Tale of the Fake Hero

Chapter 27 – The Slaughter of 3,000, Kerknude Evacuation Plan (2)

“Listen!” Sharon Alter Tas Alfo shouted from the top of the South Gate Pavilion. “There are countless people on the coast now because the evacuation is still taking place. We need to buy time until it ends.”

Kaisen would always clearly remember that moment. Until then, the war was not as hopeless as history made it seem.

It was true that the enemy forces surrounded the city on three sides and completely engulfed the horizon, but humanity also had a ‘shield’—the defensive barrier that the witches of the Turquoise Rose Coven had deployed over the city.

“No shooting until the barrier disappears. Do you understand? Even if the enemies charge, hold your fire. They can’t get through.”

The uruk siege weapons were unable to penetrate the outer layer of the barrier.

“Since it is a wide-area barrier, the duration is bound to be short, but the purpose is to buy time.” Grendel, the vice leader of the Turquoise Rose Coven, had made a very accurate judgment.

In the end, the uruks came up with another plan to break the barrier.

First, an uruk came out, holding a staff with numerous skulls dangling from it. The hunchbacked creature wore large, thick, ragged robes of different human skins sewn together.

‘Clothes out of human skin? They use such savage ways?’ Kaisen thought. The evil presence made him queasy, and the burning in his throat made him aware it wasn’t a mere shaman.

As Kaisen guessed, the uruk was a high-ranking member of the clan. As dozens of prisoners kneeled down in a row in front of him, the hunchbacked uruk waved his staff and began to sing.

“Oh, you sad people…”

“Traitors who betrayed the King’s favor, who fell for false whispers and were cursed…”

“We will help you wash away the curse in atonement. “

“The blood of betrayal can only be washed away with blood.”

“I hope that the whispers of unclean light will disappear from your blood and that you will be able to return to the arms of the King and become ‘humans’ again.”

“Rejoice, for our blessings will purify your blood and bones.”

“Be reborn with a purified body and receive the king’s salvation.”

The moment the song ended, the prisoners exploded while letting out pained screams. Something bulged inside their bodies, scattering gore and shadows in every direction.

‘What…?’

The hunchback looked at the fortress and smiled, and Kaisen felt as if his whole body had frozen. An impossible fear he couldn’t put a name to ran down his spine.

“Kafukas! Make… Atonement!” The hunchbacked uruk swung his staff, and beggar-like uruks climbed onto a nearby catapult.

“Atonement!” Limping and staggering, they looked like trash that could not be called uruk warriors.

“Atonement, atonement” They stuttered and followed the hunchback’s words, and at that moment, a great fear crossed their minds.

“They…”

It was a stigma—the same one engraved on the foreheads of the prisoners whose bodies had exploded was shining on the foreheads of those beggars.

“Lia!”

That was their first encounter with the Tahuf Suicide Unit, which was infamous, even among the uruks.

“Atone! Atone! Atone! Atone! Atone! Atone! Atone! Atone! Atone! Atone!” The moment a troll swung its large axe and cut the heavy chains holding the catapult from firing, the nightmare began.

The madmen flew toward the barrier and exploded in flashes of darkness. The explosive power was formidable, but the real power lay in the corrosiveness of their blood—it covered the surface of the barrier in a curtain of bright red and created a haze.

Pssssssshhhhhhh…!

The blood caused continuous damage to the barrier, and it began to crack and collapse.

“D-damn.”

“Wg-what is that?!”

One by one, the soldiers on the castle walls fell into a state of panic. If the uruks breached the barrier, the next to fall would be the castle wall.

The madmen were still getting on the catapults.

Kaisen urgently looked for Lia.

Lia had both hands on the castle wall, stretching her neck out to blankly stare out of the perimeter. Her hands shook uncontrollably.

“Lia, are you okay?” he asked.

“I… I’m fine, but the city defense isn’t. There’s no way to block that kind of attack on Kerknude’s walls, and not even the Turquoise Rose barrier can withstand it.”

“…!”

“The moment the southern wall falls, close to 90% of our tactics will become useless. The defense forces watching the other walls will be helpless as well.” She was trying to come up with tactical theories but was clearly in a state of panic.

Still, her method was different than that of others. Yes, it was also different for Kaisen. That’s why he’d looked for her in the first place.

All Lia needed were words and actions to calm her confused mind.

“If we stay like this on the castle wall, we’re screwed, right?” Kaisen asked.

“…!”

“There’s a way to mitigate the damage? Something you thought about?”

Lia’s hands trembled. She was still pale, but her tremors seemed to calm as she nodded and suddenly ran along the wall.

That was answer enough. Immediately, Kaizen pulled out Aradamantel, which was crying out coldly from his back.

“Everyone, attention!” The strong red lotus scent from Aradamantel immediately caught the attention of the nearby soldiers, who were immersed in panic.

After a glance at Sharon, his senior, to ask for permission to speak, he continued, “From now on, under the command of the Black Rose Corps, all troops will withdraw from the castle walls in an orderly fashion.”

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“The castle walls…?”

“We’re retreating…?”

“Do you really mean that?”

“As you can see, there is no point in defending the walls like this. If you insist on staying on the wall, you will be caught and killed,” Kaisen explained

They could hear the horrifying sound of the barrier melting away. The outer surface of the barrier was already gone.

“Fake Warrior! How can we retreat?”

“If we give up on the castle gate, we will be overrun in an instant, and we will end up like pigs for slaughter without even being able to put up a fight.”

Kaisen didn’t have the strategic intelligence to effectively respond to such unexpected situations, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t do anything. In such a situation, he’d learned what he could do from Kamila.

“I will guard the gate alone until the camp has been fully evacuated.”

Cutting again and again… If there was time to think, then he could cut some more. A miracle born from endless killing would be his method.

Kaisen wondered if the soldiers felt the same thrill and awe he had felt when he had looked at Kamila’s back as they stood there in silence.

“Admin!” Sharon, who had given Kaisen command, probably saw something similar in his determination. “Open the gate so those idiots don’t think about using ladders all run through.”

The soldiers still seemed unable to trust their judgment, but the castle gate soon began to rise. The steamboats and motor units retreated from the wall first, and then other soldiers withdrew, one regiment at a time.

Sharon placed a hand on Kaisen’s shoulder before leaving. “That recklessness of wanting to abandon tactics in favor of force is exactly like Kamila’s.”

“I still have much to learn,” Kaisen replied.

“Hehe, are you going to imitate her sharp tone of speech as well? Good luck, and don’t die.”

The calm just before the battle… All the noise in the world disappeared from Kaisen’s mind, and all he heard was his own breathing. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly placed his hand on the hilt of Aradamantel.

“…!”

“…!”

“…!”

The uruks came with shouts and hollers. They held countless banners depicting unfamiliar birds. It was the Zekra Clan, a new Hai-tark group. They seemed to be specialized in wolf cavalry.

“Your senior Fake Warriors killed many Hai-tark Clans during the war, so their ranks have already been replaced four times.”

As they closed in, the intense bloodthirst raging from their bodies was enough to make Kaisen dizzy.

The muscles in his body reacted, even the marrow in his bones recalled the sensation.

It had been half a year.

‘I am now here in front of you again.’

“You must know the characteristics of every clan.”

He took his sword from its white scabbard and softly, quietly, reverently, and earnestly murmured the sword’s prayer.

“I am Kaisen Alter Aradamantel.”

It was his call to awaken the holy sword, which glowed red in response to its proxy wielder. The command sent blood-red light dancing over the drawn blade.

It was the same prayer his deceased teacher had used throughout her entire life.

“I will kill you all.”

Even the saliva falling from blache wolves’ snouts as the uruks rushed through the castle gate was clearly visible to Kaisen.

‘Good.’ It was a very good day. The shouts of the wolf cavalry uruks as they fiercely swung their maces and axes down seemed slow.

There were 30…

50…

70…

No, over 100…

The wolf cavalry, which served as the enemy’s vanguard, was evaluated in units ranging from hundreds to thousands.

“Batus! You’re going to stop our Zekra by yourself? Hahaha! Good. I’ll trample you!” an uruk screamed

The mana Kaisen had concentrated into the scabbard tried to force its way out as it overflowed. In response, Kaisen shoved his sword back down into it and held it against the flow of power.

Cross Sword Style – 4th Form, Shoot.

It grew harder and harder to hold the sword down, and the entire blade rattled in anger.

‘Wait…’

‘More…’

‘Just a little more…’

Surprisingly, he was able to gather tens or hundreds of times more mana than before in the scabbard.

Had his body not been modified or had it been a different sword, either his body or the blood would have already broken.

Crraaaaacccck—

The external and internal pressure reached their limits, and even his body started trembling.

There were only ten paces between him and the first enemies.

The super-condensed mana swirled red around the scabbard.

Five paces…

A Mana Chain ran from his fingertips, following a vortex of mana from his Mana Heart flowing into the blade.

One pace…

The holy sword flashed from its scabbard in a supersonic explosion. Like paint splashing from a brush, a red line followed the path of his blade.

Cross Sword Style – 6th Form, Glancing Blow.

The lead wolf’s snout crossed that line, and its uruk rider’s body fell in two separate halves.

More uruks and wolves followed suit, like pieces of paper being cut cleanly in half by the sharpest of scissors.

“You… what…?” a dying uruk muttered.

The screams of dying and not-yet-dead monsters swirled in the air.

“A swordsman with a single-edged sword with the Balkrush emblem on his cheek, you can’t possibly be—”

Kaisen stomped the chattering uruk’s head with his boot, bursting the creature’s skull.

More shouts filled the air as the enemy continued to charge at him.

He lightly swung Aradamantel, flicking the blood from its blade.

Just before the uruk died, its final words reached Kaisen’s ears and lingered as an echo.

“Kaisen, Kaisen Kishunkalihatsu (Kaisen, who cuts Kishun)…?!”