8-2. Chapter 8 (Part 2)
The battle wasn’t over yet. The enemy who had tasted success in the last attack seemed to have underestimated the Highserk soldiers. Perhaps they were hungry to annihilate the enemy. In addition to Duwei’s squad, two other squads rushed to the rescue and kept the enemy from running away.
The Highserk soldiers intended to end this hide-and-seek in this place, here and now. There were about 30 enemies, a little more than expected. Walm jumped into the center of the enemy platoon. The reaction of the enemy, who suddenly attacked from the side, was a little slow.
“Damn it, it’s reinforcements!!!!”
Shouted one of the enemy soldiers.
Walm swung down the halberd he got from the knight he had defeated the other day. It was a sturdy and appropriate weapon to demonstrate the skill,《Strike》, that he had learned the other day. The enemy soldier thrust his spear as hard as he could into Walm, but as he thrust, the spear was gradually destroyed.
The enemy soldier tried to pull out the short sword by throwing away the completely shortened spear, but he was one step slower. Just before he drew the sword, his neck flew through the air.
As Walm took another step and pulled back his wrist, he used the recoil to slash the nearby soldier.
Since the soldier was only a step back and couldn’t dodge the attack, the blow, which entered the side of the breastplate, cut the torso in two. In addition, the horizontal blow that Walm delivered seriously injured or killed more than 10 enemy soldiers. A group of differently dressed people, mixed with normal soldiers, came into view.
“He’s there! He’s the adventurer leading them!”
Shouted Jose, who had seen through the man’s true identity. Other than the man, there were four other people with him, probably it was the so-called “party”.
Walm walked toward the group while slashing at the confused enemy soldiers, but a blade of wind approached. Normally he would have chosen to dodge or defend himself with a round shield, but Walm swung his halberd downward.
The activated skill 《Strike》was momentary in conflict with the magic. Then, the wind whirled around. When Walm, turned his gaze to the caster, it was the adventurer who had cast the magic. A woman, no, perhaps one could say she was a girl.
The girl was about as tall as Walm’s chest and her brown hair reached her shoulders. Armed with a short sword and a round shield, like a normal soldier. Three Myard soldiers stood in front of Walm as he tried to crush the nasty magic user. Two soldiers approached while simultaneously thrusting a spear.
Walm made a small turn to the right and approached one side of the soldier. He jumped into his lap while parrying the spear that was thrust into his face with the halberd. At that moment, the soldier tried to cover his throat with his hand, as he was wearing a hand guard, but Walm slashed the soldier while activating 《Strike》. The bones were severed, and blood flowed through the gaps in the armor.
“Bastaaaaaaard!!”
One had collapsed, and the number of soldiers had decreased by one. One of the two immediately threw the spear away and drew the longsword as he came to attack Walm. It was a good move, but the horizontally swung sword was blocked by Walm.
Walm then swung the halberd down from diagonally to the left, but it was intercepted before it accelerated. He then drew the longsword with all his might as he leaped back. After that, he thrust the halberd as fast as he could.
The soldier had just regained his broken stance, but he was one step too late to avoid Walm’s attack. The halberd stabbed into the back of the soldier’s knee, scraping the ligaments.
“Waaaarrghhh!!”
The soldier fought back fiercely with one leg, but unable to stand properly, Walm crushed his throat with the longsword.
The remaining one hesitated to attack. But, it didn’t make Walm hesitate to swing the halberd with both hands.
“N-no, wait, ah, help me.”
A second blow was not necessary. With that one blow, the abdomen was torn in a straight line and the viscera overflowed. The blood gushed out so quickly that the ground around the soldier was dyed red in the blink of an eye.
“Give up. It’s useless now.”
If only he had fled or surrendered before this happened
This thought flared up in Walm’s mind.
This soldier… he’s tied to his country, friends, family, everything in this land. He might want to run, but he couldn’t.
While stabbing the soldier to put him to rest, Walm thought of something like this, and if others knew, they might laugh at him.
As Walm was about to go to his next target, words were thrown at him by the magic user. Even though it came from the enemy, this time, it wasn’t the usual taunts or swears. It was a question. A personal question to Walm.
“Why, why? How can you kill someone so easily?!!”
Walm was asked why he kills others on the battlefield. Such a question could lead to a long answer, and besides, the answer would be different for each person. Then why was Walm asked about such a thing?
Well, anyway, for Walm, the enemy could ask for mercy, but he surrendered after being mortally wounded. Even Walm couldn’t do anything about it. It was too late in many ways after all.
“It’s a battlefield, why are you surprised? You also kill others… what a pointless conversation.”
At the girl’s feet was the body of a Highserk soldier. Although they passed each other once and twice during the march, the soldier was definitely Walm’s compatriot.
That aside, the girl must have realized that the conversation was useless and therefore cast another spell on Walm. It was the spell he had seen once. Moreover, the trajectory was the same.
While keeping his posture low, Walm changed the center of gravity so that he slid in. Thus, he continued to move toward the girl, who had opened her eyes in amazement.
“Leethia!!”
An older adventurer with a shield called out to the girl. But the halberd had already swung to the side and was heading straight for her neck.
The girl reacted at that moment as if the gaps she had shown earlier were a lie. She held the round shield up at an angle while bending her left elbow. With her right hand, she supported the round shield while still holding the short sword.
To be honest, Walm had perhaps underestimated the girl. It was an ideal stance to say that she should do it now. When he saw it, he understood that she had been disciplined and had experience. It made the words that came out from her mouth not long ago sound silly to Walm’s ears. Though he felt a little uncomfortable, he could understand the reason.
It was a silly thing to have on the battlefield, but in some ways an enviable thing for Walm. In short, the girl wasn’t used to killing people. If that were the case, perhaps the problem could be solved by talking. Actually, Walm would like to choose this solution, but he was in a war between nations. The battle was still going on and the enemy hadn’t surrendered yet.
Without loosening the halberd, Walm activated 《Strike》. The blade, shrouded in a faint light, bit into the round shield and finally broke through it.
“Aah, ugh, urrgh!”
The round shield fell to the ground as it was split in two. But the girl seemed to have a hand guard on her arm under the shield, and her arm wasn’t severed. Still, she didn’t seem to be able to completely escape the impact. Every time she moved her left arm, she expressed anguish, but continued to hold the short sword with her other hand.
“It’s broken.”
When Walm spoke so, the girl lowered her eyebrows and looked terribly confused.
It seemed to be the first time the girl had received a skill attack. While in a confused state, she backed away from Walm and her expression changed to fear, but that was a bad move in a forest with bad footing. She backed away to keep her distance, but stepped on the “soldier” who had fallen to the ground and lost her stance.
“At least, remember the place of the one you killed”
When Walm smiled unintentionally after saying so, the girl widened her eyes and screamed as if she had encountered a monster.
“Uh, Uaaahhhhhhhh!!”
Walm changed in and used his halberd to knock away the short sword in the girl’s hand.
When Walm struck her shoulder with his body, she expelled her breath and fell to the ground. He then plunged the halberd into the throat of the fallen girl. Since the opponent was a girl, he thought that this would be better than crushing her head or face.
But something flickered at the edge of his vision. At that moment, Walm’s heart leaped. He was wary of the surroundings all the time, but still, it came too quickly.
“Uhh――!?”
Walm jumped back as he tilted his head, but his hair and cheeks were slightly cut.
The shadow was still coming toward him. Walm swung his halberd down and his opponent received the attack. It was one of the men of the adventurer’s party.
The weapons rubbed against each other for a while.
As they both took a step back, Walm aimed his halberd at the wrist, but it was blocked by the sword’s brim.
“Are you okay with me…?”
The young man was furious when Walm asked deliberately.
“Shut up, you damn invader!!”
There stood a young man with a good-looking face, blue hair that reached his shoulders, and eyes the same color as his hair, and that would be more than enough to be an idol in Walm’s previous world. He carried a bloodied two-handed sword and was well enough equipped. It seemed that the Highserk soldiers had been slashed around him.
There was no doubt that he was the leader of the adventurers. Walm thought he would be the right opponent for Squad Commander Duwei, but Squad Commander Duwei was busy playing with an adventurer holding a large shield.
Perhaps this adventurer was a shield-wielder with a Skill. The impact of,《Strike》 and 《Iron Wall》, colliding with each other could be felt. The allies around were just watching like spectators.
Should I ask them for help?
Walm was thinking about asking the allies nearby for help. But he decided not to.
Huh, how annoying
That was what Walm thought when he felt that he had to deal with the adventurer in front of him, no matter what happened.
TN: Here, the full image of the character design of Leethia
LEETHIA (Character Design)
TN: Join my discord channel if you want.
I swear if I see mercy for her cause she is a girl (or them in general) and because they have been illustrated I don’t even know what I will do. I have formed to much of an attachment to the logistics guys. The one-eyed soldier must have his payback!
Are all the girls in here loli’s?
You guys can say whatever you want about highserk but killing civilians and merchants who were just transporting goods to the Frontlines makes the adventurers just as bad.
Or just as good. Throughout the long history of humankind, war has never been the realm of anything good.
At the same time, avoiding war is also not always the right answer. Whether or not there is to be peace, the other party gets a vote, too.