The main army had been ambushed. Hearing those words, Rei tilted his head in confusion.
The current battlefield was in a state where the Mireana Kingdom and Bestir Empire’s vanguards had collided head on. He didn’t think it would be possible to wrap around the battlefield to ambush the main army.
「Did they wrap around the battlefield to ambush the main army?」
Rei asked the Dragon Knight without letting his guard down as he kept an eye on the man with the daggers and the 2m giant.
However, despite him asking that question, he felt that it wasn’t really possible.
Naturally, a certain amount of strength was required to carry out an ambush on the main army, and that would be impossible without being detected by the vanguard.
(No. ……Did they send out the Demon Soldiers?)
In his mind, Rei thought to himself. But his prediction was only half right.
「The enemy ambushed the main army from behind. In addition, the ambushing force is made up of some sort of monster human hybrids.」
「……I see. So they’ve showed themselves.」
Rei clicked his tongue after hearing the story from the Dragon Knight.
The reason for that was that he hadn’t expected them to use transition stones. According to what Rei had heard, transition stones were quite expensive and could only move a limited number of people.
(But, this time, it’s a war between nations. So if they needed to use expensive magic items, they would use as many as they needed……well, they wouldn’t go that far, but they probably wouldn’t be frugal either.)
「Okay, I will head over to support them immediately.」
Clicking his tongue again, he poured magic power into the blade of the Death Scythe as he swung it to shake the blood of the blade.
He had killed dozens, no, hundreds of people. ……Yet, his Dragon Robe didn’t have a drop of blood on it. Even if he killed more than a thousand Bestir Empire soldiers and turned the area into a sea of blood, there still wouldn’t be any blood on his robe. That was because it was a magic item made from the skin of a Dragon.
「Gururu~」
Set appeared as he gave a cry.
The Dragon Knight’s Wyvern was startled at Set, who had appeared without a sign. At the same time, the two adventurers facing Rei also froze.
「Set, it seems those idiots at the back got ambushed from behind. They want us to rescue them.」
「Guru~」
Set gave cry and a small nod.
His claws, beak and body was covered with blood that probably belonged to Bestir Empire soldiers, but Set himself didn’t seem to care.
At the same time, although Rei’s Death Scythe and Dragon Robes were clean, there was some drops of blood on his face. Rei didn’t pay any attention to that as he got on Set.
Rei was about to head straight over to provide support when he turned to look at the Dragon Knight, who had braced himself at Set’s appearance.
「I understand the need to support them. But, is it okay to let the enemy vanguard go?」
「Well, I guess it’s fine. Since the troops led by Philma-sama and Daska-sama have already joined the fighting.」
At Rei and Set’s presence, the Dragon Knight, which would normally be considered an elite unit that could match a thousand, replied as if he were somewhat pressured.
That was no accident. In fact, the Wyvern that the knight was riding on had instinctively tried to shrink itself at Set’s presence.
「I see.」
As he was about to call out to Set……he turned to look at the Dragon Knight again as he asked a question that suddenly came to his mind.
「You said that additional reinforcements will be sent in addition to myself, but do you know who they are?」
「Because we need the more mobile forces, I heard that Elena-sama and some others are heading back. In addition, the advance troops from the main army that were making their way here are also turning back.」
「Heh, I see.」
Rei smiled at the Dragon Knight’s words.
(I didn’t head for the same side of the battlefield because of the division of the Neutrals and Nobles, but Elena is Elena. She probably went on a rampage. And if she’s going to deal with Demon Soldiers, as someone who underwent the genuine Inheritance Ritual, she can definitely be relied on.)
Muttering to himself, Rei turned to look at the two adventurers who had stopped moving due to Set.
「You’ve narrowly escaped death.」
Rei told them briefly before patting Set’s neck to signal him.
Without needing to say a word, Set understood what Rei wanted to say. He dashed forward as he flapped his wings and ran into the sky.
「It really was a narrow escape. If we had fought him straight up, we probably wouldn’t have won.」
「……I have nothing to say against that. We will also fall back. Even if that monster is gone, the Dragon Knight is still here. I don’t want to fight that in this situation.」
「Alright. And, did you hear what they were talking about? They said that a force had attacked the Mireana Kingdom’s main army. We need to spread the news, that will lift our morale. ……And now we have a way to survive this war.」
Talking to each other in low voices, the two adventurers retreated.
The Dragon Knight looked at them provokingly but didn’t make any move to chase after them. This was because he had seen Rei fighting them and had judged that the two of them had about the same amount of strength as him. Of course, he wouldn’t lose, but he would still struggle to beat them. And right now, time was more important than anything else. In this situation, a minute was worth its time in gold and he had no time to waste.
(Besides……)
The man gently looked at his partner.
He gently stroked his Wyvern’s neck, but the Wyvern continued to tremble.
That was just the difference in rank between it and a Griffon. An overwhelming majesty. So powerful that one could instinctively tell the strength of an A rank monster.
If they had met at the Dusk Wheat, where Rei stayed in Gilm, it wouldn’t have been this overwhelming. But this time, the situation was different. Unlike in the stables, where Set would lie down and relax, this was the middle of a battlefield. Naturally, the aura Set gave off was different in the middle of a battle.
「……I’m sorry, you’ll have to work a little harder. First of all, I have to head back to Philma-sama and tell him that Rei’s on his way to help.」
He gently stroked his Wyvern to calm it down before leaving the area.
「Damn it, there are enemies behind you! And they’re not even human!」
A soldier shouted abhorrently as he thrust his spear towards the enemy approaching him.
The deformed opponent facing him had two bristly gorilla like arms growing from his back. The two arms reached out and grabbed the spear from either side, stopping it briefly before snapping it with their grip alone.
「Damn monsters!」
Pulling back the shattered spear shaft, the next moment, the soldier thrust out the broken spear with all his strength.
Although the spear tip was lost, the broken shaft was still sharp, leaving the broken spear a somewhat usable weapon. However, his opponent simply blocked his with his attack. Not the bristly one that had crushed his spear, but the human one that grew from his shoulders that was holding a shield..
「Gyahahahahaha. Naive, naive. Did you think that would be enough to save you!」
While laughing, he swung the arm on his back and grabbed the soldier’s face.
「Guah, shit, let go of me!」
The soldier raged desperately, but the Demon Soldier seemed to be enjoying himself……the next moment, he crushed the head of the soldier in his hands.
The Demon Soldier had a fascinated smile on his face at the feeling of crushing bones, flesh, blood and brains in his hand.
As he looked around, he saw similar scenes unfolding around him.
「Hmm, that felt good. Hey, how’s it going over there?」
When he asked a snake man, who was a short distance from him, a smiling voice responded.
「It’s the best. The feeling of every bone in their body breaking continuously.」
「Hyaagyaah, ha, hagyaah, aaaahhhh-!」
A man who seemed to be a noble had his body wrapped in the snake tail as it gradually tightened. His jaw bone seemed to have been broken already. The words that came out his mouth didn’t make any sense.
「Heey, hey. Let’s tighten it up slowly, slowly okay? ……Ah, another broken bone. Was that a broken rib? You still had an unbroken rib? I hope it didn’t puncture your lungs, so you can live as long as possible.」
The Demon Solider that was torturing the noble move his strangely elongated tongue in and out of his mouth.
「No-, stop it-, stop iiitttt-!」
「Oh, shut up. Be quiet. It’s better than dying right?」
A Demon Soldier removed the armour of a resisting female adventurer and tore her clothes as he exposed her bare skin to the sun.
The woman desperately tried to resist and hide her exposed chest as she struck the face of the lizard like man with her other hand. But, she had no strength. The blow glanced off the scales growing on the man’s face, barely hurting him.
While laughing at the woman, the Demon Soldier exposed his lower body……before feeling a sense of incongruity.
「……Eh?」
The lizard like man turned to look at the object sticking through his chest in shock.
Slowly, he turned his eyes to look behind him. There, a man was looking at him as if he was looking at trash on the roadside.
It wasn’t an enemy. The person behind him was by no means their enemy. Rather, he should have been an ally.
「What, why? Theorem-sama……」
「Don’t talk. When you speak, you pollute the air around me.」
Without a change in his expression, the sword stuck in the lizard man’s chest was swung upwards. When he did that, the lizard man’s body was naturally sliced open as the lust in his eyes rapidly faded.
「Lowlife.」
Muttering briefly, Theorem shook the blood off his blade before looking at his aide.
She probably understood what that gaze meant. Cyanus turned what could best be described as a frigid gaze towards the Demon Soldiers who were indulging in their lust for violence against the soldiers of the Mireana Kingdom.
「What are you lot doing here? Have you forgotten your role? ……You there, say it. Tell me, what did Theorem-sama order you to do?」
The snake man Demon Soldier, that had been happily strangling a someone a moment ago, managed to speak up with a stutter as Cyanus shot her gaze at him.
「T-To capture or kill Arius, the commander of the Mireana Kingdom’s Royalist forces.」
「That’s right. You seem to know better……but what are the rest of you doing? Did someone order you to kill the rest of the soldiers?」
「……No.」
As expected, he must have foreseen that things would only get worse if things continued as they were. He quickly darted his eyes around thinking of a way to get out of this situation. But unfortunately, no good ideas came to his mind.
「Understand? Like I said before, speed is everything is in this ambush. You saw the fire tornado, didn’t you? What kind of enemy can create that? Originally, he should have been held down by the Dragon Knights, but you know that he isn’t that easy to deal with right?」
「……Ah.」
「If you know that then get a move on immediately. Most of the Demon Soldiers are already going after the main army. I don’t have time to play around in such a place.」
「……」
At that frigid gaze, the snake man Demon Soldier finally stopped speaking.
Cyanus was about to raise her voice again when Theorem raised his hand and stopped her.
Why? Cyanus turned to look at Theorem, but fell silent when she saw his expression.
「I’ll say this to all Demon Soldiers here. 100 soldiers, 30 adventurers or 30 knights. One noble, general or knight commander. Anyone who can’t achieve that will be severely punished after this operation.」
At those words, the Demon Soldiers in the surroundings began to buzz.
It was easy to say, but tough to achieve the merits Theorem had just said. No, rather, it would be impossible for an ordinary soldier. It was only because they were Demon Soldiers that such a level of difficulty was considered……
「Do you understand? I am serious. Get the hell out of here!」
At Theorem’s emotionless words, most of the Demon Soldiers present started running immediately in fright.
Seeing them leave, Theorem gave a sigh when he saw that there was no one left except his aide, Cyanus.
「Seriously, even though this is the first time I’ve used this tactic, I can’t help but realise how much of a miscalculation this was.」
The mindless actions of the blood crazy Demon Soldiers or the absence of the enemy general that should have been in the rear headquarters.
Regarding the former, even though he had expected it to some extent due to the effect of the process of becoming a Demon Soldier, the atmosphere of war and blood had caused them to become intoxicated much earlier than what he had been told by the alchemists from the Ministry of Magic. But that was still fine. His biggest miscalculation was the absence of the general of the main army.
According to what Theorem had heard from a noble who had been taken prisoner, the vanguard had achieved more merits than expected, so their plans to make the Neutrals and Nobles lose credit or exhaust themselves had failed. Because of that, he had gone to the front to try and take some credit for himself. Although it was a typical act for a general, it was also true that this move had also resulted in minimal damage taken by the Demon Soldiers’ surprise attack.
「……Count Arius, did he see through our plan?」
「That’s unlikely. According to the information I have, his character is one that values theory over intuition.」
Theorem gave a small sigh at his aide’s words.
「Either way, our plan has come apart. All we can do now is hope the Demon Soldiers are quick to use their heads, otherwise……」
He looked towards the distance where the Demon Soldiers and Royalist soldiers were fighting before shaking his head and approaching a warhorse that had been tied up nearby.
「Let’s go. Even though this is a situation we didn’t prepare for, it’s still an opportunity to take out the enemy general. We’ll decide the course of this war before their reinforcements arrive, no matter what it takes.」
「Yes!」
Giving a short acknowledgement, Cyanus straddled another nearby horse as she headed for the fierce battlefield in order to take out the chief commander of the Mireana Kingdom’s army.
The main army had been ambushed. Hearing those words, Rei tilted his head in confusion.
The current battlefield was in a state where the Mireana Kingdom and Bestir Empire’s vanguards had collided head on. He didn’t think it would be possible to wrap around the battlefield to ambush the main army.
「Did they wrap around the battlefield to ambush the main army?」
Rei asked the Dragon Knight without letting his guard down as he kept an eye on the man with the daggers and the 2m giant.
However, despite him asking that question, he felt that it wasn’t really possible.
Naturally, a certain amount of strength was required to carry out an ambush on the main army, and that would be impossible without being detected by the vanguard.
(No. ……Did they send out the Demon Soldiers?)
In his mind, Rei thought to himself. But his prediction was only half right.
「The enemy ambushed the main army from behind. In addition, the ambushing force is made up of some sort of monster human hybrids.」
「……I see. So they’ve showed themselves.」
Rei clicked his tongue after hearing the story from the Dragon Knight.
The reason for that was that he hadn’t expected them to use transition stones. According to what Rei had heard, transition stones were quite expensive and could only move a limited number of people.
(But, this time, it’s a war between nations. So if they needed to use expensive magic items, they would use as many as they needed……well, they wouldn’t go that far, but they probably wouldn’t be frugal either.)
「Okay, I will head over to support them immediately.」
Clicking his tongue again, he poured magic power into the blade of the Death Scythe as he swung it to shake the blood of the blade.
He had killed dozens, no, hundreds of people. ……Yet, his Dragon Robe didn’t have a drop of blood on it. Even if he killed more than a thousand Bestir Empire soldiers and turned the area into a sea of blood, there still wouldn’t be any blood on his robe. That was because it was a magic item made from the skin of a Dragon.
「Gururu~」
Set appeared as he gave a cry.
The Dragon Knight’s Wyvern was startled at Set, who had appeared without a sign. At the same time, the two adventurers facing Rei also froze.
「Set, it seems those idiots at the back got ambushed from behind. They want us to rescue them.」
「Guru~」
Set gave cry and a small nod.
His claws, beak and body was covered with blood that probably belonged to Bestir Empire soldiers, but Set himself didn’t seem to care.
At the same time, although Rei’s Death Scythe and Dragon Robes were clean, there was some drops of blood on his face. Rei didn’t pay any attention to that as he got on Set.
Rei was about to head straight over to provide support when he turned to look at the Dragon Knight, who had braced himself at Set’s appearance.
「I understand the need to support them. But, is it okay to let the enemy vanguard go?」
「Well, I guess it’s fine. Since the troops led by Philma-sama and Daska-sama have already joined the fighting.」
At Rei and Set’s presence, the Dragon Knight, which would normally be considered an elite unit that could match a thousand, replied as if he were somewhat pressured.
That was no accident. In fact, the Wyvern that the knight was riding on had instinctively tried to shrink itself at Set’s presence.
「I see.」
As he was about to call out to Set……he turned to look at the Dragon Knight again as he asked a question that suddenly came to his mind.
「You said that additional reinforcements will be sent in addition to myself, but do you know who they are?」
「Because we need the more mobile forces, I heard that Elena-sama and some others are heading back. In addition, the advance troops from the main army that were making their way here are also turning back.」
「Heh, I see.」
Rei smiled at the Dragon Knight’s words.
(I didn’t head for the same side of the battlefield because of the division of the Neutrals and Nobles, but Elena is Elena. She probably went on a rampage. And if she’s going to deal with Demon Soldiers, as someone who underwent the genuine Inheritance Ritual, she can definitely be relied on.)
Muttering to himself, Rei turned to look at the two adventurers who had stopped moving due to Set.
「You’ve narrowly escaped death.」
Rei told them briefly before patting Set’s neck to signal him.
Without needing to say a word, Set understood what Rei wanted to say. He dashed forward as he flapped his wings and ran into the sky.
「It really was a narrow escape. If we had fought him straight up, we probably wouldn’t have won.」
「……I have nothing to say against that. We will also fall back. Even if that monster is gone, the Dragon Knight is still here. I don’t want to fight that in this situation.」
「Alright. And, did you hear what they were talking about? They said that a force had attacked the Mireana Kingdom’s main army. We need to spread the news, that will lift our morale. ……And now we have a way to survive this war.」
Talking to each other in low voices, the two adventurers retreated.
The Dragon Knight looked at them provokingly but didn’t make any move to chase after them. This was because he had seen Rei fighting them and had judged that the two of them had about the same amount of strength as him. Of course, he wouldn’t lose, but he would still struggle to beat them. And right now, time was more important than anything else. In this situation, a minute was worth its time in gold and he had no time to waste.
(Besides……)
The man gently looked at his partner.
He gently stroked his Wyvern’s neck, but the Wyvern continued to tremble.
That was just the difference in rank between it and a Griffon. An overwhelming majesty. So powerful that one could instinctively tell the strength of an A rank monster.
If they had met at the Dusk Wheat, where Rei stayed in Gilm, it wouldn’t have been this overwhelming. But this time, the situation was different. Unlike in the stables, where Set would lie down and relax, this was the middle of a battlefield. Naturally, the aura Set gave off was different in the middle of a battle.
「……I’m sorry, you’ll have to work a little harder. First of all, I have to head back to Philma-sama and tell him that Rei’s on his way to help.」
He gently stroked his Wyvern to calm it down before leaving the area.
「Damn it, there are enemies behind you! And they’re not even human!」
A soldier shouted abhorrently as he thrust his spear towards the enemy approaching him.
The deformed opponent facing him had two bristly gorilla like arms growing from his back. The two arms reached out and grabbed the spear from either side, stopping it briefly before snapping it with their grip alone.
「Damn monsters!」
Pulling back the shattered spear shaft, the next moment, the soldier thrust out the broken spear with all his strength.
Although the spear tip was lost, the broken shaft was still sharp, leaving the broken spear a somewhat usable weapon. However, his opponent simply blocked his with his attack. Not the bristly one that had crushed his spear, but the human one that grew from his shoulders that was holding a shield..
「Gyahahahahaha. Naive, naive. Did you think that would be enough to save you!」
While laughing, he swung the arm on his back and grabbed the soldier’s face.
「Guah, shit, let go of me!」
The soldier raged desperately, but the Demon Soldier seemed to be enjoying himself……the next moment, he crushed the head of the soldier in his hands.
The Demon Soldier had a fascinated smile on his face at the feeling of crushing bones, flesh, blood and brains in his hand.
As he looked around, he saw similar scenes unfolding around him.
「Hmm, that felt good. Hey, how’s it going over there?」
When he asked a snake man, who was a short distance from him, a smiling voice responded.
「It’s the best. The feeling of every bone in their body breaking continuously.」
「Hyaagyaah, ha, hagyaah, aaaahhhh-!」
A man who seemed to be a noble had his body wrapped in the snake tail as it gradually tightened. His jaw bone seemed to have been broken already. The words that came out his mouth didn’t make any sense.
「Heey, hey. Let’s tighten it up slowly, slowly okay? ……Ah, another broken bone. Was that a broken rib? You still had an unbroken rib? I hope it didn’t puncture your lungs, so you can live as long as possible.」
The Demon Solider that was torturing the noble move his strangely elongated tongue in and out of his mouth.
「No-, stop it-, stop iiitttt-!」
「Oh, shut up. Be quiet. It’s better than dying right?」
A Demon Soldier removed the armour of a resisting female adventurer and tore her clothes as he exposed her bare skin to the sun.
The woman desperately tried to resist and hide her exposed chest as she struck the face of the lizard like man with her other hand. But, she had no strength. The blow glanced off the scales growing on the man’s face, barely hurting him.
While laughing at the woman, the Demon Soldier exposed his lower body……before feeling a sense of incongruity.
「……Eh?」
The lizard like man turned to look at the object sticking through his chest in shock.
Slowly, he turned his eyes to look behind him. There, a man was looking at him as if he was looking at trash on the roadside.
It wasn’t an enemy. The person behind him was by no means their enemy. Rather, he should have been an ally.
「What, why? Theorem-sama……」
「Don’t talk. When you speak, you pollute the air around me.」
Without a change in his expression, the sword stuck in the lizard man’s chest was swung upwards. When he did that, the lizard man’s body was naturally sliced open as the lust in his eyes rapidly faded.
「Lowlife.」
Muttering briefly, Theorem shook the blood off his blade before looking at his aide.
She probably understood what that gaze meant. Cyanus turned what could best be described as a frigid gaze towards the Demon Soldiers who were indulging in their lust for violence against the soldiers of the Mireana Kingdom.
「What are you lot doing here? Have you forgotten your role? ……You there, say it. Tell me, what did Theorem-sama order you to do?」
The snake man Demon Soldier, that had been happily strangling a someone a moment ago, managed to speak up with a stutter as Cyanus shot her gaze at him.
「T-To capture or kill Arius, the commander of the Mireana Kingdom’s Royalist forces.」
「That’s right. You seem to know better……but what are the rest of you doing? Did someone order you to kill the rest of the soldiers?」
「……No.」
As expected, he must have foreseen that things would only get worse if things continued as they were. He quickly darted his eyes around thinking of a way to get out of this situation. But unfortunately, no good ideas came to his mind.
「Understand? Like I said before, speed is everything is in this ambush. You saw the fire tornado, didn’t you? What kind of enemy can create that? Originally, he should have been held down by the Dragon Knights, but you know that he isn’t that easy to deal with right?」
「……Ah.」
「If you know that then get a move on immediately. Most of the Demon Soldiers are already going after the main army. I don’t have time to play around in such a place.」
「……」
At that frigid gaze, the snake man Demon Soldier finally stopped speaking.
Cyanus was about to raise her voice again when Theorem raised his hand and stopped her.
Why? Cyanus turned to look at Theorem, but fell silent when she saw his expression.
「I’ll say this to all Demon Soldiers here. 100 soldiers, 30 adventurers or 30 knights. One noble, general or knight commander. Anyone who can’t achieve that will be severely punished after this operation.」
At those words, the Demon Soldiers in the surroundings began to buzz.
It was easy to say, but tough to achieve the merits Theorem had just said. No, rather, it would be impossible for an ordinary soldier. It was only because they were Demon Soldiers that such a level of difficulty was considered……
「Do you understand? I am serious. Get the hell out of here!」
At Theorem’s emotionless words, most of the Demon Soldiers present started running immediately in fright.
Seeing them leave, Theorem gave a sigh when he saw that there was no one left except his aide, Cyanus.
「Seriously, even though this is the first time I’ve used this tactic, I can’t help but realise how much of a miscalculation this was.」
The mindless actions of the blood crazy Demon Soldiers or the absence of the enemy general that should have been in the rear headquarters.
Regarding the former, even though he had expected it to some extent due to the effect of the process of becoming a Demon Soldier, the atmosphere of war and blood had caused them to become intoxicated much earlier than what he had been told by the alchemists from the Ministry of Magic. But that was still fine. His biggest miscalculation was the absence of the general of the main army.
According to what Theorem had heard from a noble who had been taken prisoner, the vanguard had achieved more merits than expected, so their plans to make the Neutrals and Nobles lose credit or exhaust themselves had failed. Because of that, he had gone to the front to try and take some credit for himself. Although it was a typical act for a general, it was also true that this move had also resulted in minimal damage taken by the Demon Soldiers’ surprise attack.
「……Count Arius, did he see through our plan?」
「That’s unlikely. According to the information I have, his character is one that values theory over intuition.」
Theorem gave a small sigh at his aide’s words.
「Either way, our plan has come apart. All we can do now is hope the Demon Soldiers are quick to use their heads, otherwise……」
He looked towards the distance where the Demon Soldiers and Royalist soldiers were fighting before shaking his head and approaching a warhorse that had been tied up nearby.
「Let’s go. Even though this is a situation we didn’t prepare for, it’s still an opportunity to take out the enemy general. We’ll decide the course of this war before their reinforcements arrive, no matter what it takes.」
「Yes!」
Giving a short acknowledgement, Cyanus straddled another nearby horse as she headed for the fierce battlefield in order to take out the chief commander of the Mireana Kingdom’s army.
