Arc 4 Chapter 29 : Second Attack

[Raul POV]

Viera had fired the signal for the others to begin their attack.

That meant all that remained for us was to hold our position against the waves of enemies continuously climbing toward us.

"Quickly! Get up here and kill him!"

"Capture those Imperial dogs and burn their bodies alive!"

The guards at the military outpost began climbing the stairs again.

However, because the staircase was only two meters wide, they had to take turns coming up to confront me.

"Take this!"

One of the guards thrust his sword toward me.

I shifted slightly to the right, grabbed his right wrist with my left hand, then slammed it against the wall, making it difficult for him to attack me with his sword again.

— BAMM!

I kicked him in the chest, sending him crashing backward into the other guards who were attempting to climb the stairs.

Once one enemy was down, two more guards came up at the same time.

This time, they weren't using swords.

They were carrying knives.

Perhaps they had realized that fighting with swords in such a confined space would be ineffective.

"Die!"

One of them lunged at me with a stabbing attack.

I caught his wrist and redirected his arm toward the hand of the comrade standing beside him.

"Arrrhhhgg!" his companion screamed as the knife pierced him.

The wounded guard immediately dropped the knife he was holding.

I caught it and drove it into the knee of the guard who had stabbed him.

"Arrggghh! It hurts!"

I then grabbed both of their heads and slammed them against each other with tremendous force.

— BUKKK!

The two of them passed out and began tumbling down the stairs.

The remaining guards below were about to climb up and attack me again when suddenly an explosion and the screams of people outside the Guard Tower echoed through the air.

"The enemy is attacking us from behind!"

"Quickly, get over here! We need reinforcements!"

It seemed the others had already begun their assault.

Their attack would go more smoothly because we had already drawn the attention of everyone in the area.

The guards inside the Guard Tower began rushing outside, leaving only five men behind.

I jumped down from the staircase and slammed both knees into the face of one of the guards.

— Bruk!

He immediately collapsed unconscious, blood flowing from his nose.

"Attack him!"

The four remaining guards charged toward me.

I drew a dagger in my right hand and a karambit in my left.

One of them swung his sword diagonally, but I deflected the blade with the dagger in my right hand.

— Splurttt!

I tore open his throat with the karambit in my left hand, sending him crashing to the floor in a pool of blood.

Seeing another one of their comrades fall, the remaining three guards attacked me simultaneously.

My eyes focused on each of their swords.

One of them thrust his weapon toward me, but I shifted slightly to avoid it, then spun around and tore open his throat with the karambit.

"Gaagghhh!"

He collapsed, clutching his blood-soaked throat.

"Damn you! Take this!"

Another guard launched a horizontal slash.

I immediately ducked beneath it and swept his legs with a Sweep Kick, sending him crashing onto the floor.

"I'll kill you!"

Turning to the side, I saw another guard preparing a vertical slash.

I immediately rose and caught his sword with my karambit, then slit his throat with the dagger in my right hand.

The final guard, who had fallen earlier, began getting back to his feet and attacked me wildly with a series of slashes.

"Die! Die! Because you Imperial dogs killed both my brothers in the war! Because of your greed, so many people have been forced to abandon their homes!"

The guard unleashed all the resentment he had been carrying inside.

But what could anyone do to stop all this madness?

Would gathering all the world's leaders together and lecturing them about the coming Demon Army really be enough to make them cooperate with one another?

As long as humanity possessed desires of its own, the conflicts plaguing this world would never end.

A human world without conflict was nothing more than a utopia.

— Tang!

Stolen novel; please report.

I deflected his sword with the dagger in my right hand, then tore open his throat with the karambit.

His body collapsed onto the floor and died instantly.

"Complaining and blaming the cruelty of the world won't change the future," I muttered as I stared at the man's corpse.

After killing all the guards inside the Guard Tower, I left the building.

Screams and explosions could be heard from the military outpost on the opposite side.

The towering flames were most likely Scarlett's magic, while the Golem wreaking havoc among the guards was undoubtedly Estera's work.

I then walked toward the bridge, approaching the guards who were rushing toward the outpost on the opposite side.

"Fall back! Fall back! Their magic is too powerful!"

"Those damn Aragonese! Without magic, they're nothing!"

The guards turned around and attempted to retreat from the outpost being attacked by the members under my command.

However, they were shocked when they saw me standing at the end of the bridge, blocking the path they intended to use to escape.

The guards were trapped.

Behind them were my men, slaughtering their comrades.

And I was standing in front of them, blocking their only escape route.

"He's only one man! Don't be afraid!"

This time, I used my sword.

There was no longer any confined space restricting my movements.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled before opening them again.

Both of my legs became enveloped in black magical particles as I activated my Ashpalt magic.

Five men attacked me simultaneously.

Yet I was able to evade every one of their attacks with ease.

When using this magic against ordinary humans, their movements appeared almost like Slow Motion.

After passing through the five guards, their heads rolled across the bridge.

I had decapitated all five of them while evading their attacks.

My body was covered in human blood.

"......"

"......"

Everyone who had been preparing to attack me suddenly fell silent after seeing five of their comrades killed so effortlessly.

They appeared stunned by the speed I had just displayed.

— Clang! Clang! Clang!

"We surrender!"

"Please! Take us prisoner!"

The guards threw down their weapons and raised both hands, begging for mercy.

However, throughout our offensive operations in this region, we would not take prisoners of war.

— Tap... Tap... Tap...

The sound of my footsteps echoed as I slowly approached the guards.

As I stared at them with a powerful killing intent, several of them collapsed unconscious from the terror I had inflicted upon their minds.

"I'm sorry. All of you have to die here."

[Scarlett POV]

The battle was over...

With only thirty people, we had managed to seize the bridge with only a few wounded.

This was because the guards had been too focused on Captain Raul and Viera, allowing us to infiltrate the area easily and launch a surprise attack.

As I looked around, I saw hundreds of human corpses.

Some of them had been crushed by Estera's Golem, while others had been burned by my fire magic earlier.

The smell of charred flesh filled my nose, making me feel horrified by my own power.

It made me wonder:

Was it really right to use this power of mine to slaughter innocent fellow humans?

The Captain had once said that there was no truly right or wrong side in war.

Only those who died could see how a war ended.

At first, I didn't understand what he meant.

But after this battle, I finally understood.

The wounds inflicted upon people caught in war would remain with them for as long as they lived.

I felt guilty thinking about the people I had burned, the families of soldiers who had lost their loved ones, and the trauma that both sides would carry because of this war.

They would never be the same people they had been before.

"Quickly, move these corpses before the logistical supply Caravan arrives!" Captain Raul shouted.

We were currently cleaning up the area after the battle.

The purpose was to prevent the Caravan from immediately becoming suspicious about what had happened here.

"Scarlett, help me lift this corpse."

Viera called out to me.

I approached her and helped her throw one of the corpses into the ravine beneath the bridge.

"Hey, Scarlett," Viera called again. "You don't seem like yourself. Did something happen?"

Viera had always been sensitive toward her comrades.

For some reason, she always seemed to know whenever we were troubled by negative thoughts.

"I've been thinking about what we've done in this war," I replied.

Hearing my answer, Viera simply smiled.

"I've had the same thoughts as you, Scarlett. But I trust the Captain's decisions. He would never give us an order that would harm us, either now or in the future."

Trust him...?

My gaze shifted toward the black-haired man who was throwing corpses into the ravine beneath the bridge.

His expression was completely emotionless, as though he wasn't bothered in the slightest by the fact that he had just caused hundreds of people to lose their lives in this battle.

What that man did had always been a mystery to me.

However, I decided to follow Viera's advice and see what would become of us after this war.

After we finished cleaning up the remnants of the battle, we all hid on the cliff directly above the road leading toward the bridge.

We then placed the explosives we had obtained from the previous ambush.

"When the Caravan arrives and crosses the bridge, Estera will destroy the bridge using her earth magic," Captain Raul explained. "Scarlett, when the Caravan that hasn't crossed the bridge yet begins to panic, fire your magic at the explosives at the edge of the cliff so that the falling rocks crush the Caravan and the troops escorting them."

I nodded in understanding.

Captain Raul and Estera then went beneath the bridge to destroy it later.

We began waiting in the cold night.

If this mission succeeded, the Republic of Venetia would not be able to send logistical supplies anytime soon.

They would have to repair the bridge first before they could resume their deliveries.

After waiting for an hour, I saw a long trail of torchlight approaching from the distance.

They had arrived.

I prepared my magic, ready to fire it at the crates containing hundreds of explosive cylinders.

The Caravan stopped briefly at the first military outpost and looked around.

They then came to a halt after realizing that there was no one stationed at the military outpost anymore.

"Something is wrong here! Where did the bridge guards go!?"

"I don't know! Maybe they're on patrol! We need to deliver these supplies immediately, or the higher-ups will be furious!"

Even so, they continued checking their surroundings to make sure there was no danger.

Fortunately, we had thrown all the corpses into the ravine, where they had been carried away by the river below.

We had also cleaned up the remnants of the battle so the Caravan wouldn't become too suspicious.

"We need to cross this bridge right now. Don't waste any more time!"

"All right. I suppose we can investigate the disappearance of the guards later!"

Not long afterward, the Caravan began moving again and started crossing the bridge.

However, just as the lead wagon was about to reach the other side of the bridge, a deafening sound rang out, accompanied by a powerful tremor.

— BRAAKKK!

The bridge collapsed beneath them, causing numerous wagons and members of the Caravan to plunge into the ravine below.

"W-What's happening!? Why did the bridge suddenly collapse!?"

"Enemies! They must be somewhere around here!"

As the Caravan and the guards who had not yet crossed the bridge began to panic, I fired my fire magic toward the crates containing the explosives and...

— BOOOMMBBBB!!!

A massive explosion erupted at the edge of the cliff.

Part of the cliff collapsed, sending huge rocks crashing down onto the people below.

"Get away from here!"

"Arrggghh!"

I watched as several of them were crushed beneath the falling rocks, unable to escape in time.

Another tremor shook the area as the massive stones struck and destroyed the military outpost.

With that, our mission to prevent the Kingdom of Draconia's forces from receiving their logistical supplies had succeeded...

[Alesio POV]

After two days of traveling, I finally reached the territory of the Republic of Venetia.

Previously, because the Kingdom of Draconia's forces had not received any logistical supplies from our nation, several of us had decided to return and find out why the supply Caravan had failed to arrive.

When we reached the military outpost near the road leading toward the Stretto Route, I received information that Imperial forces had successfully entered our territory and ambushed the Caravan carrying logistical supplies for the Kingdom of Draconia.

At first, I couldn't believe the report.

That was because we—the Intelligence Unit, especially the Scouters—had already confirmed that not a single Imperial soldier was present within the territory of the Republic of Venetia before the war began.

That meant they had entered this region after the war broke out between the two sides.

But how could they possibly have entered our territory?

The only route available was the Stretto Route, which we guarded heavily to prevent unauthorized people from entering or leaving the region.

Unless they had entered the territory by climbing the peaks of the Montana Mountains.

The mountains were freezing cold and extremely dangerous.

No sane commander would lead an army across those mountains and allow his soldiers to die needlessly.

The following morning, I continued my journey toward Aquilino Bridge and arrived there in the afternoon.

However, what I saw there left me utterly stunned.

The two military outposts and the bridge connecting them had been destroyed.

I could also see numerous corpses buried beneath the rubble not far from the destroyed bridge.

"What in the world happened here!?"