
"Gakh—!"
A scream tore out.
Dark blood already clung to the blade of the blue dao, rippling like waves. How many had it cut? How many had it carved through for blood to cake a blade that could slay three or four men without a single drop staining it?
"Stop them!"
Around the command headquarters, high-ranking nobles huddled together in clusters.
This had been the safest place before the enemy came in this fashion. But at this moment, it was the most dangerous place of all.
Ung-sam and the other swordsmen were the elite of the elite. And on top of that, a great host of thirty thousand was attacking—excluding the supply units—leaving the North Roselin command so confused they could not even tell which fire to put out first.
"Daesaja! It seems the top commanders have already fled."
"Is that so?"
At Ung-sam's feet lay a torso, still clad in splendid garments.
Even if they were the finest swordsmen, their number was barely fifty. They could not possibly catch every noble fleeing in all directions.
"Everyone rally to General Yeon!"
"Rally!"
FWEEEE!
They had never imagined they could kill the entire high command from the start. What they had aimed for was simply chaos.
Ung-sam and the rest of the swordsmen cut down any enemy soldier who tried to check them, carving their way as they converged on one point.
"Stop them from escaping!"
The knight pursuing the swordsmen realized they were attempting to break out and shouted. If he let them slip away in this situation, it was obvious that blame would fall on him as the man responsible for security.
Of course, the core of the command had mostly survived, but the regular staff officers and the other nobles had all lost their lives, every last one.
"Hit the enemy wizards first!"
Amid brilliant flames, five North Roselin combat wizards turned to ash and were gone. The North Roselin knights, who had assumed their wizards were high-ranking, judged that this man—Hwi-garam—was also the key to the enemy's escape.
"Soldiers, encircle them! Don't let them regroup!"
"Kugh—!"
"The soldiers aren't enough!"
One life vanished with every swing of the blade.
"Damn it!"
Calling in the common soldiers when the fires first broke out had been what brought about the greatest damage in the first place. While the high command was being evacuated and the staff officers were suppressing the fires, the stone rain had inflicted mass casualties. And after that, among the men who went in to tend the wounded, the Sword Ghosts had poured forth and moved like fish in water.
"It's the Guard Knight Order!"
"What took you so long!"
When the Guard Knight Order—which had departed to escort the high command when the first fire rain fell—belatedly arrived, the soldiers and the commanding knights greeted them with half relief and half resentment. By now, more than three hundred corpses were strewn across this place.
"First Guard Unit, subdue the enemy!"
Clang-clang-clang!
The moment the commander of the First Guard Unit gave the order, the swords of the knights in formation were drawn simultaneously, releasing an oppressive ring of steel. At the near-unison sound, Ung-sam and the swordsmen under his command turned their heads as one.
"Dammit."
Ung-sam's face twisted and a curse popped out. The sight of the silver-clad knights advancing, each raising his sword to chest level, told him they were no easy foe.
"Everyone pull back behind me!"
At Ung-sam's shout, the swordsmen who had been about to charge the knights swiftly retreated.
Shing. Click.
Ung-sam's long dao slid back into its sheath.
"I'll begin."
As Ung-sam gripped the hilt of his dao and slowly stepped forward, the swordsmen who had fallen back each readied themselves to charge.
"Hm!"
Surprise flickered in the eyes of the commander of the First Guard Knight Order. The enemy's assault had abruptly halted, and he saw Ung-sam alone advance before them.
To the Guard Knight commander's eyes, the lone man stepping forward did not look reckless—he looked unsettling.
It was not simply that over three hundred soldiers had fallen to a force of barely fifty. Among the fallen allies were a considerable number of capable knights.
And the wounds left on the bodies showed that each life had been taken in a single exchange.
"Subdue th—!"
"Everyone be careful!"
Just as the deputy commander was about to issue the attack order, a warning rang from the Guard Knight commander's mouth.
WHOOSH!
"Hup!"
Ung-sam's body conjured the image of a man drawing in the very atmosphere. Sensing the killing intent pouring from the tightly coiled body gripping the sword hilt, the Guard Knight commander poured a vast surge of mana into his own sword.
As Ung-sam's twisting body turned his back almost provocatively, as if daring them to attack, the current of air being drawn in ceased.
"Kuaaap!"
HUMMMM!
Aura surged and rippled up from the Guard Knight commander's sword. It did not rise above the blade the way a Sword Master's would, but the flame-like form looked powerful enough.
"Be careful!"
Ung-sam's coiled body slid forward.
THOOM!
The moment Ung-sam's foot, thrust forward as if gliding, struck the ground, it hammered in with a thunderous boom. The instant the Guard Knight commander felt a twitch run through the man's back, he instinctively brought his sword slashing down.
Hwung.
By the time the Guard Knight commander's sword descended, Ung-sam's twisted body had already sprung open—like twisted rubber snapping back to its original shape. Instead of the coiled back, the first thing that filled the commander's eyes was Ung-sam's chest, now fully expanded.
Before he knew it, the long dao drawn from its sheath was held in the right hand, forming a straight line with the arm and running parallel to the chest, while the left hand gripped the sheath at the waist in a firm hold.
"When did he...."
The knights of the First Guard Unit, on high alert after their commander's warning, were doubting their own eyes.
They had missed the moment when the sword was drawn and swung in between—every last frame of it.
Only the initial tightly twisted stance, the single step forward, and this final posture were burned into their pupils.
TWANG!
A clear ring of steel spread through the air.
"Hut!"
Only after the ring of steel sounded did a startled voice escape the lips of a First Guard knight who had been holding his breath.
SLASH!
The source of the ringing was the middle of the Guard Knight commander's sword. The perfectly intact blade snapped in two and fell toward the ground. And then, from the commander's shoulder—which had seemed equally unscathed—a fountain of blood began to spurt.
"Keuheuk—!"
"Tch!"
A groan belatedly leaked from the Guard Knight commander's lips, while from Ung-sam's mouth came a sound of dissatisfaction. But that was all.
"Break through!"
"Uwaaaaaah!"
Ung-sam's command was a single word.
"S-Stop th—..."
Teolsseok.
The Gauri swordsmen, their morale inflamed, charged forward with roaring battle cries. At the same moment, a final order seeped from the Guard Knight commander's mouth, wrung out with the last of his strength, and with that he laid his body upon the earth.
"All units, attack!"
"Heuaaaah!"
Even with their commander fallen, the deputy commander coolly issued the attack order, and the battle cries of the knight order rose to meet the Gauri swordsmen.
SWISH!
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
Dozens of steel clashes rang out almost simultaneously.
These were clearly not common soldiers. Unlike the rank-and-file who lost their lives in one or two swings, the knights' fighting spirit was formidable. But even that standoff could not last long.
"We're taking this into a melee!"
CLANG!
Sparks flew.
The opposing lines blended together in an instant. The Gauri swordsmen, who had been locked blade-to-blade in contests of strength, almost simultaneously—as if by arrangement—eased off their power and deftly deflected the knights' swords.
It was only a single deflection, but their bodies were already mingled among the knights.
"Don't panic! They've barely got proper armor!"
The deputy commander's voice rang across the chaotic battlefield. It must have had some effect, because the knights' swords gained renewed force.
And with good reason—the Gauri swordsmen's defenses were pitiful. Leather breastplates and shoulder guards were nearly all they had. Unlike the heavily armored knights, even a glancing blow meant injury for the Gauri swordsmen.
SLASH!
"Kheo-heok!"
A stream of blood sprayed into the air from the chest of the knight who had been blocking Ung-sam's long dao. Leaving the knight behind—who crumpled with empty eyes and a last regretful breath—Ung-sam shouted toward the Gauri swordsmen.
"You all want to get yourselves killed?! Finish it fast!"
"Heuyaaat!"
At the thunder of Ung-sam's rebuke, the Gauri swordsmen's movements began to shift with sharper agility. But the true change that took place was not only in their movements.
"Die!"
A North Roselin knight who had deflected a Gauri swordsman's blade with his shield brought his own sword down with heavy force.
SHNK!
"Heuup!"
But the sword lifted toward the sky never descended upon the enemy before him—it dropped straight to the ground.
'Why... why can't I breathe....'
Blood welled up in the mouth of the knight who had dropped his sword.
As his eyes slowly turned, they caught the dagger that had impaled his lung from behind and punched through.
"Keureureuk—coward...."
Slice!
Before the words were finished, the blade of the swordsman he had been clashing with sent the knight's head sailing into the air.
THUNK-THUNK!
"Keuak!"
Screams burst out everywhere. Those collapsing in sprays of blood at every turn were all North Roselin knights, and only them.
"Wh-what is going on!"
The deputy commander began to panic.
Every one of the fallen knights had one or more daggers lodged in their bodies.
"Hup!"
CLANG!
The deputy commander sensed the killing intent from behind and swung his shield, barely deflecting the dagger thrust at his waist. But that was not the end. The blade of the swordsman he had been facing in front stabbed in, aiming for the gap left by the displaced shield.
SLASH!
"Keueuk—!"
He twisted his body belatedly, but he had already lost grip of the shield on one side. Sweat beaded on the deputy commander's forehead.
Into his eyes came black pupils, mocking him.
For the Gauri swordsmen, the true battlefield was the chaos of close combat—the swirling melee.
In truth, they were a unit that did not exist among Gauri's standard branches. Originally there were shield-bearing swordsmen, but a branch wielding only the dao without a shield, as these men did, hardly existed.
Their mission was to plunge into a shattered line and hold out amid the chaos until the formation could be reordered. They were a kind of special forces unit.
The swordsmen appeared to be fighting tangled together in all directions, but in reality, every pair was methodically attacking a single opponent. Before anyone knew it, each man had an extra short dagger in hand—striking at nearby enemies even while engaging the foe directly in front.
Which meant: every fight was one against two.
"Everyone watch your—!"
THWACK!
"Keuhuk!"
Before the deputy commander's belated warning even fully left his throat, he felt a searing heat pierce his waist. And then, as if watching a slowed-down painting, he could do nothing but stare as a blade passed through his throat.
