I had the Ripper Swarms and Fire Swarms keep charging into the lindwyrms. The cluster of lizards fell into a state of chaos. Some of them started fleeing into the river, while others had their heads blasted by the explosions. Sérignan managed to sever a few heads herself.
“Sérignan, you’ve done all you could here. Handle the ones over there. Please.”
“As you wish!” Sérignan said.
That’s reassuring.
“I’ll try to get them too!” Lysa exclaimed.
I’m counting on you.
“Ya can count on me!”
I do, Konrad.
“Let’s do it!” I said.
Konrad’s mercenaries and Lysa shot barrages of bolts dipped in paralyzing poison at the lindwyrms’ faces and sensory organs. Blinded, the lindwyrms went on a rampage, destroying everything in their way. They were unmanageable, so I figured we might have to wait until they exhausted all their strength.
“Haaaah!”
Meanwhile, Sérignan kept up her attacks. She charged the creatures, thrusting her sword into their chests and slashing their throats. Her strength was awe-inspiring. I couldn’t believe the way she fought the rampaging lindwyrms unflinchingly. If I had to face these raging beasts, I’d only be able to run for my life.
Lysa and Konrad seemed to feel the same way because they were watching her fight with eyes aglitter. Even without them helping her, Sérignan cut down one, two, three lindwyrms in quick succession.
“We need to come up with a plan, though.”
We couldn’t rely solely on the Fire Swarms’ suicide bombing and Sérignan’s power; it just wasn’t a viable tactic. We needed a better way of doing this—a way that didn’t push all the fighting onto Sérignan.
“That makes ten!” Sérignan declared as she cut down another one.
That just left ninety more lindwyrms—ninety more rampaging beasts.
“We’ve got wyverns coming from above!” one of Konrad’s mercenaries said.
Of course they had to interfere now of all times, the pests. The lindwyrms forced my Toxic Swarms into retreat, and I didn’t have any antiair units.
“They’re diving down!”
There’s no way we’ll make it! I thought, despair setting in.
Just then, Lysa moved in. “Aaah!”
She fired a bolt that pierced one of the wyverns’ heads, sending the beast plummeting to the ground. She fired again and again, taking out three wyverns one by one.
Right, I still have Lysa!
Still, she could only handle so many. The rest swooped in and breathed their fire. Jets of flame rained down on Sérignan, hiding her from sight.
“Sérignan!” I called out, both with my voice and through the collective consciousness, praying that she’d respond.
“I’m all right, Your Majesty!” she said.
But she wasn’t totally fine. The wyverns’ fire had hit her. Her pale armor was charred black, and her body was burnt in places.
“That’s enough!” I cried. “We’re abandoning this defensive line, fall back!”
“No, I will hold them back here!”
Through the collective, I could tell that we had no more defensive lines prepared. And so, Sérignan raised her sword, ready to hold the line.
“What are you just staring at her for?!” Konrad shouted to his mercenaries. “We’re mercenaries, not rubberneckers! Fight, men!”
“Yes, sir!”
Konrad and his men continued shooting poisoned arrows at the lindwyrms, doing their finest to help Sérignan.
Lysa approached me. “Your Majesty, if I may...”
“What is it?”
“Sérignan’s at her limit. I’ll stall them with my arrows, so use that time to build another defensive line. The enemy’s definitely bleeding. If we can just hold them back for a bit longer, we should be able to get them to retreat.”
She had a point. If we killed this many of their precious lindwyrms, the enemy would recognize the losses they were taking. If I was reading this correctly, the enemy wasn’t actually trying to head into Khalkha from here. They had their hands full holding the river.
“All right. I’ll have the Worker Swarms build a third defensive line. They can’t fight directly, so doing this will be their direct contribution to the war.”
With that, I ordered the Worker Swarms to get to work. But the farther we fell back, the longer our walls needed to be, and I couldn’t tell if the Worker Swarms would make it in time. I hoped with all my heart that they’d make it because if they didn’t, Sérignan would be in danger.
“Raaah!”
Sérignan cut down more lindwyrms. They’d grown sluggish because of the poison, while she was swift. But her speed was starting to decline. Lysa was right; she was approaching her limit.
I’m sorry, Sérignan. I forced you into this. But still, hold on. You’re our only hope. Konrad and his men can’t stop the lindwyrms on their own. Neither can Lysa. You’re the only one who can stop those things. So please...
“I am a knight! The Queen of the Arachnea’s knight! No matter what comes to pass, that will never change!”
My emotions seemed to reach her through the collective consciousness, causing her reaction speed to spike. She cut the lindwyrms down one by one, whittling their numbers down at a startling rate.
“Sérignan, are you really...?”
Even if they were weakened by the Fire Swarms’ suicide bombing, these things had some of the highest defense in the game, and slaying them was no easy task. The fact that Sérignan could do it bordered on being a miracle. Yet she persevered.
While the third defensive line was being built, she slew fifteen more lindwyrms. I watched it all from atop a hill.
“Your Majesty,” came a voice. A Ripper Swarm had come to stand beside me. “The Adventurers’ Guild says your prediction was correct.”
“That’s what I thought. Then they should retreat any minute now.”
It had all felt strange to me. Aligning thirty thousand troops and one hundred lindwyrms along the vast Phros River didn’t make sense. If they really wanted to seize the Phros, it would have been more efficient to focus their forces and push the enemy into towns they couldn’t defend. But aligning their soldiers in a uniform line? Surely they wouldn’t be able to occupy the river that way.
It had occurred to me then that the enemy must have a different goal.
All at once, the remaining lindwyrms suddenly turned around and returned to the river. There were no foot soldiers in sight. The reptilians entered the water with a splash, pushing their way against the stream and reaching the other coast.
The lindwyrms couldn’t cross water in the game, but this was reality.
“Huh...?” Sérignan looked on with shock as the lindwyrms retreated across the river to the other bank.
A moment later, an explosion shook the air. Flames rose up in the floodplain, and stones audibly smacked the ground.
I knew it...
I could make out shouts from Konrad’s mercenaries over the roaring flames.
“The ports are on fire!”
“Great boulders are blocking the river!”
“Your Majesty, what is this?” Sérignan asked me, flustered.
“All along, the enemy intended to render the Phros River uncrossable, so I wouldn’t be able to invade them through there,” I explained. “Their army wasn’t going to march on Khalkha to begin with.”
This was their true objective. They wanted to burn down the ports, block off crossing points using boulders, and torch the boats so we wouldn’t be able to cross the river. If we hadn’t gotten in their way, they might have decided to march into Khalkha as well. Our efforts weren’t in vain, at least; we’d minimized the damages to just the Phros River.
“But this means the enemy can’t cross the Phros normally either. Is the Nyrnal Empire trying to end the war with this?”
With the river blocked, they had no way to invade us. The alliance we’d made with the Eastern Trade Union hadn’t actually helped us march into Nyrnal’s homeland, but what could the Nyrnals be thinking? Now they had to move all their supply lines and armies over to the Hapul Wetlands. The fighting would die down.
What was Emperor Maximillian up to? I had to figure that out right away.