CH 134

Chapter 134

When Peaceful Times Cease To Exist : A Name That Calls Death, Part 6 — Group Warfare

Translated by KaiesV

Edited by KaiesV

As soon as the battle began, Aerial threw a hand-held shuriken and broke a section. Alfiris jumped into the corner and kicked the goblins away at once. Fenna isn’t suited for close combat, and Lisa isn’t suited for a fight that doesn’t take her by surprise. As for Kazas, he was non-combatants, so the first priority in battle is to bring him down to the rearguard. It was agreed beforehand during the trip that the role would be assumed primarily by Alfiris.

At the same time, Nia and Miranda teamed up to cut into the enemy. Nia is inevitably lacking in decisiveness if the opponent is a human-sized goblin, but not if it’s a giant of orc or larger. Miranda, on the other hand, delivers too large a blow, and in a head-on battle, it is easy to be caught in the open when surrounded on all sides. Therefore, the girls thought that it would be most efficient to fight in a pattern where Nia would break down and Miranda would finish them off.

「Nia, Miranda, you take care of the orcs and the big armor. I’ve taken on that smaller armor!」

「「Got it!」」

Nia runs through the orcs like a gust of wind and takes a precise blow to the knee or face, knocking them off balance. Then, Miranda put a stop to one after another against the most promising opponents.

Aerial takes care of the goblins standing in her way in an instant, and then takes on four Hecatoncheires in a single move. Hecatoncheires aren’t agile, but they wear hard armor all over their bodies, and their physical strength are far greater than that of Aerial.

If Aerial is hit by a blow from the front, the spear and Aerial will be cut in two.

「They’re tough.」

Aerial unintentionally let out mixed impressions. There are also a variety of weapons that each Hecatoncheires holds: sword, iron ball, spear, and axe. It’s difficult even for someone like Aerial who had skills to simultaneously face a wide variety of weapons with different spacing. Also, since Aerial’s spear wouldn’t pass through the Hecatoncheires’ armor, Aerial gave up on striking head-on and focused on keeping the Hecatoncheires off balance.

But as they fight, Aerial notice that the Hecatoncheires and the others are moving strangely. The Hecatoncheires wield their weapons without regard to whether their bodies are in the orbit of their own weapons. Hecatoncheires are wounded as if in a friendly firefight.

「What’s with these guys?」

She guided one of them to come in the orbit of the iron ball and shot it in the head without thinking twice. The head was safe because of the sturdiness of its armor, but as expected, the armor was deformed.

「Well, if that’s the way it is, we have a fight on our hands!」

Aerial boldly jumped into the center of the four bodies and began fighting in the middle of them.

＊＊＊

Meanwhile, Nia and Miranda have taken care of most of the goblins and orcs.

「Nia, you take care of the rest. I’ll take care of the big one!」

「Okay!」

Nia responds by striking the back of the knee, snapping the neck of the orc on one knee. Miranda heads for three Cancellers. Miranda doesn’t know that magic does not work on them, but they were perfect for her because of their slow movements and huge size.

「Urraagghh!」

Miranda, who isn’t at all happy about the situation, delivers a full-throated blow that sends the giant, more than two-meter-tall Canceller flying through the air, her feet in the air. They continued to take a blow to the head and tried to go for the next Canceller, but Miranda grabbed its leg and knocked it off balance.

「What?」

The Canceller, which should have its head crushed. But it doesn’t seem to be frightened at all. Miranda shook off the leg that had grabbed her by force, but the gap was too big, and another Canceller’s great sword was already in front of her.

「!」

「Watch out!」

With a metallic sound, Alfiris strikes down the Canceller’s great sword with a blow with all her might. Taking advantage of the gap, the two men move away from each other.

「You saved me, Alfie」

「That big armor is nasty too.」

「Not at all. What else can we do but smash it to pieces?」

「No, that’s not necessary.」

Lisa calls out from the rear. She closes her eyes and seems to be concentrating on the sensors she wore under Phalanx.

「After all, the armor is empty—— they’re probably moved by magic. There seems to be a center of activation formula just around the back of the stomach. Aim for the stomach!」

「I get it now.」

「Then let’s go!?」

Miranda and Alfiris kicked the ground vigorously at the same time.

＊＊＊

Lifeless watches from the rear as Alfiris and her team fight. The reason he’s interested is not to see Alfiris and the others, but to see how well the Hecatoncheires and Cancellers can fight. Frankly, Lifeless believes that they alone can handle the level of Alfiris.

In front of Lifeless’ eyes, the Cancellers are finished off by Miranda in turn, and the rest of the goblin orcs are taken down by Nia. The Hecatoncheires was then slowed down one by one by Aerial, and when it came together, Fenna wiped it out with her magic. Once the remaining goblins and orcs were swept away, they would soon come down on Lifeless.

「…Hmm, they’re only artificial lives… they can’t do more than they’re told… If they’re so simple-minded, if they’re so willing to fight each other… there’s still room for improvement…」

The Hecatoncheires was successful only in the war against Zamwed, but its developer, Anomaly, pointed out to himself that they are strong against opponents who would rush in head-on on their own like the beastmen, but they are weak against traps and mixed battles. Perhaps because of the low cost of production, intelligence was generally quite low, and although high individuals were sometimes born by accident, there was no hope of fine instruction.

After trying to fight the Seeker this time, he found that Hecatoncheires, with their slow movement and low resistance to magic, are not a good match for the Seeker. In the earlier battle with a group of Seekers, they had indeed lost more than 10 Hecatoncheires, despite the surprise attack.

「…And Hecatoncheires, as it is now, can only be used against beastmen… No, Gruzald uses tactics as an army, and either way, they’re not going to be around much longer as it is… It needs to be improved ASAP… I’m sure Anomaly will have another headache and agony… No, did he like that sort of thing…? Kuku, what a difficult person to deal with…」

As Lifeless laughed imagining Anomaly agonizing over the difficult task, suddenly three arrows in quick succession pierced their bodies. The shooter was Aerial, and all but Lifeless had already been annihilated. Lifeless sighs that it’s a bad habit of his to stop caring about his surroundings when he starts to concentrate. But it’s also true that Lifeless is so confident that he cannot be beaten if he isn’t careful.

As trees blazed around them, Alfiris’ group slowly surrounded Lifeless. Their expressions were reckless and angry at the same time. In the red light, it was them who looked like monsters.

「I see. Alfiris is surely right, the arrows doesn’t work.」

「Yes, but what about magic?」

Alfiris, Miranda, Fenna, and Aerial each try to start chanting. Seeing them, Lifeless smiles thinly again.

「What’s so funny?」

「…No… It’s funny because you guys are so desperate…」

「Smile forever. You’re the one who’s going to die.」

「…Kukuku… This is why I hate kids who don’t know things…」

「You still say that!?」

「…So many people, sometimes even magical beasts and fiends, have stood in my way… No one has been able to kill me… for 800 years.」

「800 years, you say?」

All of them were so surprised that they forgot to chant. However, Lifeless didn’t even seem to care about the reaction of Alfiris and the others.

It was at that moment that Lifeless heard the footsteps of a large creature behind him.