Chapter 128 - Watch Closely. This Is What You'll Learn Next.

Those at the head of Naurilia were all salaried soldiers.

That meant they were men paid in crona who devoted themselves solely to training.

They acted as they had been trained, as they had been conditioned.

The vanguard armed with shortbows, men who became scouts in an emergency and swift-footed light armored archers in battle, all loosed their bowstrings.

TWANG-TWANG-TWANG!

WHIIIIISTLE!

Arrows slicing through the air buried themselves in the enormous shadow that could hardly be called human.

RAT-A-TAT!

Some of the soldiers rejoiced that they had hit the target.

Some of them tilted their heads, wondering why it made a rattling sound.

And some of them...

'Why isn't that thing stopping?'

They panicked when the shadow's charging speed did not slow.

WHOOSH.

The fog parted.

Beyond the fog pushed aside by that massive bulk.

The thing's form was revealed.

If it had been a bear, they might have accepted it.

As the fog scattered, even those standing farther back could see their opponent.

Of course, Encrid could see it too.

Even though he was positioned around the middle of the unit, it came clearly into view.

There was no helping that.

Its brawny body, far beyond human, had ruined all sense of perspective.

His first impression was of a giant hedgehog.

A large body meant an equally large target.

The allied archers' skill was excellent.

Dozens of arrows were stuck in its body.

He could not count them all, but there were at least more than twenty.

Thus, a giant hedgehog with dozens of arrows seemingly sprouting from it.

That was his first impression.

WHOOM.

After that, the bastard revealed beyond the fog swung something in its hand in a huge vertical arc.

It was a full swing from back to front.

WHOOOOOM!

There was a sound like wind bursting.

The fog was pushed back even farther than before.

Then, from behind its back to the front, along both the bastard's arms, the thing in its hands dropped to the ground.

BOOOOM!

An explosion roared.

It was the kind of sound one might hear if some magician's explosive spell had gone off.

It was as though a stone had been launched from a catapult, so the devastation was only natural.

"Aaagh!"

"Uwaaaah!"

A chorus of screams erupted.

The soldier within the hammer's range was crushed like a tomato.

One of the soldiers on the right had his leg smashed.

That was after he had dodged as quickly as he could.

The soldier on the left felt the wind pressure of the hammer, and reflexively raised his shield.

CRUNCH. CRACK.

The soldier heard the sound of half his own body being torn apart.

The oiled wooden buckler could not offer anything even resembling resistance against the violence the bastard swung.

The shield broke like a rotten branch, and the soldier died with the right half of his body torn apart.

No, he burst apart and died.

His body was flung sideways by a force like a spell created by the hammer.

Pink intestines burst from the flung corpse and scattered through the air.

Blood, guts, bone, flesh, someone's arms and legs all flew through the air.

Parts of bodies that had originally been attached to someone's torso and worked fiercely for him.

There was no need to grow curious about whose they all were.

If they had taken something like that from the front, they were already dead.

Still, for today at least, Encrid could only hope Vengeance had not been standing in front.

FWOOSH.

After that single blow, the bastard stopped and exhaled a long breath.

The sound of nothing more than its breathing was clearly audible.

It had to be called an overwhelming presence.

What it held in its hand was a giant hammer.

It was a being with height far greater than a human's, hard skin, and thick muscles.

It was a race as dangerous as Frogs.

A giant.

Strength three or four times greater than a human's, and tough skin that would not be cut by most sword strokes.

They were commonly called red-blooded beasts.

The bastard looked at the scene its hammer had created, then hummed something like a tune.

"Khrmm!"

Its voice was like a shout bursting from a deep cave.

Low, heavy, and spreading wide.

As that cave-like hum spread, the mood of the allied forces chilled cold.

A giant?

Where had something like that been hiding until now before bursting out?

"Sh-shit, dodge!"

An allied soldier who had at least been one step back shouted.

"Mooooroooons."

The giant muttered as though excited.

A curse flowed out from deep within a cave.

"Uwaaaah!"

Did being paid and specialized for the battlefield mean they had no fear?

Did it mean they felt no terror?

There was no way.

Cracks began forming from the front.

Fear settled over them, and several soldiers tried to retreat.

That was not something the allied commander could simply watch, so he shouted.

"Do not fall back!"

SHING-SHING!

Several vanguard commanders drew their swords.

It meant they would kill them even if they retreated.

"Damn it."

What were they supposed to do?

The soldier standing in the vanguard wanted to cry.

This was fucking awful.

They wanted him to face something like that?

Looking at the giant's whole body, its armor was made of wood.

Full-body armor wrapped in thin wood, with arrows stuck all over it.

There were gaps in the armor around the joints, but...

No arrows seemed to have even grazed those spots.

Khrhrh.

A giant hedgehog chuckling.

The mass of soldiers, trapped in screams and panic, could neither retreat nor approach.

The giant was taking its time.

In its eyes, all of these things were insects.

As long as they were not those things humans proudly called knights.

To it, they were all insects.

Things that were easy to catch and kill.

Crush, burst, kill.

The giant was enjoying this situation.

* * *

A giant?

Encrid found it absurd too.

Where had something like that popped out from?

He thought back on what he knew about giants, and naturally recalled the traits of each race he had heard somewhere.

Frogs lived driven by dreams and desire.

Fairies revered nature.

Dwarves were mad for metal.

Beastmen placed reproduction above all else.

Dragonkin were said to be those who walked alone.

And giants were...

'Things drunk on slaughter.'

Things that loved violence, the violence of killing and being killed made real through their own bodies, and lived drunk on it.

Even so, they could not seize dominion over the continent.

Why was that?

Along with intelligence inferior to humans, their instincts were far too dangerous for them to become an army.

They were beings drunk on blood and slaughter.

They were not called red-blooded beasts for nothing.

They were mad for fights of killing and being killed.

To seize dominion, one needed to be a political being, and giants could not become that.

And among those races were humans.

'Because humans can become anything.'

They had surpassed Frogs, Fairies, dwarves, beastmen, dragonkin, and giants to become the center of the world.

While the giant quietly admired its surroundings.

While the soldiers at the front were frozen stiff, even if they had not pissed themselves.

SLICE.

Encrid heard a strange sound.

The sound of flesh parting, of meat being cut by a well-sharpened blade.

It might have been intuition, or a sixth sense, or perhaps instinct.

His head turned.

Jaxon, who had been standing beside Encrid, was already looking that way.

"Ghk."

"It's the enemy!"

There were not many of them.

Encrid narrowed his eyes.

It was the right flank.

They had closed the distance while visibility was blocked by the fog.

They looked like a unit of around ten men, each of them seemingly skilled.

They were charging in here with only that many?

That meant they were confident in their abilities.

"If they used the giant to draw our eyes and hit the right, something will come out on the left too. Damn it, looks like we got caught good."

Krais said, turning his head left and right.

Could he even see anything?

If Encrid's eyes could not see anything, Krais's eyes would see nothing but fog.

Surprisingly, he had not been frightened by the giant.

Instead, he rolled his eyes like mad and said.

"We have to stop them here."

In truth, several situations and assumptions had surfaced in Krais's mind.

He could see what the enemy was aiming for too.

He also thought the battlefield favored the enemy.

He could roughly guess what the allied commander was after as well.

After all, it was not only the enemy who could use the fog.

If the enemy aimed for the rear base through the river, why couldn't the allies do the same?

That was probably why the Border Guard was nowhere to be seen on the current battlefield.

The enemy had hidden, and the allies had been relaxed.

The side with more options was theirs.

That was why the commander must have chosen.

'Have the main force endure with sheer numbers.'

Since they had won the previous battle, there should have been a difference in head count.

If their level of training was similar and this side had higher morale too, who would have the advantage?

No matter how rampantly the Gray Dog, the independent company called Persistent Lovers, ran wild, there had to be limits.

How many could an independent company have?

At best, two hundred to three hundred.

On top of that, they knew this and that information as well.

For example, that one Platoon Commander under him had fought part of the Gray Hound at Cross Guard and killed them.

Then how many unit members could be left?

Even if it had been organized generously at four hundred men, would there be even two hundred left by now?

The Battalion Commander would know that too.

So what had the enemy chosen?

'All in on the front.'

They had bet everything they had and charged out.

They would either win here, or accept damage close to annihilation.

The means they had prepared for that purpose.

The giant would not be all.

Krais's mind calculated all of this in an instant and reached a conclusion.

That did not mean he explained all of it.

In this moment, he merely chose the best option to survive, to keep breathing inside his Platoon Commander's tent.

"The giant isn't all they have. If we can't stop the front here, we're done."

He threw out a plain fact.

Now the one who had to face and resolve that was not him.

The Border Guard had left its position.

The allied main force was operating on the premise of holding out.

But this was a situation where, if things went wrong, they might be wiped out in reverse.

Then what move was left to them?

It was not as though there were none.

Krais looked at his Platoon Commander, who had fought a Frog.

And he looked at the platoon members who fit with that Platoon Commander.

"Captain."

Krais called Encrid and explained.

Encrid nodded.

Even after listening to Krais, he could not understand everything that lay behind it.

Yesterday, he had been busy sparring, and he had tried to sleep well, but even his dreams had been shitty.

Still, it did seem as though light was seeping out of Krais's eyes right now.

Like Ragna yesterday.

Like Rem when he got excited about something.

Like Jaxon when he became kind.

Like Audin when his heart grew at ease.

"Yeah. Understood."

So he answered.

Encrid cast his gaze left and right.

On the right, it looked like a squad-sized force.

It did not seem to be just one or two, at least more than five?

What was on the left?

"The left seems to be my kin."

It was the Fairy Company Commander, who had somehow come this close.

But should a commander not be holding out a little farther back?

"I will block the left."

No, why was she coming here to say that?

The Fairy Company Commander glanced at Encrid.

Their eyes met.

"Why? Do you need a kiss of blessing?"

"No, I don't need one."

Why did he think of Esther at this moment?

The young panther should be hiding well in the rear, right?

Encrid shook his head.

The Fairy Company Commander had thrown out a joke, but she was the same as always.

She did not smile.

She merely stared silently, then moved to the left.

A portion of the troops followed after her.

Even if it was not the independent company made for Encrid.

The Fairy Company Commander had picked out a few swift-footed and deft-handed men from her company and kept them with her.

It was something like a Company Commander's escort unit.

In a way, they also seemed like the elite soldiers of the 4th Company.

That was when the Company Commander moved.

"Good. Good."

Rem nodded.

Rem was in a good mood.

A truly very good mood.

The reason?

If he had to pick one, it would be yesterday's spar.

In other words, he had been full of irritation all this time.

There had not been anything like a proper fight.

They had only done some fucking stupid duels.

He did not want to step up, and Encrid was not even there.

Then Encrid came back with an injured wrist?

The piled-up irritation had been tickling somewhere around his heart.

Just before all of it exploded, the Platoon Commander returned.

And his body soon became fine too.

Then they had conversed with sword and axe.

What should he call that moment?

It was just, well.

'It was fucking fun.'

In an instant, all his irritation flew away.

Everything that had been oddly bothering him disappeared.

A light heart.

When had he last felt like this?

At least, it seemed like the first time since he had crossed over to this continent.

Not on this continent, but he had felt it elsewhere before.

Rem recalled a time similar to this moment.

It was when he had stepped onto his first battlefield.

Back then, it had been truly fun.

Truly enjoyable.

He had been so excited that he stuck out his tongue and rampaged.

After blowing away his thoughts, Rem smiled.

Smiling, he said.

"Watch closely. This is what you'll learn next."

After saying that, he began walking forward with a thud, thud.

He was heading toward the giant, who was merrily grinning as it looked over the mass of soldiers whose gazes, seen through their helmets, were full of tension and fear.

Rem, walking in a straight line, shoved an allied soldier aside.

The man was pushed away helplessly, opening a path.

"Move, you bastards."

Rem seemed the same as always.

But he did seem to be in a good mood.

And not just that, he seemed extremely excited in a way that was very rare.

Encrid simply watched.

He had told him to watch closely, so he would watch closely.

"I'll take that side."

For some reason, Ragna also looked overflowing with motivation today.

He meant he would step toward the commotion on the right.

It was a completely different sight from usual.

He was similar to Rem too.

The conversation of swords he had shared with Encrid.

The desire that had been piling up had been released.

His heart was at ease.

Instead of lazing around, he now wanted to take up his sword and swing it.

"You shouldn't go alone."

When Encrid left his concern behind, Ragna thought for a moment, then said.

"Then I'll go after that is over. It doesn't look like it will take long."

Whether the allied forces were cut down by the enemy pushing in from the right or not.

Ragna did not seem particularly interested.

Encrid thought they had to deal with the enemies charging in from the right.

At a glance, it was clearly a detached force making use of mobility.

He was wondering if it might be better to draw them in and face them when the allied commander moved first.

"Fall back! Don't die fighting like idiots at the front, group up! Put your backs to your allies!"

A familiar voice.

It was Vengeance.

He was doing well.

If they were going to draw in the bastards coming in on the right and face them inside, they should have a little time.

They would also need time to draw them in deep enough that they could not escape at all.

"Then I shall be on my way as well."

Audin said, then began striding toward one side.

Jaxon had already been nowhere to be seen for some time.

Every one of the platoon members had had that indescribable irritation cleared away.

Everyone's steps were light.

Their sparring with Encrid had made them that way.

For a very brief moment, that is, while waiting for the enemy to come in from the right, Encrid watched Rem.

Whether Rem approached or not, he saw the giant just as it pulled its hammer up to swing again.

Overwhelming violence.

A blow in which the giant's strength could be felt plainly.

It made him dizzy.

If it were him, how would he take that?

And Rem easily surpassed Encrid's expectations.

Rem was Rem, after all.