Chapter 205
Chapter 205
The Iron Emperor — Chapter 205
The magical strength of the South Roselin camp, let alone that of Gauri whose magical forces were practically depleted, was barely enough to defend key positions. In a situation where they could not even send a single offensive spell into the enemy lines, no matter how wildly Giyul raged, he was only shouting into the void.
If they'd at least had plenty of Pyeonjeon archers it would have been one thing, but the men he'd brought this time numbered barely ten. Even they were busy sniping from other positions.
"Hey! You, you, and you."
"Yes, sir!"
"We're going to go butcher the wizard bastards."
"Understood."
In the end, the one in need had to settle it himself.
The men following behind Giyul were all his direct subordinates. They, too, had once commanded troops, and as if they shared his thoughts, they came running the moment the order fell.
"We charge toward that position. Let's move!"
"Yes, sir!"
No sooner had the words left his lips than Giyul sprinted out. Behind him, two officers ran, each gripping a sturdy-looking axe and a Hwandudaedo.
WHIZZ!
"Hup!"
Clang-clang!
Perhaps because the attire of Giyul and the officers following him was more ornate than the other soldiers', the arrows targeting them were relentless. But out front, Giyul's Twin Axes skillfully blocked and deflected the incoming arrows with their broad faces, and his steps only quickened.
Whoosh!
When the flying arrows proved useless, a searing heat cut through the air.
"Goddammit."
Two fireballs shot toward Giyul's face.
The enemy had already recognized they were commanders. And as if they also knew Giyul was charging to wipe out the wizards, they hadn't sent the fireballs where the mass of soldiers stood but directly at the three officers, with Giyul at their head.
"Close up behind me!"
At Giyul's shout, the three officers following him swiftly shifted position as if seeking cover behind him. Sensing this, Giyul drew the Twin Axes in his hands back as far as he could. The axes were pulled back as though a bird were spreading its wings.
"Hooouup!"
Facing the incoming fireballs, Giyul steadied his breathing, then launched himself forward.
"Tah!"
With a fierce shout, the drawn-back axe in one hand came crashing down upon the hurtling fireball.
CRASH!
As if the sun itself were splitting, the fireball was cleaved in two and slammed into the ground left and right. But one fireball still remained.
"Heuyaaah!"
Giyul spun his body in the direction of his swung axe, and the axe in his opposite hand split the flames.
RUMBLE!
"Eushaaa!"
A triumphant cry burst from Giyul's lips as he split apart the two masses of flame. But what greeted him was a crackling net of lightning hurtling toward him with a ghastly sound.
"Huk!"
Even for Giyul, the Lightning Field was a troublesome thing.
He couldn't cut it, and he had neither the margin nor the time to dodge. But the answer came from behind him.
"Eushaaa!"
The moment a straining grunt rang out, what flew before Giyul like a shield and absorbed the lightning net was the corpse of an enemy knight lying nearby.
Crackle!
The instant the dead knight's body touched the lightning net, a stench of burning flesh filled the air, and the corpse writhed in midair as if it had come back to life.
"General, now!"
"Good!"
The officer who had created the opening by hurling the corpse barked a single word, and Giyul shouted boldly, vaulting over the corpse before him and flipping his body in midair.
"Huk!"
"Block him!"
The North Roselin soldiers shouted in startled voices.
A spectacle unfolded that seemed utterly out of place on a battlefield. As if performing an acrobatic feat, Giyul flipped upside down in midair and whirled both hands—soldiers screamed as their heads separated from their bodies.
THUD!
"Die, damn you!"
He didn't stop there.
Giyul's figure kicked off the surface of a wall and ran along it. Just as dozens of arrows and another spell descended on him while he sprinted along the vertical wall as if it were flat ground, he had already launched his body in the opposite direction.
WHIZZ!
THUNK!
"Kuhuk!"
It happened in an instant.
With a sound of parting wind, an axe spinning furiously buried itself in the chest of a wizard who was preparing a spell.
"What!"
Giyul landed on the ground with both hands empty. The North Roselin knight who had stepped up to block his path felt something flash between his legs and reflexively turned his head.
THWACK-THWACK-THWACK!
Sharp tearing sounds skimmed along the ground.
"Protect the wizards!"
Despite the knight's urgent warning, the axe that had skimmed along the ground surged upward right before a wizard, separating his head from his body and flying into the air.
"Wizard!"
A soldier holding a shield caught the headless body in grief.
"You bastard!"
Flames of fury blazed in the knight's eyes.
His opponent might be unarmed, but chivalry no longer mattered; in that moment, only rage remained. Yet Buyeo Gi-yul, barehanded, paid not the slightest mind to the imposing figure of the charging knight as he hurtled toward him.
"Euyaaaaaah!"
Along with a prolonged battle cry, the knight's sword slashed across horizontally.
'I cut him!'
The moment he felt he had sliced through below the waist, the knight felt his own head forcibly turned.
"What the...."
Giyul's back, falling gracefully through the air, entered the knight's vision. But what was even more incomprehensible was the sight unfolding before his eyes: the soldiers who should have been behind him were staring at him, their faces seized with horror.
"Ah...."
As his body staggered backward while his gaze seemed to move forward, the knight felt the strength drain from him. Only then did he realize his head had been twisted around backward.
'When did....'
Even as he fell with his neck twisted around, the knight's final question was why he had to die, something he could not comprehend. And within the dying embers of his life, the last sight burned into his fading vision was the remaining wizards, every last one of them, screaming as they were butchered.
South Roselin's governor, Count Krian, stared over the gruesome battlefield with a face that could hardly have twisted any further.
"Krrrugh."
"Cough, Count... please, you must ev, evacuate...."
More than half of his knights had met their end at the hands of Samdopyo, who had stormed in riding a saber-tooth tiger. As Count Krian absorbed their agonized gazes, strength began to flow into his grip.
"Youuu cur!"
Though he had entered middle age, Count Krian had complete confidence in his martial prowess, and the voice that erupted from his lips was like that of a raging lion. Sensing he was not to be taken lightly, Dupyo left the knights he had been fighting to the subordinates who had followed him and slowly stepped forward.
"Hmph."
Dupyo, riding a saber-tooth tiger a full head taller than Count Krian's war horse, approached and looked down at him, nostrils flaring.
No one interfered in the standoff between the two.
"I am Count Krian Freyshen, governor of South Roselin in the Unified Roselin Kingdom. Who are you!"
A great voice laden with killing intent flew toward Dupyo.
Because he'd had to lead the Roselin soldiers into battle, Dupyo was wearing an interpretation ring and easily understood his words. Realizing the other man was a big fish—a governor—Dupyo's attitude toward him shifted.
That was because Count Krian, standing before him, appeared to be a warrior worthy of exchanging names before a duel.
"I am Daesaja Samdopyo, commanding the assault unit of the Great Gauri Unified Roselin Expeditionary Force."
As Dupyo accepted the greeting and introduced himself, Count Krian pointed at his knights lying scattered around them and roared.
"Though you are my enemy and this is a battlefield—do you not find your handiwork excessively cruel!"
Not a single one of the knights' corpses Count Krian indicated was intact. The knight whose limbs had all been shattered and whose skull was caved in was among the more whole specimens.
Knights whose torsos had been torn open by the forepaws of the saber-tooth tiger Dupyo rode and whose bodies had been pounded all over by Dupyo's iron staff were strewn about as chunks of flesh too ruined to even recover. Other knights lay scattered with every limb severed and flung apart.
WHOOSH!
Dupyo gave his great dark iron staff a single swing, then fixed his glare on Count Krian and delivered a cold reply.
"Hmph. It is cruel precisely because they are enemies and this is a battlefield."
"What!"
Count Krian could not help but bristle at Dupyo's answer, which quoted his own words back at him. But Dupyo was not finished.
"See for yourself—did your knights not shrink back before my martial might and roll about helplessly!"
"Urgh."
That was pure hindsight.
In the end, just as Dupyo had said, the knights had been excited by their comrades' horrific deaths, rampaged, and been killed, and then finally trembled in fear and were slain. Even the eyes of the knights fighting around them now were clouded with dread.
Reading their gazes, Count Krian readjusted his grip on his sword. He had no choice but to kindle his will—he absolutely had to defeat the opponent before him.
"I will make you regret those words!"
"Suit yourself!"
Kyaaang!
Neigh!
Along with the two warriors' shouts, the saber-tooth tiger's savage roar and the war horse's scream intertwined.