Chieftain Kakula
Chieftain Kakula
As had been made abundantly clear during the fight with Envelde, I couldn't properly identify those who had trained their aura or Mana, but I had no particular complaints about that.
It was a bit of a shame that I couldn't even get a handle on a technique others could learn with a little effort... but since I was already a Magic Power user without precedent, there was no reason to bitch about it, and anyway, even in my past life, figuring out at a glance whether someone was stronger or weaker than me had usually been a pain in the ass, so it was something I could live with.
Still, that didn't mean I'd lost my nerve so badly that everyone looked like a downgraded version of me. On the contrary, I was usually living with my nerves stretched taut...
That tension was now peaking at an all-time high.
"Fuck, how many of those damn things are there!?"
"W-we're fucked!"
Even the ones moaning in despair and anxiety were innocent this time. The wyvern knights had clearly just hammered them with magic, but the number of bastards still charging in was disgustingly vast. Just the ones I could see barreling through the flames numbered well over several dozen.
They weren't the common run of savage orcs. These were orc soldiers firmly outfitted in leather and iron armor, charging in mounted on beasts that were far too hideous and massive to simply call wolves, as Yekaterina had put it. Independent of the threat you could gauge by sensing the strength of their energy—a highly fantastical sense—the threat posed by pure mass and quantity was a familiar form to me as well.
A crushing pressure, like facing a dump truck at full sprint.
And on top of that, the wyvern knights up there were still blasting magic, yet they just kept coming, and more were pouring in from behind? These were orcs who normally started worrying about their own hides the moment their numbers dropped. What that implied was so crystal clear I couldn't even deny reality.
If those bastards hit the village, it wouldn't take ten minutes for it to be burned to ash.
"Eldi! We have to retreat! That many is more than we can handle right now!"
Asilie grabbed me in a panic, speaking urgently. Just moments before, a particularly fast orc, likely a standard-bearer, had charged our lines without hesitation, only to be pulverized by a single blow from Yekaterina, yet the morale was on the verge of shattering instead of rising. Even with the warmth the spirit had given me keeping my body warm, I felt a cold sweat trickle down my spine. As I looked at her, doubt flickered across her deeply serious face.
"...Eldi?"
Whatever expression I was wearing, it must have been a far cry from running away. That figured, since it was what I was thinking. I answered with a hollow laugh and then spoke to Laika.
"Laika, can you get bigger?"
[As long as I have Magic Power!]
"Come here. Let's cut loose a little today."
Contrary to appearances, it was a steel doggo even I hadn't been able to properly cut through, so it could at least handle tanking. Even if one crazy orc had charged in too early, it wouldn't take even a minute for the rest of them to reach us. I had to do everything I could.
Even if every time Magic Power passed through me, the strength left my knees and agony wracked my entire body.
Maybe because there were still dozens of seconds before impact, the adventurers who had the leeway to glance our way were muttering.
"Wha... what the hell is that...?"
"What in the world is going on!?"
Harsh reactions. Not that I wasn't busting my ass trying to save their sorry lives.
It didn't revert to the armor-wearing wolf-form I'd first seen. It was just a Welsh Corgi evolving into a giant-ass Welsh Corgi. But sometimes, a simple physical change like that was more effective.
Even those massive orc cavalrymen would hesitate, at least for a moment, facing a Welsh Corgi so huge they'd have to tilt their heads up slightly to look at it, even if its appearance wasn't threatening.
[Wrooong? Something... something's different... Good!]
Was it different from what it expected? Whatever the case, Laika, its body now fully grown, seemed to figure it wasn't a bad outcome and charged straight at the orc cavalry without hesitation.
"Oink??"
Our allies were horrified, and the orcs were shocked. If it had looked scary, they might have accepted the situation more easily and chosen to attack Laika, but what the orcs, having rapidly closed the distance, showed wasn't hostility but bewilderment. And the price of their delayed reaction was steep.
"Oink, oink!"
"Squeeee!!"
Laika's movements, even with its increased size, were still swift. It charged at a speed that wasn't an exaggeration to call unreasonable, instantly closing in from the flank, smashing through trees as it went, and snatched up an orc cavalryman in its jaws. It hadn't even taken 20 seconds to dismantle their first line.
That sudden attack causing their charge to falter was a major gain, but an even bigger one was seeing that unlike horses, the demonic beasts reacted quickly, trying to save themselves even if it meant rolling their bodies—causing the riders on top to be crushed to death under them before they could offer any proper resistance.
"The beasts! Aim for the beasts! Unlike horses, they'll try to save themselves even if it means crushing the rider! Don't forget they're demonic beasts, not horses!"
In the midst of what was no different from a maelstrom of chaos, Kal Guls, who had accurately witnessed the scene, shouted while banging his sword against his shield. But just because we'd learned their weakness didn't mean our momentum suddenly reversed. There were too many enemies for that, and no matter how swiftly Laika moved, it couldn't slaughter that many enemies alone.
As I lay on the ground watching the whole spectacle, only two plans came to mind. Somehow drawing up Magic Power to use the needles, or running away.
Just because I'd given Laika a good amount of Magic Power, my body had defied my will and hit the dirt, so the latter option was highly tempting. It hurt like a bitch, too.
"Eldi?!"
"'M... fine. Just... bad vertigo."
Somehow I managed an answer for Asilie as she frantically propped me up, but just opening my mouth to do so made me feel like vomiting. It was a bizarre sensation. Normally I would have felt the Magic Power draining from my body, but there was no hint of that. Instead, every sense I had was shot to hell. All I could properly feel was an unbearable, maddening agony and nausea.
But it wasn't an entirely new sensation. There was a certain similarity to what I'd felt when traversing the gate the Demonfolk had tampered with.
"Rejection reaction... from excessive Magic Power? Hypersensitivity? The Magic Organ is..."
"E... Eldi?"
Asilie's voice sounded fuzzy. I couldn't tell if I was talking to myself or just thinking. My stomach was turning, my whole body trembling in pain, my vision spinning, yet there was no issue whatsoever with the act of moving my body. It was such a chaotic state that I didn't have the wherewithal to even say a single word of reassurance to her.
"Still, what's certain is..."
My senses were twisted and it just hurt. I could move. Maybe I was just deluding myself into thinking I was fine because of the abnormal symptoms, but right now, maybe that was preferable.
"Hoo, hoo... Epaga. I'll trust that you're watching."
If I could move, and I could manage my Magic Power, I could fight. I had no idea what the aftermath would be... but I had no choice but to trust Epaga, who had arranged this body for me, and just go for it.
"...Elde...!"
"Ye...El... stran...!"
The whole world was mixing together. Yekaterina's upper body seemed to stretch out like oil on water, then suddenly bloat and rush up to my nose. Had it really come closer? It also felt like it was far away.
As if suffering from a high fever, I moved my limbs through the wrecked vision and sense of balance. I didn't try to force myself to maintain balance. I simply trusted the training I'd repeated to the point of coughing blood and took my stance. Then, even with the sensation that I was about to collapse onto the ground, I was at least able to stand upright.
It was like an intensified version of being drunk and having to painstakingly control every single movement. I just hoped to hell that my movements weren't ridiculous right now.
"...!"
Asilie's face seemed to warp like something from Munch's The Scream, and I couldn't tell what she was saying, but it was as obvious as a lit torch that it was worry for me. I didn't know if I was actually smiling thanks to my scrambled senses, but I made a pretense of it anyway.
And then, to move the Magic Power that felt like it was boiling up as if to scorch everything under my skin, I whistled, to draw the orcs' attention to me, even just a little.
◈
Even Yekaterina and Asilie were at a loss, watching Eldmia, who had laboriously gotten up from the ground only to suddenly draw his sword and take a stance.
Eldmia's condition up until just moments before had clearly not been normal. Not only had he failed to react to their voices, but he hadn't even recognized the orc cavalry that had charged nearly point-blank. Even as Asilie's arrow pierced an orc's forehead and Yekaterina's war hammer crushed a demonic beast's skull, he had remained completely unresponsive.
It had been mentioned that his physical condition wasn't at its best, but had it been this serious? Or had a problem occurred in the process of doing something to the dog that had once been a Demon Sword?
Just as the startled Yekaterina hurriedly approached and reached out her hand toward the fallen Eldmia, he got up as if nothing was wrong, drew his sword, and assumed a stance.
"E, Eldi?! You're okay?!"
Asilie, her eyes nearly brimming with tears, urgently checked Eldmia's eyes, but his focus wasn't right. It was hard to understand what the hell was happening. The movement Eldmia displayed was by no means that of a person who had been sprawled on the ground just moments before, unable to get up properly. The process of drawing his sword and taking the upper stance was as fluid as water, without a single tremor.
If you'd seen it from a distance, you'd have been utterly convinced Eldmia was perfectly fine.
"Eldmia! Are you listening to...? No, are you even in your right mind?"
Yekaterina's heart was also burning with worry. It was true that the charge had been delayed thanks to Laika's rampage, but that was only a 'delay,' not a 'halt.' The cavalry that had avoided the flames and Laika were already charging in wildly, attempting their attacks.
In this situation, the one solace was that, true to orcs who stake their lives on the fight right in front of them, none of them were bypassing the encampment to rush toward the village. Their charge was also different from dealing with horse cavalry, making even the mercenaries' defensive line precarious.
They had to make a clear decision: either hoist the unwell Eldmia onto their backs and flee, or leave their backs to him... but the sight he'd just shown them only intensified the confusion.
The stance was perfect. But there was no way to know what state his mind was in. Just when a suspicion arose that maybe it was nothing more than his body remembering the motions, Eldmia looked at Asilie and smiled.
"Eldi?"
No. It just looked like he'd lifted the corners of his mouth as if smiling.
Was he conscious? If so, was he doing that to reassure them? If he couldn't even speak and his eyes were still unfocused, didn't that mean he was not normal? He could smile? I was worried too, and he was only smiling at her?
-Piiiiiiiiik!!
Countless thoughts arose, but they were all blown away by the sudden whistle Eldmia let out. It was a whistle so loud that, amidst the fierce battle, the gazes of those who had a moment of respite turned toward Eldmia. Some wondering if it was a new signal, some wondering if something else had happened. As they watched, ten needles shot out from Eldmia's waist sash and began to fly above his head.
To someone who didn't know, it might have been an odd sight, but in this serious situation, the thought that most who saw it briefly entertained was a trivial observation that a grindstone for sharpening blades would probably spin a bit more gently than what they were seeing now.
Only two people, who knew what it meant, watched the spinning needles and Eldmia with a sense different from the others.
"Epaga above."
Amidst it all, a low murmur with clear diction flowed from Eldmia's mouth, audible only to Yekaterina and Asilie at close range. Yekaterina was quite flustered by the name of the Demon God that came out of nowhere, but that wasn't the end of it.
"I haven't had my coming-of-age ceremony yet."
Without even a moment for the two to ponder what the hell that meant, the needles, as if taking the flat murmur as a signal, tore through the air with a sonic boom and shot forward.