The night is deep.
It was the third night that the Mongol army entered deep into the interior of Nosferus.
People are waiting for the dawn with anxiety and a secret longing for home.
One hour before sunrise, a small bonfire with a black cloth over it to keep the light from penetrating too far made a sound like ..., and the howl of a distant desert wolf added a terrifying bass note. Night was the time of the desert people. The people waited for the morning.
"Hey--what's up?"
It's a great way to make sure you're getting the most out of your time with your family and friends.
Since we have not yet reached an oasis to replenish the precious water, the water has been cut off to such an extent that we cannot even wash our faces and hands. Covered in dust and caked with blood, the once beautiful knights of Mongol have begun to look somewhat downcast.
"It's nothing. I can't sleep, so I'm going to take a little detour."
The knight said to his friend and stood up. His horse snorts in surprise.
"Hey, come on. You're in danger. We don't know where these savages are lurking."
My colleague woke up.
"You want me to go with you?
"No. That's as far as I got."
"..."
The knight who called out to him frowned. But he said no more, but lay himself down again in his crippled armour on the bedclothes, and closed his eyes with a groan of distress. His tongue lolled in his mouth and his eyes tingled with dust, though he wished for a moment of peaceful sleep. As he gently adjusted the hard headgear as a pillow to make himself as comfortable as possible, he thought to himself that no matter how sturdy the Knights were, if such a hard march continued for two more days, we would all be as exhausted as mud dolls and useless.
On the other hand, the knight who had risen to his feet, brushing off his helmet and exposing his face to the desert night air in a pleasant manner, walked aimlessly toward the outskirts of the city, passing through the black horsemen huddled here and there. The companions, huddled close together and trying to get some sleep, heard the sound of clanking and clattering and turned their heads to look in that direction, as if for some urgent message, but when they saw that there was none, they sank back into the darkness. They all seem to be upset and irritated.
During the past several encampments, we have heard the laughter of soldiers talking about their hometowns around the fire, and some of them have even played their flutes.
The knight walked further and further towards the outskirts of the camp, avoiding people.
"Anyone?"
The sharp voice of a sentry with a spear in his hand calls out. Everyone seems to be extremely sensitive, fearing a night attack by the Semites.
"Mars Squadron, this is Argon Squadron's Ek.
"Which way?"
"I just want to get a little night air around there."
"Try not to go too far."
"I know."
I wandered along the perimeter of the camp and began to walk. The cool air feels good.
That's when it happened.
"Hey."
I heard a low voice.
Eck twitches and looks over at you.
"Who is it?"
"It's me. Hey, give me your hand."
"What?"
Eck looked from side to side in dismay.
It was a dark, rocky cleft. In the darkness, we can dimly discern a number of black huddled objects, but it is difficult to tell for sure whether they are a sleeping man or horse, or a mass of rocks.
The owner of the voice was nowhere to be seen. Eck stretched his neck, frowning more and more.
"What's going on?"
"Oh. Hey, give me a hand here, will you? My horse got his hoof caught in a crack in the rock."
"What a-- what a screw-up."
Eck clicked his tongue. We were right in the middle of the torchlight between the sentinel and the sentry, and no one was looking at us.
"Hey, where are you? I can't see a damn thing."
"Oh, I'm sorry. Here, here. I'm coming to you."
The black mass, which had appeared to be a rock, suddenly split in two and one of them rose up in a heap. Then the tall figure slunk toward Eck.
"Don't let the Semites get you if you stay there."
Eck grumbled. When he realized that the man he could see in the dim light was indeed wearing the armor and helmet of his fellow blue knight, his lingering suspicions were cleared.
The man bent down to peer at him. His black, glittering eyes stared at Eck from under his helmet.
"Who the hell are you?"
"What are you talking about? I'm Eck of Argon Squadron. Who are you?"
"I'm from Castle Talos. Oh, I can't let you do this. The horse is struggling and if I let it, it'll break its hoof."
"You idiot-- if you break a horse's leg in this desert, there'll be hell to pay. You know that."
"It's no use. If it's too badly damaged, I'll have the injured man's horse sent over."
As he spoke, the man tugged on Eck's arm.
"Come anyway."
"Oh. Where's horse?"
"I'm here--I'm over here."
"You've put it too far out of the way again. The sentry will complain."
"I'm a sap, you know. I don't like being around people. They know what they're doing. They're not gonna complain. Come on."
"Where'd you say that was? I don't see any horse.
"No, it can't be. That's weird. He couldn't have just run off."
"There's no sign of it, but-- hey."
Eck frowned. Suddenly, a strange thought came to him.
"What's the name of the Talos? Hey, wait a minute."
If it's Castle Talos, then it must be the Black Knight, and the Black Knight's camp must be farther north - that's what Eck was about to say.
"Oh, hey."
The other person's voice suddenly changes,
"I knew this was the way to go. Hey, check this out."
I turned my head and picked something up.
Then he was certainly one of them. But then again, why would a blue knight say that he was from Talos? The Malus Corps belongs to Castle Two Reed.
"You--"
Eck said, turning his head to look at what the man was pointing at.
But I could never finish what I was saying.
Something glinted in the darkness, and a piercing, short scream escaped, which soon died away as if it had been blocked by a hand.
Then, there was a breathless silence for a while, and then there was a thud, as if something heavy, like a sack, had fallen to the sand.
"Hey--?"
The sentinel leaned his head back, as if he were wondering.
"What's wrong?"
There's nothing to answer for.
For a few moments, the sentry held up his torch and peered toward the rocky shore, but when he saw that neither the glowing eyes of the Semites nor any strange creature were threatening him, he straightened his head and returned to his original position.
If you look too long at the gentle undulations of the desert, which go on forever in the darkness, you get the creepy feeling that, like the sea at night, some kind of unfathomable demon will appear and grab you and pull you down to the bottom of the night.
Gently the Sentinel cut the Mark of Janus and muttered a runic exorcism. But nothing happened, and he forgot about his earlier suspicions of a presence that could not be called a presence.
On the other hand, the blue knight, whose sleep had been broken earlier, was unable to fall asleep.
Eck is slow.
That was when I was mumbling in my mouth and couldn't decide whether to get up to see how he was doing or not.
There was a figure of a blue knight coming back from the other side. He is completely covered in a helmet and has buttoned up his cloak.
"What the hell, Eck-- where have you been?"
"No, not really."
He replied in a rather muffled voice, and then, as if to say that it would be a shame if the sleep that had finally set in after his walk were to dissipate if he spoke, he hurriedly curled up next to the horse.
"Hey, you're a weird guy."
In the end, however, he also dropped his head.
The dawn would soon break, and as if to announce it, the deep indigo of the night was fading from the sky like a sheet of paper. When the morning came, we would have to start our march again, troubled by barbarians and monsters. We must keep up our strength.
Eck's strange walk was quickly forgotten by his colleagues.
"Get ready to go!
"Get ready to go!
Eventually--
That long, dark night, which seemed to have no end, finally came to an end.
The morning in the desert comes as unexpectedly and as magnificently as the night.
At the same time as the flaming disc of the giant lure appeared on the eastern horizon, there was no soothing chirping of birds, no beautiful fresh morning mist and dewy green grass, only a harsh blue sky and bright waves of sand.
The tents of the headquarters were folded up, the voices of the messengers were sent out one after another, and here and there horses were roused by the commander and began to snort and scratch their feet.
In any case, the feeling that they had survived another night on the frontier spread through the hearts of the knights like a rainbow. And the thought that a new frontier day would begin again.
It was an unknown day when none of us could be sure of our own safety and survival, wondering who among us would survive to the end and who would unfortunately fall.
It is a day of battle cries and dust, of sparks from the clash of swords, of swollen lips, and of sudden, painful death.
The morning innocence of Nosferus was already filled with the dread of death. Knowing this, they prepared for their departure with a few words, gave the horse water and hippopotamus, took only a cautious sip of water themselves, and ate dried meat and dried fruit with a good chewing.
The amount of water used to make ghathi was too small to knead the flour and it was not allowed to be cooked over a fire. The dried meat was hard and stuck in the throat even if it was chewed well. In the morning light, the people looked at each other with exhausted faces, and then mounted their horses and settled themselves on the hard saddles in preparation for the long march.
"Hey."
Evan, the blue knight of the two-lead Mars squad, looked back at his neighbor casually and scowled.
"Hey, Eck."
"Oh--oh."
Eck replies in a panic.
"What's the matter with you? Aren't you going to eat your breakfast? It's a long way, you'll be sick."
"Okay. I don't want to eat right now."
Eck has left his headpiece completely down.
"Even if you don't want to eat, you've got to put some food in your stomach, because as the old saying goes, you can't fight on an empty stomach."
Evan strapped on the horse's girth, tested the saddle with his hands, and continued.
"Or, if you can't pass the dried meat down your throat, I'll give you a handful of my vacha fruit. As you know, I live on a farm and dry my fruit there. It's not like the dried fruit you get from the store.
"It's okay-- not now. I'm sorry."
Eck said, still in a muffled voice.
Evan - the man who had approached Eck last night - was not a man who could boast of having a sharp mind or a good instinct.
Rather, he was a meddlesome and good-natured man. When he saw that his colleague Eck was looking uncomfortable, he wondered what had happened to him, but he could not connect it with his walk last night or the fact that he had not seen him since then.
However, he did not notice that the other seemed to be annoyed and wanted to go somewhere to avoid trouble, so he asked him again.
"Hey-- what's the matter? You're not feeling well?"
"No . It's nothing. Just sit tight and you'll get better, leave me alone."
"You're not feeling well? You don't? What is it, desert sickness or something?"
As Evan approached, Eck rushed to the back of the line.
"Hey, we're leaving.
"The Black Knights lead the way. We've got a long way to go."
He was about to move closer and raise his cheek to take a peek when...
"Aaaaah!"
Immediately, a terrible scream that could have been the Sentinel's rang out across the desert!
"na..."
Caught off guard, Evan turned his head. In the meantime, Eck's horse runs off at a great pace and is lost among the knights in their blue armor, headgear and blue cloaks.
Again came the inarticulate scream. At the same time, the knights stationed near the eastern side of the desert saw the sentry gasping, reaching out his hand, trying to say something, and falling in an inarticulate dance - a short black arrow, already standing out in the middle of his forehead. I saw clearly the familiar black short arrow.
"The enemy!"
"Incoming! Enemy attack!
Immediately, the army of Mongol was in an uproar like the boiling of flies.
The knights grabbed their swords, pulled down their headgear and fought back against the rain of Shem's poisonous arrows, but they couldn't hide their disappointment that it was happening again. No one would have thought that the day would end safely, but even so, the way Shem had attacked us since last night, the way he had pulled us up, it was as if someone with a good understanding of the psychology of people on the battlefield was in charge. When he was waiting for them, he gave them a surprise and exhausted the Mongol army very vividly.
The faint hint of weariness and fatigue in his army was immediately apparent, and the loud voice of Count Mars rang out.
"Rise up, brave men of Mongol! The enemy is a small army. Eat them all up and kill these clever monkeys. We'll finish it today!"
"Oh!"
From the mouths of the Blue Knights, an inspired groan comes out at once.
That's when it happened.
"Oh--a leopard man!"
Hearing someone's loud voice, the knights turned at once and looked in the direction of the voice.
Now Guin's name has become the most ominous, disgusting, and deadly thing in the army of Mongol.
Only Guin stood alone on the dune, riding a horse.
Ears perched roundly on the side of the head, the flat top of the head and the rounded back of the head, the head of a beast, the gaping mouth - against the morning sun, the figure shines brightly and menacingly.
"Guin--"
In the center of the main camp, which is well guarded by the White Knight Corps, Amneris, Princess of Mongol, muttered under her breath,
"You, Guin--!"
At the head of the leading Red Knights, young Astorias groaned as he squeezed out from between clenched teeth, and,
"You're a monster."
Count Mars spat on the sand, his eyes blazing with a fire that was not dim, even in his old age.
All eyes - all the eyes of the Mongol soldiers looked up at the leopard-headed, humanoid warrior as if it were a god they worshipped. Disgust - amazement - awe - wonder - fighting spirit, it had all kinds of emotions. It had all kinds of feelings. At this moment, in the eyes of the army of more than 10,000 Mongols, the glorious figure standing there was the shape of their destiny itself, which happened to appear in the form of a man, and guided by the visionary hand of this beast-man, they were driven to follow him wherever he went. Just like the boys who followed the legendary Kitara-player - that is how I saw it.
For a moment, the bright, dazzling, white-colored, sun-drenched expanse of the morning stillness blends its endless ups and downs into "eternity" as it is, and the ten thousand knights and infantrymen see themselves as an army of white, faint mirages, and run, glowing in the light. As if they themselves were destined to melt away in pursuit of that half-man, half-god, they were seized by such a vague sense of helplessness.
But then..,
"What are you doing? He's one rider. Take him, take him, take him!
Malus's shrill voice barely brought them back from their ominous reverie. At the same time, Shem's arrows rained down on them again, and the strange voices of the main body of the army began to ring out, a foretaste of their coming down the dune.
"Oh--Oh!"
The men took up their swords and rallied their ranks. Again began a day that should have been filled with battle, blood and death for Nosferus.