1101. We have the same nickname.
Awooooo!
A pack of wolves crossed the moat created by the fairies through a gap in the spreading fog, and this looked like a strategy originally prepared by the army of the Demon Realm.
No, it was enough to make one think so.
It started with an ice monster.
Next, harpies, crow beasts, and winged bear beasts swooped down from above.
Even this alone would have been enough to bring down an ordinary unit, but they did not. The reinforcements who arrived alongside the Knights of the Red Cloak easily fended them off. But then, another wave crashed down.
Now, how are you going to stop this?
It was as if Ma-gyeong was asking a question.
Should they send their asymmetric forces swarming out beyond the walls?
No, that would be a poor strategy. Fighting within the walls is the right path.
Were Ingis and Aurelia the only notable figures among the Knights of the Red Cloak?
Aside from the widely known Cypress and Lien, there were many others who had proven their capabilities in their own right.
Ferdinand, a Junior Knight and one of them, racked his brains. He continued to ponder.
You mustn’t step forward.
We hold out. The objective was to defend the fortress from the start. If we had to fight them in a battle on an open field without walls, enduring the cold, it would have been our side that was at a disadvantage.
In such a battle, the stamina of the knights is depleted too quickly.
There is no reason to deliberately fight with such a disadvantage. Therefore, the answer is not to go out. Ferdinand’s judgment was accurate. He assessed the situation correctly.
We must endure.
He finished thinking and spoke. These were the words of a man whose judgment was outstanding in many ways, even within the Order of the Red Cloak Knights.
No one disregarded Ferdinand’s words.
He then gave a few more instructions.
Shoot arrows from around the castle walls. That was the plan to stop them.
Aurelia, who was not far away, approached, heard his instructions, and nodded.
Sir Ferdinand is right.
Aurelia shared the same opinion. Ferdinand added more as he watched Aurelia approach.
If that is all there is, stopping it with arrows will suffice.
A caveat was attached. It was the premise that “if that is all there is.”
The two were fundamentally close friends, often able to guess each other’s true intentions with just a few words. After all, weren’t they the ones who had repeatedly carried out the Knights’ strategies together?
If that isn’t everything, we have to draw our swords too.
Aurelia replied.
They would respond based on established assumptions, but if a problem arose, they would adapt accordingly. It was a passive attitude, but it was the best option for now.
In fact, taking an active role at this stage would be detrimental.
The devil was desperate to draw out the allied forces.
Ferdinand and Aurelia shared the same thought. Therefore, it appeared as though they were confronting the enemy in a passive manner.
Their gaze turned toward the castle walls. The number of swarming enemies was considerable.
Above all, some of the charging wolves were massive, the size of houses. They approached, stomping on the ground; while they appeared slow at first glance, that was due to their size, not their speed.
In reality, they were galloping at a considerable speed. They were certainly faster than an average horse at full speed.
Aurelia furrowed her brow. Ferdinand hadn’t yet felt anything, but the keen senses he had acquired as a knight sounded a warning.
ominous.
The premise Ferdinand laid is shattered. That is likely to be the case. My intuition turned into a premonition.
Auuuuuuu!
The howl of the wolves rang out loudly once again. It was impossible to tell when the sky had turned pitch black.
The fight that had begun at dawn had already passed noon, and looking back now, it was just the time when the sun was beginning to set, yet night had arrived abnormally quickly. It felt as though the twilight and evening had been skipped over. Before anyone realized
it, the moon had risen and darkness had descended.
And so, beneath the two moons, the bodies of the charging wolf pack began to transform.
Several dire wolves, having run on all fours, stood on their hind legs. With the cracking sound of bones meshing together, their spines shrank, and waists appeared as if a distinction had formed between their upper and lower bodies.
They had switched from running on all fours to walking on two, yet their speed remained the same. No, it had become faster.
Pow! Pow! With every thrust of the ground, a hole formed in the soft earth, and their massive bodies left afterimages.
“Director.”
The premise was shattered. Ferdinand’s brow furrowed. This was not something he could simply stand by and watch.
They had the power to breach part of the castle wall. With swarms of harpies still circling in the sky, it was an awkward moment to divide his forces.
Still, if necessary, he would have to send some troops down to confront them.
Will I die by an arrow?
Ten fairy archers would be enough to put a few of their heads on skewers before roasting them, though.
They are no ordinary guys.
The bright yellow eyes of a large werewolf scan the castle wall. They are not creatures that have surrendered themselves to wildness and instinct.
Named.
There were at least ten individuals unique enough to earn a name. Their arms were abnormally thick, and their fur was tattered and flying, making them suitable for use as shields.
Perhaps the only saving grace was that they weren’t attacking in formation.
Arrows won’t work.
If left to cling to the walls, the damage would be considerable.
It is the beginning of winter. Now is the moment to strike and eliminate them. It is time to unleash the full power of the knights.
While Ferdinand and Aurelia judged this with their minds, the born fighters—especially those signifying disaster—knew instinctively when to step forward.
Cyprus, one of them, naturally intended to step forward himself. He was standing with his left foot resting on the corner of the wall, looking down.
Instinct and intuition spoke to him. Slice, stab, cut, and smash those things to obliterate them.
In doing so, unleash your hatred toward the monsters and hear the cheers of those under your protection. In
short, it was a moment when his blood boiled just right.
Having lived his entire life on the battlefield, Cyprus did not turn away from such whispers.
“Well then, is it my turn?”
It was the words of a knight known for his reputation of accomplishing things no matter what, and bearing the moniker of “Oath.” Everyone’s eyes were fixed on him.
Yet, there was not a trace of anxiety in those gazes. The guardian who has protected the South until now is here.
Who would dare cross the front line he guards?
It was just before Cypress asked with his sword.
“I will stop them all alone…….”
He opens his mouth like that.
I’ll go.
Just as he was about to utter his vow and step down, Sinar interrupted him.
She acted before he could. She spoke and immediately descended to the foot of the wall, a method different from those who had stepped forward so far.
“Bran.”
Speaking in a whisper and stepping out from atop the castle wall, the wooden wall, appearing alive, formed a sloping path downwards.
Though the path was barely wide enough for a single person to pass, Sinar ran across it with light footsteps, as if kicking off.
His movements were weightless, yet his cloak thinned out, draping like a scarf and stretching behind him.
In the blink of an eye, Sinar had reached the ground.
His pace seemed neither fast nor slow, yet before he knew it, he was outside the wall, and suddenly he had stepped right out ahead.
“like.”
With his left foot extended toward the edge of the castle wall, Cyprus bent his knees appropriately, rested his elbows on them, and gazed at the battlefield with his chin resting
on his hand. He had momentarily forgotten that there was someone to step forward in his place.
After all, wasn’t this the land he was supposed to defend?
That was why he had assumed no one else would step forward besides himself, yet the elf had suddenly stepped forward. In a way,
it seemed like a truly reckless fight. The elf who had stepped down was tiny, while the approaching force was at least a pack of hundreds of wolves.
Moreover, it was the moment a giant wolf transformed into a werewolf, boasting a dizzying height.
Sinar had drawn her sword before he knew it and leaped forward.
Her slow pace quickened, and in an instant, her figure vanished from the sight of an ordinary person.
From where she had been to the wolf pack, a golden line stretched out instead of an afterimage. It was a golden line dividing the darkness and the moonlight.
phut.
Then, accompanied by the sound of the air tearing, a fairy entered the monster unit that had approached the front of the castle wall.
A reckless thing to do.
Some soldiers with keen eyesight thought to themselves:
Was even a knight’s body made of steel?
No. Moreover, no matter how finely armored he was, he would shatter if struck.
Without even the sound of his cloak fluttering, a pack of werewolves soon surrounded the place she had entered.
You can’t do it alone.
Ferdinand said, “Even if my general manager had stepped in, he would have stopped me.”
You are not alone.
Aurelia muttered. She was right.
Arrows fly silently from behind. No sooner had she finished speaking than the sound of a string being plucked was heard.
Tudududududung!
There could be no string instrument superior to this on the battlefield.
It was a line of fairy archers led by Arselina, who had stepped forward early. The arrows they shot fell like lightning, piercing the heads of ten werewolves.
Ta-da-da-da-da!
The arrow flew so fast that the sound of sparks exploding echoed through the air.
In the meantime, the Elven Lord, having descended alone, burst forth from the left side of the wolf pack.
Two giant werewolves collapsed right where she had leaped out.
thud-
The floor shook. One had a hole in its head, and the other had its neck half-severed.
The headless one clutched its throat, gasping for breath, before being enveloped by another pack of wolves and vanishing from sight.
Killing these two giant werewolves just now was the work of elven swordsmanship—or, to speak of Sinar’s swordsmanship, a harmony of winter and autumn, but those watching could not possibly know.
Sinar went on a rampage. Her battle shone like the third moon appearing in the early night. It was
merely a moon tinged with gold.
As her golden hair traced lines, her blade drew silver lines again and again; the werewolves and the named monsters hiding among them could not hold out, their necks severing one after another, their limbs lost, and they collapsed to the ground, writhing in agony. With monsters everywhere,
could she really kill them just by swinging and stabbing her sword? Easier said than done; actually executing it was a different matter.
Ferdinand was left speechless.
Also, even though I am alone, I don’t think it is a crisis.
Aurelia’s words spoke for himself.
Sinar sliced, slashed, and stabbed everything that rushed at him; when one of the giant werewolves aimed his claws at her and struck the ground, Sinar used that arm as a ladder to climb up, plunged his sword deep into the man’s crown, and jumped down.
The texture was like poking pudding with a fork, but it was, of course, a feat performed by materializing his life force.
Meanwhile, the fairy archer Arselina shot an arrow, sniping the man who was approaching Sinar’s landing spot.
Bang!
The head flew away as if smashing, scattering flesh and bone fragments into the air.
Archers are used to block some of the approaching enemies.
If you lose your focus there, the Fairy Lord who had vanished suddenly pops out from another place.
If you lose your focus to the Fairy Lord again, your head explodes from an arrow shot by the Fairy Archer Yeol, and a flower named Arrow sprouts from your body.
A simple but efficient fight.
That was how it appeared to Ferdinand. After fighting for quite some time, the remaining monsters—whether terrified or feeling it was a futile endeavor—fleeed, and about a dozen wolves and werewolves fled. Even if
they had fought to the very end, the winner was obvious.
Sinar killed the majority of the werewolf pack and turned around.
As he walked with the moonlight pattering behind him, his entire body was black.
His cloak and hair, originally dark green, had been stained black with blood.
Perhaps it was due to Sinar’s return after part of the castle wall had opened, or the result of the battle that had begun that morning.
Everyone was feeling a heat rising in their chests. One of them shouted, as if exhaling a breath.
“Monster Slayer!”
That shout was the beginning.
“Ooh!”
“Monster Slayer!”
Cheers rang out.
Sinar laughed willingly at the words they threw.
You have the same nickname as my fiancé.
It was a battle that took place as soon as winter began. Was the defense a success? Yes, it was.
At least, it turned out exactly as Crys had hoped.
“Isn’t that going too far?”
Cypress asked.
They say knights are a disaster and can perform miracles, but that doesn’t mean they can fight without any restrictions.
Especially since this place is close to the realm of evil. It is not an environment conducive to fairies running rampant.
Knowing this, didn’t they counter with a strategy of whittling down the knights’ stamina by forcing them to step forward just in the nick of time, rather than attacking them all at once?
I will have to do this much.
Sinard knows how to look after the situation. She will remain faithful to her role of guarding the fortress walls.
That is exactly what Encred desires. Furthermore, she was a fairy who hated the continent’s greatest demon.
Breaking the demon’s will to cross this place, nothing could be more enjoyable.
Now, look. We will hold out.
A roar erupted at the words Sinar casually spat out.
The battle that followed followed a similar pattern. Although the monsters relentlessly attacked—I wondered where they had been hidden—they were manageable to hold them back.
Of course, this was thanks to the winter-blocking walls built by the fairies and the asymmetrical forces stationed here fighting without regard for the consequences.
