Rakuin no Monshou:Volume1 Chapter7
Status: Incomplete
15% completed (estimated)
“Who are you?” Ryucown asked again.
“A gladiator.”
With that simple reply, the swordsman charged at the rebel general with full speed, weilding a sword with both hands.
The blow came within a inch of Ryucown's face, and he responded with a head-strike of his own. The masked Gladiator quickly distanced himself.
The wind from the high speed exchange raised a whirlwind between the the two duelists.
“A Mephian? How did you sneak in here?”
“Who knows?”
In that instant question-and-answer, the hall across them burst into chaos. Warriors garbed in the same gear as the Gladiator clashed with Ryucown's troops. Every member of this group was an elite fighter, handpicked for the ability to fight in a chaotic situation.
Sparks flew and curses were exchanged. Shique dual-wielded twin blades, decapitated one foe after another, while the gigantic Gilliam swung his axe left and right, crushing foes even if they were in full armor.
The masked Gladiator struck again. Ryucown side-stepped the blow, then brought his sword down in a vertical slash.
The Gladiator deflected the blow by splitting his legs and steading his center of gravity. He then immediately used the rebound effect, the instant Ryucown was pushed a step back , to launch a vicious attack.
“Oh, not bad.”
Twice, three times, then numerous blows, with the two locked in a stalemate.
"Tell me your name. With such skill, you must be famous."
"Who knows." Repeating the words he spoke earlier, the masked swordsman--Orba launched into a swinging strike.
The [GIFT] Orba spoke of at the Sky Ship Bridge was Princess Vileena. He believed there were traitors within the Garberan camp; and as soon as his forces launched their attack, they (the Garberan traitors) would coordinate with Ryucown's for a counterattack.
And the spies within the Garberan camp did precisely as expected. Getting close to the soldiers guarding the princess. Thus, he was able to monitor the enemy movement. Before they took the princess off her ship, Orba launched a surprise attack to save the princess.
Soon after, in the confusion caused by Ryucown's surprise attack, Orba and his forces wore Garberan armor and took the unconscious princess off the Ship, then led a battalion of veteran soldiers toward Fortress Zaim. Ryucown's forces that were part of the surprise attack saw them coming, automatically thought their plan to be a success, and even escorted them into the Fortress.
Orba's heart brimmed with excitement, he was becoming the main character of the novels he read about. Everything was moving according to his plan, and now he was facing the enemy general one-on-one.
But,
(Dammit),
4th strike, 5th strike; the two warriors struck on, and sparks flew with every blow.
Ryucown's skills far exceeded Orba's expectations. Easily predicting the young man's moves, the knight's swords appeared to come from every direction. And while Ryucown's strikes came from left and right with daring aggression, he never left any opening to exploit.
Pearls of sweat began to roll off Orba's back. Since he could not waste time there. The longer this lasted, more enemies would be able to reach the upper floor. If following the original plan, numerous ships should be heading toward the fortress after finishing off the main rebel force. But it was difficult for a newbie like Orba to predict how long that would take.
What he can do then, was to utilize every second available to him to dispatch Ryucown. So all he could do was strike, dodge and feint.
Vileena held her breathe as the battle unfolded. Of course she could not recognize that the Mephius Prince and the masked duelist were the same person. But in a short moment, she was able to recognize even the tiniest difference between the two.
During the numerous exchanges, Ryucown observed Orba's techniques from the very start. The skills were there, nor was his strength lacking, but within his technique there was a personal quirk, especially during a long distance strike, there was a great opening from the left side of his opponent's body. This was because his footsteps cannot catch up.
Ryucown let out a tiny smirk. Then backed off.
Orba fell for the feint and followed. In that instant, Ryucown reversed himself, and the point of the blade missed his face just by an inch. When Orba's feet landed again, he landed next to his opponent's side. When both of his feet hit the ground, he lifted up his sword, only to find the sharp end of Ryucown's blade against his mask.
"Ugh."
Orba suddenly put all his strength into his rear feet, and dodged upwards. Ryucown continued to press in. Orba could not bring his body back into position, so all he could do was block. And within a few seconds it was all but a checkmate.
"Your infiltration plan is amazing." While his face was covered in sweat, the rebel general still held regular breathe.
"But in order to achieve victory, If you do not finish me off quickly you cannot win. Even though you are an amazing fighter, but the instant you were not able to finish me off, you already lost."
Orba did not have the luxury to reply. He finally realized the truth. Being strong--wasn't that simple. The knight's swordsmanship, strength, technique and even experience far exceeded his own. Compared to Ryucown, who was not even scratched during the fight, Orba's side and legs were injured (slightly); some of his armor broke off, he became completely out of breath, and he could barely held on to his sword.
In that moment, the rebel troops converged in the main hall. The gladiators were not able to hold them back, unable to defend the door, and driven to the center of the hall and surrounded by enemy troops.
"Damn it."
Gilliam groaned, and raised his axe again. Shique mirrored his stance. The two men were filled with killing intent.
Knocking a spear tossed by an enemy soldier, the giant lamented, "I don't want to say this, but it would have been great if Orba was here. The guy is so annoying, but in a fight, his icy cold strength is quite reliable--what, what is so strange, Shique?"
"No, no, you are right. Although that masked guy is pretty strong, he is far from Orba. Haha, truly, if we knew it would come to this, we should had been more forceful in getting him here."
Covered in blood of enemies and themselves, in such desperate straits, the duo still joked away. But the gladiators around them; one was speared by the enemy, another had his leg cut off, fell down one by one.
Ryucown believed this battle was over. He lightly slashed at the air next to Orba, but the masked duelist did not block nor dodge. The next swing was aimed straight at the gladiator. The two swords met once more, and Orba's longsword fell from his nerveless fingers.
"What."
The Knight yelled. Confident of his victory, the rebel general relaxed his stance. And in that instance, Orba pulled out a short sword and attacked. The boy choose to gamble away his weapon for one desperate attack.
(GOT IT!)
Orba collided with Ryucown (in confidence?). The rebel troops screamed, and suddenly the main hall was filled with sound of metal colliding.
Converged on a southern hill, both side's artillery shelled away at each other. And now the battlefield had turned into a every-man for himself fight. Melphius' and Ryucown's troops mixed with each other in a chaotic melee, and a scarlet barrage illuminated the sky.
"FIRE! FIRE!"
The old General Rogue Saian could not contain his excitement and blood-lust, and personally let his troops on the frontlines. Aiming for the enemy emplacement behind the hill, volley after volley were released.
While the Melphius troops had superior resources and numbers, it was their enemy who currently possesd the upper-hand.
At the same time, Gowen let a ten man team to flank the enemy from the right side. The team dragged two cannons, hoped to use them to bombard the rebels, but their position was spotted by a patrolling Airship.
"GET DOWN!"
Gowen roared as he hit the ground. In an instant, ricocheting bullets struck where he was a second ago. An Airship flew by almost at ground level, dove past him, then pulled up back toward the sky. But at that moment, the Skyship suddenly lost control. One of the gladiators grabbed on to the Fuselage and refuse to let go; other gladiators saw it, swarmed the Skyship and dragged the pilot off.
As his soldiers marched on, Gowen's heart beat faster and faster.
To the Rebels, this assault had exquisite timing. It looked like there were traitors within the Garberan camp, even several commanders become part of the conspiracy, and launched a devastating attack on the Melphius Army. They didn't need to completely annihilate the Melphius army, but inflicting ~20%-30% casualties should be sufficient. Because then Melphius Army wouldn't see the value of fighting for another nation's territory and withdraw.
Thus, one could say it was a perfect opportunity; for someone like Ryucown who would never consider escaping, he would never need conserve his strength. He will go all out-As Orba predicted. Thus Orba's plan was to infiltrate the fortress to directly challenge Ryucown. And once the main force defeat the rebel fleet, they will converge on the Rebel Fortress.
Thus was the original plan--
According to Orba's thoughts, Garberan forces should immediately link up with the Melphius one. At that moment, even if something unexpected happened to his forces, there should be enough force to push the enemy into a rout.
But the Garberan force didn't move, then combined with the chaos on the battlefield, even messages became garbled. It would be a total lie if he said he didn't think his own predictions were realistic.
The enemy's morale was extraordinarily high. Even if one of them fell, someone would step over the body, or use the corpse as a shield. Step-by-step pushing toward this direction. The Melphius troops were not aware of their prince---although only a double--to be within the castle along with the princess.
(The Melphians don't have the same fighting spirit. If this goes on, they will break)
Every second was precious, Gowen thought, as he selected a good spot on the hill, and fired toward the enemy position. One shot, two shot...with each explosion, there would be a pillar of flames in the enemy camp. But three shots was the limit, as a new fleet of Sky-Ship began to converge toward his position.
"RETREAT!!!"
This attack definitely inflicted some serious damage on the rebel army, but the enemy didn't collapse, and didn't even show a tiny break in their line. The only thing Gowen could do was to abandon the artillery support and flee quickly.
"ORBA!"
At this point, they could only rely on the gladiator to finish off Ryucown quickly and for the rebels will lose their will to fight. The sound of gun/cannon fire erupted all over while shrapnel bounced off his armor.
Ryucown opened his eyes....then squinted his eyes again.
Orba lied entangled on top of him. No sign of blood, but the gladiator's final desperate attack was blocked by an act of fate. Ryucown still carried a 16 inches shortsword with him, something he pulled out earlier for defense.
Orba still tried to use his strength to deliver another blow, but unfortunately, Ryucown had already made a semi-circle and moved out of the range, and all he could do was fall forward. With all four limbs on the ground, and a sharp blade on his face.
(Lost)
The feeling of steel pierced his skin, and all his organs went cold.
=Translator's Notes and References
(2) 劝诱人-Seducer? spy? will have to wait for context. -- JP: 近衛兵 'imperial guard(s)'; but considering the context, they're indeed spies.
(3) His name first appear in Chapter 5, which is untranslated at the moment. Leaving it untranslated until someone fill it in. -- JP: ローグ・サイアン 'Logue/Rogue/Roeg (whatever looks best) Saian'.
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