novelraw Chapter 5 : Chapter 5
Chapter 5 : Chapter 5
Chapter 5: The Wizard of the Wetlands
Ered played his sword in rapid succession.
A state of total immersion.
“Aaargh!”
Every time the blade drew a line, someone inevitably screamed.
The Black Hound did not just take the beating quietly.
Guns and swords flew at him from all directions.
However, none of it could reach Ered.
“Die!”
Taking advantage of the chaos, one hunting dog who caught Ered's back delivered a decisive strike.
Clang!
The hunting dog looked back and forth between the dagger in his hand and Ered.
“Huh?”
Why did his hand feel numb as if he had struck metal?
He had definitely plunged it properly into the back.
Furthermore, Ered was only wearing a uniform.
He wasn't wearing any armor at all.
The attempt was good, but the ambush was a failure as a result.
The price was heavy.
“Aaah, aaaaaagh!!”
The hunting dog wailed as he stared at his missing left arm.
A face overcome with panic.
“Hmm.”
Ered reviewed the situation from a moment ago.
A 50-to-1 fight.
Because it was such a melee, his reaction to the surprise attack from behind was late.
In the end, he had no choice but to take the attack by rotating his mana circuits to partially reinforce a section of his body.
‘Still a long way to go.’
Mistakes are not tolerated in battle.
Because they are directly linked to one's life.
To avoid repeating the same mistake, review is the only answer.
“Do that again just now.”
Ered grabbed the guy's shoulder so he couldn't collapse.
“Ugh-huhu! What kind of bullshit is that, you son of a bitch!”
“You stabbed my back with a dagger. Do it again.”
After finishing those words, he turned his back to the hunting dog.
“Stab me. I cut off only your left arm on purpose for that. You're right-handed.”
“You crazy bastard!”
In the meantime, another hunting dog rushed at Ered.
Thud.
He was thrown back faster than the speed he had come at.
“Can't you see I'm talking?”
Ah.
You won't be able to see now.
The face of the guy hit by Ered's fist was crushed like a broken watermelon.
“Aaaaaaah!!”
The one-armed hunting dog let out a shout close to a shriek and plunged the dagger.
Ered, who had been facing away from the guy, flashed a light in his eyes.
A chilling sensation.
This time, he felt it clearly.
“Guh-hk—”
The rushing hunting dog sank to the ground on the spot.
Blood flowed down from his deeply cut thigh.
“Thanks. It helped.”
Right before the dagger touched his back.
Using his right foot as an axis, he rotated his body and parried the attack with his Arcane Sword.
Immediately after, he sliced a long wound into the guy's thigh.
The result was successful.
“Huuuuu....”
The hunting dog could not sit down this time either.
Because Ered forcibly pulled him upright.
“Don't die yet and hold on a little longer. I think I'll know for sure if we repeat it just one more time.”
The hunting dog, who was convulsing in pain, soon went limp.
“Dear me. He's dead.”
Ered clicked his tongue.
It didn't matter, though.
Because there were still plenty of practice partners.
Slash!
He cuts and cuts again.
‘Is it the end? Already?’
He realized it belatedly.
That there was nothing left to cut.
With a look of regret, he flicked the blood off the blade.
The dead hunting dogs were sprawled all over the place.
‘2 minutes.’
He checked his watch.
It was the time it took to slaughter the Black Hound.
Only one hunting dog remained.
A yellow liquid was flowing down the crotch of the guy who had slumped down.
‘I should leave this one alive.’
He originally intended to kill them all, but he changed his mind midway.
Because someone would have things they want to hear from the Black Hound.
‘Besides, it’s not fun to cut down a guy who has lost his fighting spirit.’
He tidied up his disheveled appearance.
“What are you doing?”
He sees Vardi and the soldiers standing dazed.
“P-Pardon?”
Vardi blinked his eyes, as if finally coming to his senses.
Ered thumped the hood of the vehicle that had become a lump of scrap metal.
“Shouldn't we fix the car so we can depart?”
***
Agard Division, 1st Regiment, 1st Company, 1st Platoon.
The so-called 111th Platoon.
It was Ered's unit.
“I owe you one.”
The 1st Company Commander held Ered's hand with both of his.
His rank was Captain.
He is strictly Ered's superior.
Nevertheless, his actions were cautious.
He spoke informally, but his attitude was that of treating a VIP.
It is a wise action.
He was an ordinary soldier.
Meaning he wasn't a Prominence.
The Prominence cadet in front of him would overtake a Captain's rank in an instant.
“Ah. The introduction is late. I am Sailo Wiga.”
“I am Ered Young.”
Upon hearing his name, Company Commander Sailo's eyes sparkled.
“You must have walked a rough path.”
Ered's surname is ‘Young.’
It is a word far from nobility.
Rather, it is the opposite.
It is evidence of being from an orphanage.
Orphanages are places where orphans with all sorts of unfortunate circumstances naturally drift into.
Among them, children abandoned even without names were common.
In such cases, the orphanage would give them names arbitrarily.
As a result, they had no choice but to be given roughly made surnames.
If the body was weak, ‘Weak,’ if the stature was small, ‘Little.’
Like that.
Sailo had guessed Ered's background immediately after hearing his surname.
‘Changing such a surname wouldn't be difficult. Especially now that he has become a Prominence.’
Nevertheless, Ered stuck to his original surname.
Since he has ascended to a Prominence, no one dares to ignore him.
‘What’s wrong with being from an orphanage?’
It isn't a particularly embarrassing thing.
Rather, I am proud.
I don't mean I am proud of my origin.
I mean I feel pride in myself for having pushed through that mire successfully.
In other words, the surname Young was a scar of glory.
“It wasn't easy.”
“I feel you are even more incredible, truly.”
I don't know if it's sincerity or flattery.
At least it didn't sound bad.
“Anyway, I thought Vardi was joking at first.”
Sailo muttered as if it still didn't feel real.
“To think you annihilated the Black Hound by yourself.”
There were too many witnesses for it to be a lie.
Especially the soldiers under Vardi were busy praising Ered's exploits.
As if they were treating a hero from a myth.
Besides that, evidence for the achievements Ered built was overflowing.
First, he brought a Black Hound prisoner.
That isn't the only evidence.
If one goes back the way Ered came, they will be able to find the pack of hunting dogs who had become cold corpses.
“I have high expectations for you going forward.”
Sailo smiled, showing his teeth.
Prominence is an elite group deployed to important battlegrounds.
They are rare beings on an outlying front like Senev.
Even though he is a cadet, a Prominence has arrived, so he felt reassured.
‘It was a reasonably satisfying debut match.’
Ered was satisfied with himself.
Except for being stabbed in the back with a dagger, it was mostly not bad.
It means he started on the right foot.
“By the way. Did you find out through what route the Black Hound broke through the Empire's front line?”
Ered asked.
By now, the interrogation of the Black Hound prisoner he had brought must have ended.
“There was no particular gain.”
Sailo shook his head.
“Those hunting dogs were indeed difficult opponents to handle. But the Empire's front line wasn't breached because those guys were exceptional. I think the story will be long. Come this way.”
I followed behind Sailo.
As we left the military camp, long-stretched trenches were visible.
The figures of the Imperial Army watching the front from various parts of the trenches were seen.
Beyond the trenches, a soggy wetland was spread out.
‘The ground is a mess.’
Deeply recessed marks were seen throughout the wetland.
They were traces where a bombardment had swept through.
It is evidence that the war ongoing here is quite fierce.
A shaded and damp wetland.
It is land with no nutritional value.
It was also the reason why Senev was not the center of the war.
Let alone farming, it is an undeveloped land where it is even hard for people to live.
Even so, we cannot just give the land away for free.
Especially not to the Republic bastards.
“That over there is the Republic's main encampment.”
Sailo's finger pointed to the high ground across the river.
“You've lost the advantageous high ground.”
Ered furrowed his brows.
It is a composition where the Imperial Army's camp can be looked down upon clearly.
“Until a month ago, that was the Empire's base. It was a trend of pushing the Republic bastards out using that high ground as a starting point.”
What happened in the span of a month?
Ered's curiosity was soon resolved.
A large fire rose from the direction of the high ground.
At first, I thought the Republic bastards were having a campfire.
“Damn it. Starting again.”
Sailo's face crumpled.
It was immediately after that that the flames were emitted in a straight line.
A beam of light rushing forward with a long tail trailing behind.
“Incoming! Watch out!”
At Sailo's shout, the Imperial Army hid deep within the trenches.
Everyone's movements are agile.
As if this isn't the first time.
Perhaps because of that, most soldiers succeeded in protecting themselves from the beam.
But not everyone was safe.
“Aaaaagh!”
Soldiers flailing about while engulfed in flames.
Other soldiers hurriedly sprayed fire extinguishers, but the flames did not go out easily.
Ered stared at the flames clinging tenaciously to the soldier's body.
The skin of the entire body melted like candle wax.
It's a horrific sight.
Fortunately, he survived, but at that point, being alive isn't really living.
‘I see why the tide of battle was turned.’
There is a wizard in the enemy camp.
“Medic!”
Sailo, checking the condition of his subordinate soldiers suffering from burns.
In the meantime, Ered stared at the high ground occupied by the Republic.
Originally, magic was a blessing that only a few people born with talent could enjoy.
However, as the era of magic engineering emerged, it became a world where all citizens of the Empire could enjoy magic.
To be precise, they use devices integrated with magic engineering.
Wizards no longer exist in the Empire.
Magic engineers took their place.
On the other hand, the Republic is different.
Unlike the Empire's magic engineers who study the harmony of mana circuits and machinery, the Republic still focused only on pure magic.
From thousands of years ago when magic existed until today.
If the Empire has Prominence, the Republic has Wizards.
Between the two, there was a commonality of being a very small number of elite personnel that each country boasts of.
‘The Republic sent a Wizard to Senev. To conclude the sluggish local war.’
Ered was the wildcard to counter this.
‘Then I should live up to expectations.’
The Wizard's bombardment continued after that.
Poof!
Fire arrows flew and burned the granary.
Dark clouds rose in the clear sky and dropped lightning bolts as well.
Ered watched the scene where magic was pouring down without a word.
“Please stop this pain!”
“Mom, mom....”
Soldiers clamoring in the magic bombardment.
If Ered had stepped in midway, he could have blocked a significant portion of the pouring magic baptism, even if not perfectly.
Those soldiers wouldn't have had to suffer, either.
‘...Now is not the time to step in.’
Information should not be given to the enemy.
If they realize that a Prominence of the Empire has arrived, the Republic's defenses will become more thorough.
Sacrifice is forced in war.
The soldiers injured just now are part of the sacrifice.
‘If you are weak, you die.’
Being a Prominence doesn't mean you can save everyone.
The image of the dead driver briefly appeared in his head and then vanished.
In the meantime, the frequency of the flying magic gradually decreased.
Boom!
With a fireball falling at the edge of the trench as the last, the Wizard's bombardment signaled its end.
“God damn it.”
Sailo, having finished managing the situation, broke into a cold sweat.
His expression as he looked at his dead company members appeared complex.
“It's always like this. We're in a position of being bombed unilaterally. Today the damage is on the small side, at least.”
The Wizard poured magic onto the Imperial Army's position almost every day.
The time of day and the strike locations were all arbitrary, making it a situation difficult to prepare for.
‘Three sides of the high ground are surrounded by the river.’
Even if one somehow crossed the river, the high ground, which was close to a cliff, was standing firm.
A level no different from a natural fortress.
“Because the ground is high, our artillery fire doesn't reach. It's a situation with no answer.”
“I see why the front line was breached by those Black Hound guys or whatever.”
Ered nodded his head.
Since it's a situation where soldiers are dying day by day, it's natural for the guard to become loose.
‘In the end, there is only one way.’
The Republic's Wizard must be eliminated.
That will decide the direction of the war taking place on the Eastern Outskirts Front.