The Overlord of Blood and Iron

Chapter 155: The Turning Tides, Time Running Out (pt 3)

The siege on the Bittermoon territory was extremely intense.

-Allahu Akbar!

-Allahu Akbar!

Using Baruk Al-Yusuf’s specialty in brainwashing, the soldiers of Anatolia turned suicidal in their attempt to scale the castle wall.

It was impossible for the soldiers of the Bittermoon territory to not be shocked when they saw a 10,000-man fearless army climbing the castle walls.

“Get lost, you stupid heretics!”

“D-Die!!”

But the soldiers didn’t lose their will to fight.

“The reinforcements will be here soon!”

The general of the Bittermoon territory, Berenas, said.

“If we endure a little longer, our reinforcements will come! So don't die, and we will show these stupid soldiers our true strength later!”

At Berenas’ shout, the soldiers answered enthusiastically.

“We will endure!”

“We can do it!”

Surprisingly, the morale of the army was high. It was because they knew that reinforcements were coming, and that the army of Kang Chul-In would arrive soon.

-The army of Overlord Kang Chul-In is coming!

That was right.

Sheville Polansky completely trusted in Kang Chul-In’s promise, and raised the morale of his troops. He was using Kang Chul-In’s fame in order to keep up the morale.

But the raised morale was only a temporary. These hopes would crumble as soon as they found out that Kang Chul-In’s promise was a lie.

“Dammit!”

Inside the Lord’s hall, Sheville Polansky shouted in anger.

“When are those damned reinforcements coming? When?”

Sheville Polansky raged.

“M-Milord, please wait a little while longer!”

Cold sweat also pouring down, his secretary Octanus tried to calm Sheville down.

“Overlord Kang Chul-In will come when the battle is at its climax so that he and we can completely decimate Baruk Al-Yusuf’s army.”

“That’s true, but…”

“Milord, Kang Chul-In is the man that completely supressed Baruk Al-Yusuf during the lord meetings. A lord like him is just waiting for the right timing.”

“Ehem…”

At Octanus’s words, Sheville was able to barely regain his calm.

“Dammit! If they had a lot of mages in their army instead! Then I would absolutely…”

As the Spellthirster, Sheville was extremely confident in matching up against any mage. He would win in the end, as the stronger the mage was, the stronger he would get.

However, the soldiers of Anatolia that were lead by Baruk Al-Yusuf didn’t have many mages inside, so it was hard for Sheville to join the battle and turn the tides.

“I’m sure that Overlord Kang Chul-In will come.”

Octanus once again tried to calm Sheville down.

Even though he himself was extremely nervous and fretting inside, the only thing he could do was wait. Wait and believe that Kang Chul-In would keep his promise.

---------

Around 15 hours after the siege had started, Lee Gong-Myung felt that he needed to retreat for the moment.

Their morale is way too high.

Lee Gong-Myung was able to see that unlike what he had imagined, the soldiers of the Bittermoon territory had extremely high morale. And due to this, the Bittermoon territory was fighting around 2~3 times better than he thought they would.

The reinforcements of the Daox and Chermart territory of the south aren’t that trustworthy.

Just by looking from afar, Lee Gong-Myung was able to guess that someone was behind the Bittermoon territory.

Who could it be…

Lee Gong-Myung looked at the map again.

If it’s not the reinforcements of the Daox and Chermart territory… could it be the alliance between Overlord Hecate and Aleister?

That was the only plausible explanation. Only the two Overlords combined would be able to match up against the powerful Baruk Al-Yusuf.

If that’s the case…

Hecate and Aleister joining up.

If one had to put that as a percentage, maybe a 0.001% chance? 

Though it wouldn’t occur unless something absolutely weird happened, if the allied soldiers of Hecate and Aleister came in during the battle, even the soldiers of Anatolia would be screwed over.

However… Lee Gong-Myung trusted himself.

No, I don’t believe that. It can’t be Hecate and Aleister. Then is it a 3rd party? And if they are, who could…

“Khalifa, I will ask the soldiers to retreat for the time being.”

Finally, Lee Gong-Myung decided to put things at a rest just in case disaster struck.

“Why so? Aren’t we in an intense battle right now? If we push them a little bit further…”

“The enemies are waiting for us to do that. Why don’t we change our tactics to lead a war of attrition? Since we have a lot of soldiers waiting in the back line, we can rotate the soldiers.”

“Hm… Very well. Do as you wish.”

“Yes, great Khalifa. Thank you.”

Bowing towards Baruk Al-Yusuf, Lee Gong-Myung was thinking of all the possibilities on who or what the 3rd party could be. 

The reason for them to struggle so desperately…

Praying that his assumption of there being a 3rd party was wrong…

“Aggh!!”

“M-Monster!!”

He could hear the screams of the falling left-wing of the Anatolian army.

“...!”

Lee Gong-Myung turned his head to the left.

“D-Don’t tell me…”

Lee Gong-Myung was shocked.

“What kind of…”

The reason Lee Gong-Myung was shocked was not because the 3rd party he had expected was here, or that the left-wing of the army was falling.

The only reason he was shocked was because there was one man breaking through the 10,000 man Anatolia army by himself.

Riding on a tiger the size of a small house, he strode through and wreaked chaos on the Anatolia soldiers.

It was,

“Overlord… Kang Chul-In…”

The first meeting between Kang Chul-In and Lee Gong-Myung after Kang Chul-In returned.

---------

An ordinary long sword caused terrifying sword-winds to occur, sweeping through the Anatolia soldiers.

Not bad.

Kang Chul-In was satisfied with the ‘Iron Sword’ he had received.

The sword that his blacksmith, Vulcanos, handed him was an ordinary sword, without any options on it.

But Kang Chul-In thought that it wasn’t bad to use.

This Iron Sword had one good part, which was its durability. It had better durability than many unique items, making it suitable for Kang Chul-In to use.

“W-What kind of crazy…”

Kang Chul-In and the Altaiaca, the terrifying combination between them was enough to sweep through the soldiers and get past them quickly.

-Allahu Akbar!

At that moment---

BANG!

An explosion occurred, causing blood and flesh to splatter on the ground.

-Krrr!

Even the Altaica stopped momentarily.

“Huu…”

And sitting on the Altaica, Kang Chul-In sighed.

“He’s taught them something nice, that disgusting psychopath.”

What Kang Chul-In meant by ‘something nice’ was what people usually referred to as ‘suicide bombing.' 

-Allahu Akbar!

-Allahu Akbar!

-Allahu Akbar!

As Kang Chul-In stopped, 3 more soldiers who were turning red came running towards him. It was obvious that they wanted to kill Kang Chul-In with their explosions.

“How dare you trash…”

With an angry voice, Kang Chul-In jumped off the Altaica.

Pzzt, Pzzt!

And with that, sparks started to fly around Kang Chul-In’s body. It was the activation of Overdrive.

-----------

I need to think of something…

While Kwak-Jung was thinking of the best way to stop Baruk Al-Yusuf’s army, he came to the conclusion that it would be difficult to do so.

First of all, the Chermart territory wasn’t at a territorial advantage to defend, and there wasn’t even a fortress. Even though Kang Chul-In had entrusted him with setting up a defensive line, he couldn’t come up with any ideas.

“Dammit!”

Unable to withstand the stress and pressure, Kwak-Jung came up with a strange and weird idea.

“Messenger! Hey, messenger!”

“Yes?”

“Turn on the Illusion System right now!”

“Y-Yes!”

“From now, we will go and communicate with each Lord. Understood?”

“Y-Yes, sir.”

“Let’s see…”

Kwak-Jung’s eyes skimmed through the contacts Kang Chul-In had on the Illusion Network.

“Huhuhu…”

Kwak-Jung laughed evilly.

“Stupid, psychopathic terrorist… Have a taste of this!”

It seemed like he had come up with a plan.

“Commander James!”

Whilst the messenger was activating the Illusion Network, Kwak-Jung looked for James.

“Yes, strategist Kwak?”

“All soldiers will follow Milord, and head north.”

“W-What? What do you… Milord has clearly told us to make a defensive line in the Chermart…”

“Fucking...” [1]

Kwak-jung swore.

“Hey, Commander James.”

“Yes?”

“If I tell you to do something, you should just do it, damn it. Don't speak back to me.”

“..!”

“Who do you think is in charge right now?”

“W-Well…”

James couldn’t say anything back to Kwak-Jung.

Since Kang Chul-In had handed authority over the soldiers to Kwak-Jung, the one in command definitely was Kwak-Jung. No matter whether he liked it or not, he had to follow orders from a superior.

“If you’re pissed off, then just try to become a strategist yourself, yeah?”

“.........”

“Just trust me. There is a reason that Milord hired me.”

“O-Of course…”

“Enough, we will do as I say. All soldiers will go north.”

“B-But…”

“What the fuck? Huh?”

Finally, Kwak-Jung exploded.

“As the strategist of the Laputa army, I'm speaking.”

At times like this, it was best to bring out one’s position.

“Commander James, get the entire army ready to go. I will not accept any complaints or disagreements. Any that disagree will be… executed according to the law.”

At this point, Kwak-Jung had to push everything on.

[1] I sorta-kinda enjoyed editing Kwak-Jung's dialogue. Let my gansta spirit out, y'all kno wat I mean? Don't tell Leyy!