Chapter 9: Fighting off the Minions

Around two dozen enemies come hurling at us, armed with various weapons but hardly armored. There’s no organization; they’re charging mindlessly toward us. Some fire spells as they charge, but they’re weak and mostly hit the surrounding trees rather than us.

Those do not belong to an elite guard, I quickly deduce. It’s likely just the local village population responding to the Demon Lord’s battle cry. We should be able to handle them. Their magic is lackluster, and so is their equipment.

“Let them come!”

I hold my ground for now, concentrating mana. While I’m insignificant compared to Beatrix, I can do some magic myself. Muttering some ancient words, I increase my weapon’s size and durability and pass an offensive buff to Lance and Lucy. Meanwhile, Beatrix conjures up magical knives that reliably find their targets, taking a few of the charging enemies out before they can reach us.

“There he is!” I can hear Berserker roar. My gaze wanders to a prominent figure emerging behind the first wave of fighters, his colossal battle axe raised skywards. Six grim-looking demon guards wielding uniquely shaped sticks stand beside him. I immediately realize what we’re dealing with here.

Staffs! Those are mages!

“Mop up the small fries first; they’re barely armored,” I order, preparing to meet their charge with one of my own. “Those mages seem like trouble! Bea?”

“Got it!” the old mage replies after a few more demons collapse from her offensive spells. Immediately, another barrier comes up just in time for the melee to begin.

“Berserker! Help us mop up first. We’ll need to separate him from his bodyguards before you can fight him!” I instruct quickly.

“Piece of cake!” the large warrior shouts and enters a charge. For someone so large and fat, he’s surprisingly swift. With a single swing of his mace, the faces of two demons turn into a bloody mess and collapse before they can swing their weapons. Another three turn tail upon seeing their comrades gored by Berserker, and the giant gives chase.

A handful of them are coming straight at us. Time to show what I got!

I charge as well, and the enhanced shield covers my advance. Although I’m light and small, my momentum knocks the first demon I encounter to the ground, their throat immediately slit open by Lucy. A shluck to my left indicates that Lance also made a successful charge, impaling two enemies simultaneously with his initial charge.

Good, we can do this!

I swing my sword at a demon trying to chop my head off with his axe, prompting me to raise my shield high. While his axe gets stuck in my shield, leaving no more than a small dent in the metal, my sword leaves a horrible slash across his shoulder and chest. Disarmed and injured, the enemy collapses, and I leave them there to bleed out. A slow death is precisely what they deserve after all.

Below!

Another one attempts to use the distraction to slash at my legs, but I slam down my shield just in time to block the attack. The demon warrior falls over from their momentum, landing in front of my feet. Slamming my shield down again, I pin them to the ground at their neck, increasing the pressure until their neck breaks like a twig.

“Take that you assholes!” I yell, disregarding that none of them could understand my words.

Explosions occur everywhere, but I don’t pay them any attention. To my right, Lucy gracefully dances through the ranks of the attackers, dodging and blocking several sword and axe-blows while stabbing three of them without a scratch. The last remaining attacker attempts to flee, but Lance’s skills go beyond wielding a spear. Skillfully, he throws his weapon and pierces straight through their lower back.

We’ve repelled the first wave of attackers.

“Good job, everyone!” I shout out to everyone, except for Berserker, who ran off while chasing down his targets. “How’s your mana doing, Beatrix?”

The witch takes a while to respond, deflecting various spells manually now instead of forming a wide area barrier like before.

“If we want to win, we need to win fast,” she replies curtly. It doesn’t need a genius like Kenneth to figure it out, which doesn’t stop him from catching up with us to have his moment.

“Not only do they outnumber Beatrix, but demons primarily draw their mana from darkness, unlike us humans,” he explains matter-of-factly. “Not only are we fighting in a forest that hardly lets the sunlight reach the ground, but nighttime is approaching too. We can’t win a war of attrition, and haven’t seen those mages cast large spells. Their strategy is obvious; they’re wearing Beatrix down.”

Thanks, Mister Obvious.

“I was going to suggest trying to engage those mages in melee anyway,” I agree. With the first wave repelled, I can look closer at our attackers. Neither appears to wield physical weapons, but closing in on ranged attackers is easier said than done. “How do we get the big guy to fight our big guy, though?”

“That’s easy,” Kenneth smiles and points at the sleeping kid on his back. “He probably hasn’t noticed we have her yet.”

“You’re not going to…”

“Yes, I am.”

“Ken, are you nuts?!”

“I’ll lead him to Berserker, you guys take down those mages and then back us up over there.”

Ken! That idiot won’t listen once he’s made up his mind!

“At least let me go with you, then!” I yell at my best friend. If I have to choose who dies because I couldn’t protect them personally, I’d rather it not be Ken.

Nonsense, nobody dies! We can do this, Dave!

“No need to worry, boss,” Lance chimes in, skillfully rotating the spear he retrieved from the dying demon who had it stuck in his abdomen. “The old hag’s keepin’ us safe so we ain’t need yer tankin’. Besides, I can stick my lance in any hole, even if I have to create it first, ha!”

“Lance,” Lucy sighs, “I think I just saw one of those demons die from cringe.”

“They’re already dead, tho?” To nobody’s surprise, Lance is too dense to realize the apparent jab at his expense. Regardless, his point stands tall. A physical tank like me has little value in a mage fight.

“Fine, have it your way th…”

“YOU FOOLS!!! KILL THEM!!!”

My demon-speak is good enough to understand the Demon Lord’s order. He’s angry. Really angry. The random barrage of spells shooting our way suddenly stops. Five of the six loyal mages at his side suddenly perform repeating motions with their staffs, almost as if…

Oh no…

“Master, enhance your shield!” Beatrix yells as she prepares a magical barrier. “They’re launching an all-or-nothing attack to kill us all at once!”

I figured as much, change of plans!

“Can’t’cha just attack ‘em, while they’re chargin’ up?!” Lance cries, his earlier confidence shattered by the prospect of an attack coming his way that he can’t do anything about. Together with Lucy, he hunkers down behind me as I gradually enlarge and thicken my shield using my mana reserves. Unfortunately, I don’t have much of it at my expense, and the shield doesn’t grow as sturdy as I’d like.

“I can’t,” Beatrix snaps back. “One of them is shielding and it’s a damn tough one, multi-layered and all that!”

She can tell? Then she knows what kind of shield is most durable here, too.

Unfortunately, Ken has other plans. Without regard for himself, my friend storms forward until the Demon Lord can see him. I yell at Kenneth to return, but he won’t listen even as the enemy mana accumulation takes a physical form.

They’ll shoot any second now! I have to act!

“Move! We’ll shield him!” I shout and leap forward, everyone following with the same urgency. Kenneth turns around, exposing the kid on his back to the eyes of the irate Demon Lord. His ugly face distorts upon noticing his daughter being used as a meatshield.

“NOOOOO!!! STOP THE ATTACK!!! STOP IT!!!”

His furious screams pierce my ears and shake the air as I leap in front of Kenneth just in time for the enemy mages to unleash hell, unable to cease the attack. Beatrix hauls herself behind my physical shield, knowing her magic barrier wouldn’t last. Explosions fill the sky for a few seconds as a volley of needle-like projectiles wears down layer upon layer of our barrier until it breaks.

Please, shield. Don’t break!

My shield is several times its usual size and at least twice as thick. When the projectiles begin to hit, the force immediately slams it down and us with it. For a few endless seconds, the force of the assault threatens to suffocate me. Something suddenly stings. The shield is breaking! But so is the enemy attack. A few more stray projectiles pelt down on us, and at least one pierces through the shield, hitting my shoulder.

Ouch, I’m hit!

Several projectiles managed to penetrate the shield, which is barely recognizable anymore. At this point, it would be more appropriate to call it a hedgehog. At least a dozen of the tiny needles they shot at us embedded themselves in various places on my body, but none of them hit at their intended velocity and didn’t pierce deep.

I’ll live, what about the others?

Muffled curses from Lance and Lucy confirm that they’re alive and well. Kenneth, who sits directly behind me, grins at me, only a single trickle of blood coming from his forehead.

“Nice save, Davie boy!”

I want to slap him. Then, I reconsider. I need someone to take care of the hostage after all. A quick check reveals that she didn’t receive as much as a scratch, unless you count the countless ones she already had before we took her.

“Nice ‘almost getting yourself killed’, you ass,” I groan as the pain sets in. Maybe these injuries aren’t as negligible as I thought.

“Well, that didn’t go according to plan, but he saw her,” he says, pulling the needle from his forehead. “Could have taken the brunt off that attack, who knows?”

“Beatrix, can you still fight?” I wonder, but answering the question just takes a quick look. The old mage collapsed not from needles bombarding her but because she used every ounce of mana she could gather to protect us from that attack. If a person exhausts their mana, it temporarily incapacitates them. Had I made my shield even larger and durable, I likely would have succumbed to the same fate.

“Those enemy mages should have depleted their mana as well…” she croaks before she passes out from exhaustion.

Does that mean we can fight fair and square now? But first… I need to quit looking like a hedgehog… Ouch!