Before This Night Ends
“The sun will set soon…”
Ulgraak muttered as he watched the sun sink slowly toward the horizon. Because they were in the forest, darkness closed in with startling speed. The space, thick with fog and night, felt unnervingly oppressive.
“It won’t be easy for them to move in a place this dark. What do you say we let the warriors rest?”
“We’ll still need to post a minimum of sentries.”
Ulgraak recalled the look in the boy’s eyes—the last thing he had seen. That relentless, obsessive gaze as the boy charged straight through the heart of the landslide Makcrowdon had triggered. A man with eyes like that would come after them even in darkness like this. He was sure of it.
Makcrowdon nodded at Ulgraak’s words.
“I’ll take the first watch with some of the warriors. You rest with the others.”
“I’ll rotate with you midway. Visibility is almost nothing in this dark, so rely on your ears as much as you can.”
Both men were commanders in their own right, so they chose their words with care. Makcrowdon led a group of warriors out and posted them at measured intervals to begin the watch.
Even while standing guard, the thought that ran through his mind was simple.
There’s no way they’ll move in darkness like this…
He did not believe the Imperial forces would attack. The reason was plain enough: even they themselves could barely move when the fog was this thick and the night this black. A little light might have been one thing, but by dawn the hill would be buried in absolute darkness. That was why they themselves had only taken position while there was still some light left.
And once the dark fully claimed the hill…
“Stay sharp anyway. Focus on your hearing. Don’t miss even the smallest movement.”
“Understood.”
“Yes, Taman.”
Makcrowdon scanned the surroundings as he spoke. Arteon’s eyes had left a distinctly unpleasant impression on him as well. It shouldn’t be possible—and yet somehow he could not shake the foul feeling that the boy would attack them even in terrain this barren and hostile.
At the same moment, elsewhere—
“We’re out of time.”
“I know.”
As the sun disappeared, the hill sank deeper into darkness. When the fog that already blocked their vision merged with the night, they could barely see a single step ahead. But they had no other choice.
At the earliest, right after sunrise, the main force would pull away under Leoron’s irresponsible withdrawal order.
We can’t give the Kar tribe any more time.
Their strength was already reduced by injuries. If they failed to break them now, this war would never end. More than anything, Arteon wanted to keep the soldiers from dying for nothing any longer.
Driven by that single conviction, Hadel looked over the men gathered with him and spoke.
“If we fail to win this fight… the same meaningless war will simply repeat itself.”
And in that war, countless more soldiers would die.
“We would spend every day grieving our comrades’ deaths.”
It was a living hell—for the dead and for the living alike. Everyone present understood that truth, and they nodded. For Arteon especially, who had lost so many comrades to the greed of higher-ups, the words struck deeper still.
Moving on an enemy position under conditions like these was no easy task. One wrong step, one moment of discovery, and they could be the ones in mortal danger.
Then—
“I’ll take the lead.”
“Can you manage it?”
Visibility was essentially zero. Yet when Arteon spoke, a strange confidence settled over them.
Arteon turned to Hadel.
“I’ve been on this ground longer than anyone else here. I have a good idea where they’ll be gathered.”
If they had fallen back, there was only one place they would collect. The hill itself was not particularly large, and though the terrain was rough, it was not complex.
“Just watch your footing and follow me.”
“All right. Everyone, follow Sergeant Arteon carefully.”
From Hadel’s position, it was the best option available. At Hadel’s order, Arteon set off at a slightly brisk pace.
The memories were old, but the recent days spent fighting across this ground seemed to have reawakened something in his body. Even through terrain thick with fog, Arteon’s advance never faltered.
“….”
The soldiers following him, along with Seran and Hadel, could not hide their quiet astonishment. No matter how many days he had spent here recently, Arteon moved with an ease that bordered on unnatural—as if he had grown up a hunter’s son in these mountains.
Yet no one questioned it or made a sound. The slower Arteon’s pace became, the heavier the tension settled on their shoulders.
How much time passed, they could not say. The soldiers who had been watching only the ground at their feet as they followed Arteon through the dark finally stopped. When they lifted their heads—
“….”
They could feel it clearly. Something was there, just beyond the undergrowth ahead.
Hadel held even his breath and slowly lowered his stance. He knew that the slightest wrong movement here could give them away to the enemy.
Softly, Arteon turned his gaze toward Hadel. Hadel met those eyes and pressed his lips tightly together. Plenty of worries and doubts still lingered, but—
“….”
The decision had already been made.
Before this night ends… we finish everything.
By now, word of their intentions would have reached Commander Leoron. He would be raging, no doubt—but there was nothing he could do in a night this black. Until the sun rose, nothing they did could be stopped.
Hadel gave a small nod. Arteon slowly drew Iglis from his belt. First priority was to pin down exactly where the enemy stood.
They posted sentries.
They had been more thorough than expected; closing the distance without being noticed would be difficult. Arteon raised his mana and pushed his sensory perception as high as it would go.
And then—
…He’s here too.
He could tell that the one he had clashed with before was among them. He had never imagined a commander-level fighter would be standing watch himself. Or had something else raised the man’s guard?
Either way, what mattered was that he was here.
Arteon moved quietly to Seran’s side.
“Seran-nim.”
“I felt him too. That’s the one you fought, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
Seran’s expression darkened at Arteon’s confirmation. The presence he sensed was every bit as strong as Ulgraak’s.
Seran spoke.
“Wouldn’t it be better to hit him with a joint attack while he’s alone? If we can wound him, the rest becomes much easier.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Arteon answered Seran with complete honesty.
“If we can wound him as planned, fine. But we also have to consider the opposite outcome.”
“The opposite outcome?”
“Yes. If you take a worse injury from his counter… the entire operation could fail.”
“….”
Seran fell silent. On the surface, the remark could have been deeply offensive. But Seran coldly ran the scenario through his mind. If he—already unable to use his left arm—made a single mistake and was taken out of the fight…
…Arteon is right.
That would create a situation they could never recover from.
“Then I’ll leave it to you.”
“Thank you.”
Arteon gave a slight bow and straightened. The moment he moved, Makcrowdon and every Kar warrior’s attention would lock onto him. If he could buy even a short stretch of time—
That’s when the unit pushes into their center and takes position.
Then they would be able to exploit the gaps. He had the sequence clear in his head, but whether it would actually unfold that way was never certain. On a battlefield, variables appeared in real time.
Arteon lowered himself into the undergrowth and began to move. At the same moment, Hadel’s men held their breath and started a careful advance from the opposite side.
Ssshk…
Even the softest footfall was unacceptable. The soldiers watched the ground with extreme care as they advanced. The faintest rustle of leaves rang like thunder in their ears. The snap of a twig under someone’s boot made hearts plummet.
In that atmosphere of taut, brittle tension, Arteon melted into the darkness, both eyes gleaming. Then—
“Huu…”
He exhaled a thin breath and drew up his mana.
Pabat!
“—!”
“E-Enemy—! Ghk!”
Like a beast exploding from cover, Arteon launched himself into the brush and cut down the two Kar warriors in front of him in a single heartbeat. Crimson blood sprayed from the tip of Iglis’s blade like paint flung into the air. Leaving the two warriors crumpled like rotten timber, Arteon fixed his gaze in one direction.
“…You.”
As if he had been waiting, a man gripped his axe and poured out thick killing intent.
“Makcrowdon…”
Before Arteon finished the name, Makcrowdon moved.
Kung!
That solid body charged like a massive predator, radiating ferocious pressure. Purely in terms of presence, the sheer force was enough to make a man’s legs give way. But Arteon had faced pressure of this caliber countless times in his previous life. Aura alone would never break him.
First…
Arteon tightened his grip on the spear as Makcrowdon closed in.
Vargas Northern Spearmanship was a style that lost none of its lethality in close quarters and specialized in unpredictable, transforming attacks. The trade-off was enormous stamina drain; because the user often fought at the range that favored the enemy, fatigue piled up quickly. In a situation where he needed to buy time—
Tadak!
“—?!”
Arteon flung himself backward, opening distance. Makcrowdon’s eyes flickered. In their previous clash the boy had preferred absurdly fluid close-range techniques and ultra-close combat. Why open the range now?
“You—!”
There was no time to think.
Suaaaak!
After only a couple of steps, Arteon suddenly stopped and launched a thrust of terrifying speed.
Jjeong!
Makcrowdon hurriedly swung his axe and knocked the attack aside. The force left his palms stinging and completely killed his forward momentum.
“Taman!”
“You bastard—!”
The Kar warriors who had been moving with Makcrowdon roared and charged at Arteon. They knew he was roughly equal to a Taman, but their orders had been clear: kill this one first.
But—
Jjeong! Kwang!
“Guaagh!”
“Uwaaagh!”
The ones who rushed him were blasted backward by long-range thrusts, screaming. Unlike before, the thrusts launched from distance were devastatingly threatening, and he never allowed them to close the gap.
Swaak!
Arteon gripped the end of the spear shaft and swept a long half-circle across the ground. In the dark it was hard to see clearly, but he had drawn a line—and then he took the spear in both hands again.
And—
“Anyone who steps inside this line… dies.”
A flat, absolute warning—followed by a fierce taunt.
“If you’ve got the guts, come at me, you northern rats.”
Arteon’s eyes flashed like drawn blades.
Here—
I hold them.
And in that same span of time, the Imperial soldiers led by Hadel and Seran began to drive swiftly into the enemy’s center.