The Leaders and the Led

by Ao Jyumonji

  “What’d you say?!”

  “Jess, yeen, sark, fram, dart...!” Shihoru chanted, triggering her Lightning spell. Her target was Clubman A, the one that was wailing on Kuzaku. Down came the lightning.

  “Gyah!” the clubman screamed.

  It hit. But, no, that didn’t mean she scored a direct hit on Clubman A. Its club. The lightning struck Clubman A’s club.

  Clubman A immediately reacted by letting go of its club and jumping backwards.

  “Punishment!” Kuzaku quickly stepped in, swinging his longsword down diagonally. The path of his sword resembled Moguzo’s signature finishing move, the Thanks Slash, AKA Rage Blow. Because he pulled his shield in to cover half his body as he executed the slash, it left him with less of an opening, but it probably had less power. Also, perhaps because he was focusing on defending, he was somewhat slow to use the skill.

  Maybe because of that, Clubman A was able to leap back, avoiding Kuzaku’s Punishment. He rolled, then picked up his club. Getting up, he started attacking Kuzaku again.

  “Dammit!” Kuzaku sounded frustrated, but he didn’t let his temper get the better of him.

  “Don’t rush things! Just keep going like you were!” Haruhiro called out to him, still going Swat, Swat, Swat. He had gotten so used to Swatting that he could Swat while focusing on something else now.

  Still, I can’t let myself get carried away. It’s dangerous when I start thinking I’ve gotten used to it, he mentally cautioned himself, then riled up the mad dog. “Ranta! What’re you doing?! You’re letting that loser give you a hard time! Are you all talk?!”

  “Snap!” Ranta lost it. He wouldn’t have had it any other way. “Take that, and that, and that, and that, and thaaaaat!”

  He attacked. He used Leap Out to move up, leaping forward from an angle to pressure Clubman B. Clubman B tried to knock Ranta’s longsword away with his club, but he couldn’t react fast enough.

  “Ooghyah,” the clubman cried. “Gyah. Gyahih!”

  Ranta cackled, shouting, “Die, die, die, die, die, dieeeee...!” It looked like he was going to push past Clubman B’s defense.

  Yume went to help Kuzaku, machete in hand. Shihoru might still have been considering what to do. Merry checked her right wrist.

  It’s good she’s checking that Protection hasn’t worn off, but it feels like she’s doing it too often, Haruhiro thought. I should probably talk to her about that later.

  “It’s about time I do something, too!” Haruhiro shouted.

  Because he’d been Swatting so long, he’d gotten a read on Clubman C’s attacks. Haruhiro knew that when he went for a combo, he repeated a pattern of right, right, left, right, right, left. Once he went right, right, left, it seemed like Haruhiro could do something in the gap between that attack and the next.

  Okay, Haruhiro thought. I’ll do it.

  Clubman C swung his club in from the right, and Haruhiro used Swat.

  Again from the right. Swat. Now, left. Swat. Next is right. Now.

  “Shatter!” Haruhiro lurched forward, planting a kick on Clubman C’s knee. He hadn’t kicked hard enough to actually break the clubman’s knee, but there was no need to. Clubman C stopped for a moment. That was enough.

  “I’ll finish this!” Haruhiro added.

  Assault.

  Haruhiro used the dagger in his right hand and the club in his left to stab and beat the hell out Clubman C. If Clubman C took a desperate swing at him with its club, Haruhiro probably wouldn’t be able to dodge. He’d be taken out.

  If I take a heavy blow like that, I’m not going to be able to shrug it off, Haruhiro thought. If it hits me in the wrong spot, it could be lethal. It’s terrifying. I’m so scared, my hair’s standing on end. I have to overcome this fear. Even if I go down, I’ll make sure he does, too. I’ll take him with me.

  Clubman C fell on his backside, tossed aside his club, tried to cover his head, but couldn’t protect it, eventually got on all-fours but was still being cut and bludgeoned. Finally, looking down over the motionless Clubman C, Haruhiro tried to take a deep breath.

  He couldn’t. Sighing was out of the question, too. Even breathing was hard. He was sweating badly. It was getting in his eyes, and it stung. When he turned his head to look around, drops of sweat splashed around.

  “I... I can only use this... on weaker enemies, huh...” he gasped.

  It was too dangerous. That, and it was incredibly exhausting to use. Maybe he could use it as a last resort when he was backed into a corner, or when he had no other choice, but it wasn’t going to work as a trump card. Only when he was stronger than his opponent could Assault decide the outcome of a battle. It probably couldn’t turn around a losing battle.

  “I-I guess... it just means... the world’s not that easy, huh...” Haruhiro panted.

  Ranta shouted “Chop!” and, while he didn’t quite knock Clubman B’s head clean off, he broke its neck halfway. Kuzaku and Yume were overwhelming Clubman A. It was just a matter of time before they won, too.

  Okay, somehow we’ve managed to—or not. This world, it really doesn’t take it easy on us.

  “Merry! Shihoru! Behind us!” Haruhiro shouted. “Something’s coming!”

  “Huh...?!” As soon as Merry turned around, she swung her short staff sideways. The furry little creatures, shorter than the clubmen, that had been closing in on Merry and Shihoru scattered, but they looked like they might attack again.

  What are those things? Haruhiro thought. Monkeys? No. They’re built more like humans than monkeys, and they don’t have tails. Even their faces are covered in hair. Still, I’m hesitant to call them human. They’re abnormally hairy, so “hairy monkeys” sounds about right.

  “Three of them!” Haruhiro called. “Ranta! New enemies! One each for me, you, and Merry!”

  “Sure thing!” Ranta shouted.

  “Okay!” Merry called.

  “Kuzaku, Yume, hurry up and finish!” Haruhiro shouted as he charged towards Hairy Monkey A.

  My body feels so heavy, he thought. Assault’s no good. It tires me out twice as much in battle as it did in training. It’s useless like this. Even though I paid Barbara-sensei 1 gold and 20 silver to teach it to me.

  Regardless, he was closing in on Hairy Monkey A. Hairy Monkey A swung both of its arms at him, so he went Swat, Swat. Swat.

  It has claws, huh, Haruhiro thought. They have long, sharp, hard claws. The clubmen had more power, but these hairy monkeys win when it comes to speed. Actually—isn’t this thing ridiculously fast? It’s really springy. Even without a run up, it slaps its hands on the ground and can leap two, three meters into the air.

  “They’ve got some serious jumping power! Watch out!” Haruhiro called.

  “No, you watch out!” Ranta hollered.

  Ranta used Exhaust and Leap Out to jump around, so his fight with Hairy Monkey B was a nonsensical mess as they both bounced around all over the place.

  Merry inhaled sharply in anger. She was trying to hit Hairy Monkey C with her short staff, but it just wasn’t working out for her.

  “Ohm, rel, ect, nemun, darsh...!” Shihoru chanted as she drew elemental sigils with her staff. A shadow elemental flew out, fixing itself to the ground. It was positioned right in between Merry and Hairy Monkey C.

  Shadow Bond.

  That’s our Shihoru, Haruhiro thought. Nice work.

  “Akyah...?!” Hairy Monkey C stepped on the elemental. Its foot was now stuck. It couldn’t move.

  “Smash!” Merry spun her short staff around, whacking Hairy Monkey C hard in the head.

  That’s gotta hurt, thought Haruhiro.

  Merry followed it up with a continued attack. “Hahh! Yah! Take that!”

  “Agyahguhgyah!” the hairy monkey screamed.

  Merry can do pretty much whatever she wants to it now, Haruhiro thought. These hairy monkeys’ main weapons are their speed and those claws, so if we can just make them stop, they aren’t scary at all.

  “But, how do we make them stop?
!” Haruhiro shouted aloud.

  While using Swat on Hairy Monkey A’s claws, Haruhiro thought about it. Am I being too passive? With that thought in mind, he tried attacking with his sap after a Swat. Hairy Monkey A made an exaggerated leap backwards and ran off. How cautious.

  “Got him!” Yume shouted.

  Looks like Kuzaku and Yume took out Clubman A, Haruhiro noted. It’s six-on-three. Merry’s about to finish Hairy Monkey C, so soon it’ll be six-on-two. We can do this. No. Maybe not...?

  “Zoowah?!” Ranta shouted.

  Suddenly, Ranta started using Exhaust repeatedly.

  Again? Haruhiro thought in shock.

  Were they reinforcements, or not? Either way, it was more new enemies. It looked like they were coming out of a hole to the side.

  Another different type of creature. Black. They looked like emaciated children with jet black skin. Their eyes were incredible. Sparkling. Like gems. In their hands they held see-through knives.

  As for whether they were enemy reinforcements—it didn’t look like it. Those gem kids ganged up on Hairy Monkey B, the one Ranta had been fighting, knocked it down, stabbed the hell out of it, then carried on with that momentum to attack Ranta. It looked like the gem kids and the hairy monkeys didn’t get along. Still, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” didn’t seem to apply here, because the gem kids seemed hostile to humans, too.

  When Hairy Monkey A which Haruhiro had been fighting spotted the gem kids, it took off somewhere else. Thanks to that, Haruhiro was freed up, but... wasn’t this kind of bad? No, not kind of, wasn’t it really bad?

  “H-H-H-Heyyyy! H-H-Help! Guys! Hurry up and come help me already, you morons!” Ranta shouted.

  If nothing else, the number of gem kids chasing after Ranta was bad news.

  Haruhiro counted them on his fingers. “One, two, three...”

  Eight. No, nine. No, no, there are ten.

  “They’ve got us outnumbered!” Haruhiro shouted.

  For a moment, he seriously considered sacrificing Ranta to save the rest of them.

  Guess I can’t do that though, he thought. Well, of course not. But what do I do?

  Haruhiro shouted, “Ranta! We’re turning back! Towards the entrance! We’ll cut down on the number of enemies somehow and run away! Shihoru...!”

  “Right!” Shihoru immediately cast a spell. “Jess, yeen, sark, kart, fram, dart...!”

  It was... not Lightning. The chant was similar, but it was a different spell.

  A flash of light. Rumbling. Lightning fell. No, a bundle of lightning might have been a better way to describe it. Right in the middle of the gem kids that were chasing Ranta—was sadly not what happened. Still, three of the gem kids were struck by lightning and blown away. That made the remaining gem kids who weren’t struck falter a little, and the gap between them and Ranta widened.

  “Wahahah! Nice, Shihoruuuu!” Ranta hollered. “Give ’em another one! Let ’em have it!”

  “Sorry.” Shihoru staggered, clinging to her staff. “...I-I don’t have the magical power. Until I meditate, I can’t do any more...”

  “What’d you say?!” Ranta screamed.

  “Meow!” Yume let an arrow fly. But it didn’t hit a gem kid—it grazed Ranta’s head instead.

  “—Gwuh?!” Ranta shouted. “Th-That’s dangerous, Yume! You...!”

  “Meow,” Yume complained. “It’s not easy when you’re all movin’.”

  “Ranta-kun! Over here!” Kuzaku lifted his longsword, waving to him. While Ranta was still adjusting his course and had the gem kids in tow, Kuzaku had predicted the route he was trying to take.

  Ranta cackled. “You’re surprisingly useful, tank! Here I goooooooooo...!”

  “—Gahh!” Kuzaku hid himself behind his shield and slammed into the gem kids. Two or three of them were knocked flying and fell to the ground, but Kuzaku had put a little too much energy into it and he tripped.

  When Ranta saw that... “Screech!” Ranta pulled to a sudden stop and turned back. “Take that, and that, and that! Get massacred by me, you pissants! Dieeeee...!”

  Because Ranta suddenly turned around and went on the offensive, the gem kids seemed bewildered.

  No, but still... Haruhiro thought.

  “That’s reckless!” he yelled. “Just think about the number of enemies!”

  Even as Haruhiro was saying that, he got behind one of the gem kids and hit him with a Backstab. The gem kids were closer to humans than the clubmen or hairy monkeys, so it was easier to imagine where their vital points were. Well, he wouldn’t know if they were actually vital points or not until he tried, so that’s what he did.

  To be precise, he went for the kidney and liver. If he was stabbed through the kidney and liver, the gem kid would be wracked with unbearable pain. From there, there would be a blood spurt. On top of that, if it damaged the diaphragm, the gem kid would have major breathing difficulties. Even if he didn’t die immediately, the symptoms of shock would set in, he would be unable to move, and he’d eventually breathe his last.

  He’s gone. The gem kid collapsed and Haruhiro began taking aim at his next target.

  All of a sudden, Ranta turned heel and took off running again. “You dumbass! Like we can do this, you stupid, idiotic, moron!”

  Two or three gem kids went after Ranta, the rest came at Haruhiro.

  “—Huh?! Seriously?!” Haruhiro shouted.

  With a cry, Kuzaku leapt to his feet, knocking back one of the gem kids’ knives with his shield. Haruhiro was grateful for that, but the ones Kuzaku had knocked flying before were getting up, and at least one of the gem kids Shihoru had scattered with her magic was trying to return to the front line, too.

  “Contact Shot, meow!” Yume rushed in, firing an arrow into a gem kid’s face at point blank range. It was much harder to fire at an enemy while getting up close to them, or having them get up close to you. Yume pulled it off, but the arrow just went in the gem kid’s mouth and shot through his left cheek. She couldn’t neutralize them like that. Yume gave up on firing a second arrow, tossed her bow, and pulled out her machete.

  “This is bad...” Haruhiro muttered as he Swatted, Swatted, and Swatted again. He wasn’t up against one gem kid, but two. If it was just one, he might have been able to keep track of the situation around him, but that wasn’t going to be possible with two.

  Either way, things are a mess, he thought. I’m not in control of the battlefield. I don’t think I can do it, either.

  He wanted to scream, Help us, please! Of course, no one was going to help them. He knew that. They had to do something about it themselves. They had to carve a path out of here. If they couldn’t, they’d die. They’d become ash and bones, and soon enough no one would even remember them.

  It wasn’t just Haruhiro and his group. Manato and Moguzo, who’d passed on before them, and Choco and her group, Kuzaku’s former comrades... there would be no one to remember them, either.

  “—This isn’t funny!” Haruhiro screamed.

  16. Crossroads

  It really wasn’t funny.

  Haruhiro and the others had narrowly managed to flee back to Lonesome Field Outpost with their lives, and they bought cheap tents from the merchant selling them in the back streets.

  It went without saying that they’d bought separate tents for the guys and the girls. Ranta had spouted some nonsense about how they should buy a single big tent and all sleep together in one happy pile, but nobody had agreed.

  After that, they’d gotten something to eat and the girls had headed off to the bathhouse. The guys were put off by the higher-than-expected cost of entry, and they made the logical decision to wait and see if they stank the next day, and if so, bathe then. Then they went to lie down early in their tent next to the outpost.

  As might have been expected, three guys were a tight fit in one tent. For starters, while Haruhiro and Ranta were compact, by guy standards, Kuzaku was too tall. To engage in a bit of hyperbole, he took up the space of two people. Three guys
who hadn’t bathed, packed into a tight space together until morning. This was no laughing matter.

  Maybe it wasn’t too late to go bathe now. That, or buy a different tent. But, would that greedy tent merchant let them return this one?

  Why didn’t I buy a bigger one to begin with? Haruhiro wondered. I had the money, but being poor’s made me naturally frugal. I can’t help but cheap out.

  Ranta’s already snoring, but is it okay to sleep? Aren’t there things we should be doing? Like reflecting on today?

  Technically, they had talked during dinner about how they couldn’t go on like this, but everyone had been exhausted, and it hadn’t been an atmosphere where they could really debate anything. Haruhiro, to be honest, was thoroughly exhausted, like he’d done enough for today, and he wanted to leave it until tomorrow.

  But it’s not okay, he thought. Not okay at all.

  “...Kuzaku, you awake?” he asked.

  “Yeah. Sorta.”

  “How was it?” Haruhiro asked.

  “How was what?”

  “Now that you’ve tried it,” Haruhiro said.

  “...It was tough,” Kuzaku said.

  “Do you know why it was tough?” Haruhiro asked.

  “Oh. Hmm. It just sort of was.”

  “That’s no good...” Haruhiro mumbled.

  Kuzaku wasn’t the only one who was no good. Haruhiro was, too. He wanted to put all the blame on Kuzaku and Ranta, even though it wasn’t their fault. There weren’t just one or two problems—there were a whole host of them. Those problems interacted in complex ways, leading things in a worse direction.

  “I’m no good, I know.” Kuzaku tried to roll over, but stopped, probably because it was too tight in the tent. “But, in a way, weird as it is to say this, it was fun, I guess.”

  “Huh?” Haruhiro asked.

  “I may not seem it, but I’m taking this seriously, you know,” Kuzaku said. “I probably wasn’t before. I dunno. It makes it feel worth it? Maybe that’s it.”

  “...I see,” Haruhiro said.

  “Here’s hoping I won’t die,” said Kuzaku. “That none of us will, ever again.”

  “Yeah,” Haruhiro agreed.