Chapter 44: Small Victory
Despite Eldar’s exclamation, a battle had already begun on the land.
Hasadian shouted, “Don’t be afraid! The enemy has fewer men than we do!”
There were seventy Human soldiers and eighty Lizardmen. Altogether, there were still only one hundred fifty of them. On the other hand, there were three hundred Elf warriors.
‘Though we haven’t been able to rest after a long march. One side is a cliff, and the other is a precipice. It is difficult to take advantage of the large numbers of men we have given how narrow the path is. But the same goes for the opponent. Since we have a lot of men, the opponent’s pincer movement won’t matter too much.’
Hasadian then said to the other three centurions, “Leave the front unit to finish preparing, and have the rear unit turn around and get ready for the Lizardmen’s attack.”
“Which unit would you like to take charge of, Chief?”
“I’ll take the front unit.”
The other three centurions agreed with Hasadian’s order. It was too late to retreat now anyways. Given how well-prepared the opponent was, their main troops were probably here and would be destroyed once the battle was over.
‘The Lizardmen tribe seems powerful, so we’ll attack the Human tribe first. Once the Human tribe is defeated, we can escape this narrow path. If we pressure the Lizardmen with our large numbers at a wider area, there’s a good chance we can win.’
It still wouldn’t be ideal even if the battle turned out exactly as Hasadian hoped. It would be difficult to attack Automation with the remaining troops after the battle, and the Human soldiers would likely go back to Automation and ambush the Elf warriors when they were resting. The ones who knew the surrounding terrain well were the Humans, not the Elves. Moreover, it was too much to think that the battle would go as Hasadian wished. When the Elf archers leisurely waited and hoped for the enemies to come within eighty steps from them with their arrows, they were attacked from above.
“Great chief! Human soldiers have appeared from above the gorge! There are arrows!”
“Fight back!”
As arrows started raining down from above, some Elves broke formation to avoid the arrows, and others ducked down to block them. Horses that had been shot struggled, flinging their riders off their backs and refusing to calm down. The ones remaining on horseback found it difficult to focus on shooting back. Because of this chaos, most of the Elf warriors hadn’t noticed the Lizardmen cavalry slowly approaching them.
Then Hasadian looked back and shouted, “The Lizardmen are charging! Spearmen, don’t get out of formation!”
At Hasadian’s roar, the spearmen in formation barely regained focus and lifted their spears. However, it wasn’t exactly a good tactical response.
The one who was at the very front leading the cavalry was Lakrak. Riding on his Cockatrice, Lakrak pointed to the sky. The oblivious Elf spearmen had no clue what that meant and glanced at where Lakrak was pointing. Then Lakrak dragged his index finger from the sky down to where the Elf spearmen were. It seemed as if a solid white line was drawn through the atmosphere.
A flash. There was a tremor. Then light.
Bang!
Lightning struck. All those who came into contact with the lightning stood unmoving with steam rising from their noses, mouths, and ears. And those who almost got hit collapsed from the shockwaves and became blind and deaf.
Lakrak and the other Lizardmen riding on Cockatoos began to yell and charge straight towards the swordsmen, stepping all over the collapsed Elves.
Belatedly, Hasadian yelled, “Don’t show your backs! You cowards!”
However, Hasadian’s words sounded distant and muffled even to themself. Their hearing had been damaged by the thunder.
With the first wave of attacks, the Cockatoo warriors stabbed through two or three Elf spearmen at a time like a skewer. They then threw away their spears and took out their swords. Once the Cockatoo warriors slashed their enemies and moved on, the Cockatoos stepped on those still alive and crushed their heads.
As the Elf spearmen got back into formations a beat later, the Cockatoo warriors prepared to retreat without receiving any other commands. Hasadian was relieved for a moment.
‘We can finally take a breather now…’
But they couldn’t. The Lizardmen swordsmen took the place of the retreating Cockatoo warriors. Unlike the Cockatoo warriors, who had to keep themselves light in order to climb onto the Cockatoos, the Lizardmen swordsmen wore leather armor which had been soaked in oil to harden the material, and they carried shields made of the shell of the Ancient Coleoptera. Spearblades didn’t even scratch the Lizardmen swordsmen, and the Elf spearmen got slashed in their chests, abdomens, and necks before they could take out their backup weapon, daggers.
While some Elves fought back, the majority of the Elf spearmen had already lost their fighting spirits due to Lakrak’s lightning. However, there was no way for them to retreat as they were stuck between cliffs and precipices. The only other way out was also blocked by the enemies.
Lakrak looked back at the status of the battle.
‘It’s over.’
There were still about two hundred twenty enemies left, but only a few were fighting the Black-Scaled Tribe Lizardmen. The rest of the Elves had their back to the Lizardmen as they pushed and stepped on each other to run away, and the ones who seemed to be the commanders tried and failed to rally their troops.
Across from the Lizardmen, the Humans of Automation were putting their ramparts to good use and killing the Elves who were reluctantly running towards them. The Elves’ last hope was going down the cliff, so the shrewd ones had already begun their descent. They likely weren’t aware of the Human soldiers waiting at the bottom. The Elves who had realized their fate bowed and prayed to their God.
For the sake of the Elves as well, Lakak decided it would be better to end the situation faster.
“We’ll charge again.”
Lakrak quietly mumbled to himself. Pzzt, who had been flying low above Lakrak, repeated his words.
We’ll charge back.
The warriors who were supposed to hear those words finished maintenance and were prepared to attack again.
“Charge.”
Charge.
***
Sung-Woon took advantage of Eldar’s moment of confusion and promised not to intervene in the battle under the condition that Eldar stayed out of it as well.
Sung-Woon could easily figure out what Eldar was thinking.
‘Eldar probably thought my Divinity level was high and that they would lose if we both intervened in the battle. Then they might believe that the Elves would have a chance if neither of us intervened. That’s not wrong per se. But it was better to prevent Eldar from using Divine Control and hurting the Lizardmen. I still would have won the battle no matter what.’
As a result, Eldar was only able to watch their Elf warriors get massacred.
Eldar then said with a sad face, “I…I lost…”
Sung-Woon replied, “I thought three hundred warriors was quite a lot at this stage.”
“...So?”
“So? Nothing really. I just wanted to let you know that protecting your Elf tribe would be difficult now since you’ve lost a considerable number of warriors.”
Eldar sighed.
“What do you want?”
Sung-Woon could’ve shouted, ‘I want your life,’ and made Lakrak run through the wilderness. But Eldar’s Elf tribe, Green Eye tribe, was still far away.
‘And I have no information about the northern coast.’
Acquiring information on the northern coast from Eldar wouldn’t change Sung-Woon’s plan to conquer the Elf tribe. Historically, the success rate would be higher if he claimed that he wouldn’t attack his opponent and then launched an attack.
Sung-Woon stated what he wanted.
“Information, technology, and resources.”
“That’s asking for everything, isn’t it?”
“Strictly speaking, it’s not everything.”
Sung-Woon pointed to Eldar. Eldar flinched as if they had really been poked.
“...Ugh.”
Eldar seemed to be thinking. In the case of a resounding victory in a battle between players, the player about to lose would sometimes keep playing the game after accepting a few conditions and obsequious behavior. Out of the possible conditions, technology and resources were the most simple offers.
Asking for technology meant asking for all the technology that Eldar’s Elf tribe had found and developed. As for resources, it was basically the tribute Elder had first demanded from Sung-Woon.
Information was a bit more special. In The Lost World, information referred to information on all entities, areas, maps, and entity abilities, and this information was all saved in a player’s Information Tab. Giving someone information meant sharing all the objective facts that were saved and updated constantly, including the locations of surrounding species and tribes, their numbers and level of development so far, and more specifically, the locations of Ancient Ruins that a player had discovered alone, as well as the stats of entities that a player was keeping an eye on.
While handing over technology and resources would mean giving away everything the player had accumulated until now, handing over information would also mean surrendering all the information to be gained in the future.
Sung-Woon thought that the chance of Eldar accepting these conditions was less than fifty-fifty.
‘Even though their life is on the line, they could always run away. Running away might be a better choice than allowing the enemy to benefit from handing everything over.’
But Eldar thought differently.
’...This might be better.’
The loss of Hasadian and three hundred warriors was a painful defeat. However, even if Hasadian and the warriors were spared, there was no knowing how long they would last in the northern coast.
‘Nebula. This person is playing with two species at this early stage, so if I need to pick a side, it might be better to stick with him. They are ridiculously strong.’
Eldar suddenly cleared their throat and fixed their posture.
“I, Eldar, the God of the Elves, have been moved by the mercy of Nebula, the God of Humans and Lizardmen.”
“What?”
“Therefore, I will provide you with the information, technology, and resources you have asked for. I will also provide you with anything else you will need going forward.”
“What is this?”
“Please forgive my arrogance in the past.”
“What are you saying?”
Eldar bowed to Sung-Woon. Sung-Woon was trying to figure out Eldar’s intentions. However, he was able to understand the situation despite Eldar’s roleplay after listening to their explanation.
***
“I am Hwee-Kyung, lord of Automation.”
“Before I introduce myself, may I ask what this action is?”
“We call this…a handshake. We hold and shake hands before hugging each other. As an expression of intimacy.”
Lakrak looked back at Sairan to make sure that was true, and Sairan nodded. It was a greeting common among the merchants from the inner continent, and it had become a trend within Automation. Hwee-Kyung liked trends. Because trends meant change.
Lakrak reached out his hand and hesitated one more time.
“There’s blood all over my hands and body.”
Lakrak was currently covered in the blood of Elves. It was proof that he fought at the very front from beginning to end.
Hwee-Kyung shrugged and shook Lakrak’s hand before giving him a hug. The sticky blood got onto not only Hwee-Kyung’s hand, but also her clothes and face.
“It doesn’t matter, Chief. It’s blood you got from saving us. What good would it be if we didn’t also get the blood on us? It’s an honor to be able to smear blood this way.”
Lakrak wasn’t very amused by the words uttered by the Human woman with horns, but he agreed that she was a good speaker. It wasn’t a bad thing for the ally’s leader to be good at speaking.
Lakrak slightly smiled and looked around. After defeating the Elves, Lakrak and his warriors had followed the Automation soldiers into Automation. Lakrak felt a strange emotion as he stepped into the city he had been hearing much about.
Then Lakrak said, “Hm, as you said, it’s just a deal, so does it matter whether it’s an honor or not?”
“Of course it’s important. If you swindle, you would lose a future trade partner, but if you give more, previous trading partners would come back.”
Lakrak looked at Hwee-Kyung with the eyes of a lizard. Honor was just part of a trade for this Human. But that wasn’t the important part.
“Does that mean you want to do business with us often from now on?” asked Lakrak.
“Of course.”
Lakrak nudged Sairan, who was standing next to him, in the side with his elbow.
“You must be busy.”
“What?”
“Don’t act surprised.”
Lakrak then said to Hwee-Kyung before replying to Sairan, “This fellow has been around until now, but he’ll be the representative residing within Automation from here on out. I wish you would treat him well enough.”
“Of course.”
Lakrak saw Sairan and Hwee-Kyung exchange looks. It took time for Lakrak to understand Hwee-Kyung due to her unique deposition, but he believed they were likely to benefit in the future.
‘Of course I should solve the problem at hand first.’
As Hwee-Kyung brought up throwing a banquet, Lakrak shook his head.
“Let’s talk about our deal first… Bring it here.”
Their deal included exchanges of several technologies and a great amount of resources, but there was something that took priority for Lakrak. Two Lizardmen warriors struggled to push the wheelbarrow loaded with a large fabric pouch, and when Lakrak opened the pouch, it was revealed to be filled with iron pieces.
Hwee-Kyung looked down at the iron.
“This is the thing.”
“Yes. It’s for sure iron. It’s also much harder than the iron we use.”
The disadvantage of these iron pieces that the Black-Scaled Tribe discovered at an Ancient Ruin was that it was hard to smelt them despite their strength. The melting point was high, and it was difficult for even their skilled blacksmith to shape it. Lakrak was dissatisfied that good materials for weapons weren’t being used properly. Hwee-Kyung told this to the blacksmith at Automation, and the blacksmith answered with much confidence, so Hwee-Kyung told Lakrak to bring the iron here for smelting and shaping.
Hwee-Kyung expected the Human blacksmith to be better than the one with the nomadic Lizardmen tribe, as the Humans had been smelting ore for a long time. Hwee-Kyung invited Lakrak to the inner palace, put the iron pieces into a small pouch, and brought it to the blacksmith. The blacksmith told Hwee-Kyung to wait and went into his blacksmith’s shop, taking a while to wrestle with the iron.
The blacksmith then came out sweating and said, “I don’t think it’s going to work, Lord.”
New n𝙤vel chapters are published on f(r)e𝒆webn(o)vel.com