“Shield bearers, stop the undead, even if it means you get hit! Don’t try and defeat the undead, just knock them down!”
The old commander shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice almost becoming hoarse. The defense team and adventurers dodged the attacks of the undead, who outnumbered them, looking for openings to strike.
“Aah, stay away, stay away!”
A spider-shaped undead was approaching a ratfolk Fire Staff user, causing them to yelp in fear. Paralyzing poison dripped from the spider’s fangs as it leaped for the ratfolk man.
“Aahhh!”
Hearing the screams, the hungry wolf–rank adventurer, Ms. Nona, charged in and knocked the spider off the ratfolk man. Another beetle chittered ominously as it attacked Ms. Nona from behind.
The ratfolk that had tumbled onto the ground fired off a fireball at the beetle.
“Caught you slackin’, smooth-skin!”
“Tch, too busy picking up after you, rat.”
Ms. Nona’s thrust knocked the bone sword of the monkey-shaped undead aside, and in the ensuing blade lock, a fireball from the ratfolk man struck the exposed torso of the monkey undead, delivering the final blow. Such gritty battles unfolded all over the front lines, maintaining a precarious balance despite the danger.
“What’s that?”
An adventurer, having just defeated an undead creature, paused as they gazed at the stronghold of the undead, positioned on the edge of the jungle. The undead the adventurer was attacking was finished off by another adventurer.
“Hey! No time for standing around. You wanna die or something?”
“Sorry. But… Look over there.”
“What? What are they doin’ over there?”
About ten undead cursed knights in the stronghold were discarding their armor.
“Have they gone insane with the heat?”
“Maybe they’re exhibitionists.”
The adventurers were bewildered by the cursed knights’ strange behavior as they continued to fight off the undead.
Out of the side of their eyes, they saw the cursed knights who discarded their armor break into a run before jumping off a large ancient land beast.
“Idiots, they’ll never make it here.”
“I wonder if their brains rotted out when they turned undead.”
The adventurers all shared laughs as they continued finishing off the undead before them. Fen was looking over the adventurers. He let out a sigh as he moved away from the wall he was leaning against. Three cursed knights, having reached the highest point of their arc in their jump, began to descend one after another. It looked as if they’d just fall straight to the ground but—
“…Did they just land in midair?”
“Oh man.”
“Ready yourselves!”
A cursed knight that had reaccelerated in midair burst through the barrier protecting the tower. Fen countered the first cursed knight with a flying kick, knocking them down before cutting down the other two cursed knights with the one-handed bone longsword he’d bought at Hero’s Rest. The remaining cursed knight fired a projectile at him. However, Fen blocked it all with his bone sword. The cursed knight then tried to run past Fen, but something caused the cursed knight to fall over. I had a closer look and saw that the bottom half of it was frozen solid. The adventurers were frozen, still unable to process what was happening.
“Don’t just stand there. Fight.”
Urged on by Fen, the adventurers continued to fight the oncoming cursed knights.
“Yeahhhhhhhh!”
“With you here, Mr. Fen, we’ll win no matter how many there are!”
“There’s only seven undead knights left!”
“Everyone, let’s go! Let’s finish this!”
“““Raaaaah!”””
The adventurers all yelled out with their new rush of morale.
However, it was short-lived. More cursed knights all appeared on the outskirts of the jungle.
“Hey! L-look over there!”
There were around fifty cursed knights, with more and more gathering. The adventurers’ expressions were soon clouded with despair. Even Fen looked nervous yet prepared.
Suddenly, there was a thunderous roar and a blinding flash of light. Although somewhat delayed, it blew throughout the battlefield like a vicious storm. White flames engulfed the jungle and Arcatia, the ground resembling lava.
“It’s the Great Sorceress! She’s blessed us with her magic!”
“…No, it’s not.”
In fact, the Fire Magic came from directly beside the line connecting Arcatia and the undead. I gazed at the forest, ablaze in a horizontal line, but its source remained hidden deep within the thicket.
“Fire Magic? Doesn’t the Great Sorceress use Earth Magic?”
“But there’s no one else who can use magic on this scale other than the Great Sorceress.”
“That’s true, but…”
Another loud rumbling sound, this time followed by a tsunami appearing, splashing water like a massive waterfall.
“Water Magic?”
“Just what is going on—?”
Before those watching from the tower could comment, the leading edge of the tsunami struck the molten ground. In that instant, vaporized water exploded into an overwhelming shock wave that swept across the land, uprooting trees and shaking the earth, making the shelter where I was—far away—shudder like an earthquake. It was just another familiar steam explosion. The once white haze cleared as rippling waves of air rolled back and forth, revealing the devastated landscape beneath. It not only tore through the jungle’s trees but also stripped away the ground itself, drastically altering the terrain. Almost all of the nearly ten thousand undead on the surface were scattered to pieces, leaving only a handful that had managed to take cover in the shadows. The trees and stones had all hit the dome that protected Arcatia, leaving it battered and beaten. The remnants of the barrier were also not unscathed, clearly illustrating the power of the steam explosion. The tower, which had been at the front lines just moments ago, was in ruins, but fortunately, there were no fatalities. While many had burst eardrums from the shock wave and deafening roar, it seemed that no one was gravely injured or on the brink of death. The Great Sorceress may have put a barrier up again before they could be.
“Ouch… What…happened…?”
“…This isn’t the work of the Great Sorceress, is it?”
I could hear the survivors from the tower groaning as they looked around in shock, disoriented. I used Clairvoyance and Clairaudience to find the source of the magic—what awaited me was the color silver.
“Yeaaah! Bull’s-eye!”
Arisa flung her arms up above her head.
“Let’s go, guys!”
“““Yeah!”””
“Sir!”
My friends all wore silver armor as they used Arisa’s Space Magic to head to the battlefield.
I expected nothing less from Arisa. I decided I’d take her somewhere nice to eat as a reward for this.