Chapter 92

Chapter 92. Battle of Halborn Plain (1)

The encampment where Count Monteki’s army was positioned lay on the outskirts of Count Monteki’s Domain, in a place called Halborn Plain. Aside from clusters of trees planted here and there, it was no different from a wide-open plain.

That meant the armies on both sides could not help but see each other clearly.

The one fortunate thing was that the encampment stood on a hill, forcing the Croa Army to come uphill, but even that slope was not particularly steep, so the terrain advantage was not great.

Balun truly could not understand this point.

Why on earth were they stopping the enemy in a place like this?

Shouldn’t they stop the enemy somewhere more advantageous for defense?

Why, there were things like that, weren’t there? Holing up in a castle and putting up an absolute defense, or blocking a canyon or a road so the enemy could not come through.

At the very least, if they fought somewhere like a forest, there would be cover, so it seemed like it would be a little better. So why on earth were they fighting in a place like this?

“How’re we supposed to know that? The lofty noble lord would know.”

“I see.”

He asked the mercenaries, but no answer came.

Left with no choice, he called over a Knight who was passing by.

“Hey, Knight.”

“Why are you calling me again! Did I not tell you not to call me for useless nonsense?”

“I was going to, but I was too curious to bear it. If you tell me just this, I’ll quietly go back and fight.”

“You truly are a nuisance. Fine, what are you curious about this time?”

“Why are we fighting here?”

At Balun’s question, the Knight frowned.

“What?”

“I mean, why are we fighting on this plain? Wouldn’t it be better to stop the enemy safely in a place that’s easy to defend?”

When Balun explained further because the Knight seemed not to understand, the Knight clicked his tongue and looked at Balun as if he were pathetic.

“You fool. How could someone who calls himself a Knight cowardly hole up inside a castle and do nothing but shoot arrows? Naturally, one should ride out on a horse and pierce the enemy head-on. Is that not so?”

“They chose this place because of that?”

“Yes. That is an honorable war.”

“I don’t understand.”

“That is because you are a Barbarian who knows nothing of honor.”

The Knight smiled disdainfully and waved him away.

“I have told you now, so go and stand by. If you come to me one more time, then I will strike off your head.”

Balun tilted his head as he returned to his assigned position. He understood what the Knight had said, but he could not comprehend it. They were going to sacrifice soldiers in droves for a mere thing like that?

Wasn’t that a method so stupid it went beyond stupidity?

‘Isn’t that Knight bastard just too stupid to know the reason? Maybe there’s actually a strategic reason.’

Balun wondered what that reason might be, then stopped. What was the point of wasting thought on that when the war had already begun? It was better to think only about how to win.

‘Still, they’re dragging their feet like crazy. How long are we going to wait?’

Balun looked beyond the front. He could see the enemy army lined up in a row, glaring this way.

They were facing off against each other.

He had no clock, so he could not measure it, but even without knowing for sure, he felt they had been doing this for over an hour already.

That meant they had spent an entire hour baking under the blazing sun and doing nothing but staring down the enemy.

It seemed one person from each side had come forward and was discussing something, perhaps because there was something to negotiate, but he could not hear what they were saying.

What could he do? They could only kill time like this.

“Listen! What we face today is no mere enemy army. They are those who have come to steal our land, our families, and our names. If they cross this plain, your homes will no longer exist!”

Still, something seemed to be progressing. After all, a Knight on horseback suddenly came out before the lined-up soldiers and began giving a speech.

His voice struck home calmly but clearly, and the soldiers listened closely to that voice. Feeling that solemn atmosphere, Balun kept examining the enemy formation.

It was to establish a strategy of his own.

Where was the enemy commander? Where would be easiest to break through in order to seize that commander?

However, it seemed impossible to find the commander with only the information he had right now, so as the next best option, he was considering breaking the enemy’s main forces.

‘If we’re talking about key forces, it has to be the Knights or the mages. If I break them, the enemy’s morale will fall sharply.’

Unlike the other mercenaries, Balun did not think at all about how he could kill the most enemies.

He thought only about how he could earn the greatest merit with the least effort.

‘But can I actually fuck up the Knights or mages? The Knights will be riding horses, and the mages will be all the way in the back.’

As he was thinking that, the color of the sky suddenly changed.

When he instinctively raised his head, arrows were flying in. Immediately, the commander’s shout rang out.

“Shield soldiers, one step forward!”

As if they had been waiting, the shield soldiers raised their large shields and blocked. The sound of arrows striking shields hit the ears with a savage edge.

The archers of the Croa Army also shot their arrows as if they had been waiting. A cautious long-range exchange went back and forth, and a small number of casualties occurred on both sides.

“All forces, advance.”

At last, the long-awaited deployment (battle formation) time ended, and they began moving forward. Watching the enemy army, which had looked as small as sesame seeds, grow rapidly larger, Balun took a deep breath.

They had grown fairly close. He could see the enemies’ expressions. The soldiers of Croa were glaring at them as though they were sworn enemies. As he met those murderous gazes, memories of the past suddenly rose in his mind. Of the first time he had stood on a battlefield.

At that time, Balun had not been Balun. He had been a frightened rat. No, it would be more accurate to call him a corpse that had lost its soul.

When brawny Warriors came charging at him with battle cries, he could not think at all. With his mind gone blank, he seemed to have swung his axe however he could. Naturally, he pissed himself, and he cried a great deal too.

Seven years had passed since then, and now he was very different from that time. Yet the reason that memory overlapped with the present was probably because the situation alone was similar to that time.

Back then, war had been a first. Now, war was a first as well.

His first experience of war in the civilized world.

Balun wanted to make his debut a success.

‘Since I’m doing this, I should do it well.’

The advance stopped. As if they had planned it, silence rose. A strand of wind cooled the heat that was about to flare.

However, the battlefield did not permit the heat to cool. The Knight in charge of the vanguard soon raised his sword and shouted.

“All forces, charge! Smash every one of those damned Croa bastards!”

“Raaaaaah!”

With a thunderous roar, the soldiers of both sides collided. Battle cries and the clash of metal began to rise, mingling with the thick cloud of dust that billowed up.

***

If asked what was most important on a battlefield after victory, Balun had only one answer.

Survival.

First was survival, second was survival, and third was survival. Some people might not agree, but at least for Balun, that was the correct answer.

Because in the end, you had to be alive for anything to matter.

In that regard, a pitched battle (field battle) on a plain was a battlefield that boasted an absurdly high difficulty level.

There were many enemies, but no cover. From the front, blind spears and blades aimed for him, and from the sky, arrows rained down.

If that were all, it would still be fine, but Knights even charged on horseback and tore through formations. Although none had been launched yet, it was obvious that the mages would soon pour magic down.

A mere human had almost no means to respond to all those traps.

Countless humans were tangled together like a skein of thread, so he could not move as he pleased. Like being unable to budge inside a packed bus, he could only display extremely limited movement.

It truly was high difficulty itself.

Balun felt so stifled in that crush that his insides seemed ready to burst, but.

What could he do? He could only endure it and move forward.

‘At this rate, strategy or anything else isn’t going to be of any use.’

“Die, dog of Corint!”

SLASH—!

“Guh!”

As he kept cutting down the soldiers who charged at him, Balun advanced little by little. A cut and a step, another cut and another step.......

Balun’s movements were like those of a skilled factory worker. With mechanical motions devoid of any hesitation, Balun repeated the same act over and over.

‘This is boring.’

Absurdly enough, that thought came to him. He felt strange for thinking it, but the fact remained that he had felt that way.

‘What’s wrong with me? Have I finally gone off the deep end?’

Even as Balun carried out that mechanical axe work, his inner self was sinking inward.

Had he truly lost his mind? Had he been contaminated by the madness of the battlefield?

His thoughts continued, one leading to the next. His thinking deepened, and Balun felt he understood the reason.

This was not boredom.

It was that this was beneath notice.

The enemy’s level did not satisfy him. They were clearly swinging spears and blades, but strangely, they did not feel threatening. That was what was making Balun feel bored.

‘I really must have gotten stronger. To think I’m having such a luxurious thought.’

Balun shook his head vigorously. He struck his cheek hard with his left hand. It was to drive away that complacent thought.

Balun knew very well that arrogance was a deadly poison that gnawed away at a Warrior.

Even in the tribe, many had overreached out of arrogance and lost their lives. Balun did not want to follow in their footsteps.

‘I should pick up the pace a little.’

Balun’s hand, holding Black Moon, moved faster. The enemies around Balun began dying helplessly.

At this, the enemy reacted.

“That big bastard is no ordinary man! Aim for him!”

“Yes, sir!”

The commander’s order fell, and more spears and blades aimed for Balun’s life. As he countered the attacks of enemies persistently trying to kill him, Balun nodded in satisfaction.

“Good!”

His heart pounded hard again. Feeling that, Balun let out a sigh of relief. Apparently, it had not been arrogance after all.

Right. Of course not. How could a person change that easily? He had not changed even after killing so many enemies, so would it make sense for him to change just because he had grown a little stronger?

“Y-you monstrous bastard.”

One soldier of Croa saw Balun grinning and shook his head as if sickened.

With more than a dozen spears and blades aiming at him, he did not feel fear and only grinned, so it was understandable that he seemed like a monster.

“Die, you monster!”

The soldier thrust his spear. Balun snatched it with his left hand, then wrenched it aside and snapped the shaft. The soldier panicked.

“C-crazy!”

The soldier, who had suddenly lost his weapon, went pale. Balun kicked him hard, then grabbed the broken spear shaft, pointed the spearhead forward, and hurled it ahead.

WHOOOOOSH—!

The spear flew over the heads of the enemy soldiers and struck exactly in the eye visible within the helmet of a commander on horseback. It was the very commander who had been shouting at the top of his lungs, ordering them to attack Balun.

THUNK—!

“Aaaaaargh!”

The commander, hit in the eye, screamed and fell from his horse. At the nearly godlike throwing technique, the soldiers nearby froze as they watched the scene.

How had he hit the man when the helmet left only the eyes, nose, and mouth barely exposed?

“You bastards! All of you, move! You’re in the way!”

Balun shouted loudly. A roar so great it was hard to believe it came from a human voice spread across the battlefield. Glaring at the flinching enemies, Balun ran.

The muscles in Balun’s arms bulged. Black Moon danced. At least one man died with each swing, and sometimes two died at once.

The soldiers wore thick gambesons and leather breastplates, but it was no use. Those two thick layers of defense were helplessly torn apart by the great axe blade. The enemies died with chests split, died with necks split, and died with waists split.

In an instant, the enemy formation was crushed. Balun broke through that crushed formation and advanced. Ahead, he could see the commander who had been hit in the eye by the spear he had thrown.

The man had gotten back up at some point and was swinging his sword. His skill must have been fairly good, because Corint’s mercenaries were dying in droves at his hand. From what Balun could see, that bastard seemed to have killed at least twenty.

“Do not fall back! If we break through this plain, the road to the heart of Corint opens!”

The commander shouted at the top of his lungs, blood dripping from his eye. Balun stared straight at him and stomped hard.

BOOM—!

The ground trembled. For an instant, everyone around Balun staggered. Balun charged straight in and swung Black Moon.

SLASH—!

The commander’s head was severed and flew up into the air. Balun snatched the head as it fell, scattering blood. Holding it high, he shouted.

“Balun killed the commander!”

Gazes gathered in an instant.

“Everyone, throw down your weapons! If you don’t surrender, you’ll die like this! I’ll count to five, so throw them down!”

He counted to five, but the enemies did not surrender. However, it did not matter at all. He had never thought they would surrender in the first place.

Even so, Balun had done this to lower the enemy’s morale.

On a battlefield, morale was everything. An enemy whose morale had fallen became worse than an undisciplined mob.

That was exactly what Balun was aiming for.

Breaking morale was not easy, but it was not impossible either.

Just as glass could shatter from even a slight crack, the morale of an army could also break from only a slight crack.

And that was one of the things Balun was truly good at.