Maou Razonica
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Chapter 99: We'll Cross That Bridge When We Get There.
🕑 Added 2024-08-19 15:49:10 +0000 UTCDOCS: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mqW8uHNaWYTFqPg2iXdwVwduW8BbMMbtD0-e1vY_p50/edit?usp=drive_link
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Cursetacean encounters grew more numerous as our grand journey continued, and the inhex were sent off to kill them. They jumped and pried away the massive claws of the monsters, while others delivered the finishing blow with their front legs. The inhex bled from their faces, and so did the carapace of their legs crack and break, but the commanding officers did not care in the slightest. The injured inhexes were forced to march anyway, and their stamina began to fall and fall as they were whittled down by the march.
I snapped at one point, and fucking rushed into battle, showing power greater than what my level should bring. It did not matter, everyone knew I didn’t move like a human already, and I had the perfect fucking excuse. I was Golex’s granddaughter, and I carried the power of that fucking legacy!
I ended the life of a crustecar, then another, aiming for swift and lethal damage to their heads. My arms were a bleeding mess by the end, but I was more pissed off by the conversation that followed.
“Hey! HEY!” The commanding officer chided me. “You can’t just run off like that! We’re here to alleviate the deaths of people!”
“And what about them?” I pointed at the inhex.
“They hardly count.” She sneered. “This is their repentance. It is the sorrow of their queen for creating such abominations. But your grandfather might react horribly if you died in some random mission to the coast, so do not try to be a hero when you are far from one, child.”
I hissed. I actually hissed.
“He’d also react horribly if I did not fight like a fucking coward, just hiding behind the inhex.”
“What did you say!?”
I looked her in the eye, and the uniform/armor she wore. “I told you what actions he would see as dishonorable and vile.”
I wasn’t even lying. I did not mislead her. Because while Granda had fought way too many fucking times for the interests of the empire, he had always cared deeply about honor, and everyone knew it.
“Did you see that?” someone too fucking cowardly to say it to my face commented from afar.
“She’s endangering herself for those blasphemous scum.”
“I can’t believe I thought there might be something to her.”
“She’s just a fucking spoiled brat.”
“Cry to your Grandpa bitch!”
I took a deep breath to help settle the setting magma of rage as I made my way back to my party under the inane and stupid words of my growing number of detractors. Abusing my status like this was really not endearing me to most of the people here, but what did that make them? They’re the ones abusing their station the most, not me who’s actually trying to help, even if it wasn’t fucking enough!
I felt my hand clench against Moonwash’s own, and I immediately stepped back when I realized what I’d done. My girlfriend had gone to hold my hand, and I had fucking hurt her…!
“Fuck! Shit! I’m sorry–”
“It’s okay.” Moonwash interrupted, a sound barrier already isolating us from everyone else. She pulled me to sit on the ground, and there she healed the wounds that I’d suffered for actually doing something good for once. As useless a gesture as it was. I was only preserving their lives to be used up by their masters all the same.
I truly was helping the army here, even if they didn’t see it that way. It made me sick.
But all those worries melted away as I leaned on Moonwash’s shoulder, and basked in her healing touch.
~~~
“Hey, Haell…” Therick began after I had fought in the frontlines and shared our food with the inhex again.
“Yeah?”
“...Are you sure about this?”
I raised an unseen brow. “About what?”
“About…” The familiar feeling of sound being isolated came over the six of us, “defying a military order like that? For the second time in a row…”
“Yes. Of course. It was the right thing to do.”
‘Well, I get that. But this is one of those things that are just… I’m sure there will be consequences for it.”
“Eh. Grandpa will back whatever story I have. It’ll be fine. And if not then I’ll kill them all.”
“But that’s exactly what we’ve talked about. This is the kind of action that will bleed over to the rest of us!”
“Well then what would you have me do!? I’m already compromising by not freeing them right this instant!”
“It’s okay, Haell,” Angerly said after a pause. “It’s the threat to their queen, to the continued existence of their very species, that keeps in line, right? You can’t free them.”
“Yeah,” I said dejectedly. “I know that. It sucks, and I am too fucking weak to storm wherever they’re keeping her prisoner in Hivania. Which is why I’m doing this, for my own fucking self-satisfaction, and to vent my anger. The wrath burns inside me, and it’s only gotten worse. I want to fucking kill someone!”
A long beat of silence passed.
“I’m with Haell on this,” Granule eventually announced. “Therick, come on. I know you don’t think this is right either. It’s a travesty, and it all makes me so sad.”
“Of course I know this is bad, Granuel. But I just don’t know if this is the best way to go about it. Haell admitted that this is for her own self-satisfaction. It won’t really change anything for them in the long run, and they’d just die later anyway. We’re not actually doing anything, yet we’re attracting attention and danger to ourselves!”
My eyes narrowed, and I quivered in suppressed rage. Therick could tell, and he stepped back a little.
“Hey, easy Haell. I’m sorry if I caused offense, but I’m just worried…”
“Therick…”
“No, I’m sorry, okay! But you are endangering everyone and–”
“Therick.”
I said more sharply, and he swallowed his words.
I sighed and scratched my helmeted head. “Sorry. I got heated there. I didn’t mean to scare you, but it just really rushed to my head, and I needed some time to calm myself. But please, don’t actually fucking worry that I’d hurt you, okay? I’m in enough control of myself. I just need time sometimes.”
“O-okay…”
“Anyway. I am sorry if this affects you, but I have to do something. I can’t bear doing nothing. I’m all ears if you have a better idea. This was just the most peaceful I can go.”
My friend pondered for some long moments. “No. I can’t think of anything else we can do to help them. But that’s the point, we’re only prolonging the inevitable. We’re not actually helping anyone, and we’re only making our own position worse. We’re not being productive!”
“You’re right,” I admitted. “And yet I must. There are things that you just have to do on principle sometimes, no matter what disadvantage it may bring. This is my breaking point.”
~~~
After a day of having suspiciously not met a single cursetacean, we finally saw the ocean on the horizon. After only a few minutes more of walking, we found out where the accursed monsters had gone. The Fortress City of Orila was being besieged by the cursetaceans.
Kilometers out from shore, with half of it within the shrublands, and the other half in the sandy beaches; that was where the city stood. Its walls were taller than anything else I’d ever seen, and the settlements within remained unseen. But there were settlements without that could be seen, as particularly fragile houses were erected around the wall, and then beyond that was a massive muddy moat filled with traps. The cursetaceans had to wade through all those hazards in order to destroy the targets of their ire, and they sent a few of their number to attack while even more arrived from the oceans. Many of them remained in the outskirts, and I shuddered in anticipation at what would be required for our caravan to even be able to enter the city.
“This is it,” Therick said, “I’ve never been in a fight this big before.”
“We’ll be fine so long as we stick together,” Angerly reassured.
“I have memories of it,” Berry commented as more and more of our destination became visible. “Entire caravans have been lost and buried before, and so too did many of my people die in the attempt.”
“We must be careful then,” Granuel nodded. “But we will bring this quest home!”
“YEAH!”
I looked ahead of us as the details became more visible, and found that the people who lived in the settlements outside the walls were predominantly the crustecars. They guarded the moat, and killed any of the cursetaceans that managed to cross and resurface. I could hear their screams from here as the vengeance of the helpless monsters ravaged their bodies.
The soldiers stationed there were content to watch from their raised houses of wood closer to the walls, and even their inhex pawns were made to wait patiently by their side. But now that they had caught sight of us, they marshaled in force to welcome us home. Crustecars were made to follow them, and a drawbridge began to be lowered so that we may cross the moat.
What surprised me was how the cursetaceans(not crustecars) were able to slowly but gradually react to this development and adjust their behavior. Some of those previously sitting in the periphery now jumped into the trap-filled moat, and many more gathered in the area where the drawbridge was going to land.
“Alright everyone! Final stretch! We just need to make it to the gates!” One of the organizers roared, his voice normally not very inspiring, but it did stoke the nervous excitement already present in the adventurers. It was time, it was finally time, for us to fight.
“Soldiers! Protect the civilians!” the commanding military officer gave her own ‘encouragement’. “Inhexes! Charge and take the brunt of the damage! Do not let them pass!”
I readied myself just like them, and my party naturally settled into a familiar formation. We all charged, rapidly but not at full speed, rather with caution and no small amount of trepidation. The first curstancean reached us, but was quickly set upon by the inhexes. The tyranight left her position from the rear, as all of the inhexes left there had also gone to the front of the formation. The sundertop watched wearily, ‘wasting’ healing on the inhexes, but without complaint from the military leadership this time. His sun magic and his bulk were not the best at dealing with opponents like this.
Projectiles flew, both of magic and the bow. Carapace cracked, cursetaceans fell, but so too did the casters scream in pain. The retaliation of these monsters could reach anyone from anywhere, be it from our caravan, or the army on the other side of the moat trying to help. Many soldiers and adventurers were able to bear through the pain, but they would be rendered incapable in a few volleys anyway. Our healers were sent out to help, and so too did Moonwash shine a light upon the allies close to us, but we just didn’t have enough healers despite the surplus of mana in our crates.
We continued our rapid march as more and more cursetaceans tried to hinder our advance. One finally tried to go for my party, and I just charged for its head by myself, killing it in one go. Moonwash healed the very small amount of damage I’d suffered, for that was a lower leveled specimen, therefore not as dangerous. But it was still ridiculous for a sub-level-10 to hurt me at all.
The chaos of battle grew worse, the constant shouting from all sides created an atmosphere that encouraged people to just act on their base instincts, for better or for worse. I noticed in passing, how the vegetation had progressively gotten drier, less healthy, the closer we came to the city. Angerly lashed out and instantly suffered a massive amount of backlash for her mace splattered more than just the enemy’s head. The air was thick with curses, and it was making us dumber.
The drawbridge hit the ground, and allied soldiers came rushing out.
“Keep calm! Leave the offense to me! Hold them back!” I shouted in a commanding voice, and did just as I said before my friends could even answer. Cursetaceans fell by my blade, Angerly and Berry held back the tide, and Therick and Granuel tried to finish off any strays that already had a foot in the grave. My hands bled, dyed once again in red, and Moonwash worked hard to heal the damages I’d sustained.
I dove back in, unafraid, preferring to take the pain upon myself.
The other parties around us were not so capable. They began to lose people and be overrun. A lot of the adventurers with us had done this before, so they knew how to handle cursetaceans, but the pain still made them more sloppy and it caused them to hesitate and freeze up in key moments. A few tried to really deal only the bare minimum amount of damage to kill the creatures, but few could actually pull it off. A failure would only backfire, as a surviving cursetacean could only do more damage than an overkilled one.
The tyranight woman struck, and waves of darkness reached out, leaving many of the cursetaceans blind. The massive soldier herself didn’t seem fazed, so it seemed that such effects were not reflected back. She was even more proficient than I at dealing just enough damage to kill, before then getting healed by our resident sundertop.
The final push soon arrived, the true climax and the melee. The chaos of war that I thought was bad before became even worse. We fought in one big pile, from those who came from our caravan, to the soldiers and crustecars from the outer-city, against the cursetaceans that would never stop coming. The curse in the air clouded our minds–least of all mine–but the confusion was so great that some idiots actually ended up attacking crustecars instead of the enemy!
I waded through that tide of violence with my party, and we decided to go deeper into the front to better clear the way and make it to safety sooner.
The remaining inhexes of our caravan saw my approach, and they immediately accommodated for me in what loose and chaotic formation they still had. I got to killing, delivering the finishing blow time after time, then retreating back to my party when the damage to myself had become too severe. My friends played the same roles they were already doing, but with a bigger focus on defense for the flood of enemies was stronger now, and I had to separate from them to swin through this accursed pile of bodies, both living and not.
“HELP!” someone shouted just as I crushed a cursetacean trying to crawl on three legs. I immediately turned on my heel and stepped towards the sound, only to pause when I saw a vaguely familiar person. It was… the guy who had once tried to grab my horns. He never apologized, he held no remorse for his actions, and I didn’t wish to fucking help him.
So I didn't.
I turned on my heel and left him to his fate.
I listened to his dying screams as I saved an inhex woman from certain death.
He finally shut up when I helped a couple of adventurers escape.
Two cursetaceans were killed by my hands to allow them the opportunity, but I was too damaged to finish off the remaining two.
The tyranight woman killed them instead, and we exchanged a nod as I had somehow made it to the sundertop in all of the confusion.
"Great fighting," he said, a lake of calm amidst the battlefield. I felt the healing power of sun magic, and it felt... bigger, than both light and fire.
I bid him farewell and merged back into my group.
"Shit sorry." I ended the lives of the two cursetanceans that Berry was tangling with. The cursetaceans did differ from crustecars and even regular crabs in the way their legs were structured. They were better for charging straight ahead but worse in sideways movement, which allowed my friend to quite literally dance around them. “I got separated.”
"It's okay," Moonwash said.
"It happens," Therick panted.
"We have it under control!" Granuel reassured.
"Little help here!" Angerly shouted, and I also killed the monster she was holding back.
We later found a gap right where the drawbridge should be, with city soldiers holding the line to usher us into safety. I led my party and we rampaged through the crustecars in our way, their bodies messily tossed aside as we carved out a path. We made it to our goal, and the moment our feet touched the wood of the bridge, we ran straight ahead without ever looking back.
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AN:
Whew. A large engagement. Army-building is actually one of my favorite genres, if not my outright favorite one, but I recognize that I’m really the best at writing it. This is still far from the epic, indulgent, and fun large-scale combat that I love since it was more focused on the perspective of one person or one party, but I like how it turned out for what it is.
I’ve written a war!
Sort of.
Comments
ZephanyZephZeph
Can't wait till we have Haell leading a charge, or even flying above, an army and tangling with angels while her allies deal with the more conventional fight below. The voices of the damned will overthrow holy oppressors!
Mattman
Horn grabby dude. Was worried he would stay around to cause trouble. However dead men tell no tales.
Maou Razonica
The horn-grabby guy is dead, yes. Which other enemy are you hoping is dead? Commanding officer lady, maybe? (I forgot if I ever named her.)
Mattman
Wooo entitled brat dead hopefully one enemy made now dead.
