Chapter 579 – The Battlefield of the Pursuit

The mysterious army was composed mostly of monsters, but it also included roughly fifteen hundred human soldiers.

The humans had sent the monsters forward to attack the investigation expedition’s fortress while they observed from a safer position. But Tauro’s Rock-series puppets had suddenly appeared behind them and begun closing in, inflicting severe losses on the human troops.

The enemy shifted into a fighting retreat, and the Rock series pursued them relentlessly.

Then something happened that even Tauro had not expected.

One of the Rock-series puppets was destroyed by the enemy rear guard.

“Whoa! There’s a really strong unit over there!”

Tauro was following the pursuit through the shared vision of the Rock series, so he saw it happen.

The human rear-guard unit numbered about a hundred and was organized around a commander whose appearance clearly set him apart from the rest of the mysterious army. They were obviously elite soldiers.

While their allies fled, they boldly struck the pursuing Rock series from the flank, using monster units as shields to slow the pursuit. Their courage and aggressiveness were unmistakable.

They also quickly identified the weakness created by Seth’s absence: the Rock units were moving according to relatively simple instructions.

Their basic automatic behavior was to attack whichever opponent had attacked them most recently. Tauro had set that rule because manually controlling all fourteen Rock units at once placed too much strain on him.

The elite soldiers recognized the pattern almost immediately. One soldier would deliberately draw a Rock unit’s attention while the others prepared powerful spells or attacks.

Using that tactic, they finally managed to bring down one of the extremely durable Rock-series puppets.

The other Rock units continued steadily reducing the enemy’s numbers, but the Rock series were precious constructs derived from ancient-ruin technology. If a core was completely destroyed, even Tauro would have difficulty repairing it.

He wanted to avoid losing any more of them if he could.

“Ah—another one’s been destroyed! Ankh, go get Aeris and the others! I’ll head to the battlefield first!”

Tauro had been relying on Ankh to keep himself upright, but he switched the Rock series to fully automatic control. With the mental burden reduced, he managed to stand on his own.

“Are you really alright in that condition!? I warned you—corner an enemy too hard and they’ll bite back. Maybe we should end the pursuit here,” Ankh advised, drawing on his battlefield experience.

“I considered that… but I think we need to eliminate that unit and its commander here. And the monster force centered on the Olog-Hai still hasn’t broken, even after taking heavy losses. If we leave a force like that intact, it’ll remain a major threat.”

Tauro was convinced that this was the moment to destroy them.

“…Alright. But don’t charge in carelessly. If they can destroy your Rock series, they can kill you too,” Ankh warned.

Then he ran back toward the investigation expedition’s fortress.

“I’ll be fine. Pella’s with me. …Alright, let’s go.”

At Tauro’s words, Pella abandoned its belt disguise, returned to its normal form, and climbed onto his shoulder.

It seemed to understand Tauro’s determination.

Tauro and Pella headed toward the battlefield where the Rock series continued the pursuit.

The mysterious army held off the Rock units with monster troops while its elite human soldiers launched powerful attacks from behind them.

Two Rock units had already been destroyed, and before long a third fell as well.

During the same period, the monster force had been reduced from more than three thousand to roughly half that number, while the hundred elite soldiers had also lost nearly half their strength.

“That should have bought enough time for the main force to retreat… We withdraw now.”

As darkness began to settle over the mountains, the commander prepared to order the elite rear guard to disengage under cover of night.

But then—

An arrow flew through the confusion of the battlefield with needle-like precision, aimed at the narrow gap in the commander’s armor near his throat.

The commander twisted aside at the last instant.

He avoided a fatal hit, but the arrow still punched through his right shoulder, armor and all.

“Ghh! It pierced armor reinforced with enhancement magic!?”

The commander could not hide his shock that his prized armor had been penetrated so easily.

Looking toward the direction of the shot, he saw a single boy standing on the darkening mountain path with a bow in his hands.

“That child… shot me!?”

The boy was Tauro.

This time Tauro released an [Aurora Arrow] filled with magical power.

For an instant he wondered whether he should have used it for the first shot, but the glowing projectile would have revealed his position in the darkness before he fired. For the opening attack, he had therefore chosen a physical arrow strengthened for power and accuracy.

Now the brilliant [Aurora Arrow] served another purpose: clearing away the monsters between him and the commander.

The thick beam of light tore through monster after monster as it raced toward the commander.

The commander leapt aside and avoided it.

“What incredible power… Even generals of our nation would struggle to produce an attack like that.”

He had taken his eyes off Tauro for only an instant while evading the attack.

When he looked back, Tauro was gone.

“He vanished!?”

The next moment—

Sensing a presence behind him that did not belong to one of his soldiers, the commander reflexively swung his sword.

Sparks burst with a sharp metallic ring as their blades collided.

“How did you cross the distance so quickly!?”

The commander was shocked again. Tauro had used [Teleportation] to appear behind him and attack.

“…Even that didn’t work.”

With both surprise attacks thwarted, Tauro was forced to acknowledge once again how formidable the commander was.

This was the man who had personally destroyed the third Rock-series puppet.

The elite soldiers had fought exceptionally well, but the battle had become a war of attrition and they should have had little strength left for another decisive attack. Yet Tauro had watched this commander use an unknown technique to finish a Rock unit by himself.

That was why Tauro had chosen him as the highest-priority target.

But now that even the surprise attack from behind had failed, Tauro hesitated over his next move.