Chapter 187. Middle Game (2)

The Victoria soldiers stumbled through the darkness.

Towards them, a female freelancer with her long hair tied in a single strand ran out and cried out in concern.

“Hey, are you okay? If you need medical support…!”

It was at that moment that she stopped, her eyes widening in realization of the strangeness.

She couldn't believe the scene before her eyes.

“Huh?”

The staggering Victoria soldier was bleeding an amount that exceeded a fatal dose.

He wasn't just injured; no one would think he was a living person.

“……!!”

For a moment, the female freelancer stumbled back.

And as if waiting for that very moment, the soldier’s body ruptured from the inside.

Paaaaaaak!!

In an instant, black ashes scattered in all directions, and the human body mutated, revealing its inner form.

Stumbling several times, it raised its body like a specter, and an infected magical beast appeared in its place.

The enemy, which looked more like a statue or an inanimate object than a living creature, fully revealed its silhouette in the darkness.

From the cracks in its shell-covered head, which was like a helmet, a green light shone like an eye beam.

A jet-black shell that emitted a green light from its cracks. On its wrist, a long, awl-like shell spear glinted.

“Ah, aah!!”

The female freelancer’s face turned pale with horror, and she shook her head in fear and stumbled backward.

The magical beast immediately stumbled, then righted itself and charged.

The female freelancer’s legs, overwhelmed by its momentum, became tangled, and just as she was about to fall backward.

A strong hand grabbed her and pulled her back with a jerk.

At the same time, a sharp metallic sound rang out, and her magic gear shattered, scattering sparks in all directions. The magical beast’s awl plunged into the spot where she had been just a moment before.

“Are you okay?”

The freelancer, realizing she was alive with dazed eyes, looked up hastily, as if she had just registered that she had been saved.

“Ah! Yes, yes!!”

An unexpected person was standing there.

A boy in black clothes with black hair and a black cloth bag slung over his back was holding her.

It was Enoch Elsyde.

Enoch, who had seen the freelancer’s staff shatter and scatter, narrowed his eyes slightly.

If he had been a little later, it would have been this freelancer’s head that would have been shattered and scattered in all directions.

“Ah! You are…!”

Meanwhile, the freelancer, as if she hadn't expected to be saved, parted her lips with a slightly dazed expression.

“Th-thank you…!!”

But as if not to allow even that brief moment, the magical beast, thrusting its upper body forward and roaring, rapidly closed the distance.

“Ah! M-my magic gear!!”

The freelancer immediately raised her magic gear, but realized it was broken.

She immediately looked up at Enoch, who was supporting her, with a desperate gaze and cried out.

“Hey! We have to run!!”

But even as the magical beast’s terrifying charge, which left a long trail of green afterimages, closed in on them, she noticed that Enoch was calmly looking straight ahead, and her eyes widened for a moment.

“No.”

Enoch said with a silent smile.

“You should be saying that to the magical beasts.”

In the instant that the freelancer, noticing something, turned her head to the side, what she saw was the sight of a flashing pink light driving away the darkness.

The next moment, a single streak of pink light grazed Enoch’s cheek as he tilted his head to the side, and it pierced the magical beast in a straight line.

-KIRIRIRIRIK!!

A powerful cold emanated from the sniper round that had pierced the shell, and in an instant, a white frost covered the struggling magical beast’s body.

With a cracking sound, as the cold that pierced to the bone spread, the spaces between the shells froze, and with a creaking sound, the magical beast stopped in its tracks.

“Aah……!!”

The eyes of the freelancer, who had been terrified, were now filled with hope as she let out a sigh of admiration.

It was April’s support fire.

Following that, the other soldiers who had followed behind also began to twist their bodies and undergo magical beastification.

It was then that the other freelancers, who had grasped the entire situation from the rear, began to open fire.

Columns of rock, several meters high, fell around them, and translucent, glowing spears of mana pierced the ground, pinning down the once-human enemies.

Taking advantage of the opening, Enoch helped her up.

“Hurry up and rejoin the main force to regroup.”

“Understood! I-I’ll retreat first!”

Enoch left the freelancer who was hastily retreating and looked around once.

Beyond the horizon where Shepherd’s infantry had been, an unusually quiet silence continued.

“Securing line of sight!”

Just then, from behind, a freelancer from an interim raised his pistol to the sky and, with a trail of white smoke, shot something into the air.

It rose to the top of the sky, the ammunition glowed with the color of mana and exploded, and a bright light like a small sun momentarily covered the sky.

It was a flare.

In the moment that the field of view was greatly expanded, Enoch shielded his eyes with his hand and narrowed them.

The intense light was pushing back the darkness, revealing the silhouettes of a countless army, swarming like a mountain.

They were advancing, using the huge rocks and tree branches of the forest as camouflage to hide the green light that leaked from between their shells in the darkness.

A meticulous strategy that utilized the natural objects of the forest, which were under a line-of-sight disruption spell, as Shepherd had said.

The distance was about 2 to 3 kilometers.

April, who had approached, loading her rifle, swallowed dryly at the sight of the massive army that was approaching, filling the horizon black.

“Wow, wow. This is no joke, really!”

Not only her, but Alicia, who was walking over, gripping her long lance, also called out seriously.

“Your orders!”

One by one, Enoch’s squad had stepped forward with determination and approached him.

Enoch, having finished his assessment, stared straight ahead calmly and opened his mouth.

“Nano, mark the enemies in front.”

Nano lowered her visor from the side.

“Yep! Marking the enemies on the terminal-mda!!”

The drone, which was scattering a blue light, soared into the sky, and a translucent display deployed inside Nano’s visor.

As if waiting for that moment, red light spots appeared one after another on the terminal’s screen.

What was terrifying was the number of individuals.

According to the preliminary prediction from the Victoria Kazimieśi intelligence agency, the number was supposed to be around 2,000, but no matter how you looked at it, there were at least 300 more.

The Victoria infantry, which was supposed to be holding the line in front, was nowhere to be seen.

The missing infantry and the increased number of magical beasts strangely fit together in Enoch’s mind, and he unconsciously clenched his fist.

They had been defeated.

Shepherd’s Victoria infantry, by the great army of magical beasts.

For a moment, the swarm of experimental magical beasts, realizing that there was no need to hide their bodies anymore now that the flare had been fired, roared in unison towards the sky.

The air vibrated, and my skin trembled.

From a distance, a freelancer cried out in horror.

“Th-there were that many types…?”

As he said, what was visible in the distance was a large army of magical beasts of various sizes and types.

Just then, as if to trample on the bewildered freelancers, the vanguard of the huge swarm of magical beasts charged, followed by a relatively smaller swarm.

They formed several rhombus-shaped formations in an orderly fashion, and then, with their pointed spearheads at the fore, they all charged straight towards us.

The thick dust rising and the cracked roars spreading across the land.

It was now impossible to tell whether it was the ground that was shaking or the whole world.

“This is crazy. The magical beasts are forming a charge formation. Am I seeing things?”

“Damn it, I’ve fought magical beasts many times, but I’ve never seen anything like that in my life!!”

Other freelancers cried out in horror from the side.

Enoch narrowed his eyes at the strong sense of unease.

Even in the Official History, five years from now, such a thoroughly controlled army of magical beasts was very rare.

Was this really the battle of the 19th outsourcing district from the Official History?

Rather than a legion of mindless experimental magical beasts, their movement was like a school of fish swimming in a dense formation, like a single giant fish.

Even combat mages who had trained for years would find it difficult to move in such an orderly fashion.

Just then, a corner of his mind throbbed.

Enoch felt like he was on the verge of remembering something important, but the thought failed to take a clear form and dissipated.

“No! What on earth is that Shepherd guy, the colonel here, doing now, really!”

April cried out in a frustrated tone from the side.

“If things have gone this wrong, he should have at least contacted us! Why is there no contact at all?!”

That was a point Enoch also questioned.

No matter how high Shepherd’s pride was, it was incomprehensible that there was no contact at all.

I glanced to the side, but Alicia, the Dragoon who was most likely to be related, also seemed to have no idea, and was just gripping her lance with an anxious look, staring ahead.

…Remaining distance, 2 kilometers.

The freelancer legion’s morale had also noticeably dropped. Even the battle-hardened veterans couldn't help but feel fear in this situation.

“A-all units, prepare for battle!”

The sound of communications being transmitted to the subordinate units formed by the other interims reached us.

…Remaining distance, 1 kilometer.

In front of the slowly approaching magical beasts, the tension of the freelancer legion seemed to be on the verge of reaching its breaking point.

Each of them gripped their weapons, drew on their mana, and began to build their magic, illuminating the surrounding darkness with countless colored halos of light.

…Remaining distance, 600 meters.

Leading the charge were individuals clad in massive armor.

Their enlarged forearms, encased in huge shells, and their hard, black shells, which had become impregnable armor, glinted repeatedly in the light of the burning flares as they charged.

In response, the interims, who had standardized their equipment with rifles, advanced, and, timing themselves through their communications, they all opened fire at once.

The high-speed armor-piercing rounds of the rifles, which spewed blinding muzzle flashes in succession, engraved countless trajectories of light as they rushed towards the front line of the magical beast legion.

The countless rifles were all different in caliber, design, operating mechanism, manufacturer, and even the magic they were built with.

But the fact that the type of ammunition they fired was unified proved that they were experienced freelancers.

TATATATATATATA!!

The high-speed rounds, optimized for penetrating hard armor, pierced the enemy’s shells on impact and activated the magic of the inscribed spells.

Casings scattered like rain in all directions, and orange flames and green halos of light that burst from the magical beasts’ shells exploded like fireworks in the darkness.

Countless different kinds of magic, such as fire, ice, and rock, rained down on them, binding their feet and thoroughly crushing them.

Under that power, the vanguard collapsed helplessly, and the entire magical beast formation, terrified, fled.

That’s how it should have been.

“─They didn't fall, huh?”

April muttered, narrowing her sharp, cat-like eyes.

Surprisingly, the magical beasts that were swarming in at the forefront of the enemy did not stop even after sustaining injuries that should have rendered them incapable of combat.

The rifle unit faltered but immediately resumed continuous fire.

The eerie sound of shells breaking and ashes flying was drowned out by the fierce roar of the magical beast legion.

But right after they had managed to kill a few of them by crushing their entire bodies with magic or freezing them.

An overwhelming number of magical beasts swarmed in, climbing over or bypassing the corpses that were beginning to crumble into black ash.

The number of fallen enemies was small.

It was as if they didn't feel any pain.

Enoch, who had guessed that this was the very reason why the Victoria army’s defense had been breached, slowly lifted his head.

The physical regeneration ability of the enemies deployed in the actual battle was abnormally high. Much higher than he had expected from the information he had obtained beforehand.

…Remaining distance, 300 meters.

“Wait a minute, that!”

Just then, Sirocco, who was staring into the darkness from the side, pulled on Enoch’s arm and pointed to a spot in the air.

At first, it was too dark to see anything, but with perfect timing, a second flare exploded nearby.

A unit of flying magical beasts appeared in the area where the curtain of darkness had been lifted.

Their number was less than fifty.

The problem was the other ground-type normal individuals that were tucked between their front and back legs.

The moment I realized that they were separate magical beasts, in other words, a ‘drop unit,’ a chill ran down my spine.

The flying magical beasts, as if displeased that their forms had been revealed by the flare, twisted their bodies to escape the light and began to circle the sky.

And they were transporting the experimental magical beasts they were carrying between their legs to the rear of the hill where the freelancers were positioned.

“It's a surprise attack from the rear!”

Alicia, who was looking up at the sky from Enoch's side, shouted, as if she had realized the seriousness of the situation.

They were clearly a detached force deployed to attack the freelancer legion from the rear.

April, who was calmly observing the enemy with her eye to the scope of her sniper rifle, asked.

“What should we do about this? Direct Lineage Member. I think I have a rough idea of where they'll drop.”

Enoch spoke calmly.

“We’re the only ones who’ve noticed. It will take a long time to inform the other freelancer groups.”

“That’s true. Then……”

Enoch calmly organized his thoughts and said.

“I have an idea. Follow me.”

“W-what do you mean by that?”

“It's simple.”

Enoch lifted his head and stared beyond the hill where the detached force had disappeared.

“The magical beasts’ detached force isn’t just flying magical beasts. Their objective is probably to drop the ground-type magical beasts they’re carrying into our rear.”

“It does seem that way……. So?”

“In other words, after they drop them, it’s highly likely that the flying magical beasts will return to their main force to bring another detached force.”

April glanced at Enoch and asked back.

“What makes you so sure they’ll return?”

“If they could have deployed more flying magical beasts, they would have seized air superiority, which is advantageous to them, from the start.”

In the prelude yesterday, the flying magical beasts deployed in the first surprise attack on the outsourcing district were annihilated.

In other words, to deploy a detached force like that after sending in flying magical beasts from the start meant that they were in a situation where they had to conserve their flying magical beasts.

Even knowing just this much, it wasn't very difficult to read the actions that the enemy commander was aiming for.

April exchanged a glance with Enoch and smiled faintly.

“Aha, so that’s the plan? I get it.”

She was a quick study.

She, who had continued to fight life-and-death battles, probably knew that a crisis could be turned into an opportunity.

“W-what does that mean?”

On the other hand, Lily, who was clutching her healing staff with both hands with an anxious expression, cried out.

“Don’t tell me you’re going to follow the magical beasts’ detached force?”

From the side, Alicia also asked anxiously.

“But that’s completely different from what we discussed with the Victoria army! If they make an issue of it…!”

She wasn't wrong.

Of course, I knew that in the last meeting, it was a prerequisite of the plan that Enoch would also move on Shepherd’s orders, but now was the time to act.

If more time passed, they would be attacked by the detached force, and the freelancer’s formation might not be able to avoid annihilation.

To Alicia, who would surely understand that fact as well, Enoch added with clear logic.

“Alicia. In the first place, since we’ve predicted a greater sacrifice, it would be irrational to follow the existing formal plan. Don’t you agree?”

No plan can be perfect.

In a life-and-death battle, it’s natural for unexpected variables to occur even if you’re always fully prepared.

But responding to them freely was precisely what Enoch had to do as the commander of the squad.

And for the sake of our goal of stopping this large-scale attack on the outsourcing district, there was only one thing to do right now.

Alicia thought for a moment without a word, then lifted her head and looked at Enoch.

“…Then I understand. Whatever you decide, I will follow you, Direct Lineage Member, as long as we are together.”

Enoch nodded.

“Then all squad members, I’m announcing the plan.”

And then Enoch raised his hand low and slowly spoke the plan that would counter and turn the enemy knight’s move against him.

“Before the enemy’s detached force is fully established in the rear, we will break away from the formation, annihilate the ground units, and pursue the fleeing flying magical beasts.”