Chapter 319
Chapter 319
Iron Emperor — Chapter 319
Patter-patter-bang!
"Don't stop!"
The rain of arrows was aimed at the commanders driving their horses and urging the soldiers on, but the wizard floating beside them kept every single arrow from getting close.
"Gah!"
"M-my leg!"
Can you shield yourself from pouring rain and not get a single drop on you?
It's difficult.
An arrow that slipped through the solidly packed shields inevitably pierced flesh, and when one soldier collapsed in agony, three or four more arrows flew into the gap that opened for an instant, collapsing one spot in the ranks.
But those were ultimately just a few. The damage was negligible compared to what they had loosed.
Boom!
"Aaargh!"
Was it bad luck?
A log that slipped past the wizard's defenses collapsed even the solid shield line in an instant. Yet the soldiers' steps did not slow; if anything, they quickened.
As if advancing was their only path to survival.
"Draw!"
The archers lined up atop the walls of Gaemun Mountain Fortress gritted their teeth and drew their bowstrings. Even though their allies' attacks were inflicting only minor damage on the enemy, their movements showed no wavering. The war had only just begun, but the veins on the necks of the commanders directing the soldiers were already bulging red.
"Loose together!"
"Loose!"
The commanders’ orders erupted one after another, and unlike the Yudonno, lighter bowstring twangs vibrated through the air.
"Draw!"
The moment they released their arrows, the archers, at their commanders' shouts, plucked new arrows from beside their feet and nocked them. Then they drew back hard and sighted.
"Loose!"
WHIZZ-WHIZZ-WHIZZ-WHIZZ!
A sound like switches slashing through empty air rang out in unison. It was fundamental that a simultaneous volley produced a greater psychological effect, even if the same number of arrows was loosed.
The archers fed arrows to their strings and drew them back in relentless repetition with the commands. Before the first arrow even reached the ground, they were already nocking their fourth.
"Gah!"
"B-block them!"
"Don't stop, keep running!"
Half the arrows were stopped by the Holy Empire's wizards; the other half fell among the soldiers. Even then, shields stopped two-thirds of those, but once again screams rang out and cracks appeared in several ranks.
But rather than worrying about fallen comrades, they were too busy plugging the holes. Yet in those brief moments, the pouring arrows forced casualties upon them.
"Magic Corps, forward!"
From behind the wizards arrayed in a line, Viscount Sherry, the deputy commander of the Magic Corps who had been watching the situation intently, gave the order. Floating serenely, the wizards began to advance slowly. Every arrow flying at them was blocked by a milky-white membrane and fell to the ground.
The sight of them gliding forward leisurely, as though swimming through the rain of arrows, was enough to sap the attackers' will to fight. On the other hand, for the Holy Empire soldiers advancing under that same rain of arrows, the sight was enough to set their will ablaze.
"Hold on just a little longer! The Magic Corps will clear a path!"
"Waaaaah!"
It seemed more than just the soldiers had their spirits lifted by the Magic Corps. The commander's forceful shout drew an enormous roar from the Holy Empire soldiers, already worked up by the deaths of their comrades.
The wizards, who had advanced slowly and spread terror among the enemy, began to gather in small clusters. But the rain of arrows no longer targeted the wizards. As if they had been waiting for this moment, the arrows poured down on the charging Holy Empire soldiers instead.
"Reform the line! Archer units, prepare counter-fire!"
"Aagh!"
Amid commanders' shouts erupting everywhere, arrows relentlessly targeted the Holy Empire soldiers once the shield of magic had been withdrawn. But once they halted their advance and tightened their shield wall, the number of soldiers falling was not great compared to the deluge of arrows.
Thwock!
"Guhk, sh-shields!"
"Plug that damn hole! What are you doing, archers — draw, now!"
Among the countless arrows, some still punched through shields and embedded themselves in bodies. But the Holy Empire soldiers calmly formed a human curtain. And the moment the rear shields parted, the attack that the Holy Empire forces had been enduring all this time began.
"Loose!"
At the command, arrows arced up from the shield line and rained down toward Gaemun Mountain Fortress. The archers who had exposed themselves to shoot were struck by arrows here and there and collapsed backward, but they kept returning fire without pause.
"Watch out!"
"Everyone, heads down!"
Some soldiers had already ducked at the sight of the enemy's arrow rain before the commanders even shouted, but others, still too worked up, couldn't avoid it. And for that moment's carelessness, they toppled from the walls with arrows in their bodies.
"Augh!"
"Agh!"
"Shields!"
The young men who had brought shields raised them to block the arrows pouring from above. Leaning on the shields and the battlements, the archers shot back again.
"Damn it!"
Frustration and fury flickered across the face of Geom Muhyul as he directed the soldiers from the gatehouse. The enemy's magical power was beyond what they had imagined.
They were already firing the catapults as well, but the projectiles were either blocked by the wizards or shattered in midair, the large boulders easily stopped by the enemy shields. With a desperate heart, Muhyul looked toward where the Pyeonjeon marksmen lay hidden for sniping.
The Pyeonjeon marksmen, who had been waiting in silence while watching the approaching wizards, slowly began to move their hands.
Setting a baby arrow in the tonga, they wet a finger and gauged the wind. The screams and noise bleeding across the battlefield had no effect on them.
"Hoooo."
Their hands, lifting their bows as they steadied their breathing, drew the strings all the way back. In their narrowed eyes reflected the images of the wizards slowly approaching.
Occasional boulders launched from the Yudonno and catapults flew at the wizards nearing the wall, but shattered before making contact.
The movements of the soldiers resisting directly in front of the Holy Empire wizards became visibly shaken. Simply not fleeing was the best they could do.
"M-magic!"
Clusters of ice and fire began to form above the heads of the Holy Empire wizards. The resistance of the Gauri soldiers redoubled at the sight of the magic taking shape, but the spells hovering above were growing increasingly solid.
"Shield!"
The milky-white film of the Protection from Missile spell dissolved, and in its place a faint, translucent barrier settled in.
The attack was imminent.
At the same time, a handful of wizards rose even higher.
Fear began to take hold on the soldiers' faces. Even those who had experienced magical offensives despaired at the sight of wizards on an entirely different level from those of North Roselin.
An Imperial wizard who had climbed high into the sky triggered his spell faster than the wizards preparing their magic directly below.
"Sun Burn!"
In an instant, a light more intense than the sun exploded outward.
"C-cover your eyes!"
The Gauri wizards, who had been catching their breath atop the wall to fend off the Holy Empire's magical attacks, shouted warnings, but many soldiers were already on the ground clutching their eyes.
The spell had gone off while the wizards maintained the Shield they would normally have to drop when casting attack magic.
True to its name, Sun Burn was not a spell that applied direct physical force. But the explosive light that erupted momentarily blinded the soldiers on the fortress walls who had been watching the wizards.
That light was the beginning of the calamity.
* * *
"A message from Gaemun Mountain Fortress!"
Eulji Buru, who had been riding frantically at the head of the column, slowed his pace at the voice from behind.
"What news!"
"As expected, magic communication has been cut off. Fortunately, word came through the hobgoblins, but...."
"Don't drag it out — just give me the point!"
When Buru snapped, the messenger quickly continued.
"They say the Holy Empire's attack has begun!"
"Damn!"
Buru's face twisted at the messenger's brief report. Cheon Yuhwa, riding beside Buru, pressed the messenger with a startled voice.
"Didn't they say the enemy force had only just arrived!"
The messenger nodded at Yuhwa's words and answered.
"That's correct. The enemy sent no envoy at all and launched their assault the moment their arriving troops finished forming up."
"Damn it! Goddamn it!"
Buru spat out a rough curse. They still had at least two more days of hard riding before they could arrive.
In truth, even arriving would be a problem. Because they had departed from the Haian Kingdom side, entering Gaemun Mountain Fortress meant either bypassing or breaking through the Holy Empire's main army.
Both approaches were equally unlikely to succeed. The reason they had been riding like mad was precisely to arrive before the Holy Empire's main force. But that morning, they had received word that the Holy Empire army had arrived first. And now, hearing that battle had already been joined was enough to plunge them into despair.
The relief force led by Dae Mu-deok was in a situation where it was uncertain whether they would even arrive after five more days. And that calculation assumed they rode without sleeping. Under the premise that every fortress would prepare all its carts, horses, and oxen so Dae Mu-deok's army could change mounts and run straight through.
"The arriving enemy force is said to number slightly under forty thousand. Even so, Gaemun Mountain Fortress managed to slow their pace and create casualties by sacrificing over a thousand of its own soldiers."
"Taedaesaja!"
"What now!"
This time, the soldier in charge of managing the hobgoblins came riding up himself. There shouldn't be any worse news than this, but looking at the soldier's flushed face, he couldn't help feeling a chill.
"Communication has been lost!"
"......."
The worst possible scenario had just become reality.
Magic communication could be disrupted by enemy interference, sure — but weren't hobgoblins a different method entirely?
That meant one of two things.
Either the fortress had already fallen, or something unlucky had happened where the hobgoblins had been gathered.
"No matter how underprepared, Gaemun Mountain Fortress is not terrain that can easily be taken."
Yuhwa parted her tightly sealed lips and spoke to Buru as if to assure him.
"It's true."
Buru nodded quietly and looked back. The column had come to a halt before he realized it. Everyone's face was weary and exhausted, but not a single one showed any desire to rest. They were simply waiting for the next order, their eyes burning.
"Four thousand five hundred men...."
Over five hundred stragglers had fallen out during the ride so far. Carts had overturned, horses had collapsed from exhaustion, soldiers injured, or men had simply fallen from fatigue and dropped away. But considering that most of them were new recruits, the fact that only this many had fallen out was rather remarkable.
"We're going to keep riding. You understand."
Buru shouted out to them. The soldiers answered his cry in a single voice.
But Yuhwa's face was hard. The enemy were surely exhausted as well, but the force Buru led was even more so, not less. Yet to keep riding and strike the enemy like this was like carrying straw into a fire. But there was no other way.
"We'll ride as we are and strike the enemy's rear element."
When Buru spoke with a grim face, Yuhwa's eyes went wide. Before Yuhwa could even open her mouth, Buru continued in the same hard tone.
"If the enemy arrived this fast, they clearly moved carrying only the bare minimum of rations. If they'd intended to haul sufficient provisions, it's impossible they could've arrived so soon even with the harassment from the troops Gaemun Mountain Fortress sent."
At Buru's words, Yuhwa's and the other officers' faces brightened. In their haste, none of them had thought that far.
Buru kept speaking.
"Furthermore, when the enemy was first spotted, their total force was estimated at fifty to eighty thousand. That means the troops bringing the supplies number at least around ten thousand and, at most, thirty or forty thousand."