Volume 8 - CH 8

Chapter 8: The Liberation of Lasta 

Dawn broke. 

The sun rose in the east, and the area quickly brightened. Even in this land which was in the northern half of the continent, and therefore warmer than the kingdom, it felt cold at this time of year. 

In the morning air, there were seven people standing near the western gate: Halbert, Kaede, Ruby, Jirukoma, Lauren, Kuu, and Leporina. Behind them were the soldiers of the Kingdom of Lastania, waiting for the time of battle to come. 

“Well then, shall we get started, Ruby?” Halbert asked. 

“Yes. Let’s get started, Hal.” 

Ruby turned into a red dragon, and Halbert jumped on her back. 

“Sir Halbert. Madam Ruby. We’ll be counting on you,” Lauren, the captain of the soldiers, said to them, bowing her head. 

“We know,” Hal nodded. “You take care of yourself too.” 

“You’ll be working outside the walls, so you’ll be in danger just like us,” Ruby added. 

Jirukoma pounded his burly chest. “Leave this place to us. We will put our lives on the line to defend the work crews.” 

“Ookyakya! We’ll be helping here too, so don’t worry,” Kuu laughed. “Don’t get carried away and screw this up, Hal.” 

“You’re the one who’s going to say that, Young Master...?” Leporina muttered. 

Yep, Kuu had the same baseless confidence as ever, and Leporina was holding her head in exasperation. 

Kaede walked over to where Halbert was, placing her hand on Ruby’s foreleg. 

“Ruby, take care of Hal for me.” 

“To borrow a line from Naden, ‘Roger that.’ You can leave him to me.” 

“Hal, you too,” said Kaede. “Don’t go too wild, you know? Ruby is with you, so make sure you don’t act recklessly.” 

“I know, okay?” 

Kaede took a step back from the two of them, then turned to the soldiers and spoke. “His Majesty and Sir Julius are preparing our next move, so I will take command here. Everyone, let’s do our best.” 

““Yeah!”” 

The moment after everyone responded to Kaede’s order, Halbert and Ruby took off into the sky. As they left the ground, Ruby grabbed the blocky object that had been prepared for her with her hind legs. That object which had iron walls on five sides and a metal bar door on the sixth side was a cage for the lizardman that had been fed the monster meat. 

Carrying that cage with her as she flew, Ruby asked Halbert, “First, we let this lizardman loose near the forest to the west of here, right?” 

“Yeah. We’ll have to touch down, so be careful.” 

“I know.” 

When they were flying alone, the chimera-like monsters that could fly started to gather around. They probably considered Halbert and Ruby as easy pickings because it was just the two of them. The monsters had no understanding of how powerful those two were. 

“Halbert Magna, coming through!” Halbert swung his two favorite spears around, slicing apart the monsters that attacked from above. Then he wreathed one spear in flames and threw it. The moment it planted itself in a monster... 

Boom! 

There was a burst of fire, and even the other monsters close to it were caught in the blast. 

“Here, have another!” 

Halbert pulled on the chain attached to his other spear, retrieving the first spear from flames, then wreathed the other spear in fire and threw it. Repeating that cycle, he made bursts of flame blossom like flowers all around them. 

Halbert smiled as he swung his spears around. “It’s convenient not having to throw them away after one use. I’ve gotta remember to thank Taru for making these.” 

“Kaede warned you not to get carried away, remember...? I’m setting down now.” 

“Sure.” 

Halbert crouched low on Ruby’s back, and then Ruby came down to earth at a forty-five-degree angle. As she touched down, she opened the door to the cage, then immediately took off again. 

Halbert spotted the lizardman crawling out of the cage down below. It immediately ran off into the western forest where its kind were hiding. 

“Nice! The lizardman is successfully freed. Next, we fly over the forest.” 

“Yeah.” 

Ruby spread her wings and flew slowly, heading over the forest with flying monsters in tow. They needed to pull in as many flying monsters as possible, so they couldn’t go too fast, which meant the faster monsters caught up to them. 

Bzzz! There was a huge, one-eyed, bee-like monster coming at them with its wings buzzing. 

“Do something!” Ruby shouted. “I don’t want to be swarmed by bugs!” 

“On it!” 

Halbert quadrisected the bee monster with his two spears. The bee monster’s fluids splattered everywhere as it fell to the ground, with just its translucent wings dancing around and refusing to come down. 

“Hang in there, Ruby! This is where it gets serious!” 

“I know!” she shouted back. Roarrrrrrrrr! 

Blowing fire and shooting thorns, the monsters attacked from a distance. A number of those attacks grazed Ruby, but she kept flying at the same steady pace. 

Halbert and Ruby finally succeeded in bringing the monsters they were pulling with them over the top of the western forest where the lizardmen were lying low. 

Ruby roared, “We’ll settle this in one try! Hold on tight!” 

“Got it!” 

As Halbert clung to Ruby’s back, Ruby rapidly accelerated, lifting her body, climbing higher into the sky, then somersaulting into a rapid dive to behind the monsters. 

In an instant, the hunters became the hunted. 

“I’ll pay you back a hundred times over!” 

Bwoooooooooosh! 

Ruby opened her mouth wide, unleashing a great gout of flame toward the flying monsters. 

Dragon breath was the attack most emblematic of dragons, said to be able to lay waste to an entire kingdom. The monsters hit by Ruby’s dragon breath were fried to a crisp and dropped to the forest one after another. 

Seeing that, Halbert scratched at his cheek. “Wasn’t that a bit much? The monsters were charred black, you know?” 

“M-Meat tastes better well done.” 

While Halbert and Ruby were luring in the monsters, there had been movement on the ground too. 

The gates of the city walls opened, and armed soldiers piled out. They numbered roughly 600. 

Once the soldiers came outside the walls, they attacked the monsters on the ground that were eating the burned lizardmen corpses. The monsters were so absorbed in eating that the soldiers were able to catch them by surprise, cutting them down with swords, shooting them with bows, and striking them with magic until they died. 

These 600 soldiers were all battle-hardened. That was to be expected. 

These soldiers were a mixed unit made up of the Kingdom of Lastania’s regular forces, the refugee volunteer soldiers, and the Kingdom of Friedonia’s Dratroopers. For this group of combat specialists, slaying monsters that didn’t fly and weren’t particularly more powerful than lizardmen was no different from going hunting. 

Inside that group, Captain Lauren shouted to encourage her troops as she knocked away a small monster with the large shield she was holding. 

“While Sir Halbert is keeping the flying monsters at bay, we will carve a path! There is no need to chase monsters that flee! Protecting the rear unit is our top priority!” 

Lauren’s heavy equipment was ill-suited to moving quickly, but well-suited to settling in and holding a single position. Lauren bashed the monsters that came at her with her shield, cut them down with her sword, and was defending the place where she now stood. 

Once the weak monsters realized she was not an enemy who would be easily defeated, they immediately started to move away. 

As Jirukoma raced over, kukris in hand, he let out a gasp of admiration despite himself. 

“Splendidly done, Madam Lauren. I raced over because you seemed surrounded, but it seems my concern was unwarranted.” 

“I am a professional soldier after all. This is nothing to me.” Lauren smiled proudly...and then wryly. “Well, even though I feel that way as the captain of the soldiers, I’m a little embarrassed as a woman that I’m able to fight monsters so easily. I wish I could be a gentle, graceful woman like the princess too, but it’s beyond me...” She laughed weakly. 

Jirukoma was a little confused. “What could be wrong with being a strong woman? In my tribe, strength and toughness are seen as virtues in a woman. They can give birth to stronger children that way after all.” 

“Ch-Children?!” Lauren’s cheeks went red. “Um... Do you like strong women, Sir Jirukoma?” 

“Hm? I suppose I do. My sister was a tomboy after all. I think I do like them.” 

“Y-You do?!” Lauren wore a brilliant smile for just a moment, then gripped her shield tightly as if getting her mind back on task. Then she used the sword in her right hand to point forward. “Now then, Sir Jirukoma. I want to ensure safety over the widest area possible, so I would like to ask you remove the monsters from this area. Leave defending this place to me.” 

“No, but...” 

“I’ll be fine! I am a strong woman!” Lauren pounded her puffed up-chest. 

With an expression that looked dumbfounded by her sudden declaration, Jirukoma nodded. “R-Right... I understand. But make sure you don’t do anything reckless.” 

“Right. You be careful too, Sir Jirukoma!” 

Lauren him go as Jirukoma took off at a run. 

While he raced around cutting down emaciated, goblin-like monsters with his two kukris, he ran into Kuu, who had an awkward look on his face. 

Kuu swung around his cudgel, crushing lizard-like monsters that raced around, then stood back-to-back with Jirukoma and asked him, “Buddy...you wouldn’t happen to be dense, would you?” 

“Dense? What are you talking about?” 

Catching the blank look on Jirukoma’s face, Kuu shook his head in exasperation. “I’m talking about you taking responsibility.” 

“Responsibility? Um, what do you mean?” 

“I wonder. Try thinking for yourself!” 

As Kuu said that, he was confronted with a monster coming in at high speed. It was larger than the other monsters, shaped like an ostrich with a goat’s head, and it had its head down and was charging him in as if it was trying to gore him with its two horns. 

Kuu put his cudgel behind him, then rushed toward the monster. 

“Sir Kuu?!” Jirukoma cried out despite himself, but Kuu performed a slide right in front of the monster, then used his momentum to kick out the monster’s left leg, which was bearing its weight. 

“Down you go.” 

There was a snapping sound. With the combination of the creature’s own momentum going forward, Kuu’s power coming at it, and the creature’s weight acting together, the monster’s left leg snapped. With only one leg left that it could still use, it rammed into the ground with all its inertia. 

Kuu let out a laugh as he watched it. “Ookyakya! Like I thought, your leg was wide open!” 

Whoosh... Thock! 

An arrow flew in, planting itself into the goat-headed monster’s throat as it writhed on the ground. That finished it off, and it ceased to move. 

The person with a bow rushed over to Kuu. “Young Masteeer, don’t scare me like that!” Leporina begged with a tired look on her face. “Our mission is to remove monsters from the mission area. There’s no need to charge in, so show some restraint!” 

“Ookyakya! I’m fine, so there’s no problem!” Kuu tapped his cudgel on his shoulder, smiling unabashedly. 

While Leporina frowned over Kuu’s lack of repentance, she saw the second group begin heading out from the city gate out of the corner of her eye. The second group, unlike the first, numbered over 2,000, and in place of weapons they were carrying large logs, pieces of firewood, basically any lumber they could lay hands on. 

Leporina tugged on the Kuu’s outfit. “Look, Young Master. The second group has come out, so we need to go and guard them.” 

“Whoops, you’re right. If I play around too much, Bro will get mad.” 

“I would like to give you a proper scolding myself, but...perhaps it would be better if I arranged some lecture time together with Taru.” 

“Y-You don’t have to bring Taru into this, okay?!” There was panic in Kuu’s voice. 

He thought nothing of being scolded by Souma or his father Gouran, but an extended lecture from the girl he liked was something he wanted to avoid. 

Kuu clapped his hands as if trying to dodge the subject, then urged Leporina to go on. “Look, we’re supposed to be defending them, right? Let’s get a move on.” 

“Honestly...” 

Leporina shrugged and took off after Kuu as he ran.

The one leading the second unit, which Kuu and Leporina were headed to, was Kaede. 

“Hurry,” she ordered. “We have to finish before the monsters come back, you know.” 

One of the lizardmen started eating the charred monsters. 

It acted as though they tasted good, eating several of them. 

The pack of lizardmen watched that individual cautiously. 

It was eating the mixed-up monsters, but not only was it not dying, it didn’t even seem to be getting stomach pain. 

Why? 

Looking at it, the individual was eating well-cooked meat, and avoiding undercooked portions. 

Seeing that, the data in the lizardmen’s brains that said, “Eating the mixed-up monsters can result in death” was overwritten to say, “Eating the mixed-up monsters raw can result in death, but if they are well-cooked, they can be eaten.” 

In the next instant, the lizardmen swarmed around the roasted monster meat. Due in part to their hunger, they tore into the meat with reckless abandon. 

Even the lizardmen who hadn’t witnessed the original individual witnessed those who had seen it, learned the same information, and a battle over the cooked meat began. 

Eventually, that information spread through the whole pack. 

However, there was far too little meat for 800 lizardmen. The well-cooked meat vanished in no time flat, leaving only the undercooked meat. 

While they were wondering what to do, a light appeared near the outside of the forest. 

Looking at it, there was a place with fire burning brightly. 

If I use those flames, I can cook this undercooked meat! The lizardmen who thought that took the undercooked meat and approached the fire, then threw it in. They ate it when it was cooked. 

In the pack, there were some who could breathe fire themselves, and those individuals cooked and ate by themselves. 

However, there was a limit to the undercooked meat too. 

I want more. 

Looking around, they noticed that...there was plenty of “raw meat” feeding on their kind’s corpses. 

The lizardmen began to hunt. 

“It’s incredible to see, isn’t it?” I asked. 

“Yeah...” Julius murmured. 

It was around ten in the morning, with the sun was fully risen, and shining brilliantly. 

I was with Julius, standing on the wall, watching the scene unfold beneath us in awe. 

We watched the lizardmen surround the bonfires, cooking the meat of monsters they had hunted. It was like a banquet for primitives. 

The lizardmen were a threat to us, but this was like watching a scene from ancient times, and it put me into a strange, indescribable frame of mind. 

Aisha, who could see well at a long distance, pointed and explained. “Over in that corner, a group centered around a fire-breathing lizardman is starting to form, sire.”