Chapter 95
Otto's tremendous strength had repelled the charge of the extra-large defense ant, but we couldn't afford to focus solely on that.
The defense ants behind it crashed one after another into the shields the soldiers had set up.
Each impact sent a tremendous noise echoing across the battlefield, but the attacks, each like a falling boulder, failed to break through our defensive line. We managed to stop them all. Our losses were minor. It had been unexpected, but we had handled it.
The soldiers at the front had fought valiantly, but Otto's contribution had been enormous. Seeing him stop the charge directly in front of them—and even hurl it back—allowed the shield-bearing soldiers to believe that they could withstand it as well.
Otto's becoming a pillar of their morale had made a huge difference.
Looking toward the enemy formation, I could tell this had been an attack they were confident in. The King Ant was glaring at us resentfully. I could almost hear the growl of its mandibles rubbing together.
When the King Ant swung its scepter without hiding its irritation, the ants began to advance.
At the very front was a swarm of lightweight soldier ants. Their insect legs moved frantically as they raced across the ground at a speed that could be called a sprint.
Waiting for them was our shield wall. But we had no intention of simply taking the attack head-on.
"Throw the magic stones!"
The black tsunami of antfolk continued forward without hesitation, but at my command, the soldiers in the second rank, hidden behind the shields, threw explosive magic stones.
The magic stones seemed to vanish into the tsunami, but explosions erupted all at once across the battlefield, blowing the antfolk swarm away.
The explosions were followed by the antfolk's metal-scraping screams, while insect limbs rained across the battlefield amid sprays of white fluid.
It was a hellish scene of carnage, yet even after so many of their comrades were blown away, the antfolk's charge did not stop. Without fear or hesitation, they continued straight ahead.
"Damn ants."
Sensei spat the words out.
That was what made antfolk so terrifying.
Normally, even trained soldiers would flinch if an explosion occurred nearby. But the antfolk had no such weakness. They had neither survival instinct nor emotion; they simply obeyed their king's commands, casting aside even their lives.
The charging antfolk collided with the infantry line, whose soldiers had leveled their spears through the gaps in the shields.
Several antfolk were impaled on the spears, but they did not hesitate even at the deaths of the comrades before them. They climbed over the corpses of comrades who had been alive only moments before and continued trying to advance.
A tactic only insects could use. But we weren't about to lose, either. Even when the soldiers at the front were taken down, those behind them immediately stepped forward to fill the gaps, stopping the charge of nearly a hundred antfolk.
"Graves."
I gave an order to Graves, the veteran soldier commanding the archers.
In response to my order, Graves gave an exaggerated bow.
"Nock your arrows. Three volleys."
I wanted to tell him to hurry up and shoot, but Graves commanded the soldiers while taking up his own bow and nocking an arrow.
The arrows were released all at once and rained down on the antfolk.
The arrows arced through the air and vanished into the swarm, but one arrow followed a trajectory unlike the others.
It was the arrow Graves had fired. Ordinary arrows followed a high arc, but Graves's arrow flew almost in a straight line and precisely pierced the head of a charging ant.
Graves fired three shots along with the soldiers, and every one hit.
"Amazing, every single one hit."
Mia-san watched and cheered in amazement at Graves's skill with a bow.
Hearing her high-pitched cheer, Graves finished shooting, looked over at us, and gave another exaggerated bow.
His affected manner rubbed me the wrong way, and the healer Karlman and the guard Miecha, watching beside me, muttered under their breath.
"Graves is a show-off, but he's skilled."
"He certainly is skilled, though he is a show-off."
Velli-sensei and I voiced the same opinion.
Graves was a veteran soldier with extensive battlefield experience. He could command troops and was also an exceptionally skilled archer. He was an outstanding soldier in every respect, except for his affected manner.
Of course, my personal opinion was irrelevant on the battlefield, so I ignored it.
When I turned my attention back to the battlefield, our soldiers had held off the enemy and fired on them with bows, successfully stopping the attack.
Fortifying our defenses and attacking from behind—the textbook tactic was working well.
Even though we were outnumbered, we could fight on equal footing or better as long as we maintained our defensive line.
"Romelia, the second wave is coming."
Sensei, who had been watching the battlefield intently, informed me that the second wave was approaching.
We had dealt with the first wave efficiently, but immediately afterward, the enemy sent out a second. Defense ants lined up at the front and launched another rolling charge, while soldier ants and combat ants with large mandibles followed behind them.
The defense ants trampled the ants in front of them and crashed into the soldiers at the front. The soldiers braced themselves behind their shields, but then the soldier ants and combat ants swarmed them.
The soldiers leveled their spears and somehow held them back, but just as we thought we had withstood the attack, another charge by the defense ants came.
"The ants are using wave attacks? They really know how to fight."
Velli-sensei marveled at the antfolk's tactics. We had never expected monsters to make such extensive use of strategy. But the soldiers at the front were holding out well. The attack was concentrated on the front commanded by Otto and Kyle in particular, but they were standing firm.
Otto swung his custom-made hammer around, mowing down several ants at once as though cutting grass.
The soldiers securing his flanks pushed the enemy back in turn and refused to retreat. Deploying large, heavily built soldiers had been the right choice.
As I trusted the soldiers at the front and left the fighting to them, another change took place on the battlefield.
After we had withstood the seventh wave attack, the eighth attack never came. The surviving antfolk had clogged up the front, making it difficult for the rolling charges to be launched from behind.
I thought we would finally have a moment to catch our breath, but then the swarm of surviving ants suddenly began gathering in one place. They climbed over one another, and part of the army began to rise.
"What the hell is that?"
Sensei let out a startled cry.
The ants supported one another as antfolk climbed on top of antfolk. They even used their own comrades as footholds, climbing higher until they rapidly piled up into pillars.
Two more similar movements began elsewhere on the battlefield, and pillars of antfolk started to form. I immediately realized what they intended and issued an order.
"Graves, concentrated fire. Just one is enough. Bring that one down."
Graves nodded at my order and concentrated his arrows on a single target.
The arrow Graves fired pierced the ants securing the base. The pillar swayed, and as the antfolk desperately tried to support it, arrows rained down on them. Unable to hold it up, they brought the pillar crashing down. Meanwhile, the other two had piled up to a towering height.
The ant towers were too tall to support their own weight. They swayed unsteadily, then gained momentum and bent dramatically toward us. The antfolk who had formed their bases supported the towers with terrifying strength, but eventually they could hold them up no longer, and antfolk rained down onto the soldiers at the front.
With antfolk falling from above, the battle line at the front broke apart. The nearby soldiers fought desperately to fill the gap, but the antfolk launched a fierce assault, trying to break through from there.
"They've come up with something pretty clever."
Even though they were the enemy, Sensei couldn't help admiring them.
"I doubt there's ever been a tactic like this, anywhere in history."
They used their own bodies to build bridges, allowing them to climb over the front line from above. It was a tactic only ants, who had no regard for their own lives, could use.
The unexpected tactic had caused some confusion at the front.
"Romelia, should we deploy the reserves?"
Velli-sensei asked, but after some hesitation, I declined.
"No, let the soldiers on the front line handle it."
Knowing when to commit the reserves was important. Victory or defeat could be decided by blunting the enemy's attack and striking at a vital point.
I trusted that the soldiers at the front could deal with an attack of this magnitude and watched.
There was some confusion at the front, but the losses were not as severe as I had expected.
The enemy had infiltrated our formation, but only a small number had gotten through, and they were dealt with quickly.
Even so, there was no telling what would happen if they repeated the same tactic several more times.
The war had only just begun.