Book 6: Chapter 18

Book 6: Chapter 18

The Deserts War Demon

It missed huh.

Ashe spoke out coldly on top of the huge shell dragon that was her ride.

Shell dragon had the name [dragon] but it wasnt a real dragon. The same like wyvern that had wings but no front legs, shell dragon was also a pseudo dragon. It was just a large lizard that didnt even have wings. No matter how much it grew it would never go past rank 4.

But, a true dragon was fundamentally different. Even the low ranked earth dragon could wipe out a group of adventurer with a single breath attack. It could even destroy a human made tower that was located several kilometers from it.

Just now Aishe found a strange object flying away from the top of a broken tower and made the dragon attacked it. But, perhaps the dragons aim was faulty or the distance was too far, because the attack only managed to scrape off the towers top part even more while the strange object was still going higher toward the sky.

I think that isthe thing called [hot-air balloon] isnt it?

Aishe recalled the true identity of that foreign object when it fully came into view. This was her first time actually seeing one, but she remembered her big sister telling her about it several decades ago.

Aishe ordered the attack because of her instinct. But, her instinct didnt betray her.

It was unthinkable that run-down town could possibly have something like that. It was uncertain whether that thing was related to Carlfan Empire or not, but either way it was highly possible the invasion of evil race army would become leaked to human countries if they let it get away from here.

Make the earth dragon attack again-! Dont let it get away-

Aishe ordered another attack at the hot-air balloon, but one of the dark elves beside her quickly bowed his head while trickling cold sweat despite the deserts heat.nove(l)bi(n.)com

M-my deepest apologies, your excellency, giving order in succession is

Tsk

There was no monster tamer skill. After all it was impossible to enslave a living being forever with merely one ability.

Tamer was a technique based job just like alchemist or blacksmith. Only some clans in the evil race country were passing down that technique. The taming of earth dragon was carried out under the order of the evil races clan heads, but dragons taming was extremely difficult and it took several years of process where a whole clan was mobilized for the endeavor that produced a lot of victim.

The earth dragon had stopped attacking the evil race army due to special medicine and suggestion using darkness sorcery, but it was possible the suggestion would become undone if the earth dragon was given order in succession.

Hurry

Maam

Even so, when Aishe ordered with a frown on her face, the black skin of the man who was the head of the tamer clan turned pale and he ran to the rear where the earth dragon was.

Aishe was still young and she was in an age where usually she would be called as a novice for an elf, but she was feared in the evil race army for her severe personality. The root of her severity was her experience of losing her only family in the war against human race more than fifty years ago. Her hatred toward human nation was still continuing to smolder even now that more than fifty years had passed.

Aishe would kill anyone who got in her way even if it was woman or children.

Aishe glared at the hot-air balloon with such hatred filling her eyes. It was then the sight of light that flapped like silver wings falling off from there entered her eyes.

***

What?

The marching evil race army numbered 2000 men strong. The hundred man leader, the knight Hasan was the one ordered to be at the forefront of that army. He witnessed the silver light swooping down from the tower that had just gotten attacked by the dragon.

That emitted particles of light that fluttered like it was wings. Because Hasan was watching it from far away, that sight looked like an angel just like in fairy-tale and he unconsciously narrowed his eyes.

How stupid

Hasan unconsciously laughed at himself for having such thought.

Hasan and other dark elves were judged as evil by the teaching of the holy church that invaded here from other continent. They were feared as though they were evil demon. Their quarrel with the forest elf that had existed from the beginning was also used by the holy church to drive them away from their fertile lands. Since then the dark elves swore to take revenge and called themselves [evil race].

For someone like them to imagine something as [angel] and even felt entranced by the sight was simply laughable.

But, what was that thing that felt from that flying object? It was still far away so he couldnt see it clearly but perhaps a part of the balloon broke because of the dragons attack and some glass fragments fell off.

But, there was no denying that there was something at that place. If it was something that could be dangerous to the evil race army then it was also Hasans duty to eliminate it as the one who was ordered to be the vanguard.

From here our squad shall head to the tower that the dragon attacked! But, I have no doubt that if its the valiant people of our clan then we will be able to take care of anything that lie in wait for us there!

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

After Hasan gave his speech to his subordinates, the one hundred evil race soldiers responded by raising their weapons before marching toward the tower to hunt for their prey.

Hasans one hundred troops consisted of the people from the clan that Hasans father was leading. Even the common soldier in it was rank 2 and even some of the ten men captains who were organizing them were rank 3. Their strength was no comparison to the likes of human soldier. Even if the enemy outnumbered them by twice, his subordinates would be able to easily destroy them. The thought made Hasans lips loosened up.

Buthis expectation was overturned.

Young lord! Something is heading here!

You said, somethingbe clear when reporting

A young soldier who was marching ahead raised his voice. Hasan reflexively turned his gaze to that direction and caught sight of that something.

A silhouette clad in a tattered cloak was sprinting through the desert with terrifying speed straight to here from the direction of the tower.

The sun was setting and the sky started to be dyed orange. In the middle of the orange sky and the sand, the shadow that stretched out from the tattered cloak w

as undulating like a monstrous bird. The figure looked like an evil spirit that appeared in desert. Hasan unconsciously gulped.

Fire arrow-! Dont let it get closer!

The vice commander beside Hasan who was also his uncle gave command to the men. Then he smiled wryly while turning his gaze toward his still young nephew.

Hasan, dont lose focus. After all you are the one who will become our next clan head.

Im sorry uncle

The trained archers immediately fired their arrows. Dozens of arrows rained down on the sprinting shadow. If these trusted subordinates and comrades were at his side, he didnt need to fear even a real evil spirit. Or that was how it should be.

Wha-!?

The fired arrows didnt hit. The arrows that were fired in an arching trajectory were left behind in the dust of the shadow that sped up even more.

As the result the archers hurriedly nocked their next arrow. But how long it would take until they readied their next arrow? This was different from firing arrows toward a large army. How long the archer would take to aim at a far away enemy who was alone?

The enemy figure approached with speed that was several times of ordinary person. Fear spread among the soldiers at the forefront for an instant. It became anxiety that also spread toward the archers. When they had fixed their aiming, the enemy figure had already closed the distance until the soldiers at the forefront.

Aaaaaaa!

The forefront soldiers yelled like they were screaming while hiding their body behind their shield. Then they thrust out their long spear without even checking where the enemy was. But, there was no meaning at all to spears that werent even aimed at anything. That enemy used their palm to divert away the spear tip that was thrusting toward them, and without stopping they used a large shield as foothold and lightly jumped over the spears line.

Hih

The figure that was clad in tattered cloak fluttered in the air like a ghost. The silver light that leaked out from the hem of the cloak made the archers let out their shrieks.

Jet black blade glinted from the shadow of the cloak. They were cut apart by an invisible blade without being able to let go of their bow. The survivors threw away their bow and drew out their short sword, but at that moment the figure already left behind the archers and closed the distance to Hasan and others.

Dont let it get closer-!

The vice commander immediately gave instruction to his men. The elite guards protecting the clan heads son thrust their spears toward the approaching enemy.

Several spears stabbed the tattered cloak that was fluttering in the air. But that enemy kicked on the air and changed posture, then after using their cloak as bait they stomped on the face of one soldier while landing on the ground.

Impossiblethat was like

The vice commanders eyes widened, but a flying knife was planted between his eyes before he could finish speaking.

Swiftness like lightning. Cutting into enemy formation alone to kill the enemy leader. That fighting style and that martial art, it reminded him of a famous female evil race who died in battlefield decades ago.

War Demon

A single girl was reflected on Hasans eyes. The deserts war demon.

Hair that was burning with ashen steel color danced in the wind. Until the blade that was thrown from that hand scattered Hasans life into nothingness, those sharp eyes were simply turned toward the front with Hasans figure never even entering it.

***

First.

I killed two people who seemed to be the commanders of the unit that marched at the forefront, and then I immediately broke into a run again.

I had listened from teacher about the way to fight against group. A units chain of command would be thrown into chaos when its head was crushed and it would become unable to exhibit its actual strength. But that would only be the case if the killing was done continuously one after another.

Both were blown away while spilling a lot of blood, then their body fell on the ground.

And then several seconds laterone side was slowly standing up with unsteady legs.

What the hell, is she-!

Aishe pressed her hand on her heavily bleeding side while asking the same question for the nth times. She walked toward the unconscious pink haired girl.

Why did this girl fought until this far?

Wasnt she scared of dying?

Why was this girl knew that technique?

At the last moment, she couldnt kill her with that Battle Skill because she dodged using that persons technique.

What was with her hair color? It was slightly different but Aishe had seen pink hair color before.

But

She was dangerous. Aishe instantly made that judgment.

She had a mountain of questions she wanted to ask. But, as a general of the evil race army, she couldnt spare the life of someone who could obstruct the evil race armys invasion and killed multiple commanders alone.

Die

Aishe lifted up her sword even though she herself was heavily injured.

But at that time

Wait-!!

Someone stopped Aishe before she could swing down her sword.

You-!

Aishes eyes widened seeing that boys figure.

He had appeared there without her realizing it. Standing there was the prince of evil race country whose whereabouts became unknown since several years ago. He was staring at Aishe while breathing hard.

Lower your sword, General Aishe. I order you under my name to hand her to my custody.

The prince came here riding on a beast accompanied by two servants, a man in his prime and a still young girl. Aishe wordlessly got into a glaring match with the prince in respond to his words. Then she spat out her saliva that was mixed with blood and quietly lowered her sword.

Do as you please with that dying girl-, but, if she actually pull through from thisthen I also have a business with her. I have questions to ask her about my elder sisters technique.

***

Were falling, grab on something-!

Ron yelled inside the basket of the hot-air balloon that was gradually losing altitude.

The balloon didnt get attacked by the dragon again and managed to fly away. But, the first attack apparently caused some towers fragments to hit and damage the balloon. Around two hours after they left the town, the balloon reached its limit and started to lose altitude.

Ariatsu

Elena was holding on the baskets edge while muttering the girls name.

Why did she do something like that?

Why did she go off on her own?

At the end Aria called Elena her [friend]. The two of them had different standing. Elena thought that word mustnt be said no matter how much she wished for it.

The smile that Aria showed her at the end flashed inside her mind.

Was that, AriasAlicias true smile? Or was it a smile that she forced herself to make because it was the last time? Was the usual her just a false mask?

(No, thats not it.)

Both were the true Aria. That must be a smile that she was showing to her true friend.

It wasnt because that would be the last time. She wouldnt accept that as the last time. Aria was alive. It was impossible for Aria to break her promise with Elena and died.

I wont forgive you if you die.

Elena muttered that and lifted her face. The look of grief that was showing from her eyes until then vanished. In its place was a strong light and faint anger.

Aria went that far in order to keep Elena alive.

Aria absolutely wouldnt die. She wouldnt forgive her if she died. She would head to Carlfan Empire, contact Claydale Kingdom, and then she would absolutely save Aria even if she had to use her everything.

That was why Elena swore that she would survive come hell or high water.

Ron, please give me instruction-!

Lena

Im not depressed anymore. Also, I do not mind if you call me Elena.

I get it. Go pull that rope over there-

Seeing the depressed Elena started moving caused Chako and the other childrens scared faces to recover slightly.

But that didnt mean that the situation was changing for the better with that. The balloons altitude was still unstable, and it was unclear whether they would be able to deal with danger now that their two strongest fighters were absent.

Ron, monster from the sky-!

At this kind of time-!

Two Giant Crows were approaching from the sky. They were rank 3 monster because of their huge size, but they wouldnt be that great of a threat if only the hot-air balloon was in proper condition.

But in this current situation, it was unclear how long the balloon would last even though it was made from monster leather. Even Elena who could attack was unable to use sorcery because of the shaky foothold. If even one of the ropes that were connecting the basket to the balloon was severed while they were standing idly, it would become difficult to even land softly. It was even possible that it would become impossible to repair the balloon.

Gueeeeeeeee!

Kyaaah!

One of the Giant Crows launched an attack at the balloon. The basket shook violently. The ground was getting closer and Ron was working hard to at least land the balloon on a flat ground, but finally the other crow charged toward the rope.

Hurricane

In that moment, a level 4 wind sorcery was fired from somewhere and tore apart the charging crow, blowing it away toward the sky.

Elena sighed in admiration seeing that sorcery. What impressed her wasnt the sorcerys level, rather it was the technique that blew away the Giant Crow without shaking the hot-air balloon despite being a wide area sorcery.

Everyone was surprised. Even the remaining Giant Crow stopped attacking when a jet black beast leaped like a gust of wind toward the crow that had gotten close to the ground. It was dragged toward the ground where it got ripped apart.

W-were falling-

Ron came back to his senses and raised his voice. The hot-air balloon landed on the sandy ground after that. Cutlass Town looked very small from this location.

But it was difficult to call the landing soft. Both the balloon and the basket fell on their side, but thanks to that the children also fell on the sandy ground and got away from the crash with only shock and bruises.

Is everyone alright-

Yes, we are alrightbut

Everyone nodded at Rons question. Nobody was seriously injured. At most they were only bruised or scratched. Their feeling of shock and surprise were greater than that and they became absentminded, but then a woman voice called out to them. The voice came from someone wearing a hood that covered most of her face. She seemed to be the one who fired the sorcery just now.

You guys, it doesnt look like anyone is injured.

She seemed like an adult woman and her gentle voice made Chako and the children exhaled in relieve.

Thank you very much for your help. Butyou are?

Even so Ron and Elena were showing a little bit of wariness. The woman smiled wryly and removed her hood, showing the face of a dark elf.

.

Im searching for someone. By the way, have any of you seen my pink haired surly disciple(daughter) around here?