Chapter 339
Chapter 339
Iron Emperor — Chapter 339
Stagger.
But contrary to the sensation, his body slipped beyond his control, growing as heavy as waterlogged cotton.
'Is this death?'
A hollow thought echoed through Nel's mind. When he raised his head again, he saw more arrows flying toward him. Nel could no longer keep his eyes open.
Thunk! Thwack! Thud, thud, thud!
With his eyes closed, Nel heard arrows striking home like drumbeats.
'Huh?'
Something felt strange this time. There had been no impact against his own body. When Nel slowly opened his eyes, Geom Muhyul stood before him with arrows bristling all over his body.
"Keep... going."
Muhyul forced the words out through bloodshot eyes. Strength flowed back into Nel's buckling knees, and he burned the last of his spirit.
"Uaaaaah!"
Chapter 116 — Requiem Ceremony
"Tenacious..."
Earl Pelloman could not finish his sentence.
When he first grasped the enemy’s intent, he had pulled his soldiers back and poured arrows down on them, assuming it was merely their final desperate struggle. But the arrows had failed to stop the Gauri soldiers.
With their bodies studded full of arrows, they had ultimately achieved their objective. When one section collapsed, another crumbled as well. They physically shielded the man hacking at the wooden beams, linking arms with each other.
They had become human shields.
The collapsing wall soon became their tomb.
Earl Pelloman witnessed their smiles amidst the tumbling rubble.
Liberation? Fulfillment?
It was a smile that defied any description in words.
Crash! Rumble!
The towering wall collapsed with a deafening roar, throwing up a cloud of dust. Before the eyes of the speechless Holy Empire soldiers, a colossal tomb of stone materialized.
"They bought time right up to the moment they died."
The knight beside Earl Pelloman said it hollowly. The place could no longer be called a fortress.
Their plan to use this as a staging point for prosecuting the war in the worst-case scenario had crumbled to pieces. Moreover, it was now a foregone conclusion that this enormous obstacle would inevitably cost them far more time to transport supplies.
"Kuhahahaha!"
A loud laugh reached Earl Pelloman as he stared heavily at the collapsed wall. A man drenched head to toe in blood stood before the ruins with his arms spread, dancing exuberantly.
'Laughter?'
A boisterous laugh echoed into Avilrun's fading consciousness.
Rustle.
"Gah...!"
Avilrun grimaced as he tried to rise, pain flooding his entire body. But that very pain made him realize he was still alive. He looked around and saw massive boulders.
"...Damn."
The large gaps created by the immense foundation stones had saved his life. Fortunately, he wasn't far from the outside. A hole the size of a man's head was visible before him, opening onto the battlefield where he had been fighting. And onto a man dancing.
"Heh, in a situation like this..."
Avilrun let out a helpless chuckle.
The man dancing exuberantly was Eulji Buru. But Avilrun could not finish what he had been about to say. Two clean tracks were forming down Buru’s cheeks, otherwise caked with blood and sweat, as he laughed and danced.
He was...
He was weeping.
Earl Pelloman flew into a rage.
The laughter had sounded like mockery aimed directly at them.
"What are you waiting for!"
At Earl Pelloman's roar, the baffled knights adjusted their grips on their weapons. Unlike the knights, however, the soldiers could not bring themselves to advance with their weapons raised.
"Hah."
Only then did Earl Pelloman understand and let out a hollow laugh. Before him stood a strange figure, hard to tell whether dwarf or human, wielding a great axe as large as a man’s torso.
It was the man who had tormented the Holy Empire's leadership throughout the battle.
"What are you doing! It's only one man!"
Only after a knight bellowed at them did the soldiers slowly begin to move. Just then, the sound of rocks tumbling came from one side of the collapsed wall.
Crash, clatter.
"Gasp!"
Someone pushed through the rubble and rose. A man so drenched in dark crimson blood he could only be called a bloodied specter. And that was not all. The sight of him standing, alive, with what looked to be more than ten arrows piercing his body, was more than enough to instill terror in the soldiers.
"Heh, you must have mistaken me for a corpse, eh?"
His voice came low but clear, making the soldiers tremble all over.
"Muhyul, you’re still alive?"
"Heh. Yes, Great General."
The man gripping the giant axe and the bloodied man exchanged words as if they were glad to see each other. Meanwhile, Gauri soldiers pushed through the debris and rose from here and there. They numbered barely twenty.
"Stubborn bastards."
A knight frowned at the sight. Blood-soaked Gauri soldiers limped and staggered toward the man holding the great axe. It was as if zombies would move exactly like that.
Once the little more than twenty men had regrouped, the man with the great axe straightened his back and turned to face the Holy Empire soldiers.
Flinching, the soldiers who had formed the encirclement all took a step back at once.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
A metallic clanging suddenly rang out in rapid succession, and the tense Holy Empire soldiers and Gauri soldiers alike turned their heads toward the source of the noise.
"Great General! Get me out of here too! Generaaal!"
"Why, that Gandengi bastard’s alive and kickin’!"
"I said get me out!"
Earl Pelloman shook his head. From the sound of the voice, the man didn't seem badly wounded. He would have a much higher chance of surviving by simply staying quiet, yet here he was, pounding on the rocks and raising a ruckus.
No, he had simply never understood the existence of these Gauri soldiers throughout this entire war.
* * *
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
I struck the rock with the broken axe handle in my hand, but the stone didn't budge.
"I said get me out!"
My chest felt tight.
The moment I saw through the gap the sight of those gathered around the Great General with their weapons, my heart pounded as if it would burst.
"God damn it!"
Thump! Thud! Smack!
A rock unfazed by the axe handle or the axe blade—would punching it with my fist ever break it?
Even so, I kept swinging my fists.
"Uaaaaah!"
I had never known it could hurt this much to be unable to stand where I belonged. The flesh of my pounding fists split and blood spattered, but I kept striking.
"Gandengi!"
At the voice from beside me, I stopped and looked out through the hole. I don't know when he had come close, but the Great General was peering in at me with a smile.
"Please get me out! I'm in way better shape than those guys, I tell you!"
"Sure enough, you look hale and hearty."
The Great General answered my cry with a satisfied smile. But the reply that followed wasn't the one I wanted.
"Get some rest."
"Great General!"
I called out to him. But the Great General just tapped the rock and laughed.
"If you got the strength for this racket, save it up so you can bash one more bastard's head in."
"Great Generaaal!"
I screamed in a voice raw enough to taste blood.
"That's enough, just rest now."
"Kraaaagh!"
Even as I raged madly, the Great General told me to rest. Pulling his head back from the hole, he slowly readjusted his grip on his great axe and continued speaking to me.
"...Survive to the end."
"Grrgh."
Maybe my throat had seized up, because my voice wouldn't come out right. But the Great General's words rang vividly in my mind, as if being hammered into it.
"Then take these to His Majesty as well."
"Uaaaggh!"
As he spoke, he tossed three letters stained with blood inside to me. Slinging his great axe slowly onto his shoulder, the Great General fixed his gaze on me once more and continued in a calm, quiet voice.
"Tell him every Gauri soldier at Gaemun Mountain Fortress fought well."
"Uaaaaaggh!"
The Great General was telling me to do nothing but watch his and my comrades' final moments. Suddenly my vision was dyed red. Tears of blood were streaming from my eyes. The Great General kept tossing me his smiles and went on.
"The battle is over."
I asked, my voice gone.
'Then why won't you and the others put down your weapons, sir!'
As if he had sensed my cry, the Great General slowly turned his back to me and answered.
"What we do from now on isn't a battle."
I cried out again, asking.
'What is it?! What are you going to do that you'd leave me behind?!'
Despite my voiceless shout, the Great General looked away and slowly walked toward General Muhyul and our comrades.
'Answer me, sir!'
I clutched the three bloodstained letters the Great General had thrown to me in my fist and screamed at his receding back. And then, carried on the wind, his low answer came to me.
"A Requiem Ceremony...."
* * *
As Eulji Buru approached with his great axe resting across his shoulder, Geom Muhyul endured the pain and greeted him with a bitter smile.
"Great General."
"A little over twenty, is it?"
"Including you, Great General: twenty-two."
"I see."
The exact number twenty-two didn't matter anymore. Muhyul and the soldiers were battered beyond recognition...
A smile never left Buru's lips. Had his smile been contagious? Smiles spread across the soldiers' faces too.
"Got a hole in your lung? Still grinnin’, huh?"
"Pff-heh-heh."
"Then what's your reason, Great General?"
Under normal circumstances, Buru was so far above them they would never have dared speak to him, but now the soldiers held nothing back. Buru answered their smiles.
"Look at the state of you. How could I not laugh?"
At Buru's retort, the soldiers looked at one another and burst into even bigger laughter. Truly, Buru was right.
Battered, torn, and broken, with dried blood caked over streaks of grime, they bared yellow teeth and smiled as though there were something to be happy about.
"Puhahahaha!"
"Wahahaha!"
Loud, raucous laughter rang out.
As he listened to the soldiers' laughter, Buru looked at the Holy Empire soldiers surrounding them.
"After all the killin', there's still this many. Figures."
That was Buru's assessment as he surveyed the enemy forces that filled the area. Hearing him, Muhyul stepped closer, burning with fighting spirit, and spoke as he re-gripped his weapon.
"The battle isn't over yet."
"The battle is over."
Muhyul stared wide-eyed at Buru. The remaining soldiers also stood clutching their weapons, as if they couldn’t believe their ears. Buru continued.