Looking out from a battlement, a warrior shouted towards the inside of the fortress walls, “They are lining up unarmed people again!”
Lakrak said to his adjutant Quezle, “What do you think?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe they’re trying to make it easier to climb the hill. According to what we have observed so far, Vampires can simply bite anyone of any species to increase their number, but not infinitely. I think those people might be their slaves.”
Quezle was the chief of the Lizardmen tribe on the peninsula who had resisted against Lakrak until the end. However, after their defeat, Quezle fell under the influence of Lakrak’s will, and Quezle’s tribe became part of Black Scale without much trouble. And now, Quezle’s scales had also turned black.
Lakrak then said, “It wouldn’t be good to treat them that way just because they’re slaves.”
“I agree, but perhaps the Vampires think of them as lesser than slaves.”
“What do you mean?”
“As food.”
“Food.”
“Yes. We also throw away our excess supplies, don’t we? They would have filled their stomachs in the Satyr village before, and it’s likely that they’re ready to go to Orazen after a short showdown here at Automation. Excess food is useless, so…”
“That’s not the only reason, Quezle.”
Quezle turned to look at Lakrak.
Lakrak then said, “Do you know that the other countries of this continent didn’t like Lizardmen?”
“Yes. They thought of us as monsters until not long ago.”
“I heard that our great general had done a good job. It was said that he faced lots of Vampires while going to and from Danyum and Red Fruit. And apparently word spread that the Lizardmen will defeat the Vampires in not only Danyum and Red Fruit, but also in Asbestos, Golden Eye, and Magul. And that Black Scale will beat White Tooth.”
“Oh.”
The slaves ran towards the fortress walls. Shooting at unarmed people could demoralize warriors. But Lakrak didn’t make any other orders, and the defense captain ordered his men to shoot. The archers hiding behind the battlements quickly made their shots before taking cover again.
One of the slaves didn’t die, and they screamed. As the scream continued to ring, the defense captain took a bow himself and killed the slave.
Quezle then said to Lakrak, “I get what you’re saying. They’re making us shoot the slaves that put their hope in us.”
“Yes.”
“We cannot open the gates and accept the slaves, so the expectations that the slaves had wouldn’t be met. Then it would be easier to control the remaining slaves. Vampires use the slaves as food, which could lead to the slaves starting a resistance, but the slaves would despair if they recognize there’s no hope. That’s clever.”
“Not exactly.”
“What?”
Lakrak smiled and said, “That is why you lost to me.”
Quezle didn’t understand what Lakrak meant by that, so he looked at Lakrak in confusion.
The defense captain on top of the fortress said to Lakrak, “King Lakrak, they have prepared the third group of unarmed soldiers… Should we continue to shoot at them?”
“Stand by.” 𝘪.𝘤𝑜𝘮
“…What? Ah…alright.”
Quezle realized what Lakrak meant and urgently said, “Wait, King Lakrak. We cannot. What if they aren’t slaves, but Vampires? It looks like their hands are tied, but it might only be for show. They might be hiding weapons.”
“That was why we shot and killed the first two groups to see if that’s true. And besides, there’s a way to tell if they’re Vampires or not, isn’t there?”
“Are you talking about silver? But there are lower class Vampires who don’t feel much pain when they touch silver.”
“Quezle, are you afraid of such low-level Vampires?”
Quezle clenched his fists.
“Do not insult me. I’m not speaking of my personal courage. Even if we take the risk and open the gates, we would only save about 15 people!”
“Look at the bigger picture, Quezle. You are quick at calculations and think very logically, but you don’t see far enough because you lack imagination.”
When Quezle tried to refute, he saw something that made his eyes widen. A flutter of blue butterflies appeared inside the fortress and gently rose in a spiral. The eyes of the warriors were all fixed on the butterflies. A blue butterfly was interpreted as a sign of good luck for the Lizardmen, so the morale of the warriors was lifted. However, Lakrak and Quezle knew that the butterfly wasn’t just here to encourage them before the battle.
“God has given his approval, so I don’t suppose you have any disagreements… Gatekeeper, open the fortress gates.”
“Understood!”
“Accept all those who aren’t armed. And close the gates once the last one gets in.”
“Alright!”
While the gatekeeper answered, a halfling rushed through the open gates.
Lakrak drew the silver sword from Quezle’s waist.
“Check the slaves yourself, Quezle. If they get wounded at the touch of the silver, they might be Vampires we need to be careful of, but if that’s not the case, they’re likely Vampires who don’t pose much of a threat, or they’re regular people who ran here because they had hope in us.”
“…Alright.”
The defense captain on top of the fortress wall shouted, “King Lakrak! They’re coming!”
“Begin the battle!”
The archers quickly got up and began shooting arrows.
Then the defense captain yelled, “A Renard riding a big weasel is charging towards the gates!”
“Have all the unarmed people gotten in?”
“Can you see through the cracks of the gates? That Nix woman is the last.”
Lakrak said to the gatekeeper, “Close the gates when I come back inside.”
“What?”
Before hearing the gatekeeper’s reply, Lakrak walked out of the gates. Then he grabbed the Nix woman by hand and threw her into the fortress, all the while turning by 90 degrees and holding his other hand up towards the Renard charging at him. The big ferocious weasel noticed the enemy and lunged at Lakrak.
Then lightning shot out of Lakrak’s hand.
***
Boom!
Shavien saw the Vampire who used to be a Renard get struck by lightning while riding the big weasel. She muttered, “Ha! What a shame.”
Lakrak immediately disappeared into the gates, and at the same time, the gates closed. All the cavalry riding towards the gates against all adversaries ended up killed by arrows.
One of the generals got on their knees in front of Shaiven.
“It’s my fault. I didn’t think they would really open the gates, so we missed our chance.”
“No. I didn’t think the gates would open either. It’s just a shame we weren’t lucky enough. There’s nothing we can do. We’ll stick to our original plan.”
The Lizardmen of Black Scale had horn bows, and they were shooting from a higher ground. It was inevitable that the Vampires would suffer some casualties. However, according to what was known, the enemy’s fortress only had 2,000 soldiers, so the Vampires still held the numerical advantage.
‘I have lots of experience dealing with fortresses until now. And there was a time where I won even though we had the same number of troops as the enemy.’
Saiven trusted her past experiences.
“Keep advancing!”
Shaiven believed that the Vampire army had a distinct advantage over the other armies: they consisted of a variety of species.
Renard cavalry rode the aggressive big Weasels, which had less endurance and speed than horses and less practical combat abilities than Cockatoos, but were ferocious beasts in their own right. The Renard cavalry archers were the most versatile among all units.
Kobolds usually raised big moles to ride on. While they weren’t particularly useful in combat, their small build made them difficult targets for the enemy’s archers. In a regular battle on an open field, the numbers of troops would be the only reliable advantage, but a siege was a different story. The moles would be able to get through the enemy’s pouring arrows and put a ladder to the fortress wall, and they could also carry tools to assemble a large hammer to break the gates.
Trolls couldn’t ride on any animals because of their big physiques. However, that was exactly what made them strong. As they became Vampires, they lost their unique regenerative abilities, but their skin was still tough, and their bones were strong. If Renards had fast speeds, and it was easier for Kobolds to avoid enemy’s attacks due to their small bodies, then Trolls had the toughness to advance forward even while being attacked.
And Nixes and Satyrs were the main forces of offense. In a siege, the role of cavalry was limited, but Nixes and Satyrs were able to properly shoot arrows and throw spears. Even though the fourth generation Vampires suffered a partial drop in physical abilities, the characteristics of each of their original species remained, allowing them to be utilized differently and divided into different divisions of specialization. That was the key to Shaiven’s victory so far.
‘Added to that the power of Vampires…’
The third generation Vampires, namely captains in charge of ten soldiers each, would gain greater strength than what their bodies originally possessed. A Kobold would become as strong as regular Renards, a Renard would become as strong as regular Nixes and Satyrs, and a Nix or a Satyr would become as strong as regular Trolls. Those Vampires would rival those with better equipment and weapons.
‘…I’m sure we’ll win.’
But of course, Shaiven was mistaken.
***
Sung-Woon looked down at the battlefield and thought to himself, ‘As expected, Shaiven doesn’t know how to take over the fortress since barely any of the commanders of that generation had fought a battle involving a fortress.’?At most, Shaiven was as experienced in dealing with a fortress as Lakrak and his warriors.
Lakrak had made deliberate orders along with Zaol when building the fortress that the battle was currently taking place at. This was because the first fortress was to be the model for the fortresses built after. Zaol tried to solve the physical and environmental issues that came with the fortress, and Lakrak asked himself how difficult it would be to take over the fortress if he were a commander of the enemy. After the fortress was completed, Lakrak even brought actual warriors here to hold a mock battle.
The result was simple, and Lakrak was very satisfied.
‘A short term showdown against a fortress isn’t a good idea.’
The battle developed as Sung-Woon had expected. Cavalry who used to be Trolls and Renards were leading the charge toward the fortress, followed by soldiers that used to be different species. And in between them were Vampires who used to be Kobolds. The composition of the army itself was fine. The problem lay in the next stage of the battle.
As the arrows rained down from the fortress, the Nixes and Satyrs began to fight back, but the Lizardmens’ horn bows shot further, and the difference in height provided by the fortress was absolute.
Before the Vampires could even reach the bottom of the fortress, they were already shot dead because of the slope. And a few powerful arrows did reach the fortress walls, but it was only after the Lizardmen archers had taken cover in the battlements. The Troll and Renard cavalry who barely made it through the raining arrows tried to climb the fortress walls, but the height served another purpose other than making it difficult for the enemy to enter.
The Lizardmen warriors lifted rocks the size of a person’s head from on top of the walls and threw them to the bottom of the fortress. The Trolls weren’t the only ones getting hit by the rocks and having their heads smashed, but also the big weasels the Renards were riding on. Then the rocks rolled down the hill and hit the Kobolds.
There was no chance for the Lizardmen to run out of arrows or rocks. The Black Scale warriors knew in advance that the enemies were coming, and they knew how many of them there were.
All that was left of the Vampires were the upper class ones.
‘Even though Vampires have that characteristic…’
The Vampire captains leading ten soldiers and the Vampire generals leading 100 soldiers might be physically impressive, and they might survive the arrows and reach the front of the fortress, but none of them could touch the gates.
‘There’s a Thunder Lizard on that side.’
Boom!
As Lakrak reached out his hand, the Vampires lucky enough to reach the front of the gates collapsed while emitting white steam from their eyes, noses, and mouths. Lakrak looked down at the Vampires while smoking tobacco like he found them funny. It seemed that he had enough leisure to use only the amount of power needed to finish things off.
Out of the 3,400 troops, 600 were taken out in an instant. There were several layers of dead bodies piling up at the bottom of the fortress, so the slope was getting easier to climb as Shaiven had expected. Unfortunately, however, that didn’t guarantee that they would be able to bring down the fortress should they send the rest of the 2,800 soldiers. And soon afterwards, hesitation began to spread among those being pushed to keep attacking, and some turned around to flee.
“Never break away! I will slice the necks of those who run away!”
Shaiven’s generals could be heard shouting all across the battlefield. And deserters did get their heads cut off by their fellow soldiers. In Shaiven’s perspective, there was no giving up the offense that had already launched.
‘I understand. Retreating and rearranging the formations before making another advance would only lead to the same losses. She’s thinking that she can’t suffer the same losses again when they have barely reached the bottom of the fortress. Were Shaiven a more clever commander, though, she would have accepted that they couldn’t keep attacking the fortress like this and retreated.’
What Sung-Woon was most wary of at the moment was the player Jeol Woo-Bi joining the battle, but it seemed that they intended to watch until the last minute before doing that.
‘Do they intend to use their powers when Shaiven moves as part of the last troop? Then it seems that they haven’t noticed what’s going on at the back of the army.’
Sung-Woon looked behind the Vampire corps. Shaiven’s ordeal wasn’t over yet.
***
Seeing that the battle wasn’t going as she thought it would, Shaiven became infuriated.
‘Damn it. What should I do? If we spend the night like this, I’ll lose all my soldiers.’
Then a messenger ran up to Shaiven and said, “Queen Shaiven! It’s an urgent message.”
“What is it?”
“It is said that the Trolls, Satyrs, and Cockatoo warriors of Black Scale have united and are pursuing us from the distance of a day and a half’s travel!”
“…What?”
They were far away, so she hadn’t noticed. However, they might as well be right on their tail when they were already near defeat.
‘Should we pull back? No, we can’t. We’ve already lost so many soldiers. Even if we retreat, it’ll be hard for us to defend ourselves should enemies coming from our rear join forces with those in the fortress. We can’t give up on the fortress now. We must somehow take over the fortress and stand firm.’
Shaiven sent the messenger away and got lost in her thoughts. Then she suddenly felt something warm running down her lips and chin. Shaiven got startled and wiped it off her face with the back of her hand.
‘It’s a nosebleed.’
Shaiven had never had a nosebleed after she became a Vampire because a Vampire’s heart beat slowly and lightly.
‘No way… Is this a divine revelation? This is ominous.’
Shaiven tried to guess God’s will.
“Queen Shaiven! We’re in big trouble!”
Shaiven yelled at the soldier who had interrupted her thoughts, “What is it?”
“I…I’m sorry.”
“I’ve already heard that the enemy troops are coming from the rear a day and a half’s travel from us. Go back.”
“N-No.”
“What?”
“It’s a different problem.”
“What is it?”
“The slaves started attacking our soldiers.”
***
The slaves were sitting in each of their designated places with their hands tied. There were Vampire soldiers guarding them, but there weren’t many since the rest of them had been called for battle.
The slaves quietly talked among themselves without the soldiers knowing. It wasn’t possible to tell who was who as the conversation took place in the dark, but it was a topic that grabbed everyone’s attention.
“It seems that the battle has begun.”
“What happened to the ones who were dragged out?”
“They probably all died.”
“No, that’s not true.”
“Do you know something?”
“Oh, I think that guy got dragged away as part of the fourth group. They were taken and brought back soon after. Isn’t that right?”
The shadow moved a little in the darkness.
“Yes. I saw everything.”
“What did you see?”
“The fortress gates.”
“The fortress gates?”
“I saw what the Vampires were doing. The Vampires were making people line up and run towards the fortress of Black Scale.”
“Oh my.”
“It’s obvious they would die. The Lizardmen from Black Scale wouldn’t be able to tell the slaves from the Vampires.”
The shadow nodded again.
“I think that’s why the first and second group all died. But the third…”
“What about the third?”
“What happened?”
“They entered the fortress. The Lizardmen opened the gates for them. Blue butterflies flew above the fortress, and the gates opened.”
The slaves didn’t say anything for a moment. Something they had never imagined had happened.
“You’re lying, right?”
“Why would the Lizardmen do that?”
“I don’t know the reason. But the third group all survived. And the battle started. I came back. Then I…”
The slave who was talking suddenly got up.
“Hey, sit down. What are you doing?”
“There’s a guard over there. Can’t you see them?”
“…I am going to fight back. The Lizardmen opened the gates right in front of their enemy to save us. All the stories are true.”
At those words, the stories they had pushed to the deepest corner of their minds because they didn’t want to be disappointed again started to resurface.
The slave who had stood up then said, “Get up.”
“I…isn’t there no need for us to do so? The Lizardmen are fighting for us.”
“But if the Vampires win, we will surely die. Miserably, as slaves,”
“But the Lizardmen might win.”
“Then we would be saved as slaves. Miserably.”
“…Is there a way to not be miserable?
“We can fight like the Lizardmen of Black Scale. If we die fighting, we would be warriors since we fight for those who stay seated because they cannot muster the courage to resist.”
Someone murmured, “That’s right.”
Two slaves got up.
The Vampire guard looked back at the sound of rustling.
“What are you doing?”
The Vampire guard took a step closer to them.
As the guard shone the torch light on the slaves, the slaves charged at the Vampire guard.
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