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Chapter 111 Flame Rampart
The 24 man assault party was fighting by the riverbank by using martial arts, magic, and DP and had yet to suffer a single casualty.
But the number of enemies crossing over the river was in hundreds. Even if they had been fighting with the vigour of a mighty warrior able to match countless, it was still impossible to stop all of the enemy soldiers to not let them pass through.
Passing through the rain of arrows and magic, also making through the blades of the assault party, the infantry soldiers had finally reached Alsace village’s protective wall.
But still, the soldiers had been yet unable to cross through this thin, weak looking fence of wood.
“Wh, what’s with these iron wires—-“
The soldiers stepped onto the barbed wires without any hesitation.
And the next moment they regretted it. This thorn filled wires of iron pierced through and coiled around their legs giving great pain, and also slowed down their advance.
“Uraa! Go back to your homes you damned humans!!”
The adventurers on the other side of the fence who stood there to intercept the unmoving soldiers, shouted and cursed at them as well.
This squad was made with adventurers of an average of rank 2 and were weaker comparatively, but since they had been working as an adventurer for the past many years, they were still skilled warriors from the pov of the soldiers.
The spears that stabbed from the inner side of the fence expertly killed the soldiers one by one that had been trapped in the barbed wires.
But on the other hand, the Crusaders still advanced with their big numbers and soon a lot of soldiers had joined the fight in front of the protective wall.
“Nee-san, isn’t this starting to get more and more dangerous!?”
The members of the [Three hunting Princess] that were fighting on the frontlines like brave Valkyries. Out of them, the third sister Hanna, raised her voice.
“Calm down. We’re still fine. An Elf would not panic in any condition. Laura, are the preparations done?”
“Yes, nee-san.”
Hanna had already switched to a spear and had been killing the soldiers that had been trying to cross over from the past 5 mins.
On the other hand, the eldest Irina, and the second sister Laura had nocked an even bigger lightning arrow with their Sylphlight.
The enemy had been advancing in front of them and it was a situation where they could hit even if they fired with their eyes closed. But, the enemy was not in their sight right now.
“Everyone, get away from the fence!”
On Irina’s voice, Hanna and the rest of the adventurers took one step back from the fence.
Seeing that chance, all the soldiers clung to the fence and tried to climb over.
“”[Thunder Emission – Line Blast]!!””
A lower grade wide range lightning magic was fired from the bow. It was impossible to attack every enemy with just two of such attacks.
But, iron wires had been spread around their legs. The fence was also wrapped with iron wires as well.
The lightning fired from the Wind Lightning Bow – Sylphlight was first absorbed by the barbed wires coiled around the fence and quickly the lightning circulated to all the barbed wires spread around.
At this moment, the barbed wire, turned into electrically charged barbed wires.
The soldiers clinging to the fence suddenly stopped moving like insects that had pesticide thrown on them, and the soldiers that had their legs trapped in the barbed wire were electrocuted and lost the strength to fight.
“See, we’re still fine.”(irina)
“Eh, right…….”(hanna)
Irina’s face showed calmness. Hanna understood the difference in the level of tension between her and her elder sister.
“Everyone get ready! More of them are coming!”
The soldiers directly in front of the protective wall had been wiped out but once again more of the enemies appeared.
They didn’t have the time to get happy just by killing one wave of enemies. The adventurers psyched themselves once more and faced the enemy.
“Nee-san, the next one might not work this well.”
Laura’s cool voice came to Irina.
“Why so? The fence is still in perfect shape.”
“That’s not it. There are too many corpses.”
Laura pointed towards the other side of the fence. There a lot of corpses and wounded soldiers were lying on the ground.
It was obvious, but they were lying not on the ground but on the barbed wires.
“Oh no, they’d use the corpses as a foothold—“
As Irina realized it, it also became a reality.
The incoming Crusaders used the corpses and even those who were still breathing comrades as a footing without hesitation and moved towards the protective wall without getting caught in the barbed wires.
“You bastards! You would go as far as to even step on your own comrades!”
One of the adventurers shouted.
For adventurers who stressed on teamwork, the actions of the Crusaders who, let alone the corpses of their comrades, without helping even those who were alive and stepped on them were unforgivable.
But for the soldiers, it was a natural action to take. Even on earth, using the bodies of their comrades to cross barbed wire was a tactic that was much used.
Though only Kurono knew about that fact among the adventurers, for the Crusaders it was simply using a convenient footing that they found.
“Certainly, this might get troublesome. Like this, even if we used the lightning attack again, it won’t work much.”(irina)
From here on out, they had no choice but to stop the enemy with pure strength.
Resolving for that, Irina and Laura drew their weapons and faced their enemies with even more vigour, at that moment,
“I’m back!!”
With such a yell, the crusaders heard the unforgettable explosive sound of the Devil.
With a *Giyarigiyari* sound, with black muzzle flashes, black bullets that pierced through even armour flew here.
“I have made you wait everyone! The machine gun is back again!!”
Once again, the surekill storm of bullets attacked the Crusaders.
Mozrun held the machinegun’s grip and fired towards the Crusaders attacking the protective wall.
“fuu, it sure came back at a great time.”
Irino showed a somewhat relaxed expression and looked back to give orders.
“Then, let’s go and meet Kurono-san and the others.”(Fiona)
The one who stood there was the witch dressed in black clothes different from Kurono, Fiona.
“Then, I’ll be counting on you.”(irina)
“Yes, leave it to me.”
Fiona brought out a large horn from inside her trademark witch’s hat.
Putting her small lips on the horn, she blew air into it.
*BUOOOOOONN*
A sound loud enough to drown the shouts of the soldiers and the shooting of the machinegun resounded.
It was certainly loud enough to even reach the ears of Kurono and the rest of the assault party beyond the protective wall.
.
.
.
(POV to kurono)
“It’s the signal of the horn! Everyone fall back!!”
As the sound of the horn came to my ears, I gave the order to retreat.
Though I say so, everyone should have heard it so they really should not need my orders anyway.
“Uraaa! Come at meee!!”
Among the blood smeared soldiers, it seems there was one who had even forgotten the signal and kept on fighting.
I’m talking about you, Vulcan.
“Magic Bullet Arts.”
I sent a bullet to his temporal region. It is one of those soft ones that I used in the duel.
“Ouch! What Kurono?! Don’t interfere damnit!”
2 soldiers who got caught in his swing were blown away as he turned back with angry words.
“Retreat. Did you not hear the horn?”
“Aa, yeah, such a signal was there as well.”
You, if I had not said anything, how long were you going to fight? Till you died?
“Black Smoke.”
For the time being I released a smoke screen as I took the muscle headed, fighting crazed werewolf with me back to the village to retreat.
With the appearance of the black smoke all over the place, the soldiers seemed on guard thinking it might be poison. But unfortunately this smoke had no attacking abilities. It’s just a smokescreen.
It’s a magic of which I have memories of having used first against Sariel to run away from her. But since there is no attack that might hit me accurately even with this smoke, it is a much more comfortable situation than that time.
“As expected of a skilled adventurer, even the skill to retreat is flashy.”
All those who had been encircled by the soldiers and were currently in melee used this chance to slip through the gaps and started retreating.
But still, there is no other way to stop the enemy here on these open plains. As expected, the soldiers chased after us who were falling back.
“The demons are retreating!”
“After them!”
Since we started to retreat, the Crusaders became livelier.
If we kept on moving backwards like this directly towards the gate, they’ll also enter through the gate when we enter.
Somewhere, we needed to hold them off to gain enough time for us to get back inside.
But, that was not my job.
“Move it oraa!!”
Vulcan began to take down the enemies that had slipped through us and had reached the protective wall.
The soldiers who had ended up as a victim of a pincer attack were easily driven out under the blades of the assault party. Yeah, first of all we need to get rid of the enemies near the gate.
The 24 people of the assault party gathered in front of the barbed wires that had been laid down just after we had departed from here.
All that’s left is to wait for them to meet us.
“Welcome back Kurono-san.”
Fiona’s words came to ears at the same time as the gate opened.
“Yeah, I’m back.”
Fiona stood at the gate with her usual sleepy expression. From her both sides, two adventurers holding scissors or rather nipper like items with a long handle appeared.
The item they held was not a weapon. It was an item required to remove the barbed wire.
Thanks to practicing countless times, with quick movements, the barbed wire in front of the gate was cleared out and created a path.
But in that time, I also saw countless soldiers who wanted to use this chance to enter in through the gate we opened as well.
“Then, I’m counting on you.”(kurono)
“Yes—-“(Fiona)
Without even minding the soldiers approaching from behind, we calmly entered through the gate while listen to Fiona’s chant.
“لهب النار إيقاف جدار حاجز لمنع الثابت لهب هيروشي ثلاثاء كيكو”
I, who was not a normal magician, did not know what that chant meant, but, I knew what magic was about to be activated.
It was the same line of magic that saved me back at Irz.
I had seen a magic that looked like an advanced grade giant wall of flame but the magic she was about to use now to stop the enemy was, this time, truly the advanced level defensive magic.
“—[Ignis Rampart Defence]”
It was truly an eruption.
A shield of fire. A wall of flame. Such an expression would not fit it. A large mountain of red burning flames possessing extreme temperature had risen up here.
Just as how magma of a volcano could not be stopped no matter how many humans jump in, this [Ignis Rampart Defence] had clearly stopped the countless troops.
“……amazing.”(kurono)
“Thank you very much.”(Fiona)
I wasn’t the only one thinking that. The adventurers as well as the Crusaders who were trying to attack had been captivated by it.
And, without losing a single person from the 24 man assault party, everyone had safely entered back in the village and the gates had been closed once more.
And at the same time the flame rampart swayed like a mirage, and the next moment, it disappeared completely as if it was just an illusion.
