Chapter 151
The subjugation force, centered around the Second Knight Order to which I belonged, headed for the western front where the horde of magical beasts was advancing.
The journey wasn't long.
The capital and the western defensive line had been arranged from the beginning to allow troops to be moved quickly in an emergency.
Thanks to that, we arrived at the first defensive line before long.
Walls and palisades had been erected as if cutting across the plain.
They were not in good condition.
Part of the wall had been gouged out, while the palisades were soaked in blood and broken.
Soldiers hurried about carrying stakes to make repairs.
Black masses could be seen across the plain in front of the defensive line.
They were all corpses of magical beasts.
They made it painfully clear that a battle had taken place before we arrived.
“Sir Richard, you've arrived.”
A knight who appeared to be the commander of the defensive line spotted Richard and came running over.
“Sir Gareth.”
Short-cropped gray hair.
A scar ran across his left cheek.
He was probably Gareth, the commander of the Third Knight Order.
“Welcome. We've been waiting for you.”
“What's the situation?”
“There was an encounter with the vanguard, but we held them off without suffering any significant damage. We're currently repairing the walls and palisades.”
“When do you expect the main force to arrive?”
“The scouts report that they'll be within sight in no more than thirty minutes.”
“Thirty minutes.”
Richard's gaze turned toward the distance.
I turned my head as well and looked beyond the plain.
A massive dust cloud rose above the edge of Barren Forest in the distance.
Even without being able to see them, I could tell how many magical beasts were advancing.
“Have the mage corps arrived?”
“Yes. They're waiting behind the defensive line. The moment the horde enters their range, they can begin casting magic.”
“Good.”
Richard asked no more questions.
While we waited, successive reinforcements arrived from behind, their flags fluttering in the wind.
Not only knights, but adventurers who had joined after accepting requests as well.
There were comfortably more than several thousand of them.
“Will this many troops be enough?”
I asked Rosanna, who was standing beside me.
“Who knows? It's my first time fighting such a massive horde of magical beasts, so I can't say for sure. Still, shouldn't it be plenty?”
“You think it's plenty?”
“We only need to kill a hundred each. Can't you kill that many?”
“Of course I can.”
Hmm, put that way, it did seem pretty easy.
We had the Imperial Knight Order, supposedly made up of the Empire's finest, along with the court mages.
If they fired off enough magic, wouldn't the beasts be cleared out in no time?
“You idiot. It's not like all the magical beasts are goblins. Do you really think it'll be that easy?”
As I was thinking that, Hugo objected from beside me.
“A goblin or an orc, they're all the same.”
“That's from the perspective of knights like us. Ordinary soldiers need five or six people to take down a single orc.”
“What? Ha, these bastards clearly aren't training properly. How are they supposed to subjugate the Three Great Magical Beasts like that?”
Rosanna swept a vicious gaze over the soldiers.
“A slave is working hard to become a knight, while these paid bastards are lazy as hell. Sheesh.”
“……”
All the soldiers turned to look at me.
They gave me resentful looks that seemed to say, ‘Why are you so pointlessly strong that we have to hear this?’
I only did my best, so why was I being blamed……?
For the sake of those poor, aggrieved soldiers, I decided to offer a solution myself.
“It's because life is still bearable for you. Turn them into slaves, lock them in an arena, make them fight magical beasts every day, and have them live under a villainess who kills people for amusement, and they'll become strong in no time.”
“That's oddly specific. Have you lived like that?”
“That's how every slave in the world lives. Of course, there are occasional exceptions. We call it ‘happy slave, dead slave.’”
“Happy slave, dead slave?”
“It means only dead slaves are happy.”
Aside from that, happiness and slavery are incompatible words.
“Then…… hang in there. Let's earn plenty of merit and get you emancipated.”
Rosanna patted me on the shoulder.
The soldiers' gazes had also changed at some point, as if they were looking at something pitiful.
Why were they looking at me like that?
Even I thought I was pitiful, but I was still alive with all four limbs intact.
Considering the road I'd traveled so far, simply being alive meant I was blessed enough.
So please don't pity me.
It was just as we were relaxing a little while making such pointless conversation.
-Clack.
A spear leaning against the palisade shook, as if an invisible finger had flicked its shaft.
At first, I thought it was just my imagination.
At most, the wind must have blown.
But the ground beneath our feet began to tremble faintly. It wasn't just me; everyone felt it.
Rosanna fell silent.
Hugo raised his head.
The soldiers on the defensive line began looking west one after another.
Barren Forest.
A dust cloud was surging terrifyingly fast above its edge.
It could no longer be described as a cloud.
It was a wave.
An earth-colored wave swept through the forest, swallowed the plain, and covered the sky.
A soldier rode toward us from within it, covered in dust as he charged inside the defensive line.
His movement was closer to rolling off his horse than dismounting.
Without even having time to catch his breath, he dropped to one knee before Gareth.
“The main horde has been confirmed! It's coming out of Barren Forest!”
“So they've finally arrived.”
Far off, I could see the horizon turning pitch-black.
The tidal wave of magical beasts had drawn close enough to be clearly visible to the naked eye.
“All troops, prepare for battle!”
Gareth's roar swept across the battlefield.
It was an incredible volume, especially considering it wasn't amplified by magic or a magical device.
“Mage corps, prepare your magic! Knight orders, take positions at the front! Wait for the signal!”
The moment Gareth's command rang out, we moved in perfect order.
The air behind us began to twist unpleasantly.
Hundreds of mages raised their staffs in unison.
Magic circles rose in spirals from beneath their feet.
The mana in the air compressed densely into a single point.
A deafening hum of mana filled the entire front line.
The sheer amount of mana was enough to feel even for someone without a mana-sensitive constitution.
The skin all over my body began to tingle.
It stung as if I were being pricked with needles.
“What are you doing? You're not wrapping yourself in mana.”
“Pardon?”
Rosanna tossed the words at me from beside me.
“If you just take that head-on, you'll puke your guts out.”
“Ah, this is my first large-scale battle.”
Even Sersia's magic hadn't been this powerful.
So this was what happened when elite mages collectively cast such massive magic.
It was no wonder mages were treated as living weapons of war.
I drew up my mana.
I wrapped a thin layer of it around my skin, as if laying a second skin over it. The prickling sensation subsided.
“We charge the moment the mages' bombardment ends. Stay focused.”
“Yes!”
I raised my head.
Thousands of gears of light meshed together, formula lines overlapped, and compressed mana accumulated in the air.
Even amid the resonance of that terrifying power, the magical beasts advancing from afar continued to close the distance without stopping.
It was as if something even more frightening than the massive torrent of mana before us lay waiting behind them.
“Ten until they're in range! Nine! Eight!”
The knights drew their weapons.
I drew my sword as well.
I didn't mount a horse.
If my horse were the Heavenly Demon, I could use the Heavenly Demon's Ruler's Step or something, but unless that were the case, there was no point in riding it.
An ordinary horse couldn't keep up with a skilled knight's movements.
“Seven! Six!”
The lower the numbers fell, the heavier the air became.
The light of the magic circles grew brighter. Mana spewed light as if it were about to burst.
“Five! Four!”
Rosanna spun her sword beside me.
“Nervous?”
“Not really.”
“This is what's wrong with veteran rookies. You've got no charm at all.”
With a silly smile, she looked straight ahead.
Gareth raised a hammer as large as his own body high into the air.
Ahead of him, the Third Knight Order held the center of the defensive line.
We were a little farther forward.
Beneath the golden lion banner, we waited for the moment the bombardment ended.
“Three!”
The vanguard of the horde began to come clearly into view.
Beast-type magical creatures led the way.
Behind them came goblins and orcs, and farther back were magical beasts I had never seen before.
Flying magical beasts came through the sky like a flock of migratory birds.
All of them formed a single mass as they surged across the plain.
“Two!”
The mages' staffs tilted forward.
Thousands of magic circles turned in the same direction.
West.
The direction from which the horde of magical beasts was advancing.
“One!”
Gareth's hammer dropped downward.
“1st unit! Fire!”
At that moment.
The veil of light hanging across the sky tore apart.
Fireballs and spears of flame filled the air, tracing parabolas as they descended upon the vanguard of magical beasts.
-KRAKABOOM!
A chain of explosions accompanied by thunder battered our eardrums without mercy.
The monsters engulfed in flames turned into handfuls of ash and blood without even managing to scream.
The earth was overturned, and thick clouds of dust rose to cover the sky.
“2nd rank, fire!”
Before the echoes of the first bombardment had even settled, Gareth's second command rang out.
The magic circles of the mages waiting their turn flashed.
Thousands of ice spears drove mercilessly into the ground the flames had swept over.
A savage chill instantly swept across the plain that had been red-hot moments before.
The hides and armor of the magical beasts, unable to withstand the extreme temperature difference, froze solid and cracked apart.
“3rd rank, fire!”
Bolts of lightning tangled like a spiderweb, tearing mercilessly through the stormy sky.
It was as if an arsenal had been opened in the heavens.
The Empire's bombardment, in the form of magic, ruthlessly ravaged the horde of flying magical beasts.
Flashes surged forward with enough force to flood the earth, bleaching the landscape along the horizon white.
Fire and ice on the ground, and lightning covering the sky.
The three-stage crossfire literally crushed the magical beasts' forces.
“Wow…….”
Overwhelmed by the scene before me, I let out a gasp with my mouth hanging open.
It seemed that the magic bombardment had cleared out half the horde.
Mages really were on another level when it came to war.
No matter how desperately a swordsman swung his sword, it couldn't compare to a single lazy flick of magic.
‘Damn shameless mages.’
Doesn't this need a nerf?
Will the melee mains even train properly after feeling this deprived?
God, are you listening?
For the sake of a harmonious world, please give us a balance patch.
…….
As the deafening explosions gradually died down.
Beyond the thick smoke, heavy vibrations still traveled through the ground.
There were simply too many magical beasts to wipe them out in one stroke.
The magical beasts beyond the reach of the spells tore through the curtain of dust and charged savagely.
“Third Knight Order, hold the defensive line!”
Gareth's shout immediately followed.
“Second and Fifth Knight Orders! Spread out to the left and right! Tear open their flanks!”
“Second Knight Order, follow me!”
Richard's command followed.
The waiting was over.
Now it was our turn.
I drew a breath.
And.
I ran.