Skeleton Knight, in Another World

Translator: Silver Editor: Namorax

「The Defense of Uiru River」Part 1

The Uiru River, which flows south from the Sobiru mountains in the west, acted as the dividing line of Salma’s fringe territories.

The river intersected the highway that connected the Brainer territory to Larissa with a solid stone bridge. The former Nozan forts had been converted into guard stations for the soldiers that patrolled the highway.

Usually, the sheer size of the minimally staffed and renovated forts left them with a deserted atmosphere, but now the air was fraught with pre-war elation and irritation of the soldiers that filled the forts to the rafters.

It wasn’t just the soldiers originally a.s.signed to the forts here, but also the reinforcements from Rhoden, the remainder of Brainer’s military and even a few elven soldiers. All were gathered here.

As for the elves, it wasn’t only the Canadian who were present: the elven warriors from Doranto, lead by elder Sergei and elder Iwaldo, were also here.

Since it was a rare occurrence actually to see an elven warrior, the humans were casting sideways glances at them. However, it wasn’t just the ears that caught their attention.

The beautiful female warriors amongst the elves certainly caught the attention of those accustomed to a male-dominated society, and that was partially responsible for the lack of tension one would expect before a battle against the undead that would determine humanity’s faith.

This unprecedented crisis caused by the undead army had caused the long disparate parties of this world, even the elves and beastman, to band together in a bid for survival.

Actions that may cause discord between mutual allies were strictly prohibited.

However, though no one dared to say it, most of the soldiers were aware of the difference in power between them and the elves.

Some were capable of unitizing transfer magic powerful enough to move supplies and troops in the blink of an eye, and others singlehandedly hunted monsters which required an entire unit to subdue. Although they’d heard rumors, this was the first time many of them were exposed to the difference between the elves and themselves.

One thing was for sure, those present at this battle would turn the other way if ordered to fight the elves.

While the governing bodies of humanity never imagined that the elves exceeded the might of both empires, it was clear that their att.i.tude towards elvenkind would be changed from this point on.

You could

see it in the way some of their superiors humbled themselves before the elves, despite their numbers not exceeding even one thousand people.

However, n.o.body publicly voiced any dissatisfaction.

The primary contributing factor to this atmosphere was stretching her wings in the courtyard in-between the two forts.

Dragon King Ferufivisurotte.…… one of the most powerful creatures in the world, whose legend was pa.s.sed along through poem, plays and songs, opened her wings and flew into the sky.

Her majestic figure reached a length of eighty meters. No matter your status, no matter how brilliant you were, and no matter how brave you claimed to be… no one could remain calm in front of such an existence.

It was a symbol of the kind of power that disregarded all reason……

The elves had requested the dragon king’s cooperation in the coming battle…… only the truly brave or idiotic would maintain a haughty att.i.tude in front of someone like that.

With the awe-inspiring dragon king here, even the ordinary soldiers understood that they wouldn’t be contributing much to the coming battle.

However, the soldiers here knew that they were here only to prevent the spirit of “cooperation” from collapsing if the general public felt that humanity’s dignity had been trampled.

The reality of the situation was undeniable, but cooperation equally important…

In that regard, the officials understood that the soldiers needed to return with a sense of pride after fighting for their home and country and had arranged for that to happen. The troops were well aware of that fact after hearing the speech given before deployment.

Still, many of the soldiers were happy to have such a reliable ally on their side.

No, what made the soldiers worry was the fact that the vast army of undead invaders originated from the Hiruku Theocracy.

It was just too outrageous to believe that Hiruku had been taken over by monsters, and there were already rumblings questioning if it was even possible to control such evil.

Moreover, the majority of the soldiers had been raised under Hiruku’s human-centric doctrine since they were children.

The validity of the story was still unknown, but the undeniable fact, which seemed to support the story, was that the various races of the world had gathered to face a common threat.

The situation’s rapid development hadn’t given the soldiers enough time to rein in their emotions.

The dragon king that had flown to Larissa on a scouting mission had to turn back after

after being spotted over the city.

After the same dragon king landed on an open plain nearby the forts, a messenger ran out telling everyone that the enemy had arrived.

At the time, the announcement hiked up the soldiers’ tension and those interested to learn what form the enemy took patrolled the outer walls and climbed the watchtower to get a look at them only to find nothing.

Now everyone was examining the opposite bank of the Uiru river.

The thin layer of grey clouds that had blanketed the sky since this morning had created a sense of foreboding amongst the soldiers.

Many soldiers breathlessly stared ahead as they waited for the enemy to appear.

Nothing was obstructing the view on the opposite bank…… and then black blotches began to appear on the gentle hills on the opposite side of the river.

They lacked the intimidating presence of a coordinated army.

However, the sight of the aimless ma.s.s of monsters making headway towards the Brainer territory produced a somewhat eerie atmosphere.

At a glance, the ma.s.s seemed to be composed of infantrymen in dull armor…… they moved in small groups with the gait of the undead.

They appeared to be a large group of infantrymen, and it would’ve been impossible to tell they were undead without having been told beforehand.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, there were one or two inhuman figures scattered among the groups appearing next. The soldiers who caught sight of those figures unconsciously released shouts of surprise.

“……The world is full of monsters.”

One of the soldiers muttered that to no one in particular…… the soldiers atop the watchtowers had similar impressions.

The creatures’ lower body was that of a giant spider, their upper body was composed of two  fused-together human torsos, and they carried a weapon in each of their four arms.

These creatures were neither humans nor monsters…… they seemed to be leading the groups of undead across the river…… They were heading straight towards the Branier territory.

The army of the dead had arrived…… warning bells began to ring, and the activity started to pick up inside the forts.

Margrave Brainier, the lord of this territory, and Elder Fangas, a great elder of Canada forest and overseer of the elven warriors, watched the situation unfold from the top of a watchtower.

“Even though we were informed of this and were expecting something to this extent, its a greater spectacle to bear witness to this in person…… it’s hard to believe that

believe that this is real.”

The wrinkles on the margrave’s brow deepened as he uttered that statement.

As he had said, they’d been expecting this after hearing the report brought from the capital, and it was something he’d been prepared to face ever since he went to Nozan for a.s.sistance.

The unexpected support from the elves, beastmen and Rhoden Kingdom had allowed them to ama.s.s more war potential than had initially been thought possible.

It was impossible to gather any more forces beyond what they had……

The margrave unintentionally glared at the undead army gathering at the opposite bank of Uiru river.

If they failed here, then the lives of the people living in his territory would be lost.

The ma.s.sive figure who stood beside him with his arms crossed and seemed to radiate strength, elder Fargas… smacked margrave Brainer on the shoulder and smiled intimidatingly.

“Your face has become rather stiff, Wendelin-dono. There’s no need to make such a face with Ferufivisurotte-sama here. As long as we follow the plan, we shall be victorious this day.”

Elder Fargas lightly swung his heavy-looking war mallet, which let out a dull ring when it slammed against the stone floor.

“Canadian Warriors! Archers, keep the enemy pinned to the riverbank!  Ferufivisurotte-sama will take care of things after that! Show them our might!”

The elves on the fort raised their weapons to the sky and let out a battle cry in response to Fargas’ orders from above.

At the same time, a multicolored flag was raised towards the fort across the courtyard.

The breeze of the river fanned the multicolored flag, as the other fort’s tower hoisted their own flag.

When the signal went up the elven archers that had been packed on the roofs of the two forts readied an arrow towards the river.

Since the Uiru river was shallow enough to walk across, the vanguard of the undead army simply continued their trek as they reached the riverbank.

However, even though the infantrymen were undead, they were still at risk of being carried away by the current, so they had to choose a shallow place to cross.

As the undead soldiers began crossing the river one after another, the spider-monstrosities that acted as their leaders suddenly had their heads blown off after crossing the river halfway.

The other undead reaching the middle of the river began dropping as well.

“What is this……”

The question slipped from the margrave’s lips.

The human soldiers couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

The elven archers atopelven archers atop the forts were killing the undead soldiers one after another.

Even if you said that the forts had been built close to the river, there were still over five hundred meters between them and the center of the river. Accurately shooting the enemy despite the breeze coming off the river was something beyond the skill of human archers.

The arrows that the elves released accelerated as if they had a mind of their own and sometimes curved to hit enemies that tried to avoid them.

Wether it was the humanoid undead or the monsters with healthy bodies and protective armor, they all suffered the same fate.

When the arrows pierced the bodies of the spider monsters they dug themselves into deep into their flesh before violently exploding. The second and third volley of arrows had utterly stopped the irregular march.

Upon observing the archers, margrave Brainer noticed that they always spoke a strange chant before firing the arrow and concluded that they must have been using some kind of magic.

However, not even the elves and their unmatched marksmanship would have been capable of decimating an army of two-hundred- thousand.

The elves were packed on top of two forts across the river…… there was a little more than a thousand of them between both forts, while the enemy consisted of hundreds of thousands of undead.

Fortunately, they managed to make the enemy cautious of crossing the river, as several spider monsters halted their march, causing their forces to gather around the opposite bank.

Since crossing in small numbers had proven to be futile, they must have been preparing to cross in one ma.s.sive burst.

The ability to make sound decisions without prompting was well beyond normal undead, who mindlessly pursued the living…… the fact that they were beings with obvious intelligence was engraved into the minds of the soldiers.

“Nothing to say, Wendelin-dono? There’s a big difference between hearing about something and witnessing it with your own eyes.  Even my eyes can’t believe that undead capable of rational thought are standing in front of me.”

The margrave could only nod along with the elder’s words.

However, the enemy’s behavior had already been predicted, and the plan was moving along smoothly.

The two of them calmly watched the enemy’s movements from atop the roof, and immediately noticed when they started making slight advances towards the river. It was almost time.

“That’s……”

Elder Fargas looked toward the cloudy sky and caught sight of something unbelievable.