by Funa
On top of having their hands, feet, and fingers secured, the men had been tied together and lashed to a large tree, so it would be quite difficult for them to run. And unlike rope, fishing line could be tied unbelievably taut, unable to be undone without something sharp. Naturally, Mile had already confiscated and stored away all of the men’s knives and swords.
While this was going on, Mile and Pauline had healed any particularly grievous injuries the men had sustained—though of course they had not healed them completely, only enough so that they would not die before the girls returned to retrieve them.
Unlike the Crimson Vow, who had held back, there were those among the men who faced the Servants of the Goddess who would very possibly have died if left as they were. Seeing them healed back into a stable state, the Servants’ eyes went wide.
Unbelievable!!! they all thought.
The men they had just faced had been little more than the opening number. The real battle would be what came next, and yet here the Vow were, fruitlessly wasting their energy on healing the enemy? What softhearted fools! When things were down to the wire and victory escaped them, the magic that they wasted now was sure to be the cause.
Even the men whose injuries should have proved fatal had their bleeding stopped and their breathing steadied. How could these two use their unworldly healing powers without reservation on their enemies?
They were unbelievable. Like two heavenly maidens from a fairy tale…
As the members of the Crimson Vow set off again, the Servants of the Goddess followed behind, shaking their heads in bewilderment. By this point, Mile had already determined the position of Faleel and the kidnappers with her location magic. As such, the previous battle had not been for the sake of gathering information, but, as Mile would have put it, for “taking out the trash.”
Knowing that Faleel was still safe, and having secured her position, Mile began to feel just a little bit more at ease. Without this knowledge, she would not have been able to hold back in the previous battle, and while men might not have died, the force of her attacks would have been sufficient to break every bone in their bodies.
It was growing quite dark now, but somehow the group managed to stick with Mile as they proceeded ever forward. Just when they began to think that they would not be able to go any farther without lanterns, Mile stopped.
“There.”
The group broke out of their marching column and grouped around Mile. Following her pointing finger, they looked through a gap in the trees ahead, into a wide, treeless area. In the clearing were around thirty men. Just as before, their clothes were unkempt, but they were all wearing black cloaks. There did not appear to be any women among them. Roughly twenty stood in a circular formation near the middle of the clearing, with seven or eight more on the outside around the perimeter.
The men standing in the middle were all holding staves and were, presumably, mages. The men on the perimeter were all outfitted with swords. It would seem that the perimeter men were meant to guard the mages behind them.
The clearing was bright, lit by burning braziers here and there. And in the very center of the circle was…
“Lattice Power, Barrier!” Mile said softly, calm finally returning to her face as she whispered, “Phew, that’s one thing off my mind!”
Indeed, there in the middle of the circle, laid out on a blanket on the ground, was Faleel. There was no telling whether Mile, with her superior vision, had confirmed that Faleel’s chest was rising and falling with each breath or whether her radar had confirmed the vital signs for her. Either way, she could be certain the beastgirl was unharmed, and now that she was surrounded by Mile’s barrier, her safety was assured even if a battle should happen to break out around her.
“Now, what to do? It looks like everyone in the middle there is a mage, which means that we can’t carry on like before. If we go in unprepared, we have no chance of winning. Plus, if they take little Faleel as a hostage, we won’t be able to rescue her… Even if we make use of the magic that Reina and the others have, Faleel might be caught up in it, or taken hostage anyway…”
Apparently, the reason that the earlier lookout-slash-guard forces had no mages among them was because all of their mages were gathered here. Having this many mages in one place was a clear imbalance, especially when compared to the number of frontline fighters on the scene.
Following Telyusia’s suggestions, everyone had just begun to ponder a plan of attack when Mile began moving boldly forward.
“Well, let’s get in there!” she said.
“Huh?!”
At Mile’s words, the Servants were agog, but the members of the Crimson Vow merely shrugged their shoulders and followed behind.
“Wh-wh-wh-wh-what are you doing?! Have you gotten so flustered you’ve lost all reason? Wait a moment!”
As Telyusia desperately tried to stop Mile, Mavis turned to her. “Sorry! That’s just Mile for you!”
“Wh-what does that mean?! That doesn’t explain anything!” Telyusia muttered, unable to accept Mavis’s explanation. However, the Crimson Vow continued to march ahead behind Mile, leaving the Servants no choice but to follow their lead.
“Whatever! If something goes wrong, it’s not my fault!”
The Servants valued safety first and never acted without a plan for every eventuality. This was the first time in a long while that they had leapt before they looked, entering into a dangerous situation with no escape route in mind. The unease was clear on their faces, but they had no intention of leaving either the Crimson Vow or little Faleel behind, so they had no choice but to follow Mile.
“Who the hell are you?!” one of the guardsmen demanded.
The distance between the site of their previous battle and this clearing was not great. Naturally, the men here should have been able to hear the false bird call from before and would have concluded that their fellow guards-slash-lookouts would deal with the intruders. And thus, it was hard for this group to comprehend what it meant for the girls to show up completely unannounced, with no word from their lookouts.
“We’ll be taking Faleel back now.”
The guards from the outer rim had already gathered, blocking the girls’ path. At Mile’s words, the men could already tell that there was no point in questioning them farther. They drew their swords.
Upon gauging that a third of the girls’ combined numbers were mages, the men called for further reinforcements from the inner circle and were joined by six more men. The remaining fifteen or sixteen mages remained where they were, without a care for the newcomers. Together, they began what could only be described as a suspicious incantation. Some of the girls began to worry that they were preparing an attack spell, but there were no words that that conveyed a clear indication of violence. Instead, they droned on and on in abstracts. It was almost more like a prayer to a god than a spell, when you thought about it…
Though of course, if it were a prayer that involved the abduction of a little girl, then it was more likely directed to a devil than a god.
“Hurry up and take them out! We must return to the circle to complete the spell of summoning!”
One of the mages who had joined the group as a reinforcement was kind enough to confirm the girls’ suspicions.
“A summoning spell…” Mile murmured, her voice low.
[ Summoning + Kidnapped Girl = Sacrifice ]
Based on what Mile knew from her previous life, she could not possibly come to any other conclusion.
“Aha!”
Zip!
Reina, Mavis, and Pauline’s eyes popped open in shock.
“Ahahaha…”
She was laughing. Mile was laughing…but her eyes were not smiling at all.
“Ahahahahahaha!”
A swirling haze filled her dead eyes. Were such a scene depicted in a manga, there would have been spirals turning within them…
At that moment, the enemy mages fired their spells. Five of the six joined in on the attack, while the sixth
held a defensive spell, ready to let loose.
Three of the men each aimed one fireball at the opposing mages, while the other two lobbed firebombs at each of the parties as a whole.
For such young women to have felled the lookouts, the mages concluded, it must be the case not only that their melee fighters were more than just amateurs, but also that their mages were skilled. After all, appearance was a poor indicator of magical ability.
This was the logic behind the mages’ plan of attack. Even if deflected with a sword, a firebomb would explode, and even if their opponents moved away, they would still be party to a substantial impact—at least enough to make them lose their footing. And of course, the final mage was ready and waiting to safeguard against any magical attack from the opposing side. All said, it should have been a flawless strategy.
How did the Crimson Vow react to the three magical bursts flying their way?
Reina and Pauline neatly deflected the fireballs with magical shields. And as for the explosive firebomb flying at the other two…
“Anti-Magic Blade!”
Before Mile could even make a move to cast the firebomb away, an excited Mavis stepped forth, beaming and trembling with the thrill that her day had finally come. The moment Mavis’s blade sliced through the firebomb, it vanished without so much as a sound. Her Anti-Magic Blade had made its battle debut.
Meanwhile, on the Servants’ side…
In spite of Lacelina’s limited abilities, she valued her own life and was able to hastily conjure a protection spell to fend off the fireball aimed at her. Tasha, meanwhile, had nocked an arrow the moment she saw the enemies making moves to attack and now let it loose. The arrow collided with the still-flying firebomb, causing it to detonate in midair. Both fireballs and firebombs were far slower than any bow and arrow, so tracking their trajectory was a simple feat for any skilled archer.
“Wh…?”
The five enemy mages were flabbergasted to see all of their attacks so easily deflected—particularly the man who had launched the bomb that fell to Mavis’s Anti-Magic Blade.
Defensive magic was something that they knew. They could use such spells as well, and it was perfectly normal for a mage to be able to conjure one in a short amount of time. Thus, they figured it was enough to simply force the opposing mages into guarding in order to render any spells they had silently prepared useless. At the same time, they would make the frontline fighters move to deflect their spells in order to protect their allies, causing injuries to all. For these parties to have perfectly guarded against every attack and emerged unscathed was unfathomable—as unfathomable as the fact that a bow and arrow had vanquished a firebomb… Sure, they reasoned, such techniques were not unheard of. Really, it was something that almost anyone could achieve if they had luck on their side to guide their arrow’s course.
However, there remained one glaring improbability: the girl who, with a swing of her sword, sliced through an explosive spell and not only avoided detonating it but made it vanish into thin air.
Such things should not be. They could not be!
The magical attack that the six men had launched had been thwarted by a mere three mages, an archer, and a swordswoman. The men assembled were stunned at this utterly inconceivable turn of events, and as a result, the eight swordsmen stood stock-still, forfeiting their moment to strike.
While the enemies were momentarily frozen in place, the girls wasted not a second in preparing their next spells. Lacelina was the first to attack.
“Ice Needle!”
It was an area attack, targeted toward all six of the enemy mages. While its attack power was low, it was still a spell that would be unpleasant to take head-on. At the very least, if the mages were struck by the needles, their own incantations would be interrupted.
At Lacelina’s words, the sixth mage unleashed the shield spell that he had been holding to protect all six of them. With a spell as weak as this one, it mattered little if the shielding effect was lessened a bit by spreading it over a wider area.
However, just a moment after Lacelina, Reina and Pauline completed their incantations also. And in their momentary surprise, the spells of the five enemy mages were a beat too late. The man who had used the first shielding spell was only just now beginning his next, and it was up to one of the other five to defend them.
It was then that Reina and Pauline shouted the activation words for their merciless spells.
“Burn them to the bone!”
“Winds, swirl!”
The clearing was wide, so the possibility of a wildfire spreading was low. Even if a blaze were to spark, Mile and Pauline were both present, so extinguishing the fire would be simple. Having judged as much, Reina decided to unleash her most powerful spell. Pauline, recognizing Reina’s incantation, chose the wind spell in order to assist.
The six men were enveloped in an eddy of flame, battered by a howling wind.
“Magic Barrieeeeeeer!!!” shouted the man who had been desperately preparing a shield spell as two others switched midway from their attack spells to defensive ones.
Each of the men present valued his own life. It was only natural that they would prioritize defending themselves over attacking. Plus, if they were able to keep the attention of the girls’ mages, then it would be easier for their swordsmen to overrun the rest of their opponents. They had an important role to fulfill.
Of course, it was not as though the melee fighters were merely sitting and twiddling their thumbs, waiting for the magic battle to conclude. The battle was six-on-three, and they couldn’t fathom the idea of their allies losing to a group of young girls, but while their allies were tending to the magical side of things, their duty was to crush the front lines and then rush the back lines to take them out as well. A mage group without their front line had no hope of standing up against a simultaneous assault from swords, spears, and magic. They would be crushed in an instant.
With this in mind, the eight swordsmen launched their assault.
The ones who faced this attack were the four sword wielders—Mavis, Mile, Telyusia, and Willine—along with Philly, the lancer. Tasha, the archer, fired an arrow at point-blank range before quickly drawing her dagger and leaping into the fray.
Of the eight men, pairs of two moved to oppose Mavis and Telyusia, who appeared to be the strongest of the sword wielders, as well as Philly, while one went to Mile and another to Willine, who looked to be the two youngest. Perhaps thinking that Tasha’s arrows could easily be fended off with a sword, they were saving her for last. Surely with most battles being two-on-one, the girls would be vanquished in the blink of an eye, and there would be so little delay that she would not have the time to fire off a second arrow.
But then…
Whsh, chnk!
“Gaah!!”
Tasha’s arrow pierced one of the enemies in the gut without him making so much as a move to avoid it. Somehow, she had rushed all the way to the front line, a hair’s breadth from the enemy and fired off another shot. There was no way that he could have avoided or deflected it. Then, after falling back, she had tossed her bow away and drawn her dagger.
With this, the three frontline fighters of the Servants of the Goddess became four, and the enemies opposing them were diminished to four as well. And while the enemy might have more polished skills, as compared to the Servants’ middling abilities, the young women clearly had experience in battle. Such was the current scene.
“Gwah!”
“Gyah!”
“Guh!!”
“Gah!”
And then, the four men fell—struck down by Mile and Mavis who came in from behind, smacking them down with the flats of their blades.
“Huh…?”
The Servants were stunned.
Mile, and Mavis with her True Godspeed Blade, needed little more than a few seconds to defeat enemies who were inexperienced in battle. Had they left it to the Servants, people would have been seriously injured, which would be a huge bother, so they though
t they ought to take care of this situation as quickly as possible. This wasn’t the graduation exam or a sporting match, so there was no need to overtax anyone’s abilities or make a spectacle.
With the front line now taken care of, they all looked to observe the mages’ fight where Reina continued to incant her specialty, Crimson Hellfire. Finally, she released the spell. The flames had been bolstered by Pauline’s wind magic but miraculously woven in such a way as to not threaten the lives of the enemy mages or break through their protection magic. Once surrounded by the swirling flames, the mages could not see their opponents, so even those who had been in the midst of casting attack spells had to give up on accuracy and fire only in the girls’ approximate direction before switching to shielding spells.
What they were doing now was usually referred to as protection magic, but the result was more a kind of magical protection: in other words, they were protected just fine against magic, but things like bows and arrows—or combat spells that had physical components such as earth and ice magic—would pass right through. With their vision obscured, these mages, who were not masters of the blade, would have no way of deflecting such attacks if they did penetrate the flames. And so, the mages circulated wind and water magic behind their magic shield in the hope of lowering the temperature of the flames.
Yet suddenly, the six mages fell to the ground, as though they had reached their limits. It was unclear if they had succumbed to the heat of the flames or if the fire had sucked out all their oxygen and asphyxiated them.
“Hmph! Well, that was easy. As for the rest of them…” Reina turned her gaze to the remaining mage corps, fifteen or so of them still carrying on their strange chant, rotating in a circle with Faleel at the center, unaffected by the change of circumstances.
Just then…
Slam!
Thud!
“Gwah!”
“Huh…?”
Reina fell onto her backside at a quick shove from Telyusia. She looked up to see a small, silver object protruding from the girl’s torso. Clutching her side, from which blood now poured, Telyusia fell to the ground.