LEGEND

Chapter 286

The first thing that appeared in Rei’s eyes when he landed on the ground was the chaotic melee.

No, it wasn’t really a chaotic melee but a desperately fierce battle where the soldiers, knights and adventurers of the Mireana Kingdom were on the verge of defeat against the Demon Soldiers.

「Rei-!」

It was Siminar, who was some distance away from Ara, who raised a joyful cry as he saw Rei, drawing the attention of many Demon Soldiers.

While the people around him were only able to survive by dedicating themselves to defence, Siminar, who had now recovered from the Demon Soldier’s poison, had managed to go on the attack and kill several Demon Soldiers. However, as the Demon Soldiers’ commander, Cyanus naturally couldn’t overlook such an enemy who could do that and ordered multiple Demon Soldiers to focus on this risk factor in the battle. As a result, Siminar had no choice but to defend himself. If the battle continued as it was, his loss was assured.

Under such circumstances, someone had fallen from the sky and knocked away the Demon Soldiers attacking him, so it was no wonder that he raised a joyful shout.

「Well, it looks like you’re safe.」

Siminar nodded with rough breaths as Rei approached with his Death Scythe.

「A-Ah. However, if things stay the way they are, we’ll be pushed out. If we could just defeat their commander over there……」

「Their commander?」

Rei looked around at Siminar’s words. His eyes stopped on Cyanus, who was commanding the Demon Soldiers from upon her warhorse.

「Should I kill that woman?」

「No, not her. That woman is just a lieutenant. The commander of the Demon Soldiers who attacked us is the person held down by the General Princess over there.」

A momentary longing appeared in Siminar’s eyes without him noticing as he continued.

「Then what do you think we should do? I don’t think it will be an issue to leave it to Elena.」

Passing through Rei’s mind was the illusory Dragon’s head that had appeared near here previously.

When Rei had seen that, he immediately guessed that it was Dragon Language magic and rushed over with Set and found the last line of defence protecting General Arius on the verge of collapse.

Rei forcibly knocked away the Demon Soldiers with Set and now faced off against the wary Demon Soldiers led by Cyanus.

The reason they were so wary was because of Set, who was a high ranking monster, and because Cyanus had been told by Theorem about the danger of Rei, the person who created the devastating fire whirl.

Even the Demon Soldiers didn’t careless approach Set after seeing nearly 5 of their companions blasted away.

They could feel a sense of overwhelming pressure form the Griffon standing in front of them.

「Cyanus-sama, what do we do?」

A Demon Solider asked for orders quietly, so as to not let Rei hear. But upon being asked, Cyanus frowned slightly.

The Griffon in front of them and the extraordinary adventurer who the Griffon followed. She knew how much strength each of them had. After all, Theorem, the Flash, had told her that his chance of winning in a fight was less than 30%. Cyanus honestly felt that their was nothing she could do about Rei.

Originally, he was an enemy that would be suppressed by a group of Dragon Knights. The plan had been that Dragon Knights, the most elite soldiers in the army, would be able to hold him down even if they couldn’t defeat him……but that plan had been completely destroyed by the fire whirl that had appeared in the centre of their vanguard.

(Still, he’s just one adventurer. Can one adventurer do much up against this many people? ……No, that would be pointless. If we attacked him with numbers, we won’t be able to reach Count Arius.)

If she tried to hold Rei down, she would have no choice but to send out all the Demon Soldiers with the understanding that they would probably all be killed. But if she did that, Count Arius and his soldiers would be free to move.

On the other hand, there was no way she could let someone so abnormal as Rei alone.

Cyanus’ face distorted unpleasantly at the dilemma of her current situation.

「Wait for him to move for now. If we fight him straight on, we’ll only suffer needless loses.」

The Demon Soldier nodded obediently while surprised at his commander’s words.

He turned to look at Rei for a moment, to see why his commander was so wary of him……but, he couldn’t understand why Set, the Griffon, wouldn’t be the greater threat.

Maybe it would have been a different story if he could see magic power.

Meanwhile, Rei and Siminar were also discussing what to do next.

「Anyway, even though the General Princess is holding the commander over there, the commander himself is the problem.」

「He’s the problem?」

「Ah. Just as Elena-dono is called the General Princess, the commander over there is called Flash.」

「……A general is leading the ambush force? He’s not just a vanguard commander or someone lower down the command line?」

Siminar nodded with a bitter smile at Rei’s doubtful eyes.

「It is said that his title of Flash came from the speed at which his army would strike. That is where his true strength is demonstrated. However, even though he may not be the chief commander, he is still a general level commander. ……You understand what I’m saying?」

「So we can turn this crisis into an opportunity?」

Rei responded to Siminar’s words, that implied that they could kill the enemy commander here.

And Siminar, whose intention had been conveyed, nodded as he continued.

「You being here is just overkill. Even considering guarding Count Arius, you can leave that to Set. You should join the General Princess and defeat the Flash. ……Is that okay?」

While discussing, Siminar turned to Arius to ask for permission.

Arius had a somewhat uncomfortable expression on his face at the plan to leave him behind, but in the end he nodded in silence and accepted Siminar’s proposed plan.

For Arius, that was an unavoidable choice. Originally, the war plan had been to exhaust the Neutral and Noble forces. But when the war actually started, the two factions had destroyed the Bestir Empire’s vanguard with barely any losses. At the same time, his Royalist army, which should have been safe, was scattered by the enemy’s surprise attaack. The current situation, where he had blundered in his attempts to earn credit for the war, was nothing more than the worst situation for Arius.

However, if he could defeat the famous Theorem here, the Flash, he would be seen as decoy that had lured the enemy into their trap. Of course, the truth was very different, but it was also true that looking at it objectively, that level of implausibility could be ignored by the Royalist factions influence. If he followed Siminar’s plan, Rei would receive the greatest credit for defeating the Flash, but it was still far better than being branded a defeated general.

「……That’s fine. I will draw the attention of the Demon Soldiers so that you can attack the Flash.」

With orders from the chief commander, there was nothing Rei could say otherwise. Regardless of his ability, Rei was currently just and adventurer employed as a mercenary.

「Set, I’ll leave this to you. If those Demon Soldiers attack us from the sides, show them what you can do as a Griffon.」

「Guru~」

Nodding at Rei’s words, Set used his sharp gaze to intimidate the Demon Soldiers led by Cyanus.

Because they had been talking quietly, Cyanus was unable to tell what Rei and Siminar had discussed. However, she knew that the stalemate was coming to and end. With that in mind, Cyanus gave visual signals to her Demon Soldiers to stay alert. And……

「Go!」

With Siminar’s shout, Rei dashed forward with the Death Scythe in his hands as he went towards Cyanus.

「-!? Get ready to stop them!」

Rei had decided to fight them alone. Cyanus, who had misunderstood Siminar’s strategy, gave a sharp shout. Following her orders, the Demon Soldiers formed a ring around Cyanus, their commander. But.

「Eh?」

However, the next moment, Cyanus raised a voice of surprise from within the ring.

Her expression was unbelievable to anyone who knew the usually calm Cyanus. In fact, some of the Demon Soldiers turned to look at her involuntarily.

Rei rang around the ring protecting Cyanus with his Death Scythe in hand.

Cyanus was shocked to see him run off, but the next moment, she realised what……no, who was in the direction Rei had run towards as her expression tightened.

「Theorem-sama!」

With a loud shout, Cyanus tried to turn her warhorse around on reflex.

「GUURURURURURURUU-!」

In response, Set gave a loud cry to restrain her.

「I see. So they’ve chosen that method? That is really hard to deal with……」

Using the Griffon to stop them here and taking the opportunity to defeat their commander, Theorem.

By the time Cyanus saw through Siminar’s plan, it was too late for her to chase after Rei.

If she turned back here to chase after Rei, the Griffon and Count Arius would then chase after her.

(No, if it was just Count Arius alone, it wouldn’t matter. But that Griffon is going to block all the actions of the Demon Soldiers. What do I do……all of us, should we prepare for a battle of attrition and join back up with Theorem-sama? No, the Griffon is far from tired and it’s more likely we’ll all be killed rather than wearing them out. I should have brought more Demon Soldiers.)

Even though the superior she admired was in danger, she clenched her teeth knowing that she had no choice but to remain calm.

Only a few minutes ago, they had been at an overwhelming advantage. However, with only one move, an adventurer with a tamed Griffon had struck and nullified their strength. The fact that Rei was so unreasonably strong made Cyanus grit her teeth as she stared at Set.

While Cyanus was gritting her teeth, Rei kept running in a straight line in the direction Siminar had pointed him in as he held his Death Scythe.

If he saw any Demon Soldiers fighting members of the Mireana Kingdom army, he would slice through them with the Death Scythe as he passed by.

His actions were like an angel of death, but thanks to that, not few Demon Soldiers were killed or injured and many members of the Mireana Kingdom’s army were able to survive somehow.

He kept running towards where Elena should have been fighting the enemy commander, they had probably moved around as they fought. They seemed to have left this battlefield as he couldn’t see Elena’s characteristic blonde hair anywhere even as he looked around.

As he looked around while running rapidly, he suddenly saw a familiar person. It wasn’t Elena, but Elena’s aide. Rei could see her wielding a large battle axe as she fought multiple Demon Soldiers.

「Alright!」

If that person was Ara, then she would definitely know where Elena would be fighting. Deciding on that, Rei went towards the Demon Soldier that Ara was fighting with the Death Scythe in hand.

(……What?)

Rei felt uncomfortable as he approached the place where Ara was fighting.

The Demon Soldiers that were fighting her felt sluggish and there were tentacles growing from their body. He could see that the tentacles seemed to be connected to another Demon Soldier at a distance.

For a moment, Rei had a sense of deja vu, but discarded those thoughts and he went towards Ara. With a slash of the Death Scythe from behind, he attacked the Demon Soldier who was using tentacles to control the other Demon Soldiers……

Slash-!

「Kehi!?」

The Demon Soldier’s torso was split in half, top and bottom, and fell to the ground as he tried to approach Ara.

Fortunately, the Demon Soldiers who were fighting Ara collapsed to the ground as soon as Rei slashed the Demon Soldier with the Death Scythe.

(Tentacles? No, tree roots?)

Momentarily turning to look at the Demon Soldiers who had fallen to the ground, he hurried over to Ara, who appeared dazed.

「Ara, can you see where Elena is fighting?」

「E-Eh? A little earlier, I saw a sword whip being used over there……ah um, Rei-dono? Do you know who you killed……just then?」

As soon as Rei heard Ara’s response, he immediately ran in the direction she pointed in.

Seeing him leave, Ara turned to look back at her former companion who had been split in half at the torso with a shocked expression.

「……You were once our companion. Such a pitiful end.」

Ara’s sad voice echoed out on this now quiet battlefield.