chapter 58: Approach

“GU~A” (a lot of soldiers)

“THAT’S HURTTTTTTTTTT!”   (a lot of soldiers) (痛てててててて！)

The soldiers raise their voices screaming in pain, the soles of their feet was stabbed by spiky pebble. Some got their ankle twist, fell down and the enemy soldiers’ movement stopped temporarily.

“The soldiers, what’s happen to them?” (Bart)

Bart that raises a doubt because enemy soldiers’ movement has stopped.

“I wonder what’s wrong … it was as if they had a spiky pebble in their shoes” (Vera)

Vera looked at enemy troops suddenly frantically walking, she has said a very accurate impression.

Enemy soldiers were wearing military boots.

And military boots take time to change. Unpack the string, take off the boots, take out the pebbles inside and wear it back, tie the knot.

Of course, they aren’t going to do such a thing slowly with the enemy in front them. The soldiers restarted the assault again with patience and hardship to walk.

Hyoko hyoko to (T.N: I don’t know, maybe they are hoping or something) (ひょこひょこと), what’s a funny way of running.

Not only the shoe’ sole scraped and the pebble inside, it seems that there are quite a few have hurt their ankle.

“Alright, vanguards, it’s time to come out! Magicians and Vera will fall back and give support fire, becareful of friendly fire.” (Bart)

The soldiers are finally approaching. Leaving the mages and archer in this place, avant-garde moving forward.

The three vanguards (T.N: I guess these guys are Flame Wolf) looked surprised at Mile is also coming forward. They thought that her main job(class) was a magician and she only has sword for self-defense. Mile didn’t say anything, she doesn’t have time to waste.

A powerful attack magic was released at Vanguards before the clash.

On the bandit side, Hunters’ magic attacks were block by enemy’s magic defend and have less than half effect.

On the hunter side, Mile has completely blocked all of enemy’ attacks. (T.N: Mile choose allies’s safely over stand out)

After that, the magicians can only use precise small scale attack to support from the back.

And finally the close combat between vanguards has begun.

The three vanguards of 『Dragon Breath』 were strong.

Bart, the leader is B rank, but the other two are nearly as strong as him. They probably the C rank that close to promotion to B rank.

Every attacks are precisely because they have confidence in their power.

They don’t forcibly pursue the enemy but steadily deter enemies approaching them.

On the other hand, three members of『Flame Wolf』seemed quite impatient.

It’s reasonable, they are only C rank hunters, to battle with many soldier opponents is overwhemed.

However, after fighting for a while, they noticed that they could win easier than they thought, and they gradually got better.

That was because the movement of the enemy soldiers was bad. There were no power in their attack or defense And on the rear, Archer Vera give them fire support with high accuracy. They managed to deal with enemy attacks somehow, and gradually injured the soldiers little by little. Their battle with soldiers who exceeded their number was worthy of admiration.

In the magic group, Rena was in charge of far ranged magical warfare with enemy magicians.

Pauline and Jeanne were in charge of attacking and supporting vanguards.

The remaining three enemy magicians, two of them use magic defend against Rena’s magic attacks and one magician use magic to attack Hunter’ vanguards. Even a single shot from Rena will be over if they receive a direct hit, so they have no choice but to focus on defense.

Pauline and Jeanne are using magic to attack enemy vanguard and defend against enemy’ magic attack.

Pauline and Jeanne were more advantageous in that respect because they have two people.

Then, both Pauline and Jeanne change their target to enemy’ magicians together with Rena.

Enemy magicians hastily put defensive magic, but even the two of them can try their best, they can only defend Rena’s magic attack. And this time, there’re attack magics of three people. The third magician are just finished his attack so he can chant defend magic again right now.

Do~o n! (SFX)

Rena’s group attack magic landed on enemy magicians.

“Oh, it seems Rena’s group did it!” (Mile)

Magic attacks from enemies has been ceased

Mile noticed the attack magic and support increased from the back and she’s talking to Bart, who was fighting nearby.

Bart is just smiling nodded to Mile. And the both of them running toways the enemies.

In order not to kill the opponent, Mile swing her mysterious sword cut shallow on the enemy’ leader armor to break the ribs, her sword can do the same with enemy wear iron armor. And Mile was handling enemies carefully with afford.

A couple of enemy archers rapid shoot arrows to attack Mile even they aware the danger of friendly fire. Mile lightly shook her left hand and cast a defend spell.

Immediately after that, all spearmen throw their spears at Mile all at once.

“Magic Shield!” (Mile)

Ga~i~n, ga~i~n, ga~i~n, ga~i~n (SFX)

All the spears was stopped as if they hit the wall or something in the air and fell to the ground.

And the archers shoot arrows again after that …

“Fire arrows” (Bart)

Just as Bart says, Those were fire arrows that aimed at the carriages in the back , not the hunters.

It will burn carriage, spread to other carriages, and may burn non-combatants hiding in the carriage.

Bart is shouting out loud in hope for the magicians to use magic to block those fire arrow. And he thought that was a hopeless situation as Mile didn’t seem to use defend magic to intercept the fire arrows. The fire arrows reach the carriages’ area. However.

Kin kin kin kin (SFX)

All of fire arrows are stopped in the air just before they hit the carriages and falls to the ground as it is.

“…” (Bart)

The same with all throwing spears aiming at Mile just now. Mile doesn’t seem using wind magic. Bart has never heard of magic that does physical defense without wind or substance.

“I shouldn’t mind too much.” Bart thought so. It seems that he finally got used to the thing called 『Red Oath』. (T.N: Rest in peace, Bart’s common sense, born chapter 51, dead chapter 57)

“… Ah, I’m going to the left side to support for a moment!” (Mile)

Whether she realize she was careless or it was troublesome to explain. Mile offer to go support『Flame Wolf』. Bart won’t pursue Mile either.

“Alright, just go!” (Bart) (よし、行け！)

As the number of enemies gradually decreased and hunter side magicians keep one-side attack. This place won’t have any more problem even Mile go, and he was concerned about 『Flame Wolf』 on the left, and instantly issued permission. Mile’s work has been remarkable beyond what Bart thought, though right now he isn’t concern about it anymore.

They were struggling when Mile reach the left side that 『Flame Wolf』 are fighting.

The swordsman Karam of 『Dragon Breath』 who was closest to 『Flame Wolf』 also fought on the left side to lighten the burden of 『Flame Wolf』.

They maybe the middle C Rank Hunters and enemy soldiers was weakened by Mile but to fight with many at once are heavy burden on them.

The swordsman Chuck was injured, while distorting his face in pain, he held the sword with only his right hand.

As they are trying to fight while covering the chucks, the other two seems to be restricted in action and seems to be unable to fight as I think.

At that time, an enemy soldier swing down his sword from the left side of Chuck where he is injured.

“Oh no…” (Brett)

Gyin! (SFX)

Before the leader Brett’s scream ceased and Mile stand in and use her mysterious sword to block enemy attack.

Ja~! (SFX)

While Mile’s sword clash with enemy sword, Mile put power in her feet tostep in.

With that extraordinary momentum, enemy soldier got scrambled and lost his balance.

Take that chance Chuck slash the soldier with his sword. Because he only use one hand and the soldier was protected by armor. His slash didn’t cut the soldier’s body but blow away the soldier.

“… Thank you, I was saved!” (Chuck) (すまん、助かった！)

Chuck say thank to Mile and Brett lightly lower his head.

Mile lightly nod and head for the next enemy.

The number of enemies have already down to 20, and now they lost all magicians so they can’t use magic to defend, attack or heal.

They also knew that the bow didn’t work at all. So all archers change their weapon to sword, which is a reserve weapon, participated in proximity battle.

But the specialized swordsmen were knocked down one after another, even the archer joined with the swordsman will not able to overturn the battle outcome, they are taken down one after another.

And the magician group in the rear guard went around from the side and moved to the position to surround the enemy. Enemy soldiers number has decreased to more than 10 people now, there’s not enough people to fight with hunter vanguards and attack the magicians at the same time. And even if they divide soldier, there’s still a certain distance, they will be attacked by magic before approaching.

Enemy commander were completely missing the opportunity to escape.

In the first place, if he escape by leaving a lot of subordinates who aren’t dead, just because they are hurt, the details of the strategy will be exposed and it will be serious.

Even though the soldiers are elaborate, some of them may not be able to withstand torture and tell everything. If he want to escape, he need to close the mouth of his injured men, but he could not afford to do that.

And even if he escape here, he will be persistently pursued.

After all, he had no choice but to kill all the hunters here by all means, then killing the merchants and closing their mouths, robbing the horse-drawn carriage and go back to home country with the injured subordinates.

Or … kill all his subordinates and suicide to close our mouth?

However, it is a story if his men can kill the hunters.

And in the first place it may not be necessary to worry about such thing.

For the dead (he and his men) there is no need to worry about anything.

“Although I think so desperately, I swing my sword desperately, but the the shoes tilt, my ankle can’t bend properly, I can’t step on it properly. And there are some pointed pebbles in both shoes so it hurts and I can’t stepping straight on. Even though I know I should endure the pain as it is life-threatening situation, I can’t put in force when I step on it. I can’t concentrate on battle. It is a feeling that I can’t produce enough of my original power.

It is frustrating that my last fight is such an unwilling state.

What more strange is my subordinates also have the same state as me. Even though our magicians is inferior in magical warfare, we should be able win, not such incompetent result.

Why. How did this happen …” (Commander thought)

As a result, even the rearguards join in, it was not a big difference in fighting force.

Their rearguards have 3 magicians, 4 archer and 4 javelin thrower. 3 magicians are already unable to fight.

Commander and adjutants join with vanguards, a total 18 people are trying their last stand against hunter vanguards. The enemy assigns three soldiers for each member of 『Dragon Breath』 who seems to be the most powerful, two soldier for 『Flame Wolf』’s three members, two for Maevis and one for Mile.

Maevis-san was instantly defeating an enemy with the 『Shinkansen sword』. It seemd she split enemy’s armor with her sword and hit the torso with the sword’s handle. A sword that will not break even if she slash border or metel armor is really good.

Mile also instant defeats her enemy as well, after that because she is free so she defeat another soldier that attack Bart (T.N: Kill steal).

After that, she thought it was bad to take down many soldiers so she switch to intercept arrows and throwing spears. Unlike 『Flame Wolf』, the members of 『Dragon Breath』are in good condition, there’s not much difficulty in handling three soldiers who weakened by Mile.

Even 『Flame Wolf』 member Chuck who already injured still matched well with one soldier.

After that, the javelin thrower and the archers grasped their reserve weapon,  sword and rushed in, but at that time 『Red Oath』 and Bart are already hands free

Not even vanguards can fight against 『Red Oath』and Bart, so they were defeated with easy.

And the enemy soldiers surrendered when they became the last five, and there was no commander in command.

Because there’s no soldier run away. So the commander was either rolling around and groaning, or being mixed among those who were unfortunately dead.

“Fagas, please take off a horse in the horse carriage, you will be our messenger. Go telling Amuros’s Hunter Guild and then the lord’s house. Let them know that we already catched the bandit group, tell them to bring both carriages and security guards urgently” (Bart) (T.N: there’re 30+ captured soldiers so they need carriage to take them to the city)

Bart kept asking Fagas to inform more place. Because there is little possibility that the lords or royal court know these soldiers or they plan something, we should take safety measures.

“And then write an overview of this case to the kingdom and write another six copy of it. Sent three to the guilds and three to the royal palaces, all unknown to others and by different routes. Just like that, did you understand?” (Bart)

Fagas nodded and immediately headed for the carriage. It was an optimal personnel selection for this mission, he is quick to understand and credible.

Although the horses are horse carriages, they are also receiving training to mount people. Even if there is no saddle, he should be able to reach the town much more quickly than walking.

There is starlight when it got dark, there is no problem because he only goes on the highway. he will be able to get to the town in the evening.

“You are cautious … I don’t think you are this type of person.” (Mile) 「慎重なんですねぇ……。この仕事を受けた人とは思えないです」

“I’m not an Idiot” (Bart)  「俺は、頭のいい馬鹿なんだよ」

Bart of replying Mile, he gave another command.

“Well, let’s gather prisoners and dead bodies in one place”

“…Yes” (Mile)

Fortunately, there’s no ally die this time. The injured hunters were treated by Pauline and Mile magic.

All the injuries of Chuck’s left arm and others were completely recovered.

『Flame Wolf』 was stunned by seeing Chuck’s left arm was completely cured on the spot without any scars. The 『Dragon Breath』 members already saw the mega heal in the graduation test, so they were not surprised as much.

As for the enemy, 『Red oath』 had reduced their number to a certain extent, there was only one dead by direct magic attack, and only a soldier who was stabbed by Jeanne’s ice spear.

Others are seriously injured, including burns.

Especially Pauline’s boiling water attack, but they’re still alive, and right now they are cure by the healing magic of the attacker herself.

Outside of magic, Mile count totally five dead. There were many soldiers dead when fought against 『Flame Wolf』. Unlike『Dragon Breath』 ,『Flame Wolf』 members aren’t strong enough to capture enemy alive, they are fight for their life so it can’t be helped. Those soldiers who survived were lucky. That’s it.

The soldiers have a lot of wounds from scratches to slashed or stabbed. Pauline and Mile perform emergency healing magic treatment.

And of course just heal the fatal wound that mau cause death. The soldiers are still have wound that they can’t fight back. And despite the complaints of the prisoners, the pebbles in the shoes are also intact.

Even those get normal injured, if Mile and Pauline didn’t use curative magic, a few might die from blood lost or shock. They don’t have the right to complain in the first place. In fact, there were a few soldiers are thankful. Even they were follow the order and fought the merchants, but they knew what they doing are evil. And if they had to say, it was a miracle that only six people had died.

The dead bodies were put together and the prisoners were tied up and collected in one place.

Tonight, nobody gonna sleep until morning, everyone will join the hunters with interrogation.

If we hand over to the authorities tomorrow, we will have no opportunity anymore, so we will get as much information we can take now just in case.

There’s no guarantee that something like “for some reason, all the prisoners who handed over to the lords are deserting” or “why, all of them have suicide” won’t happen.

Barriers were quietly released by miles and merchants came.

We also gather the unconscious bandits. Even though they will not wake up until morning. But Mile can’t tell everyone about it, Bart do this just in case. It will be more secure if we keep the bandits at where everyone can see..

A long night began like this.