When his name was called, the largest man among them stepped forward. Gautsch was even bigger than the Crestfolk Bandore. He wielded an enormous hammer, which was longer than he was tall. He silently lifted his weapon, then brought it down upon the door.
The wooden door endured three heavy swings—as if protesting such unreasonable violence—before it cracked and the metal fittings snapped off.
“Kick it,” Keele ordered.
Gautsch sent an enormous boot flying into the broken door. It was forcibly pushed inward, eliciting a yelp from the other side, where a guard had been holding it shut. Keele sprang into action, causing the guard to scream his last.
“Get in.”
Everyone followed Keele’s command. The back door was only big enough for two people to pass through at a time, so it took a bit for all of them to enter.
“This is way too easy,” Keele muttered, sounding bored. “Let’s move.”
As it turned out, the guardroom was pretty much empty. There was only one soldier left.
“Isn’t that a good thing?” Senak asked.
“The knights haven’t come out yet. This is lame as hell. They didn’t all go the other way, did they?”
The melee going on at the main gate was about even. One could even say Cobalt was putting up a good fight. There were eighty people on Cobalt’s side and about the same number of prison guards. Pretty much all of the prison’s forces had been thrown at the gates.
Despite the even numbers, the defenders had a clear advantage. The gates themselves had been forced open, but the very structure of the prison worked in favor of its defenders. To top it off, there were four knights among them. Even if they could be wounded by Halahala, they still had supernatural abilities. What allowed Cobalt to put up such a good fight despite this fact was that the knights’ movements had lost their luster.
The knights were afraid of the Halahala. They balked in the face of these enemies who, against all odds, were capable of killing them. However, their initial astonishment was beginning to fade.
“Calm down! They’re still nothing more than a mob! Rally together!”
If the knights fought with composure, nobody stood a chance against them. Little by little, they were slaughtering the invaders.
Tess was fighting by Bandore’s side.
“Eat this!”
“Too slow.”
A knight casually evaded Bandore’s hefty swing. Tess kept the knight in check to prevent a counterattack. The two Crestfolk were gradually coordinating their movements, and thus just barely managing to fight on even ground.
“You impertinent savages! You leave me no choice...”
Suddenly, the look in the eyes of the knight Tess was fighting changed completely. An ominous chill ran down her spine.
Just then, another knight yelled at his comrade. “You mustn’t! Just try and use it against some filthy Tainted! I’ll have you executed!”
“But at this rate, they—”
“Unacceptable! That’s an order!”
Relief washed over Tess. As she had expected, the knight had likely been on the brink of bringing out his blood caliber. If he had done so, they would’ve been annihilated in no time. However, Crow had told them it wouldn’t happen.
“Making use of a blood caliber against anything other than a noble is a disgrace the nobles fear more than death,” he had claimed.
“Don’t take on the knights one-on-one! Surround them in groups!” one of the Cobalt members yelled.
This was also something Crow had told them beforehand, but it wasn’t easy to accomplish when the knights moved in a way to avoid getting surrounded. Coordinating movements to prevent them from getting away wasn’t something Cobalt and the Crestfolk could learn in the span of a single day. The knights also refrained from fighting in their usual reckless manner. The situation wasn’t falling apart all at once, but the scales were gradually tipping in the defenders’ favor.
The infiltration squad made it all the way to the entrance of the underground dungeon. They had a rough map of the place already, so they had made their way straight there. The operation looked to be a success. They hadn’t bumped into anyone on the way, but the entrance to the jail cells was a different matter, as they had expected. There were two knights standing on guard. One appeared quite young, while the other looked to be in the prime of his life. Both were wearing heavy armor and looked well trained.
“The bandits have made it this far in?”
“Was the commotion at the front just a diversion?”
Keele charged in, causing the two knights to whip out their swords.
“Bingo!”
The other squadmates rushed in after Keele. Nagi held up his bow so that he could loose an arrow at a moment’s notice.
“This one’s mine! Don’t get in my way!” Keele roared as he swung his sword.
The older knight easily blocked the blow.
“You filthy Tainted... Don’t underestimate me!”
Keele didn’t falter from having his strike blocked; instead, he chained into his next attack. It was his ever-changing, unpredictable fighting style.
“Not bad. But it won’t be enough!”
The knight counterattacked. His intense slash gave rise to a whirlwind, yet Keele dodged it by simply shifting his body.
“Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about! Your sword reminds me of that other lady’s.”
“Cut the nonsense!”
Keele was getting excited. The man fighting against him was using the orthodox sword technique of a knight, which was all too familiar.
Keele thought of Jubilia, whom he had fought twice now but hadn’t managed to strike down. He had developed a fervent obsession with her sword that was comparable to passionate love. As he had been polishing his skills in preparation for their next encounter, this man would be a perfect practice opponent.
“Use your blood caliber, coward!”
“Never! That is only for nobles!”
While the fierce battle between Keele and the older knight unfolded, the elite members of Cobalt swooped down on the younger one. Rather than attempt a one-on-one duel, as Keele had, three of them charged in at once. Senak was among them. Nagi observed their battle with his bow at the ready.
Nagi realized that these three Cobalt members were the ones who had killed nobles before. All the others were too frightened to act, overwhelmed by the knights’ palpable bloodlust. Senak’s group was weaker than the knight, but their coordinated movements made sport of the young noble.
“Tch! Quit scurrying around!” the knight yelled in frustration.
“We got this, men!” Senak shouted to encourage his comrades.
However, his voice was lacking in vigor. Even Senak, who had fought nobles before, suffered a major mental burden when facing one directly. That was just how deeply ingrained a noble’s superiority was in his mind.
For some time, neither side was capable of dealing a decisive blow. The younger knight far surpassed the commoners in strength, but the members of Cobalt compensated for that weakness with their teamwork. Was this the tactic they had learned for dealing with nobles? Nagi hadn’t gone through any training himself, so he couldn’t join the fray.
Then, the decisive moment finally came. Nagi spotted an opening to attack the younger knight and immediately loosed an arrow. The arrowhead plunged into the knight’s eye and straight into his brain, and his scream resounded in the air. Senak held his sword ready for a thrust and lunged forth, piercing the knight’s neck and putting an end to his screaming as blood gushed out into the open air.