Episode 20 : The King of the Frontier - Part 4

"Hi--"

 Screaming voices were rising from the throats of the messengers.

"Do not flinch. A new enemy. Face it with all your heart!

"Don't be shy. There are fewer of you than there are of us!"

"Form up in ranks and hit them in flanking formation! Do not attack the enemy in pieces. Three men against one man!"

 The game was completely reversed.

 In just a few hours, until the sun had risen...

 Amneris, like a madman, sent out his messengers, gave orders, and tried somehow to make his army stand firm. Vron and Rindt scurried about, desperately trying to rebuild their ranks.

 But once an army is broken, it is fragile. More so, the more confident they were of their overwhelming strength and advantage until a moment before, the greater their confidence would be shattered.

 The courage he had mustered, that he was just a big savage, collapsed the moment Ragon and his men came screaming down from the rocks. Ragon was a great warrior.

 They are a race born and bred to fight. Despite their size, they are agile and flexible, and every one of them is a master of the sword and the club.

 The brave men of Mongol, who were desperately trying to fight, were easily defeated this time, as the Semites had done to the Mongol army before. The rocky mountain was the territory of Lagon. The backs of their hard feet were like antelopes pawing at the rocky cliffs, and when their arms, which were full of terrifying power, were raised high, the elite of the Mongols were suddenly smashed in the head, spat out blood, and fell to the ground stained with blood.

"Oh, my God. Oh, my God!"

 Istvan threw away all the goodly helmet he had taken, lest Ragon should mistake him for an enemy, and became light, and fought with all his might. A voice of tremendous merriment gushed from his throat.

"What a fighter, what a swordsman! Especially with that big guy, he fights like a lure himself! I'd like to bet on a fight between him and Guin. Guin's dragged in all these guys... and he's done it! Oh, Mother Nymph of Silenus, I've never seen you fight like this! I'm glad I'm on your side... in fact, I wouldn't mind being forced to fight with those guys!"

 While he was saying this, he himself was stepping left and right, jumping and thrusting, and fighting valiantly. Seeing that the situation was reversed, Feldrick panicked and tried to escape.

"Wait for me, you coward!"

 Shouting merrily, Istvan draws his sword. Feldric fell screaming. In panic, one of his men stood before the captain and the other dragged him away.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

 Suddenly, Istvan became somewhat flustered.

I'm not supposed to be seen, am I?

 When I saw Feldrick being carried away, I had a thought that I should go after him and finish him off,

"Well, okay. He was an old man, and those wounds probably wouldn't have killed him anyway."

 After deciding on his own, he began to move little by little to meet up with Guin, being careful not to expose his distinctive face too much.

 Shem and his men did not waste any time when they realized that they had a new and powerful ally.

"Liard's reinforcements! Stand and fight, Shem!"

"Liard, Liard!"

"Don't fall apart. Hang together and hit Ohm!"

 Although they had been badly beaten in the previous battles, these small but brave desert warriors had no intention of giving up the front line to their trusty allies and relieving themselves from their retreat to the rear.

 Shem's ferocious nature was fully demonstrated as he overcame the corpses of his comrades and charged forward.

 The surviving Shem gathered under their respective chiefs and rushed forward with a mighty scream. This was not the spirit of the defeated who had been hunted down, beaten to death, and brutalized until now.

"Avenge your friends!"

"Don't let Ragon get the better of you!"

"Aye, ee!"

 Shem runs about with agility, attacking the Mongol knights as an ant attaches itself to a butterfly, and Ragon swings his club with all his might. The head of a Mongol shatters with a crunching sound, and the place where the head used to be becomes a sludgy mass of blood, brains, and bits of bone. Shem's poisoned arrows were fired from his mouth, which dodged the long sword, and the Mongol soldiers covered their eyes and fell screaming.

 Even in the midst of such a crowded battle, the brave Dodo and the brilliant leopard-headed Guin stood out from the crowd.

 As they headed towards each other, there was no Mongol soldier who could face them, and as they fled, the rocky arm of the Dodo stretched out to catch them and crush them, as if it were a canine child.

 The long sword of the brave knight, in desperate valor, is easily deflected by the thick club, and cannot even touch the body of the dodo. And in the next moment, the cudgel mercilessly cuts the head of his opponent, who is frozen in fear, his eyes wide and white. This is the reason why Dodo is called the strongest warrior of the warrior race of Ragon.

 And Guin--

"Oh, my God! Oh, Guin!"

 Asturias kept gnashing his teeth and screaming.

"Fight me! Fight me! I've been looking for you!"

 Desperately, he tried to fend off the onslaught of Ragon's warriors and somehow make his way to Guin, but another desperate Polack, in a fit of madness, held back the captain.

"Mutya. He's not human! He must be a demon! Captain!

"Whether it's the demon god or the doll herself..."

"Look at the way he fought!"

 Pollack gasped.

"That's why I want to fight!"

"Please don't die in a place like this!"

"Fight me-- fight me, Guin!"

"Oh--"

 Pollack suddenly had an idea.

"Yes. Captain, we have a duty to protect Her Highness. We must retreat to the main camp and protect the banner of the princess."

"My lady--"

 Asturias' eyes widened in horror.

 He glanced at the princess he worshipped, and was astonished. Already, the rage of the ragons is spreading to the main army and the bannermen.

 The White Knights, who have never had to fight on their own before, are fighting a desperate battle against the invading giants, their white figures dyed in blood.

"Oh, no. Lord Amneris is in danger."

 Asturias ranted.

"Turn the whole army around. Protect the bannermen."

"That's what I'm talking about."

 Whatever else was going on, Pollack muttered, desperate to protect this young captain.

"Run! Run! Protect Lady Amneris!"

 However, it was not as easy as it sounds. Ragon and his men stood between Astrias and Amneris. Astorias gnashed his teeth and charged forward, swinging his sword wildly. It was like trying to swim forward in a sea of mud, and it was not going well.

 In the meantime, the bannermen also had no time to adjust their ranks and were forced to fight an uphill battle.

"Princess--"

 Vron is on his way.

"Princess. We're at a disadvantage here. Let's retreat for now. Give the order to retreat.

"What do you mean, Vron!"

 Amneris twisted his thin hands together violently.

"We've finally made it this far... how can the elite of Mongol show their back to a mere barbarian!"

"That giant race..."

 Vron was mortified. Gayus stood shakily.

"Your Highness. Drum for retreat."

"Gayus, even you!"

 Amneris shook off his blond hair.

"Or do you mean to retreat because of the bad foothold here and then fight again? Then I understand. Is that what you think we should do, Gayus?"

"All troops, retreat to the banks of the Kes and enter beyond the defensive wall."

 Gayus did not speak. Amneris choked and looked at Gayus and Vron, pale with regret.

 Get in there!

"Princess, look out!

 The Ragon warrior who broke through the double and triple defenses single-handedly came at us swinging a club!

"Caw!"

 Vron stabbed at Amneris as he stood there screaming. For a moment, the club struck Vron in the torso, and then Vron flipped around without a sound, spat out a gulp of blood, and stopped moving.

"Princess, it's not safe here. We must retreat to the banks of the Kes and rendezvous with Rickard's troops."

 Lint shouted as he cut down Ragon, who had defeated Vron, from behind with a single sword. He, too, had come back to urge him to retreat.

 Amneris nodded, voiceless and as pale as paper. Gayus and Rint protected the princess from both sides and led her away from the battle.

 Immediately, the drums of Toutoutou ... and Mongol were beaten, echoing in the bright, dull sky.

"All units, fall back! Retreat to the banks of the Kes!"

"Stand down, stand down!"

 Lint peers at Amneris, helping him onto the horse to comfort him. But when he saw his face, he fell silent. The bloodless Amneris, her lips clenched and cheeks drawn, no longer possessed the pride and nobility of the haughty duchess of Mongol, and even her famous blond hair seemed to have faded, as if it had lost its luster. The Amneris of today was nothing more than a helpless and frail girl of eighteen, befitting her age.

 No sooner had they jumped onto the horse and managed to arrange their lines than the elite of Mongol fell towards the Kes River in the west. Their majestic appearance when they left there has never been seen again. Mongol's expeditionary force of 15,000 did not even have a third of its strength. It was a sign that Mongol's ambition to conquer Nosferus, obtain its secrets and conquer the whole Central Plains had been shattered at last.

"--shinshin is ..."

 Amneris finally regained the strength to ask this question after he passed the rocky ground and the oasis, and was informed that the pursuit of the mixed army of Ragon and Sem had apparently ceased.

"Asturias Squadron is on duty."

 Mouth heavy with lint.

"Asturias - are you safe ...?"

 Amneris looked like he wanted to say something.

 But I'm not going to let that stop me.

"Where's Gayus?"

 There was also Gayus. But..,

"It seems that Kal-Mor... is nowhere to be found."

 Says Lint meekly. It was a tick. Without Kal-Mor, of Kitai, the man who came back from Nosferus, Mongol cannot have the secret of Nosferus.

"Have you fallen into their hands?"

"Someone saw him being cut down. He's not alive."

"Well--"

 It's still better, Amneris muttered languidly, as if to say.

What do you want me to tell your father about such a terrible defeat?

 This was the first time that he had been so severely beaten while leading an army of his own. Amneris gulped down the heat that had risen to her eyelids. Her eighteen-year-old mind was too busy trying to come to terms with the fact that she had lost the war. She could not even muster up the strength to hate or curse Guin, the man who had so easily overturned her winning strategy.

 But he also knew well that the name Guin, and his deformed form, would never be forgotten again. Amneris laid his face upon the horse's neck and, forgetting his defeated soldiers trudging through the desert, let himself fall into helpless sobs.

 The river Kes is still hundreds of thad away. The hostile desert that must be crossed is spread out in white before this beaten army.

 The Battle of Nosferus is over.

"Liard."

 Sheba, who was running towards him, suddenly threw herself at his feet and sobbed.

"Leard, should we not go after them and kill them all?"

 The dodo walks up to him and says.

"Good. Now Mongol's ambition for Nosferus was ended. He'll turn his eyes back to the Middle Plains for a while, and even if he's tricked again, as long as there's Ragon, Nosferus won't be able to overrun Mongol."

 Guin laughed in a barking voice .

"It wasn't a lie, was it, Dodo, that the Ragon were a race made for war."

 Guin strode across the battlefield with the giant Dodo and the small Shiva in tow.

 Here and there, Shem and his men slit the throats of the struggling Mongol soldiers with a final blow. The corpses of both armies were folded together, and the area was filled with the stench of blood and death, and the bright desert sun shone on the nightmare.

 Suddenly, Guin stopped in his tracks. His eyes looked down at his feet in a strange fright.

"Liard?"

 Shiva and Dodo look at each other curiously, and Dodo frowns.

"What is this creature? It's a skull before it's even been eaten by a sandhill."

 The three men gazed at the corpse lying there, dressed in a long black hooded cloak. The hood had slipped down to reveal a horrible face, a face that was so horrible that it had melted into mush, revealing the orbits of the eyes and the mandible intact.

 Ragon's spear, which seemed to have been thrust through his chest from behind, gouged into his chest. Even the mage Kal-Mor, who had walked across Nosferus and even survived the Valley of Noxious Miasma, could not have escaped Ragon with this crippled body that had lost its magic.

 A skinny hand without a tip of the wrist was sticking out as if calling for help. Within the black sockets of his eyes, a single eyeball gazed blankly up at the sky.

 The three of them left without saying a word. They had no way of knowing that the secret of the Valley of Noxious Miasma, the place of death and home of the Anomalous One, had finally come to light. The secret of the Valley of Noxious Miasma, which makes Nosferus a place of death and a home for the uncanny, once seemed to rise to the surface and then sank again, like a ship sinking deeper than before, into Hades with the life of Kal-Mor. It would take many years for it to appear again, and many more years for it to be revealed.

 They passed through the field of battle, which was in a heap, without moving their hearts. Their feet constantly slipped on blood and protruding internal organs, and their corpses grew cold under the sky. Severed heads, arms, and severed bodies fill the air everywhere. Some of the Semites are starving over the corpses of Mongol soldiers.

 When you pass by the most heavily built up pile of bodies,

"Guin!"

"Oh--Guin!"

 There were two small figures that rolled over and came stumbling up.

"Linda-- Remus."

 Guin let the two tear-stained children cling to her from side to side, groping for her.

"Oh, Guin-Guin-Guin! I had faith. I knew that Guin would help me, that Guin would make everything better. ..."

 Linda sobbed, her face stained with tears. Guin's big palms warmly and dependably held the shoulders of the princess and prince who had lost their country.

"I wish I could have come and done it a little sooner."

 He said in a soothing, thick voice.

"That was all I could do. Ragon knew of a cave called Fufu-ana-etsu that led to the other side of the mountain through Mount Gutou, so we went through it. However, after I passed through Mt. Gutou, I also thought about the distance to the battlefield and was somewhat despairing. I never thought that the battlefield would have moved so close to us. When the exit of the wind tunnel came into view and I heard the sounds of battle, I doubted that this was a dream. At the same time, I was convinced that the heavens were on our side."

"Oh--Guin!"

 That's all Linda could say.

 The twins clung to him from both sides, as if to say, "If you ever let go of me again, Guin will disappear again. Suddenly, from the shadows of the rocks, they heard a screaming voice.

 In a panic, Shiva peeked out and rolled his eyes. There was Istvaan, the Red Mercenary, rubbing his back against a rock and shouting at the top of his lungs. A lagon was about to swing his club at him, thinking that he had found the last living enemy, and that he would not listen to Istvan's explanation.

"Jesus Christ!"

 When Guin convinced Ragon to rescue him, Istvan ranted and raved.

"After all that hard work and fighting... you're beaten by your own side! What kind of ally would that be! Besides, Guin, you've brought nothing but monsters and bloody sandworms with you!"

 Linda and Remus looked at each other. Linda was about to say something angrily, but stopped abruptly and blew her guts out instead. They laughed and laughed at Istvan's angry face and his wide, round eyes. The warmth that permeated every part of their bodies, like sunlight, soaked their bodies with an indescribable sweetness, as if to say, "We are alive, we have survived.

 Istvan joined them, and they walked on. When they came to a rocky break, they stopped.

 There awaited them Roto and all the heroes of Shem who had survived and fought the terrible battle.

"Like."

 When Istvan said this cheerfully, the other winked at him, forgetting that he could not communicate with him.

"Isn't it a beautiful day?"

"Liard--"

 Roto raised his hands gravely, like a little hermit giving a blessing.

"And Ragon--Shem's friend--"

"Shiva!"

 Guin turned around and called Shiva.

"Yes, Liard!"

"Have the surviving Semites gather in their respective tribes and find out which tribe suffered the most damage."

"Yes, Liard."

"Dodo."

"Oh."

"Now, here, let's bring our little friend Shem to Ragon. Will you bring Ragon to me?"

"No problem."

 As the two men walked away, Guin walked slowly over to Roto, placed a large hand on the small, old Semite's shoulder, and nodded repeatedly. Roto, too, remained silent and stared up at him.

 At the same time, Linda and Remus were in tears of reunion. They were joined by Suni, whose head was still bruised and who was singing high-pitchedly, as if she had forgotten that they could not understand her.

"Al-Ra'eem al-Fettu."

"Yes, Suni."

 Linda held tightly to the small body of the excitedly chattering Shem girl.

"You're alive-- thank God. I'm so glad. It's okay, it's okay, we're done killing each other. Nosferus was protected. Guin protected him. It belongs to Shem-- and Ragon."

 Remus looked out across the desert with thoughtful, burning eyes and wondered if Mongol's ambition had really been thwarted. Is it not hiding a new tomorrow when it will gain strength again and bare its fangs anew? But Remus was wary, and decided not to speak of this thought - at least not now.

"Liard."

"Guin, I've got it."

 Shiva and Dodo came and reported. Nodding, Guin stood up and walked towards them, accompanied by Linda, Remus, Suni and Istvan.

"What about the damage to Shem?"

 He asked. Sheba's brow furrowed.

"It's big. Most of the Tsubai have been wiped out-- but we'll make it."

 You're suddenly very cheerful.

"Shem has seen us through worse years than this. Shem is a hard people. Small in stature, but big and strong in heart. Shem will be all right."

"Yes."

 Guin nodded.

"Shem is a brave man. Shem saved our lives."

"And Leard helped Shem."

 Slowly, Lotho said, and he passed them and stood in front of Shem.

 Guin brought the two contrasting inhabitants of Nosferus together and made them promise to be friends. When Roto and Kaa the Wise repeated their vows, the cheers of all Shem and all Ragon echoed so loudly that they could have shaken Mount Gutou.

 It was the most fantastic - and the most beautiful - sight in the world. The giants of Lagon, two tars in height and one hundred and fifty skorne in weight, led by the brave Dodo and the limp-wristed Kaa. On their left are the childlike Shem, one tahr tall, covered all over with bristling hair and holding a stone axe in their hands, and their leader, Lothor, the great chieftain of the Rak, and the young Shiva. And standing before them, with his feet cloven and his arms crossed over his chest, is the leopard-headed warrior Guin, with his deformed leopard head and his strong, black body.

 They were surrounded by a clear blue desert sky and dazzling white dunes. The silver hair of Linda and Remus shone brightly.

"Liard."

 Shiva said hesitantly.

"If Orm comes after me again..."

"As long as Shem and Ragon are working together, they'll be no match for us. Nosferus belongs to both of you."

 Guin laughed. He muttered as he remembered.

"I've got to settle this with the Dodo."

"And if you defeat me, Guin will be the next brave dodo."

 The dodo reminded him happily. Guin shook his head.

"No. ..."

"Liard. What do you intend to do now?"

 Roto says in a slow tone.

"Hm, yeah..."

"If Liard will be King of Nosferus, ruling over Ragon and Shem: ..."

 Guin looked around at Shem and Ragon in astonishment. Every face was laughing and nodding. Guin began to laugh.

"That might be a good idea. I like this desert."

 The blue sky and the desert broke the silence and a huge cheer was heard. Linda gently clasped her hands together.

 Guin, the leopard-headed warrior, appeared in the Forest of Ludes as the loneliest wanderer in the world. But now he has found friends in Ragon and Shem.