CH 9

Monster Stampede 3

“Any more than this is…”

Not long ago, the monsters began to take the actions to destroy my magic, and I’ve been using my magical power to reinforce the two spells to defend. If those two spells are removed, the stuck monsters will resume their actions and there will be no way for us to win.

“Princess! Don’t force yourself any more than this…”

The knights guarding us were using their powers to hunt down the relatively strong monsters, but there are too many of them to do anything more than stall for time. We don’t know whether Father and others are already on their way or if they are still fighting and I heard earlier that more than 60% of the Magic Division ran out of magical power and can’t move. The situation is desperate.

“Princess! Giant species such as the Trolls, Ogres, and Cyclops are approaching from the front, holding here anymore would… let’s retreat.”

Giant species, huh… trapping a single one in the Ice Age is already a handful, so several of them would be quite difficult… but.

“I will act as your shield, you guys attack…”

“!? The… there’s no way we can let you do that…”

“That’s an order… I have the highest defense here when I use Protect… I will receive the attacks.”

The more magical and mental power you have, the higher the defensive power is. It is said that the person who was once known as the Great Mage was able to withstand even the most destructive magic unharmed with this technique alone… Then I’m going to withstand an Ogre or two.

The Ogres and other Giant species approached as our forces spread out in a fan shape with me at the front. It’s up to me to defend myself from here on out, as there’s no way I can avoid their attacks. I’m not that well trained in combat, so all I can do is endure…

“… Protect.”

A Cyclops swung its club down at me immediately after I used Protect.

“!… So hea… vy.”

It was a shock so heavy it nearly caused me to lose my consciousness, and if I was told to take it without protecting myself with magic, I would absolutely refuse. Fortunately, the Protect’s defenses were higher than the power of the club, so I was only forced down to my knees, and the guards who were waiting for the timing to attack decapitated the Cyclops at once. Good job.

“Princess! That was a dreadful sound, please stand back if you cannot take it anymore.”

One of the guards shouted, but I’m not one to back down when told to.

“No… problem… still… okay.”

I’m not injured that badly, just my hands are numb and I have experienced a momentary jolt that almost knocked my consciousness out. And so, just like before, I was attacked by monsters, and the guards took them down while they were attacking me, so we managed to keep the Giant species at bay in this manner, but…

“O… Orc King!? And there’s Ogre King, too! They even brought their own soldiers with them…”

“No… problem, I will take care of it…”

The sense of time became very ambiguous as the battle went on and the Wind, Darkness, Earth, and Fire spirits already ran out of magical power and couldn’t move, but I think… I believe that Father will be back in just a little while.

“It won’t be like the last time! Us aside, you are too exhausted to continue fighting, Princess. It’s not possible for you to continue fighting like this, please stand down.”

“No problem. I’m still fine… this is not enough to beat me.”

I’m bluffing. My vision is distorted, and my breathing is erratic. My magical power is draining little by little, and most importantly, my mental strength is at its limit.

I stood up to battle and reapplied my Protect. It was the Ogre King that was approaching us this time, and although the Orc King seemed only to be observing for now, the Ogre King is typically of a higher rank and had a huge sword in its hands. I definitely cannot take a hit from that with my body, so I’m intending to block it with my wand that had Protect cast on it.

“! Guargh…”

“P… Princess!”

Although I was luckily able to block the Ogre King’s sword with my wand, my body got blown away.

“Ah… ghaah!”

It hurts… Although I was using Protect, it appears that both of my arms are broken. This apparently isn’t a monster that I can oppose, but I used the very little magical power I had to heal at least my right arm. My magical power will recover once the battle is over and I can heal it then, so for now, getting rid of the pain is for the best.

“I’m… fine.”

“However! Please don’t fight anymore, you will die.”

I don’t want to die…

“I can go for a bit longer.”

After that, I got blown away many times, and I repeatedly returned to the frontlines after minimal treatment, but I guess this was as far as I could go. In front of me was the wounded Ogre King, and the ten guards that stood with me in the beginning, all fell, except for three. I might die too if I get attacked again. The Ogre King’s soldiers have been hovering around us since a while ago, probably hoping to take the rest of us down without taking any damage.

“So this is it… huh.”

“As expected, any more than this would be…”

I fell to my knees when the Ogre King attacked me, and the guards around me couldn’t even stand up anymore, they all either fell down or were on their knees. It’s over, isn’t it? I don’t want to die yet. I thought as I watched the Ogre King swing at me.

“Do you want to die that much, bastard?”

It seemed that someone stood in front of me and stopped the Ogre King’s attack, but then my vision went black.

Draconia’s Point of View

It happened when I was on the frontlines fighting monsters. I was a little demoralized from the start because there weren’t many monsters to begin with, and there was an unbelievable amount of magic coming from behind that was overrunning the enemy on its own, but I couldn’t let my daughter see me in a bad light, so I still did my best.

I knew something was wrong when the vanguard rushed into battle as the rear support stopped and a messenger came to me and told me that the Magic Division behind us had been ambushed by the monsters. I tried to return immediately, but the messenger told me that Sylvia was injured and Alicetia, who was currently in charge, said we didn’t need to send reinforcements until we were done here.

“S… stop kidding me!! Alicetia is only five years old, there’s no way she can take the command, I’m going to assist them!”

“These were the instructions of the temporary commander. Rather than that, we should finish here as soon as possible and head for their rescue with the entire army. I’m sure they are planning on buying time for us so that we don’t get pincer-attacked by the monsters.”

Our chief of staff is excellent, he has an uncompassionate heart and will do what’s best even if it affects his relatives. I wouldn’t be able to do it, but I’m sure Sylvia can move at least a little even if she’s injured… Then I will have to exterminate these fellows as fast as I can and save my wife and daughter.

I don’t remember much after that, but the next thing I know, the monsters were all gone and my men were looking at me in a cold sweat.

“Inform all the troops! Turn around and defeat the rest of the monsters!”

I shouted such and ran towards the Magic Division before any of my men could react.

When I arrived at the Magic Division’s position in the rear, the division was almost completely destroyed… Well, not dead, but not in a position to act as an army. There was a wall of ice surrounding the camp that protected the magicians, and the ground was frozen, stopping the monsters in their tracks. The formation itself was still intact, but most of the magicians had run out of magical power and fainted, and the only ones left were the magician professors, who were casting magic with pale faces.

“Is… is this Princess’ doing?”

“I believe so. Sylvia can’t use this kind of magic, and she’s not good with ice magic to begin with.”

When I finally reached the place, I went to search for Sylvia and Alicetia together with Albert… I couldn’t find Sylvia, but I found out that Alicetia was fighting against an Ogre King together with the guards.

“You must be kidding me…”

Alicetia was clearly in tatters. However, her eyes showed no despair, her eyes looked like that of a warrior. But she obviously reached her limit as she was supporting her body that was about to fall backward with her wand, moreover, her left arm was clearly broken.

(I’m going to kill that bastard.)

I caught the sword that the Ogre King tried to swing at Alicetia with my bare hands.

“Do you want to die that much, bastard?”

I crushed the sword I caught and hammered my fist into the Ogre King’s stomach. And the Ogre King, perhaps because of his hardness, flew somewhere far away.

(It surely died from that.)

“Your Majesty! We have found the Queen.”

As I was destroying the monsters in the area, my subordinate reported the discovery of Sylvia. It was unlikely, but I was worried that the monsters had taken her, but thank God I my worries were unfounded.

“Where was she? We checked the encampment but couldn’t find her.”

“She was hidden with concealment magic in the center of the encampment. The knight guards told us her position.”

“How is she? How is her injury? Is she conscious!?”

I tried to approach my subordinate in irritation, but Albert scolded me to calm down. She apparently lost consciousness but was safe, the problem was that Alicetia seemed to be in much more danger, with several broken bones and organs that ruptured. I couldn’t hide my anger at the inadequacy of the guards, but they were just following Alicetia’s orders. As a result, even though they were attacked by such a large group, there were only a few casualties, let alone injuries.

“We have mobilized everyone who can use healing magic and Princess seemed to foresee the situation and preserved the powers of the Water and Light spirits, so she should be fine in a while with the two spirits healing her… However, there’s a high possibility that we wouldn’t be able to save her were it not for the spirits’ power.”

I regretted bringing Alicetia here, I should have left her at the castle. But I was so glad she survived that I was shedding tears. I was glad that I made it in time.

Thus, the Monster Stampede came to the end. The damage wasn’t too bad, but it was the first time we had to deal with monsters that showed such abnormal behavior and the great diversity of monsters included in the Stampede.