Lord of Rot

SCREECH!

A corpse, tangled in thorny vines, clawed at the city wall. A primal craving surged through its body, compelling it to scramble up.

Nearly a hundred of its kin, all driven by the same instinct, surrounded it.

RUMBLE.

The castle gate rumbled open in the distance. The corpse shuddered, like a moth that had been chasing a distant, unreachable flame only to suddenly discover a bonfire roaring behind it.

The horde of corpses spun around and charged toward the open gates of Iron Wall Castle.

The sight of several hundred corpses charging forward, claws outstretched, was truly staggering.

Inside Iron Wall Castle, the sudden assembly of troops had drawn the residents’ attention. However, a portion of the populace, temporarily conscripted as a security detail to maintain order, had already formed a barricade with hardwood clubs, holding back the more curious onlookers.

When the castle gate opened and the writhing, struggling monsters started to charge in, the crowd erupted in panic.

’The new Lord actually opened the castle gates! What is he thinking? This is our last line of defense!’

”Shield wall!”

Leech shouted from horseback, paying no mind to the thoughts of Iron Wall Castle’s residents. ’To stay cooped up in here is to court death.’

Over a hundred Soldiers raised their shields and proactively met the charging corpses.

THUD!

The corpses crashed into the first rank of shield-bearing Soldiers.

Immediately, the second rank of Soldiers rushed forward, bracing the backs of the first.

Then the third!

The multi-layered shield wall, formed by fully armored Soldiers, merely wobbled slightly at the start before successfully halting the most ferocious charge of the thorn-vine corpses.

The shield wall had forged a line of steel, holding the corpses outside the open gates of Iron Wall Castle.

Leech drew his longsword. ”Draw weapons!”

SHING! SHING! SHING!

Behind him, thirty light Cavalrymen drew their weapons in unison, raising them high alongside Leech.

The swift horses beneath the Cavalry received the signal, stomping their hooves restlessly.

TWEET—! On the ground, Quickblade, the officer in command, bit down on his whistle and blew sharply.

The sharp, rhythmic blasts of the whistle rang out.

The shield wall infantry, who until then could only hear the roars of the thorn-vine corpses before them, moved quickly upon hearing the shrill whistle.

The shield wall abruptly split down the middle as the Soldiers at its center moved to the sides.

Leech roared, ”Charge with me!”

Both the shield wall infantry holding back the corpses and the light Cavalry following Leech on their swift steeds were filled with absolute trust in him.

Because their Lord always said, ”Charge with me,” never ”Charge for me.”

Whenever a battle began, as long as their Lord was present, morale was always at its peak.

As Leech charged out first on his warhorse, the Soldiers ahead had already cleared a path wide enough for two horses to pass through.

A thorn-vine corpse spotted the sudden opening and was about to surge into the gap.

Timed with the thunder of iron hooves on the ground, a longsword shot out. The blade struck the corpse’s head with pinpoint accuracy, piercing its forehead and exiting the back of its skull. The entire corpse was impaled on the sword and pushed out of the way!

The horse’s rearing hooves sent three or four more corpses flying!

In the current situation, it wouldn’t be easy for Leech to break through on his own. He could maintain his forward momentum, but if any force were to drag at him from the sides or rear, he could very well be pulled down and overwhelmed!

Fortunately, Leech had three figures behind him.

The Transcendent Knight Lacy, Corpse Ghost Aina, and Ah Yamei.

Unlike Leech, they didn’t bear the brunt of the forward pressure. Their task was to carve out paths diagonally forward on both sides, securing the space Leech’s charge created and taking the opportunity to widen the breach in the enemy’s ranks!

RUMBLE. The sound of hooves thundered like explosions, echoing through the arched gateway.

Leech led the charge, with more than thirty Cavalrymen following close behind. They were like an impossibly sharp steel spear, effortlessly tearing through the tangled encirclement of several hundred corpses.

A force dozens of times their own size was being routed with no way to fight back!

This was merely a light cavalry charge led by a Transcendent, yet with just over thirty men, they were routing three to five hundred fearless enemies.

If they were on an open plain, Leech was confident he could even turn back for one or two more charges and completely annihilate the corpses blocking the gate.

But that wasn’t part of their initial plan. Leech led his team on horseback, charging into the Iron Valley Forest without a backward glance, and they soon vanished from sight.

The vast majority of the thorn-vine corpses at the gate were drawn away by the charging light cavalry, and the pressure on the shield wall infantry dropped drastically.

TWEET—! Quickblade blew his whistle.

The Soldiers who had just parted to make way for the Cavalry quickly closed the gap in the shield wall, tightening their formation as they retreated.

Four or five corpses still managed to slip through in the chaos, but before they could do anything, they were decapitated by the ready blades of the Soldiers in the rear.

The castle gate slowly closed, and the troops contracted back inside until, with a final BOOM, the gate slammed shut, blocking the pursuing corpses outside.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

Corpse after corpse slammed against the gate, but they had already missed their best chance to break into Iron Wall Castle.

Quickblade released the whistle from his mouth, letting it drop to hang on his chest. ”Back to the walls to defend! Wait for the Lord to return and support us!”

”Yes, sir!” the Soldiers cheered, their spirits soaring.

The scene of the Cavalry effortlessly tearing through a force dozens of times their number had filled them with confidence in Leech.

’They’re just a bunch of dead things. If they can be killed, there’s nothing to fear.’

「Iron Valley Forest. A small fork in the road.」

Leech casually dispatched a corpse with a single swing of his sword, a brutal mix of a chop and a slice.

There weren’t many thorn-vine corpses in the area, but they still ran into a few now and then.