Season 3: Chapter 195: The Elephant (3)
‘Five...?’
More elephants appeared than expected.
Sa-Rang briefly furrowed her brows, but quickly gave continuous orders to the swordsmen.
Ping!
[Descend and attack]
The swordsmen sluggishly ran to their designated points. They likely hadn’t fully grasped the timing due to a lack of experience.
Persia often avoided using elephants during scrims to prevent any familiarity.
Of course, players could have faced elephants in individual rank matches a few times. However, facing them in a tournament was likely a first.
‘Even so...’
Sa-Rang bit her lip tightly.
‘Aren’t they hesitating too much?’
Ting!
Ping!
[Descend and stab the elephant’s back]
[Descend now]
With successive commands, the swordsmen finally understood and started running at full speed.
Overall, the delay hadn’t been too long. At most, a two second delay had taken place. However, two seconds could mean the difference between life and death for dozens in a war like this. The gap would widen, especially if the enemy executed orders with delays of a mere 0.1 seconds.
The enemy moved as one under their commander.
‘How long would it take to become like that…?’
The Joseon soldiers weren't deliberately delaying. They were thinking humans, so it was an automatic response. Telling them to erase all thoughts would be problematic.
In Civil Empire, almost everything required immediate judgment and action. If the enemy had no thoughts at all, they couldn’t lead a battle.
‘Cookie leaves a lot to their on-site judgment.’
Cookie understood precisely what each Joseon soldier thought and gave orders accordingly.
‘I can’t do that.’
Sa-Rang couldn’t do the same. It wasn’t a matter of capability. She just hadn’t spent enough time with them yet.
The issue could only be solved now by turning back time, yet the swordsmen ran to the designated spot to carry out her orders.
However—
“!”
Boom!
The elephant had already broken through the wall and the fallen wall crushed all the swordsmen who arrived late to attack.
“Hah...”
Sa-Rang subconsciously rubbed her forehead.
The timing would have been perfect if they had jumped onto the elephants before the wall collapsed. However, the delay in executing orders created a perfect opportunity for the enemy and numerous soldiers died in vain.
The cheers of the opposing spectators and the sighs of the Korean spectators could be heard.
“Ah! The wall has been completely destroyed! Everyone was buried as the wall collapsed! They're essentially dead!”
“This is why elephants are terrifying! Suddenly, everyone is dead!!”
As the elephants passed, they naturally trampled everyone with no way to avoid it. The most terrifying aspects of elephants were their overwhelming stats and the unexpected massive blow they could deliver.
— It’s like seeing a massive mine explosion.
— Why like this?!!
— Why send them at that time?
— Crazy
— Did they not anticipate this…?
— This is ridiculous
— Now, we have to hope for a massive counter against the elephants!
“Ah... this game isn’t easy. A significant mistake occurred.”
“But we can also hope for a massive comeback if the elephants die! It’s not over yet, Joseon!”
When elephants fell, they usually collapsed toward their own forces. Allies would also be crushed if they didn’t avoid it.
Elephants were tricky to handle both for the user and the opponent.
— gg~
— The moment they talk about a massive comeback, they’ve lost
— In the end, hoping for a massive comeback against the elephants
— Crazy
Joseon could only hope for a massive comeback against the elephants. Some said they had already lost to the elephants at the mention of this because it meant relying on a miracle.
However, Sa-Rang decided to bet on this miracle. She thought it was a commander-like judgment.
‘I need to show something.’
Ting.
[Attack]
She spotted a soldier on the wall and gave the order.
‘Show what I can do.’
***
“Bwooooo—”
Sang-Hyeon remembered something while watching the terrifying charge of the elephants.
His coach read a lot of books. The coach believed his job was dealing with people, so he read countless books on human psychology and behavior. Whenever he found a good quote or insight, he would share it with the team.
Thanks to this, the Coach’s nickname was Quote Machine at one point. Of course, this wasn’t his official nickname, but the kids called him that with a slightly different nuance.
Among the many quotes he told them, he always said something before a competition.
“Don’t think about elephants.”
He would stand with his hands behind his back and look down solemnly.
“Then you’ll only think about elephants.”
“...”
“The human brain doesn’t understand negation.”
He talked about the tension before a competition.
“So saying, ‘Don’t be nervous,’ is useless.”
Tension was the biggest enemy in archery, which was a battle against oneself. The gathered individuals could theoretically hit the center of every target, so why couldn’t they do the same all the time in a real competition?
The coach believed it was a matter of the mind.
“It’s okay to be nervous. It’s okay to think about elephants. Instead, we learn how to hunt elephants.”
This came to mind now as Sang-Hyeon received such an order.
[Attack]
An attack order that he most likely only received.
Hardly any soldiers remained on the crumbled wall and the rest had scattered far apart. In other words, this was a solo order to attack the giant enemy elephant.
The elephants had breached the Joseon base and the situation became dire. If he jumped in and died here, it would be a huge turning point. The pressure was immense and tension started from there, but it was okay.
He had learned how to hunt elephants from his coach. If he couldn’t do this, then the coach had taught him wrong.
‘Hey, that elephant isn’t the same elephant!’
A strange reprimand echoed in his mind, but he didn’t care. Almond believed in his coach’s teachings and dashed forward.
He slung his bow behind him and launched himself toward the first marked spot.
[Melee weapon]
Thud.
He picked up a fallen sword on the wall.
‘She told me to grab this because ranged attacks don’t work on elephants.’
He clearly needed the sword and the person giving the order was as trustworthy as Cookie. The problem was that the commander couldn’t solve the difficulties required to execute the order.
“There’s one guy on the wall!”
Like a defensive tower, six or so enemies could shoot arrows from the elephant. They spotted Almond slightly just above their eye level and made direct eye contact.
“It’s Almond!”
“Almond!?”
One of them recognized him and started shooting rapidly. As expected of Persian archers, their rate of fire was impressive.
Clang!
“!?”
Almond easily deflected the rapid shots with his sword and dashed forward.
Ping!
[Shield]
A ping marked a fallen shield. Was he supposed to pick it up?
Thud.
He picked up the shield on the ground.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Arrows instantly rained down. Almost all the archers on the other elephants fired simultaneously. This couldn’t be blocked with just a sword.
“Oh,” he murmured in admiration and proceeded with the next order.
[Descend]
He ran and jumped off the wall.
Thud—
His body briefly flew through the air and landed on the elephant’s back.
Boom!
“Ugh!”
“What’s this!?”
He had jumped right into the middle of five enemies, but they were all archers.
This was actually safer. The issue was with the other elephants.
At that moment, a red ping appeared.
Ping!
[Warning]
It marked the Persian archers on the adjacent elephant. Almond raised his shield.
Thud!
He felt the vibrations through the shield and switched to offense. He swept the shield to the left and slashed with the sword in his right hand at the Persian archer next to him.
Slash—
Blood sprayed horizontally and the enemy’s bow dropped.
Almond advanced, slashing the opponent once more.
Slash!
This time, the opponent's head rolled off. The archers had no way to handle Almond at such close range.
“Stop him!”
They tried to tackle him, but Almond gave them no chance and pushed forward with his shield.
“Ugh!?”
He swung his sword upward.
Slash!
Another enemy lost his bow and fell.
‘Three left.’
Ping!
[Warning]
A distant ping marked an archer targeting him.
‘The distance...’
This distance allowed for a high shot to drop at an angle.
Almond roughly raised his shield to cover his head.
Thud...!
“Die!”
Meanwhile, an archer behind him held an arrow like a dagger and rushed at him. Almond crouched and swung his sword low. The archer lost his leg and was thrown off balance. Then, Almond stood up and struck his abdomen with the shield.
Thud!
The archer bounced off from the momentum and fell beneath the elephant.
“Aaaah…!”
Ping.
Another warning sounded.
[Warning]
Almond turned his shield to the right.
Thud!
An arrow precisely struck the shield.
The Persian archer on the other elephant looked bewildered. He didn't know about the [Warning] mark over his head.
Slash!
Meanwhile, Almond took down another enemy.
‘One left.’
Only one enemy remained on the elephant. They were all archers, so they had no countermeasures once a melee fighter got this close.
Slash!
Slash!
The last enemy also fell off the elephant after Almond ruthlessly cut him down.
Meanwhile, the elephant continued charging toward the heart of Joseon’s base, the town hall.
[Attack]
The initial attack ping was still on the elephant because the order hadn’t been completed yet.
‘It has to be stopped. Melee attacks work on elephants.’
Almond grasped the sword and stabbed it into the elephant’s back.
Thud!
“Bwooooo!”
The elephant shook its head violently, but continued charging toward the hall. It seemed unaffected by the attack.
[Elephant hit! Increase the damage with a larger wound.]
This message didn’t come from the commander, but appeared as an informational message on how to fight an elephant.
The commander continued to closely watch everything. Joseon’s fate rested on this battle.
Uuuung...
The commander drew a glowing path.
‘A path?’
This momentarily confused Almond. He pulled out the sword and jumped to the elephant’s head where a path had been drawn.
“Hup!”
Thud!
The sword dug into the elephant’s head.
“Bwooooooo!”
The elephant roared louder and lifted its front legs. Almond clung to the sword and dangled along.
Boom!
Moments later, the elephant’s front legs touched the ground again.
Almond slashed off all the arrows embedded in his shield.
Thud thud thud.
He threw the now smooth shield onto the elephant's head and climbed on. Then, he quickly descended and gripped the embedded sword tightly.
Scree—
The shield slid like a board while gaining speed from the head, over the trunk, to the tip of the nose. Following the glowing path drawn by the commander, Almond held onto the sword and cut through the elephant.
A bright red path emerged from the elephant’s glistening, gray flesh.
Slash—
The surface area of the wound determined the damage. Almond had slashed about a third of the elephant.
“Bwooooo—”
The elephant staggered at an unprecedented angle.
‘Got it!’
Even here, he learned how to hunt elephants.
‘That elephant isn't the same one, you know?’
He seemed to hear the coach’s lament, but Almond only grinned. As he smiled, a cloud of dust burst from behind him like a fountain.
Boom!