CH 28

Chapter 28 - Battle for Brandenburg 1

Because this region is overrun with monsters far stronger than the ones at the capital, Brandenburg’s city walls are sturdier than other fortified cities’. But when faced with the approximately two thousand monsters that brought down Fort Eisenstadt, which was known for being impregnable, they’re no sturdier than a house of cards.

Moreover, Brandenburg’s ruling nobility escaped from Brandenburg with half of their regular soldiers on the pretext of guarding the evacuees and informing other regions of the danger. The remaining half were ordered to defend Brandenburg to the death, treated as sacrifices to delay the monsters’ advance even if only slightly.

Although ruthless, this cannot be said to be a mistake. Even though the assembled adventurers and volunteer soldiers outnumber the monsters, Brandenburg’s defenses couldn’t possibly stand a chance against griffins and large, unknown monsters. Considering that the flying griffins can only be countered with magic or arrows and that dealing with four meter long centipedes, a monster of similar size, would typically require about seven or eight soldiers each, the difference in strength is clear. Although there are few monsters on the escape route, the southern main road, it’s also true that moving in a group makes them more likely to attack.

In addition, the civilians accompanying them, including women and children, are slow to walk, so if they abandon Brandenburg entirely, the monsters will immediately bare their fangs at the civilians. Therefore, what the forces remaining in Brandenburg are being asked to do right now is to hold off the monsters for even a second longer; they have no way to delay them other than sacrificing themselves. Yes, everyone felt hopeless against the monster army, anticipating defeat.

Everyone except a certain master and servant, that is.

Currently, there is a force of about 2500 people defending Brandenburg. Although the regulars alone consist of 700 soldiers, exceeding the number of soldiers stationed at Fort Eisenstadt, the rest are only an assortment of adventurers and volunteers, and it’s no exaggeration to say that morale is at its lowest. The only bit of good news is that, since the monsters travelling south on the northern main road suddenly slowed their advance for some reason, the civilians, excluding the ones who can’t move due to illnesses and such, have already evacuated and escaped Brandenburg, and they’re prepared for the upcoming battle.

Lowering the bundle of arrows she’s carrying, Alexia looks around. The gate at the northern wall, where she is right now, would normally have merchants coming and going down the road leading northeast, but now there’s no trace of them. Instead, there’s a cloud of dust far down the road, as if something is approaching. The reality of the impending monster threat setting in, she gulps.

The defense preparations somehow made it in time, and the northern gate has already been firmly blockaded with chunks of crumbling buildings and such. The reason why the other entrance to the city, the southern gate, hasn’t been blockaded isn’t to leave an escape route, but most likely so that, in the event that the monsters go around the city and advance south of Brandenburg, they can pursue the monsters from behind. However, this is a needless fear, as the monsters are advancing down the main road towards Brandenburg. Conflict is likely unavoidable.

Next to her atop the city walls, there are stone projectiles and arrows piled up. The arrows were collected from a weapons shop that the owner fled and abandoned. Along with the piles, there is a jar filled with oil.

She hears continuous clattering noises. It’s the sound of metal armor clanking with movement as the soldiers hurriedly prepare the defenses as well as the sound of the terrified volunteer soldiers chattering their teeth in fear.

“Y- you, you’re pretty calm. A- aren’t you scared?” the young mage who Alexia is working with (though he looks about 3 or 4 years older than her) asks her, his hands trembling as he grips his staff. Perhaps he’s a novice.

He’s not the only one who’s scared. There are quite a few ordinary people with grim faces nearby, carrying weapons they aren’t familiar with and not even wearing leather armor. In a situation like this, a young girl who shows no sign of trembling in fear would be noticeable.

“No, it’s not that I’m not scared.”

Just as she says, it’s not that she has no fear. The young man looks at her with respect towards her articulate response, but in actuality, her voice is coming out more stiff than usual due to the tension. Although, she’s not so shaken up that it would be visible to someone she’s only just met.

“Anyway, this kid aside, I never would have thought a pretty girl like you would be recruited for this. I can’t run ‘cause my wife hurt her hip, but why didn’t you run?” a middle-aged man with hairy arms joins in the conversation, perhaps to distract himself. He’s holding a worn-out bow, so maybe he’s normally a hunter.

“Because we’re adventurers. We were forcibly drafted by the Guild.”

“Is that so, looks like you’ve got it tough too. But I’ll be fighting out there with you, so you can count on me. You too, kid, don’t be so spineless. Straighten up a little!” he says, laughing boisterously as he roughly slaps the young man’s back. He glares at the middle-aged man resentfully, coughing violently as his eyes water. Although, he understands that the older man is just trying to cheer them up, so he doesn’t get any angrier than this.

“Are you alright, Lady Alexia?” Irene whispers to her anxiously. Since she’s always by Alexia’s side, Irene is the only one who notices that she’s nervous.

“Yes. Though, I’m a bit anxious since Teacher isn’t with us…” Alexia says, her eyes downcast.

In the end, they weren’t able to meet up with Chaos. They waited for Chaos in front of the Adventurer’s Guild, but the soldiers soon brought them to prepare for the siege. She did want to join up with Chaos, but on the other hand, she couldn’t neglect this duty. She had a faint hope that she would see him while she was working, but it was impossible to find him out of the over 2000 people present.

‘Maybe he’s not here,’ she briefly worried, but quickly erased these thoughts from her mind. However, the extremely glorified version of Chaos in her mind was definitely not the type of person that would abandon these people in their time of need. Therefore, she was certain that he was here. In that case, she would have to make an effort to lighten his burden, even if only a little. That’s what she told herself.

Also, when it comes to fighting, Chaos’s fighting style stands out. Especially on the day she last met him during all that lighting, even though it was in a limestone cave, it gave the illusion that the wrath of the gods had manifested in this world. Alexia thinks that it may contain enough destructive power to dominate this battle.

Therefore, when the battle starts, she should notice Chaos’s presence.

Alexia grips her staff tightly. It’s the custom-made staff with the Dragon Soul gem embedded in it. That alone makes it rare. In fact, other mages often look at it with envy. To her, however, it is a precious, irreplaceable staff of the same design as her teacher’s. Perhaps because of this, she feels like he’s close by, and all the tension in her mind quickly melts away.

Thinking back, the day she first held this staff, before she noticed her feelings for him, she was so happy that she fell asleep hugging it in her bed. Back then, she thought she was simply happy to have the same wand as her teacher, but in actuality, that may have been a girlish happiness that she matched with the person she liked. Once Alexia realizes this, she suddenly becomes embarrassed. She hurriedly drowns out these bright feelings that are inappropriate for a battlefield.

This strange feeling is a powerful drug, she thinks as she suppresses these emotions which are still unfamiliar and uncontrollable to her.

“The monsters! They’re here!” someone shouts. When she looks up at the sky, countless silhouettes are flying towards Brandenburg.

“Attack, hurry!” yells a soldier who seems to be a commanding officer.

Automatically, Alexia looks her servant in the eye. Irene also stares into Alexia’s eyes. As if her own thoughts are being transmitted, Alexia’s heart is emboldened by her bright eyes filled with determination.

Alexia looks back up at the sky. She catches sight of a flying beast with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion – a griffin.

This is the beginning of the battle that would later be known as the Battle for Brandenburg.

***

Originally, these 2000 weren’t the only ones here.

A griffin, the largest even out of all the other griffins taking the lead, spread his large, majestic wings and glared, angrily looking down at the human city they’re about to attack.

After bringing down the irritating humans’ fort, they replenished the supplies they were sent, and up to this point, things were going fine. The stones they’d been supplied with, red stones that shined like gems, were more useful than they imagined. Trampling the humans who were scattering like baby spiders had been fun and exciting. As expected, they weren’t completely unscathed, but they had plenty of strength both in the sky and on the ground. At first, he felt a strong aversion to them because they were made by humans, but with results like these, that feeling was dispelled completely.

All they needed to do now was maintain the supply line and replenish their strength by turning the monsters who lived in this region into their subordinates, just as the master ordered. Everything should have been going according to plan.

This region was populated by a dragon clan. A prideful, high-ranking dragon couldn’t be made subservient, but one of low intelligence who is looked down on even by other dragons could easily be made subservient.

They’re called Lesser Dragons, the lowest ranking dragons. Even if they couldn’t elegantly fly through the skies like he could, the dragons’ immense physical strength would be a threat to the powerless humans. Even if they were limited to fighting on the ground, they posed a danger.

However, the plan collapsed. There were only about a dozen Lesser Dragons left in the area. How could this have happened…? Was he expected to believe that they were killed by humans? It was true that there were signs of conflict and the faint scent of blood lingered. However, not a single corpse remained. It was as if they’d suddenly vanished.

He didn’t understand how it happened, but he did know one thing: There had been no humans in that fort that were tough enough to defeat a Lesser Dragon. In other words, they must have come from the nearby settlement. Humans had come here in numbers great enough to defeat Lesser Dragons and then took the corpses with them.

Anger burned in his eyes.

Again, yet again, the weak, cunning humans barbarically steal parts of our bodies. They don’t steal for food. They pick out parts that have some sort of value, stripping us of our skin, tearing off our wings, gouging out our eyes, desecrating our corpses. We and our ancestors have been sacrificed for the humans’ greed time and time again.

Our master is right. Just as he says, we cannot coexist.

Then, we shall give them the same treatment. If they desire skin, we shall peel their skin off. If they desire wings, we shall tear their limbs off. If they desire eyeballs, we shall gouge their eyes out.

With a piercing cry, they dive towards the human city, Brandenburg. This sky belongs to them, the griffins. Nothing can stop them.

The battle has begun.

***

“Wisdom Shield.”

First, Alexia casts a barrier defense spell. Similar to the Intelligence Shield that her teacher uses, it’s a support spell that creates a barrier which becomes stronger the more powerful your Wisdom is. It’s a thin white barrier that forms in a dome around her.

Alexia’s sudden use of magic causes those around her to look towards her in shock.

“You’re a cleric?!” a young man asks from within the barrier, probably because he determined that it was some type of support magic. Support magic is what clerics specialize in.

“No, I’m a mage. Addition,” Alexia says, casting another support spell. Addition is a red veil in a dome shape, similar to Wisdom Shield. It mixes with the white barrier to form a pink space.

“Everyone at the ready! All archers and mages, make sure to aim for the griffins!” the commanding officer says, and the soldiers hurriedly prepare the projectiles and nock their arrows.

In accordance with the information provided to them by the survivors from Eisenstadt, they prepared to counter air attacks, but it’s nowhere near enough. The number of anti-air ballistas is limited, and not all of the volunteer soldiers can use bows. As a result, those who can’t use bows can only throw stones to make the enemy fall back and keep them from approaching the city wall.

“Wait! Draw them in closer… Now, shoot!”

As instructed, they shoot magic and arrows at the griffins. With hundreds of people attacking simultaneously, the barrage is dense. Even so, the number of griffins that fall to this attack are few enough to be counted on two hands. The other griffins flee high into the sky beyond the reach of the magic and arrows or flap their wings to create a gust of wind which collides with the arrows and causes them to fall. Even when they just barely managed to reach the griffins, it’s difficult to cause a fatal wound with a single shot.

The mage next to Alexia also follows orders and uses magic. Since the griffins are quick, he uses a spell called Mana Sphere, which isn’t very strong but is easy to aim and has a high accuracy rate. The strength of his spell is insignificant, so his strategy is to land a surefire hit on the griffins to make them flinch so that other attacks can make it through that gap in their defenses.

Just as he predicted, the pale Mana Sphere flies right at the griffin, as if it has its own will. In addition, the griffin notices and makes a sharp turn to the left, exposing half of its body to the Mana Sphere.

Then, the Mana Sphere pierces its right flank, and it dies.

“Eh– huh?” says a bewildered voice which doesn’t suit a battlefield. But it’s only natural, since something like that happened. He himself didn’t think he’d have any chance of defeating it, after all.

“What is this, what the heck is going on?”

He isn’t the only one. There are similar voices from those around him who were attacking the griffins. The hunter also pierced through a griffin with only a single arrow. As the pièce de résistance, the swordswoman next to the girl shoots down a griffin with the stone in her hands.

“Hey, this is way too weird, isn’t it?!” the mage shouts at the absurd spectacle before him. This absurd spectacle is only happening around him. No, to be accurate, it’s only happening to the people within the support spell the girl cast.

“Wait, is this the spell from earlier?! Is that a spell that strengthens your allies’ attacks?!” the mage says, and Alexia, who is in the middle of casting her next spell, replies with a nod.

To be accurate, the spell she cast, Addition, is a spell that strengthens the attacks performed by party members within a certain radius by adding the user’s Wisdom to the each stat value associated with the attack. For the Mana Sphere from earlier, for example, its power is determined by Magic Attack Power, or, in other words, the Intelligence and Wisdom stats. Alexia’s Wisdom is added to that Intelligence and Wisdom, increasing its power. To put in concrete terms, if the attacker has 100 Intelligence and 50 Wisdom and the one who cast Addition has 100 Wisdom, the Magic Attack Power will be calculated from 200 Intelligence and 150 Wisdom.

Of course, since the example was magic, the stats involved were Intelligence and Wisdom, but other stats, such as Strength, can be similarly strengthened. However, this is only limited to attacks, so it doesn’t strengthen the body directly like a cleric’s support magic.

In other words, the higher Alexia’s Wisdom is, the higher the attack power of those receiving Addition’s effects rises. And, although she’s a failure when it comes to Intelligence, she has unrivalled talent in Wisdom. If her Wisdom were to be quantified as an Another World stat, Chaos, who is the same level and allocates most of his stat points to Intelligence whenever he levels up, has lower Intelligence than she has Wisdom, so you can see just how incredible her talent is. Her Wisdom is a cut above the rest.

Perhaps because the attacks stopped in their confusion and the barrage thinned, a griffin drops a red stone towards Alexia.

“Something’s falling this way! Get down!” the hunter warns, and the red stone collides with the barrier and causes a large explosion. However, the barrier is unyielding, and even with the aftermath of the blast, those inside are mostly uninjured. This proves that her Wisdom Shield’s defensive ability is far more powerful than the explosion.

After making it to this point, those within the barrier finally realize. Their attacks will hit, but their opponents’ will not. Strengthening their allies to give them the advantage in battle is the Sage’s fighting style.

“Hahaha, damn, this is a stroke of luck! You’re the best!”

“Seriously, little lady, if I didn’t have a wife, I would have fallen for you!”

The volunteer soldiers’ fear of the monsters, which looked like symbols of death, weakens, and suddenly, they’re bursting with energy, seeing hope of victory. They resume their attack, taking the griffins down one after another, and gradually start overpowering them.

‘Was that explosion just now caused by an alchemically-made Explosion Stone…? Why would a monster…?’

Monsters do tend to form packs, but to be frank, it’s implausible that griffins would even use the tools necessary for advanced alchemy. Alexia’s questions are only increasing, but she has no time to think of answers. Alexia immediately ends this line of thought and switches to a different one.

‘It really is a nuisance that they have control over the skies. Though we’re overpowering them in this area.’

The griffins are being pushed back in the area with Alexia’s support, but they’re doing as they please in other areas. At this rate, there’s a high chance that the rest of the front line will be crushed and they’ll lose.

The support magic Alexia uses has various limitations, unlike the support magic used by clerics. One of which is that the effect is only present within the range of the dome centered on Alexia. The second is that, unless your mana runs out or you dispel it, the spell consumes mana little by little for it to be maintained, so your mana will gradually dwindle unless you do something about it. A cleric’s support magic doesn’t have limitations like this, but it has a time limit instead and the target is strengthened based on their own abilities, so there are advantages and disadvantages with the limitations of each.

However, this time, it’s a bit inconvenient. Alexia’s are the only support spells that only affect a limited area of the battleground. Even if they take control of the battle in this localized area, if they can’t do something about the flying enemies spread throughout the skies and turn this disadvantageous situation around, they’ll never be able to win.

In that case, she’ll literally drag the griffins down from their advantageous position in the sky. This, too, is a Sage’s fighting style. Alexia thinks back to her fight with the Lesser Dragons.

The first time she fought a Lesser Dragon, Alexia attempted to ambush it with Sleep Cloud as usual and put it to sleep before fighting it. Her surprise attack succeeded on the Lesser Dragon, which kept flying low to the ground, close to her height. However, it went slightly different from how she predicted.

Rather than falling due to being put to sleep, the Lesser Dragon was still floating in the air. After the battle was over, Alexia, curious about the spectacle she had just seen, tried asking Chaos about it.

“Teacher, why was the Lesser Dragon still floating even while it was asleep?”

“Apparently, dragons use magic to fly. The same is true for the dragons they use for Dragon Transport. Well, birds aside, it’d probably be difficult to fly with that huge body.”

I see. In other words, the magic effect was still present, so it was still floating. Thinking about it that way, it must have been in a state similar to when the effects of a cleric’s support magic remained. As expected, it did fall when it died, but Alexia concluded that this was a type of support magic that is constantly applied to itself.

In other words, some flying monsters use support magic to fly. In that case, what about griffins?

She begins casting. Spells that strengthen allies aren’t the only spells that Sages know. They also know spells that weaken enemies, such as…

“Erase!”

The spell evokes countless reactions. At first, there isn’t much of a change, to the point that those around her mistake the spell to be a failure. However, the effect becomes clearly visible. The effect of Erase is to randomly negate several of the enemy’s support magic effects. To take countermeasures against this, they would need to apply several support spells to spread out the dispelling effect. However, the griffins have no such countermeasures, and flying magic is all they used. In other words, this spell is entirely unavoidable.

Several of the griffins fighting in the skies above Alexia staggeringly begin to lose speed and stability.

‘What the heck is this?’ the griffins think in incomprehension. Barings its fangs at them is a law of nature which affects all things in this world: the pull of gravity. As if their wings were plucked, the rulers of the skies fall to the ground.

There’s a slight chance that this alone could have saved the day. However, the red stones they’re holding can’t withstand the impact of falling to the ground. There’s a thundering boom as an explosion occurs on the ground just in front of the city walls. Thus, the griffins meet their pitiful end.