Huff, huff.
Geom Gwi-hon, Deputy Head of the Sword Forest, was breathing heavily, his gasps scraping all the way down to the underside of his chin.
Huuu… As expected, you can’t cheat your age.
And it wasn’t just him.
“Huff, huff…!”
“Huuu, huuu…!”
Around him, the Sword Forest martial artists had also grown noticeably quieter.
Thanks to the Grand Young Master acting as a one-man anvil and executing his brilliant tactics, and thanks to the absurd martial realms each Sword Forest martial artist had reached, they’d somehow avoided casualties so far. However, the price they’d paid was far greater consumption of stamina and internal energy.
You brats… War isn’t a game, is it…?
Smiling to himself, Geom Gwi-hon drew in a slow breath.
And then—
“The enemy commander’s head has been severed…!”
Geom Gwi-hon hoisted high the severed head of Gantuga, the Temporary Commander of the left-wing cavalry legion.
Blood dripped down, bathing Geom Gwi-hon’s hands and forearms. Looking every bit like a ghost dragged out of a nightmare, he roared again.
“Who wants to die next?!”
They had lost their commander twice in a row. Their formation had completely collapsed. To make matters worse, their opponent was none other than the Sword Forest of the Luoyang Sword Clan.
“Those who wish to die, step forward!”
Normally, morale should have plunged to the bottom.
However—
“Sons of the great plains…!”
The one shouting, voice wavering like a wail, was an ordinary, nameless warrior with no internal energy.
Because of that, his voice was pitifully weak. Amid the harsh clamor of the battlefield, few could even hear him.
“We know honor…!”
Yet those who did hear him echoed the cry.
“Sons of the great plains…!”
“Sons of the great plains…!”
And as those voices multiplied, more shouts spread.
“We know honor…!”
“Warriors… Protect the honor of our tribe…!”
The war cry of the left-wing cavalry legion, which had been tossed around and shattered by the Grand Young Master’s side, erupted into a single unified roar.
“UWAAAAAAAAH!”
“……”
“……”
It was a roar violent enough to send chills down the spines of even the high-level Sword Forest masters.
Most of them were ordinary men without internal energy or refined martial arts, possessing nothing but horsemanship and basic weapon skill, and yet—
“Band together tightly! Block them completely!”
“Either they all die here, or we all die here!”
The aura they exuded as a collective entity had something in it that overwhelmed the scale of individual humans.
A hollow chuckle slipped from Geom Gwi-hon’s lips.
…Indeed.
Are these the true descendants of those great men who once built an empire?
Feeling an unwelcome chill run down his spine, Geom Gwi-hon glanced back at the Sword Forest martial artists.
“Hey, kids.”
No matter how many they killed, and killed again, the enemies just kept coming. No matter how many times they broke them, and broke them again, the enemy’s morale didn’t feel cracked.
“Are you all scared?”
Normally, it would be the exact moment their own morale started to shrink.
However, just like the warriors of the North, the Sword Forest martial artists were abnormal.
“What nonsense are you spouting, Deputy Head?”
“Have you finally gone senile?”
Crack, pop.
“Deputy Head.”
Cracking her neck side to side, the massive female martial artist stepped forward first.
“Isn’t fighting enemies brimming with the will to fight the most enjoyable thing for us?”
“Muhahahaha!”
Geom Gwi-hon burst into laughter.
“Of course. That’s exactly right…!”
It was a hearty laugh, but his mind couldn’t help tangling itself into something more complicated.
The enemy’s right-wing cavalry legion, still detouring around the terrain, remained out there. Past the enemies directly in front of them, the enemy’s central main army also remained completely intact.
This battle was only beginning.
To be bogged down by the vanguard this early on was a worry Geom Gwi-hon, the commander, not Geom Gwi-hon, the martial artist, couldn’t help but carry.
“Hehe, fuck it.”
Soon, he emptied his mind completely.
Spit!
Gathering the dust filling his mouth, Geom Gwi-hon spat out a wad of phlegm, wiped his lips, and smiled.
“If we just keep killing and killing, eventually we’ll kill them all, and then we win…”
“Exactly!”
“We just have to kill ten, twenty, or thirty each, right?!”
As the Sword Forest martial artists eagerly agreed, stoking their fighting spirit just as the clash was about to resume—
[Deputy Head Geom Gwi-hon.]
A deep, resonant telepathic message rang in Geom Gwi-hon’s ear.
[Elder Yeom…?]
Instead of a long explanation, Elder Yeom delivered a single, clipped message.
[Take cover.]
Because long-distance telepathy could leak to others, that was all he said.
“…?!”
For quick-witted Geom Gwi-hon, it was more than enough.
“Everyone, take cover!”
He shouted the order, then launched himself first, diving behind the nearest boulder.
“Deputy Head?!”
Even if they didn’t understand what was happening, no one in the Sword Forest was dense enough to just stand there and stare.
“Fuck, hide with him!”
“Aargh!”
The bizarre, sudden scramble of Sword Forest martial artists, who had been burning with fighting spirit only moments ago—
“…?”
As the war cries faded from the front line outward, Northern warriors stared in confusion.
At that exact moment—
Fweeeee…
Something flew through the air.
KABOOM! KABOOM! KABOOM! KABOOM!
An indiscriminate bombardment began.
***
The high ground to the rear of the Grand Young Master’s encampment.
“It’s direct fire anyway, so don’t waste time aiming!”
Boom! Kaboom!
A long line of cannons continuously spewed fire.
From the cannons typically used by the Central Plains military to the newest models seized from the pirate fleet during the battle at the Valley of Sins, the lineup was a patchwork of brutality.
“One round loaded and ready!”
“Fire!”
True to their name, the War Advisory Group martial artists loaded and fired with expert speed.
Firearms were strictly prohibited in North China, but this was the North.
Boom! Kaboom!
In the distance, they could faintly see enemies being blown apart, scattering as chunks of meat. Tens, then hundreds, literally exploded.
“……”
“……”
The left-wing cavalry legion had burned with a resolve to fight to the death, abandoning the mobility of cavalry and compressing their formation drastically.
That decision was now returning as poison.
“At this rate.”
An adjutant martial artist smiled as he looked back at Elder Yeom.
“Don’t you think this will more than make up for the fact that we arrived later than the Sword Forest?”
Transporting those heavy cannons was one of the reasons they’d arrived later in the first place.
Elder Yeom didn’t answer. He only shrugged, stepped forward, and shouted.
“Pour it all out! I don’t care if every cannon here turns into scrap metal!”
His frosty command cut through the bombardment, ringing clearly.
“Keep firing until the barrels overheat, crack, and are right on the verge of exploding!”
At that—
“You heard him! Pour it all out! Bring all the short fuses!”
“Just fire everything we have!”
Fired up by his words, the War Advisory Group martial artists began rapid-firing like professional artillerymen.
KABOOM! KABOOM!
“To rout enemies who have resolved to fight to the death…” Elder Yeom muttered, watching the enemy formation begin to scorch and break, “…we must create the exact situation that those who want to fight and die honorably want to avoid the most.”
“Aaaaargh!”
“Mother—!”
Battered by blood and flying flesh exploding from all sides, showered in dirt and shrapnel, the left-wing cavalry legion plunged into chaos.
“Dodge! Evade the blasts!”
“Scatter! Everyone scatter!”
BOOM!
“I-It’s madness…!”
Watching a group of cavalrymen who’d been standing beside him vanish outright, a warrior stared blankly, muttering like his mind had snapped.
“Th-This isn’t… this isn’t an honorable death…!”
Amid a bombardment that felt like heaven and earth were being overturned, he screamed without meaning to.
“This is…!”
“This is a dog’s death…!”
Exactly as Elder Yeom intended.
Under the endless barrage and screaming, the fighting spirit of warriors who desired an honorable fight and an honorable death began to visibly fracture.
And right then—
“Retreat…!”
A voice amplified by internal energy, immense in volume, pierced the bombardment.
“We cannot sever the lifeline of our tribe with a dishonorable dog’s death! Retreat!”
Internal energy strong enough to cut through the cannon thunder. It was undoubtedly a tribal Great Warrior.
“Retreat…!”
“Fall back! Fall back!”
Hearing that cry, everyone turned their horses to flee.
Neighhhhh!
“Run! Turn your horses around!”
KABOOM! KABOOM!
As horses tangled together and riders fought to retreat, shells continued to rain down.
And so, the retreat began.
“Retreat…! Everyone retreat…!”
Standing rooted amidst the panicked flood—
The Great Warrior, repeating the order with thunderous insistence—
Wore a deep smile.
The defeated soldiers were too frantic to notice.
No one noticed his physique was far too small for a Northern Great Warrior.
No one noticed the Great Warrior attire had a massive hole in a clearly fatal location, drenched in blood.
No one noticed that beneath the smeared dirt, his skin was pale as first snow, his features far too noble.
“Flee…!”
“Survive…!”
“Retreat…!”
In a rout drowned by bombardment, no one had the presence of mind to catch those details.
“Huh…?”
Still prone beside Geom Gwi-hon, the massive female martial artist lifted her head, puzzled.
“Something’s strange…?”
With dirt flying and shells still falling, she couldn’t see clearly.
“That Great Warrior giving the retreat order… his voice sounds familiar…?”
“Pfft…!”
Only then realizing it, Geom Gwi-hon burst into laughter.
“That’s the Grand Young Master’s voice!”
“Excuse me?!”
Gradually, as the artillery barrage began to ease, Geom Gwi-hon raised his head and clicked his tongue.
“Wow. I was wondering where he disappeared to again. Issuing a retreat order right in the middle of the enemy camp, in this situation…?”
Truly, his Grand Young Master defied all common sense.
Scratching his head, Geom Gwi-hon muttered.
“A bombardment coordinated perfectly with a fake retreat order. Those two really are completely in sync.”
Those two, of course, meant the Grand Young Master and Elder Yeom.
“Deputy Head,” the female martial artist chuckled. “Are you jealous?”
“What?!”
Geom Gwi-hon jumped up.
“Are you crazy?! Why would I be jealous?! Who could this Deputy Head of the Sword Forest, Geom Gwi-hon, possibly be jealous of?!”
“Well, obviously…”
Her teasing smile vanished, expression hardening.
Geom Gwi-hon stopped too, staring in the same direction she was.
Fweeeeeeee…!
The continuous, drawn-out blare of horn flutes rolled over the plain.
As the left-wing cavalry legion retreated and the front view cleared, as dust from the bombardment scattered in the hot summer wind, what revealed itself was—
Tramp-tramp-tramp-tramp-tramp!
Before they knew it, closing distance with massive strides—
Dread King Yelü Nuzhucha’s central army.
They’d known it was there, but seeing an army so vast it filled their entire vision, advancing like a moving horizon, was still—
“…Disgustingly huge.”
Other Sword Forest martial artists rose one by one from cover, wearing the same expression as the female martial artist.
Right then.
“What are you all doing?”
The Grand Young Master appeared before them, discarding the rag-like Great Warrior attire. He smiled.
“Are you all scared?”
He didn’t even wait for an answer.
“I’m going first!”
Without the slightest hesitation, he broke into a solitary sprint straight toward the overwhelmingly massive central army.
“……”
Watching his back—
What martial artist could possibly not follow?
“Let’s go! Martial artists of the War Advisory Group!”
And there were others charging close behind.
“We will no longer yield the vanguard to the Sword Forest!”
Standing atop a war chariot, holding his signature massive greatsword high, Elder Yeom, Sword Pinnacle Crushes the Mountain, shouted with absolute dignity.
“Let us show our lord whose sword is truly most fitting for him!”
“UWAAAAAAAAAAH!”
And so, the historic charge, later recorded under the name The Sharpest Spearhead, began in earnest.