Ch.15This actually works

# 15. This Actually Works

Command requires someone to establish it.

Over the past week, I had spent my free time acquiring basic swordsmanship skills and practicing on innocent scarecrows to increase my proficiency, but I couldn’t do the same with the Command shout. More precisely, I had acquired the Command shout itself, but couldn’t learn “Derivative Orders,” which could be considered the true essence of the Command skill.

Because there was no battle to command.

However, my experience as a raid leader manifested even in my “first command” during this “first battle.” It was truly fortunate, and made my stat allocation worthwhile.

“Uaaaah!!”

“Your Highness. Please hold on tight. You absolutely must not let go.”

“Uaaaah!”

Cutdeadplz’s movements became noticeably faster after receiving the charge command. She roughly shifted the prince from both arms to just one, then pulled out another shield from her inventory.

It was her firm resolve to somehow block attacks from behind with the shield on her back and attacks from the front with the shield in her hand, so I wouldn’t need to worry about her at all.

Because of that, I decided to focus on breaking through, even if it meant accepting some bleeding.

Just as the me in the illusion hadn’t given up on Cutdeadplz.

“Uaaaah!”

‘Twenty-four. One.’

The enemy soldiers charged at us while shouting, as if announcing their attacks. If this were a one-on-one fight, it would have been quite foolish, but now it was serving as a short-distance beacon.

Even if I killed the shouting enemy, the echo left behind would draw one or two more. And those new enemies would repeat the same behavior, as if shouting while attacking was some kind of norm.

“Captain!”

“Save it!”

“But!”

‘Twenty-eight. Three.’

So as my kill count rapidly increased, so did the number of injuries.

‘Left arm, right side, right thigh.’

I checked our vitals.

[JoanOfArcIsASaint][73.4%/38.3%]

[Cutdeadplz][96.7%/48.9%]

[Prince Selon][100%/100%]

My wounds throbbed with pain. Thirty-one. Four. What if I didn’t even have this seemingly flimsy armor? I might have dropped below 50% instead of 73%. It wasn’t just about the numbers. The entire plan of advancing while taking some hits would have been impossible.

Cutdeadplz tried to cast a low-grade healing skill on me, but I stopped her. Thirty-four. Five. With our already limited mana, we couldn’t waste precious magic on such minor injuries.

‘The target point is…’

Purely in terms of distance, we were about halfway there. The reason I didn’t think positively about being “already halfway” was obviously because the density of enemy soldiers increased in the remaining half.

Thirty-seven, and six.

“Captain!”

“Watch out!”

“Don’t stop!”

[JoanOfArcIsASaint][51.6%/37.0%]

Status Ailments: Multiple Injuries, Bleeding

The limitations of my budget armor gradually became apparent. An enemy’s sword had deeply slashed my side. Immediately after, there was a dull sound as if something had violently hit a shield, followed by a scream, but I couldn’t stop. The moment we stopped would be the end.

I checked our pace again.

At this rate, we could reach the target point with our escort target.

We could.

‘Every second counts.’

Even during this brief moment of thought, my mana was draining due to the charge command I had issued earlier, and my health was rapidly decreasing due to status ailments. Because of the side injury, I couldn’t run and had to walk quickly while pouring half of the emergency recovery potion I had preciously kept in my inventory onto the wound and gulping down the rest.

[JoanOfArcIsASaint][63.1%/36.1%]

Status Ailments: Multiple Injuries

‘Tastes disgusting.’

Now that I knew what potions tasted like, I desperately wished for a physical therapist I’d never seen before. Thirty-nine. If you descend upon us, I will cherish you dearly. Forty. Truly.

“Support! Raise support!”

“Block! I said block!”

“Break through!”

According to the scenario, our allied forces were being devoured. Our wall was thin and fragmented. And even that unreliable, tattered wall became harder to find as we approached the target point.

‘Tsk.’

Though I regretted the skill proficiency that was accumulating in real-time, I switched my title. This wasn’t the time to aim for growth bonuses. I needed every stat point I could get.

[S-Rank from the Start: Received an S-rank evaluation in the starting room.]

[Was. I. Perhaps. ‘S-Rank’. From birth…?]

[All stats +1]

[JoanOfArcIsASaint]

[Level 3][Title: S-Rank from the Start (All stats +1)]

[Class: Battle Commander]

[Strength: 15][Agility: 11][Endurance: 11][Magic: 11][Will: 15]

[Remaining stat points: 0]

Forty-three. Seven.

Deflected an attack from the right with my shoulder blade, forcefully repelled a frontal attack and broke through with the opposite shoulder blade. My right shoulder blade became tattered, resulting in a minor shoulder injury.

Forty-four.

Ducked my head to evade, then used that momentum to slightly twist my body and attack an enemy’s wrist. Continued the rotation to slash the knee of another enemy who had frozen in surprise, then broke through forward again.

Forty-six. Eight.

Blocked two swords simultaneously with my sword, engaged in a power struggle, then suddenly released my strength to take advantage of the enemies’ forward-shifted center of gravity for a counterattack, swiftly moving to strike at their armpits and necks. Immediately after attacking, my left arm was hit by a third enemy who had seized the opening. Gritting my teeth, I swept their leg and struck their face.

Forty-nine. Nine.

The enemy soldiers, seemingly aware that my and Cutdeadplz’s breakthrough was no ordinary feat, refrained from rushing in recklessly and formed a more proper encirclement. I attempted to break through before the encirclement thickened. To cause confusion among the enemies, I forcefully removed the head of the most exposed enemy soldier. While trying to widen the path for Cutdeadplz following behind me, I suffered another minor injury to my arm.

Fifty. Breakthrough.

Fifty-five. Breakthrough.

Sixty. Breakthrough.

Breakthrough. Breakthrough. Breakthrough.

The Knight’s Trial didn’t fully restore health and mana just because you passed a trial. That’s why luck and control were important if you wanted to clear more trials at once.

So could I say that I was lucky right now?

“Your Highness. Forgive my rudeness. Captain!”

“Waaaah!”

“!!!”

The distance to the target point was about 1/10 of what it was initially.

[JoanOfArcIsASaint][33.7%/25.5%]

[Cutdeadplz][81.2%/40.9%]

[Prince Selon][90%/100%]

At the point when my health had dropped to 1/3, the prince suddenly popped out from right behind me. More precisely, he “flew out.” The moment I instinctively caught the prince who had curled up, Cutdeadplz moved in front of me, positioned her shield forward, and slightly bent her upper body forward. The muscles and tendons stood out on her once-smooth legs that were partially exposed.

Just as she seemed to understand my intentions well, I immediately grasped hers.

“Lady Seyeon!”

“I’m fine, so it’s right to switch at this point.”

Cutdeadplz cast a basic holy magic self-buff in a small voice. Surrounded by a very faint golden aura, she tapped her shield with her sword and freed herself from what had looked like a somewhat awkward full-sprint stance.

Her leg strength.

Her shield technique.

Her stamina.

Her will.

All of these combined, and at this moment, she too, like me, realized and activated a skill on her first attempt.

The basic shield technique commonly abbreviated as “Shield Charge.”

For a basic skill, it had a long cooldown, high cost, and was difficult to control, but…

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM-!

“Uaaaah!”

“Aaah!”

“Huaaah!”

Its breakthrough power, like a bulldozer pushing through, and the defense boost during the charge were absolutely phenomenal.

‘We’re almost there!’

The distance of Shield Charge was relatively short. The destination was right in front of us, but the destructive charge from earlier couldn’t be used again, at least not in this trial. And during that short time, Cutdeadplz’s condition had deteriorated significantly.

In the end, our charge stopped in front of a very thick wall of enraged enemy soldiers.

‘Ah, I really want an AoE skill.’

Lord Yebeopnojeong, please drop some fire on us.

Lord Mulappal, make us like Moses.

Even while having these idle thoughts, we were blocking attacks and minimizing injuries. Every time Cutdeadplz moved her shield while her blonde hair fluttered, it was no exaggeration to say that one stack of life was saved. Her movements were miraculous. Maybe because it was the first trial, but it was amazing that we were holding out.

“Aaaaargh!!!”

“Your Highness!!!”

But we were outnumbered. To make matters worse, a stray arrow lodged perfectly into the arm of the prince I was holding, making the situation even more urgent. We would fail if we died, but we would also fail if our escort target died.

‘Answer. Answer. Answer.’

My mind was racing faster than when I usually tried to escape from the clutches of those damn archers and mages.

Current position:

Very close to the target point.

Current vitals:

[JoanOfArcIsASaint][30.1%/20.5%]

[Cutdeadplz][51.9%/28.7%]

[Prince Selon][44%/100%]

While Cutdeadplz and I could hold out, the prince would likely die immediately if attacked once more.

Using orthodox methods, this was our limit.

It’s a game but not a game.

“Your Highness.”

“Ugh, huk.”

“I apologize.”

I…

“…Sir?”

…threw the prince.

“…Sir!”

Both Cutdeadplz and the enemy soldiers…

Stared at me blankly for a moment…

And only I, with the heart of a basketball player who had just made a buzzer-beater, watched as the prince disappeared upon reaching the target point.

[You have passed the first trial.]

This actually works.