Chapter 198 |
Samikan tasted humiliation for the first time since crossing into the civilized world. The alliance army had experienced nothing but swift victories until now, but today was different.
‘I lost.’
There was no excuse. It was a complete and utter defeat.
“Great Chief! We have to get out of this area!”
The army was out of control. The alliance units moved independently under their own commanders, struggling to fend off the enemies closing in from all directions.
Samikan sent a retreat signal, as there wasn’t much else that he could do. He had to try something to regroup the remaining forces.
‘How did they appear behind us?’
No one in the alliance army had anticipated the imperial army’s movements.
‘We are paying dearly for this failure.’
‘Has someone betrayed us?’
The alliance army was practically played by the imperial army’s hands.
‘I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the mercenaries we took in from the civilized world. Those filthy, no-integrity, creatures.’
Samikan sneered bitterly. He suspected there were spies among them.
“This direction is also completely blocked off! There are lots of soldiers in armor.”
“There’s no time to waste. The situation will only get worse from here. Break through now.”
The unit centered around Samikan attempted to break through to the rear.
‘Belrua?’
Samikan spotted an isolated unit. It was Belrua’s unit that was on his right flank.
Belrua’s unit faced the oncoming imperial soldiers as they were cut off from the rest of the alliance army. She swung a sword that was more like a club, striking down an attacking knight.
“Goddammit, what the hell happened? Why did they come up from behind…”
Belrua’s eyes flashed as she surveyed the state of the battle. The alliance's formation had already crumbled.
‘The imperial army that came from behind has shattered our forces.’
The alliance forces were being dominated in every way. Belrua’s unit was also isolated.
“I can’t die here. Not yet.”
Belrua breathed heavily with her shoulders heaving.
‘The revival of our tribe is in my hands.’
In the civilized world, she had gained much inspiration about iron. If she safely returned to the west, the Red Sand Tribe would make tremendous progress.
‘And I still haven’t seen the secrets of steel.’
It was the only wish Belrua had for the rest of her life. While she was a chief, she was also a blacksmith who was enchanted by iron.
Clang!
Belrua parried a sword and then swung hers horizontally. Her blade slickly sliced into the enemy’s neck.
Crack!
When the neck was struck by her large two-handed sword, it simply bent as if its bones were snapped.
“Life seems out of sight, haha.”
Belrua looked up at the sky and gave a hollow laugh.
‘Is it my turn today?’
She had sent many warriors ahead of her up to this moment. Death was always by the warriors’ sides.
Shamans said that the souls of warriors ascended to the sky through the mountains. It was just a comforting lie to fill the void left by the collapsed concept of the afterlife, but the warriors believed it. Warriors, never knowing when they might die, needed an afterlife, even if it was a lie. What was always important was not the truth but the belief.
Riiip!
The spear blade of an imperial soldier grazed past Belrua's thigh, tearing the skin open to reveal the crimson flesh beneath.
"Ah! That hurts, you piece of shit!"
Belrua screamed as she swung her sword mightily. Her blade crushed the imperial soldier's helmet. Eyeballs popped out from the sudden increase in pressure and dangled precariously.
Crunch.
After swinging her sword, Belrua clutched at her lower back. The muscles in her back screamed in agony.
"Dammit, of all times..."
Belrua planted her sword in the ground to support herself. But there was no time to rest. Screams were heard nearby.
"Belrua!"
One flank of the imperial army that was surrounding Belrua’s unit collapsed. The most powerful unit of the alliance, led by Samikan, emerged through the falling imperial soldiers.
"Samikan?"
Belrua widened her eyes and looked up at Samikan. Samikan reached out his hand from the top of his horse.
"Get on. We're getting out of here."
Without questioning or replying, Belrua acted immediately.
Samikan couldn’t save all of Belrua's unit. He took only the warriors who could follow and immediately left the battlefield.
"Maybe try learning how to ride a horse," Samikan said to Belrua after securing enough distance from the imperial army.
"You came to save me, Samikan. I didn’t see that coming."
"Have you forgotten already? We are married. You are supposed to bear my child."
Hearing this, Belrua laughed with a blood-stained face.
"You got some big dreams! Haha."
The imperial army did not bother chasing Samikan's unit. They focused on securely encircling and annihilating the barbarian units they could keep surrounded.
Samikan looked back at the receding battlefield.
'Urich?'
Urich’s unit was far from Samikan. The alliance couldn’t afford to position two capable commanders so close when there was a shortage of competent leadership.
'Where are they going? Going that way is only going to isolate them.'
Samikan squinted his eyes. His pupils trembled slightly.
The tribal warriors around Urich charged straight into the head of the imperial army.
'That’s suicide, Urich.'
Samikan frowned. He contemplated for a brief moment.
'Should I turn my unit around to save Urich?'
The situation was not favorable. Going to save Urich was likely going to lead to Samikan’s own isolation. Moreover, Urich was moving in the opposite direction as him.
Samikan forcefully ignored Urich and led his army forward.
"A-aaah."
Someone exclaimed in awe, somewhat mixed with terror.
Urich’s unit broke through the imperial army's main camp as if they were piercing right through it. Urich and his warriors escaping the encirclement were visible even from a distance.
'How?'
Samikan’s eyes also widened. However, there was no time to make contact with Urich’s unit. The imperial army, having annihilated the encircled barbarians, was assembling a pursuit team.
* * *
Patter, patter!
The rain was still pouring down. It was actually a good thing for the alliance army, as the rain slowed the pursuit and complicated the use of cavalry.
“Urich, come on, stay with me. You can't fall like this.”
Vald supported the staggering Urich.
Urich's unit continued to advance even after breaking out of the encirclement. They needed to gain as much distance as possible while they still had the strength to move.
“Huff, huff.”
Urich's pupils shrank and dilated repeatedly. His heart thumped irregularly.
‘He’s in a terrible condition.’
Vald assessed Urich's condition. It was a symptom of overdosing on the shaman’s medicine without a proper prescription.
“Vald, keep moving.”
Urich struggled, but he managed to get a hold of himself.
“Urich, are you hurt?”
Georg approached on horseback from the rear.
Though Vald and Georg didn't speak the same language, they managed to communicate roughly through gestures.
“Dammit, Urich needs to rest. We can’t make him keep going like this.”
Georg called a few mercenaries over. They used their shields and cloaks to create a stretcher and attached it to a horse.
“Give me some water.”
Urich muttered as he lay on the stretcher. Vald handed him a water skin. Urich poured the water over his head.
‘The fever on his body isn’t going down. This is serious.’
Urich was not just any warrior or chief. He was one of the symbols of the entire alliance. Urich had to live, no matter what.
“Don’t let go, Urich. We’ll meet a shaman soon. Shit! Do we not have a single shaman with us? Not one?” Vald shouted to the warriors, but no answer came back.
Urich stared blankly at the sky from the stretcher connected to the horse. The falling rain seemed red.
‘Have I run out of luck? I guess, when I think about it, I should be grateful just for still being alive.’
Urich had received countless mortal wounds that should have killed him. He had seen his own intestines and still survived. It was not without reason that those around Urich spoke of divine protection and blessings.
‘I don’t know who or what has been protecting me up to now, whether it's my ancestors, Ulgaro, or even the sun god Lou, they might be getting tired of me.’
Urich looked up at the dark sky.
‘The soul of a warrior will be reunited with his ancestors in the blue sky!’
That was what Six-Fingered used to say.
But Urich didn't believe in the shamans' hastily concocted lies. He had seen way too many things with his own eyes.
‘The sky is just an afterlife made up by Six-Fingered and Samikan to solidify their support. Though, they did a pretty good job with it.’
To find a resting place for wandering warriors, the shamans of the alliance put their heads together and pondered. Urich had watched this process from the front row.
A primal, fundamental curiosity. Perhaps a question that humans have been asking and answering themselves ever since they became aware of their own consciousness.
‘Where do we come from, and where are we going…’
Urich had been tempted many times. Lou and Ulgaro both have made sweet gestures to Urich.
Lou and Ulgaro came as close as humans hoped and wished. The reason why Urich was able to feel and see them was because he too had such desperate desires.
‘You can only know what lies beyond death by dying.’
Thinking this eased his mind. The focus of his pupils blurred.
Clunk.
The path Urich’s unit was taking was rough, causing the stretcher Urich was lying on to shake violently.
Something glittered as Urich’s bag shook open. Urich squinted his eyes open.
‘The eastern artifact.’
Urich fumbled inside his bag and pulled out the jade figurine. It was an item he had obtained from the western edge of his homeland.
Thump, thump.
His heart, which had been beating irregularly, slowly regained its usual rhythm. Urich’s fingers caressed the smooth jade figurine.
‘...How does the same treasure appear in two separate worlds that are cut off from each other?’
The jade figurine was proof of the legends told by the northerners who had traveled to and from the eastern continent.
However, Urich had found the jade figurine in a tribal village on the western seashore. It was also an eastern artifact.
The inside of his dying pupils shone. Urich’s desire sparked a flame of life.
‘I’m curious.’
A desire called curiosity.
Long ago, Urich had to make a decision at a peak in the Sky Mountains. Was he going to explore the world beyond the mountains? Or return home?
Even the extreme, bitterly cold environment that could freeze even one’s eyebrows did not stop Urich. Back then, his weary and wounded body surprisingly retained a vigor.
The unknown was a fear of humans.
And it was human desire to illuminate the darkness.
Explorers dispelled the unknown and overcame fear.
People laughed at those who stepped out of their cozy homes to walk in the dark. Exploration was such a thing. An explorer’s life was something that was not understood by anyone. Sometimes, it involved walking cautiously, step by step, under the faint moonlight amidst ridicule and disdain.
‘I want to understand the things I do not know.’
Not knowing something was the worst. It was an incredibly frustrating feeling. He wanted to know the world that surrounded him.
A warrior should also be able to calmly accept death. That’s what Urich was taught, and he had grown up emulating such warriors.
‘But…’
Urich brought his fingers together and shoved them in his mouth. He gagged himself with his fingers, using the last of his strength.
“Guuuuuurk! Uwaaaaack!”
Urich turned his head and vomited violently. He threw up everything in his stomach, even the things that had settled deep. Gastric juice mixed with the shaman’s powder dripped down from Urich’s mouth.
Urich wiped his messy mouth and stared into the darkness where not even moonlight reached.
‘...Someday, I’ll go to your side. But not yet.’
Urich watched the evil spirits gesturing in the rain and smiled peacefully.
