Monster Herding (2)
Monster Herding (2)
South of the canyon.
Roar!
Monsters poured down the ramp between the cliffs.
Large and small monsters tumbled down together, tangled up as if rolling. Several were shoved off the cliffs by the sheer pressure of the others.
Thud, thud, thud.
Amid the heavy thuds of falling monsters, those that reached the canyon floor tried to spread out across the narrow gorge.
Yet people stood in their way.
They were the knights of Soroka Fortress.
They stood diagonally across the canyon, south of the ramp, blocking the monsters.
It was an unexpected opportunity.
The knights had absolutely no intention of letting the monsters pass toward the southern fortress or the western rocky mountains.
Clang!
Swords bounced off the monsters' hides, thanks to the mana flowing through their skin.
But the knights didn't stop swinging their swords.
When their swords failed, they blocked with shields and battered the monsters with their armored bodies.
The monsters' advance ground to a halt, and those unable to push forward began moving north through the canyon.
Yet even as this happened, impacts continued to rain down on the knights' formation.
A monster resembling a wild boar charged, slamming its head into a knight's shield and sending him flying backward.
"Fill the gap quickly! The formation must not break! Hold the line no matter what!"
The senior knight commanding the knights from the rear bellowed.
The apprentice knights supporting the formation from behind hastily tried to fill the gap, but it was too difficult for them to manage with their level of skill.
"Ugh!"
The apprentice knights who filled the gap were gradually pushed back.
"You call yourselves aspiring knights, and you can't even hold this? You should at least do as well as the young Princess!"
The apprentice knights, barely holding on, could hardly even reply to the senior knight's words, but the other knights grumbled as they fought the monsters.
"I mean, the Princess fights better than the actual knights."
Princess Aisha was beating down the monsters that slipped past the formation.
Whenever she swung her sword, monsters that didn't even budge against the other knights' blades were riddled with holes and sent rolling across the ground.
"Shut up! Just hold on a bit longer! Why is the guy who got knocked back dawdling? Get back in there before the kids collapse!"
Everyone was struggling, but the atmosphere wasn't bad.
For the order of knights, who hadn't properly faced monsters in recent years, this was a long-awaited chance to truly feel alive.
"Aaargh!"
Ultimately, even the apprentice knights couldn't hold out and tumbled to the ground.
A hole opened in the wall of knights. A monster resembling a wild boar slipped through the breach.
Roar!
Letting out a bizarre roar, the monster that had broken through tried to run toward the opposite rocky mountain, the southern monster path.
But someone still stood in its way.
It was a young girl clad in plate armor.
The girl stood before the monster, gripping a sword fit for an adult with both hands.
Thud!
The monster snorted loudly and charged at the girl.
She raised her sword and watched the charging monster.
Just as its long tusks were about to impale her, she ducked and thrust her sword forward.
Thump.
The dense mana was pierced like a sheet of paper, and the sword impaled the monster's head.
Thud.
The monster brushed past the girl and tumbled to the ground.
The apprentice knights who had been knocked back stared in shock at the monster, killed in a single blow.
"What are you staring at? Move, now! They're still coming!"
The senior knight was surprised too, but there was work to be done.
The Princess's skills were far greater than expected, proving to be a massive help.
If they played their cards right, they might be able to block them all without letting a single one through.
But a knight who had barely managed to compose himself after being knocked back threw cold water on his hopes.
"But isn't it useless to block only this place? The north is fine, but the center must be empty too. The northern path will lead them to the Empire's side, but the monsters coming through the central path will surely move toward the Kingdom in large numbers."
The knight was right.
While it was better than giving up entirely, the fact that the central monster path through the canyon was empty meant the effectiveness of their efforts would inevitably be halved.
Young Lord Glan, who had gone up first, and the student sent from the Academy for the dispatch class remained up there, but expecting anything from them was unrealistic.
Just letting them know that the canyon was empty was already a tremendous contribution.
Come to think of it, he was worried about the Academy student left all alone.
He wasn't worried about Young Lord Glan because of his inherited ability, but the other student was a different story.
The senior knight glanced at the Princess, who had come with the student, but she showed no signs of worry.
She had seemed worried before they set off, but now she didn't seem to care at all.
If the Princess wasn't worried, there was no reason for him to be.
The senior knight stopped his stray thoughts and kicked the lingering knight hard in the butt.
"Our job is to block this place! If you have time to worry about other areas, hurry up and fill the gap!"
At the senior knight's scolding, the knight, who had just downed a potion, went back to take his position.
The wall of knights grew sturdy once more, and the monsters, unable to break through, turned north.
Roar!
The horde of monsters began running along the canyon.
At the same time, I was killing monsters in the center of the canyon.
Ptoo!
Blood spat from my mouth.
I had slashed so many of them that a lot of monster blood had gotten into my mouth.
Since I was spitting out monster blood, it was only natural that my entire body was drenched in it.
Still, I managed to build the wall as planned.
Behind me, a massive pile of monster corpses was stacked high.
These were the monsters I had killed so far.
Countless monsters had been sliced apart with my greatsword and blown to pieces with my divine sword.
Later on, the monsters started avoiding me and fleeing north on their own, making it almost difficult to gather enough bodies.
I looked up at the wall built from the monsters.
Its defensive strength wasn't anything remarkable, but it was more than enough of a corpse wall to make the monsters go around it.
Now, the ramp leading west across the canyon was completely blocked.
The only remaining paths were south and north along the canyon.
Since the Princess and the knights would block the south, the monsters entering the canyon had no choice but to head north.
Now all I had to do was stay here and guard the wall of corpses so it wouldn't be torn down.
The monsters coming down from ahead were already startled by the sight of the corpses before them and turning back toward the north.
Now the monsters would swarm toward the northern monster path and the Empire's fortress at the northern end of the canyon.
Even if the fortress held out, the monsters would pour into the Empire through the northern path.
It would have been enough to just stand by, but since I was already doing this, I figured I might as well do it right.
Since the other kingdoms had suffered because of the Empire all this time, it was only fair that the Empire took a hit for once.
And while I was at it, I could cover my tracks too.
I was quite tired, but my mana was still fine.
There were many of them, but fortunately, no particularly formidable monsters were in sight.
I couldn't tell if only the weak ones had crossed over or if the strong ones were just lagging behind, but thanks to that, I was able to build the wall of corpses with ease.
I wiped my sword to roughly shake off the blood, then spoke to the empty air.
"I'm heading north. Keep up."
I wasn't carrying my backpack.
I had entrusted it to Glan again before fighting the monsters.
A guide, a messenger, and even a porter.
Glan was a truly useful, excellent junior.
I left the central monster path and headed toward the northern path.
People used the term "monster paths" to refer to the three locations where monsters swarmed into the canyon.
They were the three points between the high rocky cliffs on either side of the canyon where there were ramps the monsters could actually traverse.
Whenever the monsters from the Seal Grounds swarmed, the Empire's knights and the knights of Soroka Fortress would struggle against each other to occupy these spots.
And this was the very place where I had wiped out the Empire's knights last night.
When I arrived, the northern monster path was in utter chaos, with monsters pouring through.
Various types of monsters were jumbled together inside the canyon, running wild in all directions.
There were monsters resembling wild boars and deer, and even one that had two heads but looked like a scorpion.
I thought I knew monsters to some extent since I had been to the Seal Grounds several times, but the majority of them were ones I was seeing for the first time.
Although many monsters were moving haphazardly, a massive flow had already formed within the horde.
It seemed the direction of the monsters had been set by those that had headed north while I was building the wall of corpses.
One flow crossed the canyon and headed west.
The monster horde climbed the narrow ramp and was moving west along the Northern Mountain Range once again.
Moving along the northern foothills of the Northern Mountain Range, the monsters traveling this path would eventually attack the southern territories of the Tsar Empire.
Since they were monsters that would attack the Empire, there was no need to worry about them.
The other flow headed north, toward the Empire's fortress.
Countless monsters were moving north along the narrow canyon.
And I, too, moved my feet, following the monsters heading north.
Whoosh.
Arrows rained down like a torrential downpour, and the canyon filled with the shouts of soldiers and the bizarre roars of monsters.
Fireballs crashed into clusters of monsters, and ice spears exploded against those that dug their claws into the walls to climb.
In front of the Empire's fortress, a war between monsters and humans was unfolding along the southern wall.
Fortunately, the humans were holding off the monsters well.
This was because there weren't many monsters climbing the walls, and many officers with inherited abilities still remained in the fortress.
The monsters climbing the walls were either slain or thrown back down.
The soldiers fought fiercely, and the officers' inherited abilities were of great help, but... the main reason the humans could hold off the monsters like this was the sturdy walls and gates of the fortress.
But the situation inside the fortress was not as good as it appeared from the outside.
"We're out of arrows!"
"Damn it, where are the reserve arrows?"
"Kopcha knows!"
"Adjutant Kopcha is dead! Damn it, just swing your spears!"
"When is the order of knights returning?"
"How the hell should I know!"
The officers were unable to properly answer the soldiers' demands and questions.
Supplies were running dry, and the soldiers' morale had hit rock bottom.
Yet, relying on the sturdy walls and gates, they continued to hold out.
As time passed and the fortress remained unyielding despite the continuous attacks, some of the monsters began to turn around and head back south.
The morale of the soldiers and officers rose once more.
"Hold on a bit longer! Time is on our side! The walls will not fall! If we hold out, they will all retreat!"
Even if they retreated, they would only cause damage to other territories of the Empire through the northern path, but right now, they had no leisure to think about such things.
"Hang in there! Hold on a bit longer!"
"We will win!"
Amid the soldiers' shouts at the top of their lungs, a strange sound began to echo.
Creak.
It was unmistakably the sound of a gate opening, the sound of the fortress gate rising.
Startled, everyone looked down and witnessed an absurd sight.
"Wh-What, the gate is opening!"
"What's going on!"
"Block them! The monsters are coming in!"
The gate was rising, and the monsters were beginning to pour inside.
To block the monsters, officers leaped down, and soldiers rushed to close the gate, but... already, the monsters were flooding through the gate like a tidal wave.
I watched from beside the wall as the monsters poured inside.
Though a tragic scene of people dying to monsters unfolded before me, the Empire was an enemy to both me and the Kingdom, so I closed my eyes and turned away.
In the morning, slipping into the fortress undetected would not have been easy.
But amidst this kind of chaos, scaling the wall and killing the soldiers guarding the gate was simple.
After that, it was just a matter of turning the wheel wound with the chains that lifted the gate to open it.
That was how I had opened the gate, and now the monsters were flooding into the fortress.
Although the inner fortress still remained, the Empire could no longer prevent the monsters from escaping the canyon.
Without watching any further, I slipped out of the fortress.
It was time to head back.
That summer, the Empire suffered a massive shock.
Countless territories suffered damage, but even after a long time had passed, the Empire could not figure out why this had happened.
To be honest, even if they had figured it out, they wouldn't have been able to believe it.
For no one would ever have imagined that a single teenage boy had caused such a catastrophe...