Chapter 101
Diamond armor—and ground that had suddenly turned into a muddy mire.
It was clearly abnormal, and equally clear that it was the effect of magic.
"Monsters can use magic?"
This was Al's first battle against an enemy that used magic. Even so, he voiced a remarkably off-base observation.
"Of course they can!"
Ray drove the butt of his spear into the mud, freeing his horse's legs and helping it escape the mire.
The horse shuddered, shaking the mud from its body.
"Of course?"
"Monsters were originally mere animals. They took on this form through the power of magic."
"So these guys were originally just ants? Magic is amazing."
"Romelia-sama told you that monsters could learn to use magic if they gained wisdom and strength. Did you forget?"
"Did she? I forgot."
Ray glared at him as if to say, You traitor.
"Even if it looks like diamond, if magic made it, it should be weaker than the real thing."
Al raised his spear, spun it once over his head, then swung it down with all his force against the King Ant's left shoulder.
The King Ant did not even ready its poleaxe, taking the blow on its diamond armor.
A bell-like clang rang out, but the King Ant merely staggered slightly and remained uninjured. There was not even a crack in the diamond armor.
"Damn, that's hard."
The spear bounced off the armor's incredible hardness and vibrated violently. As Al tried to recover, the King Ant thrust its poleaxe at him.
"Watch it!"
Al somehow brought his spear back in time, catching the poleaxe and knocking it aside.
"Here's another one!"
This time, he slammed his spear into the King Ant's right shoulder.
The impact rang even louder than the first, but the diamond did not shatter, and the spear bounced away.
The King Ant took advantage of the opening and swung its poleaxe at him again.
Al managed to block the poleaxe, but its blade grazed his thigh, and a little blood seeped from the part not covered by armor.
The King Ant, its head covered by a diamond helmet, moved its mandibles and laughed.
It was fair to say that the outcome of the battle had already been decided.
Al had no way to break through the diamond armor, while the King Ant did not even need to defend against his attacks. It could simply attack after Al did, leaving him perpetually one move behind on defense.
But the thought of fleeing before the enemy never crossed Al's mind.
Unless his master ordered him to retreat, it was his duty to charge forward like an arrow and defeat the enemy.
With a battle cry that seemed to tear the air, he swung his spear and landed five blows all over the King Ant's body in the space of a single breath.
It was a destructive storm capable of shattering even rock, but it failed to break through the diamond armor, and Al was struck by the King Ant's counterattack.
The blade stopped at the armor, but Al spat a little blood, perhaps because it had damaged his internal organs.
"Not yet!"
Even as blood spilled from his mouth, he poured all his strength into snapping the butt of his spear upward, slamming it into the King Ant's chest from below.
Even the King Ant was thrown off balance by the blow and fell on its rear, but it quickly stood again, casually brushing the spot on its chest where it had been struck and knocking fragments loose.
Spilling blood from his mouth, Al merely glared at the King Ant.
Ray was struggling just as much.
The matched silver spears came at him, but he could no longer knock them away as easily as before and was unable to defend against the two ants' coordinated attacks.
It was all because the ground beneath them had become mud, trapping his horse's legs.
"Calm down, Diana."
He called his beloved horse by name and soothed it.
Through their training, Ray and his beloved horse Diana had already become one. He could ride it freely as though horse and rider were one, but after the ground became a muddy swamp, the horse's footwork was disrupted, interfering with Ray's precise spear technique.
The two royal guard ants clicked their mandibles in amusement.
"Don't underestimate us! Diana!"
Ray pulled on the reins and reared his horse. Raising its forelegs high, the horse gathered all its strength and leaped. It burst out of the mire as though flying through the air and landed directly before the mocking royal guards.
The horse whinnied and raised its forelegs, perhaps resentful of having been dumped into the swamp. Its hooves kicked the two royal guard ants to the ground.
Ray raised his spear and tried to thrust it down for the kill, but a spear thrust in from the side blocked the finishing blow.
The ones who had interfered were armored royal guard ants. They surrounded Ray, bringing along soldier ants, assault ants, and defense ants.
The two royal guards, rescued by their comrades, hid among the ants and moved their mandibles as they laughed, activating the mire magic again. Once more, Ray's beloved horse sank into the mud.
With his mobility cut off, the ants began swarming around him.
It was a desperate predicament, but Ray merely clicked his tongue.
"This isn't really my style."
Muttering, Ray changed his grip on his spear, raised it high, and swung it around with brute force.
Two or three soldier ants were caught up in each swing, crushed, and sent flying.
He continued swinging his spear, pulverizing the antfolk around him through sheer strength.
"For some reason, everyone tends to think I'm weak, but I'm actually the third strongest in the unit."
Regardless of the disrupted footing, his brute-force spear continued to crush the ants.
Even after abandoning his specialties of speed and precision, he displayed overwhelming power.
Ray sliced through the heavily armored royal guard ants like paper and blew away the massive defense ants like dry branches. Seeing this, the two royal guards showed panic in their compound eyes and hurriedly placed both hands on the ground at once.
Immediately afterward, Ray's body sank sharply as he swung his spear.
The mire beneath his feet spread wide, swallowing his horse's legs with a wet, sucking sound.
The layered mire magic had created a bottomless swamp that was trying to swallow Ray.
"Diana!"
His beloved horse whinnied, but the more it moved, the deeper it sank into the swamp. Ray might be swallowed as well, but he could not abandon his beloved horse.
The King Ant swung its poleaxe at Al, striking him as blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
The earlier blow seemed to have taken its toll, for Al's movements were sluggish as he received the poleaxe. His counterthrust lacked force and was lightly knocked away by the diamond armor.
The King Ant clicked its mandibles and laughed, but Al did not flinch at the provocation. Instead, he began scratching his head with one hand.
"Hmm, this isn't working. Is it here?"
As he spoke, he casually thrust his spear into the King Ant's chest. It was a blow with hardly any force behind it. Completely confident in its armor, the King Ant did not even bother to defend and took it on the chest.
But when that lightly delivered thrust struck its chest, a crack spread across the gleaming diamond armor.
The King Ant, which had placed absolute faith in its armor, opened its mandibles in astonishment.
Al, on the other hand, showed no joy at shattering the diamond. He merely sighed.
"Finally cracked, huh? I thought it would break sooner, but I guess I'm having bad luck."
As he spoke, Al swung his spear and thrust at the King Ant's chest. The King Ant hurriedly raised its poleaxe, but Al changed the spear's trajectory partway through, driving it precisely into the spot where the crack had appeared.
The crack spread wider, the diamond armor shattered, and the King Ant's body was exposed.
With its protective armor gone, the King Ant stood there dumbfounded.
"You look like you can't figure out why it broke. I doubt you understand our language, but I'll explain anyway. You probably don't know this, but different kinds of stone break in different ways. Some stones are difficult to break, while others shatter easily when force is applied at a certain angle. The harder a stone is, the more likely it is to be one of those that breaks easily. I could tell from the feel of the blow that this one would break. It won't break unless you hit the right place at the right angle, though, so I've been looking for that spot. And one more thing: it wasn't a fluke. You didn't notice, but when I struck your chest earlier, fragments fell from that spot."
When Al pointed at the King Ant's chest, it leaped backward. After putting some distance between them, it drove its poleaxe into the ground, knelt, and placed both hands on the earth. The King Ant's body began to glow, and shining armor spread over its entire body.
As long as it had magical power, it could recreate the armor as many times as necessary.
"Good work."
When Al thrust his spear into the reconstructed diamond armor, the spearhead pierced it, and the diamond shattered like stardust.
"I told you it wasn't a fluke. I know where to strike now."
Even after its armor had been shattered twice, the King Ant reconstructed the diamond armor once more.
But this time, it was different from the armor before. It layered more armor over the existing armor, growing larger and larger.
"Hey, can you even move in that?"
Al sounded aghast at the King Ant's giant-like form.
The King Ant, now far larger, moved with a grating sound. But its movements were slow—so slow that even a child could probably have escaped with ease.
"Here?"
Having discerned the cleavage point, Al thrust his spear into the mass of diamond.
The spear pierced it and a crack appeared, but the diamond did not shatter. The King Ant had cast diamond magic over the crack to prevent it from breaking apart.
Perhaps relieved that its armor was impossible to destroy, the King Ant laughed from behind the thick diamond.
The diamond armor had now become a fortress that only the King Ant could enter, protecting no one but itself.
"Good grief. Saving only yourself won't accomplish anything, but fine."
Al spoke to the King Ant while gripping the spear that remained embedded in the armor.
"By the way, you don't think you're the only one who can use magic, do you?"
A flame sprang to life in Al's hand.
The King Ant looked astonished, but Al ignored it and tightened his grip on the spear. Flames covered the entire spear, racing along the embedded spearhead as well.
The flames crept into even the smallest cracks, passed through the diamond fortress, and coiled around the King Ant.
The King Ant could not extinguish the flames engulfing it. Its entire body was covered in diamond, leaving it unable even to brush the flames away with its hands. The fire spread further, burning the King Ant from head to toe.
"What, you want to get out?"
Al called out to the King Ant as it burned and charred inside the armor. It no longer had the leeway to dispel the magic, and the only way out was to have the diamond shattered for it.
"But no. You can burn in there."
On the other side of the diamond, the King Ant burned red as its body was reduced to charcoal, smoke pouring from the cracks. Even so, it could not escape, and only the inside burned away, leaving the outer shell of diamond behind.
Because Ray could not abandon his beloved horse, the ants surrounding him all readied their spears.
They intended to finish him with thrown spears rather than wait for the bottomless swamp to swallow him.
More than a dozen spears were thrown and came rushing toward Ray, but he did not try to knock them away. Instead, he drove his own spear into the muddy swamp.
"Blow away!"
The instant the spear pierced the swamp, the mire exploded. It blasted away a huge amount of mud and even sent the incoming spears flying.
A massive hole opened in the ground, the swamp vanished, and Ray landed at the bottom of the hole together with his beloved horse Diana.
Wind swirled around Ray, howling as though to protect him.
Around the edge of the hole, the ants that had been blown away struggled to rise.
Ray quickly scanned the area and spotted the two royal guards desperately trying to flee among the ants getting back to their feet.
"You're not getting away!"
Ray planted one foot on the saddle, stood, then kicked off his beloved horse's back and leaped.
"Wind!"
As Ray shouted while leaping, the wind swirling around him howled and lifted his body.
The cape on his back caught the wind, spreading like wings as he soared through the air.
The ants nearby stared in shock at the sight of Ray flying, but he bounded from their heads and shoulders like stepping stones.
"There you are!"
He attacked one of the fleeing royal guards from above, impaling it through the head.
He pulled out his spear and kicked off the body before it fell, leaping again to search for the second one from above.
"Found you!"
Manipulating the wind, he attacked from directly overhead. One of the royal guards looked up at the sky and tried to flee, but Ray pierced its back with his spear, pinning it to the ground like an insect specimen.
The surrounding antfolk tried to encircle Ray, but he somersaulted through the air, kicked off the head of one of the ants attempting to surround him, and returned to his beloved horse Diana.
Al had already defeated the King Ant, and he gave Ray, who had flown back, a displeased look.
"What?"
"What's with that attitude? Just because you can fly doesn't make you superior. I'm the captain, and you're the deputy."
"Of course I know that. But after seeing today's performance, Romelia-sama will realize who is truly suited to be captain."
"Don't be ridiculous! I defeated mine first!"
"I'm almost unhurt. Are you all right? You're spitting blood, so shouldn't you rest?"
In the middle of the battlefield, Al and Ray began bickering.
"This is just a scratch, obviously. It doesn't even hurt."
"You look pretty pale for someone saying that. You're bleeding from the leg too, aren't you? You should rest."
"You weren't exactly calm when your horse started sinking, either. I'll reenact your pathetic display in front of Captain Romelia next time."
"What? Then I'll tell everyone you're still collecting stones as a hobby. Come to think of it, remember when that stone you treasured turned out to be animal droppings?"
"You promised you'd keep that secret! Fine, I'm done. I'm really angry now. I was going to let this one go, but I'll tell everyone how you accidentally plunged headfirst into a pigpen while secretly practicing flying. Ray-kun covered in shit was a sight to behold."
"You saw that, you bastard?! Tell Romelia-sama about it and you won't live to see tomorrow's sun."
"Did you think you'd be eating dinner tonight?"
They both gripped their spears and readied themselves.
"Captain Al, Deputy Ray."
The soldiers stepped in to stop the two men, who looked ready to start killing each other at any moment.
"We're done here! We can move!"
When the two men looked around, they saw that the ants guarding the King Ant had been almost completely wiped out.
"It can't be helped. Temporary truce. Everyone assemble and prepare to charge."
They gathered the soldiers who had finished the slaughter.
The two men had not actually wanted to bicker in the middle of the battlefield. They had merely been waiting for the subordinates who had scattered the ants to regroup.
"From here, we'll strike the enemy's rear. Don't stop—race straight through!"
The King Ant was down, and there was no commander left. The ants were looking only ahead, leaving their rear easy to attack.
But there would be no time to rest now. Even attacking from the rear, they would have to cut through and annihilate an army of nearly a thousand with only fifty cavalrymen.
"Don't break formation. Assume that anyone who falls behind will die. Follow us with everything you've got."
Ray called out to the soldiers.
"Captain Al! Look at that!"
Just as they were about to give the order to charge, one of the soldiers pointed toward the rear of their own position.
Far in the rear, a group of cavalry had appeared, seemingly from nowhere. There were about a hundred of them.
"Whose troops are those?"
A shudder ran through the soldiers who caught sight of the cavalry.
The Cashew garrison had only the fifty cavalrymen present here, and no reinforcements were expected.
"Could it be the Kingdom of Hameil?"
No matter how thoroughly they had rebuilt the defensive line, it would not withstand a cavalry charge.
Even if they rushed to help, their own position was far away, with a thousand antfolk between them.
"No, that's not it! Calm down!"
Ray's sharp voice brought the confused soldiers under control.
"They're allies."
The flag of the Kingdom of Lionel flew above the mounted force.