Shadowed Gaze: The Highserk War Saga - Chapter 31

Walm’s consciousness rapidly awakened due to the continuing tremors. He stretched his limbs from under his grimy cloak, raising his head from his backpack and waist pouch, which he had been using as a pillow.

Feeling moisture on his left hand, Walm looked down, his mood souring. Nohl had grabbed his left hand and drooled all over it. Enraged by this unreasonable treatment, Walm blocked Nohl’s nose with his free hand, aiming to suffocate her. As Walm had intended, Nohl began to struggle, gasping for air.

The secondary victim of this was Barrit. As he was hit repeatedly by flailing limbs, Barrit groaned and held his rooster crest-like hair with both hands to protect it. Satisfied, Walm released his hand from Nohl and rubbed it on the ground, using fire magic to burn away the grime.

The men, with their musky scent, lay shoulder to shoulder in their sleep, the Three Fools tangled up in their usual awkward sleeping positions, and Squad Leader Duwey snoring loudly. In the distance, the sounds of magical impacts and cries of anguish echoed. The wind carried the stench of guts and waste. It was a typical day for Walm.

After hydrating himself with water from his canteen and chewing off a piece of dried sweet potato, Walm lay back down. Judging by the sky’s color and the rising sun, it had been 2 to 3 hours since they switched with the reserve team. It was still too early to wake up. Though Walm had fallen asleep quickly due to his exhaustion, his rest was short-lived.

“Wake up, everyone! Enemy’s launching a major attack! Let’s move out immediately!” Suddenly awake, Squad Leader Duwey’s shout shook Walm’s eardrums. Being forcibly awakened by enemy magic or skills would have been worse, so this was comparatively decent wake-up.

Springing into action, Walm quickly put on his equipment with impressive efficiency. In less than a minute, he and all squad members were battle-ready and aligned.

“Listen up,” Squad Leader Duwey commanded. “We’ve been ordered by Platoon Leader Cozul to assist the Palmer Platoon. The enemy is forming cover from the trenches they’ve dug, ready to swarm us. Our job is to disrupt them as much as possible. If a breach seems likely, Walm will clear it with his ‘Demon Fire.’ It’s a simple task. Walm, conserve your magic power. Jose, take care of the newbies. Wilart, I know it’s tough without Walm as a magic user, but push through. Reinus, Tibard, Danfan, as always, keep an eye on the gaps and crush them. Let’s go. Today, we’ll return Crest soldiers to the earth and send them to the heavens!”

With a spirited battle cry, “Oooooh!!”, the squad charged into combat. The impact of magic spells kicked up clouds of dust, and arrows whistled through the air, crisscrossing between the two armies.

Walm, grasping a fist-sized stone, hurled it towards a Crest soldier who was desperately trying to maintain footing on the slope. After a dull thud, the soldier lost balance and tumbled headfirst down the incline.

The struggling soldier was admirable in their effort to regain composure. Impressed, Walm sent another fist-sized stone as a gift. Overwhelmed, the soldier eventually rolled to the bottom.

Yet, the persistent Crest soldiers continued to advance, finding protrusions and minor depressions to use as footholds. A fireball struck a shield set into the slope, scattering wood and dirt around, and soldiers hiding behind it were propelled out by the force.

An arrow pierced the back of a soldier trying to hide behind the debris. The vibration of the bowstring releasing the projectile filled the air. Walm caught a glimpse of Nohl, preparing to shoot a second arrow.

Nohl’s second shot was drawn to a Crest soldier who had just moved away from cover, sinking into their collarbone. Walm almost whistled in admiration of Nohl’s fluid movement; Nohl’s bow skills were the best in the squad, even if their close combat skills were only average for a Highserk Empire soldier.

This situation was worrying for Barrit, as he had joined around the same time as Nohl, but didn’t have any skill that made it stand out the same way. Walm realized this with concern.

“I shouldn’t be lost in thought like this,” Walm thought, aware of his bad habit of being distracted by trivial thoughts during battle. He pushed these thoughts about the new recruit to the back of his mind.

Even amidst repeated assaults, the intensity was evident this time. Soldiers fell, but stubbornly established footholds and cover on the slope, attempting to break through the defense line. Even the magic users, who usually provided fire support from the rear, were aggressively involved.

It seemed that the prominent crown on Barrit’s head didn’t sit well with someone, as magic suddenly surged towards him.

“Whoa?!”

A spell targeted Barrit, who ducked into a depression in the ground like a wild rabbit. A water attribute spell struck the embankment, instantly forming a pillar of ice. Walm shattered the bothersome ice pillar with his longsword.

Crushed ice showered over Barrit, eliciting a silly yelp.

“Uhii”

“Ha!”

Walm laughed through his nose, and Barrit, embarrassed, called out to him.

“You don’t have to laugh—watch out, in front!”

Now it was Walm’s turn. An Earth Bullet, seemingly formed by earth attribute magic, hurtled towards him. Despite its modest appearance, earth attribute magic was a corner of the four-element magic and highly practical.

It had multiple battlefield applications, such as fortification construction, anti-siege warfare, and augmenting troops with earth golems. Walm knew that among these, ‘Earth Bullet’ was a basic yet powerful spell of earth attribute magic.

It was far more efficient in terms of magic power consumption to manipulate existing matter with magic rather than creating something from nothing. ‘Earth Bullet’, a spell literally pressing down upon its target, was hard to miss in battle due to its abundance.

Walm spotted the astounded face of a magic user behind a golem. Their prideful magic had been shattered by a sword, which seemed to shock them greatly. Persistently, they launched ‘Earth Bullet’ at Walm two or three times more.

“Seems like you’re fond of playing in the mud,” Walm remarked.

After he knocked down the third Earth Bullet, a Fireball came flying in from a different direction. Walm showed a gesture of dodging, but inwardly, he viewed it with cold eyes. Magic users of fire attribute were strong against their own element.

To others, such fire might cause burns, but to a fire attribute magic user, it was merely hot. After acquiring Demon Fire, Walm had gained resistance to fire and heat, a performance that was exceptional even among those of the same attribute.

As a result, part of the flames struck Walm, but he remained unscathed, protected by a magical barrier covering him and his equipment. The problem was the sudden appearance of hands pressing down on Walm’s body.

“Hey, are you using your comrades as a wall?”

Walm glared at Jose and two other rookies who had sneaked into his shadow, his face marked by a vein of anger.

Despite having cover and room to escape, Walm was intensely infuriated with his companions for choosing to use him as a human shield.

“No way, Walm is amazing,” one said.

“Wow, you weren’t even affected by that direct hit from the flames!”

“This is great, no need for fireproof gear!”

Each had their unique comment: the dark-skinned schemer, the crest bearer, and the bow idiot. If looks could kill, Walm was confident he could fatally wound all three.

“Damn, noisy bunch,” Walm thought.

He wanted to confront the three, but to the enemy soldiers who could not see Walm and his group in the depression, it seemed they had eliminated the troublesome foes.

“Follow me!” commanded a voice.

From the trench, soldiers surged out, more knights than before, signaling a significant move to Walm. Especially the leading knight was a huge problem.

With flowing purple hair and a slender figure discernible even through armor, Walm would not have bothered if she were just a noble-born knight.

However, seeing her wield a round shield imbued with magic, canceling out Wind Blades, and watching an ally get pierced by a thrown spear while leaning out from the embankment, Walm’s opinion changed.

She was an Iron Wall user with absurdly high magical power. A close-combat focused woman, a muscle-brained knight who dove into deadly situations without hesitation – Walm didn’t want to deal with her. Squad Leader Duwey seemed fitting for such an opponent.

The Squad Leader smiled, his eyes gleaming with excitement at the prospect of a melee battle. Walm, on the other hand, would have preferred to avoid such a confrontation.

“Walm, hurry up and use it!”

Walm heard Platoon Leader Cozul’s anguished cry. Understanding his superior’s desire to avoid a melee, Walm reached into his magic bag and pulled out a mask. The mask vibrated, as if impatient to be used.

The terrifying—or rather, convenient—aspect of the mask was its ability to adhere to the face. With it, Walm could move freely and use magic without hindrance.

He expended his reserved magical power in one go, creating a whirlwind of heat and flames around his body. Yet, the female knight in front of him did not flinch. Her narrow eyes were fixed intently on Walm. Under normal circumstances, if those eyes bore no killing intent, Walm would have welcomed them, but the current situation was far from that, to say the least.

Nevertheless, Walm’s advantage was unwavering. There had been others who continued to move within Demon Fire in the past, but Walm was in luck now. With support from his allies and the enemy struggling uphill, all he had to do was unleash his magic power and incinerate the enemies below.

Just as Walm was about to unleash Demon Fire, the group abruptly stopped and crouched low, minimizing their contact with the ground. Some even formed earth walls and trenches. Simple magic could be countered, but against Demon Fire, without blocking it from all directions, defense was meaningless.

Walm’s expectation of the enemy charging into the Demon Fire head-on dissipated, but at the same time, he wondered why they suddenly stopped and fortified their defense, especially since Crest soldiers had previously been burned in similar charges. “Am I overthinking it? Or is this just my usual unnecessary thinking?” Walm tried to shift his thoughts, but then he was stunned by the expanding magical power in the trench behind him.

“No way…”

He squinted his eyes momentarily, searching for the source. A black-haired, black-eyed boy and a chestnut-haired girl were staring intently at Walm.

Walm had only seen a handful of visually perceptible magical powers before, and here it was swelling in multiple instances. Upon closer inspection, numerous other magic users were hiding there.

Chills ran down his spine, and cold sweat broke out.

Walm glared at the boy and girl while berating himself. He had been lured into a trap, ensnared by the enemy’s strategy. His field of vision was overwhelmed by a multitude of different magics, with one particularly dazzling light holding his gaze.

Leaning slightly towards the less dense side, Walm released Demon Fire with all his might. The collision of countless spells resulted in a massive explosion. The blast sent Walm’s hair flying, and his body was pummeled by debris and shockwaves.

Even as the magic slightly waned, it still surged towards Walm. He manipulated the hot wind to slightly shift his body backward and levitate, but it was too late.

“Walm!”

Squad Leader Duwey’s voice echoed in the corner of his vision, but the stream of light engulfed the squad as well.

“Aaaaah…”

In a last-ditch effort, Walm folded his limbs, covered his ears, and exhaled. Pain coursed through his stiffened body. Light, flames, and shockwaves seemed to peel away his flesh. Disoriented and exposed to the raw force, he lost sensation in his body.

“Am I going to die again?” he thought as his senses twisted and his vision darkened. The once deafening noises faded, and Walm’s consciousness slipped away entirely.