Ch.49Imperial Invasion (7)

Already three Masters had died. One had regained consciousness and returned to the battle, but his arm appeared broken from being hit by the Minotaur’s tail, forcing him to wield his siege hammer with just one arm.

The siege hammer’s full power could only be unleashed when used with both arms, so its effectiveness was significantly reduced. I wondered if the situation might have been different had Slain remained more composed, but that was already in the past.

After shouting for someone to throw down potions from the wall, I charged at the Minotaur again. The wound on its chest was severe, exposing bone and bleeding profusely. Its arm also had a hole that was bleeding heavily. Those were the weak points to target.

“Aim for the wounds on its chest and arm! If that doesn’t work, widen the wound on its leg! This is a battle of attrition! Make it bleed more and wear it down!”

With Lepil’s shout, everyone charged at the Minotaur. They looked like warriors marching toward certain death.

If they failed to stop this beast here, the capital would be engulfed in flames and their families would become its prey. Despite their desperate resolve as they charged forward…

The Minotaur avoided all our attacks with a single jump. It leaped dozens of meters into the air, blocking out the sunlight. Its shadow fell heavily on the ground, gradually growing larger.

“Get out of the way———!!!”

BOOM——!!!

Like the god of thunder descending, lightning wrapped around the monster’s fist coursed through the ground. If the lightning rod had been intact, it would have absorbed all the electricity flowing through the ground.

But the lightning rod had melted from the lightning and only debris remained. Even those remnants had been swallowed by the cracks created when the Minotaur crashed to the ground. With the lightning rod gone, the lightning rose freely like an ascending dragon before raining down as thunderbolts.

BOOM—!!

BOOM—!!

BOOM———!!

Fortunately, everyone on the ground managed to avoid the attack, but the wall was the problem. The monster’s punch, carrying its full weight, shattered the ground and created cracks extending to the base of the wall. Lightning flowed through these cracks, disrupting the defensive magic circle.

As a result, the magic circle installed to defend against aerial attacks stopped functioning, and hundreds of soldiers who had relied solely on the magic circle died from lightning strikes. Some members of the Mage Corps also perished, unable to avoid the lightning.

“Everyone, beware of the lightning! The monster’s electricity has disrupted the magic circle and it’s no longer working!”

The leader of the Mage Corps on the wall urged caution, but how could one avoid lightning just by being careful? The Minotaur began devastating the surroundings, wreathing its body in lightning and unleashing thunderbolts.

* * * * *

Phew—!!!

It seems I misjudged the capabilities of the Masters and mages. They systematically inflicted wounds on my body to wear me down, their penetration magic easily pierced through my magic resistance and hide, and they even deployed lightning rods to counter my lightning attacks.

Perhaps it was unreasonable for me, who had only lived in this world for about six years, to try to overcome the monster-hunting experience humans had accumulated over hundreds or thousands of years.

By fighting with my own skills rather than relying on instinct, I managed to kill three Masters, but I suffered gaping wounds in my chest and left hand.

Had I relied on instinct, I might have realized that mages were the most dangerous and dealt with them first. But fighting on instinct might have resulted in a poor performance like during my battle with the Chimera.

Unless it was an emergency, I needed to handle situations without depending on instinct, so I continued fighting in my normal form.

Fortunately, Mary was healing my body, and green light emanated from my hand and chest, gradually reducing the pain.

The enemies who had avoided my lightning saw the green light enveloping my wounds and quickly approached, but…

“MWOOOOOOOOO———!!!!!”

BOOM——!!! BOOM——!!! BOOM——!!!

I pounded the ground furiously to buy time for recovery. The ground was already shattered from my earlier fall, but now it looked as if a real earthquake had struck, preventing the enemies from daring to approach me.

“Don’t get caught up! Mages, prepare your spells again! What’s the charging status of the magic cannon?”

“Currently at 60 percent charge! But the monster’s pounding has loosened the cannon’s fixings, so we’re adjusting it!”

“Mobilize as many recovered soldiers as possible and quickly…”

BOOM——!!!

Hearing that the magic cannon was almost fully charged, I jumped onto the wall. With a single leap, I reached the top of the wall, where I saw mages and soldiers staring blankly at me.

Muh——

“AAAAAAHHH!!!”

“AAAHHH!!! I don’t want to die!”

“Evacuate! Quickly evacuate!”

“Down the emergency stairs…”

Rumble…

BOOM!!!

Hundreds of soldiers on the wall turned to ash in an instant. The lightning that burst from my hand consumed hundreds of soldiers and still wasn’t satisfied, devouring several ballistae before reaching the magic cannon.

CRACKLE——!!!

But being a powerful weapon, the lightning was blocked by the barrier surrounding the magic cannon and disappeared. Realizing it was no ordinary weapon, I moved to destroy this “magic cannon.”

The wall was too narrow for me to stand with both feet firmly planted, but I could advance with a model-like walk, approaching the magic cannon with ridiculous steps.

THUD—! THUD—! THUD—!

“The Minotaur is coming!”

“Abandon the magic cannon!”

“Who gave the order to abandon the magic cannon? That item was personally acquired by His Imperial Majesty… AAAHHH!!!”

CRUNCH

I wrapped my tail around the noisy ones, threw them into my mouth, and chewed them up. Eliminating those who got in my way one by one, I approached the magic cannon.

Muh——!!

I clenched my right fist, about to swing at the magic cannon when…

“Now!!”

A sudden signal. In response, the magic cannon made a whirring sound, its barrel splitting open and emitting a bright light through the cracks.

Sensing it was about to self-destruct, I formed a lightning barrier in front of me, crossed my arms, and jumped backward just as…

BOOM———!!!!

The magic cannon, concentrated with mana, exploded, blowing away part of the wall and propelling my already jumping body even further back.

BOOM——!!!

Fortunately, I thought I hadn’t fallen outside the wall, but part of the wall collapsed under my weight, and as I rolled and was about to fall below the wall…

“Die———!!!”

One of the Masters climbing the wall swung his aura toward my neck. It was a massive aura, the same size as the one that had turned to black ash from my lightning earlier.

Seemingly designed to take down large monsters, the aura flew toward my neck, threatening to sever it.

CRACKLE——!!!

To avoid his attack, I spewed lightning from my mouth toward the sky. The recoil made me fall even faster, and the aura that had targeted my neck embedded itself in the wall.

As I fell rapidly, sensing someone targeting me, I flipped my body in mid-air. Waiting for me was a Master who had somehow recovered his arm and was now holding his hammer with both hands, concentrating aura at its tip.

“This time, DIE!!!”

The aura at the tip spun like a drill, attempting to pulverize my body, and I wrapped my right arm in lightning, spinning it to clash with his hammer.

BOOM!!!!

The collision of aura and lightning. Both spinning, they scattered in all directions, devastating the surroundings, with the wall taking a direct hit.

The wall was sliced by the aura, and lightning delivered additional blows, cutting away the lower part of the wall, showing signs of collapse. Neither the Master nor I escaped the aftermath unscathed.

“It’s collapsing!!!”

As the wall began to collapse, the Masters who had been trying to ambush me retreated, but Slain and I remained motionless, determined to see the outcome despite the wall falling on us.

The gradually collapsing wall. The area around me and Slain devastated by lightning and aura. The victor of that confrontation was…

MOOOOOO——!!!!!

Me.

“AAAAARGH—!!!”

BOOM——!!!

Though he had been holding out with his aura, Slain’s arms, unable to withstand my power, were shattered.

Both arms revealed a gruesome sight with bones protruding and muscles torn, and when his hammer fell to the ground, my right arm gained momentum and pulverized Slain.

CRASH——!!!!!

Then the wall fell on top of me. An enormous amount of dust enveloped my surroundings, obscuring everything from view, and as the Masters tensed, preparing for the beast…

WHOOSH——!!!

Debris flew at high speed, engulfing the Masters.

“It’s still alive! Be careful…”

RUMBLE——!!

WHOOSH——!!!!

As they avoided that debris, wall fragments wrapped in lightning slithered like snakes toward them. Ten of them. Like a hydra, the lightning-bound debris flew instantly toward the Masters.

They cut through the debris with aura-wrapped swords, but even as the wall fragments were sliced, the lightning moved like snakes, wrapping around their bodies.

CRACKLE——!!

“Nngh…”

Their lightning-resistant artifacts prevented instant death, but couldn’t block the paralysis from electrocution, and while they were immobilized…

WHOOSH——!!

I hurled debris, methodically killing the paralyzed ones. I killed one by throwing debris, approached another with lightning-wrapped feet and struck him down with my fist, and pulled in yet another bound by my lightning, putting him in my mouth and devouring him.

“Muh…”

Then, a headache shook my mind.

The blood I had lost from my chest, hand, and ankle due to magic was enough to cause anemia.

But ignoring this fact and moving recklessly through the magic cannon’s self-destruction, the aura battle with the hammer-wielder, and the collapse of the massive wall…

These accumulated damages finally built up to a level of fatigue my body could no longer endure, and I raised my hand to shoot lightning into the sky.

“I don’t know what it’s doing, but kill it! It’s staggering and can’t move properly because it’s exhausted!”

The commander tried to charge in despite this, but…

WHOOSH!!!

“AAAH—!!”

“GAH—!!”

In an instant, five of the nine died from arrows that came from somewhere. Before the commander could be surprised, four Elven Knights approached to confront them.

“Kuh—! Silver armor, tree emblems engraved on the armor… You’re Elven Knights!”

“Oh? You know quite a bit about us. The last time we appeared was hundreds of years ago, yet you remember well.”

“I know all about you pointy-eared bastards! That Minotaur must be under your control too! Even if you dare to do this to the Empire, your World Tree that you worship like a god won’t be safe…”

“Your skills are decent, but you talk too much.”

SLASH—.

With those words, the commander’s head flew through the air.