327 – Battalion Commander, Lightning Sword Lapar 3 (side Lapar)

“One, two, three… Hmm, seventeen in total?”

I point with my forefinger and count the number of Lithovars. If I’m doing it, then I might as well go big, but my injuries aren’t minor either. In my current state, there’s a risk I could be caught in it. I also used a little too much magic power. There’s a chance I could be attacked by monsters as I retreat, so in order to save some magic power, I’ll have to reduce their numbers a bit. Twenty should be plenty for me to escape.

“He’s their commander! Don’t hesitate! Stop him before he does something!”

The Lithovars had stopped, having thought something was strange with me, but growing impatient, one of them leaps towards me powerfully. Hmm, I suppose I’ll accept him as the first victim.

“[Wide Summon]! Come, trell ratons!”

With me at its centre, a yellow light expands.

From inside the light, twenty giant rats with thin yellow fur appear. The ends of their limbs and tails are hairless, exposing their, exposing their pink skin. Electricity crackles between large white horns that sprout from their foreheads.

“Chuuu” “Chuu”

“Chuu” “Chua” “Chuu”

They’re lightning rats, trell ratons. Each is the size of a human child, and though their individual combat abilities are weak, they’re nimble. And when feel that their life is in danger, they enter a state of extreme excitement and jump at any nearby animal in a suicide attack.

The trell ratons squirm past each other as they pace around me.

“Wh… What are they…?”

The Lithovar warrior who leapt towards me falters at the sight of them.

“Alright then, [Berserk].”

I keep casting [Berserk] on the same trell raton near the warrior. Its expression changes and its breathing becomes ragged, then it leaps at him.

“Cheh! This level of magic beast…!”

He tries to stab the trell raton.

“Be torn asunder.”

Electricity quickly gathers in its horns.

“[Clay]!”

The red-eyed girl chants magic. A wall of earth appears between the warrior and the trell raton.

Hmm… How tedious. But it’s not [Clay Wall], merely [Clay]. Though [Clay] is versatile in its use, it requires more magic power, so it tends to be fragile compared to the defence-specialised [Clay Wall]. If [Clay] is all she can use, they won’t last long against a swarm of trell ratons.

The trell raton lowers its head and drives its horns into the wall of earth. Its horns turn a bright red colour and its head swells, then it explodes in a burst of lightning. Its charred remains scatter as the wall of earth crumbles and the Lithovar on the other side is sent flying.

Wisps of black smoke rises from his body. Hmm… Is he not dead? Well, that’s fine.

The other Lithovars scream, a few draw close to the one who fell.

“Don’t approach carelessly! It’s a trap!”

An elderly man among the warriors shouts, but it’s too late. One by one, the trell ratons’ horns turn red.

When a trell raton feels its life is in danger, it falls into a state of extreme excitement and prepares to self-destruct. And when they see their allies self-destructing, they instinctively sense that some kind of enemy must be lurking nearby, and prepare to blow up themselves. In other words, by stimulating one of them with [Berserk], a chain reaction of self destruction can be started.

The trell ratons run in a curve, dashing towards the Lithovars. A few lock their eyes on me and scramble my way.

Of course, I have countermeasures ready. That is why I summoned them. I raise my sword to the sky and pour magic power into its tip.

“[Lightning Radiation].”

Bolts of lightning burst from my sword and scatter throughout the area. The trell ratons that were headed towards me break off at a right-angle to face the Lithovars. When a trell raton sees something that looks like their lightning-clad horns, they mistake it for one of their own and do not attack.

“Fufu… This present that I prepared with all my wisdom, I give to you who forced this Lightning Sword Lapar to retreat. Do your best to run away, barbarians.”

“U, uu… Lapar-sama… Help…”

A trell raton runs up to one of my subordinates that was taken down by the spiders. It explodes, and his arms and legs scatter in a burst of gore.

“You’ve reduced the ratons by one… Good grief.”

Seeing such power before their eyes, the Lithovars’ faces pale and they start to run. I laugh scornfully as I watch, then leisurely turn around. But a moment later I hear heavy footsteps, so hurriedly draw my sword and spin back around.

“You alone, I definitely won’t let escape!”

The tall man is midway through swinging a spear towards me. He didn’t have a weapon on him before, so he must have picked up one that the others had dropped. A single trell raton is chasing him.

“Hmm, do you intend to take me with you in a suicide attack…? However-”

I block the tip of the spear with my sword, then cut diagonally down. Though he manages to prevent a direct hit, his right right arm is cut deeply and his waist shallowly. He falls to the ground.

“Gu… gu, damn….”

“We might both be injured, but our competency differs, our competency. You were able to put up a good fight earlier because you had the assistance of magic, but don’t get carried away, barbarian.”

I look down at him as he stares up at me hatefully, then glance at the trell raton behind him and leisurely step away. It closes in on him with great speed.

“[Gale]!”

“Hrm.”

I hear the sound of the red-eyed girl’s voice, and, still running, I glare towards her. A small tornado appears and pursues the trell raton. It throws the trell raton into the air, then flips the big man over. I noticed it right away and was already some distance away, so I’m able to escape it easily.

The trell raton explodes in the air. Splatters of flesh and blood rain down to the ground.

“Hrgh….”

The man is injured from the [Gale], but it seems he was able to escape the trell raton’s blast. That was her aim from the start, it seems.

“…Hmm?”

That red-eyed girl is still shooting off magic? No matter how you look at it, her magic power is too bottomless. How many times did she use magic in the fight earlier?

Puzzled, I look at her again.

Traces of wind and earth magic are jumped together around her. A huge number of Lithovars bear injuries from magic and are collapsed around her, but none have died from the trell ratons’ explosions.

“No… N-no way, that’s ridiculous… Th-that’s impossible…”

Is just a single person truly managing to suppress the rampage of twenty trell ratons? No matter how you look at it, her amount of magic power is strange. It’s impossible.

I check her appearance again. The colour of her skin has darkened and become cracked, and her hair has become dry and frizzled. She looks as though she’s aged twenty years in just a few minutes, with only her red eyes still dazzling with a dangerous glint.

“Sh-she’s not a human!?”

I thought it was strange. There was the time she hugged my subordinate and stole away his life. Her endless use of magic was also strange. It was also weird how she was able to heal in no time at all from her injuries. In the first place, it was odd how her presence felt so evil.

“An undead…! Cheh, a nuisance that failed to die!”

But it’s clear that the undead is reaching its limits. Unable to contain the magic deficiency, its dead flesh is exposed and standing is all it can do. It doesn’t look like there’s any risk of it chasing after me. It’s irritating that I am unable to kill even a single person, let alone the undead that’s making a fool of me, but it’s enough for me to escape.

“…Hm?”

“U… Uu…”

The last trell raton heads straight for a Lithovar man on the ground. It’s the one who ran back to the village to get help, the man with the whistle. Thinking back, he spoke with the undead at the start. It’s probably not wrong to assume there’s some relation between them. Considering the age difference, they might be father and daughter.

“Fufu… This is good. In the end, I can be satisfied.”

In the state it’s in, the undead probably can’t use any more magic.

“Aa… VaAAAaH!”

The undead moans. Just as I see that its left arm is enlarged and covered in earth, it kicks off the ground and launches itself between the Lithovar man and the trell raton. It pushes him down with its right arm while holding out its left arm as a shield towards it.

“Chu…”

The trell raton explodes. The undead receives the brunt of the explosion, and most of the flesh-like earth covering its body is blasted away to reveal sections of bone. It lies face up, its jawbone sticking out through its chin.

“……”

Too taken aback, I stop moving and stand in place for a moment.

“Aro! Are you there, Aro? Aro!”

“Aino! Calm down! Aro-chan was sacrificed to the manticore! You know that! Tatark-san must have been mistaken in some way! Please, come back to your senses! You can’t go here, wasn’t that what Tatark-san said?”

“Stop! Get a hold of yourself!”

It seems more Lithovars are coming. It looks like there are five of them. Reinforcements… But they don’t look like combatants to me. Upon seeing them, I regain my composure and realise I need to get away as fast as I can.

“Kyaaaah! Monster!”

One of the Lithovars shouts upon seeing the undead.

“A… Are you Aro?”

“Aino! Don’t get close! Hiih! Q-quick, get away from here!”

One woman tries to approach the undead while another pulls her arm to try and stop her. The undead feebly reaches out towards her, but a man forces himself between them. After clasping at empty air, it grips the man’s ankle. The next moment, the undead is covered in a suspicious light, and the man falls to the ground.

“I… It sucked something from me! I can’t put strength into my arms!”

“An undead! Kill it!”

“Y-you’re wrong! She saved us…”

“It’s Aro! I’m sure of it! After being sacrificed, she’s come back as a wandering dead! She’s going to curse us to death!”

I shake my head, turn around, and break into a run.

“Hm… Hmm. What idiocy. It’s unfortunate I couldn’t do it myself, but it’s a suitable way for a monster to die… Hmm?”

I hear a thunderous sound from the distance. It gradually grows louder and louder.

If it’s a living creature, then it’s moving at a terrifying speed. As I think that, I am struck by a sense of deja vu.

This direction is bad. With that in mind, I am about to run to the side.

A huge sphere appears, mowing down trees.

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