Game’s Dogma

Oda Nobunaga stared at the fiery red mask, unable to come up with an answer.

His gaze went past Drako Yau and landed on the Oda youth guards. Each of them was the most loyal of Oda clan subordinates. He could recognise each of their names and tell what their habits were.

His group of loyal warriors were sending their frenzy stares of admiration at him. 

‘My lord, you should go.’ Mori Ranmaru stepped forwards while displaying a determined look on his somewhat childish face. ‘We shall protect our lord’s back!’

‘Oss!’ 

The hundred youth guards all cried in synchrony as if their blood was boiling. They were fighting for their god—Lord Oda Nobunaga!

Drako Yau pulled Oda Nobunaga’s arm and yelled, ‘Go!’

Lady Noh followed closely behind them, but she turned around to look at Mori Ranmaru over and over again.

Mori Ranmaru’s voice was that of a young man. Right now, however, it was filled with so much killing intent while his eyes gave off an intimidating aura. Everything was unbefitting of his young age. He raised his sword over his head and cried, ‘For Lord Nobunaga! ‘Kill them all!’

Their battlecries shuddered the skies.

Drako Yau, still holding onto Oda Nobunaga, ran swiftly. Oda Nobunaga was now a husk without its soul; he had always believed that standing his ground meant being a brave hero. It was harder to force him to ditch pointless pride and flee the battlefield to rise again than to make him stay behind and fight till his death.

Those who are dead cannot avenge his fallen comrades!

Oda Nobunaga clenched his fists and gritted his teeth in resentment.

‘Akechi Mitsuhide!’

The hundred youth guards and Mori Ranmaru became sturdy shields that blocked the path of thousands of soldiers. In terms of strength alone, the Akechi soldiers could easily cut them all down with their overwhelming numbers.

But the Oda youth guards were almost in berserk as their eyes turned bloodshot while they made ferocious grins.

A youth guard had his left arm partly severed. He tore the dangling arm off altogether and threw it at an enemy, splattering the soldier’s face with blood. Blinded by blood, the startled soldier’s head was cut down by the single-armed youth guard.

‘Ahaha! Great!’

Another youth guard had it worse. He was stabbed by four katanas, the weapons sticking out like decorations on a Christmas tree. He was completely unbothered by the swords as he lunged at an Akechi soldier and bit the soldier’s ear off!

Stalling thousands of soldiers with just a hundred of them sounded impossible. However, they indeed achieved such a feat.

Seeing the demon-like youth guards, the Akechi soldiers involuntarily stepped backwards. They were only pursuing Oda Nobunaga because of their general’s order. Truth be told, they were soldiers of the Oda clan in the first place, and they were merely caught up in Akechi Mitsuhide’s rebellion. Their loyalty lay not in Akechi Mitsuhide.

The youth guards were different. While they numbered few, they all had unwavering loyalty and belief, and that was buying time for Lord Nobunaga with their lives. It was worth sacrificing themselves just to stall for one more second!

Mori Ranmaru was also in the mood for some slaughtering. With his extraordinary swordsmanship, blood and flesh accompanied each of his strikes.

A soldier got his timing right and thrust his katana at Mori Ranmaru. The katana pierced through the young man’s back and emerged from his abdomen. He stiffened as blood poured out from his stomach, and with a shout, he turned around and beheaded the assailant.

‘Lord Nobunaga, Ranmaru can no longer serve you by your side.’ Mori Ranmaru laughed bitterly.

The soldiers entering the temple were not the only ones attacking Honno-ji; their comrades had surrounded the entire place.

As Drako Yau, Greenstone, Sasaki, Lady Noh, and Oda Nobunaga ran, soldiers surrounding the site stepped forwards to intercept them.

‘Oda Nobunaga’s over there!’

‘Kill him!’

‘Ha! Lord Mitsuhide has given the order! Anyone who claims Oda Nobunaga’s head will be granted a thousand bars of gold!’

Fireballs rained down upon the Akechi soldiers like bombs. Drako Yau looked up to find Idyllic Poet standing on a temple roof while waving her wand, sending fireballs at the soldiers.

‘Run!’

Drako Yau nodded as he continued to pull Oda Nobunaga towards their planned destination.

‘Oda Nobunaga’s running away!’

The soldiers were unrelenting with their pursuit. No matter how powerful Idyllic Poet was, she couldn’t block several thousand soldiers just on her own. Danting was away because he was on his way to Windstrider to implement their plan.

Drako Yau, noticing their situation, said, ‘Sasaki, bring them there. Dan and Strider should be making preparations now.’

‘Boss, be careful.’

Sasaki knew time was of essence, so he didn’t say much and led Oda Nobunaga away. The fire was burning splendidly; it wouldn’t take long before the entire Honno-ji collapsed. There was simply no time to be sentimental.

Drako Yau turned around and pulled out Moon Breaker. 

‘Come at me!’

‘Get out of the way!’ the soldiers yelled upon seeing someone stay behind to intercept them.

Drako Yau said nothing and swung his spear instead.

Snowy Doorstep!

Along with a sweep of his spear, a dozen or so soldiers were covered in a thin layer of frost. It was the slowness debuff! He thrust his spear in rapid succession, triggering Fiery Dance on one of the soldiers, then followed up with Soaring Flames once the burning effect was activated!

Idyllic Poet blocked the main path with her magic, while Drako Yau intercepted the ones who slipped past her. Both of them knew what their objective was. They weren’t trying to kill the soldiers, but instead buy time for Oda Nobunaga.

The ground shuddered as one of the temples burnt down and collapsed to the ground.

‘Poet, time to go.’

‘Gotcha!’

Idyllic Poet ran towards Drako Yau and casually leapt down from the temple roof. Immediately after she jumped, the temple she had been standing on tumbled over like shattered lego.

Drako Yau also jumped to catch the slim Idyllic Poet mid-air, ignoring the pursuing soldiers behind him as he ran towards their designated gathering spot.

The soldiers weren’t dumb either. When they saw that the fire was getting out of control, they panicked and fled from Honno-ji.

Drako Yau placed strength into his legs and sprinted without any intention of letting Idyllic Poet down from his embrace. As a mage, her movement speed was low because all her attribute points were spent on Intelligence and Constitution. Drako Yau’s stats were more all-rounded, not to mention he had Empyreal Dragon Step and Wandering, both of which enhanced his movement speed. He could run faster than Idyllic Poet could even while holding her!

However, he was oblivious to Idyllic Poet’s playful look as she stared at him closely.

Is this guy actually gay…

She was pretty confident about her body shape, yet the man was completely unmoved even when holding her in his arms.

Soon, they arrived at their destination.

It was a tiny temple. Its size was smaller than an average apartment because all it housed was a small Buddha statue.

Windstrider caught sight of Drako Yau and yelled, ‘Boss! Quickly!’

Drako Yau increased his pace and rushed straight into the temple, followed by Windstrider. The three of them headed straight for the statue’s rear with familiar steps—a narrow tunnel opened up behind the statue. The three of them entered the path without any hesitation, and Windstrider pulled the small handle on the statue.

The walls grumbled. The statue, acting as part of some sort of mechanism, travelled backwards and sealed the tunnel shut.

The tunnel was a short one. It didn’t take long for them to reach its end, a small underground chamber. Though only several metres in diameter, it was enough to house all of them.

‘Is everyone here?’ Drako Yau counted the numbers. Good, not one less.

Oda Nobunaga and Lady Noh were sitting in a corner. Lady Noh was sobbing quietly while Oda Nobunaga patted her back.

It was at that very moment.

A tremendous explosion reached their ears and almost deafened them.

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