Chapter 90 - Timur Khan (1)

There was indeed only one enemy, but that one man was enough to cut off the rear of twenty thousand troops. It was not the enemy who was surrounded, but Salakat’s own forces.

The tide of battle was rapidly turning against them as well. They had penetrated too deeply into the enemy ranks to escape easily now. Taking advantage of their superior numbers, the enemy was gradually widening the encirclement.

He might manage to escape alone, but what would that accomplish?

Salakat drew the twin sabers crossed over his back. Since it had come to this, he would at least kill the most dangerous-looking enemy before he died. Surely that would repay some small part of Timur Khan’s kindness.

He ran toward the distant spray of blood. The cavalrymen were packed so tightly that he could barely get through, and when necessary, he cut down even his own men without mercy.

"Come out! Come out, you bastards!"

The man, Dong Bongsu, was now stained so thoroughly red that his original appearance was unrecognizable.

The nomad cavalrymen were already reluctant to approach that monstrous figure.

Salakat drew near and clashed his twin sabers together to get his attention.

Dong Bongsu killed one more man, then turned Kaiji’s reins and looked at Salakat. Like his rider, Kaiji was drenched in blood, his lustrous silver fur slick with it.

SHING...

Salakat pressed his two sabers together, scraping their edges against each other as he slowly lowered them below his shins. It was his own distinctive opening stance.

Dong Bongsu slowly raised the Vagabond Sword straight before him. After studying Salakat a moment longer, he dismounted from Kaiji.

"You’d be wasted at sixty percent."

Then he launched himself straight at Salakat.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

Who knew how many thousands of lives had already been lost? Another one. Soon, another...

There was no end.

Even the sounds of battle from the distant rear, where Salakat should have been attacking, seemed to be dwindling. Not because he was winning. If he were, the enemy would have been visibly sending troops that way. Instead, the northern expeditionary army’s forces kept massing toward Guishui Fortress. Of the last troops Timur Khan had led out of the fortress, only a few thousand seemed to remain.

‘Have I lost?’

He had never entertained the slightest possibility of defeat... Yet now, even Timur Khan had no choice but to admit it.

He had lost. He had failed.

His defeat was complete.

For the briefest moment, thoughts of escape and a future comeback crossed his mind.

But he soon dismissed them.

There was nowhere left to go, no more troops to muster, no generals left to call upon. Mamorota was dead, and Salakat might already be dead as well. His other outstanding generals were down below, fighting and bleeding. It would not be long before they all returned to nature.

Once the tide had turned against him, Timur Khan had instead returned to Guishui Fortress and climbed atop its walls. The fierce wind stabbed painfully at his single blue eye, but his eyes did not return to their old narrow slits. They could not.

After looking down at the battlefield a little longer, he turned his gaze inward. It was not the great steppe, but it was his land. Guishui Fortress. For decades, this fortress had protected all of Northern Yuan.

‘So this place has reached its end too.’

Perhaps because every male from fifteen to sixty had been mobilized, the fortress was very quiet. Only cattle, pigs, sheep, and other livestock wandered about, lowing and squealing with their owners gone. Not a trace of the remaining inhabitants could be seen. Perhaps they were hiding somewhere, scarcely daring to breathe.

He pressed his lips tightly together and raised his head toward the sky. The wind still lashed mercilessly at his eyes and back. Even so, he stood in silence, hands clasped behind him.

The sky was clear, the clouds plump. Like the livestock below.

"A fine day, is it?"

To die...

How much more time had passed? The battle line had shifted almost to the entrance of Guishui Fortress.

Along with a fierce gust, a man and a wolf came flying toward the battlements from afar at tremendous speed. Timur Khan did not see them, but he knew. Even so, he did not turn his head toward them. His gaze remained fixed on the sky.

TAP TAP.

Unopposed, the enormous wolf landed easily atop the wall, a little over ten zhang from Timur Khan.

"You’ve come?"

He spoke without lowering his gaze, as though he had been waiting a long time. There was even a warmth to it, almost like a greeting to an old friend.

Dong Bongsu urged Kaiji forward, approaching him from behind.

Only then did Timur Khan look away from the sky and turn. Dong Bongsu’s battered body came into view. Dried blood covered him in layer upon layer, but what first caught Timur Khan’s eye were the pockets of pus visible here and there through his torn clothing.

"The black monster has devoured you."

"That’s why I have no time."

Did he mean he had little time left before he died? That seemed likely, but Timur Khan could not jump to conclusions. Everything Dong Bongsu had done so far had defied his understanding. There was no reason to expect the words coming out of his mouth to be any different.

Timur Khan spoke again.

"What on earth drives you to fight even in that state? You’ll die soon enough anyway."

"I’m not dead until I die."

Dong Bongsu answered with a flick of the Vagabond Sword, shaking the fresh blood onto the ground.

An interesting fellow indeed, Timur Khan thought. Raising a finger toward the sky, he said,

"Well? Are you so sure? Like everyone you’ve killed, you’ll soon be up there anyway. And so will I."

That was where their conversation ended.

Dong Bongsu’s Vagabond Sword swept in an arc across Timur Khan’s upper body like an ebbing tide.

Timur Khan hurriedly struck diagonally with his own sword, deflecting the blade. In that instant, Kaiji raised both forepaws and attacked his lower body in a clapping motion. With no time even to rage at the betrayal of what had been his faithful dog until so recently, Timur Khan had to retreat like a receding tide.

The wolf had been his. He knew all too well how powerful Kaiji’s attacks were.

But Timur Khan was not merely retreating.

His longsword began spinning at high speed, like a top.

Dong Bongsu readily understood what he intended. This had to be Mamorota’s Mighty Overlord Spin applied to a sword. With Timur Khan’s martial prowess surpassing Mamorota’s, its power went without saying.

WHOOSH!

Timur Khan thrust his Self-Spinning Sword straight forward, and Dong Bongsu hastily raised both hands toward the space above the khan’s head.

Timur Khan abruptly turned his thrust upward. Something enormous had suddenly appeared overhead and was falling toward him.

It was the trebuchet. Dong Bongsu had taken it from his Inventory to block Timur Khan’s attack.

CRASH!

Under the pull of gravity, the trebuchet fell straight toward Timur Khan’s head, only to shatter against his self-spinning sword qi.

As the fragments of the trebuchet, its service finally at an end, rained down, Dong Bongsu and Kaiji attacked him again.

With his sword still extended overhead, Timur Khan seemed to have no way to defend himself.

But!

At that desperate instant, his body began spinning like a top. A ring of projectile-repelling qi encircled him.

BOOM!

Body Ring. This was Timur Khan’s unique martial art, extending Sword Ring to his own body. Its power was no less than that of Sword Ring itself. Despite attacking first, Dong Bongsu and Kaiji were hurled backward by the ring-shaped bands of qi erupting from him.

With Body Ring still active, Timur Khan flew straight at Dong Bongsu. This was the Flying Ring–Sword Unification that had made him the strongest warrior in the north!

CRAAASH!

As his body spun through the air, his Body Ring grew larger and more powerful. The stone walkway within its radius was gouged and split without mercy. If Dong Bongsu and Kaiji entered its range, they too would be torn apart like paper.

Just as Timur Khan’s Self-Spinning Sword Ring was about to reach Dong Bongsu, he and Kaiji vanished. He had used Movement Art to evade the attack.

But Movement Art could only be used once.

Timur Khan’s deadly rotation had yet to stop. Once again, he flew toward the place where Dong Bongsu reappeared. Though he was spinning too fast to see, he could easily locate Dong Bongsu by sensing his qi.

He was spinning even faster now, leaving Body Ring scars across the entire battlement.

Watching him, Dong Bongsu’s gaze sank into a profound stillness, reaching a state of nothingness. He was not waiting for death. Until death drove its sword point into his throat, he would never do that.

That was Dong Bongsu.

Suddenly, he reversed his grip on his sword and stabbed the pus-filled places across his body. Blood and pus spurted like fountains, then scattered in all directions, swept away by the whirlwind Timur Khan had raised.

[The player’s HP has fallen below 20%, increasing all stats by 10%.]

[Survival Instinct Lv.2] activated.

In contrast to the pain sweeping through his entire body, Dong Bongsu’s eyes grew even calmer.

WHIR! WHIR! WHIR!

The sword point that served as Timur Khan’s axis of rotation whirled at an unimaginable speed, closing in until it was right before Dong Bongsu. It was a terrifying sight, like the enormous drill of a machine boring into the earth.

Dong Bongsu dismounted. After sending Kaiji back, he held the Vagabond Sword horizontally, its point aimed forward. Then he summoned [Sword Qi] and thrust toward Timur Khan.

It was the ordinary skill Direct Strike Yellow Dragon—a simple Thrust.

A firefly before the full moon, perhaps?

Anyone could see that Dong Bongsu’s sword qi fell far short of the force of Timur Khan’s Flying Ring–Sword Unification.