Chapter 23

“Back during the First Exam, I never imagined we’d run into Demon Beasts here. Still feels unreal.”

Kinjo grumbled.

He was right—First Exam.

Kinjo and I had followed A Team’s route as A Team.

The spot we stood on was one leg of that path.

“Same here. But our luck’s holding.”

I dropped to one knee.

In one fluid motion I drove my hand into the earth.

My fingers closed on a thick branch.

During the First Exam

I’d prepared for this very day.

Every moment had been lived for today.

I pulled out the spear I’d hidden.

“Mago?”

I yanked it free, roots and all.

“Oscar made this.”

* * *

The fire-wreathed spear punched through a goblin’s skull.

The creature died with an arrow still nocked.

I sprinted down the hill.

Three spears in my hand.

Three archer goblins left.

Behind me the Boss charged like a boar.

His roar rang in my ears.

“Mago! Should we take the big one first—?”

“Nothing’s more annoying than arrows!”

I hurled the second spear.

It slammed into the chest of an archer.

The goblin clutched the wooden shaft, staggered, and toppled.

While I dealt with him

the remaining two had already drawn on me.

Bowstrings pulled back.

“Kinjo!”

Not me—Kinjo.

Two arrows streaked toward him.

Too late to dodge.

I threw myself forward.

“Ngh—!”

Both arrows buried themselves in my left arm.

“Mago...!”

“Don’t stop—run!”

I rolled to my feet and, in the same breath, hurled the third spear.

It skewered the goblin who’d shot me.

Then the last, the fourth.

A clean hit to the forehead.

All four archer goblins down.

Sixteen goblins left.

And the relentless Orc Boss on our heels.

“Kinjo! Drop ahead and clear a path!”

“What?”

“Just don’t get caught!”

I flew down the slope even faster.

Eyes shut for an instant.

Lake Two.

I drew the sword I’d sheathed there.

Drove the point into the nearest goblin’s throat.

Left the blade in place.

Used the corpse as a shield.

When momentum nearly pitched me forward

I vaulted.

Brief hang-time.

“Hup—!”

I landed on two goblins at once.

They crumpled beneath me.

I rose first.

One slash opened both throats.

Crimson spray painted the grass.

Two more down.

Quick head-count.

Thirteen left.

No one had slipped away.

I tossed my sword,

snatched the bow dropped by a dead archer.

Now I only had to face the rest alone...

“Should work.”

The goblins kept climbing, ignoring me.

All their archers were dead.

Every bow and arrow was mine.

If they kept brushing me off, I’d drop them one by one.

Everything was unfolding exactly as I had predicted.

“Mago!”

Kinjo’s voice cracked across the hilltop.

He was a heartbeat from being boxed in—goblins below, the Orc Boss charging down the slope above.

I jerked my chin.

My left arm, skewered by an arrow, trembled like a leaf; blood dripped from my fingertips.

I tried to clench a fist to check the damage.

Useless.

The arm had already been pushed past its limits by the orcs; now it wouldn’t obey me at all.

“So you’ll ignore me because I can’t draw a bow, is that it?”

The goblins were almost on Kinjo.

Behind them loomed an orc wearing a crude necklace of tusks and horns.

A hollow laugh escaped me—self-mockery.

I’d acted as if every preparation were complete, yet in the end it was just like my last life.

Sunlight flashed off Belle’s dog tag, still looped around my left hand.

The memory flashed with it—her nameplate glinting where it had been pinned to the commander’s office wall.

I never wanted to see that sight again.

I unwound the tag from my left wrist.

Took a steadying breath.

“Not yet...”

It would hurt.

It would hurt like hell, but I had no choice.

With my right hand I bent the fingers of the left, forcing them to grip the bow.

Molars clenched, I swallowed the scream.

“Still not enough.”

If I drew the string now, the torn muscles would snap.

I re-wrapped the dog tag around my left palm, pulling it so tight I couldn’t let go even if I wanted to.

I snatched an arrow from the ground, nocked it, and drew in one fluid motion.

The farthest goblin took the shaft through the skull.

His axe slipped from limp fingers; both axe and body slid down the slope, leaving a crimson brush-stroke across the grass.

“Kinjo, I’ll open a path...!”

I retreated, arrow already nocked, retracing the route I’d used to pick off the archers—killing in reverse order, reclaiming arrows as I moved.

Next shaft on the string.

I twisted my right shoulder back until the joint protested, held my breath.

The arrow punched through a goblin’s thigh; he pitched forward, cracked his head on a rock, and stopped moving.

“Eleven left.”

The Boss swung his axe.

Kinjo’s sword flashed up, parrying once—pure luck.

Even from here I could feel how close he’d come to death.

At his level, thirty seconds of survival would be a miracle.

I sighted on the Boss’s eyes.

The bowstring sang—

The orc whipped his blade up like a shield and knocked the arrow aside.

His gaze dropped to me.

I loosed another, deliberately drawing his attention.

He swatted this one away almost contemptuously, faster than the first.

Every shot I wasted gave him time; every second I spent climbing toward him meant hacking through a wall of goblins.

“Either way costs time.”

The Boss kept aiming for Kinjo’s neck.

It wouldn’t be long before an arm snapped.

Darkness crept in at the edges of my vision.

I closed my eyes—nothing changed; the world was black either way.

When I opened them again, color returned.

Green bodies crawled up the slope.

I saw the necklace—tusks and molars—gleaming against the orc’s chest.

And a flash of brilliant red hair.

“Hit the deck!”

Kinjo dropped flat as Belle’s sword crashed against the Orc Boss’s axe.

The Boss’s face twisted—he recognized Belle on sight.

“Grrrk...”

“Yeah... been a while, hasn’t it?”

Belle lunged, raining blows on the Orc Boss.

“Kinjo! Get down here—now!”

Kinjo nodded, rolled, and tumbled off the slope.

After that, it was pure thunder.

The Orc Boss roared at the top of his lungs, barking orders in the tongue of the Demon Beasts. I was the only one here who understood. Eight years of butchering the things had taught me their language along with their weaknesses.

“Kinjo, the real fight starts now.”

“What? Then what the hell have we been doing?”

“I’ve called the whole army. Time to finish this.”

“Uh...?”

“Looks like the Boss finally acknowledged me.”

“Now’s really the time to celebrate that?”

“Damn right. He never even glanced at me before. The odds of my squad dying just dropped in one swipe.”

“Yeah, and ours shot up instead.”

“Lose here, we all die anyway—same difference.”

A horn flute wailed—exactly as I’d expected.

From every direction.

Goblins and orcs marched in perfect lockstep, left foot, left foot, left foot, every boot turning toward us.

Two arrows jutted from my left arm. I snapped them off and tightened my grip on my sword.

* * *

“Why are they ignoring us all of a sudden...?” Amon muttered, stunned.

Every Demon Beast had turned its back on the Assassination Team.

The moment the horn flute’s second blast died away.

“After them! If we let them climb higher, the Escort Team’s dead!” Amon shouted.

The beasts didn’t even spare the Assassination Team a glance.

“Grab their damn legs! Loose arrows!”

One orc with a bow apparently found Amon’s constant yelling annoying. He pivoted, drew, and loosed.

The sudden shift caught Amon flat-footed. The arrowhead punched through his chest before he could blink. He crumpled without a sound.

“Amon...!”

Louise sprinted over, face white.

Blood bubbled from Amon’s lips.

“Amon, Amon—stay with me...!”

“Louise. Your face this close... how could I not stay conscious? I knew you were pretty, but up close you’re... breathtaking...”

“Now you crack jokes?”

“I took the hit on purpose.”

“Save the bravado!”

Amon yanked the arrow free. A gush of scarlet followed, thick and hot.

“Amon, the blood—”

“Yeah, it’s a lot. Ugly, I know.”

“Ugly?”

Amon pushed to his knees, then to his feet, one hand on his thigh.

“Fighting while drenched in blood is the ugliest thing there is. A Berserker’s frenzy suits no noble, no Prestigious Family.”

He dragged his blade across his own palm as casually as wiping a cloth down the sword’s length, no hesitation.

“I swore I’d never use this filthy trick...”

Under his breath the chant began, and the light fading from his eyes flared back to life.

“Blood Price.”

The navy uniform darkened, soaked almost black.

Dripping, he turned his face uphill.

“The price is owed to the demon.”

Louise shivered, whispering to herself, ‘Coster family incantation... makes my skin crawl. Can’t even tell friend from foe anymore...’

“The altar is here.”

The scattered droplets quivered, then rose like living things, pulling themselves upright.

“Blood with Blood.”

As the last syllable left Amon’s lips, the pooled blood solidified into a crimson blade and shot forward.

* * *

Belle broke away from the Orc Boss, yanked her flask, and drank.

“Pfft...!”

The instant it hit her throat she spewed it back out.

“Mago!”

She shrieked my name, half-hysterical.

“This is liquor!”

“Really? Had no idea...!”

I answered while slicing a goblin’s head clean off.

“Belle, watch yourself!” Kinjo yelled, voice tight with worry.

“I’ll watch—anything less would be rude.”

All the while, the Orc Boss kept saying his piece.

He bellowed at Belle, loud enough to rattle the trees.

“Ah, yes, yes—you wanted to see me. I feel the same.”

“Belle... you actually understand Orc language?”

She ignored Kinjo’s question and kept talking to the Boss.

“But now we’re enemies, you say? Hmph, I suppose so. I’m wearing this uniform now. From the start you were a monster to me; only now do I look like an enemy to you.”

The Boss answered with a rolling growl.

“Right, right. You’ll have to kill me, no choice. I feel the same—works out perfectly.”

Belle set her stance.

“So you really can talk to orcs?”

“No. Of course not.”

“...Huh?”

“I’m just saying what I want to say. I’ve got plenty to tell this bastard.”

She gripped her sword hilt with both hands, drew it back beside her left ear.

As if she’d already said everything worth saying,

she let out a hiss of breath white-hot with fury.