Chapter 36
Chapter 36
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: Black Magic Disaster 7
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The power was extraordinary, even from this distance.
‘Aren’t they making zero effort to hide that they’re from the Herald Clan?’
‘But Azadin seems to be wielding an even stronger Moon Antler Bow than the other Heralds?’
Midiam and Ismail clicked their tongues as they watched Azadin in action.
‘Heralds are definitely trained in tactics and strategy, as well as all sorts of legal affairs. But it’s all just surface-level stuff—without real-world experience, everyone says it’s not enough.’
That was why, after basic training, they went out on missions alongside attendants to learn on the job.
‘But Azadin skipped attendant duty and became a Herald right away—three months in. So how is he this skilled? I heard he even lagged behind in basic training. What the hell kind of training did Elder Kazas put him through?’
Midiam found himself wondering just what kind of training Azadin had undergone.
*********
“Eh?”
Maya gasped in shock at the sheer destructive force of Azadin’s arrow. Azadin nocked another arrow and loosed it once more.
-Thud!
With another resounding impact, the undead collapsed. It rolled across the ground like a pile of trash swept up by a gale.
[Damn. What the hell is this?]
The sorceress watching the scene cried out in alarm.
“Strong take all, right? Let me show you who’s strong.”
[Don’t get cocky, you bow jockey! A few arrows and you think you’re hot shit? Try this on for size!]
At that, the undead went berserk.
“Grrr!”
“Kaaah!”
The undead charged forward at terrifying speed. It was a sight that would make anyone quail. But Azadin showed no fear.
“Bring it!”
Azadin unleashed Aragasa Archery, maximizing his arrows’ power as he fired them in rapid succession.
-Ping!
Each arrow sliced through the air with a whistle, sending the oncoming undead tumbling across the ground. On top of that, the fallen undead became obstacles for those behind them, stretching out the enemy lines.
The end result was that only a handful of undead made it to the front line where Maya, Tarky, and the others waited. Even if the downed ones got back up, the reduced numbers pouring in at once made them manageable for the defenders.
“Ugh, those things are ugly.”
Tarky took up his longsword and positioned himself at the front, while Kaka and Chiko held spears and stood slightly off to the side, ready to support from behind.
Tarky swung his longsword in a wide, powerful arc. Kaka and Chiko covered any openings left by the swing with thrusts from their spears.
Any undead that broke through this wall were intercepted by Holy Knight Maya, armed with the shortsword and shield Azadin had pulled from the junk pile, and cut down.
Fighting while maintaining this systematic formation let them suppress the undead with surprising ease. And what’s more...
-Swoosh!
-Thunk!
In addition to Azadin’s arrows, arrows of considerable power struck the undead. Midiam, unable to restrain himself any longer despite using a hunting bow, had drawn his Moon Antler Bow and started firing.
“Hey.”
“As long as that Holy Knight doesn’t catch on?”
From the look of things, Holy Knight Maya was too tied up in close combat to notice. She probably didn’t have a moment to glance back.
Seizing the opening, not only Midiam but Ismail too had quietly swapped his bow for a Moon Antler Bow and begun shooting.
“Fine. When I say, switch to your bows quick.”
Azadin permitted Midiam and Ismail to use their Moon Antler Bows, then fired off more arrows himself.
*********
Once Azadin, Midiam, and Ismail began unleashing their arrows, the undead couldn’t keep up.
The few that slipped through the arrow storm to reach Tarky’s group were already battered wrecks— a mere brush from a melee weapon was enough to make them lose cohesion and crumble. The only issue was that the piling corpses steadily forced Tarky’s group back.
[You... you bastards...]
The sorceress was starting to panic.
She’d dismissed them as nobodies because of the kid in their midst, but their defense was far tighter than any merchants or mercenaries.
And this defensive formation—it was a real pain.
The obstacles were just flimsy wooden benches, nothing to worry about... except the zombies’ poor mobility meant they tripped and fell trying to clamber over something knee-high.
In the end, her infantry had no choice but to expose themselves to the arrow barrage. Sending in the wyverns was tempting, but they made ideal vessels for possession—losing them here would hurt later. It’d be like sacrificing your queen in the opening moves of chess.
‘Hoarding them will just screw me over. Should’ve thrown every last wyvern in from the start.’
In the end, the sorceress resolved to commit her full hand.
*********
-Growl.
A bear appeared.
It wasn’t a zombie—just a body covered in black spores. Far more lively and swift than any zombie.
It moved with the same agility it had in life. No, it was alive.
And...
-Ueng?!
The wyverns sprang into motion as well. With bears on the ground and wyverns in the sky, she launched a three-dimensional assault.
“Uwah!”
The front line turned to chaos in an instant as the bear charged. Tarky had held firm against humanoid zombies up to now, but he couldn’t help hesitating against a bear’s rush.
On top of that, Azadin’s arrows—which had shredded the other zombies—didn’t pack much punch against the bear.
-Thunk!
The arrow buried itself almost to the fletching, like a javelin. A living bear would’ve gone into shock from the agony alone.
But this bear didn’t care a whit. It barreled onward with the arrow nearly fully embedded, muscles tearing and wounds gaping around it. It didn’t even flinch.
“Eek!”
Tarky tried to dodge sideways, shield and sword raised, but the bear swiped with a forepaw. His shield caught on it, and he went flying like a child’s toy.
He crashed to the ground like a shepherd flung from a rampaging bull.
“Kyaa!”
“Ugh!”
Kaka and Chiko thrust their spears next, but they met the same fate. Their spears snapped in the bear’s charge, and they went tumbling across the dirt.
“Eh!?”
Adjutant Maya panicked and began casting a spell.
-Strike of Heavenly Chastisement!
A hammer of light materialized before her and smashed into the bear before exploding. With a thunderous boom, the bear’s forepaw finally buckled. The shoulder and torso where Azadin’s arrows had lodged tore open, and it went rolling forward.
It was power befitting a King’s Church Holy Knight—and one elite enough to serve as adjutant to a bishop to boot. But the problem was how close she’d been to ground zero.
“Kyaa!”
Maya got caught in the blast of her own holy spell.
‘Idiot?’
When they’d been trapped in the warehouse, she’d said she could smash the door with her magic but would get caught in it herself. Now Azadin understood why. That Holy Knight probably only had that one spell in her arsenal.
Still, thanks to her, the bear was down.
[Damn. Not bad at all! But...]
A horde of undead made from other forest beasts surged in behind the bear.
[I’ve still got plenty of undead left! And!]
While everyone fixated on the bear, the wyverns swooped down from the sky and alighted atop the warehouse roof.
[AHAHA! How do you like that, you Hubris scum? This is the power of the Herald Clan you all despise! How’s it feel getting payback from the one you mocked and scorned?]
She crowed in triumph. But at that moment...
“Sorry, but you clearly know nothing about our clan’s power.”
[What?]
“The power of the clan... is something like this.”
In that instant, the wyverns shrieked and collapsed one after another.
*********
The wyverns had raised their tails—tipped with razor-sharp stingers—high into the air before slamming them down, punching through the warehouse roof and thrusting the stingers inside.
Azadin, Midiam, and Ismail had been firing arrows outward from the eaves or the warehouse interior when the wyverns targeted them, whipping their stinger tails through the holes.
But Azadin pierced straight through the roof and drove arrows into the wyverns’ bellies.
It was a bow so powerful that even against the bear, the arrows had nearly fully embedded. Fired at this close range, it was only natural they’d punch through the wyverns’ torsos and shred their innards.
[What in the world...]
The sheer power and precision to blindly rip apart wyverns through the roof without even looking.
Having slain the wyverns in seconds flat, Azadin burst out of the warehouse.
“Watch closely.”
Azadin drew his bow and loosed at an incoming wyvern.
“Our bows can pluck stars from the heavens...”
The arrow struck true on the wyvern’s wing and sheared through bone as it went.
The calf-sized juvenile wyvern screamed and tumbled from the sky.
“...and the first arrow is struck by the second!”
Azadin unleashed Linked Shots.
Two arrows struck the same wyvern simultaneously, severing both wings.
“By the Emperor’s command, we subjugate even the Divine King. This is who we are—the Aragasa people. ‘Herald Clan’ is just what others call us. If you’re one of us, you ought to call us the Aragasa.”
Azadin said this and shrugged.
[Then you’re...]
“My name is Azadin. 108th Herald of the Emperor.”
[You’re... a Herald? The Emperor’s Herald?]
“That’s right.”
[Ha... hahaha...]
The dying wyvern—and the sorceress possessing it—burst into raucous laughter.
*********
Midiam had once told Azadin that if he could persuade this sorceress right now—win over someone suffering as a slave precisely because she was of the Herald Clan—he’d hold him in esteem.
But he’d added that condition because he considered it utterly impossible. Once someone touched the dark arts, they never went back to who they were.
Those who handled black mana, the power of death, were forever steeped in its stench. They couldn’t help obsessing over death, whether they wanted to or not.
While most living beings focused solely on life, the power of black mana turned people gloomy and fixated them on the boundary between life and death.
Beyond that, how could he suppress and persuade the grudge and resentment of someone abused as a slave?
Yet Azadin sensed a faint glimmer of hope.
It was pride.
Someone abused for being Herald Clan was now getting revenge on the Hubris folk—and boasting of Herald Clan power while doing it. When others drew distinctions around you, your identity had no choice but to solidify, whether you liked it or not.
Discriminated against as a Herald, she’d had no recourse but to fixate on the Herald Clan’s strengths. It was her way of protecting herself.
In that case... for Azadin to persuade this sorceress, he needed to show her the proud face of the Herald Clan.
But was that even possible?
The Herald Clan had lost its pride long ago. Even among them, Azadin was despised. He was nothing more than a humiliated wretch with no right to self-respect.
Above all, the sorceress’s heart was the issue.
How could he persuade a soul so tormented and warped?