The Promise (4)
Hoofbeats hammered the earth in a single rolling thunder.
A company of knights rode hard as one. There was no mistaking the clean, disciplined aura they carried — and yet a faint weariness clung to them all the same.
It was only to be expected. Until moments ago, these men had been escorting their liege. They had ridden all the way to the Imperial Capital, far from the north, and all the way back again.
By Sien's original order, they should have returned to the castle. The escort duty stacked atop that long journey had more than earned them rest.
But the instant they heard she was heading for a Rift, every last one of them had begged her to take the order back.
"My lady. Allow us to come with you."
"This much fatigue is nothing."
"We humbly beg you — take us into the fight that will defend this land."
Foolish people. Why?
Sien muttered the thought as she rode. There was no one in Lichtenauer who could take her place. Knights who could take theirs, though — those were plentiful. It would take a little time to ready replacements, true, but no one would fault them for handing the duty off. In a fight where life and death hung by a thread, even the slightest gap was fatal. The fatigue that carved such a gap had no business existing before a battle.
The knights who had been escorting her carried that fatigue. There hadn't been a single fight, true enough — but weariness did not only come from combat. They had been away from home for over a month. Exhaustion they themselves might not even recognize could already have settled into their bones.
"We will go, my lady."
And still they had insisted on coming. Sien had not returned to the castle, and so their duty was not finished. Their liege was Lichtenauer, and Lichtenauer was their liege. Whatever they protected, they would be fulfilling their charge.
"…All of you. Promise me."
In the end, Sien had taken every one of them with her, riding once more to defend Lichtenauer.
"Promise me you'll all come back in one piece."
"Need you even ask?!"
Leading the knights who answered with such roaring conviction, taking with her the soldiers Rascal had brought out, Sien pressed swiftly toward the place where the Rift had appeared.
And close behind her, Adel kept pace.
Soldiers locked together in teams of three and four, backs pressed to backs. The teams themselves held a measured distance from one another — a living trap that would impale a demonic beast no matter which way it ran.
"Hold your positions!"
"Scatter and you die! Trust the teams beside you and hold!"
The beasts pouring from the fourth-grade Rift were Kelots. Built like oversized wild dogs and carrying no venom, their true weapon was the pack itself. In the earliest days of the Great War, no small number of knights had fallen to precisely these creatures. Any one fighter could kill a Kelot on individual merit — and yet, faced with fangs that attacked as a single, ironclad swarm, even knights who wielded chakra had been unable to hold.
The way to keep one's life, and then to drive them off, was surprisingly simple. Do as they did. Form a pack of your own, guard one another, and strike as one. Build a herd sturdier and vaster than theirs.
"They're coming!"
"Ready! Stand ready!"
Dozens of demonic beasts came pounding in. The thought of mere dogs charging by the score was already enough to raise the hair on a man's neck. The thought of monsters crawled up out of hell itself doing the same — how many would still be standing their ground?
Green soldiers might well have lost faith in the men beside them, thrown down their shields, and run. Split apart like that, they would have been hunted down one by one.
But the men standing here were no green boys. These were the soldiers of Lichtenauer, the house they called a renowned swordsmanship family — and it was never only the knights who were strong.
"Now! Thrust!"
The instant the beasts punched between the teams, spears lanced in from every side. At a glance the formation looked like islands trapped in a raging current, helpless and still. So long as each team held fast and supported the others, it would not break. If no crack opened, the ones at a disadvantage were the Kelots.
The pack's leader — or what looked to be the leader — threw back its head and howled, as if it had decided that simply tearing through would not be enough. And then, moving as though they were a single beast, the Kelots changed their attack.
"They're trying to reach the village!"
"How far has the evacuation gotten?!"
"They can't have gotten far. We still need to keep them focused here!"
The commander spat a curse. The beasts still had not realized the villagers had already fled. They were threatening to break for the village, shoving pressure onto the line, demanding the formation shatter and chase them.
If the soldiers failed to hold them here — if the people still running for their lives were swept up in the hunt — then even a victory would be no victory at all. Even if they themselves were wounded or killed, the unarmed had to be protected. That was Lichtenauer's will. That was the reason this house existed.
"First squad, third squad! Lower your shields!"
"What?!"
"I don't mean actually drop them. They're baiting us, so we bait them back! Make it look like we're in chaos — like the chain of command is breaking and we're about to act on our own!"
"Y-yes, sir!"
An order to lower shields with demonic beasts at their throats should have been absurd. The soldiers carried it out without a word of protest. That, more than anything, was proof of how deeply they trusted one another.
As if they had been waiting for exactly this, the Kelots swung about at once. The soldiers clenched their teeth as the beasts came crashing in. The bait had worked — but the creatures were far too fast to let the formation knit itself back together.
"First squad, third squad! No time — fall in with the nearest teams!"
A hairline crack ran through gears that had been turning without a gap. It would not show yet. Given time, though, it might. Even the sturdiest shield could shatter from a single fracture.
"Captain! Over there!"
Before any such disaster could unfold, a soldier shouted with bright, fierce joy.
"Reinforcements! The knights have arrived!"
Where he pointed, streaks of light flashed one after another. And then the mournful screams of demonic beasts began to rise.
Chakra — the power only a knight could wield. Blue light poured from the Chakra Disk and spread in every direction, flying like the head of a spear honed to a killing edge. The knights who burst into view split the Kelot pack apart in a single charge. One rush, and a path tore open to either side.
"T-the Family Head?!"
The soldiers' commander had been about to offer his thanks to the knights who had arrived at so perfect a moment. Instead he went pale and bowed in a rush. He remembered her from the recent inauguration of the new Family Head — that gleaming silver hair, those two red eyes. A woman one felt guilty even looking at. There was no mistaking her. This was the new head of Lichtenauer.
I heard she was away. When did she return?
He had never imagined the Family Head would come in person. The house had always held that a head should act with their own hands, but after the recent tragedy he had assumed she would refrain — that she would remain in the rear, at least until an heir was born.
"Are you the commander?"
"Eh? Ah — yes! I am!"
"You held admirably. You have my praise for your efforts."
"I-it is an honor!"
Faced with a sudden and overwhelming enemy, the Kelots drew back as one. Better to go after easier prey than a hunt that would only cost them blood. And that easier prey, of course, was the people still fleeing in the distance.
"My lady! They're heading for the civilians!"
"Don't worry. Nothing will happen. We just need to focus here."
Rascal and the rest of the soldiers had already moved to cover the civilians. All Sien and her knights needed to do was stand with these men and smash the beasts to pieces.
Before long, the Kelots that had broken toward the villagers came streaming back. Something even harder than this line had been waiting for them there. They had understood: waste time chasing civilians, and the knights here would take them from behind. Then they would be the ones being hunted.
So be it. Hunt the humans here, at least. The pack was starving; if they slunk home empty, they would start eating one another. Having reached that conclusion, the Kelots came crashing in from every side.
"Everyone, stay sharp! They're coming!"
Demonic beasts closed in from every direction, a complete encirclement. And yet not a soul on that field looked cowed. The knights, if anything, laughed as they called up their chakra.
"With our liege beside us, what is there to fear!"
"Glory to Lichtenauer!"
The knights stepped forward and lifted the men's spirits, and the soldiers' own fire rose to meet them. After several hard clashes their bodies should have been dragging. Instead they looked sharper than they had at the start.
"Don't forget your promise! I told you clearly — no serious injuries!"
Reminding her people once more of the vow they had made, Sien took her sword in hand and drove it into the demonic beast charging straight at her.
In a stretch of forest a short way from where Sien was fighting, something watched her with savage, glittering eyes.
They were Kelots — the same breed Lichtenauer's people were battling even now. On their leader's order, one pack had been hidden here in secret.
While the rest of the swarm held every human eye and shook the line apart, they would fall on the rear and kill the one who looked like the leader. Any pack that lost its leader lost its center. The beasts traded that understanding among themselves and hurried to ready the strike. The moment the fighting flared again, a gap was bound to open.
A footstep whispered through the grass.
They spun toward the sound. A human was standing there.
The Kelots erupted into a frenzy of barking, closing around him at once. Their position had been found. He had to be dealt with, and quickly. Unlike them, gathered as a pack, this human had come alone, without a single companion.
Even the strongest prey, in the end, was something they brought down as a pack. Perhaps it was the confidence of numbers — or a certainty that felt like the same thing. The Kelots turned as one and lunged.
Pack animals always make the same mistake, Adel.
A comrade who had always loved explaining things had said that to him once.
Once they've got the numbers, they get this surge of confidence. Figure they can beat anyone, no matter how tough. So they bite and tear and raise hell like they're something special.
Steel whispered from its sheath.
But whether you pile up a hundred or a thousand — a mutt is still just a mutt. No matter how big the pack, a dog can never become a wolf.
He had said it perched atop a mountain of demonic beast corpses, cackling as he finished the lecture. Adel had thought, even then, that a man already in heaven, clutching at the comrades who had gone ahead of him, had no business delivering a speech with so little meat on it.
Adel leaped into the heart of the pack.
The forest filled with shrieks.