Chapter 174: Dragon's Eye, Human Heart (38)
Chapter 174: Dragon's Eye, Human Heart (38)
The city was a scene of carnage after the blast swept through.
Craters, presumably the epicenters of the explosions, were gouged into the ground, and dozens of people lay groaning around them. The screaming crowd was beyond counting.
This was an event attended not only by Academy students but also by countless civilians from the city.
Since bombs had essentially gone off in the middle of the throng, the scale of the casualties was impossible to gauge. Even I, who had suspected an attack might occur, was caught off guard.
I never imagined there would be demonic beasts capable of self-detonating.
All living creatures are driven by the fundamental instinct to survive. An animal that triggers an explosion at the cost of its own life—even for a demonic beast—defied common sense.
It would be one thing if they were organisms engineered for a malicious purpose.
If even I was reeling, the others were far worse. The surroundings had already devolved into a chaotic mess of people screaming and fleeing blindly.
It was a poor move. Fleeing the immediate area wouldn't bring the attack to an end.
As if to prove my prediction, the bodies of several cats began to swell. Flesh began to multiply like blisters, soon bloating the cats to several times their original size.
The sight of the cats, covered in lumpy growths, was hideous beyond description. Even their growls sounded like a muddy, boiling broth.
At a glance, there were dozens of them.
Of course, the Homecoming Festival procession included many from the Swordsmanship and Magic Departments, not just non-combat personnel.
No matter how disorganized they were, they were all Academy students whose talents had been proven. If they coordinated their response, they could handle hundreds of demonic beasts.
The problem was their lack of real combat experience and the horrific sight of blood and flesh flying everywhere.
While some groups of third and fourth-years drew their weapons to respond immediately, the majority of the first and second-years were simply screaming and running away.
I slammed my hand axe into the head of a cat beast that was lunging fiercely.
With a sickening crunch, its skull shattered, and blood and brain matter burst out in a wet spray. The hand axe, having crushed the beast's head, immediately flew through the air with a sharp whistle.
Thwack, thwack. The faces of two cat beasts that were pouncing on the fallen wounded were struck in succession. While the monsters recoiled, shrieking, I bellowed at the top of my lungs.
"Don't run! Tend to the wounded first!"
At my thunderous command, several students hesitated before beginning to approach the injured.
They still looked dazed, but they would soon realize that the orders I gave were the best course of action.
I sprinted forward, retrieved my hand axe from the ground, and drew my sword to face the cat beasts.
The two I had struck in the face with the axe were already blinded by the streaming blood, blindly lashing out with their forepaws.
Naturally, such resistance was utterly futile against a skilled swordsman.
In a single step, I severed a cat's forepaw and drove my blade deep into its reach. My raised sword fell like a guillotine, decapitating the beast.
With a clean shlick, the cat's head rolled across the pavement.
A fountain of blood sprayed out, but I didn't care. My body immediately spun in the opposite direction to finish off the remaining cat.
The level of the beasts themselves wasn't particularly high.
The problem was that I didn't know how many of these self-detonating cats were left.
No matter how much a body was reinforced with mana, it couldn't fully withstand an explosion of that magnitude. The students already rolling on the ground and groaning were proof of that.
"First and second-years, tend to the wounded! Priests from the Theology Department, treat the injured, and the Magic Department, start providing support from the rear! Upperclassmen from the Swordsmanship Department, get out there now! Right now! Evacuate the citizens!"
Senior Delphine was responding swiftly, just as I had suggested to her previously.
It looked better for the heir of the Yurdina family to give orders than the second son of a rural viscount who was hated by everyone at the Academy.
As expected, her words carried weight. After Delphine shouted a few more times, the students' movements finally began to click into place.
Several members of Delphine's group were already evacuating the citizens.
Because of the risk of explosions, reducing the population density was the top priority. Only then could I roam the battlefield with a bit more peace of mind.
Every time I wove through the demonic beasts, blood splattered onto my body.
Crushing skulls, severing necks, piercing hearts—I didn't stop until blood, brains, and bone fragments poured out with a wet, squelching sound.
My relentless violence was enough to make some students look at me with terrified eyes.
Those gazes were a mix of admiration, longing, and a hint of fear.
Most of them were underclassmen with zero combat experience. I brushed the blood-soaked hair out of my face, looked at them with a grin, and spoke.
"What are you looking at, you punks? Get your swords moving!"
As if my words were an electric shock, the juniors flinched and immediately raised their swords. I liked their promptness, at least.
Seeing that, I let out a long breath.
I had already cut down over ten beasts. With this much activity, I could afford to catch my breath for a moment.
A catastrophe might have occurred if we had been caught completely off guard, but fortunately, thanks to the quick reorganization, the damage wasn't extensive.
The performance of a few students was particularly noteworthy.
Not just me, but Seria and Celine were also calmly fulfilling their roles. Senior Delphine was also showing brilliant prowess as both a commander and a swordsman.
Senior Elsie was unhesitatingly pouring out the firepower she had prepared in advance.
"...O Light, overflow!"
The white-hot electrical discharge on the ground flared up wildly.
The crackling noise struck my eardrums repeatedly. The shrieks of the cat beasts echoed high into the sky.
And soon, several cats collapsed, smelling of charred flesh.
Sensing my gaze, Senior Elsie turned her face toward me. She brightened and waved her hand at me. I could almost hear her saying, "I did good, right?" like an auditory hallucination.
If she had a tail, it would probably be wagging right now.
I gave a small smirk and tucked away the idle thought. When Senior Delphine made eye contact with me, she gave me a wink.
They were a bit strange, but on the battlefield, they were more reliable than anyone. It seemed I didn't need to worry about this side for a while.
However, if there was one thing that still bothered me, it was the civilians. Unlike the Academy students, they were ordinary people with no combat ability.
Thinking about it now, perhaps it would have been better to push the civilians toward the center of the formation. Seeing that we were starting to gain some breathing room, it seemed we had enough strength to protect them.
Of course, that misconception was bound to be corrected immediately.
I was the first to notice the anomaly.
The sound of flapping wings was unusually loud and frequent. Following the command of my instincts, my eyes blankly turned toward the sky.
A flock of birds was flying. Monstrous birds with black feathers and blood-red eyes, whose names I didn't even know.
Their unusually developed claws caught my eye. And then, the small creatures held in each of those claws suddenly enlarged in my vision as they fell.
They were cats.
Plop. A small cat dropped down.
The vertical trajectory was pointing toward a specific spot. The center of the square formation, where the Saintess and other priests were treating the wounded.
The moment I realized that, a curse escaped my lips.
"Son of a..."
But before I could even finish the thought, my body was flying through the air. There was no time to hesitate.
By the time I pushed through the crowd and reached the Saintess's side, several seconds had already passed.
The Saintess looked up at me with a bewildered expression.
And at that same moment, my eyes met those of the falling cat.
Its pupils spun in a circle, as if mocking me.
I grit my teeth, used my planted foot as a pivot, and batted the cat away with the flat of my blade. The cat's small body soared back up into the air.
But it was too late. Having made that judgment, I pulled the Saintess and the patient she was tending to into a tight embrace.
BOOM!
A dull impact slammed into my back along with a thunderous roar.
It felt like my insides were being shaken apart. It was the price of choosing to shield someone instead of diving away from the explosion. It wasn't a fatal wound, but I was definitely injured.
Blood even threatened to spill from my mouth. My body, having absorbed the shock meant for the Saintess, was blown through the air and rolled across the ground.
A high-pitched ringing filled my ears. For a moment, I couldn't regain my senses.
And when I recovered my feeling, the first sound to hit my eardrums was a scream.
"Aaaah! Kyaaaaak!"
It wasn't just one cat falling. Aside from the one that had been falling toward the Saintess, it seemed several more had dropped in succession.
A few students seemed to have realized the situation after seeing me sprint like a madman, but it was not enough to completely prevent the damage.
Everything was a mess. The center of the formation, where the non-combatants were gathered, was far too vulnerable.
The loss of the priests who were supposed to treat the wounded was particularly painful. Most of those rolling on the ground now were either priests or the previously injured.
Some might be left with permanent aftereffects. No, they'd be lucky if they didn't lose their lives.
My eyes sank gloomily as I thought of that bleak future.
I had been careless. I didn't realize that not just the cats, but even the birds were demonic beasts.
If I had known in advance, I could have stopped it.
What snapped me out of my despair was a pair of hands shaking my shoulders frantically.
When I blankly turned my gaze, the face of a tearful woman was there.
It was the Saintess. Her trembling hands reached toward my mouth, which was leaking blood.
"A-Are you okay?! Oh, oh no... I-I'll treat you now, so just wait a moment. I, I have to treat you right now..."
"Sai—cough! Saintess."
I tried to speak as if nothing was wrong, but it was impossible because I had to spit out blood. Seeing me stumble over my words, the Saintess's eyes shook violently.
She immediately summoned her divine power. She was so panicked that the intensity of the light was incomparable to anything I'd seen before.
It seemed she intended to use everything she had to heal me.
I was grateful, but I immediately grabbed one of the Saintess's hands as she tried to reach for me.
Her startled eyes turned toward me.
"The... the wounded... take care of the wounded first."
The Saintess's eyes went blank for a moment as she looked at me. But I only wore a bitter smile, as if to show I was serious.
And in the next moment.
"...Are you crazy?! You're the wounded one right now!"
Smack! The Saintess's palm slammed into my back.
At the same time, blood sprayed from my mouth.
Naturally, my bravado didn't work at all.
This was a few minutes before I realized the Princess was not in the formation.