Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 12 - Chapter 11

Chapter 11: The Puppet’s Way of Fighting ~Rose’s POV~

With my battle-axe in hand, I charged right into the center of the enemy army. Everyone around me was hostile; I stood completely isolated in a needle-sized hole in their formation. I’d long made my resolve, and it was far too late to consider retreating.

“A battle of attrition, I see,” I muttered to myself as I stared at the sea of soldiers and dived in fearlessly. “I’ll force my way through!”

I swung my axe and mowed the enemy soldiers down. My axe’s large half-moon blade opened a path before me. Screams and bellows danced in the air.

“Fuck! What’s with this thing?!”

“What strength! Don’t be deceived by its appearance!”

“She said she’s a servant?! Wait, that’s a monster?!”

The soldiers raised their voices in disbelief. Yes, I was a monster. My body imitated a human’s, but my true nature was a puppet. I wasn’t much to speak of among our group, but compared to humans, I was physically strong. It was a big mistake to believe that was all there was to me, though.

“Hyaaah!”

I let out a spirited roar and unleashed my axe. I remained aware of its center of gravity, matched its movements to my footwork, and put all my weight behind it. Centrifugal force carried the weapon’s mass and slammed it into my foes.

My master hadn’t been the only one to take lessons from Shiran, who was a master of many weapons. Fortunately, the way my body moved was very close to the way a human’s did, so I could implement Shiran’s techniques. I was nowhere close to replicating her exquisite sword skills, of course, but even learning the basics had made a huge difference. My strikes were inconceivable compared to the days when I’d relied on brute strength. Now, I could crush a metal breastplate with ease. Shields didn’t make a difference either. When I swung with abandon, I cleaved through several enemies at once.

I ignored the pained moans behind me and attacked my next enemy. I didn’t bother finishing off those I’d defeated, but that wasn’t out of mercy. If I stopped to do so, I’d be overwhelmed by the surrounding enemies in no time.

My outlook for this battle wasn’t positive. My enemy was the Maclaurin Provincial Army, after all. Even if they’d split into two forces, their numbers were still vast. My initial attack had been flashy, but it’d only taken out twenty men at most. I didn’t have a precise count of their numbers, but that was minuscule in the grand scheme of things.

Regardless, that didn’t matter. I knew that before starting this, so that was why I’d charged in with as much flair as possible. My goal had been to agitate the enemy, and I’d succeeded at that.

The enemy was slow to react. Taking advantage of that, I needed to rile them up as much as I could. The longer I stalled them, the more likely it was for my master and everyone else to get away. That meant I didn’t have time to finish my enemies off, but that wasn’t a problem.

For example, say one soldier out of a hundred died. The group would still function. Say thirty of them were injured, though. It would take time for them to regroup. That pretty much described the current situation.

In a sense, it was more efficient to injure as many enemies as I could rather than to slow down and fatally wound fewer of them. I had to drag this fight out for as long as I could. Even if my enemies didn’t die, I had to survive too. I persuaded myself that that was all there was to this as I scattered the soldiers before me. I then saw a group charging toward me.

“That’s as far as you go!” the man at the front—probably a squad captain or something—yelled, and he attacked me with steely determination. “I’ll stop you right here!” he roared, his subordinates close behind him.

“No, I won’t be stopped.”

His spirit was commendable, but I couldn’t afford to be defeated. I pulled a knife from my apron with my empty hand, and keeping up that momentum, I threw it at him. This was another technique Shiran had taught me. Although, unlike my axe, I wasn’t really familiar with this yet. I could only pull it off at close range when aiming at something right in front of me.

“This is nothing!” he yelled, the knife bouncing off his shield.

“Not like that, it isn’t.”

I hadn’t thought that a little knife would do anything against an enemy squad. That was why there was a trick to it. The imitation runestone embedded in the butt of the knife’s grip emitted a powerful light and shattered.

“Whoa?!”

It burst with an ear-shattering boom.

“I’m holding nothing back,” I declared.

This was a derivation of my combat fireworks. By expending an imitation runestone in one use, it could momentarily manifest great power. It didn’t use multiple imitation runestones in a series, so it didn’t have the pure destructive force of combat fireworks, but it was much easier to pull out and use in the moment. My reserves of imitation runestones were low after using them on my combat fireworks the other day, so I’d only managed to prepare a few of these, but I’d decided not to be stingy.

The small explosion knocked the squad off-balance. Using that chance, I charged in, the shock wave blowing back my hair. I kicked the officer and crushed his men, then continued my advance. I’d broken through.

I smiled bitterly. “So this is the Maclaurin Provincial Army.”

A wall of spears stood before me. A formation of men were ready in an organized row, blocking my way. Unlike the other soldiers until now, these ones were fully prepared for battle.

“Ugh! Don’t let it through!” the man I’d kicked yelled behind me.

It seemed his squad had bought the small amount of time they needed for their troops to form a spear wall. They’d adapted faster than I thought they would. With their formation in place, it would be much harder to break through. That said, if I lost my momentum, it would only give my enemies more breathing room.

“I’ll be breaking through.”

That was the only way. I threw another knife, and the imitation runestone within exploded. The enemy was ready for it after seeing it once already, so it was less effective, but it was better than nothing. Using the explosion as a smoke screen, I charged straight in.

“Guh...”

I toppled a group of them with my axe, but I had to stop. I couldn’t break through. I thought of launching a second attack, but many spears lunged at me before I could. There were too many to dodge, so I stopped them by holding up both arms. The steel tips sank into my skin.

“Stab it to death!”

“Ugh...”

At this rate, things were going to get worse. I twisted my body with all my strength and yanked the spears out of my arms. My body was made of wood, so I shed no blood; the broken fragments merely fell to the ground. I stepped back to get out of range of the spears—my first step backward since the beginning of the battle. Immediately following that, I heard a voice behind me.

“Got you!”

The squad I’d gotten through earlier had caught up to me, but I didn’t have time to deal with them.

“Out of the way!” I yelled.

I played another of my hidden hands. I spun like a top and threw a ball from my apron pocket. It was a white sphere about the size of a human head—one of the many magic tools I’d created. Inside was an imitation wind runestone. The ball exploded above the soldiers’ heads, scattering something white all over them.

“Whoa?!”

“Wh-What the hell is this?”

Sticky spider threads enveloped them. This magic tool used a cocoon made of Gerbera’s threads, and inside was an imitation wind runestone that scattered the threads over a wide area. It wasn’t much use against strong enemies, but it was effective at stalling.

After confirming that the soldiers behind me had slowed down, I turned around again, facing the spear wall again and recommencing my attack. I mowed them down. Screams rose, spears plunged into my body in retaliation, and I fell back.

“Not yet... Not yet!” I shouted, charging in for a third attempt. This time, the line broke. “Made it!” I tore a hole through the formation, advanced forward, and... “Well, I figured that’d be the case.”

Another squad was ready to meet me. The formation I’d broken through was nothing more than the front line. The provincial army still stood there as if nothing had happened. There was a terrifying power in numbers.

My efforts were like spilling a cup of ink into an enormous lake. The heat of my hard-fought battle would eventually vanish in vain, leaving not so much as a blotch behind. I felt the cold realization of how fruitless this endeavor was.

What’s more, the enemy was regaining their composure. This time, there was a fair bit of space between me and the next wall, which was no coincidence. I couldn’t attack unless I closed the distance.

I broke into a dash at full speed, but it would still take me a few seconds to get there. In that time, I was the only one in this empty area, and the enemy wasn’t going to let such a chance pass.

“Fire!”

Arrows and magic flew in from the rear guard. I’d predicted this, but I couldn’t do anything about it. I couldn’t dodge everything.

“Ugh...!”

Arrows pierced me all over, and I even took a direct hit from magic. I heard a terrible sound come from the arm I used to shield myself. I just barely managed to keep running. I forced my way through the rain of magic and arrows, and slammed my axe against the enemy formation.

“Don’t falter! Thrust!”

Spears counterattacked and sank into my skin. The man leading this squad laughed.

“You put up quite the fight, but this is the end!”

His glee was understandable. The arm I’d used to block the spears was trembling, and I couldn’t put much strength into it. Beneath my burned glove, my arm was badly cracked. Several of my fingers had fallen off. I couldn’t even wield a knife properly.

My other arm wasn’t much better. A spear had lodged itself into the ball joint at my elbow. I couldn’t swing a weapon like this, let alone fight. I could only give up. Normally—for a human—that would be the case.

“Not yet.”

My body was that of a puppet and a shield. I was a girl, yet a monster. This still wasn’t over: I wouldn’t let it end like this.

“I’m sparing no expense today.”

I’d decided to use everything I had at hand for my beloved. I would continue fighting until I was reduced to wood chips, and this was my secret weapon for accomplishing that.

“Combat matryoshka.”

This magic tool was named after a doll fashioned to look like a girl. In short, it turned a puppet girl—it turned me—into a magic tool.

“Exchanging.”

I pulled the spears out of my arms, jumped back, and gathered my mana. In an instant, my cracked left arm split apart. It hadn’t broken; it’d split into two pieces as if by design. I’d planted an imitation runestone inside for “storage.” In the same instant that my arm split apart, the imitation runestone deactivated, and the item it’d been storing came flying out. It was a spare arm.

“Reconnecting.”

The arm popped back into my shoulder socket with a clunk. I caught the axe that had fallen from my broken hand in midair with my new limb. Everything down to my fingertips felt fine. I was mobile. Back to perfect condition, I readied my axe once more.

“Exchange complete. Recommencing battle.”

The soldiers watched in shock, which was a normal reaction. The foe that was supposed to be worn down was back in working order in the blink of an eye. Not even healing magic could have achieved this.

In contrast, I faced them with a smile. “My apologies, but this is how my body works. This still isn’t over.”

My body was a shield meant to protect my master, and I didn’t mind being reduced to wood chips for him. I’d made that decision, and I’d come this far. This magic tool made that oath a reality.

To dive into the details, each spare arm used the same imitation runestones as magic bags. We’d been putting bags inside bags all this time, so the theory was well proven already. It’d taken some time to get the combat matryoshka to this stage, but now it was ready for use in combat. As a result, I could instantly repair damage to my limbs.

“This body is my master’s shield. No matter how many times it breaks, I’ll continue fighting.”

I’d said that from the very beginning. This was a battle of attrition. I had over one hundred sets of spare limbs. If a thousand soldiers stood in my way, I would face them a hundred times over. My wooden body felt no physical fatigue, and with thoughts of my master close at heart, my spirit would never break. This fight was still nowhere close to over.