Chapter 42
Chapter 42
Iron Emperor — Chapter 42
The moment they passed through the gate, the light cavalry with bows peeled off to both sides and raced ahead.
"Left Army, take the left flank!"
"As commanded!"
"Right Army, take the right flank!"
"As commanded!"
THUD-THUD-THUD!
The two commanders leading the mounted archer division spurred toward the head of the column. And from afar, the villagers watching the scene began to roar with cheers.
"Waaaaah!"
"Come back safe!"
"Giyul oppa!"
Only now did the people's cheers and shouted well-wishes burst forth, lending even greater strength to the footsteps of the soldiers advancing forward.
"All troops, at the double!"
"As commanded!"
THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!
At the long-ringing command, the soldiers broke into a swift run, as if the armor strapped to their bodies weighed nothing at all.
"Kwieeek!"
"Kwihik!"
"Kyaaaak! S-save me!"
"Mailo!"
The orcs' cries—like howls of exultation—shook the air in every direction. A man who had been barely holding on at the barricade with a pitchfork was dragged down into the orcs' clutches, and his screams dealt fresh terror to those who remained.
"Stop standing there like a damn idiot and fill the gap! You wanna get us all killed?!"
CRASH-CRASH-CRASH!
"Kkuweek!"
"Hiiiiik!"
So far they had kept the orcs out of the village, holding firm without letting a single one through—but at last one corner of the barricade gave a dull groan and began to buckle, half-collapsed.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!
"Shit!"
"Kwieeek~!"
A curse burst from Million's lips as he directed the young men, fighting them off. The remaining half of the barricade looked ready to give way at any moment, more and more orcs clung to it shrieking, and the young men's eyes were sinking into despair.
"What are you doing?! Hold them!"
"Million, i-it's no good! Let's all fall back to the dugout! We can't hold any longer, I'm telling you."
As Million fought and shouted, a voice thick with fear reached him. Million's face flared red as his ragged voice exploded.
"Shut up and hold the line! You can hide from a subjugation force in a dugout, but you can’t hide from an orc’s nose!"
"Then what the hell do we do?! Just all die here, is that it?!"
"......."
"Answer me! You think we can even hold this?!"
At the young man's desperate words, Million's face, which had been directing the fight, sank into darkness. He could offer no rebuttal. The number of orcs swarming in left no visible hope of breaking through. The eyes of the young men, barely managing to hold, were brimming with tears.
"Only thing we can do is hold till we die."
"Hngh."
The words that left Million's mouth as he directed them brought no hope whatsoever to those fighting.
"Kkuweek!"
"You orc bastards! I'll kill every last one of—!"
THWACK!
"Niiiiik!"
"Kkwik-kkwik-kkwi!"
"No, Nick!"
A crude iron club burst a man's head like a melon—he had been fighting back desperately. The men who had been struggling beside him, fending off the orcs' attacks, screamed his name in anguish at their comrade's death, but the collapsing body no longer had even a mouth left to answer.
Instead, the satisfied laughter of the orc gripping the brain-smeared iron club reached their ears in place of a reply.
Crunch!
"Hihik!"
A rusted axe blade bit into the top of the barricade, and a terror-stricken youth could not hold his position, stumbling backward with a shriek like escaping air.
"What are you doing?! Hold the line!"
"Hngh! I want to live!"
"Nel! Get back to your position, now!"
"I said I want to live!"
"......Nel."
The youth called Nel backed farther and farther from the barricade, weeping—in his figure, not a trace of fighting spirit remained. At last Nel collapsed to the ground and screamed, his voice twisted with desperation.
"I'd rather the subjugation force just showed up! I want to live, even if it means being a slave!"
"......Nel, you might actually get your wish."
"......?"
THUD-THUD-THUD!
The youth called Nel, his face smeared with tears and snot, lifted his head. One by one, the orcs pounding at the barricade began to freeze. And from far off, the shrieks of orcs started to ring out.
WHIZZ-WHIZZ-WHIZZ!
"Kiiiiik!"
"Kkwe-eck!"
THUD! THUD-THUD!
The orcs at the very rear toppled like scarecrows, and the sounds they made reached even the weeping Nel's ears clearly. And so did Million's bitterly sardonic voice.
"Nel, it's the subjugation force. And the kind that's barely human."
"......."
His bitter words trailed off, and sheer terror crept in. In his eyes, over a hundred horsemen clad in black scale mail beneath white plate armor, their very mounts sheathed in black iron barding, were churning through the orcs like wolves driving a flock of sheep as they closed in.
"Drive them to one side!"
As Hwi-garam's voice, riding at the head of the cavalry, shook the battlefield, the horsemen breaking through the orc horde began to split to either side.
"Hiyah!"
"We're running the pigs!"
"Hai-yah!"
THUD-THUD-THUD!
"Kkuweek!"
A hearty bellow rang out from Go Jin-cheon as he observed from the rear, and the remaining cavalry surged forward to envelop the perimeter. The orcs, faced with a great army that had struck without warning, began to move in whichever direction they were herded.
"Hm."
From afar, the sight of men watching the soldiers with fearful eyes from the battered barricades caught Jin-cheon's gaze, and a low sound escaped him.
"Issue the command."
"Issuing the commaaand!"
"......."
The voice of the soldier relaying Jin-cheon's command swept across the chaotic battlefield. Jin-cheon's gaze remained fixed on those watching this way from the barricade.
"Kill them as cruelly as possible. Captives come after."
"Slaughter Command! As cruelly as possible!"
"Chuuung!"
THUD-THUD-THUD!
As if the soldier's voice shouting Jin-cheon's murderous order had been received, the cavalry began to radiate a grim and savage light.
When the orcs were herded out, the shieldbearers began to encircle the field on all sides, as if laying a siege.
"Wreck 'em!"
The moment the cavalry withdrew, Buru seized his great axe and charged forward, roaring.
"Waaaaah!"
THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD.
"Kwieeek!"
WHAM-CRASH!
As the shock charge of flesh and steel was executed, the orcs went flying, as though hurled back by the sheer force. And in the eyes of orcs, in which only ferocious instinct normally remained, something called fear began to kindle.
"Why... why did an army like that come as just a subjugation force?!"
"Ugh... they're not going to kill us too, are they?"
"I don't know anymore."
At the barricade, where the orcs' assault had been severed, the young men stared on with faces gone utterly pale. The orc horde numbered around seven hundred, but the subjugation force that had struck them must have been well over a thousand. And in the eyes of the man who had been directing the defense, an expression of disbelief had settled.
"Hyaap!"
Pugeok.
"Kkuweek!"
"Huk!"
"Watch out! An orc's coming over!"
As the cavalry pierced through the field in a single line, as if peeling the orcs away from the barricade, one orc was sent flying with a long howl from the force of a blow and came crashing inside the barricade. But the fear of orcs had already vanished from the people's faces. The orc that had flown in was left with only its upper body, thrashing briefly on the ground before falling still.
What met their eyes was slaughter...
No—as if a child were crushing ants to death, life was being snuffed out with casual ease. The sight of a speared orc being swung to bludgeon another orc, and other such scenes, made the fight they had waged against the orcs seem peaceful by comparison.
Talkatang.
"Million......."
Million, who had been directing the youths, understood these men's monstrous strength better than anyone. He was, after all, a mercenary by trade. And because he could feel a terror greater even than the others', even the sword hilt he had been gripping tightly slipped from his hand.
"Kwieek!"
"Kkuweek!"
SPURT!
Go Jin-cheon's Hwandudaedo sliced two orcs to pieces at once, scattering blue gore across the earth.
Neigh!
"Kwikk!"
CRUNCH!
Jin-cheon's beloved warhorse Gangsoe let out a savage neigh, and with one heavy hoof crushed an orc's skull before him, adding to the storm of slaughter.
Instinct.
Even orcs, who pride themselves on ferocity alone, had begun to flee around Jin-cheon according to the instinct of terror. This was true not only of Jin-cheon—the more tightly the soldiers' encirclement solidified, the worse it grew. They were frantically running as if being pursued by an ogre.
A cornered rat will scratch a cat's nose?
That is only possible when the opponent is a cat. When the opponent is a tiger, one cannot muster even a shred of will to resist. Perhaps deeming that the time was ripe, Jin-cheon raised his Hwandudaedo into the air and issued a command in a voice that seemed to shake the battlefield.
"Begin capture!"
"Euuu-yaaaaah!"
"U-waaaaah!"
THUD-THUD-THUD!
No sooner had the orc horde been split into several fragments than their capture operation began. The unit under Yeon Hwi-garam moved first.
"Hurl the iron nets!"
"Heave!"
FWIP!
"Kkuk!"
At Hwi-garam's command, the soldiers who had been waiting in the rear flung the iron nets—hastily rigged before the sortie—into the air. They were not especially large and were clumsily made, but against orcs already tangled together in flight, they were more than sufficient.
"Kkuk-kkuk-kkwi-kkwiik!"
"Kwieeek!"
The shrieks of orcs caught in the iron nets rang out, and the soldiers set about collecting them. Meanwhile, Uru, who had taken the archer division out for capture, was employing a different tactic: tranquilizing. He had begun nocking grooved arrows tipped with a sedative prepared beforehand.
WHIZZ!
"Kkuweek!"
"Ah, hell! Which bastard is hitting their heads?! I said shoot 'em in the ass!"
"Yes, sir!"
Easy to kill, hard to keep alive—such was the rule. Whether from ingrained habit, the arrows, even without their usual steel heads, were piercing orc skulls one after another as fast as they were loosed. Thanks to Uru's order, the arrows were now aimed at buttocks, but another thick torrent of curses began to pour toward the archer division.
"Ease up the power! You goddamn brats, I said hit 'em in the ass, not punch right through! Control your strength!"
"Yes, General!"
"Don't just go 'General! General!' with your traps—use your bows to produce some damn results!"
Even the arrows aimed at orc posteriors or other fleshy parts were routinely over-penetrating. And so Uru was desperately loosing three or four arrows at a time.