Chapter 378 (2/2)

I don’t know if it is simply reflecting the flames or whether it’s excited about the upcoming slaughter, but the blade appears redder than usual .

「Come . 」

I run at full speed towards the enemy camp enveloped in the h.e.l.lish flames .

There is no trouble with vision . My surroundings are as bright as day .

There is no wall of spears . With so many places on fire, there isn’t a large enough s.p.a.ce for soldiers to line up .

「Hurry and extinguish the flames! We also have to watch out for the enemy――」

I swing my Dual Crater and decapitate the commander trying to restore order .

With a ‘s.h.i.+ng’ sound, his severed head rotates in the air .

「Ah . 」

That was literally the last sound made by the head before it detached from the body .

「b.a.s.t.a.r.d!」「Kill him!」

A spearman and crossbowman turn toward me .

I swing my sword up to slice the crossbowman from under his chin, while Schwartz’s momentum empowers his kick on the spearman .

「Gohoh!」

After hacking blood, the spearman slides on the ground right into a burning pile of gra.s.s .

Although he lets out a terrifying scream, I ignore it and move on to the next enemy .

「We’re going too!!」

Irijina’s loud voice does not lose to the dying man’s cry .

The cavalry squad under her command also run full speed at the burning camp .

Our cavalry a.s.saults the enemy without fear of a potential anti-cavalry formation .

The fleeing enemy soldiers are chased down by the speeding horses and skewered one after the other .

「Wahahahaha!! Hmp, hmp, hmp!」

As expected, Irijina stands out the most as she easily impales everybody in her way on her horse .

Rather than enjoying the ma.s.sacre like Sekrit, she is innocently enjoying the freedom of going wild .

「Hngrahー!!!」

Ooh, two at once . Impressive .

「It’s so one-sided . 」

「Or maybe not . 」

I hear Sekrit’s voice beside me .

She prompts me to turn my head toward the enemy cavalry emerging from the darkness .

They must have sensed the abnormality, although not many were sent, probably because of how sudden it happened .

「Let’s confront them . 」

「Mm . 」

「Understood . 」

Aside from Sekrit, Kifil is also here beside me .

She was told by Brynhildr to be my escort after all . She’s here because it’s night time .

She’s not riding a horse, but that’s not a problem .

「Uooohーー!!」

A spearman and I pa.s.s by each other .

I tilt my body to the left, dodging the spear aimed at my head and then swing my Dual Crater, cutting deep into his chest from under his arm .

Since both of us are running, a light touch is more than enough .

「Are you the commander? I challenge you!」

The next enemy comes at me with a sword and s.h.i.+eld .

「Sure . 」

I watch the sword carefully and avoid it .

My fist meets the s.h.i.+eld slam which immediately follows his sword .

「Uooh!」

The enemy soldier reels backward when I punched his s.h.i.+eld .

I don’t miss my chance and casually slice his neck .

His head doesn’t come off, but lots of blood gushes out before he falls to the ground .

「I’m getting warmed up . 」

Seeing the third enemy raise his sword, I bring my horse close for a pre-emptive attack and cut his arm off first .

I grab the fourth enemy’s spear and pull him off his horse, then punch him in the face right as he is falling .

For the fifth enemy, I swing down my Dual Crater on top of his head .

I cut through his sword and s.h.i.+eld brought up desperately to block my attack and even slice open his helmet, however he probably s.h.i.+fted backwards slightly to escape a fatal blow . As his head is completely exposed after his helmet falls off, I deliver a blow to his nose and cave it deep into his face with the b.u.t.t of my sword .

「Yotto . 」

I dismount from Schwartz, seeing as how this is as far as I can fight while riding him .

「He came down! Now’s our chance!」

「W-wait, he’s……」

My sword cuts both legs of the sixth enemy trying to call out to his friend, and he leans over about to say something in front of the seventh enemy, who I stab in the throat with my sword .

「T-there he is, the demon! It’s Hardlett! Hardlett himself has shown up!」

Before the eighth enemy could finish speaking, I turn my body and slice him horizontally .

His screaming upper half slides off the lower half of his body standing in place .

「Hey, they’re coming from all over . 」

「I will obey my master’s orders and protect him . 」

Sekrit and Kifil warn me .

The enemy reacts to that shout just now and more troops flood in .

Fumu, it’s getting more interesting .

I switch to dual-wielding my Dual Crater in my left and my longsword in my right .

「I am Hardlett . If you defeat me, you win . 」

「A-alright! Everyone, aim for Hardlett――」

I have no obligation to wait for a reply .

I jump in before the sentence was finished and cut off the head of the commander with my longsword .

Interrupting the screams of those around, I slice the torso of one with my Dual Crater, then turn my body and cut another two with my longsword .

「Fufufu, this is the best . 」

Sekrit, who leapt boldly into the enemy’s midst, thrust each of her two swords into the throats of different enemies, then spins to widen the wounds before pulling her swords out .

One would not expect the amount of blood squirted out to have come from two people .

「This is Hardlett’s woman!? I’ll kill her!」

「d.a.m.n you, demon’s lover!」

「Kuku, this is only the beginning . 」

She blocks the two incoming enemies with her two swords and holds them off .

Sekrit’s strength is really nothing like that of a typical woman’s . She’s able to stand her ground against two men .

「Hmph!」

Sekrit disengages, then instantly jumps behind and raises her foot .

「Guah!」

Her steel boots. .h.i.t one of the man straight in the jaw . I could hear the sound of bones cracking .

「Sorah . 」

As graceful as a dancer, Sekrit leaps and her leg swings into the other man .

Her kick hit his shoulder lightly .

「Eh?」

The enemy soldier seemed confused by the unimpactful tap .

If he didn’t realize by this point, it’s already too late .

「Farewell, man . Kah . 」

Sekrit runs her sword into the man’s crotch .

His scream was like a pig being castrated and it resonated throughout the battlefield .

「This one’s strong!」

「As expected of the demon’s lover . 」

「Get the other one . Her body is more slender . 」

The enemy steps away from Sekrit and crowds around Kifil .

I don’t think that’s a wise choice .

「It doesn’t feel great to gang up on a woman……」

「But blame yourself for being the demon’s lover!」

Three swords stick out at her .

Kifil deflects one with her sword, another with her s.h.i.+eld and the last with her face .

「U……uh?」

「……iz thad it?」1

Kifil caught the last sword with her teeth .

It’s such an unusual scene, but the emotionless Kifil talking with the blade in her mouth is surprisingly cute .

「Fugah . 」

Kifil transitions to attack .

「Ogeh . 」

She sticks out her own sword, which hits one of the enemy soldiers in the center of his armor, and although the sword bends, the blade is buried into his body up to the hilt .

「Gyii!」

The s.h.i.+eld she sticks out at the enemy soldier’s face destroys his eyes, nose, and mouth .

「Higyaaaah!」

Running out of weapons, Kifil grabs the last enemy soldier and bites down on his neck, perfectly tearing open his carotid artery .

A slight smile could be seen on Kifil’s face after she licks her mouth and cleans off the blood, which spurted like a fountain, from the now dead enemy .

「T-this one’s a demon too……」

「Hardlett is not a demon…… he’s a demon king! He’s a demon king with demons under his command!!」

Soldiers back away from the girls .

That was when a few flaming arrows shot into the sky .

It’s the signal to retreat which Leopolt decided on .

Our night attack was ultimately meant to rattle the opponent, not to wipe out the enemy .

If we don’t retreat before the enemy regroups, we’ll end up being surrounded .

「We’re falling back . 」

I summon Schwartz, who was uninterestedly stomping enemies, and mount him again .

「You ride . 」

Sekrit pulls the horseless Kifil up onto her horse .

Unwilling to risk riding together and slowing the horse down, Sekrit jumps on Schwartz instead .

「This should be fine . 」

Umu, no problems here .

Schwartz, you better not get turned on from her a.s.s . That a.s.s is mine .

As we are retreating, I catch a glimpse of a red military uniform from the corner of my eye .

I couldn’t see clearly from the weakening flames, but isn’t that a high-ranking commander?

「I want to target him, but there’s no time to charge . 」

I can tell Irijina’s boisterous voice is getting further away .

Our allies are also starting to withdraw . We can’t stay any longer .

「In that case……」

I take out a sword meant for throwing equipped to Schwartz .

I’ll try to finish him off with this .

「Meant for throwing? That’s a regular one-handed sword . 」

I ignore Sekrit’s remark and steady my aim .

「Hmmh!」

The sword spins as it flies in an arc and then a short groan could be heard .

「I did it!?」

Looking closer, the sword only stuck into the commander’s shoulder .

That won’t be enough to be a fatal blow . I knew I didn’t have talent for acrobatic maneuvers .

「Guguh…… d.a.m.n demon, how dare you…… guwah!」

As I was thinking about giving up, a shortsword stabs into the commander’s chest .

「How’s that!?」

Celia is beside me .

I guess she came looking for me after I didn’t return for a while .

Her attack might finish him――

「Abhbh!」

Two more swords stab into the commander’s face and throat .

Sekrit threw additional swords for good measure? That will do it for sure――

「Hngyah!!」

When I thought he was finished off, half of a soldier’s body which was carried from somewhere, was thrown at him and no more sounds came from the commander .

「……」

Kifil was the one who threw it .

The upper half of the enemy soldier’s body can be seen lying around nearby . She ripped him apart recently so she could throw something .

「……time to retreat . 」

I’m feeling a little miserable as I return to camp .

We fended off the enemy’s night attack while successfully carrying out ours .

It’s safe to say we won completely .

「It would be nice if everything else continued as smoothly as this . 」

I mutter to myself as I watch Celia and Sekrit fight for a spot .

That’s right, I have a feeling that things won’t turn out well .

My premonition would turn out to be true when we returned to Rafen in high spirits and was greeted by an express messenger sent by Erich .

Protagonist: Aegir Hardlett . 25 years old . Spring .

Status: Goldonia Kingdom Margrave . Great Feudal Lord of Eastern Area . Mountain Legend . Friend of the Dwarves . Friend of the King of Aless . Dragon Slayer Hero .

Elf Mediator . s.e.x King of White City .

Escort: 150 men

Infantry: 13 000, Cavalry: 1350, Archers: 1500, Bow Cavalry: 6000, Cannoneers: 450

Total: 22 300 men .

Cannons: 60, Large Cannons: 30, Dwarven Cannons: 16, Field Cannons: 20, Chariots: 50

a.s.sets: 200 000 gold

s.e.xual Partners: 775, children who have been born: 68 + 565 (non-human)

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