The fierce battle in the middle of the night finally began.
Starting with the holy spear exploding in the midst of the undead horde, tearing apart the undead within range, both the living and the dead clashed, revealing sharp killing intent towards each other.
“Graaaah!”
“You half-dead bastard! Die! Die!”
A revenant charging with a greatsword burst into flames like a torch, while a skeleton struck by an 『Invisible Hammer』 shattered and scattered like Lego in a child’s hand.
“Byproduct of evil deeds, behold Her punishment!”
“Kiaaaa…raah…!”
A wight mangled by punishing arrows collapsed, looking like a horribly twisted SpongeBob, while half-rotten wolves’ bodies were densely pierced with arrows and daggers.
“Krurr?!”
“Gweeeek…!”
A rotten bear that was charging with a roar fell into a pit studded with spear shafts, and a revenant caught in a snare convulsed as it face-planted on the ground covered with caltrops coated in holy water.
A barrage utilizing the full firepower of paladins, priests, magicians, and archers. Plus the traps enthusiastically prepared by adventurers.
Most of the undead that came out in the front line collapsed without even taking a few steps.
A one-sided slaughter. It was the result of thorough preparation.
…Of course, if things were going to end so simply, they wouldn’t have gathered adventurers in the first place. The church’s forces alone would have been more than enough to annihilate them long ago.
Not long after the one-sided battle continued, new faces began to appear among the undead horde.
“Decay Host appearing from the southwest direction!”
A paladin fighting somewhere on the other side shouted at the top of his lungs, loud enough to resound throughout the entire camp.
The appearance of a powerful enemy approaching while withstanding the pouring fierce bombardment.
“They’re coming from the east too!”
“Graaaaaaah!”
A large undead that seemed to be just over 2m tall came charging like a rabid werewolf, letting out a fierce roar.
Abnormally elongated arms and reverse-jointed legs. Teeth sharpened like a beast’s and a spine elongated like a tail.
Mold and mushrooms were growing abundantly on the half-rotten skin riddled with holes like a net, and the chest had flesh and internal organs completely dripping down, fully exposing the ribs.
Decay Host.
A vicious undead with knight-level physical abilities, spreading decay disease by scattering spores of the parasitic mushrooms all around.
It was a monster that copper token adventurers couldn’t handle.
* * *
“Graaaaaaah!”
“They’re coming! Prepare for close combat!”
Starting with the Decay Hosts that emerged one after another, the undead horde that began charging more fiercely finally reached our immediate vicinity.
“Kyaaaah!”
“Krueeeeh!”
Because they had charged while taking the bombardment of magic and miracles head-on, few of them had all limbs intact.
“Paladin Order, draw swords! Eliminate the Decay Hosts!”
The commanding paladin shouted as he launched himself towards a Decay Host. With a holy spear miracle in his left hand and a mace enhanced by blessings in his right.
“The rest, stop those coming over the palisade! Don’t let even a single one enter inside the formation!”
The following order.
Adventurer warriors wielding axes, maces, swords, and spears let out battle cries as they demonstrated their honed killing arts towards the monsters coming over the palisade.
“Die! Die! Die!”
“My fist is steel!”
“Hahaha! Look at this bastard. It’s holding a sword in its mouth because it has no arms!”
“Get lost, all of you! This one’s equipment is mine!”
…In fact, it was closer to brawling honed through real combat rather than killing arts.
Well, even copper token adventurers are mostly ignoramuses who clawed their way up from wooden tokens through brute force. Where would they have had the opportunity to encounter refined swordsmanship?
They didn’t particularly need it in the first place.
While it might be different for intelligent humanoid monsters, when dealing with simple beasts, experience and capability are several times more important than elaborate martial arts.
Anyway, even while wildly swinging their weapons, the warriors steadily harvested the necks of the undead without issue.
It was too simple for them to blow off the heads of those who became half defenseless while climbing over the palisade.
Several minutes passed like that.
“…No, these things. Just how many of them are there?”
The adventurers who had been rampaging vigorously began to pant, staring at the forest with shocked faces.
The undead kept pouring in endlessly no matter how many they killed. There was simply no time to rest.
The temporary palisade had long since turned into a simple hill covered with undead corpses.
Revenants and skeletons slid down the corpse hill and began to swing their spears and swords in earnest, letting out ferocious cries.
“Kuk! This one, its strength is considerable…!”
An adventurer who blocked an axe swung by a revenant wearing a metal breastplate groaned and staggered.
“Kiaaaaah-!”
The revenant roared as if to finish him off, swinging its axe again.
“Step back!”
I intervened between them, blocking the revenant’s axe with my sword blade, then twisted my wrist to deflect the axe blade and dove in to crush its skull with the pommel of my sword.
“Kyaaaah!”
“Where do you think you’re going!”
A skeleton’s sword thrust out as if aiming for an opening was deflected by an armored kick, and with the following punch, its skull crumbled like a cookie and burst sideways.
“Haaah!”
Immediately after, I twisted my waist and swung my longsword, catching the neck of the revenant that was staggering with its skull caved in, crushing and severing it with the blade.
The skeleton and revenant collapsed with a thud.
“Th-thank you…!”
“If you can’t block, deflect!”
After giving advice to use his shield better to the adventurer expressing thanks, I launched myself again and dove fearlessly into a mass of monsters.
“Kyaaak!”
“Guoook!”
Left and right. Front. Below. All kinds of weapons swinging at my entire body.
I took a deep breath, taking in all those blades with my eyes, recalling the optimal path to block and counterattack, and whipping the sword skills ingrained in my body into action.
“Haaah!”
I slightly raised my left foot to deflect an incoming spear tip with my greave, then stepped forward to stomp on and break the spear shaft.
Clang!
I caught a vertical slash between my sword blade and crossguard, then thrust the longsword forward to pierce and sever the enemy’s neck bone.
“Krueeeek!”
“Haap!”
I turned my body while swinging the longsword horizontally, tearing out its neck while simultaneously cutting down the one next to it.
Slash!
Rolling forward while getting drenched in blood all over, I rammed into a revenant raising its axe high with my pauldron, knocking it down, and before it could get up, I thrust my blade to cut off its neck.
Crunch!
At that moment, an undead adventurer’s mace struck my back fiercely.
I did dodge, but the tip of the mace grazed my breastplate, pushing my upper body forward sharply.
“Ugh…!”
My waist bent forward as if bowing. An enemy’s spear tip was right in front of my eyes.
I turned my head to deflect the spear tip with the side of my helmet, then sprang up while raising my longsword to diagonally sever the enemy’s waist.
Rotten intestines squirmed like trampled worms, spraying black bodily fluids.
Really, the smell…
After cutting it down like that, I grabbed the collar of the falling upper body and threw it behind me while turning.
“Grooook!?”
The revenant that had swung its mace again, hitting its own comrade’s upper body instead of my back, let out a cry that seemed mixed with bewilderment, its eyes wide open.
The blade of my longsword, dulled and soaked in blood, extended in an arc, horizontally splitting its head like a halved watermelon.
* * *
We engaged in endless chaotic battles like that.
The adventurers maintained the defense line, pushing back or being pushed back against the undead horde, while the paladins and priests continued fierce battles, enduring the spores of the Decay Hosts with miracles that purified the flesh.
“Haa… Haa…”
While the still energetic adventurers were holding out hard, I stepped back for a moment to catch my breath and check the condition of my armor and longsword.
The armor seemed fine except for minor scratches here and there, but the helmet’s locking mechanism seemed broken, causing the face guard to rattle loosely instead of being properly fixed.
The longsword’s blade was half deadened, thickly coated with rotten blood and oil.
Maybe because it had some black iron mixed in, it hadn’t cracked or chipped… but still, I needed to wipe it clean to use it properly.
“H-Hilde. Um, are you… tired…?”
As I was gulping down water from my canteen while looking down at my ruined longsword, Friede, who had been piling up a hill of dismembered undead, approached me dragging her greatsword.
With intestines and flesh tangled on the large blade like vines, it looked like a demonic sword just pulled out of hell.
“No. I’m not tired, just my sword has gotten a bit dull.”
I answered, pointing to the longsword I was holding, then tore off pieces of clothing from nearby corpses to wipe off the blood and oil stuck to the blade.
“Are you sure you’re alright, Friede? You’ve been swinging that greatsword continuously.”
“Ah, that… are you worried… about me? Ehehe… I’m fine! For now!”
Friede smiled brightly and lifted her greatsword as if it were a dumbbell.
“Oh, um. That’s good.”
I nodded, letting out a fake cough.
Her expression itself was very cheerful, but… her clothes and cheeks were soaked in blood, and every time she raised and lowered the greatsword, intestines and flesh kept pouring down.
It was an appearance that wouldn’t be strange if children who saw it wet themselves and fainted.