Fun Territory Defense by the Optimistic Lord (Novel) - Chapter 97 - War 1
Chapter 97 – War 1
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Translated by Sylph
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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While the formations were being put in order, whistles and gongs rang out from Scudetto, but from the outside nothing appeared to change.
And yet, the feeling of mounting tension was unmistakably there.
“Captain, preparations are perfect!”
“Mm, understood. Stay ready to move at any time.”
When I answered that, everyone returned to their positions. Two stood by each ballista, and five by each catapult, ready to act at any moment.
During these past ten days, we had been taught the severity of the discipline of a normal knight order, and had come to understand a little of a knight’s pride.
Up to now, I had possessed only one feeling: to carry out the mission Van-sama had given us. But now it was different.
I had realized that our actions and our work would become Van-sama’s evaluation.
“We can’t lose, everyone. We mustn’t die, but we’re going in with the will to win even if it costs our lives.”
“Yes!”
At my words, everyone answered in loud voices. With those voices at my back, I turned to face the battlefield.
“Move out!”
At the center of the front-rank cavalry, Count Ventury roared out like a battle cry.
And so, as the vanguard, Count Ventury spurred his horse toward Scudetto’s gate.
Then, figures of soldiers appeared one after another atop the wall, and among them there seemed to be some carrying staffs. At that sight, Viscount Panamera’s knight order grew tense all at once.
Even if new styles of war had appeared, the threat of Four Elemental Magicians remained unchanged.
That was only natural. Depending on how they were used, they were the equivalent of thousands of soldiers.
“We’ll blast a hole through them! Aqua Pile!”
As he wheeled his horse around, Count Ventury shouted with his staff in hand.
Then countless droplet-like things began forming at the tip of his staff, and before long they took on a flow and became a whirlpool.
And then the water vortex was released from the tip of Count Ventury’s staff. At first it was a small whirl of water, but it grew larger the farther it flew.
In the end it gouged up the ground as it crashed into Scudetto’s gate.
At the violent sound and shock, so intense it seemed to shake the walls, the soldiers atop the wall hurriedly crouched down where they were.
“Follow up! This is our role here!”
“Sir!”
At Count Ventury’s order, the cavalrymen all took their staffs in hand at once.
Seconds later, fire, water, wind, and earth magic flew wildly. Every last one of them was concentrated on the gate.
It was an abnormal use of magic by ordinary standards, but thanks to it the gate, which ought to have been sturdy, collapsed magnificently. Even part of the surrounding wall had caved in.
“O-ohh, as expected of the famed Count Ventury’s mage cavalry unit! To have assembled that many first-rate magicians…!”
Hearing some soldier’s impressed voice from who-knew-where, I looked toward the ballista crews.
“The ballistas are already within sufficient attack range, but don’t get ahead of yourselves. Our target is the wyverns and nothing else.”
When I checked that, everyone nodded silently.
I didn’t know how the other knight orders would move, because Viscount Panamera hadn’t told me, but Marquis Fertio and Count Ferdinand had already begun to act.
The movements of those two knight orders, spreading to the left and right like wings unfurling, were beautiful in their coordination despite being a battlefield scene. No one wasted a motion, and they changed form smoothly like a single living organism.
Then the Kingdom of Yerinetta’s side also made its move.
Countless soldiers peered over the walls and readied bows. And from beyond the broken section of wall, a gigantic shadow appeared.
The disturbance spread to every corner of the battlefield in the blink of an eye. Even from this distance, fear made my body feel as though it might seize up. It wasn’t hard to imagine the emotions of the soldiers on the front line.
Dark reddish-brown scales like rock, and four legs like the trunks of great trees. A colossal body squeezing uncomfortably through a gate wide enough for even a large wagon to pass through with ease.
And then, gleaming twin eyes and fangs that seemed to embody ferocity itself.
It was unmistakably the appearance of a full-grown dragon.
“W-what!?”
“Fall back! Attack only with magic or bows!”
“If you get close, it’ll crush you underfoot!”
Desperate voices shouting orders rose from all directions, and the encircling formation moving to envelop the fortress city twisted badly.
Still in that wavering, distorted shape, the soldiers all pulled away from the dragon at once.
Of course they did.
No one had been preparing to fight a dragon. It wasn’t just a matter of equipment, but of resolve above all. A large dragon and a wyvern, a subspecies of dragon, were simply not comparable.
“It has no wings! It’s a Red-Bronze Earth Dragon! Never stand before it! Its breath is coming!”
Count Ventury’s order rang out across the battlefield. Thanks to that command, the formation was somehow prevented from completely breaking apart, but even so it was hanging by a thread.
“…This is bad. If we get hit from both flanks right now, we will definitely be wiped out. Everyone’s attention has been dragged onto the dragon.”
The moment Viscount Panamera said that with visible irritation, shouting rose this time from the left and right of the front line.
It was the knight orders of Marquis Fertio and Count Ferdinand.
“The enemy is not the dragon alone! Only magicians are to pin the dragon down! Watch for arrows from the walls and enemy soldiers coming around the sides!”
“Move while keeping the defense tight! Guide it so the dragon’s front does not turn toward the main force!”
The left and right wings began moving independently, each trying to respond to the suddenly changed situation. In line with that flow, Count Ventury also began moving his own knight order.
“If wyverns appear, we will guide them! If the Yerinetta army appears, do not engage them head-on! Keep your distance and answer them while remaining ready to move at any time!”
Because every one of them was a hardened veteran, even in a completely unforeseen situation they moved magnificently, as if all of this had been planned beforehand.
Before I knew it, an encirclement had been laid to sandwich the dragon from left and right, while at the same time they were keeping up pressure on the soldiers atop Scudetto’s walls.
“…Hmm, they’re moving quite well. That should keep this from becoming a situation where we must retreat at once. And now…”
After muttering that as if speaking to himself, Viscount Panamera turned toward me and came closer.
“I’ve heard that an Earth Dragon is second only to the Zaratan said to dwell in the great sea in sheer toughness. That no blade can pierce it, and that more than a hundred first-rate magicians are required to subjugate one… that is the ordinary common sense. Can a ballista pierce those abnormally hard dragon scales?”
“…I’ve never tried it, but I believe in Van-sama.”
When I answered that, Viscount Panamera nodded and looked at the ballistas.
“You don’t seem the optimistic sort.”
After that preface, he turned his eyes back to me.
“I think so too.”
Viscount Panamera said that and smiled in obvious enjoyment.