[151] Forceful Breakthrough (6)
"Rian, I'm going. Explain it to Tess and Amy."
"Huh? Hey, Shirone!"
Before Rian could even call him back, Shirone cast teleport and vanished at incredible speed.
A moment later Amy and Tess caught up to Rian.
"Rian! Where did Shirone go?"
"He went ahead. Just now."
"What was he thinking? What did he say before he left?"
"Looks like he plans to burn through the traps with Radiant Rampage first. He said he'd go alone because you might forbid it."
"Of course I would! Who would allow a reckless plan like that? And Radiant Rampage is a kinetic defensive barrier—if the timing's off, it could be dangerous!"
"Right. He went alone so he wouldn't have to hear that."
Amy was irritated. Not because he acted on his own—Shirone's tactic really was the most effective option in terms of outcome.
But it was too dangerous. In ordinary circumstances they might accept a low probability, but here they had to factor in potential losses no matter how likely success seemed.
"If he fails he'll die! That idiot!"
Amy shouted into the empty air, then placed her hands on Rian's and Tess's waists.
"We can't stop him. If we can't, we'll at least assist. Everyone, be alert. I'll chase at top speed."
She bent forward and teleported. A blinding flash sliced across the stream and shot away.
* * *
The upstream of the valley—the only road to their hideout—was completely blocked by a twenty-meter wall.
About ten henchmen were posted there, and Palkoa's men, who were setting up an encirclement, began arriving one after another.
"The enemy's coming! Get the traps ready!"
"They're faster than expected. We don't have time to arm everything."
The captain clicked his tongue. Whoever had thought this through was sharp. With no way to bypass the traps, the strategy was to run the shortest route and deal with whoever came through.
"Doesn't matter. These traps were made to slaughter hundreds. Even activating half of them will be enough to bury four people."
The captain kept his composure and issued orders.
But when he saw a single boy running alone from two hundred meters away, his bewilderment broke through.
"What the—? Why's he alone?"
"He must've rushed ahead because he's anxious."
The captain didn't buy it. It was possible, but the moment he realized the enemy was alone, something in his gut felt wrong.
He began to think it would be a waste to trigger the traps.
"He's good at psychological warfare. Using an area trap to take out one person—what a waste."
"Then what do we do? Send men out and fight him?"
"What do you mean? Trigger the traps now. Are you that thick? That's exactly what he's counting on. He may have gambled his life, but he underestimated us. If we take down just one of the two mages, the tide turns. Now is not the time to be frugal."
"Understood. Hey, start it now! Everyone, get ready!"
Shirone stared up at the wall blocking the valley. Around ten enemies had bows out, aiming into the air.
'Arrow attack?'
Shirone was puzzled. It was nearly impossible for ten archers to hit someone a hundred meters away.
But the enemies loosed their arrows without hesitation, and Shirone stopped running and looked up.
They looked like ordinary arrows, only the fletchings shimmered in different colors.
'Magic bolts!'
Having just teleported, Shirone reflexively jumped back. If he hadn't seen magic bolts at the Kergo ruins, he'd have been hit for sure.
"Shirone!"
Amy's voice came from behind, and Shirone halted his retreat.
He could feel how anxious she was—she had arrived far faster than expected.
But Shirone didn't change his plan. With neither advance nor retreat possible, the magic bolts fell and struck the ground.
A powerful explosion followed. The roar shook the valley and smoke thickly cloaked the area around Shirone.
He understood their tactic. They planned to blind him with smoke and finish him with the traps.
"Amy! Don't go in!"
Even without Shirone telling her, Amy couldn't bring herself to step forward. In the pockets where the smoke hadn't spread, she could see massive siege mechanisms moving along the cliff—huge devices that sent a tremor through the air.
As expected, fearsome siege engines, like gigantic catapults, had been set up along the cliff face. They had wheels, but they were large enough that several people would be needed to move them.
"Now! Pour everything on him!"
On the captain's command, Palkoa's men activated the devices. Enormous boulders were levered and hurled into the valley.
They were rocks large enough to fill the V-shaped cross-section of the gorge.
Judging by the force, these traps weren't meant to stop just a few attackers. They were last-resort weapons to massacre enemies in a final stand.
"Shirone!"
Amy cried out, but it was already too late. One by one, the huge rocks plunged into the smoke.
Amy imagined the sickening crack of crushing, but a different, violent shattering sound replaced that mental image.
As the smoke that had been filling the valley dispersed, Shirone's figure emerged surrounded by a globe of light.
'Radiant Rampage!'
A sphere of light flashed around Shirone. The Spirit Zone, at its maximum twenty-meter diameter, was larger than the rocks.
That massive light ran rampant at a terrifying speed, and those watching felt their eyes might be blinded.
Light with mass strove with all its force to generate counterforce. But the rocks also resisted with overwhelming weight.
Shirone's Radiant Rampage shook violently as the boulders slammed into it; it looked like they might crush him.
But halfway down, the rocks split into dozens of pieces. From then on Shirone's Radiant Rampage began to overwhelm them.
Medium-sized fragments multiplied exponentially, triggering chain explosions.
Smaller. Smaller.
Shirone unleashed a rapid barrage of photons until the rock was nothing but dust.
By the time the debris reached near Shirone, only tiny grains remained. Even those were caught in the cycles of light and flung outward.
The time it took a rock to fall to the ground was only two seconds—exactly the same time it took to be pulverized into dust.
Thousands of events that happened in that instant were compressed into human perception, creating the illusion of a massive explosion.
Dust scattered in all directions and settled with a soft rustle.
An eerie wind moaned through the valley.
Palkoa's men couldn't understand what had happened. Light had flashed and the rocks had detonated like powder—that was all their eyes could confirm.
Shirone stepped through the dust-covered stream and glared up at the wall. He watched the men who had triggered the traps return one by one.
The captain realized something was wrong. He'd survived more than ten years on battlefields, but he'd never even heard rumors of magic like that.
"Damn! What the hell is that kid?"
"Captain! What do we do?"
"Prepare the magic bolts! Fire them!"
The men quickly uncoupled arrowheads and assembled them into magic bolts. Shirone, who had been glaring at them, concentrated his will right in front of them.
An orb of photons popped into being and began vibrating powerfully, drawing in the surrounding light.
"Captain! Look! That's dangerous!"
Someone who'd seen Shirone's technique at the tavern shouted to the captain.
Indeed, even the captain felt unease—the way a light larger than a man's face was compressing.
"Hurry up! Shoot those magic bolts!"
The men's hands moved faster, but magic acted first.
A straight flash of light suddenly formed between Shirone and the wall.
KRAAAAAANG!
The photon cannon slammed into the iron gate head-on with an ear-splitting metallic crash.
The men assembling the magic bolts winced and crouched. The impact was strong enough to be felt through the wall. Even after the magic faded, the iron gate hummed.
"What—what is that? Is it broken? Check it!"
One of them ran down the stairs to inspect the gate. The thick iron plates were bent overall but not destroyed.
Perhaps thinking it a success, the man called out brightly.
"The gate's intact!"
"Good! Now it's our turn to attack."
With the photon cannon's strike blunted, Tess looked back at her friends.
"We can't break the gate with magic. Rian, let's climb the wall."
To win a siege there were two options.
One was to use siege engines or magic to smash the gate and pour in troops.
If they couldn't break the gate, then scaling the wall and eliminating the defenders was another way. That was a job for swordsmen like Tess and Rian.
"Alright. It's better if we go up."
Rian slid his straight sword onto his back so he'd be ready. But as the two bent to start climbing, Amy stopped them.
"Wait a moment."
"We don't have time. We must strike before they regroup. This is our chance."
Tess's judgment was right. Amy, a fire mage, was vulnerable to blunt shock, and Shirone's photon cannon was useless against thick iron gates.
But Amy knew Shirone had one more weapon.
And that magic was precisely suited for situations like this.
"He'll handle it."
Tess, not understanding, turned to Shirone and her eyes went wide.
A red light bled out from Shirone's body.
"What—what is that? Isn't that dangerous?"
People grow uneasy at red because it evokes bleeding.
If even Tess recoiled at that chilling crimson glow, the enemies' alarm was unimaginable.
"Captain, what on earth is that?"
Shirone fired a flash of red light forward. A beam struck the gate in an instant, scorching its surface.
"Argh! What is that?"
The men who'd already felt the photon cannon's force stepped back in fear.
But no shockwave or roar followed.
Peering down at the gate, the captain regained his confidence. This magic seemed only to shine on the iron—there was no obvious destructive force.
"Good! Now! Magic bolts, prepare!"
Including those who'd returned from the traps, their number exceeded forty. With that many they could devastate everything around Shirone with a bombardment.
When all the men finished aiming, the captain lowered his hand to give the order.
"Open fi—! Huh?"
At that moment the wall began to tremble violently.
The captain and the men readying to release their bowstrings looked at each other in alarm.
One of them leaned over to peer at the gate and, voice trembling, said, "C-captain! That—!"
The gate shook like mad. The vibrations that began at the gate ran through the entire wall and rattled the structure's foundations.
Seeing something like that for the first time in their lives, Palkoa's men were aghast.
The iron where the laser had struck began to bubble and swell as if boiling, bulging up like air pockets.
Then the wall rocked as if it would be torn from its roots, and with a deafening blast the iron gate blew outward.