Author: Kaburagi Haruka | Original Source: Syosetu | Word Count: 2579 characters |
Translator: Mui | English Source: Re:Library | Word Count: 1515 words |
Editor(s): Deximus_Maximus |
Just as we were convinced of our victories, there was a sudden interruption. The steel arrow that came from god knows where had pierced through the Goblin Lord’s head, pulverized it, and then impacted the ground a few meters ahead.
A moment later, a fierce gale blew through the surroundings, blowing me, who was light as a feather under my disguise, behind.
I quickly took a defensive stance, fixed my balance and faced the Goblin Lord.
There, I saw a giant collapsed body that had blood spurting like a fountain from where its head once was.
“Where in the world did that come from…”
This place was far from the city walls, and an arrow from the backup should not have reached here. Goblin Lord was also aware of that and took sufficient distance.
There were no signs of anyone other than Goblins around us. In which case… It means that someone had shot that arrow from beyond my detection range.
I immediately started looking around, and found the source of it.
It came from the top of the spire of the Magic Academy which was rumored to be even taller than the royal castle.
There, I saw two small human shapes.
They were a girl holding a bow shining in silver, and a girl whose hair also shone in silver. One familiar appearance, one deeply memorable one… Michelle and the God of Destruction stood there.
“Don’t tell me, she shot it from all the way there? I can’t believe it…”
There were easily around 500 meters between us. This was by no means a distance an arrow could normally reach.
However, the reality that the Goblin Lord’s head had gotten pulverized before my eyes couldn’t be changed.
But the next moment, it was proven that my guess was indeed correct.
The scenery around her bow got warped, and the moment I saw a flash, Goblins that were fighting with an Adventurer nearby got blasted away.
This was the Goblin that Kayle was taking on, as well as the one commanding a nearby group.
A second later came another flash. And once again, it accurately pierced through yet another Goblin.
What happened from then on could only be called peerless onslaught by Michelle. Every time light flashed atop the spire, a Goblin was blown off.
She was accurately shooting through the Goblins in the urban areas and those who were trying to climb up the walls, putting a stop to their invasion.
Her shooting had lasted for at most three minutes. However, she managed to hit over a hundred Goblins in that time.
Before she managed to completely exterminate them, her body suddenly went limp and was caught by the God of Destruction. Most likely, the effect of her strengthening bangle had run out.
Even so, the situation had turned to our advantage thanks to her.
The Goblin numbers had been reduced to 200 thanks to her efforts, and they had lost their commander. The Adventurers defending the city walls didn’t seem to have gone down that much, so the damages to the city shouldn’t have been significant.
That said, their numbers were still four times the Adventurers.
While the defeat was avoided, we had to exterminate them here or the root of evil would remain.
The fleeing Goblins would have attacked the nearby settlements, dealing great harm to the surroundings.
“We managed to succeed in defending the city, but the damages—hmm?”
Raum lacked the numbers too much to move on to the cleanup now. But as I was thinking that, from the right side of the Goblins, the other side of the river, a group of about a hundred people charged at the Goblin flank.
Half of that group consisted of the Elves, while the rest seemed to be Adventurers; it was a composition that was both quite like Raum and also quite irregular.
They took the initiative and divided the Goblins, and started to exterminate them as they scattered, divided into east and west.
◇◆◇◆◇
The Adventurers looked at Cortina (the strategist), unable to comprehend what was happening. Not minding any of that, she gave them commands.
“Relief from the hot spring town is here! If you cut corners here, they’ll look down on the Adventurers of Raum, so get to work!”
“Huh, we have reinforcements!?”
“That’s right. If we can’t use Raum’s battle power, we can only rely on the other places. They don’t have a permanent combat power stationed there, but there are many Elves and Adventurers due to how many people come and go. I realized that if we gathered them all up, they would serve as a sufficient power.”
“When did you…”
“It doesn’t take that long for a familiar to make a round trip. Plus, with my name being mentioned, even the reclusive Elves would not be able to ignore it, right?”
The battle situation below was being overturned as time went on. For the Goblins who had already been halved, another hundred Adventurers were nothing if not fatal.
Cortina judged that this was the critical moment and ordered them to attack.
“We are opening the gates and moving on to attack. Positions from one to twelve, get to the main gate and launch yourselves at them. Run through the enemies and shake them up!”
With Cortina’s spirited command, the Adventurers also raised their cheers. The situation had been completely reversed, so there would be few Goblins that could manage to escape now.
Then, she looked towards the girl at the top of the spire.
“Still, you sure went and did it, Michelle. That’s going to make things tough for you from now on, you know? And also…”
Following it, she moved her eyes towards the place where the Goblin Lord lay. There stood a giant man hiding his face with a hood.
“You used your threads huh… I found you, Reid.”
Clenching her fist at her chest, she declared those words.
◇◆◇◆◇
“W-Who are these people…”
I was bewildered to see the sudden reinforcements. No, these numbers were too much to call it a mere reinforcement. It was already an army. Where in the world did they come here from?
My question was answered the moment I saw one of the Adventurers that cut his way in. It was because I remembered his face. It was a young boy that used his short spear to slaughter the Goblins around.
“Huh… Could it be, Mikey?”
It was the boy who became the reason I had gotten the ownership of Kabby. It was that boy whom I met at the hot spring town.
I was sometimes going to the hot spring town nowadays to show him Kabby, so I was quite familiar with him.
I was seven when I met him first, so we already knew each other for five years. He was three years older than me, so he had already turned into a fine man, and was trying to make his success as an Adventurer. That same Mikey was part of this group.
“That means… They came from the hot spring town and other Elven settlements, huh!”
It was the biggest settlement around here. But the Elves living there were mostly seclusive-minded, so I didn’t expect reinforcements.
So seeing over a hundred of them now had surprised me.
No, it wasn’t just Mikey. I saw Haumea and Cole among them too.
“Ah, maybe those two played the part in gathering this force.”
Those two mainly worked as guards between Raum and the hot spring town. If Raum was damaged due to battles, it would affect their livelihood too. They seemed to be quite old as well, so their words probably held quite an influence there.
While I was thinking that, Haumea’s gaze fell on me. It was an abrupt and sharp glare, as if to pierce me.
“Haumea, what’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing, I just felt an uncomfortable gaze.”
“From that guy? Looks like the Goblin Lord has been defeated.”
“Looks like it. We seem to have missed a good opportunity.”
I don’t think I said anything, but could it be that she managed to notice my thoughts?
Either way, I had to leave this place as fast as possible.
Cortina’s familiar was monitoring the battle from above even now. I ended up using my threads at the last second, so she probably already saw through my identity.
If I didn’t make use of this chaotic battle to hide, she could see the moment I would return to my original appearance.
Just as I moved towards the river, the familiar also followed after me. Yeah, she was definitely on to me.
Still, the magic item that I had on me now was to hide my body during situations like this. My disguise was merely a secondary thing.
Using the Goblin copse as a blind spot, I instantly switched the effect to invisibility. Combining it with my Stealth Gift, it was close to impossible for anyone to spot me now.
And like this, the Goblins were mercilessly exterminated, and the danger to Raum was gone.