The three divine soldiers included a female one with a rounded stick, a well-built green-skinned one equipped with a sword and a boardlike shield, and a pointy-eared one with a long stick. The amount of reach they each had with their weapons was very different, as were their overall builds. The two-horned captain had come after him too.
Four against one, huh? Four against one. What a laugh. It’s four against one.
“Arfinke!”
The pointy-eared divine soldier took a swing at him with its long stick from the right. It was going to hit him. If that blow landed, he was in big trouble. Manato didn’t back away or even slow down. He didn’t go left or right. It was gonna hit him. It totally was.
Right before it did, Manato ducked his head while still facing forward. He lowered his hips until his knees were almost touching his chest, and the long pole missed him. Or it missed his head, at least. It grazed his hair.
Manato ignored it as he plowed into the pointy-eared divine soldier. Not with a tackle. With his sword. When he slammed it into the divine soldier’s flank, it sank in a little easier than he’d expected it to. Huh? It’s going in? That much? It buried itself almost to the hilt in an instant. Was he going to be able to pull it free?
“Ngh!”
Manato jerked on the hilt as hard as he could with his right hand and shoved the pointy-eared divine soldier’s chest with his left hand. The divine soldier fell on its rump, and the sword slid free with surprising ease. It hadn’t let go of its long stick, though. Manato slashed at the divine soldier’s right wrist. He willed his weapon to cut through it, and the sword did. Wow. It was almost funny how well the sword cut.
“Arfinke, Lumiarishel!”
Despite having been stabbed in the gut and losing its right hand, the pointy-eared divine soldier was trying to stand back up. Was he going to have to decapitate it? But he couldn’t—the well-built green-skinned divine soldier with the sword and shield was attacking him now. Manato reflexively swung his sword. He managed to deflect the incoming blow somehow, but it threw him a little off-balance.
“It’s strong!”
“Igrantcia!”
The green-skinned divine soldier followed up quickly with its sword. Manato didn’t want to trade blows with it, but he didn’t think he could dodge the attack completely. He desperately swung his own sword into the green-skinned divine soldier’s. It was holding its sword in one hand, while Manato was holding his with both hands, but he still felt like he was going to get overpowered. It was pretty big, after all. And while its sword wasn’t that long, it was thick and heavy. He was amazed that it could swing that thing around so nimbly with just one hand.
“O light!”
On top of that, the female divine soldier came charging in too. It was more than Manato could handle.
“Wagh!” Manato reflexively jumped to the side, throwing himself to the ground. If he hadn’t, then the female divine soldier’s stick would have landed a solid hit on him.
As he rolled and tried to get up, the pointy-eared divine soldier sprang on him.
“Arfinke!”
“Whoa!”
Manato kicked the pointy-eared one. He got lucky and it collided with the female one.
“Diedenda!”
However, the green-skinned one leaped toward him. Was it planning to stomp on Manato?
“Oh, come on!”
Manato couldn’t let it crush him. He scrambled to his feet, but the two-horned captain was waiting for him.
“Rorbarol! Lumiaris!”
“Bwah!”
Oh, damn. I might be in trouble.
Manato had already lost track of what he needed to dodge, and what he was already dodging. Everything was a blur, and all he could do was twist out of the way of whatever came at him. They were all trying to crush Manato. That, or chop him to pieces. Or maybe tackle him to the ground and then mess him up.
“Gugh?!” Manato nearly lost his sword. It jerked to his left and pulled his arms with it. He’d tried to block the green-skinned one’s attack and had been unable to parry it completely.
An instant later—Wham!—he felt a powerful impact. Had he been kicked or something? He felt like the blow had sent him flying, and his breath had been knocked out of him. Before he could rise to his feet, Manato thought, They’re gonna get me. Uh-oh. I’ve gotta get back up.
He couldn’t breathe right. But his body was still able to move somehow.
Manato was trying to get away from the two-horned captain. He wanted to get away from the green-skinned divine soldier, the female divine soldier, and the pointy-eared divine soldier too. Even a little distance would have been enough. He just wanted to get away.
The wall. I can use the wall. It’s right there. Not far at all.
“Heh heh!” Manato laughed.
Or he tried to, at least.
The wall had plenty of gaps he could stick his fingers and feet into, so he was able to scale it easily. That meant turning his back to the divine soldiers, though, which wasn’t the brightest idea, but he only realized that after he had already started climbing. He wasn’t sure, but he guessed that it was better to keep climbing than to turn back. Or rather, he’d already finished climbing.
Manato crouched down on top of the wall. He looked down to where the divine soldiers were staring up at him with their shining eyes.
“Huh.”
They weren’t climbing.
That was when he realized he was empty-handed. Oh. That’s why he’d been able to climb up so easily. He had always been good at climbing trees, but he wouldn’t have been able to climb quite so well with a sword still in his hands. Where had his weapons gone? It wasn’t just his sword. His bow and arrows were missing too.