A flash of red and black reared above the city walls.
“… You’re kidding me.”
An archer, his hair shaken by the flash that blew through, looked fearfully next to him and saw many things lying there that had been people until a few seconds ago.
The red-hot, black flame of a projectile cannon. A bow that had turned to ash. Strange corpses that looked dried up and burnt to a crisp.
The clean and glorious protective barrier was easily obliterated.
The barrier that was supposed to keep away all evil was broken by evil magic. And by a single named monster.
“Oh, no, that’s absurd! Because that was …! The temple priests and adventurers were supposed to have joined forces to put that up…!!”
That much power. The fruits of their prayers. Unity. Justice.
But one single magic spell broke it.
There was a buzzing sound like the sound of insects’ wings.
He wondered what was going on, but it was the sound of footsteps. It was the sound of footsteps that were too well aligned.
The undead were moving forward in formation. They were running, and even their timing of stepping forward was the same.
They were holding ladders made of wood. They also carry giant logs with iron caps attached to the ends and battering rams carried by several of them.
For a moment, the knights could do nothing but watch in amazement.
“Uh, Shoot! Shoot, shooooot!
It was no longer clear whether it was some unit leader or a knight, but everyone finally began to move jerkily when someone yelled out to fire.
With a roar, the cannon fired, and about a dozen skeletons were blown apart and coiled up as mangled bone fragments. But the others did not slow down. The black wave-like rush continued.
A hail of arrows dipped in holy water rained down on them. The undead who were unlucky enough to be directly hit were purified and turned into simple corpses, never to get up again. Others, however, did not slow down. The black wave-like rush continued.
Soon, arrows began to fly in the opposite direction over the city walls.
Skeleton archers on the ground began to shoot their bows in a mountainous fashion. The unrestrained shooting turned into a horizontal line of arrows, which fell down. A knight who had failed to hide behind his shield collapsed.
The entire city wall trembled. The city gate was hammered by a battering ram.
The gates, designed to collapse into a trench, were only slightly dented. However, if this continued, it would be breached.
A concentrated attack began on the undead who held the battering rams from the top of the city walls. Arrows were poured at them, but skeletons with large shields formed a roof to protect the wielder of the battering ram.
Stones, pots filled with earth, and other blunt objects were thrown down. Skeletons struck by a direct hit were ripped to pieces.
“Hey, who brought the boiling oil? This stuff doesn’t work on the undead!”
“No, wait! Then pour it over them and set it on fire!”
A pot of oil, followed by a magical lighter that was still lit, was thrown down, and several of the undead in front of the city gate burst into flames.
A zombie whose entire body was burned dislodged the handle of the battering hammer in a slow, dancing motion. But soon another zombie filled the void.
Almost simultaneously with the second blow of the battering ram, a number of ladders were hung on the city walls. The moat around the outer wall was completely useless, having been cleared by the ice magic of the liches.
Zombies and skeletons climbed up the ladders. The knights drew their swords and began to topple the ladders, knocking down anyone who came up.
But the undead weren’t intimidated by the fall from the ladder. They quickly got up again and climbed back up the ladder.
“≪Fire Ball≫!”
“≪Water Shot≫!”
“≪Holy Arrow≫!”
Offensive magic was launched down, crushing the undead that were directly hit. However, there were too many.
“The magician should refrain from attacking! Put your magic power into healing and buffs!”
There was already hand-to-hand fighting going on here and there on the city walls.
*
“Splendid, Princess.”
“It was nothing.”
Alastor praised her, and René stretched a little in the palanquin.
“It was a mistake to try to compete with me in terms of magical power.”
“Absolutely.”
René’s magic had considerable output, but more than that, it was characterized by her enormous magical power.
If it came down to an endurance battle to see who would run out of magic power by shooting magic at each other, René’s magic would be extremely strong.
No matter how holy the barrier was, it could be broken by striking it with magic of the opposite attribute until the barrier ran out of energy.
“Now, let’s leave it to the soldiers for a while. … Oh, something is burning in front of the gate.”
“It looks like they’ve been doused in oil and set on fire.”
“Fire is a little troublesome.”
As was often said, the undead were vulnerable to fire. Even mere fire, magical or not, could cause a certain amount of damage.
If they continued to burn, it would be a bit of a problem…
“I just thought of something…… ≪Fly≫”
*
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…”
“Uwaaaaaaaa!”
“Run, Aaaahhh!”
Suddenly, several zombies on fire flew to the top of the gate and the area became a screaming inferno.
The zombies, flailing their arms about appropriately, rushed toward the oil pot before tossing it down.
“Oh no! Get away!”
Which was quicker than someone yelling.
Several oil pots burst into flames in a chain reaction.
*
“Oh, it’s burning, it’s burning. 10 servings of grilled zombies are waiting for you. They are very hot, please allow them to cool before eating…”
Even from a distance from the palanquin, she could clearly see the columns of fire rising up.
A few knights, all on fire, fell down from the city gate and were swarmed by zombies on the ground, devouring their flesh.
“Maybe I should give it a little more of a push. For now, we need to get into the city. ≪Fly≫, ≪Fly≫, ≪Fly≫…”
The undead were lifted up by René’s magic and carried to the top of the wall.
Normally, only oneself or a nearby person could fly using «Fly», but that could be handled by the sheer amount of magic power. René was casting magic on the undead in front of the castle wall from the palanquin at the very back.
The forces on the walls had increased even more, and it seemed as if they were going to push through in one fell swoop.
However, a huge shadow appeared from within the walls and swept away the undead on the walls like they were nothing more than a bunch of trash.
“Oh?”
Huge wings flapped powerfully.
White fluffy feathers, sharp eyes and beak. The lower half of the horse’s body covered with brown fur.
A Hippogriff. The rider on the hippogriff flew over the city wall, swinging a jousting lance.
More Hippogriff Riders appeared.
“The airborne cavalry of the Order of the Knights is here. … Alastair. Show them my airborne cavalry.”
“Yes… Skeleton Riders, go forth.”
The winds howled and the curtain of the Rene’s palanquin was stirred up wildly.
The four hippogriff zombies that had been waiting near the main camp flapped their wings and soared.
Three skeletons riding.
Three of the riders were owned by the Duke of Gerald’s domain, and one was forcibly commandeered from the private property of a certain rich man in Wesala.
The four Hippogriffs flew ahead of the others, leaving behind a swirling wind instead of footprints.
The airborne cavalrymen, who had been fighting unopposed against the undead on the walls, increased their altitude and assumed a stance to intercept them.
In a battle at low altitude, superiority was determined by the density of the anti-airborne attacks. They did not want to be attacked by skeleton archers.
A dogfight like a territorial battle between birds of prey began. Flying creatures intersected irregularly and flew over the royal capital.
However, it was not hawks or falcons that were doing the flying, but hippogriffs with massive bodies. The weapons used were not claws, but lances, which the riders held in the air.
There were jousting tournaments in which two knights would thrust their lances at each other as they rode around a track on horseback. Hippogriffs were huge, and ordinary swords could not reach the enemy because they were blocked by the wings of their mounts.
The side that lost this air control battle would be at a considerable disadvantage in the battle on the walls.
The reason why walls were effective in the battle was because the means of flight were very valuable.
The first obvious means of flight is «Fly» magic, but if you wanted to carry someone other than yourself, you (usually) had to get very close to the walls. In other words, the defender could take out the magician by shooting from above the walls. It would be more effective to let the precious magician fire a magical bombardment to support the soldiers climbing the walls.
Next came the airborne cavalry, which would go overhead unchallenged. Although they were valuable and expensive, they were a very powerful means of attack in battles against walls and in sieges. However, once they reached an altitude where anti-airborne attacks could not reach, their attacks themselves would be frustratingly limited to throwing spears down from the sky. Damage would be limited if the magicians who put up anti-airborne defenses were properly deployed.
For the attackers, the problem was how to break the deadlock.
Feathers fluttered in the air with every impact created by the crossing of the lances.
A clash of jousting lances would not be so decisive. However, a hippogriff of the Order shrieked as a follow-up arrow pierced it.
The Skeleton Archer, riding behind the Skeleton Rider, had released an arrow.
The Hippogriff zombies moved nimbly. Because the riders were only bones.
The air combat was almost competitive. The outnumbered Hippogriff zombies and Skeleton Riders were evenly matched against the more than twice as many airborne cavalry using the advantage of being undead. Both sides had their hands full dealing with their air foes and were unable to touch the ground.
Meanwhile, the top of the city wall had already become an inferno.
The reason was that René, who was casting «Fly» from the back palanquin, was sending the undead one after another onto the walls.
The Knights were not in a position to provide air cover, but with the battlefield shifting to the skies above the city, it was difficult for Skeleton Archers outside the walls to provide covering fire.
–Although I think if the air rivalry continues, we can push the ground to win it…
As René was watching the battle while continuing her streamlined undead delivery, one of Alastair’s call marks suddenly began to ramble.
“From the east-southeast, airborne cavalry approaching. A sun emblem in the shape of a pattern appears on their side.”
“What?”
René leaned forward from her throne and turned her back to the left.
Black shadows like sesame grains floated in the blue sky.
She picked up a magic telescope and saw a group of wyverns dressed in drapery and armor at the front, followed by several Hippogriffs and large birds of various sizes (apparently monsters called Vidofnirs), each with one or two riders.
“A coat of arms of light representing life and prosperity … could that be the aerial cavalry of Noacurio?”
Alastair muttered.
The four major powers that backed the king’s brother in his coup d’état. Of these, the one closest to Ciel-Terra was the Kingdom of Noacurio, which shared a border with Ciel-Terra.
Even if Noacurio were to send reinforcements, it would take several days for the ground troops to arrive in the royal capital.
However, it was a different story if only a small number of units specializing in mobility … were dispatched, such as a unit of airborne cavalry.
The shadow of the cavalry, which had been the size of sesame seeds, grew larger and larger, and soon the head of a sharp-edged wyvern could be seen even with the naked eye.
“Incoming!”
“Skeleton Archers, prepare to fire!”
A scorching wind blew through the air.
A wyvern flew low over the main camp where René was, and Skeleton Archers fired arrows to intercept it, but they were knocked down by the shield of wind surrounding the wyvern. The wyverns flew through the air, cleaving the ground in a flurry of fire, and headed straight for the sky above the royal capital.
René was defending with magic, but the wyvern cavalryman, perhaps wary, avoided attacking the palanquin.
After it flew away, the wyvern’s flight created a windstorm that knocked down the undead and left behind zombies in flames.
“In addition to the tandem with the magicians and the flame-throwing! Well done.”
René used «Corpse Repair» to restore the undead who had rolled around on the snow and extinguished the fire.
Now that would be like a passing greeting. It was just a ping-pong dash in favor of participating in the air control battle.
“Are these the only reinforcements?”
“I suspect that the troops based near the border are rushing in. A second wave of airborne cavalry may arrive in the next few hours, and ground troops in the next few days.”
” … I wish we could settle this before the second wave of cavalry arrives.”
The ground troops were fine since they were going to finish it today anyway, but it was worrisome that the enemy’s airborne cavalry might increase if they took their time.
Even if not, the addition of Noacurio’s cavalry would turn the air battle around in a flash.
The Hippogriff zombies, targeted by the wyverns, had managed to avoid the rush of the leading wyverns, but their entire bodies were on fire from the flames. At that rate, it would only be a matter of time before they were shot down.
“I want that.”
René said, looking at the wyvern riders running rampant in a three-pronged assault of the rider’s lance, the flame-thrower, and the tandem magician’s magic.
“Shall I make arrangements to obtain that?”
No.”
Controlling Gerald, René rose from her throne.
As soon as she grabbed her hair and dislodged her head, her whole body regained the weight of her flesh, and the red magic staff transformed into a cursed red blade.
Dullahan form.
“I’ll do it. You will lead the invasion as planned and proceed with the operation.”
“Understood. Good luck.”
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