The Antlion's Trap (7)
Ye Gwan could be summed up in just a few words: cold, composed, and thoughtful. Of course, her abilities as a commander were well above average, but her personality was not the type to deliberately charge into the fray and swing a blade herself. So what the hell was this scene right now?
The current situation could hardly be called a crisis, yet here she was, throwing herself into danger to take the enemy commander’s head. I couldn’t understand what had caused such a drastic change in Ye Gwan.
Part of me desperately wanted to ask her what the hell had happened, but right now, the more urgent problem was Sun Quan, whose neck was about to be severed by that very hand. She had fallen from her horse and looked completely unprepared to block Ye Gwan’s strike.
“Tsk…!”
Thanks to that, the situation had become far more complicated than expected. At first, I had thought that rescuing Sun Quan at the right moment would bring me one step closer to my original goal. But Ye Gwan’s unexpected intervention and the sudden urgency it created forced me to act quickly.
I tore a strip from my sleeve to roughly cover my face, then leaped forward and sprinted toward them. Ju Tae, who had witnessed the same scene, was charging in with fire in her eyes. Most of the soldiers’ attention was focused on her, so slipping closer wasn’t difficult.
The only problem was the mismatch between time and distance. It didn’t look like Ye Gwan’s hand would wait until I arrived.
Damn it. If only I could use leg strength enhancement…!
But there was no time to complain. The moment space opened up between me and the target, I hurled the short spear I was holding at the horse Ye Gwan was riding.
A sharp whistle cut through the air. The horse, struck by the unexpected blow, thrashed wildly. In the end, Ye Gwan was thrown from its back and tumbled to the ground.
“Ugh…!”
She managed to get up after a moment, but soon collapsed again, groaning as she clutched the arm that had hit the ground. Since I couldn’t use body reinforcement and therefore couldn’t precisely choose my target, I had no choice but to aim for the easier mark—the horse. Still, the result was far bigger than simply buying a little time, and the bitter taste in my mouth lingered.
But there was no time for regret. I had to run immediately—because Ju Tae, her eyes bloodshot after seeing Sun Quan’s state, looked ready to cut Ye Gwan’s throat at any second.
“Youuuuuuuu!!!!”
Wait, there must have been dozens of soldiers between Ju Tae and Ye Gwan. Had she really cut through all of them?
Her appearance was nothing short of demonic slaughter incarnate. Her entire body was caked in someone else’s blood and chunks of flesh. Her armor was torn and hanging off in places, and several blades were still lodged in her back, dangling loosely. It was a small mercy that no arrows were flying in the middle of this melee.
Her momentum was truly terrifying. It didn’t look like Ye Gwan had any way to block it.
Should I jump in between them? No. That definitely wasn’t the right answer. Inserting myself into an explosive situation wouldn’t easily resolve it, the distance was tight, and above all, explaining what came after would become extremely difficult.
Then…
I decided to solve the problem from a different angle. I ran straight to Sun Quan, who was right beside me, and gave her a brief explanation.
“Please forgive this rudeness for a moment.”
“Eh…”
Whether from the shock of falling off her horse or the sudden turn of events, Sun Quan was dazed. She simply lifted her head with unfocused eyes and gave no real reaction.
In that instant, Ju Tae finally swung the spear in her hand. Ye Gwan barely managed to deflect it with her polearm, avoiding a fatal wound. But as a result, she grimaced and dropped the weapon entirely. It seemed to be because of the injury to her arm…
Anyway, this brief moment—after Ju Tae’s strike, while she caught her breath—was my chance.
Instead of wasting time explaining the situation to the still-dazed Sun Quan, I hoisted her onto my back and immediately sprinted in the direction I had come from. As I ran, I shouted toward Ju Tae, who was preparing to strike again.
“I have secured Lady Sun Quan! Cover us!!!”
Ju Tae had charged forward without thinking after seeing Ye Gwan attempt to strike Sun Quan. Fortunately, my voice reached her while she paused to breathe. She turned her head, straightened her posture, nodded in our direction, and replied.
“…I will follow shortly! Leave the rear to me!!”
She still hadn’t lowered the spear in her hand, but at least she wouldn’t swing it at Ye Gwan’s neck again. The soldiers had rushed in after seeing Ye Gwan’s crisis, and from now on they would focus on blocking to help Sun Quan escape. There was no room for reckless action.
In fact, while she continued to attack Ye Gwan afterward, it was less about trying to behead her and more about keeping the soldiers tied to her. Thanks to that, Ye Gwan was able to retreat under the protection of her troops.
I watched the scene out of the corner of my eye as I kept running forward.
“Move! Get out of the way!!!”
During the chaos, a few attacks did reach us, but these mere grunts were manageable even without ability enhancement. At first, my movements felt awkward compared to before and I faced some danger, but after fighting continuously yesterday and today, my body had grown accustomed to it. Handling a person on my back while fighting had become feasible.
Meanwhile, the invading Ye Gwan army began retreating after her. Finally, Ju Tae returned alone, looking even more horrifying than before, and today’s battle came to an end.
“………”
Originally, we should have kept moving until the sun went down. But the damage and exhaustion from that last clash were too severe. Considering the time needed for recovery and treatment, further movement was impossible.
Ju Tae, who should have been leading the army, had carved open two bloody paths and was on the verge of collapse. The other soldiers were in the same state. The number of wounded men groaning across the battlefield was simply too great to abandon here.
Considering the distance remaining to the Yangtze River, ignoring these soldiers and their fatigue would make reaching it nearly impossible.
In the end, Ju Tae looked around with tightly pressed lips before ordering the army to stop and rest here for now.
“Is Lady Sun Quan safe?”
“Yes. Aside from being a little startled, she suffered no major external injuries.”
“I see…”
I handed the exhausted Sun Quan over to Ju Tae. She took her, checked her condition, and let out a sigh of relief before giving me a short word of praise.
“Well done.”
Ju Tae turned to leave but suddenly seemed to remember something and gave me an order.
“Check on the other soldiers’ conditions. We must move early tomorrow, so if necessary, use my name and get assistance from the others.”
[Seems like the praise was a bit stingy, doesn’t it?]
“Well, that’s probably the best Ju Tae can manage.”
She had casually ordered treatment as if it were the most natural thing, but since it aligned with what I wanted anyway, I carried out the command without complaint. To be precise, Ser was the one giving the proper instructions; I was simply relaying her words.
Ser told me to separate the exhausted from the wounded, then further categorize the injured. Prioritize treating the lightly wounded first, then leave the heavily wounded for last. I followed her guidance with the help of the other soldiers.
It might sound heartless, but with no proper medical tools available, it was inevitable to first focus on those who could move tomorrow after receiving treatment.
As a result, using crushed herbs applied topically or taken orally, along with simple incisions, disinfection, and hemostasis, we saved those we could. Roughly twenty men remained as critically wounded.
I stared at them silently. In the current situation, there was no way to treat them. Unless an immortal appeared and created a pill of immortality, that is.
Perhaps sensing my gaze, the eyes of the critically wounded clung to my face. Having seen the effects yesterday, they were probably desperate to grasp at even the thinnest straw.
“It’s difficult after all, isn’t it?”
A couple of soldiers who had been assisting me asked with hopeful eyes, so I nodded. I had given them the same level of treatment as the others, but the critically wounded still didn’t show much improvement in complexion.
Ser had said that excessive blood loss or infection causing the wounds to rot would make such treatment insufficient. It seemed her words were exactly right.
But……
“For now, I’ll do everything I can and then leave the rest to heaven.”
Imitating the demeanor of a renowned physician, I used different herbs from the ones I had gathered yesterday to create a kind of medicinal pill for them. Ser had demanded a rather difficult method for a novice, but thanks to the soldiers’ eager support in wanting to save their comrades, I was able to produce enough pills for all the critically wounded despite the challenging compounding conditions.
Under everyone’s tense gazes, I had them swallow the pills with water. Before long, rumbling sounds came from their stomachs, and the expressions of those who had taken the medicine noticeably calmed.
“Does this mean they’re all cured?”
Many of the critically wounded were former pirates. They had fought the hardest alongside Ju Tae. Perhaps that was why most of the soldiers who had desperately helped me were also former pirates.
“Well… the odds are about fifty-fifty. From here on, we can only leave it to the heavens.”
Ser had said the probability of those who took the medicine waking up again was around eighty percent. That was after accounting for minimum physical requirements. It probably wouldn’t give them much hope, but compared to being abandoned, the situation had improved considerably, so they looked quite pleased.
“When this guy wakes up, I’ll treat you to a proper drink.”
Several of them patted my back, while others ruffled my hair and grinned. Their scarred, fierce faces twisting into smiles wasn’t exactly a pretty sight, but it was probably their own way of showing gratitude.
After receiving their thanks, I sent them away under the pretext of needing to stabilize the patients.
“Eighty percent?”
[That should be enough, no? The original recipe was missing a few key ingredients, so I was a bit worried.]
According to her, this was a method from an island nation on the complete opposite side of the empire. As usual, she was spouting incomprehensible nonsense about “the complete opposite side,” but she had never lied to me before, even if she didn’t always tell the full truth. So it was probably worth believing.
“If that’s the case, then tomorrow will be the most important day.”
People were slowly beginning to trust me after my actions yesterday and today.
On the other hand, Ye Gwan’s army would use the time bought by today’s risky maneuver to tighten their encirclement even further. They would try to settle the outcome here. The groundwork had been sufficiently laid. Which meant tomorrow would truly be…
“Um…”
My darkly whispered scheming was interrupted by someone hesitantly calling out to me. Startled, thinking they might have overheard my muttering, I turned around. There stood Sun Quan, the same person who had been riding on my back all day.
“What is it…?”
“That… um…”
The night had grown quite deep. Ju Tae had surprisingly allowed her to come this far. Or was it the other way around? For a moment I wondered if this was a love confession, but there didn’t seem to be enough buildup for that.
Then what on earth did she want to say?
While my mind raced, Sun Quan seemed to steel herself and spoke again.
“Are we… running low on medicinal herbs?”