Chapter 199

eay0Jep8d1icI067I9j2Z4CeT9k0F5F1RdT2deZee1D3dbWfN7lbV8FbU9X1Vcp0UfXfYey0Z5Xbcb9bPaS9IcsaI5n5Z2h3b3H0V3lcI4j2ofi2S1V7VfNfc5H6J9Kca0S891k6Y8V0leReM8zbd3RcUfW194w1Nc1eJ0WbSdH7p7XfR0k3N5Scc3G7Vdl8a4W48d5da8U1FfJeWfF3l0o1SckcR8qfZ4n2de4eU3G70fv3Qd1cJ2S2a6z3U4rbT610ldS6W0W8Ue24Z5keJf2dW1k4h024M1099eS4a4V9h517S3F3ZfCdb3k3hdG0d5H6Rbh8daH4hdS2R9G214B6cbVfAbyaaeW8J2TbLdz7Fdz5Zf0fk85dacE9h0L7NbT7Mf52Ye3dR3K5efV8k9y5W5k2g519Q90fp8J8S7WchdBbbd13dePeZ80fN7MbR0k9Ya4bTeT6FcD3a5VaI3zfN3V6lcR5a2E3If34c4F7ZdFcZ5jdNbQed9TeFan7PfT50fi0L0C9J7t9Y4W2M4i4OfifI9z7Y5j9c5z3M3WbFeifO6GbM607Ybjbk7z5N6GcM9y8Ye20M63dO0D4dbhdM5T6E94dZaD5ZakbMbD1cf14M4DaM3zaM2G7R5l7M8j8Ycz1ZfT5laifM2D9c5z0Z2m2Nfj6YazdE1w1N4m1QczeZaW3N0icZ5W7Z4h9YbmeQe28Ieidw4i9d6G9FcneIdjbo3i6I8n403=0

Chapter 199: Those Who Fill the Gaps

The ‍‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‍plain was already soaked with blood and pus.

NovelFire reader preview #25933f63be1e (issued 2026-07-20).

But in that moment, the heads of the Corrupted turned backward. Something was coming down from the hill. Iron and wind collided, and hoofbeats struck the earth, leaving short, heavy tremors in their wake.

The Mountain Rabbits' line did not break apart at all. They charged at even intervals, close enough that each rider's shoulder nearly touched the next.

"Hold the gap! Accelerate in a straight line!"

Captain Royce shouted.

Calix, at the head of the formation, silently pulled the reins tighter. His warhorse was already exhaling ragged breaths as it surged forward. It was less the sensation of moving ahead and more the feeling of being dragged along.

Before them, the Corrupted stretched across the horizon.

From the cracks in the broken earth, atop torn corpses, inside pools of blood—no matter where he looked, there was nothing but enemies.

Rather than drawing his blade hastily, Calix gripped it still in its scabbard and lowered his body.

‘The first breakthrough is not made with the edge.’

Boom!!

The moment the hooves launched upward, his body slid as though sucked into the heart of the enemy formation. A Corrupted's head blocked the path ahead, but Calix did not slow down. The scabbard crushed the jawbone outright. Then the blade was drawn, and naturally, the second arc severed the thing's ribs.

A mist of blood like iron filings spread through the air.

Romance, riding just behind, called out sharply.

"The left is opening up! Pull in the right! Hold the center line!"

Volga answered with a grin, blood splattered at the corner of his mouth.

"Opening up, my foot! Push harder!!"

He swept his great two-handed sword in a wide arc, sending 3 flying in a single motion. Then he drove through the mass of bodies and fell in behind Calix.

There was no reason to hesitate—and no time for it either.

On the right side of the formation, Basim raised his thick forearms. His limbs were short. And so he fought in a way befitting a dwarf.

He stamped points into the world.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

His fighting was not about speed—it was about the crushing pressure of each point driven down. With every point stamped, an enemy's skull split open, flesh and dirt caving in together.

A rhythm like swinging a great axe into the ground. The Corrupted lost their footing from the impact and scrambled out of his path.

Marik, by contrast, was entirely different in manner. He rode in the front line of the cavalry, but his focus was on crossing the frontline laterally.

He cut only the ones that clung to the flanks. Rather than widening his field of vision, he fulfilled only a single role, faithfully.

"Don't fall behind! Left rear, clean it up fast!"

A handful of words was all it took to steady the formation.

The path forward was handled by Calix and Royce. In the second line, Volga and Basim widened the lane, while cleaning up the rear was Marik's responsibility.

No matter how the Corrupted swarmed, the Mountain Rabbits did not change direction. They did not bend, and they did not stop. Cutting across the midst of the enemy forces, they split them into 2 pieces.

At a certain point, the horses' speed began to falter—

And then Calix stepped forward himself.

On the path the warhorse needed to break through, mana spread one step ahead. The famous sword Srna gleamed with an unsettling light.

The Apex of Annihilation. The standard of a Master—the supreme flame that births a Domain—burned gray. It drew enemies in, hurled them aside, and simultaneously cut and erased them. Instead of air and flesh being cleaved, form itself was torn apart.

Blood rained down.

Even so, Calix did not bat an eye. He advanced straight and true, leading a thousand Mountain Rabbits to the very front of the palisade.

Thousands of beasts could not stop a single man.

In a way, it was only natural. What they had poured out was not organs or bone, but a road. Where Calix passed, a breach was made—and through that breach, the Mountain Rabbits simply poured in.

"The palisade is right before us!"

"Don't stop!"

At the vanguard, Royce twisted his reins and roared.

His eyes already saw the beasts that had gotten inside the palisade. They were crawling inward without pause, dragging down the defenders.

"Enter as you are! Rear line, support the front!"

Calix immediately leapt inside the palisade.

Zahira followed close behind him, severing the shoulder tendon of a Corrupted with her dagger. Basim, on the contrary, leaped from his horse with a look of delight. His legs drove into the earth, and mud sprayed outward.

Thud—

The first strike cratered the ground.

"I make a vow!"

The second axe blow severed the forelimbs of a beast.

"When this war is over, I swear I will never again ride any creature with longer legs than me!!"

The 3rd strike sent a dark-red spray of blood and a neck hurtling skyward together.

Soon after, a thousand cavalry set foot inside the broken palisade. Minor instructions were unnecessary. Some made the road, some widened it, some guarded it.

In that moment, Ella's Divinity erupted. Golden particles spread outward, mending the torn flesh of the soldiers, staunching the blood that had been flowing from their bodies.

The Mountain Rabbits let out a battle cry and charged into the battlefield. It was a declaration that wherever they stood was their domain.

One soldier murmured, on the verge of tears.

"They came…… They really came, the Mountain Rabbits……"

But the outcome of the battle on the field had not yet been decided.

Inside the palisade, a far greater darkness remained. Things with bigger frames and heavier builds were closing in to reclaim the ground that had just been ceded.

At this, Calix raised his sword.

The tip of the blade drew a line dividing the battlefield.

It was a straight trajectory.

The instant the surging Corrupted came into contact with that line, their forms twisted and were crushed wholesale. No blood, no screaming, no collision.

They simply ceased to exist.

***

The gap in the palisade was like part of the sea. The beasts poured in endlessly, cresting and rolling like waves.

Soldier Edric nearly lost his grip on the shaft of his spear. Blood had dried and crusted around his palm, and his arms could no longer rise properly. He had already lost consciousness twice, and from the 3rd time onward, he stopped keeping count.

Then, from inside the rampart, came the sound of enormous footsteps. A shadow fell over his head, and rank bodily fluid dripped down like rain.

A giant beast looked down at him with its maw agape.

‘……This is the end.’

It was precisely that moment.

Thud—

The beast's body slid sideways, as though gently shoved, and collapsed. The enormous mass of flesh split into scattered chunks and was driven into the earth before the palisade. Mud burst upward, grazing Edric's cheek.

Someone had pushed that beast aside. No, not someone. A single man.

Calix.

He entered the palisade still mounted on horseback.

With every step the hooves took forward, the beasts lost their bearings and fell. Then another, and another. An endless tide was swallowed by a gray current.

The arc of the sword was invisible to the eye. Only the residue of mana reflected in the pupils—its speed could not be perceived. Seeing savage creatures reduced to chunks of flesh, one could only guess—’this must be his doing’.

Soon, fear settled into the yellow irises of the beasts.

A single man bore down upon the entire space. The whole of the palisade, this place itself, was entirely under his will. Enemy and ally alike—all shared the same thought.

And so the gap in the palisade no longer looked like a gap. It was not that the beasts had broken through the defensive line. They were the ones who had been trapped.

Like a fracture being sealed, the entire space became allied territory once more.

Someone whispered without thinking.

"……Is that really the same kind of person as us?"

The soldier beside him corrected that at once.

"It'd be 'that person', wouldn't it. It's nothing strange. Those are Mountain Rabbits, aren't they?"

They were legends. Stories that drifted over barrels of ale every night. Madmen who feared neither death, nor kings, nor gods. Edric had not believed the rumors about them. Not until they appeared before his very eyes.

"The Mountain Rabbits! It's the Mountain Rabbits!!"

The soldiers' eyes held reverence and hope all at once.

When the Mountain Rabbits entered the palisade, the very air changed. They did not get drunk on blood or grow frenzied. Quietly, they controlled their horses, swung their blades, and lifted fallen soldiers to their feet.

With that, the outcome of the battle on the field was made starkly clear.

Basim picked up a sword that had fallen to the ground and handed it back to a dazed soldier.

"It's not over yet, greenhorn! Mind your own life first!"

Royce, his cloak soaked in blood, swept toward the remaining Corrupted. There was nowhere for the enemies to flee.

"Kill them all!"

Only then did Edric begin to tremble.

‘He had survived.’

‘Truly…… I survived.’

Before he could even voice those words, a beautiful woman sprang out from among the Mountain Rabbits. An elf—it was Airien.

***

Knowing that the enemy has withdrawn usually takes a few minutes. When the smell of blood cools, and instead of screams, the wind begins to tickle your cheek. Only then do people realize they have survived.

The palisade's defenders were the same. The moment after the battle wrapped up, the soldiers belatedly noticed that the Mountain Rabbits numbered far fewer than they had imagined.

"Only…… Only 1,000?"

It was not disappointment. Turning the tide of battle was not a matter of headcount. They had witnessed the sight firsthand, and it was clearly—a welcome surprise.

Just then, Airien came sprinting over.

Her armor was layered with dried blood, and the backs of her hands had been scraped raw and swollen red by the harsh wind. But she did not stop—she went straight into someone's arms.

Luen Silius—Airien's father.

For a while, neither of them could find words. They did not weep violently, nor did they laugh. They simply leaned against each other's shoulders and steadied their breathing.

"……You were alive."

"Yes. And so are you."

Luen slowly looked his daughter over. The torn armor, the bloodied scabbard, the trembling fingers. But her eyes alone had grown harder than before. Just as he had fought at the front lines, his daughter too had pressed forward through the line of death.

But the reunion lasted only a moment before his gaze quietly shifted toward Calix.

To express this joy would take many nights and still fall short, but even now in this very moment there were those in peril.

As Airien stepped back, Luen walked slowly forward.

"Calix."

Calix dismounted and stood to face him. Before him was the elf who had gifted him the famous sword Srna.

"The front line nearly crumbled. That we endured today is thanks to you."

Calix gave only a light nod.

"But it is not yet over."

"Indeed, it is not."

The gazes of both men turned beyond the palisade. Corpses strewn across the ground, earth caked in blood, a defense line that was still incomplete. Even in this brief moment of respite, the aura of death surged and swelled.

"Beyond the Storm Forest, enemies continue to pour in without end. It is certain that something grave is unfolding in the Land of Shadows."

At that moment, an ominous cry spread from the forest to the east. It was a sound as though mocking—short and repeated at brief intervals, as though jeering at those who stood in defiance.

Luen met Calix's gaze.

"Master Belmar also wished to meet you."

"Where is he?"

"At the very front lines. He is fighting desperately where the Storm Forest meets the edge."

"Sir Luen! Smoke is rising……!"

Just then, an elven soldier pointed in the direction of the forest.

At the sight of smoke curling through the air above, the atmosphere inside the palisade froze once more. It was a signal agreed upon in advance.

"……It's a call for help!"

Calix mounted his horse without hesitation. The scabbard swayed briefly at his belt.

"Let us go at once."

"I will lend what strength I can, little though it is."

And as he rode out, the Mountain Rabbits and the elves led by Luen Silius followed in his wake.

The afterglow of victory did not linger long.

Calix set his objective with clarity.

‘Hold the central front line, and bring everyone back together as one.’

There are moments when everyone believes they have survived. But in that very moment, he tightened his grip on the scabbard.

The front line was still open.

Comments