The Battle for the Fortress (1)

Ilevres, the mining city. The fortress built to its west-northwest was never garrisoned by very many soldiers. There were several mine tunnels around the city where ore could be extracted, but the north was monster territory. Thus, their main duties were guarding the northern tunnels, eliminating monsters in the surrounding area, and keeping watch.

However, they only carried out their duty of eliminating monsters very rarely. The wild animals in the forest knew that humans would attack them if they approached the fortress, so they stayed away unless something truly unusual happened. Thus, to the soldiers stationed at the fortress, fighting monsters meant 'going out to find and kill them.'

"How did this turn into this...?"

And now that 'truly unusual event' had occurred. No, it was more than that. Ilevres itself was facing a crisis of survival.

The guards had noticed that more monsters had been approaching the fortress over the past few months. They had assumed it was probably some territorial dispute between monsters, but the situation changed drastically when a priest at the city's temple received an oracle. It said that a huge horde of monsters was advancing from deep within the forest.

"Don't say that. The watch shift just changed, you know? It's suffocating when things get gloomy from the start."

"We could die, you know?"

"That's all the more reason the Goddess has shown us mercy."

However, the goddesses had not abandoned humanity. They had sent players, travelers from another world, as reinforcements.

"Mercy? Sure, there are a lot of them, but aren't they about as strong as we are?"

Here in the Kingdom of Lichtesburg, the career path for a lower-ranking soldier was almost always the same. They trained as apprentices, reached level 20, and were then called full-fledged soldiers. They gradually raised their levels while eliminating the monsters around a frontier fortress like this one, and became veterans once they reached level 50. At that point, they retired from the front lines to serve as guards in various cities, protecting their peace and order.

Those with special talents, connections, or impressive military achievements sometimes entered the fast track for promotion, but such cases were exceptions. These soldiers had joined the military not out of ambition, but in search of a stable income. They were nothing more than ordinary soldiers, and they had never even considered straying from the standard military career path.

That was why their levels were all in the thirties and forties. Only the fortress commander and a few of his close aides exceeded that range. Meanwhile, the players sent by the goddess as reinforcements had not even reached level 50—the highest among them was still below it. Some players who had only recently started arriving were not even level 20. They were no stronger than apprentice soldiers—and might even be weaker.

"Don't raise your voice. You never know who's listening. Apparently, some of them have rather delicate pride."

"Wouldn't that make things even more troublesome...?"

"Calm down. Remember what the commander said."

"Oh, that?"

When the goddess gave the oracle that she would send players, she had said, 'I have instructed the players to obey the commanders in the field, so treat them as an extension of the soldiers.'

The priest who received the oracle did not understand why the goddess had gone out of her way to emphasize that point, but he faithfully relayed the oracle's contents to Ilevres's rulers. The secular authorities immediately interpreted its meaning as, 'Feel free to use them up however you like.'

Players were people from another world inhabiting temporary bodies. Thus, they were guests in this world, and even if they died, they would revive—in other words, respawn—with several penalties. The residents, or NPCs, were inhabitants of this world, and death was the end for them. In other words, there was a clear difference in the value of their lives.

"But will it really go that smoothly? Just because they can revive, are we supposed to use them as a rear guard when things get desperate...?"

The goddesses had said so, and the rulers and commanders intended to follow their words. However, most of the soldiers in the field could not bring themselves to believe it literally. They could not imagine players who were not even from Ilevres—or from this country—serving as a rear guard prepared to die, when there was no one behind them whom they were risking their lives to protect.

"Who knows? But I've heard a lot of players are eccentrics. Apparently, they'll casually challenge monsters stronger than themselves, and if they die, they'll just laugh about it once they revive."

"What the hell is that? That's creepier than the Undead."

"Quite so."

"!?"

As the two soldiers conversed in the fortress's watchtower, a third voice suddenly called out from behind them. They spun around in a panic, but before they could do anything, a dagger was driven into each of their throats.

"'I'll respawn.' 'It's just a game.' Many pl...players use such words as excuses and give up without even struggling. How lamentable."

As he spoke, the slender man twisted the dagger. He was dressed entirely in black, and his face was hidden behind a clown mask.

"I would like to have a battle with a little more tension. Ah, speaking of which, my battle with Izam-san was the best."

Looking down at the soldiers who had collapsed like puppets with their strings cut, Usuba, the leader of 'Persona,' recalled his recent battle and became ecstatic. Even while keeping his trump card hidden, almost no player had been able to corner him. And yet Izam had managed to wound him. Moreover, Izam himself seemed to have been hiding a trump card, just like Usuba.

That fact delighted Usuba beyond measure.

"There seem to be a fair number of skilled fighters in this fortress as well... Even if they aren't quite that skilled, this should still be enjoyable. Now then, Akane, how are things going?"

Without even turning around, Usuba called out to the person behind him. A small figure emerged from the stairs leading to the first floor without making a sound.

"...The preparations are complete. All that's left is to wait."

"I see."

The preparations were complete. So far, everything was proceeding according to plan. Usuba imagined what fate awaited this fortress and how it would affect the main event, then laughed silently behind his mask.

◆◇◆◇◆◇

"ADVAAAANCE! KILL!"

"GROOOOOOOOAAAR!!!"

"It has begun."

I muttered quietly. The monster army had raised a barbaric roar and charged the moment it saw the fortress. It was quite a spectacle.

However, they had no plan whatsoever. They seemed to think brute force would solve everything. One monster larger than an ordinary Troll appeared to be leading them, but its only order was to charge. They were monsters, after all; apparently, they lacked the intelligence to devise a strategy.

That said, why had the cries of ordinary Trolls sounded no different from animal growls, while the voice of that enormous Troll sounded like actual words? My 【Linguistics】 level hadn't increased since then, either...

"Wow, this is a fierce battle, huh?"

Ignoring my question, Wool was as carefree as if this had nothing to do with him. He and I were watching what happened from a short distance from the fortress. Large monsters were trying to pry open the gate, while arrows and magic rained down from atop the walls to stop them. The monsters retaliated with bows and arrows and hurled stones, prompting attacks from the walls to focus on those who had launched them.

Shouts and screams flew through the air, while explosions and the rumble of collapsing structures reached us from afar, loud enough to drown them out. It seemed a very fierce battle was taking place.

"So, how much longer will it take?"

"Not much longer. The fortress won't hold for long anyway. That's why Usuba and the others are at work."

I smirked as I pictured the members of 'Persona' who were presumably operating behind the scenes inside the fortress.

◆◇◆◇◆◇

"What's going on?! What were the sentries doing?!"

Lord Otto Backeshof, who was in charge of the fortress, roared in anger. As its commander, he was a serious career soldier who had risen through the ranks and devoted himself to his duties. Thus, ever since he had heard that monsters were moving south from the north, he had made sure that patrols around the fortress and nighttime watches were conducted with the utmost care.

And yet they had suffered an attack resembling a surprise raid. His orders had been clear and thorough, so why had no report reached him until things had deteriorated this far?

"W-well, you see..."

"Speak clearly!"

"Yes, sir! When we sent men to investigate, we found that every single sentry had been killed!"

"What...?"

Lord Backeshof trembled in shock. It was not the fact that they had allowed the monsters to infiltrate before launching their attack that shocked him. That was certainly a major problem, but even more important was the fact that one of the monsters possessed the intelligence to devise a plan to kill the sentries.

Infiltration, espionage, and sabotage were supposed to be humanity's exclusive province. He had heard that some monster species were highly intelligent, but such creatures did not actively antagonize humanity. Humanity studied those species, devised countermeasures, and then went out to exterminate them with a strategy that guaranteed victory.

The wiser they were, the less likely they were to go out of their way to fight humanity. That was common knowledge.

What did it mean for that common knowledge to be overturned? There could only be one answer.

"Are you saying there's some unimaginable monster out there...?"

There were exceptions to this common knowledge—Races whose power stood far beyond humanity's reach. Dragonkind, for example. Even a newly hatched dragon was said to be one of the strongest species alive, requiring several veteran soldiers to surround it before they could hope to win.

An adult dragon was said to be capable of reducing an entire city to cinders with ease. With further experience, it could take on a country; a legendary Dragon Lord or Dragon Emperor could even stand against an entire continent.

If there was a monster capable of matching one of them, that was the worst possible scenario. It could overwhelm humanity with sheer power, and it also possessed the cunning to carry out acts of sabotage. There was a good chance it even had underlings capable of carrying out such operations. If that was the kind of enemy they faced, a fortress of this size could do nothing.

"Commander! The soldiers and players are intercepting them from atop the walls, but they won't hold out much longer!"

"Yes, I know that! Do we have an estimate of the enemy's numbers?!"

"Yes, sir! Approximately two thousand, by our estimate!"

Lord Backeshof wanted to clutch his head when he heard that. If this was the enemy's entire army, Ilevres's defenses could repel them easily. But if that were the case, every player would be here. It was likely that at least as many monsters were attacking every fortress. He might have been overthinking things, but they had to act while assuming the worst.

"...We'll abandon the fortress. As planned, the players will serve as a rear guard while we escape through the underground passage."

"What about the rank-and-file soldiers?"

"It's impossible to take everyone. We have an established order of priority for emergencies, don't we? Select them according to that."

"...Yes, sir!"

Lord Backeshof's adjutant hesitated for a moment at the commander's cold order, but he soon got to work. Every moment was precious now. Even if it was heartless, they needed to take the most rational course of action.

CRAAACK!!!

However, the situation was only getting worse. A shattering crash rang out and reached everyone gathered there. They all instinctively realized that the gate protecting the fortress had been breached.