My Slain Dragon Bride

Chapter 230. Because There Is No Hero

The army moved.

With every step they took, the rocks launched from the trebuchets passed over them like enormous shadows.

The rocks crashed down inside the city, and the vibrations they felt through the soles of their feet grew stronger with every impact.

The soldiers could feel it clearly.

We are entering death.

They were advancing toward death.

The lifeless, gray city finally began to stir.

At last, something began to reveal itself.

"Th-That?"

There was no doubt about it.

It was a Monster.

The only difference was that unlike the Monsters they had encountered before, which took the forms of animals, these creatures had a form resembling that of humans.

"Alte, have mercy..."

"What in the world...? What kind of Hell did those things crawl out of?"

Creatures that had crawled out of Hell.

They were so grotesque that the expression hardly seemed inappropriate.

They possessed human torsos, but moved on all fours with twisted arms and legs. The places where their eyes and noses should have been were covered with skin, while their mouths were stretched open far wider than they should have been.

Ferda had seen them before at Gyeonghui Palace.

Ghoul Monsters.

—Kieeeeeek!

Accompanied by the characteristic piercing roar of Monsters, they came down from the city walls.

No.

They poured down.

It was as though someone had disturbed an Ant Nest. Monsters poured out from within and rushed toward the invaders to punish them.

"Stop!"

"Sound the formation horn!"

Following the system of horn signals, the soldiers thrust their long spears forward and formed a shield formation.

The archers, engineers operating the siege weapons, and Mages all prepared for a long-range bombardment at once.

Olivia also began issuing orders.

"Front line, halt! Form the shield formation!"

Her voice rang out as she commanded the Knights.

More than a hundred Knights stood in two rows and drove their shields firmly into the ground. Then they dropped to one knee, becoming supports for those shields.

They formed a solid foundation for the enormous shields.

"1st Infantry Battalion! Deploy to the rear! Load and report!"

The Tactical Infantry stood behind the Knights’ shields with their Magitech Rifles.

They inserted the large cylindrical cartridges and rested the rifles on the shields as supports.

"Loading complete!"

"Loading complete!"

"All personnel of the 1st Battalion have finished loading!"

Olivia raised her sword high.

"Fire at will!"

Papapapang!

When the thunderous sound erupted, the Spearmen standing beside them faltered in surprise.

And then they witnessed an astonishing sight.

Blue beams traveling in straight lines struck the bodies of the charging Monsters, sending them crashing to the ground.

—Kiek!

The movements of the Monsters that had been charging without hesitation became disordered.

The commanders who had been waiting for this moment opened their eyes wide.

This is beyond my expectations!

I knew the Rifle would possess tremendous firepower and stopping power, but to this extent?

Seeing it in reality surpassed their imagination.

The stopping power was so tremendous that it formed something resembling an arc around Ferda’s army.

There were one hundred Tactical Infantry soldiers, and each of them fired thirty rounds.

A total of three thousand Mana bullets surged forward, devastating everything in their path.

When the Mana Stones loaded into the rifles finally lost their light and became nothing more than chunks of stone, the battalion commander shouted.

"Cease fire!"

"Rear line, switch! 2nd Battalion, commence fire immediately!"

They carried out the rotations they had practiced endlessly, unleashing a continuous barrage without leaving any gaps.

It seemed as though they were successfully stopping the waves of charging Ghoul Monsters.

But that lasted only for a moment.

"Commander! Those idiots have started using their heads!"

The humanoid Monsters seemed to possess intelligence after all, because they stopped charging blindly.

Instead, they grabbed the corpses of their fallen comrades and used them as shields as they advanced.

"Keep firing!"

Whenever one of those Monsters was brought down, another would pick up its corpse and pile it on top of the others, creating layer upon layer of flesh shields.

With the firepower of the Rifles alone, stopping them was practically impossible.

But William had anticipated even this situation.

As his adjutant, he took command.

"2nd Battalion, retreat! Front line, stand!"

The 2nd Battalion, which had been pouring fire into the enemy, withdrew at once, while the Knights firmly grasped their shields and rose to their feet.

What the firepower of the Rifles could not accomplish—

"Prepare the Magitech Shotguns!"

—They would break through with even greater firepower.

The Knights raised their gun barrels over their shields, which were set at an angle.

Once the Ghoul Monsters came close enough, the Monsters that had been charging behind their flesh shields threw the corpses to the ground and leaped toward the top of the shield wall.

"Fire!"

If the Rifles had sounded like thunder, this was the rumbling of the earth itself being overturned.

[Insert]

BOOM!

KWA-GWAAAAANG!

A blue explosion spread outward from the muzzle, blasting apart the bodies of the humanoid Monsters flying toward them.

The Monsters nearby were blown backward with holes riddling their entire bodies, while those struck by the point-blank shot were torn apart completely.

The power was tremendous, especially considering that an entire magazine was consumed in a single attack.

"Aim forward!"

And there was still one shot left.

"Fire!"

KWA-GWAAAAANG!

The Monsters were helplessly pushed back by the force of the projectiles spreading across a wide area.

Olivia, immediately understanding the situation, issued another command.

"Advance the front line ten paces! Form a wedge formation!"

The Knights pulled their shields out of the ground and moved according to her orders.

They became the spearhead piercing through the front line, advancing without hesitation before driving their shields firmly into the ground again.

Those shields once more became firing supports for the Tactical Infantry.

And the formation became a fortress.

The other commanders could not hide their amazement as they watched.

A movement that completely contradicted everything they knew and had experienced continued before their eyes.

They had assumed Ferda’s army would be defensive because it was small in number and had Knights equipped with large shields at the front.

And because it was defensive, they had expected it to be the slowest formation on the battlefield.

Yet an army of only five hundred was now advancing like a spear, piercing straight through the enemy lines.

The commanders had also believed that the person making the greatest contribution in Ferda’s army would be Alberto.

His monstrous strength and defensive power suited his nickname, One-Man Army, perfectly.

Yet he was merely standing in the exact center of the formation, quietly serving as a shield just like the other Knights.

Alberto had become part of the army.

There was none of his usual independent action.

And because of that, Magitech Engineering was shining in its purest form.

"Is Magitech Engineering really something that incredible?"

Because there was no hero, everyone became a hero.

A truly ideal military tactic had been born.

—Even if we are slow, we will never retreat.

Ferda suddenly remembered the boast he had once made.

Indeed, the only things continuing to advance were the two siege towers behind Ferda.

The commanders revised their tactics.

"Battalions closest to the Far East! Shield-bearers and Knights, support the flanks of the Far Eastern army!"

"Help establish a defensive line centered around the Far East’s forces! Never expose your flanks!"

Even if sacrifices had to be made, the Far Eastern army was the most reliable breakthrough point for securing victory.

By filling the gaps in the wedge formation, their tactics became even more solid and allowed them to move with greater boldness.

Ferda continued observing the battle from the rear.

Not bad.

Many of the infantrymen had experienced Monsters before, so they were not easily frightened or intimidated.

They knew that before overwhelming firepower, those creatures were ultimately nothing more than chunks of meat.

What about the others?

Ferda turned his attention elsewhere and surveyed the battlefield.

If Ferda’s forces were breaking through with an army, the other Imperial forces depended heavily on the exploits of their heroes.

The man serving as that hero was Count Rooster.

The reason he could do so was because the warhorse Count Rooster rode was extremely special.

It clearly had the shape of a horse, but its bulging muscles and horned barding made it resemble a massive bull.

And it was not merely its appearance.

From the flank of the battlefield, Count Rooster was driving straight into the enemy lines, sending Ghoul Monsters flying, trampling them beneath his hooves, and severing their momentum.

It looked like a reckless attack, yet he was careful even so.

Knowing that there was no morale to break, he did not recklessly push too deep.

Instead, he steadily forced the front line backward little by little.

’What about Ureas?’

He was quietly watching everything from the rear.

He claimed that he was observing the battlefield for the sake of command, but his mouth never moved.

Only the commanders were busy.

Apparently, Ureas called this a "strategic rest."

And the Allied Forces...

The Allied Forces were also pushing forward in a manner similar to Count Rooster’s, except that Ferda’s army was absent from their formation.

They had strongly insisted that Monsters would be present because the Demon Race was involved, and, just as he had expected, they were slowly pushing their way forward.

Unlike Ureas, who was taking a strategic rest, King Hudret was personally breaking through the path at the vanguard alongside his Knights.

Truly heroic.

Whether he was a real hero remained to be seen.

After they had faced each other and become entangled for quite some time—

"The Monsters are retreating!"

At someone’s shout, Ferda raised his head.

Just as they had said, the Ghoul Monsters that had been blocking the front line were retreating.

"Run with your tails between your legs, you bastards!"

"Keep firing! Leave no survivors on this land!"

The scattered Ghoul Monsters climbed back up the walls and disappeared inside.

The kingdom city once again emitted an eerie silence.

"Soldiers! This was only possible because of your spirit! Press forward while we have the momentum!!"

Ureas’s shout raised the morale of the Imperial forces.

Apparently, someone in the Allied Forces shouted something similar, because cheers erupted from the west as well.

With nothing left to stop them, the siege towers were now pushed toward the city walls.

Ferda walked over to William.

"Give me a status report."

"Status report. Total personnel: 504. Survivors: 504. Three wounded. Of those three, two merely suffered broken chins from being struck by the Knights’ helmets."

"So we can consider our casualties effectively nonexistent."

Their morale was already at its peak.

If they were dealing with ignorant meat shields, Ferda might have encouraged them to throw even more men into the furnace.

But every one of these soldiers was practically equivalent to a Mage.

They needed to remain alert.

"Stay vigilant, soldiers. The real battle will begin once we enter."

"Yes, sir!"

"Unlike the wide-open battlefield we have now, inside the canyons of buildings, countless butchers will be coming for your lives. I wish you good fortune."

After Ferda finished speaking, the soldiers began preparing for the next battle.

"Regent."

Olivia and William, who had been commanding the army, approached him.

Ferda knew what they had come to say.

"From here onward, there is nothing we can do."

"It’s all right."

Olivia was an Imperial Princess, and at the same time, she was destined to become a Saintess.

From this point onward, when things were about to become truly dangerous, she could no longer take part.

That was as far as Ureas had permitted her to go, and Ferda understood his decision as well.

Olivia’s blue eyes shone sadly.

Her face looked as though she might burst into tears at any moment.

It was almost like a wife sending her husband off to war.

"Please... take good care of yourself."

Having said that, she turned her horse around and galloped toward where Ureas was.

Zed, who was standing nearby, tilted his head slightly before speaking.

"Her Highness the Princess seems to care for you very much, Regent."

"Her acting seems to be getting better and better by the day."

Ferda naturally assumed it was all an act.

He could never have imagined such an expression on the face of such a strong woman.

Zed stared at Ferda’s face for a moment before shaking his head from side to side.

The siege towers reached the outer wall, and the drawbridges were lowered.

"Move! Move!"

The soldiers waiting inside rushed into the city all at once.

The eyes of those who entered the castle trembled.

"My God..."

"They must have bombarded this place for three days and three nights..."

Unless they had spent those three days sleeping as though dead, everyone knew what they should have been seeing.

The buildings should have been half-destroyed.

Yet every single building was intact.

The streets were chaotic, but that was only because of the rocks they had launched.

Nothing had been broken or shattered.

"Everyone, enter the city!"

"There are no civilians! To break the power of the King who sold his soul to the Demon Race, we must kill every human inside this city!"

At the commanders’ cries that no mercy would be shown, the soldiers descended from beneath the outer wall.

They entered the main street and began moving forward.

That was when the enemy moved again.

Something flew out from an empty building and landed in the middle of the soldiers.

Slash!

It unleashed several flashes of light and afterimages.

The iron armor of the soldiers touched by those flashes was sliced apart, turning the humans inside into masses of blood and flesh.

"A-an ambush!"

"It’s a Monster!"

The soldiers’ cries descended into chaos.

Only after dozens of heads had been severed did the correct information finally emerge from their mouths.

"It’s the Demon Race!"

"Bring the Knights!"

Black skin.

Red eyes.

They were members of the Demon Race who had once roamed freely across the world but were now rarely seen.

These vicious beings were waging urban warfare and displaying an overwhelming presence.

Only after hundreds of casualties had occurred did the Knights finally arrive and confront the Demon Race.

"Alte, protect the Emperor!"

"Evil creature! I have come to pass judgment upon you!"

They were Demon Race members once known as Knight-class.

Each one possessed combat power that surpassed that of an individual Knight.

Three Knights fought against one of them, and only after sacrificing one of their own were they finally able to drive a blade through the Demon Race member’s heart.

"Liam, I will never forget your sacrifice, I... huh?"

The blade had definitely pierced straight through the Demon Race member’s heart.

Yet the creature’s form began to blur.

Then its shape transformed into that of an utterly ordinary commoner.

"Wh-What...?"

"Does this mean... the one we fought wasn’t a member of the Demon Race?"

Amid their confusion, a chill ran down their spines.

Was it merely a sixth sense?

Or had that instinct been correct?

The door of a civilian house at the far end of the road opened.

A black figure emerged.

It was the very same Demon Race member who had fought them only a few minutes ago.

The man smiled thinly and spoke.

"Well then... shall we move on to round two?"

Despair had not even begun yet.

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