Chapter 74 - Mountain Position Defense Battle ②
The forest in front of the position is swaying. The second attack has begun. When I illuminate according to the signal, I can see the Cyclopes' heads, but they are hiding behind trees and won't come out. They are pulling up trees and throwing them in front of the horizontal trench, piling them up. They intend to build a defensive wall.
Once the wall was built, they began throwing dirt and other things into the trench from the other side, starting a full-scale landfill. They intend to gradually approach while filling the trench with this procedure. At this rate, arrows, stones, and ballistae will all be stopped by the defensive wall. Despite having the big ones ready, they chose a very plain way of fighting, but its steadiness makes it nasty.
Now the horizontal trench has been completely filled. The Cyclopes are ignoring the two outer vertical trenches and are working on filling the two middle ones. By the time they were about half-filled, Orcs gathered behind the defensive wall. Fenrirs are there too.
"Catapults, ready!"
The commander's order echoes from below the cliff. Our allies, who had been watching the situation, begin their counterattack.
Clack, clack, the catapults start moving. The launched stones fly over the wall. The Cyclopes hide behind the defensive wall, and the Orcs flee into the forest.
Unlike the previous ones, these don't roll much. They were triangular or quadrangular pyramids, and some fell from their corners and stuck straight into the ground. After firing about twenty in total, they stopped. It seems they achieved almost no results.
The Cyclopes returned to work, and the Orcs came back. They must be mocking the ineffective stones; they're gathering and kicking them. There are even Fenrirs sniffing them suspiciously.
"Number three! Release—!"
Suddenly, a loud voice rings out. It's a chorus of five Jaegers. It's a loud-voice selection. For this day, five people with the loudest voices were chosen.
White light as thick as an arm bursts forth from each face of the fallen stones.
"Gyahin!"
Orcs pierced by the holy spears die instantly. Even the Fenrirs and Cyclopes who were hit, while not dying, are staggering from considerable damage.
Silver arrows and holy water arrows fly all at once toward those whose movements have become suspicious. As a result of the archers firing three to four volleys, totaling over a hundred arrows, they finally took down one Fenrir and one Cyclops. The silver arrow fired by Hanna-san also hit a Cyclops.
I had somehow managed to draw magic circles on the faces of the pyramids and loaded Marcelo-san's Holy Lance into them. The keywords to activate the magic circles are numbered one through five. The Holy Lance launched this time was number three.
Magic barriers are deployed in front of allies, but catapult stones can easily break through them. They're sorely mistaken if they think their feet are safe just because there are no stone slabs on the ground. Of course, the parts touching the ground end up being a waste, but I never expected a hundred percent hit rate to begin with. It would be strange if something like that hit every time.
After that, the Fenrirs and Orcs retreated into the forest. Even by just launching one ordinary stone, the Cyclopes stopped their work, and our allies were able to buy a certain amount of time.
That said, the attack hasn't stopped. The vertical trenches are being gradually filled, with only about a third remaining. The one deploying the magic defense must be a Fenrir. If we can do something about it, we can use quite a few interception options, but nine of them remain. They're fast, so they dodge projectiles. We have to do something.
So, first, we'll finish off the remaining three Cyclopes. It's to lure the Fenrirs closer to the fort.
I move the Firefly in my right hand close to one Cyclops and increase the light intensity. The Cyclops must have realized it was being targeted. It stays crouched behind the defensive wall, grabbing a tree and swinging it around as if to drive it away. I'm keeping a sufficient distance. There's no way it'll hit. As I persistently illuminate it, it finally seems to have lost its temper, stood up, and threw the tree.
Just as planned.
Immediately, one catapult launches. However, what it launches is not a stone. It's a jar. And it was launched with a jar of holy water set by the former priest, Marcelo-san.
The Cyclops, splashed in the face with holy water, let out a scream and fell to its knees. It's pressing its face with both hands, groaning. It's a fatal opening for us to exploit. We took it down by firing two silver bolts into its wide-open chest. Two remain.
Seeing this, one Fenrir came out and let out a roar, and the Firefly I had near the Cyclops vanished.
"I-It vanished! W-W-What should we do!"
We might not be able to use them anymore. Without light, our allies will be at an overwhelming disadvantage in close combat.
Now, only the Firefly in my left hand remains in front of the position.
"Calm down, Jeanne. Try making one with your right hand."
Told by the person I'm in a quartet with, I try it.
I did it! I wondered what would happen.
"They probably redeployed the magic barrier closer to this side than before. They blocked the magic interference. That Fenrir is quite good. The remaining Cyclopes, who were scared, have perked up. I'll pull back the left Firefly for now. From now on, we'll create a distance between the front and back of the left and right Fireflies."
I can't put out Fireflies continuously with one hand. I extinguish the Fireflies, take a breath, and put them out again. If the Fireflies are extinguished, our allies won't be able to keep up with the fast Fenrirs. After creating a distance between the front and back, I stopped them inside the fence. Since they'll think magic soldiers are lurking inside the fence, they probably won't be able to deploy a magic defense that bypasses that. With this, the light itself should be maintained.
Wait? Hold on a second?
"Um, how high up can a magic barrier be deployed?"
"Up?"
"Yes. Since it's called a barrier, it's a wall, right? I don't think it's deployed all the way up forever..."
"Well, that's true. What about it?"
"If we go higher than the barrier, couldn't we leap over it?"
"Well, I suppose so."
"Then, I've thought of something."
I call the three guards over, and the seven of us consult.
"What do you think?"
"Hmm. Something like that won't have a big impact even if it fails."
"Yes. It's haphazard, but it'll be a windfall if it works."
"Alright, let's try it."
They agreed.
"Thank you. Then, Beowulf, I'm counting on you."
"Understood. I'll go for a bit. Hanna-san, Will, I leave the Jaeger Corps' Madonna to you."
"Just go already!"
"Yes, yes."
Even Beowulf is teasing me.
"Isn't she a good partner? Besides, there's truth in her words."
My face turned red again. Why is the Jaeger Corps like this?
I lower the positions of the left and right Fireflies. I use the right Firefly, which I can move more skillfully, to target the Fenrir that came forward. When I bring it close, it gets canceled again. While moving it front, back, left, and right, and making the light intensity stronger or weaker, I persistently stalk it. I think it's mean even for me, but this is for victory.
The Fenrir is growling and barking, perhaps irritated, but it must know it'll lose if it takes the bait. It doesn't come closer. Holy water arrowheads also fly plip, plip. This is also on purpose. I have no intention of hitting it at all. It's just pure meanness. It's quite irritated. While circling the same spot, it began to bare its fangs at the Firefly.
Suddenly, one Cyclops let out a deep-voiced scream. It crouches down, pressing its single eye with its hand. When the archers followed up, it began to crawl away on all fours. We launched a concentrated attack toward its wide-open back and defeated it. Now there's only one Cyclops left.
Not knowing what happened, the Fenrirs are barking excessively, and the Cyclops is grabbing a tree to guard its face and hiding sneakily. The Fenrir that had been growling braced its four limbs and roared at the Firefly. The right Firefly I had drifting was unfortunately destroyed, but that price was high for the Fenrir.
"SPLASHHHH!"
A massive amount of water fell as a sheet over the area where the Fenrir was.
It's Angelica-san. Although there is a magic barrier, it has nothing to do with the power of holy water. Even if the interference is blocked, the holy water itself has gained acceleration before being blocked, so it flies.
In that case, I plotted that we could at least splash about a cup's worth of holy water into the Cyclops's eye. It seems it went well. Just in case, we temporarily moved our allies' barrier back, and Angelica-san went out in front of it. If she saw any sign of the opponent chanting magic, she just had to pull back immediately.
Actually, this was something Angelica-san and Marcelo-san devised. It was necessary to make it look like we were targeting the Fenrir to make the Cyclops let its guard down. Since they were trying to coordinate with us, it was just right.
The attack on the Fenrir is the main plan we discussed here with everyone. We move a mass of holy water the size of a large barrel high into the sky, have it cross over the wall, and if we release it, it'll fall on its own. As long as the magical interference isn't obstructed until it clears the top of the barrier deployed in front, damage can be dealt. It would have been the end if it missed, but Angelica-san hit it perfectly.
The Fenrir, panicked by the attack on the Cyclops, stood still in one place for a long time to redeploy its magic defense in its surprise. That was its undoing.
The Fenrir, exposing its body miserably scorched by the holy water it was drenched in, stopped moving. We fired several silver arrows into it to finish it off.
Furthermore, the mass of holy water carried again by Clump Water directly hit the right leg of the last Cyclops, which was sitting on its butt, perhaps surprised. We sniped it as it screamed and crawled away, and defeated this one too.
A second cheer rises from our allies. Since there are no Cyclopes left, it's safe to assume there are no monsters with enough power to break the fort's fence. I heard the Demon Lord's army doesn't have siege engines. No matter how many Orc hordes there are, as long as they can't climb over the fence, they're out of the fight. Only the Fenrirs remain.
"As expected of the Madonna. A bullseye, isn't it?"
The Jaeger people are happy for me, but being called Madonna is a bit...
"No, no, it's not like I'm a Madonna. It's thanks to Angelica-san, the former number one and current number three."
Let's give the credit to the higher-ranking person here. In fact, it wouldn't have been possible without Angelica-san.
"Yes. Exactly. As expected, our Madonna Angelica is something else."
Huh?
"Hmm? What's wrong, Jeanne? You have a strange face."
"Eh, ah, no, it's nothing. Angelica-san really is amazing, isn't she?"
I casually look away toward where Angelica-san is.
Will and Hanna-san poke me from behind. I wondered what it was, and they told me to look at the faces of the three Jaegers. When I turned around, they were all grinning.
"Saying this and that, you're self-aware, aren't you? As expected of our Madonna."
"Exactly. It has to be that way."
"As I thought, we must fight for Jeanne."
Dammit... how did it come to this...
"They're coming!"
My face turned bright red and I looked down, but this was no time for that. The Fenrirs seem to be attempting a final charge. The remaining eight came out of the forest together. A few of them are looking up and guarding the sky.
They intend to leap over the fence and bring it to a melee, even at the cost of sacrifices. Does their pride not allow retreat? They've come to play a gamble where they either live or die. Have they given up on occupation by leading the Orcs?
At that moment, a cry like a scream fell from above our heads.
"Numerous Orcs carried by Gargoyles are descending from the sky! The cliff top is struggling! Requesting immediate reinforcement!"