Ch.976In the Rain

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

Ambush using Defying Fate. Compressing the approach time to the extreme, I charged forward and swung my blade, cleanly severing the neck of one of the regular guardians.

He died without even uttering his last words. Until the moment his head fell off, he hadn’t even realized his own death.

One of the few remaining regular guardians—for someone who might have been stronger than Nigel or Joshua in terms of objective combat power, it was an incredibly pathetic end.

This is why ambushes are so effective.

If I had faced him head-on, I could have killed him too, but it would have cost me twice the strength and time.

“Estraus is down!”

“High-priority target, Aishan-Gioro Haschal spotted!”

“Everyone disperse! Create maximum distance!”

After taking down one guardian, the other regular guardians looked at each other and urgently announced my appearance.

“Tch.”

Sharper than I expected.

They’re not connected by neural links sharing all thoughts and emotions, yet they immediately noticed one guardian had fallen in the midst of this chaotic battle.

It seemed the advantage I could gain from ambushing was limited to just the one guardian I’d killed.

Watching the guardians freak out like girls who’d spotted a cockroach on their bed the moment I appeared on the battlefield.

“High-priority target, huh? That’s quite grand—”

“Crush him with mass! Cut off his mobility!”

Before I could finish speaking, a wave of trees surged toward me.

A barrier of roots and trunks rose with a rumbling sound and crashed down on me with the force of a collapsing mountain.

From the opposite direction, a massive bull made of stone charged at me, surrounded by arrows formed of elemental spirits.

I see. They know they can’t win in close combat, so they’re trying to immobilize me with area attacks from a distance. A wise choice.

But meaningless nonetheless.

“You’re trying hard, but it’s just wood and stone. This kind of—”

“He’s going to use fire! Is the anti-incineration formula ready yet?”

“……”

Come on, guys. Let me speak, just let me speak. You keep cutting me off every time I try to say something, seriously.

I clicked my tongue and stretched my right hand above my head. Toward the forest wave casting a massive shadow and crashing down like a tsunami.

“Kena—”

Just as the rune’s flames were about to incinerate the wooden tsunami with the activation word—

“Mana charge complete! Localized climate control formula, initiating!”

With the fairy’s shout from the rear, who had been firing elemental arrows, an enormous amount of mana gathered in the sky above, hidden by the trees.

The fairies’ anti-fire defense formula using the World Tree’s power—localized climate control.

The vast mana gathered in the sky instantly transformed into massive dark clouds and began pouring torrential rain onto the battlefield.

— Swoooosh!

Concentrated rainfall—no, judging by its scale and intensity, it should be called super-concentrated rainfall. The flames burning the forest immediately lost their power and were suppressed.

“Rain! The damn fairies have summoned rain!”

“Reinforce the holy barriers! Watch the forest! The real battle with them begins now!”

“Regular troops, retreat outside the forest! Commence the second incineration operation!”

“Paladins, gather in squad units! Prepare for chaotic battle!”

The commanding paladins of each unit in the Holy Corps shouted while emitting streams of holy light.

The paladins were to prepare for the chaotic battle about to unfold, while the soldiers beneath them were to quickly escape the forest and move on to the next operation.

It was a natural measure.

The battlefield, having lost the advantage provided by fire, had instantly transformed into an environment where normal command and control couldn’t even be hoped for.

“…me! Right now…can’t…ear? Fall…back!”

— BOOM! RUMBLE! CRACK! CRASH!

With the torrential rain pouring down and steam rising like clouds, visibility was extremely limited, and all sorts of thunderous noises overlapped, rendering hearing meaningless as well.

“Argh?!”

“I told you not to run! You’ll fall!”

An environment where even the situation right in front of you was difficult to confirm. Armor soaked and heavy, ground turned to slippery mud.

“AAAAGH! Help, help meeeEEEGH!!”

“Kuhurk…! My stomach, my stomach…!”

And on top of that, trees that would grab and crush or impale bodies in an instant. It was a battlefield that ordinary soldiers couldn’t handle, though paladins might manage.

While the forest was ablaze, they could somewhat hold their own by overwhelming the patrollers with numbers, but now even that was impossible.

Having roughly anticipated this situation, we had given them their next role before engaging in full-scale battle.

The grandly named “Second Incineration Operation.” Grand in name only, the actual operation was quite simple.

Since they were no longer effective combat forces, they were to flee outside the forest, spread out widely, and set fire to areas beyond the rain’s reach. That was all.

The fires would probably be extinguished soon anyway, but they would at least irritate the fairies and the World Tree.

With most of the fairies’ forces tied up in this battlefield, the World Tree itself would have to exert its power to extinguish the fires set by the soldiers who had gone outside.

—-

Well, battlefield assessment and detailed command were for the commanders to handle. It wasn’t my concern.

What I needed to do now wasn’t some ordinary role like repelling soldiers or managing paladins,

— Rumble…!

But to eliminate that wave of trees still surging toward me at this very moment.

“Hmm….”

I had originally planned to burn it with rune flames… but that might be difficult now.

I withdrew my outstretched right hand slightly. In this rain, trying to create fire would only waste energy; it would certainly be extinguished within seconds.

In that case….

“Lacy! I leave the rear to you!”

“As you wish!”

After asking Lacy to handle the high-level elemental targeting my back, I leaped explosively toward the approaching wave of trees and extended my left arm.

— CRACK!

A dull impact transmitted through my wrist. Frosting’s claws pierced through the thick tree roots like tofu.

“If I can’t burn it, I’ll just smash it!”

With my left arm embedded up to the shoulder in the wave of trees, I concentrated on the seal on my wrist and explosively radiated destructive mana.

“Hagalaz-!”

A storm of raging mana. Blue streaks of light burst forth like hundreds of snakes, relentlessly penetrating and tearing through hundreds and thousands of roots and trunks.

The wave of trees twisted and crumbled rapidly, spewing broken wood fragments like a fountain.

The power of destruction spreading from my left arm to the tips of the roots decomposed the wall of trees that had been surging like a tsunami, returning it to soil.

“Ha, is that all you’ve got?”

I descended, washing off the wood fragments and dirt from my body with the pouring rain, landing on top of the stone bull that had been ramming against Lacy’s holy barrier.

— CRASH!

Perhaps my landing was a bit too violent. The stone bull’s spine shattered with a boom as it received my body.

The high-level elemental tilted helplessly to the side. Its severed head fell with Durandal’s blade wedged into it like a stake.

“You tried. That’s all I can say.”

I stepped down from the gradually disappearing body of the stone bull, pulled Durandal from its head, and briefly surveyed my surroundings.

“…Rain again this time. I simply cannot understand the principle behind it.”

About two hundred meters away, Perlien de Genes was fiercely battling guardians.

— Hissss!

The small sun enveloping his body was fluctuating, emitting fierce steam against the pouring rain.

True to the flames created by Saulite’s power, they continued to burn without extinguishing even in this downpour, but they were barely holding on at their limit.

The intense heat that could burn everything within twenty meters just by walking seemed to have disappeared completely, as several fairies were openly charging toward him.

Fairies drawing swords and spears while riding on tree roots that extended and writhed like giant snakes.

Since elementals were useless against the wielder of Hauteclere, they seemed to be planning to engage in close combat by deploying fairies trained in spear and sword techniques.

“Though clouds may obscure the sun, they are but temporary shadows. Come at me all you want, long-eared vermin who hide in the bushes, afraid of the dawn!”

Perlien, wielding Hauteclere, the fairy-slaying sword, roared while emitting streams of crimson holy light.

Instead of burning, the tree roots melted away, and a storm of spears and swords whirled, tasting blood.

—-

While Perlien was fiercely rampaging against numerous guardian forces, the others weren’t just standing around watching the rain either.

“Flood or not, I’ll just cut through it!”

“Glory to Elpinel! Retribution upon them!”

Joshua’s great sword cut through the wave of trees, while Lacy and the Special Crusaders deployed pillars of pure white light to annihilate the broken wood fragments.

“Inquisitors! Follow Lady Astica!”

“The Sword of Hestella, Nigel, is here!”

Ceylon and the church inquisitors unleashed the “Light of Judgment” to sweep through the fairy patrollers’ formation, followed immediately by Nigel, who raised dozens of spears and swords to create a storm of steel.

Perhaps because of the insanely pouring rain? Instead of unleashing lightning with Eberond’s holy spear, he seemed to be focusing on utilizing his Tale of Heros.

“Kuhek…! Using poison, how cowardly…!”

“It’s not poison? It’s poison because you think it’s poison.”

Frider van Faelrun had already taken down nearly ten patrollers in the chaotic battle.

She cut through the surging tree roots with her chainsaw, then slipped between the patrollers, lightly tapping them before quickly retreating.

The patrollers who had initially just stared blankly at her back, wondering what she was doing, were writhing in agony within ten seconds, bleeding from every orifice.

Her Tale of Heros, Wolf Killer, implanted the effects of poisons she had experienced into the bodies of those she touched.

Unlike when she played pranks on me with diuretics, Frider was selecting only the deadliest poisons to brutally kill the fairies when facing enemies.

Poisons that killed within ten seconds by attacking seven vital points, or ones that damaged the brain causing victims to rampage like lunatics, or neurotoxins that made them convulse wildly with their eyes bulging from excruciating pain.

…So she actually consumed all of these just to try to beat me once.

She’s tough, really tough. There’s no one as stubborn as her.