Chapter 69
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 69
Chapter Title: Giants in the Mist
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“Run, run you bastards!”
My breath catches in my throat. The damned mask keeps obscuring my vision, my sight blurring. An alarm has sounded in the heart of enemy territory; soon, countless masses of flesh will swarm this location.
The time for moving quietly and carefully between cover was over.
“Dammit, dammit…!”
“Hah… hah…!”
Rough breaths and curses burst from the soldiers' mouths. The soldiers ran with all their might, until they were breathless, the sound of their own panting ringing in their ears. The soles of their feet, poisoned, began to sting. Their skin was likely stuck to the inside of their boots.
They felt the urge to rip off their masks right then and there, but they resisted.
Bel's legs were also trembling, and his breath was just as short.
“Damn it.”
He had trained his body consistently to avoid being a burden on the battlefield, but he was no match for these soldiers, the elite of the elite.
The soldiers were frantic, trying to watch out for the lagging mage while also keeping an eye on their surroundings.
Wooooooooom—!
That massive, unidentifiable sound came again. What had sounded like a ship's horn from a distance grew louder, beginning to resemble the cry of a great whale.
“The target is a hundred meters ahead. Bel, get the parchment out!”
At Menes's command, Bel pulled the parchment from within his robes.
“Finish it within a minute!”
Menes spoke to Bel as if giving an ultimatum. There was no need to explain the danger of lingering in one spot in a situation like this.
“...I'll do my best.”
Bel managed to reply, steadying his breath.
His mask was full of moisture, and the festering skin on his feet was agonizing, but he showed no sign of it.
“Infantry! No time to catch your breath, form up and get ready! One minute, we hold this position for one minute, then we run.”
The moment they reached the target point, Menes began commanding the soldiers. His loud voice vibrated through their masks.
“As we discussed, Bel will not engage in combat! Consider us as having no general-level firepower, understood?!”
In this situation, Bel couldn't use any magic.
On the battlefield, a mage is a top-tier asset, but also the one with the lowest mobility and survivability. For Bel, the most powerful and dangerous of all mages, to risk infiltrating enemy lines was anything but ordinary.
The moment the Mazoku saw Bel's face... no, the moment they saw even the hem of a mage's robe, they would sense something was amiss and begin to search their own ranks.
If that happened, it would only be a matter of time before the scrolls Bel had hidden were discovered, and the entire operation using ‘Bin’ as the ultimate bait would be for nothing.
Bel could not be seen, under any circumstances. That was why he could not join the fight.
“Fuck, Lady Astella, for fuck's sake, please!”
A meaningless cry erupted from the soldiers' mouths.
They could feel death creeping vividly over their skin. They couldn't ignore the sensation.
“Pillar, mountain. Erased space...”
Bel placed the last scroll on the ground and began to chant. Menes pulled a small scroll from his coat and tore it right next to Bel. Ocher smoke billowed from the bisected parchment, concealing Bel's form.
“...This is the worst.”
The soldiers formed a perimeter around the smoke, their blades drawn.
A foolish regret washed over them: *I should have worn armor if I knew it would be like this.*
Soon, that strange cry from before was heard again, and a scream tore from Corporal Citadel's lips.
“Aaaaargh! Hah, ah... Aaaah, I get it. I get it! Just shut up, Danny, this is all your fault!”
Ad and the other soldiers reacted calmly, as if they'd known this was coming. It seemed no one had expected him not to break.
“Right, you can still be saved, right? I can get the mask?! I'm coming, I'm coming now! So just please shut up!”
Corporal Citadel screamed at the empty air, then suddenly began to walk out of the formation.
A few of the soldiers tried to grab his shoulder.
But Corporal Citadel shook them off and glared at them with sharp eyes.
“Traitors! Abandoning a comrade!? A comrade... you abandoned a comraaaade!!”
With those final words, Corporal Citadel raised his blade high and ran off somewhere at full speed.
Ad and the other soldiers stared after him, their faces pale.
In such a desperate situation, no soldier had the luxury of looking after one who had suddenly broken down and deserted the ranks.
Wooooom—
Just then, the ominous pulsing sound once again traveled through their ears and rattled their brains.
For a moment, the infantrymen's legs froze solid.
After the deep pulse that shook their entire bodies, a heavy, profound silence fell.
Only rough, unsteady, and trembling breaths settled over the cold battlefield.
“Wai— No, no! Please!”
Corporal Citadel's voice came through the runes engraved inside their masks. It was desperate and filled with terror.
“Get away, you fucker! Please, please... get away... I'm begging...”
There was the sound of something breaking. It sounded like a mask shattering, followed by another of Corporal Citadel's curses.
“...”
Soon, the desperately shouting voice fell silent.
An eternity passed.
Or perhaps not even a second had gone by.
It was hard to tell.
The infantry stood frozen like stone, breathing raggedly. The wind refused to blow.
Sweat trickled down. Their sweat-soaked skin and leather clothes began to stick together.
“...It's done. Move.”
Bel's low voice reached the ears of the infantrymen, who had been holding their breath in suspense.
It was a sensation like all the tension in their stiff bodies releasing at once.
We can go back.
All we have to do now is run.
Such thoughts flashed through the soldiers' minds.
That was the problem.
Something flew through the soldiers' momentarily slackened guard.
A pure white line cut through the air, flying toward the space between one of the infantrymen's eyes. The timing was exquisite, as if it had been waiting for this very moment.
“Th—!”
The infantryman, whose tension had momentarily lapsed, quickly raised his blade to parry the bone fragment.
The sharply honed piece of bone shattered against the blade, and the soldier who had just seen his life flash before his eyes stood motionless in that posture, as if he'd forgotten how to move.
Wind.
The wind was blowing.
The air currents, which had been frozen solid, finally began to move again. The poison-laden gas spread in all directions, and the smoke from Menes's screen began to thin.
Poof!
Menes tore another piece of parchment and threw it near the thinning smoke.
With that, all the smoke-producing parchments he had prepared for their escape were gone, but it didn't matter.
No matter what, Bel's presence could not be revealed to the enemy.
Thud!
An unpleasant tremor traveled up from the tips of their toes.
The muddy ground rippled like a stormy sea, and the eyes of the living were naturally drawn to the source of the sound.
Ad looked west, the elven lieutenant looked east, and the remaining soldiers looked south and north.
…The unidentifiable sound was coming from all directions.
A moment later, a massive arm came into their view. Its size was so immense that it could probably crush a young dragon in one hand.
The arm, so large it could be called overwhelming, was attached to a body just as hypertrophied. Their mouths were large enough to swallow a small dragon in one bite, and their eyes had long, vertical pupils, like those of a cat.
Compared to their hypertrophied bodies and arms, their lower halves were unimpressive. The mutants' legs, a mishmash of several orc legs, simply dangled powerlessly on the ground like tails.
Ad froze for a moment at the mutant's overwhelming presence.
“Soldiers, break through to the south.”
Bel's cold voice reached Ad's frozen ears.
As the voice echoed in the soldiers' ears, one of Menes's arrows zipped past Ad's.
The sharp arrow flew straight for the eye of the southern mutant.
Five arrows embedded themselves in the right eye of the mutant, its body grotesquely large, and soon an equal number flew into its left eye.
The mutant seemed to feel no pain; though a mixture of blood and vitreous fluid dripped from its eyeball, it didn't let out a single groan, nor did it close its eyelid.
Menes instantly turned and launched the same attack on the eastern mutant.
The reason he was so fixated on their eyes was simple. Not only were they the easiest targets, but he also couldn't risk them spotting Bel's robe peeking through the smoke.
If they discovered that a mage had infiltrated their lines, the entire operation would be for naught.
That, at all costs, had to be prevented.
“Soldiers, to the south. Fight. Open a path.”
Bel's cold command once again descended upon the battlefield.
“...Fuck, I knew it. We're all going to die.”
“That bastard Citadel... should've slit his throat the moment I had a bad feeling about him.”
“...What's done is done. Thinking is poison right now. Clear your head and focus only on what's in front of you.”
Though their mouths all sang of despair, their eyes and blades were cold and precisely aimed at the monster before them.
They moved forward.
They looked a little lacking to be called spirited and valiant warriors. Their arms and legs trembled, their eyes were bloodshot, and their mouths cried out in despair.
But they moved forward.
One step at a time.
“All of you, die here.”
A cold pressure that paid no heed to the soldiers' feelings once again rang in their ears.
For a moment, Ad was seized by the impulse to turn his blade and stab the mage hiding in the smoke.
“I'm counting on you.”
…But the impulse that had risen from deep within soon subsided.
“Heh.”
“Guess you hear all sorts of things when you're about to die.”
Splash!
The soles of their boots hit the particularly thick mud. Muddy water splashed in all directions.
Bwoooom—
The giant's cry overwhelmed the soldiers' ears, but they did not stop.
Muddy water surged up once more, revealing someone's bones hidden beneath.
Soon, the massive monster with the presence of a whale and the tiny human blades stood face to face.
“...”
The soldier at the very front felt despair.
The monster's shadow was so immense that it felt as if his blade couldn't even leave a scratch on its skin.
“Uwaaaaaaah!”
The soldier roared loudly to shake off his despair. He raised his blade and charged forward, stomping through the thick mud.
The mutant raised a giant hand, large enough to easily crush a house or two. A considerable amount of mud fell from its palm.
CRASH!
The hand slammed down onto the ground with incredible speed, belying its size.
And just like that, the roaring soldier was gone.