Chapter 1205: A New Army

Windwolf’s entire body swelled up, turning him into a mass of flesh. The only sign of the former commander’s identity were several patches of green fur.

And each patch had distorted wolf heads growing out of it. He now looked like a disturbing toy, as if a child had playfully attached several wolf heads to a misshapen clay sphere.

If I saw someone’s child making something like this, I would recommend taking them to a psychologist. It was that eerie.

I had assumed he was in the middle of some transformation, but this ball shape was apparently his final form. He floated in the air using wind magic.

Seems more like a biological abomination than a proper living creature. Fran attempted to attack in the middle of the transformation, but the superhuman soldiers dove in as if to protect Windwolf. His roar from earlier must have been an order to them.

We fell a few seconds behind as a result, allowing his transformation to complete.

「Grrrrr! Gaaaaah!」

『He can use ranged attacks despite looking that like!』

The grotesque wolf blasted us with wind magic. There were several rounds of wind bullets, with a few invisible wind blades snuck in. Anyone on the receiving end would get cut in half if they didn’t have the ability to sense those.

Seems like he can multi-cast as many spells as he has heads. Also annoying was how the superhuman soldiers kept swarming us the entire time. With Windwolf not bothering to avoid friendly fire, getting surrounded made it harder to dodge.

Not to mention the new legion of superhuman soldiers approaching us.

Should I spam magic to keep them at bay, ignoring the risk of mana depletion? However, the new forces had deployed over a wide area. Even a spell like Surtr wouldn’t be able to take out a decent chunk.

The information about Windwolf’s forces taking heavy casualties from flame magic must have been relayed somehow.

『We need to beat Windwolf as fast as possible and prepare for the next wave!』

（Nn!）

But it seems our enemies anticipated our course of action. I sensed a tremendous surge of mana from behind us, comparable to Windwolf’s transformation.

We quickly turned around to see Bladehawk… or at least what was left of him.

「Kihehehehe! Feel free to struggle all you want! The more blood staining the earth only brings us closer to our goal! Kyahahaha!」

While Bladehawk’s transformation wasn’t as grotesque as Windwolf’s, his form was still pretty disgusting. He had sprouted countless irregularly shaped blades from his feathery body.

The size and shape of the blades varied, with the largest one being a mutated greatsword sticking out of his right elbow in place of his forearm. The smallest one appeared to be a stiletto, protruding from his left eye socket.

You would think this form had terrible balance and air resistance, but it seems he didn’t care much for the laws of physics. His aerial speed and maneuverability was just as good as before.

One flap of his wings was enough to send him darting towards us like a bullet. Despite the superhuman soldiers flooding our airspace, Bladehawk paid no mind.

He flew right past us maintaining his ridiculous speed, but this was no mistake. Several of the nearby superhuman soldiers had been torn apart by the blades extending out of his arms.

What an annoying strategy. He was attempting to restrict Fran’s movements with the superhuman soldiers, so he could aim for a fatal blow.

I attempted to burn down the surrounding superhuman soldiers once again with flame magic, but they didn’t take the bait. Many scattered away from Fran, almost as if they were fleeing.

Then, they approached Fran one by one, zigzagging to avoid being easy targets.

Both Windwolf and Bladehawk were experiencing the same drain to life force as the superhuman soldiers who underwent transformations. Like I thought, removing your limiters comes with heavy risks.

Yet the two didn’t seem to be in any hurry, steadily working to wear Fran down. It’s almost as if they didn’t mind failing to defeat Fran, as long as they managed to exhaust her for the sake of their comrades.

They had regarded the superhuman soldiers as mere pawns, but it seems that line of thinking applied to themselves as well.

Fran’s breathing began getting ragged after the heavy toll of continuous fighting.

What should we do? I still have a decent amount of mana left, but not enough to spam Surtr or Kanna Kamui indefinitely.

Considering how much mana I need to supply Fran, perhaps five casts left? Maybe it would be best to invoke Surtr simultaneously over a wide area and reduce their numbers as much as possible?

Decimating a good portion of the enemies will give us time for a temporary retreat and break, then we can redeploy before they catch up to the villagers. We would certainly be walking a fine line, but it’s better than continuing like this.

I was using Accelerated Thought to devise our next course of action, when Fran suddenly noticed something.

『Is something wrong?』

「Someone’s coming.」

『What? Already…?』

Much to our surprise, we found another group descending on us from the north, while the superhuman army was still advancing from the east.

『Huh? They’re not another legion of superhuman soldiers…』

（Red armor…?）

As Fran pointed out, those at the head of the new force were wearing red armor. The Red Knights.

『So it looks like they finally found us.』

（…The one leading them is Sibylla.）

『The Red Sword Knights, of all the times…!』

I had heard that the Red Sword Knights played a crucial role in defending Central Raydoss. Thus, it’s not easy to mobilize them. The only possible explanation was that they learned of Fran’s presence.

First she thwarted the schemes of the West Conquest Duke, then she eliminated multiple Red Knight Captains and absorbed their relics. Fran had earned the ire of the entire nation of Raydoss.

No clue if they’re in cahoots with the East Conquest Duke, but they certainly couldn’t ignore Fran’s presence here.

『Fran, we need to retreat for now.』

（Wait.）

『I understand how you feel, but――』

（Sibylla isn’t looking our way.）

『Huh?』

Now that you mention it, the Red Knights weren’t marching directly at us. Also, Sibylla’s glare was directed at Fran.

『Whoa, seriously!?』

We watched as the Red Knights suddenly changed course, attacking the superhuman soldiers in the east. At the forefront was Sibylla, who cleaved down swaths of superhuman soldiers without hesitation.

「You stand before the Red Sword Knights! We are the blade directed at any who harm the people of Raydoss! And to any who serve the Eastern Madman, come at me! I’ll personally turn you into a pool of blood!」