He saw someone walking toward him. A relatively slender figure. When he saw the right sleeve flapping limply in the wind, Damon’s eyes went wide.
“Wait, MacMillan?”
“So you were here.”
The figure that emerged from the darkness was none other than MacMillan. Damon had never dreamed he would appear, and he greeted him with delight.
“You’re not asleep? What brings you here……?”
“I just couldn’t sleep…… I asked around, and they told me you were here.”
Seeing MacMillan smile bitterly, Damon first offered him a place to sit. There was no proper chair to be found, so the two chose nearby rocks and settled down. Damon was the first to speak.
“You must be terribly troubled.”
“……….”
MacMillan said nothing and bowed his head deeply. Watching him, Damon nodded as if he understood his feelings all too well. He had been left alone, after all. It was only natural.
“Yes. You must be grieving, having lost your comrades before your eyes. I can well imagine how you feel. But remaining bound to their memory forever is not a desirable thing. So even if it hurts, it would be better to forget them as soon as—”
“How could I forget?”
MacMillan cut Damon off as if he were having a fit. His eyes had already turned bloodshot.
“They were comrades I lived with, cried with, laughed with. And those comrades died horribly right in front of me. Do you even know how H-Hans died? That guy, he…….”
In the end, he could not finish and broke down sobbing.
“His limbs were torn apart by an ogre. That simple, good-natured bastard…… Kuuugh.”
At the sight of MacMillan weeping, a conflicted look rose on Damon’s face as well. Of course, they had not looked after him as much as MacMillan had, but it was undeniable that they had been close comrades with whom he had maintained a friendship of his own. After waiting for MacMillan’s sobs to subside, Damon spoke quietly.
“A long time ago—this was before I came here. Back on the continent where I lived……”
“……….”
MacMillan slowly raised his tear-stained face. Damon looked up at the sky and continued.
“At the time, I had five hundred comrades.”
“……….”
“They were nominally my subordinates, but in truth, to me they were comrades-in-arms no different from brothers. I crossed battlefields with them, crying together and laughing together.”
“Th-there was something like that?”
This was the first MacMillan had ever heard of Damon’s past.
“Five hundred comrades who protected one another while fighting endless guerrilla battles…… But in the end, they left me. Forever.”
“Left you? Don’t tell me they died?”
Damon nodded with a grave expression.
“The group I belonged to betrayed me. The traitor who seized control of it decided to eliminate me. At the time, I suffered a surprise attack and was mortally wounded. My life was literally hanging by a thread. But I managed to survive by a hair’s breadth. They risked their lives to get me out. Without the slightest hesitation, they offered up their lives. Do you understand? All five hundred of them died just to save me alone.”
It was something MacMillan had never imagined, and his mouth fell open. Though Damon spoke of it rather calmly, the contents were anything but ordinary.
“After I learned the truth, I grieved for them for one full day. And on the second day, I forgot everything.”
Damon turned to MacMillan with an expressionless face.
“After forgetting my memories and feelings for them, I burned with vengeance instead of sorrow. Vengeance against the one who had caused their deaths. For the sake of that vengeance, I resolved to grow stronger by any means necessary. No matter what hardship awaited me, no matter what humiliation I had to endure. Once I gain power, I intend to kill that bastard in the most wretched way imaginable. Of course, I don’t know how I’ll return, but whether there’s a possibility or not, my resolve will not change. Because this is something I swore myself before the spirits of my dead comrades…….”
His clenched fist trembled. Perhaps killing intent had risen in him without his realizing it, for a faint pain welled up from the depths of his mind. But Damon gritted his teeth and endured it. Partly because he had quickly erased the killing intent, but also because he had long since become inured to the pain caused by the Sevenfold Severance Forbidden Art…….
“I-I’m sorry. I had no idea…….”
MacMillan stammered out an apology, and Damon gave him a broad smile.
“If you truly cherished them, it’s best to set your grief aside for now. Instead, it would be better to burn with vengeance against the beings that caused their deaths. Even if that path leads to death.”
“I-I’m not afraid of something like death. I just didn’t want to die meaninglessly, like a disposable tool.”
“I know. I know how you feel.”
Damon rose to his feet.
“Go in and rest. Seeing as the air in the distance is thick with killing intent, it seems the real fighting will probably begin tomorrow……”
“A-all right.”
Though he answered that way, MacMillan stared endlessly at Damon’s back as it disappeared into the darkness. He had sensed there was some story behind him, but MacMillan had never dreamed that Damon carried such grief within him.
Just as Damon had predicted, war broke out the next day. An innumerable army of orcs launched a full-scale invasion. Unlike before, when they had focused on defense, the orc army’s stance had now shifted completely to an all-out offensive. An army of tens of thousands, including numerous medium-sized monsters and wyverns, was flooding into the Carnatic Plain like a burst dam. Having learned of the invasion in advance through scout reports, the allied forces immediately began to respond. The soldiers formed battle lines according to their prior training and waited only for the enemy to draw near.
“Kroarara!”
“Chwieeeek!”
Though they had no particular formation, the majesty of the orc army surging forward with savage momentum was more than enough to make the knees of anyone watching go weak.
The soldiers deployed according to their formations swallowed dryly and waited for the moment of collision. In particular, the tension among the Shielders deployed at the very front as arrow fodder surpassed imagination. In order to buy time for the main force to respond, the Shielder units were positioned at a considerable distance from the main formation. Holding nothing but crude wooden shields, they had no choice but to tremble and await the moment of death. Now and then, there were Shielders who tried to flee, unable to endure the pressure, but each time, the swords of their unit commanders flashed without mercy.
“Aaaargh!”
The sight of comrades collapsing in sprays of blood barely kept the Shielders from breaking away. Since battle was imminent, the commanders showed not the slightest leniency.
“Damn it, we die either way.”
Thinking there was no way out, the Shielders gripped the handles of their shields tightly. When the charging orc army approached to close range, the commanders in charge of each branch began roaring at the top of their lungs.
“Crossbowmen, to your positions…… Heavy infantry, maintain close formation!”
“Mages, prepare yourselves as well!”
In preparation for a possible magical attack from the dragon, the commanders in charge of the legions had spread their troops widely apart. Also, in order to increase the power of magical attacks, the mages were gathered in groups of seven or eight as they waited. If they attacked in such groups, not only would their destructive power increase markedly, but they could also compensate for their lower rate of fire. There was also the advantage that the guards attached to the gathered mages could cover one another.
Regardless of what movements the humans made, the orc infantry, absorbed entirely in their charge, finally clashed with the Shielder units in the vanguard. At once, heavy collision sounds and screams erupted simultaneously.
Kwa-kwa-kwaang!
The Shielder units at the front were collapsing like rotten wood before a sharp blade. In the first place, for a Shielder unit made up of wounded soldiers to stop the charge of orc infantry was nothing short of absurd. Though the unit commanders behind them swung their swords and urged them on, the Shielder units crumbled beyond control.
Even so, in the end, they fulfilled their assigned duty well enough. Because of their resistance, the charging speed of the orc vanguard had markedly decreased. Not missing that moment, the commanders’ shouts rang out.
“Open fire!”
Shuk, shushushuk!
The first thing poured down was an arrow attack that blackened the sky. The crossbowmen, who had drawn their strings taut, unleashed a volley all at once. The rain of arrows mercilessly battered the orc vanguard mingled with the Shielder units. Of course, the heartless arrows, having no eyes, could not distinguish friend from foe. The Shielders locked in fierce combat were pierced through by arrows and screamed miserably. They were dying in vain alongside the enemy, cursing the ruthless commanders who had driven them to their deaths…….
What followed was a large-scale magical attack. From various points within the gathered formation, dazzling rays of light shot out with flashes. The launched magical attacks flew with fierce momentum and struck the charging orc infantry.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!
With tremendous explosions, the surface of the earth was blown apart, and blood and fragments of flesh scattered in every direction. Orcs nearby, engulfed by the flames spreading all around, were dropping here and there. Of course, that included the Shielders who had still been clinging to life.
Because several mages had combined their power to cast, the destructive force of the magical attacks was literally enough to inspire dread. Before they could recover from the damage of one strike, a second volley flew in, so the casualties were bound to be heavy.
However, even the might of magic was insufficient to break the momentum of the charging orc infantry. The great orc army continued its advance while taking the magical attacks head-on, and at last it was able to collide with the allied main force.
Shukang! Chang, chang, chang!
Iron clashed against iron, sending out a chilling sound. Fierce shouts and screams erupted everywhere as the two races became entangled. A desperate battle had begun, one in which you killed or were killed.
“Chwieeeek!”
“Kraaagh!”
Unlike the Shielder units that had been broken through in an instant, the main force composed of heavy infantry did not collapse easily. Because the soldiers knew well that if they were pushed back here it would be the end, they risked their lives to defend their positions. Of course, there was no denying that the sturdy heavy armor they wore played a large part in that. Following the orders they had received in advance, the heavy infantry corps desperately blocked the enemy’s path while accepting casualties. They held on until the orc infantry in the rear was stopped by their own vanguard and forced to halt their charge. After the heavy infantry corps endured for a time, the allied knight order finally appeared.
Bam-bara-bam!
With the clear sound of trumpets, knights clad head to toe in plate armor suddenly appeared and began their charge. Seeing them gallop at such speed, it was obvious they had already been riding from the rear. As they appeared, the heavy infantry of the main force, who had been blocking the enemy with all their might, hurriedly opened a path.
Thud, thud, thud!
Having built up sufficient momentum, the heavy knight order pierced through the ranks of the orc army like a hot knife through butter, mercilessly trampling the orc infantry that got in their way. But their momentum did not last long. Their advance was blocked by a group of medium-sized monsters that appeared next.
A band of ogres stood in a line and stopped the knights’ charge. Even the heavy knight order’s Lancer Charge could not break through a defensive wall of ogres with such tremendous weight. In the end, the knights could no longer ride forward and had to stop where they were, engaging in a fierce hand-to-hand melee. The majesty of the knight order had already long since vanished with the entry of the medium-sized monsters.
The battle soon progressed into a chaotic melee where both sides fought entangled together. The orc army, superior in numbers, kept maneuvering troops in an attempt to encircle the allied forces, while the commanders of each legion were busy desperately controlling their men to disperse the enemy’s strength. Meanwhile, the mage units launched their second attack.
Shushushushuk!
The mages, who had accumulated mana from relatively safe positions, simultaneously poured out offensive spells. Their target was the area where orc reinforcements were advancing one after another. Since it was an area densely packed with only orcs, the mages showed not the slightest mercy.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwaang!
With fierce explosions, countless orc lives vanished meaninglessly in the flames. Because they were packed closely together, this magical attack inflicted even greater damage on the orcs than the first. Only then did the orc army, having suffered terrible losses, turn its attention to the mage units. They sent half of the medium-sized monsters that had been mixed into the battle and slaughtering soldiers toward the direction from which the magical attacks had come.