237. Gulliver's Travels (6)
237. Gulliver's Travels (6)
ROOOOAR—
From the enemy camp, the giant threw off its covering and revealed itself.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom!
The giant charged forward, pounding the ground with its feet.
The earth shook as if from an earthquake, and a thick cloud of dust billowed up.
"Wh-what is that...?"
"A m-monster! Those crazy bastards unleashed a monster!"
"Eeeek!!!"
I could feel the soldiers' agitation at the sight of the giant even from here.
The giant was far too fast for its massive bulk.
And at last, the giant's vanguard collided with our forces.
Fwooosh─
The giant, facing the Raitel Kingdom army, swung one enormous arm.
"Huaaaah!!"
"Kuaaaaagh!"
"Hiyaaaagh! A m-monster!!"
Cavalrymen were sent flying far away.
After swatting away only the soldiers mounted on the horses,
the giant grabbed the terrified horses with both hands and brought them to its mouth.
NEEEEIGH!
The horses' mournful screams echoed.
Crunch.
Crunch.
The chilling sound of bones shattering filled the giant's mouth.
Drip. Drip.
The horses' red blood flowing from that mouth created a grotesque spectacle.
*
With the giant at the lead, the Lilliputian forces arrived one after another, following close behind.
The true battle had begun.
And while everyone around me was shouting at the top of their lungs,
'Hm.'
I folded my arms and tilted my head.
'What's this?'
Normally, even if Ga-eul sunbae chose to go to war with Raitel Kingdom as quickly as possible,
the battle shouldn't have been one-sided.
But anyone could see our side was being overwhelmingly crushed at that moment.
And at the center of it all was that giant.
'...Something's off. Has the giant gotten way too strong?'
THUD!
THUD!
Every time the giant stomped a foot, horses and soldiers alike collapsed.
No one could stop that rampaging monster.
If the giant hadn't wasted time snacking on horses every so often,
our side would have crumbled even faster.
I stared at Im Ga-eul, who was clinging to the giant's shoulder, with a dumbfounded expression.
'Seriously, Ga-eul sunbae... what the hell did you do?'
From the way it was moving, it definitely looked like she'd used Acceleration on it...
But even so, the giant had become far too powerful.
'Is it the Fire Dragon Elixir kicking in?'
That probably played a part, but still.
'Don't tell me she went and hauled out every last Magic Stone in the royal palace...?'
For me, who needed to catch as many of the demon's minions hiding here as possible before the war ended,
this was nothing short of alarming.
Because at this rate, the battle would be over in no time.
'I'd better hurry.'
I narrowed my eyes, sharpening my focus on my surroundings.
'Where are you...?'
The suspicious bastards' movements were hard to detect, masked by the shouts of the frenzied soldiers.
'Where.'
I whipped my head around, honing the blade of my consciousness even sharper.
'Where the hell are you?'
That was when it happened.
Shudder.
With my Enhanced Detection trait, I picked up on some foul, unsettling presences.
Turning my head toward the source,
I spotted four skulking bastards in a corner of the battlefield, huddled together with no intention of fighting.
"...This is unexpected. Wasn't that giant supposed to be scrawny and weak because it hadn't eaten anything?"
"Scrawny and weak, my ass! It's not just full of energy, it's completely going berserk!"
"At this rate, forget mutual destruction, Raitel Kingdom is going to be crushed..."
"The plan has failed. We preserve as many of our comrades as possible and retreat."
Retreat?
These guys who were supposed to curse the giant?
'Where do you think you're going?'
Slink─
I pulled my helmet down low
and slipped into the chaotic crowd.
Dark Shadow Step
By killing my footfalls and presence,
the soldiers, caught up in the heat of battle, didn't notice me.
Once I'd moved behind the bastards, I quietly drew my sword.
And then.
SHUNK!
"Gurk─!"
A sword suddenly burst out through one's back and out the front.
The bastard, his heart pierced, let out a short death cry and died instantly.
At that, the one right next to him drew his sword and looked for me,
but I was already hidden again.
"Wh-who's there!?"
"Who the hell did this? We're using Shadow Veil, so they shouldn't have been able to detect us?"
SLICE—
"Guh-haaagh!"
Right then, the head of one guy who'd been standing a little apart went flying.
Two left now.
The woman, who seemed calmer than the other, lowered her voice and spoke.
"...It's an ambush. Someone's hunting us."
"Wh-what do we do?"
"We regroup with our comrades."
'Oh, regroup with your comrades? So if I follow these guys, I can string them all up like sausages, then?'
I concealed myself in the shadows and watched the direction they headed.
'Yeah, you go on and lead me to the rest of them.'
* * *
"Acceleraaaation!!"
Clinging to the giant's shoulder, Im Ga-eul kept hammering it with Acceleration every time the cooldown came back up.
The more she did, the more the giant gleefully rampaged.
"Khahahahaha! My Queen! It is good to be here with you! It reminds me of the battlefields we shared long ago!"
"Urp!"
The giant's shoulder truly had the worst ride quality imaginable.
Im Ga-eul's vision spun, her stomach churned, and she had to dry heave several times.
"Acceleraaaaation!!"
Even so, thinking that the more the giant rampaged on this battlefield, the safer her allies would be,
she simply couldn't stop using the skill.
"This is joy, sheer joy! To have my belly this full, and a battlefield drenched in blood! Truly, you are my dear friend!"
"H-hold on a... Urp! Huh?"
Then, in a single instant, a figure caught Im Ga-eul's eye.
'...Wait, isn't that Yu-ha hoobae?'
His helmet was pulled down low, so she wasn't certain, but she was sure she'd glimpsed a face similar to Jin Yu-ha's.
And what's more, he was wearing enemy army clothes.
'Why is he wearing enemy clothes...?'
She thought maybe she'd been seeing things.
But a face like that couldn't possibly be common in this world.
If it were, the Utopia Party members wouldn't have gone spouting that bizarre nonsense about a Shared Lover.
'Wait a second. Don't tell me my hoobae and I are enemies!?'
If that was the case, things were getting serious.
Im Ga-eul urgently grabbed the giant's ear and yanked it, shouting.
"H-hold on, Giant! Let's go over there!"
"Hm, over there! That's where the enemy general is. My belly is nice and full now. Very well! Let us go catch the leader!"
The giant cried out in an excited voice at Im Ga-eul's command.
"No, n-not that! Oh, fine! Ju-just go!!"
*
'Wh-what is this...? What in the world is that monster...?'
Elena, the commander of the Raitel Kingdom army, stood with her mouth agape, unable to believe the sight before her eyes.
"Kyaaaaagh!"
"Save me!!"
"I-it's a monster! Run away!!"
The Raitel Kingdom army, which had set out with such high spirits, was being brutally crushed by a Lilliputian army of no more than ten thousand.
It felt like a horrific nightmare.
At first, she'd spotted a massive lump covered by a golden cloth among the enemy ranks and assumed it was a peace offering for reconciliation.
She'd likewise judged this declaration of war to be a political move by the Lilliput Kingdom to hold onto power.
Which was why Elena had stepped forward and taken such a hardline stance, determined not to let the Lilliput Kingdom dare even utter a cowardly word like surrender.
But what was this?
What that cloth had been covering wasn't treasure; it was some kind of monster.
Far too fast for its size.
A savage monster that chewed up horses alive.
It was impossible not to be paralyzed with terror at such an inhuman entity.
Elena raised her spear to the sky and cried out.
"Do not flee! The enemy is but one creature! Do not be afraid! The god of victory is with us...!"
But her voice echoed emptily.
No one was listening.
The only thing left at this rate was total annihilation.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.
She saw the giant, in the midst of its slaughter, turning its footsteps and charging straight toward her.
"...Ah."
Thud.
The spear fell from her hand.
'There's no way a human can beat a monster like that...'
In truth, Elena herself had already lost heart.
Plop.
Watching the monster come for her, Elena collapsed to the ground.
'Where exactly did it all start going wrong?'
That was when it happened.
Grab.
"...?"
Without warning, someone seized her by the collar and hauled her up.
"You! What do you think you're doing!?"
The one who had grabbed her collar and lifted her was a long-haired man.
Huff─
Huff─
He was panting roughly, having apparently been focused on the fight until now.
His hair was drenched in sweat.
His face was covered in blood.
He must have skirted death several times on this battlefield.
Elena stared at him blankly.
Then,
Ah.
Her mouth fell open.
She knew that face.
The trainee who had overwhelmingly defeated her in a sparring match days ago.
'His name... was it Jin Yu-ha?'
Yes.
She'd lost to this guy in a spar,
falsely accused him of being a minion of the demon, and ended up getting her nose bloodied by the Minister of Magic.
And then, having volunteered for the battlefield to redeem herself, she'd wound up in this pathetic state.
In other words, he was the root cause of her current situation.
"Get up, right now! Aren't you the commander!?"
But this man was shouting at her.
At that, Elena spoke.
"...We have already been defeated."
A cracked, wretched voice.
"So what! Defeat is defeat, but the people who can live still need to live! If you're the commander, shouldn't you at least give the order to retreat!"
"...Re-treat?"
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The violent sound of the giant's footsteps was drawing closer and closer.
To that, Jin Yu-ha bit his lip hard and dumped Elena back onto the ground.
"I'll hold off that giant! You hurry up and give the retreat order!!"
And then, Jin Yu-ha turned his back and advanced toward the giant alone.
Elena's eyes dazedly followed Jin Yu-ha's back.
'...And I tried to frame someone like that as a minion of the demon.'
Ha.
She was truly stupid,
pathetic,
and utterly worthless, wasn't she?
I, who always babbled on about how men had no business being in the army, had collapsed in despair.
But the very man I had denied was still resisting to the bitter end, even in this despair.
"...Yes, I must retreat. If saving even a few more lives is my final duty."
Stagger.
Elena's body slowly rose.
"Ha. If that trainee somehow miraculously makes it back alive... I'll have to apologize properly."
She picked up the spear she had dropped on the ground.
"All forces─── Retreat!!!"
And she screamed the retreat at the top of her lungs.