by Ryota Hori
A ruthless smile played on Ryoma’s lips, as if to say he’d just found prey that would put up a good chase.
“So what do we do, boy...? Charge right in? We’d take some losses, but we can break that formation no problem.”
The formation Kael chose was one of the simplest, most elementary formations possible. Knights prided themselves on individual skill. While they might be trained in martial arts and thaumaturgy, few of them spent time on tactical and formation training. Of course, some elite units pressed more importance on group battle, and studied tactics accordingly. Those depended entirely on the commander’s personality and choices, though.
What’s more, most of the knights here didn’t have a close relationship with Kael. And nothing mattered more when fighting in a group than how much trust the troops harbor toward their commander. That was why he chose such a simple formation.
Ryoma picked up on Kael’s true intention, though.
This Kael guy really is sharp. He’s not using a complicated formation like the crane wing here, but a simple horizontal one. It’s proof he knows just what each of his men is worth. And on top of that...
Even such a simple formation could be made into a formidable one with just a few tricks. Their front line held up large shields, and pointed their spears from the gaps between them. The shields staved off the enemy attacks, while the spears would be used to whittle down the enemy’s numbers. It ended up being a thorough defensive formation.
This is annoying... But still.
It was just a tough formation to break. Like Lione said, it may cost them some men, but a frontal assault would be able to brute force its way through it. Ryoma’s victory remained solid. In terms of individual strength, both sides were about even, but Ryoma’s men had the higher morale. And most of the enemy soldiers weren’t wearing armor, either. In terms of fighting power, the enemy had an overwhelming disadvantage.
“No... We take them out with one blow! Have everyone hang back, and send a message to Laura’s group. Have them circle around and attack the enemy from behind. We’ll catch them in a pincer attack. First, we’ll attack them from the front in full force and get them to focus on our direction.”
Ryoma proposed a pincer attack using Laura’s unit, which he had sent separately to hunt down any stragglers.
Ryoma intended to thoroughly hunt Kael’s unit down. He had no intention of showing them any mercy. General Albrecht, as well as Kael and the knights who served under him, were existences that couldn’t be permitted to remain alive. Both for the kingdom of Rhoadseria’s sake, and for Ryoma’s sake.
Or rather, sparing them would mean keeping a dangerous factor that could threaten them in the future alive.
“Roger that!” Lione said. “So we need to keep their attention on us, eh... Wouldn’t thaumaturgy be more effective than arrows for that?”
Ryoma nodded.
“Then let’s drop some lightning on them first! Ya ready, boys? Fire up a big one and make sure their eyes are fixed on us!”
Obeying Lione’s order, the mercenaries turned their hands toward the enemy formation.
“““Spirits that govern over lightning! Manifest your powers before us, with our blood as recompense! Abide by your oaths, and strike down our foes!”””
And at Lione’s signal, they started chanting at once. Small balls of crackling electricity formed in their hands. As their chant continued, the balls gradually got bigger.
“Fire it!”
“““Bolt Blitz!”””
And the bullets of lightning were launched from their hands, crashing into the enemy formation. Each of them was drawn together, eventually forming a single huge ball of lightning.
“Everyone, shift to thaumaturgic defensive positions! Hold up your shields!”
Kael shouted, and knights holding up the shields lowered their thighs, straining every muscle in their body to withstand the attack. The shrill sound of electrical discharge echoed through the forest, which shook as white light flashed through it intermittently. The ball of lightning splashed against the shields, raining the area with bolts of electricity.
“The shields have been granted thaumaturgic defensive enchantments! Do not let go of them, no matter what!” Kael shouted, squinting against the white flash. “Keep them up until the electricity dies down! Back row! Cast defensive thaumaturgy on the front row, at full force!”
If any one part of the formation were to break, the lightning would travel to the rest of the soldiers from there. Everyone was fighting desperately to hold back the ball of lightning, waiting for the menace to pass.
Their minds had completely forgotten defending their rear, as their attention was fixed entirely on the spell bearing down on them from the front. And that was Ryoma’s plan.
“Second row, begin chanting!” Lione ordered.
The mercenaries that hung back until now stepped forward, and began chanting at Kael’s formation.
“““Spirits governing the wind! Turbulent ones! Abide by your contract, and fulfill your mission! Become a storm at my order, and sweep away my foes!”””
“Fire!” Lione once again gave them the signal.
“““Charging Wind!”””
A gale of wind powerful enough to easily blow away an adult man blew from their hands, roaring as it clashed against Kael and his men.
“Tch, wasted effort. Keep your shields up!” Kael clicked his tongue, but at the same time was confident that their position was sound. “Their thaumaturgy can’t reach us! If they keep firing spells at us, they’ll just exhaust themselves! Just hold on until they do!”
Hmph! I suppose they really were just thieves... If they knew we were knights, they wouldn’t try this kind of attack! I thought they were pursuers from Rhoadseria, but apparently I was wrong... They can shoot all the spells they want at us. We have shields with thaumaturgic defensive enchantments. They can easily block low-level thaumaturgy. It’s just a matter of time until they run out of prana.
In this world, verbal thaumaturgy was seen as lacking in practicality as a weapon. That wasn’t to say it didn’t have its limited uses. There were some who made it their area of expertise, like the Empire of O’ltormea’s court thaumaturgist.
But it did come with its share of crippling disadvantages. Firstly, most verbal thaumaturgy manifested as long-range attacks. The problem was that prana diminished the farther the attack had to travel.
With most verbal thaumaturgy spells, they grew weaker the further they had to travel from the caster. What this meant is that even if a caster were to fire an attack with a force of one hundred from a distance of ten meters, the attack would only deal ninety points because of the prana lost along the way. The greater the distance, the less potent the attack became.
On top of that, not just thaumaturgists, but all living beings unconsciously had prana in their bodies, which formed a protective layer around their body. This was true of everyone in this world, regardless of their ability to use thaumaturgy.
Of course, this protective layer was far more brittle than anything a thaumaturgist would create. For a simple commoner, it would grant the same level of defense as a thin piece of fabric. It was different with a thaumaturgist, though. Between two thaumaturgists of equal skill, the defending side would actually be at an advantage.
In addition, in cases like this where one knew to expect a thaumaturgic attack coming from the enemy, they’d be able to use their prana to temporarily up their resistance, forming a powerful defense. And the armor knights wear is also enchanted to resist thaumaturgy.
All those techniques would allow one to stave off most verbal thaumaturgy attacks. Of course, it consumes prana, and can’t be kept up indefinitely.
The same held true for the attacking side, except their attacks consumed significantly more prana. This was why battle in this world placed more importance on martial thaumaturgy compared to verbal thaumaturgy, with the exception of the most skilled of practitioners.
It all depends
on how it’s used, though.
Ryoma smiled to himself as he watched the mercenaries’ verbal thaumaturgy being repeatedly blocked by the shields. Indeed, in games and other such fantasy settings, spellcasters were the ones packing the overwhelming firepower, but in this world, things were somewhat different. Ryoma himself could only imagine those kinds of flashy combat scenes when he thought of magic, so he was disappointed to learn about the restrictions on thaumaturgy.
But even if thaumaturgy didn’t give the firepower one might expect, it still had its uses.
“““Oooooooh!”””
Suddenly, war cries erupted from the forest behind Kael’s formation, and many shadows leaped out of the forest, pouncing on the knights.
“Kill them, kill them all!”
“Don’t let a single one of them escape, you hear?!”
The men charged them with swords in hand and blatant bloodlust in their eyes, slashing into the knights’ defenseless backs.
“What?! Enemies, there are enemies behind us!”
“Impossible! Where did they come from?! Isn’t the enemy just in front of us?!”
“Who cares about that, you moron?! Defend against them, too!”
“That’s stupid! We can’t break formation now!”
“Shut up and stop whining! Do you want to die?!”
While they were focused on blocking the thaumaturgy attacks launched by Lione’s men, they were attacked from behind. Everyone was screaming whatever came to their minds. Some wanted to prioritize blocking the thaumaturgy. Others wanted to defend against the enemy attacks. A few waited for Kael to give them instructions.
None of those choices were wrong ones, but none of them were right, either. Because they made the fateful error of allowing Ryoma’s group to approach them from the front.
“Now! Charge ’em!”
At Lione’s order, the mercenaries drew their swords and pushed into the enemy formation ahead.
“Kuh! Front row, don’t let them break your stance!” Kael raised his voice desperately.
The battle wasn’t decided yet. If the knights would obey his orders, they still had a chance at winning. But Kael’s voice wasn’t reaching any of the knights by now. And that was only natural. In a situation where they were attacked concurrently from behind and from the front, it would take significant training and a great deal of trust between the commander and the knights for them to maintain the formation.
But Kael and his knights had neither of those things.
Caught in a pincer attack between Laura’s unit from behind and Lione’s assault from the front, their strong defensive formation was gradually losing its shape like a sand castle being beaten down by the waves.
“Sir Kael, we can’t last any longer!” One of the knights called out. “We should fall back!”
“That’s pointless... Where can we run in this situation...?” Kael shook his head in a resigned fashion.
There were less than twenty men left alive around him. The pincer attack divided their forces, and now they were completely cut off from the rest of the knights. Some of them tried to flee into the forest, while others stayed where they were. A few tried to get back at Ryoma’s forces. But whichever choice they made, they all met the same fate.
Death.
Blast! Why did this happen...? A pincer attack? So they’re not just bandits... So are these pursuers from Princess Lupis’s side...?
Kael held back his desire to curse out loud, since he knew no amount of complaining would change things. The moment he lost his temper, it would all truly be over.
So these are the only men I have left... Do we run into the forest...? Or try to cut through the enemy...? Which should it be? If we die here, then there would be no point in us taking the rear guard... I only took up this role because I thought I’d be able to block them with these forces...
Kael didn’t let General Albrecht go ahead out of good will. He only let the general and his family get away out of calculated self-interest.
If we can block the enemy here, General Albrecht’s opinion of me will only improve. It’s because he’s fallen so far that he’d be more desperate for reliable subordinates!
Kael had calculated as much. He thought that by making his loyalty clear to the general, it would help improve his standing when they reached Tarja. If it weren’t for that, Kael would never have prioritized letting General Albrecht and his family get away first.
In addition, Kael only took on this risk because he thought he was up against mere bandits. Petty thieves would stand no chance against Kael and his knights. Even if they were taken by surprise and were initially on the back foot, they’d have the skill and equipment to emerge victorious. But if those were pursuers sent by Princess Lupis, things were different.
What do we do... How do I get out of this alive...?
Kael looked around desperately. The sounds of clashing metal were getting fewer and weaker. The divided knights were being finished off by the mercenaries.
No good! At this rate, they’ll cut off our path of escape! If the forest isn’t a possibility... Then the only option is...!
Kael fixed his gaze ahead. Even if he tried to run, he’d just be chased down. He had to confuse the enemy if he was to shake them off.
There! That’s the enemy’s main force! My only way out is to strike there!
Standing ahead of Kael was one enemy formation that remained completely immobile. Kael discerned that was likely where the enemy commander was.
“Listen to me! Crush the enemy ahead, and kill their commander!”
“You’re telling us to rush the enemy?!” The knights were shocked by Kael’s order.
But their surprise soon died down. They couldn’t see any way out of this situation, either.
“Focus on killing the enemies ahead of you and nothing else! Cut down anyone who stands in your way!”
Kael demanded only one thing out of his knights. To kill the enemy, and nothing else. This plain, simple order dragged the knights, who had been frozen still by the terror of death, back to reality.
That’s right! Kill, kill, kill!
We have to kill them if we want to survive this!
Kill the enemy! Kill them!
The knights’ desire to live and their hatred toward the enemy both flared up.
“““Oooooooh!”””
The knights’ hearts once again flared up with fighting spirit.
“Chaaaaaarge!”
At Kael’s orders, the knights attacked the mercenaries. Desperation made their fear into courage. Having fallen for Ryoma’s tactics, Kael and his men were the very image of cornered animals. And right now, they were about to gamble their lives to bite back against their predator, Ryoma.
“Ugh! What the hell?! Why are they gaining heart all of a sudden?!”
“Stay calm! This is just their last moment of resistance before the end!”
The mercenaries’ movements stopped as the knights rallied against them.
“Idiots! What are you doing?!” Lione raised her voice.
“It’s no good, Sis! The way it’s going now, they’ll break through the front!” Boltz said.
Lione clicked her tongue and drew her blade.
“Enough! I’m takin’ to the front!”
She was always a warrior, to begin with. She may have taken command of soldiers now, but her true value was at fighting directly on the battlefield. Lione’s eyes shined red with excitement for battle, but Boltz couldn’t afford to let her go.
“You can’t, Sis! Did you forget what the lad said?!”
“Idiot! Does that even matter right now?! At this rate, they’ll...!”
The goddess of battle turned her smile to Kael this time. While Lione and Boltz were arguing, Kael and his men broke through the front line.
“Sis, watch out!”
Boltz covered for Lione with his body, and a blade swept through the air above them.
“Tch! He got in the way...”
As Lione stil
l scrambled to catch up to the situation, an unfamiliar man’s voice reached her ears. “You!” she said.
“Are you the commander here?! Why did you attack us...?! Well, it doesn’t matter if you’re bandits or Lupis’s men. You’re dying here either way...”
“Die!” Kael swung his sword over Lione’s head. He looked down on the two of them with muddled, and yet palpable bloodlust.
“Dammit! Sis!”
“Move away, Boltz! Dodge it!”
Boltz and Lione were prepared to die. But at that very moment, something cut through the wind and Kael’s blade was deflected with a shower of sparks.
“Who was that?! Who got in my way?!” Kael shouted, clenching his numbed hands.
Kael desperately knocked down the blade that was thrown at him from somewhere. Standing around him were five other knights that managed to break through. They looked around cautiously. And eventually, the single figure of a man stepped out of the woods.
“Boy...”
Ryoma’s large form reflected in Lione’s eyes.
“Are you all right, Lione?”
“Y-Yeah!” Lione said, grabbing Ryoma’s extended hand and finally rising to her feet. “I just hurt my legs a bit. Forget that, when did ya get here?!”
Ryoma should have been leading the group hunting down the soldiers that ran off, and Lione was shocked by his sudden appearance.
“They moved better than expected, so I left command to Sara and went back to the rear. Just leave this place to me... You and Boltz should regroup with Sara and help her command the hunt for survivors.”
“But!”
“It’s fine... I’ll finish him off.” Ryoma cut her off, a cold glint in his eyes.
His gaze stabbed into Kael and the knights surrounding him.
“So you’re the one who got in my way!” Kael barked.
Ryoma ignored him, however, calmly drawing his katana.
“I’m going to have you disappear here, Kael Iruna,” Ryoma said, hiding the blade behind his body in a flank stance.
“You won’t lay a hand on Sir Kael, you bastard!” Kael’s knights braced themselves, solidifying their defense around Kael.