42 Chapter 42 A Nun
Aldred absorbed the mana within the ruby crystal. He stared at the caravan ahead and punched. “Fire Fist.”
A fire the shape of a fist shot forward, then it enlarged, blazing with huge, violent flame before engulfing four carriages at once. The flames blazed to the sky, burning the grass and plants around it.
“Attack!” Bartrem jumped out of the leaves and charged forward. Joseph, Jeffery, and the other soldiers charged as well.
“Pongo!” Pongo the penguin raised his baguette and charged at the enemy. His eyes were as fierce as an eagle looking for prey.
There were fourteen carriages at first, now there were only ten left. Aldred summoned his undead. Currently, he only had twenty-nine undead, most of them were humans. His undead capacity was sixty, so he wanted to increase that number during this battle.
Archers came out of the carriages and fired arrows at them. Just like last time, Aldred deflected all of them with an even greater speed and precision. His skills had leveled up which increase the velocity and the rate of fire his skill had.
Currently, his fire bullets skill was at the speed of a submachine gun. If he levels it up again, could it reach the speed of a mini gun? Aldred hoped it could go even faster than that.
Bartrem and his men charged under the rain of broken arrows. There were around sixty enemies. Fifteen of them were archers. And six of them were water magician.
A huge blob of water floated in the sky. It burst into icicles and rained at the army. Aldred gritted his teeth as he fired even quicker. The icicles were much faster than the arrows, so it was much harder to deflect.
An icicle stabbed Joseph’s shoulder. He gritted his teeth and cursed under his breath. “We have to be quicker or we need something to distract them.”
“I can do that!” Aldred said. His fingers shot three fire arrows in quick succession into the sky. The enemy was shocked. The water magicians stopped their offensive spells and started chanting a defensive spell. A blob of water turned into a wall that blocked his arrows.
Aldred snorted. “I will fly around to distract them.”
He activated jet flame on his feet and hand, streaking into the sky. When he was high enough, he sprayed fire bullets at the enemy. They retaliated with arrows. Aldred laughed. That was his intention. Now, Bartrem and the others did not have to face the long-range attack.
Bartrem arrived and fought against the infantry unit. As a Knight of Pressure Platoon II, he was used to breaching against strong and tight formations, but the enemy he fought today was disoriented and unprepared for their attack. Together with his men, he swung his large swords, killing three men at once.
Joseph moved in from beside him, like a snapping snake, his sword struck precisely at the man’s neck. Jeffery came in, slamming his sword with powerful momentum, throwing them to the side with a broken waist and shoulders.
Aldred locked his eyes at the fifteen archers. Fireballs came out of his fingers and crashed against the water screen before disappearing. He sighed. ‘I guess I have to use the crystal again.’
He absorbed the mana from the crystal and summoned a larger and fiercer fireball. It stood on top of his index finger above his head. Aldred smiled and looked at the enemy below. “Sunshine!”
The archers and magicians below stared with widened eyes. “Impossible. How could this boy conjure such as powerful fire ball?”
“He has a mana crystal in his hand.”
“Fuck! We cannot survive that.”
“Sister Mira is here. We have to defend it no matter what.”
The fireball flew down, crashed against the screen of water, and then exploded. The screen of water shattered. And then it was followed by a storm of bullets. After making sure all of them were dead, Aldred aimed at the enemy infantry troops. And attacked them.
Suddenly, another caravan came from behind. It was larger than the first.
“Our reinforcement came!” the enemy soldier shouted!
The soldiers hopped out of their carriages and roared. They raised their swords as they ran towards Bartrem and the others.
Pressure Platoon II was sandwiched between two sides. Bartrem ordered the back line to fight the reinforcement unit while he tried to quickly kill the enemy at the front. Aldred helped. He shot fire arrows, fireballs, and fire bullets at the enemy. He did not use fire javelins because that was only useful for penetrating thick armor. And Flame Fist was an area of damage spell, he was afraid that his allies might get hit as well.
Eventually, the enemy at the front was all dead, and Bartrem rushed to the back. Aldred flew towards the back as well. With Bartrem reinforcing the line, the back became the front now. Pongo and the undeads fought valiantly. The reinforcement unit was at least seventy men with a knight leading the charge. He fought Bartrem to a standstill.
A group of soldiers with open chest shirts stomped the ground. The ground below their feet abruptly raised high.
“Earth magicians?”
The ground pushed them into the air. The six of them formed rock vambraces on their arms and punched at him. Aldred easily dodged the attack. War Torn Ogre was much faster than them. With that experience, dodging their attack was very easy.
But surprisingly, the ground below him shot upward and knocked his chin. Blood came out of his mouth, and his flight became unstable. Aldred quickly stabilized himself, but the magician did not give him any chances. They hopped on the ground, and a skateboard without wheels formed under their feet. They surfed the ground like they were surfing on the ocean, and chased after him.
“Shit!” Aldred sent them a storm of fire arrows. A wall of rocks formed in front of them, blocking all the projectiles.
“These earth magicians are more troublesome than the water ones.”
“Fire javelin!”
A long javelin made out of flame shot out of his palm and they zipped through the wall of rock, stabbing through the chest of the magician.
[EXP +1015]
“Got you! Hahaha!”
The five earth magicians became warier and they started to work together. Whenever Aldred threw a fire javelin at them, they’d stopped and thickened their rock wall. It was quite effective since Aldred couldn’t kill them after a few hours of battle.
Aldred felt the battle drag out for too long. He had to use the crystal. He grabbed the ruby crystal and absorbed the mana within it. Red mist entered his arms, but then it stopped and the crystal dimmed.
“What?” He inspected the crystal and realized it had run out of mana already. “This is worse than an iPhone’s battery capacity.”
If not for Mary telling him the value of the crystal the day before, he might have thrown it away.
He stared at the five earth magician. They were chasing him with their rock skateboards, surfing on the ground. That was actually very cool. He had to learn them someday. But for now, he had to finish them off.
One glaring advantage Aldred had over other magicians was his mana. Unlike other magicians, his mana was unlimited.
With that in mind, he rushed toward one of the magicians and threw fire javelins at him. The man cast a wall of rock, but the javelin kept on coming and destroyed it. Aldred immediately sprayed him with fire bullets, killing the man.
[EXP +1015]
Four left. Aldred increased the power of his jet, making him speed up, and arrived right in front of another enemy. The enemy flinched but quickly conjured his earth shield. Aldred smiled and put his palm on the shield.
“Flame Jet!”
A jet of flame penetrated through the rock and blasted the man’s chest.
[EXP +1015]
‘Three to go’
Then suddenly something happened. The three earth magicians hopped into the air. A large rock bulged under their feet, and quickly they used it as a surfboard while it moved towards him like a gigantic bull.
The earth magicians created a large wall of rocks in their path. Suddenly, the walls expanded upward and enclosed Aldred before he could fly out. Only some lights entering through the gaps on the rocks let him see the place around him.
Aldred frowned. He heard the sounds of rocks scraping against each other. That was when a volley of rocks came at his face. Aldred turned his body to dodge. But more rocks came from all directions.
Aldred fired flame jet at the rocks to destroy them, but there were too many of them. One rock hit his stomach, making him fall to the ground.
The earth magicians rushed at him with their surfboards and buried him in rocks.
“Fuck!”
Aldred blasted the rocks to free himself with a flame jet, but another volley of rocks was already flying at his face. He was thrown a few meters because of the impact.
The three magicians lifted three large boulders into the air. Aldred could only watch as they came crashing down at him.
The three magicians approached the boulders and lifted them back into the air, but they saw nothing. Suddenly, Aldred came out of thin air at the same spot and sprayed fire bullets at them.
“Take this sucker!” His feet shoot out flame jet, pushing him into an earth magician. Aldred quickly blasted his head, before firing a few javelins at the others, destroying their rock shields.
[EXP +1015]
He punched out a fire fist that enlarged and covered their whole sight with flames. But that was merely a distraction, Aldred flew to the sky and landed behind their back before penetrating their body with a fire javelin.
Both magicians fell with a thud.
[EXP +1015] ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
[EXP +1015]
Aldred breathed in and out because of exhaustion. The six earth magicians were really good at fighting. And according to his analysis, they were at least at level 29. That meant they almost reached the Silver Rank.
That was why they were so hard to fight.
He was so exhausted. The battle earlier nearly took his life. Luckily, he could enter the Divine Dimension to avoid the boulders, but there was a limit to this ability.
[You cannot enter the Divine Dimension. Duration: 23 hour 59 minutes]
Aldred took a deep breath, flew into the air, and blasted through the rock sphere. He had to help his allies. When he came, he saw his comrades were in a hard battle. The enemy had larger numbers, and they were already exhausted after ambushing the first caravan.
He was tired as well, but he had to do something. And he did what he did best; He sprayed the enemy with fire bullets from above. He was like an attack helicopter that rained bullets upon the ancient soldiers.
With a surprise attack from another Silver Rank, the enemy knight ordered his men to retreat. Aldred did not let that happen. He flew behind the man and fired a flame jet at his face.
The enemy knight dodged and rolled away.
“Good job, Aldred. Let’s take out this knight together.”
“Pongo!” Pongo stepped beside them, staring fiercely at the knight as he held tight the baguette in his hand.
“Fuck! Why did you bring bread as a weapon?”
“Pongo pongo (My bread, my rules!)”
“I am going to cook you after this battle.”
The two— the three of them rushed at the enemy knight. Bartrem ran with power and vigor as usual. He clashed swords against the man, while Aldred sneaked from the side and send a storm of fire bullets at close range.
Numerous holes in the armor leaked out blood. The Knight stepped back and was about to run away.
But something came from the sky. It arched through the air and slammed a bread on the man’s head.
The man fell to the ground, unconscious.
“I can’t believe I would say this, but good job, Pongo.”
Pongo hit his chest as he squeaked proudly. “Pongo pongo pongo (You guys cannot do anything without me)”
Aldred took a deep breath to contain his anger. He walked to the knight and blasted his head.
[EXP +1200]
[You have level up]
Looking at the Silver Rank enemy on the ground, Aldred thought about making him an undead. “Arise.”
Dark shadows engulfed the knight, and then a human undead stepped out.
“It worked.”
Bartrem widened his eyes. “You can make a Silver Rank become your undead that easily?”
“How does it work usually?”
“I am not sure. I never see a necromancer at work personally.”
Aldred nodded. Maybe the necromancer in this world worked differently than his power. “I am going to fly to check if there is any survivor.” Aldred flew to the sky. His comrades were cleaning up the retreating enemy. It seemed the opposition did not have any chances against his comrades.
But then he noticed a soldier and a woman sneakily running into the forest.
“Hell no, you won’t get away.” Aldred flew above them as they were about to enter the forest.
Aldred landed in front of them, one fist on the ground. He tilted his head upward, looking at them. “I am… iron dude.”
Andrew brandished his sword and stepped over the woman who was in very revealing clothes.
“Are you a nun?” Aldred asked.
“Sister, Mira. Please run into the forest and hide. I will buy time for you.”
“No.” She walked forward and looked at the boy. “This boy is stronger than you. There is no need to sacrifice any more life for me.”
Bartrem and his troops came.
“Good job catching up to them, Aldred,” Bartrem said. “Now, close your eyes. I will try to make it less painful.”
“I come in peace,” Mira said. “Please stop your violence act.”
Bartrem thrust his sword through Andrew’s heart. Mira looked at the man with widened eyes. “I said no violence! Why did you kill him when we are obviously surrendering?”
“Simple. You are spies. Of course, you will surrender yourself to us, that way you can gain information that you can give to your ally. We have been at war for years, why do you look so surprised?”
“I am surprised at how easy you can take someone else’s life. Those people you kill are father, son, and brothers of a family.”
Bartrem clicked his tongue and scratched his head. “Are you a nun?”
“Yes, I am.”
“That explains it.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Nothing. Ahh, this is difficult. We are not supposed to kill a nun. And you are not supposed to be at our border. At least without your bishops or whatever they are called.”
Aldred was surprised. He thought this medieval world did not have any morality such as not killing a nun. “So what do we do now?”
Bartrem sighed heavily. “We cannot kill her, but we cannot send her back either.”
“Why is that?”
Bartrem pulled Aldred a distance away from the nun to prevent her from listening. “We cannot kill the nun, because the heroes will rampage our border. And if we return her, our political enemy will say that we are a traitor and use that chance to pull out the empress’ influence from many places.”
“Who are these heroes?”
“The heroes are powerful magical warriors that have received the blessing of the god.”
“Magical warrior?”
Bartrem nodded. “They can use martial arts and magic. They are very good at it as well. If you are the same rank as them, you will not likely win the battle.”
“How do you know our political enemy will call us a traitor if we return the nun?”
“That’s because the empress had done it before. The reason why she has fingers everywhere was because of that one mistake the emperor’s camp made. If we do the same thing, the empress’ influence will deteriorate.” Bartrem felt like he shouldn’t explain this to a ten-year-old, but he was afraid that Aldred would keep asking questions. If that happened, Pharder’s men might hear them and report it to him.
“So we will hide her?”
“Yes. Not only from the enemies, but from our allies as well. The enemy will investigate this place later, and they will not see the nun’s body. They will speculate that she ran away, because last time we return the nun immediately.”
“Will it be that simple?”
“Absolutely not. This is just speculation. Who knows what the investigator will think. Maybe they’d know that we keep the nun hostage, but as long as we don’t ask for ransom and no one else knew about the nun, we can be safe.”
Aldred scratched his head. “This is very complicated.”
“That is why I said this will be difficult. Now how do we hide her from the army?”
“Why don’t we disguise her as our mage? Pharder hates women right? He wouldn’t care if she became our mage.”
“How do you know she’s a mage?” generally, a nun was someone who did not have any talent in magic. They spend the majority of their time doing… nun stuff.
“I have good eyes.” He also knew that the nun did not wear any underwear, but he did not need to tell Bartrem that.