Skirmish (4)
The patrol's progress was slower than usual. While the Grand Duke's orders played a part, the primary cause was the unusually high number of monsters obstructing their path today. Georg easily dispatched the beasts lunging at him with swings of his morning star, but he could not shake the growing sense of unease.
"There's a damn lot of them," Georg muttered, flicking away bits of flesh caught in the spikes of his morning star. At his feet lay the messy, scattered corpses of monsters that had thrown themselves at him like moths to a flame.
"It's strange. We haven't seen this many monsters lately, and even compared to when we were actively purging them along the patrol routes, this number is far too high."
Georg nodded and mounted his horse. "The chill in the air is unusual too. We can't rule out the possibility that the Boundary Line is moving south much faster than anticipated. The initial estimate was that the forest monsters were gathering behind the Boundary Line."
After a moment of thought, Rijo, an Evernode knight leading Patrol Unit 3, spoke up. "I think we should pick up the pace and gather at the Eye of the North as quickly as possible. Standing around worrying amongst ourselves is just a waste of time, and I have a bad feeling about this."
"Agreed. My gut's telling me the same." The instincts of knights who had survived their share of battlefields were not to be ignored. Their accumulated experiences acted like subconscious data, serving as an early warning system in similar situations. Georg drew closer to Rijo, his senses on high alert.
"...Georg."
"Yeah. I felt it too." Rijo drew his sword. At the same time, Georg unslung the shield from his back and drew his morning star from his belt. The patrol members following them also raised their weapons, warily scanning their surroundings.
"Tell me we didn't notice them too late."
"No. Those bastards might have been waiting for us to notice them from the start."
Wolves were gathering, leaping over trees and rocks. Even for white wolves, which naturally pack together, they shouldn't have formed a horde of this scale. Rijo and Georg noticed that the wolves' demeanor was strikingly different from usual. Instead of acting like beasts under minimal control, they were moving with the discipline and organization of a human army.
"...What is wrong with those damn wolves?" As Georg muttered, the pack parted. Beyond the path cleared by the white wolves, a massive white wolf—at least half again as large as the others and carrying an air of haughty nobility—stepped forward. The giant white wolf looked at the wary humans and let out a mocking yip.
"The chief was right. He said the moment the humans flooded into the forest would be our golden opportunity."
It's strong. Rijo stared at the beast as its jaws split into a grin, and signaled the soldier behind him. The soldier gave a trembling nod and pulled a flare from the pouch at his waist. Georg quietly stoked his fighting spirit. The monster wasn't so powerful that it was impossible to face alone. However, he worried whether the rest of the patrol could withstand the onslaught of so many wolves while he was occupied with the beast. In that case, he simply had to kill the big one before the white wolves slaughtered the soldiers.
"Fire!" Rijo's sharp command rang out from behind, followed by the screech of a flare soaring into the sky. Taking that sound as his cue, Georg raised his shield and charged toward the alpha white wolf with a deep, roaring battle cry.
Kuenor Strofe faced the approaching shadows. He had been riding his horse like a madman, chasing the three flares that had been fired simultaneously. There were dozens, hundreds of small fry. And two presences that grated on his nerves. Kuenor let out a long sigh, looked back, and commanded:
"We break through quickly. If we waste any more time here, there's no telling what will happen to Patrol Units 3, 4, and 5."
The knights nodded, and Reese stepped up to stand beside the Grand Duke. The Hero should be fine. They had approached the vicinity of Patrol Sector 2, but there was still no sign of the Hero. He had most likely already reached the Eye of the North. Or, like them, he had been blocked.
"They're coming," Reese said softly. Shadows were approaching through the moss-covered trees. The Grand Duke calmly gathered his momentum.
"They told us to watch out for the black-haired human." A talking monster. A massive white wolf emerged from between the trees. A beast of this caliber would be easy to handle. However,
"The chief was right." The half-beast, half-man that emerged from behind it was not someone even Grand Duke Kuenor could afford to underestimate. The werewolf, referred to as the 'chief', bared its claws and glared at Grand Duke Kuenor. This one might tie me down for quite a while. Kuenor grit his teeth and faced the werewolf.
"I am Gut, Legion Commander of the Giants," the werewolf said in a voice so low it was barely intelligible. "Do not think you will leave this forest alive today."
The number of white wolves appearing behind the werewolf was steadily growing. Reese let out a low groan from behind Grand Duke Kuenor and readied his blade.
"I shall take your head, leader of the humans, and present it to him."
"We have no time." Kuenor's voice was low. Slowly, his presence began to dominate the surroundings. The oppressive aura exuded by the hundreds of wolves and the Giant's commander began to be pushed back by the sheer, unadulterated pressure of Kuenor Strofe. Gut snarled, his maw twisting in caution.
"Come at me all at once." At that moment, Aura erupted from the Grand Duke's sword. The mere activation of it made the ground tremble and space itself warp.
"Form up behind me. We annihilate them."
"Yes, Your Grace!!"
The wolves surged forward like a tidal wave, and the Grand Duke's sword cleaved through the air. The wolves within the radius of his Aura were swept away like fallen leaves.
"Not so fast." The werewolf descended in front of the Grand Duke, claws bared. The Grand Duke's face contorted as he saw his blade blocked mid-swing. As expected, this won't be a quick fight. And if the opponent the Hero faced was this strong, the Hero did not yet possess the strength to defeat such a foe.
"The strongest one is mine!!" the werewolf roared, baring its fangs. Grand Duke Kuenor grit his teeth and swung his sword once more.
Crash! Marianne twisted her spear violently to shake off the clinging wolf. Unable to hold on, the white wolf alpha was repelled by the shaft and landed on the ground. Feeling the shaft of her Holy Spear tremble, Marianne readjusted her stance. She had suspected it from the moment it spoke, but the white wolf alpha she was fighting was incredibly strong. Even if she went all out, victory was not guaranteed.
"Lady Marianne... in the sky." Her highly trained senses had already picked up on it. Almost simultaneously with Patrol Unit 4, Units 3 and 5 had also fired their distress flares. This meant reinforcements might not arrive for a while. There was also no guarantee that Patrol Units 1 and 2 weren't currently engaged in battle themselves.
"Hold the line," Marianne said curtly, keeping her eyes locked on the white wolf alpha.
"By now, your comrades must have met our packs as well. Do you like our gift?" Marianne did not answer; she simply lunged forward. The tip of her Holy Spear snaked forward like a striking serpent. The white wolf alpha dodged the spearhead with an agility that belied its massive size.
Marianne didn't try to track the white wolf with the spearhead. Instead, she spun the spear, aiming to thrust the butt end of the shaft into the wolf's throat as its jaws gaped open. Clang! The wolf snapped its jaws shut, biting down on the end of the spear. Rather than fighting the sudden, violent pull on her Holy Spear, Marianne held fast to the shaft and let herself be pulled into the air. Because she had completely relaxed her body, she suffered no damage even when she collided with a tree trunk.
Marianne glanced at the patrol members fighting the white wolves. Under normal circumstances, they could easily handle a pack of white wolves, but there were simply too many of them now.
"Hear my prayer." Marianne's divine power flowed into her Holy Spear. A golden wind whipped up, wrapping around her. The white wolf alpha growled in discomfort, its fur standing on end, fangs bared, and claws extended.
"That power..." Aura enveloped the spear. Marianne checked on the patrol members once more. To prevent further casualties, she had to defeat this beast quickly. Just as Marianne was gathering her momentum, the wolf's eyes gleamed, and it lunged first.
Marianne twisted the spear shaft and thrust her hand toward the wolf's head. The wolf rolled to avoid Marianne's attack, but it was still swept back by the residual shockwave of her divine power.
"How dare you!" the wolf roared, lunging forward with its jaws wide open once more. Its fangs, snapping shut like a steel trap, crushed tree trunks and boulders in its path. Marianne was knocked back as she was pelted by flying branches and debris.
"I will chew you to pieces!" The wolf's fangs clashed against the shaft of the Holy Spear. A metallic ring, impossible for a living creature's teeth, echoed through the air. Marianne frowned and unleashed a flurry of attacks, but the wolf shook its head, parrying her strikes as if its jaws were a sword.
It was fast, heavy, and powerful. Its style of attack was entirely different from a human's spear or sword. Marianne grit her teeth and pulled back her spearhead, only to be rammed head-on by the white wolf alpha charging at explosive speed.
"—!" The shockwave surged back, coursing through her. As Marianne landed back on the ground, her legs began to tremble slightly. The wolf bared its teeth, its snout twisting into a sneer.
"I shall skewer your flesh upon my fangs. And then, winter shall descend upon the world."
Her spell casting was rapid, and the power of her completed magic was formidable. However, for the first time, Daphne found herself worrying that she might run out of mana. The protective barrier she had just cast on a knight faltered again. Another chunk of Daphne's mana was drained to reinforce the barrier.
"...Thank you."
"Just hold on a little longer."
After several wolves were incinerated by Daphne's opening spell, the white wolf alpha changed its tactics and began directly attacking the knights and soldiers. The soldiers, who had been clearing out the wolves with Daphne's support, were forced onto the defensive. Daphne had to pivot from unleashing offensive magic to casting protective barriers before the soldiers and knights could be injured.
As a result, the battle had devolved into a tug-of-war: the white wolf alpha trying to breach the wall of knights to attack Daphne, and Daphne working to erase the remaining wolves.
"Stubborn humans." The situation itself was a stalemate. However, Daphne couldn't be sure how much longer she could maintain this balance. The wolf was merely testing their defenses, snapping at them as if probing for weaknesses, and it felt as though it could break through their line with a sudden surge of power at any moment.
"...Let's rotate, Captain. You need to conserve your Aura. If you fall, there's no next line of defense."
"No. I'm fine. Focus on conserving your own strength. Reinforcements must be on their way."
However, the white wolf alpha did not overextend. It merely ordered its subordinates to charge the knights, as if testing the waters. It loomed with an aura that suggested it could strike at any second, but it never actually initiated a full-scale assault. The beasts seemed to know all too well that in a war of attrition, the humans would inevitably lose.
Wolves excelled at the long game. Charging head-on at a reindeer larger than themselves only increased the chances of a failed hunt. To bring down a single reindeer, a wolf pack would pursue it for minutes, hours, or even days, slowly inflicting minor wounds and wearing down its stamina. Only when the reindeer finally collapsed from exhaustion would they bare their fangs and close in for the kill.
In this scenario, the patrol was the reindeer.
Daphne conjured another spell. The image was fire. A wall of flames erupted toward the wolves, incinerating those unable to dodge in time. However, the sheer power of the spell was noticeably weaker than when the battle had first begun. Realizing this, the white wolf alpha bared its teeth in a grin.
"Yes. I figured you bastards would start tiring out about now."
Daphne grit her teeth and poured even more mana into her magic. The wall of fire expanded, scorching the surroundings and completely consuming the wolves that had approached carelessly. Heat haze shimmered amidst the dancing flames. Through the distorted light, the white wolf alpha growled.
"...So you still have enough strength left to struggle. Fine. I can afford to wait. The salvation you hope for will never come."
Daphne ignored the wolf's words. The mana ring formed around her heart spun violently, dredging up the last remnants of her energy. Over the crackling of the flames, the wolf's mocking laughter echoed.
"Struggle all you want. You are merely delaying the inevitable."
The flames began to dwindle. The wolves kept coming from somewhere, seemingly endless. One by one, the shadows of the beasts fell upon the soldiers. Feeling her protective barriers growing faint, Daphne abandoned the wall of fire and redirected her remaining mana into defense. But her mana was already reaching its absolute limit.
This can't be the end. I can't let it end here. Please, somehow, please—!
"...What is that?" Just then, the wolf in front of Daphne growled, looking up at the sky. The wolves that had been lunging at the soldiers, and the blood-soaked soldiers themselves, all stopped and looked in the same direction. A presence, terrifyingly powerful yet incredibly warm, washed over them.
Daphne slowly turned her head to look at the sky. A pure white light, unmistakably radiating from the Holy Sword, and a silver aura she had seen once before, soared into the heavens like a brilliant beacon.