NBAA Vol. 4 Chapter 4 Part 1
CHAPTER 4
Reito and crew spotted the Rotten Dragon several minutes later. Black clouds were spreading rapidly, even being spotted in the city.
Bal and Gigan of the Second Battalion of the Subjugation Troops should be in action by then. They checked the situation realizing their strategy would fail. They were certain the undead were following the cloud to the city.
“Hey, hey! What is this!! Why did it have to be today!!”
“We don’t have time to complain. Heaven has abandoned us.”
“It can’t be the magical energy of that cloud, right?”
Bal and Gigan were talking on top of the city’s defensive wall before Maria showed up.
“Don’t say foolish things. If there’s a magician that can control the weather, they wouldn’t be a person at all.”
Alto came along as well. He ordered his soldiers to defend the city, but he was nervous about the approaching black cloud and came to ask about something.
“May I ask the three of you something. I have heard the previous strategy was to attack in the daytime. However, I have also heard that the Rotten Dragon can attack when in a place where the sun is blocked. In that case, could it be that the black cloud approaching the city is the Rotten Dragon?”
“Don’t ask just to show off your own knowledge. We have to intercept it here.”
“Is that even possible?”
“If we don’t fight, everyone will be killed.”
“Ngh…”
Alto shut up at Gigan’s words.
On the other hand, the three Guildmasters were worried about the troops they had previously sent out. Their initial strategy was to camp out in the grasslands at night and wait for the Rotten Dragon’s appearance. If the dragon noticed the existence of the troops, the people in the first battalion would act as bait and the second battalion would come in for a pincer attack. But, the Rotten Dragon suddenly became capable of moving in the daytime thanks to the moving black cloud. Therefore, the whole plan was thrown into disarray.
At that moment, a patrol monitoring the city from atop the defense wall shouted.
“Lord Alto, look!! The troops we sent out in advance are retreating!!”
“What!?”
Just as the soldier declared, a group of carriages rushed toward the city at full speed across the plains.
Bal was relieved to see that sight.
“It appears that perceptive bastard noticed something, and they are coming back.”
“But, that’s strange… Why are they coming back so soon? Even if they had noticed something strange in the air, they are coming back suspiciously soon,” Maria said.
“The only way to know is to ask them. But, what are you going to do? Do we have a chance to beat the Rotten Dragon if we greet it with an attack?” Bal questioned.
“It will be quite the ordeal if it reaches the city. Even if we use Barrier Stones to construct a defensive wall, I don’t think we’d be able to hold out for very long,” Gonzo commented.
Alto proposed to the three of them, “In that case, should we have the masses flee from the city?”
“Where will they find refuge? It’s dangerous to move the citizenry so carelessly. Please think before you speak,” Maria curtly rejected the idea.
“Ngh…”
Alto shut up after Maria glared at him coldly.
She gave a more reserved command to the soldier.
“Order a citizen evacuation. They are to congregate in the city center,” Alto commanded.
“What!? B—, But…”
The soldier was flustered at Alto’s order.
Alto took the soldier along with him and proceeded to work on the citizen evacuation effort.
She was glad he had followed her order so obediently. Maria asked Bal about her nephew.
“Speaking of which, Bal, I heard you talked to Reito before the troops headed out.”
“Huh? Oh, a little… Nothing that you would care about.”
“I’m not sure about that… Speaking of which, do you have time to take it easy here?”
“What do you mean?”
“When the princess notices what’s going on outside, do you think she’ll sit still? Alto is planning to call for an evacuation to the city center. It’s only natural that he’ll stop by your guild and order the evacuation there.”
“Ahh! Good point…” Bal ran off.
Maria sighed as she watched her disappear.
◆◆◆
Thanks to Ullr, Reito and Kagemaru had successfully caught up with the troops and reported that the undead were closing in. He ordered them to retreat. At first, the other adventurers were reluctant, but verifying the spectacle of the black cloud unfolding toward the city, they suspended their attack and rushed back. On account of the ogre attack, they weren’t very far removed from the city and were able to make it back quickly.
When Reito and crew reached the city, they held an emergency strategy meeting and had adventurers sent to every gate of the protective wall to defend the area.
Reito and crew were ordered to defend the southern gate, and they were watching from on top of the wall.
A black cloud completely enveloped their surroundings at high noon, causing the sky to appear to gradually fade into night. It was the perfect opportunity for the Rotten Dragon and undead to strike.
Dain, who was on sentry duty, called out, “H—, Hey!! Look at that!! They are already here!?”
“The undead…”
“Ah! There’s so many!” They all raised their voice in response, looking out to see a swarm of the undead parading toward the city. There were more of them than when Kagemaru and Reito first spotted them. They had more likely turned more monsters into the undead as they moved along.
Erina looked at the swarm of the undead and shouted, “Wah!? The ogres we defeated before are back!! That’s why I said we needed to burn the dead.”
“There’s no time to cry!! With that number of the undead, it’s like an entire army…!!” an Elf man said to Erina.
Overwhelmed by the large number of the undead, some of the soldiers began to wail.
“W—, We can’t do it. It’s impossible with that many of them!!”
“Don’t whine, you blubber belly!! And you call yourself a soldier!?”
“You guys might be used to fighting monsters, but we have only fought humans before. There’s no way we can beat those monsters…!!”
“Tsk. Spineless cowards,” the adventurers were ticked off at the soldiers’ pathetic remarks.
True to their word, the Adventure City soldiers weren’t very experienced with monsters. The ones really in charge of protecting the city were the adventurers. The soldiers only go after petty criminals within the city boundaries.
Reito was surveilling the skies, searching for signs of the Rotten Dragon. But, nothing like it could be spotted.
『Airis!! What’s the whereabouts of the Rotten Dragon?』
『At present, it’s on a hill some ways from the city. It’s pretty far away, but the necromancers are about to give the undead the order to attack.』
『Shit… How many undead are there?』
『Roughly 1,000 of them. It appears they plan to destroy the city before the day is over.』
『1,000…』
Reito was surprised about how few undead there were. Counting the adventurers and the soldiers, they had the advantage in numbers.
But, Airis reminded Reito of something, 『 I’ll say this once, but you shouldn’t underestimate the undead. Their bodies are rotting, so they have less defense than living creatures, but that also means that an attack that would normally paralyze someone won’t cause them any harm. They’re already dead, after all.』
『I see, in video games, the undead tend to be stronger than their living counterparts.』
『I don’t know about that, but they don’t have any sense of pain and come through with irrational attacks. They use their broken arms to fight from otherwise impossible angles. They might even loosen their joints to increase the range of their attacks. Their weak point is their heads. Is that the same as in video games?』
『 It’s just like Resident Evil.』
『If you’re trying to defeat them quickly, magic is the best approach. But, some weak beginner’s magic like “Photosphere” isn’t going to give them much resistance, so watch out.』
『Got it.』
He finished communications with Airis and drew his Extermination Sword. The others saw him and readied their own weapons.
The archers and magicians waiting in the city were the first to spring into action. They were readying an attack against the large swarm of the undead approaching the city.
“Fire!!” When the order came, the soldiers who hadn’t lost their nerve and the magicians began their attack.
“Grahhhh…!!”
The goblins were the first group to receive a volley of arrows and magical attacks. The arrows pierced their bodies — those hit with the ballistic magic exploded. And yet, given that they can’t feel pain, it didn’t matter if their comrades fell over. They just continued toward the wall without hesitation.
“Sh—, Shit!! These bastards won’t quit!?”
“They’re undead!! We don’t have time to complain. Don’t stop the fighting. We’ve got to reduce their numbers!!”
“Graahh.”
The march of the undead wouldn’t stop causing the soldiers to be afraid and slow down their attacks.
Taking advantage of the slowdown, the goblins leaped and jumped over the moat in front of the protective wall, grabbing the wall and beginning to scale it.
“Graaahh….!!”
“Ahh!! These—!!”
“Dumbass! Calm down and pierce their heads!!” Reito shouted, but his voice didn’t seem to reach the soldiers’ ears, and they continued firing their arrows haphazardly.
The goblins didn’t flinch as they took the volley of the arrows. They managed to climb the walls and made their appearance at the top.
“Ngraah!!”
“Eek!?”
“Go to hell, goblin!!”
“Grah!?”
Gallow, who had also been assigned to guard the south wall with Reito, sent one of the goblins flying with a kick.
Morimo and Mina, who were accompanying Gallow, were setting up attacks against the goblins.
“Spin!!”
“Collision Slap!!”
“Grahhh…!?”
Mina spun her spear and sent the goblin flying away while Morimo used the palm of his hand to slap it into the moat.
The move “Spin” will have different effects depending on the weapon. Broadsword and longsword users spin their own bodies, but the weapon itself is spun for spear users. The force generated is inferior to that of a sword, but it is easier to handle as a result.
“Shadow Slip!!”
“Grahh!?”
Not wanting to lose out, Dain used his shadow magic to create a shadow whip-like thing, whipping it at the goblins on the wall.
The goblins fell down, hitting other goblins on the way down.
“Water gun!”
“Groah…!?”
Kotomin wielded Suramin in her hands, shooting out water. The goblins, attempting to leap onto the wall, were blown back.
“Sweeping Fire!!”
“Aga!?”
“Woah!?”
“Ah!?”
Erina was firing arrows one after another, but it was no more than a drop in the bucket against these goblins. Other archers and magicians were firing away, but they couldn’t stop the advance of the undead, and the adventurers were beginning to be overwhelmed.
“Sh—, Shit… they’re only goblins!!”
“These small fries…!!”
“Right!! These shits!!”
“Graaaaahhh…!!”
The creatures, who had no sense of pain or fear, continued climbing the wall and attacking the living humans. Even if their legs were cut off, they would crawl with their heads alone.
The adventurers cringed at the overly awful nature of the monsters, but Reito jumped over the wall and continued to slice away at them mercilessly.
“You should duck!”
“Wh—… What!?”
“Graah!?”
Reito swung his blade at full force at a goblin trying to attack Gallow from behind, splitting its head in half.
“That was dangerous, fool-ass!!”
“S—, Sorry. Things get dangerous when I use the Extermination Blade, huh? Iceclad Sword!!”
“Woah!?”
Reito put the Extermination Blade back into the other dimension with his storage magic and pulled out an ice block longsword. He used “High-Speed Shape Change” to make the blade vibrate at a super-high frequency and merrily went after the horde of the undead one after the other.
“Graah!!”
“Take this.”
“Grah!?”
He stabbed a goblin approaching from behind without turning around, severing its head from its body.
The vibrating ice blade could slice through opponents without much strength and had a cleaner cut than the Extermination Blade.