My chest hurts pretty badly. It’s tough, but I can still breathe. Oh, there it is. My sword.
It had fallen behind the two-horned divine soldier captain. He had to pick it up. It was a good sword. But his chest hurt. What was up with that? Did he break a bone? Like a rib or something? Oh, yeah. It had probably been the shield. The green-skinned divine soldier had bashed him with it and sent him flying. That was probably what had done it.
The pointy-eared divine soldier was doing something. Was that its right hand? It was pressing the hand Manato had cut off against the stump. Were its body parts reattachable? Was that how bodies worked? He didn’t know. Manato had never tried to put a severed hand back on before.
“Ahhh.”
Manato shook his head. His mind was getting a bit hazy. And his chest hurt. But he was fine. He could take it. The pain would go away eventually. A busted rib was no big deal. He’d broken bones before. More than once. He’d done it repeatedly.
His mom and dad had been shocked.
“Huh? Manato, your broken bone’s better already? That’s amazing.”
“Huh? Is it really that amazing?”
“Yeah, it is.”
“Really amazing.”
The three of them had laughed about it, hadn’t they?
But now wasn’t the time for memories.
The captain kicked the wall. Then the female divine soldier threw down its weapon and shield. It apparently meant to climb up.
“Manato!”
He heard Haru’s voice. Looking over, he saw Haru surrounded by the priest with the spear and two divine soldiers. There were bodies on the ground. Had Haru managed to take down all of the others?
“Buy time! I’ll be over to save you soon!”
“I’m fine!”
Manato couldn’t help but laugh at what he’d just said. Fine? How was he in any way fine?
He looked toward Alterna. He could see humanoid figures—divine soldiers or divine soldier captains, he couldn’t tell which—moving in the forest. A captain with its head covered in shiny stuff was rushing through the gap in the wall, and there were more divine soldiers following it. All the progress that Haru had made on reducing their numbers was erased.
“Seriously?!”
What a laugh. Juntza had told him off for this before. He laughed too much at weird things. But could anyone blame him? If something was funny, he was gonna laugh.
“Okay!”
Manato jumped down off of the wall, aiming to land as far from it as he could so he wouldn’t be caught by the green-skinned soldier or the female soldier that were climbing the walls. Would he be able to jump far enough to land past the divine soldier captain? If he couldn’t do that, it wouldn’t be good.
“Propral! Lumiaris!”
The two-horned divine soldier captain held up its circular shield. It was trying to knock Manato out of the air with its rounded stick. Manato laughed.
This is bad. I can’t dodge in midair. Actually, hmm. I guess maybe I can?
“Ngh!” Manato used both arms to tuck in his knees. By reducing his size even a little, he would make it harder for the captain to hit him with the stick. Maybe. Who really knew?
“Gugh!” No good, huh?
A strike to his left side sent Manato to the ground. For a moment, he was knocked senseless, but then...
The sword. The sword. I have to pick up my sword. There it is. My sword. My sword.
“Gwahhh!” Manato held the sword in both of his hands, swinging it with all his might as he sprang to his feet. It connected. Manato knocked the divine soldier captain’s rounded stick away. It was a total fluke. What a laugh that was.
“Ngh! Khh! Gah!” Manato hurt all over, but he couldn’t let that bother him. He swung and swung and swung. He felt like if he backed away, that would mean he’d lost. He just swung constantly as he advanced and advanced and advanced.
Manato kept the pressure up, and the two-horned captain seemed like it was backing away.
Right when he thought he was managing to overpower his opponent, something hit him from the side. He couldn’t possibly have dodged it.
“Ough!”
Manato fell over sideways and hit the ground, at which point one of his opponents kicked him without delay. What ridiculous leg strength. It had to be the green-skinned divine soldier.
He was sent rolling into the grass, or some other foliage that wasn’t quite dense enough to be called a thicket. The grass obstructed his field of view, and he had no idea what was happening anymore. But he wasn’t just lying there.
“Ngh?!”
He felt a sharp pain from his left shoulder to his back.
It hurts. Or it feels hot. What is this? Did I get cut or something?
“Manatooo!” Haru shouted from somewhere.
The thought that maybe he should’ve run away flashed through his head. Should he have done as he was told?
“Gyahhh!”
Manato lay on his back, swinging the sword that was clutched in his right hand at nothing. His left arm hurt or something, and it wouldn’t move the way he wanted it to. But it wasn’t just his left arm—nothing was going the way he’d wanted it to.
He knew there were lots of divine soldiers and captains around. He didn’t know their precise numbers. That was a bit too much for him to figure out.
I’m not scared. Not one bit. But this is no fun, so I can’t laugh. What is this? What am I even doing? This’s no good at all.