Chapter 133
Chapter 133
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 133
Chapter Title: The Surrender Proposal
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Jangwan gazed down at the Mangul soldiers marching rapidly beneath his feet.
The ones falling behind in speed were undoubtedly the short kobolds.
The kobold units formed the main force, but due to their speed, they were assigned to the rear guard.
'This won't do. We're too slow. We need to move faster.'
Jangwan sent revelations to the priests scattered among the units.
The priests relayed the god's will to each unit's commanders, and the commanders began picking up the pace.
But there was a limit to how much faster they could go on two feet.
This trot was little more than slow running, and they couldn't maintain it forever.
A few soldiers were already starting to lag behind, unable to keep up.
'No. They can't fall behind yet.'
Jangwan felt uneasy, but there was no choice.
At the very rear of the formation, low-ranking knights were reassigning those stragglers back into units.
They adjusted their speed to match the slower soldiers or those in poor condition.
The reason was obvious.
-Kaboom!
The sky flashed brightly, filling with light.
Jangwan turned to look behind them.
It was too far to see clearly.
A tangle of creations—numbers he'd never seen on the Third Continent—clashed chaotically, impossible to distinguish whose they were.
The apostle that had just lit up the sky was too distant to make out.
'What kind of battle is that?'
He could have used his subdomain for reconnaissance, but Jangwan refrained.
'They're here.'
Heukrin's cavalry had closed right up behind them.
Cockatoo cavalry formed the vanguard, followed by a rear guard of riders from various races on horseback.
'If we do nothing, they'll pick us apart piece by piece.'
With cavalry on their heels, the infantry couldn't just keep fleeing.
Each charge would shatter the rear, and those broken units would be hunted down and annihilated by the enemy infantry trailing behind.
Even survivors would likely become deserters, too terrified of war and military discipline to return.
'That's why we can't just turn tail and run.'
As the cockatoo cavalry came into view, Mangul's rearmost unit halted.
The stragglers who couldn't keep pace seemed relieved for the brief rest at first, but their faces paled at the commander's next order.
"About face!"
Soldiers unable to keep up with the main force were likely to die, desert, or otherwise become worthless in combat.
Using them to preserve as much fighting strength as possible made perfect sense.
As Heukrin's cavalry charged without slowing—in fact accelerating—the Mangul soldiers, barely forming a shallow phalanx, wavered greatly.
Some even tried to flee, forcing a knight to charge in, sword drawn, and cut them down.
The knight bellowed in fury.
"Raise those spears high! Aim for the cavalry's chests and arms!"
But no Heukrin riders obliged by impaling themselves on the terrified, frozen soldiers' spears.
Instead, Mangul troops lost heads and limbs to the cockatoos' slashing beaks and talons, and the riders' spearpoints.
A few survived by hunching low.
They sighed in relief as the cockatoo cavalry thundered past without a glance—only to be trampled under the hooves of the following rear guard.
'...I figured it would be like this.'
These were soldiers too exhausted to keep up anyway.
For now, their small numbers meant a shallow spear wall was no match for cavalry.
Heukrin's cavalry pressed close.
Another Mangul rearguard halted—this one over a hundred strong, unlike the previous fifty.
But to the cavalry, it probably felt no different.
'That's exactly how it should feel. It's bait.'
That wasn't Jangwan's real target.
'Nebula's fully committed to the fight with Krampus and Eiar. Runda's probably involved too. Eldar, who knows—but no way those soldiers are drawing attention from other players.'
Using overwhelming power here might attract Seongun's notice.
So Jangwan's plan was simple tactics.
'They probably think they're just chasing a beaten foe. I'll make them regret it.'
A shaded forest lay ahead of the second rearguard's phalanx—a blind spot for Heukrin's cavalry.
There, Jangwan had hidden Mangul's own cavalry.
'Infantry as the anvil, cavalry as the hammer. Time for one good hit.'
Even without that, they needed to inflict some damage on the enemy cavalry given Mangul infantry losses.
'Here they come.'
Just before Heukrin's cavalry reached the infantry, Mangul's cavalry burst forth.
They struck sharply from the flank.
Heukrin riders charging straight ahead couldn't evade.
"Yes!"
But Jangwan's cheer was premature.
He heard the Heukrin cavalry commander's odd order.
"Take aim!"
'Take aim...?'
Only now did Jangwan shift his gaze to their armament.
Every Heukrin rider held a long pole topped with a metal lump.
The cavalry leveled those metal lumps at the charging Mangul horsemen.
Now Jangwan recognized them.
'Hand cannons!'
"Fire!"
With clicks, flames erupted from the muzzles.
Stone shards, trailing white smoke, rained down on Mangul's cavalry.
Horses stunned by direct head hits, riders thrown, front horses tripping and tangling others, desperate turns or halts to calm panicked mounts—it turned into chaos in seconds.
Heukrin's cavalry then punched through the shaken infantry, shrouded in dissipating smoke.
'Damn it!'
This time, Rakrak's golden spear blade cleaved through the player known as AR1026—or the god called Ambon.
Ambon seemed poised to shout something, but Rakrak moved faster.
He drove his spear into the head on the collapsing upper left half of Ambon's body.
Massive currents surged, sparks flying across the ground.
Ambon moved no more.
Rakrak checked his wounds from Ambon's attacks—glancing at various spots, rolling his shoulders, clenching and unclenching fists—not out of necessity, but old habit from life.
He nodded at the empty air, then walked to where Renaud lay on the ground.
He extended a hand.
"You alright?"
"Ah, thanks."
Runda, still possessing the priest's body, took Rakrak's hand and stood.
Rakrak said,
"The Lord says Ambon is dead."
"Yeah, I saw that too."
That explained Runda's blank stare while lying there.
Runda eyed the status window before him.
Runda thought, as expected of the legend.
He had directly crushed the main force via rebellion, but Rakrak—Nebula's apostle—killed the manifested body.
'At least it didn't hit 70%. Means I was somewhat useful.'
Runda took solace in that for now.
A fleeting mix of betrayal and victory washed over him, interrupted by a voice.
"What're you doing? Move."
"Huh?"
"Move. Faith's draining. Gonna stay possessed? You confirmed Eiar's down. War's not over."
Jeokyeom rebels and Golden Eye forces were shattered, Mangul retreating, AR1026 enshrined—effectively dead.
"...Isn't it over?"
"Over? You gotta clean up the endgame first."
Endgame.
From Runda's memory, a go term.
Counting captured stones after the game ends.
'Not even asking about the betrayal.'
Dry and efficient.
Runda spoke through Renaud's mouth.
"Gotta go."
Rakrak nodded silently.
For some reason, his gaze held pity for a fellow operator—oddly comforting to Runda.
Runda started moving.
A month and a half passed.
Runda's betrayal and AR1026's death had undeniably shifted the war into a new phase.
Jangwan had overcome his mistakes to some degree, achieving modest success.
The blows to Heukrin during retreat were minor, but he gained something more vital.
He saved over two-thirds of his Mangul soldiers and, additionally, rescued Golden Eye troops, sending 3,000 men back safely.
It cost some faith resources, but it was worth the sacrifice.
This wasn't solely Jangwan's doing.
After AR1026's fall, the main battlefield shifted from Danyeom's Daimrit to Jeokgwa.
Because Wisdom led a first expeditionary force in a revenge campaign.
Wisdom never overextended to attack Jeokgwa's center.
Instead, he seized or destroyed major farmlands, mining villages, trade routes.
Despite Seongun's aid and Rakrak's valor, inflicting heavy damage on Wisdom's force proved difficult.
Wisdom's first expedition withdrew eventually, but Jeokgwa's losses were substantial.
Runda sighed in relief at low troop casualties, but Seongun judged Wisdom's play clever.
When Runda asked why, Seongun replied,
"Disrupted resource production. He wants a prolonged war."
"Not just venting? Avoiding our main force?"
"Maybe."
Seongun wasn't sure, but soon got his answer.
After Mangul, Golden Eye, and Seokmyeon's first expeditions fully retreated, a whisper came from Jangwan.
Jangwan spoke the moment Seongun's face appeared.
"Surrender terms."
"Surrender?"
To cut off sarcasm, Jangwan rushed on.
"We'll cede Danyeom outright. Meaning no efforts to retake it. Krampus already agreed. Plus a third of Golden Eye's territory."
Treating Runda's Jeokgwa as an ally—practically merged—accepting would make Heukrin over four times larger than pre-war. Top power on the Third Continent.
"We'll return all occupied territories taken from Jeokgwa too."
Seongun raised a hand, interrupting.
"Lots of giveaways. What do you want?"
"Cease hostilities."
"And?"
"No retaliation."
"And?"
"Eiar's enshrinement trophy. Anyway, Nebula—not all. I'll tell you about war reparations too..."
The enshrinement trophy: a small statue item of a defeated player, storable in inventory.
Seongun replied curtly.
"Rejected."