Chapter 123
At this rate, they might actually pull it off. The players who had become a suicide squad, including Tarozaemon-no-jō, felt that way. Just as Tarozaemon-no-jō had said at the start, they were racing through the enemy ranks like a single arrow.
They were attempting to break through in an arrow-shaped formation, the so-called 'Arrowhead Formation.' Though it was a popular formation, being able to organize it so quickly was a testament to their remarkable leadership. The vanguard was made up of high-level front-line players, the rear-line players provided covering fire from the center, and lower-level front-line players guarded the rear.
(I may have said that, but we probably won't be able to kill the enemy leader.)
Tarozaemon-no-jō, cutting his way forward at the head of the formation, thought this without saying it aloud. The main force of the enemy army consisted of Trolls, level-thirty-something monsters. That meant the monster commanding them and the elites surrounding it were probably at least level 40, even on a conservative estimate.
In other words, they were at least his equals, and it would not be strange if they were more than ten levels above him. Even now, whenever he struck the monster in front of him, he forced his way past it before he could finish it off, making it look as if he was breaking through. Those following behind him were adding attacks of their own, but the actual number of enemies they had killed was probably not very high.
(Then I'll use this life to throw the enemy army into as much confusion as possible!)
His decision was to buy enough time for as many NPCs as possible to flee the fort, whose fall was certain, by throwing the enemy army into confusion and holding them back. If he survived after that, he would flee as well. He decided that this was the quest he had accepted.
"Aaaah!?"
"They're coming from the side!"
While they were forcing their way through the encirclement, the situation Tarozaemon-no-jō had feared most occurred. The rear was attacked from the side, as if someone had struck them in the face. It was unclear what kind of enemy had attacked them, but with that, the rear group no longer had any chance of escaping alive.
"Bgraaaaaah!"
"Eek!?"
"P-pig!?"
"I-is this what they call an orc!?"
As if in response, a monster with a pig's head leaped into the exact boundary between the vanguard and the rear-line players. It was an orc, the pig-headed monster that was usually portrayed in various works of fiction as 'the enemy of women' or 'the embodiment of lust.'
That enemy had charged into the one spot they least wanted attacked. Among the rear-line players, only a few were capable of the bare minimum of self-defense, but they somehow managed to stop the orc's slaughter. When he learned of this, Tarozaemon-no-jō's face twisted as if he had bitten into something bitter.
(Of all things, they've struck our greatest weakness...!)
Tarozaemon-no-jō clicked his tongue at his bad luck. The greatest flaw in this strategy was that they could not stop moving. They had to keep advancing while running, maneuvering so they would not be surrounded and crushed. If they stopped, the monsters surrounding them would immediately overwhelm them through sheer numbers.
"Damn it! I'll help!"
"Idiot! Don't stop...!"
Indeed, some of the players near the rear group reflexively tried to turn around and help. But reversing their direction meant that, even if only for an instant, they had to stop moving. Those who stopped were turned into particles of light by sheer numbers.
(We can't expect any more covering fire from the rear. This is bad—we're completely screwed... Hm?)
Even as he cut through the enemies before him, Tarozaemon-no-jō calmly assessed the situation and realized that escape was no longer possible. Then a question surfaced in his mind.
The attack from behind and the flanking attack on their weak point had occurred at exactly the right moment, as if they had been arranged in advance.
(What if this had all been coordinated? What if it wasn't a coincidence, but a battle plan...!?)
When he reached that possibility, the events leading up to the attack connected in his mind. At the same time, he began to see the horrifying scheme someone had laid out.
"Ggoooaah!"
"Gah..."
At that moment, a Troll's club came crashing down on his head. He could not react to the attack from diagonally behind him, and had no time to raise his guard. As the word 'Stun' appeared in his vision and his avatar crumpled, Tarozaemon-no-jō died with regret in his heart.
◆◇◆◇◆◇
It worked. More than feeling happy about our success, I was honestly relieved that it had gone well. Uro's plan was simple: first, she and Mossan would use their natural speed to launch a surprise attack from behind. At the same time, I would strike the enemy's flank. That was all.
But that alone was enough to make the players collapse. Split into three groups—the vanguard, the center, and the rear—they could not escape the encirclement and were wiped out. I managed to pick up some of their drops, so using the attack as cover was a huge success.
"Gwooooo!"
"Gaooooo!"
The monsters rejoiced in their victory and raised a triumphant cry. Well, our work was done, so let's get out of here quickly. They hadn't noticed yet because of the excitement of battle, but once they calmed down, they'd realize that an outsider was among them.
"Hey, hey, Eiji-chan! Let's run away together, yeah?"
"We're done here. Mossan and the others have already gotten away."
Shiitake and Shichiko came weaving through the gaps between the monsters. They seemed to be taking advantage of their small size. They weren't even looking down at their feet, so this must have been their opportunity.
"Did you get anything?"
"A huge haul. We only stole a tiny amount of weapons and food, as instructed, but we collected every magical item and material we could find."
"This should make my 【Alchemy】 go much faster~"
Izam-san had also given us clear instructions regarding the recovery of supplies. They were: 'Steal only the bare minimum of weapons and food.' Apparently, if you had the 【Blacksmithing】 Skill, you could turn metal weapons back into ingots, but Izam-san seemed to want to use the supplies here to strengthen the monster horde.
For that reason, we were to leave almost all the weapons and food behind. But since Shiitake had 【Appraisal】, we had selected the items of particularly high quality or rarity. My shield had gotten pretty worn-out, so I was very happy about that. I hoped there would be a good axe, too.
"Then let's sneak away. I don't want to end up like those people."
"Sure thing!"
"Got it."
We began our retreat at once. Things had gone this smoothly partly because of luck, I was sure. But it would be pathetic to keep relying on luck. Yes, I had to get better, even if only a little!
That aside, the other members seemed to be doing something elsewhere, so we would return to the remains of the nest as planned.
◆◇◆◇◆◇
Bakkeshoef, the commander of the fort, was fleeing with about twenty skilled guards and close aides. They were running desperately in order to report what had happened at the fort to Irevs as quickly as possible.
"I never imagined I would suffer such humiliation..."
Bakkeshoef ran while desperately suppressing the shame and anger mingling in his heart. If he had been a man without self-control, he would surely have shouted out in the grip of his emotions.
Bakkeshoef was a man capable of seeing the larger picture. He would gather the army at Irevs and face the decisive battle with its sturdy walls as a shield. Although that would also concentrate the enemy's forces, the fort had already been lost the moment its lookouts were assassinated and it could no longer prevent a surprise attack. All that remained was to flee while reducing pointless deaths as much as possible. Thus, he had made this dishonorable choice.
But his frustration at failing to fulfill his duty of protecting the fort, along with the fact that almost everyone other than those here had probably been slain, had become a raging fire within him. The ones he had sacrificed as expendable pawns were not only the players. The new recruits who had only just been stationed there, the veterans who would soon have become guards in some town, and even the trusted deputy commander who had remained behind to lead them had all been sacrificed.
Players could be used up without causing much trouble, and they would revive anyway, so he felt no pang of guilt at all. There were even records in the kingdom's history of criminals and prisoners being sent charging ahead as slave troops. His conscience did not hurt in the least.
But he felt deeply guilty for abandoning the soldiers he had led. He might have been able to endure it as a soldier, but as a human being, he could not possibly forgive himself.
"I'll avenge them... I swear I'll avenge them...!"
Just as he was stoking the black flames of revenge, it happened.
"W-what is this!?"
"Damn! It won't come off!"
Several knights running at the front seemed to step on something, then tumbled to the ground. Some highly viscous substance appeared to be clinging to them, and they struggled desperately without even being able to stand up.
"What are you doing!? Tear it off, quickly!"
"Yes, sir! Huh?"
Baa... Baa...
While drawing their weapons and desperately scraping away the sticky substance, they heard a sheep bleating from somewhere. The sound was pleasant to the ear, and for some reason they could not ignore it—or even bring themselves to be wary of it. It was like the lullaby their mothers had sung when they were children.
"...N-no! Everyone, stay alert!"
"Too late. Activate Tomoe Magic Circle, adjust spell, Thunder Arrow."
Three men collapsed one after another under the influence of the sheep's bleating. As if waiting for that moment, thick purple lightning shot down from the top of a conifer. The bolts pierced the three men who had suddenly fallen and burned their bodies from the inside out. They were killed without being able to do a thing.
"Who are you!?"
"Your enemy."
Bakkeshoef had asked who it was reflexively, without expecting an answer. To his surprise, he received one—and a gigantic shadow came dropping down from the treetops as well.
"A... an undead...!?"
"A-a monster...!"
Bakkeshoef and his surviving subordinates were terrified by the grotesque monster that had appeared before them, a creature that could only be described as an aberration.
What descended was a monster with a humanoid figure standing on its back. The figure held a magnificent staff, wore black-and-purple robes, and had a silver mask decorated with the image of a skeleton bearing a third eye on its forehead. It was merely a creepy mage, and while it was certainly worth being wary of, it was not frightening enough to overwhelm them. The problem was the other one.
"Hmm, hmm. So even a high-level target can be killed instantly if I use magic boosted by the Sleep status. Interesting."
"Click, click, click..."
As if in response to the silver-masked figure's calm, scholarly analysis, the monster at the figure's feet clicked its teeth together. Its rugby-ball-shaped body was made from various bones, with three skulls of different sizes attached to its end. Eight legs extended from the boundary between its body and heads, while another eight arms grew from around that boundary and from the top and sides of its body.
All eight of its legs ended in hands. In other words, it had feet capable of 'grasping,' like a monkey's. Those feet were what allowed it to cling to the trees.
The arms, on the other hand, were not all shaped like hands. It had a pair of mantis forelegs, a pair of extremely thick needles, a pair of pincer-like shears, and a pair of something resembling a blunt weapon.
Even more noteworthy was the black sheen radiating from all the bones covering its body. It had the distinctive luster of a beetle, unlike the shine of metal. That was why they could not confidently declare the monster to be an undead.
"Even so, it seems the wanderer did a fine job. Excellent."
"What did you say?"
The unquestionably evil mage riding the otherworldly monster muttered happily. Judging from the volume, the mage probably had not intended for anyone there to hear the words, but Bakkeshoef's ears picked them up.
"Hmm? Oh, you heard that? Then I suppose there's no point in hiding it."
The mage spoke while lightly tapping the monster's head with the staff.
"I commissioned a wanderer who was in your fort to neutralize the lookouts."
The mage finished by saying that they certainly knew of no monster capable of infiltrating that fort. Hearing this, Bakkeshoef understood everything: how badly he had misunderstood the situation, and what he needed to guard against from then on.
"Whether you believe me or not, I can no longer let you live and get away. I'm afraid you'll have to die."
"Lord Bakkeshoef! Flee!"
"We'll hold it back here!"
Two knights charged the monster after saying this. They were Bakkeshoef's most veteran and skilled knights. Because of their strength and seniority, they had decided from the outset to be the first to serve as meat shields.
"...I'm sorry! Let's go!"
"Tch!"
Thus, despite paying a heavy price in lives, Bakkeshoef somehow managed to reach Irevs. However, the information he brought would cause the city of Irevs to gradually descend into madness.