138.Beyond the City Walls
Beyond the Walls
"Damn it… you said you'd break through!"
Even as he galloped with the wind tearing at his face, Yang Johwi shouted toward Sowoon with unease in his voice.
At that speed, words barely carried.
Charging straight at a barred gate made the fear rise in his throat.
If the horse faltered, they would be hurled headfirst to the ground.
From the battlements above, pale faces looked down in false security.
The wind struck like a blade, cold and unsettling.
"You said you wouldn't put a kid at the front. If you're such an uncle, you wouldn't, right? And what's with calling me damn this and that?"
"I call you Scholar Yoo every time. Why do you keep calling me uncle, damn it!"
It was a ridiculous exchange, but tension bled through it.
Yang Johwi insisted he was still an elder brother because he had never married, though his weathered face made him look like a man with four children and twenty years of worry behind him.
"Why didn't you marry?"
"Is that what you're asking now? I didn't not marry—I couldn't. I was serving the country, damn it."
"This isn't the time for that conversation."
"Just break it, Scholar Yoo."
Yang Johwi slowed slightly and fell back to Sowoon's left rear.
Sowoon drew in a deep breath.
He inhaled as if pulling in the force of the earth and the faint currents in the air itself.
Breath came before all things.
He gathered even the subtle pulse within the wind.
Without a formal incantation, he expelled the gathered force and drove forward.
The halberd came free.
He raised it high at an angle, reins in his left hand, and charged straight ahead.
He steadied the horse so it would not shy.
The burning gate still stood firm.
A sharp cry burst from his throat.
Bluish energy clung to the blade and crescent hook of the halberd, white streaks shimmering at its edge.
It swelled like sunlight pressing through heavy clouds.
The horse hesitated before the roaring flames and iron plating.
Using the forward momentum, Sowoon launched himself from the saddle.
If he could not pass with the horse, he would pass alone.
That was the duty of the vanguard.
The condensed blue light surged along the halberd.
He swung once, wide and full.
Metal screamed.
The iron plating split.
The burning gate cleaved vertically, as though struck from within, and crashed backward.
On the battlements, men froze.
Some dropped their bows.
Some stared with eyes wide and empty.
A sentry who had leaned forward stiffened in disbelief.
It was a sight beyond reason.
Below, the riders who had reined in let out a roar.
Yang Johwi sat stunned in the saddle, mouth slightly open, the split iron still reflected in his eyes.
Inside the gate, soldiers who had fled inward stood packed together.
Relief drained from their faces in an instant.
Time seemed to fracture.
Sowoon flew through the shattered opening.
He hit the ground, rolled once, and rose in a single motion.
Through smoke and sparks he stood before them.
Some dropped their weapons.
Some turned and ran.
Some stood rooted, unable to move.
From the battlements, someone muttered in disbelief,
"Damn… he really broke it."