HEO 6

Blood burst out of the half missing head. Red Eagle, who was standing behind River Rat, was drenched in the blood.

“Argh!”

Red Eagle flailed both arms and landed on his backside. The corpse’s knees buckled, then the body slid down. Thud. A dull sound rang out, like a sack of grain being thrown to the ground.

Wolf stared down at the corpse, unable to breathe. He couldn’t believe it. River Rat was dead.

“Ugh… Ugh! Blergh!”

Red Eagle vomited onto the floor. Then, the sound of wind pierced Wolf’s ears. Suddenly, his heart started pounding, and his gaze darted to the right. Something else was flying in! Wolf reflexively jumped in front of Red Eagle.

“Get out of the way!”

Simultaneously, he swung the chest in his hands upward. With a cracking sound, the chest split in half. Clothes and gold coins spilled out in a heap. Wolf stared down at the shattered chest, then raised his head.

Right… it’s coming from the right.

An old inn exposed to the winter wind was located nearby. Soon, murmuring voices drifted out from behind the inn.

[Did you see that? That guy blocked your blade.]

[Wow, sharp eyes. For a servant.]

[A servant? Not the prince?]

[Nah. The Atanians probably tamed him like a docile lamb. That weakling over there is the prince. See? Even his robe has a different sheen.]

The men bellowed as they emerged one after another from behind the inn. Seven of them. Wolf couldn’t make out what they were saying in their thick Stoll dialect. Only one thing was crystal clear. They were enemies. Extremely dangerous enemies.

Their appearance alone overwhelmed River Rat. The latter at least had a clean face, but these men were covered in tattoos, even on their faces. One carried an axe. Another had a crossbow. Four wielded spears. One bore a crescent-shaped blade connected by a long chain. That blade was the culprit that had sliced River Rat’s skull in half like a melon.

Wolf’s entire body was covered in cold sweat. This was dangerous. They were outnumbered from the start.

He quickly glanced toward the horse dealer. People startled by the sudden bloodshed were staring this way. Many were Atania women.

“Help us!”

Wolf shouted. The Atania women flinched.

“Ask your husbands to help us! Tell them we’ll give them all this gold if they do!”

Wolf pointed at the gold coins scattered across the ground.

“We’re from Atania! I’m only seventeen! I don’t want to die in a foreign land!”

Wolf’s plea stirred unease among the women. Some clung to their husbands’ robes, pleading. The men invariably shook their heads and repeated the same word.

“Tnoei, tnoei!”

It was one of the few words Wolf knew in Stoll. ‘No’.

His insides boiled. Why weren’t they stepping forward, even when offered gold coins? There were dozens of men over there, yet they were cowering in fear from just seven of them… Cowardly bastards!

“Don’t you feel ashamed acting like this in front of your wives? Just die already!”

Wolf threw the half-empty chest to the floor. Red Eagle looked up at him, crying.

“Wolf… a-a-are we going to die? Why…”

“I’m curious too. Why we have to die here.”

Wolf said through clenched teeth. The men were closing in.

[White Snow Cat, what the hell is that servant boy saying?]

[He said a man shouldn’t be ashamed in front of his wife, and told them to die.]

[What? He should worry about his own life.]

[He’s not wrong. They lost face in front of their wives.]

The men, who had been chattering among themselves, stopped in front of Wolf. They were all hulking figures, no less imposing than River Rat. Wolf clenched his fists and looked up at them. He didn’t want to die whimpering like a coward, no matter what.

One man stepped forward. He was the only one with brown hair among the seven, and he held a spear.

“I am White Snow Cat.”

Wolf flinched when he heard the Atanian words.

“My grandmother was from Atania. So, are you a prince?”

“……A servant.”

“Hmph, as expected. That one sprawled on the ground, trembling like a leaf, that’s White Deer’s son.”

“Why are you trying to kill us?!”

He had to buy time. He had to seize an opportunity to escape.

White Snow Cat retorted bluntly.

“What good is knowing that to someone who’s about to die?”

“I need to know! Tell me!”

“No. Just die.”

Wolf’s eyes widened. White Snow Cat’s spear was already closing in on him. At the last possible moment, Wolf raised his arm. The spear shaft grazed his side.

Grab it!

Wolf clamped down on the spear shaft with one hand. He yanked it downward with all his strength. White Snow Cat lost his balance and staggered. He looked stunned.

[Ugh… You… this bastard]

He didn’t miss the opening. Wolf whipped his elbow upward. Simultaneously, he widened his stride as much as possible and advanced one step faster. In an instant, he closed the distance between them. The elbow, accelerated by the forward momentum, slammed deep into the opponent’s face.

‘The elbow is the second strongest part of the human body after the knee.’

‘To maximize destructive force, use speed! Stab when the opponent charges! Drive straight in and stab!’

Crack!

Wolf doubted his ears. The sound of the elbow impact was unexpectedly loud. And this sensation running up his forearm. No doubt about it. The nose bone shattered like glass and caved in.

Whoa, just like that…?!

“Ugh! Ugh!”

White Snow Cat let out a groan and dropped the spear. Once again, Wolf didn’t miss the opening. He grabbed White Snow Cat’s shoulders with both hands, and bent his knees.

‘When you smash your head into an opponent’s jaw, always aim low! Make their teeth clash together. You won’t forget that sound once you hear it.’

Wolf’s head slammed into the opponent’s jaw. White Snow Cat’s mouth snapped shut with a loud cracking sound. The sound of upper and lower teeth clashing and scraping echoed out.

Crack. Grind. Snap.

“Whoa…!”

White Snow Cat’s companions screamed. The moment Wolf let go, White Snow Cat fell backward.

[You useless bastard, getting beaten by a greenhorn kid?]

[Don’t waste time! Kill him!]

The men simultaneously aimed their weapons at Wolf. Wolf picked up White Snow Cat’s spear. He’d only taken out one by sheer luck; the real fight was just beginning.

Could he even fight properly?

He had bits of knowledge from combat training sessions or the tales spouted by the neighborhood toughs back home, if it came to hand-to-hand combat. But weapons were different. Even to Wolf, the movements of his own hands holding the spear felt awkward.

“Die!”

Two spearmen charged first. Their spear tips drove straight for Wolf’s chest. It was the moment Wolf tried to bend his waist.

A crack echoed. The men thrusting their spears froze mid-motion. Wolf froze too.

What…

The men dropped their spears and knelt side by side. Blood gushed from gaping holes in their sides. The pungent smell of iron spread.

Only the bleak sound of the wind followed. The men’s comrades, even the onlookers in the distance, all stared with stunned expressions, unable to speak.

Wolf rolled his eyes and looked to the right. A stake lay embedded in the ground, trembling. It was that very stake that had pierced through the torsos of the two men who had just attacked him, one after the other. Even seeing it with his own eyes, he couldn’t believe it. No matter how sharp the end was, could it really have pierced through two human bodies at once, in a single blow…?

Wolf turned his head toward where the stake had flown from. Far off, a man was ambling toward them, a axe slung over one shoulder. He wore a wolf pelt, skinned whole from head to toe, draped over him like a robe. Backlit, only deep shadows lay across his face.

The wolf man shouted.

[Hey! Those are my customers! Get lost!]

What the hell?

Though he didn’t understand the wolf man’s words, Wolf quickly grasped the situation. He wasn’t an enemy. Nor was he a noble knight. Just a stronger guy had shown up.

The men who had been aiming their weapons at Wolf and Red Eagle moments ago quickly turned away. Four against one. He was outnumbered, but considering the brute strength that could skewer two men through with a log, the man’s odds were still favorable.

The moment that thought occurred to Wolf, the door to a nearby inn burst open.

“Hm?”

The wolf man turned his head, a bored look on his face. Over twenty men burst out of the inn in a rush.

At least 24 to 1…

No, 24 to 2?

Wolf narrowed his eyes.

Looking again, he saw one more figure clad in a black robe standing behind the wolf man.