Yes. It was certainly an achievement worth boasting about.
Look at the result achieved by a single bluff that used a fake Abyss Priest as bait and exploited the adventurers’ ignorance.
Most of the priests were beheaded in the initial surprise attack and died in vain.
They were scattered around treating adventurers and couldn’t respond to the sudden betrayal.
“D-Don’t come closer, you bastard! I’ll kill you!”
In the chaos where it was impossible to distinguish between friend and foe, the adventurers who rampaged indiscriminately also suffered near-annihilation.
“What do you mean kill? You’ll kill me?! You’re a traitor! You are a traitor!”
“Such nonsense, you’re the one who-“
“If you’re not, then cry! Prove your innocence by crying!”
“What are you saying, you crazy bastard!”
Even those who had survived were in panic, pointing their spears and swords at each other while shouting at the top of their lungs.
“Damn it, damn it…! What a, what a dog-like situation…!”
The ruins that had turned into a sea of blood in an instant. Those remaining were just a handful at best.
It was a catastrophe that made the previous victory seem meaningless.
“Can you hear it? The cornered dogs are crying. They’re barking madly, trembling with fear. Isn’t it quite amusing just to listen?”
The culprit, Abyss Priest Hugh Casvail, mocked the adventurers and priests who had collapsed in confusion while continuously launching grayish spheres.
“Acting all high and mighty…!”
I struggled to somehow narrow the distance while dodging his magic by running in a zigzag pattern.
A battle with a magician is a battle of distance. The outcome depended on whether I could approach within sword range.
However, this was by no means an easy task. It might be different with an ordinary magician, but against an Abyss Priest who had transcended the limits of magicians.
“Kuk…!”
I threw myself forward, rolling on the ground to avoid the necromantic explosion flying towards my head, then sprang up to shake off the grasp of the dead.
And when I raised my head to glare at him, more grayish-white bomb-like objects came pouring down.
Five, seven, nine, eleven shots.
The explosions echoed endlessly.
The attacks were relentless.
They say the number of times an Abyss Priest can cast magic varies depending on the amount of sacrifices offered.
I could understand why magicians who had learned all they could would engage in madness like Abyss worship.
With no need to rely on spellbooks, their hands were free, and even the number of spells they could cast or the power of available magic increased beyond their own capabilities.
For magicians who felt limited by their own abilities, falling to become an Abyss Priest must have seemed as sweet as an oasis in the desert.
“Whenever I encounter such people, I always marvel at how ridiculous the behavior of those without intelligence is.”
This old man was probably the same.
Having reached an age where he was just waiting to die, with no hope of reaching a higher level, he must have become frustrated and thrown himself into the Abyss.
What a stupid thing to do.
“The path you chose with that great intelligence of yours is to live as a wanted fugitive, trembling in fear for the rest of your life? Have you gone senile?”
I chased after the Abyss Priest who was widening the distance while firing magic, spitting out contemptuous sarcasm.
“You lured and divided the paladins because you fear them, right? If the paladins had remained here, someone like you would have been caught and killed like a dog in no time!”
Seeing him boast after creating a field of corpses, I felt I had to shoot back something to feel a little better.
“Huh, a sharp observation… Yes, they are foolish but fearsome beings.”
The Abyss Priest nodded readily and raised his left arm behind his shoulder.
“To the extent that even buying time with these rabble is not easy.”
And then.
“Grooooar…”
A group of undead walking out from behind him.
Corpse monsters with their skulls fully exposed came forward as if guarding the Abyss Priest, blocking my path.
“No, how many undead are there…”
I clicked my tongue with a distorted face, glaring at the newly appeared revenants.
Whether it was the final force the Abyss Priest had left as insurance, the newly appeared undead group was not very numerous.
At most, about a dozen or so.
The large undead leading the front looked a bit stronger, but if our forces had been intact, it would have been a number we could easily push back with a sneer.
…Though it would be somewhat tricky now, with me being the only one fighting.
“However, this should be enough to deal with you, young lady. Stop interfering with me and dance to your heart’s content with these.”
“Grooooar…!”
The undead group approached me with their eyes glowing full of killing intent. The Abyss Priest’s figure was hidden among them and no longer visible.
“After all that bravado, you end up hiding behind undead again?”
“Didn’t I tell you? I’m too old to engage in combat.”
Only his voice responding to my words could be heard.
“If you’re old, you should just get in a coffin.”
I pulled my longsword to my shoulder, aiming at the front of the undead group.
“Your parents and your children are already doing that. Why aren’t you?”
I picked up a cliché provocation that had become no different from a greeting in my hometown.
“Stop struggling so unsightly in your old age, and just lie in a coffin to go see your family!”
“…There is no order in lying in a coffin. Death does not discriminate by age.”
However, it seemed to be a somewhat effective provocation in this world, as Hugh’s voice in response was filled with clear displeasure.
“Still, you needn’t worry about lying in a coffin. You’ll be walking around for a long time even after death. Be grateful to me.”
With those words, the undead group that had been walking towards me suddenly increased their speed and started charging.
“Gerda! Amy! Friede! Are you still far?!”
I shouted the names of my party members loudly while charging back towards the undead group.
Asking what on earth they were doing that they still hadn’t joined me.
“Are you calling for your companions? Do you think your companions are still alive?”
“They should be.”
I swung my longsword without hesitation. Along with an immediate answer without a trace of doubt.
Although I couldn’t turn around to check their condition, I believed they were safe anyway.
“Why don’t you check? They might already be dead.”
The Abyss Priest mocked me in a sneering tone.
“Like your parents?”
I dodged the axe swung by the large revenant while turning half a circle, sneering back at him in the same way.
It was a taunt infinitely close to the truth.
While you can’t know if a cat in a box is alive or dead until you take it out, the existence of his parents was obvious without even opening the coffin lid.
How could he not be an orphan when he was acting like one?
“…”
He too seemed to have no words to refute, as he tightly closed his mouth that had been taunting so well.
It was a satisfying reaction. To the point where I felt a bit regretful that I couldn’t see his face hidden behind the undead group.
Although the hastily made provocation worked quite well, this only brought a small satisfaction to my heart. It didn’t change the situation I was in.
Of course. Killing enemies by moving your mouth is only allowed for spellcasters. For me, a warrior, to kill the enemy, I had to swing my sword, not my tongue.
“Haaap!”
Therefore, I stopped the conversation with the Abyss Priest and engaged in a chaotic battle with the undead group, letting out a battle cry.
I didn’t have the luxury to devote my mind to conversation in the first place.
To fight against fifteen enemies alone, I had to focus all my mind and senses on the battle and reduce the number of enemies in the most efficient way possible.
“Grooooar!”
I sharpened my nerves to the extreme, watching out for magic that could fly at any moment, while constantly moving my feet to avoid the axe blade swung by the large revenant.
“Hap!”
Whenever there was a chance to swing my sword, I cut down and stabbed other revenants, felling them.
Paying attention to the attacks of strong enemies while taking down the weak ones one by one. That was the iron rule of chaotic battles.
Targeting the large revenant had to be postponed to the last.
“Grueee!”
“Too slow!”
I deflected spear tips with my armor and parried the enemy’s sword with my blade, crushed rotten shins with kicks, and smashed the enemy’s skull with swung fists.
Perhaps I had started to catch up somewhat with Brunhilde’s prowess through the battles and training so far. My body moved better than expected.
By the time I had taken down about seven of them.
“H-Hilde! I’m sorry we’re late…!”
Friede, who had finally joined, leapt to my side, cutting two revenants in half with a single strike.
“I apologize. We were delayed a bit trying to safely extract Amy.”
“Sorry for being late. Everyone suddenly started swinging swords at each other, and I had no way to get out on my own.”
Gerda and Amy also approached me, each ambushing and taking down a revenant.
I wondered why they were so late, but it seems they were delayed trying to rescue Amy who was about to be swept up in the chaotic melee.
Well, with copper token adventurers fiercely attacking each other, it must not have been easy for Gerda and Friede to break through either.
“Never mind the apologies, just take care of these for now! I’ll go after the Abyss Priest…!”
I handed off the remaining undead to my party members while quickly scanning the surroundings to find the Abyss Priest’s whereabouts.
The remaining revenants were one large one and three small ones. Once these were taken down, that old man should no longer be able to hide…
“What? Where did that bastard go?”
…He could hide.
I hurriedly turned my head and looked around the entire area, but all that was strewn about were fallen corpses and trees. The figure of the robed old man was nowhere to be seen.
“No way, did he run away…?”
“No! There! Look over there!”
Gerda, who had just split the head of a revenant with her sword, shouted while pointing towards the ruins with her left hand.
“No, when did he get there…!”
That’s right.
The Abyss Priest Hugh Casvail had somehow reached the vicinity of the ruins while I was fighting the revenant group.
No wonder no magic was coming at me, he was using the undead to cover my eyes while running towards the ruins…!
The fact that he was standing slightly to the side rather than directly in front of the ruins suggested that he had circled around to the side rather than taking a straight path to avoid my approaching companions.
“What is he trying to do now…!”
Just as I was about to turn urgently and run towards the ruins.
“Mors!”
The old man who had reached the wall of the ruins shouted, placing his right hand on a pool of blood soaking the ground.
“Bis non venit. Nos abiicias.”
(Death does not come twice.)
“Pectus et perveniet in aeternum!”
(We will cast away our hearts to reach eternity.)
The maxim of magicians who had mastered necromancy, which Amy had told me about.
The two sentences shouted as if spitting blood resonated as a spell imbued with vast magical power.
And then.
Rumble…!
The next moment, the blood that had overflowed throughout the ruins began to boil violently with turmoil.