Chapter 93. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread

Let’s fight, you stupid bastard!

…was what the letter started with, and it taunted Kang Chul-in, while giving off the message that Franz wanted to fight.

- If you’re a man, then we’ll fight fair and square at the plains.

- The fight will be 3 days later, 1km in front of my territory, in the plains. The time will be at 10 am.

- Like a man, we’ll finish this off in one bout.

- I will only activate 8 of my Atlases, and use 21 of my Mechanic Knights, and will not use ‘any’ underhanded tactics whatsoever.

- You are allowed to bring up to 2000 of your soldiers.

- However, you’re not allowed to bring in any other Lords to this fight. Only fight with the power of you, and your territory. My 8 Atlases are the full strength of my territory, and if you are a ‘true man’, then I believe that you wouldn’t resort to calling in help from other Lords.

- How are my conditions? Do you like them?

- And do you dare fight against me?

- If you do have intentions of fighting, then put your thumbprint on this Soul Contract.

- If you do not agree to my conditions…

- I’ll call you a coward for eternity.

- From the Lord of the Mecha Dome territory, Franz.

- To: ****ing b*tch

“This… he dares to talk in front of me about being a man?”

Crack!

The whiskey bottle that Kang Chul-in was holding cracked to pieces, unable to withstand Kang Chul-in’s wrist strength.

“Milord!”

Lucia, who was looking at this, hurriedly wrapped a white handkerchief around Kang Chul-in’s hands, afraid if they would bleed.

But they didn’t bleed.

Leveling up 2 more times during the past few weeks he had been conquering and fighting against other territories, Kang Chul-in had the strength to shatter glass, and come out unscathed.

“Milord… this guy… is he a madman?”

Kwak-Jung laughed, looking from the side.

“This madman wants to crawl in front of us when we were thinking of ways to get him to come out of his small hole?”

It was as Kwak-Jung said.

While the Laputa territory was trying their best to try to make Franz come out of his territory, Franz himself invited Kang Chul-in to a frontal battle. It couldn’t be any better for Laputa.

“It actually makes sense.”

Kang Chul-in said, and didn’t laugh at Franz for being stupid.

“I’m guessing that he has probably upgraded his Atlases, and found ways to protect the joints of them. Or… maybe he has even done something stupid enough like putting 3 magic crystal into a single Atlas to amp up its power.”

And Kang Chul-in had unknowingly read what Franz was thinking.

“Anyway… limiting my army to 2000 in numbers, and getting rid of artillery too?”

Kang Chul-in laughed.

“And taunting me just in case I don’t respond to this fight of his… He’s tried to use his brain here. Going easy on me, before backstabbing me and my army?”

Kang Chul-in was confident, knowing of Franz’s thoughts.

Kang Chul-in himself had just bought enough trolls and minotaurs to join his anti-Atlas army from the Lord shop, and had used the head of blacksmithing in Laputa, Vulcanus, to make armor for the ‘anti-Atlas’ army.

“Lucia.”

Kang Chul-in spoke.

“Quickly, go get the Soul Core of Laputa.”

“Yes, milord. I will go immediately.”

Lucia didn’t care about the terms of the contract, and left to go get the Soul Core of Laputa; showing the trust and faith she had in Kang Chul-in.

“Nilus.”

This time, Kang Chul-in called on Nilus, who was the head of the mages and magicians in the territory.

“Yes, milord?”

“Are you able to use the spell: Blizzard?”

And at this, the other leading figures of the Laputa territory took in a deep breath, startled.

Blizzard was a 5 circle magic spell that caused a literal blizzard by causing the surroundings to freeze up and the temperature to drop, and was the spell amongst the 5 circle spells that was hardest to pull of, requiring lots and lots of mana.

“Of course, milord. Even if this lowly one is to sacrifice his life for this task, I am still willing to do so for milord’s conquest!”

“… I don’t remember asking you to sacrifice yourself.”

And saying this, Kang Chul-in looked at Michael, the head of the White Lion knights.

“Michael, you’ve picked up the scraps from the destroyed Atlas, right?”

“Yes, there was absolutely nothing left over.”

“And you should have picked up some Magic Crystal fragments too, right?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then give them over to Nilus. They are of not much use to me, and Nilus using it to perform his magic will be much more effective.”

These Magic Crystals were a very important item to magicians and mages. Even if they had lost some of their power, they still were extremely useful.

“But… milord.”

The leader of the White Lion Knights, Michael asked.

“Is there a special reason that you ordered sir Nilus to use the spell Blizzard? If used in battle, there might be a real chance that it could do more damage to our allies rather than the enemies…”

But the answer came from Kwak-Jung, rather than Kang Chul-in.

“Uh… isn’t the spell blizzard one where it literally causes snow, and hail?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Well, then it’s probably not going to be used in battle at all. It is going to be used as a smokescreen before the battle even starts. Am I right, milord?”

And Kang Chul-in nodded at Kwak-Jung’s words.

“Not bad.”

“Kuku, it wasn’t much.”

And at Kang Chul-in and Kwak-Jung’s conversation, the other leaders of the Laputa territory cocked their heads to the side, not fully understanding what they were talking about.

“Milord, the Soul Core.”

And while they were still confused, Lucia handed the Soul Core of Laputa to Kang Chul-in.

BANG!

And using the Soul Core, he stamped it onto the Soul Contract that Franz had gave him.

“3 days, 3 days left.”

And Kang Chul-in spoke.

“3 days later, we will feast on our lunch inside their territory.”

It meant that he would take down Franz under an hour.

𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

————-

The day of the fight, 9 in the morning.

As the frozen ground started ripping apart, a golden igloo-looking structure started rising from the ground. It was the appearance of the Mecha Dome, the territory that Lord Franz controlled.

First, the hangar of the Dome opened.

And inside were 7 Atlases that looked even bigger, and more upgraded than the Atlases that Kang Chul-in had fought before. And even the joints were covered with steel, meaning that the critical weakness it had before was now no longer there.

It was obvious that the Mecha Dome had spent almost all of its resources into upgrading these Atlases.

BANG!

And soon after, the front door to the Mecha Dome also opened, and Franz, allowing with his personal guards in the Mecha Knights came ‘strutting’ out, with pride.

“Huhu… just you wait, you stupid bastard.”

Franz walked into the middle of the plains with his Mecha Knights and his 7 Atlases. The last Atlas he had was nowhere to be seen, and was to be used as his Trump Card.

“First snow, huh…”

Looking at the snow-covered plains, Franz muttered.

It seemed like the night before, the first snow of the year had come.

And no, it wasn’t the kind of snow that just poured down softly, but it was the kind of snowstorm that would happen once in a while.

“This snow-covered plains… will be reddened by the blood of our enemies by the end of the fight.”

Franz swore to himself.

The first to arrive to the battlefield was Franz.

“This rotten bastard… he wants me to wait?”

Franz swore in anger.

“Milord, please calm yourself. It is still 40 minutes before the promised time. But that doesn’t really matter though, does it? After all, we will be the ones that will triumph in this frontal battle.”

“Y-Yes, of course. You’re right.”

Nodding his head, Franz pretended that he still had patience. Of course, inwardly, he wanted to start the battle as soon as possible.

10 minutes passed.

The Laputan army didn’t show up.

20 minutes.

Again, not a single ant showed up.

30 minutes.

Only a wild dog meandered around the snow-covered plains.

And… another 5 minutes passed.

“T-There! They’re coming!”

Schneider, the leader of the Mecha Knights, pointed far away, to the horizon. And over there, there was something, something that was rushing towards them with terrifying speed.

“W-What the hell?”

And where Schneider was pointing there was a tiger the size of a whole house. It was the Altaica.

“W-Wait!”

“The one riding on top of it then…”

Kuoooo!!

The Altaica, that had found its enemy, started roaring at Franz. And the killing intent of the Altaica found its way to Franz, startling him.

“Eek…”

Startled and forgetting about his position as Lord, Franz hid behind Schneider, to protect himself.

“Hey, coward who can’t stand even my mount.”

“Y-You… do you honestly think that even with that tiger of yours, you can win with just the two of you?”

“Hmm… I don’t know? Do I really need a large force to beat a coward like you? Someone that pisses his pants just by looking at my mount?”

“Y-You… do you really think you’ll be fine with taunting me like that!”

“Seems like you will live a long, happy life.”

And those words were the final nail in the coffin.

“K-Kill him! Go, go and bring his head to me!”

Franz shouted, losing his patience.

BANG! BANG!

And the Atlases, followed by 10 Mecha Knights started stomping their way towards Kang Chul-in and Lucia at a frightening speed.

90m… 80m… 70m… and 50m!

“Those pieces of scrap metal…”

“Crush them.”

And with those words, the ground suddenly split apart, revealing a hole. And the monsters waiting inside the hole came out, and started fighting the Atlases.