128
The moment Yi In-jung confirmed the movement atop the walls, he struck the drum at once.
Twice.
Short. Decisive.
Doom— doom—
The sound split the night.
At the signal, the assault unit moved as one.Black shadows surged like a wave through the collapsed gap in the wall.At the same time, the heavy crossbowmen's covering fire swept across the upper battlements.
Fire arrows carved red arcs through the air and embedded themselves deep.Flames leapt up once more.
Yi In-jung's voice cut through the roar of battle.
"Advance. Secure the foothold."
Park Seong-jin hurled himself up onto the wall.His breath slammed into his throat.
Through smoke and flame, his comrades were already seizing control of the battlements.Shadows collided, fell, and rose again.
In that instant, he felt it clearly.
This was a place where wills collided to claim space.Forces bent on survival had converged here, shoving against one another.Countless decisions crashed together like blocks of iron.
The red glow of the wall swallowed the night.With the breach, Gaoyou's night ignited.
The moment he crossed the wall, Park Seong-jin sucked in a breath.
The density of people filled his vision.
Above and below, left and right—bodies were tangled everywhere.They pushed forward, collided, were struck by arrows and stones, fell, and advanced again.
Not individuals.A mass.
Hundreds, then thousands, packed the wall.They pressed in to claim space like living earth and debris.
The assault unit tore through that mass.
They were seasoned breachers.Each time one man fell, the enemy's flow split apart.They forced space open not only with blades, but with their entire bodies.
Park Seong-jin plunged straight into the center.
There was no room for thought.
Everything was within arm's reach.Shouts, ragged breathing, and the clash of metal fused into one sound.
His sword moved on instinct.
Then, from below the wall, a signal rang out.
Piiii— pii-piiiii— pii.
Fire control.
In rhythm with that signal, the heavy arbalests loosed.
Arrow trajectories burned sharp through the firelight.Red bursts exploded in the densest enemy clusters.Whole masses of bodies flipped and collapsed at once.
Black smoke billowed upward.From beneath it, allied cheers surged like a tide.
The heavy arbalests severed the enemy's rear cleanly.
Goryeo's shooting was done by calculation.They aimed just beyond where their own troops were advancing.
Park Seong-jin moved forward under that cover.
He felt the difference.
This fire cut points and shaped flow.Even the direction of approaching death was calculated.
Yi In-jung's command rang out again.
"Strike. Secure the foothold."
With the shout, ladders, ropes, and nets hooked onto the wall in rapid succession.
Park Seong-jin glanced back.Reinforcements were already spilling over the battlements.Behind the narrow opening carved by the assault unit, soldiers poured in like floodwater.
A comrade's shout reached him.
"Right tower! Enemy forces are gathering!"
Park Seong-jin snapped his head around.
Beyond the flames, enemies were regrouping along the parapet of the tower.He lowered his body and sprinted that way.
The first enemy rushed him.
Before the blade could rise, a shoulder split apart.
The second twisted in, cutting diagonally.Park Seong-jin's saber sliced across the chest and dropped him.
He deflected another incoming blade and drove his saber into the man's belly.Air burst out as the body collapsed.
He did not stop.
He turned half a circle and swung again.Clutching his waist, another enemy folded to the ground.
His breath guided the blade.The blade, led by breath, forced space open.
At this distance, every target was reduced to the same density of existence.
Park Seong-jin's body moved like a swell.The arc was close to a dance, yet his advance never halted.
More than ten fell before even a quarter of an hour passed.
Fellow warriors from the assault unit cut down enemies and plunged deeper into the breached wall.
Gasping, he shouted,
"This side's foothold secured!"
Once more, the tremor of a Huihui trebuchet shook the battlefield.The wall shuddered, dust blasting skyward.
Firelight and blood, stone and shouts boiled together into a single mass.
On one side of the wall, engineers continued their work.Each swing of a hammer the size of a man's head shattered brick.From within spilled heavy, damp earth.
As the outer skin peeled away, the structure revealed itself.Supports loosened, and the wall began to sink—slowly.
It was work completed by time.
Allied troops pushing in from the rear endured, widening the foothold.They held the gap carved by the elite fighters, blocking wave after wave of enemies.
Enemy reinforcements kept coming.
In the midst of it all, Park Seong-jin steadied his breath and understood clearly.
He was functioning at the very center of the battlefield.He had become a being that moved within the flow of war itself.
Battle had become his place.
And war had become his present.