by Dojyomaru
“Sorry,” I said. “I need you to hang in there just a little longer.”
“I know.” Excel wore a forced smile as she diligently continued wielding her magic.
Eventually Hal and his group, who had finished their job of driving the lizardmen here, rejoined us, and the entire lizardman pack finished crossing the Dabicon.
“Augh, that was exhausting!” Excel raised both her hands up into the air as if stretching.
Splassssssh!
In the next instant, the water arched over the shallows collapsed, and fell as a solid mass of water.
The great amount of water that fell to earth created a huge splash, and when that splash came down, it rained for a short time over the river.
The riverbed, which we had been able to see for that short time, vanished, waves formed, and the boats of the other water mages that were supporting Excel swayed.
We watched it all while getting soaked by the rain.
“...Should’ve brought a rain gear, I guess,” I said.
“My clothing is my scales, so my clothes are waterproof,” Naden said.
Whatever the case, with the shallows returned to their prior state, the lizardmen’s retreat was cut off.
While I was feeling relieved it all went well, Excel slumped to one side.
“Excel?!” I cried.
When I put my arms around her waist and held her, Excel laughed weakly.
“Ha...ha... I’m fine. I just used too much power.”
She was too exhausted to even form a proper smile, and her shoulders were heaving with every breath. The rain had made it so her clothing clung to her body, which was making her look awfully sensual.
“You did well,” I said. “Leave the rest to us.”
“I’ll do that. Heheh, it’s certainly a perk, having His Majesty hold me like this. Juna would have a fit if she could see us now.”
“That’s a real nice personality you’ve got there.” My shoulders slumped at how much fun Excel seemed to be having.
“Murgh... Maybe I oughta zap her in Juna’s place,” Naden said, sounding peeved.
If she fired off any electric shocks now, while we were both wet, she’d get me too, so I was hoping she wouldn’t.
Well, our role in this was over. The ground unit would handle it from here.
Or so I thought, until...
“Huh?” Suddenly, Naden’s whiskers twitched like a pair of whips.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Mmm... Yeah. There’s something to the west... Hm?”
Naden must not have known what it was herself, because her words were vague.
However, Naden’s sharp senses were apparently picking up something, and I was worried that something outside my predictions was about to happen.
◇ ◇ ◇
When the tens of thousands of lizardmen finished crossing the shallows that Excel had expanded with her magic, they came across the forces of the Kingdom of Friedonia in formation.
Hungry from being unable to feed themselves on the other side of the river, all they saw was a herd of food.
There didn’t seem to be any of those ones that flew in the sky and breathed fire, either.
So, in order to sate their appetites, the lizardmen raced toward the camps of the Kingdom of Friedonia.
Ludwin, the commander-in-chief of the kingdom’s forces, and Julius were watching them as they did.
On top of the small hill where the main camp of the allied forces was, they sat side by side, on top of their horses.
“There must be 50,000, just counting lizardmen,” Julius said. “More if we include the surrounding monsters. What a nuisance.”
Ludwin nodded at this analysis. “I agree. If this were the military of a foreign country, we might struggle, but we won’t come up short against a pack of beasts with no concept of tactics or strategy.”
“Yeah. Let me handle the right wing.”
“You intend to fight after all?” Ludwin asked, concerned. “The people of Lastania have fought enough. It’s all right to let us handle the rest, you know.”
Julius shook his head. “For the people of Lastania, this is a fight to defend their country. If we leave it to the kingdom at the very end, the people of this country won’t be able to consider it their own victory. In order to speed along reconstruction after the war, we must let the people of this country grasp victory with their own hands.”
“Reconstruction after the war...is it?”
Realizing that Julius was setting his eyes on what would come after the fighting, Ludwin was impressed. What he showed was not the perspective of a general who only paid attention to commanding the armies and attaining victory, but a king who thought about the whole country.
Julius hit the hilt of his saber. “I’ve left the conscripts in the fortress, but I’ll have the regular forces and the refugee soldiers fight until the end.”
“I understand,” said Ludwin. “Were my position different, I would want to stand on the front lines too.”
“Wouldn’t that fox-eared second-in-command of yours get angry if you did?”
“Yeah, and that’s why I’ll be staying put in the main camp: to keep young Miss Kaede from getting upset with me,” Ludwin replied jokingly.
That drew a laugh from Julius. “Well then...I suppose we’ll have to settle this before our commander-in-chief gets too impatient.”
“I wouldn’t mind if you left me a piece of the action, you know.”
“Not a chance. I won’t be borrowing your help, I’ll put an end to the lizardman menace personally. Until we meet again.”
Watching Julius depart on horseback, Ludwin let out a sigh.
“Honestly... Fate can be a funny thing,” he said to himself, and then raised his hand up high. “Send the signal to the front line! Intercept the incoming lizardmen!”
Having given the order, the horns sounded.
Hearing the signal from the horns, Kaede stood on top of the watchtower they had built and raised her staff high. She was commanding from near the defensive fence that had been erected in the battlefield camp.
“That’s the signal,” she called. “Everyone, the lizardmen are coming! First, stop the enemy! Everyone, form a wall!”
There were earth mages gathered around Kaede.
When she gave the signal, the earth mages used their magic in unison, the ground swelled up before the front-line unit, and in less than a minute a long earthen wall was built.
For the lizardmen, who had been about to fall on the camp like an avalanche, they found themselves impeded by a dirt wall that suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
“Gueh! Guh...”
Because it was made of dirt, even if they hit it or clawed at it, they could leave a mark, but they couldn’t break through it. They looked around restlessly, but there were no gaps to be found in this wall.
Even so, in order to secure the “food” on the other side of the wall, they began scaling it. They had incredible tenacity, but they were lacking the momentum they’d had before.
“Archers, loose your arrows!” Kaede ordered.
The archers all began firing their arrows over the earthen wall in unison.
The arrows were fired upward in an arc with no particular target, but the high number of arrows and closely clustered state of the lizardmen worked together to cause hit after hit. Some of those arrows were imbued with magic, exploding or cutting up the area around them to create even more dead lizardmen.
Watching that scene from up in the tower, Kaede let out a sigh.
This is completely one-sided. It’s only because the lizardmen don’t have the sense to do anything but charge in on their own that we’re getting off so lightly. I was concerned what might happen if there were a demon here and it took command, but it seems my worries were in vain.
Under Kaede’s command, the front-line unit was able to stop the lizardmen’s advance. However, given the sheer number of lizardmen, they were not able to shoot all of them. Some manag
ed to make it through the hail of arrows to climb the earthen wall. The earth mages were focused on keeping the current wall from breaking, so they didn’t have the leeway to create another wall.
A good number of lizardmen were crossing the wall. It could be anticipated that they would attack the now vulnerable mages and archers.
However, on the other side of the fortification, the lizardmen encountered Aisha, whose power in combat was so overwhelming as to seem unfair.
One silent swing of Aisha’s greatsword was enough to slash several lizardmen who had scaled the wall and were about to land on the other side.
“Gugih?!” The lizardmen let out a death cry as they were cleft in twain.
Having been impeded by an earthen wall, and subjected to the ranged attacks of archers, the lizardmen could only cross the wall in small numbers. To ensure the few who did met with guaranteed death, and to ensure the safety of the long-range attack unit, Kaede had an elite unit on the other side of the wall. The country’s strongest fighter, Aisha, was included in this, of course, but...
“Muh!”
As the top and bottom halves of bisected lizardmen fell to the ground, Aisha effortlessly swung her greatsword to clean the blood from it. Despite having won handily, there seemed to be a dissatisfaction and frustration in her expression.
The cause of that was Jirukoma and Lauren, who were in the same squad as her.
Aisha could see the two of them helping each other as they fought the lizardmen coming over the wall.
“Sir Jirukoma!” shouted Lauren.
Lauren stood in the way of two lizardmen that had tried to attack Jirukoma from behind as he fought, knocking one away with her shield and impaling the other with her sword. When Jirukoma realized he’d been saved, he cut down the lizardman in front of him using his kukri, then stood back-to-back with Lauren.
“Sorry, you saved me there, Madam Lauren.”
“It was nothing. I will protect your back, Sir Jirukoma.”
“Then let me protect yours as well, Madam Lauren. I won’t let you come to harm. I want to have three children with you after all.”
“Fwhuh?”
For a moment, what he’d said didn’t register with Lauren. The moment she realized it was his response to her borderline self-destructive proposal, her face went a bright shade of red. However, she quickly recalled this was a battlefield, and the silly grin on her face was pulled tight.
“Let’s be sure we win this, Sir Jirukoma!” she cried.
“Of course we will!”
Then a lizardman charged at the two of them, possibly in rage.
They readied themselves for it, but before they could do anything, a knife materialized from somewhere and buried itself in the lizardman’s forehead.
The lizardman fell heavily to land face first on the ground.
When they turned back, Komain was looking at them in exasperation, throwing knives between each of her fingers.
“Brother, is that anything to say on the battlefield? Could you have possibly chosen a more inopportune time?”
Jirukoma looked away shyly. “I’m clumsy about these things. If it weren’t a place like this, I don’t think I could ever say it.”
“Honestly... Madam Lauren!” Komain exclaimed. “I know my brother is hopeless, but please take care of him.”
“R-Right! Please, take care of me too!”
“What are you doing here, anyway?” Jirukoma demanded, making sure no lizardmen got close to Komain. “You could have just waited in the fortress with Sir Poncho.”
“I can fight too,” she retorted. “I can’t abandon you when you’re out fighting.”
“But what if you get scarred before you’re able to be wed? Sir Poncho won’t have you like that, you know?”
“Sir Poncho isn’t that narrow-minded... Wait, no, we’re n-not like that!”
Seeing her stammer, Jirukoma and Lauren figured out the situation.
“It would seem there are more things we’ll have to talk about once this battle is over now,” Jirukoma announced.
“Yes,” Lauren agreed. “We absolutely must get through this.”
When the two who were now both her guardians said that, Komain’s face turned a bright shade of red.
Meanwhile, because she was watching the three of them from a distance, Aisha was frustrated. Not because she thought their behavior was inappropriate on the battlefield.
No, this is what Aisha thought:
I’m so jealous of Madam Lauren!
That was all.
I’m working hard because I want His Majesty to praise me too, but His Majesty is up in the air with Madam Naden. I want to fight back-to-back with His Majesty like that!
Souma would have only been a burden fighting beside Aisha, but that didn’t matter. Having actions that were symbolic of two trusting partners shoved in her face, it was only natural she would think, I want that for myself...
Aisha swung her greatsword with frustration in her heart.
I couldn’t sleep with His Majesty because I was the one on guard duty last night too. I’ll slam this frustration into the enemy in front of me!
It had been the same when Souma was forcibly taken to the Star Dragon Mountain Range. When Aisha got agitated because of her feelings for Souma, some sort of limiter inside her broke, and her destructive power went up considerably.
When Souma had left her behind and gone to the Star Dragon Mountain Range, her sadness had turned her into a force that could overwhelm Halbert, Kaede, and Carla all together.
Now, her jealousy toward Jirukoma and the others powered her sword.
I want His Majesty to compliment me too! I want him to adore me! For that, I must end this fight quickly, and go to where His Majesty is!
Following her emotions, Aisha scattered the lizardmen.
The lizardmen were just being made into collateral damage.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Eep?!” I exclaimed.
F-For some reason, a cold shudder was running down my spine, but... I must be imagining it.
“Unahhhhhh!” Naden shouted.
Bzzap!
The electric shocks that Naden threw every which way burned the monsters to a crisp and knocked them from the sky. Naden the black ryuu and I, along with Halbert and Ruby the red dragon, worked with the wyvern cavalry to secure air control and prevent flying monsters from attacking the forces on the ground.
“If you want to die, line up!” Halbert shouted.
Even on Ruby’s back, Halbert was swinging around his two spears, while the rest of the wyvern cavalry was using magic-imbued arrows to attack.
“Everyone’s so flashy...” I murmured.
For my part, I was using a crossbow, firing, reloading, pulling the lever to draw the bowstring, and firing again. Fire, reload, pull the lever. Fire, reload, pull the lever. Fire, reload, pull the lever... It was a repetition of those same tasks. It seemed plain compared to what the others were doing, but I still managed to down three small flying monsters like that.
I peered over the side, looking at the battle unfolding beneath us.
Because of the hard fight that Kaede, Aisha, and the others in the central front-line unit were putting up, the lizardmen that had rushed to the center had lost their momentum.
The left and right wings, seeing their opportunity, were moving to encircle the lizardmen.
This was an extermination battle. If we left any alive, they would only cause trouble later.
Everyone, hang in there...
I prayed for the victory of the soldiers fighting below.
◇ ◇ ◇
The one leading the right wing was Julius.
“Shield bearers, don’t allow any gaps! Spearmen, stay behind the shield bearers and only stab those that charge in! While ensuring you don’t get too far ahead of the group, move up little by little!”
In a normal war, speed was of the essence, and you would deliberately scatter the enemy to disrupt their formation, but this time,
exterminating the enemy was the goal. In order to ensure none escaped, they would squeeze the enemy little by little, like strangling them with silk.
A red lizardman leaped, landing on top of a shield bearer. It was the type that breathed fire.
As the red lizardman opened its mouth wide, it took a deep breath, preparing to spew flames at the defenseless soldiers behind the shield bearer.
“I won’t let you!” Julius shouted.
He hit the lizardman in the mouth with the side of his sword, preventing it from inhaling, then kicked it in the belly to get it away from the shield bearer. Next, he placed his hands on the ground, causing countless thorns to grow out of the ground with the magic Gaius had specialized in, cutting the red lizardman to pieces.
“Guh...ruhruh...”
The fire of life vanished from the pincushioned red lizardman’s eyes.
Having confirmed his enemy was dead, Julius raised his voice. “Don’t let them through! Now is the time to put an end to this accursed battle! Crush the enemy completely, and end this battle in a victory for us!”
““Yeahhhhhhh!””
The soldiers of the right wing were fired up.
Meanwhile, around that same time, the master and servant pair from the Republic of Turgis were with the left wing.
“Damn, it’s boring not being able to go out past the guys with shields,” Kuu muttered while clubbing any lizardmen that looked like they might get past the shield bearers with his cudgel.
While drawing her bow and nocking an arrow, Leporina scolded him, “It must be this way, Young Master. We can’t leave any gaps for them to escape.”
Even as she said that, Leporina loosed an arrow and terminated a lizardman. This sort of sniping from a place of safety was Leporina’s specialty.
“If you want to kill enemies, why not take up the bow yourself, Master Kuu?” she went on. “No matter how many I shoot, there never seems to be any less of them, and it’s a real problem.”
“I don’t have your aim, Leporina. Besides...”
A rock one of the lizardmen had picked up and thrown in desperation came flying straight at Leporina. Leporina, who had let her guard down, covered her face with her hands, but before the rock could reach her, Kuu’s cudgel pulverized it.