Chapter 1152: Red Arrows, Red Mist

Fran glanced back at the 500 or so adventurers following her.

「Guys, it’s time to go. Let’s do our best.」

「Yeah! Roger that!」

「「「 Roger! 」」」

A certain Rank C adventurer kept bothering us yesterday until we showed him our strength. After that, however, he became very obedient.

This guy was apparently the previous leader of the adventurers, so defeating him made everyone accept Fran as the new leader.

Of course, we healed the adventurer after beating him up. Now he’s such a big fan that he followed closely behind Fran.

Seeing the huge guy with a red mohawk right behind her was pretty surreal. Kinda hard to hold in the laughter.

「Deploy!」

「「「 YEEEAH! 」」」

The adventurers departed Fort Elent with Fran in the lead, but…

「Mrgh!」

「Ah, Boss! That’s…」

An army of undead suddenly appeared to block us. About 2,000 skeletons stood between the adventurers and the knights in the first wave.

That said, Fran wasn’t about to slow down in front of this tiny road bump.

「Break through them!」

「Roger! Let’s go, boys!」

Many of the skeletons carried shields, which suggested their role was to stall us. I assume Raydoss planned to ambush the knight unit in front of us while we’re occupied.

The rear skeletons with spears reversed direction and headed back towards Fort Marth, proving my suspicions.

「Leave the ones with shields to Jean’s undead in our next wave.」

「We get the spearmen then!」

「Nn!」

「Woof!」

If things went as originally planned, these skeletons would probably be enough to stall the adventurers. However, the addition of Fran changed everything.

Fran and Urushi forcefully knocked away the skeletons, as the adventurers plunged into the gap in their lines, prying it wide open.

We began pushing through the horde without much delay. This allowed the skeletons to reach melee range, but they weren’t very strong to begin with.

Spamming a bit of cleansing magic allowed us to push them off easily enough. Well, such a strategy ceases to work after Jean brings his undead, since we need to avoid accidentally cleansing friendly undead.

The adventurers crushed all the skeletons blocking our way, eventually making it to the spearmen. We were about to continue the operation, but then…

「Ugah!」

「Gyah!」

Arrows from Fort Marth began raining down on us.

The arrows were as red as the setting sun, and each of them landed a direct hit on the head or heart. What terrifying accuracy.

Fran attempted to cut down one of the arrows, but it exploded as soon as she made contact. The explosion wasn’t enough to kill anyone, but the shockwaves disrupted our formation.

『These arrows are from the Madder Rain! I’m sure of it!』

Avenger told us previously about the relic belonging to the Captain of the Madder Rain Knights. Similar to the Carmine Flame relic, this one was capable of long-range sniping. And apparently, the Madder Rain relic had an even heavier focus on range.

And the captain proved it by sniping us with ridiculous accuracy from over a kilometer away. We tried shooting back with magic, but the wards covering the fort blocked us.

Sniping your enemies from a safe location is an incredibly simple strategy, but that only makes it more frustrating to deal with.

Fran still managed to handle the captain’s rapidfire arrows by herself. With my assistance, I think we could even handle more.

We left the combat to Urushi and focused on dealing with the rain of arrows.

Before I realized it, all the arrows started concentrating on Fran herself. We found ourselves under a barrage of straight arrows, arced arrows, and even ones coming straight down from the sky.

Still, this wasn’t enough to hit Fran. We’ve got plenty of experience dealing with bow users.

Like that Valkyrie we fought a long time ago. The arrows from the Madder Rain Captain were definitely stronger and faster, but he was simply too far away. Regardless of how skilled he might be, we could see any arrows coming.

Suddenly, the arrows changed pattern again. He must have adjusted his strategy after realizing he couldn’t defeat Fran.

His new target was the adventurers. By forcing Fran to devote all her energy to protecting the adventurers, he rendered her unable to join the battle.

I expected the Red Knights to be pretty arrogant, but it seems our opponent accepted defeat humbly. I was hoping to tickle his pride and bait him into wasting time on Fran.

We were pretty much locked in a stalemate, but at least we managed to keep the Madder Rain Captain busy. That’s what I was thinking, but it seems I underestimated our enemies.

「Some red thing?」

『What in the world is that…?』

A red mist-like substance poured down on the Kranzel troops surrounding Fort Marth. The dozens of soldiers who touched the mist immediately collapsed after vomiting blood.

『That’s… the Knights of the Blood Maiden!』

The Blood Maiden Knights, another one of Raydoss’s red knight divisions. Avenger had told us to keep an eye out for red mist.

Not even Avenger knew the specifics, but the mist could apparently be infused into the target’s body to destroy them from within. This mist was obviously their handiwork.

There must be two divisions of Red Knights gathered at this fort. I’m sure of it.

『There’s no further room for doubt. They heard about our operation somehow.』

「Nn.」

Raydoss had blocked Esmeralda’s attempt at spying with sand, but they managed to spy on us somehow.

Fighting on the enemy’s home field is going to be tougher than I thought.