Katahane no Riku

Chapter 14.Approaching fireball

A blazing fireball appeared in front of her eyes.

It was only three fists of distance from her. In order to repel the attack, she rotated her halberd. Barely in time, the halberd defended from the approaching fireball in time, hitting at the tip of the axe shaped blade. With that, the fireball made a faint sound as it dissipated into pieces. Right after, Riku jumped back, landing with her left hand on the floor. Irritated, she looked at the surroundings. As she did that, she noticed that the spiritualists′ expressions had slightly changed. Their faces had become much brighter in general. If one were to say, it was an expression that showed they still had hopes in winning.

Looking at such faces, it made her want to click her tongue.

“Who? The one that shot that.”

Of course, there was nobody that would answer her.

While she was calmly checking the faces of each spiritualist, as if a substitute for the answer of her question, another fireball was shot. This time, she knew where it came from. But even so, the fireball from this time seemed difficult to evade as well. Coming from the front, from their right side*2, the fireball was so fast that it would put demons, who would boast of their physical strength, to shame, if both were to be compared. Defending from the fireball with her halberd, she fixed her eyes at the spiritualist that had fired the fireball. Amidst a crowd of spiritualists which naively had hopeful expressions, on the direction she was looking at now, there was a single spiritualist with a serious face.

“That from before… It was your doing, right?”

That spiritualist was using a crossbow. He did have a sword, but it seemed like his main weapon was the crossbow. Right next to his sword, there was a quiver for his crossbow. Plainly looking at him, he wouldn′t be any different from a simple spiritualist. But in truth, that same spiritualist was the one that had thrown the fireball. From this fact, Riku let out a smile.

“What a relief… There was still a good quality head that remained at this fort.”

Riku remembered a memory from very long ago.

Infusing the demon banning technique onto an equipment. Any spiritualist could use such a basic and practical technique. But, for the spiritualists that had talent, they would go up one level above.

“I don′t remember it in details, but it was possible to infuse your own attribute in the weapon, right? In your case, it should be something like you putting your flame attribute in the arrow.”

Unintentionally, she smiled.

Back in the time when Riku was still aiming to become a spiritualist, such a thing as infusing her own attribute was a dream within a dream. As for now, it didn′t matter anymore.

“You know well, demon girl.”

The spiritualist who was using the crossbow slowly spoke. He was looking at her as if he wanted to confirm something.

“Is that so? This much is common sense, isn′t it? Well then…”

Riku was rotating the halberd in her hands. Apparently, from all the spiritualists gathered there, only that crossbow spiritualist had any considerable strength. In other words, if she defeated this one, then the rest didn′t really matter.

“Which family are you from? Depending on which one, I can go easy on you if you want to.”

“Don′t speak nonsense, you little demon lass!”

The crossbow spiritualist scowled, and in a low voice, said.*3

In his hand, he was holding five arrows. Shooting the five of them at once, they flew in Riku′s direction. The five arrows were flying like swallows,*4 cutting through the air. As they were doing so, at that instant of time, they caught fire. They were faster than the last attack and much more precise. Together with the sound of a roar*5, they were approaching. Once again, as to deflect the fire balls, Riku swung her halberd. But as if wanting to engulf Riku, the five fireballs expanded in size. In a blink of an eye, Riku was enveloped by the flames.

“Hmph, very easy. In front of us, spiritualists of the Bistolru family, demons are only equal to trash.”

The crossbow using spiritualist turned away from her as he snorted.

The spiritualists gathered around him and started to cheer.

“As expected! Worthy of being entrusted the fort by Selestinne-sama!”

“It was incredible! Please teach me how to do that!”

“You are very powerful, really… Eh?”

But the cheering ended there. That last comment which was unnaturally interrupted, rather than continuing it with words, a ear piercing scream was raised instead. Because of that, the crossbow spiritualist and the other cheering spiritualists all quickly turned back.

“So, you are a spiritualist from the Bistolru then.”

A halberd blew the fire away.

From inside the fire, without any wound, Riku′s figure appeared. Her military uniform was more or less scorched down, but that was all. She didn′t look like someone that had been on fire at all.

“Then, I don′t need to hold back. Even though I was thinking about going easy if it was a spiritualist from the Barusak.”

Riku slowly walked towards them. While rotating her halberd, as if she was an envoy of hell, she boldly smiled. The crossbow spiritualist once again loaded another arrow. But it was already too late by then. Kicking the floor, Riku closed up the distance between them in one go. She jumped amidst the screaming spiritualists. Decapitating heads with her halberd, blood splashed around like a fountain. In order to save his comrades, he wanted to use his crossbow, but if he were to shoot it now, he could end up hitting them instead.

“If you were a Barusak, I would corner you to the point you would ask me to kill you. But then, because I would be going easy, I wouldn′t kill you. I would keep you alive and hang you up at that cliff. Because I am kind, I wouldn′t cut off your head until you died. But you are spiritualists from Bistooru, so…”

The spiritualist threw away his crossbow, and instead used his sword, aiming for Riku. His main weapon was his crossbow, but it couldn′t be said that he was bad at using his sword. The spiritualist charged towards Riku. She was using her red armor, but there were still weak points in it. For instance, the joint points of the armor. The armor itself was resilient, but its insides were fragile. Covering his sword in flames, the spiritualist pressed forward with his trained physique. He was aiming for the joint point at her neck. Aiming at the defenseless*6 Riku, the spiritualist thrust his sword towards her. But…

“I will just kill you like usual.”

The girl covered in blood quickly evaded the attack. The movement was almost like a dance step. Losing its target, the spiritualist that stumbled a bit forward, and Riku, by going around him and getting at his back…

“Goodbye, mister crossbow user.”*7

…She cut his head off. There was nobody capable of stopping her now. Lifting the head that now had dead eyes high, she gave a smile to the remaining spiritualists.

“Well then, what should I do with the rest of you?”

“Kill her!! We must get revenge!!”*8

Somebody shouted. With those words pressing them to act, the remaining spiritualists wielded their swords. The spiritualist charging forward with their faces twisted in fear was perhaps a bit pitiful. In an instant, the place became hell itself.

The blood covered girl butchered the spiritualists one after another while grinning. The time it took was only enough for making the corridor that was previously swept until it shone to become a sea of blood.

“As, as if I′m going to be killed! Let′s run away!”

Unfortunately, there were some spiritualists that were running away.

If somehow those surviving spiritualist; those spiritualist, which were from the Barusak, were able to retreat to their base, it could be said that then there would be spiritualist presence only at the plains.9* But now there were only two people remaining in the fort. One had just been killed, while the other was still running to the exit. If Riku were to discover that he was from the Barusak, that thing she had said before about going easy would obviously only going to be torture. That′s why his only option was to run away.

“Damn it! What, what did I even do to deserve this!!”

Forcing his way through the heavy door, he ran down to the plains, which were located down the mountains. His aim was to get to the general Toudo′s encampment. Not only would he receive protection, but also, he still needed to report about the fall of the fort. Of course most of it was just him wanting to run away, but there was a bit of sense of duty over the need to report what happened remaining.

“No matter how strong that demon is, it can′t be considered an enemy to the generals! Fast, I need to report to them fast!”

He was going down the mountains, and having his skin scratched by going through the trees, it felt like his eyes would get hit by the branches.*10 But no matter what, he kept running. He only kept going down the mountain. And then…

“Escapee, one person spotted.”

He was suddenly torn up by sharp claws.

In the place he was hit, he was bleeding. In his fading away field of vision, he noticed that about forty demons were surrounding him.

“Since he ran away, then would it mean they finished things up at the fort?”

“Warrant officer! The flag of the fort was taken down. It seems that it was settled.”

“I see. Then, let′s go back. Hey, somebody finish this guy. Instead of letting him live with these wounds, it′s better to just kill him already.”

Together with those words, that Barusak spiritualist′s consciousness was cut off.

The fall of the fort wasn′t made known to the spiritualists down in the plains. If they were able to get a report about it, maybe the outcome could have changed. If they were to send someone to check on the fort before going to war, maybe they could have seen the moment the flag was taken down. But both the spiritualists and the demons at the Myuuz castle didn′t think about confirming it. It was as if the possibility itself had been left out of their heads, as if they could only see the enemy before them.

It was very close to having this being an unreasonable concept that prohibited them from seeing the fort.

With both armies not noticing what was going on the fort, the war was going to start.

And the [battle of the Myuuz castle], a war that ended in a historical defeat, was now about to begin.