Timur Khan's blue eyes flashed open. Mamorota was dead. Though he had already abandoned him, it was still the death of a sworn brother.
Timur Khan had watched the battle between the enemies and the Gray Wolf War Squad from beginning to end. Shock rippled through his heart. Had he not seen it, he would not have believed such a bizarre fight. It was too far to see clearly, but it was definitely strange. And the victory of that battle clearly belonged to the man who killed Mamorota—Dong Bong-su.
However, the strategic victory belonged to Timur Khan.
With the Gray Wolf War Squad's 'sacrifice,' the Whirlwind Artillery Gunners unit had fallen into a state of annihilation, and the few remaining mercenaries were scattering in all directions. Wasn't such a military achievement worth sacrificing the Gray Wolf War Squad?
Timur Khan's eyes gleamed brighter as he continued observing Dong Bong-su's actions, his surroundings, and the entire battlefield.
Dong Bong-su was crouching down examining Kaiji for some reason, and one unidentified Gray Wolf War Squad member remained, watching him.
Meanwhile, the remaining Gray Wolf War Squad members were diligently returning to Guisui, and Li Zi-song's main force was advancing toward Guisui to cut off their return route.
Timur Khan soon stopped paying attention to Dong Bong-su and the Huihui Cannon. What good would it do to focus more on that place that had already turned into an Asura field? He could see one broken Huihui Cannon, but well... at that level, it would be impossible to play a role in determining the direction of this war.
Having made that judgment, he completely shifted his gaze to Li Zi-song's main force.
"Fire the crossbows."
Timur Khan's new order fell upon the entire defensive line on the walls.
"Fire the crossbows!"
The crossbowmen fired their crossbows at Li Zi-song's main force all at once. Additionally, the archers who had been drawing their bowstrings all along released their hands in coordination with the crossbow attacks.
Pip—pip! Ffwhoop—ffwhoop!
With the sound of wind tearing, dozens of those charging at the front of Li Zi-song's main force fell. Naturally, the advance speed of Li Zi-song's main force slowed.
Knowing well that Timur Khan couldn't open the city gates once the encirclement had tightened to this distance anyway, Li Zi-song didn't advance recklessly. Though the defensive strength of Guisui's gates was said to be excellent, he knew well that their flexibility in opening and closing wasn't as good as that defensive strength.
The standoff continued between Li Zi-song, who was waiting for the gates to open, and Timur Khan, who had no intention of opening them at all. However, Li Zi-song knew well that Timur Khan had no intention of opening the gates. If he opened the gates at this distance, it was clear as day that it would allow the main force to enter the city.
From the start, when Timur Khan sent out the Gray Wolf War Squad, he had no intention of letting them back in. Their role ended the moment they destroyed all the Huihui Cannons. The moment he sent them out to the grasslands overrun with the disease, their usefulness disappeared, and only their sacrifice remained.
Shshshsh—!
As expected, Li Zi-song's main force opened fire all at once on the Gray Wolf War Squad, who were trapped with nowhere to go in front of Guisui's gates. Timur Khan seized that opportunity to focus on inflicting maximum damage on Li Zi-song's main force. This was to reduce the enemy's numbers as much as possible when they were this close.
Timur Khan concentrated crossbow fire on Li Zi-song's vanguard, Li Zi-song directed indiscriminate fire at the Gray Wolf War Squad, and the Gray Wolf War Squad lost their way and fell.
Pip—pip!
Guh—aaagh!
A battle without romance. In war, blood should fly as swords and spears clash—that's when it truly lives up to its reputation...
But this was real war. If you can kill without being seen, you do so, and if you can't, you annihilate the enemy while avoiding direct confrontation as much as possible. After all, what's important in battle is winning, not style.
Both Timur Khan and Li Zi-song were conducting war based on such a simple truth.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
Kraaagh—!
Though killing and being killed repeated, Li Zi-song's expression wasn't particularly good, while Timur Khan was smiling.
Though he had lost the entire Gray Wolf War Squad, the enemy's artillery position had been completely destroyed, and it had become difficult to obtain materials to rebuild them. Moreover, more than half of Li Zi-song's main force gunners had been slaughtered. In other words, even if there were materials, there were no craftsmen who could build them.
If they just kept the gates locked well, the enemies would collapse on their own. Timur Khan became even more certain of victory from this battle.
The flames that had caught on the Yinshan Mountain Range grew fiercer.
In contrast, the number of Gray Wolf War Squad members was rapidly decreasing. Their annihilation was not far off.
'Now that Kaiji is gone too, it will be difficult to form a new Gray Wolf War Squad.'
That was about the extent of Timur Khan's impression from this battle. He had already forgotten about the sacrifice he had forced, and was more regretful about the fact that he couldn't form a new Gray Wolf War Squad.
More precisely, it was Kaiji's death. That alone was regrettable. Because Kaiji, a Great Gray Wolf, existed, he could easily control the Gray Wolves, wild animals that couldn't be tamed.
Kaiji was dead, and his corpse must be lying over there with Mamorota...!?
Thinking about Kaiji and Mamorota's final moments, Timur Khan glanced once more toward the far southeast where Dong Bong-su was.
However, his head, which had gone to briefly scan the area, didn't return to its original position. It couldn't.
Because something gray-colored was flying this way!
'Kaiji?'
It was nonsense. How could something already dead come here? And flying at that?
But that absurd thing was actually happening.
Kaiji was flying toward Guisui.
And on top of him!
Dong Bong-su was riding.
"How... is this possible?"
Even as he said those words, they were getting closer.
"Fire!"
The crossbows were aimed at Li Zi-song's main force and couldn't easily fire at Kaiji, so only the archer unit quickly changed direction and fired at Kaiji and Dong Bong-su. He didn't know how they had flown here or how Dong Bong-su had managed to tame Kaiji, but it would be difficult to avoid this rain of arrows.
However, expectations don't always pan out. Especially in situations that have gone wrong like now, things often only get more tangled—that's the way of the world.
Dong Bong-su, who had been lying flat on Kaiji's back, straightened his waist and thrust his hand forward.
Then something black appeared in his hand.
A corpse!
And it was another monster, contaminated by the black monsters!
Dong Bong-su threw it toward where the arrows were flying. And threw again. He kept throwing.
"...!"
Corpses kept appearing from somewhere. The corpses flew toward the walls, blocking arrows instead of Dong Bong-su and Kaiji.
Timur Khan drew his sword and threw it at a corpse. But there wasn't just one or two corpses that Dong Bong-su threw.
Growing desperate, he grabbed nearby archers and crossbowmen and threw them toward the incoming corpses.
Thud. Slam.
"Aaaaagh!"
Living bodies and corpses collided with dull sounds.
Then the living bodies also fell below the walls and became corpses.
Right now, the death of one or two soldiers wasn't important to Timur Khan. He had to prevent even one of those black corpses from crossing the walls at all costs. He had abandoned Mamorota and the Gray Wolf War Squad to block those things, so how much more a few archers.
In the end, he blocked all the corpses. But Dong Bong-su and Kaiji were still flying this way. He absolutely had to make them fall from midair.
Burst.
Timur Khan leaped toward Dong Bong-su, who was flying into the fortress at tremendous speed. Now, if he just killed that bastard and kicked him to fall outside the walls, everything would be over.
He didn't think for a moment that he would fail. Though his opponent had defeated Mamorota, he was confident that he couldn't block his sword. The only thing threatening to him on this battlefield was the black monsters.
Shrieeek—
Could an arrow that left the bowstring be faster than this?
Timur Khan flew toward Dong Bong-su and Kaiji at a terrifying speed.
He stretched both arms down as far as possible to minimize air resistance.
Then, when he rose to a position where Kaiji's belly was clearly visible, he raised his lowered arms with all his might. Soon the sword tip would pierce through Kaiji's belly, gouge out the intestines, then protrude toward the back and penetrate Dong Bong-su's lower body. That would finish this matter.
But just as his sword was about to touch Kaiji's belly.
Suddenly!
Kaiji! And Dong Bong-su disappeared.
"...!"
His sword futilely slashed through empty air, and his body along with it also crossed through the air and flew more vigorously upward. Timur Khan hastily tried to brake by doing aerial somersaults, but the force of his upward momentum and the force of swinging his sword upward were so strong that he couldn't help but fly up several more meters even in that state.
"Gah!"
Meanwhile, Dong Bong-su, who had safely landed on the walls, indiscriminately killed archers and crossbowmen. What was peculiar was that Kaiji followed Dong Bong-su well, as if he were his original master.
Dong Bong-su's Man-Wolf Death Method looked far more skilled than Mamorota's, who had trained for over ten years, and that was the actual situation.
Kaiji bit to death the nomadic soldiers blocking Dong Bong-su's path indiscriminately.
Meanwhile, Dong Bong-su took out black corpses and threw them recklessly into the fortress.
Only then did Timur Khan's eyes, who had regained his body's balance and was falling using the Thousand Pound Weight Technique, witness that scene completely. Despite all that effort...
Finally, the black monsters came flooding into Guisui.