Shadow's Oath

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Chapter 73: Halles

Halles, the Ehodin of Tagda, heard the screams of warriors beyond the smoke ahead.

He had intentionally avoided using a torch to remain unseen, but the inability to see what was happening gnawed at him.

The torches were left only at the entrance of the cave, but the smoke prevented their light from reaching this far.

Another scream rang out.

“What’s happening? What’s ahead?”

Halles shouted.

“That guy…!”

And then another scream.

“Fall back! Retreat!”

Yet another scream followed.

The screams weren’t cries of fear.

Even without the experience of countless battles, Halles could tell.

These were death throes, the sound of throats being cut.

‘It’s him!’

The mere fact that the screams kept coming was unfathomable.

There shouldn’t have been even the first scream.

The warrior at the very front was Hoeun.

He was skilled enough to defeat Halles once in three bouts.

Whenever battles erupted, Halles always took the lead.

But on the rare occasions he couldn’t, he would always position Hoeun at the front.

With Hoeun leading, they had never lost.

This time, too, Halles had Hoeun at the forefront.

The narrow passage meant they had to advance in a single file, and the enemy would inevitably have to face Hoeun first.

And yet, the first scream came?

It was impossible.

‘It’s him.’

Halles could have taken the lead in this infiltration.

But he pretended to trust Hoeun and let him take the front.

Hoeun had eagerly taken the lead.

But in truth, it was Halles who lacked confidence and stayed back.

It was because of the scrawny-looking young man who had stood in their way when they first attacked the cave entrance.

If Halles had struck the man down then, everything would have proceeded smoothly: taking the prince hostage, cutting off Jedrick’s limbs to send one each week to Icarum as a message, and keeping the elegantly dressed southern noblewoman for himself for the first month before throwing her to his warriors.

Unless the southern kingdom offered a ransom large enough to destabilize their treasury, he wouldn’t even consider negotiating.

But when the man blocked Halles’ weapon, everything unraveled.

Five warriors had fallen to that young man.

He didn’t use any extraordinary techniques.

He blocked, thrust, dodged, and slashed—nothing more.

The fact that he blocked Halles’ attack wasn’t mere luck.

It was also the reason they couldn’t enter the cave on the first attempt.

Ordinarily, they would have stormed in.

Even if the first warrior died, the second could grab the man’s ankle or shield themselves and hold out, and the third could use their body as a shield to overwhelm him.

It only took four sacrifices to break through an entrance.

Halles had more than enough warriors for such a tactic.

Under normal circumstances, that is.

This time, they couldn’t use that strategy.

It wasn’t just Halles who was scared of the man.

“Why aren’t you retreating when I said fall back?”

Halles yelled at the men blocking the path behind him.

But ever since Halles first called for a retreat, his warriors had already started fleeing.

The passage was just too narrow for their large bodies to move quickly.

It had been difficult to enter, and now it was just as hard to leave.

But to Halles, his men seemed unbearably sluggish.

There wasn’t even time to shout for them to let him pass first.

The path was so narrow that it made more sense for the person in front to keep going rather than trying to switch places.

Another scream rang out nearby.

The man was advancing.

‘How is he still moving?’

This smoke was a magical smoke that only their allies could breathe in.

Those not chosen by the magic couldn’t breathe.

Still, holding one’s breath would make it possible to move in the smoke—briefly.

Someone might manage to kill one or two foes while holding their breath.

But this was the fifth victim.

And he was still advancing.

Even slashing at five motionless dummies would be hard while holding your breath.

Yet he was cutting down moving targets, in the dark no less?

Impossible.

The only explanation was one: Hak Ainyu’s magic had failed.

‘That bastard can’t even perform his magic properly anymore. He said only we could breathe in this smoke!’

When the next man in line crawled into the cave, it was Halles’ turn.

But just then, the subordinate behind him screamed.

Halles whipped around to see the terrified man trying to push him aside, desperate to save himself.

Reflexively, Halles shoved him in the chest with both hands.

As the subordinate toppled backward, Halles caught a glimpse of him over the man’s shoulder.

Halles saw him clearly for the first time thanks to a fallen torch.

Strangely, his eyes seemed to shine with a faint light.

When he closed his eyes, the light vanished, and his form disappeared into the smoke, like a shadow melting into the darkness.

A moment later, a red line appeared across the subordinate’s throat.

It looked as though an invisible blade had sliced through his neck.

Hot blood splattered across Halles’ face.

Screaming, Halles scrambled into the cave, crawling frantically.

Just then, someone grabbed his ankle.

‘He’s going to drag me out. Or cut my ankle off!’

Halles kicked desperately at the hand.

Glancing back, he saw it wasn’t him but the subordinate whose throat had been slit.

Even as blood poured from his neck, the man had grabbed Halles’ ankle, begging to be taken along.

“P-please…take me…save…”

The man couldn’t even finish his plea.

Someone dragged him back.

He didn’t even have time to scream, leaving only a faint groan echoing in the narrow passage as he vanished.

Moments later, someone blocked the light of the torches at the cave exit.

He was crouching at the entrance, peering inside.

Halles didn’t see what happened next.

He focused entirely on crawling.

‘He’s following me. He’ll catch up.’

Despite scraping against the narrow stone walls and injuring himself, Halles didn’t slow down.

‘He’ll grab my ankle and drag me back.’

Exiting the cave was the hardest part.

“Ehodin! Take my hand!”@@novelbin@@

“Take my hand, sir! Over here!”

It would have been easier if he had calmly crawled out to the very end.

Instead, he grabbed at the hands of his subordinates in a panic, making the escape even harder.

Even without hearing footsteps, he acted as if he was right behind him.

[Translator - Night]

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Halles tripped as he tried to stand, dislocating a finger and banging his knee hard.

The pain was so intense he could barely walk, but in that moment, he didn’t feel it at all.

Halles was drenched in sweat as if he had been caught in a downpour.

He hadn’t screamed.

There hadn’t been time to, as he had put every ounce of strength into crawling.

His fear-induced groans of “Uhh, uhh” had escaped unconsciously, but at least he hadn’t screamed.

That, at least, was fortunate.

“What in the world happened inside?”

Hak Ainyu approached, questioning.

He first asked the other subordinates, then turned to Halles.

“Why won’t anyone explain? What was in there?”

Hak, who was over fifty and had thirty years of experience, was a respected figure, even more so than Elum’s Maraka.

No one in the village dared touch him, not even Halles.

But not now.

“Your magic didn’t work at all!”

Halles grabbed Ainyu by the neck and lifted him off the ground.

The frail old man’s body was easily hoisted up.

“What are you doing, Ehodin?”

“Respect Hak Ainyu! This is unacceptable, Ehodin!”

The subordinates tried to intervene, but a glare from Halles made them retreat.

Even Halles felt a primal resistance to mistreating Ainyu, so he didn’t hold him up for long.

However, he didn’t forget to throw him to the ground.

The old man collapsed, coughing violently.

“Your magic didn’t work at all. The smoke was too slow, and you said only we could breathe in it, but he could breathe too!”

“Who…who is he?”

Ainyu asked hoarsely, still coughing in pain.

“Him!”

It was frustrating.

Not knowing who that guy was!

Before launching the raid, Halles had calculated everything—the Southern forces' strength, troop deployment, and even their strongest knight.

After several battles with the Southern army, Halles was confident there was no one in the enemy camp capable of matching him.

The famed Terdin was skilled in strategy and tactics, but not in combat.

Southern knights were formidable when united, terrifying when encased in armor and wielding long spears from horseback, but individually, they posed no real threat.

There wasn’t a single warrior among them worth remembering by name.

And yet, that guy appeared.

Suddenly!

An unaccounted-for presence showed up, right where no one expected.

"I don't know why the smoke isn't advancing either. Something's blocking it. There's something strange about this temple,"

Ainyu said, coughing repeatedly.

"If the smoke could fill the inside, we could have dragged them out easily!"

"I tried, but I couldn't. Didn't I tell you? There's something inside. Something I don't understand. I warned you not to go in."

"Isn't dealing with such things why we brought you here, Hak Ainyu?"

"Yes, and I wasn't skilled enough to handle it. I can't even explain it. And yet, you insisted on pushing forward, didn’t you? In the first place—"

"Silence!"

…In the first place, the smoke Ainyu conjured with his magic was only meant to drive out opponents lying in wait beyond the cave, armed and ready.

Once they were flushed out, the rest could be dealt with easily—or so he claimed.

Halles silenced Ainyu before he could say it aloud.

If he dared persist, Halles was prepared to squeeze the old man's head until it burst.

Ainyu retreated, avoiding Halles.

The old man was shrewd and quick-witted.

He also knew too many eyes were on them.

"What about Houen?"

One of those who hadn’t entered the cave asked.

"Dead."

"Houen is dead?"

A wave of murmurs rippled through the warriors.

They were all struck with fear, convinced it was impossible.

There was a rumor that only poison or the war god Akamantum himself could kill Houen.

Halles had exploited that rumor, claiming to be superior to Houen, spreading tales that even he was untouchable.

And now Houen was dead.

And Halles had fled from there.

He couldn’t let his subordinates believe he had run away.

"I'm sorry, Hak Ainyu. I got carried away. You were right—there’s something in there."

Halles turned his gaze to his subordinates, lowering his voice to heighten the tension.

"The smoke didn’t advance as it should have. I know from past ambushes that this smoke moves at a walking pace. It can disguise itself as mist to fool enemies or be used like burning fumes. While it’s not entirely unaffected by the wind, it can overcome minor breezes."

Halles glanced at Ainyu, as if seeking agreement.

Though Ainyu wore a plainly dissatisfied expression, he nodded.

"That’s true."

After all, it was his own magic smoke; there was no way he’d admit to making a mistake.

"But the smoke couldn’t push forward, as though something was forcing it back. It even receded slightly. Houen and our warriors struggled to advance as far as the smoke did, unable to see clearly beyond it. And then he appeared. I couldn’t see him well, but... he used some strange trick."

It wasn’t a complete lie—Halles truly hadn’t seen clearly.

Inspired by his own words, he continued.

"Just as we have a shaman, the South has mages. Their magic is entirely different from Hak’s arts, so we can’t easily decipher it. Isn’t that right, Hak?"

"It’s true, their magic differs greatly from ours."

Ainyu agreed.

"In my view, he’s a mage. Houen fell victim to his wicked spell, and we, too, were briefly caught off guard by his methods. May our fallen comrades enter Raham’s Hall of Heroes ahead of us."

"May they enter Raham’s Hall of Heroes."

The subordinates echoed the words solemnly.

One of them cautiously asked,

"What now, Ehodin? We can’t stay here. If the Southern army comes to rescue their prince, we’ll be overwhelmed. If their main force arrives, we won’t stand a chance with our numbers."

Halles deliberated before responding.

"We must capture the prince as a hostage to force the Southern army to retreat. And we will burn the traitor Elum. We can’t abandon this opportunity."

Reluctantly, Halles revealed a plan he had been considering but had resisted, as it felt unworthy of a true warrior.

"Hak Ainyu, you mentioned this was a refuge for the ancients and that there might be an exit somewhere, correct?"

Halles asked, ready to pummel Ainyu’s face if he responded with a snide remark like, You’re just thinking of that now?

"I said it’s possible, not certain. Even if there is one, finding it won’t be easy, Halles. In this vast mountain of rock, looking for a cave we’re not even sure exists—one whose size we can’t guess—is no simple task."

"But it’s our only option now."

"...You’re not wrong about that."

Ainyu reluctantly conceded.

Halles wasted no time shouting orders.

"Five men will stay here."

He met the gaze of each of the five and gave stern instructions.

"Anything that crawls out of here—cut its throat without hesitation. The rest of you…"

Halles calculated the remaining troops, including those stationed outside and the cavalry that had returned after dealing with the fleeing royal knights.

The numbers were sufficient. Searching this mountain wouldn’t take long.

"…Go out and find the exit to this cave."

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