The herd of cotton sheep was almost there.
There were posts in the ground at regular intervals forming a line to the north of the fields around the capital, blocking off all the areas they didn’t want the cotton sheep to get into.
This was the work of the capital’s earth magic casters. They rode in a carriage after constructing each one, taking turns so they wouldn’t run out of mana, but these were posts that were destined to be destroyed after this incident was over. They played an important role now, though, since they marked the line that would need to be defended.
The plan was to put up protection fields along the line, filling the gaps between them with people who would use either physical strengthening or shields to repel the cotton sheep who tried to get through them.
A group of knights and Hunters, including Haruto, followed the front of the pack of sheep, while Sara stood on top of a carriage a considerable distance away from them, waiting to see if she would be needed to patch any holes the sheep got through.
“It is pretty easy to see up here. I kinda feel like I stand out, though.”
There had been a notice to the people of the capital to evacuate to sturdy buildings, so the only people seeing Sara should be those currently on the mission with her. Still, that didn’t make the situation any less embarrassing.
“But Ann’s working hard on the front line too.”
Ann and the other new recruits were collecting the protection cases that were no longer needed after the cotton sheep passed by and carrying them down to the front of the line. It was the perfect job for Ann, who was fast and had a lot of stamina.
As the cold wind blew around her, she started to hear a thunderous sound.
“There they are.”
The cotton sheep Sara had seen in the past had been in a big herd, but she thought she remembered them moving slowly, with peaceful looks on their faces. But this herd was enormous—and ravenous. They were racing forward like they were being chased by something.
“Won’t these things cause damage down south even if they go past the capital?”
Sara wanted to believe that Liam had realized that as well and was doing something about it or contacting someone at the very least.
Watching everything from the back, she could see knights and Hunters rushing forward from the area the sheep had already passed to get ahead of them. The smaller ones must have been the trainee knights collecting protection cases and bringing them to the front.
At the head of the pack of cotton sheep, light brown shields appeared and disappeared, and the sheep irritably changed direction when they ran into them. Knights screwed up on occasion, but the person next to them immediately covered for them, so there were no gaps in the line.
The cotton sheep would probably rampage if they were attacked directly, but there was no sign of that yet. She couldn’t see many details from up here, but the sheep seemed to be starting to avoid the knights, realizing there was an invisible wall in front of them.
Nothing had touched her barrier yet, and it looked like the plan was proceeding smoothly.
Eventually the end of the herd came into view, and that was when it happened. A shadow fell over the big white mass of sheep.
“Did some clouds come out?”
She looked up and spotted the migrating dragons that should have been flying south of the capital. And Sara wasn’t the only one who’d noticed them. The line of knights and Hunters holding back the cotton sheep started to waver. And the cotton sheep had noticed as well, of course. Their hurried footsteps turned to a mad rush, and it was clear to Sara that an unstoppable stampede was imminent.
“Come to think of it, migrating dragons are supposed to eat horned rabbits, right? Do they eat cotton sheep too? What happens if they land right in the middle of the herd...?”
It had been several years now, so it didn’t come to mind right away, but Sara had been knocked out by a migrating dragon’s roar once. She’d never forget the shock and powerlessness she’d felt then.
The migrating dragons would land in the meadow and roar to knock out the cotton sheep before eating them. That was fine. But the rest of the herd wouldn’t just take that lying down. They’d flee as soon as the migrating dragons came down. And what if there were knights or Hunters in the path of the dragons’ roars?
Sara shuddered.
The knights and Hunters would be knocked out instantly, and maintaining the shields would be the least of their worries. Anyone knocked out on the ground was bound to be trampled by the sheep.
“I have to do something before the dragons come down and roar.”
Calm down, calm down, Sara told herself. What had she done back then?
“I need to change my barrier...”
She made her barrier repel sound, which she usually let through. She knew she could cover the whole capital with her normal barrier, but she’d never tried it with this one. Could she...? In the distance, she saw a cotton sheep ram a knight and send him flying.
“It doesn’t matter if I can or not. I just need to try it.”
Sara held her hands out in front of her and readied herself.
“Barrier. Covering all the knights and Hunters in front.”
The barrier extending out behind Sara shifted forward, passing over the Hunters and knights. Hunters who had been about to run from the cotton sheep suddenly froze as the sheep in front of them hit Sara’s barrier.
“Next, I need to cover the capital behind me.”
She covered the area from the north gate to the south gate, where the central dungeon was, including the western section of town she’d strolled through with Allen. In front of her, she could see migrating dragons alighting with heavy thuds.
“Change barrier. Repel sound. Before the dragons open their mouths.”
Suddenly the rumbling of the earth and the whisper of the wind cut out completely.
“I’ll add color. And I’ll make it flash so it stands out.”
Everything in front of her turned brown. Then it went back to normal before turning brown once again. The knights and Hunters all gasped and turned around. What they saw when they looked back was Sara atop the carriage, holding her arms out in front of her.
“It’s Sara’s barrier...”
“Over such a wide area? Oh...”
As her vision flashed with a light brown color, she saw the migrating dragons chowing down on the cotton sheep, the uneaten ones fleeing for their lives.
“We can pass through the barrier!”
She thought she heard Noel calling out. She saw someone leap through the brown barrier and pull an injured knight into it with skinny little arms.
“I’m using a supreme potion!”
She didn’t know what happened to the knight after that. But injured knights and Hunters Sara hadn’t noticed outside of her barrier made their way inside one after another after that.
The dragons roared and the cotton sheep collapsed, easy prey. Several of the fleeing sheep ran toward the capital, but before they hit Sara’s barrier, knights leaped out from inside it and stopped them with their shields.
“I’m protecting you, so you don’t need to push yourselves...”
Of course, there was no way they would hear Sara’s muttered words.
The knights and Hunters called out to one another, utilizing Sara’s barrier and picking out the moments between the dragons’ roars to push back the sheep. A strange feeling began to well up in Sara’s heart at the sight of it.
Sara’s barrier always served as a final line of defense. In Camellia, she could say she’d used it to clean up after the knights. She’d cooperated with the knights during the green grass locust incident, but it was safe to say that without Sara’s barrier, they wouldn’t have been able to protect Gardenia.
But what about now? If not for Sara’s barrier, the knights would have been taken down by the dragons’ roars and the cotton sheep might have made it into the capital. But with Sara’s barrier, the knights and Hunters should have been able to relax at this point. Yet they hadn’t given up on their task, and they were even utilizing Sara’s barrier to skillfully fight.
“Are the knights and I facing the same direction for once?”
It was strange to her, since before, even when they’d worked together, they’d always had their backs to one another.
Sara shook her head. There was no point in thinking about that now. She was getting tired and her focus was waning. She had to maintain her barrier at least until the migrating dragons took flight again.
After gobbling up all the unconscious cotton sheep, the migrating dragons lifted their heavy bodies and took off into the sky one after another, flying off to the southeast.
The meadow had been trampled and was in a horrible state, but there wasn’t a single cotton sheep in sight anymore.
Sara looked up and saw only the faint shadows of the migrating dragons far in the south.
“Sara! Saaaraaa!”
She could hear Allen’s voice from far away.
“The cotton sheep! They all fled south! You can leave the rest to Haruto!”
“To Haruto. Oh, so it’s okay now.”
She’d casually said she could cover the whole capital with her barrier, but it was actually pretty hard. But she wasn’t such a kid that she’d collapse from this anymore. Sara looked up again, confirming the sight of the meadow with her own eyes.
“No cotton sheep. No migrating dragons. Dropping barrier.” She could recover as much mana as she needed to. “But willpower is up to the individual. Ahh, I’m tired.”
Sara crouched down on top of the carriage, and Allen leaped up to stand beside her.
“You okay?”
“I’m okay. Just tired.”
“Here, take my shoulder.”
“Thanks.”
If he’d picked her up and carried her, it might have been more romantic, but there were too many people around. No, it would still be embarrassing even if there weren’t any people around. So thought Sara, still a former Japanese person at heart.