Chapter 8 ~ Defensive Battle
“T-this is…”
A ma.s.sive flock of monsters are there, laid before our eyes.
Just how many of them are there? Surely not less than 10000 or even 20000 foes. All these monsters, filling up the sky. The glimmers of the moonlight shone through them, making them looks like a majestic creatures. Having their sight totally focus at the fortress, they are moving as one.
“This is truly something. For this large amount of force to attack at once, this must be the first time in the history.”
Elizabeth told me not to do anything that will attract them, but I’m stunned anyway.
Currently, the area around the first wall and the second wall is already surrounded by monsters.
The monsters have been penetrating the wall since, and the first wall has fallen. Now, they are trying to overcome the second wall by climbing over with ladder.
Occasionally, some of them manage to climb through and we’re forced for melee combat. Their number is currently overwhelming us by a margin, so our force is having a hard time defending.
Not only that, there are still those monsters in the sky. Surely, they are aiming for the city centre.
The intense attack from the enemy side, in addition with them magics and arrows from far away, making it harder for us to defend.
Doesn’t matter just how many monsters we manage to defeat; their numbers didn’t show any sign of dwindling. Oi, this is bad, aren’t it?
How are we supposed to send injured people for treatment? Rather, we should think of a way to reduce their numbers first…
Right now, Sati is firing arrows, while hiding behind the wall made of debris. As for me, I’m taking out the arrows from my Item Box and giving it to Sati.
Elizabeth nearby me has already start chanting.
Oh?
Unlike her usual soft voice, her voice right now has the firm feelings into it. This is unusual.
O the wind blowing up and down in heaven and earth
The one that destroy and rebuild, I summon thee
To create a vorpal, I request a vortex, a vortex of rippling gale, that will spiral high above the sky and bash my enemies
“Windstorm!!”
A gust of wind creates a tornado, blowing and chopping the monsters apart.
Somehow, this is one cool looking way to cast a spell. But because I’m too shy to ask, I will never get to know it though.
Alright, I’m going to do it too.
Start casting 【Fire Storm】―――
The demons occasionally leer at us, but since there are band of knight in front both of us, I can chant without feeling intimidated.
“Firestorm!!”
I targeted the area with the highest density. There, we can see the fire is consuming a large amount of monster.
My level rose up by 2. I only have a shot left. Even though I just repaired the fortress wall, I still unleash this all – will – die attack. Truly a wrong judgement in my side.
“Isn’t this a little too much?”
“Huh?” pg. 128
“Not only can you use a high-level recovery and s.p.a.ce magic, you can do this fire magic too. Then thunder magic. Even just now, the earth magic you used for the wall. Maybe you can use water magic, higher than elementary level one too?”
“Hahaha, I wonder about that.”
“When it was at Siory town, there are only fire and recovery magic! Just how in the world are you capable of doing all this now! Teach me!”
She brings her face closer, and demands for an explanation. Doesn’t matter, I already prepared my way out this time.
Will she let it go if I said that I’m a genius too, like Sati?
“Hey, that’s not what we should focus right now. The enemy…”
“Oh well. I’ll definitely make you spill all of it later. We’re going to get married anyway later, so why the secret?”
I wonder what she will do.
Not to talk that we’re in a pinch right now, too…
But what should I do now.
I have enough reserve to shoot one more time, but should I kept it in case of emergency?
This might be a good opportunity to use boulder. I gathered all the rocks nearby and make it large and robust.
“Can you look at it for a moment?”
I ask for the knights help, and then dropped the boulders. I didn’t go and see if the boulders really hit anything. It’s scary to look directly down at this height.
“Ooo, that is amazing. Is that an earth magic too?”
“It’s a s.p.a.ce magic. I put the boulders into my Item Box.”
I wonder where is the best place to drop it. Maybe I’ll ask the guys from the knight squadron.
“So, you want to dropped all these boulders at the ladder? Got it. I’ll guide you.”
Good. I can gain lots of experience points like this.
Can I really get experience points like this though? This is just like accidents, right? Whatever. Experience points or not, our priority is to defeat all the enemies.
I lower my head and join the knights. We sneaked around to the next location. Nice, full armour. I’m going to buy one later, and keep it in my Item Box. No, maybe I should go for that big s.h.i.+eld first. I will ask the guild about the Order equipment list first.
I’m dropping the boulder here as instructed.
The boulders seem to be aiming for the enemy ladder. My aims were off at first so I need to redo it few times before hitting the target for real.
By the time I reached the right end of the fortress, I already dropped around 30 boulders. I managed to level up by 1.
“Let’s go down to the ground and go to the left-wing side. Can you run? ”
“Yea, it’s fine even if you run as fast as possible.”
I saw that these knights didn’t even break a sweat. After the front gave the signal, they all start to run with great momentum.
Even though they’re wearing full armour, their speed is still fast!
I’m desperate to catch up with their speed. By the time we reach left wing of the fortress, my breath is already ragged.
“My, you’re quick with your leg, even though you’re just a wizard. We never though that you can catch up with us doing our best.”
“Ha-ha-hah… I – I’m still good to go, don’t worry. Let’s go. Ha-hah…Even if I run out of breath…it won’t be a problem.”
I went up the stairs and moved onto the castle wall and dropped the rock again. It is quite tough to walk in the middle of the group.
“Just leave it there. The wizard will destroy it alongside the ladder.”
“Please. I’m leaving it to you.”
With hot water and arrows alone, it is still not enough to drop all the climbing monsters completely. There are logs and some other thing that can be used, but it has been grown out of service due to long time not been used. We can still use magic, and there are some mages in this team too. But the magical power consumption is an issue, if we plan to do this the whole night.
“Here. Around this area. Do it as much as possible to the wall please.”
I select the rocks in my Item Box and drop it at the designated position. I can adjust it position within the radius of 1 meter.
“Got it! The ladder just broke!”
“You hit it. Alright, let’s go to the next location.”
The next location is at the central gate. Even that gate has some monsters sprawling around already.
“Won’t the gate get destroyed?”
“Don’t worry. This gate is the most robust among all other gates, a simple act of magic isn’t enough to destroy it.”
He says that the lower part of the gate was also constructed to be st.u.r.dy, the likes of Orcs are not strong enough to destroy it.
The base of the fortress walls continues till underground. This makes digging a hole inside not possible. Usually, there are some mages dispatched to check the condition of it, whether there are some attempted of digging through inside or not. The fortress used to have a moat too. But now it is already unusable, and it was filled with the monster’s corpses and soils.
As we went further inside, we found a catapult. There are two of them here. I wonder if it would be easier for us to go for offensive if there are more of these. When I asked about it, they said that the first one is broken at the first place, and the second one was broken during the first raid.
Going further, I come across the restored wall. It seems to be working well for now.
“The part that the wizard has restored is quite st.u.r.dy, isn’t it?”
“Yes. But this is just a wall made from soil. If the hardening effect dissipated, we need to redo the whole process again.”
“There should be something that can be used to make it last longer. I’ll tell you later.”
Is this fine though. When all of this is over, I should come back and check.
“Is wizard dono someone important from the shrine?”
“I am dispatched as a healing mage from the adventurer guild. Today I came with you guys because this thing happens.” Pg. 133
“By the way, I have not heard your name yet, I am Morten of the Temple Knight Junior Dragon Corps Vice-Captain.”
“Masaru, adventurer.”
We handshake.
“Oh, drop it here next please.”
I dropped the rock at the place where Morten san pointed.
“……its a hit. When I think about it, you’re really versatile. Other than earth magic, you can still use fire magic and s.p.a.ce magic. Especially your s.p.a.ce magic, it’s truly spectacular.”
“Aah, my s.p.a.ce magic is a bit special. It would help me if you can keep it to yourself, Vice-Captain.”
The s.p.a.ce magic of this world is limited by how much weight one can carry at one time. It will be impossible for normal people to carry the amount of what I’m carrying right now.
“I see. It’s the trade secret of a wizard. Alright, I’ll keep quiet about it.”
I’m steadily destroying the ladder one by one, and then I’m planning to return to Elizabeth and Sati.
“I used a total of 80 rocks. There are only 18 rocks left.”
“Hmm…should I preserve…no, I can replenish it later…but if I want to create this kind of boulders, I need to go outside this area.”
For the being, I’ll leave Morten san and find Sati and Elizabeth.
“How is the situation right now?”
“The arrows will disappear soon, I think.”
“The enemies didn’t decrease in the slightest. But since all the ladders were destroyed by Masaru, there are less enemies that managed to climb up now.”
I’m giving the arrows to Sati.
“Right now, this is the last arrows that I have. I’ll need to resupply it with Sergeant dono.”
Sati level has increased again. The total of points that she has, is it around 16P?
For now, I increased her Evasion to level 4, and 12P still left.
Maybe I’ll keep it first for now.
Sati Level 20 Skill 12P
Cooking level 2
Household level 2
Sewing level 2
Covert level 3
Stealthy Steps level 2
Sound Detection level 4
Smell Detection level 2
St.u.r.dy
Hawk Eyes
Physical Reinforcement level 3
Evasion level 4
s.h.i.+eld level 2
Swordsmans.h.i.+p level 4
Archery level 5
Next is my status. I also got some good levelling, and gain some extra points.
Masaru Level 17 Skill 46P
Skill Reset
Rasgarde World Standard Language
Clock
Cooking level 2
Covert level 3
Stealthy Steps level 2
Presence Detection level 4
Enhanced Physical Fitness Recovery
Willpower
Physical Reinforcement level 2
s.h.i.+eld level 3
Evasion level 3
Martial Art level 1
Archery level 3
Knife Throwing level 2
Swordsmans.h.i.+p level 4
Magical Sense level 1
High Speed Casting level 5
Magical Power Enhancement level 5
MP Recovery level 5
Common Magic
Life Magic
Recovery Magic level 4
Fire Magic level 4
Water Magic level 3
Wind Magic level 3
Earth Magic level 4
Anyway, I’m insufficient of MP right now.
I increased my Magical Power Enhancement to level 5, and it costs me 18P. Then I increased my MP recovery skill to level 5, and sums up to 26P. The rest is only 4P. My MP consumption has been cut to half, so I can shoot two more Fire Storm at most now.
At this rate, I’ll raise my level again, maybe by another 2.
I drink my last MP potion, and a bit of Magi tea. I saw Elizabeth is sitting against the wall, and is eating her pudding.
“Did you run out of magical power too?”
“I can shoot about one more time. How about you, Masaru?”
“Around two more shots.”
I’m targeting the crease in the wall, where the monsters likely to be hiding.
Begins casting 【Fire Storm】――Activate!!
“Fire Storm!!”
A lot of monsters are burned over by the raging pillar of fire and burned up. My level rose by two.
Maybe I’ll only shoot two times only. I’ll keep another shot for emergency. Alright now for the second one.
【Fire Storm】――Activate!!
My level rises again.
There is still some MP left. Maybe another one shot?
Suddenly, I noticed that Elizabeth is staring at me during my invocation.
“Fire magic is very useful at a times like this.”
“It’s not useful in the forest at all. But now, what are you planning to do? You have depleted your magical power, and Sati arrows are likely to finish by now.”
“You’re right. Well, let’s wait till the dawn comes and we will see how.” Pg. 137
It’s already close to dawn, but the sky is still dark. However, the area around the wall is lightly illuminated with magic and bonfire.
“Should we eat our bentou now? Sati, come here and take a break!”
Thanks to all these burnt monsters around here, we will have some extra food, in case if these bentou is not sufficient.
My eyes suddenly meet with Morten’s.
“I’m sorry. My magical power is already depleted now, so there is nothing much that I can do…”
“Oh no, yeah, I know, please leave this to us and take a break for a while.”
I take out Magi tea water bottles and also bentou for Sati and Elizabeth.
The amount of foods that I have is as it is, but the amount of food boxes has decreased. I should bring more next time. Maybe I can take it from the shrine kitchen. They have many other ingredients too.
“So how? How did you learn so much magic while I’m out?”
“Yea, I have never brought this up. But you know, I do think that I’m quite a genius.”
“Are you messing with me?”
“No, no, no, I’m serious. Somehow, I never have a problem to learn anything, and the next thing I know, I can already do it.”
“I don’t understand what you’re trying to say. Explain it more clearly!”
“Speaking of which, you cast a spell loudly before. It’s very cool, no? Five winds blowing up and down in the heavens and earths. I think it’s embarra.s.sing, so what do you think?”
“Y, you, what are you saying now.”
“You were chanting quite loudly, so I hear all of it. Hey, tell me the reason.”
“…you.”
“Yes?”
“Why don’t you think it yourself!”
“Seriously? It’s not like I’m doing a bad thing. Why so mad…”
In my case, there’s no way I’ll chant it like that.
“Why do you hate it so much?”
“That’s how I learned to do it, now I can’t unleash spell without chanting it loudly first.”
“It’s not bad though, in my opinion.”
“During my teacher’s generation, casting spell loudly is a thing. I wonder who my teacher’s master was. I heard he was a great magician. Everyone imitated what he is doing. It’s normal phenomenon right, seeing a great person and imitating whatever he does? After that, lots of bad things happen. There is this stupid wizard that chant it out loud, only to trip and fell over…Since then it has been a norm that it’s embarra.s.sing to chant loudly during casting.”
“Hmm.”
“As for me, it’s only when I became an adventurer that I realised how embarra.s.sing doing it is…”
“Please let me know if there’s others beside the wind one.”
“No way I’ll tell you, jerk!!”
Why are you hating it that much? I wonder what kind of trauma she has experienced.
“Cheer up. Looks, it already dawn…”
Ah, I unintentionally diverted the topic. Well, I also don’t like to press the matter, if the person doesn’t want to talk about it.
Elizabeth is moody as usual.
“Sati, can you see the town from here?”
I will go down to the stairs where the arrows will not fly and look at the state of the town.
“I can’t see the flying monster.”
“So, what do you think.”
“If we wait, the reinforcement will come around noon. I think, we better wait for it.’
Should I release the remaining boulders that I have? My level might raise a little bit more. My magical power will replenish soon enough, and it takes less to cast heal, unlike the flashy one.
“Then I will crush the remaining ladder.”
“Got it. Let’s wait here, Sati.”
“Yes, Elizabeth san”
I started the routine after I regroup with Morten san.
These knights guide me here and there for this second round.
Thanks to that, my boulders stock finished in less than 3 minutes. Although the job efficiency increased, my level did not raise at all.
“I already finished all the boulders in my possession, so I’ll be going back to the shrine soon. I need to replenish my magical power too.”
“I’ll ask some of my men to be your escort.”
I still have some MP left, but I already start feeling sluggish. Is it because of MP, or lack of sleep? No matter, I want to sleep anyways. There’s no way I can relax here, where a flying arrows and magic always around.
After I’m done with Morten san, I came back to Elizabeth and Sati. Surprisingly, even Sergeant dono is around this time.
“Hey Masaru, do you still have some magical power? There are not enough personnel in the shrine clinic right now.”
It seems like Sergeant dono came visit us after he visited the shrine first.
It is still within my expectation…but my partic.i.p.ation here with the defensive forces is not wasted. I managed to level up a lot. Even my skills point increased with extra bonus. Currently, my MP recovery per hour exceed 200.
“I’m alright, there’s some spare left. I’ll hurry to the clinic then.”
“I’ll depend on you.”
“Masaru sama, I think I’ll stay here.”
“Is that so. Don’t be a burden to Sergeant dono okay. Sergeant dono, how is the current situation?”
“The enemy shouldn’t be able to enter anymore now.”
“I see. Sati, eat this if you’re hungry.”
I gave her 2 lunch boxes. Currently the inside of fortress is still in chaos, so I doubt that they can provide rations for people here.
“Thank you, Masaru sama.”
“Be careful. Sergeant dono, please take care of Sati. Let’s go, Elizabeth.”
We were escorted by Morten’s man to the shrine. When we arrived there, the place is already crowded with injured peoples.
I already replenish enough MP to cast Area Heal, but let’s go back to my room first.
I change to my masked priest outfit, and check my status menu.
Before the event last night, my maximum MP is around 1000P, but after I levelled it up, the amount has increased to 5000P total. MP boost increased my MP around 25%. If I added the 100% bonus from the ring, the total will be multiplied by four or five times more. This is certainly too much, isn’t it…?