Thunderous Defense
Purple lightning cracked across the sky above the city walls. A thunderclap sharp enough to rupture eardrums split the air, sending sparks flying as blood and lava cascaded like a waterfall onto the electricity-charged ground.
“Graaaaaah!”
The owner of that spilled blood shrieked in agony. I smirked at the sight. The wound was deep enough to expose bone, but to a high-tier monster, something like that was nothing.
Whining over a scratch like that?
“Grrrrrrk!”
As expected, the Mountain Dragon’s servant regenerated the injury in an instant and lunged at me with its claws, roaring in fury. The strike was heavy enough to shred my Ikelos armor in a few hits, so I twisted backward to dodge and leveled my sword-spear like a lance. The Ikelos shards that filled the weapon instantly reshaped themselves into the form of a railgun. Lightning coiled around it, serving as the power source, and with a massive explosion the projectile screamed forward.
The servant saw the warhead hurtling toward it at close range and raised its wings like a shield to block. Then it gathered energy deep within those wings and unleashed a breath attack. The moment I saw the fiery blast roaring from its maw, I dropped my stance low and thrust out my free hand.
Ikelos shards exploded outward from my palm, forming a shield in the blink of an eye. The breath slammed into it. The straight-line flame split apart at the shield’s center, spraying in several directions. The force still drove me backward, carving deep furrows into the earth.
“Ha! So even a mere servant is Gold-rank, huh?”
I bared my teeth in a fierce grin, holding firm against the crushing pressure on my shield. I’d faced similar creatures during expeditions beyond the front lines, and they were still nasty opponents. Of course, I’d grown so much stronger since then that I wasn’t worried about losing even if I had to fight alone.
Not that the enemy had any intention of fighting fair.
The instant the breath attack faded, monsters poured in from every direction.
“God, that’s so damn cheap!”
“Kraaaarara!”
Even though flames still rolled across the ground, far too many of them were willing to throw their lives away. I moved while wondering how the hell anyone could control this many monsters at once.
I sliced the upper bodies off three Wood Gore charging from the front, then twisted sideways to evade the silent poison needles fired by a Kiorgh. Next I used Blink to leap into the air, drove my sword-spear into the head of the Gorax that had just rushed the spot where I’d been standing, and spun to cleave a Crephon’s wing in half as it tried to snatch me with its talons.
After neutralizing five monsters in seconds, I kept scanning the battlefield without pause, cutting down everything that came at me. I dodged what I could, deflected what I couldn’t, and when even that wasn’t possible I used the lightning wrapped around my body to neutralize the impact.
This was why I could survive this melee even without proper armor—my custom suit was still being made in Elin’s workshop. The others, however, weren’t so lucky.
“Kyeeeeek!”
“Kyaaaaah!”
The ants threw themselves forward to block, but they were torn apart like paper by the monsters’ forelegs. As the thousands-strong swarm dwindled rapidly, the burden on the warriors fighting alongside them skyrocketed. We managed to hold the charge, but the casualties were too heavy. When the order came to fall back and regroup, the Silver-rank fighters who had descended with me withdrew in sync with the front line.
The only ones left at the clash point were me, the Ruin siblings, and my summons—buying time for the troops to retreat.
The Mountain Dragon’s servant sneered at the sight. It looked like it was mocking me, saying no matter how hard I struggled, I would only be helplessly pushed back and eventually killed. I simply snorted in response.
“Hey, have you ever wondered why Northerners respect warriors so much?”
I ripped apart a charging monster with my sword-spear and stared straight at the servant. My eyes, glowing with captured lightning, curved into a smile that seemed to pierce through everything.
BOOM!
“This is why.”
The First Great Warrior might have created the culture of respecting warriors, but that respect wouldn’t last if the warriors themselves did nothing. A thousand years later, the tradition endured because Northerners believed warriors truly deserved that respect. They fought every day against the deadly environment of the North, protected human lands, and pioneered unknown regions. That was how a society with benefits and rewards incomprehensible to other regions had been built.
Embracing that Northern culture these monsters would never understand, I drew up mana to replenish my depleted lightning. Through the contract threads linked to my soul, a massive current surged in exchange for mana. The electricity enveloping my body began circulating as if alive, forming a defensive barrier. I smiled.
“Guess all that experience I poured in was worth it.”
A Summoner wasn’t limited to living creatures. Or rather, in the original game that formed the root of my Mystery—Argo Saga—you could summon other things as well. Depending on the unlocked skills, you could call forth inanimate objects or even natural phenomena. The early skill tree offered things like giant rocks, but the further you progressed, the more impressive the summons became.
One of them was the lightning now wrapped around my entire body.
With overwhelming current protecting me, I no longer had any reason to hesitate. I rampaged across the battlefield, laughing at the Mountain Dragon’s servant that was warily watching me.
“How’s that? This is pure lightning I pulled from a world made only of thunder. Feels pretty sharp, doesn’t it?”
“Kraaaaaara!!!”
The servant couldn’t understand the words, but it clearly sensed the provocation. It charged in rage. I chuckled at its simple reaction and met it head-on.
It might not be able to touch me, but this thing was a servant born from a named monster that had given even the ancient civilization trouble. Its baseline physical stats were guaranteed, and because its creator was so powerful, its growth potential was enormous. Its attacks were correspondingly fierce.
It had been active for quite a while; it dodged my strikes with nimble grace and never missed a chance to counter. It seemed to have roughly gauged my level during our first clash. The way it avoided direct confrontations while interfering with my monster-killing spree was beyond mere cunning.
Because of that, I hadn’t been able to thin their numbers as much as I wanted. I noticed my lightning gradually weakening like clothes getting soaked in drizzle and my expression hardened. On top of that, because of the fundamental difference between humans and monsters, I had to stay wary of even Silver-rank attacks. There were a lot of things demanding my attention.
I’d expected it to be tough, but this was brutally hard. Ever since obtaining Adela’s mother’s legacy during the expedition, I hadn’t run into mana shortages, but this was the first time since that day my reserves had truly hit rock bottom.
I wanted to drink a mana potion to recover, but I couldn’t find an opening to pull one out. I clicked my tongue every time I checked how much mana was drained each time I summoned lightning.
“Damn it, I might actually die at this rate.”
This cursed Northern environment was impossible to get used to, even after reaching Gold-rank. I kept slaughtering the monsters swarming from every direction while looking for any chance to drink a mana potion.
If the Ruin siblings, my summons, and I didn’t hold the front line, the retreating troops would be overrun and annihilated. We couldn’t pull back quickly. The Silver-rank warriors were simply too valuable for city defense.
So we, the ones with the highest survival odds on this battlefield, would buy them time.
“Hm?”
Suddenly the sky darkened and black rain formed of dark mana began to fall. The scattered black droplets turned into a downpour in an instant. The monsters struck by the rain all writhed in pain as smoke rose from their bodies. Seeing their skin melt away, I looked up at the demons on the ramparts and gave them a thumbs-up.
“Nice assist!”
Area-of-effect magic had come at the perfect moment and saved my life. Thanks to the dark mana, every monster on the ground turned its gaze toward the demons at once. The faces of the demons on the wall went deathly pale.
“We shouldn’t have come here…”
“If it weren’t for the contract, I’d be running away right now.”
“Stop complaining and cast your spells!”
Thanks to the demons’ hard carry, our allies finished retreating and regrouping. Taking advantage of the monsters’ divided attention, we withdrew as well. By the time the belatedly recovered monsters tried to pursue, we had already slipped between the ants.
Having bought some time, I drank a mana potion and resummoned my lightning.
Crackle-crackle-crackle!
This time a blue-white current enveloped my whole body. I let out an admiring whistle when I saw frost forming wherever the lightning brushed the ground.
“That’s actually amazing. Freezing lightning, huh?”
The pure lightning world was full of unique varieties of thunder. One of them was this blue current that carried a cold chill. After reinforcing my defense with the lightning wrapped around me, I activated another skill.
Whoosh!
Flames that seemed capable of devouring everything appeared from empty air. I let out a dry laugh as I watched my mana bottom out again the moment it recovered from the potion, then added fire to my sword-spear.
“Kyaaaaaaaah!”
“They’re coming! Hold your positions!”
The sight of lightning and flames coexisting with aura was beautiful, but I had no time to admire it. I swung my sword-spear frantically at the monsters charging toward our reformed line.
Attacks enhanced with both elements could no longer be ignored even by Gold-rank monsters. Swinging nonstop, I piled up corpses around me. And as the bodies increased, so did the wounds I couldn’t dodge.
No matter how much lightning protected me, I couldn’t nullify every strike. Breathing hard, I glanced back at the city. Our efforts to buy time on the ground seemed to have paid off—the number of flying monsters covering the sky had noticeably decreased. Not many were dead, but the fact that their greatest advantage, flight, had been sealed meant they were now no different from the ground monsters. That was huge.
Having relieved myself of the worry of being attacked from both sky and earth at once, I shouted at the top of my lungs.
“Everyone retreat! Fall back to the ramparts!”
While we drew aggro, the most annoying flying monsters had been dealt with. Only the ground forces remained. This was the last chance to pour long-range bombardment safely before the ants were wiped out, so we needed to get back up the walls quickly.
The ants left on the ground charged the monster legion without hesitation, buying us those final moments. Watching from atop the wall, the demon legion commander roared.
“Now! Forget friendly fire—pour everything you have into inflicting maximum damage! Fire as soon as you’re ready!”
At the quick-witted commander’s shout, attacks of every color erupted from the ramparts.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOOOOM!
As I climbed the wall and watched explosions blanket the earth, I whistled lightly while surveying the battlefield. The relentless barrage was visibly reducing the absurd number of monsters. It was an incredibly refreshing sight.
Yet my expression remained grim.
Because within the bombardment, some monsters stood completely unfazed.
Kiorgh, Nepentula, Elraid, Crystal Spider… Every last one of them was a creature infamous across the land. Seeing them approach the wall, I let out a long sigh.
“Looks like we’ll have to fall back to the second defensive line.”
Against those things, walls were meaningless. Watching the Gold-rank monsters accelerate toward us, I gave the retreat order without the slightest hesitation.