915: Side - Antidemon Battle
Side - West Gate, Drulay
Bang!
With a roar, the Dogsinger’s arrow pierced through several antidemons, completely obliterating them. The power of the arrows came with the strength of the dragonkin launching them. She’s already exceeded the point of “one shot, one kill”.
Even if I know we’re on the same side right now, I almost shudder every time the arrows pass me by.
Some of my men were seriously terrified. I ended up asking Miranleil if she had any arrows that didn’t make a noise. She just gave me a big grin and said no.
According to Miranleil she had a reason for that. “My arrows are like the roar of a dragon! It scares away my foes and rallies my allies!”. Uh-huh, except the dragon’s roar is scaring the shit out of your allies too though?
Well, I can partially understand her. If you see your men dying every time you hear that sound, you’ll associate it with fear. Sooner or later, you’d go into a panic whenever you hear something similar.
I can see it boosting the morale of her allies too, but it won’t work well against antidemons. It’s not like they even have the emotion of fear.
Even though we’re currently allied, we’ve been enemies for a longer period of time. Many of my men couldn’t concentrate after imagining those arrows hitting them in the back.
That said, she was the strongest one here.
The antidemon hordes this time are several times bigger than usual. We can’t have Miranleil getting discouraged if I start an argument with her.
She’s definitely the type of person who would throw a tantrum if someone spoke down on her. That’s for sure. I’ve got no choice but to let her do what she wants for now……
「Whatever, I’ll go up front. You take charge here.」
「G-Got it! Take care, bro!」
I’m still the third seat of the Bloodfang Brigade, so I’m confident in a melee. If someone has to show off in the front lines and raise our morale, it’s gotta be me.
「Short Jump!」
I cast a short range teleport to leap into the middle of the horde. To be honest, teleports at my meager skill level won’t be much use in a real battle. The chant and the delay of the spell were just too long.
But the mere fact that we had a user of rare magic in our ranks will raise the spirits of our allies.
「Wooooo! Follow Drulay!」
The other squads rushed in as well, following the movements of mine. We need all the momentum we can get to push back so many antidemons.
Bang!
The Dogsinger sent another arrow flying. What the fuck! That went right past the side of my head! You’d better not be doing that on purpose.
「You. Send a message back to the walls.」
「Got it!」
「Tell Dogsinger she better keep those arrows coming!」
Fine, I’ll show you what I can do too!
Side - South Gate, Gephe
「You’d better not slack off here, puppyface!」
「That’s my line! Lizard!」
「Ah!?」
「Huh!?」
I never thought I’d end up in the same place as this damn dog! Why is it always me! He just keeps trying to get in my face!
I guess I’ll have to prove here that I’m the stronger one!
「Okay, doggy! Let’s settle this!」
「Fine by me, lizard!」
「Whoever kills the most antidemons wins, show me your points!」
「Sounds good! You’d better not cheat!」
「As if! It’s not like I’m you!」
「That’s my fucking line, dumbass!」
We show each other our antidemon cards, before parting ways. If we stayed too close together, we would end up getting points for each other’s kills, after all.
I can’t let that puppy beat me, so I’m going full throttle from the start! There’s way more antidemons this time, so I’ll have no shortage of targets!
「Shah! Evil Spiral!」
I used an area attack utilizing evil energy. Aside from us half-evil dragonkin, barely anyone would be able to utilize this technique. Even if they existed, it would be treated as an evil or taboo ability outside the continent.
First, the evil energy disturbs the antidemons’ mana, lowering their defenses. The shockwave strikes after, landing a direct hit and shattering their bodies.
Since antidemons are basically manbased lifeforms, they’re like sitting ducks to me. If I just keep destroying them like this, victory is mine!
「Woooooooough!」
Tch! I was on a roll wrecking the antidemons when Wangon suddenly activated his disgusting beast-like Awakening. Even that puppy can’t be underestimated when he takes that form.
His roar has the same mana disrupting power as my evil energy.
「Shut up with the barking! You’re like a stray with no discipline!」
「No, you get that nasty black stuff out of my face! Or you want me to take you down along with the antidemons?!」
「Aah?!」
「Aah!?」
「……Sigh. You guys never get tired of this, huh?」
As I was disciplining the puppy, I thought I heard my subordinates say something.
「What’d you say?」
「N-Nothing, nothing at all.」
「Hahaha! Gramps is starting to lose his hearing!」
「Shut up! Stop eavesdropping on us! That’s why I hate you stray dogs!」
「No you shut up! Dirty lizard!」
「Aah!?」
「Aah?!」
「……You guys are basically best buds.」
Did someone say something again?
Side - North Gate, Gazzol
「Bryne, I’ll go in front. Can you cover me?」
「Sure, leave it to me! This is gonna be a piece of cake if we’re on the same battlefield.」
「Can you really say that? You’ll be busy as hell in no time.」
「I know! I’m joking, I’m joking!」
The man waving his hand and smiling is Bryne, the first seat of the Bloodfang Brigade. He’s a belligerent and unsophisticated man, but also a compassionate one. I can think of no one more reliable as a comrade.
Although we have clashed with each other before, he was not the kind of man to be led amiss by the grudges of the past. I could entrust my back to him.
Though a powerful warrior, his real strength lay in his abilities as a commander in the rear. He fired off long range wind spells and weakened the enemy with his Innate Skill “Curse Strike”.
Moreover, he held several types of command skills, allowing him to inspire his fellow soldiers and buff their stats. I may win in terms of simple combat power, though Bryne clearly outclassed me as a leader.
「Windscales! How about a dose of that?」
「Of course! Whenever you’re ready!」
「Hah! Blast off!」
Bryne shot wind magic directly at me. However, this was no misfire. My wind wall had the ability to absorb wind magic and increase its durability.
Knowing this, Bryne cast an offensive spell at me to power me up. We’ve had the chance to battle the antidemons on several occasions, and we’ve done the same thing each time.
「Tch! You’re as tough as ever! My wind’s getting completely swallowed up!」
「Fuhahaha! It would take a lot more power than that to break through my wind wall with wind magic!」
「I’ll knock your ass outta town sooner or later!」
Despite these words, Bryne had already started eliminating the antidemons around me. After the usual complaints, he got to work rather quickly.
I think they call guys like this “tsundere” or something? When you think about it that way, his fearsome-looking face seems almost endearing.
「What? Don’t grin at me on the battlefield.」
「Woops, my apologies.」
「Come on, get serious here!」
「Hahaha! I know what I’m doing!」
As we were exchanging these words, a tremendous roar rang out. Our men on the city walls reported that the eastern wall had collapsed.
「Hmmm… what to do? Bryne, do you think we should send some reinforcements from our side?」
「No way! We’ve got our hands full! Besides, we’ve got the ladies over there! Don’t worry so much!」
Bryne was right. The forces at our gate didn’t have the luxury to send out backup. This antidemon season was nothing like the usual ones.
The last few seasons, there was only one army of about 40,000 to 50,000 antidemons. I wouldn’t call defending against them a simple matter, but Sendia’s forces were capable of repelling them with certainty.
This year, however, there were nearly 50,000 at each gate. The east gate in particular seemed to have even more antidemons gathered there.
「Windscales, we have to concentrate on defending our own gate first!」
「Indeed! It can’t be helped!」
All we can do is continue luring the antidemons here, and ensuring the safety of our own gate! That is our only method of helping Saintess-sama and Black Lightning Princess-dono!
「We defend the gate as if our lives depend on it!」
「Hahah! I have to agree!」
Side - Ashwrath
「Well then, guess I’ll have to take care of this myself.」
A little west of the illegal city of Sendia lied a flatland. There, a horde of over 100,000 antidemons was busy marching eastward.
It all started with me chasing after a few dragonkin making suspicious movements, as if they were leading the antidemons somewhere. I managed to catch a few of them, but it was already too late by the time I realized what they were up to.
By using themselves as live bait, they were gathering antidemons and luring them towards Sendia. They claimed to have received orders from the Dragon King, but I didn’t have time to look into the details.
I already know about a separate horde headed towards Sendia on the other side. That was info I heard from the holy knights.
Never thought I’d run into those pricks here. I made sure to hear them out before I buried them in the earth.
Silard has been constantly sending assassins to steal my divine sword, so I’ve picked a few fights in retaliation. To be honest, we’re practically sworn enemies by now.
Especially the so-called holy knights, whose ranks consisted of nothing but arrogant nobles. They’ve always been notorious for how annoying they are.
The Divine Sword Knight must be in a rough spot if they’re the best he’s got to rely on. Well, I don’t like the guy either, so he’ll get no sympathy from me.
Though he’s not a bad guy, his entire motivation is about supporting his country. That just doesn’t sit right with me. We’re like a match made in hell.
「Oh right, I’d better deal with the antidemons first.」
If I let these guys join up with the other horde, even that town won’t be able to withstand the assault.
「There’s quite a few people here that I don’t want to see die. Hope you don’t mind if I get serious.」
Time for a little rampage!