Chapter 9
Chapter 9
The Iron Emperor — Chapter 9
"Grrrk, sa-o-ril... (Grrrk, save me...)"
Crunch. Twitch.
The blood-soaked mercenary's imploring gaze was crushed beneath the steel hobnailed boot of a dismounted Gwimadae soldier; he couldn't even make a sound anymore. The Gwimadae sweeping the battlefield drove spears into the throats of anyone still breathing, checking and confirming each kill one by one. Even Beron, who had been with them for only a short while, couldn't help but feel terror at the sight.
"You. Where's your horse?"
Buru turned and spoke, the ten or so Black Armored Ghost Cavalry troopers at his back.
"It took a sword in the belly and died."
The lone Gwimadae soldier standing silent bowed his head as he answered.
Smack! Clank.
"Kgh..."
Buru's fist slammed into the soldier's face; he slid backward with a groan. Buru's hard eyes poured out rebuke.
"You're dead. Got it? You couldn't even handle a bunch of pathetic amateurs and let your horse die. Does that make any sense?"
"I'm sorry."
Thwack!
"Guhk."
Buru hit him in the jaw again, then spoke with a blank expression.
"Shut your damn mouth. You're a corpse now. You understand?"
"......."
"Strip the horse armor and carry it until the main force arrives."
"Yes."
Thwack. Thud.
"Shit! Why's a corpse talking!"
At last the soldier, beaten hard enough to be planted in the dirt, shut his mouth, and Buru turned and walked toward Beron. And until that soldier rose, no one reached out to pull him up. That was their iron code, their way of surviving.
"What in the world happened!"
"Kh... Beron. Where've you been?"
"Is that what matters right now! The village chief, everybody else—"
Beron asked Old Man Hans, a survivor he knew well, about the others. Fortunately, most of the people had gotten away; only the villagers who'd hidden on the outskirts had been slaughtered.
"The truth is, these men......."
According to Old Man Hans, the attackers were actually mercenaries the villagers had originally hired as a self-defense measure. Not long ago, an orc swarm had rampaged through and cut the militia's numbers in half; hoping to at least root out the nearby orcs, they'd secretly gone into a town and hired a small band of about twenty mercenaries. They learned too late that the band was a pack of jackals who raided slash-and-burn settlements and sold the people as slaves.
As soon as the mercenaries confirmed the militia was undermanned, they drew their blades, and another sixty mercenaries who'd followed right behind set the village ablaze. But because a village youth had spotted the sixty-strong ambush and raised the alarm almost at the same moment the first twenty rushed in, a fair number of people had been able to hide. Even so, their homes and their hearts had already been butchered.
"You!"
"Yes, General."
"Go to the main camp and report what happened here."
"Yes, sir."
"Strip off all that horse armor and run."
Uru swiftly dispatched a single Gwimadae trooper to the camp. Once the heavy horse armor and plate were removed, the horse bolted as if it had found its own world.
"Hey, Berong?"
"Yeh-in. (Yes.)"
"Uh....... Gurajaengi, what're you doin'? Get over here, quick!"
When Uru's impatient voice burst out, Ung-sam came dashing over on the double.
"Gurajaengi, you, this 'Berong'-or-whatever fella, round up the village able-bodied men and gather the dead and the living, and be quick about it."
"Yes, General."
"You over there, get some clothes together for the womenfolk and take them and the children somewhere that's still standing. The remaining ten Gwimadae riders will guard the perimeter."
"Yes, sir!"
Having prepared against any remaining threat, Uru began clearing the battlefield. Gazing at the burning dugout shelters, Uru murmured with sorrowful eyes.
"The most beast-like thing in the world is people..."
Chapter 4 — Has the Die Been Cast?
When Beron brought the villagers out from the dugout shelter, they were stunned speechless by the devastation spread before them. But only for a moment; catching sight of the uniformly black-iron-clad Black Armored Ghost Cavalry, they tensed with wary eyes and trembled in fear.
Once Beron explained, however, they began gathering the corpses. Deep down they understood that if those soldiers had meant to harm them, their own fate would already have been sealed. And perhaps, too, they'd simply resigned themselves after seeing their village already burned.
By evening, the bodies of the villagers and the dead mercenaries had been collected, and the village chief wordlessly set fire to the pyre.
Whump-whumph.
"Oh, my husband!"
"Euh-heugh, Father!"
"Mama..."
At the sight of their families' bodies going up in flames, the tears they'd all been holding back burst forth at once.
All the same, the living have to keep living. The people laid the wounded in the least-damaged huts, treated them, and began preparing a camp for the night.
Kkuiiii!
"What now!"
As darkness began to settle, the cries ringing out from beyond the woods made Buru's eyes narrow.
"O, o-keu-de! (O-Orcs!)"
"Orcs? Walkin' blue pigs! Damn it! Get moving, quick."
The continuing cries made it clear this was no one or two beasts. Fighting them was not the problem in itself, but right now there were people to protect.
Though the language barrier remained, the villagers followed the soldiers' direction and gathered in the center of the village. The fifteen soldiers, along with Buru and Uru, built barricades from the surrounding debris. Among them, village youths came forward carrying pitchforks, old spears, and hunting bows.
"Uru, you take the side where the sounds are comin' from. I'll hold the inside."
"Gurajaengi, talk to Beron and round up the able-bodied men with bows and bring 'em here."
"Yes, sir!"
Kku-ii-ii-ii! Kku-ik!
As the orc cries drew nearer, Buru looked at the people frozen in terror. A little over three hundred of them, all elderly folk, children, and women. Buru felt his grip tighten on his great axe and planted himself solidly in front of the villagers. It was a declaration of will—not one beast would get past him.
"You, get over here!"
"Na, nawa-enaseu? (M-Me?)"
"Na? Yeah, right, you. Grab a bow and come here."
Uru's brusque voice rang out as he directed from in front of the barricade. He'd called the village youths together mostly with gestures, but his eyes were filled with misgiving.
"The hell? Ain't that a wooden bow? What're you supposed to do with that thing!"
"......?"
Uru shouted in frustration at the sight of the oversized wooden bow, but the village youth only flinched. The one thing that gave Uru even slight satisfaction was a small crossbow visible among them. At least it was better than a wooden bow.
"Gurajaengi, when I give the signal, you signal those pale fellas too. Got it!"
"Yes, sir."
Rustle. Kkuik. Kkuit!
Kku-ii-ik!
"Damn."
When the orcs finally showed themselves, a click of Uru's tongue escaped his lips. The revealed horde alone looked to be a hundred-odd beasts at least. With the stench of blood so thick throughout these woods, they wouldn't be orcs if they hadn't come. Of course, Uru had no way to know such things about orc habits.
"How many Pyeonjeon left!"
"Five to seven per man, sir!"
"We're in trouble then. Load 'em all into the tonga."
Watching the orcs already within Pyeonjeon range, Uru slowly seated the tonga guide onto the string and drew. Simultaneously, the Black Armored Ghost Cavalry troopers slowly drew their own bowstrings as well.
"Hold steady. Any man who doesn't drop at least two with one shot, be ready to take a beating."
Kki-kki-kkik.
He aimed so that a lead orc overlapped with one in the rear, then steadied his breathing. As the ten-plus men drew their bows, astonishment mixed with wariness appeared in the eyes of the village youths holding bows. Beron, too, opened his eyes wide again and stared. The current distance was one not even a quarrel could reach. Yet, recalling how arrows had flown freely from just this range a short while before, he held his breath in silence.
Uru's eyes narrowed, and the order was given.
"Now—shoot at will!"
Twang! Thwump-thwump!
WHIZZ-WHIZZ-THWACK! WHIZZ-THWACK!
"Ah!"
This time, even Beron could track it with his own eyes—the tube-like thing did not fly; only the small arrow inside shot forth. But the arrow's trajectory itself was invisible.
"Kkui-iiik!"
"Kku-ii-ii!"
"Keep shooting!"
The orc screams beginning to ring out from the distance told them only that the arrows had flown across this unbelievable range and struck true.
'It was a magic item!'
That was the thought that surfaced in the minds of Beron and the village youths—who at least had picked up a bit of worldly knowledge.
"Daesaja, please hurry."
Thwump!
FWEEEE!
As he launched a Signal Arrow, Uru muttered low. The orcs revealed to the front numbered over two hundred, by rough reckoning. What was more, orc cries were clearly audible from behind as well.
"What about over there?"
As a familiar sound cut through the air, Hwi-garam voiced the grave question. He had already learned of the village attack from the messenger who arrived first. In the end, instead of Captain of the Guard Dae Mu-deok, who was supposed to join the second advance party, Jin-cheon had come out alongside Hwi-garam with about fifty cavalry, axemen, and shieldbearers.
"Hwi, pick up the infantry's pace. Twenty Gwimadae riders come with me. Hyah!"
NEEEIGH~!
"Hah!"
"Hyah!"
THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!
His brow deeply furrowed, sensing how serious the situation had grown, Jin-cheon spurred his horse forward.
"Hurry! Move faster!"
"Yes, General!"
Urging on the infantry coming up behind to catch Jin-cheon, who had gone ahead, Hwi-garam quickened the pace.
"Anyone with a bow, pull back!"
Kkui-ii-ik!
"Hyah!"
SLASH!
Shouting for the village youths who were brandishing bows and getting in the way to pull back, Uru swung his small Hwandudaedo. The orcs who had already closed inside bow range were beginning to clamber over the barricades one after another, and protecting three hundred-odd people with fifteen soldiers was nearly impossible. True, about fifty villagers—youths and men in their prime—had joined the fight, but the gaps being torn open wherever the orcs broke through were precisely the sections entrusted to the village youths.
"Kkuik!"
Thwack!
"Uwaaak! Nawa-en a-in! (Uwaaak! My arm!)"
A village youth's arm was crushed under an orc's stone axe as it surged over the barricade, and he tumbled backward. Uru desperately spurred them on, shouting.
"Plug it!"
"Kkui-iiik!"
"Aaaack!"
But before the collapsed defense line could be sealed, the orcs had already begun leaping through. And the orcs who burst inside aimed straight for the villagers huddled in the center, trembling.
"Uwaaak!"
"Kkui-ii-iiik!"
"Kyaaaak!"
The villagers' terror peaked at the ferocious sight of the onrushing orcs. But if they abandoned the barricade now, it was all over.
CRAAACK!
"Kkuek!"
"How dare you crawl in here!"
FWOOSH!
"Kkeu-ii-iiik!"
Buru's form exploded into motion at the center, hacking apart the orcs that had squirmed inside. Orc torsos were bisected with every sweep of his great axe; he even seized and hurled the corpses of fallen orcs, beginning a wholesale slaughter.
"Aaaack!"
"Kkuik!"
"You sons a' bitches!"
At the scream of yet another village youth toppling, Uru spat a harsh curse and nocked an arrow to his bowstring. However outstanding Buru might be, if the opposite side was torn wide open like that, he naturally could not save the people.
THWACK!
"Kkueeek!"
THWACK-THWACK!
"Kkui-ii-ii-ii!"
As three arrows in quick succession punched through the orcs scrambling over, a Gwimadae soldier was just in time to fill the gap.
"Kryaaaa!"
Thwaaack!
"Kkueh-eh-eh-eh-eh!"
Buru swung the broad flat of his great axe and swatted an orc; it sailed through the air and tumbled outside the barricade. With that, the last of the orcs who had gotten inside were, for now, wiped out. As soon as the interior was secure, Buru shouted toward Uru.
"How's it goin'!"
Thwack!
"Kkuek!"
"Don't make me talk! Another four hundred at least are comin'!"
Uru's frustrated voice came back as he kicked an orc's skull aside in answer to Buru's question. At least two hundred-odd orcs seemed to have been laid out, yet they showed no sign of withdrawing.
"Huh?"
THUD-THUD-THUD! THWACK!
In an instant, Uru's eyes caught sight of orcs at the far end being hurled backward with dull, heavy impacts. And a long, piercing whistle that echoed from the sky brought calm to the hearts of those fighting with desperate resolve.
FWEEEE!
"The Daesaja has arrived!"
THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!
At the head of the Black Armored Ghost Cavalry plunging in with the earth-shaking thunder of hooves, Jin-cheon drew his Hwandudaedo.
"We'll split them in half!"
THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!
NEEEIGH!
"Hah!"
CLANG!
With a battle cry that shook the surroundings, Jin-cheon leveled his Hwandudaedo toward the orcs, and as they always did, the Black Armored Ghost Cavalry following behind slammed their spears against their white breastplates in answer.
"Kku-ik muda-kenaseu, nigan gidaemarude! (Kku-ik, bunch up! It's human cavalry!)"
A hulking orc bellowed, and the orcs in the direction Jin-cheon was charging pressed their bodies tightly together. They clustered as if to form one enormous wall. As the distance closed, Jin-cheon's brow twisted fiercely.
It was a tactic utterly beyond imagination. No—a tactic humans could not execute. Using their own bodies bunched together as a substitute for a fortress wall was something he could not have conceived of in the first place.
But crude as it was, that formation was absolutely impossible to break through. If he charged in as they were, the cavalry would all simply bounce off. That was how solid it was.
Jin-cheon's Hwandudaedo pointed at the sky, and his voice rang out.
"Full speed—forward!"
"Hah, hah!"
THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!
Even so, the moment Jin-cheon's order fell, the twenty-odd horsemen accelerated even more, charging straight at the orcs who had transformed into something like a single boulder.