Chapter 17
Seeing the demonfolk warrior holding a huge barbarian sword aloft like a monstrous bird with its wings spread, I realized my blunder and defeat.
The Demon King's army was mighty, and the extent of its training was impossible to gauge. But what we needed to fear most was their experience.
They did not grow overconfident in their advantage; aware of their numerical inferiority, they had chosen tactics even bolder and more ruthless than mine.
The slope behind us was a sheer cliff that was almost vertical. Running down it should have been impossible. But that was exactly why they had done it. They had outmatched me in boldness of thought.
We had meant to take their rear, but they had taken ours.
And now there was nothing we could do about the situation.
Even if there was only one of them, once they had infiltrated the circle, they would break our formation and finish us.
Otto's detachment would not arrive in time. I could already see defeat and death.
The squad captain fixed me with reptilian eyes, then leaped at me and swung his blade as if dancing.
Of course. Their first target would be me—the commander and the weakest person there.
I hurriedly raised my sword to block the attack, but the difference in strength made the outcome obvious. My slender sword snapped, its fragments flying through the air, and the enemy's blade came sweeping down into my chest.
The impact was like being struck by a boulder. Agony tore through me as I was hurled backward.
I was in pain, but barely bleeding. Yet I could not move.
The terrifying blow had cleaved through both my sword and breastplate. The lack of bleeding was the only mercy, but it had merely delayed my death by a moment. The pain was so intense that I could not even breathe.
With me unable to move, the second blade came immediately to deliver the finishing blow.
I'm dead. Is this where it ends?
As if I had lost a board game, I accepted my defeat.
It wasn't a matter of bad luck; I could have died at our first encounter.
The soldiers weren't to blame, either. No ordinary person would have followed me in a situation this hopeless.
My expectations and strategy had been naive. My incompetence and blunders alone had caused this defeat.
I had no choice but to accept it.
"Not yet!"
As the commander, I had accepted defeat and given up on everything.
Yet in this hopeless situation, I was the only one who had given up.
When the blade of death drew right up before my eyes, two soldiers stepped between us and stopped it just before it reached me with their two swords.
"Not on your life!"
"I won't let you."
It was Ray, who had reacted first, and Al, who had been right beside me because of his grievous wound, who had stopped the blade.
Ray. Al.
Unable even to raise my voice, all I could do was watch the two of them.
They drew their swords in front of me and stood before the captain of the reconnaissance unit.
"Protect Romelia-sama!"
"Re-form the formation!"
Al and Ray shouted at the top of their lungs. But that was impossible. With an enemy inside our formation, there was no way to re-form it now. And with me, their commander, down, how could anyone maintain control?
Through my muddled consciousness, I thought it impossible, but something astonishing happened here as well.
Without waiting for Ray to tell them, the soldiers moved on their own, tightened their formation, and re-formed the circle around me as I lay fallen.
"Mitya, Ben. Bly and Sei, secure the left flank. Glen, Rett, Shuro, and Merrill, the right flank. Support one another in pairs. Zeze and Hans, get between the pairs and support both sides. Al and I will take the front."
Ray issued orders quickly, assigning each person a role.
In this situation, Ray gave orders. Whether the orders were sound was beside the point: when instructed, the soldiers obeyed, and the unit regained its cohesion.
Moreover, none of the soldiers fled. Even with their commander unable to move, they thrust their spears forward in unison and pressed ahead again and again, unafraid of the enemy's counterattacks.
The soldiers' unexpected counterattack made the Demon King's reconnaissance unit retreat slightly. Otto and the others, who had been positioned as a separate detachment, attacked at that moment.
The timing could not have been better, but our position was terrible.
Our original plan had been to split their forces and strike them from behind. But because we had tightened our formation around me and re-formed a circle, we were packed together against a steep slope and surrounded by the enemy. We had taken their rear this time, but the enemy had concentrated its scattered forces, making the four-man detachment far less effective.
Even after their rear was taken, the Demon King's army did not panic. The two who had moved to the rear each engaged Otto and the others.
Through my fading consciousness, I saw Ray and Al standing in front of me.
They stood between me and the captain who had been targeting me, swords in hand and fighting spirit blazing.
This was it. This battle would determine everything. Whoever won here would seize control of the battle and claim victory.
But Al and Ray had no chance of winning. Their opponent was a captain-level veteran of the Demon King's army. He wore no armor, exposing his scale-like skin, but his body was brimming with strength and honed to perfection.
The Demon King's army was a battle-hardened force. It followed a merit-based system in which the strongest rose to the highest ranks.
Al and Ray were in an entirely different league from a captain of that caliber. And Al had suffered a grievous, near-fatal wound. They both had to understand that, yet neither of them hesitated to swing their swords.
Against the captain's dancing sword strikes, Ray desperately repeated the basic defensive forms and somehow managed to block them.
Then, using the opening Ray created, Al—despite being at death's door—attacked with a strike that gave no sign of his grievous wound.
Both of them were moving with greater sharpness than they had shown during training.
Had they awakened?
After suffering mortal wounds and being driven to the mental brink, the two of them began to show signs of awakening, and their movements grew sharper by the moment.
Even so, the enemy's advantage remained unchanged. The captain engaged one with each blade and still had strength to spare.
If only Al had not been wounded, and if the two of them had had a little more time to train, perhaps they might have managed somehow. But even though they had awakened, they had only just emerged, and their chances of victory were slim.
I opened my mouth, trying to give them an order, but no proper sound came out. I could convey only one word.
I summoned every ounce of my strength and forced out that one word.
"Win."
"Understood!"
My voice reached them, and the two tightened their grips on their swords.
The demonfolk warrior raised a blade like a wing and unleashed attacks in every direction, as though performing a dance.
Ray desperately blocked the blades raining down from every angle. But against a storm of attacks whose origins he could not even see, his body was slashed in countless places until he was drenched in blood.
After only a few minutes of fighting, both of them were battered from head to toe. Yet the fighting spirit had not left their eyes. They stared at the enemy and nothing else.
Then a change occurred around the two of them.
Currents of air formed around Ray's body, while heat radiated from Al.
The currents of air gradually swelled into a whirlwind, and flames spurted from Al's sword.
Magic!
There was no mistaking it. These were the effects of magic. I had known the two of them possessed the aptitude, but their talents had blossomed here.
"Woooooo!"
With a battle cry, Ray, wrapped in wind, unleashed a full-force blow.
The Demon King's captain swung the barbarian sword to block, but the gust released alongside Ray's slash knocked the blocking blade slightly aside. Riding the wind, Ray's strike severed the captain's thick left arm.
Before the severed arm and sword could fall through the air amid a spray of blood, Al swung his flaming sword.
But even with an arm severed, the Demon King's soldier did not lose the will to fight. The captain intercepted Al's attack with the blade in the remaining right hand.
Their blades met and locked in a struggle.
Though one-armed, the demonfolk poured strength into the blade like a vise, even as blood gushed from the wound. Veins bulged along the right arm, and the muscles swelled into knots.
Despite wielding his sword with both arms, Al was forced back by the unbelievable strength of that single arm.
Just as he was about to be overwhelmed, flames erupted violently from Al with a roar.
The flames converged along the blade, making it glow red-hot.
"Ooooooh!"
"!"
The intense heat melted the barbarian sword, and Al's strike cleaved through the steel the demonfolk had forged like butter, cutting deep into the captain's flank.
Though the captain let out a short cry, the Demon King's soldier still did not fall. The captain braced the collapsing body with both legs and remained standing.
Blood poured from the severed left arm, while the flank had been charred by the intense heat, glowing red-black and still radiating heat. Even after enduring all that, the captain fixed a dragonlike expression on me as I lay fallen.
The captain charged straight toward me, extending the right arm as if refusing to die for nothing.
A soldier in the circle tried to stop the captain with a spear, but even after three spears pierced the captain, the attack did not stop. The captain's ferocity was like that of a dragon reverting to its ancestral form.
The captain knocked the spears aside and stretched out the neck, still trying to bite me to death even if reduced to nothing but a head.
Rows of teeth drew close enough to fill my vision with the open mouth. Just then, flames burst from the flank Al had cut and engulfed the demonfolk's entire body.
"Gyaaahhh!"
Engulfed in flames and screaming a death cry, the Demon King's captain finally fell.
The moment the captain was defeated, the Demon King's reconnaissance unit, which had been fighting with ease until then, was thrown into confusion.
They attacked the soldiers in earnest, ignoring the danger in an attempt to bring them down. But then we saw a group charging toward us along the path we had come from, shouting valiantly.
Four armed soldiers.
They were the soldiers I had sent along a different path as a diversion.
After moving as decoys, they had circled around and returned to us.
Honestly, I had never expected them to come back.
The decoy operation had been a dangerous gamble. I had read that the enemy would pursue our main force, but there was always a chance they would not. If that happened, the soldiers divided into small groups would certainly die.
Conversely, if the enemy did pursue us, they would have a chance to survive. If they simply kept running, they might make it out alive.
That was why I had not ordered them to circle back.
They had managed to escape. I never thought they would return just because I told them to come back to the battlefield.
But they had returned on their own judgment.
The four soldiers charged like an avalanche, dragging their wounded bodies along with spears in hand. Otto and the others joined them, and one of the Demon King's soldiers guarding the rear was struck down.
Then the tide of battle shifted, and the Demon King's soldiers were cut down one after another.
Had we won?
Even with a front-row seat, I could not believe what I was seeing.
Having traveled with the prince, I had witnessed many scenes that seemed like miracles, but this was a genuine miracle.
They were neither princes nor celebrated heroes. Until only recently, they had been mere villagers. Yet they had fought more valiantly than anyone and overturned an impossible disadvantage. They were heroes in the truest sense.
At the center of the battlefield, I looked toward the two who had contributed most to our victory. Al and Ray had lost consciousness before I did.
They had suffered grievous wounds, expended every ounce of their strength, and wielded magic for the first time. That was only natural.
Their sleeping faces were those of men who had accomplished all they set out to do.
A faint smile crossed their innocent faces, and I lost consciousness right afterward.