Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 12 - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Defensive Battle on the Run ~Rose’s POV~

“Enemies! They’re getting close!”

It was just before evening when Leah warned us of the danger her spirit had detected. Some time had passed since I’d spoken with my master. Lily had finished her break and switched with me as his guard, while I’d gone back out to walk with the elves.

“An attack! From above!” Leah screamed just as the enemy’s assault came down on us. They were still a fair distance away, but they’d launched a long-distance strike, using bows to shoot at the elves from one side of the path through the forest. The arcing arrows fell directly above the elves like falling rain.

“Those curs! An ambush?!”

“Like I’ll let you!”

Gerbera and Berta sprung into action just in time. Threads and tentacles flew about in the air to obstruct the arrows, and a beat later, panicked screams came from the crowd of elves. Due to my proximity, I moved to protect the vehicle my master and Mana were in, swinging my axe and swatting arrows from the sky. Panic spread through the area shortly after, and the elves started scattering like ants, looking for a safe place to take shelter. However, right before they could get anywhere, Shiran shouted at them.

“Calm down!”

There was so much strength in her voice that the elves froze as if they’d been slapped.

“Everyone! Gather in one place!”

It was hard to protect a scattered group, especially when only a few people were capable of fighting. Shiran’s judgment was quick and precise, an indication of her experience as a former lieutenant of the Alliance Knights. Unfortunately, the elves didn’t have the wits and the nimbleness to carry out her orders.

Not that anyone blamed them for this. They were simple villagers, not knights. They weren’t even soldiers. Running away from their homes was already a tremendous mental burden, and they were panicking from the sudden ambush. What’s more, the enemy was fast. By the time the elves finally reacted, the second volley was inbound. And this time, it was accompanied by magic.

Thanks to Shiran, the elves hadn’t dispersed, but the group was still a little spread out. Not even Gerbera and Berta could protect them all, and more screams rose all over.

“What’s going on?!” Gerbera yelled.

After unleashing her threads, she smashed a fireball with her leg. Either a very capable mage had unleashed it, or they’d used some magic tool, because Gerbera’s white leg hair flew loose, and she lost her balance.

“Ugh! Did they actually overtake us?!”

“That can’t be!” Shiran shouted. “A five-thousand-man army can only move so fast. We weren’t particularly fast ourselves, but they still shouldn’t have caught up yet!”

“But we’re under attack!”

“This is no time to complain! The next attack is coming!” Berta said with a growl.

Another volley came mercilessly at them. They somehow managed to withstand it, but more elves were injured, and more cries of agony rose among them.

“Fuck! Get off your goddamn high horse!” Lobivia shouted from the front of the line, where she’d been protecting the elves. She took off her sash, and her tiny body swelled and turned into a dragon. “Graaaawr!”

She roared and charged toward the soaring arrows, making sure to protect her broken arm. She likely thought it would be better to go on the offensive before we took more damage, which wasn’t bad for a decision made in the heat of the moment.

However, at that same moment, Shiran turned around. Having abundant experience fighting in large formations, her focus always covered a wide area, and because of that, she was the first to notice.

“From the opposite side!” she yelled.

A moment later, a volley of arrows came from the opposite direction of the previous attack.

“They split into two groups?!”

“Grrrr!”

Gerbera and Berta leaped over the elves to the other side, barely fending off the arrows.

“Graaaah!”

Ayame added her efforts to the defense, intercepting some arrows with her fireballs.

Realizing things had gotten serious behind her, Lobivia turned around in a panic, but as she tried to return, arrows and magic rained down on her back.

“Gaaah?!”

Because she’d been focused on attacking, Lobivia lost her footing and tumbled. She yelped in pain, and perhaps because the blow was fairly serious, she didn’t immediately get back up. As that happened, arrows came down from both sides on the elves.

“I’ll lend a hand!” Lily yelled, charging out of the manamobile. “Hyaaah!”

Her spear in one hand, she nimbly ran about and struck down arrows one after the other. It was impressive, but her expression was tense. It would’ve been more efficient for her to use wind magic rather than her spear. Deployed over a wide area, wind magic could block both incoming arrows and magic, but she was probably avoiding this option because she was anxious about her mana capacity.

It took Lily everything she had just to keep things from deteriorating. Right now, we had no choice but to do what we were capable of. Kei also jumped out of the manamobile, a sword in hand to help defend everyone. Even Shiran, who was suffering from severe mana deficiency, had her sword at the ready. We pushed ourselves to our limits just to defend the elves.

Still, even with all our efforts, our defense was inadequate. Had all the elves gathered in one place, had they done as Shiran had ordered right away, it would have been a different story, but as things were now, there was too much ground to cover and too few of us to cover it. Besides, we couldn’t expect such adaptability from simple villagers. Several of the elves were injured at this point too, so that made it even harder to get them to follow directions. Had we wanted to do something, we would have had to do it before things got this bad.

Normally, our group could’ve handled this a little better, but we were lacking many things right now. Our master, our emotional pillar, was absent. Mana, whose wisdom was indispensable, was healing our master, so she couldn’t leave his side. And Lily, our eldest sister and one of our strongest fighters, was late in joining the fray.

Things were steadily slipping away from us due to these missing gears. At this rate, we would be defeated before we could accomplish anything.

“If only we could rally somehow!” I yelled.

I already knew we couldn’t; everyone had their hands full. We just didn’t have the means to break out of this. I couldn’t do anything more than protect the manamobile our master was in. Thoughts ran desperately through my mind as I swung my axe around, but there was no way some genius plan would conveniently manifest. The word “annihilation” came to mind, and hopeless thoughts started flooding my heart.

This is no good. I can’t let this go on. I have to do something... And in the next instant, my racing thoughts froze.

“Huh...?”

I should’ve been the first to notice, but a figure staggered out of the manamobile I’d been protecting.

“Y-You can’t! Senpai!”

It was my master. Mana was by his side trying to stop him. She had to. His face was so pale and haggard, and he was clearly in no shape to stand, let alone walk. It was too dangerous for him to be outside with all these arrows flying around, but that wasn’t even the main issue. He was unsteady, and it wouldn’t be surprising if he collapsed at any moment. Nevertheless, his expression remained resolute. His was the face of someone who knew what he had to do.

“What he had to do”? What was that, exactly?

Once I thought of that, a shock ran through my heart, one strong enough to shatter my wooden body.

What my master wanted had always been the same. He wanted to protect everyone dear to him. He never wanted everything to spill from his hands again. It was a beautiful wish that would never falter, and it was why my master held out his hand without hesitation.

“Misty Lodge.”

He used the one means that would get us out of this situation. Mist flooded the area with explosive force, covering the entire region.

With visibility hampered, everyone’s options were suddenly limited. That didn’t apply to us, though. I didn’t see the world through regular sight to begin with, but even the others received information from our master and Salvia’s Misty Lodge through the mental path, so this didn’t hinder us from maintaining a defensive formation.

The other huge benefit from this was that the magic mist also enveloped the enemy. We could tell they had two units of about a hundred soldiers stationed to the left and right of the path. We’d thought that the army couldn’t have caught up to us, and it turned out the main force hadn’t done so yet. Therefore, we could still get out of this.

“Ayame! Lobivia! Do it now!” our master yelled.

If we knew where the enemy was, we could counterattack. Ayame spat her fireballs at one unit while Lobivia got up and breathed flames at the other. They were some distance away, but we still heard screams.

As that was happening, the enemy kept sporadically attacking us. Nonetheless, it was now limited enough that we could handle it. The tables had turned, and we’d managed to retaliate against our ambushers. At this rate, we could even deal them a major blow. Our enemy was prudent, however.

“They’re retreating?!”

They’d judged they would suffer great losses if they continued. This was technically a chance for us to chase them down and defeat them, but we didn’t have the strength for that. Some of the elves were wounded, so we had to pull back as quickly as possible. If not, we would be right back where we started if the enemy launched another attack.

Besides, the magic mist, which had given us the advantage, could only be maintained for a few seconds when deployed at this density. The position of our retreating enemies was already getting vague. We had an even larger problem to consider too.

“It worked out...somehow...” my master muttered as the mist rapidly dispersed.

Ghostly pale, he had to lean on Mana to stay on his feet. His shoulders heaved as if he’d been running at full speed. Even though it’d only been for a few scant seconds, it was unbelievable that he’d managed to use any magic in that state.

“Master!”

I was about to run to his side, but before I could, he started tipping over.

“Hurry and rally...before the enemy...comes again...”

With those last orders, he fell unconscious and collapsed on the spot.