Chapter 199

Chapter 199

Carnius sat alone inside a makeshift tent. He stared at a hanging sun pendant with bloodshot eyes.

“...Just why did you take my son first?”

While the battlefield was being cleared, Carnius didn’t take a single step out of his tent. His adjutants and fellow knights commanded in his place.

‘It was my misjudgment.’

Carnius did not anticipate that the barbarians would charge at them in reverse.

According to the soldiers' reports, it was during that barbarian charge that Leo was killed.

“Ah, ahhh.”

There was no one to blame. Carnius tucked the sun pendant away into his chest.

‘I will avenge your spirit no matter what.’

The barbarian army had been split into several units. The divided barbarians were clearly planning to regroup as they fled west.

‘It would be best to pick them off one by one before they can rejoin their forces.’

Carnius wrapped his cloak around himself and stepped out of the tent. The adjutants who were waiting remained silent, waiting for him to speak first.

“We go after them.”

Carnius mounted his horse and divided his army into three units. Then, he pursued the barbarian unit that killed his son.

“They couldn’t have gone far,” an adjutant spoke.

“Probably not. Many of them must be wounded.”

The imperial army’s target was not a small number of men. A force numbering in the thousands was too large to hide its tracks. Speed was the deciding factor.

“Should we send the cavalry ahead?”

“No, we can catch up ourselves. It should only take a day for us to catch up.”

Carnius did not rush. The ground was soggy from the rain. It wasn’t the time to send cavalry.

‘This indeed is General Carnius. He is remaining calm even after losing his own blood.’

Carnius was leading seven thousand troops. Since the barbarians had fled in three major directions, the pursuing forces were similarly divided.

“The sun is shining now.”

“Lou is also helping us.”

The soldiers murmured among themselves. The rain had stopped, and the sun had come out. The wet ground was drying quickly, making the pursuit much easier.

“Send the scouts.”

Carnius waited until the ground had firmed up before sending the cavalry ahead. No matter how fast the barbarians were, they could not compare to horses.

Half a day later, the scout cavalry returned and reported.

“We’ve found them, Sir.”

Carnius nodded. The grip in the hands holding the reins tightened involuntarily.

* * *

Urich's unit was being pursued, so they moved continuously while catching only brief naps.

"Vald, they've spotted us."

A warrior reported as he rode up from the rear to the front where Vald was.

Vald had taken command of the unit since Urich's consciousness was still blurry and he hadn’t regained normal mobility yet.

"Have they already caught up to us... Persistent bastards."

He had hoped, inwardly, that there would even be no pursuit from the imperial army.

"How is Urich doing?"

"Better than yesterday. He'll recover. He is the Son of the Earth, after all."

Vald looked at Urich. He was sleeping on the stretcher made of shields and cloaks.

'His fever’s gone down a lot and his breathing has stabilized. Maybe we've gotten through the rough part...'

Vald urged the warriors on.

'What now?'

Rendezvous with the other scattered alliance units was their priority. However, the other alliance units were likely being pursued as well. They had to shake off their pursuit somehow.

It was only going to take a day at most until they inevitably clashed with the imperial army.

"Ah, man."

Vald shook his head in dismay.

'This reminds me of the time you left us, Urich.'

Long ago, Urich and Vald had encountered an imperial expedition party. The boys who had just grown into their adult bodies were thrown into confusion at the sight of an unknown enemy.

But Urich did not hesitate. He took on all the responsibility and threw himself into the fray to save his brothers.

Warriors were not born brave. They simply lived in a system where you could not survive if you weren’t.

Rustle.

Vald picked at the dirt. The sun had set, but the soil still held moisture. It was good soil.

‘Urich, it would have been nice if I could’ve followed your journey...’

Vald was a faithful and exemplary tribal warrior. He cherished his brothers and tribe like his own life and knew how to dedicate his life to battle. That was his whole life.

‘You were different, Urich. You always saw something different from us. You ran forward, pursuing something that was beyond the life of a tribal warrior.’

Urich was a man who stood out among such ordinary tribal warriors. He seemed to shine by himself, and Urich had the strength and strategy to navigate an extraordinary destiny.

‘You could have lived so freely, yet you came back to us. You donned the yoke of the tribe again.’

Urich was ultimately a tribal warrior as well. He returned, not abandoning his roots.

“Shush.”

At that soft sound, the warriors fell completely silent. They held their breaths and watched the imperial army getting closer.

The air was humid and heavy. The smell stayed close to the ground, not rising easily.

Vald and the warriors lay flat, well hidden in ambush.

‘Here they come.’

The warriors only had one shot. They had to strike a fatal blow to the imperial army by sacrificing their lives.

Schluck!

A quiet first strike buried itself in the neck of an imperial soldier. Warriors ambushed from the left thrust their spears as they burst out of the bushes.

“An ambush from the left!”

The response of the imperial soldiers was swift. They quickly raised their shields toward the left, forming a formation. The shields of the soldiers intertwined to create a solid wall.

“There’s about a hundred of them. Is it just a small ambush?”

The barbarians who appeared from the left numbered only about a hundred. While the imperial army’s attention was drawn to the left, the remaining tribal warriors sprang from the bushes on the right.

“Argh! Kugh!”

“Ooooooooh!”

The initial surprise attack from the left, and while the enemy’s attention was drawn there, attack from the right. It was a simple tactic, but it was effective enough. Screams erupted among the imperial soldiers.

‘Not a small number anymore.’

The imperial commanders rallied their units to counterattack.

“Hedgehog!”

The imperial soldiers facing the barbarians on the outskirts fell into the Hedgehog Formation. They grouped tightly, surrounding themselves with shields with only their spears sticking out.

“Come if you dare, you vile barbarians!”

The imperial soldiers roared loudly. However, the barbarians did not approach further. They quietly hid their bodies among the bushes.

The tribal warriors already had experience fighting the imperial army. They knew there was no chance of winning a direct confrontation against a solid battle formation of the imperial army.

“Dammit! Chase them!”

The imperial army dissolved their formation and entered the forest.

The goal of the tribal warriors was to buy time. They didn’t need to win; they just needed to keep as many imperial soldiers on them as possible and kill them.

“Kek, keke.”

Warriors who failed to escape into the forest bled out and died. As long as they could still move their limbs, they swung their weapons until the end. Many soldiers died from their unexpected strikes.

The terrifying frenzy of the barbarian warriors made the imperial soldiers shake their heads in disbelief.

‘Haven’t seen barbarian warriors like these in a long while.’

Experienced knights felt a familiar shiver. The chills they had experienced in the north swept down their spines once again.

These were barbarian warriors who seemed to have no purpose in life other than fighting. They had nothing to lose in battle, only gains.

Carnius looked at the dead barbarians. He frowned.

“Most of these barbarians are either old or injured.”

“Sir?”

“Look at the corpses of the barbarians. Many of them already had serious wounds before coming into this battle. These were probably their expendable troops, just fodder to buy time.”

“They’re fighting this hard even though they were sent to die?”

A young adjutant, who had never fought against barbarians, could not understand.

“That’s why they are barbarians.”

Carnius twisted his lips. Despite the ambush being a small force, he couldn't continue the pursuit with any enemy standing behind them. The barbarians were going to succeed in buying time as per their plan.

‘Fine, keep running. I’ll chase you to the edge of the western land if I have to.’

From the moment Leo died, this war became personal for Carnius. It was a war he had to see through to the end, even if it meant his death.