Exit Pursued by a Bruised Ego
Exit Pursued by a Bruised Ego
1 second.
That was the time it took for the knight to attempt a thrust aimed at Eldmia's heart.
Realizing they had no need for words, the knight's movement was swift and skilled. The intense thrust, capable of piercing even the backplate of an iron-armored foe at close range, closed the distance without hesitation and flew toward Eldmia's leather cuirass. To the knight's eyes, Eldmia appeared unable to mount any proper response, and he was certain that even a belated reaction would still mean a severe wound.
The knight did not perceive it, but it took 0.2 seconds for him to realize that his certainty had been a simple delusion.
And that was also the time it took for Eldmia, matching the knight's thrust, to swing his axe and shear the sword in half like paper.
It was the knight who failed to react, rather. For a movement executed with that much force and speed, one would expect the motion to be large, yet the axe, having sliced the sword, halted precisely, and Eldmia charged with it raised straight up like a lance meant for a charge.
Since it was not a poleaxe, there was no worry of being cut or stabbed, but the weapon boasted such an immense heft that the impact felt through the breastplate was like being struck by a siege ram. While he still could not believe how such acceleration had been produced over such a short distance, the knight's body was launched into the air by the tremendous impact.
The shock transmitted precisely to his solar plexus choked off his breath, and his reaction lagged again. Feeling his body not merely shoved but fully lifting off the ground from the force of the thrust, the knight clicked his tongue inwardly.
'Did he have some technique to hide his aura? What a monster.'
No matter what, he fell. Was there a building behind him? Dying from falling off the wall would be somewhat unsightly, though.
Having attempted a full-force attack on their first encounter only to be overwhelmingly counterattacked, the knight could not even feel resentment. His receding field of view showed the wall, Eldmia's figure, and the soldiers who, having seen the knight brought down in an instant, still bravely charged forward.
But that was not courage—it was foolhardiness or a decision born of despair. The needles hovering behind Eldmia coiled forward like serpents and in an instant bored wind-holes into the soldiers' bodies.
'We were screwed.'
For an ordinary person, it might be different, but with an aura user of that level having invaded, even if he ran unchecked straight to the inner fortress, only a handful could stop him. The knight let go of the sword he had been holding to the end and braced for the impact of the fall, hoping others might yet stop Eldmia.
Fortunately, the impact came far sooner than he expected. The knight, crashing down through a commoner's chimney, briefly felt relief that his neck had not snapped and then lost consciousness.
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Fuck, that thrust was damn fast. Scared the hell out of me.
For a guy playing knight among people who brawled nearly every day, his fundamentals were exceptional. Just like the javelin skills he had shown scaling the wall, given that he immediately went for such a clean thrust, his main weapon might actually have been a spear.
I felt a novelty at finally meeting a knightly figure, but there was no time to savor it. Ordinary soldiers could be cleaned up wholesale with the needles, but since I didn't know how many others at that knight's level were around, it was safer to achieve my objective as quickly as possible.
Giswi, who had blustered at the Envelde mansion, had supposedly possessed skill enough to fight Demonfolk, but that strike just now held a refinement I had never felt from Giswi. Which meant these guys were also skilled enough not to be instantly killed if thrown onto the front lines.
Recalling the coordinated assaults the Ear Hunter's crew had demonstrated, I could never take the joint attacks of such foes lightly.
Still, this wasn't a major city like Kelbast, nor had they gathered wandering knights for a tournament, so there would be five at most. The salary of an aura-using knight didn't exactly grow out of the ground.
Judging that to be manageable, I ignored those who had lost their fighting spirit—stunned by the combo of the ring-out'd knight and the soldiers screaming from the needle wounds—and gauged the distance to the inner fortress while quickly surveying the territory.
The Mekelin territory was moderately sized, with no adventurer's guild in sight, a place that breathed that unmistakable "noble's domain" atmosphere. A self-sufficient pastoral life where travelers didn't come—something like that.
Ogwen used to feel like this, but now it had practically become a commercial city and traces of that old atmosphere were hard to find, so seeing a place like this again felt strangely fresh.
"S-Stop him! You absolutely must not let him reach the inner fortress!"
The shout from someone clad more like a soldier than a knight snapped my mind back from nearly wandering off.
But the effect of having already bored holes in the shoulders or thighs of the comrades who had aimed their blades at me was too great, and the cry scattered emptily into the air. I likewise bored a wind-hole into the shoulder of the one who gave the order, then leaped onto the roof of the nearest building.
Arrows belatedly rained down, but it was no meaningful attack. As I ran across the rooftops, the soldiers guarding the gate surged forward and began chasing after me. Their faces, a mixture of bewilderment and urgency, showed they had never dreamed things would unfold like this.
I too would have had no choice but to imitate Yekaterina without my needles, so it was perfectly understandable. Honestly, I had been a little anxious, but my recent familiarity with needle-work had paid off hugely.
In any case, soldiers with no aura could not match my movements. As the poor souls despaired in the unalterable reality despite their spirited sprint, I widened the gap. Running hard until no more easy-to-leap rooftops remained, I made it all the way to a wide open square in front of the bridge leading to the inner fortress in one go.
"Huh, so they did prepare after all."
Proving they were no third-rate villains, the drawbridge to the inner fortress was raised, and soldiers were arrayed behind a palisade before it. Even now, the outer-wall guards who were huffing and puffing behind me had equipment of a wholly different class, and whether they had trained differently, they did not panic at my sudden appearance but aimed their crossbows with great composure.
No matter how incredible an aura knight's feats might be, they weren't impervious to blades, so a point-blank volley was more than threatening enough. It was a very wise decision.
Thirty crossbowmen in two ranks aligned their stances with precise spacing, likely intending that the moment even a single bolt hit me, a knight would leap out to take my head. It was a little impressive. I used Magic Sight on the off chance a mage was mixed among them. There were no mages, but I confirmed a glint of light wavering on the crossbow bolts they were aiming.
I had no idea what that was, but getting hit by it seemed extremely dangerous... Would the gauntlet's auxiliary function block that?
Hm, if it was ambiguous, I'd just have to test it.
"Fire!"
When the one dressed like a lone knight gave the command, the fifteen crossbows in the first rank spat their bolts.
Of course, I had already launched my body sideways the instant the word 'Fi—' left his mouth. I had no intention of testing uncertain armor performance and turning into a pincushion, so I planned to bring the gauntlet against only a few of those bolts.
Thankfully, because they lacked the concept of a proper beaten zone, dodging a volley aimed head-on at a single person was relatively manageable, though "manageable" only meant my legs would have been full of holes if my reaction or Magic Power output had been lacking.
With the assessment that this was something I couldn't afford to do twice, I poured Magic Power into the gauntlet, and in the split second I brought its barrier to bear against a nicely incoming bolt, the Mana wrapped around the bolt dispersed, and the bolt itself was deflected away.
Truthfully, I couldn't tell whether the bolt was sent flying because the magic was nullified and it took the impact, or whether the Magic Power barrier had solidified enough to block projectiles as well. I'd have to test that properly later.
For now, satisfied with the immediate result, I turned my gaze back to them: the second rank, which had not yet fired, had me in its sights. Though traces of alarm at the movement I'd just shown were visible, the figure of a knight drawing his sword, raising a shield, and charging from among the calmly adjusting men entered my vision.
"Fire!"
It seemed he figured that since I'd likely dodge the second volley too, he might as well seize that brief opening and close in.
Sorry, buddy, but this time it was a straight-up charge.
I poured a bit more Magic Power into the gauntlet, then hunched my body as much as possible and surged forward.
Even having just visually confirmed its performance, facing a projectile hurtling at my face was quite a chilling prospect. However, if I stretched my arm excessively forward to distance myself from the Magic Power barrier, my balance would be thrown off and my response to the knight's attack might be delayed.
Because of that, I had to run as if I was facing flying bullets with a sheet of bulletproof glass erected right in front of my eyes. I could endure it only because I could also see the faces of the visibly flustered knight and soldiers; it was not a good experience.
Their judgment hadn't been bad. The opponent was simply too strong. In a short clash that added up to barely over ten seconds, offense and defense reversed.
The crossbowmen all but threw aside their expensive crossbows, grabbed the shields set beside the palisade, and fell back. Because I had deflected the bolts and charged forward, the knight, faltering as the distance deviated from his prediction, extended his shield instead of his sword. It was a tower shield so thick that, melted down, it looked like it would yield enough for a full suit of armor.
Seeing him move with such a thing held lightly, he was an aura user too.
"I am—!"
But just as he had a damn thick shield in his hand, I had a damn fine axe in mine.
Rather than worry about how to bypass the shield, I readjusted my grip on the axe haft with the intent of seeing just how deep my axe could bite. I swung the axe with all my might from bottom to top and shouted.
"Eldmia Ega!"
Just before the knight's tower shield was planted into the ground, the axe blade flew up, cleaving the dirt. The thunderous roar of axe meeting shield echoed across the square.