Chapter 128
Chapter 128
Iron Emperor — Chapter 128
Unlike the surging tide that swept over the charging North Roselin soldiers, the sound of shattering echoed across the battlefield.
"Aaaagh."
The scream that burst from someone's mouth was saturated with terror. Where the blue wave had passed, only a red wave remained.
Crushed torsos and fragments of flesh lay strewn among the shattered remnants of what had been armor, and the blood that had once coursed through their bodies was splattered across the earth with nowhere else to go.
"Wizards! Stop him, now!"
The bewildered shouts of the knights rang out. But even as the knights cried out, Hwi-garam's gaze had already fixed upon the wizards.
"Th-that spirit!"
"No. I have never seen a spirit's power like this!"
Consternation clouded the wizards' eyes, and they felt dread at the carnage Hwi-garam had wrought.
"Hup!"
From the wizards hovering in the air, a brief gasp escaped the moment their eyes met Hwi-garam's.
In Hwi-garam's eyes, flickering with Blue Ghostfire, no emotion or reason could be found. Yet the cold sweat now running down their spines was more than enough to tell them exactly what emotion filled him.
"Oum Sala Umtaa!"
As if by prior agreement, the wizards' incantations began resounding through the air. But the Gauri Swordsmen halted all offensive action and simply re-formed their ranks.
Trust.
It was trust in Yeon Hwi-garam.
"Fire Ball!"
"Fire Wall!"
"Fire Blast!"
From the wizards' outstretched fingertips, searing heat erupted and flew forth. The blistering wave tore through the air as though it would vaporize the torrents of water swirling around Hwi-garam's body.
"Every essence of water within the reach of my hand shall obey my will!"
Hwi-garam's wild roar surged toward the oncoming flames.
Unlike his usual composed voice, a sound brimming with madness rode from his outstretched fingertips through the air and flew straight at the wizards.
Tssssssss!
In an instant, the hiss of steam began to rise from the fireballs and blasts of flame hurtling toward Hwi-garam.
"Hurk!"
A voice of utter incomprehension.
Shock filled the eyes of the wizards and every soul watching the clash in the sky.
It had been nothing more than a single shout and a single sweep of his hand. Yet steam had begun to rise from the oncoming flames, and before they could even reach Hwi-garam, every last one was completely extinguished.
"Hyaap!"
Hwi-garam's battle cry rang out once more.
At the same instant, orbs of blue water materialized at the very points where the flames had been snuffed out and began hurtling back toward the wizards.
As they flew toward the wizards, the orbs swelled larger and larger, like snowballs rolling downhill.
"Water... Ball?"
A hesitant voice escaped the wizard at the very front. But other wizards' voices cut in around him.
"No! That is no mere Water Ball!"
"What in the world is that?!"
Under normal circumstances, such a novel discovery would have had their eyes blazing with excitement. Regrettably, this was a battlefield.
On the battlefield, a wizard's inability to discern an enemy's method meant defense would be that much harder — and that very difficulty meant their own lives hung in the balance.
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!
It was growing.
The blue mass of water, which had been no larger than a marble, soon swelled to the size of a man's head, and by the time the wizards' faces had turned ashen, it had grown large enough to engulf every last one of them and more. As if still not satisfied, it kept expanding, whirling and churning as though it meant to blot out the entire sky.
"It feels... drier, somehow."
A North Roselin soldier who had been staring blankly upward spoke.
The fighting on the ground had ground to a halt. The soldiers merely stood there, watching the clash unfolding in the sky as if they were people from another world entirely.
"Protect from Water Barrier!"
Even a three-year-old child could tell that what Hwi-garam had unleashed was a colossal mass of water. The wizards accordingly chanted the optimal spells to block a water attack. The azure membrane encasing the three wizards appeared reassuringly sturdy.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
Unlike before, the roar of the whirling mass of water had grown as immense as its size. Like the sound of a great waterfall...
"Heh-heurk!"
"N-no!"
"How can this be happening?!"
Whooooosh!
But the azure membrane surrounding the wizards began seeping rapidly into the mass of water Hwi-garam had launched, as if being sucked away. Then the maelstrom of water, now the size of a house, came crashing down upon the horrified wizards.
RUMBLE!
"Gaaaargh!"
The maelstrom engulfed the wizards' bodies.
"Hurk!"
A hollow gasp leaked from a North Roselin soldier's lips.
For the three wizards who had been standing where the maelstrom passed now drifted slowly to the ground, withered and desiccated as if every drop of moisture had been drained from their bodies.
Crumbled.
When the three wizards struck the earth, the sound that followed was not the heavy thud of falling bodies but the dry rustle of three heaps of ash crumbling apart. And true to that sound, the wizards' shriveled corpses shattered into powder.
"Uuuhh!"
The blue torrent, now stained crimson, was plunging rapidly toward the massed ranks of North Roselin soldiers and knights.
"Everyone get clear!"
A warning like a shriek tore through the air.
But it was not enough to move the bodies of soldiers already gripped by terror. The maelstrom, which had been the size of a house, had now transformed into something so vast it was reminiscent of Hell Fire.
BOOM-BOOM!
The crimson maelstrom slammed into the earth and detonated.
Chapter 36: The Battle Begins
"Hm."
Go Jin-cheon's eyes were fixed on the center of the North Roselin encampment. Two deep furrows were carved between his brows.
"Hwi..."
The colossal maelstrom of water, visible even from this great distance, and the thunderous roar that followed spurred Jin-cheon to urge Gangsoe forward.
"Hyah!"
"Kiiiihihing!"
At the urging sound from Jin-cheon's lips, Gangsoe let out a long, answering scream and charged ahead as if to say he understood.
Thud-thud-thud Thud-thud-thud!
The horse armor, visibly massive just to look at, and Jin-cheon's own weight seemed to burden Gangsoe not in the slightest as he burst ahead, overtaking the other horses. Gangsoe's legs hammered the ground as if to shatter it, and the earth screamed.
"Oooooaarrrgh!"
From Jin-cheon's throat erupted a sound fit for the depths of hell. That sound drove Gangsoe wild.
"Kihihihing!"
Less a horse's neigh and more the roar of some hellish beast, the sound tore from Gangsoe's mouth and echoed toward the enemy lines.
A single rider and steed began hurtling toward the North Roselin army's wall of pikes.
One lone rider charging headlong into the densely arrayed pikemen. Yet the strength was draining from the pikemen's legs. The war cries of man and beast thundering from the lone black rider barreling toward the wall of pikes had already begun to shatter their will to fight.
"Uuuhh..."
"Do not panic! Archers, draw your bows!"
A knight, sensing the soldiers' agitation, rode among them swinging his sword and shouting. As the archers were nocking arrows to their bowstrings, the knight broke away from the ranks and faced the oncoming black rider alone.
'Madman!'
He cursed inwardly, but the knight could not simply dismiss this as one lunatic charging in on horseback. The proof was in his sword-hand, now slick with nervous sweat.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!
The speed seemed excessive for a horse clad in heavy iron armor. It must have built up considerable momentum.
"Ready to fire!"
The knight's voice reached the archers' ears. Feeling the growing vibrations through the soles of their feet, the archers raised their bows skyward.
"Huh?"
An unintelligible moan escaped an archer who had been too tense to speak.
"What is that?"
A soldier's muttering had no place in the middle of a war.
Countless dots appearing in the sky.
That was the beginning.
WHIZZ!
Thunk-thwack-thwack!
"Gaaargh!"
What had looked like mere dots began punching through the archers' bodies, extinguishing living souls with dull, heavy impacts. As the invisible projectiles rained down on the archers and soldiers alike, even the commanding knights struggled to keep their wits.
"Kraaargh!"
"Shieldbearers! Where are the shieldbear— Krrk!"
Shu-thwack-thwack-thwack!
The knights' panic sent the archer ranks crumbling in an instant. An unseen something stealing lives was terror beyond all terror.
"Quarrel?"
Unlike the soldiers floundering in chaos, a bewildered voice escaped the knight who had spotted the arrowheads protruding from the backs of the fallen corpses.
Bolts no more than half the length of ordinary arrows were embedded in the bodies of the dead strewn everywhere.
"Do not panic! It is merely the enemy's quarrel!"
"Save me!"
Despite the knight's exhortations, the already shattered ranks showed no sign of steadying. The knight gritted his teeth, and his sword scattered cold light.
"Eeek!"
SLASH!
"Aaaaagh!"
The knight's sword severed a terrified soldier's arm, paused a moment, then finished by slicing off his head. Simply killing them outright would not have been enough to seize hold of the soldiers' fear.
"Any who refuse to follow will be summarily executed for insubordination!"
"Aaaagh!"
Amid the knight's shouts, the drawn-out screams of soldiers subjected to summary execution stretched long. The sight of men shrieking in agony as their arms were severed, only to have their heads sent flying into the air, was just barely enough to rein in the hearts of the archers and other soldiers.
"Re-form the ranks, now!"
Fortunately, by the time the knight had restored order among the archers, no more bolts were flying. But that was merely the prelude to another beginning.
CRASH!
"Kiiieeeeeek!"
A scream that could not possibly be called human rang out from the sky.
"Now what?!"
A cry erupted from the knight, laden with the frustration of a man trying desperately to rally his soldiers. And his gaze naturally turned toward the sky where the scream had resounded.
"Hurk!"
Soldiers were flying through the air.
The soldiers who soared upward, their faces frozen masks of mortal terror, were the lucky ones. Three or four soldiers impaled on a single long spear-shaft like meat on a skewer, shrieking and writhing — that sight surpassed the mere brutality of war. No, it was not a sight meant to be witnessed in any war between men.
"How can that..."
Knights elsewhere had apparently witnessed the scene as well, for they stood gaping.
A lone rider charging at the very forefront.
By a single black rider on a single black steed, the hellscape had begun.