Chapter 17 | The Assassin Fails
Epona had no trouble overpowering the orcs. She beat them beyond recognition with nothing but her bare fists and the occasional fireball.
This isn’t a battle—it’s a one-sided slaughter.
Orcs were incapable of knowing fear, though, so they continued to throw themselves at Epona despite her clear advantage.
“Ah-ha-ha-ha, what the hell, th-there’s no way she’s even the same species as us. Why didn’t she just do that from the beginning? Epona would have been fine on her own. There was no reason for us even to be here,” said a shaking Naoise, struggling to force out the words.
Naoise had seen me fight Epona in mock battles many times, but this was the first time he’d seen Epona get serious, and her impossible strength left him trembling.
“Yeah, really. We could have sent in Epona alone, and they would’ve been wiped out a while ago without the need for any strategy,” I remarked.
“It sounds like you knew she could do this beforehand. If that’s the case, then why did you come up with all this—?”
Naoise was interrupted by an orc’s head that came flying toward us like a speeding bullet.
It was only because of the extra mana I’d put into my Tuatha Dé eyes that I could evade. I used my knife’s handle to deflect the incoming head, and it ended up embedded deep into the natural wall behind us.
If I’d tried to catch that, I would’ve lost an arm. That’s why I’d had no choice but to redirect the severed head. A direct hit would’ve seriously injured me, mage or not. Epona’s strength was so great that she’d sent a skull speeding at lethal velocity.
“That’s your answer. Fighting orcs is significantly less scary than getting caught up in a battle with Epona. I wanted to avoid a situation where Epona needed to get serious. Don’t let your guard down,” I cautioned.
“I just want to get out of here as fast as I can,” Naoise replied.
“Even with Epona going all out, deserting could lead to trouble. If running were permissible, I would’ve already done so,” I admitted.
I looked behind me to see Dia and Tarte resting on the ground, neither in any condition to defend herself. Until those two were safe, I had to protect them.
No matter how strong Epona was, she couldn’t deal with that many orcs all at once. Some of them were going to get past her. That was another reason I couldn’t leave.
Speak of the devil, here come some of the monsters now.
Two of the towering green creatures had slipped around Epona. Naoise and I gave each other a look, but Epona moved in before we could intercept the orcs.
“You piece of shit pigs! You think you can run from me?!”
Mana gathered in her right hand. Without an incantation, Epona launched a simple blast of magical power at one of the monsters.
Spells were mana given a kind of shape. The energy alone didn’t have much attack power. If using simple mana blasts was an effective method of attack, no one would’ve bothered with spells because of the incantation time required.
However, Epona’s attack had a colossal amount of power behind it, further strengthened by all of her S-Rank hero skills.
“No!”
That blast of mana was on course to hit the orc directly. Unfortunately, Dia and Tarte were right behind it. Epona’s attack would consume the monster and then continue and strike Dia and Tarte. Weakened as they were, they had no hope of dodging.
I jumped to the side, putting myself between the girls and the orc.
Should I use the full strength that I’ve been concealing at the academy? If I do that, I can block this without taking any damage… No, I can handle this without doing that.
I decided to continue concealing my full power, even if it risked me getting hurt.
Gathering mana, I hardened my monster-tissue underclothes. They were double layered. One was capable of stiffening to resist attacks, while the other was soft to absorb any impact. Pouring mana into the suit made it the ultimate defense.
Epona’s blast pierced through the orc as easily as I’d anticipated, and I caught it with my back.
My shoulders broke. I’d braced myself as best I could but was still sent flying through the air.
Overall, I’d taken it quite well. Ending up with only a few broken bones after stopping an attack from the hero was something to take pride in. My Rapid Recovery would mend my wounds in only a few minutes. I needed to change my trajectory, however. I was headed right for Dia and Tarte.
I turned Epona’s clump of mana toward the ground and fired it, using it to change my direction as I soared through the air. This altered my fall enough that I wasn’t going to land on the girls.
Unfortunately, I was definitely going to snap another bone or two when I hit the ground, but I didn’t mind that level of injury.
“Lord Lugh!”
Tarte got up and dashed forward to catch me, despite her ragged, mana-deficient state.
I crashed into her, and we both tumbled along the ground for a fair distance. When we at last came to a stop, Tarte was unconscious and bleeding from the mouth.
“Tarte!”
Why did she catch me?! She had to have known this would happen if she snatched me out of the air without any mana to strengthen herself.
It was an incredibly boneheaded thing to do. Tarte had only done it because she’d wanted to protect me. That was the sort of person she was.
I looked up and met Epona’s eyes. An expression of fear formed on her face after she looked at me.
She didn’t look anything like the battle rager from a moment ago. It was clear she was slowing down, but it hardly mattered. The orcs couldn’t so much as scratch her, even if they came at her with everything they had.
“I—I, I never intended… I didn’t mean to…,” Epona whimpered, begging me to believe her.
I understood that much. I blamed myself more than Epona. I’d known this could happen, and I’d formed a plan I thought would’ve been able to deal with it.
I was also conceited enough to believe that I could handle that blast of mana while keeping my own abnormally high power a secret. That arrogance had been what’d left Tarte collapsed on the ground. Knowing Tarte, I should’ve expected her to try to help me.
“I’ll do what I can to take out the ones that get through. Turn back around and fight!” I finally forced out.
I really should’ve said something like “Don’t worry about it. It was an accident.” I just couldn’t manage it, though. Seeing Tarte bloody and beaten had left me unable to think straight.
If I consoled Epona now, it would’ve sounded contrived. So that was all I could get myself to say.
After another fifteen minutes of fighting, the orcs were all dead. Our job done, we began to head back to the academy.
Epona wasn’t at quite the same level after the incident with Tarte, but she’d still been far beyond anything the orc army could’ve handled. More orcs slipped past her, but Professor Dune and Rachel finally stepped in to help.
What concerned me was that as soon as Epona started using her full power, the orcs’ numbers curiously waned. They’d been spawning infinitely from some unknown location until that point. Again, I had to consider the possibility that this had all been staged to gauge Epona’s capabilities.
Perhaps it’s a demon trying to learn what they’re up against and use that information to take her down. If we assume they threw away that many orcs as a sacrifice, then just how great is their real fighting strength?
I shook my head. This was hardly the time to be thinking about such things. Tarte’s treatment had to come first.
“Lugh, will Tarte be okay?” Dia asked worriedly.
“She’ll be fine. She has some bruises, bone fractures, and scratches, but I can heal all of that.”
“Thank goodness. I was worried after how far she flew through the air.”
We had a war doctor with us in the carriage, but I was more skilled, so I handled Tarte’s treatment. After taking care of anything that required immediate attention, I used my mana to strengthen her self-healing.
“Tarte’s complexion is looking much better,” Dia observed.
“Yeah, there’s no need to worry anymore,” I replied.
I patted Tarte on the head.
The curtain separating the bed from the other seats then opened.
“Um, I—I need to apologize,” Epona stated, avoiding my eyes all the while.
“…It was a very intense battle. It wasn’t your fault,” I assured.
Having sorted out my feelings, I finally let Epona know that I wasn’t upset with her.
“But I—I really hurt Tarte,” protested the hero.
“If you apologize, Tarte will forgive you.”
“I hope so. Um, sorry for injuring you too, Lugh. I let it happen again. Every time I fight on a battlefield, my vision goes red, and then I start to rage, and before I know it I’ve hurt everybody, so, so I…”
Epona’s fists were shaking.
“I wanted to change. I wanted to become strong enough to keep a clear head even in that wild state. After no one got hurt during our mock battles, I thought things would be okay today, but sure enough, it happened again…”
I’d been helping Epona ever since that promise during the Academy Festival after she’d opened up to me. Every time one of our sparring sessions ended safely, Epona got a little more confident.
“Also, I thought you’d be able to stop me if I lost control. Ah-ha-ha, I guess that was assuming too much. I’m sorry for that, too. I’m really not cut out to be the hero.”
With that final comment, Epona returned to her seat.
Dia gave a strained laugh.
“She doesn’t seem like a bad girl. She also thinks extremely highly of you.”
“Yeah.”
…She thought I would be able to stop her.
I thought back to what Epona and I had talked about during the Academy Market. I’d sworn not to die at her side and that I’d stop her if she ever lost control. Unfortunately, I’d failed. I’d chosen to conceal my full strength, and something terrible nearly happened.
“Dia, do you think I should apologize to Epona? I didn’t say anything too harsh, but I let my frustration over not being able to protect Tarte affect my attitude. I glared at her after Tarte lost consciousness,” I said.
“The Lugh I know would apologize,” Dia replied immediately.
“You’re right. I’ll apologize once she’s calmed down.”
I’d known the whole time that I was in the wrong here. It seemed I had some room for improvement. I’d grown more human in my second life, but that had allowed immaturity to affect my behavior.
I need to concentrate on one thing at a time.
“I should tell Tarte I’m sorry, too,” I thought aloud.
“If you feel for her, one kiss will do the trick, you know. That’ll be all it takes to put her in a good mood,” Dia remarked.
“You’re right. That’s what I’ll do,” I decided.
“Huh, I meant that as a joke, but you took it seriously?! You didn’t hesitate at all there, did you?! Have you and Tarte already been kissing?!” Dia exclaimed.
“…No we haven’t.”
Those mana-replenishing kisses were a secret.
“That’s not fair; you should kiss me, too. You haven’t kissed me at all recently, Lugh.”
For the rest of the ride back to the academy, Dia probed me about how far Tarte and I had gotten. Tarte woke up after we arrived, and before I could express my remorse to her, she apologized fervently to me. She even refused my offer to make it up to her. That being the case, I decided to give her a surprise present after a week or two.
I also had to seek out Epona and tell her I was sorry first thing tomorrow. The sooner that kind of thing was taken care of, the better.
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