What were you all expecting? (6)

Splashhh!

The ships split the river’s current. The sudden maneuvering and acceleration made the smooth water surface into a spray of foam, dyeing the Yangtze white in an instant.

Dozens of massive ships turning their prows and charging forward all at once – it was a breathtaking sight.

No, breathtaking didn’t quite capture it. For Namgung clan on Maehwado, that spectacle was nothing short of terror itself.

“Ah…”

The enemy was coming.

Those who bore the name Namgung had never feared their foes. Instead, they have cheered.

But now, what surfaced in their eyes was not resolve but despair.

Not because the enemy was strong, but because they themselves were not at their best – because they realized they couldn’t win in their current state, and for the first time, were losing faith.

Never had they imagined such a moment.

None among them had ever truly known just how cruel war could be.

That situation in which both sides meet at their best and rely on strategies and sheer determination to overcome an opponent too difficult to defeat with their current abilities exists only in stories.

“Stand up!”

At that moment, Namgung Hwang’s thunderous roar rang out.

“Don’t forget! The ones who’ll witness your final moments are not me, nor the comrades standing behind you – it is those enemies right there who will see your last stance!”

His voice pierced through every ear like a blade.

“Don’t let them remember the final sight of a Namgung swordsman as weak and afraid! What you must protect to the very end – is the awe they feel when they face you!”

…Did it work?

No one could say for sure. But one thing was certain – at the very moment Namgung Hwang’s command to rise rang out, the swordsmen of Namgung clan, collapsed and exhausted, were forcing themselves back to their feet.

“Isn’t this better? The enemy is coming. Now there are foes for your blades to cut down. Smile! Let’s prove that the swords of Namgung show their true power only when facing the enemy!”

It was a voice driven by desperation and rage.

And just as Namgung Hwang was mustering that final burst of fighting spirit.

Some of the enemy ships surging towards the island suddenly veered hard to the side.

“Eh?”

Booom!

Even before their turns were complete, cannons fired. The shells flew towards Maehwado. It wasn’t a calculated barrage aimed at precise targets – it didn’t need to be. If they hit, good. If not, it was still fine. The goal was to break morale and scatter focus.

But even such a half-hearted bombardment was a grave threat to Namgung clan, who were already at the brink of collapse.

Booom! Booooom!

Explosions rocked the island in every direction.

The sky was impossibly clear. Against that perfect blue, the black shells raining down and the columns of dust they raised slammed reality into minds that had begun to go numb.

“Tch.”

The swordsmen of Namgung clan grit their teeth and raised their blades once more.

It was true.

For a warrior, the way one dies is the final proof of the life one has lived.

They knew it too. They knew their chances of survival in this battle were slim. If so, shouldn’t they prove their lives one final time?

Booom! Booooom!

The bombardment continued without pause, yet the eyes of Namgung clan’s swordsmen grew all the colder and more focused.

The moment those ships reached the shore. that would be the true beginning!

Every swordsman of Namgung clan fixed their gaze on the approaching ships, taking deep breaths, steeling their resolve.

But then.

Fwoooosh!

Before they could fully ready their hearts, dozens of pirates burst from the surface near the island, rising in a spray of foam.

“Wh-What?!”

“They’re coming! Damn it all!”

The attackers surged up without so much as a war cry, charging forward at full speed.

The Black Dragon King was indeed a seasoned tactician. As if he’d refused to give Namgung clan any time to rally their spirits, he had deployed his assault teams onto Maehwado a step ahead.

Fwoooosh!

It was clear from their terrifying speed – these were no ordinary troops.

Their expressions set in stone, the assailants radiated a chill colder than the eternal ice of the Northern Sea as they charged in to close the distance.

“Azure Sky Sword Unit! Hold the front!”

“Yes!”

Training carved into the body answers in place of thought. Even at the edge of physical exhaustion, the moment the commander’s order rang out, the bodies of Azure Sky Unit’s swordsmen moved on instinct.

In a flash, Azure Sky Sword Unit stepped forward and formed a battle line.

Had Chung Myung witnessed this scene, he would have nodded without hesitation. The strength of a noble sect was not proven by the sharpness of a blade’s aura – it was proven by will. And will, in turn, testified to a sect’s history and name.

Now, in this very moment, Namgung clan was proving that the legacy they carried was no hollow name.

Booom!

The bombardment still did not cease.

In the searing heart of the battlefield, under a rain of shells, Namgung clan’s Azure Sky Sword Unit clashed head-on with Surochae’s Black Dragon Unit.

Kagang!

Swords and blades, blades and harpoons collided with explosive sparks.

This was different from before. Every previous skirmish had been fought with the unspoken knowledge that both sides still held something in reserve. Surochae had not been trying to press Namgung clan to utter collapse, and Namgung clan had sensed that the enemy was not yet aiming to crush their final breath.

But now – this was different.

The only thing left was the annihilation of one side.

This was a battle that would not end until every last life on one side was extinguished. A clash with everything on the line.

Kagagagak!

Taut muscles strained as weapons pushed against one another. It was a scene charged with willpower – neither side yielding even a step.

By all rights, it should have been the Black Dragon Unit that gave way.

The Azure Sky Sword Unit bore the name of Namgung’s finest – the elite among elites. The blades wielded by those who led the lofty Namgung clan through generations were not forged to break easily.

And yet. 

Kagagagak!

“Ghhhk…”

The longer the standoff dragged on, the more Namgung’s swords were driven back.

No matter how unshakable the will, the flesh could not defy its limits forever. As if to prove this truth, the blades and harpoons of Surochae began to overpower Namgung’s swords.

“Graaaagh!”

“Aaaagh!”

The enemy blades, having seized the advantage, ruthlessly split the frail flesh.

Blood sprayed in all directions, and sharp screams rang out across the battlefield. Yet even as their stomachs were pierced by harpoons and their shoulders split by blades, the Azure Sky Sword Unit did not easily fall back.

No one had to shout it out with veins bulging from their necks – they all already knew.

This place, here, was where they were meant to die.

“Don’t get cocky!”

One of the Azure Sky swordsmen let out a desperate roar as he swung his sword.

Fwaaash!

His blade, flying like a bolt of lightning, pierced straight through the neck of a charging enemy.

“Gkkk!”

The blade that had sliced into the front of his throat punched through the nape and protruded out the other side.  The pirate, staring down at the sword embedded in his throat, trembled as if he couldn’t believe it.

“Just a filthy…”

Thuck!

But in that instant.

The dying man’s harpoon drove into the Azure Sky swordsman’s lower abdomen, catching him in a moment of fatal carelessness.

A gasp slipped from the swordsman’s lips. His will had been firm, but in the end, he was still a young warrior, lacking true battlefield experience. He had forgotten the most basic rule: never lower your guard until the enemy has drawn their final breath.

“Khk…”

Fwaaash!

At that moment, a blade came flying from behind and struck the twisting neck of the Azure Sky swordsman, sending his head soaring through the air. His eyes were still wide open as it spun, suspended in the sky.

“G-Gwang-ah!”

“Namgung Gwaaaaaang!”

A noble clan’s bond runs unbearably deep.

Unlike martial arts sects, where unrelated individuals gather and grow united through shared ideals, the members of a clan grow up together from childhood.

Which means – the impact of losing one of their own is incomparable to that of any ordinary sect.

To someone, that soaring head was a younger brother. To another, an older brother. And to yet another – a son.

And now they had to watch, with their own eyes, that head rise into the air.

The rain of bloody tears began to fall in their hearts.

“You bastards!”

“Uwaaaaaaaagh!”

As hatred and fury swelled, any sense of cooperation or camaraderie vanished from the battlefield.

What remained was pure, unfiltered malice – a savage urge to tear apart the enemy standing before them.

The tales once gently crafted to plant dreams in the hearts of young swordsmen were being torn to pieces. The raw, brutal face of war was finally showing itself.

Victory won at the cost of a son’s severed head.

Glory granted in exchange for a brother’s bleeding heart.

Who dares speak of sacrifice?

Who dares speak of sorrow?

No praise is given to the dead. Glory belongs solely to the living.

Someone needed to understand – who it was that bled behind that glory. That behind every triumph, there lies a multitude of forgotten deaths.

And yet, regrettably, those who stood here now were consumed solely by hostility, fear, and hatred, lunging at the enemy before them with blind rage.

“Diiiiiie!”

“Uwaaaaaaaaagh!”

The Azure Sky Sword Unit, their eyes blood‑red, screamed and swung their swords at the pirates.

It was a furious resistance – far too fierce to believe it came from warriors already pushed past exhaustion. Their sword energy flared with savage intensity.

But the Black Dragon Unit didn’t falter.

Even a cornered rat will bite a cat. But does the cat die from a rat’s bite? They had fully anticipated fierce resistance. What mattered now was pressing their advantage until the enemy was utterly crushed.

Unlike their initial brutal charge, the Black Dragon Unit now eased off the reins. No urgency, no haste – only patience.

Thud! Thud!

Then came the eerie sound of ships slamming into the sandbars as they docked at Maehwado.

And finally.

A massive ship, entirely black from bow to stern – the Black Dragon King’s personal vessel, the Black Dragon Ship – reached the island.

Boooom!

A thunderous roar pierced the ears of all who heard it.

It was a roar so loud that one doubted how the ship could survive docking at such speed. But the effect of that sound was undeniable.

With that sound alone, Namgung clan knew – not with their eyes, but with their ears – that the enemy’s main force had arrived.

Thud!

Moments later, a figure slowly stepped forward from the bow of the Black Dragon Ship.

A towering frame – so imposing it made people shrink back just by standing there.

A black beard reminiscent of Guan Yu.

Eyes like a tiger’s – piercing and fierce.

Not only his skill, but even his appearance alone was enough to make those who beheld him shrink back.

He had revealed his overwhelming presence.

“Filthy insects…”

At last, the Black Dragon King set foot on Maehwado, baring his teeth as he looked down at Namgung clan beneath him.

“Turn every last fool who dared defy me on this river into fish food!”

“At your command!”

Even before the order had finished leaving his lips, pirates began pouring out of the docked ships like a swarm of ants.

It was a suffocating sight.

It was a sight that took one’s breath away.

From the decks of the ships that surrounded the island on all sides, and even from the water, pirates flooded onto the island in endless waves.

“Blaaack Draaaagon Kiiiiiiiing!”

Namgung Hwang roared, a voice like a lion’s roar shaking the air.

“The Emperor’s Sword.”

But the Black Dragon King, hearing that cry, merely twisted his lips into a smirk. Namgung Hwang, his eyes burning with hatred, fixed his glare on the man and shouted.

“If you’re truly a warrior, step forward! You must have the courage to settle the duel we never finished!”

“You’re still a fool, Namgung Hwang.”

The Black Dragon King sneered openly.

“Did you actually think someone like you was worthy to challenge me?”

“Y-You..!”

“Die flailing right where you stand. I’ll watch your end with my own eyes!”

“Blaaack Draaaagon Kiiiiiiiing!”

“Kill them.”

The pirates began to rush at the bleeding enemy ravenously, as if determined to tear them apart without leaving even a scrap of flesh behind.