Chapter 56

Six arrows per second, sharp arrows poured endlessly.

The silver arrowheads glimmered under the moonlight, sweeping through the garden like a waterfall.

“Silver arrows, dodge!”

“Ugh!”

The sudden arrow rain caught the beastmen off guard, scattering them in panic.

“Kyaaaah!”

Yelena, slowed by a wound in her side, was struck by a barrage of silver arrows.

The hyena beastman rolled on the ground, spurting blood.

“Yelena!”

Alexei, the lion beastman, slammed his axe into the ground.

With a deafening roar, the earth split open, and rising boulders acted as shields, blocking the arrows.

“Now’s the time!”

Freide, gripping her saw, charged at one of the scattered beastmen.

Olga, was it? A gray wolf female swinging a massive halberd.

A strike aimed at her abdomen was blocked by the halberd.

The saw blade scraped roughly against the long shaft, emitting sharp cracks and sparks.

A harpoon dagger aimed at her lower jaw was caught by sharp teeth and shattered into pieces.

A follow-up mace swing collided with the halberd and bounced off.

Freide’s left arm was forced back.

The halberd thrust forward, aiming for Freide’s heart.

“You beast!”

Freide deflected the spear with her saw, using the momentum to spin and sidestep.

A dull scream and a vivid streak of blood painted the air.

—-

“Haaaaah!”

I, too, immediately charged at one of the beastmen.

Kamenev, the brown bear beastman, who had been brawling with me.

“Grrroar!”

I dodged his log-like kick and slashed with my longsword.

Blood spurted as Kamenev’s calf was half-severed.

The bear’s front paw slammed into the ground in front of me, not me.

A deafening explosion rang out.

“Ugh!”

Shattered boulders rained down like cannonballs.

I reflexively raised my arms to shield my face.

– Thud!

I was thrown back by the heavy impact.

A sharp pain surged from my abdomen, struck by a rock.

“Die, Ai-shan Gi-or!”

Other beastmen seized the opportunity to charge at me.

No, they tried to.

– Thududududud!

“Damn it!”

Another storm of arrows swept around me.

The beastmen charging at me hastily retreated.

Asha, was it? Yeah, she’s the only one who could pull this off.

I wondered what she was up to, turns out she was making some kind of silver arrow machine gun.

Thank goodness.

Thanks to her covering fire, I could focus on one enemy while avoiding their concentrated attacks.

“Idiots, take out the archers first! Volkov, Dmitri! Take Yelena into the building! Tear apart whoever’s inside!”

Boris, unable to stand it any longer, shouted.

“Where are you looking?!”

Nigel’s spear slashed across Boris’s shoulder.

The leather pauldron split open, and a spray of blood erupted.

“Ugh! You bitch…!”

Boris roared and swung his greatsword wildly.

Nigel blocked it but was sent flying.

“Kamenev, Alexei! Take care of Olga!”

The wolf and coyote beastmen grabbed the hyena female and rushed into the main building.

We had to stop them, but…

Freide and I were blocked by other beastmen, forced to let them go.

“Ugh, Asha!”

This is bad. Yelena’s already half-dead from her injuries, but the remaining two beastmen are still in good shape.

There’s no way Asha can take on two and a half beastmen alone.

The arrow rain stopped.

I desperately charged at the beastmen in front of me.

Kamenev, spurting blood from his calf.

Olga, her thigh torn off by Freide’s saw.

And Alexei, still in good shape.

Freide and I had to deal with these three as quickly as possible.

========[Asha]========

“Three of them. This is dangerous…?”

Asha muttered, speaking to the hunk of metal standing by the window.

No response came. After all, it was just an automaton.

Smoke billowed from the gatling gun attached to the automaton’s right arm.

It had been hastily modified to shoot arrows instead of bullets, so its durability wasn’t great.

‘If I knew this would happen, I should’ve made silver bullets in advance.’

Asha muttered to herself as she gathered her equipment.

She had no intention of fighting directly.

The automaton was strictly for long-range support.

And even that was starting to break down.

Fighting three beastmen in that state was impossible.

There was a much better way, after all.

Asha left the room and ran up to the third floor.

To the room of the only spectator on the third floor, Ferne.

‘If that fairy is just going to watch, I’ll make them a participant.’

– Crash!

Asha smashed through Ferne’s door and burst in.

Sure enough, a drunken fairy was leaning against the windowsill, watching the battle in the garden.

I knew it. Fairies are all like this.

They act all nice, but in reality, they’re individualists who couldn’t care less about others.

“What’s up…junior half-human…did I say you could come in…?”

Ferne turned to look at Asha at the noise from behind.

Their eyes were half-lidded from the heat, but they carried a clear emotion.

Annoyance and irritation.

It was the typical “holier-than-thou” expression of a fairy who acted like they lived in their own world.

“Ferne, was it? Playing alone again…”

“You shouldn’t be doing that. Right?”

“You… you’re so arrogant…”

Ferne’s brow furrowed. Staggering, her body turned toward Asha.

Asha swallowed dryly.

Halshall seemed to dismiss Ferne a bit because of her arrogant demeanor, but Asha knew better.

High elves who had lived for hundreds of years were practically living weapons in biological form.

“Are you going to handle those guys alone?”

Asha forced a sly smile and pointed behind her.

Three beastmen were charging at her.

“Haaa… You’re lucky… If it were three hundred years ago… I would’ve ripped out your limbs and eyeballs and tied you up in the underground plaza.”

Ferne sighed. Her pronunciation became clearer.

Her staggering body straightened and regained balance.

Asha’s back was drenched in cold sweat.

She knew it wasn’t a threat or a lie.

Asha had only heard stories from the elders of her tribe.

But three hundred years ago, when Himmel and Alvheim were still at war, they had actually done such things.

They gathered female prisoners among hundreds of demi-humans, tied them up like that, and released monsters to watch their screams.

They even recorded the horror with magic and sent it as a “gift” to Himmel.

Himmel, upon receiving the “gift,” melted all the elven prisoners into one mass and fired it back at Alvheim as a cannonball.

It was a mad era.

But since both nations were defeated by the Empire, they’ve been relatively peaceful, so they probably wouldn’t try to kill now.

Asha quietly walked into the room.

Soon after, the three beastmen arrived at the door.

“Demi-humans and elves, dogs bowing to the Empire. Is it just you? We couldn’t find the others.”

“Dogs? You’re the canines… Wait, one of you is a hedgehog, right?”

Ferne looked at the beastmen.

Her usual relaxed demeanor was gone, replaced by emotionless eyes, as if looking at livestock.

The beastmen bared their teeth and raised their weapons.

Ferne irritably brushed her hair back.

“Haa… Why don’t you just go back? You’re pitiful animals. I’ll let you go if you turn back now.”

“Nonsense, you disgusting traitors…!”

The beastmen smashed through the wall and entered.

Shelves on the wall collapsed, and bottles of alcohol shattered on the floor.

The pungent smell of alcohol filled the room.

Ferne glanced at the shattered bottles and let out a deep sigh.

“Fine, then… Undine, come out.”

A droplet of water appeared in the air.

Dozens of droplets bubbled up, merging into a fist-sized mass of water.

“A low-level spirit? What can that do—”

“Undine. Extract the alcohol.”

With a quiet command, Ferne swallowed the water mass whole.

Soon, droplets formed on her left hand, returning to their original size.

A strong smell of alcohol emanated from the mass.

Ferne’s flushed face from the alcohol instantly returned to normal.

She casually tossed the mass—now a lump of alcohol—aside.

The Undine, weakened by the alcohol’s toxicity, collided with the wall and vanished.

“What… what is this…”

The beastmen, stunned by what they had just witnessed, groaned.

They had heard that elves could summon spirits.

Though they hadn’t encountered any since being driven to the northern snowfields, tales of them remained.

But was this how they did it?

This was worse than treating them as slaves.

“Salamanders, five of you, come out.”

Instead of water, this time five fireballs appeared in the air.

The flickering flames seemed to tremble in fear.

Ferne clenched her right fist.

The spirits let out a piercing scream.

The five spirits were crushed and reshaped into five flaming arrows.

Their individual consciousnesses had already died from the pain.

Ferne picked up a bow leaning against the desk and drew the string.

The flaming arrows aligned themselves on the bowstring.

A massive surge of magic enveloped her body.

The beastmen, horrified by the spirits’ agonized cries, finally snapped out of it and rushed at her.

Ferne released the bowstring.

Five streams of fiery storm surged forth.

Without even a chance to scream, the three beastmen were swept away and turned to ash.

The flames that filled the entire hallway subsided at Ferne’s gesture.

She blew away the ashes and glanced at Asha.

Asha’s legs gave out, and she collapsed to the floor.

“Uh… uh…”

Ferne smirked at the sight.

“Behave. Got it? Demi-human junior.”

Asha nodded her head frantically.