Episode 97
“Those were the ones who fled with their tails between their legs! Let’s kick them in the behind again this time!”
“Yes!”
With the knight’s spirited shout, the soldiers on the walls once again became busy with their preparations.
The soldiers, emboldened by the victory of the day, were able to forcibly forget the fear of death remembering that triumph.
Furthermore, the relatively bright moonlight and starlight illuminated the contours of the enemy forces charging beyond the torches.
The knightly order of Bifrost was still leading the charge, as always.
However, unlike during the day, they now held variously shaped iron and wooden shields obtained from who knows where.
Moreover, it was only a part that was charging towards the western wall.
The Bifrost forces were already encircling to the north and the south, and even to the east, into their new positions.Unlike the first battle, they were fully prepared this time.
Just by that, it seemed like they wouldn’t be easily defeated as before.
‘The soldiers can’t help but be scattered.’
It was inevitable that the firepower of the shots would reduce as a result.
Logan sighed quietly, thinking it was going to be a long night.
Thud, thud, thud.
“Waaaaah!”
With the thunderous sound of galloping hooves, the enemy soldiers who charged with shouts came into range.
The soldiers, with sweaty palms, awaited the command and began to fire their crossbows at the signal.
Thwack, thwack, thwack!
“Argh!”
“Kugh!”
The sharp screams echoed through the night sky.
But the faces of the crossbow-wielding soldiers, the knight who was commanding them, and even Logan, began to harden.
The power of the crossbows should have been even more formidable in the night than during the day.
Instead of aiming at specific individuals, the targets were large as they aimed at the entire military force, and conversely, these targets had to face arrows flying out of the darkness.
However, only a very small number were falling behind in the beginning.
It was too different from the day when over fifty casualties had been inflicted, even with shields ready.
Moreover.
Tatatatang!
“They, they blocked it!”
Some of the cavalry following close behind the knights even managed to block the crossbow bolts with their shields.
Considering that most of them were carrying crude wooden shields, it was even more bizarre.
‘How is this possible?’
Even if the soldiers were more scattered compared to during the day, reducing the effectiveness of the volleys, far too many of the enemy forces were approaching the walls without significant damage.
And it was only when they came close that Logan sensed something out of place.
“Magic!”
“What?!”
“It’s magic! They’re using magic!”
From the rear of the troops, Roger Bifrost and about twenty mages followed.
Logan could clearly feel the formless energy emanating from them, enveloping the entire enemy force.
‘It’s wind magic.’
He didn’t know exactly what kind of magic it was, but the effect was unmistakable.
However, even knowing didn’t mean there was an immediate way to counter it.
Moreover, since the attacks weren’t completely ineffective, they couldn’t just give up.
“Damn it! Keep firing! Aim for the soldiers!”
“Aim for the soldiers!”
At Logan’s command, the knights repeated the order, and the soldiers changed their target.
It was a completely different tactic from the day.
With the weakened power of the crossbows due to magic, aiming at the knights was pointless.
They had no choice but to focus on cutting off the follow-up forces.
Logan then shouted to the knights.
“Prepare for defense, knights! Break their heads before they climb up!”
“Yes!”
Logan, who was shouting, and the knights responding, all had tension in their voices.
Although many of the Bifrost knights had died in the hard-fought battle of the day, there were still at least half more knights compared to those of Maclane.
Moreover, the stronger Bifrost knights, classified as mid-level or higher, didn’t die as much during the day.
Knowing this, it would have been strange not to be nervous.
A qualitatively different and grim battle awaited them compared to the day.
Bang!
“Aargh!”
Explosions and screams erupted here and there against the walls.
The mud and oil smeared on the walls along with the moat were doing their job impressively.
The lower-level knights were forced to break through the walls and climb up, and boiling oil and stones poured down relentlessly on them.
Only the knights of Maclane who somehow reached the top of the wall had their heads smashed down.
Despite being sealed off from their main weapon, the repeating crossbow, and being clearly outnumbered, Maclane’s forces managed to defend the walls.
Ultimately, the balance in this fierce standoff was broken once again by the strongest of Bifrost.
“Damn it! All the Bifrost twins are here!”
On the opposite side from Logan, an outburst like a scream rang out from the eastern wall.
It was where a majority of mid-level knights were positioned, instead of Logan’s father in the north, himself here, or Heinke in the south.
‘Those damned bastards!’
It was infuriating that the enemy he had been seeking to find had actually appeared on the side opposite him.
“Hold on!”
Logan left that single word behind and vanished from the western wall as if by magic.
It was a movement like a whirlwind, maximized by the Phantom Shadow’s art of movement and the Boots of the Wind God.
“Damn it!”
The moment Ailen received orders to defend the wall on the exact opposite side of where the enemy was advancing, her thoughts could be summed up in that one phrase.
She wondered if she was being underestimated because she was a woman, and now, with a completely different meaning, the same curses burst out of her relentlessly.
“Damn!!”
Slash.
Crash.
The light sword that grazed by ripped off an entire side of the breastplate and carved a deep wound on the side.
“Ha, not bad for a girl.”
Was it a problem that she was the first to notice the high-ranking knight in red armor who suddenly appeared amidst the enemy like lightning?
Or was it a problem that she failed to remember his name and just screamed, “Monkey!” on impulse.
Even though there were other mid-level knights on the wall, this ‘monkey’ was focusing solely on attacking Ailen.
No, to be precise, he was toying with her.
‘That damned man!’
To have achieved a respected position yet engage in such petty pranks in the midst of a fierce battlefield.
She could have consoled herself that the high-ranking knight was preoccupied playing with her alone, leaving him less helpful on the battlefield…
‘Could she really? Madness!’
Blurgh.
“Kugh!”
“Why, getting upset because you got beaten by a mere monkey? You should just endure it. From now on, you’ll be the monkey’s toy. I’ll play with you over and over.”
That’s what the problem was, this detestable guy.
Though she wanted to shout back defiantly, pain from the blow to her solar plexus made it impossible for her to speak properly.
What was truly the worst was the fact that right before her, evoking a vicious look filled with murderous intent, it seemed that this man, who didn’t use any assassin techniques, was seriously considering capturing her.
She didn’t even want to imagine what would happen after being captured.
‘I’d rather die.’
Ailen clenched her teeth, trying to lift her trembling body to stand again.
But.
Click.
“Cough!”
“Prepare yourself thoroughly. I’ll treat you real pretty.”
Aslan, whose hand seemed unusually large compared to his body, grabbed Ailen’s throat, and his eyes were seething with a murderous rage that contradicted his words.
“Ptui!”
“…”
“Rubbish…”
“Heh. Hahaha. You crazy wench…”
Aslan wiped the spit from his face and forcibly suppressed the urge to kill her on the spot.
‘Slowly. I’ll show you slowly, a living hell.’
Ailen’s face, clad in knightly armor, reminded him of the multitude of women who had belittled him decades ago with nothing but their looks.
It felt like it might be time to resume his old hobby, which he had put aside for so many years after becoming known as the Bifrost Twins, the Knights of Swiftness.
At that very moment, while Aslan was immersed in a cruel fantasy of dismembering Ailen…
“Monkey! Play with me!”
With a yell that overturned his insides, a golden radiance flew at him.
Kwaaaang!
An impact transmitted with a blast.
Definitely, he was the one who had launched the surprise attack, but his hands were tingling with pain.
‘This monstrous guy.’
Across the red sword raised lightly, the brown eyes that appeared showed no sign of haste unlike during the day.
His shoulder that had been injured during the day showed no trace of the wound after some treatment, and the sword that blocked Logan’s strike was firm and unshaken.
If there was any consolation, it was that he had managed to save Ailen.
“And here, too!”
Kwaaaang!
Not far away, Logan’s father had blocked Flantz, who had been slaughtering the soldiers on the eastern wall.
This prevented the eastern forces from collapsing all at once.
‘Now the northern and western walls are the problem.’
He refrained from imagining the situations where his father and he had left their positions.
Worrying was of no use; he just had to think of ways to deal with the enemies right in front of him as quickly as possible.
‘To face an enemy higher in rank than me, as quickly as possible?’
The situation was grim, and it was almost laughable. There seemed to be no choice but to take a gamble.
‘As quickly as possible.’
With cold brown eyes staring at him, Aslan did not expect Logan to charge in an unexpected way, at an unpredictable timing.
‘Right now!’
Logan suddenly rushed towards Aslan’s front.
Aslan, who had been watching Logan coolly, instantly responded.
His red sword stabbed toward Logan’s heart, which moved quickly towards him.
Though his injured shoulder slowed his reaction just a tiny bit, the acceleration of Logan’s charge made it look as if Logan was throwing himself onto the sword.
But Logan’s sword was also aimed at Aslan’s heart.
As if there was no thought of evading, as if suggesting a mutual death.
In a very brief moment, the clear brown eyes and the blazing red eyes met, and…
The wielder of the red sword shifted his body slightly.
Crack.
“You crazy bastard!”
Logan’s sword, made of magnesteel twice as tough as normal steel, shredded Aslan’s side armor to tatters, chilling his chest.
“Are you trying to die together?!”
Aslan shouted, losing his composure to Logan’s seemingly reckless behavior.
However, Logan showed no reaction and simply swung his sword again.
As Aslan also lunged in aiming for an opening, Logan once again ignored his attack and maintained his own onslaught.
Sharrrrk!
Another side of the armor split open, exposing bare flesh.
At that moment, Aslan’s brown eyes visibly shook.
“Kugh! You, you crazy…”
He never imagined that a noble lord would push so aggressively on the offense, even betting his life.
It wasn’t easy to perform a life-threatening attack in the middle of a battle.
Especially for someone raised in a noble family.
‘It’s a bluff, just a bluff! It’s just my haste!’
While looking at Aslan’s crazed red eyes, he clenched his teeth.
Born a commoner with a monkey-like appearance, Aslan had fought his way up to his current position driven by pure tenacity.
There was no way he could accept losing a battle of nerves to a nobleman.
Nor could he accept that this mere superior knight had dragged him into a brawl like this.
Aslan, grinding his teeth, glared back into Logan’s eyes.
And so, in the moment when the red sword and the golden sword crossed.
Fwook.
Paak!
“You really are insane…”
Cough.
Aslan sank down, pulling the sword that had pierced his side while coughing up blood.
“Heh. But I win.”
Shakily standing up, he was convinced of his victory.
In the moment they exchanged blows, the unconscious kick he delivered caught the enemy off-guard.
They both may have fallen, but he had only given his side, whereas the enemy had been impaled in the abdomen.
In this battle of nerves, he had won.
The memory of flinching at the last moment and stabbing the stomach, not the heart, had already vanished from his mind.
Conversely, the sword of the enemy had aimed straight for his heart, and had it not been for the mithril heart protector inside the red steel armor sliding the sword away, it would have pierced his heart.
“Now, just go die… Huh?!”
Flash.
Suddenly, a blinding white light flashed from the fallen enemy’s right arm.
‘No!’
Aslan instinctively suppressed the pain and lunged to finish off the enemy, even though the enemy’s sword now in his hand felt slightly awkward to wield.
He believed it was enough to finish off the fallen enemy.
He believed that.
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