The Orthoptera Defense (2)
The heart of Lebrant Academy, cutting through the western district of Revrant, was peaceful no longer.
The quiet of the morning had shattered completely with the fall of dusk, devolving into an uproar far worse than any usual campus clamor. Between the sprawling stone halls, human voices tore the twilight silence to shreds.
What filled the academy’s evening air was not idle chatter, but terrified screams.
What on earth are those idiots doing?
If things had gone according to my calculations, defending the perimeter should have been straightforward. As much as they loathed my very existence, applying that specific countermeasure would have made cleaning up mere Orthoptera child's play. No matter how much Aris and Erika despised and scorned me, surely they possessed enough sense to realize that. Human lives were hanging in the balance, after all.
Besides, unlike the previous timeline, there was no shortage of vanguards on the field. Yet here were students screaming in terror. It sounded less like a coordinated defense and more like a total rout.
Damn it... what the hell went wrong?!
Swearing under my breath, I hurried to strap on my protective gear when the rhythmic clatter of hooves echoed from behind.
Clip-clop, clip-clop.
"Found you, Junon!"
"Sylvia?"
There was a high probability the academy grounds were already surrounded by beasts, and she was an ordinary noble student with zero actual combat experience. That was precisely why I had told her to delay heading home and stay put.
"Didn't I tell you there are magical beasts loose out here?"
"I know, and that's why I came. I can help you!"
"Good grief. You think that one straggler earlier was all of them? Listen to me, these aren't the sanitized creatures you fought in mock duels."
Most academy students encountered monsters exclusively through simulated combat, breeding a dangerous complacency where they assumed facing real ones would be just as simple. It wasn't an arrogance unique to highborn nobles, either. Even commoner students tended to look down on real threats, reasoning that surviving a simulation inside the Talbrut Ark meant they were fully prepared.
Then they came face-to-face with the genuine article and realized their folly far too late. I had to nip that naive confidence in the bud right now.
"No matter how high you crank the Assimilation Rate in a simulation, fighting the flesh-and-blood monsters is an entirely different league. Turn around and get to safety while you still can."
I thought that would be enough to make her see reason, but Sylvia stood her ground.
"I fought the Giant Kud Rat during the Start-of-Semester Evaluation, remember? I can handle this!"
"That thing was weakened! If a whole swarm descends on you—"
"Weakened...?"
I caught myself an instant too late.
The Giant Kud Rat in the evaluation had been thoroughly drugged with Mistellis. Sylvia had no way of knowing that, and letting it slip was a massive blunder. I quickly shifted gears to cover my tracks.
"What I mean is, the monsters you've seen don't hunt alone. If an entire pack swarms you at once, you're dead. It's not too late. Head back right now."
Sylvia pouted, her expression tightening into stubborn defiance.
"No."
Her refusal was absolute.
"I promise I won't hold you back. So please... Junon, let me come with you."
"..."
This wasn't the Sylvia I knew. From the term-end exam through the start-of-semester evaluation and up until today, she had almost always yielded to my judgment. For reasons I couldn't fathom, she had listened to nearly every word I said, often going out of her way to complete tasks I told her she didn't need to bother with. She had never outright defied me.
Yet here she was, openly declaring that she would take the field herself, refusing to back down. That stubborn set of her jaw meant she genuinely refused to yield.
With no other choice, I racked my brain for a compromise. In truth, the conditions weren't entirely terrible. I had already verified Sylvia's basic competence when we put down that first monster together, and word had reached me that she had coordinated well with her squad to bring down the Giant Kud Rat during the evaluation. With her fundamentals in place, the odds of a catastrophic blunder were reasonably low.
"Fine. But understand this: even if you see me in danger, you are forbidden from acting on your own unless I specifically order it."
"Wait, but if you're—"
"Lives are on the line, Sylvia. One impulsive move from you could put me in even greater danger, or get you mauled and leave me completely cut off."
"...Alright. I understand. I'll do only what you tell me to do."
At least she wasn't entirely unreasonable.
I understood she was worried about me, but given the sheer volume of the swarm, this was a genuine battle for survival that bore no resemblance to mock training. The fact that several Orthoptera had already leaked into the downtown district meant an enormous horde had breached the perimeter. A disorganized human mob could never triumph against an organized swarm of beasts.
"Listen closely to what I'm about to say, Sylvia."
If we handled this poorly, a single breakthrough by these Orthoptera could push the academy past the point of no return—just like the last time.
"Ughhh... I'm gonna die. Seriously, I'm gonna die."
"Monsters inside the academy? How does that even make sense?!"
I had managed to track down John and Noel, who had been cut off and pinned down elsewhere. Though they whined constantly, both of them were quick learners; relying on the survival instincts drilled into them during the semester evaluation, they had managed to hold out in one piece. But as they lay splayed out on the dirt, gasping for breath, I gave them no quarter.
"Get up. Lying around complaining won't solve a damn thing."
"Hey... we literally just fought off four of those things! Can't we rest for just a couple more minutes...?"
"And while you're resting, what happens when the rest of the Orthoptera break through the line and come charging down this alley?"
John's complaints died in his throat, and Noel snapped his mouth shut before he could chime in.
"We're out of time. We have to rendezvous with the main student body right now. If we don't..."
"If we don't...?" they echoed in unison.
"Every student left back there is going to be butchered like cattle and chewed to pieces. Running won't save you either; you won't get far. Do you honestly think human stamina can outrun magical beasts in an open chase?"
Gulp.
Their Adam's apples bobbed violently. The cold reality had finally pierced their exhausted haze: slacking off meant a gruesome death.
"Goddamn it... why do we keep getting dragged into this crap?"
"I knew something was cursed ever since the evaluation. Must be our damn luck."
Despite their grumbling, they obediently shoved themselves off the pavement, brushed off their trousers, and gripped their weapons tight.
"Alright, so what do you need us to do?"
"We'll do whatever you say. If it's you, Junon... you'll find a way to keep us alive, right?"
Having witnessed what I was capable of during the evaluation, they were ready to put their trust in my lead. I offered a dry smirk before laying out the exact plan I had already outlined to Sylvia.
"WHAAAAAT?!?!"
Both of them nearly jumped out of their boots.
"Junon, use some common sense, will you?! How does that make any damn sense?!"
"He's right, man! We barely took down a few stragglers, and now you're telling us the entire student body can't handle the main swarm?!"
"I'm sorry, but that is the reality. There's a fierce clash happening over there right now, but unless we step in to shift the tide, every last one of them will die. And after them, it's our turn."
"No, no, no! We get that part loud and clear! What we're asking is, what the hell are four extra people supposed to change?!"
"Noel took the words right out of my mouth! If joining the fight is suicide, shouldn't we use the time they're buying to haul ass in the opposite direction?!"
"Except... he literally just told us we can't outrun them. Where would we even run?"
"...Oh. Right."
It was the same harsh truth I had laid out for Sylvia: the academy students alone were incapable of stopping this Orthoptera swarm. That was how it had gone before the regression, and the raw mechanics of the battle remained unchanged.
"Exactly. Running just delays your death. You've both seen how far those bastards can leap, haven't you?"
John and Noel instantly recalled the monstrous spring-loaded jumps of those powerful hind legs. Deep shadows fell over their faces as they shuddered at the memory.
"That leap is our opening. When they launch themselves into the air, their trajectory becomes predictable and they slow down noticeably at the apex. All we have to do is intercept them mid-leap, draw their focus, and buy time."
"Buy time for what...?"
"Reinforcements will arrive. As long as we hold the line until then, we survive."
Realizing that the vanguard's defense had collapsed far sooner than expected, our only viable play was to aggressively manipulate the swarm's aggro. John and Noel stared down into the buckets of sloshing, pungent liquid I set before them, pinching their noses in sheer disgust.
"Ugh... you want us to do this?!"
"Blech... what the hell is that stench?!"
Given what the plan entailed, I couldn't blame them for whining.
Still, you two are far better suited for this.
Sylvia had also grimaced at the eye-watering stench, but her reaction had been fundamentally different from the two boys. While all three of them shared the experience of having faced monsters, John and Noel possessed a crude resilience that Sylvia lacked. The boys merely pinched their noses while complaining, whereas Sylvia had buried her entire lower face in both hands, frozen in place. That split-second hesitation was a world of difference.
These two could handle the mess without freezing up, which meant they could buy the crucial window of time we needed. Once John and Noel set about their preparations, I turned back to Sylvia to brief her on the final stage of the plan.
Magical beasts occasionally breached the borders of the Ardellion Grand Duchy. At the end of the day, they were living organisms adapted to the natural ecosystem, and finding solitary specimens like Kud Rats lurking in rice paddies, wild fields, or dilapidated sewers was nothing out of the ordinary.
Yet no one could have anticipated an entire swarm descending upon Lebrant Academy—the very core institution of the capital, widely considered the safest sanctuary in the entire grand duchy.
"Aris! The vanguard on the left flank is—!"
"Senior Aris...! We can't hold them back any longer!"
"Lady Aris...!"
"Fall back... one more time!"
Rallying what few students she could, Aris had been coordinating a desperate resistance, but the situation was rapidly deteriorating.
"Erika, don't worry about this sector! Tend to the critically injured first!"
"Understood!"
Erika had rushed to join Aris at the East Gate where the initial breach occurred, and they had been locked in bloody combat for over an hour. Given the sheer number of academy students present, they had initially assumed the defense would be manageable.
An Orthoptera was a mere Rank E beast. A single ordinary adult armed with a basic weapon could strike one down. Individually, they posed little threat.
The problem was their terrifying numbers.
No matter how trivial a minion might be, once a pack swelled into an all-consuming swarm, the weight of their numbers became crushing. A veteran, highly trained squad could have maintained formation and held the choke point, but sustaining an extended battle of attrition was proving impossible for panicking students.
—"Why are there so damn many of them?!"
—"We just dumped our highest-tier spells into them! How are there still more coming?!"
—"This is all because you useless frontline idiots aren't holding the line! Incompetent bastards!"
"Shut your mouths and strike down whatever's in front of you!" Aris barked. "Is this really the time to be fighting among ourselves?!"
She had lost count of how many times she had intervened to stop their infighting. Even if it was only a makeshift barrier, this defensive line had to hold. She had warned them repeatedly, yet their panic showed no sign of abating.
And inevitably, the fatal crack appeared.
"What do you think you're doing?! Where are you going in the middle of battle?!"
—"We did our share! We're falling back!"
—"Yeah! Deal with the rest of them yourselves!"
Blood rushed to Aris's head. Are they out of their minds?!
"Are you insane?! If you break formation now, what happens to everyone else?! Hey! Stop!!"
Unwilling to listen to another word, several students forcibly blasted an escape route through the encirclement and abandoned the line. In an instant, the human formation's center hollowed out—leaving Erika completely exposed.
Their cowardice had isolated a single person. And worse, that person was the holy healer responsible for keeping the entire defense alive.
Their selfish desertion had laid bare the heart of the line.
"W-Wait! You can't—!"
"Noooo!!"
In a flash, half a dozen Orthoptera lunged at Erika from all directions.
Crack-boom!
Aris hastily bloomed a crimson lotus, detonating it in a fiery blast. Acrid smoke billowed outward as the shredded carapaces of Orthoptera plummeted and scattered across the flagstones.
However—
"A... ris..."
One had slipped through.
The beast collapsed, but not before its scythe-like foreleg tore through fabric and flesh alike, violently impaling Erika through the abdomen.
"I'm... sorry... cough!"
A crimson spray burst from Erika's lips as blood surged up her throat. It was the exact same color as the viscera running down the jagged limb protruding from her stomach.
"Buffer! Any buffer with mana, get over here right now—!"
No, there was no one left to spare. Merely staying on their feet took everything they had. The only reason the East Gate hadn't fallen immediately was because everyone had pushed themselves past their absolute limits. They had held, been driven back, held again, and retreated behind another campus building when the swarm proved overwhelming.
"Aris, the flank is—!"
"The center is collapsing, Senior!"
"Three of our support mages are down with complete mana exhaustion!"
Cries for orders bombarded her from every angle, demanding to know what to do, but Aris could no longer answer.
Why is... everything spinning...?
She had hit her limit. Her throat locked up; she couldn't squeeze out enough breath to issue a single command. She tried to muster her mana, but her limbs refused to respond.
Mana Exhaustion.
The explosive lotus she had triggered to save Erika had drained the very last drop of her reserves. Pushed far beyond its threshold, her body gave out completely, and the world began to dim.
"Everyone, ────!!!"
Through the encroaching darkness, a thunderous voice pierced the chaos.
Reinforcements...?
It was unmistakably a human voice. She couldn't catch the words clearly, but it sounded like an order directing everyone into a specific tactical stance. It was completely different from the formation Aris had been attempting to maintain, but whoever was speaking clearly understood how to command a battlefield.
"─! ──!"
He was shouting something else, but her vision had grown so milky and blurred that she couldn't even make out his silhouette. Yes, it had to be reinforcements. Perhaps the subjugation forces returning from the exterior had arrived in the nick of time. Who else could step forward to seize command in a nightmare like this?
Something brushed against her hair as the last vestige of strength drained from her frame. A warm, unsettling dampness began to soak into her strands, carrying a sharp, metallic stench.
She knew that smell.
It was blood. Erika's blood.
She had to tell them. She had to tell whoever had arrived that Erika's wound took precedence, that she had been pierced clean through by a beast's foreleg. She wanted to scream with every ounce of life left in her lungs to save Erika first, but Aris couldn't even twitch a single finger.
As her heavy eyelids fluttered shut and dark hair pooled against the cold stone, consciousness slipped from her grasp.
"We're out of time! If you want to live, do as you're told!"
She never heard the rest of his command.