284 The Coffee Mug
<strong>— February of Year 513 – Front Line of the War between the Broteforge Empire and Melki Empire. —</strong>
‘Huh… huh… I can’t rest, I have to keep going.’
A woman with glorious red hair and a pair of majestic horns was kneeling in the middle of the battlefield.
She was holding a sword with gold and crimson details nailed to the ground, and she was breathing breathlessly. Beside her feet were hundreds of monster bodies of the most varied species within a radius of at least two hundred meters, but in front of her yet another horde of monsters walking towards her.
Her body was already extremely fatigued, her joints ached as if she had gone back to training as she had during her entire adolescence, and her mind was a little dizzy because it had been many hours since she had been fighting.
Even with her legs wobbly, the half-dragon leaned her body weight on the sword on her right side and stood. Then she brandished the sword forward and placed it face to face with her chest.
‘I can’t give up yet, Luke was the one who got this information advantage for us, so we should take advantage of it and destroy this outpost!’ she spoke to herself, trying to motivate herself.
Suddenly, she heard footsteps coming from the left of her back. When she turned around, she saw Luke with a smile and wearing obsidian armor. As soon as their eyes met, she felt her heart pounding like never before, after all it had been many months since they had last seen each other.
However, by the time she jumped up to hug Luke in her full loving embrace, she woke up from that dream.
“Damn it, Alexis…that dream yet again?” The S-Class spoke aloud as she looked up at the ceiling of her tent.
A little stressed about missing the half-wolf and not being able to see him, and tired from the previous day, Alexis huffed and quickly tried to get up from her bed.
“The camp is always so quiet at that time of day…” She noted once again, after easily realizing that the sun had not yet risen.
When Alexis Dmitry put on her clothes this time, she was not wearing the routine white shirt with embroidery on the sleeves, nor the dark blue blazer she normally wore, but rather a nice armor that obviously highlighted her beautiful curves and also protected her more than ordinary clothes.
“That blacksmith is really good… He managed to get the best durability and strength that the scales of a Lord of the Kobolds can achieve.”
Her armor had scales that protected the sides of her abdomen, her boots and also her bracelet, because she was still choosing to wear a skirt, after all she always thought that pants restricted her movements.
After dressing, she blew out the flame of the lantern with one breath and left her private tent. As soon as she left the tent, she saw a sea of tents. There were thousands of tents, and among them were also poles erected with flags emblazoned with the Melki Empire’s coat of arms, which had the same number of points that star designs normally have, but each of the points of this coat of arms was a large circle that in the end connected in the middle with a smaller circle.
The vision of that same destroyed place had been appearing constantly in S-Class’ dreams, and it also appeared in her vision at that moment when she was watching the sea of tents. Accompanied by this quick and vivid vision came a strong headache that made her put her left hand to her forehead and close her eyes for a moment.
“Good morning! Wait, are you okay?” A gentle, sweet voice caressed the ears of Alexis who slowly opened her eyes.
So, when she opened her eyes and looked to her right side, she saw the kind healer and alchemist who often helped her with some things. This woman was holding two iron mugs with coffee in them, and hesitated to extend one of them to Alexis when she realized that she was not doing very well.
The half-dragon smiled a little, and reached out to take one of the coffees from the woman. “It’s just a passing migraine. More importantly, how are the survivors from yesterday?” She asked and took a sip of the coffee she received as a gift.
“The ones you brought back from the safe-point with Matthew Oliveira?” The woman needed to confirm, because there were many survivors from war-affected neighborhoods in Oukiwa.
“Exactly, it was a little girl and a man of about 50, her father.”
“I remember them perfectly. They were directed along with the other refugees to Boiji in the late afternoon, because their house was destroyed in the first wave, and they have no living relatives in Oukiwa.”
Alexis smiled contentedly. “I’m glad they were left in peace, at least for now.”
“For now? What do you mean, ma’am? We are managing to handle the waves with the army of volunteers and adventurers, we are not doing so badly that we need pessimism.” The woman did not hold back the words of her opinion, after all she was not a servant, but a scholarly alchemist.
At that moment, Alexis looked her in the eye a little more seriously and said, “Follow me.”
The two walked to the back of the half-dragon tent. There were a few dozen more large tents, however, it was a much larger number than there were in the small mounds ahead. Behind these larger tents was a ten-meter-high wall made of ancient stone bricks, in which there was a large hole that allowed one to see how thick this wall used to be.
“I know that you came from the Imperial Capital to help here, however, I do not belittle the damage that happened in the first waves, and that continues to happen with the remaining monsters. The wall of this city used to be one of its symbols of respect, and it is broken, as are its people. We have not been able to save as many people as we would have liked, but those who are gone will surely be avenged, I guarantee you this, even if this Empire falls, I will not stop fighting.”
Seeing Alexis speaking so earnestly, the woman could not hide the blush that appeared on her face. She had become a deep admirer of this Class-S Adventurer in the last few days, and she did not doubt Alexis’ willingness at any point, she just did not approve of the negative thinking, although Alexis was more than right to reflect on everything bad that had happened to Oukiwa.
Just the fact that one of the five major cities of the Broteforge Empire had become the epicenter of a war of such large scales was surely a frightening thing.
“Understood, sorry if I was disrespectful.” The alchemist spoke and looked away while sipping some coffee.
Alexis approached her and gave the woman a weak slap on the shoulder in a friendly manner. “You haven’t slept yet, have you? From the position of the moon, it should still be another two hours before dawn. Go to your tent and get some rest, the day will be long if we are to advance with this army in dir—”
As the half-dragon spoke, she saw an explosion of flames in the distance and the sound of that explosion didn’t even reach her ears, however, she still interrupted her sentence.
“Eliza, run to the nearest bell and swing it, swing it as hard as you can.” Surprised, Alexis didn’t know how to react, she just gave the orders as fast as she could as she walked towards the explosion that happened amidst the sea of tents.
Next, dozens of explosions happened in several different places. The constancy of the explosions illuminated the hills in the distance, beyond those on which hundreds of tents stood. On those hills farther away, thousands of monsters had been revealed, just as Alexis had seen in her dream a few minutes ago.
As she ran towards the monsters, she just smiled, for unlike how she had been in her dream, tired, she was now well and willing to kill tens of thousands of monsters for a whole week if it were possible.
However, when she was halfway through and watching from afar as the first warriors began to confront the horde of monsters, she heard a hole coming from the sky, like thunder.
The night was partly cloudy, with a few clouds in the sky, but it was still possible to see the moon. Then, in front of the moon something appeared, and its silhouette was evident to all who looked for the noise of the thunder amidst the explosions. This silhouette was huge, it had four legs and two wings whose wingspan was as big as the body on which they were supported.
Alexis’ eyes widened, and he immediately used <Fist of Life>, after all this was his strongest weapon and the only one that could stop something so big. Looking at the creature that was flying over the skies, she had no doubt what that creature could be, after all its features were unique.
‘Dragons? They can control Dragons? That’s not fair!’ she complained as she noticed although she hadn’t had the opportunity to see the creature up close.