Chapter 227
Chapter 227
The Iron Emperor — Chapter 227
"Hiyahp!"
With a thunderous battle cry, a brilliant flash of light—as though carrying a blade of radiance within it—came crashing down toward Go Jin-cheon, who was charging at the head of the assault.
Clang!
The North Roselin knight's sword was caught by the Hwandudaedo Jin-cheon raised overhead, the impact tearing through the air with a harsh shriek. And in the same instant, Jin-cheon's fist shot out, blasting the knight's helmet clean off and driving deep into his face.
"Guuuhh!"
The knight hurtled backward from the tremendous force, tumbling over the inner edge of the wall with a scream. That shriek became the starting signal, and the top of the wall once again dissolved into a scene of utter chaos.
"Kill them!"
"Don't let a single one leave alive!"
The knights of North Roselin, clad in gleaming silver plate, and the Gauri warriors wearing dark-hued Chalgap made for an almost theatrical contrast—like a battle between radiant celestials and pitch-black demons.
"I'll split your skulls open."
Jin-cheon's movements grew rougher.
It seemed he had plenty pent up. After sending one knight flying with a single punch, he grinned at the North Roselin knights swarming toward him like a cloud of moths, baring teeth stained blood-red.
Whiiish!
Jin-cheon's Hwandudaedo savagely ripped through the air and came crashing down in a diagonal slash. A North Roselin knight, overwhelmed by its sheer force, hastily leaned his body aside to evade.
"Hup!"
Crunch!
The moment he escaped Jin-cheon's assault, a sound like shattering bone burst from the back of his skull. Jin-cheon's follow-up kick had hammered home.
Thud.
"Next."
Jin-cheon vaulted over the collapsed knight as though he were stepping across a fallen log. He drove his Hwandudaedo straight into the belly of the next knight, who was still frozen in shock—and the knight's silver armor split apart like soft tofu.
"Guuuhhhh!"
The knight stumbled backward, clutching the Hwandudaedo buried in his abdomen with both hands. The light rapidly drained from his eyes, yet the ghastly scream tearing from his mouth only grew louder.
"Now!"
Several knights, utterly unfazed by their comrade's death cry, thrust their swords at the exposed Jin-cheon. But Jin-cheon's body moved faster than their blades.
Crunch! Crac-crac-crack!
"Guuuh!"
"Wh-what the—!"
"Damn it!"
Voices thick with dismay and horror rang out.
The North Roselin knight impaled on Jin-cheon's Hwandudaedo became Jin-cheon's shield—taking all the incoming blades into his own flesh. His final, wretched scream trailed away into silence as he sagged limply.
"Get clear!"
Without even bothering to retrieve the Hwandudaedo from the dead knight's body, Jin-cheon heaved the corpse straight into the cluster of knights. Then he drew the second Hwandudaedo at his hip and charged right into the direction he had thrown it.
"Don't fight him alone—coordinate your moves!"
"Use your shields first! Push him back!"
A chorus of shouts erupted behind the knight struggling to fend off Jin-cheon's blade. As the words faded, knights wielding heavy shields began to close in from both flanks, tightening the pressure inch by inch.
"Heh. Now this is entertaining."
Jin-cheon's mouth split into an enormous grin. At the same time, he scooped a fallen greatsword off the ground into his free hand and began swinging with both arms.
Craaash!
Boom!
"Kkugh!"
"D-damn it all!"
Two arcs of light blazed from Jin-cheon's hands, hammering down onto their shields without pause. He was aiming solely at the shields, as if daring them—go on, block this.
CLANG!
"The brute—!"
Every time the roaring impact struck and sparks flew, the shields crumpled like sheets of paper. Each blow felt as though it would rip their arms right out of their sockets; the knights groaned in agony but refused to break their guard. No—they couldn't break it.
The instant any of them lowered their defense against those endlessly crashing twin blades, they'd be carved in half. That thought seized every knight's mind. Then, for just a moment, Jin-cheon's onslaught paused.
"Now!"
Seizing the opportunity born from crisis, two North Roselin knights lunged in from Jin-cheon's flanks and thrust their swords.
"You bastard!"
Jin-cheon paid no heed whatsoever to the blades darting at his sides. He roared at the opponent directly in front of him and swung his Hwandudaedo upward from below.
Craaash!
"Hup!"
With a thunderous crash, the knight's shield—already reduced to tatters—shattered into fragments and scattered into the air. The knight was now exposed, but an ecstatic smile spread across his face.
Jin-cheon, unable to fully rein in the force of his upward swing, had one arm raised toward the sky. Seizing that opening, the knight's sword shot straight for Jin-cheon's heart. In that instant, three blades were converging on Jin-cheon alone.
"It's over!"
The knight bellowed with savage confidence. But through the visor of Jin-cheon's helmet, his eyes gleamed with cold, brutal mockery. In the very same moment, a chilling sensation swept across the lower body—followed instantly by a sickeningly hard impact.
Crrrackk!
'My body... is airborne.'
That was the single thought left circling in the consciousness of the knight who had aimed for Jin-cheon's heart. And then came the sharp, metallic ringing—
Clang! Tang!
"Huh—!"
A chorus of sharp gasps followed the metallic clang, and then came the sickening sounds of metal being torn apart and flesh being pierced.
"Do these idiots think I'm a fool?"
Mong Ryu-hwa smirked as he wrenched his spear shaft out of the body. Beside him, Buyeo Gi-yul, who had synchronized his attack, adjusted his grip on his axes.
"Ghrrk."
Thud.
The two knights twisted their heads with immense effort, their eyes brimming with resentment—then collapsed powerlessly. In the end, the two who had attacked from Jin-cheon's sides were foiled by Ryu-hwa's and Giyul's sudden strikes.
"......"
A sudden, stark silence fell.
And it wasn't just because of Buyeo Gi-yul and Ryu-hwa.
Thud.
Something hit the ground. It was the knight who had thrust his sword at Jin-cheon's heart. Around him, North Roselin soldiers and the allied troops—including the Gauri warriors—stood frozen, mouths agape in sheer horror, having momentarily forgotten they were in the middle of a war.
The knight lay on the ground, foam bubbling at his lips, his eyes rolled back white. Both hands—the hands that should have been gripping his sword—were instead clutching his groin. His mouth hung open in a silent scream; he merely lay there, twitching intermittently, unable to utter a sound.
"He flew three mir into the air..."
"I'd rather fall on my own sword than take a hit like that..."
At someone's muttered words, soldiers—friend and foe alike—unconsciously brought their hands to their vital regions and shivered with an indescribable dread.
"What are you doing?! Kill them!"
"Ghurk!"
Mong Ryu-hwa's spear blade punched through an enemy's throat, signaling the resumption of battle.
"B-barbaric..."
Duke Palsieon and the knights watching the scene shuddered in revulsion. But Go Jin-cheon paid them no mind. He kicked the knight who lay curled up like a shrimp—still convulsing—aside as if he were a piece of cumbersome trash, then began advancing once more, slowly.
Slaaash!
"Gurk!"
"Oho! These bastards—they look like high-ranked ones, don't they?"
Eulji Buru, having by now recovered his Daebu and carved a knight in half with it, fell in beside Jin-cheon and remarked with keen interest.
Crack!
"Heheheh. Got your head."
Samdopyo snapped a grappling soldier in half at the waist and produced a grotesque smile as he followed behind them. Beside him, Buyeo Gi-yul and Mong Ryu-hwa—who had been mowing down the charging enemies like scything grass—shook the blood off their weapons and fell into formation. Behind them, the allied forces, climbing onto the wall under Gowin's command with the Gauri commanders in the vanguard, were rapidly taking control.
"Hold them back!"
"Knights! Form ranks!"
The knights fighting nearby began consolidating around Duke Palsieon to form a bodyguard. Of the many knights, barely around forty remained—the rest had been slaughtered in the span of moments. Still, once they took their positions, the top of the wall looked as sturdy as if a curtain of steel had been lowered.
"Huh?!"
"That bastard—!"
Suddenly, Jin-cheon and his comrades jerked in shock.
"No!"
"No cheatin'!"
Go Jin-cheon clenched his teeth and broke into a sprint. Behind him, Buru, Samdopyo, Giyul, and Ryu-hwa wore expressions of sheer frustration as they charged at full speed toward Duke Palsieon and the forty-odd knights surrounding him.
"What the hell—!"
The North Roselin knights were thrown into confusion. They could understand a bellowing charge, but someone bolting toward them with that look of startled urgency was utterly incomprehensible. But the long, drawn-out screams that rang out from the rear explained everything.
"Enemy at our backs!"
In an instant, two more knights collapsed, letting out their death throes. And between them—a blazing arc of light!
"Hmhmhm! Since when is there such a thing as cheating in war?"
The voice, brimming with glee, belonged to none other than Gye Ung-sam.
His long sword traced circles in sync with the movements of his body, cleaving through the knights, while fountains of blood sprayed upward in its wake like painted rainbows.
"Hiyahhh!"
Not to be outdone, Go Jin-cheon slammed into the lead knight with a full-body tackle.
Crash! Crac-crack!
As Eulji Buru and Samdopyo bulldozed through a corner of the knight formation in Jin-cheon's wake, Giyul and Ryu-hwa leaped into the air and thrust down with spear and twin axes.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
"Kgrrruuugh!"
Ryu-hwa's spear blade, striking as though it had multiplied into dozens, riddled one knight's upper body like a sieve. Not to be outdone, Giyul's twin axes sheared both arms from another knight's torso.
Clang-clang!
Dupyo raised his iron staff and blocked the rain of sword strikes, then let out a thunderous roar and shoved upward.
"Kruuuuagh!"
"Hhugh!"
The sheer force of Dupyo, who threw off three men at once, was barely human. Through the gap he created, Buru's Daebu cleaved one knight's shoulder, and Buru's free hand drove straight into the eye slit of another North Roselin helmet.
"M-my eye—!"
"Shut up!"
Thunk!
Somewhere along the way, Jin-cheon had swapped weapons: he now held a short, coarse sword instead of his Hwandudaedo. Yet even with it, he was stabbing the screaming, eye-clutching knight's torso with the rapid, casual motion of someone piercing a squash.
"What in the world..."
One knight breathed, utterly aghast.
This was worse than any chaotic brawl between common soldiers. Grabbing a stone off the ground and bashing someone's skull in, pinning a knight's limbs with both arms and then headbutting him—these were ordinary tactics now. If you immobilized an opponent, one of the others would courteously slip a sword in from behind. They didn't hesitate to do it.
The entire spectacle was sheer pandemonium—wrought by only six men.
Craash!
"The gate is in danger!"
"Do not fall back!"
The massive gate shuddered with a deafening roar under the battering ram. With a large portion of the allied troops already seizing the top of the wall, despair began to show in the eyes of the soldiers bracing the gate from inside.
"Aaaahhh!"
"G-get clear! Get clear!"
North Roselin soldiers scrambled frantically to dodge the bodies of their own comrades plummeting from above with hideous screams. Even under the knights' harsh shouts, they could not easily steady themselves.
Craaash!
"Hiek!"
"Don't fall back! Bring more supports to brace it!"
This impact was so powerful that the propped beams began to topple, and cracks started to spider across the gate. Yet no matter how many supports they hauled over, with no troops left on the wall to stop the enemy, further defense was nothing but a stalling tactic.
"Protect His Grace!"
"Aaaahh!"
Stoking that sense of dread was the chaotic melee unfolding atop the wall.
Crash! Cra-craaash!
"Hiek!"
Another massive impact resounded, and the pointed tip of the battering ram thrust its head through the gate. It had finally breached.
"I-it's breached! The gate is breached!"
"Shieldbearers, what are you doing?! Archers, behind the barricade—prepare to blunt the enemy assault—!"
Boo-BOOM!
Before the commander could finish his sentence, the enormous gate burst apart with a thunderous crash. And through the shattered gate, soldiers began to flood in.
"All wizards and archers—commence fire!"
The North Roselin commander's desperate, hate-fueled scream rang out, swallowed by the roar of the charging enemy.