Chapter 196
Chapter 196
The Iron Emperor — Chapter 196
The next morning dawned.
Of the two hundred or so soldiers who had taken part in the previous day's supply raid, roughly a hundred and fifty had not returned. The supporting force outside had likewise been reduced from two hundred to one hundred and fifty.
The survivors had managed to make it back to Gaemun Mountain Fortress, but Eulji Buru stood atop the castle tower staring outward, his eyes clouded with worry.
"That goddamn bastard—what the hell is he doing!"
Buru's frustrated voice rolled down the stone walls.
He scolded the man every time he saw him, sometimes even bullied him, but there was no way Buru actually disliked Gye Ung-sam, who always volunteered for the most dangerous tasks. No—if anything, Ung-sam was the subordinate he trusted most.
"Don't worry. He will return."
Hailon had approached without him noticing and now offered words of comfort. But Buru's reply came back even gruffer than usual.
"Why the hell would I be worried about that goddamned punk! Quit your yappin'."
His tone was brusque but still laced with anxiety, and Hailon smiled faintly before changing the subject.
"More importantly, it is too quiet."
Hailon stepped forward past Buru and faced the direction of the Roselin main camp.
Even though the previous night's raid must have left them with barely any remaining supplies, the enemy had made no move at all.
"Mmm."
At Hailon's words, Buru cocked his head slightly, as if he too found it strange. Even Hailon—who had brought the topic up mostly to distract Buru from worrying about Ung-sam—now found himself staring intently toward the Roselin encampment.
"Could it be that General Gye succeeded..."
When the cautious words came again, Buru remained silent.
The fact that an enemy camp which should have been impatient showed no sign of it meant something else had happened.
"Summon the swordsmen," Buru ordered Hailon in a low voice.
Sweat beaded on Gye Ung-sam's forehead as he tore through the forest path. The horse he had ridden out of the Roselin camp had long since been abandoned, and Marquis Mandonel, the enemy supreme commander whom he had trussed up behind him, had been left in a conspicuous spot with just enough cuts to bleed and barely enough breath to stay alive.
Killing him outright would have been even better, of course, but keeping him breathing made it easier to slow the pursuers as much as possible. Either way, a man in that state was effectively out of this war. And the pursuers trailing him would undoubtedly split their forces—slowing the chase to save him or diverting men to guard him.
Ung-sam's judgment proved correct: the Roselin troops chasing him were not large in number.
"Huff, huff. God damn it! What sins did I commit in a past life that I always have to run away!"
He'd first joined Go Jin-cheon's unit in the middle of a battle with pursuing Tang forces, and afterward he had fled alongside Go Jin-cheon. And as if that weren't enough, here in this place, too, getting chased around was practically his day job. Ung-sam was starting to think some curse clung to his life.
"Over there!"
"Huff, huff. Damn bastards—fine by me!"
Hearing the voices of Roselin soldiers not far behind, Ung-sam grimaced and put more strength into his steps. But after a full night of pursuit and combat, even his iron endurance was running on fumes. What was worse, luring the enemy into the forest had backfired.
He'd figured he could handle monsters easily while they would struggle with them. But Ung-sam was drenched in the blood of over a hundred men, and the scent wafting off him was more than enough to whet the appetites of all manner of monsters.
"No choice."
Roughly gauging the number of footsteps closing in from behind, Ung-sam kept his momentum, kicked off a tree stump, and landed on a thick branch on the opposite side.
"Keep chasing!"
Quieting his ragged breathing, Ung-sam silently watched the Roselin soldiers mill about. The number pursuing him was a bit over ten.
One among them was fully armored—unquestionably a knight.
Should I wait, or kill him and move on?
Against his initial impulse, the pursuing soldiers were looking around confused and uncertain, which made him hesitate. He was still confident he could handle that many, but the distance back to the fortress worried him. Contrary to his first thought, he found himself hoping they would simply pass him by.
"Something's moving over there!"
"Oh, you're right!"
One soldier raised a finger and pointed at something he'd spotted, and the others voiced agreement, shifting their steps in that direction. Watching the scene, Ung-sam allowed himself a satisfied smile.
As always, Heaven is on my side!
Yet just as he was silently thanking the heavens while watching the soldiers move off in a different direction, something strange pricked at his instincts.
What the—!
A prickling sensation at the back of his skull.
And at the same time, a strangely familiar presence reached him from the sky.
"No way!"
With a short gasp, Ung-sam whipped his head around—and his eyes caught a wizard flying through the air.
"Son of a bitch!"
"Chain Lightning!"
A net of lightning closed in from all sides, descending from the sky.
The wizard already knew full well that several of his fellow wizards had been killed by Ung-sam. Even while the soldiers were moving, he had silently formed the hand seals and chanted the incantation without a word.
"Tahat!"
Realizing it was too late to dodge, Ung-sam let out a great battle shout, surged upward with every ounce of his strength, and leaped straight at the wizard.
"Kraaah!"
Crackle-crackle-crackle!
Ung-sam's blood-soaked long sword seemed for an instant to tear through the lightning net as it drove toward the wizard. That did not mean he had broken the Chain Lightning, of course.
He could only reduce the shock to some degree—and even that much was necessary if he was to deal with the wizard before the soldiers swarmed him.
"Hrk!"
SLASH!
The decisive strike Ung-sam swung barely managed to slice the front of the wizard's robes. His head went white from the shock of lightning wracking his entire body, and he plunged rapidly toward the ground.
Damn it. To be struck by lightning out of a clear sky twice in one lifetime... Heaven has abandoned me!
In that moment, he cursed the same heavens he'd just been thanking.
Boom!
"Seize him!"
Ung-sam slammed into the earth hard enough to shake the ground. Despite the distant-seeming agony, he planted his long sword like a staff and forced himself upright. But a soldier's spearhead was already flying toward him.
"You bastard!"
Moving his trembling legs by sheer will, Ung-sam deflected the spearhead. But only for an instant—pain stabbed through his thigh, and he was forced to one knee.
"He's hit!"
"Urgh."
The cheer of the soldier holding the crossbow and Ung-sam's pain-filled groan mingled together. A quarrel had punched through the end of his thigh, stealing the last strength that had been keeping him upright.
"You son of a bitch, time to die!"
There are men who grow bolder the weaker their opponent appears. Unlike the soldier who had thrust at him moments ago, one who had been hesitating now raised his spear and charged. But Ung-sam's expression showed only contempt for the man rushing at him.
"Eat this instead!"
Thwack!
"Guhk!"
A stone launched from the hand Ung-sam had been bracing against the ground smashed into the charging soldier's forehead. At the same moment, Ung-sam pivoted on one foot and swept his long sword around. The attack, executed in an instant no one could stop, cleaved through leather armor and the belly beneath.
"Aaaagh!"
As the man crumpled with a tearing scream, spilling his innards, the remaining soldiers hesitated. That was only natural—they knew full well that over a hundred men had died chasing Ung-sam through the night. And perhaps it was also because a fierce killing intent, like that of a wounded beast, was radiating from him.
"Fall back!"
"Damn..."
The wizard's voice rang out again from the sky.
Ung-sam felt a hatred that would last an eternity for failing to finish him properly the first time. No more strength to leap, no more strength to flee—all of it drained away. As he watched the hand seals complete and the lightning net descend, he ground his teeth in bitter fury.
Craaackle!
"Kraaaaaah!"
The instant the lightning net enveloped his entire body, a scream tore from Ung-sam. Yet as his vision dimmed and his eyes closed, a smile touched his lips.
Because a massive great-axe—big as a man's torso—had flown in from somewhere and cleaved right through the wizard, nearly splitting him in two. And at least as far as Ung-sam knew, there was only one person in the world who threw an axe that absurdly huge and still called it axe-throwing.
General Buru...
Was it the relief of knowing he was saved? A smile lingered at the corner of Ung-sam's mouth as his eyes closed.
"This crazy son of a bitch—why the hell are you grinnin' like an idiot while you're collapsed!"
Having dealt with all the remaining pursuers in the area, Eulji Buru hoisted the smiling, fallen Ung-sam onto his own back, snapping gruffly as he did.
"Nngh. Let's get back to the fortress, now!"
At Buru's command, the swordsmen who had accompanied him checked their surroundings and swiftly disappeared.
* * *
The dead wizard and the dozen or so corpses were the last trace they found of Gye Ung-sam. In the end, the Roselin pursuit unit was forced to abandon the chase and return.
"So we lost him after all."
Count Keosillian, who had assumed command in place of Marquis Mandonel—still unconscious and hovering between life and death—pressed one hand to his forehead.
The situation was grim no matter how he looked at it: two-thirds of what little provisions they'd had left had gone up in smoke during the previous day's raid, and the culprit who had abducted and tried to murder Marquis Mandonel had now slipped away as well. Even the imperial military observers, whom he found uncomfortable to have around but who had been enormously helpful, were all bedridden at the moment.
"With the food we have now, we can hold out perhaps one day. Even if we ration strictly, two—three days at most."
"Mmm."
Splitting a single day's worth of food to last three days meant feeding the men just enough to keep them from dying.
"What does the Haian Kingdom say?"
"A supply unit was dispatched in haste immediately after yesterday's events, but word is that even at the fastest, it will take well over ten days."
"......"
Count Keosillian could find no words.
Having failed to break even the first gate and now left without food to eat, reality pressed a single decision upon him.
"Prepare to... withdraw."
At the words that fell from him with such difficulty, his adjutant nodded weakly.
"First, we withdraw as quickly as possible. Once we are properly resupplied, we will advance again."
"Understood."
The assembled nobles in the command tent answered Count Keosillian in unison, acknowledging that they could not simply pull back and leave it at that.
After his staff officers filed out, Count Keosillian exited the command tent. His eyes, filled with fury, fixed upon Gaemun Mountain Fortress.
"Damn it all. How did things come to this?"
A punitive expedition that had seemed so easy had lost its supreme commander right from the opening engagement—and now, on top of that, they were forced to retrace their steps back the way they had come. The weight of it slumped the shoulders not only of Count Keosillian but of the common soldiers as well.