Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
The thunderous cadence of a synchronized volley shattered the air, shaking the very heavens and earth.
The Sword Clan’s War Department is using firearms?!
The Northern field commander’s mind reeled in disbelief. The intelligence provided by the New Martial Righteous Alliance never mentioned a word about the Sword Clan’s War Department acquiring or training with guns…!
Kh…!
A searing pain erupted in his shoulder, likely a ricochet, and he felt the hot surge of blood soaking his uniform as he bellowed a desperate command.
“(Shield Units, to the front!)”
A lone warrior blessed with internal energy might deflect a bullet or two, but a literal wall of lead was a different matter entirely.
“(Get those shields up!)”
Among the Northern tribes, very few possessed the technology for firearms. However, through their long-standing conflict with the Northern Grand General’s Manor, their primary nemesis, they had developed rudimentary tactics to counter them.
“(What is the Archer Corps doing?! Fire!)”
“(F-Fire!)”
In the rear, the commander of the archers, face ashen after watching the crossbowmen get mowed down like wheat, finally managed to screech an order.
“(Archers, loose!)”
Whish!
The sound of hundreds of arrows slicing through the air filled the sky. Watching the shafts arc overhead, the field commander felt an urge to howl in frustration.
Didn’t those bastards from the New Martial Righteous Alliance say this was the most up-to-date intel, taken directly from Luoyang right before our departure?!
That was what they had promised.
Goddammit…!
***
“Enemy archers confirmed! Volley loosed!”
A warrior from the Sword Clan’s War Department reported sharply from the vanguard. “They’re common arrows, not iron bolts!”
It was a small mercy. The crossbowmen, who would have fired the armor-piercing iron bolts, had been the primary targets of the initial firearm volley.
“Good!”
The Sword Clan General commanding the 3rd Combat Unit let out a dark, predatory laugh. “All units, full speed charge!”
General Sak-ho didn’t even wait for his men to respond before launching himself forward in a blur of motion. “Handle the arrows yourselves!”
Just as he commanded, his men reacted with the effortless efficiency of veterans.
Clang!
Some drew their blades in a blur, hacking the incoming shafts into splinters. Others simply raised the small bucklers strapped to their forearms, catching the arrows with practiced calm.
“Advance! Keep moving!”
In fact, the majority were moving so fast they had already cleared the impact zones by the time the arrows struck the earth, and amidst the hollow thud of missed shots hitting the dirt, reports continued to flow.
“Remnants of the enemy crossbow units are attempting to return fire!”
“Enemy archers, second row preparing to loose!”
“Excellent! Perfect!” Sak-ho roared as the distance closed. “Let’s give them one more taste! Prepare to fire!”
In truth, there was no “preparation” required. It was simply a matter of drawing a pre-loaded pistol and pulling the trigger.
Was it Spring of Luoyang or Dasunrang? Sak-ho briefly recalled the individuals he had met on the march north, men and women under Grand Young Master Yeon So-hyeon’s command.
“Wait…” Sak-ho had asked them, looking at the alien weaponry. “Our War Department has never been trained in the use of such firearms. We wouldn’t even know where to start.”
A logistics expert from the merchant group accompanying So-hyeon’s retinue had simply smiled. “These are ‘Ready-to-Fire’ models. Pull them from the waterproof crates, point them at the enemy, and pull the trigger. That is all.”
“FIRE!”
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!
Aiming was secondary. They simply pointed the pre-loaded barrels toward the mass of the enemy and squeezed. That was the extent of their “training.”
“Wait… how do we reload?” Sak-ho had asked cautiously. Normally he would never have asked such a question of a civilian, but these were his Lord’s people providing him with unprecedented support. “These weapons are heavy and bulky. They seem like they’ll be a nuisance in close-quarters combat.”
Furthermore, firearms were prohibitively expensive. They seemed ill-suited for the 3rd Combat Unit, whose specialty was the kind of brutal melee that left a man covered in scars and gore.
“It doesn’t matter,” a woman identifying herself as a leader of the Dasunrang had told him flatly. “Once you’ve fired them, just throw them on the ground.”
“…I beg your pardon?” Sak-ho had found himself using formal honorifics with a woman half his age out of pure shock.
***
“(GAAAAAAAGH!)”
“(Cough…!)”
Through the thick, acrid shroud of gunpowder smoke, Sak-ho watched a fresh wave of Northern warriors collapse in a spray of blood. Seeing the enemy’s second volley successfully suppressed, he roared his next command.
“Ditch the guns!”
Just as they had done with the long rifles in the first exchange, the warriors threw their empty pistols into the dirt.
“Ugh…!” Sak-ho’s hand trembled slightly as he released his own weapon. I hope we can recover these later…
He remembered his final conversation with the Dasunrang.
“Are these not far too valuable to simply discard like trash?”
“They are,” she had replied with a sharp smile. “But war is waged with gold long before it is waged with skill or spirit.” She had added a final quote from their master: “‘Allow the War Department to fight a real war.’ Those were the Grand Young Master’s orders.”
A flood of emotions had washed over Sak-ho in that moment.
“I don’t know if you realize this, General,” the woman continued, “but since ending his seclusion, the Grand Young Master has dedicated an enormous amount of effort to securing capital.”
“…Even an old fool like me knows that much,” Sak-ho had muttered. He was a man who knew nothing but training and blood, but one would have to be deaf and blind not to notice So-hyeon’s movements. Rumor had it that in Luoyang, doing business was impossible without the Grand Young Master’s blessing.
“Then,” her smile had deepened, “you finally understand why he went to such lengths to amass that wealth.”
“Hah…” Sak-ho breathed. He knew that in this era, power was synonymous with coin. He had simply assumed So-hyeon’s commercial obsession was a quirk of his personality.
But it wasn’t just words. So-hyeon hadn’t just invested the Yeon family’s secret slush funds via the Sword Clan Treasury and the Law Enforcement Hall; he had gone as far as importing the most advanced firearms from the South, sparing no expense to provide the War Department with the most effective, immediate edge possible.
“General, please begin distributing the equipment to your—”
“Sak-ho.”
“Pardon?”
He had looked the woman in the eye, his gaze intense. “My name is Sak-ho. My title is the Raging Wave Sword.”
“I see…”
“I don’t know which of us will survive to see the other again,” he had said, drawing his blade and leveling it before her, “but tell the Grand Young Master this: from this day forward, the Raging Wave Sword belongs to him.”
***
“Distance to target: thirty paces!”
A subordinate’s shout yanked his consciousness back to the present.
“Huuuooooh!”
The Raging Wave Sword inhaled a lungful of the sulfurous smoke and let out a thunderous bellow.
“3rd Combat Unit! DRAW BLADES!”
SHIIIIING!
The sound of the new Blue-Steel swords, another of So-hyeon’s provisions, leaving their scabbards was crisp and terrifying. His new heavy armor felt light as a second skin.
“FULL SPEED CHARGE!”
He screamed with more vigor than he had ever possessed in his long life. “FOR THE FIRST YOUNG MASTER!”
There wasn’t a man in the War Department who didn’t echo the cry.
“FOR THE FIRST YOUNG MASTER!” “FOR THE FIRST YOUNG MASTER!”
They burst through the smoke like demons, slamming into the enemy ranks with the force of a thunderclap.
“WAAAAAAAGH!”
At the very front of the carnage was Sak-ho, the Raging Wave Sword.
“FOR THE FIRST YOUNG MASTER!”
***
What did he say?!
The Northern field commander felt his sanity fraying as he desperately tried to organize his shield wall. They aren’t firing again? They’re charging?!
He had no time to process the tactical error. In the blink of an eye, the Sword Clan’s heavy infantry slammed into his line.
BOOM!
“(Gah…?!)”
“(Ugh!)”
Shield-bearers were sent flying in every direction before they could even scream. They had attempted to brace for impact, but the momentum of the War Department’s heavy warriors, amplified by peak-level footwork, was on a different scale entirely, carrying the kinetic energy of a heavy cavalry charge.
“(S-Stop them!)”
“(Deploy the tribal champions!)”
“(Aaaaaagh!)”
But there was another factor that set the War Department apart from common soldiers.
“Kill them all for the Grand Young Master!”
It was their horrific lethality, built upon decades of group-combat drills and real-world experience.
“Hahahaha! DIE!”
Sak-ho earned his title that day.
Sword Clan Arts: Heart of the Resonating Sword. Secret Prowess. Supreme Enlightenment Amidst Tangled Chaos: The Raging Wave.
Wherever his blade passed, a violent swell of blood and severed limbs erupted like a storm at sea. The savage waves of his technique carried only death and the screams of his foes.
“Slay them!” “Leave not a soul alive!”
Inspired by Sak-ho’s fervor, the warriors of the 3rd Combat Unit fought like eight-armed asuras. The Northern warriors began to melt away like ice in a midsummer sun.
“(Argh!)”
“(Gah!)”
The weapons of common soldiers couldn’t even dent their superior armor, and the attacks of the Northern champions were simply outmatched by the War Department’s lethality. They were a tsunami, and the Dread King’s front line had no hope of holding.
This was the true combat power of the War Department, a secret hidden from the world until this very moment.
“3rd Combat Unit!” Sak-ho roared, standing atop a mountain of corpses. “We are the Grand Young Master’s steeliest anvil and his mightiest hammer!”
His killing intent exploded in a visible aura. “Hunt them to the very gates of hell!”
“(N-No… it can’t be!)”
The Northern field commander, his honor forgotten, turned and began to bolt.
“(General!)” his aide cried out, struggling to keep up.
“(Bring the Great Warriors immediately!)” the General shrieked. “(We cannot stop these monsters alone!)”
The War Department, freed from their political shackles and bolstered by So-hyeon’s infinite resources, was a living nightmare. They had surpassed the golden age of the previous Patriarch’s reign.
“(General…!)”
The fleeing commander thought his aide was trying to convince him to stay and fight. He was wrong.
THUD!
“(Oof?!)”
He slammed into something massive and tumbled to the ground.
“(Wh-What the—?!)”
Before he could even identify the obstacle, a blade flashed.
Squelch.
His head was separated from his shoulders.
“(To think a General of His Majesty would flee with such cowardice…)”
“(He deserved to die ten times over.)”
It was the Dread King’s Great Warriors. A detachment heading to support the New Martial Righteous Alliance had diverted their course upon hearing of the War Department’s breakthrough.
“(Kill every Sword Clan dog who dares to challenge the heavens!)”
Sensing their piercing killing intent and explosive aura, Sak-ho, the Raging Wave Sword, broke into a manic laugh.
“Come then! I’ll carve you all into mincemeat!”