Chapter 136: The Front Line of the Dark Night
The howls that surround the town of Catalina (an anthill-shaped building) turn into busy barks for several hours. We the Dianne Special Duty Corps were stuck in a room, struggling with the hard voices of the hard wolves and horned lions that were heard continually. Not someone else said that. It was just scary and everyone gathered in the girls room.
“Th, This situation continues every day……?”
Apple, a non-combatant, is especially frightened. Even the same non-combatants, Hilda and Irina, as expected, are calm at least on the surface.
“Is there no interception?”
Anzeros, who is fully armed, is constantly concerned about the outside of the door while clutching the handle of the sword. Catalina is a large building and a fort that spans more than a dozen layers. Within the structure is a large corridor that continues in a spiral shape, allowing carts to be pulled up to the upper layer. When they climbed up, they were able to attack monsters efficiently by throwing rocks and stakes out of the outer wall holes.
“I wonder if we can’t speak because we aren’t regular reinforcements……in that case, I can’t rest in this situation and I’d be better off if I could help”
Anzeros doesn’t calm down. Aurora, on the other hand, calmed down with a cup of tea.
“Why don’t you calm down a little and judge with common sense?”
“Co, Common sense?”
“Isn’t this the case with the great invasion of monsters that lasts for weeks? More and more, monsters become more active at night. ……If you keep fighting monsters until they’re quiet just because they’re noisy, don’t you think you’ve got the strength to hold them?”
“Th That’s…… but that doesn’t mean you just have to wait until the monsters are gone”
“We are not the ones who judge it”
“……Th, That’s right, but”
Even though there is a solid outer wall, the state that the monsters are actively barking in the immediate vicinity cannot be settled by ordinary nerves. Even though I thought that it was safe in theory, everyone felt the same as Anzeros that they had to do something.
“They don’t seem to be going to intercept tonight”
Dianne, who had gone to the garrison station, came back.
“Interception……no, in this situation? Are you serious?”
When Anzeros asks back, Dianne nods. And Naris shrugged her shoulders with Tetes and mutter 「That’s right」.
“What do you mean?”
Tetes responds to Anzeros′s gaze.
“There is a high possibility that even if you throw something during the time when the monsters are active, you will be able to avoid it. Because it is decided that it is better in daytime anyway, the interception is roughly daytime. Not only here, but everywhere”
“There’s only a limited number of things to throw. Well, I don’t know how to be impatient, but it’s better to hold it somewhere and sleep. It’s like a natural disaster to fight, so if we, who are not Gods, don’t work with their own body, we won’t be able to force ourselves”
“Naris is right. It’s never better to defeat a monster, but now is not an efficient time”
Dianne taps Anzeros on the head.
“But we didn’t come to defeat the monsters”
“?”
“Exploration”
Dianne grinned.
“Non-combatants and Luna are on standby. All the rest get ready. Now we are investigating. We will take off on Maia, so please assist”
In a hurry, all Celesta members, Gauntlet Knights and Neia rise a little later and salute each. Right. We also wanted to do it for the purpose of 「Investigation that can be done now」.
————————
We ask the mayor to open the gate. Dianne, followed by Maia and Laila, jumped down without being afraid of tens of meters height. And landing. When the surrounding hard wolves rushed towards them, Dianne struck the nose of one hard wolf with a single fist and blow it all the way back.
“I will assist!”
“Anzeros will go too!”
Then Almeida and Anzeros fall down. Along with Maia and Laila, they start fighting against the beast-type monsters that flock around the five people.
“We will also do something”
“Ussu!”
We guys get down to the lower archer range. This is wide horizontally and narrow gap vertically. Although it is not a gap that allows people to enter and exit, it is at an angle that you can aim at the main gate of the city. Crossbows aren’t designed to shoot straight down, so you can only shoot from there.
“It’s a shame that it’s not an angle that can directly support 100-man commander Dianne”
Lantz laughs bullishly while winding up the crossbow strings. Lantz and Goto, both of them have the courage to masturbate in front of Dianne proudly, but their boldness can be relied upon in battle. They will never panic before an enemy. They are not elected to the Special Duty Corps without a reason.
“I’m glad it’s an angle that doesn’t hit 100-man commander. We can use Smithson’s new weapons”
Keiron was taking a breath shooter out of his luggage. He takes the 「Breath Sealing Stone」 from the sealed box and place them on the launch pad.
“Would you like to shoot, owner?”
“You can go first as senior, 10-man captain Edgar Keiron”
After making a tease smile with each other, Keiron fired with the breath sealing stone breath shooter. A bomb-like fireball are generated, and several hard wolfs are caught in it.
“Shoot and shoot, shoot everyone!”
“Roger that!”
“Okay!”
Along with Keiron’s good business orders, I, Lantz, Goto and Boyd successively push out the crossbows into the gap and start firing. When I shoot, Boyd helps me and Lantz pull the strings and I shoot thick arrows one after another as fast as possible. The monsters quickly get confused and try to attack our range, but they don’t reach because of the height. Giant wolves and lions are agile to the side, but cannot move much vertically. In the meantime, we are killing the monsters that we can see. Thanks to the magic that Dianne applied on us in advance, we can aim as far as we want with at the distant monsters.
“Hyoo. This is fun”
Keiron says that he is having fun while firing breath-sealing stones one after another with the breath shooter.
“The refreshing feeling is different”
While saying that, Keiron is going to burn several monsters. It is better to aim at the moment when the monsters are solidified or to gather the monsters so that they can be drawn to the place where Keiron aimed. Efficiently crafts the 「Breath-sealing stone」 that originally has a small effect range. This is a trick that cant be done by Lantz, even if he has high sniper skills. I don’t know who else can do it. Keiron is a man who can make this kind of trick when he is here. And the high tension of Keiron means that the battle is very difficult. The crossbow corps is calling with great respect and dearness to this mischievous man who becomes more energetic the more difficult the situation is and the more he tries to imitate it.
“I’m counting on you, 『Looter』!”
“Don’t call me with that strange name!”
……It’s a nickname that means 「I take only delicious food」 in 「Great physical strength in a difficult situation」, but the person in question doesn’t like it.
————————-
While the 「Evening standby」 defense team is stunned, the number of monsters has visibly decreased around Catalina. Even though there are a lot of them, Dianne’s vanguards and our rearguards are in full operation. Temporarily, a blank area of ??monsters was created.
“I’ll also help a little bit. ……────!”
Irina activates 『Poison Eye』 from the archer range to help us by paralyzing a large amount of hard wolves.
“We can also help you here”
“I’m better at this than using a sword or spear”
Tetes and Naris with a bow in their hands appear, raise the density of the arrows. And Luna came to give me a message at the time when Keiron’s quarry was exhausted.
“Andy……10-man captain Smithson! 10-man captain Aurora calls for you!”
“Alright!”
I reply to Luna who rephrased her words because she was on duty and I place down the crossbow.
“What is it?”
“Only 10-man captain Smithson……?”
Aside from the two Red Arms whose faces don’t understand the situation well, Keiron and Lantz sum up and send me out, by saying 「Go fast」. I hit my left chest with a slightly crushed motion and ran away.
At the drop-off where Dianne and others jumped down a little while ago, Anzeros, who should have been down, was sitting on the wall with a tired face. When I thought it would be too high for climbing, Maia had become a dragon below. Apparently Maia lifted her up. Instead, Aurora and Neia were rampaging below.
“What’s wrong?”
“……For now, it’s about time we take off, so let’s get on Maia”
“Alright”
Listen to the message from Anzeros, I call out to Maia from the dropping door and stroke Anzeros′s head before.
“Thank you for your hard work”
“……Ehehe, I’m looking forward to rewarding you, 『Master』”
“If there is a chance”
Anzeros said cute things with a cute smile, so I kissed her.
“Maia!”
I call out Maia. Immediately the head of the blue dragon approached and I jumped on that head.
Monster corpses were laying around when I go outside. I’m sorry for a hundred or two hundred. It was almost like a ring made of corpses.
“Ho. Oh dear. The flesh of the wolves seems to be unappetising”
Laila says it boringly on the earthen wall.
“Honestly, it’s not so pleasant that the dead odor is so close. If I have time, I want to get away from the city”
Almeida makes a mark on the corpse. Is it a memorial service or something?
“Well, if such a flock comes every day……the corpses will be eaten till tomorrow”
Neia also laughed bitterly while shaking the blood of her sword.
“I’m not used to fighting monsters, but……indeed, if you repeat this over and over, you’ll understand that it’s certainly the same as Ace Knights”
Aurora is has a slight rough breathing. It’s not because she is weak that she seems tired.
“Well, I was going to ensure the safety of the 『Investigation』, but……it was unexpectedly quiet”
Dianne stabs another hard wolf with the horn of a horned lion and says nothing. It’s clear to everyone that we’ve created an opportunity to fight like a show in the 『Investigation』.
“Now Maia. Raise Almeida, Neia and Aurora to the city. Then take off with me and Laila”
“……Andy, is it okay?”
Chibi Maia appears on my shoulder and confirms. Of course I agree. As I said, Maia brings them back to the city and picks up Dianne and Laila. Then, a few steps away from the city, her wings flutter and she takes off. Slowly soaring into the night sky.
————————-
“Did you identify the flow of monsters……?”
In the cool and cold late autumn night wind, I check the situation with Dianne.
“That’s right”
……The Great Monster Invasion is said to be a phenomenon in which all the monsters in the northeastern continent called the demon territory strike like an avalanche toward the south all at once, signaling the seasonal change in the flow of 「Qi」. However, the bottleneck country Renfangas, which has devoted itself to defense, has never been concerned about how the monsters will progress. Monsters are strongly influenced by the flow of 「Qi」. 「Qi」 is known to behave in a manner similar to wind at least in the atmosphere. It moves from the highland to the lowland, is softened by the trees in a forest and stands in a basin. Monsters rarely occur on mountain ranges or highland areas. It is because it is thin and stagnate. Then, how about the monsters which generates evenly in Renfangas with a lot of low wetlands in the 「Demon Territory」 which is rich in the undulations in the north? There might be land which is hard to occur even now and land which is easy to occur still. If it can be mapped, the range of the advancement of the human race expands greatly, and if the correlation can be clarified, the valley of Kalwin Kingdom which had nothing to do with a regular demon invasion might be able to be found according to Neia. That’s why.
“We are a expedition team. I want you to remember that we came to Catalina……to give priority to our business”
“Well, what?”
“Ultimately helping Catalina clean up the monsters and exploring is all about discovering Kalwin. If we are too honest and just violent, we will be suspected by other countries. We a nation……they think we′re out of control of the elf territory and Celesta′s headquarters and go on a rampage with a dragon for profit and greed”
“……Even I know that there’s only one purpose”
“I know who you are. But if you can make a profit, it’s politics to do something that you don’t know and to doubt and cut. To protect the interest, you can also put a sneak bounce back on that doubt. It may be politically important to come out with excuses, even if they look like swordsmen”
“……It, Its troublesome……”
“It’s just that you don’t get in the way, seriously, you’re just working over trivial things……you just have to do it from time to time. I want to finish the primary investigation for the report. ……But you should fly here now”
Dianne looks back on Maia’s back. Laila folded her arms and whispered to her fearlessness.
“Hoho. Well, I don’t know about the care of people’s world, but……Diane, I know you’re greedy”
“I don’t want to miss the opportunity. When is the best situation sample available and when is the best time for everyone to feel the power of Dragon?”
“Umm. ……Do you know what to do next, Owner, Maia?”
“……Emm?”
……It’s a little confusing, isn’t it?
“The blue dragon’s 『Trampling down on monsters』 is what Catalina people want more than anything else and we want to fly around the demon territory as much as possible. The best way to do this is to separate it, right?
“……Eh, that means……?”
“This is a diversion here. We’ll be back in a day or two”
Dianne and Laila whisper to each other and jump from Maia′s back. Once they jumped high, they fell behind Maia……and soon a phantom shock the brain and a big black dragon appeared diagonally below Maia.
“On the way back, you should spray the monsters as much as you can from Catalina”
“I′m begging you”
“Ye, Yes!”
Like a skilled dragon knight, Dianne takes Laila’s horns as a reinand and moves away from Maia. Maia and I are left alone.
“……Well then”
“……Rampage?”
“Do you want to do that?”
“?”
Turning. Turn around 180 degrees. To Catalina.
“I’m just a little bit happy”
“Why?”
Chibi Maia smiled on my shoulder.
“It was my dream when I was a little, to have a dragon rider riding on me like this and rampaging like a legend”
“……I see”
Catalina comes into view. Dianne’s magic effect remains and a group of monsters trying to approach Catalina again can be seen.
“Good. ……Maia, scatter them!!”
“Uhh!!!”
Maia barks in a high-pitched voice. And with a Blizzard Breath, the whole flock was made into ice blocks.