Chapter 42
[Gustav POV]
I cut my meeting with the mayor short the moment Leon’s request for aid came in and rushed to their position. The six of them were competent fighters, so even with their lack of real-world experience, I thought they would at least be able to defend themselves in the worst-case scenario.
But when I arrived and saw Christopher’s lifeless body on the ground, I realised how badly I had messed things up. Why did I try and resolve everything at once? Why didn’t I just have them wait in town until after my meeting, then we could head out together?
Now, a young man had died because of my poor decision.
The man who had committed the murder was eyeing me with a relaxed grin, but his stance showed he was ready to strike at a moment’s notice.
If this man really did have ogre blood in him, as Lily claimed, it was no wonder he was unharmed even with a Goldklinge as his foe. That body of his would have extremely high fire and slashing resistance.
The approved method of slaying an ogre involves ice magic and blunt attacks, neither of which I specialised in. Fortunately, this wasn’t a true demon, just someone who either descended from or made a pact with one.
And I already knew my blades could pierce his flesh when infused with wind magic. This should be within my ability to handle alone.
But I was still on high alert. I didn’t know what happened for things to come to this. There could be more enemies coming, and I still didn’t know whether the Black Dael Banshee was truly present or not…
“Are you just going to stand there like a nervous scarecrow?”
The man rolled his shoulders, then his body tensed up. Muscles bulged and veins popped as the wound I made seconds ago sizzled with heat and sealed itself, leaving a barely perceptible scar.
“Fine then, I’ll just come to you!”
Both his eyes and grin widened to a sickening degree as he burst forward. He didn’t appear particularly nimble with that bulky frame of his, but the raw strength allowed him to kick off at a startling speed.
The axe came in wide with a horizontal swing, but it was far too slow.
My crescent blades were still floating at the ready thanks to my wind magic, and my foe left me unchecked for too long before attacking.
In other words, he hadn’t noticed the spell I had silently cast with my free hand.
. A simple yet versatile spell that does what it says on the tin. However, I had altered my casting somewhat, allowing the wall to emerge at a 75-degree angle from my feet. What’s more, the wall itself had been shaped in such a way that it appeared more as a row of sharpened stone spears.
The horned man saw it too late to avoid, and instead redirected his attack to cleave through the stone in one mighty blow.
Dust and debris were sent flying, but my opponent had left himself open.
My crescent blades came down in an arc from above. One of them left a sizable gash in his side, but the other was deflected with a metallic
The horned man still had Donald’s shield and was using it for all its worth.
His overcommitted axe attack was enough of an opening for me to dash in and thrust my sword into his shoulder. It was originally meant to be a killing blow aimed for the throat, but the horned man swung the shield immediately after blocking the previous attack, forcing me to twist and slide out of the way.
With wind mana centred on the soles of my feet, I pulled myself back out of range despite my awkward positioning.
For good measure, I swung my blade to prepare another attack spell, using the tip of my blade to draw out the first part of the spell circle.
My opponent didn’t wait to let me finish, though. He leapt from the spot and was upon me in the blink of an eye. I could skate to the side, but he must have already anticipated that, as he had his arms stretched out, ready to clothesline me with either axe or shield should I try to evade.
So instead, I jumped.
The wind mana at my feet was released with massive force aimed at the ground, allowing me to rocket through the air far above the attack.
My opponent kept running. The reckless attack carried him straight into a boulder and firmly lodged his horns inside the stone.
From my position, I wasn’t able to capitalise on this opening.
Or so it would be for most people. Not for me.
I recalled my crescent blades and positioned them flat beneath my feet. The wind magic operating them was still functioning, so I could use the mana in my body to link myself to it. Functionally, this allowed me to magnetise my body to the blades.
I launched myself downward, letting gravity do most of the work as my rapid descent brought my blades down, tearing the target’s back open.
“Urgh…”
He clenched his teeth, suffering quietly from the grievous injuries.
It wasn’t over yet. I jumped off the crescent blades, and with the tip of my shortsword, I flicked two small rocks that landed perfectly inside the wounds.
A few more flourishes, and my earlier spell circle was complete.
“”
The rocks suddenly expanded into a couple of spiky masses that burst through the horned man’s body in every direction.
“Ack!”
This time, the pain was too much for him. He let out a short cry and froze, his mouth agape and body tense for several seconds before going limp.
I remained on guard and squinted my eyes as the glare of the sun impeded my vision. Even so, it wasn’t enough to fool my senses.
A faint hiss and a slight upward twitch of the lips. These were all I needed to know my foe was far from defeated.
“Ahh… Not buying it?”
The horned man ripped his head free from the boulder and turned to face me.
“You’re no fun at all, you’re supposed to drop your guard and come check my body so I can grab you.”
He chuckled and reached for his back.
I immediately recalled the crescent blades before he could strip me of them.
“Hmph. Whatever, those won’t be any help for long.”
He frowned at my cautious tactics, but then grinned and lowered his stance.
The hissing noise grew even more intense, and steam burst from his body as his wounds repaired themselves with startling speed. The rocks I had embedded in his flesh were forced out as well, preventing me from activating another remote attack.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
I didn’t like where this was going, so I grabbed the spell tome that hung at my waist and rapidly began reciting the chants for one of my more devastating spells.
As the wind around me swirled with violent fury, the horned man’s body began to swell to an even greater size.
The stones around me shattered, and the fragments combined with the vortex I was rapidly forming around myself.
The horned man’s skin darkened until it reached a dark scarlet tone.
My vortex shrunk and tightened, resembling a large coiled snake by my side, ready to lunge at my command.
My foe’s sides bulged and warped until suddenly two extra burly arms exploded outward and clenched their hands into fists.
We were both ready to enter the second round.
An almighty explosion resounded as my spell collided with his frame, and the battle continued.
***
[Lily POV]
As the slowest member of the group, I didn’t think I would be seeing the others again until I returned to town, but oddly enough, they hadn’t made it very far at all.
The reason was immediately apparent, as Leon locked swords once more with the longsword user from earlier. The earlier confrontation clearly ended with Leon’s victory, seeing as the man’s left arm was missing and the wound was cauterised.
Seeing the shallow, bloodless cuts Leon’s burning sword was inflicting, it was no wonder what had happened.
But he wasn't alone. The man I hit with a earlier was back, with no serious wounds to suggest he struggled with the . And by his side were six more men with similar builds.
We had been outnumbered, and if the earlier battle was anything to go by, they were likely more skilled as well.
Donald and Frederick attempted to protect Leon’s sides while he focused on his current opponent, and Arnold was holding the rest back with wide sweeps of the spear. He would strategically freeze the ground to discourage them from striking as a group, but there was only so much he could accomplish alone.
In this situation, even if I threw my primary mission to the wind and assumed my true form, I wasn’t confident in victory.
All I could do was hold out and hope for reinforcements, or at the very least, an opening to flee.
Shadows whipped, coiled, entangled, and skewered. The golden boys did what they could to take advantage of my support, but the only one with the range to retaliate safely was Arnold.
None of them were ballsy enough to risk their lives with serious attacks that would leave them open, and Arnold still hadn’t resolved himself to take a human life.
Because of this, the tide was slowly turning against us. Our opposition didn’t care about a few bruises or cuts, and the dramatic movements Arnold was making were taking their toll on his stamina.
They knew who the main problem was in this scenario, and they had the time and numbers needed to carefully wear him out before making their move.
Arnold lunged for one of the men I had entangled, but two swords from either side came in to pin his spear to the ground.
I may have intended to use him as bait earlier, but that tactic was no longer helpful for my own survival. If anything, losing Arnold now would spell the end of all of us.
So, in an act of desperation, I took a risk.
Nobody was focused on me in that moment, so I took advantage and willed my shadow into a different form.
Namely, that of a spell circle. I fed mana to my feet, then into the shadow being cast behind my body, the shadow which had twisted into the outline of a dual-circle spell:
Revealing this method of spellcasting wasn’t ideal, as anybody with half a brain would pin me as their highest value target. Not only that, but the more learned among the humans would recognise this as the trademark tactic of my mother. If my connection to woman became public knowledge, it wouldn’t be surprising for everybody here to call a truce and turn on me.
But what was my other option? Dying?
So I took the gamble. It took only a couple of seconds to complete, then a black and pink flaming ball appeared in my hand.
Going for the centre of the enemy group was the obvious choice, but the look of shock and recognition that flashed across the face of the man on the far right couldn’t be ignored.
I pointed my palm towards him, and the flew forth, hitting him in the chest before exploding and blowing three other men back to the ground. One of them included the man helping pin Arnold’s weapon.
The one who took the brunt of the attack was still standing. At least, his smoking legs were.
The rest of him was scattered to the winds, nowhere to be seen. This helped our overall position somewhat, but at this point, I was running low on mana.
Arnold finally manned up and leapt onto one of the fallen men as he realised he was free to move again. The man on the ground caught the spear with two hands but struggled to keep it at bay.
“Drive it in, Arnold! They killed Christopher!”
I yelled, hoping the added pressure would kill any remaining hesitation behind his spear.
“Urgh…”
Arnold swallowed his saliva and tightly closed his eyes.
“Aarrrrrgh!”
He yelled to urge himself into action and shifted his position to better apply his weight for a downward thrust. The man on the ground, who could only resist with the strength of his arms, was unable to do anything as the spear broke through his sternum.
He looked at it with widened eyes. But only for a moment.
A second later, all strength left his body, and he fell limp with his lifeless eyes staring back at Arnold.
“I-I did it…”
Arnold’s trembling hands still gripped his spear, but he had stopped paying attention to his surroundings.
“Wake up, idiot!”
I wrapped a shadowy tendril around his waist and forcibly yanked him back towards me, just in time to avoid an axe that would have separated his head from his shoulders.
“We’re still screwed if you don’t keep fighting! You can be traumatised later, for now, we need you!”
His baffled expression pissed me off. How can humans be so fragile?
“H-heeelp!”
As if to prove my point, Frederick’s voice drew our attention.
Leon had disarmed the one-armed man and cut open the stomach of a second opponent, but the shield bearers had met their limits.
Donald had dropped his shield completely and stolen the dropped longsword. His technique wasn’t bad, thanks to his noble upbringing, but this was obviously not his preferred fighting style. All he could really do was copy Arnold by recklessly swinging wide to create space for Leon.
But it was Frederick who was in the worst spot. He had his back pinned against a steep slope while a spearman continued to calmly thrust at his exposed parts.
Blood had caked Frederick’s face due to a gash on his forehead, and his hands and legs were covered in small cuts. He was curling up into a ball beneath his shield to avoid any more strikes. He had been trained well enough to know better than putting himself in a position he can't escape from, but the stress must have impacted his mental state to the point he was only prioritising survival.
“Frederick! I’m coming!”
Arnold rushed over, and the rival spearman turned to greet him with a horizontal swing aimed high. Arnold held his spear up to the side to block the attack, and they engaged in a flurry of strikes immediately afterwards.
Frederick was free and primed to support his ally by launching a surprise attack from behind.
“Uwaaaaahh!”
But instead, he dropped his shield and ran blindly, pathetically scrambling to get up the slope and away from the fight.
“Gah!”
The one-armed man still had his crossbow, and despite his handicap, the fact that Leon had stopped attacking him left him ample time to load a bolt and fire at Frederick.
The bolt hit him square in the back, causing him to stop all movement and fall backwards.
He rolled down the rocky incline and crashed right into Arnold, toppling him to the ground.
“Arnold!”
Leon caught a glimpse of the unfortunate chaos, and seeing exactly where things were headed, he drew in even more heat from the surrounding air with his Gift and cut clean through his opponent’s blade. The metal offered zero resistance, nor did the feeble bones inside his neck.
The man's head rolled, and Leon ran to Arnold’s aid.
But it was a second too late.
The rival spearman had moved the very second Arnold’s footing was disrupted. I was busy firing spells at the right flank to prevent a total encirclement, and Arnold himself had made the mistake of looking towards Frederick instead of focusing on the spear in front of him.
The same spear that pierced his gut and tore open his stomach.
“No!”
Leon screamed and slashed despite being out of range. Whether it was intentional or the result of his desperate release of magic, a blade of fire separated from the end of his sword and cut clean through the spearman.
A thin orange line had appeared, running from the top of the man’s head to the bottom of his crotch. A second later, his body split in two and hit the ground. The heat was intense enough to cauterise both sides, preventing an unpleasant spillage of internal organs.
With that, we had killed four opponents. But we had also lost two more allies.
“L-Leon! I need help!”
Donald screamed as his muscles began to give out, and he had three men closing in on him.
But Leon didn’t react. He was on the ground supporting Arnold’s head, frantically trying to stop the bleeding. He wasn’t in the right state of mind to do so, however, as his hands scrambled more out of panic than intent. He tried holding the wound closed first, then started tearing at Arnold’s clothing to tie it off, which naturally wasn’t going to work on a stomach wound.
“Leon! Lily! Aaaaahhhh!”
Donald’s sword was kicked out of his hand. I entangled one man and kept the other two at bay with rapid-fire , but the fourth man was still unaccounted for.
The one-armed man had casually retrieved Frederick’s dropped mace, and with Donald focused on the other three, he had no trouble walking in from the side and swinging it into his face.
A sickening crunch resounded, and Donald crumpled to the ground. I wasn’t sure if he was dead or not, as he made no noise and was still twitching. Blood squirted out from his temple like an intermittent fountain, and the one-armed man raised his arm for another strike.
But before he could do so, an axe came hurtling from the side, digging into the man’s skull.
He dropped like a sack of bricks, and a calm voice spoke out.
“Leon, cauterise the wound. Lily, support me.”
A man in a silver mask entered the fray, unarmed now after throwing his weapon, and yet…
I knew him well enough to know he still posed a threat.
Reinforcements had finally arrived.
