Chapter 59
Fwoosh-!
Mud erupted in all directions. Slick blue hands rose up and clutched the soldiers' ankles.
"Aaaagh!"
"It's an ambush!"
"They're underground! They're bursting out from beneath the ground!"
A dark forest stretched in every direction.
It would not have been strange for demon beasts to emerge from anywhere at any time. That was why the soldiers had kept watch to the front, rear, left, and right with the utmost vigilance.
But from underground—from right beneath their feet. They had never expected the creatures to burst out from there.
Fwoosh!
Grotesque forms were rising through the mud like starving ghouls.
Blue scales, hideous hooks jutting from their backs, and bizarre gills that opened and closed with every breath.
"M-merfolk?!"
"What the hell? Why are they crawling out from underground when we're nowhere near water?"
The soldiers' faces went pale. It was the moment their common sense shattered.
Merfolk were monsters that appeared along rivers or in the sea.
No matter how much rain had fallen and turned the ground into mud, they were not creatures that should have been able to break through the earth.
"All troops, pay attention!"
At the bellow that echoed all around them, the soldiers' gazes snapped toward Astin.
"Block the ground with your shields and stab with your spears! Don't let them come out!"
The commanders shouted themselves hoarse as they issued orders.
"Lower your shields! Block the ground!"
Clatter!
The vanguard brought their iron shields together and covered the ground.
"Supply corps!"
Astin's shout rang across the battlefield once more.
"Roll the timber we loaded! All of it!"
"Y-yes!"
The supply commander flinched as he answered.
There was still quite a bit of timber that had been left unused instead of being made into palisades. That had been entirely Astin's order.
Could it be that he had foreseen a situation like this?
'No, this was no time to think about that.'
The supply commander abruptly came to his senses and shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Didn't you hear the commander?! Roll it onto the ground right now!"
Rumble, boom!
The stacked timber came crashing down noisily.
The merfolk, who had been on the verge of emerging, were hindered in their movements. But that alone could not stop them.
'These aren't ordinary merfolk. They're merfolk of the Ashen Forest.'
The merfolk dormant beneath the ground began to stir whenever it rained. That was the ecology of the Ashen Forest's merfolk.
Astin had definitely known this information, but the timing was completely unexpected.
Astin reviewed the contents of the journal.
During Lucia's expedition in the first round, the merfolk were subterranean demon beasts that appeared only after one passed the entrance.
This was bad news in the long run as well.
The fact that the merfolk had settled near the entrance meant they had been pushed out of the food chain quite some time ago.
'Are there even more powerful demon beasts swarming here than there were at this point in the first round?'
Screeeech-!
"Gnnngh! They're forcing their way up!"
A chilling scraping sound came from beneath the shields.
The merfolk pushed their heads through gaps and around the edges of the shields and crawled upward. Their strength was enough to overpower even the soldiers pushing them back.
At first, there had been only a dozen or so of them.
Before long, their numbers had multiplied to dozens, then hundreds.
"Goddammit!"
"Their numbers are already—!"
The greatest problem was where they were emerging.
If they had attacked from the outside, all the soldiers would have had to do was drive them back from the defensive line.
But they were bursting out continuously from inside the camp—right in the middle of it.
The formation was on the verge of collapsing from within.
"Kieeeek!"
A group of merfolk standing in the mud flapped their gills and hurled themselves forward.
"This fucking—"
Hideous maws and razor-sharp clawed hands came lunging at them.
A mercenary squeezed his eyes shut in terror.
Slash-!
But the pain never came.
Splatter-
Hot blood splashed across his face.
When the mercenary cautiously opened his eyes, he saw the corpse of a merfolk, its head severed, crumpling to the ground.
"Why are you standing there like an idiot?! Pick up your weapon!"
"C-commander!"
Red-gold sword energy resonated along Astin's blade.
⸻!
He streaked across the battlefield like a bolt of lightning, slicing through the merfolk's necks.
Even in the sticky mud, he did not slow for so much as an instant.
While Astin bought the front line time to regroup, another streak of light swept across the battlefield on the opposite side.
Clang-! Slash!
Elegant swordsmanship cut down the monsters.
A silver-haired female knight wielding a sword. It was Selena.
She darted around the area, slaughtering the merfolk.
Even then, Selena's silver eyes continued to follow Astin's movements.
"Velutak! My brother! Our time has come!"
"Hahaha! At last, my blood is boiling!"
"Those barbarian bastards."
The barbarian brothers and Jenkinson began taking part in the battle as well.
The Black Knight, Bagot, was already filling the gaps in the formation, which had been driven onto the defensive.
"All troops! Fight from atop the wooden platforms!"
"Get onto the platforms! Don't set foot in the mud!"
Following Astin's shout, Bagot's eyes flashed as he bellowed.
The soldiers leaped onto the wooden platforms bound together with rope.
Once they escaped the mud and gained firm footing, the formation that had been helplessly overwhelmed began to recover.
The soldiers' spear thrusts gradually gained strength, but the merfolk's scales deflected them like armor.
"Their lateral lines are highly developed, so they're sensitive to vibrations! Strike your shields and overwhelm their senses with noise!"
Astin's shout rang across the battlefield.
Clang-! Clang! Boom!
Hundreds of spear shafts and sword blades began pounding the iron shields in unison.
The shrill clang of metal, sharp enough to tear their eardrums, spread outward and swallowed the sound of the rain.
-Screeeeech-!!
Then an astonishing sight unfolded.
The merfolk convulsed and writhed in the mud as the metallic din reverberated in every direction.
"Now! Drive your blades into their gills!"
Killing intent flashed in the eyes of the soldiers who had been paralyzed by fear.
"Die, you monsters!"
"The commander was right! It works!"
-Kieeeeeeek!
The soldiers raised a battle cry and began driving their spearheads into the merfolk's gills.
Astin shouted again.
"Adjutant! Can you heat the mud with fire magic?!"
"Wait! Fire magic doesn't work well on merfolk! It would be better to burn them with lightning magic!"
"That would spread damage to our own troops! I didn't tell you to burn them! I told you to bake the mud hard like pottery!"
"Ah……!"
Lucia's pupils widened as she finally understood.
He intended to use intense heat to evaporate the moisture in the ground all at once and harden it.
Lucia marveled at his split-second judgment.
Only trying would tell whether it was actually possible.
"Understood! Vanguard! Guard me!"
Lucia rapidly drew up her mana. The vanguard formed a tight protective ring around her.
Vrrrrm-
A red glow began to swirl around Lucia.
Meanwhile, Astin seized the magical communication stone.
"All units, listen up! Use the magic scrolls to harden the ground! Ring Knights, listen up! Drive your swords into the ground and heat the mud!"
It was entirely feasible, even in this miserable weather with the rain continuing to fall.
The problem was the damage to their own forces. The Ring Knights were resistant to intense heat.
But most of the others were not.
"Troops without Sun Rings, climb onto the wooden platforms! If your feet are touching the ground, you'll be steamed alive!"
The voices of the various unit commanders answered one after another through the communication stone.
Astin immediately reversed his grip on his sword.
Fsssss-!
Three rings flared brilliantly along the blade.
Before the falling raindrops could even touch it, they evaporated with a sizzling hiss.
Thud!
He drove the sword, imbued with red-gold sunlight, into the ground.
Whoooosh!!
The intense heat released from the tip of the sword spread along the ground in every direction. Combined with the flames Lucia was unleashing, it sent the temperature soaring in an instant.
Sssssss-!
Steam began rising from all around them.
-Kyaaaaaak!!
As the moisture rapidly dried up, the merfolk shrieked.
The merfolk that had only just begun to emerge were trapped with nothing but their upper bodies aboveground.
Those that had been wounded and tried to retreat underground were unable to move an inch.
Clang-!
Selena had been watching the entire process from a short distance away. A deep, unusual light settled in her eyes.
'This makes no sense.'
It was an unexpected and disastrous early engagement.
And it was a subterranean ambush in the very center of the formation, the most difficult kind to deal with.
Even an exceptionally skilled veteran commander would have panicked at first and allowed the casualties to mount in a situation like this.
And yet that greenhorn—that Astin, who supposedly had not even the slightest experience in the field—
……
He had the tactical insight to identify the terrain and the enemy's characteristics and turn them to his advantage.
Even while occupying the commander's position, he had taken more blood than the soldiers themselves……
Selena gritted her teeth. Watching him rekindled her competitive spirit.
"Are we really going to cower now?!"
At the vanguard, Astin, Lucia, and Selena darted around without sparing their own safety.
The eyes of the soldiers who had been terrified began to burn with fighting spirit.
"Fucking merfolk! Bury them underground!"
"Die! You monstrous bastards!"
"Butcher every last one of them!"
The soldiers standing balanced on the platforms thrust their spears downward.
Thud! Thunk-!
The spearheads stabbing down from above pierced the merfolk's bodies like chunks of meat.
-Kieeeek!
-Kyaaaagh!
As their numbers visibly dwindled, the merfolk hurriedly tried to dig into the ground.
Crack!
-Kiek?
The ground had hardened solid. The mud had already been baked completely dry.
The soldiers instinctively realized they had gained the upper hand.
The battlefield changed from a battle into a one-sided extermination.
Unable to do anything else, the merfolk thrashed desperately and attacked.
But they could no longer stand against the expeditionary force, which had already gained momentum.
Thud! Slash!
Each time the weapons struck without pause, the beasts' animalistic screams faded away.
Shaaak-!
Astin's sword drew a red-gold semicircle through the air.
The head of the last remaining merfolk soared into the air.
Plop, thud-
The wet head rolled across the hardened ground.
Thud-
With the sound of the headless body collapsing,
the sounds of battle that had filled the camp came to an end.
Only the sound of rain quietly soaked the battlefield.
"Hoo……"
Astin caught his breath and looked around. No more merfolk were emerging anywhere.
He lightly shook his sword to wash away the blood, then picked up the communication stone at his waist.
"All units. What's the situation?"
The commanders answered in urgent voices.
Reports that the situation was over poured in.
"Report the casualties."
—Scouting party, no problems. Quite a few people have minor injuries, but there are no deaths.
—Skirmishers and main force reporting. Quite a few have minor injuries, but no one was killed.
—Escort reporting! We have numerous scrapes and minor injuries, and thirty-two confirmed dead!
"Shield unit. No fatalities."
Those reports came in order from Ariel, Hendrickson, Julian, and the Holy Sword Bearer, who had approached Astin's side by then.
As expected, there seemed to have been fewer merfolk around the outer edges of the formation.
The escort, which had suffered numerous fatalities, was positioned in the center of the formation along with the vanguard and supply corps.
Astin looked around.
It was obvious that the vanguard and supply corps camped in the center had suffered heavy losses as well.
"Vanguard, report."
At Astin's words, the centurions ran toward him.
"First unit! We have forty-three confirmed wounded! Five dead!"
"Second unit has thirty-one wounded! Six dead!"
The third, fourth, and fifth units finished their reports as well.
In the end, the vanguard had suffered around twenty deaths. Including the escort, the total was close to fifty.
Considering that it had been a chaotic battle fought in utterly brutal conditions, the number was exceptionally low.
They had been ambushed by subterranean creatures at the very entrance of the Ashen Forest, in a situation no one could have predicted.
It would not have been strange for dozens or even hundreds to have been killed or wounded.
"That's all the losses?"
A mercenary sitting on the ground and catching his ragged breath muttered blankly.
His mutter spread through the camp, carrying a deep sense of relief.
"Only fifty people died? In this hellhole?"
"If it hadn't been for the commander…… there would've been far more casualties."
The fingertips of the warriors gripping their weapons trembled faintly.
They had just witnessed the horrifying ecology of the Ashen Forest with their own eyes.
Grief for the dead and relief at having survived crossed in their hearts.
Amid the battlefield drenched only by rain, the soldiers looked up to Astin.
Astin had moved faster than anyone else to subdue the demon beasts while issuing orders without pause.
He had performed the duties of both vanguard commander and field commander flawlessly.
Trust and awe toward Astin boiled in the soldiers' eyes.
"Don't let your guard down. Those fifty could have been you."
Astin reined in the tension that was beginning to fade.
Raising morale was good, but for now, awakening their vigilance came first.
"We're barely at the forest's entrance. All we did was kill scraps that had been driven out of the territorial struggle by good fortune."
Tension returned among the soldiers.
That only further solidified their trust in Astin.
'He says things that rain on everyone's parade, yet somehow he makes us feel so reassured.'
'Unlike those nobles who do nothing but issue orders, he's fundamentally different. His judgment seems sharper than that of generals who have spent their entire lives on battlefields.'
'A commander who takes the lead and cuts down demon beasts? I've never seen one like him in all my life.'
The soldiers glanced toward Astin even as they dealt with the casualties.
He was clearly nothing more than a greenhorn young master on the surface.
Yet his performance was like that of a battle-hardened veteran who had experienced more field combat than anyone.
……
Selena had been just as shocked.
Her gaze remained fixed on Astin.
Astin himself was focused on the task at hand.
"Supply corps. Recover the bodies of the fallen first."
"Yes!"
"Be careful not to let ash cover the bodies. They might rise like undead and become one with the forest."
The supply personnel began moving swiftly, while the butchering team started dismembering the merfolk corpses.
The vanguard also gathered their weapons and reformed their ranks without being told.
Astin fell into thought as he looked over the piled-up corpses of the merfolk.
'This is going to be harder than Lucia's expedition in the first round.'
The merfolk had been pushed to the outskirts in the struggle for food.
Since they had entered too early, it was only natural that unforeseen problems would arise.
'Had the lifespans of the boss-level demon beasts already run out back then?'
Astin changed his mind. Relying too heavily on the journal would only make him fall into his own trap.
Leaving the soldiers behind, Astin turned his gaze.
A short distance away, his eyes met Selena's as she stood with her bloodstained sword hanging at her side.
What lay within her silver eyes was not the contempt or indifference he was accustomed to.
Her eyes held a complex mixture of emotions.
The corners of Astin's mouth lifted slightly.
After staring at him meaningfully for a long while, Selena turned her head away.
She was probably just bad at expressing herself. Astin did not bother approaching her, either.
Tap-
He felt something against his side.
When Astin turned around, Lucia stopped poking him with her elbow.
"You were truly incredible, Commander. If you hadn't been here, things would have been even worse……"
Lucia smiled brightly as she showered him with praise.
Before the battle, Lucia had tied her hair back.
Astin stared at her with his eyes wide.
……Commander.
Astin rolled the word around in his mouth.
—If I die, you become commander. What if you die first? That won't happen. You know my instincts. I'll die before you do.
That was exactly how it had happened in the end.
Only much later did Astin understand the sincerity behind those words.
"It was all thanks to you, Adjutant."
Astin opened and closed his mouth as he looked at Lucia, then finally managed to speak.
"If you hadn't been here, there would've been twice as many casualties."
"……That feels like an exaggeration."
"No. I mean it."
It was the truth, without a shred of exaggeration.
Without Lucia's magic, it would have been difficult to harden the ground.
Strands of hair clung to Lucia's sweaty cheek.
Lucia brushed her hair behind her ear and looked away as though pretending not to care.
Clatter-
All of a sudden, golden armor blocked their view.
Astin's eyes narrowed as he stared at the Holy Sword Bearer. Lucia looked at her with her eyes wide.
Regardless, the Holy Sword Bearer unfastened the holy sword strapped to her back.
Suddenly—
The golden hilt exposed between the bandages stopped in front of Astin's eyes.
"Take hold of it once more."
Reading between the lines, this was the Holy Sword Bearer's highest praise.
She was clearly saying that someone like Astin had what it took to wield the holy sword—
Even knowing that, Astin furrowed his brow deeply.
'Is this woman actually insane?'