Nidoume no Jinsei wo Isekai de - Chapter 60

The monsters were terribly disgruntled.
First, the fortress, which they attacked before, fell without any noteworthy resistance. Moreover, the number of elves inside was far too low compared to the number of monsters in the army.
Second, what furthered their dissatisfaction was the fact that it was mostly male elves.
The elves who died in battle immediately ended up in the bellies of the monsters who happened to be present at the location.
You can say that they were still on the lucky side though.
The soldiers, who were caught while being alive, had their equipment torn off, were thinly cut completely like dry-cured ham or such, were pushed around by the monsters and were killed in the end after being tormented until they begged for death.
And you can still say that they had a less objectionable way of death.
After all the ones who died in the most wretched way were the remaining 20 female elves who worked in the fortress.
After the monsters broke or cut off their limbs so that they couldn’t escape, they smashed their chins to prevent suicide and passed them thoroughly around amongst themselves.
The women, who finally turned into trash that even an orc wouldn’t have any interest in, were thrown away just like trash, were shredded into pieces by the hands of goblins and devoured by them.
Having fully violated 200 elves, the monsters were still unhappy.
With the numbers being scarce and time being short as well, there were plenty of monsters who didn’t obtain an elf to play with.
Moreover, as the elves are small-built and slender, the amount was overwhelmingly lacking to fill the stomachs of 20.000 monsters.
The goblins, who have been entrusted with the vanguard, are going mad.
If they end up catching an elf unskilfully, it will surely be snatched away by orcs and ogres. Still, if they end up eating it then and there after killing it, they will likely be able to eat to their hearts’ content if it goes well without their prey getting stolen.
Thus it is necessary for them to fight the elves before any of the other monsters.
The goblins wanted to run ahead with all their might if possible, however since it was an order from above for them to march slowly, they aren’t allowed to break into a run either.
It was a fact that the ample dread mixed into the taste of elves at the time they were eaten was great, thus it is an extremely displeasing order for the goblins who want to fill their bellies rather than worrying about the taste.
That’s why they were pushing and shoving each other. The goblins marched while looking forward to the attack order as they restrained themselves.
Those goblins suddenly noticed that the sensation under their feet changed.
What was until now a cold ground transformed into a ground with thickly growing weeds.
Those weeds, which possess long and thin leaves, twine themselves around the marching goblins’ feet and obstruct them.
Even if they tore those off with all their strength; if it was once or twice, an extreme effort was necessary just to tear them off, but if it’s ten-odd all at once, the goblins’ feet were stopped.
Moreover, as the feet of the goblins are hurt by the branches of short trees possessing thorns, the ivies coil around them.
The goblins stepped into the elven barrier.
That barrier was something so huge that the elves can’t recall the existence of such an instance in the past.
With its length at 200 meters and its width spanning over one kilometre, it stands in the way of the army of 20.000.
The goblins, who can’t move anymore, frantically struggle to escape, but it’s not a barrier that will release their feet that easily.
In the end the goblins, who follow without knowing the circumstances, trample over the goblins who have fallen while simply writhing.
Being stepped on, the goblins have their bones broken and their flesh crushed while growing restive due to the pain.
The goblins, who fell down with their feet getting caught by the goblins who suddenly acted up underfoot, get entwined by the weeds and ivies and also lose the ability to move their body.
It would simply end if they stopped, but the goblins, who have large numbers on top of having low intelligence, don’t even report the state of affairs. They simply fall down, get trampled on and are crushed. And those who walk over them also fall down. Such an unproductive cycle repeats itself over and over.
At the moment considerable losses started to appear among the goblins, the information that the elves had laid out some kind of trap was passed on to the demons, however without suspending their order, they commanded the advance without change.
That’s the true nature of the elven barrier, but although the demons realized that it’s a snare by using weeds and ivies, they decided to use the method of surpassing the trap itself by having the goblins tread it down with their own flesh and blood.
Of course, the goblins, who shouldn’t be able to notice that intention, march on without thinking anything and are defeated. They create a path for the sake of those following behind them with their own flesh and blood.

“You have chosen a nasty measure. Even if I can’t see it for myself.” (Renya)

Renya, who heard the situation at the front line from Skrod, frowned.
Although there is a watch fire burning at his own position in the dead of the night, it’s unthinkable for Renya, who is a human, to see the state of things 200 meters ahead.
“However, the elves can clearly see the details of the circumstance in the elven barrier”, Skrod says.
The theory behind that was something Renya couldn’t comprehend at all, but Skrod simply explained it as the forest blessing the elves.
That blessing allows the elves to clearly see the interior of the barrier. Moreover it grants the elves a far stronger strength than usual and the forest even confines the enemies.
Originally a single caster can create a barrier of around 10 meters in all directions. That seems to be the limit of what they can barely maintain.
The number of elves who are busy with maintaining the barrier is 200.
The size of the deployed barrier has become 2000 times that of a normal one.
In other words, with each receiving mana supply from Renya, they can maintain a barrier 10 times bigger than normal.

“It might get a bit ugly.” (Renya)

Renya made an ominous remark.
At his side, Skrod makes a report that the vanguard of the monster army approached up to 150 meters from their position and, as if responding to that, the archers began their shooting.
Apparently only the bows of elves can reach up to 200 meters.
However, given that the power of the arrows will naturally drop sharply, they decided to start the attack at a distance of 150 meters after balancing range and power.
Since that’s according to the elves’ knowledge and experience, Renya doesn’t meddle.
Renya will begin his attack after the enemy approaches up to 100 meters.
That was because the shooting range of <Magic Bullet> is just around that area.
It would be also alright to increase the distance, but that will only raise the consumption of mana, Renya judged.
This time I don’t have much leeway in using my mana.
Since Frau has changed the recovered amount into magic gems from the outset, he isn’t in a state of having full mana.

“It seems to be going well, but is there some problem…?” (Kurowaal)

Kurowaal’s eyes can see the figures of the monsters who are falling into chaos within the barrier due to the descending hail of arrows from above.
Once their marching speed gets killed, it’s a simple matter to hit them even if the arrows are shot roughly thanks to the high number of monsters.
Because the archers brought in emergency supplies from the city besides the share they carried with them at the time they heard that a defensive encampment would be built, the number of prepared arrows is plenty making it look like they won’t get exhausted.
As expected, the goblins are getting irritated by the slowness of advancement and even the orcs, who ended up appearing at the front-line, are collapsing looking similar to hedgehogs after being shot with arrows.

“You know, I thought the monsters would take a detour once they noticed the barrier.” (Renya)

The obstructions, requested by Renya, had traps besides movement inhibitions, but since Renya, who was consulted on the place for laying those out, heard that they would work as is after activating once set up without the need to maintain the magic, he concentrated their positioning in locations outside the elven barrier where he estimated them to just appear if they took a detour.

“All the magic traps were in vain… there’s that as well, but the fellow who is leading this army has quite the confidence.” (Renya)

“Confidence, you say?” (Kurowaal)

“Even though they view their soldiers as disposable, they are confident enough to have it their own way. Or they have the confidence that they can win with this army even if they loose their soldiers.” (Renya)

“Renya, the distance will soon be down to 100 meters.” (Kurowaal)

“The barriers erosion is fast. Did they switch to breaking through in one go?” (Renya)

Renya hits the shoulder of Kurowaal, who’s next to him, with a tap-tap. He leaves and walks to the edge of the barrier in front of the battle formation.
Frau isn’t with him now since she is distributing the created magic gems amongst the elves.
In the state of possessing Renya, Frau wasn’t able to separate from him too far, but as she seems to be growing in power little-by-little in that aspect too, it was currently alright for her be apart from him a bit if it’s only for some time, according to Frau’s words.
While there are sounds of wind being cut above his head as the archers are continuing their shooting, the presence of the arrows wasn’t a very pleasant feeling, but it couldn’t be helped because he had to stand at the front of the battle formation to strike the enemy forces with his magic.

“Which way? I still can’t see them.” (Renya)

“It’s straight ahead.”

“Okay, got it. I will begin shooting.” (Renya)

Renya produces and shoots one mana ball after the other in the space in front of him.
Since he doesn’t grasp the state of the impact site, he roughly shoots the straight forward in the beginning. Once he got used to it, he altered the spell’s range or changes the spells to <Fire Ball> and <Wind Blades> while while making sure to shoot them in a fan form.
As he doesn’t know whether the spells, he shot, are hitting or missing, it nothing but an simple operation of discharging mana from Renya’s point of view.
While measuring the amount of mana he consumed for the spells, the amount he supplies to Frau and the amount he recovers, Renya continues to use magic with a bored-looking expression, however the countenance of the elves, who are watching the impact site, changed.
The impact site was truly a picture of Hell.
The heads of the goblins, who can’t move as they were tripped up, burst open after being hit by magic bullets.
The orcs, who spilled their intestines on the grass after wind blades cutting into their bellies, received fire balls into their open wounds next and writhed in pain as they burned up starting with their intestines.
The orcs, who defended against the magic bullets with shields, withstood several shots, but losing to the force of the impacts, they drop their shields and then fall to the ground after getting riddled with holes by the magic bullets.
The ogres, who have a large body, receive the spells all over their body and hurl blood as well flesh over the goblins behind them after getting transformed into minced meat.
Trying to escape after falling into a state of panic, the goblins fall down after being tripped up by the barrier, have their arms blown off by the spells and are crushed underfoot the ogres who are running amok due to rage and pain.
They seem to be completely like boats which are swallowed up by rapid streams, Kurowaal thought.
Being engulfed by the heaving sea, they are thrown about and broken into pieces as anything and everything vanishes.

“Ah, somehow this feels like it became fun?” (Renya)

Renya wasn’t aware of the situation, but he apparently got into firing the spells limitlessly albeit he is targeting empty space.

“The ones running away are the monsters! Those who don’t run away are the fairly trained monsters!”

“There isn’t any choice except monsters though!?”

“Fuhahahaha! Only a dead monster is a good mon… no, if these fellows die, they will turn into undead, won’t they? They are monsters who mustn’t die either.”

“They are probably unable to become undead…”

No matter how much the monsters preserve, they probably won’t become undead as they have turned into pieces of meat, Kurowaal assesses.
Originally that wouldn’t be the case if they didn’t dispose of the corpses by burning them after the battle, but at this rate it would become unnecessary to do so.
In exchange it wouldn’t be possible to collect the raw materials from the monsters either.
Pondering these matters, Kurowaal sighs. It was at the the time she turned her look further inside the barrier.
In her sight, which was supported by the assistance of the barrier, Kurowaal saw the figure of that entering the barrier.
It was a giant with a height of around 2 meters.
All of its body is covered by a black, unrefined armour with only its head exposed.
The head, which is the sole thing outside the armour, has long orchid hair carelessly spilling down on its back and the skin’s colour is dark brown.
With its pupils being golden and almond, its ears are long, pointed and slender though not to the degree of those of elves.
What is grasped in its hand is a large sword with a size close to that of an elf. Though its thick blade has likely the weight of a human, the man is holding it easily with just his right hand.

“Renya-san! It’s a demon! A demon has entered the barrier.” (Kurowaal)

“They came after all, huh…? How troublesome.” (Renya)

While simply slaying the orcs and ogres, who don’t move as they lost their presence of mind, the male demon casually places his feet into the barrier.
Just as the weeds and ivies begin to coil themselves around those feet, the man, with a slightly slowed-down walking pace, calmly advances into the barrier while tearing off the weeds and ivies with all his strength.
There’s probably no one but me in this place who can directly face a demon as opponent, Renya judges.
However, if Renya entertained the demon, the attacks on the monsters in the vicinity would weaken.
Having said that, if Renya continued his role as battery, the demon would break through the barrier and thus it would eventually turn it into a free-for-all fight.
Either way it’s impossible to avoid increasing the losses.
Renya wavers in his decision.
Using that gap, the male demon casts a spell with void magic and creates a flame spear.
He held that with his left hand, which isn’t burdened with a sword, and casually threw it while aiming at the direction of Renya’s group.

“Defence unit! Show me your endurance!” (Skrod)

Skrod’s encouragement reverberates.
In response to that, the elves, who were in charge of defending, put their strength into casting spells.
The temporarily boosted elven defence unit and the flame spear thrown by the demon clash. The elves’ field of vision was dyed bright red and vibrations shook the ground.
The elven defence unit, which used all its strength, succeeded at defending against the demon’s attack, however several elves, who suffered from the aftermath, have collapsed right there.
The elves, who fell into panic, were evacuated to the rear by the students who currently got nothing to do.

“There isn’t even any time to hesitate, eh…?” (Renya)

By just receiving one attack, the elven defence unit has its power reduced largely.
They probably won’t last through a second one, Renya assessed.
For the sake of him not being able to attack a second time there’s no other choice but for Renya to suppress the demon.
However, the barrier, which is currently confining the demons, will judge Renya as not being an elf and entwine his feet as well.
While it may be true that I will able able to hold down the demon if the barrier is released, the monsters will likely just flood this place here.

“My feet will be useless, huh? Oh well, there’s no other choice but to get it done somehow.” (Renya)

Once he steps his foot into the barrier, the weeds twine themselves around Renya’s foot right away.
It wasn’t a restriction to the degree of Renya being unable to tear away from, but his mobility could be called mostly dead.

“Renya-san!?” (Kurowaal)

“I will hold down the demon. Skrod and Kurowaal, please command the archers and… the students, though reluctantly, and survive the attack of the small fries somehow.” (Renya)

He walks with both feet into the effective range of the barrier.
While tearing off the coiling weeds, Renya began to proceed to a place separated as far as possible from the encampment to fight with the demon.
Fighting too close-by will increase the possibility of dragging the elves into the battle.

“Renya-san!” (Kurowaal)

Kurowaal jumped at Renya from behind.
She clings to the back of Renya, who is unable to evade with his feet being captured by weeds. Holding Renya’s head with both hands, Kurowaal bit her own lips slightly.

“Oy!?” (Renya)

Ignoring Renya’s voice of protest, Kurowaal fixed Renya’s head, she was holding, and pushed her lips, which were soaked with her own blood, on Renya’s lips.
Renya opens his eyes widely in surprise.
And, without understanding the situation, a small stir occurs amongst the elves.

Kurowaal continues to kiss him until she makes sure that he has swallowed down the blood, which has been smeared on her lips, by the gulping sound of Renya’s throat. After she finished confirming, she releases Renya slowly.
After licking with her lips, where blood was still seeping out, with her tongue, she smiled cheerfully and held back Renya, who apparently wanted to say something.

“It’s a sure-fire blessing kiss of an elf.” (Kurowaal)

Looking at Kurowaal whose cheek is tinged red, albeit only slightly, Renya feels unable to say anything.

“Blessing, you say…” (Renya)

Underfoot Renya, who attempted to say something, the weeds, which restrained his feet, swiftly withdrew.
Moreover, he has become able to see the vicinity, which was plunged in darkness before, vaguely.
It seems the kiss of Kurowaal, which was mixed with her blood, caused Renya’s body to be recognised as elf by the barrier temporarily.

“Is that how it works? … Should I thank you?” (Renya)

“No, not at all. If you do me the favour of coming back alive, that will be plenty.” (Kurowaal)

“I see… Well, then I will leave this place to you. See you later.” (Renya)

Once again turning in the direction, from where the demon is approaching, Renya began to run within the elven barrier.