Chapter 452 (1/2)

Chapter 452: 452

The Aless army heads straight to the center of Meldora via the shortest distance .

<hr>They literally move in a straight line, not taking into consideration the terrain or the enemy’s defensive encampments .

「Is that…… the enemy fortress? Celia!」

「Pardon me! It’s the Meldora flag . Although small, I see a fence, moat, and a stone tower……being built . 」

Celia climbs on my shoulders and reports back as she focuses her eyes into the distance .

「If they have a stone tower, it’ll take some kind of plan for only infantry to bring it down . Let us convene for a war council . 」

Agor stares at the fort with a rather stern look .

「Ah, do we really need it? They won’t listen anyways . 」

I don’t think they were responding to Tristan’s words, but their shouts fly back and forth from all over the place .

「I can see the fort . It’s one I’ve never seen before!」

「d.a.m.n them, constructing a fort in such a place . What should we do?」

「Let’s charge first and see what happens!」

Before Agor could ask Gildress to partic.i.p.ate in the conference, the Aless soldiers ran off .

「……charge and see what happens?」

「Don’t ask me . Get Gildress to tell you afterwards . 」

I’m not fluent in Aless language .

Once again, the Aless soldiers run straight toward the fort .

Naturally, the enemy attempts to intercept with a rain of arrows, but the Aless soldiers group up on the fly, connecting their s.h.i.+elds tightly with their neighbors, minimizing the effectiveness of the arrows .

「They’re……getting closer . They’re on the walls…… nuh, it was a trap!!?」

A cloud of dust suddenly engulfed the vanguard much to Agor’s surprise .

Apparently, there was a pitfall next to the walls .

「Hahaha! They totally fell for that!」

「Traps are the best solution against beasts with low intelligence!」

The enemy’s cheers can be heard from where we are .

「Chaos is inescapable now that the vanguard is completely caught in the trap . Let us also move forward and patch things up!」

「I don’t think we need to . 」

Tristan makes another lazy comment and the enemy’s cheers quickly turn to screams .

「H-hey, they aren’t dead! They’re climbing out of the hole!」

「Impossible! We dug five meters deep and even laid spears at the bottom! T-throw rocks at them! Quickly!!」

「In that case, my spear…… hiih!? Noooo! Save me! Don’t take my clothes off!」

The rearguard did not panic despite the vanguard dropping into the pitfall, and even they soon crawled back out and rejoined the battle .

「Eei, this pile of rocks is in the way . 」

「Are we doing this, brother!?」

Some of the Aless soldiers stick their swords and s.h.i.+elds into the ground and grab onto the stone wall with their bare hands .

Then, they start pulling out the rocks one by one, dismantling the tower .

Eventually, the tower crumbles and the enemy loses their footing .

Unable to stop the Aless soldiers with arrows, the walls get torn apart and the iron gate topples inward from the overwhelming pressure of the muscular men .

All of that happened in about one hour .

「Pulling the stones out with their bare hands……this is so different from the siege battles I know……」

「Don’t think about it too much . If you don’t adjust your the way you view them, it’ll tire you out . 」

Aless’s attack did not stop there .

The next base is a fort stationed on a precipice of a cliff with only a single point of entrance and flaming pots of oil are being poured down the climbing path .

「It’s a fortified camp and it’s on top of the cliff . That sounds troublesome . 」

「The fire is too strong . They have to deal with that first . 」

Let’s see what Aless will do . I have a general idea .

「Ah, I kind of expected it, but they’re climbing . 」

Tristan seems to have the same thinking as me .

The Aless soldiers start ascending the backward-facing cliff as a group .

Not antic.i.p.ating anybody to climb up the rock face, they didn’t have any defensive facilities there .

「It’s quite striking seeing countless macho men scale the wall . 」

「Yeah, there’s nothing more disgusting . 」

Rocks and other objects were being thrown out of the fortress windows, but that doesn’t stop the Aless soldiers .

The fort was invaded in an instant, leading to an all-out melee, and the enemy no longer stood a chance .

It took a little longer this time . About two hours .

「Ooh, my friend! Compared to your enemies, Meldora is tepid . I almost fell asleep in the middle of battle!」

Gildress walks over to me carrying one woman on each shoulder, one wearing a beautiful red dress and the other wearing a white dress .

「Uuu……please don’t kill me . 」

「They said the fort was impregnable…… sniff, sniff . 」

They must be the women of the head of the fort .

I direct a cold stare at Gildress .

「It won’t be long until we reach the center of Meldora . The opponents should get tougher . I advise you to be careful . 」

Gildress offers me the woman in the red dress .

「Thanks for your concern . I’m glad you didn’t get hurt either . 」

I happily accepted the woman .

Gildress’s words manifested in reality as the combat started to change the next day .

「「「Guwaaaah!」」」

「They took out three people! Fall back . It came from that tiny boat!!」

During what I thought would be another easy victory, a bunch of fireb.a.l.l.s came flying from a vessel hidden by some aquatic plants in the river .

It’s the familiar fireball weapon of the smaller variety .

Even the Aless soldiers, who get engulfed in flames, won’t come out unscathed .

「Those who can swim, circle around to the upper part of the river! Dive underwater and flip the boat from the bottom!」

Gildress gives an order that wasn’t an order to charge .

The Aless soldiers quickly leave their weapons and armor behind and jump into the river .

He’s a helpless idiot with a stifling presence but he’s not a total moron .

He knows how best to fight when faced with an unknown situation .

「Just taking off your armor is fine! Why did you have to remove your pants as well!!?」

Celia yelled .

「A-amazing……」

Agor’s attendant gulped . Is she going to be okay?

「Mu, here comes a new opponent!!」

Another ally shouted .

Our gaze s.h.i.+fts to the silver-colored wagon coming out of the enemy camp .

「That’s…… a wagon…… no . 」

Agor states in confusion .

「It’s lacking the most important part, the horse . 」

Tristan comments curiously .

Right, the wheels of the silver wagon-looking thing are turning despite not being pulled by horses .

「It’s been one weird thing after the other . 」

「Hey, what should we do!?」

「With wagons, we would usually kill the horses……now you’re saying there are no horses!? Then I don’t know! Throw rocks at it or something!」

For normal wagons, taking out the driver or the horses would normally be enough to stop them .

In this case, the Aless soldiers bombard the wagon with rocks from the side, but the body is durable and doesn’t dent at all .

Furthermore, the horseless wagon launches fireb.a.l.l.s at us as it approaches .

「Woah! It’s shooting fire!!」

「Eeei, annoying! What now? Should we jump on it!?」

At this rate, it’ll encroach deep into our formation .

I look around for a solution and find a chain the enemy used to construct their large tents .

I swing the chain and throw it toward the group of Aless soldiers .

「Have three people hold it and crouch down . 」

「Yeah!!」

「I’ll act as decoy!」

Celia throws a red-painted dagger at the wagon .

It was a special one that scattered gunpowder and exploded on impact, causing a loud boom .

After the cloud of smoke dissipated, the wagon was still its usual bright silver, without a single scratch .

Nevertheless, the wagon altered its direction and chased after Celia .

Celia pretends to run away for a bit before luring the wagon back toward us .

「Now!」

At the signal, the Aless soldiers and I pulled the chain taut .

The wagon continued charging .

Its momentum was powerful enough to send our bodies flying .

I hung on tightly and felt my body lift up into the air, but Mack grabbed my waist .

The three Aless soldiers on the other side also don’t let go of the chain although their feet left the ground .

The chain gets tangled in the wagon’s wheels and as it tries to keep driving forward, one of its wheels spins futilely in the air, tipping the wagon over on its side and sending it tumbling a few times before landing upside down .

「No matter what kind of vehicle it is, if it has wheels, we can trip it up . 」

I give the spinning wheels a light kick .

After all of that, neither the wagon or the wheels broke .

This thing must also be from the Jirubiru or whatever .

In addition, the small boats carrying the weapons are capsizing due to the a.s.sault of the Aless soldiers in the water .

Although we struggled this time, we ultimately won again .

「Hey man! Behind you!!」

I turned around instantly at Gildress’s warning and swung my Dual Crater .

It was a humongous fireball, which shattered with a soft crack disproportionate to its immense size .

「No way, the fire vanished!?」

Staring at me with his mouth agape was an enemy in the gra.s.s holding a spear with a rounded tip, almost like a staff .

「A magic user?」

My guess was wrong .

「F-fire!!」

Ten more enemy soldiers wielding the same spear emerged from the gra.s.s and shot at me .

Magic users are extremely rare and the magic they are capable of varies greatly .

However, what is being launched at me right now is the same kind of fireball . That’s impossible .

「I don’t know what’s going on . 」

「We can only press forward . 」

I start running and slice two fireb.a.l.l.s in half .

My blade thrusts into the shocked soldier’s forehead, and I sweep through all the way to also take out the adjacent soldier, ripping off the first guy’s head in the process .

At the same time, Gildress also rushes in and cuts down two soldiers, finis.h.i.+ng off a third with an axe kick to the skull .

「B-b.a.s.t.a.r.d!」

The staff he pointed at me glowed .

But a fireball didn’t come out . That’s because the staff and his severed right hand were dancing in the air .

「The ones with the round tips are trouble . You can’t do anything once they get close . 」

Following up after slicing his right hand, I also cut his head off and ruthlessly slash the back of the fleeing soldier, then ready a final swing at the fifth person .

Gildress chops through the fourth enemy soldier and his staff in one stroke and grabs the neck of the last person, ready to snap it .

「「Mu!」」

Both of us realize simultaneously that our remaining opponents were females .

「I’m done for…… mother!」

「I don’t want to die!」

I lower my weapon and soothingly pat the enemy soldier’s head, urging her to abandon the staff .

「「It’s alright now . I don’t kill women . 」」

Our voices overlap . Or was that just my ears playing tricks on me?

「「Calm down and surrender . 」」

I comfort her as much as possible while disarming her and stripping her simple armor .

「「I’ll release you soon . In exchange――okay?」」

I hug the woman close to my body and my hands squeeze her a.s.s and b.r.e.a.s.t.s .

The battle is nearing its end . My next thought is night time fun .

「Uuu……I knew it, Aegir-sama is going to turn into ‘him’ in the future . If I don’t stop him……」

Celia mumbles something to herself and gets distracted by the weapon dropped by the female soldier .

「So this is the magic staff? It’s lighter than it――wah!?」

All of a sudden, the staff glows and hurls a fireball in the midst of some Aless soldiers .

「Dowah! What are you doing!?」

「Is this a roundabout way of seducing me!? In that case, I accept!」

Celia used magic?

「I-I don’t know . All I did was grip the staff……」

「A weapon that allows anybody to shoot magic . That’s what it seems like . 」

Tristan, certain the battle is over, casually appears beside us .

「This is another different weapon . 」

If all of these are in South Yuguria’s possession, this doesn’t bode well for us .

We have to discover a method to deal with them quickly .

――A Few Days Later .

「Not a chance . 」

「No way . 」

Agor and I share the same opinion .

In front of us is the city of Meldora―― the city state which is the center of our current conflict .

The Aless soldiers, who can’t simply be described by the words powerful and brave, have brought down the enemy fort and breached the defense lines to get here .

If we capture this position, Meldora is done for .

Only a few kilometers and a single imposing stone wall separates us from the enemy .

「There’s nothing we can do about this . 」

Tristan sighs and shrugs his shoulders, spreading his hands like he’s given up .

I grab his hand and pull him to the ground .

Almost simultaneously, a fireball flies above his head, soars past us and instantly disintegrates a large tree .

「It makes me smile, knowing how far we came . 」

Countless fireb.a.l.l.s and endless lights come at us, with a few soldiers occasionally appearing above the walls with their rounded magical staffs .

Ten Aless soldiers at a time bash the gates with a thick log, but the defense structure doesn’t budge .

They must also be using the same unknown fortification method used in Trisnia .

「Nuuun . 」

Gildress groans in frustration as no matter how strong the Aless soldiers are, it won’t be a fight if they get blown away before they can get close . And even if they managed to slip past the attacks, they can’t do anything against the walls that can repel cannons .

Such defenses won’t crumble .

It’s clear that we will get one-sidedly crushed if we attack .

「That’s fine though . Our main objective is not to destroy Meldora . 」

「You’re right . What’s important is the Jirubiru technical civilization’s……historic ruins and whether we can find it . 」

「Nuuuuun . 」

Tristan says as he brushes dust off himself .

Hey, at least thank me for saving your a.s.s .

And Gildress, shut up already .

「But the origin place of such a powerful weapon……surely it will be heavily guarded . Supposing it’s in the middle of the city, it would be hard for us to go near……」

Tristan answers the concerned Agor with a joke .

「No, that probably won’t be the case . We’re talking about ruins that existed a thousand years ago . They won’t be openly displayed in the city . It would most likely be somewhere underground or another hidden area……not in the center of Meldora . 」

Tristan continues, his gaze moving away from the city .

「The suspicious locations are the mine, the dense forest where people can’t enter, and……」