However, it didn’t take long for Leobolt’s plan to get shattered to pieces.
On the day of the raid, he mobilized the entire Guard Corps to the front gates to engage the enemy. Commander Eleanor and the Knight Corps came running to the top of the city walls to assist.
The slime soldiers under the command of the demon general Rebirth were formidable opponents. They were all copies of him, which meant they followed orders perfectly, and each copy fought with the savage strength of a battle-hardened warrior.
In terms of skill level, the slime soldiers were leagues above the guards. While the defense usually had the advantage in a defensive battle, the slime soldiers outperformed the guards enough to overcome that advantage. In fact, considering the inherent difference in strength between the two forces, the guards could just as easily have been defeated.
However—
“Iron Target!”
The barrage of attacks unleashed by the enemy was like a raging inferno—but with Sieg using his skill and taking on every strike, the guards were able to fight on equal footing.
His defensive capabilities are reliable indeed. Leobolt watched on in admiration as the scene unfolded. He is an absolutely indispensable component for keeping this world protected.
With Sieg taking full responsibility for their defense, everyone else was able to pay exclusive attention to offense.
They only needed to accomplish one thing to secure victory: Find Rebirth hiding among the slime soldiers and destroy his core, which provided the magical energy to operate his soldiers. If they could manage to strike down the general, all of his soldiers would instantly be wiped out along with him.
Naturally, though, the enemy was also aware of that objective. He had arranged the slime soldiers in formation, and the ranks of soldiers at the rear—where the true Rebirth was most likely hiding—were heavily guarded.
“Sergeant Sieg, would you be able to lure out the rear units?”
“That’d be tough to pull off,” Sieg responded. “The ones in the back are outside the range of my Iron Target. Even if I tried to push through to them, I’d have my hands full with the enemies on the front line.”
Whatever information the slime soldiers acquired was no doubt being passed on to Rebirth; as soon as they’d noticed that Iron Target had a range of effect, the soldiers on the front line had formed a bulwark and backed away.
What was more, the Iron Target skill only drew in enemies who attempted to attack. The real Rebirth had no intention of entering the fray himself; thus he wouldn’t be affected by the skill. That meant their only option was to fight their way through the soldiers on the front lines until they reached the rear.
“Push forward, men! Sieg will handle our defense!”
On Leobolt’s order, the guards charged at the slime soldiers. All of the slimes were focusing on Sieg, leaving them wide open to attack, meaning the guards were able to whittle them down and defeat them. However, the guards just didn’t have the firepower to break all the way through the enemy lines. Upon defeating one slime soldier, another would move forward to take its place—and while they were busy dealing with that one, the soldier they had defeated earlier would come back to life.
No matter how many we strike down, there’s just no end to them. At this rate, we’ll be the ones whittled down, Leobolt thought.
As the guards struggled to find any way to break through, they couldn’t help but voice their inner frustrations:
“If only Spinoza and Fam were here...!”
“Not just them—Commander Bolton and the others too. But Commander Leobolt had to go and fire ’em all.”
Leobolt stood in silence. He was standing nearby and could hear the men’s complaints.
They were more or less throwing it in his face that he had made the wrong decisions. It was something he simply couldn’t stand for.
“Very well, then,” Leobolt murmured to himself. “I shall lead the charge and push through the enemy forces myself.”
He then plunged forward into the front lines.
I was not in the wrong. I know I made the right decisions. I had to remove Bolton from the equation to realize my ideals.
Leobolt’s lightning-swift blade sliced through the slime soldiers one after another. The other guards, swept up by the momentum of his superhuman ferocity, gained a second wind of their own.
I shall break through, find our true enemy, and take his head. That will prove to everyone that I am a hero worthy of protecting our world—and that none of the judgments or decisions I made were wrong.
“Commander Leobolt! Look out!”
The guard’s shout gave Leobolt a start. He had been concentrating so hard on attacking, he hadn’t realized how deeply he had penetrated into the enemy army after breaking through the front lines. He had gone outside the range of Sieg’s skill.
When he looked up, the slime soldiers, who should have been paying no attention to him whatsoever, had taken up battle stances. Their aggro was focused directly at Leobolt, and their swords and spears were poised to strike.
I assumed I still had Sieg as a shield and let myself get too focused on attacking. Not good—I won’t be able to defend myself in this stance, and I have no time to dodge either.
Despite that, Leobolt wasn’t ready to give up quite yet. He was resolved to comb through every single possible solution until the very last moment.
In the end, though, he came to a realization. His experience as a battle-hardened swordsman was telling him only one thing: This was checkmate. There was nothing he could do. He would be struck down, and he was powerless to stop it.
Am I going to die here...?
Just as the slime soldiers’ swords and spears came raining down at Leobolt—
Their bodies were split in half.
Leobolt found himself bewildered by the abrupt, practically instantaneous phenomenon.
What on earth just happened?
It took an enormous amount of attack power to bring down a highly skilled slime soldier with a single blow—much less multiple at once.
When Leobolt turned around to check who had come to his aid, his eyes went wide with shock.
“You...”
“Hey. You really oughta quit embarrasin’ yourself like that, buddy.”
Standing before him was a guard who was never supposed to have been there.
“What are you doing here, Spinoza...?” Leobolt murmured as if he were in some kind of fever dream. “Did I not expel you from our roster?”
“It ain’t just me.” Spinoza pointed behind her with her thumb—to where Bolton and the group of men who had deserted the Guard Corps in the night were gathered.
“Wha...?!”
Leobolt couldn’t conceal the dumbfounded expression on his face upon seeing them.