Interlude: A Skirmish
“Their skills are impressive. I suppose I should expect no less of the former army of the duchy, even if they have turned against their lord.”
“Yes, and their equipment is on par with the kingdom army’s, too. We would likely have struggled to defeat their knights without the help of the Champion’s Swords and Spears.”
The commander and vice-commander of the royal army’s advance party were discussing the rebel army they had just battled.
“The city where the first anti-rebellion squadron was crushed is up ahead, is it not…? Let us hope we can return to the royal capital before too long.”
“Is there something of import for you in the capital?”
“My daughter is due to give birth soon…”
The commanding officer hoped to celebrate the birth of his grandchild in person in the royal capital, not away on a battlefield.
“A report, sir! An unknown army of some thirty men has been spotted in the mountain path to the north!”
“That seems too little to be enemy reinforcements…”
“They were not flying the banner of Vistall Duchy, I am told.”
“…Mercenaries joining up with the rebel army, perhaps? Then we cannot let them pass. Send Sir Mavats and fifty of the reserve troops.”
On his orders, a squadron of fifty soldiers was sent forth to intercept.
“…They are far less skilled. Little more than civilian soldiers.”
The commander watched the battle begin to unfold in the north with a longscope. Losing interest, he returned his attention to the primary battle.
But just as he lowered the longscope, there was loud shouting from the northern battlefield.
“Your Excellency! Look!”
At the vice-commander’s prompting, the commander looked back to the north with the longscope.
There, several warriors in unsightly evil-looking armor designed after dragons and demons were laying waste to the royal army’s soldiers. They must be using “Body Strengthening,” as they took out multiple men with each sweep of their enormous broadswords.
“Did those mercenaries bring some famous knights or something?”
“They’re probably fallen explorers, no doubt. But unluckily for them, our force has Sir Mavats and five other knights who will surely make short work of them.”
As soon as their intercepting force’s knights stepped up to take on the men in strange armor, the tides of the battle quickly turned.
“Sir Mavats received a Champion’s Sword from His Majesty himself, after all. His strength is…”
The vice-commander trailed off abruptly.
Even when Sir Mavats and the other Champion’s Sword–wielding knights sliced off the armored enemies’ arms or destroyed their swords, they continued fighting ceaselessly.
Caught off guard, the knights began to fall to the evil-armored figures.
“What in the world are they?”
“Corpse potion users, perhaps…?”
“A corpse potion would not grant such power. Don’t tell me—do they have Demonic Hearts?!”
The commander recalled the forbidden weapons carried by the attackers in the attempted assassination of Duke Vistall.
“Urgent report, sir! More reinforcements from the northwestern hills! They appear to have tamed monsters with them.”
Worse yet, there were at least a dozen more of the evil-armored warriors with those reinforcements.
“They must be using those screws…”
“This is problematic.”
“Yes, we could be in a bit of trouble here. I am sure we can win, but we will lose more allies than I would like.”
After a moment’s hesitation, the commander quickly made a decision.
“We must not let too many men fall here. We retreat.”
The advance party began to withdraw at once—but it was too late.
Rebel knights on tamed naga mounts lay in wait to block their escape. They were twenty in number.
“Caught between the devil and the dragon, eh…? We’ll just have to smash our way out! Knights, to the front lines! Archers, support the knights’ advance with your arrows!”
Resigning himself to losing some of his forces, the commander sent his most powerful soldiers, the knights, to do battle with the formidable nagas.
The rebel knights used the fact that their mounts could fly to make their retreat even more difficult.
At this rate, the evil-armored fighters and the rest of the rebel army would catch up to them at the rear.
The commander’s stomach twisted in the face of a seemingly impossible predicament.
Just then, a savior arrived.
“Hi-ya-ha-haaaaaaaa!”
A scythe flashed through the air with an arc of red light, slicing one of the naga riders in two, along with his steed.
A warrior in white armor began cutting down the nagas and knights alike with a vicious grin.
“The Shiga Eight…”
“A woman with a scythe—there’s no doubt about it! That must be Lady Ryuona, the Grass Cutter!”
The vice-commander cried out with joy as he pointed at the unexpected backup.
“Follow Lady Ryuona’s lead!”
“It is I, the Windblade, that I am!”
More warriors arrived, helping Ryuona take down the nagas and rebel army knights.
Each of them alone was strong enough to overshadow even the efforts of Sir Mavats, himself a Champion’s Sword wielder. One knight with red armor and an Ice Sword stood out especially, as did a swordsman with wind-imbued armor.
“Oh-ho, what’s this? Check out the sick armor on those guys!”
Having laid waste to the naga squadron, Ryuona set her sights on the evil-armored warriors who were snapping at the heels of the retreating advance party. They’d already slaughtered most of the rearguard soldiers and the knights who came running to stop them, but now they drew back as if in alarm when they saw the look in Ryuona’s eyes.
“Let’s gooooooo!”
Ryuona began sprinting toward the evil-armored warriors at full tilt.
“Lady Ryuona! Those things are invincible! Be careful!”
“Got it! …‘Death Guillotine’!”
With a swoop of red light, her scythe chopped one of the warriors in half, hideous armor and all.
“Pshh, they’re nothing special. Guys! Don’t let these losers intimidate you!”
“Yes, ma’am!”
The Shiga Eight Swordsmen candidates who accompanied Ryuona began to cut down the evil-armored warriors, ice and wind flashing from their magic blades.
“I-incredible…”
“No wonder the Shiga Eight are the protectors of the kingdom…”
The seemingly invincible evil-armored warriors fell like any average soldier in the face of the overwhelming power of the Shiga Eight and potential candidates.
“…Back up Lady Ryuona and her men! We’ll take care of the lesser soldiers! Make sure you don’t hit any allies with stray arrows!”
On the commander’s orders, the advance party rallied back into formation.
Right as they collided head-on with the rebel army, Holy Knights on warhorses arrived on the battlefield, and the tide turned completely in their favor.
“It appears that victory in the first battle will go to the royal army after all.”
“Indeed. It seems the rebel army commander has chosen to retreat, too.”
A man at the rear of the rebel army who appeared to be the commander blew on a large flute to signal the retreat.
“It doesn’t look like Lady Ryuona intends to let them get away that easily, though.”
Having defeated the last of the evil-armored warriors, Ryuona was charging toward the rebel knights.
GYAOOOOOOOSZ.
A howl echoed from the northeastern hills.
“An enemy ambush?”
“It might be whatever destroyed the first anti-rebellion squadron.”
Ryuona and her company abandoned their attack on the rebel army knights and vanished toward the hills.
GYAOOOOOOOSZ.
The monster’s howl echoed, and the red flash of Ryuona’s special attack blazed from beyond the hills.
“As long as we have Lady Ryuona on our side, we need not fear, even if the rebel army has a hydra on theirs.”
The commander seemed to be reassuring himself as much as his vice-commander.
GYAOOOOOOOSZ.
There was a burst of flame beyond the hills, and Ryuona and her men were sent flying back in a cloud of black smoke.
“L-Lady Ryuona?!”
The vice-commander exclaimed in fear.
Covered in burn marks, Ryuona nevertheless stood up immediately. She and her company readied their weapons again as they looked up at the hills.
“Wh-what is one of those doing here…?”
The vice-commander’s voice trembled as the monster emerged from the hills.
With a reptilian face and bat-like wings, it was none other than…
“…a dragon.”
There were rumors, of course.
But almost no one believed them at face value.
After all, dragons almost never showed themselves to any but the strongest combatants.
“So, it’s true…”
Technically, it was a lesser dragon, though this was cold comfort to them.
They were all far too intimidated to make note of the fact that the dragon seemed to be wearing a droll hat, nor of the gaudily dressed man it carried in one hand.
“All forces, retreat! Run for your lives!”
While the vice-commander shook with fear, the commander put the safety of his soldiers first and called out the order.
GYAOOOOOOOSZ.
Behind them, the dragon spread its wings, and flames licked out of its jaws like a tongue.
“Those flames… Look out! It’s going to use its ‘Dragon Breath’!”
Fire spilled out of the dragon’s mouth, closing in on the commander as he rode away on his horse as fast as it could gallop.
“Miseyna, I might not get to meet your child after all…”
As hot air crackled around him, the commander’s wife and daughter flashed through his mind’s eye.
“Hi-yaaaaa! Inverted… ‘Death Guillotine’!”
Ryuona’s voice rang out, and the flames closing in on the commander’s back were scattered into the sky.
Her special attack had knocked the dragon’s chin upward while it was breathing fire.
“Hope you don’t mind if I buy you some time.”
“Allow me to aid you.”
“And I, that I shall.”
The Scarlet Nobleman Jelil, complete with his Ice Sword and red armor, stepped up to Ryuona’s side, as did Bauen, the Windblade, with his wind-imbued Magic Katana.
The dragon spread its wings and glared down at them menacingly, but then the flashily clad man it held in one hand shouted something, and the dragon took off into the air with an astounding jump and vanished on the wind beyond the hills.
The rebel army was already gone from the battlefield, which was dotted only with countless corpses.
“So, we escape with our lives…”
“Yes, thanks to Lady Ryuona and company.”
“Still…a dragon, cooperating with the rebel army? And it seemed to have some kind of trainer, too…”
It looked to the commander like the gaudily dressed man was some kind of tamer, who commanded the dragon to help the rebel army retreat before having it fly away.
But could such a thing be possible? It seemed to go against all common sense.
“That judgment is far beyond my pay grade. I will report to the general and Duke Vistall and let them handle the rest.”
Giving up on contemplating a seemingly impossible scenario, the commander decided to focus on his own duty.
“Officers, take command of your troops! Gather any survivors. We’re regrouping with the main force!”
As he called out the order, the commander thanked his lucky stars that their lives had been spared.
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