Chapter 13

THE OFFENSIVE AGAINST THE FORT

Winter was approaching . *1

With temperatures enough to freeze fingers, it was almost as if general winter himself was preparing to launch an offensive . Before one would notice, the breathed air had already become white . If rain was to pour, all this rain would have already turned into snow . Once there was snowfall, the shape of warfare would change . As snow would accumulate, the movement of the troops would slow down and transportation of food would become harder . For the spiritualists, the coming of winter was a disadvantage . And of course, to the demons that were restricted to the food stocked up in the castle, the long-drawn siege would be disadvantageous as well .

In other words, both the demons and spiritualists were eager to end this war . But in both of their dictionaries, there was no such word called truce . Until either side was completely destroyed, this war wouldn´t end . This time´s case, whether the demons would go for a do-or-die attack or if they were to seclude themselves in the castle, the flow of the war would change . In case the war would change to a siege, the battle would be decided by which side gives up first .

“…Well, I can´t imagine lieutenant general Gortoberuk going for a siege though . ”

As she was breathing out white vapor due to the cold, she sighed .

Gortoberuk, who would mostly deal with things using strength, was a demon that she just couldn´t imagine going for a contest of endurance by holing himself up in the castle . In order to clear away the disgrace of having the fort being taken from him, he would just plan a strategy to go for and attack without doubt . Either way, Riku couldn´t predict what kind of battle it would turn out to be .

But, rather than knowing Gortoberuk next moves, it was more important to think on how to take the fort back . It looked more or less something stupid to do, but even so, the forty nine demons were still following after her . Including her, all of them were going up the mountains . By the way, the one that wasn´t there with them was at the foot of the mountain stand-by, still mounting on the horse he had been riding on so far .

“Ha…Ha… . Just, a little bit more . ”

Said Roppu Nezaarand while feebly breathing after he stopped his feet . With his ear and arms full of bandages, his figure was very pitiful . Putting his hands on his knees, he was catching his breath . No matter who, it was clear to anyone that would look at him that he was straining himself .

“Really, you are too weak . ”

“Hey, ojou-chan . Shouldn´t have it been better if we had left that rabbit brat at the lieutenant general´s villa?

Vrusto was whispering next to Riku´s ear . Different from Roppu, Vrusto didn´t show any signs of being tired . In fact, demons that would show signs of exhaustion actually were what was very uncommon . Except for one of the demon races, the demons in general would ever so often have more physical strength than humans . If Roppu was at his perfect condition, he would most likely have been able to go up a mountain such as this one in one breath .

” I´m definitely being suspected of being a traitor . If I bring him along, I can prove I´ve not been planning anything along the way . ”

“I see . That´s why you´ve been dragging this dead weight near you . I thought you were doing it just to have someone guiding us . ”

“Well, there is that too . ”

As a messenger, Roppu had been trained . And so, he knew very well about the terrain around here . This time too, he used a secret path and was able to escape from the fort . The path Riku was going through now was one different from the one generally used . Because it didn´t go through maintenance, it had rocks and branches that fell from the big trees around . Because of that, one could end up tripping without properly paying attention . In fact, there were soldiers that were covered in dirt just because of this reason . But even if it had all these problems, the enemy wouldn´t be aware of this path .

“Ah, uh… First lieutenant Barusak, the place you had pointed in the map before is about somewhere in here . ”

Right at the time Riku stepped her foot onto a branch, Roppu humbly declared .

Just by turning your head, through the trees, it was possible to see the stone fort . One way or another, they were able to successfully go to the rear of the fort through a roundabout way . *2 The place that general Gortoberuk´s flag used to be set now had an unicorn and a griffon flag, both fluttering in the wind as if they were intimate to each other . *3 With the corners of her mouth rising, she rose her right hand to signal her soldiers to stop .

“Thank you, sergeant major Roppu Nezaarand . For now you should wait here . That, unless you want to follow me in order confirm that I´m not a traitor . ”

“Th-that…”

“What about if I take two or three enemy general heads? Would it be enough as a proof? Well, although I don´t think there are any really good generals sitting in that fort . ”

The general that was leading all this must be without mistake glaring at Myuuz castle at the plains down the mountains .

This fort capturing was only the appetizer before going for an offensive onto the plains . She needed to properly savor the taste . Riku lightly licked her lips .

“Now then, we will be proceeding according to the plan . Are you ready to take that dirty flag down?”

The forty nine demons all silently nodded . There were some demons that had their faces twisted in desperation, but Riku ignored it . In reality, Riku was a bit anxious about whether it would properly work or not . But then, if she were to behave like that, nothing good would come out of it .

“The attack will go with the five people we decided on before . The rest should follow warrant officer Vrusto´s directions . ”

“Understood . Don´t die, ojou-chan”

Seeing Vrusto indiscreetly saluting to her, Riku gathered the four people she had selected before . They were demons of smaller stature that were more developed in terms of agility rather than strength .

“Don´t worry, I will be the one facing the general . Besides, not everyone are spiritualists in there . They should have mixed in many normal foot soldiers in their army . That´s why you all you will need to do is swing your sword around to your heart´s content . Once you think the situation is dangerous, you should run away from the fort . ”

“”Yes . ””

The four demons vigorously nodded . And then, Riku, who saw their confidence rise, once again made a sign .

As she did that, this time, five demons that had confidence in their physical strength went forward . All of them were strong enough to easily crush a horse . Riku herself and the four demons she had chosen got on these demon´s arms respectively . The foothold was bad, but even so, by crouching and leaning on her right knee, it was possible to get some extent of balance .

“Uh… Are you really planning on invading the fort like that?”

With a worried face, Roppu raised his eyes to the direction of the fort .

“The fort was firmly build . Since it didn´t fall in these two hundred years, then without siege weapons or big hammers, there is no way to invade it . We don´t have this sort of things prepared, so isn´t it fine to do it this way?”

“But we thought we had taken a secret path…”*4

“Which side do you think the people at the fort are being more watchful?”

The Myuuz castle is being surrounded and the demons don´t have any army coming from the mountain side . With that, the only thing to be worried about is demon reinforcements coming . If something happens at Myuuz castle, the spiritualists that are surrounding the castle would definitely contact the people at the fort . Anything else don´t really need much attention .

“In other words, this side has low priority . Rather than aiming for the well guarded part, it´s obvious that it is better to aim for the weaker one . ”

Saying that, Riku looked forward . By straining her eyes, it was possible to see the tiny figures of guards protecting the fort . But not a single one of these guards were looking to her direction .

“Well then, let´s start, shall we?”

With that, the five muscular demons started moving . The demon whose arm Riku was on was in concentration, determining in which angle he should aim . The same was for the remaining four demons, calculating the distance and so on . Riku, who was a human, didn´t have good eyesight like demons . Perhaps it would have been possible for her to increase her eyesight with spiritualist arts, but she wasn´t able to use them . In order to not disturb the demons that were diligently working on the calculations, she could only held her breath .

“We will go now . 3…2…1…”

The demons swung their arms with all their strength, and with that, Riku was thrown high in the air . Right at the moment when she was thrown, she used her leg strength to add impulse . After that, there was no return . With the cold wind strongly blowing at her, it felt like a thousand needles were prickling her face . But pain of this extent didn´t matter . In Riku´s eyes, only the fort that was rapidly nearing closer was being reflected .

“Hm?”

At the moment when the soldier standing on the fort noticed about it, everything was already over for him .

Right at the moment the soldier turned his head, Riku´s figure suddenly right in front of his nose . Riku, who was flying through the air, extended her right feet frontwards and kicked the soldier in his belly . While still having her foot through the soldier who had fallen like a rag doll she drew her halberd . While thrusting her halberd at the neck of the guard that was lying on the floor, Riku gave a smile to the other guards .

“Good afternoon . It´s been sudden, but can you do me the favor of dying?”

Of course she didn´t wait for an answer . She didn´t need an answer anyway . Raising her blood covered halberd, she rushed forward, cutting down the soldier´s arm who was about to draw his sword, and decapitated another soldier that had been in panic .

“Shit, why is this red haired demon here!? It´s too strong!”

“Su-surround it! Let´s bring it down with numbers!”

As to surround Riku, the many guards approached forming a circle around her . They seemed to aim for doing an combined attack from all sides . As she was thinking whether she should make a path out of the encirclement through brute force or look for an opening, at that moment…

“As if I would let you!”

Coming from the sky, the demons suddenly appeared in a flash . *5

With the sudden appearance of another enemy, the soldiers at the fort got their formation scrambled . With that, it became possible for Riku to break through it by herself . The four demons that were a bit late in taking part in the fight

“First lieutenant! Leave the small fries to us . ”

“You should go after the big ones we can´t defeat!”

While soaking their small swords in blood, each of them were speaking in turns .

Even without them saying, it was what Riku was planning to do, but actually being said that felt very different . With that, Riku´s mouth turned into a happy smile .

“I will leave this place to you!”

Saying that, she left the place .

Not expecting that they would have been broken through, the soldiers were taken by surprise . Mowing down such soldiers, she rushed inside . She had thought that it would be a bit problematic for her to swing her halberd in the inner parts of the castle, but it seemed that they were unnecessary worries . Originally, it had been a demon fort, and so in other to be in accord to demons that had builds of over two meters, the ceiling was high and the corridors were wide . That´s why she would be able to swing her halberd to her heart´s content .

“The de-demons are attacking!”

“It´s a monstrously strong red haired demon!!”

In response to the many shouts throughout the inner part of the fort, soldiers wearing spiritualist clothes appeared . The spiritualists that were wearing clothes which had that nostalgic Barusak crest were now coming at her with the demon banning swords . The swords that had demon banning power infused had the might of blowing off an arm just by grazing it . But that was only applied to demons . Therefore, Riku rushed at them without any worries .

“Did it lose its mind? That demon . ”

Against the spiritualists that were giving off smiles of ridicule, Riku instead sent back another smile .

“The stupid ones are you . ”

As if doing a run-up, she increased her speed and jumped upon a demon banning sword that was thrust at her . Sending the spiritualist that had his mouth opened in surprise flying with a kick, flying to the direction of a spiritualist from the Bistolru behind him, who was preparing to shoot an arrow . Lightly deflecting the arrow, she cut his head, sending it flying . With that, she had finished that spiritualist from Bistolru, that now had his head separated from his torso .

“One… No, two people . ”

Giving a glance to the spiritualist she had kicked before, it seems that the shape of his body and neck had changed a little . Perhaps because she had put in too much force, his neck had been snapped .

“Now, who is next?”

Now looking back to, just like ants, a bunch of spiritualists were overflowing the place .

Many spiritualists had expressions on their faces that were curious to look at . She thought it was because two of their companions had been killed, but it seemed to be for a different reason . Whatever it may be, from the start, Riku didn´t hold interest in what their expressions meant .

Full of insanity, she was about to rush after them, but right at that time…

A blazing ball of fire appeared right in front of her eyes .