Overlord of Blood and Iron

Kang Chul-In, who was riding on a horse, was like the grim reaper, bringing death wherever he went.

“C-Crazy bastard!”

One of the officers of the army looked at Kang Chul-In, who was like a one man army, killing everyone that dared to get close to him.

“Don’t engage him in a 1 on 1 fight! Group up and surround him!”  

This particular officer tried to take the commanding role after the commander of the army here was killed by Kang Chul-In. However…

“Kuk…”

The officer, who tried to group up the soldiers was immediately pierced in the heart by Kaiforce, which had turned into a sharp talon.

CRASH!  

The officer fell off of his horse, and rolled on the floor, lifeless.

“M-Monster!!”

A certain soldier mumbled. He could not fall out of the stupor he had fallen into since Kang Chul-In had started slaughtering the army.

“It’s murder, it’s murder!”

“The adventurer has killed the soldiers! Run!”

“W-Who the hell are you, and why are you doing this in our territory?”

“Didn’t I tell you? This is my territory now.”

It was a ridiculous statement, something that would be made by someone like a daylight robber, not the Lord of a territory.

“You’re insane.”

An old soldier said.

“I admit that you have amazing martial prowess and that you are truly very strong, but how long do you think you can last with your body?”  

It made sense.

“Maybe 3 hours from now?”

Kang Chul-In answered back.

“3 hours?”  

That old soldier retorted, full of ridicule.

“You wish.”

“Why don’t you see for yourself, then?”

And saying this, Kang Chul-In kicked the side of the horse that he was riding on.

NEIGH!!!  

And neighing out loud, the horse started to run very quickly.

‘It’s been a while since I’ve fought while riding a horse.’

And thinking this, Kang Chul-In rode on his horse, and went around massacring the enemy forces, while leaving their horses behind. 

“Argh!!”  

“ACK!”

But he only killed the soldiers, not the horses that they were riding on.

‘I’ll take these horses with me after the war is over’. He thought.

… As the Lord of a poor territory, he needed to be able to save as much money as he could.

‘Run… Got to run… The enemy is too strong…”

The old soldier realized that they had no hope in this battle, and tried to retreat.

The enemy as too strong.

Not only was the enemy able to split a person in half with his ridiculous capability of destruction, the fighting that he showed while on horseback left any soldier speechless with awe.

It was impossible for these plain soldiers to stop someone like this.

And not only this… some ‘black things’ were also rushing towards them at a very quick speed.

‘...Spectre Knight!’

That’s right.

The ‘black things’ that were rushing towards them while gliding through the air like ghosts were Spectre Knights, existences that were a level beyond the infamous death knights. 

“Retreat! Retreat!”

The old soldier shouted.

“We have no chance of winning! Split up and get back to the territory! Don’t look back, and just run!”

Due to the old man’s shouting, the remaining 250 soldiers (50 of them had already been slain by Kang Chul-In), started to run away in a panic, running as fast as they could.

It was obvious that they had been waiting for someone to signal or tell them to retreat.

‘You can’t run.’

But Kang Chul-In wouldn’t let them retreat easily.

Riding on the horse, Kang Chul-In killed all of the soldiers that he met with Kaiforce. 

“Split up! The plains are wide here! Don’t group up and… Huk!”  

The old soldier who had been directing the retreat order with his loud voice suddenly faltered. This was due to the fact that a Spectre Knight had suddenly appeared in front of him.

“Kuk…”

And with one blow from the Spectre Knight, that soldier fell. It was difficult for even veterans like him to stand up to a single blow.

“Give chase, and try not to leave a single one of them alive.”

Kang Chul-In ordered to the Spectre Knights.

Suuu…

The Spectre Knights, like ghosts, started to glide towards the fleeing soldiers.

“Agh!”

“ARGH!”

And the fleeing soldiers died out easily and quickly.

Compared to the Death Knight which lacked mobility, the Spectre Knights were much more superior.

***

“Tell me! Does this make sense?”

BANG!  

The Lord of the Absilon Territory, Gonzales slammed the elbow rest of the throne he was sitting on.

“You spend 2 hours, 2 whole hours to chase just 51 enemy soldiers, and can’t even catch them? Are you guys still human!!”

Gonzales was currently extremely angry. 

But it made sense for him to be so angry. 

Not only did the enemy forces manage to kill over 100 of their soldiers, the most infuriating part was that 200 cavalrymen and 300 foot soldiers were currently chasing them down, and had been chasing them down for the past 2 hours, without any success whatsoever. He was about to explode from rage.

“M-Milord… Please calm down… The enemy here is too sinister and dirty…”

Although Gonzales’s secretary tried to calm him down…

“Sinister and dirty? What damned sister and dirty! Just catch him!”  

“He runs away for a while before suddenly ambushing and attacking us, and when we think that we are going to fight again, he starts to run again. And like this, he doesn’t give us an opportunity for our soldiers to surround him. And not only that, if he thinks that the horse that he’s riding on is too tired, he just kills one of our cavalrymen, and takes their horse.”

“Is that an excuse? Are you making an excuse after failing to capture just 50 soldiers with over 10 times their number?”

Gonzales’s rage could be understood. No matter who saw it, it could be seen as the fault of the men in the Absilon territory.

But it wasn’t really their faults either.

The ghost-like Spectre Knights were extremely mobile, and could use the hit and run tactic as much as they wanted, gliding through the air extremely quickly.

“Milord!”

It was at that moment.

“I will go out myself, and take the enemy’s head for milord!”

A human’s body, an eagle’s head, huge wings at the back of the body. It was a bird-man. 

“Oh! Captain Amaru!”

Gonzales nodded his head.

This bird-man, Amaru, was the captain of the Eagle Knights, comprised of 20 bird-men. The Eagle Knights would be able to suppress and capture or kill the enemy, as they could attack from the air.

“Very good. If you do manage to chop off his head, I will definitely give you a hefty reward for it.”  

“Yes, milord.”

And saying this, Amaru spread his huge wings out wide, before flying up, followed by the 20 other Eagle Knights.

10 minutes later.

“M-Milord!”

A messenger went up to Gonzales, his face apprehensive due to fear.

“W-What is it? Speak.”

Gonzales felt a sort of indescribable fear and worry.

“T-The thing is…”

“It’s okay. Just speak.”

“Captain Amaru… Was beaten up by the enemies… his wings were broken and his feathers also forcefully taken out…”

 “W-WHAT?!”  

“And has died.”

Gonzales felt his blow flowing backwards from rage, and could not speak for a while due to shock.

“Milord!”

And this time, someone else stepped forward.

“I knew we shouldn’t have left it to a stupid pigeon like him. This time, I will go out and kill him!”  

This time, it was a dog-man, who had the head of a bulldog.

“Oh! General Damian!”

This General Damian’s strength was very well known throughout their territory, with very few people in the territory being stronger than him. Maybe him, along with his 50 dog-man subordinated could finally put a stop to this unknown enemy’s rampage.

And 10 minutes later.

“Milord…”

Once again, the same messenger came.

“Don’t tell me…”  

“General Damian…”

It seemed that the messenger found it difficult to speak anymore, which made sense.

“Has been… beaten up to death.”

And this time, Gonzales was truly rendered speechless. What kind of fist did this guy have to kill every single high ranking official that he sent?

Gonzales, who had just lost 2 extremely valuable and powerful subordinates in under 30 minutes, was about to erupt from anger.

“Milord.”  

And again, someone else decided to step up.

“This time, it seems like this servant has to step up against the enemy.”

And to be honest, this was the final card that Gonzales had. It was General Drakan,  a drake-man, who was half dragon and half human, making him one of the strongest demihumans out there. 

“The enemy uses his excellent mobility strike before pulling out immediately, causing damage to our forces, slowly but surely. Milord, as long as you grant me an extra 200 soldiers, we would have 700 soldiers.  With this amount, I can be sure that we will be able to surround and kill the enemy.”

This General Drakan didn’t have thoughts to fight against Kang Chul-In and his army of Spectre Knights alone. It was an intelligent decision.

“Fine, I will trust you, Drakan.”

Gonzales nodded his head.

***

At the same time.

‘I think it’s about time to pull back now’.

Kang Chul-In, who had unfortunately(?) had his share of fun, was getting ready to retreat any time now.

A chicken and a dog, he had killed two of his enemy’s high ranking officers. If he tried for a little more fun out here, there was a real chance that he and his Spectre Knights would get surrounded.

Since he had made enough of an impact here, he decided that it was finally time to pull out.

“Where are you running!”

And just as he was thinking that, a drake-man who seemed to be at least 3m tall appeared, and started to chase Kang Chul-In and his Spectre Knights ferociously.

“Catch them!”  

And as the foot soldiers caught up…

Dagadak! Dagadak!  

And the cavalry split up into three, before going to surround Kang Chul-In and his Spectre Knights.

‘Retreat!’

If the enemies didn’t chase Kang Chul-In and his forces with their full strength and force due to pride or miscalculation, this time it was obvious that they were doing so with their full power, and without any reservations.

If he fought here, he would be the one taking the loss.

Although he and his Spectre army was truly powerful, it wasn’t a good idea to have a frontal collision with 700 soldiers. What would he gain from fighting an enemy that had finally decided to take things seriously?

          

“Retreat!”

Kang Chul-In didn’t have ‘any’ intention of fighting here, and now.

“Stop right there, despicable human!”

Although Drakan shouted, Kang Chul-In didn’t pay him any heed, and pushed his horse into a gallop, and ran away. And following him, the Spectre Knights glided away gracefully.

Was there any reason to fight? 

Soon, his army would arrive, and he was about to take the farmlands here. Since he had already bought enough time, there was no reason to stay here.

“Chase! Chase them!”

Drakan encouraged the Absilon army to chase Kang Chul-In, who was retreating quickly.

“They won’t have infinite stamina…”

And at this moment, Drakan turned his head due to an extremely large sound that he heard from behind him.

“Dear god.”  

From far away on the horizon, one could barely make out the silhouette of an army that was marching towards the farmlands, creating dust clouds as they marched onwards.

BANG!  

And suddenly, some shells from a cannon started flying, before hitting the walls of the Absilon Territory’s castle.

BANG! BANG!

 It was the firing of the Magic Cannon.

‘Don’t tell me… he was actually just planning to chase him for 3 hours, to buy time?’

Drakan felt like he was hit from the back.

Who in the world would think of using just one Knight Squadron to invade someone else’s territory? No matter how strong that person’s military might was, only someone that was insane would do that. 

‘We… got completely outsmarted.’ 

Although he was angry that they had been played by the palm of the enemy’s hands, there was nothing he could do.

They should have brought their entire force from the beginning. 

No, that didn’t make any sense either.

Who would take out their entire army just to capture 51 men?

… It was a truly difficult decision.

How many people would decide to bring out their entire force without any hesitation to capture a small group of men? No matter how elite or strong they were, it was only 51 of them.

But to think that this was all a bait… The enemies were moving completely opposite of how they logically would.

“... Retreat, Retreat now!”

And Drakan had to give up on chasing Kang Chul-In due to this. 

 They had to get back to the Absilon Castle as soon as possible.

It seemed that the enemies had set up their army already in the farmlands. Since their front door had already been taken, they had to get back as quickly as possible.

***

Kang Chul-In, who had managed to shake of the people chasing them, went inside the camp for high-ranking officials.

“Milord!”

And there, Lucia was waiting with bare feet, and welcomed Kang Chul-In back.

“Stay back.”  

But Kang Chul-In didn’t try to keep Lucia near him.

“I need to wash first.”

Since he was covered in blood, he seemed to be a blood crazed maniac. After all… he had killed almost 200 of the enemy forces without rest in just 3 hours.

“... Dear lord.”

When Kwak-jung stared at the current Kang Chul-In, he was absolutely oppressed by his current vibe.

Blood, blood, and… blood.

Kang Chul-In’s current appearance was akin to that of a demon, or an asura that had just crawled out of hell. He was currently covered in blood, and there were also bits of flesh stuck inside his army, and it was obvious that it was flesh taken from the body of his enemies.

‘I… tried to stand up against this man?’

Kwak-jung recalled the day where he was in Park Doo-sik’s office, and smoked right in front of Kang Chul-In, showing himself off. The arrogance of him back then…

‘Oh god.’

He felt lucky that he wasn’t beaten up to death back then.

One couldn’t express Kang Chul-In with a word right now.

Mass murderer? Demon? Asura? 

 Kwak-jung felt how foolish he was now that he saw how Kang Chul-In truly was like.

“Your majesty… how could you go in by yourself against their army?”

Nilus was very depressed, as he felt that Kang Chul-In could also be injured.

“It’s okay. I just repeated hitting and running over and over again.”

Kang Chul-In answered simply. It was true though, because Kang Chul-In had only gotten shallow cuts.

“Lucia, prepare some water, and towels for me.”

“Huk!”  

Lucia coughed dryly.

“L-Like last time?”  

Thinking of the event(?) back when they had gone hunting for Peacock Dragons, Lucia blushed. Lucia recalled admiring(?) Kang Chul-In’s half naked body.

“No, just tell the servants to get ready. I can’t let someone of your status do some small, and insignificant things like this.”

“N-No. This girl will…”

“No.”

Kang Chul-In shook his head.

“I will leave it to the servants, so you should just get ready for the ‘harvest plan’.”

And due to this, Lucia became depressed.

‘Dammit… I shouldn’t have picked these servants…’

And Lucia, who had missed the greatest opportunity(?) started to regret bringing the servants here.

That night.

Gonzales, who was preparing to lead his army against the Laputa army himself, got a strange report.

“Milord!”

A soldier reported.

“T-The enemies… Apparently they’re harvesting in our fields!”  

“T-These crazy bastards!”

And listening to the report, Gonzales’s face stiffened, before showing a hideous, and terrifying expression.

“These despicable scum… how dare they try to take the crops that we have been growing for so long!”  

And it wasn’t just Gonzales, but the majority of the high ranking officials of Absilon  were all absolutely fuming from anger. 

 “Immediately assemble all of our soldiers…”

“No, we can’t do that, sir.”

It was Drakan who spoke.