The Gunlance Tears the Wyvern
The Karon Territory is a vast granary.
However, the outer reaches of the territory, except for the side facing the Espada Kingdom, are packed with rugged mountain ranges and dense forests. This forms a natural fortress wall encircling the land.
It was precisely this geographical characteristic that allowed the late Count Kelrn to secretly hide a monster farm deep within the mountains without anyone knowing.
"This way."
Guided by Lord Ian, I stepped into the deep interior of the forest with Seria, following Elisa's guidance.
Immediately, we saw ruthlessly shattered trees and footprints.
"The trees have been ripped out by the roots."
Around us, ancient trees that must have grown for decades lay toppled on the ground.
Among them, massive footprints, each as large as a grown man's torso, were stamped haphazardly into the earth.
Seria bent her knees and examined the footprints remaining on the ground.
"The soil inside the footprints hasn't dried yet. It seems they passed through here not long ago."
"Direction?"
"Judging by the direction of the fallen trees, they appear to be just beyond that ridge ahead."
She said this as she stood up and adjusted her grip on the gunlance in her hand.
'She's tense.'
Wyverns have a similar appearance to dragons, but they are much weaker monsters.
Their limbs are short and stubby, making their movement on the ground relatively sluggish.
'Even so, their scales and hide are incredibly tough. Their tails are also venomous.'
Under normal circumstances, wyverns fly through the sky, raining down attacks from above. Hunting one would require an entire knight order to mobilize.
Fortunately, the wyverns currently rampaging through the forest, breaking trees, have all had one wing severed, rendering them completely incapable of flight.
'The gunlance was originally a weapon specialized for hunting dragons.'
Thinking this, we suppressed our footsteps as much as possible and followed the wyvern's tracks up the ridge.
In the wide clearing spread out beyond the ridge, just as Elisa had said, a herd of ten wyverns was gathered, tearing at meat.
'Looks like they hunted some animal.'
Scars remained on the area where one wing had been severed.
Perhaps driven by days of hunger, they were growling viciously at each other, fighting over the prey.
"Go and fight. I'll support you."
"Yes, my lord."
Seria manipulated the chamber of her gunlance, giving the buckshot's loaded state a final check.
—Click.
Having completed her preparations, she firmly gripped her weapon and stepped toward the wyverns.
—Rustle.
A wyvern, tearing at its meat, turned its head toward the sound upon detecting the minute noise.
The wyvern's vertically-slit yellow eyes fixed on Seria.
—Grrrrrr.
Spotting the being disturbing its meal, the wyvern spat out the chunk of meat in its mouth and raised its body.
—KIIIIIIIYYYAAAHH!!
'So that's the sound a wyvern makes... like a pig getting its throat slit.'
With an ear-splitting shriek, it radiated hostility and lunged, its thick hind legs, developed for flight, pushing off the ground and launching its massive body forward.
The sight of it running with only one wing was grotesque.
—Thrum.
A blue aura bloomed across Seria's entire body.
She didn't retreat. Instead, she pushed off the ground and charged head-on toward the wyvern.
The beast's enormous maw gaped wide, as if to swallow Seria's entire upper body, and came crashing down upon her.
In response, Seria instantly put more strength into her lower body, anchoring herself to the ground.
"Hah…!"
With a shout of exertion, she twisted her upper body and thrust the gunlance directly into the wyvern's mouth.
—Thud.
The spearhead, imbued with her aura, pierced through the wyvern's palate and lodged itself deep.
Without hesitation, Seria pulled the trigger attached to the handle.
The gunlance's shot rang out with an explosion loud enough to make eardrums ring.
The dozens of lead balls blasted from the muzzle tore through the wyvern's palate and obliterated the inside of its skull.
"Wow…."
The external wound wasn't large, thanks to the tough hide and scales.
But the interior had been completely turned to pulp — the creature's state was too gruesome to describe.
The wyvern's body lost its center of gravity, pitched forward, and slammed into the ground.
—THUD.
The remaining wyverns, seeing their kin fall in an instant, all stopped moving and stared warily at Seria.
Seria pulled the gunlance from the fallen corpse. Though her movements were still a bit clumsy, she immediately manipulated the weapon's chamber to reload.
—Click.
"Seria."
"Yes, my lord."
"Elisa and I will keep supporting you from behind, so cut loose to your heart's content."
"Understood."
"Hoo… hoo…."
Seria forcibly suppressed her labored breathing, heated by the thrill of battle, and looked down at the weapon in her hands.
'This power is insane.'
No matter how skilled a knight, facing a wyvern would inevitably lead to a tough fight.
Yet she had quite literally blown it away with a single attack.
Nine still remained, but….
'My lord is holding the line behind me.'
There was no longer any reason to be tense.
—KIIIIIIIYYYAAAHH!!
Stimulated by the scent of blood, three wyverns charged forward with grotesque cries.
Seria pushed off the ground and shot forward.
She lightly dodged the tail swung by the first one to reach her.
Then she drove straight into its chest and thrust her weapon in.
—Thud.
As she felt the sensation of the spearhead piercing the hide and penetrating the interior through her hands,
she pulled the trigger, this time a little more naturally.
The buckshot, fired at point-blank range, blew out the wyvern's chest, and it collapsed on the spot.
As Seria pulled out the embedded weapon and was about to reload for the next attack,
another wyvern, bursting out from behind the fallen one, lunged at her.
"…!"
It was too late to raise her weapon to block.
—BANG!
Ian's shot struck the wyvern that was about to pounce on Seria, precisely piercing its eye.
—KIIIIIIIIIIYAAAH!!
—Click.
Seria plunged her spearhead into the body of the wyvern, which was reeling in pain from its burst eye.
And then, another trigger pull.
Another one bled out and collapsed to the ground.
The battle after that was one-sided.
Seria would charge into the enemy's embrace, thrust, and pull the trigger.
Any threats created by gaps during the reload, which she was still unfamiliar with, were all intercepted by musket bullets flying in from behind her.
How long did they fight like that?
—Kyyyy….
—THUD.
The shot exploded inside the belly of the tenth and final wyvern.
"Hah… hah…."
Seria, gasping for breath and drenched in blood splattered across her body, finally lowered her gunlance.
Watching this, Ian slowly approached and lightly patted her shoulder.
"Good work."
Hearing those words, Seria clenched her weapon with an excited expression and replied in a voice full of emotion.
"My lord… this weapon… it's the best…."
At that time.
Margrave Kraus's office.
"A letter has arrived from the Imperial Palace."
"I see."
Margrave Kraus, the defender of the Empire's border, read through the letter stamped with the Imperial seal, handed to him by his adjutant.
The letter contained news that the Karon Territory had fallen to the Espada Kingdom's army wielding metal rods, a report of Count Kelrn's death in battle, and the Crown Prince's orders to march on the Karon Territory, annihilate the enemy, and reclaim the lost land.
Kraus placed the finished letter on his desk.
"An incompetent fool. To lead a rabble and hand over an entire territory... a disgrace to the Imperial knighthood."
His adjutant, who had been waiting by his side, approached and spoke.
"I am concerned about the Espada Kingdom's weapon mentioned in the Imperial letter."
Kraus scoffed at his adjutant's words.
"Hmph. There's no way a toy like that can beat our territory's knight order."
A veteran soldier who had guarded the border for decades, he did not readily believe in the power of the enemy's weapon described in the letter.
"Our territory's knights are on a completely different level from Kelrn's weaklings. They will close the distance and cut the Espada bastards' throats before those bastards even have a chance to aim their toys."
Kraus rose from his seat.
He picked up his spear, which was propped up in one corner of his office, and gave his orders.
"Summon the knight order immediately and prepare for deployment. We march as soon as preparations are complete."
"Yes, sir."
The adjutant bowed his head in acknowledgment, then turned and walked out of the office.
Four days had passed since handling the wyverns in the mountains with Seria.
During that time, enough gunlances to supply the entire knight order had been completed.
The knights who received the gunlances were diligently training in a temporarily constructed training ground, following Seria's instructions.
"Hyahp…!"
"Hah!"
"Haat…!"
With shouts of exertion, every single knight thrust their gunlances forward in unison.
And simultaneously, they pulled the triggers.
—FFFWOOM!
'Of course, those are blanks for now.'
Since they couldn't waste real buckshot on practice, they were issued blank cartridges that only made a loud noise.
'They're dangerous, too.'
Still, the knights' training attitude was no different from actual combat.
Seria walked back and forth across the training ground, barking orders in a booming voice.
"Lower your stance! Concentrate your aura in your lower body and control it! Again!"
The knights quickly prepared for the next discharge in time with Seria's count.
—Click.
'Their proficiency is climbing fast.'
I was watching the knights' training progress from the platform, nodding, when
I heard urgent footsteps from the entrance of the training ground.
A scout, covered in dirt here and there as if he had fallen while running, opened his mouth without even catching his breath.
"Reporting in! Hoo…! The Imperial army is marching toward the Karon Territory!"
At the scout's report, the shouts that had filled the training ground ceased all at once.
"Did you confirm their size and banners?"
"I confirmed the emblem of Margrave Kraus. It's a large force including a knight order. They are expected to arrive here within three days!"
'Margrave Kraus, huh.'
The unit guarding the Empire's border had moved to recapture Karon.
But….
'Honestly, it's doable.'
Thinking that, I gave orders to the knight order, who were all looking at me.
"Training ends here. All personnel, maintain your weapons and prepare for war."