Chapter 128 - Watch Closely. This Is What You'll Learn Next.

The soldiers at the head of Naurilia's army were all paid professionals. They received Krona to devote themselves to training, and now they acted exactly as they had been trained and drilled. The shortbow-armed vanguard could serve as scouts when needed and swift, lightly armored missile troops in battle. Every one of them loosed an arrow. THRUM-THRUM-THRUM!

WHOOOOSH! The arrows sliced through the air and struck the immense silhouette, scarcely recognizable as human. THUD-THUD-THUD! Some soldiers rejoiced at hitting their target. Some of those cocked their heads, wondering why the impacts made that hard, rattling sound. Others were bewildered that the charging silhouette hadn't slowed at all.

'Why isn't that thing stopping?' The fog suddenly parted. Beyond the mist displaced by that immense bulk, the creature revealed itself. A bear would have been easier to accept. As the fog scattered, even those farther back could see their opponent. Encrid, of course, could see it too. Though positioned around the middle of the formation, he had a clear view. How could he not? That inhumanly massive body threw all sense of perspective awry. His first impression was of an enormous hedgehog. A large body made for a large target, and the allied missile troops were excellent shots. Dozens of arrows protruded from its body. He couldn't count them all, but there were at least twenty. An enormous hedgehog sprouting dozens of arrows, then. That was his first impression. WHOOSH! Then the creature emerging from the fog swung something in its hands in a huge vertical arc, a full swing from behind its back to the front. WHOOOOM! Something like an explosion of wind rang out. The fog was driven back even farther. Following the arc of its arms from behind its back, the thing in its hands came crashing down. KRA-BOOM! An explosive report rang out, like a mage's blast spell detonating. It was as though a catapult stone had struck. The carnage was inevitable. "Aaargh!"

"Aaaah!"

A chorus of screams erupted. A soldier caught beneath the hammer was crushed like a tomato. One to the right had his leg pulverized. That was the result of his attempt to dodge quickly. The soldier to the left felt the wind from the hammer and reflexively raised his shield. CRACK. CRUNCH. He heard half his own body tearing apart. His oiled wooden buckler offered not even a semblance of resistance to that violence. The shield broke like a rotten branch, and he died with the right half of his body torn open.

No, burst open. The hammer's spell-like force hurled his body sideways. Pink entrails spilled from the flying corpse, scattering through the air. Blood, guts, bone, flesh, someone's arms and legs all went flying. Parts that had once been attached to someone's torso, working tirelessly to keep them alive. There was no need to wonder who all of it belonged to. Anyone who had taken that head-on would already be dead. Encrid could only hope Vengeance wasn't at the front today. HUUUFF. The creature stopped after that single blow and exhaled at length. Even the simple sound of its breath was clearly audible. An overwhelming presence was the only way to describe it. It held a giant hammer. Far taller than a human, with tough skin and thick muscles, it belonged to a race as dangerous as the Frogs: the giants. With three or four times a human's strength and skin that ordinary sword blows could scarcely cut, they were commonly called red-blooded demonic beasts. It surveyed the scene its hammer had made and gave something resembling a hum.

"Hrmmm!"

Its voice was like a shout from a deep cavern, low and thick, carrying far. That cavernous humming chilled the mood among the allies. A giant? Where had something like that been hiding all this time? "Shit, get out of the way!"

An allied soldier a step farther back shouted.

"Fuuu-cking iiidiots."

The giant muttered delightedly. The curse rolled out from the depths of a cavern. "Aaaah!"

Did being paid to specialize in war make them immune to terror? To fear? Of course not. Cracks began to form at the front. Fear descended, and several soldiers tried to fall back. An allied commander couldn't simply stand by and watch.

"Do not retreat!" SHING! SHING! Several vanguard officers drew their swords. Retreat, and they would kill you themselves. "Goddammit."

What was he supposed to do? A soldier at the front wanted to cry. This was fucking bullshit. They expected him to fight that? Looking over the giant, he saw that its armor was wooden: a full suit of thin wooden pieces, now studded with arrows. There were gaps around the joints, but not a single arrow seemed to have so much as grazed those spots. HUR HUR HUR.

An enormous hedgehog, chuckling. The screaming, panicked soldiers could neither retreat nor advance. The giant took its time. To it, these were all bugs. Unless they were those knights humans boasted about, they were nothing but bugs. So easy to catch and kill. Crush them, burst them, kill them. The giant was enjoying itself.

* * *

A giant? Encrid was just as dumbfounded. Where had that thing come from? He reviewed what he knew about giants, which naturally brought to mind descriptions of the various races he'd heard somewhere. Frogs lived driven by dreams and desires. Fairies revered nature. Dwarves were obsessed with metal. Beastmen placed reproduction above all else, while dragonfolk were said to walk alone. And giants?

'Creatures drunk on slaughter.'

Killing and dying, they loved the violence they could inflict with their own bodies and lived intoxicated by it. Yet they had never seized control of the continent. Why? They were less intelligent than humans, and their instincts were too dangerous for them to form an army. They were drunk on blood and slaughter. They weren't called red-blooded demonic beasts for nothing. They were mad for fights to the death. Ruling required political minds, and giants could never be that. And among all those races were humans.

'Because humans can become anything.'

They had surpassed Frogs, Fairies, dwarves, Beastmen, dragonfolk, and giants to become the center of the world. While the giant quietly admired its surroundings and the soldiers at the front stood frozen, doing everything short of pissing themselves... SLICE. Encrid heard a peculiar sound. Flesh parting beneath a well-honed blade. Intuition, Sixth Sense, or perhaps instinct turned his head. Jaxon, standing beside him, was already looking that way. "Urk."

"Enemy!" There weren't many. Encrid narrowed his eyes. They were on the right flank, having closed the distance under cover of the fog. The unit appeared to number around ten, each of them looking highly skilled. Attacking this position with so few? They were confident in their abilities. "If they used the giant to draw our attention and hit the right, something will come from the left too. Damn, I think we've walked right into this." Krais spoke as he looked from side to side. Could he even see anything? If Encrid's eyes couldn't pick anything out, Krais would see nothing but fog. Surprisingly, the giant hadn't frightened him. Instead, his eyes darted madly about before he spoke.

"We have to stop them here." In truth, several scenarios and possibilities had occurred to Krais. He could see what the enemy was after, and he thought the battlefield favored them. He could also roughly guess what the allied commander intended. The enemy weren't the only ones who could use the fog. If the enemy could take the river to attack the rear camp, why couldn't their own side? That was probably why the Border Guard was nowhere to be seen on the battlefield. The enemy had been hiding while their own side had room to maneuver. They had more options. So the commander would have made his choice. 'The main force holds out through numbers.'

Their previous victory would have given them a numerical advantage. With similar training and higher morale on their side, who had the advantage? However fiercely the Independent Company known as the Gray Hounds, the Persistent Lovers, fought, there were limits. How many men could an Independent Company have? Two or three hundred at most. There was other information available too. For instance, one of the commander's own Platoon Commanders had fought and killed some of the Gray Hounds in Cross Guard. How many could that leave? Even generously assuming a full strength of four hundred, could they have as many as two hundred left now? The Battalion Commander would know that too. So what had the enemy chosen?

'All in on a frontal assault.'

They had come out staking everything they had. Either win here or accept losses approaching total annihilation. The means they had prepared for that gamble couldn't consist of the giant alone. Krais's mind computed all this and reached its conclusion in an instant. But he didn't explain everything. He simply chose the best option for surviving this moment, for living to breathe inside his Platoon Commander's tent again.

"The giant isn't all they have. If we can't stop their vanguard here, we're finished."

He delivered the plain facts. Confronting and solving the problem was someone else's job now. The Border Guard was away, and the main force's plan rested on holding out. One wrong move, and they would be the ones wiped out instead. What options did they have left? There were still some. Krais had seen his Platoon Commander fight a Frog. And he had seen the platoon members who kept that commander company. "Captain."

Krais called to Encrid and explained. Encrid nodded. Even after hearing him out, he couldn't understand every circumstance behind it. He'd been busy sparring yesterday, and even his attempt to get a good night's sleep had been plagued by shitty dreams. But right now, Krais's eyes seemed to shine. Like Ragna's yesterday. Like Rem when something excited him. Like Jaxon when he grew kind. Like Audin when his mind was at ease. "All right. Understood."

So Encrid answered, then looked left and right. The force on the right appeared to be about squad strength. More than one or two; at least five? What was on the left? "The ones on the left seem to be my kin."

It was the Fairy Company Commander. When had she gotten so close? Weren't commanders supposed to hold their positions a little farther back? "I'll stop the left."

Why come here to tell him that before leaving? She glanced at Encrid, and their eyes met. "What? Do you need a kiss for a blessing?"

"No, I don't."

Why did Esther come to mind at a moment like this? The young panther would be safely hidden in the rear, wouldn't she? Encrid shook his head. Despite her joke, the Fairy Company Commander looked exactly as she always did. She didn't smile. She simply watched him in silence, then moved left. Some soldiers followed her. Apart from the Independent Company formed for Encrid, she kept a few quick-footed, deft-handed soldiers selected from her own Company with her. They were something like a Company Commander's bodyguard. In a sense, they were the Fourth Company's elite soldiers. As the Company Commander moved off, Rem nodded.

"Good. Very good." Rem was in a good mood. A very, very good mood. Why? If he had to name a reason, it would be yesterday's sparring. He'd been thoroughly irritated for a while. No proper fights. Just some idiotic duels. He didn't even want to get involved, and Encrid wasn't there. Then Encrid came back with an injured wrist? That accumulating irritation had kept prickling around his heart. Just before it all exploded, his Platoon Commander had returned, and his body had soon recovered too. Then they had talked with sword and axes. How could he describe that moment? It had simply been...

'So fucking fun.' His irritation had vanished in an instant. Everything that had been inexplicably bothering him was gone. His heart felt light. When had he last felt this way? It seemed to be the first time since crossing to this continent. Not on this continent, but he had felt it elsewhere. Rem remembered another time like this: his first battlefield. That had been fun. Truly delightful. He'd been so excited he'd gone wild with his tongue hanging out. Shaking off his memories, Rem smiled and spoke.

"Watch closely. This is what you'll learn next." Then he began strolling forward, toward the giant laughing delightedly as it admired the soldiers staring through their helmets with tense, frightened eyes. Walking in a straight line, Rem shoved allied soldiers aside. They yielded helplessly, opening a path. "Move, you bastards."

Rem seemed much as usual, but he was certainly in a good mood. He seemed positively elated, to a degree Encrid rarely saw. Encrid simply watched. Rem had told him to watch closely, so he would. "I'll take that side."

For some reason, Ragna was full of enthusiasm today too. He meant to head toward the commotion on the right. It was nothing like his usual behavior. He was much like Rem. That conversation of swords with Encrid had satisfied his pent-up urges. His mind was at ease. Instead of lazing around, he wanted to pick up his sword and swing it. "You shouldn't go alone."

At Encrid's concern, Ragna considered briefly before replying.

"Then I'll go once that's over. It doesn't look like it'll take long." Whether the enemies pushing in from the right cut down their allies or not, Ragna didn't seem particularly interested. Encrid thought they needed to deal with the attackers on the right. They were clearly a mobile detachment. While he was considering whether they should instead draw them in to fight, an allied commander acted first. "Fall back! Don't die fighting out in front like idiots! Group up! Stand back-to-back with your allies!"

A familiar voice. Vengeance. He was doing well. If they were going to draw in the attackers on the right before engaging them, there would be a little time. They would need time to lure them deep enough that they couldn't escape anyway. "Then I'll be on my way too."

Audin spoke and began striding off to one side. Jaxon had long since vanished. Every member of the platoon had been relieved of an indescribable irritation. Their steps were light. Sparring with Encrid had made them that way. For a brief moment, while waiting for the enemy on the right to move farther in, Encrid watched Rem. Whether or not Rem was approaching, the giant was drawing its hammer back for another swing. Overwhelming violence. A blow that made the giant's strength unmistakably clear. It was enough to make his head swim. How would he meet that himself? And Rem effortlessly surpassed Encrid's expectations. Rem was Rem, after all.