“Quickly, quickly!”
In the city of Terra Kaine, where the screams and sounds of battle had diminished considerably, dozens of barely scraped-together survivors were advancing with staggering, faltering steps.
They were escorted and guided by survivors of the Second Order. Only a few knights, commanded by the female knight Kaya.
“Forward warning! If anything, other than Bloodsucker appears, try to avoid dealing with it on your own! If the “Rose Princess of Hellrage” appears, evacuate at full speed and use extreme caution!”
“”Roger!””
While surrounding and protecting the rescued civilians, the two men scouted ahead and warned of an encounter with the Bloodsuckers.
All of them were aware that they wanted to get out of the city as quickly as possible, but in their haste they neglected to take precautions. It was a frustrating time.
The Second Order had applied simple “Consecration” to everyone’s weapons in advance.
Thanks to that, they could defeat a Bloodsucker with a single blow, but even the Bloodsucker could take a bite out of an unarmed citizen.
Above all, the opponent was a horde, while they were a small group of elite soldiers, although it sounded good to say so.
A moment’s lapse of attention could have resulted in death.
“Oh …?”
The knight who was ahead raised a quizzical voice.
What suddenly emerged from the shadows of the building ahead was a white tiger that seemed to be adorned with golden ornaments all over its body. Two of them.
“Holy Beast!”
“It’s a Holy Beast!”
“Thank goodness you’re here to cover us.”
There were shouts of relief not only from the knights but also from the citizens.
The ‘Holy Beasts of Noacurio’ had become a familiar face to the people of the city, as they had been standing by like ornaments in the city for some time now.
To defeat the undead, attack with holy energy. Even a novice could understand this.
Moreover, the holy beast, despite its beast-like appearance, understanded what people were saying.
It understood complex commands, and could think and move flexibly on its own. In addition, because it was a summoned beast, it was faithful to orders. They would fight for their lives.
And Kaya, as one of the commanding officers, had been granted the authority to give orders to the holy beasts.
“Holy beasts, we are moving to evacuate the survivors out of the city. As an escort along the way…”
Kaya was about to give the order.
The Holy Beast, in the form of a tiger, ignored Kaya, approached the civilians and then devoured them.
“… What!?”
*
“Sushii!”
Several times in a single step, Udanosuke struck the famous sword Douchou Atsuryoku.
The katana, swung from all directions in a slow and steady motion, sparked with Zeft’s sword.
At first glance, Zefut was on the defensive. However, Udanosuke understood that this battle was competitive.
By being on the defensive, Zeft was able to take Udanosuke’s attacks, and if he were to relax his attack even for a moment, he would be aiming to counter-attack.
In other words, this was a battle like controlling a runaway bull cart…
–However, you can’t win against me with such a passive fight. Two grains of pepper are twice as hot!
Udanosuke could no longer remember who had taught him these words, but they had taken root in his heart as a lesson.
“Zeft, look out!”
A female Fighter, Chenxi, shouted.
A large man, half mechanised, stripped out his bloated, hooked blade and attacked Zeft.
His name was Brent. He was an adventurer who belonged to a party called “Blue Silver Bond” and was picked up by René. Everis modified him and brought him back to life as a mechanised undead.
It was not artful to just make ghouls out of the most powerful elemental bodies. René and Everis were of the unanimous opinion that they wanted to increase the variety of undead and widen their range of response, and Everis created something like this under the guise of ‘a new undead that can be created even if the evil in the ritual field is weak’.
Chenxi intervened in Brent’s blow and hit the claw with her palm claw.
Chenxi then stepped in and hit Brent in the back, and when she poked her hands into the ground, she unleashed an inverted neck-splitting spinning kick.
But then, in Brent’s masked face, his eyes, which looked like they were fitted with glass balls, lit up.
“Tsu!?”
With a thud, a smacking sound, Brent’s eyes shot out heat rays.
Chenxi, too, either sensed the deadly intent just before the shot or had a sixth sense as an adventurer, and twisted just in time to avoid a direct hit. A thin heat ray burned Chenxi’s side.
Brent followed up further.
His mechanical arm blew air like a dragon’s breath, and from a messed-up position, his fist rapidly accelerated and struck Chenxi.
Chenxi, who was out of position, barely managed to catch it, but was punched away and sent flying.
Into the middle where Udanoske and Zeft were chopping away at each other.
“Yikes…”
Zeft reached for Chenxi, perhaps in an attempt to save her.
“Douchou!”
A slash from Udanosuke that seemed to scrape into the air.
Chenxi received it while floating in mid-air, but it was a decoy blow.
Udanosuke checked by hitting Zefto’s gauntlets while letting Chenxi take the attack.
And.
“Atsuryoku!!”
Sliding the blade, Udanosuke stabbed Chenxi’s white abdomen.
And the blade went through.
“… Nuh!?”
“Eh … “
The Douchou Atsuryokuthat pierced Chency was stopped by Zeft’s sword in its blood-soaked blade.
The skewered Chenxi spat out blood and looked at the blade with a face of disbelief.
“Chenxi!!”
Zeft screamed out.
Strange things were happening around them.
The holy beasts, which had occasionally flown in place of Zeft and his group while fighting the army of undead, had abandoned the battle all together and started to move towards the city.
They reaped, trampled and jumped over the undead in their path, and in any case, they were fugging away at full speed.
Normally, the Holy Beasts would have taken on the wounds and fallen instead of Chenxi.
But that did not happen. Udanosuke’s katana pierced Chenxi.
“Why……”
“Holy Beast was … protecting us, wasn’t it…?”
The female priestess Priestess in the rear pondered, still unable to grasp the situation.
Udanosuke also did not understand why. In this situation, losing the “Sub-Zero Crystal Spear” would be a great blow, so why did the Holy Beasts retreat, even abandoning them?
“… Zeft, secure Chenxi!”
“No, I can’t.”
Before the bespectacled Magician could say a word of warning, Udanosuke and Brent were standing in front of Zeft.
“Acquiring a powerful wielder is a mission entrusted to us by our Princess.”
“Gh…”
Zeft gritted his teeth.
Adventurers who had their comrades killed would attempt to retrieve their corpses and attempt to revive them.
Since this location was near the town, it was possible to attempt revival with a relatively high success rate using a freshly-dead corpse.
However, securing the corpse was also a mission assigned to Udanoske and the others. Strong adventurers produced powerful undead, so this was valuable material. Even if they were asked to give it back, they would not just hand it over.
Especially if it was a fortunate triumph, like remembering some forgotten sushi that you had stored away in a cupboard.
“Zeft, there is something wrong with the city. There are undead on the city walls.”
“What!?”
“You’ve noticed. All this time, the giant hasn’t even prepared to fire a shot, let alone a barrage.”
“No way, already…”
Zeft glanced behind him as he faced Udanosuke.
The magician, who had been watching the battle from a step back, seemed to have noticed first.
The city had already fallen into the hands of the undead and the city walls had been overrun.
“We’ll use our tricks, there’s no point in us hanging on here any longer. All we have to do now is run.”
“But Chenxi…!”
“… Let’s say we get the body back. Do you think Terra Kaine can revive her?”
“Guh…!”
Zeft backed away slightly, glaring at Udanoske like he was about to shoot him.
Protected by Zeft and the shield-handed tank, the bespectacled magician was casting a spell.
“≪Mass Teleport≫!”
A huge magic circle was deployed on the ground.
The complex and geometrical magic circle rose a dim purple light, swallowed the adventurers, and then vanished without a trace.
The remaining four of the “Sub-Zero Crystal Spear”, as well as the numerous low-level adventurers, all disappeared.
“Hmph, they’ve got a way out of this, don’t they? The loser has become a Chihuahua, that’s what they say.
Udanosuke talked to himself.
It would be difficult to improvise a teleport of such a large number of people. Perhaps the magician laid out a magic circle of ‘exit’ somewhere in advance and teleported there.
–We have now done our job of buying time. If we wanted, we would have left the “Sub-Zero Crystal Spear” dead, but we should be happy that we didn’t suffer any serious damage against the strongest party in the … country. We should not play shogi like that, losing a Cannon Turtle in order to get a Silver Knight.
Looking down at the corpse beside him, Udanosuke was trembling with joy as a warrior. After all, fighting and defeating a strong enemy was the only way to be a Samurai. This woman would become a strong undead, and the Princess-sama would be pleased.
“Anyhow, why did the Holy Beasts retreat? What are they going to do …?”
*
When Bertil stopped moving, all the undead had already fallen.
Some of the Bloodsuckers were completely reduced to white ashes, while others were gouged out, leaving only parts of their bodies and the rest ashes. Two knight ghouls were also split into four parts.
The dead (which were dead even before they were slain) were spread out.
“Phew… After all, it’s still weird to be one-armed.”
When Bertil waved his sword sharply to wipe out the blood, the crowd exploded with cheers as if that was a cue.
“Ohhhhh!!”
“Thank God we’re saved!”
“As expected of the Second Knight Commander!”
“You are our saviour!”
A loud ovation erupted, but it quickly subsided as Bertil held up his hand in a calm motion.
“Ladies and gentlemen, everyone. We have defeated the enemy here, but the city is currently in a very dangerous state. How long will this chapel be safe? Anyway, we must escape. We need to get out through the passageway as soon as possible…”
Before he could finish, it happened.
With a roar, the entrance to the chapel … collapsed, or rather the wall towards the entrance collapsed.
“What!?”
Only in time to be surprised.
A storm of gold and white rushed into the chapel, repelling the crumbling ‘what used to be a wall’.
Its muscular body was entirely covered with pure white scales, with claws like golden cuirasses and a sharply angled face like a golden mask. The wings were golden in their framework, reminiscent of the entanglement of a magic artefact, and the skin was also pure white.
A dragon-shaped holy beast that Noacurio had left behind as a trump card.
It smashed through the walls of the chapel, invaded and grabbed people.
“Kyaaaaa!” “H-help me!” “Ouch, owww!!”
Several people were grabbed in a messy manner by large hands, and the Holy Beast tried to carry them to its mask-like mouth.
“I won’t let you!”
Bertil immediately grasped the situation and went on the attack.
He thrust his sword and circled the Holy Beast’s arm, then used his momentum to kick the masked face. To that point, in the space of a single breath.
“Giaaaaaaah!!!”
The holy beast let out a screeching roar.
The hand that had grabbed a survivor was cut in two around the wrist and fell to the ground.
The Holy Beast did not try to fight back or target more people with its remaining hand, but quickly retreated.
It leapt out of the hole it had just jumped into and was gone for good.
All that remained were the stunned people, unable to keep up with the too sudden turn of events, and the anguished groans of those who had been grabbed.
“It retreated …”
“Y-yes. Was that a Holy Beast? A Holy Beast of Noacurio? Why did it attack us?”
Bertil plunged his sword into the huge hand that had been slashed off and dismantled it suitably.
The people who had been caught seemed generally unharmed, but some were unlucky enough to be hit by the claws and injured.
“…≪Regeneration≫”
Bertil, with his hand on his blood-stained cape, chanted a healing spell.
The maid, who had been injured in the abdomen, seemed to have caught her breath.
“This isn’t good… It might be more dangerous than I thought.”
Bertil muttered bitterly as he stared at the large hole into which the wind was blowing.
Around his waist, something emitted a purple phosphorescence.
Bertil pulled a piece of paper out of his belt compartment. It was a call mark that connected to the one he had given to Kaya.
“Kaya! What’s wrong!”
“We were attacked by tiger-shaped holy beasts! It preyed on two survivors, at which point I had no choice but to cut them down.”
“… Holy beast attacked civilians? There too?”
Bertil feared that the same thing might be happening … in the city, in other words, that the holy beasts were attacking civilian survivors, and that was exactly what Kaya reported.
“No way, don’t tell me it’s the same on the Commander’s end?”
“Yeah. We’ve just arrived at the chapel in the castle, and suddenly a holy beast attacked us and we drove it away. We’re going to use a secret passage to get the survivors we’ve protected out. Can you go around to the exit?”
“Understood.”
“Keep me informed if anything else happens.”
Bertil deactivated the call mark, saying a few words quickly so that the mark would not burn up.
Immediately afterwards.
“… Oooooohhhhh…!!”
Something that could neither be described as a shout nor a roar echoed through the air like an echo.
The ground shook with a thud, and dust or something fell from the ceiling.
From beyond the great hole the Holy Beast had opened, the sound of something huge trampling the earth could be heard.
“It’s getting noisy again… Assuming one of them is René-chan, what’s the other one …?”
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