16-4 Part 1
The Village that Burned with Revenge
- Annihilation Battle -
Translator : PolterGlast
The journey that was
supposed to take 8 days reached its destination on the 5th day. We unloaded the
trade goods, rented two ballistae from the local guild, and attached them to the
left and right of the carriage, turning it into a tank. Naturally, the canopy
had to be removed.
Even a giant Abyss
demon wouldn't get off lightly if shot squarely with a powerful ballista. It's
a much more reliable and effective tactic than poorly choosing close-quarters
combat.
Therefore, the role
of me and Sigrun was to simply rampage flashily so the tank wouldn't be
attacked. Let's expect that from the tank loaded with arrows, Kachua's
surefire bow and a rain of powerful crossbow bolts will fly.
Thus, we had reached
right before our destination, the town of Enes.
◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆
This is the frontier
at the western edge of the Empire. You could say it is a territory within the
Empire, yet beyond the reach of its order. This A-Zir Empire has taken
the policy of granting ruined frontier lands to knights who have distinguished
themselves, having them cultivate it over many generations.
Because of this, in
the frontier, the power of the Knight Orders composed of the knight class is
overwhelmingly stronger than the regular Imperial army belonging to the state.
In terms of wealth, it probably falls far short of the center. Especially on
this side, rumors say the land tends to be barren due to the arid climate, and
knights sometimes fight each other fighting over arable land.
「Alright,
here's the plan! Sigrun and Shinza, be careful not to get
surrounded and rampage like crazy! We'll run around like mad, shoot like mad,
and persistently kill those Abyss Ogres one by one! But! If we run out of
arrows, it's a temporary retreat, don't go too deep!」
「That’s
a bit rough, but hey, it’s simple and easy to understand. Ah, Shinza and
Sigrun-sama, don't do anything reckless, okay... Especially you, Shinza... you're even crazier than Sigrun-sama...」
I had no idea. Did I
seriously have less credibility than this female hero? True, looking back at everything that
went down in Corin Village
and Ratatosk, I suppose I did lead a lot of absolutely reckless,
borderline-insane charges. But I’m
still breathing, so no harm done.
「I'm
glad we can share the line of death again, Shinza! Now let's go, to the
ruined town overrun with demons!! I'm so fired up!!」
「Be
quiet. You're the only one who rejoices at being surrounded.」
We passed through
the shabby gates of Enes and entered the interior of the town. Then we
immediately found our targets. The Abyss Ogres. Demons with horns standing
around 3 meters tall were wandering the ghost town without doing anything in
particular.
Their attention
gathered on us. There are about 15 just from what I can see visually. Being
overwhelmed in both physique and numbers inevitably sent a chill down my spine.
But as long as I have my comrades and the boost brought by the Emperor of the
Round skill, there's no way we'll lose.
「Kachua,
I ask for covering fire if things get dangerous. Your bow is more reliable than
anyone else's.」
「Let's
go, Shinza! Charge!!」
Raising a loud voice
that was unbelievable in a double sense, Sigrun charged right into the
middle of the Abyss Ogres. Then, muscular demons with brown skin surrounded Sigrun.
「Uwa,
she's surrounded right off the bat!? Shinza, follow up for her!」
Sigrun
belongs to a race lacking the emotion of fear. If surrounded by such demons,
normally one would cower and become unable to move. But the Black Horn Sigrun
fears nothing. Letting her long hair flutter, she makes her twin swords shine
silver. At this rate, I can't tell which one is the demon. To cover for her, I
charged into the left flank of the ogre encirclement.
「You
came, Shinza! Let's show these demons our power!!」
「Put
yourself in the position of the one covering for you too...」
The Abyss Ogres'
weapons are often giant barbaric swords, maces, and two-handed hammers.
Fortunately, they are all metal weapons. Sigrun effortlessly dodged the
attacks of such monsters and aimed for their legs with her specialty twin
swords.
Taking even a single
hit from an Abyss Ogre's attack means instant death. When fighting the Cherubim Armor in the maze of
stakes, I finally understood how Zirant felt complaining to me for not
retreating. Reliable, but on the other hand, unbearable to watch.
「Sorry,
that doesn't work.」
Since the ogre right
in front of me brought down its barbaric sword, I intercepted it with my
ancestor's Shovel. With a small clack of recoil, the barbaric
sword was easily severed by the iron-cutting Shovel and seemed to pierce
the earth far behind me.
As expected, even
the ogre seemed surprised by that. A perfect opening presented itself, so I
tried striking its leg with the Shovel, but it didn't twitch a muscle.
The enemy was terrifyingly sturdy.
「Now,
fire a volley!」
So I changed
tactics. Because of their giant bodies, they are careless about their footing,
and it seems they easily fall into pitfalls. One after another, the ogres
tripped on the gouged earth, and right when they became unable to move, they
were hit by crossbow bolts and arrows, receiving the finishing blow from the
ballistae and dying. Upon death, the ogres' bodies burst into black flames,
disappearing from the world leaving only black soot.
「Wahahaha,
you're doing great, Shinza!」
「How
can you cut through these guys' physical bodies...」
「There's
a knack to it, I'll teach you next time!」
「Sorry,
but I don't feel like I can master it.」
Unlike humans, who
are done for once you smash their weapons and armor, Sigrun is far better suited for handling this type of opponent. While
I was toppling enemies or throwing clods of dirt to blind them, she had already
taken down more than 10 of them single-handedly.
By the way, Kachua
was shooting out the enemies' eyes from afar, and shooting through the knee
joints of ogres charging at the tank, robbing them of their mobility. Crossbow
bolts were fired all at once at them, piercing the ogres' entire bodies. This
is nasty in its own way. Even so, they wouldn't die unless hit by the
ballistae, meaning Abyss Ogres were troublesome opponents to deal with.
「We're
advancing! Go, advance,
advance!」
「U-Um,
the demon with black horns is saying something, what should we do?」
Eventually, the
Abyss Ogres disappeared from in front of us. We were torn between going deeper
into the town or temporarily retreating.
「I
(Ore) will leave it to Shinza.」
「Then
we'll do the same!」
「Not
bad, Shinza! You fight in a really tricky way, don'tcha!」
「Now
what do we do, Shinza! The blood has rushed to our heads right now, we
can't make a calm judgment!? Let's hear your opinion!」
Being relied on like
this cools down my head too, prone to rushing in recklessly as I am. Advance or
retreat. Depending on the remaining number of ogres, there is a possibility of
being surrounded and the tank being targeted.
「Then Sigrun
and I will search for enemies. While we do that, you guys recover the arrows.
Then we'll observe the situation and advance.」
Sigrun and I
took the left and right wings and waited for the arrows and bolts to be
recovered. There is no presence of Abyss Ogres in the town. This means advance.
Having restocked the ballista ammo, we advanced to the center of the town.
◇ ◆ ◇
However, when we arrived
at the town square, a single white stake was towering from the earth in the
center of it. It's about 4 meters tall, much larger than the one I saw
underground previously.
「What
the hell is this!?」
「Eh,
isn't this the thing that was growing in that town of Ratatosk...!?」
「Mu...
it repels the special steel refined by the Horned race, huh... Kukuku,
interesting!!」
「Big
Sister Sigrun, why are you just casually whacking it!?」
No, Sigrun is
right. This thing needs
to be destroyed. Though, it is
quite a surprise that Sigrun's blade—which can down even
an Abyss Ogre—isn't working against it. But, that just means there's still a
part left for me to play.
「Wait a
minute, I'll shoot a ballista at it right no—Hehhh?!!」
Readying my
ancestor's Shovel, I pierced and snapped that white stake with a single
blow. It would be troublesome if it resurrected like a green onion, so let's
carefully pulverize it. I minced the fallen stake into pieces with cracking
sounds.
「Why
are you just casually breaking it, Shinzaaaaa?!!」
「Hahaha,
with Sigrun-sama and Shinza here, there's nothing that can't be
cut!」
「What
are you saying, Kachua~, your bow was splendid too! Every time I
witnessed you piercing an ogre's eyeball, I got so excited I almost wet myself!」
「E...
Eeeeh...?」
「Stop
with the incomprehensible metaphors, Sigrun...」
The mass outbreak of Abyss Ogres seems to have been caused by this stake. Now all that's left is to exterminate the remnants left in this town, and it's mission complete right after arriving.
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