“Ya.”
Our conversation reached a stopping point, and everyone took that as a cue to take hold of their weapons again. I could hear sounds in the distance, coming through all of the Rock Hall’s passages, that seemed to be getting closer. Among them were heavy footsteps and light footsteps, dragging noises, grating noises, and eerie cries.
“It was necessary, but it seems we’ve taken a little too long.”
It seemed that the demons had finally picked up on our intrusion. But it was too late now.
“Let’s go,” I said, holding up my spear. “To take back the Iron Mountains and the country of the dwarves.”
From here, the task was simple. Push forward, farther and farther forward, and cut and kill and slash and slay.
“On the flame of Gracefeel!”
The first thrust of my spear pierced the bat-like wings of the wiry demon in front of me. As it fell, I kicked it as hard as I could. A strong impact shook my greave. I had definitely shattered its skull. Not stopping to check, I swung Pale Moon around again with a shout. I swept aside several smaller demons in one swing, smashing them into a wall and destroying them.
These were strikes with no technique, just pure muscle power, but in a melee like this, going wild and never letting up was a better idea than overthinking things. Get ripped, and you can solve pretty much everything by force.
After smashing and destroying the remainder of the mob as well, fully repulsing the attack from the rear, I turned to look at the others. The group of demons attacking us from the front were being overwhelmed. Pincer attacks are a powerful strategy; however, lacking the power to make the pincer lethal, they had achieved nothing more than splitting apart their own forces, making each side a target for being individually destroyed.
The wide stone passage continued to fill with the crumbling dust of defeated demons. Reystov in particular was displaying incredible fighting skills at the front of the line. He was unstoppable death incarnate. The moment he encountered an enemy, he leaped into range and killed it with a swift thrust straight out of his normal stance. In the rare case that they survived the hit or that several foes charged at him at once, he would chain together attacks and kill them all before they had any say in the matter.
That was all he was doing when it came down to it, but that simplicity was his strength. No matter what kind of enemy came or from where, he would get the first strike and make it lethal. He would crush his opponent with the strongest attack at first encounter, never giving them the chance to dictate the pace of the fight. It was a simple style of relentlessly forcing his greatest strength onto his opponents.
To undo his strategy, one would either have to unleash an incredibly cunning scheme or use simple strength or numbers to give Reystov more than he could handle. But Reystov was a solidly high-level master of the sword, and on top of that, his favorite weapon now packed extra ferocity, having been strengthened by Gus’s Signs among other things. Just now, a few demons had attempted to shoot him and cast magic at him from outside his range, but they crumbled to the ground after being impaled through the throat and spinal cord by his sword’s
“extending thrust.”
Reystov was untouchable. And now, Al was learning a lot from him about how to fight. Al had always been quick at absorbing knowledge, picking up techniques and attitudes like sand absorbing water, but I’d never felt it as strongly as right now.
As if he had copied Reystov’s boldness and simply imprinted it on himself,
Al leaped into dense patches of enemies and swept them away with his Immense halberd before they could manage a response. Its thick and bulky blade was sized like a traffic sign or something from my old world. The sight of Al bellowing as he sliced demons in half with it was pretty amazing to behold.
No matter what enemy appeared, Al would force them to face his phenomenal physical strength and heavy weapon, obliterating all their defenses and sending them flying. That was probably the bedrock of Reystov’s fighting style, and Al had picked it up from him.
Three demons had just come charging at him at the same time. One giant swing of his halberd cleaved them all through the chest. He was like a small tempest.
“There should be a branch coming up next. Take the right.”
Ghelreis, on the other hand, wasn’t getting directly involved much. He just gave us directions as he watched Reystov and Al grow the pile of demon corpses at a frightful pace. From time to time, he would lumber into action and deliver a mighty finishing blow to a demon who was still breathing or use his large shield to cover a tiny gap in Reystov and Al’s defense.
There was absolutely nothing flashy about his work, but it was a great source of relief to know that we had backup waiting, with strength in reserve, who could trade places with us if needed. The reason Reystov and Al were able to go so wild was a result of Ghelreis’s intelligent support. He truly was quietly brilliant.
“Got it nice and easy back here thanks to our tough-as-nails front line,”
Menel said casually while firing his bow. Silver-string produced an airy note, and the glint of the mithril arrowhead shot through the air. At the end of the passage, beyond the darkness and miasma, something gave up a mortal cry. We made our way forward and discovered, in the process of turning to dust, the remains of a Commander-ranked demon shot through the heart.
At a whistle from Menel, winged fairies danced playfully through the air, retrieved the arrow that had come to the end of its flight, and carried it back into his hands. Menel’s gaze as he accepted it was the complete opposite of his casual expression.
He manipulated the elementals of earth to trip up dangerous demons, and he used the elementals of air to prevent his enemies from being able to utter Words.
The support of the fairies was extremely precise, striking directly at critical points and demonstrating Menel’s full potential as the linchpin of our defense.
“And thanks to all the demons piling in, there’s no need to watch out for traps, either,” he added.
It wasn’t all bad news that waves of demons were coming one after another.
The fact that these were passages that demons continued to pour through meant that the dangerous traps must either have been removed or set off by rank-and- file demons. There was little danger to us in following the path they’d already taken. That was the reason I could afford to break up our previous formation and put Al and Reystov, who were very good at forcing their way through enemies, in charge of the front.
“Will, are you okay by yourself back there?”
“Hm? There’s not much pressure coming from the rear. I’ll be fine on my own.”
The demons were launching sporadic attacks from the back as well to pressure us, but these I was handling by myself, eliminating every enemy that came my way.
Demon armies were more of a hassle than human ones. The Soldiers were all savage warriors with no fear of death, and the Commanders were just the same, with the addition that many of them were also users of magic and blessings. If a large number of fearless Soldiers forced me into a chaotic battle in a relatively wide and open place with constant long-range attacks from Commanders and Generals, even I could find myself checkmated.
That was why I had laid out a plan for outflanking our enemy to get inside the tunnel-filled Iron Country. This approach gave us a good chance of victory.
At the risk of repeating myself, if a pincer attack is carried out without the power to make the pincer lethal, it’s nothing more than a division of forces that makes each side a target for individual destruction.
“Rear guard all by yourself and not breaking a sweat. You’re as ridiculous as ever. Gods.”