Chapter 180 : The Decisive Battle (7)
The Owells Forces violently pushed the Tale Legion and the Lancephil Legion.
“Hahaha! You bastards! Look over here as well!”
“Do you plan to keep showing us the back of your head like that!”
“Hahaha! Serves you right!”
They thought that Tale Legion and the Lancephil Legion were overwhelmed facing the Walter Troop.
They certained that everything was flowing as they desired, as their plan.
But at that moment.
Clank!
Suddenly with a sound of armors clapping against each other, the Tale Legion and the Lancephil Legion’s soldiers, who were facing the east, turned towards the west.
“Eh?”
The expressions of Owells Forces’ soldiers, at the abrupt situation, were slightly taken back.
But soon, they shouted with sneers.
“Hmph! Does our side look easier?”
“Even though the Walter Troop at the back is also strong, we’re the real elite troop!”
“Well, we or them, we are all……’
Suddenly.
Pbabababat!
The grass greatly shook and the Walter Troop located at the Tale Legion and the Lancephil Legion’s rear split to the sides.
“Wha what the?”
“What’re they doing?”
The Owells Forces’ soldiers, at the Walter Troop’s incomprehensible action, tilted their heads.
At that moment.
“March forwards!”
“Charge!”
With resounding voices, the Tale Legion, Lancephil Legion, and the Walter Troop all pounced towards the Owells Forces.
“Eh?!”
“Eh?”
At the attacks that poured down without discriminating the front and the sides, the Owells Forces scrambled about.
They still hadn’t understood the Walter Troop’s action.
‘Walter has betrayed? No. That isn’t the Walter Troop!’
Kali, who was analyzing the battle situation, intuitively perceived that the things had gone wrong.
He quickly raised his sword up high and shouted aloud.
“Retreat! Retreat! We are returning to our camp!”
If them having fallen into a trap was the truth, then it was a situation where they couldn’t avoid complete annihilation.
They had to escape the Tale Legion and the Lancephil Legion’s encirclement and once again moved back towards the Arslan Valley.
Soon following that, numerous commanders busily moved.
“Retreat!”
“We’ve fallen into a trap! Retreat!”
The Owells Forces’ common soldiers only then also realized that the things had gone wrong.
“Uah! Ruan!”
“The enemy are rushing towards us!”
The Owells Forces’ soldiers who stood at the head squalled with completely scared expressions.
However, the retreat wasn’t easy.
The rear troop was still charging towards the eastern forests.
Due to that, the rear troop that was trying to charge and the head troop that was trying to retreat tangled and a complete disorder arose at the Arslan Valley’s entrance.
“You idiots! Retreat! I said retreat!”
“We’ve fallen into a trap!”
Rebuking voices pierces through the sound of rain.
“Trap? It’s a trap?”
“Damn it! Don’t push! It’s a trap!”
“Retreat! Retreat!”
A moment too late, the rear troop’s soldiers stopped their charge and moved back.
But the sight was still that of them running about in confusion.
In the middle of that, only one person was maintaining his calm.
‘I knew it will be like this!’
He was in fact Demis Izy.
Demis, who had already noticed the unusual inkling at the western forests and subtly moved to the rear, creased his forehead at the gruesome battle unfolding at the front.
‘Damn it.’
Once again, he shook his head at Roan’s abilities and schemes.
‘Knowing that the Walter Troop was approaching from the east, they ambushed and annihilated them and then lured us into a scuffle using the armors of Walter Troop’s soldiers.’
The left arms’ blue clothes must be the method to separate allies from enemies.
Of course, this was thoroughly Demis’ own thought.
He, no, every one of Owells Forces including him believed that Roan had already seen through their plan and then had defeated the Walter Troop.
Not a single one could think that Walter Owells had betrayed them.
‘It’s good that I slipped out to the most rear.’
Demis exhaled a sigh of relief and moved back.
Together with the troop members below him, he quickly began to retreat.
Dududududu!
Sound of horse hooves shook the ground.
Demis and his troop quickly ran between the Arslan Valley and entered into the western forests once again.
‘There was confusion, but it seems that we can somehow retreat.’
When he lightly glanced back, the Owells Forces’ main army was pouring out through the valley’s entrance.
Although they had taken significant damage, it looked like they could at least avoid complete annihilation.
“Huu.”
A long sigh flowed out.
There was only the work of keep running and returning to the camp like this left.
No, he thought it was left.
But at that moment.
Ssweaaaaak!
Abruptly, sharp sound of something cutting through the air was heard.
Simultaneously, tens, hundreds of arrows flew towards them from the western forests.
Pbuk! Pbububuk! Pbuk!
Demis’ subordinates, who had been retreating without trouble, became porcupines and fell.
“Wha, what?”
At the unpredicted attack, Demis goggled his eyes.
Perhaps on the east, but at west, no troop that would attack them existed.
No, it shouldn’t have existed.
The west was entirely Owells Forces’ territory.
At that moment, Demis’ face stiffly solidified.
“Tha, that is?”
On the left arms of the soldiers that were pushing out and entering from the western end of the forests.
There, blue clothes were wrapped around.
“I, it’s the enemy!”
Demis convulsively shouted.
“It’s the enemy! The enemy! The ones that wrapped blue clothes on their left arms aren’t the allies but enemies! Don’t be fooled by the crest carved on their armors!”
Sound ringing the battlefield.
Demis’s troop’s soldiers, who momentarily panicked at the abrupt ambush attack, gritted their teeth and pulled out their weapons.
‘We need to pierce through those bastards to return to the camp.’
‘If our legs get held here, we’ll suffer an encirclement attack.’
‘The back of our heads may get hit by a sword.’ 1
The desire to live dominated their heads.
They kicked off the ground and recklessly charged.
If they had calmed their heads a bit more and comprehended the situation, they might have felt that something was strange.
But the point that the fake Walter Troop that appeared at the rear wrapped blue clothes to their left arms, the point that thick forests were greatly dark due to the weather that accompanied a violent torrent of rain, and their most basic desire to live stormed and disallowed them to make rational judgment.
“You bastard! To think you’ll dare think of using the remnant soldier disguise scheme again!”
“You’ve thought of us too easily!”
“Kill them! The ones wearing the blue cloths are the real allies!”
Walter Troop was greatly misunderstanding the situation in their own way.
Of course, this was all due to the scheme of Walter, the troop commander.
Boom!
With a sound of explosion, the two troops crashed.
Chang! Chajang! Chang!
Together with metallic sounds, a fierce battle began.
The two troop’s soldiers thought that each other was the enemy, namely the Tale Legion and the Lancephil Legion.
But the truth was a battle of Owells Forces against Owells Forces.
Here, the Owells Forces’ main army that escaped out of the Arslan Valley a step late and the fake Walter Troop, Tale Legion, and the Lancephil Legion that had chased behind tangled up and an incredibly chaotic battle unfolded.
Of course, Roan did not needlessly entered deep into the fray.
‘Now, we will leave those bastards to shake their swords a round.’
Although the battle was being unfolded, the Tale Legion and the Lancephil Legion’s damage was nearly nonexistent.
The battle was only unfolded between the Owells Forces.
A horrifying and horrendous battle of friends killing friends kept continuing on.
Of course, there were also ones who realized that the situation was odd from time to time.
“Eh? Beckel?”
“Ichin? Why are you? Did you actually surrender?”
“What are you saying? Aren’t you the one who surrendered?”
The cases where the ones that were pointing their swords at each other recognizing one another had broke out.
“Pe, perhaps?”
“Are we fighting amongst allies right now?”
Widely goggling their eyes, they raised their hands up high.
They were planning to at least shout as loud as they could.
“Everyone stop!”
“We’re all in the same……”
However, their wishes couldn’t be reached.
“Die!”
“Die! You son of bitches!”
From the back of each side, swords different from one another tore through the two people’s chest.
“Gurruk. Thi, this is, wro……”
Empty deaths.
All over the battlefield, events similar to this unfolded.
Demis too, only after hacking the enemy, no, the real Walter Troop’s soldiers for a long while, realized that something was wrong.
‘Why is there so many familiar looking guys?’
Although it wasn’t as if he knew all the common soldiers’ faces, even so, it wasn’t as if he completely didn’t knew them.
The guy who died just now with his own hand piercing his chest was definitely a subordinate that he had roamed the battlefields together with.
‘Surrendering? No. There’s no way.’
When his thought reached about that point, a shadow fell in front of his eyes.
The gaze that unknowingly looked back.
The eyes that simultaneously widen.
“You, you are……?”
Taken back, Demis tried to scream.
Ssskuk!
But a step ahead of that, a sharp sword cut Demis’ neck.
The sword’s owner, with cold eyes, glared at Demis’ head that had fallen onto the ground.
“Noticing it was too late.”
A voice devoid of emotion.
The one who cut Demis’ neck was in fact Walter.
He quickly moved his steps towards the next target.
Ssskuk. Sssguk.
Horrifying sounds were consecutively heard.
“Kuk!”
“Si, Sir Walter?”
The commanders all fell with shocked faces as if one.
The ones Walter was aiming for were commanders above adjutant level that practically moved the troops.
If it was like this, it seemed as if they could finish the battle more easier than he had thought.
But the Owells Forces’ commanders weren’t all fools.
Especially their leader and the source of this fief war, Kali Owells, was an outstanding man.
‘Something is wrong.’
Even in the middle of the chaotic battle, he read the leery, unpleasant, and somehow uncomfortable air.
A doubtful thought.
And the instant he saw the young general blocking the path of retreat while swinging his sword, that turned into certainty.
“Roberi!”
The voice cutting through the battlefield and ringing like a thunder.
Instantly, the Owells Forces, who were pointing their swords at each other, all faltered and trembled their hands.
“Si, Sir Viscount Owells?”
Roberi, who was seized by madness and was hacking the soldiers as if mad, discovered Kali and stiffly froze like a statue.
‘Something is wrong!’
In the first place, he was an outstanding man who would felt doubt even at Walter’s marching order.
Roberi quickly moved back.
“Halt the battle! Halt the battle! Move back!”
Soon, numerous commanders repeated the same words and the falteringly moved back along with the soldiers.
Silence.
Not the sound of metal, shouts, nor even the sound of scream was heard.
Prrurrurru.
Only the sound of horses blowing their mouths occasionally echoed out quietly.
“Roberi! What is this! For you to attack the allies!”
A frost-like roar.
Roberi’s face bleached white.
That was also the same for the other soldiers.
“The, then have we been fighting amongst allies all this time?”
“Come to think of it, aren’t those guys the real Walter Troop?”
“Eh? Look over there. That side’s also real main army’s soldiers.”
“Just how did this happen?”
Dazed expressions and overlapping voices.
At that moment, Roberi looked at Kali and shouted in a confused voice.
“I just don’t know how this has happened, sir! I have merely followed Sir Walter’s orders. Most definitely, he said that the ones wearing blue clothes are the real allies and the ones wearing only the armors are enemies who disguised as ally remnant……”
When his words reached about that point, Roberi and Kali as well as Owells Forces’ all commanders and soldiers’ faces were colored pale.
‘It’s a betrayal!’
‘Sir Walter has betrayed us!’
Finally, they could understand all the circumstances.
They had been thoroughly played with.
By the man named Walter Owells.
‘No, behind him, Roan must have be there.’
Kali, with an expression as if having chewed on a gall, shouted.
“Walter! Where is Walter!”
It was a voice filled with rage.
Beyond blood relations, his heart felt like scraping out the bastard’s heart even immediately.
But the sight of Walter couldn’t be seen anywhere.
At that moment.
“Kali. Have you finished all your chat?”
From east of the forests, from the side of the Arslan Valley’s entrance, a quiet but powerful voice was heard.
The man pushing through the Tale Legion and the Lancephil Legion that had wrapped around the Owells Forces as if to encircle them.
The young man riding a large warhorse and slantly holding a long spear was in fact Roan.
Wearing a crimson armor, he stared straight at Owells Forces with panicked expressions.
“The look of you crying like a little girl is truly laughable.”
The venomous words tore at his chest.
“Roan!”
Kali couldn’t hold himself back and shouted.
He didn’t expect to be humiliated so completely.
But it wasn’t the end with this.
‘Now that we’ve checked that we’re on the same side, the retreat path has definitely opened.’
If he return to the camp and then reorganize the formation, he could counterattack as much as he wish.
Like that, the one strand of pride that was left flamed his reasons and emotions.
“Do you thinking of running away?”
Roan softly smiled as he shook his head.
A relaxed look.
Although his emotions burst and the rage soared, Kali forcefully and tightly suppressed and endured.
‘I will definitely take revenge!’
The light in his eyes blazingly burned up.
Roan looked at that sight and deeply inhaled.
“Kali. Now give up. You cannot run.”
“Hmph! You’re overly confident!”
Kali snorted and then pointed at the Walter Troop at the rear.
“We have taken control of the western path of retreat.”
It was a situation where they could easily escape out of the forest.
‘If the rear troop stops them with their lives on the line, that is……’
If it was for himself to live, it didn’t matter whether hundreds or thousands of soldiers died en masse.
Either way, the important thing was Kali, himself.
At that moment.
“Control the path of retreat…… Kali, you bastard has now even lost your sight.”
Roan loudly chided in a cold voice.
“What?!”
Creasing his brows, Kali shouted aloud.
Following that, Roberi, who was controlling the western path of retreat, roared with a brightly flushed face.
“Roan you bastard! Can you not see me!”
It truly was a bold spirit.
But Roan instead snorted and shook his head.
“I do not have the gift of seeing dead men.”
They were incomprehensible words.
Roberi creased his brows.
“Dead men? Who are you saying is dead!”
At that moment.
Ssskuk!
A sharp sword cut apart Roberi’s side in a long line and pierced through and exited from his chest.
“Wa, what is this……”
At the situation that suddenly unfolded, Roberi goggled his eyes and turned his head looking for the sword’s owner.
A large swordsman standing right next to him.
He shouted in a resounding voice.
“Who is dead? It’s you, of course!”
A hearty spirit gushed out from his entire body.
“Gurruk. Who, who are yo……”
Even while his breath passed away, Roberi tried to find the identity of the swordsman that pierced his chest.
The swordsman put strength into his wrist to pulled out the sword again, then shouted once again in a resounding voice.
“I’m the Tale Legion’s vice-commander and the Piedes Troop’s three-thousand-man Commander, Austin!”
Finally, the familiar face appeared below the deeply worn helmet.
Austin, who had received Roan’s secret order before the Arslan Battle began and moved first.
After leading the fake Walter Troop and inciting the chaotic battle, he had stealthily infiltrated between the real Walter Troop.
“Ro, Roberi!”
Kali shouted with a thunderstruck expression.
“T, Troop commander!”
“Troop commander Roberi!”
The nearby soldiers too wailed with dumbfound expressions.
Kali raged.
“Kill him! Kill that bastard!”
Pointing at Austin, he exploded out with madness.
But at that moment, Roan’s calm and soft voice brushed the ears once again.
“Well. Could they do so? Even though the dead cannot move.”
“What does……”
Kali creased his brows.
At that instant, Austin raised his sword up high and shouted in a loud voice.
“Flip the cloth!”
They were incomprehensible words.
But the change that single sentence brought was truly great.
Flip!
The soldiers located at the outer side of the Walter Troop flipped the blue cloth wrapped on their left arms.
Suddenly, the clothes’ color turned red.
Shape of the fake Walter Troop wearing red clothes having perfectly surrounded the real Walter Troop that was still wearing the blue clothes.
“Ah……”
“No, no way!”
“Just when did they……”
Dispirited sounds flowed out everywhere.
Because it was such as chaotic battle, no one was able to notice the fake Walter Troop that Austin led crossing the battlefield and permeating into the real Walter Troop.
Roan faintly smiled and raised the Travias Spear up high.
“Crimson Legion.”
The Tale Legion and the Lancephil Legion, and the fake Walter Troop on top of that.
Every soldier leaned his ears at Roan’s voice.
Roan kicked his horse and shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Swallow up the Owells Forces!”
The instant the order was given, all the soldiers, the Tale Legion and the Lancephil Legion, and even the fake Walter Troop, pounced towards the Owells Forces.
“Waaaaa!”
“Kill them!”
“Wipe out the enemy!”
It was literally a storm-like charge.
“Uuuu.”
“Uaaah!”
The Owells Forces’ soldiers unconsciously trembled with their entire body.
They all felt their death.
Ssskuk! Sssguk! Ssskuk!
Horrifying sounds fully filled the battlefield.
The battle was one-sided.
Especially Roan’s might shined once again.
Literally a godly might.
He showed off the might of a god.
A giant spearhead of water, together with the violent torrent of rain, split the Owells Forces’ soldiers.
The Owells Forces’ knights and soldiers, whose morales had already fallen all the way to the bottom, were no match for Roan.
But even within that while, there were few who bravely struggled on alone.
“Sir Viscount! Sir Viscount at least escape!”
“Secure a path!”
“Pierce through a path with your lives!”
The old veterans who had roamed the battlefields for a long time together with Kali.
The commanders who respected and admired not wealth and power but Kali himself sacrificed their lives to secure a path.
“Kuuk!”
“Kuk!”
In front of the charge of the old veterans who had disregarded death, even the Taemusas who prided in their group battle abilities began to be slowly pushed back.
Ssskuk!
With a horrifying sound, one Taemusa fell.
At that instant!
Paat!
A very small gap appeared.
“Sir Viscount!”
“Sir Viscount Owells! Quick!”
Urgent and desperate voices rang out.
At the old veteran’s shouts, Kali kicked his horse.
He did not threw a single word of thanking or swearing revenge.
He didn’t even threw a shout filled with rage towards Roan.
Merely.
‘I have to live! I have to live! I must live! Rather than the lives of those old men, my one life is much more valuable! Of course!’
Kali’s thought was only that thought.
It was to a point that the veterans’ loyalties were regretable.
“Please persevere your life, sir.”
They, without even knowing Kali’s such thought, or perhaps even while knowing that, saluted and lowered their heads.
It was a truly doleful sight.
“My lord! Owells is escaping!”
“Kali is escaping, sir!”
Bernard and Andre shouted with hurried expressions.
Roan, who was cutting the necks of Owells Forces’ knights, looked at the sight of Kali’s back getting further away and shook his head.
“I will leave Kali Owells…… to him.”
It was a somewhat forlorn voice.
Bernard and Andre soon understood those words’ meaning and slowly nodded their heads.
Ssskuk!
Roan once again cut a knight’s neck and then shouted in a loud voice.
“Flood them! The battle has not ended yet!”
The sound echoed the battlefield.
“Waaaah!”
Once again, the crimson legion’s spirit boiled up.
But unlike Roan’s words, the battle was already no different than having ended.
It was because even the Owells Forces’ soldiers who resisted at least saw Kali run away and had completely lost their will.
“Uak!”
“Kuuk!”
Now, only the sound of screams instead of metal were abundant.
Plopplopplopplop.
The violently falling streaks of rain washed away the sorrowful sounds.
The crimson legion’s complete victory as well as a grand victory.
The decisive battle carved with blood and washed in rain, the Arslan battle ended like that.
No, for now, the battle at the Arslan Valley ended like that.
What was left was only one, the aged feelings between the father and the son.
< The Decisive Battle > End.
1. “getting hit on the back of one’s head” is a phrase for “getting betrayed”, though there is no mention of the “sword”. So this sentence actually works either way.