Chapter 17: Earth-Attribute Magic
“Ammo—! We’re running out of ammunition!”
“Damn it! I’m out!”
“I’ve got extra over here! Hold on—I’m coming to you!”
“…Tch. The machine guns won’t last much longer.”
“Artillery! More shells, now!”
A little over an hour had passed since the battle began.
The tide of war had tipped overwhelmingly in favor of the Lunoa Kingdom.
We were entrenched, fighting from cover, striking from concealment—while the enemy had advanced in dense formations that served as nothing more than perfect targets for us. It was only natural the advantage would fall to our side.
And yet—
We had our own problem. A devastating one.
A crippling shortage of supplies.
At the start, we had been a mere forty men.
Then came the stragglers—soldiers who had retreated late, who found their way back and joined us. With their addition, we had managed to form a proper defensive position.
But they had fled in haste, with barely anything in hand.
Supplies were scarce. Artillery units were few.
Most of our ammunition… most of our cannons… had been left behind in the forward trenches we had abandoned.
“Noah-sama… launching any further full-scale attack—our supply corps—”
“No. Denied. We wipe out the enemy force here and now.”
Even in that situation, I had continued issuing orders for an all-out assault—fully intending to expend every last bit of what we had.
“B-But we’re already at our limit! The enemy is regaining formation—they’ve begun constructing trenches as well! Their artillery outnumbers ours! If we commit any more resources—”
“…Guess it’s time I step in.”
“…Sir?”
I picked up my rifle and gathered as many rounds as I could carry, preparing to move at a moment’s notice.
“I’m going forward.”
“What!? W-What are you saying!?”
“Isn’t this what noble honor is for? I’ll be back.”
Leaving behind Colonel Kernel—who shouted after me in utter confusion—I leapt out of the trench.
Activating my non-attribute magic, I reinforced my body.
One step.
With a single powerful kick against the earth, I launched myself forward.
“Ha! Good thing I trained properly since childhood!”
In just that one step, I covered nearly a hundred meters.
“A lunatic’s charging in! Shoot him—!”
The Friez soldiers, shaken but not frozen, turned their rifles toward me, fingers tightening on their triggers.
“Too slow!”
Before their fingers could pull—
My magic activated.
The ground surged upward.
“Wha—!?”
“What is this!?”
The trenches they had painstakingly dug rose and collapsed beneath them, thrusting them out into the open in an instant.
Their carefully prepared defenses—rendered meaningless.
“…I wonder just how far I can dominate like this.”
Anti-magic barriers were deployed in dome shapes rising from the ground.
They were designed to block attacks from all directions—
Or rather, that was the illusion.
A dome could not stop an attack from beneath.
Which meant…
Earth magic had never been properly accounted for in their defensive assumptions.
“Die.”
One enemy, his stance broken by the sudden upheaval, staggered helplessly.
I raised my rifle.
Pulled the trigger.
“Gah—!?”
I had aimed for his head—
But the shot struck slightly lower, tearing through his face.
Blood erupted violently as the man screamed, collapsing to his knees.
“…Ah.”
That wouldn’t kill him. Not yet.
Almost reflexively, I fired three more rounds into him.
“AAAH—!?”
The man, hunched over, jerked violently at the next shot.
The second should have ended him—
Yet he raised his face.
And with the third—
He stared directly at me.
Then fell.
“…Ha… ha…”
It was different.
Seeing their faces… it was completely different.
I had killed someone.
The reality of it—seen with my own eyes—tightened my body, locking my limbs in place.
“—!”
In the very center of the enemy ranks—
I hesitated.
And in that instant, a bullet tore through my abdomen.
“…You’ve got to be kidding—thank you for that!”
Heat.
A searing, burning pain tore through me—
And with it, every trace of hesitation, every useless sentiment, was burned away.
I pulled the trigger again—
And claimed another life.
“Kill that fool—!”
“Pointless!”
Bullets came from behind—
But I raised a wall of earth with my magic, stopping them cold.
“My name is Noah! Heir to the House of Willard, of marquis rank—Noah Willard!”
Enemies surrounded me—three hundred and sixty degrees.
And in the midst of them, I shouted—toward my own forces in the distance.
“Follow me! Slaughter the enemy!”
The trenches they had worked so hard to build—reset to nothing.
The formation they had just barely restored—shattered again.
“Uwaaaaah!?”
Just like before, the Lunoa Kingdom’s gunfire gnawed relentlessly at the Friez army.
And in the midst of it—
I moved alone.
Wielding earth magic, cutting down enemy soldiers one by one.
“D-Do you understand!?”
Charging forward in a frenzy, I suddenly found myself face-to-face with a man bearing the insignia of rank.
“W-We… surr—!”
“Die!”
Before he could finish the word—spoken in Lunoa’s tongue—
I shot him dead.
“…Hah… hah… hah…”
If he surrendered—if he became a prisoner—
We would be obligated to protect him.
We didn’t have that kind of time.
“Kill them!”
I shouted.
“Kill the enemy! But—do not pursue those who flee! Let them go! And we—advance! Out of the trenches, forward! Take back our original position!”
I shouted—
And pulled the trigger again.
Blood scattered through the air.
What had once been a man collapsed lifelessly onto the ground.
“Why are we here!? What did we come for!? This is an invasion! Into the Friez Kingdom—toward its capital, Norn! Do not stop advancing! Forward—only forward!”
“““OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”””
Amid the frenzy of falling bodies, my voice rang out from its center—
And the soldiers answered.
“Hah… hah… hah…”
People fell.
Friez soldiers. Lunoa soldiers.
It made no difference. Death came equally to all.
“…Not yet.”
If you run, you won’t be killed—
I shouted those words again and again, this time in the language of the Friez Kingdom as well.
Clinging to that promise, one enemy soldier turned and fled—
And in an instant, discipline collapsed.
The Friez army began to break apart.
“Now then—move! Forward!”