Is this what they mean by ‘when it rains, it pours’?
While Friede and I, the top two fighters, were unable to handle Belita alone, the situation was compounded by the addition of reinforcements numbering at least twenty at a glance.
Moreover, we were just coming off a fierce battle with copper token adventurers who had turned to banditry, leaving us somewhat depleted.
At this rate, we had truly fallen into a perfectly executed trap.
“Fall back for now! You too! If we’re surrounded front and back, we’re dead. We need to stick together and fight now!”
At Bardu’s shout, the adventurers and hired hands who had hurriedly retreated formed a clumsy battle formation with their backs to the wagons.
They placed Jane, Reneom, Amy, and Lug right up against the wagons, with warriors holding weapons and shields forming a solid shield wall in front.
Unlike a military-style formation that completely blocks the front with shields, they left gaps for each person to freely wield their weapons, making it feel more like they were just gathered together rather than in a proper formation.
…Can they handle the twenty or so new attackers?
I’m not sure… no, to be honest, it looked hopeless. Everyone was tired and wounded.
“Kachakak! Not yet, not cooled down! Come! Approach as much as you want!”
Kikel, far from being tense, beat his shield with his harpoon and let out an aggressive laugh, but the merchant group members, including Lug, seemed to have completely lost their morale, their complexions turning deathly pale.
“Damn it… what the…”
“Shit, with my leg like this, I can’t even run…”
“I shouldn’t have left the village…”
The trio that Amina had been keeping with her had long since lost heart as well.
From the start, they were people who had caught Amina’s eye not for their talent or skill but for their looks, so I hadn’t particularly expected much from them either…
…But even so, this is too much.
Despite Amina, who had taken good care of them in various ways, being horribly murdered, all three of them seemed to only worry about their own lives without even a thought of revenge.
Right, what’s the point in expecting loyalty from gigolos like these?
They can’t escape in that state, so if they don’t want to die, they’ll have to fight hard on their own.
* * *
“Looks like you have the leisure to worry about that side?”
Perhaps her pride was hurt by me looking elsewhere while she was in front of me.
Bang!
“Kyaa!”
Belita kicked off the ground and thrust her spear, sending Friede flying far away, then spun her body and drew a dagger from her waist, shooting it toward me like a bullet.
“Tch…!”
A throw aimed at my thigh, which wasn’t covered by armor.
While I slightly raised my leg to deflect the dagger with my greaves, Belita bent her knees and lowered her waist, taking a stance to rush at me again.
“Here I come again!”
Leaving deep footprints in the ground below as she charged, a high-speed thrust that came upon me in an instant like a shot arrow.
“Stop acting so casual…!”
I grabbed the dagger that had bounced into the air and threw it back at Belita, while simultaneously rolling to the side to narrowly avoid her spear tip.
Scraaape!
Belita, who had passed me by far, stopped as if sliding, digging up the ground with her toes. In that gap, I was barely able to regain my posture.
“You dodge well. Very interesting. Both you and that little one.”
Belita turned to look at me with a grin. My dagger that I had thrown back was clenched between her upturned lips.
“What about it?”
I glared sharply at her spear tip, which was glowing red-hot with contained flames.
Although I was worried about my companions who had started fighting against Belita’s so-called subordinates… even from my perspective, this wasn’t a situation where I could afford to pay attention to that side.
That thrust, although I was somehow managing to keep dodging it, was truly a devilishly tricky technique to deal with.
Too fast to dodge, too heavy to block, and an attack that would inevitably cause damage even if blocked due to the flame explosion.
If it were just slow, I might somehow try to counter it… but no chance.
The thrust that accelerated explosively like a rabbit kicking off the ground was so quick that it didn’t even allow the brief moment needed to activate Iron Arm.
A speed that clearly surpassed mine.
When we were briefly engaged in close combat earlier, there wasn’t much difference in speed or strength, but just this charge alone was a speed that spontaneously evoked astonishment.
The trajectory was excessively linear, and she would momentarily stop still after each charge to flap her mouth, which was fortunate.
If not for that, I would have been pierced through my armor long ago and suffered serious injuries.
“What about it? I’m telling you not to die pathetically with a whimper.”
Belita grinned, showing her teeth like a hungry beast, as she swung her spear shaft and rested it on her shoulder.
“Let’s have some fun while we’re at it.”
“I’m not having fun.”
“That’s not my problem, is it?”
It was the tone of a blonde, tanned punk coveting another man’s woman.
“Ah, I see. I understand. You must be used to having fun alone?”
I pointed my sword tip at her and spat out a sharp sarcasm.
“What?”
“I guess your subordinates don’t help you with that? If you asked, they’d probably be delighted to play with you all night long… but I suppose your pride wouldn’t allow that?”
Thinking that if I could shake her composure even a little, it might help in the fight, I once again uttered a vulgar and nasty provocation.
“…Ha.”
Perhaps this provocation had some effect?
“Really. Adventurers are truly…”
Belita let out a hollow laugh as if dumbfounded, but furrowed her brow deeply.
And then.
Whoosh!
The next moment, with a whooshing sound-
“…Just a bunch of bastards with dirty rags in their mouths.”
Her left hand, spread like a claw, cast a deep shadow before my eyes.
An acceleration about one and a half times faster than when she charged with her spear. I couldn’t even react. Until the gap in my helmet was about to be darkened by her shadow.
“You know? Every single one of them reeks of rot. From here.”
A voice overflowing with killing intent, all playfulness gone. A belated sense of crisis shot up my spine like a chill.
“No, it doesn’t!”
I swung my longsword horizontally, aiming for Belita’s waist, while rolling backwards as if falling to narrowly escape her grasp.
And just as I was about to spring up again-
“H-Hilde doesn’t smell!”
Friede’s shout defending me came from above.
Friede, who had leaped vertically about three meters into the air, was falling like lightning toward Belita’s head, spinning once in midair.
Whoosh!
Swinging her greatsword, blackened and twisted in various places, vertically like a guillotine blade.
It was a crazy act.
“Friede!”
I shouted almost like a scream as I hurriedly got up.
What on earth was she thinking, attempting such a dangerous technique in midair with no footing…!
At this rate, she’d be skewered and burst open if Belita just took a few steps to the side and counterattacked!
“Tch…!”
…But, strangely enough, Belita, instead of dodging to the side, remained standing still, clicked her tongue with a frown, and raised the shaft of her grasped spear high above her head.
…What’s this?
It was strange. In a situation where she could definitely finish off Friede by just taking two steps to the side, she didn’t do so and instead chose to receive the attack head-on.
Moreover, it didn’t seem like she was deliberately not moving due to overconfidence. Judging by her beast-like eyes being somewhat distorted.
Then, why on earth…?
Before I could realize the answer.
“Haaaah!”
Friede’s greatsword, falling with the force of lightning, struck down on the spear shaft Belita had raised like an axe splitting firewood.
Boom!
A collision sound closer to an explosion than a metallic sound. The heavy greatsword and metal spear shaft screamed and scattered sparks.
“Ugh…!”
Belita, perhaps losing her balance from the impact of the clash, fell to one knee.
Posture is more important than strength. While Belita might have the advantage in raw strength, it wasn’t a slash that could be withstood with such a half-hearted posture.
“The one who stinks of rot is― y-you!”
A cute yet hysterical curse.
Thud!
As Belita tried to rise again, swallowing a faint groan, Friede’s foot dug into her lower abdomen like a hammer breaking ice.
“Kyahk…!”
…No, into an area about ten centimeters below the lower abdomen.
“Gu, huaauuk…”
Belita, who had been trying to cover her abdomen with her left hand to defend, bulged her eyes at the terrible impact and let out a painful groan between her clenched teeth.
“Aguuuk…!”
…Ouch. Even I feel the pain.
It ended with a groan because she’s a woman, but if she were a man, she would have been screaming like a child and rolling on the ground.
“D-Do you get it? I said, do you get it! The one smelling like a ch-chicken coop…!”
Friede, with a face even angrier than mine, was about to swing down her greatsword like an axe.
“Y-You crazy brat!”
However, a beat before Friede’s greatsword could be swung, an enraged Belita suddenly rose and struck out with her left hand, hitting Friede.
Crash!
A clear yet extremely sharp shattering sound. Friede’s greatsword, which had blocked Belita’s left hand, let out a final death cry as it shattered into pieces.
The blade’s durability must have already reached its limit due to the impact of blocking three or four flame explosion thrusts and the recent clash.
“Hyaak!”
Friede bounced away like a ball with a shrill scream.
Perhaps due to her fluttering black feather cloak, she looked very much befitting her nickname of ‘crow.’