LEGEND

Chapter 226

The carriage surrounded by Icebirds. Even though Rei had rushed over as reinforcements, no matter how strong he was, it was impossible for him to deal with all the Icebirds attacking the carriage from all sides. For that reason, while Rei overwhelmed the Icebirds in his area, a large number of Icebirds attacked the other adventurers. This back and forth state continued as such.

「Hey, you! Can’t you do something about them!? You came to reinforce us right!?」

The first people to be unable to stand the situation were the merchants who were hiding inside the carriages and out of the way. One of them looked outside the carriage and shouted at Rei.

However, they were immediately pulled back inside the carriage by the other merchants, who had noticed ice arrows being shot at them. The next moment, several ice arrows pierced the carriage.

Rei clicked his tongue as he swung the Death Scythe to restrain the Icebirds as he threw a knife he had taken out from the Misty Ring at an Icebird that was trying to attack one of the adventurers guarding the carriage.

(It can’t be helped. Even if they are part of a merchant caravan, in the end, they are still merchants. Compared to merchants who stay in cities, they are more used to rough situations, but they still probably have never been attacked by this many monsters.)

Thinking to himself, he shouted out so that he would be heard by both the merchants and the adventurers guarding the carriage.

「Don’t worry, help from Gilm will be coming soon. If you can endure until then……you win!」

Rei moved one step to the side to dodge an Icebird that had attacked him from above as if to pierce through him. Just before it hit the ground, it slowed down as it tried to leave. But instead, it had its blue plumage skewered by the handle of the Death Scythe before being forcefully thrown at the other Icebirds that were watching on.

「Kikiki-!」

The Icebirds that Rei had been restraining gave a louder cry than before, maybe because their friend had been killed.

「Now, I did say that reinforcements are coming, but this is endless……I don’t have a choice.」

Rei took in his surroundings as he said that.

The adventurers, including Rei were all protecting the carriage. A flock of Icebirds were flying around them as if to surround them.

And most importantly, the carriages and adventurers were behind Rei and Icebirds were weak to fire.

「I’m going to use magic now. Don’t careless get in the way!」

「Ah? Ahh, we understand. If you’re going to use it, hurry up. No matter how many reinforcements are coming, we’ve basically hit our limits!」

Nodding at the words of the defending adventurer, Rei began to chant an incantation as he grasped the Death Scythe, his magic casting tool.

『Flames, manifest your burning power as a whirlwind.』

Casting the spell, compressed flames under the effect of magic appeared at the tip of the Death Scythe’s blade……

『Twisting Flames!』

With those words, the compressed flames flew quickly towards where the Icebirds were most crowded. And the next moment.

Roar-!

With such a sound, a flaming whirlwind appeared. Icebirds caught in the flames were completely enveloped by them and were killed as they burned to charcoal without being able to raise a cry.

「W-Wow, a-amazing……I’ve never seen such powerful fire magic before.」

One of the male adventurers whispered to himself unintentionally as he swung his sword to fend off an Icebird.

Actually, the power of a magic was several times more powerful when used by Rei compared to another mage due to his magic power. The flaming whirlwind instantly killed nearly 10 Icebirds.

We can handle them. It was no wonder that this feeling of hope rose up in the minds of the adventurers.

At this point, there was only one large miscalculation. When the Icebirds realised their friends had been killed by fire, their greatest weakness, it only caused them to form a greater murderous intent.

「Hey, hey. That’s a little. The Icebirds around here are getting strangely agitated.」

The female archer noticed that and murmured to herself.

「It’s true. It seems to be us……I mean, the kid who came over to reinforce us isn’t ordinary.」

An adventurer muttered in a surprised voice as he held his sword in his hand, ready to respond to the attacks of the Icebirds.

But perhaps as a small blessing in the midst of misfortune, as the Icebirds fell in to a frenzy, they all attacked Rei.

A man with a spear, who was the leader of the escorting adventurers, watched as an Icebird that had been attacking the carriage was pierced through by an arrow that flew out from nowhere.

And quickly looking around, the man saw a wagon rapidly approaching from the direction of Gilm. On it was the figure of a young woman holding a bow.

「It’s reinforcements! We’ve got more reinforcements coming from Gilm!」

In response to that voice, Rei looked towards the approaching wagon with a smile.

Milien was controlling the horses from the driver’s seat and Ecryll was the one shooting arrows.

(They seem to have succeeded in getting Ecryll out. But then, why hasn’t Sulunin, the mage, joined them? At this distance, he should have been able to attack them one sidedly. Unlike my fire magic, his isn’t too powerful.)

As Rei thought of that, the Icebirds were thrown into confusion at the sudden reinforcements and Rei wasn’t so nice as to let that go.

Sending magic power into the Death Scythe, he started casting another spell.

『Flames, you are a spear of fire. Gather to the flame. Flap your great fiery wings!』

As he cast the spell, flames gathered at the tip of his blade. However, the difference compared to his previous spell was tha the flames at the tip of the blade gradually changed into the shape of a bird. When the magic was completed, the flames had changed shape completely into the shape of a bird.

『Sky Conquering Phoenix!』

The Phoenix released with the completion of the magic was about 3m in width with its wings spread out. Sending overwhelming waves of heat to its surroundings as it flapped its wings, it thrust itself into the Icebirds as directed by Rei.

Phoenix and Icebirds, the moment the Icebirds came in contact with the flames, the fight would immediately be over. Rei controlled the Phoenix without caring about the Icebirds that had been burnt up and immediately directed it to attack the next one.

「Kiki, ki!」

「Kikikiki!」

It must have been a cry of caution. While making such cries, the Icebirds move away from the Phoenix. The escorting adventurers didn’t miss this opportunity as the Icebirds’ focus were drawn away by the Phoenix.

「Reduce their numbers as much as you can now!」

Following the man’s instructions, they all squeezed out the last of their strength to fight back. At the same time, the wagon carrying Milein and the rest of the reinforcements arrived and about 10 adventurers jumped straight off the wagon. Their numbers were terribly small compared to the number of adventurers currently in GIlm, but it was still good enough considering that many were gathered immediately as soon as Rei had left first.

「Everyone, prioritise guarding the carriages over killing the Icebirds.」

「Yes!」

「I understand!」

「I’ll start right away!」

While responding to Milein’s instructions, they each attacked the Icebirds from behind to open a path as the Icebirds were focusing on the Phoenix

Milein, Ecryll and three other adventurers headed for Rei’s carriage. The remaining seven headed for the one that Set was guarding.

The difference in numbers was due to the difference in strength in the group with C rank adventurers, Milein and Ecryll, and the other group.

「……Tch! I can’t keep the Phoenix up much longer! Watch out for the Icebirds’ movement!」

Rei gave a shout as the magic he had activated reached its time limit. After a few seconds, the bird shaped flames disintegrated, spreading its flames to its surroundings in one last blow. Due to that, several Icebirds screamed as they crashed into the ground. Milein and the other adventurers who were rushing over to support them momentarily held their breaths.

(How pretty.)

The gave a sigh when they saw it.

Of course though, the Death Scythe was held warily in Rei’s hands.

But, all that said, with Rei and Set sent over as reinforcements, they had already been able to keep everything together. Even though, the stamina of the adventurers who had been hired as escorts for the merchants were close to their limits, there were more than 10 adventurers who had come here from Gilm, which was said to have some of the best adventurers in the Mireana Kingdom.

……Yes, the outcome 『had been』 clear. The reason this was in past tense was because Rei saw something out of the corner of his eye.

It was the face of a child who was looking at the scene from the wagon.

Rei immediately recognised who it was. After all, he had been training him in combat for the past week.

(-!? Why is Baslero here!?)

While holding his breath in his mind, Rei still managed to give a shout to draw the attention of the Icebirds away from Baslero.

「Milein!」

However, that wasn’t something that could work for long, he shouted to Milein, who was parrying an ice arrow that an Icebird had shot at her with her sword.

「Hey, what’s going on. I’m busy here, so you’ll have to get straight to……the point!」

A gap was created momentarily when the last ice arrow was parried by her sword and Milein wasn’t naive enough to let this opportunity go. Dashing forward and closing the distance to the Icebird who tried to escaped into the sky, she swung her sword down and bisected its close to 1m long body.

「Look at the wagon! Why is Baslero here!?」

「Haa!?」

As expected, Milein was not expecting that question. Milein almost reflexively looked back towards the wagon. At the end of her line of sight, she saw Baslero peeking out from the wagon with fearful eyes.

Seeing that, Milein retreated to Rei’s side as her cheeks twitched.

「I-I don’t know! Hey, what is he actually doing here!?」

Milein was truly surprised. Completely confused……seeing Baslero’s next action only caused her cheeks to twitch further.

Baslero came down from the wagon with his sword. Although his face looked tense and nervous, he still took one to two steps towards the battlefield.

Fortunately, the attention of the Icebirds had been completely gathered towards Rei and Milein and there weren’t any looking outward. Because of that, they weren’t away of the new threat approaching them from behind, or rather the existance of new prey, Baslero.

However, it didn’t change the fact that it would be Baslero’s end when he was noticed. Right now, his life was hanging by a single thread.

Finally, Rei decided to shout to Baslero. Of course, he paid close attention to not direct the attention of the Icebirds to Baslero and had raised his voice while looking at Milein, who was standing right beside him, instead of at Baslero.

「Baslero, you’re in the way! Stay quiet and hide in the wagon!」

Twitch. As soon as he heard Rei’s words, Baslero stopped for a moment. And confused, he turned to look towards the carriages, Rei and the Icebirds several times. After a few seoncds, he started walking towards the Icebirds seiging them again with a lost expression

(Tch, he’s not listening to what I’m saying!)

Spitting out a sigh in his mind, Rei deliberately swung the Death Scythe to draw attention away from Baslero.

「Hey, Baslero……you don’t want to hide in the wagon but you don’t know what’s going on in your first fight in a battle either!?」

Rei heard Milein’s words and glanced at Baslero again.

Over there, he could clearly see Baslero’s face dyed in tension. From Rei’s perspective, he only looked nervous, but from Milein’s experience as a significantly more experience adventurer than Rei, there was no room for confusion or impatience when one first steps into a battlefield.

「Rei, it’s not good. If this continues, the Icebirds will notice him……」

「I understand. ……It’s no good, I can’t do anything about it. I’ll break through the flock of Icebirds and secure Baslero. In the meantime, can I rely on you to defend here?」

「……Well, it can’t be helped. Ecryll, you heard that? I’m going to be busy for a while!」

「I understand. But, because we didn’t have that much time to prepare, I don’t have a lot of arrows left. It would be great if you could get back here as soon as possible.」

「……You heard it.」

Milein took Ecryll’s words and looked at Rei.

Seeing that, he nodded and took a step towards Baslero.

「Ba-, stop it!」

「Eiii-!」

Rei shouted towards Baslero involuntarily. Maybe because of the rush going through him, Rei’s voice reached him as he gave a spirited cry and swung his sword down at an Icebird that was on the ground as the rest surrounded Rei.

「Kiki!?」

Certainly, Baslero’s attack had some power. With Baslero’s talent for the sword and the Icebird being much slower down on the ground, it was completely surprised by the attack from behind it that hurt it. However……the sword stopped moving after only cutting a few cm into the Icebird.

Certainly, Baslero had talent for the sword. But, he was still a 10 year old child. Without abnormal strength like Rei or a powerful magic item like the Death Scythe, there was no way for him to cut down an Icebird with his sword.

「Kikiki-!」

After receiving a blow from behind, the wounded Icebird shot an ice arrow at Baslero in anger.

「Damn it! Shoes of Sleipnir, activate!」

The effect of the Shoes of Sleipnir and his physical ability allowed Rei to instantly break through the flock of Icebirds. Rei covered Baslero with his back as ice arrows from the Icebirds hit him one after the other almost simultaneously.