“Gah…” Rendered incapable of giving any last words on account of the blade in his head, the man died on the spot.
I sensed a mixture of confusion and fear rippled through the soldiers. So I wielded all the strength I had. I kept ducking, tricking the enemy soldiers into killing each other as much as possible and using their spells as a smoke screen.
I couldn’t use magic myself, but it was because I was unable to wield it that I had an extra-keen sense for it. Just like gauging the trajectory of physical weapons, be they swords or fists, as long as you could grasp the arc of magic spells, they weren’t all that difficult to dodge.
“Oof!”
“Yargh!”
As long as I stayed in a place that was difficult to reach with weapons, be it one against a hundred or one against two hundred, nothing changed much. If anything, the enemy’s large numbers put them at a liability. It just gave me more easy targets to hit.
“In-inconceivable! How could one magicless soldier do so much…?”
As my enemies unceremoniously fell about me, astonished voices mixed in with the pandemonium.
That’s right. I’m just a plebeian who can’t use magic. Sneer at me more. Stay confused. That’ll give me the openings I need.
White breath pulsed from my scorched body. I was reaching my end, but I was going to take down as many men as I could with me.
Waves of enemies crashed against me. I killed…and killed again. Their frightened eyes no longer beheld a man—but a monster. Savage Fang. That was the name I had been given. Every magic user I’d fought against came to call me that. Savage and cunning, like a beast. Now that everyone was looking at me with the same terrified eyes, I finally understood how people came to be known by titles like that.
That’s right. I’m fine with being a beast. Like a starving, feral dog nobody would ever approach. Except strays have balls, too.
I kept slashing at the endless wave of foes crashing down on me… But eventually, like the sudden calm after a storm, my opponents froze.
The surreal part was that mountains of soldiers were still piling around me. But they were stacked in an orderly manner, as if they were making way for something…
Gasping for air, I asked, “What…the hell just came through?”
Before I could grasp my abnormal situation, I fell to my knees in exhaustion. It was like a bunch of gears were grinding to a halt. The adrenaline that had been keeping my already-dying body going had run dry. My pounding heart was now so loud it made my ears bleed. I felt like every molecule of my body was burning.
“Ah…! He fell to his knees!”
Seeing that as a golden opportunity, one of the enemy soldiers smirked and ran toward me. Still on my knees, I thrust out my sword, piercing his neck. Calming my quivering lungs, I lifted my head. And straight ahead of me I saw…her face.
The icy eyes of the woman on the black horse. Atop her steed, she was a league taller than the other soldiers. It was a literal representation of her high status.
If I could just kill her…! Strength surged into my sword arm. I was out of fuel to burn, so I burned my own life force, willing my muscles to move.
“Gggrrraaahhh!!!”
Power restored to my legs, I ran toward her.
“You will not!”
“She’s evil!!!”
The head of the soldier blocking my way flew. I deflected the handles of the spears coming for my side as I jumped and dodged boulders jutting out to obstruct my path. As my already-lifeless body wobbled on the landing, a lance plunged into my shoulder.
I cut it off by the hilt, roughly yanked the pikeman to me before I thrust my blade through his head. Weapons were annoying to deal with—unlike magic, they didn’t have an obvious trajectory. And unlike Eltania’s army, Colorne’s forces hadn’t abandoned normal armaments completely in favor of magic. Their pragmatic fighting style was quite literally whittling down my body and life.
I had fought alongside Colorne’s army many times as a mercenary. But this platoon was a whole new animal. Until a few years ago, Colorne’s army had relied solely on magic, just like Eltania. And the one who had changed this was probably—no, definitely—that woman. Their brains: the empress of Colorne.
I’d heard she was quite the berserker, but I didn’t understand what the head of an empire was doing in a place like this. Had she been lying in wait to strike and take this kingdom in one fell swoop?
Regardless, I was lucky that she bothered to show her face. Now I could pay her back for this brazen invasion.
If I could just kill her! I let the thought sharpen my fangs and give my body the fuel to run along the dirt. A herd of soldiers swarmed to stop me. I slashed them, kicked them, made them fall on each other’s spears. I was so close…so close to slitting the empress’s throat with my sword.
If I could just kill her… If I could just kill her!
“Mmf—you motherfucker!”
If I kill her…then what?
Nothing would change. This kingdom was already doomed. I was just moving the limbs of its corpse. Then my already-empty energy stores ran out completely. My feet tangled around each other. The ground rose up to smash my body. Then the Colornian soldiers swarmed me, and—
“Wait.”
A cool, sharp voice like the plucking of a harp string brought calm to the chaos of the battlefield once again. I lifted my exhausted face to find that the soldiers were standing at attention. The empress of Colorne dismounted her horse and approached me. She was tall and lean, with icy eyes to accompany her distinctive long black hair. She was called the Black Lioness. And she was looking down at me.
“Colette, the Black Lioness…”
“Oh, you know of me? I’m flattered.”
The empress of Colorne was named Colette von Colorne. The ruler of Eltania’s sworn enemy was standing right in front of me.
“I came here to ask you just one question: Who the hell are you? I find it difficult to believe you could make it this far against my soldiers without choosing to use magic.”
“I’m just a common mercenary…and I didn’t choose to not use magic—I can’t use the stuff.”
“What?” Colette’s face colored faintly with surprise. “I see. So you don’t possess magic.” Then she stared at me.