Wind of the Plague (5)
"Are they cleared out?"
"Yes, Commander!"
Keeping their guard raised as ordered had paid off; dealing with the subterranean vermin surging from the soil posed little threat to the main force. The real problem lay to the rear—with the Academy students, who might not have recognized the unnatural nature of the tremor in time.
The vanguard attempted to pivot immediately to support them, but a scout came skidding to a halt, gasping for breath.
"It's impossible! The earthen slope didn't just collapse—the bedrock supporting the entire tunnel gave way! The path is completely buried!"
"Damn it... We've been completely cut off?"
If the subjugation force dragged its feet trying to retrieve every straggler, the entire expedition risked becoming the epicenter of the Lemterte Plague. The commander had deliberately broadened the formation to carve open a safe route forward, but the fact that these Devourers were burrowing rodents had become a fatal snag.
"How many were separated from the main unit?"
"At a rough estimate... most of the students holding the rear. Judging by reports that a handful of our own squad members were split off with them, the number is definitely higher than before, but..."
"It will be impossible for them to break through on their own. That is what you wish to say, isn't it?"
"...Yes, sir."
Turning back would consume precious time, yet those stranded behind had little time to spare either. Both sides were being hunted by the clock.
Once again, an agonizing choice presented itself: divert resources to rescue an isolated battalion of students who lacked the strength to punch through on their own, or prioritize the main force out of fear that the devastation of the Lemterte Plague would spiral out of control.
Under normal circumstances, the scales would never tip easily. Even so, the commander cast his weight onto one side.
"March for Schytz Province at maximum speed! We will regroup there and dispatch a rescue party via an alternate route!"
It was a gamble—and an unspoken wager placed once again on the shoulders of a single man.
On the far side of the mountain, battle raged where a handful of soldiers from the main force mingled in disarray with the Academy students assigned to the rear.
Though the ambush had erupted without warning, the pandemonium did not last long. Unlike those who fidgeted in panic, gripping their weapons with clumsy, hesitant hands, one person had stepped out before anyone else to meet the demonic beasts head-on.
Once an anchor set the pace and led by example, the rest followed naturally. Without distinction of rank or school, everyone fell into stance, formed a perimeter, and poured everything into holding off the swarm.
Can the mere presence of a single vanguard achieve all this...?
What made it truly astounding was that the vast majority here were unblooded students. If veterans from the main army witnessed this spectacle, they would all ask the same bewildered questions: How had this formation locked into place without a single shouted command or rehearsal? How could an untested rabble of students, possessing at best a single skirmish's worth of experience, react with such unshakeable composure?
Isolated though they were, they were displaying a combat efficiency that defied all expectations.
"Fascinating, isn't it?" Senia murmured from Cain's flank, catching her breath during a rotation. "How a battle can flow like this even when no one agreed on a strategy beforehand."
She watched the frontline with keen eyes before continuing.
"To you, it probably looked like everyone just threw themselves forward on instinct without exchanging a single question, request, or coordination. Am I right?"
"...Yes. That was how it seemed to me at first, which is why I was about to jump in—until you stopped me, Sunbae."
Yet even without Cain stepping in, the scattered pieces had begun to fall together like a puzzle snapping into place, gradually molding into a coherent defensive line. Looking back, Cain realized that had he barged in haphazardly, he likely would have disrupted the rhythm rather than helped.
"That happens to be a certain someone's specialty," Senia said with a wry smile. "It looks like he's just acting on impulse, but he subtly inserts himself into the fray, tuning everyone's breathing, tempo, and positioning to match his own."
"Without any prior discussion...? Is something like that even possible?"
"Hard to believe, right? I didn't see it either until I watched him very closely."
Just as Senia said, it sounded utterly absurd. In real combat, plans frequently fell apart even when mana outputs, roles, and tactical doctrines were meticulously drilled in advance. To orchestrate a battlefield without uttering a single order seemed impossible.
Yet the person making the impossible happen was standing right before his eyes.
The moment that realization struck him, Cain's gaze locked onto Junon.
"Wait, why are you telling me to fall back? Why?!" a student protested from the frontline.
"Because of that cut on your left forearm," Junon replied calmly, deflecting a beast with a crisp swing.
"My left arm? What's wrong with... Wait, when did I start bleeding?"
"You probably scraped it on that jagged pine earlier. Either way, the scent of fresh blood is drawing the beasts straight to you. Step into the rear rank for a few minutes and wait until it clots."
"If you hadn't caught that, I would've been torn to shreds... Thanks, Junon."
Junon pulled the student out of the line, immediately sliding another into the gap to rebalance the formation. Before long, the localized pressure that had threatened to breach that sector eased, and the ravenous frenzy focused on a single target died down.
It was a flawless adjustment, salvaging a line that could have collapsed from the smallest oversight.
As Cain stood slack-jawed, watching Junon dictate the flow of the skirmish, Senia chimed in once more.
"And you remember what I told you about fighting these Scourges? That except for rare cases like Michel or Erika, we have to stick almost exclusively to physical strikes?"
Cain had received that exact briefing from Senia earlier, so of course he remembered. But now, looking at how the entire perimeter was fighting, the truth finally sank in. It had happened so naturally that he hadn't even noticed.
No way...
Don't tell me he orchestrated that too?
Junon was actively steering the entire vanguard toward purely physical engagements just to prevent the Scourges from triggering self-destructive detonations and aerosolizing the Lemterte Plague.
"Now you see why I kept my mouth shut, right?" Senia whispered, her tone carrying quiet conviction. "Follow his lead, and I guarantee every last one of us walks out of here alive."
Cain swallowed hard.
This was no exaggeration. A fierce chill ran down his spine, raising goosebumps across his arms, and his throat bobbed as he tried to steady his racing heart.
"All right, time for us to pull our weight," Senia said, resting her hand on her hilt. "Let's go, Cain."
"...Right behind you."
The students, initially rattled by the sudden ambush, had settled into their proper posts. Following the disciplined movements of their vanguard anchor, they faithfully executed the rhythmic physical strikes they had seen demonstrated.
Thanks to that discipline, not a single Scourge detonated. Though it was a razor-thin balance, the line dynamically managed its stamina to preserve the perimeter, ensuring the defenders did not burn out before the beasts did.
Gradually, the ferocity of the horde began to wane—infinitesimally, but steadily.
Yet very few possessed the battlefield awareness to perceive such subtle shifts.
"We just have to hold out like this, right? Reinforcements are coming... aren't they?"
"Of course they are! Stop whining! The main force will definitely come back for us!"
Those who had stayed silent until now, focusing solely on callouts and rotation cues, began to murmur among themselves. Anxiety had finally begun to gnaw at the edges of their makeshift collective.
An isolated mountain trail. An unexpected onslaught of monsters. The total absence of high command. And reinforcements that showed no sign of arriving.
Fear, as always, proved terribly contagious.
"Damn it all! What good is poking at them with toothpicks?! Get out of my way!"
"Hey! What are you doing?! Don't shove me!"
A man violently shoved aside the cadet blocking his lane. In that instant, the delicately maintained human formation fractured. Through the gaping breach, the man leveled his palms, gathering mana to unleash a blazing sphere of fire.
"We have to wipe them out in one blast! What's the point of dragging this out with dull blades?!"
Of all people, the troublemaker was a regular soldier from the main army who had grown used to clearing skirmishes with brute force. Grumbling about why everyone had been wrestling with cold steel instead of relying on magic, he condensed his mana into a searing projectile.
"You idiot...!"
"Stop! If you use magic now, they'll—!"
Senia and Cain spun around to intercept him, but the spell had already been discharged. Smelling the concentrated mana, the Scourges let out shrill squeals of delight, lunging toward the fireball like moths drawn to an open furnace, ready to detonate.
Yet before the fire could touch them, the flame vanished into thin air.
"W-What?! Who the hell snuffed my spell?!"
A launched spell could disappear mid-flight in only a handful of ways. Either someone had used Reverse Calculation to unravel the mana circuits of the magic formation, or...
"Which bastard did that?! Who touched my magic?!"
Or it had slammed into an immovable barrier.
The fireball hadn't been redirected into the sky or deflected into the dirt; its energy had been cleanly absorbed and neutralized on impact. It wasn't Reverse Calculation. It was an absolute block.
The only person here capable of that kind of defense is...
Junon. There was no one else who possessed the Unique Magic known as Mana Shield.
Still, admiring his technique wasn't the priority. While Junon's intervention had averted the worst-case scenario, the sudden spike of mana had driven the Scourges into a violent frenzy, and the internal disruption had shattered the fragile human line.
Crack!
Senia slammed the butt of her scabbard squarely into the soldier's gut, then grabbed a fistful of his hair, yanking his head down.
"Guh...!"
"Open your damn eyes and look," she hissed, her voice dripping venom. "Look at what you just caused."
"H-Help! The right flank is breaking!"
"We can't spare anyone! Is anyone back from rest?!"
"I can't hold on... Just one more person...!"
"No! It's breaking over here too!"
"Th-This is..." The soldier's face drained of color.
"Because you couldn't keep your hands off your flashy magic, the formation we barely managed to hold together just collapsed. Does that thick skull of yours get it now?!"
Just when a glimmer of hope had appeared, the idiot had slammed the door shut with his own hands.
"Before you go whispering behind people's backs about who got in on connections, take a good look in the mirror and realize how soft your own damn life has been, you brainless fool."
She shoved him violently to the ground. The soldier's expression twisted in sheer humiliation and terror as the full weight of his blunder bore down on him.
Up front, Junon—who had already exerted a massive amount of power—had thrown himself entirely into the breach, forcibly holding the crumbling line together with raw physical grit. The defensive perimeter resembled a rubber band stretched to its absolute breaking point, ready to snap at any second.
Junon knew this better than anyone.
What should they do next? Where should they move? The survival of everyone present hinged entirely on his next words.
So Senia held her ground, driving back the beasts while waiting for a path to life to fall from Junon's lips.
Yet the voice that broke the tension wasn't an order from Junon.
"Wait... doesn't it sound like there's someone else nearby?"
"Yeah! I thought I was imagining it! Those rat squeals aren't just coming from around us!"
At those words, Junon tilted his head, listening intently. Sure enough, beneath the din of their own struggle, the distant, overlapping shrieks of beasts echoed from not too far away.
If another battle was underway, the ones fighting the beasts were far more likely to be human than monster.
"Could it be... the main force? Did they come back to save us?!"
If true, it was the best possible news. If this isolated group could link up with the main army, they could crush the swarm together or bypass the blockage under their escort.
"Let's head toward the sound," Junon called out, making his decision. "If we split into two shifts to buy time, we can fight our way there."
With Junon—the anchor the students trusted implicitly—endorsing the plan, the entire group rallied to push toward the commotion.
Only one person looked sick with dread.
"Senia Sunbae? Aren't you coming?" Cain asked, glancing back.
"Uh... Yeah. Coming."
Senia's eyes darted toward the nearby lake, a cold knot tightening in her chest.
No. It can't be.
Please don't tell me...
Running into the Sirens right here wouldn't be salvation. It would be an absolute catastrophe.
The calamity had spared no one—not even the Sirens.
Accompanied by violent subterranean rumbles, the Devourers had tunneled through the earth, multiplying relentlessly beneath the surface. Yet the threat facing the demi-humans was distinctly different from the scattered vermin plaguing the humans.
Before them loomed the broodmother of the Devourers—a colossal monstrosity with a bulk easily rivaling an entire rocky crag.
How much longer can we endure...?
Every Siren present understood that further retreat was impossible. If they fell back any farther south along the lake, they would cross directly into human territory. And to be discovered by humans was equivalent to a death sentence.
They were not entirely defenseless against the Devourers. By cultivating Hyplisia, they could maintain a natural barrier; the properties of the magical herb made it difficult for the beasts to draw near.
Yet even that defense was reaching its limit. Shanberesh, the towering calamity, shook the earth with its mountainous weight, collapsing the underground tunnels and tearing apart the soil where the Hyplisia bloomed. With every tremor, the future of the Siren settlement grew bleaker.
Just then, frantic footsteps splashed through the shallows.
"E-Elder! You must come quickly!"
"What is it?" the Siren Elder asked, his brow furrowing. "Has Shanberesh resumed its advance?"
"No, it is not Shanberesh! It's... it's..."
Seeing the warrior stammer in such utter disarray, the Elder felt a pang of foreboding. Wondering what could possibly have appeared to cause such panic, he hurried toward the western shore of the lake.
And there, the Elder froze in his tracks.
"What in heaven's name...!"
"What are those things...? They aren't beasts, but they're not human either..."
"Sirens...? Are you kidding me?"
"D-Don't mess around! Sirens here?!"
Before the Elder's eyes stood their most hated enemies: humans, battered and pursued by a shrieking tide of Devourers.