Chapter 337
Chapter 337
Iron Emperor — Chapter 337
Mu-deok's voice, which had been silent until then, erupted like thunder. Geum Yu's shoulders trembled under the sudden surge of spirit. The soldiers quietly resting nearby felt a chill shoot down their spines as well.
Every eye was fixed on Mu-deok as his rebuke tore through the air like a storm.
"You’ve exhausted yourselves in a mad dash. What do you intend to accomplish now—lie down beside our soldiers bleeding to death at Gaemun Mountain Fortress?"
"But the enemy must also be exhausted!"
"Get a grip, Geum Yu! Our mission is not to relieve Gaemun Mountain Fortress. It is to defend Gauri!"
"G-General."
Geum Yu had been forcing out each word against Mu-deok's thunderous voice. His face crumpled, and his gaze dropped to the ground.
Mu-deok was right.
What they had to do now was not relieve Gaemunsanseong but guard Gauri. Pushing ahead recklessly now was not the answer.
"And what General Eulji Buru and the soldiers of Gaemunsanseong must do there now is ensure that not a single enemy slips away from Gaemunsanseong until we arrive! Do you not believe it? The name Eulji Buru!"
"I have nothing to say, sir."
"If you understand, rest! Even if only for a moment, you must rest now. Resting is part of war!"
Mu-deok's voice rang out toward the soldiers again. It was not a scolding; it held frustration. It was a cry that he was more frustrated than anyone else. A cry that he wanted to run more than anyone else.
Having shouted that, Mu-deok wrapped himself in a blanket just as the soldiers did, so his body would not cool, and quietly closed his eyes.
'Half a day now.'
With his eyes closed, Mu-deok's white, frosty eyebrows trembled faintly.
* * *
Marquis Luchia walked slowly into the collapsed fortress, his face refusing to relax. The rubble made it difficult to ride in on horseback. Not impossible, if he insisted, but lurching between jagged rocks jutting up everywhere on horseback would look more foolish than anything.
"This has become quite a nuisance."
"It has. Looking at the exposed cross-section, this isn’t a fortress that should have been able to collapse like this at all. It is remarkable that they managed it."
"Pity the North Roselin fools who threw themselves into a frontal assault."
A cold voice flowed from Marquis Luchia in response to Earl Pelloman, who was examining the ruined ramparts beside him.
"Even once we take it, moving through will be difficult."
"It seems they didn't bring down the walls solely for the sake of killing."
"That is correct."
The damage to their own soldiers had not been light, but compared to the result of collapsing the entire front face of the wall, the effect on the enemy could be seen as somewhat small. As Marquis Luchia surveyed the area, Earl Pelloman offered a cautious reply.
"First, it blocked our troops from flooding in when the enemy withdrew to their second line. Second, they seem to have intended the rubble as an obstacle to hinder the movement of our supplies after the battle. Moving supplies through this would be difficult."
"Indeed. And in doing so, it will have a psychological effect on the soldiers. Like what we saw earlier today."
"That is correct."
They had merely torn a single sheet of paper, and had the soldiers—and even the frontline knights—not hastily withdrawn from the stockade?
"It is exceedingly slow going."
"Further enemy resistance is meaningless."
Marquis Luchia turned his head and stared toward the front, which was filled with nothing but noise. The fierce sounds of battle streamed unceasingly from among what looked to be buildings where ordinary civilians had once lived. At Earl Pelloman's words, Marquis Luchia lifted his head and looked at the sky.
The sun was directly overhead.
"It will all be over before sunset."
"......."
Earl Pelloman spoke cautiously. When they had continued the battle at dawn, they had thought it would be settled just a little past mid-morning. No—the fighting that had continued all this time had always defied their calculations. They, too, were not blessed with ample time.
Clang!
"Whoa!"
A weak clang of iron rang out at Marquis Luchia's feet. Earl Pelloman flinched in surprise and readied his stance. But Marquis Luchia wore no expression of shock. He merely furrowed his brow and slowly looked down to where the sound had come from.
"D-die...."
Clatter. Clank.
"Damn it all!"
Earl Pelloman was not a man who often let slip a curse, but now he could not help but spit the words out.
A Gauri soldier pinned beneath the rubble feebly swung a broken blade at Marquis Luchia. It did not even reach him, and the blow had less strength than a child could muster.
"Grrrk. Y-you're... worse than a... g-goblin..."
The arm swinging the blade had been flayed of its skin, the muscle visible beneath. One eye was completely crushed; the figure was little different from a corpse. Blood continuously poured from his mouth as curses forced their way out.
The escort knight behind him, face flushed red, moved to finish the soldier off, but Marquis Luchia acted first.
Crunch!
"......."
As if it were a bother, he simply raised his foot and crushed the head. The hand that had been swinging feebly spasmed for a moment and then stopped. Marquis Luchia's foot was soiled by the burst brains.
Staring blankly at his own foot, Marquis Luchia's voice flowed low from his lips.
"See to it that this is finished before sunset."
"U-Understood!"
An icier and more sinister voice than ever before swept down Earl Pelloman's spine.
* * *
The Gauri soldiers had used the familiar alleyways as cover to conduct their resistance, but one by one they fell beneath the ceaseless blades of the Holy Empire soldiers. Their once-loud battle cries had faded; hiding in silence and striking back from concealment was now nearly all the resistance they could offer.
"Over there!"
"Kill them!"
It was not only the Gauri soldiers who grouped together to fight. As casualties mounted, the Holy Empire soldiers naturally began to form their own packs and hunt for Gauri soldiers.
Behind the Gauri soldiers desperately fleeing the alleyways, the number of Holy Empire soldiers swelled like a snowball. This meant, of course, that the Holy Empire had many soldiers, but also that, conversely, the Gauri numbers had dwindled.
There was no more refuge in any alleyway.
Holy Empire soldiers occupied every street, and the Gauri soldiers cornered in dead-end alleys made their last stands before falling one by one in bitter frustration.
With nowhere left to hide, the Gauri soldiers withdrew from the residential district and reached the rear wall. Those who had arrived first were already resisting desperately behind hastily erected barricades and from atop the wall.
KABOOM!
"Gaah!"
"A m-monster!"
A section of wall exploded outward, sending three or four Holy Empire soldiers tumbling.
"You dare block my way!"
"Great General!"
Eulji Buru, covered head to toe in blood, burst through the collapsed wall while roughly grabbing a Holy Empire soldier by the throat and shoving him aside. Geom Muhyul, who had been directing the soldiers and forming the final defensive line, greeted him gladly.
"D-damn it!"
"Gandengi, run, now!"
"I'm coming!"
A weary voice followed Buru's shout. Moments later, Avilrun came running from where Buru had emerged, clutching his bleeding side. It seemed to be only a graze, and did not significantly hinder his movement, but large and small wounds covered not just his flank but his entire body.
Facing the Gauri soldiers who had gathered in a semicircle with their backs to the rear gate, the Holy Empire soldiers were reforming their ranks and slowly tightening the noose.
Chapter 115 — Bringing Down the Last Bastion
"The enemy has nowhere left to run!"
"Waaaaah!"
Was it the joy that the end of this tiresome battle had come? The Holy Empire soldiers' roar rose higher than ever. It was as if they had already won.
Hearing that roar, the faces of the Gauri soldiers looked as though they had cast aside even the last remaining strand of hope.
"Huuuh."
A long sigh spilled out from somewhere.
"This is the end."
A lament, and then regret, followed.
"It's hot."
Off to one side, someone was preoccupied with wiping away sweat mingled with blood as they stared at the sky again and again, as if this time felt impossibly long.
Everyone seemed to have abandoned the thought of survival. Each man clutched his weapon and stared silently at the approaching enemy. Muhyul surveyed the soldiers with a heavy expression.
The force that had numbered close to five thousand before the final battle began was now roughly fifteen hundred. They had traded around thirty-five hundred lives for nearly two days of time.
"We must defend this fortress at all costs!"
A deputy commander was rallying troops on one side. But the soldiers' faces showed they had given up all lingering attachment to reinforcements. Even so, there was no sign of resentment or any intent to flee.
As they had always done up to now, they simply checked their weapons and stared at the enemy lines.
With their backs to the wall containing the rear gate of Gaemunsanseong, the Gauri army formed a semicircle and faced the Holy Empire army, which was enveloping them in a partial encirclement. Obstacles too haphazard to be called a stockade had been piled here and there—when and how they had been assembled was unclear. Aside from those, everything was wide open, as if daring the enemy to enter.
It was an exceedingly blatant formation, but compared to the iron-wall ramparts, it was nothing; compared to the maze of buildings, it looked far easier.
Was it because of that? There was no more hesitation in the Holy Empire soldiers' steps.
Who started it? Beginning with a single shout from the Holy Empire ranks, the pace of the soldiers creeping forward began to quicken. It must have looked just like wolves charging, slavering, toward panting prey.
Many stones and arrows flew through the air. But such things could no longer hold the Holy Empire army back. It was over in an instant. Before a second volley of arrows and stones could take flight, enemy troops slammed into the stockade.
KABOOM!
"Thrust!"
The Holy Empire soldiers began flooding in like water through the gaps in the barriers. The lead soldiers rushing in tripped over foothold spikes and other caltrops scattered on the ground and tumbled—but that could not stop their entry.
Overall, the Gauri camp was partially surrounded with its back to the wall, but the moment the Holy Empire soldiers entered between the obstacles, the situation effectively reversed, leaving those Holy Empire soldiers in a formation where they too were partially encircled.
"The enemy has few left anyway! Keep pressing them!"
"Uwaaah!"
It went without saying that even at a glance, their own host and the Gauri host were vastly different in size. And had the Gauri army not been pushed all the way back to the fortress's rear gate?