🐎 🐎 🐎
AFTER passing the animals used for communication over to the Intelligence Department, we headed for the battlefield.
When I released Elena into the night, she set off to silently stalk her prey. At the same time, several other toetails and yargles ran ahead, dashing toward the scene of battle.
“Remember, men, your first priority is to protect yourself and your partner. Don’t be reckless; if you think you’re about to be overwhelmed, retreat immediately—that is an order.”
Many of these men had never experienced a true battle before, so I struck home the message that they were forbidden from sticking their necks out too far. Unlike their sparring partners, these opponents wouldn’t hesitate to go for blood. Furthermore, if at all possible, we wanted to avoid losing even one of our animal partners.
I mounted up on Uwaz’s back and headed straight for where the fighting was the thickest.
Without preamble, I mercilessly cast spell after spell at the attackers.
This was Uwaz’s first time seeing real combat as well, but he showed no fear as he valiantly kicked and stomped any enemies who made the mistake of getting close enough for him to reach. Anyone sent flying or trampled by Uwaz’s powerful legs wouldn’t be getting back up to keep fighting, that was for sure. However, there was also a high danger of “friendly fire” with his rampage.
“Uwaz, I need you to buy me some time, okay?” I gave Uwaz’s neck a pat, then dismounted in one swift movement.
One of the biggest challenges with earth magic was that you needed to have your feet on the ground when casting powerful spells.
I let the magic circulate around inside my body, building up as I worked out the formulation.
“Become six defensive walls made of dirt and stone.”
A series of walls tall enough for a grown man to hide behind materialized behind me. At first glance, it looked like simple earth magic, but I’d made a few modifications with fortification in mind, making the walls stronger.
The animals from the beast stables taught me to do this.
One animal species that lived at the beast stables mixed its saliva into the dirt it used to build its nests. When mixed with materials such as dirt, the saliva made the nest significantly sturdier.
I was an advanced-level earth magic user but could also use low-level water magic. Until now, I’d only ever used this ability to produce safe drinking water, but it turned out that by tweaking the properties of the water just a little, I could use it like the animal’s saliva to make the walls stronger.
Furthermore, by strategically arranging stones inside the walls in a mesh pattern, I’d succeeded in making them more difficult to knock down. I was confident it would take elite-level destructive magic to breach these walls.
“Everyone who’s injured, fall back behind the defensive walls! Ceros, please take point on tending to the wounded.” I passed off the task of caring for the injured knights to my subordinate, who possessed healing magic.
The royal knighthood’s healers were knights first and foremost; in addition to their healing abilities, they were every bit as skilled at fighting as any other knight. They were experienced in assessing the severity of a wound and patching it up in such a way as to use the least amount of magic possible, preventing the wound from becoming fatal but not healing it completely. In this way, they conserved their magic so they could help as many people as possible.
“Yes, sir!”
“Uwaz!” I called Uwaz back to me, swiftly mounted, and returned to the battle.
Just then, a voice came from the direction of the fortress, urging the attackers to surrender. The voice was projected using wind magic, making it easily audible across the entire battlefield.
“The Royal Knighthood of the Kingdom of Gaché does not want to fight with you. If you put down your weapons and surrender, you will not be harmed.”
“Don’t believe a thing they say! Those beastpeople lovers will kill us all in a heartbeat if we give them a chance!”
That’s quite an extreme exaggeration.
Our country didn’t show preferential treatment to any species above others.
There weren’t any beastpeople stationed at the royal palace due to their special characteristics, but plenty of beastperson knights were among the troops stationed in each of the provinces.
Besides, it was simply down to superior endurance that the beastpeople had managed to cross the border quicker. It seemed that among the beastpeople who’d fled as refugees, some reported not being able to shake a feeling that something bad would happen and said they’d fled in fear. That was probably due to their primal instincts as beastpeople at work.
That was an innate ability of their species, so no matter what humans said, it just sounded like resentment.
“My, you lot certainly look stupid, falling for such unfounded rumors. Aren’t you ashamed, as knights, to have been so easily deceived?”
All the while, as we gradually fought to push the line of enemies back, I searched for whoever was issuing orders on their side. I was looking for a spot that our opponents seemed to be particularly protecting, assuming that’s where I’d find their leader, but in the darkness, it wasn’t easy.
First, one color passed, and then another, and the battlefield thinned considerably.
Just as we were turning our focus to immobilizing rather than killing, the sky suddenly lit up. I didn’t know who it was or whether they were friend or foe, but it was clear that someone had cast a powerful spell.
The light turned an unsettling shade of red and flashed three distinct pulses, surprising me. Someone had used magic instead of a manual flare to send up a signal. Three flashes of red light indicated “objective location.” In short, the person directing this ragtag band of soldiers had been in the area indicated by the signal.
“Make for that area! Everyone who can still fight, with me!”
I stuck two fingers into my mouth and whistled to call Elena back to me, then shouted those orders to my men, directing everyone to make for the area indicated.
A group of beast knights mounted on wild bears tore into the enemies blocking our way, forcefully opening a path.
I watched as Uwaz joyfully stopped the enemies who’d evaded the wild bears’ onslaught as we followed close on their heels and found myself struggling with mixed feelings.
I certainly didn’t raise him to be so vicious… I take no responsibility for this!
“Uwaz, we have to hurry. We don’t have time to waste stomping out every last little pest.”
Up ahead, a group of soldiers standing nearly shoulder-to-shoulder came into view, and we launched a joint attack on this unusually heavily protected flank.
I continued erecting protective walls, observing the situation around me as I did.
“Ah-woo!”