Chapter 222
★ Dark Elf Settlement ★
Shooting down birds in flight is extremely difficult. When their enormous bodies are flying straight at you, it is even harder to keep your aim steady.
Furthermore, although concentrated fire could bring down one bird, it was impossible to deal with the early-summer birds gliding in from every direction.
"To the right!"
"No good, I can't hit them!"
"Get down!"
To put it another way, it was like standing on a highway with nothing but large trucks on it. And those trucks were coming from every direction.
No matter how sturdy the Dark Elves were, when their opponents were several times their size and dozens of times their number, being toyed with and butchered was inevitable.
They were knocked down by the gale, had their arms broken by wing tips, or were caught by claws and flung into the air.
The early-summer birds were wreathed in flames, so the surroundings quickly dried out and stinging heat filled the air.
Of course, the early-summer birds were not unharmed. Some collided with one another and stopped moving, while others crashed into trees and flew away unsteadily.
Even so, the early-summer birds did not stop attacking.
She could feel a collective will—not the will of individuals, but of the flock itself—to wipe out everyone here.
It was a matter of killing or being killed.
In that choice, the Dark Elves were at a tremendous disadvantage.
(Magic. If I used magic, I might be able to defeat them.)
Anastasia was aware that her 【Fire Magic】 possessed extraordinary power.
Even though the early-summer birds also used fire, there was a good chance her magic would work on them.
(But if I, a High Elf, were to use 【Fire Magic】...)
What would the Dark Elves think?
If I unleashed flames this fierce, so unbefitting a forest dweller...
Even so, rather than simply sit here and wait for death...
No... If I wait for the Dark Elves who went out to investigate...
"Damn it! Don't burn our homes with that filthy fire!"
Several huts in the treetop settlement were sending up smoke. The flames from the gliding early-summer birds had probably ignited them.
Looking closer, she could see that several ropes had also been burned through.
The words "filthy fire" stabbed at Anastasia's heart.
The words on her lips were stifled.
"Don't worry, High Elf-sama. We'll protect you."
Nikki, standing beside Anastasia and calmly firing arrows, said this.
"Wait just a little longer and Nokk and the others will be back. Then we'll rip these bastards to pieces."
The flames of an early-summer bird flying past illuminated Nikki's grinning profile.
But how long would it be before Nokk and the others returned? If the investigation was taking longer than expected, they might not return until late at night.
On the other hand, how long could the Dark Elves hold out?
(Reiji-san...!)
As though praying to a god, she cried Reiji's name in her heart.
However, he had left early yesterday morning. It had taken them two and a half days to travel from Dragonian City to the Dark Elf settlement. Unless he had forgotten something or some wholly unexpected circumstance had arisen, Anastasia's rational side concluded that Reiji would not come.
Reiji wasn't coming.
Unable to bear acknowledging it, Anastasia bit her lip.
"High Elf-sama!"
"!?"
Snapping back to reality at Nikki's sharp cry, Anastasia saw an early-summer bird flying straight toward them.
A powerful force knocked her sideways—the strength of Nikki's arm had shoved Anastasia out of the way.
Anastasia thought she saw Nikki glance at her sidelong and flash a sly grin—and then—
"Nikki-san!!"
Immediately afterward, the early-summer bird plowed into Nikki, sending her soaring into the sky. The bow in her hand fell to the ground, spun once, and toppled over.
"GRAAAAAAAH!!"
Nikki had clung to the base of the early-summer bird's left wing. Its flames scorched her skin, but she refused to yield; drawing a knife from her waist, she plunged it into the bird's eye.
'Giiiiiiieeeeee!'
"Don't you dare whine just because you're hurting, you bastard!"
She pulled it out, stabbed again, pulled it out, stabbed again, pulled it out, stabbed again.
The early-summer bird shook its head back and forth, flaring its flames even higher. It began corkscrewing through the air, and even Nikki was thrown into midair.
Nikki was already above the great tree.
"Ah...!"
The early-summer bird spun as it plummeted, while Nikki's body plunged into a large tree some distance away and vanished among the leaves.
But she did not come down.
There was no way to tell whether she was alive or dead.
(She protected me... She took my place...)
Still sitting on the ground where she had landed, Anastasia thought of Nikki.
(For my sake, Nikki-san...!)
What had she been worrying about?
Being disliked?
Being feared?
Being scorned?
Being hated?
(How utterly, utterly selfish...!)
Even when her voice had been sealed, even when she had been treated as mere "decoration," she had still been proud of being High Elf royalty, hadn't she?
That was why she had used magic to protect Reiji in the Lev Magic Empire, where monsters rained down from the sky.
(Have you forgotten how you felt then?)
Had she gotten carried away because the Dark Elves treated her as a High Elf?
Had she thought she didn't need to do anything because Reiji always protected her?
"I am Anastasia."
No.
This magic was meant to protect someone.
If she had any pride as royalty—or rather, if she had any feelings for the clan chief and the Dark Elves who had fought for her, and for Nikki, who had become her shield—then...
"A member of the High Elf royal family, and a leader of the Elves!!"
Even if she were hated, feared, scorned, or despised.
"Be consumed by my magical power—"
She would burn everything that opposed her to ashes.