Neia leaned out to find her next target, and then she felt something tearing through the air as it approached her, but all she saw was a burst of light.
Is this an enemy magic attack?
Neia froze for a moment. At the same time, she felt a gentle impact from her belly. It felt like something had struck her lightly there.
Startled, she stumbled a step back and then she heard a clattering from her feet. She looked closely and saw something that looked less like a lance than a gigantic arrow ― in other words, a ballista bolt.
Its tip looked like it had been hammered into a right angle by a hammer.
Neia hurriedly ducked back behind the wall. After that, she heard a scraping sound as something huge struck the city walls.
Cold sweat ran down her back.
Neia unconsciously stroked the part of her where she had felt the impact.
She thought of how the Sorcerer King had thrown his sword earlier, and it had been deflected by the bubble of light from Buser’s armor. That would explain what had taken place just now. It would seem Buser’s armor ― which the Sorcerer King had lent her ― had protected her. In other words, Neia’s life had been saved in the nick of time.
Is that some kind of protection from ranged attacks? My chest, shoulders, and belly are protected by the armor, but what about other places? Does that ability have to be activated? No, more importantly, how many more times can I use it? Or has it already been used up?
Without the armor that the Sorcerer King had lent her, there was no doubt that Neia would have been impaled through her abdomen.
That fact sent shudders through her body.
“Huh… huh… huh. Come on, come on, dammit!”
Neia had not entered the radius of 「Under Divine Flag」. She had felt that it was unnecessary because she had the circlet which the Sorcerer King had lent her. That was why she could feel the fear of death like this. However, there were no tears in Neia’s eyes ― instead, she gripped her bow before revealing herself.
She had resolved herself to continue fighting, even if it meant taking the children’s lives. She could not allow herself to lose the will to fight after taking a measly little ballista bolt.
This was to keep the children they could not save from suffering any further. At the same time, it was also to slay the demihumans who had dragged them into battle. The arrow she loosed embodied both these things.
The intention to attack without regard for the children spread from her portion of the wall, until everyone was throwing rocks at the demihumans.
Neia even saw the paladins throwing rocks.
“Bastards! You bastards!”
“Ahh, dammit, those demihumans…”
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!’
“I’m sorry… please forgive me…”
Although those cries of remorse echoed up and down the line, they did not stop throwing their rocks for a moment.
This was the attack made by those people who had accepted that some blood had to be shed to save the highest number of lives.
However, the enemy was far too numerous. By the time they had struck down the front row ― the ones who were using children as shields ― the demihumans had already reached the vicinity of the walls, and they began deploying their ladders one after the other.
While the technologically-backward demihumans could only make battering rams and assault ladders when it came to siege weapons, the truth was that there was no perfect countermeasure against both of those. Several men pushed the ladders away with long sticks and the angels destroyed several more, but regretfully, there were just too many enemies to face.
“How are the firebombs coming? Get the priests to assist with their spells!”
“This is bad! They’ve got a ladder up over there! I’ll be going over, take care of this side for me!”
“Throw those rocks!”
There was a big commotion on top of the walls. The defenders were throwing rocks or stabbing with longspears to repel the demihumans who were clambering up the ladders, but the ladders went up one after the other, and it became difficult to deal with all of them.
Several demihumans nimbly avoided the spear thrusts from the militiamen, instead grasping the spears and pulling their wielders off the wall. Then there were those demihumans like the Armatts and the Bladers, whose natural defensive strength was comparable to full plate armor. They ignored the spears and rushed all the way up.
While the paladins had been trained in combat and could deal with these heavily-protected demihumans, the number of demihumans on top of the walls grew and grew. Any gaps which appeared were immediately filled up.
After stiffening her resolve, Neia leaned out from behind a battlement and shot a climbing demihuman from the side.
It was not Neia’s skill so much as the weapon she wielded which killed the demihumans in one shot. She could slay the resilient Armatts and Bladers because she possessed the Ultimate Shootingstar Super.
Neia’s body was clearly visible as she leaned out, and she was hit several times by stones spat by Stone Eaters. Although those stones could put dents in metal plates. Neia was protected by Buser’s armor. Still, she would probably be bruised and she might have suffered a fracture or two.
Though she was sweating heavily, she did not stop firing on the demihumans for a moment.
I can still do this… I only have enough mana to use the necklace of healing which His Majesty lent me once, so I need to save it!
As she continued landing shot after accurate shot, part of her mind tried to estimate how long she could hold out. After all, Neia’s single use of recovery magic was her trump card.
She pulled an arrow from her quiver, nocked it to her bow, took aim at a demihuman’s head or heart, and then loosed it. She repeated that sequence countless times.
A rock hit her hard enough to knock the arrow from her hand.
Neia hurriedly ducked behind a battlement.
She had dropped her arrow because the Stone Eater’s attack had made Neia’s entire body groan in pain, but that was not the only reason.
Paladins were sword-users. As a squire, she had trained with swords, so even if she knew the fundamentals of archery, she had not spent much time practicing with bows. This lack of practice made her arms cramp up and her fingers ache.
If she could not use a bow, then she would only be getting in the way. It was far too soon for her to use her trump card now, but she had no other way to restore her ability to fight.
“Activate:「Heavy Recover」!”
The mana drained from Neia’s body, and it made her feel a little dizzy. She would not be able to do this a second time.
At the same time, all the pain in her body vanished, be it the cramps in her arms or her aching fingers.
“I can do this!”
Neia leaned out again and continued shooting.
Fortunately, Jaldabaoth’s forces possessed some degree of leadership. Otherwise, the ballistas would have fired on Neia to kill her without hesitation, but since they were being led, they did not shoot for fear of hitting their friendlies.
Neia continued shooting as if she were in a dream. Eventually the hand that reached down to her quiver came up empty.
She looked down in panic and saw that she was out of arrows.
Just then, a scream came from the militiamen.
There was a very strong-looking demihuman standing in front of a ladder. While it was no different from the Stone Eaters who had fired rocks at Neia, its physique was excellent. Though it was no match for Buser, it still radiated the aura of a powerful being.
It held a crude-looking greatsword in its right hand, which resembled a meat cleaver. The other held a helmet that seemed to contain something. It was the head of the paladin which commanded this area.