Ch.1242The Fight is Best with a Surprise Attack

Provocation is provocation, and battle is battle.

Though he felt rage at the mockery that brought up not only his extinct kin but even his parents and siblings, Caljarat fought coldly without losing his reason.

Rampaging in anger against a stronger opponent was the worst of strategies, creating only openings. It would be impossible to even endure while losing composure.

As a veteran warrior, Caljarat knew this well, and so he suppressed his rising anger and maintained a cool, calm mindset.

“Stay right there and wait. I will surely tear that mouth of yours in two!”

…He was calm, anyway. For an orc.

【 That’s a decent idea. Even among inferior and stupid creatures, there’s always something to learn. 】

Of course, whether Caljarat went berserk or not made no difference to Erzsebet. She would win regardless.

【 As you wish, I’ll tear your mouth and leave only the upper jaw. 】

Erzsebet spread her arms wide and drew more power from the sea of blood. Since there seemed nothing more to see, she intended to finish this now.

【 It will make a fine decoration hanging behind my throne. 】

– Rumble!

A red ring appeared in the sky, from which hundreds of crimson specters poured forth, while blood-colored lightning and blades swirled from all directions.

– Roar!

Monsters with dozens of eyes and tentacles sprouting from the upper bodies of red-stained dragons roared like thunder, spewing poisonous breath and extending their tentacles to cover the sky.

A spectacle of blood magic that overwhelmed with sheer volume, forbidding any counterattack. An onslaught several times greater than before in both scale and power dyed the entire world red.

“Kuk…!”

Gritting his teeth as if groaning in despair, Caljarat kicked through the air without rest, swinging his four great swords like a storm.

– Crash!

Blood spray scattered and fragments of light dispersed like shattered glass.

Specters grazed by the purple slashes crumbled with shrill screams, and the poisonous breath dispersed into mist from the air pressure.

“Kraaaah!”

Roaring as if spitting blood, Caljarat unleashed another massive slash.

The lightning, mass of tentacles, and crystallized blood spears flying toward him were all torn to shreds.

【 Hmm, you’re holding up well. Impressive. 】

Erzsebet let out a quiet exclamation of admiration. Even she wasn’t confident she could block all the attacks she had unleashed with just that much energy expenditure.

Of course, he hadn’t blocked everything perfectly. A couple of lightning bolts that penetrated between his slashes tore his skin bright red, and several blood crystals were embedded in his arms and legs.

But such wounds were mere scratches by orc standards. They weren’t serious enough to hinder combat.

Looking at the result, she had inflicted only 1 damage with 10 units of power. It was a terribly inefficient outcome.

‘If this were the end, that is.’

The next moment.

– Whoosh!

All the blood droplets that Caljarat had shattered stopped in mid-air, then merged and crystallized with a flash, transforming into red chains.

“What…?!”

【 Got you. 】

Their number, roughly estimated, was at least several hundred.

Before he could resist by swinging his great swords, hundreds of blood chains spread like a net, wrapping around Caljarat’s entire body and constricting him.

‘Damn, this is bad…!’

Like an insect caught in a spider’s web.

Caljarat twisted his body with all his might to resist, but even after breaking about ten chains, several times as many new ones immediately wrapped around him.

Even with the unyielding strength of a demigod orc, it was difficult to break all those chains by force. And Erzsebet certainly wouldn’t just stand by and watch.

【 Now, let’s end this. 】

Smiling triumphantly, Erzsebet stretched her arms toward Caljarat and drew up an enormous amount of power.

Enough power to annihilate in one blow without leaving a single piece of flesh, even if the opponent was a demigod or dragon.

Erzsebet lacked the skill to control her power relative to what she possessed, making it impossible to draw out all her strength at once, but with her opponent bound like this, it didn’t matter.

She could simply gather power slowly during the time she had bought. Just like now.

– Roar!

An enormous amount of blood like a river gathered in a swirling motion before her two arms, forming a blood-red sphere that blazed like the sun.

The blood sun, containing such destructive power that it distorted and agitated the surrounding space.

Half of all the life she had devoured so far was contained within that sun.

In other words, only half of her own power and the blood pillars protecting the castle remained… but what did that matter?

Once Caljarat fell, the rest were mere rabble. She could annihilate them instantly with the remaining half of blood.

That’s why Erzsebet didn’t care at all that the blood pillar had half-collapsed, clearly revealing her figure.

That was her mistake.

【 Defying Fate 】

The next moment, her two arms flew off. With a faintly glowing blue afterimage. In an instant, without any warning.

“No…?!”

Arms severed before she could even perceive it.

Erzsebet turned her head in shock to look. At the stellar blade that had flown like lightning through frozen time.

“Why so surprised? Is this your first time getting your arms cut off?”

The Goddess of Dawn who had stopped behind her raised her blue longsword with a mocking smile.

The Oath of Elpinel gleamed coldly.

======[ Haschal ]======

Several minutes earlier.

Around when the bloody battle between Caljarat and Erzsebet had just begun, I was briefly distracted while watching the battle situation.

Or rather than being distracted, should I say I turned my ears elsewhere? I was conversing with someone else while simultaneously watching the battle.

“—We’ve started here. How’s it on your end?”

“As expected. Too predictable to be interesting.”

A muttered phrase as if talking to myself. The answer came to my ear. In a voice full of static like a broken speaker, difficult to understand.

“They’re deliberately taking their time. Waiting for us to start the fight first, planning to shift the undead’s attention to us.”

“I expected that… but they’re disgustingly petty. This is why we can’t get along with these beasts.”

A report relaying the actions of the werebeasts who had formed an uncomfortable alliance with us. Considering the distance between both sides, this was actually impossible.

As far as I knew, the only means of communication over such distances were the crystal ball-shaped holy relics possessed by Feilandria and his apostles.

We did have Eleonora’s crystal ball, but that was something we couldn’t tamper with freely.

Without properly understanding its principles, using it carelessly might allow Feilandria to discover Eleonora’s defection or eavesdrop on our communications.

Besides, communication orbs would require a pair for two-way communication, but we only had one, making it meaningless.

So we had been forced to rely on slow communication methods befitting this world’s civilization level, like messengers or carrier birds. Until now.

But not anymore.

“By the way, what was this called again? Soul resonance?”

“Soul-mediated wave resonance technique. If that’s hard to remember, call it by the original spell’s name, ‘Call of Kinship.'”

Thanks to the magical technique created by Ophelia van Sigmillus, combining Eleonora’s crystal ball, Meiharin’s sorcery knowledge, and her own half-soul arts.

“Ah, right. Call of Kinship. This is really convenient. Though the sound quality and such still need improvement.”

The essence of this technique was to place homunculi as relays at certain distances, using their resonance to transmit voices to each other.

In other words, small homunculi could be used like mobile phones. Being a prototype technique, it still had various limitations.

“That can’t be helped. Since magical spirits are artificially created souls, their spiritual rank is low. Should I say their spiritual capacity is low?”

Ophelia offered various excuses as if complaining, but unfortunately, since I wasn’t a mage, half of what she said was incomprehensible to me.

“With low capacity and the need to miniaturize the physical form as much as possible, there are limits to improving output or precision…”

From what I could gather, she seemed to be saying it was difficult due to her lack of skill.

Just as early communication devices had incomparably worse performance than current ones due to technological limitations of the time.

Anyway, thanks to that technique, I could have real-time conversations with Ophelia, who was secretly scouting the werebeasts with homunculi.

“So those guys are deliberately taking their time? To pin the blame on us if things go wrong?”

“Right. But I think they’ll make contact in about an hour or two…”

An hour or two is way too long. In that time, we could finish our business and retreat in an orderly fashion.

Of course, the fact that they had deployed at all suggested they weren’t planning to completely violate the alliance treaty… but honestly, it was quite vexing.

Their intention to reap benefits while avoiding risks was so blatant that it was somewhat offensive.

So how could I let that slide?

While we nagas and stone people were engaging in a life-or-death siege after a grueling march, it would be unfair to let them get away with taking all the honey.

“Still no reaction from the giants?”

“I can’t be certain since I’m observing from a distance… but it seems that way. It’s too quiet for them to be preparing for battle.”

Then we should make them prepare.

“Before the werebeasts arrive, create some homunculi to attack the giants’ fortress. If possible, make them resemble werebeasts.”

“Ah, you want them to collide in full battle readiness? That’s good.”

As expected of Ophelia. Smart mage that she is, she immediately understood my intention and agreed with a grin.

“I’ll end the connection now. The homunculi are reaching their limits.”

“Alright, be careful just in case.”

Our conversation ended there. Even if we wanted to talk more, the relay spirits were already starting to die off one by one, making it impossible.

Indeed, this technique still had mountains of issues to improve. But with proper refinement, it could become an incredibly useful tool.