Magic Gems Gourmet Chapter 190

Chapter 190

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ED: LonelyMatter

Chapter 190 – The Battlefield Begins to Move

If there were a word to describe it, it would be a headlong rush with no hope of escape.

Listening to Heim’s movements and Logas’ words, one couldn’t help but think of it that way.

“Don’t be afraid!”

“Advance!”

The desperate voices of Heim’s soldiers could be heard everywhere.

The knights of Ishtalika moved with a sense of wonder; Heim’s move right now was a stark contrast to their recent escape.

What has changed them? ――Or was it the influence of the man called Logas? The questions are endless.

“First shot. ――Stand by.”

But these were also fine knights of Ishtalika.

When they heard Lloyd’s voice, they quickly s.h.i.+fted their focus and prepared.

The knight in charge of the crossbow took aim and brought the ever-scattering Heim soldiers into range.

“…Not yet. A little more, a little more…”

Lloyd stops his raised hand in mid-air, suppressing his impatience.

The dust kicked up by the soldiers’ charge was causing a slight reduction in visibility.

The heat drifting over the battlefield caused sweat to appear on the Ishtalika knight’s brow.

“――…Fire!”

Seeing that the distance had closed, Lloyd gave the order.

Almost as soon as Lloyd lowered his hand, the crossbows began to fire simultaneously.

As the flashes spread across the Heim soldiers, they were all hit at once.

“…Gah!”

“Ouch…it hurts! Haha!”

As Logas had predicted, the survival rate was much higher than expected, even though they had been hit by the crossbow.

But that was not what surprised Lloyd and the Ishtalika knights.

“W-what on earth would make them become such desperate soldiers?”

“Lloyd-sama! Are we going to fire while retreating?”

“No, that won’t work! Use the crossbows to avoid being surrounded by them, and use the cavalry to stop their attacks!”

“Ha!”

The Heim soldiers continued to charge forward, seemingly unafraid of death despite their pain.

The complete opposite of their att.i.tude the other day, what they had done was surprising.

It must be the commander’s job to inspire the soldiers. But this is too good to be true.

“Listen, brave men of Ishtalika! No matter how many of the enemy are desperate soldiers… if their hearts are weak, there is no compet.i.tion! There is nothing to fear! It is time to show our strength!”

And so, for the first time since Lloyd arrived on the battlefield, he drew his sword.

He held the Glacier Family’s famous great sword to the sky, and it strongly reflected the light.

There was no mistake in the adjustment either. It was a special-cla.s.s sword that had just been sharpened by Mouton before the expedition.

“Spearmen, forward! Charge after the archers’ shot!”

Hearing this, the spearmen pounded the ground a few times before raising their spears.

They held them forward as if to stab and waited on their horses for the signal to advance.

“Still, they’ve prepared a lot of troops. I wonder what’s happening in Heim, their homeland.”

Even though the continent… the distance to their homeland was getting shorter, aren’t they risking too much in the battle in Birdland?

Even this action seems to be the height of folly.

“Lloyd-sama, don’t you think it’s about time?”

“Ah… Archers, fire!”

Realizing that he had been lost in thought for a moment, Lloyd hastily gave the order.

Thus began the battle between Heim and Ishtalika.

＊＊＊

“Haha, haa…! No matter how strong you knights are, if you’re up against several of us…”

“Huff! Hmph…”

“Wha… Y-you b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!”

As the fronts collided, the forces of both sides began to clash.

Heim’s front line was littered with dead soldiers, but even though they had become dead soldiers, they were still tenacious.

On the contrary, they even showed their cleverness by moving towards the Ishtalika knights in groups.

“Kuh… just die already!”

“Ah… ha… it hurts, it hurts…!”

“Hey, are you really human?”

The Ishtalika knight thrust his spear into the Heim soldier’s eye.

However, the Heim soldier grabbed the spear with his hand and pushed himself towards the Ishtalika knight.

“Hungghhhhhh!”

“Y-Your Excellency the Marshal!”

“What are you afraid of, you idiot? Don’t be afraid. If you cut off his head like this, he’ll lose his life!”

“H-ha!”

Lloyd cut down the Heim soldiers who had gathered around the knight.

He took the lives of the Heim soldiers, just like when he cut the lamprey rabbit in half.

On the other hand, Lloyd was also surprised by the current state of the Heim Knights…

“…It’s clear now that this is not something a human can do. I guess the country of Heim is as good as dead already.”

They had planned to attack Heim, but this was a ridiculous story.

Lloyd smiled wryly as he watched the Heim soldiers go mad.

In contrast to the bright suns.h.i.+ne, the emotions of Lloyd and the Ishtalika knights were complex.

“Cavalry, retreat!”

This order prompted the crossbowmen to prepare their weapons once again.

The reloaded crossbows were aimed at the Heim soldiers, and the second bombardment began.

“…Fire!”

Now that they had retreated to a safe distance, all the crossbows opened fire at once.

The frontline Heim soldiers were out of range as they chased the Ishtalika knights, but the barrage still hit many of the Heim soldiers.

“How is it going?”

“It’s. .h.i.tting the Heim soldiers in many places!”

Good. Lloyd nodded in satisfaction.

In addition, the Heim soldiers on the front line were gradually losing their strength.

The mechanism used on them was unknown, but it is probably due to the fact that they have lost too much blood. Their steps were getting heavier.

“It’s a miracle they’ve survived this long.”

Despite their physical defects, the Heim soldiers ran around with a vitality that was almost unbelievable.

They were even a little frightening as someone fighting against them, but considering that the real enemy was behind them, Lloyd would have no reason to be afraid here.

“Well, what should we do?”

There was no need for Ishtalika to decide the outcome of the battle here.

Considering the situation, there was no need to force an attack.

The fact that the Heim soldiers were acting strangely was a concern, and on top of that, they had already dealt a heavy blow to the Heim soldiers.

“If we were to retreat now, what would be the problem?”

…No, there isn’t.

Now that the Ishtalika knights are likely to take damage, there is no need to force a frontal battle.

If they can keep their distance and keep firing their crossbows, it will be over in a sense.

Lloyd took a deep breath as he considered this.

“All troops, retreat! Just to the point where we can see the Heim soldiers! We’re retreating!”

Let’s just make them wait, Lloyd thought.

If Heim retreated, they could follow and attack.

If they didn’t come out of Birdland, at worst, they could just keep firing their crossbows into Birdland.

There was no other strategy that would waste more of the Ishtalika knights’ lives.

That was what Lloyd thought, but this strategy would be thwarted.

“Wait, Lloyd-sama! There’s a group of something approaching from behind…”

“From behind?!”

How could they be behind them in such an open place?

He was confused by the sudden turn of events, but there was nothing he could do if the enemy had increased in numbers.

“Your Excellency! T-the miasma… The miasma has taken out the rear guard knights!”

“Miasma… you say? Don’t be ridiculous! Even if the miasma were to appear, with our equipment…”

Lloyd turns his attention to the rearguard knights.

Then Lloyd’s eyes also see the scene of the Ishtalika knights falling.

“W-what’s happening?”

“I don’t know, but it’s probably the one that appeared before us!”

“They’re finally coming, huh…”

The scene of the Ishtalika knights falling. Farther away, a group of creatures continued to emit strange screams.

A shrill sound, like a woman’s scream, echoes.

These are the creatures. Lloyd furrows his brow.

“It’s a carriage! It looks like the miasma is coming out of that carriage!”

The Royal Knight pointed to the center of the creatures.

A rather large carriage was being pulled by several people in robes. There was also a person sitting in the driver’s seat, holding a spear in one hand.

The carriage was extremely luxurious, and it wouldn’t be strange to say that a n.o.bleman was riding in it. It’s just that the thing coming out of it seems abnormal.

The most noticeable thing was the purple mist coming out of the bottom of the carriage.

It slowly spread around, and then, riding on the wind, it attacked the knights of Ishtalika.

“The miasma that even our equipment cannot counter… I don’t understand how they do it…!”

If the source was the carriage, then they should attack the carriage. However, they would have to get close enough to be within range, and the effects of the miasma cannot be ignored.

“Hold your position! Deploy to the right wing and prepare to attack!”

Now that they couldn’t retreat carelessly, they had no choice but to advance.

Lloyd stopped them from retreating and then gave the order to advance.

“Bring six crossbows to the rear and aim at the carriage! And the animals around it, too!”

In Euro, there were supposed to be so many of them that they needed the main cannon.

In this case, however, Lloyd a.s.sessed that the number of them did not require the main cannon.

However, it would be extremely difficult to deal with each one of them. Therefore, they had no choice but to rely on the crossbow attack.

“Archers! Ready… fire!”

Although hastily a.s.sembled, the archers, under Lloyd’s command, unleashed an attack on the Heim soldiers.

“Cavalry, advance! We will crush the Heim soldiers from the right flank!”

The most important thing was to avoid being surrounded.

Before that happened, Lloyd gave instructions on the route to take.

“I thought I was being careful, but where the h.e.l.l did they come from?”

Lloyd muttered, muttering his displeasure at the carriage and the creatures that had appeared behind him as he set his horse in motion and headed for the Heim soldiers’ destruction.

“But I don’t understand. Using this kind of miasma would surely harm the Heim soldiers as well. Are you saying that they won’t be affected?”

It’s a ridiculous hypothesis, but the more he thought about it, the more terrifying it became.

If that were the case, it would mean that only the Knights of Ishtalika were affected by the miasma.

Lloyd let out a sigh as he slipped the reins up with his sweaty hands and then gripped them again.

“I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but I never thought it would be like this.”

The most frightening thing right now is the miasma closing in from behind.

It will take some damage and time, but the Heim soldiers who have become dead soldiers can be dealt with somehow.

However, the time it takes is the problem.

“Then if we can defeat Logas quickly… Hmm?”

Lloyd suddenly realized.

Logas had suddenly ridden his horse to the front.

Wondering what he was doing, he turned to the Heim soldiers and called out to them.

“Brave Heim knights! You have withstood the attack of the barbarians! The reinforcements of the First Prince… no, the Crown Prince has finally arrived!”

Logas said loudly as if to encourage the soldiers.

The Heim soldiers’ morale was raised as if they had all come to life at once.

The soldiers who had lost their arms, the soldiers who had lost parts of their faces―everyone picked up their weapons and raised them in a spirited voice.

“The holy power of the Crown Prince will save our Heim! Forward, heroes of Heim!”

What a stage! Logas and the others look like a holy army, creating a situation like the main characters of a story.

“…Well then, what’s going on, Logas? Are you saying that the carriage leaking miasma is carrying your first prince?”

When did the first prince, Layfon, become the crown prince?

It didn’t matter now. But if Logas’ words were to be believed, then Layfon was probably in that carriage.

This fact was the most important thing right now.

“I thought there was no other crown prince as talked about as Ain-sama, the hero who defeated the sea dragon. …But this is the first time I’ve heard of a crown prince who can emit miasma.”

Lloyd looks at Logas with cold eyes as if he were looking at a dirty rat.

“And calling the miasma a holy power is something I’ve never heard of either. ――Logas, that makes you sound like a monster who lives in a cave full of miasma.”

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