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Chapter 1 – 17
The Night Battle Begins
I returned to the sky above the stronghold, and I saw what could easily have been over 10,000 zombies in a large horde. You could call them a horde, but each individual zombie was so crowded together, it was just like the body of one giant monster. If it wasn"t for the zombie"s ominous glowing red eyes, you might not even notice it was a giant crowd, they were so densely packed.
For a brief moment I was taken aback and froze, but I quickly regained my senses and descended.
“Dad I"m finally back!”
I called out from above both the horde of zombies and the gate. Father and the others looked up to find the voice.
“Tenma, you"ve returned, are you okay? And what did the guild say?”
I explained what had happened in Russel City. The support of both the guild and Russel City could only arrive in 3 days at the very earliest. All at once everyone seemed to be disheartened by this news. However, after I explained that I had made a special request that would arrive in 3 days, everyone seemed to gain a sliver of hope.
“Also, Dad. While I was on the way back I found the soldiers who had run away. I used magic to stop them from moving and took back all their stuff, including their weapons.”
I went down to the middle of a clear area of the stronghold and took out all the stuff that had been packed inside the soldier"s carriages, even down to the armor the soldiers had been wearing. Upon seeing the large amount of food and weapons coming out, everyone"s spirits seemed to raise and one villager even cried out in joy. After that more and more of them raised their voices and joined in, while I was left utterly confused. Father saw my confused face.
“Tenma, you came back with really good timing! Our supply of food and weapons had nearly run out.”
He then leaned in close and said softly,
“On top of that, the zombies had already broken the fighting spirit of many of them. But now that you"ve brought more weapons and food there is a spark of hope. I"m trying to keep that spark alive, even if it"s impossible.”
In other words, you cannot fight on an empty stomach, I thought with a chuckle.
In only half a day, they seem to have been driven into a corner.
“The zombies will probably strike when it becomes completely dark. Until then, we will finish our battle planning and distribute the weapons!”
Seen from above, this stronghold is opposite the forest and to the side of the village. Surrounding its square shape is a 2m wide wall, which measures about 100m long and 4m tall. Each side has a gate built into the middle, and there is a building meant for sleeping quarters etc. secured on the north side.
Tenma and others helped to expand a ditch, measuring 1m deep and 2m wide, with a 2m gap of s.p.a.ce left in front of the wall.
The forest half surrounded both the village and the stronghold, about 200m distance away from the latter. The village was on the east side, while the south side faced the forest. The zombies mainly came from the south.
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“First, for the horde"s main force we will station Celia and mages up to intermediate cla.s.s, to attack with magic up on the walls of the south side. Around 20 people or so. The warrior"s group with me included will be acting as basic archers. The rest of the magic group will mainly be alternating to cover any gaps. Tenma, how many Golems can you make at one time?”
“5 large, 20 medium and 15 small golems, so 40 in total. When they"re separated from me their performance worsens, but even if it"s twice the distance of this fort it"s fine. They should be able to follow basic directions still, dad.”
I explained the number and distances that could be used in battle.
I never mentioned it yet, but large golems stand 3m tall, while medium are only 2m and small only 1m.
“So, station 1 large golem with south gate"s main force, and within the ditch there put 10 medium sized golems.”
“Okay.” I replied quickly to father"s request.
“At the east gate Merlin and Tenma will be stationed along with 10 from the magic group and 10 from the warrior group. Put 1 large golem right in front of the gate, and in the ditch 5 medium and 10 small.”
“The north and west sides will have 20 warrior group members each. Put a large golem in front of the gates of each as well. However, let me know immediately if the zombies increase. The remaining people are important members who will rotate to respond to emergencies as they arise. Tenma, set up your golems right away. Those who aren"t able to fight oversee medical care and distribution of food and water.”
The villagers set out, obeying father"s given orders. I took out the Magic Stones and brought the golems out from outside the ditch. I instructed the golems with “Your enemies are zombies and monsters”, “Attack all approaching enemies”, “Obey the orders of humans”. Although there were few boulders and rocks around, the golems could make their bodies out of highly compressed soil instead, so their strength wouldn"t be a problem.
20~30 minutes after we finished stationing ourselves, when the sun had fallen and it became dark, just as predicted the zombies started their march.
Since we couldn"t directly a.s.sault the horde with swords this time, and the number of arrows was a limiting factor, we naturally came to rely on the mages as our main attacking force.
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－－－－East Gate Side－－－－
As per instructions, the defense of the East Gate had Merlin and me playing a central role.
Gramps was widely known to be a sage so naturally everyone knew to rely on him, whereas to be directed to reply on the 12 year old me was strange, or so I thought. According to gramps though,
“Adventuring is a business where it"s your real strength that speaks loudest. Furthermore, everyone knew that Tenma was gifted from as young as 3 years old and received education to match. They also heard that you took down several B cla.s.s monsters. And finally, they"re relieved that they don"t always have to take orders from me.”
It seemed that everything would be fine.
“More importantly Tenma, the zombies are coming! There are… maybe 500, so as much as you can, conserve your mana. Let"s go.”
After the zombies were spotted, he started instructing me.
I tried using 『Detection』 to figure out their exact number, but there were way too many zombies. The radar inside my head resembled the response from using a fish finding tool on a large school of fish – it was just one giant red blob, impossible to see any one individual.
(From this kind of reaction, there"s gotta be more than 20,000 of them)
As I was thinking, gramps gave more instructions.
“Launch several fireb.a.l.l.s 5 times in a row! Tenma and I will launch 20 consecutive Fire Bullets to penetrate their ranks! Everyone, strike at different points and s.h.i.+ft if you need to…….Now! Fire!”
With that, the a.s.sault began.
The ball type of magic consumes around 20~40 mana a shot while still being simple to use, so it"s one of the most widely used attacking types. The bullet type of magic consumes around the same mana but, it has high piercing power and you can fire it quickly, so it"s higher ranked.
Zombies struck by magic had parts of their bodies blown off and caught fire which quickly spread to others.
There were several ogre zombies among the first formation, and I concentrated my aim on their heads. Putting a hole right between the ogre"s brows, it was an instant death (even if it"s weird to say that a zombie died). They would then fall and crush the surrounding zombies after being defeated.
“It looks like nearly half have been defeated, good work.”
Fire bullet has high penetration power and zombies are weak to fire. Due to the fireb.a.l.l.s splas.h.i.+ng flame all around when they struck, it seemed close to 250 had burned away. There are still zombies that are burning and dying too.
“There will probably be more zombies coming in, so it"s a crucial time from here on out.”
Just as gramps said, another 2000 or so zombies marched in.
“Gramps, they seemed to have learned from before! They"re coming in one by one, with s.p.a.ce in between them!”
This was very strange considering they were zombies. It was normally unheard of for zombies to take countermeasures after suffering damage.
“Perhaps the boss of these zombies is quite intelligent or high ranking.” muttered gramps.
“Anyhow, for the next bunch Tenma and me will cast Fire Storm once each. After that we"ll see what enemies remain and go from there.”
With those instructions, me and gramps launched our spells. However, because these zombies were more s.p.a.ced out than the last bunch, it was less effective than I expected.
“We only took down as few as 500, including the stragglers from the first bunch. Tenma, one more time.”
With the second fire storm, I only took out around 500 zombies. The zombies who still survived approached the gate and the golems struck them down.
“If this keeps up, we"re going to run out magic sooner or later!”
Just as gramps was complaining, someone yelled out,
“This is BAAAD! A horde of zombies showed up at the north gate too!”
The north gate"s messenger had come.
“What!? How could they get there without us noticing?”
Approximately 3000 zombies had appeared at the north gate, and that number was likely to increase.
“We have no choice, Tenma you will join with the relief squad. As for the messenger, tell Ricardo that Tenma is headed to the north gate and that the remaining mages here will fac…”
In the middle of gramps" instructions, a yell arose from the direction of the west gate.
“It can"t be, are there zombies at the west gate too…?”
Gramps could hardly hide his surprise at the speed of their invasion. But he quickly regained himself,
“Two mages, go with Tenma to the north side!” and barked out more instructions.
“Thin the defenses out here!”
The other mages started to protest but,
“If zombies have appeared at the west gate as well, the mages on standby must be sent over there or the gate"s defenses could be breached. Mages that can use high level magic should gain control of the north, south and east gates, but leave the west gate alone. If this is what we"re dealing with, we must make up for our lack of numbers!” gramps said persuasively. He added,
“Tenma, n.o.body at the north gate can spread fire, so go there at full speed. You two go to the north gate and defend as well!”
“Understood, gramps!”
I replied and set off using Sky Flight.
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