Chapter 320
Chapter 320
Iron Emperor — Chapter 320
The margin of error was far too great. But there was no longer the time or leisure to accurately determine the number of troops hidden in that vast mountain range. That was when Yuhwa interjected.
"They won't be that many. If they divided their forces in two and are moving at speed, they must have sent their full strength. Had they intended to stall for time waiting for the rear echelon to arrive, they wouldn't have sent more than thirty thousand."
"That’s right. At most, the enemy has ten or twenty thousand."
Ten or twenty thousand was no small number when one was leading a force of fewer than five thousand.
But that was not their concern right now. What mattered was that they had thought of the best thing they could do for Gauri in its hour of peril.
"What does it matter if it's thirty or forty thousand—if we can slow down the enemy's rear echelon!"
When Yuhwa said this with a faint smile, Buru shouted to the soldiers.
"Listen up! We’re gonna give those mad-dog Imperial bastards a ttongchim! Got it?!"
"Uwaaah!"
With Buru's shout, the thousands-strong Suicide Squad resumed their halted advance.
* * *
Kaboom!
"Aagh!"
The walls of Gaemun Mountain Fortress erupted, and soldiers' bodies were torn into a thousand, ten thousand shreds. The screams cascading from every direction were drowned out by the thunderous blasts of magical explosions.
"D-damn it."
"A-are you all right!"
Yu Munseol lost his sight in the flash that erupted just as he was about to loose a Pyeonjeon at a wizard. Ignoring Willie, his assistant, who was fumbling beside him and anxiously asking if he was all right, Munseol groped at his waist. Even without sight, he could tell from the screams that every one of them came from Gauri soldiers.
"Stop yapping and load another arrow into the tonga!"
"I-I can't see!"
When Willie answered in a despairing voice, Munseol spat out a curse and shouted.
"You goddamn idiot! You load an arrow with your eyes?!"
"B-but even if we load it..."
Hearing the trembling voice of his assistant, Munseol loaded a Baby Arrow from his waist into the tonga and skillfully drew the bowstring. Then his voice lowered, unlike before, and he answered.
"If you can't see, I said do it by feel. Feel the power gathering around the wizards."
At Munseol's words, Willie bit his lip, loaded a Baby Arrow into his own tonga, and drew the bowstring. They had trained for fighting in the forest in such a way, but that had been under conditions where their sight was not completely obscured.
Hearing the sound of a bowstring being drawn, Munseol spoke in an even quieter voice.
"Listen to the screams of our comrades dying and crumpling. Our job in this shit-show of a war is to take down those goddamned wizards floating up there in the sky."
"...Yes."
At Munseol's words, Willie steadied his breathing and answered. Amid the roaring blasts, the harrowing screams rang out even more vividly. Blood seeped from Willie's tightly clenched lips.
"Feel it. The heart of the enemy, looking down so arrogant from the sky..."
"..."
Willie's answer came no more. A bitter smile touched Munseol's lips as he slowly steadied his own breathing. One by one, the sounds in his ears began to fade away.
How many more breaths did he wait?
A quiet word escaped Munseol, halted there with his bowstring drawn and his eyes closed.
"Go."
Thwip!
The tonga snapped from Munseol's bow and the Baby Arrow soared—at the same instant, Willie released his Pyeonjeon as well.
"Hit."
A smile spread across Munseol's lips. Beside him, Willie drew close and asked in a trembling voice.
"R-really?!"
"Heh heh heh!"
He could not see it, but he knew.
Above their exultant heads, a fireball hotter than the sun plummeted down.
The wizard, still in the middle of his incantation, stared in disbelief and slowly lowered his gaze to the left side of his chest. He saw an arrow’s fletching protruding from it.
"How—!"
He raised his head again with an incredulous look. The faintly visible membrane of the Shield had vanished.
"This can't..."
The wizard tried to deny what was happening, but his stopped heart cut his thoughts short. The Mana scattered in the middle of the spell then devoured his body.
"Gark!"
"All Magic Corps, beware!"
Beside the wizard engulfed in blue flames and plummeting from a mana backflow, another victim appeared, and the wizards—now aware that they were no longer safe—shouted warnings to one another.
"Gark! Th-there!"
Another victim fell. But this revealed the location of those targeting them. Men crouched midway up the watchtower, drawing their bowstrings with their eyes closed.
The fury of the wizards who had lost comrades poured down upon them.
"Damn!"
Marquis Luchia's brow furrowed.
At a single glance he could tell these were wizard deaths. Every one of them had fallen to the ground engulfed in blue flames, as if they had met their end mid-spellcasting.
"What in the world—!"
Only after five wizards had died in an instant did the wizards' magic finally rain down upon the watchtower and around it. But the damage was already done.
"This will suffice. Withdraw the wizards and have the troops advance."
"Understood."
At Marquis Luchia's command, Count Pelloman relayed the order. And then the horn signals sounded—one short, followed by two long.
"Charge!"
"Uwaaah!"
A tremendous battle cry rang out, and the soldiers who had been advancing behind their shields broke into a sprint. Whether it was thanks to the wizards' power, the Gauri arrows flying toward them were pathetically few.
The first thing that came into Geom Muhyul's returning vision was the Holy Empire soldiers charging toward Gaemun Mountain Fortress with war cries.
"All of you, snap out of it!"
He shouted until the veins in his neck bulged. But the majority of the soldiers who had been on the ramparts were already blackened and charred or frozen solid. The few surviving archers, their sight now perhaps restored, fired arrow after arrow without pause in resistance.
"The enemy is climbing up! Move the Spearmen to the ramparts and bring up the hot oil, now!"
"Yes!"
Most of the defensive supplies that had been prepared on the ramparts were already ruined. It was actually fortunate that the lack of preparation had left so many supplies still unstaged.
"Throw the stones!"
At the command, soldiers who had momentarily leaned their spears against the ramparts all began hurling stones. It meant the Holy Empire forces had drawn that close. One might wonder how much damage fist-sized stones could inflict, but stones thrown from a height demonstrated power no less than arrows.
"Keep throwing!"
Even without the officers shouting, the soldiers tirelessly hurled the stones piled on the ground.
The Holy Empire soldiers exposed to the black rain of stones began taking casualties. Those unlucky enough to be struck in the face crumpled with their noses and mouths crushed beyond distinction, and the head of a soldier who had lost his helmet mid-charge burst open like a ripe watermelon.
"Everyone watch out!"
Cries of warning erupted among the Holy Empire soldiers.
"Die! You bastards worse than orcs!"
The two sides were now close enough to hear each other’s shouts.
"Throw the grappling hooks!"
Amid a chaos of curses and screams, thousands of grappling hooks flew up toward the broken sections of Gaemun Mountain Fortress.
The hooks did not only aim for the ramparts. Some caught Gauri soldiers in the back as they hurled stones and dragged them down; some, failing to reach the top of the wall, fell back and crushed the heads of their fellow Holy Empire soldiers.
"Aaaagh!"
"My eyes!"
Hot oil poured down. Bundles of flaming straw were thrown atop it, and the screams of Holy Empire soldiers engulfed in fire erupted from every direction. Even so, the ramparts of Gaemun Mountain Fortress were already swarming with Holy Empire soldiers like ants.
"Raise the ladders!"
Hundreds of ladders were propped up.
"Push the ladders away!"
Gauri soldiers hooked long poles against the propped ladders and shoved—Holy Empire soldiers clung to the ladders like a swarm of bees.
"Do not be pushed back!"
Dozens of soldiers were already climbing each ladder. Both sides shoved and pulled from above and below. Scores of ladders, draped with soldiers' screams, toppled crashing into the Holy Empire formation.
"Spearmen, take up your spears and form ranks!"
At Muhyul's shout, the soldiers who had been throwing stones snatched up their leaned spears and assembled into formation in ranks.
"Gurk!"
An arrow flew into the chest of a Spearman forming ranks and he plunged off the wall. Even so, the Gauri soldiers did not break formation, and Muhyul, grinding his teeth, shouted at them.
"Let not a single one of them inside the fortress!"
"Uyaaah!"
The soldiers answered Muhyul's command with a desperate cry.
Upon the ramparts, a gruesome bloodbath began between those trying to climb over and those trying to stop them.
A Holy Empire soldier who had scaled the wall and barely lifted his head took a spear blade through his mouth and fell without even a scream; a Gauri soldier, overbalanced by a missed spear thrust, tumbled off the wall instead...
The Gauri soldiers fought back with desperate will, but a considerable number of enemies had already gained the ramparts.
"The ranks are badly disrupted from the initial magic attack."
Munseol spoke urgently, adjusting his grip on his weapon.
"I'll have to go myself."
Muhyul lifted his weapon and ran toward the ramparts, now transformed into a hellscape, muttering to himself as if making a vow.
"Munseol, let's go!"
"Yes, sir!"
His adjutant Munseol and dozens of soldiers with Hwandudaedo followed at a run.
Was it because they stood out from the other soldiers?
Flames of greed kindled in the eyes of the Holy Empire soldiers who had gained the ramparts.
"It's the Gauri commander!"
"Where do you think you're climbing?!"
Munseol, following behind Muhyul, surged ahead and cut down the soldiers charging into their path.
"I'll kill you all!"
With Muhyul's shout, his Hwandudaedo came crashing down like a thunderbolt.
Chapter 108 — Burn the Flesh...
Was it because of the red glow of the sunset?
The blood painted on the ramparts looked even redder. Though the sun, which had hung high in the sky, now rested on the horizon, war cries and screams still resounded through Gaemun Mountain Fortress.
"Shall we commit more?"
Count Chiera Pelloman cautiously addressed Marquis Bello von Luchia, whose expression showed distinct displeasure.
"Order a withdrawal."
"Understood."
At Marquis Luchia's words, Count Pelloman showed relief as he relayed the withdrawal order to his adjutants. As time passed, the Holy Empire soldiers had clearly shown the limits of their stamina and could advance no further on the ramparts. The soldiers who had gained the wall early on could not hold out long before meeting death, and the battle had devolved into a grinding war of attrition, pushing and being pushed back.
Brrrooooo!
The horn sounded to signal the end of the long, long day, and the Holy Empire soldiers who had been clawing and charging ferociously began to pull back as if they had never been fighting at all. The Gauri forces did not launch a reckless offensive against them, merely containing and watching.
"One day was too ambitious."
Marquis Luchia, watching the retreating soldiers, wore a regretful expression. When the soldiers had begun scaling the wall after the wizards' initial assault, he had thought they might be able to break through in a single day.
"Tomorrow it should be possible."
"Hmm, I suppose so. But that fortress, you see."
Nodding at Count Pelloman's words, Marquis Luchia pointed to Gaemun Mountain Fortress and spoke as if in surprise.
"The damage is far too light for a fortress struck by magic. I had already heard about the form of that fortress, but it truly is the worst possible shape for a siege."