The Storm (5)

= If you had simply followed me quietly, you wouldn't be in this sorry state. Isn't that right, Successor of the Azure Dragon? =

Forneus, who had escalated all the way to True Name Release, was fuming at Yeon-i for the insult she'd suffered, snarling as she spread her power wide and closed in on me.

Zzzap!

I channeled current into my blade and sent it flooding forward.

Crash!

She deflected my electrified sword with ease, catching it on a spear woven from seawater. Then a single droplet formed in her left hand, hardened into another spear, and she drove it toward Yeon-i with all her strength.

I angled my blade to throw off the spear's trajectory, then heaved it upward to shear the weapon in half and cripple it — and with Thunder Dragon Descent, slammed my right hand hard against the incoming thrust and shook it off.

After all, the matchup favored me by a full step.

Pure distilled water would never have conducted electricity at all — but seawater, laced with salt and countless dissolved metals, conducts far better than fresh.

Even without access to the Authority of Lightning, I judged that the power remaining to me could carry me through the next twelve hours — so I decided to maximize this overwhelming elemental advantage to the absolute limit.

There was no reason left to hesitate.

Five blades of lightning materialized around me.

I sent three of them ahead first, hammering them into the ground where she was about to step so she couldn't move freely, and boxed in her movements.

= Ha! You think something this pathetic is going to scare me? =

Instead, even with her movements constricted, she conjured spears and hurled them.

CLANG!

CLANG!

I batted aside the first and second spears as they came.

To smash the spear that followed on their heels, I loosed a sword-aura in the shape of a thunder dragon toward the front.

The dragon swallowed the three spears streaking after it and shot forward to rend Forneus apart —

= Authority: Forneus — Call of the Waves =

But Forneus drove two spears into the ground, the earth split open, and a wall of water rose from the fissure. The thunder dragon dissolved into it, fading to nothing.

Then again, Thunder Dragon Descent had never been meant to deal direct damage to her in the first place.

It was nothing more than a stepping stone — a way to track her position and stack my skill.

And even if direct damage didn't get through, the paralysis effect was piling up steadily even now.

Only her True Name Release state, with its heightened physical specs, was keeping the effect from showing properly.

Before long, her body would stop answering her.

I kicked hard off the ground and split the wall of water barring my path in a single stroke.

= Authority: Forneus — Summoning of Spears. =

At her gesture, countless spears materialized in the air.

Even at a glance it was an enormous quantity, and they hovered there filling the sky, baring their keen points as they took aim at Yeon-i and me at once.

= I have no more use for you. I don't need a slave like you anymore... so die. =

Her ice-blue eyes went razor sharp, and with a smile that crawled up my spine, she declared my death.

Of course, I had a counter for that attack as well.

The stack was already complete.

The stack of the skill that would drop a bolt of lightning.

BOOM!

The lightning struck squarely onto Forneus's head, and the spears hovering above her fared no better against it — every one of them vanished on the spot.

Forneus herself hadn't escaped the shock either. Gritting through the pain, she tried to put distance between herself and the lightning blades embedded in the earth —

but if she'd forgotten anything, it was that I had planted five lightning blades, not three.

Before she knew it, my lightning blades stood rooted in the very ground she was fleeing toward.

= GYAAAAAAAAAH!! =

Naturally, the moment Forneus trod on a blade, she could not withstand the ferocious current it spewed out.

I had deliberately planted three blades to soak up all her attention.

Then, by throwing around flashy, high-impact techniques like Thunder Dragon Descent, Thunder God's Descent, and Starlight Slash, I made her focus everything on defending against them — and the remaining two blades slipped clean out of her awareness.

And since they were out of her awareness, she had no way of pinning down where they'd landed.

The ground Forneus and I stood on was the sickly yellow domain of Wrath of the Heavens.

Blades of lightning in nearly the same hue were impossible to distinguish by sight alone — so her stepping on one was simply the predetermined conclusion of the play.

Of course, the reason I'd been able to move this freely while leaving Yeon-i behind was this:

the traces of Peach Blossoms in Flight, the technique she'd used before falling into her Mana O-ring state, still smoldered on the ground — and the worthless lesser demons who tried to creep close to her burned up in the sword flames before they got anywhere.

= You... how...! =

= Authority: Forneus — Droplet Soldiers =

Forneus stretched out her arms and scattered burning droplets, and sky-blue soldiers rose slowly to their feet, each clutching a weapon of its own.

Even at a glance, their hostility toward me was unmistakable.

Their faces hadn't been rendered with expressions, so I couldn't read their feelings — but they were her creations, and I had a feeling they were radiating every bit as much fury toward me as she was.

I recalled every lightning blade I'd planted in the ground and gathered them around myself.

Preparing to defend.

Here they come.

Sure enough, just as I'd expected, they rushed me with weapons swinging.

The first soldier, a swordsman, took his blade in both hands, raised it overhead, and swung down in a swift diagonal — I carved him apart before the stroke could land.

The second soldier followed.

He leveled his spear at my chest and thrust with everything he had; I simply tilted my new form to the side and slipped it, and in the same motion my sword punched through his torso, and he burst apart into sea foam.

After dispatching roughly ten droplet soldiers that way, I looked back to find Forneus in a deteriorating state — the paralysis eating at her, compounded by the residual damage of the current she'd stepped on earlier, her strength bleeding away by the moment.

By contrast, I was still in fine shape.

But Yeon-i's condition, above all, was growing worse — and the sword-flame petals she'd scattered with Peach Blossoms in Flight were fading, one by one.

It had become a race against the clock: would Forneus surrender to the paralysis, unable to mount any resistance, and fall to me first —

or would Yeon-i's petals vanish completely, leaving me surrounded?

If there were someone who could guard Yeon-i, I could have pressed Forneus right then and there.

But charging forward trusting a single curtain of sword flame in this situation was a bridge too far.

The supreme demons found the petals distasteful, but they clearly had the endurance to grind through them.

Even now I could see them sending their own underlings trampling over the petals in their masters' stead, whittling the flowers down.

Just as I sank into that dilemma —

Yip!

A wolf's cry rang out from somewhere, and there was Jeongryeong, the wind spirit in her wolf form of teal fur, standing beside me at full spirit.

"Jeongryeong? Why are you here? I distinctly told you to guard the wounded...!"

Yip! Woof!

From her perspective, she must have watched the ambush and lure teams return to their posts, and made a beeline straight for me the moment she did.

So... had two hours already passed?

If I didn't head back now, it would throw off the plan to finish the battle and return to the fortress — and the recovery time we'd be granted would shrink with it, which would bleed into the next fight as well.

So. I would finish this, quickly.

A high spirit could handle a supreme demon without breaking a sweat, after all.

"Jeongryeong. Guard Yeon-i for me."

Woof!

I ruffled the fur of the spirit who barked her understanding with gusto, then turned and walked slowly toward the front.

The stacks of Thunder God's Descent had already passed twenty, courtesy of the droplet soldiers.

Which meant, in other words, that every preparation needed to finally bring down Forneus was complete.

I poured even more current into my blade.

The intensity of the current flowing through it had grown fiercer still under the effect of ten stacks of Thunder God's Descent — I could feel it thrumming in the right hand gripping the sword.

The lightning blades hovering around me had each soaked up a monstrous charge — current enough to kill an ordinary person the instant they touched it.

I locked the blades into formation around me, wreathed my whole body in a current much like lightning itself, and readied myself to charge at Forneus.

= Ugh... why... won't... my body move...?! What... did you DO to me!!! =

Only now did the paralysis spread through her entire frame; she couldn't move at all, barely managing to stay seated on the ground under the protection of her droplet soldiers.

But she must have known it in her gut.

No matter how many droplet soldiers she raised,

their protection would mean nothing.

= S-spare me! I'll do anything you want...! What is it you want? Money...? Glory? Or... my body? That's fine too..! I'll give you everything...! So ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠please... please let me live! =

So this was the creature who, for nothing more than a ruined mood, had hurled spears with genuine murderous intent at someone precious to me — grinning that skin-crawling grin the whole while.

And now she stood before me, clawing for her life?

"...What I want?"

= Yes...! Whatever you want...! =

To Forneus, lost in the fantasy that she might yet buy her way out —

I kicked off the ground, detonated the current from my lightning blades all at once, and lunged forward.

The droplet soldiers raised their shields to shield their mistress.

It was pointless.

My blade, its power swollen by all that accumulated current, could no longer be stopped by anything short of a counter-attribute Authority.

And these soldiers were made of seawater.

They were swept away in a single stroke — and just like the mistress who would soon follow them, they burst into foam and were gone.

"What I want is your death — for laying a hand on the people precious to me."

Forneus, her face brimming with hope mere moments ago, twisted instead into despair as my single stroke sent her head flying.

Zzzap! Crash!

Having taken Forneus's head along with her droplet soldiers in one sweep, the sword still wasn't satisfied — it tore through the air with a shriek of splitting wind before it finally came to rest.

When I turned to look back, all that remained on the wasteland was a single scorched-black line, carved straight and true.

I rushed Yeon-i onto Jeongryeong's back and set off in search of the squad members.

Thankfully, without any particular order from me, the squad had timed their retreat perfectly — the ground bore only the traces of battle with demons,

and not a single human corpse ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was to be found.

Fzzzt...

The current that had wrapped my whole body soon lost its strength and faded away.

Now I truly would have to rely on the Authority of Wind to cut my way out of this encirclement.

But there was nothing to worry about.

Not a single one of ours was trapped — I only had to worry about myself and carve the road open.

What came to swirl around me at last was nothing like the savage current that had hungered to devour everything in reach —

it was a vicious, razor-edged wind, circling and guarding its master: me.

I mounted Jeongryeong just as I was and granted her the Authority of Wind.

Riding the gale that surged in around us, we tore through ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the demons at a blistering pace.

= KYEEEEEEK!! =

The demons lunging out to bar the wolf's path never so much as struggled; they simply died on the spot.

Not something worth losing sleep over.

By the time I had swept back through the gap in the cliffs, the raid team, the ambush team, the lure team, and the 2nd Division had all returned.

"Commander!"

The squad members greeted me warmly at the sight of me.

"Greetings can wait. Right now, see to the wounded first. Do we have any?"

At my question a few raised their hands, but every injury was light enough to treat within the bounds of the Authority of Life.

Fractures were nothing — raise the regeneration enough and bone knits itself right back together.

Thankfully, the battle had ended in victory — we had exceeded the objectives of drawing the enemy's attention, heightening their vigilance, and annihilating a massive number of them...

but the 2nd Division had come within a hair's breadth of catastrophe.

For now, we gathered our survivors and returned to the fortress.

The mood inside the walls was soaring — the battle had gone splendidly, morale was riding high, and soldiers rejoicing in another day of survival wore smiles on their faces.

Arriving at the fortress, the first things I did were to send her — unconscious in her Mana O-ring state — to the medical station, and grant the squad members rest. Then I returned to my tent and turned the situation over in my mind, again and again.

Because no matter how I looked at it, I kept feeling that some piece of the picture was missing.

The 2nd Division had Yeon-i, a tactical commander of real talent, backed by a solid complement of troops — troops of frankly exceptional skill, a genuine elite unit in every sense of the word...

So why had a Sword Master like Yeon-i ended up surrounded by demons there — and simultaneously drained of so much mana that she'd been forced into a Mana O-ring state?

Say the 2nd Division had met a unit of supreme demons, lost, and been encircled — with the squad members trapped inside the ring of enemies.

In that case, most of the 2nd Division should have been dead or hauled off as prisoners, leaving the ranks gutted. Yet every single member had come back.

And at the end of the day, the demon vanguard simply wasn't that strong.

Mid-tier demons at best, maybe the occasional high-tier.

As for Forneus, she herself had said, "I was sent here by my Queen" — so she had likely been the commander leading the vanguard under orders from one of the Seven Deadly Sins, or a Successor of the Four Perils.

So: hypothesis one — they were overpowered in straight combat, isolated, and that's when I found them. Discarded.

Next: the hypothesis that Yeon-i misread the situation and issued an absurd order.

But this one didn't add up either. We had planned out virtually every detail in advance, and judging by the fact that no eruption of sword flame like today's had occurred after the 1st Division's raid team launched their strike...

Then could it be... Yeon-i gave some strange order...?

But that didn't hang together either.

No matter how green a commander might be, nobody orders people to charge recklessly to their deaths with their own soldiers standing in front of them.

This wasn't Second World War Japan, after all.

Today's strategy had been planned with Yeon-i at its center.

Would a person like that... issue an order tantamount to a blind charge...?

This hypothesis, too, made no sense.

Someone prone to giving bad orders could never have spelled out a concrete plan as detailed as today's in the first place.

So the hypothesis that the order was Yeon-i's mistake also fell apart.

Yeon-i, for all her fiery temperament, was unexpectedly the sort who knocked on a bridge twice before crossing it.

Which meant mistakes, likewise, were out of character.

Then... the last hypothesis.

The plan Yeon-i had originally laid out was for her own squad to cut off the enemy's rear support while whittling away at the forces in the back.

And yet... they'd been surrounded by demons, five of her people knocked unconscious, and Yeon-i herself pushed past her limits.

It made no sense at all — and it was the hypothesis I hadn't wanted to reach.

The front line ignored orders and acted on its own. That was the final hypothesis.

And if it were true, everything else fell neatly into place.

Ignoring Yeon-i's orders, the front pushed forward and collapsed;

the line had somehow held under Yeon-i's command, but those five were already ringed in by demons — so Yeon-i went to rescue them, and that was what pushed her too far.

And it wasn't something I could simply dismiss as impossible.

I remembered what Yeon-i had said while dressing down the squad members.

'I and the Commander exist to make sure that in a crisis, you — the squad — get evacuated out first.'

...In other words, Yeon-i had been running command while simultaneously throwing herself into the fray to pull her soldiers out.

Naturally, she'd been so consumed with the struggle of extracting them that the support units never got cut off in time — and far from saving them, Yeon-i herself ended up surrounded.

If she judged that reaching the spot where I was mattered more than carving a road open... and raised her sword flames to blaze a path straight through...!

Then everything fits.

What I couldn't wrap my head around was how this fight had been won at all.

Done slightly worse, the 2nd Division as a whole could well have been annihilated on the spot.

That most of them still made it back alive came down to their quality as an elite unit — and to Yeon-i never once giving up, wringing out her very best to keep issuing orders to her people until the end.

What came after was obvious.

With the 2nd Division destroyed, the rear support never gets cut — the 1st Division is inevitably pushed back, forced to retreat while swallowing heavy losses —

and even if this battle was won through the efforts of those who held the walls,

the odds were high that the next battle would be brutal.

The raid force of fifteen hundred was meant to act as the lure, splitting the enemy's strength — and failing at that role dumped the entire burden squarely onto the defenders.

And so would play out the worst-case scenario I'd feared most all along: the slow erosion, defeat by attrition.

Granted, all of this could be nothing but the fevered product of my own imagination.

It could equally be the result of a bad call from Yeon-i.

The five squad members, too, had been sent to the medical station with injuries roughly on par with hers.

Which meant... in the end, I'd simply have to ask them for the truth and find out.

Two days later.

When word came that Yeon-i had regained consciousness in the medical station, I went to see her —

and heard a story from her that I could scarcely believe.

"What? They ignored your orders?"

She sighed and gave a small nod before continuing.

"Yeah. Honestly, I didn't put much stock in them. I knew perfectly well that mercenaries scatter the moment things go bad — and that they hate being chained by laws or rules of any kind."

"So I didn't even factor them into the front line when I drew up the plan in the first place."

That much was true.

Trying to tell mercenaries — who wouldn't even obey the vice-commander — to stand still and hold the line was preaching to deaf ears.

So her judgment could fairly be called sound. The problem was what came after.

Those mercenaries possessed martial prowess that made the word "mercenary" an insult to the profession.

One at the peak of Sword Expert, four at High.

Blinded by faith in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠their own strength, they failed to hold the line and instead acted selfishly — and in the end, they brought about the very situation where they were the ones encircled by demons.

Even I die when surrounded by thousands of demons.

No matter how weak those demons might be.

With an arrogance and a baseless confidence that even I had never stooped to, they dug their own graves and climbed in.

If it had stopped there, Yeon-i could have simply shifted her tactics toward saving as many of them as possible.

The problem was that those mercenaries wailed and begged to be saved, dragging the knights into it with them, and little by little the whole front line began to crumble.

Yeon-i ordered them to abandon the mercenaries — but that cursed knightly conscience of theirs, the inability to turn their backs on people in danger, put the entire line at risk of being devoured by the demons.

She stepped in herself, intending to break the mercenaries out of the encirclement — but the front was already half-devoured by then, and it was only by giving her absolute best to pull the army back that she managed to salvage most of the survivors.

All of that was fine. But she'd then been surrounded herself by the demons, and had fought her way toward where I was.

In other words: those mercenary bastards didn't just turn order into chaos — they nearly annihilated the entire 2nd Division.

And Yeon-i was part of that 2nd Division too.

If she had been even a little slower, or her judgment had wavered even slightly, they would all be dead.

I swallowed the curse clawing its way up my throat, stroked Yeon-i's head to reassure her, and set my feet toward the medical tent where those bastards were lounging in comfort.

I would need to report this to Ellie as well — but the solution rested on me alone.

I was the commander of the raid force, and I had the duty to resolve this situation.

I stepped inside the tent marked with the number sixteen, and called out the names of the mercenaries who were laughing it up inside.

"Zeke. Gill. Leng. Gasfil. Zidane."

They turned their heads at the sound of their names, looking up at me —

and I pronounced my sentence in a low, level voice.

"You are hereby excluded from the raid force — and from every battle of this Tide of Corruption."

The fate I had chosen for them was indefinite exclusion: barred from taking part in combat, benched until further notice.