Chapter 82. Kaiji
Kaiji was a spiritual beast among spiritual beasts.
He alone had placed all creatures of the steppe except humans beneath his feet and had ruled the steppe shrewdly until now. There was no way this was happening for no reason.
There was definitely something over there.
'A black monster? Is it because of that?'
That might be it. It must be because his extremely sensitive sense of smell had caught the stench of death drifting from that pile of corpses over there. That had to be it.
Mamorota thought so. It was hard to think otherwise.
"Don't worry. I won't even go near the corpses. We just need to smash those trebuchets."
Mamorota gently stroked Kaiji's neck once more.
Shiver.
Kaiji trembled as if that was not the case.
However, Mamorota did not know. No, he pretended not to know. If he were afraid of the black monster, how could he go that way? In any case, they had to go that way to destroy the trebuchets.
He pulled the reins again. The second signal to depart.
Snort.
Kaiji snorted loudly once, then, as if having made up his mind, slowly began to walk forward.
One step, two steps ...
As if he had never hesitated, Kaiji quickly increased his speed.
Thud thud thud!
Was this the phrase to use at a time like this?
A storm-like charge! Kaiji ran forward like he had gone mad.
Dadada!
Right behind him, the Gray Wolf Squadron ran.
At the place they were heading toward, there were only seven hundred mercenaries including Dong Bong-su, five thousand gunners, and a few soldiers carrying corpses.
Timur Khan had not sent Mamorota and the Gray Wolf Squadron out recklessly. He had carefully examined the surrounding situation, and by now he had finished grasping how the entire expeditionary army of Lee Ja-song was moving.
The enemy's main force was moving their camp from Guisui Fortress to the banks of the Yellow River a short distance away—Timur Khan did not know why. Naturally, there would be a gap in the fighting strength of the Whirlwind Gunners in front of Guisui Fortress, and he knew very well that if he missed that moment, the black monsters would fly over the walls and into Guisui Fortress.
However, there was one thing he did not know.
That the enemy's actual commander right now was not Lee Ja-song, but Dong Bong-su.
Dong Bong-su had stopped all work and had been watching that direction ever since the Gray Wolf Squadron came down from the walls of Guisui Fortress.
Dadadadada! Grr! Grrgrr!
The noisy howls of wolves rang widely across the wilderness in front of Guisui Fortress. Carried by the cutting wind, the sound spread across the entire wasteland. Of course, the place where Dong Bong-su stood was part of that whole.
Hoo—.
The white breath that left Dong Bong-su's mouth scattered in the wind and soon faded away.
"As expected, he seems to know well about the plague and the trebuchet."
A voice full of conviction.
It had become clear that Timur Khan, the enemy leader, already knew very well about the plague and was the one who had personally commanded this entire plan. On top of that, it was also certain that he knew about trebuchets. Otherwise, how could he have reacted so nimbly?
Well.
Given the nature of nomads as a warrior people, even if he was not a khan of the other world, he must have gone on expeditions far to the west. Naturally, there was no way he would not know about those two things. In the first place, the prevailing theory was that the plague had originally started in this Mongol region.
Whether it was that world or this world, it would be similar.
But even so...
This kind of combination was something even Dong Bong-su had not anticipated.
A combat unit riding wolves. At best, he had expected that cavalry would open the gates and sortie a little.
For cavalry to sortie, the gates must be opened. From the perspective of those defending the fortress, that was never a light burden. Therefore, even in a situation like now, where the encirclement had somewhat loosened, they could never send out large numbers. At most, only a few hundred.
But to think the sortie force would not be cavalry, but a Wolf Cavalry Unit.
Because of that, more than a thousand had burst out of the fortress without even opening the gates. And as a bonus, a thousand beasts had come with them.
Wolves were wild beasts that were not easily tamed. Yet to raise that many wolves so well and use them in war...
It was certainly amazing, but he was not actually surprised. Dong Bong-su did not even really know what the emotion of being surprised was. He just felt it was different. Perhaps one could say he felt a very slight bit of interest.
In particular, that huge one-eyed giant wolf running at the very front recognized him. From far away. And with just one eye at that.
Animals were far more sensitive than humans, so there were times when they saw his hidden nature and tucked their tails.
That one recognized him at once. And even so, it did not tuck its tail and instead bared its fangs.
It was a predator. A beast that, in its own way, was scary enough to confidently bare sharp fangs.
But it seemed not to know that sometimes, knowing how to hide one's fangs was even more frightening.
Well, I guess it can't be helped since it's a beast.
Still, it was an interesting fellow.
That one was not only drawing Dong Bong-su's attention, but even the New Murim Online system was watching it with interest.
Dong Bong-su's eyes—more precisely, the system's cursor—surrounded the creature's entire body and busily analyzed something. On the upper right of Dong Bong-su's field of view, strange characters and Arabic numerals constantly appeared and disappeared. The system was trying to analyze that wolf, but perhaps because it was difficult to analyze, such errors were occurring.
Why was the system suddenly taking interest in that thing?
Many inferences were possible, but Dong Bong-su had no choice but to put those thoughts aside for the moment.
"Wipe them all out! So that nowhere in the world—east, west, south, or north—can any trace of them be found, chew them up and erase them completely, down to the last bone fragment!"
Awooo—!
Because Mamorota and the Gray Wolf Squadron were already almost upon the place where the trebuchets were.
If you only looked at numbers, this side had several times more, but most of the Whirlwind Gunners were non-combat personnel. Their combat power was truly negligible. In reality, it would become mercenaries versus the Gray Wolf Squadron.
"All units, form two horizontal ranks."
Dong Bong-su said.
It was a quietly pressed-down voice, but it was engraved into the minds of all the mercenaries.
Rumble.
The formation that had been clumped together in a square quickly changed into two horizontal lines.
"Gunners, all surround the artillery."
The Whirlwind Gunners, while fumbling about, surrounded each trebuchet in a circle.
The soldiers who had been carrying corpses at the rear were already carrying out another order even without Dong Bong-su's command.
They threw away the corpses they were carrying any which way and ran toward the Yellow River, where the new camp was.
Naturally, once Lee Ja-song received this news, he would lead the main force and come to help soon.
Now, the width of that time gap would determine the outcome of this war ...
Dong Bong-su stood at the foremost right of the formation. It was to secure an escape route in case of emergency.
Grrgrr! Kraaah!
Tututututu!
"Kiyaha—!"
The wolf howls, their footsteps, and the shouts of the Gray Wolf Squadron grew noticeably louder in a short moment, and their figures, which had looked as small as beans, now grew large enough that their shapes were clear.
Along with that, the ground shook. The bodies of Dong Bong-su and the mercenaries, standing with their feet planted on the earth, also swayed together. Tension shook everyone's bodies.
'They're stronger than the North Ghosts.'
Now it was even clearer.
Each and every Gray Wolf Squadron member was elite of the elite. The mercenary corps could not handle them. In the worst case, before Lee Ja-song's main force came to rescue them, everyone here except himself might be annihilated.
"Kukuk."
How long had it been since such meaningless grumbling?
Dong Bong-su found it rather welcome.
Because the higher the enemy's strength, the higher the experience points he could gain.
Pop!
Dong Bong-su's figure flew forward lightly like a soaring hawk.
Skang!
Grr! Grrgrr!
With a single simple horizontal slash, two Gray Wolf Squadron members who were charging at the very front left side were cut in half.
Of course, the two gray wolves they were riding were still alive. They continued running forward without even knowing their masters had died.
The upper and lower halves of the bisected Gray Wolf Squadron members were naturally separated. The bones and flesh of the upper bodies had already lost their connection, but due to inertia, they continued flying forward. Their organs and entrails spilled out and scattered gruesomely in midair.
At that moment!
Kwa-gwang!
At last, the mercenary corps and the Gray Wolf Squadron collided. As expected—no, even more than expected—the Gray Wolf Squadron was strong.
Except for Dong Bong-su, no one could properly block the attacks of the Gray Wolf Squadron.
No matter how much momentum the charge had, from the start, they were no match. Just a single clash. The difference in power between the two sides was revealed starkly.
Mercenaries having their heads torn apart by the jaws of gray wolves, gunners having their sides pierced like skewers by the spears of Gray Wolf Squadron members, soldiers turned into mush by Mamorota's iron staff.
They were being ravaged. To borrow the cheap expression of the mercenaries, the mercenaries were being...
Raped.
It was a merciless gang rape.
Puh-buh-buk! Puk!
The time it took to take a few breaths passed.
Kraaah! Ugh! Guk!
Hundreds had died.
As expected of the greatest armed group in the Northern Plains? The Gray Wolf Squadron was terrifying. Unlike herbivores like horses or camels, the gray wolves' movements were extremely flexible, so the mercenaries' attacks did not work at all.
Dong Bong-su had made all the mercenaries prepare spears in case there was a cavalry assault, but it had no effect. If they had been horses, unable to withstand the charging speed, they would have been skewered on the spears.
But the gray wolves easily avoided all the mercenaries' spears by changing direction or crouching their bodies. Moreover, the Gray Wolf Squadron members themselves, being Wolf Cavalry soldiers, were each experts, so the burden on the mercenaries increased severalfold.
Suk! Kang! Aah!
A complete rout.
What other expression was needed? The gunners and mercenaries were being swept away here and there as they scattered. Some tried to flee, but even that did not go well. The Gray Wolf Squadron was literally a combat unit riding wolves. There was no way they could escape with the mercenaries' pitiful movement techniques.
Puk! Puk! Hwaruruk—!
The battle line collapsed everywhere in an instant.
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