Chapter 848: The Sand City Uprising 5
Isabel was, as expected, a wreck, utterly exhausted. Well, she had her arm cut off. It would be strange if she were well.
“……Who are you?”
“People from Onyx’s place. And……Smithson-san”
“……Gu”
Isabel-san sat up with extreme reluctance, glaring at us. Her tone was different, I thought, but I didn’t say it aloud. Not just her tone—her entire aura was almost that of a different person. She’d probably been putting on an act at the brothel. I couldn’t imagine her charming people with that kind of speech back in her bodyguard days either.
“……What are you here for? To……capture me?”
“You could say that. Half-correct”
100-man commander Becker spoke in a leisurely tone. Only after a slight delay did I realize he was trying to ease the tension.
“It seems this Smithson fellow would be troubled if you died. It’s over now. I picked up your arm. There are good doctors around here, so they’ll patch you up. If you go with Smithson, you can be back to normal……”
“I can’t be captured yet. I haven’t……I haven’t taken the head of the one who killed Lucky……!”
“……You still want to fight an ogre in that condition?”
100-man commander Becker let out a sound of exasperation.
“You know it yourself, sister. Your skills are only good enough to intimidate women and children at best. I don’t know about the past, but at least now, they won’t work on anyone still doing the dirty work. And on top of that, what can you do with one arm like that?”
“It doesn’t matter……that kind of thing doesn’t matter……!”
Isabel-san muttered, as if spitting out blood.
“Lucky was our child! Mimosa might have given birth to him, but we raised him! To have him……killed like that……and expect us to stay silent!?”
“If keeping you quiet is the goal, then dying would be putting the cart before the horse, wouldn’t it?”
“Even a whore has fangs……even a whore’s child has grieving, angry family when he dies……to let them……”
“I don’t need you to tell me that. My wife was the same. ……But hold your fire now. If you die, there are people who’ll be so angry and grieved they might wipe Talc off the map. Not just the Tower, but everything in this town would die out, vanish beneath the sand”
“……Look”
I wanted to ask what she thought we were, but this man, Carlos-san and Cosmos always only consider the 「Worst-case scenario」. How much emotion I feel over one death is beyond their control. If I give the order, it can actually happen. That’s the only issue. The fact that it could be done effortlessly if I chose to is terrifying for those on the receiving end. I’m reminded of that once more. What’s more, even if I have no such intention, Emma and Leda would do it……to protect me, to exact revenge for my lost life. The situation hangs by a thread. That must be how 100-man commander Becker’s feel.
“Just get back alive. Leave the rest to us. Isabel, I’m hurting too. I don’t forgive whoever killed Lucky. But just this once”
“……Leslie”
Under the intense persuasion of Becker and Cosmos, Isabel hesitates and relaxes her grip. But. ……Jose pokes his head in from outside the ruin.
“……This is bad. Hey, fox girl. Ignore us and run. The west is thinly guarded now”
“Eh, ah……”
“Tower soldiers are closing in fast. We need every person we can get. Run for your life, no matter what it takes. Now!”
The white fox beastwoman……I just remembered, she was one of the prostitutes at the Spirit Festival’s wild revelry. Felicia, I believe? Jose slaps her on the butt and sends her running.
“Red Sand, numbers?”
“More than twenty. Relying on us Onyx was the right call. Ace Knight alone might’ve been too much”
“We can’t afford to be cocky. We can’t just kill our way through either. If twenty bodies turn up, even Carlos-san won’t be able to pretend he doesn’t know. It’s a tough number to handle defensively while holding back”
“Dammit, really……if this were a battlefield, it’d be easier! I’ll handle this, I’ll stall them as much as I can!”
“Count on it, Red Sand!”
Jose’s presence vanished.
“10-man Captain Aurora, needless to say, don’t kill them. ……But the ogres closing in aren’t the same as those idiots earlier. The ones surviving this turf war aren’t just fools who get dizzy from a single shockwave”
“Defensive tactics with just three of us won’t be elegant, will it……!”
While we’re here, me, Cosmos-san, and Isabel-san can’t be counted as combat power. To be counted, you need at least enough fighting strength to stand toe-to-toe with an ogre without getting overwhelmed. No matter how you slice it, we don’t have that. Plus, whether it’s 100-man commander Becker or Aurora, their abilities aren’t exactly suited for defense. While each has a powerful specialty, if they get pinned down, there’s a chance they could land an effective blow. It’s not an issue when we can freely control the distance on the offensive, but when fighting defensively, we can’t avoid moments where we’re forced into their range.
“Can’t magic do something?”
“Jose-san is doing everything he can. But the enemy are local ogres who know the terrain well. While we might be able to confuse them slightly, it’s doubtful we can turn the situation around”
“…Understood. Well, if it could be done, we’d have built our strategy around that from the start”
I approached Isabel, grabbed her body from the front, and hoisted her onto my shoulder. She tried to resist, but I ignored her and lifted her up. Carrying her normally would be easier, but getting her to comply without a struggle seemed unlikely, and without one arm, it was hard to keep her steady.
“Escaping like this… might be difficult”
“They know this area inside out. They’ve probably blocked any potential escape routes. It’d be different if we could fly”
“……Is Miss Felicia okay?”
“She’s skilled with magic. I think she can manage on her own”
Together with Cosmos, I search for any spot that might be slightly easier to defend. The abandoned house is a common sun-dried brick structure. If an ogre decided to ram it, any wall would likely collapse in one hit. There’s nowhere truly safe.
“Come to think of it, why did she follow us?”
“……It seems she was worried about Isabel and went after her alone. She also seems to have stopped the bleeding from her injuries”
“But the fact we were chasing her……”
“……I told her we’d definitely show up. Just now”
Cosmos-san must have seen right through me escaping after all. Well, with her insight, it’s no surprise she read my actions. Yet she let it happen……no, assuming I’m a Dragon Rider, she could make a 「Request」, but nothing more. ……Worried about, feared, begged. And still, here I am, wryly smiling at myself for getting dragged into this hellish mess that has nothing to do with me. I am a Dragon Rider now.
As Laila once said, if I engage too easily with society, I inevitably become a force that must destroy it. It’s not even a question of how I behave; those around me have no choice but to treat me that way. Even so, once I’ve seen it, I can’t turn away.
“…If only the flow had been just a little different”
“?”
“If Diane, Laila, and even Anzeros had come along, this situation would have been simple. It might not even have been a crisis. ……Or, with just a little more time, I could have returned to Polka and brought reinforcements. ……But that’s not how it is. Only us are here now”
I set Isabel-san down, looked into her eyes, then looked at Cosmos-san.
“……No. Only us are here now. Only us exist”
I straightened my posture, took a deep breath, and exhaled.
“I’ve faced the holy beast that became a monster deep within the labyrinth. I’ve faced Trot’s strongest holy sword saint. I’ve faced the hero who commanded dozens of dragons. I’ve fought them all. That’s me”
“But that……wasn’t just your strength”
“Maybe. Maybe I couldn’t have won every battle alone. ……But I’m here. I’m the one who fought”
Looking down at Cosmos-san, I smile. From outside, the angry shouts of the ogres and the sounds of 100-man commander Becker and Aurora fighting back echo in.
“So you can rest assured. If I’ve fought those guys, there’s no reason I’d run from mere ogres”
To reassure the two of them. And above all, to believe in my own true strength, I smile as I always do. Yeah, I’m not giving up over something like this. I haven’t done anything yet. I haven’t even tried. To save this person right in front of me, I can still do anything.
Aurora and 100-man commander Becker are fighting fiercely. But their opponents aren’t going down easily. They might have managed to incapacitate the first few, but once the ogres go on the defensive, it gets tough. And even with Jose included, three people just can’t cover every defensive gap. So the ogres closed in on the abandoned building, aiming to pierce the gap, and finally charged headlong into the wall. But it was far harder than it looked, and the ogres’ bodies bounced off.
“What the hell? This is weird……dammit!”
Being construction site workers themselves, they couldn’t believe a wall that looked like this could be so sturdy, and they charged again. It was useless. ……That was the absolute basics of engraving. A trap I’d applied to the wall in just a minute using an engraving pen. The moment they bounced off, I kicked the wall from the back. Engraving effects have the property of reversing when applied to the reverse side. Meaning. The ogres flew off spectacularly as debris, and the one who staggered was hit squarely by it and fell.
“Uoooo!?”
“Wh, What!? You were hiding your arm-wrestling skills all along!?”
I, a small soldier, shattered the wall that hadn’t budged under the ogre’s weight with a front kick. The sight was unexpected for them; I might have looked like some Ace Knight or something. Smiling wryly at my own silly trick, I stood proudly before the ogres.
“Knock before you enter, you one-horned fools”
As brazenly as possible. To look strong. ……Well, basically just bluffing. Buying any time I could. Chaos means openings. But Aurora and the others, who should have noticed, would arrive soon. If I could buy time for that, I’d win. Avoid them charging in and taking down Isabel-san on their momentum.
“Damn……who the hell are you? Just hand over that woman. Otherwise……”
“Hey, hey, I can’t follow this. You just barge in and start talking out of nowhere?”
I glared haughtily. Consciously projecting my 「Presence」. Emitting the scent of strength like King Ulysses or Lord Bonaparte. Borrowing the stature of kings and heroes. It was the same trick that had fooled even that Rainer. If they possessed a certain level of skill, they should be fooled at least a little. Sure enough, the ogres falter. But this only buys me a few seconds. No matter how formidable……no matter how much I project an aura of being no ordinary foe, it doesn’t actually stop them from hitting me. Against Rainer back then, it ended up being nothing more than provocation. Please. Hurry.
“…What do we do?”
“There’s no what to do. This is definitely the spot”
The ogres took a step back from me, glaring as they whispered among themselves. But it wouldn’t last long.
“……Move, you runt!”
One ogre swung his club and charged forward. I backstepped with a thud. As the ogre stepped into the room…he smashed through the floor and fell through.
“Gaa……!!”
“Hey hey, you okay? That floor’s rotten”
This is true. Or rather, the floor was rotted, exposing the crawl space below, so I’d just laid down some planks with engraved patterns to weaken them. But for the ogre, charging in with weapons raised and stepping right into that spot, it was no laughing matter. He lost his balance, slammed his face into the wrong place, and writhed in agony. Hurry. Aurora, 100-man commander Becker, Jose. No more tricks. We won’t last that long.
“You’ve wrecked someone’s house like this. You’ll fix it, right? You’re builders, aren’t you?”
“You……you’re mocking us!”
Showing the ogres I had the upper hand bought us the last few seconds. I couldn’t hold on any longer.
Then, two flashes streaked in.
“Guu……!”
“Guaa!?”
Thud, thud! Strong impacts struck the ogres’ shoulders and legs, sending two of them crashing down. Looking closer, something transparent, faintly reflecting sunlight, was stuck in them. ……Glass, arrows?
“Wh, What……”
“What’s wrong, you two……what is this!?”
“A bow……where? Where did it come from……!?”
Again, two more arrows flew in. Each pierced a different ogre, bringing a total of four to their knees. This wasn’t just any bow. To inflict this much damage on ogres with arrows required the tension of a crossbow……. Ah.
“……Emma, Leda……!”
Right. They made arrows out of ice. Using the crossbows they’d stockpiled, long-range fire from Cosmos main store……only their super-senses could pull off a trick like that. I told them not to interfere, but how should I judge this? ……Well, it’s incredibly helpful, though. And then, reinforcements appeared there.
“That’s enough, ogres. ……I won’t tolerate any more of your nonsense”
From the roof of the neighboring house, landing beside me with movements that seemed to defy gravity.
“…Nancy-san”
“My apologies. I was a bit busy. ……Well then, care to spar with me? I’m in rather good form lately”
Facing the ogres, this time the true powerhouse smiled.
……The ogres who lunged at her were all licking the ground within seconds.