Chapter 179: The Great Serpent Forest, Part 2
We had taken the mark from the viscerally repulsive lord and moved into the cleanup.
Frankly, the Mantises were weak.
Mother said an ordinary Mantis ranked somewhere between C and D.
Freed from the lord’s binding, those here were probably about the same.
But to us, who could defeat an S-rank Earth Dragon and an A-rank Minotaur, there wasn’t much difference among C, D, and E.
At most, we thought, “That one is a little faster,” “a little harder,” or “a little stronger.”
“Trampling” perfectly described our overwhelming, one-sided battles.
Mantises tended to move upwind, so we concentrated on killing those likely to travel toward the elven village or the city of Sandra.
Mother fired magic from the treetops, while Ashera used air steps and Vernier to beat them to death.
I had left my shield with Mother and fought with a one-handed sword in my right hand and a knife in my left.
The fighting posed no danger.
Endurance was the problem.
Even Ashera and I needed breaks after fighting continuously for an hour.
Mother’s mana consumption had to be severe as well.
On her orders, we climbed a tree and took our third break in safety.
“Mother, how much mana remains?”
“Let’s see… roughly twenty percent…”
She looked exhausted, and her complexion seemed poor.
“Ashera?”
“I still have half. I can keep going. Bring it onnn!”
Brother must have taught her those words, but I had no idea what they meant. Ashera probably didn’t either…
“You may have mana, but what about fatigue?”
“…Probably fine.”
She said that, but even with breaks, she’d hunted Mantises for three hours in total.
“I also have about half my mana, but frankly, the fatigue is severe…”
“…”
We had to decide soon.
We could ignore the Mantises and head for the elven village through the air, or fight to our limits and use a Miasma Stone to withdraw.
Mother and Ashera had surely sensed, as I had, that now was the moment for the decision.
“El, Ashera, what I’m about to propose is a gamble…”
Mother—the Ice Witch—spoke with complete seriousness.
Brother mocked her behind her back by calling her “the Ice Lady,” but when Mother became serious, she truly possessed abilities worthy of the A-rank adventurer called the Ice Witch.
When Mother was serious, she was incredible.
When she was serious, at least…
The plan she proposed was something only a seasoned adventurer could devise.
Ashera and I agreed.
Then we began moving according to it.
—The elven village—
Night had deepened considerably. It was almost eleven o’clock.
“Gar, any change among the Mantises?”
“No. Same as before.”
“I see…”
I paced the room like a bear at the zoo.
“Ahh! You’re irritating me. Sit still!”
“Right. Sorry…”
But weren’t they taking too long?
El, Ashera, and Mother could escape into the sky if things became dangerous.
They should be safe, but I hoped nothing had gone wrong…
While I paced, the Mantises’ behavior changed completely.
They had slept in one cluster, but suddenly began thrashing. Some even attacked one another.
“It looks like the lord’s binding is gone. This is where we have to hold.”
“Right. Tamei, Beret—we move to our assigned positions.”
“Yes. I’ll join the medical unit.”
“I’ll watch the whole line and reinforce any weak point.”
“I’ll move independently and reduce their numbers wherever I can.”
We separated and headed to our posts.
I ran from the window through the air and moved onto the roof to confirm the enemy’s positions.
I flew toward the largest cluster.
We didn’t need to kill every Mantis. To teach them cannibalism, wounding them might actually be better.
I plunged into the swarm, swinging a magic greatsword in each hand and crushing everything around me.
Midway through, I remembered that “half-dead is best” and moved on to another cluster.
The Mantises themselves were truly small fry.
They were slow, weak, and stupid—the complete set.
Ordinarily, even weak creatures became dangerous when they coordinated. These moved individually, and the worst of them fought other Mantises.
My side was fine, but I needed to check the elven defensive line periodically.
It would be no laughing matter if I returned to find it collapsed.
The elves had formed their line in front of the house where everyone sheltered.
It still functioned well.
Gar stood in the center, using his shield skillfully to hold the Mantises back.
Several elves carried shields too, but small round bucklers seemed standard among them. A shield that size was unreliable as part of a wall.
They carried one buckler in each hand, abandoning offense and concentrating entirely on defense to maintain the line.
Killing fell to the rear ranks, which used spears and arrows effectively.
A few people were injured, but the medical unit was functioning without trouble.
That left the same problem: numbers.
I’d killed a great many, yet no matter how many fell, their momentum showed no sign of weakening.
How long would this continue?
Even if we held until morning, would the enemy truly withdraw after sunrise?
Sandra needed help too.
Ideally, we’d annihilate the Mantises here, then meet the Sandra army and crush the insects attacking the city from both sides.
If only El and Ashera were with us, we could manage somehow…
But they were probably fighting their hardest in the Great Serpent Forest right now.
The thought accomplished nothing.
I shook my head and refocused.
What followed was pure attrition.
While Gar and the front line rested, I sometimes held the entire defense alone. When I rested, I entrusted my protection to them.
Supporting one another, we somehow held.
We’d met the elves only hours earlier, yet fighting together had undoubtedly created friendship between us.
“I’m using a secret medicine! It will explode—watch yourselves!”
An elf threw the medicine from a second-story window into a Mantis cluster.
A tremendous blast scattered insect corpses.
Healthy Mantises immediately began biting into what had once been their companions.
The elf cheered his achievement and laughed loudly.
He failed to notice a slightly smaller Mantis above the window…
Its scythes nearly took his head, but someone shoved him aside just in time.
“Careful. They’re clumsy, but these things can fly.”
Tamei hurled some kind of bag into the Mantis’s face.
It must have been designed to rupture.
The instant it struck, the cloth tore and the contents splashed over the creature.
The Mantis made a sound like scraping glass and rolled across the floor.
After about two minutes, its movements weakened and finally stopped.
“Let’s throw it out the window. Give me a hand.”
The elf initially pretended not to understand Tamei’s human language.
“Please hurry, terrible actor.”
With a strained smile, he helped.
“I’ll go check the other positions.”
“Right. You saved me. Thank you.”
Scenes like this unfolded wherever Tamei went.
To the elves, their secret medicines were secrets worth dying to protect.
If other races learned about them, the entire elven people might face danger.
The medicines were the very foundation of elven power.
During one of my many breaks, Chief Nox approached.
Neither of us wanted to die while probing the other’s intentions and keeping our trump cards hidden.
He must have felt the same.
We began speaking almost together.
“Royal Shadow… How does it look?”
“Honestly, the situation is grim.”
“I see…”
“Yes.”
“…Then it cannot be helped.”
He took five small bottles from his clothing.
“What are these?”
“Exactly what you imagine.”
“Elven secret medicines…”
“Yes. Repeated battles have left us only these five.”
“What do they do?”
“These three are Flame Elixirs. Pour mana into one, and it explodes five seconds later.”
“How powerful is the blast?”
“About equal to a Fire spell cast by an ordinary mage.”
“I see…”
Having heard stories of elven secret medicines, I’d imagined something more impressive.
“To the Royal Shadow, that may not sound powerful. But usefulness depends on how one applies it.”
“No, I didn’t mean…”
Damn. Had my disappointment shown?
“These other two are our true trump cards…”
“…”
“One is a Frenzy Body Elixir. Drink it, and you can fight for half a day without feeling fatigue.”
“That sounds…”
“Afterward, you remain bedridden for roughly three days.”
“…”
“The final one is a Frenzy Mana Elixir. It will completely restore your mana once.”
“…There’s a side effect, isn’t there?”
The chief nodded slowly.
“From the moment your mana recovers until you fall asleep, you will continuously suffer the drowsiness and exhaustion of mana depletion.”
“…”
“And once you fall asleep, you will not wake for an entire day.”
“…I see.”
Every elven secret medicine is kind of lousy!
The recovery and offensive medicines Naga used had been perfectly good!
Well, drugs that acted so strongly on the body were probably difficult to make…
And fighting half a day without “feeling” fatigue…
Wasn’t that basically a narcotic?
I stared at the five bottles.
“These medicines are yours, Royal Shadow. Please, save our village.”
Would drugging myself to the gills get us through this crisis…?
Before I realized it, the chief had left me alone.
These medicines must have been the elves’ last cards.
They undoubtedly possessed other remedies, but I believed these truly were their final five intended for combat.
“So the elves finally spoke candidly…”
A small sense of guilt touched me for keeping my own Miasma Stone secret.
I stood, dropped the five medicines into the small-item compartment on my canteen, and muttered a single line.
“For now, I’ll do what I can…”
My break ended.
I headed back toward the Mantis swarm.