Stampede

Chapter XXVII

Stampede

Helam had traveled three-quarters of the night sky, and in a few hours, Rua would overtake her bigger sister and then leave her behind. The two moons had fascinated Enji since coming to this world.

Enji sat alone, away from the bustling camp, gazing up at the starry sky. It was overwhelming and beautiful, not even a clear night in Hokkaido could compare to this. He felt small and helpless, stranded, a castaway on the vast sea of stars.

He wondered about his parents, how they were coping with his absence; they had always been an oddball couple, absentminded, dedicated to their jobs, and straightforward about their lives. They had raised Enji, their only child, with a loose hand; sometimes they appeared indifferent about him, uncaring, but that didn’t mean they didn’t love him. It was as if they didn’t know how to express their love.

No girl waited for him back home. Back in school, he had found many girls attractive, but only two that he really liked, and they didn’t pay Enji any attention. His only friends from middle school, Sousuke and Hajime, had remained at his old high school when he transferred to a new one. He missed them and their antics.

Enji loved his grandparents on his father’s side; they were the only ones alive. He had no memory of his other grandparents. There were also his eccentric uncle and aunt in Hokkaido. He had two older female cousins; one was married with children, and the other was attending university.

Enji looked toward the camp; Nilsei, Silma, Popa, and Skia had maintained their distance, respecting his wish to be alone. Even Oma seemed to have understood.

Then, there seemed to be one who didn’t care about respecting his solitude.

“Enji, I received a message from Aslei,” Eithea sat next to him. “Your villa has been readied for habitation, and dwellings are being built to house the Raarea.”

“I have to thank her.”

“The problem is transporting the Raarea; they won’t leave without you.”

“I’ll talk to them.”

Eithea, feeling Enji’s mood from his short replies, scooted closer to him, wrapping her tail around him and leaning her head against his. “I understand that the people here can’t replace your family, back home, but know this, you are loved and admired by many, my boy. Or should I say: Lord Enji [Kilai] Hasegawa.”

“Thank you, my lady. You had lifted my spirit.” Enji smiled.

“I see you like my tail very much. Feel free to caress it, but only when we are alone.”

“Ah! Sorry, I didn’t realize!” Enji stood, letting go of the fox woman’s bushy tail.

Eithea rose. “Come, the girls have been restless waiting for you. Besides, there’s much to do; we are at war.”

Eithea led him by the hand.

***

Earlier, in a meeting, Enji learned that two of the Tilek priests had gone deep into the labyrinth, carrying with them a magical device of unknown purpose. This information came from the wounded mage when she regained consciousness and was able to speak. That was all she was able to witness before being discovered.

Back in his tent, Enji studied the notebook where he had annotated several chemical and mechanical formulas from his physics book. “I can make acetylene, cyanide, and methane gases. In theory, I could also make water using hydrogen and oxygen with a spark of flame, I hope. What I want is electricity — powerful enough to electrocute — but I don’t know how to achieve it. Wet cells don’t produce enough voltage, and they are bulky. Static? Lightning? Yeah... lightning.” Enji finished his monologue and rose from the improvised desk he was working at. “Where is Galakei?” he asked the sleepy girl sitting in a chair next to the desk.

“Heh? I believe she’s with Mistress,” Popa replied.

“I’ll be right back!” Enji sprinted out of his tent and headed to Eithea’s.

One of the old knights stood guard at the entrance. He gave Enji a distrustful look. “State your need... my lord,” the old man hesitated when addressing Enji. To him, Enji was a traitor for consorting with monsters, but the knight was loyal to his former princess and obeyed her orders to the letter.

“May I speak with Lady Eithea and Lady Galakei?”

The old man hesitated again. “Wait here.”

Receiving permission, Enji was ushered to where the two friends were.

“You wanted to speak to us?” Eithea asked.

“To be frank, only to Galakei.”

“What is it?” Galakei slowly stirred her drink around in her cup.

“At the duel, you used something similar to lightning. How is it done?”

“That was ancient magic. It works differently than the [sug].”

“Please.”

“Alright.” Galakei wrote the spell on a parchment, explaining in detail the different elements and their actions.

“Do you understand? If not, I can explain again,” Galakei inquired.

“It seems fairly complicated...”

“What do you want to achieve?” Eithea asked.

“Electricity. I want to produce a huge spark similar to lightning.”

“Please tell what you have in mind.” Galakei put her cup aside to give Enji her undivided attention.

***

“STAMPEDE!! Stampede! The monsters are swarming out of the labyrinth!” The sentinels guarding the entrance of the maze sounded the alarm. Everyone rushed or ran to their assigned position. The combatants—mages, knights, and warriors—took their positions along the palisade wall. Others, either in support roles or just laborers, retreated to safe places.

The labyrinth vomited the horde of monsters; they came by the dozens, dozens turned to hundreds, and in a blink, thousands of tripods and shadow monsters occupied the field between the pole wall and the labyrinth.

Enji, watching from one of the wall towers, likened the horde to zombies of certain movies he had seen. Not the slow, mindless zombies, but the fast and ravenous kind, who crawled and climbed over each other to reach what for them must have been the most delicious feast.

From behind the wall, the guild mages were hurling fireballs, ice lances, and wind blades, taking out individual or small clusters of monsters. The four-eared warriors released their arrows, while the knights readied their lances for when they reached the wall.

With Enji, not only was his party there, but the four mages he had rescued were also present.

“Pol, flood the field! Senta, dry the air above!” Enji ordered. “Silma, Tona, remain on standby! Skia, Popa, Nilsei, release intermittent arrows.

Bows’ strings twanged, releasing metal-shafted arrows. Something Enji had requested. And strangely, all the arrows hit the ground instead of the monsters.

“Done, Master Enji.” Pol flopped down, exhausted from the effort of summoning so much water. The young boy mage, Tiloki, began casting healing magic on Pol.

“Sol, salt the water!” Since Sol could manipulate the earth, it was easier for him to extract salt from it and disperse it on the waterlogged field.

When Sol and Senta finished casting their spell, Enji took position at the edge of the tower wall. He stood in a similar pose to the one Galakei had used in the duel arena.

Enji began chanting the long, ancient magic incantation. He had eliminated a few superfluous words to streamline the spell and added a multiplier statement, but otherwise, it remained mostly in its original form. Therefore, it took a while and careful recalling of each word and its order to cast the spell.

“...manifest: lightning!”

The sky turned blinding white, as if it were daytime. Followed by the crackling, thunderous noise of electricity, as it pierced through the dry air, releasing ozone and heat until it reached the swamped ground with all its power.

The screams, shrieks, and howls of the monsters deafened everyone’s ears. Even the most seasoned warriors felt their hearts shrink in terror, and the horrible sights of what was transpiring in the field would induce nightmares for them for years to come, if not a lifetime.

The macabre electrocution-induced dance ended; what very few monsters that were not reduced to cinders retreated and escaped into the maze.

Complete silence permeated the battlefield; not a single whimper or moan was uttered by the monsters. They were all dead; close to four thousand had perished in an instant.

There were no cheers of victory, no orders issued, and no one spoke. Everyone had their eyes on the figure atop one of the towers...

...A boy with black hair and black eyes, dressed in black.

***

Crap! I overdid it! Enji gazed in awe at the blackened remains of the monsters on the field—the shadow monsters didn’t differ much from before; they were black from the start. Overpowering stench reached his nostrils. He stepped back from the edge; it was too much for him to endure.

“W-what... What are you?” The elf girl gawked at him in terror. Enji grimaced. That was Tona’s most sincere display of emotion since he had known her.

Enji ignored the elf and addressed one of the twins, “Pol, how soon can you cast?”

“I will take me a while, Master Enji.”

In this world, there were no magic replenishing potions or spells. After casting such a large spell, the caster was left with physical and mental exhaustion. Some magic would restore part of the physical stamina, but not the mind burnout, which required time and rest. Enji wondered why casting didn’t affect him like it did the others; even Galakei would be exhausted after several spells.

With Pol out of the picture, Enji couldn’t repeat his lightning spell. Besides, with the field littered with corpses, it was impossible to flood the ground and use lightning rods to kill a second wave of monsters. He could use gas, either poisonous or flammable, but the wind could blow it to the people behind the palisade.

Enji considered making black powder; the formula wasn’t that difficult, based on what he remembered from reading about fireworks. Summoning a container together with the powder was the difficult part; if not impossible, he couldn’t manifest or shape something solid. Sprinkling black powder over the monster would produce a fast flame, but no explosion; it needed to be encased in something. He looked at Sol.

“Hey, can you make several earth jars about this size...” Enji gestured with his hands. “...so I can fill them with something?”

“Knowing you, you must mean by several, more than a dozen.” Sol, seeing Enji’s awkward smile, knew that he had hit the nail on the head. “Let me try—”

“Wait! Make just one over there.” He pointed to a place outside the wall.

But before they could continue, Eithea climbed the ladder to where they were.

She pointed to the field. “We have an awful mess down there. The guild mages are suggesting we burn them, but that would be unwise given the current direction of the wind. Do any of you have any idea what we should do?”

“Enji is preparing some countermeasures for a second wave of monsters,” Skia replied. She had resumed her role as commander.

“What are you planning to do?” Eithea addressed Enji.

“I don’t know if it’s going to work. I’m running an experiment first. Sol, when you manifest the container, can you embed it with some magic?”

“Embed... I could make it glow. Is that enough?”

“Let’s try!”

Sol chanted, and at some distance in the field, an earthen jar formed from the ground, and it let a faint glow.

Enji used the ‘peek’ command to get the coordinates of the vessel, then he chanted the chemical composition of black powder—charcoal, sulfur, and potassium nitrate—and filled the jar with the ‘poke’ command. “Run Small Flame.”

[enter coor in meters]

He gave the precise coordinates...

A loud boom resonated. A column of smoke rose in the air.

“Tell me, Enji, do you have aspirations of conquering this nation?” Eithea asked.

Hey! Don’t compare me with the Demon Lord.

***

Just before dawn, the second wave came. From the labyrinth entrance, the frenzied throng of monsters spewed. Like before, they clawed and climbed over anything in their way, with no distinction between natural obstacles, corpses, and slower monsters.

Enji had instructed Elpinia on recording spells in several crystal stones. Like himself, his group could cast faster than anyone in the sieging camp.

This time, the monsters numbered fewer, perhaps about two thousand.

No one from the wall attacked; they had received the order to save their strength for later after confirming whether Enji’s spell had been successful or not.

Enji extended his arm out; it was more for show than anything else. All he required was to chant.

“Run Bang!”

[enter array numbers]

Enji input the array’s even numbers.

The battlefield was filled with explosions, and monster parts flew through the air. Enji had considered telling Sol to fill the jars with marbles, as shrapnel, but they would have spread indiscriminately around and could have injured or killed his allies.

He gave the command for the odd-numbered arrays.

When the smoke cleared, only devastation remained. Enji shuddered; he had forever changed the conditions of the battlefield by introducing gunpowder. Knowing Earth’s history, a weapon as powerful as black powder would never be used for good; ambitious and unscrupulous people will try to gain an advantage over others with such power.

In contrast to the first horde’s defeat, the people this time jumped and shouted in celebration.

Enji regretted his role in this.

***

Enji stared at the ceiling, lying in a cot in his tent. He had refused to attend the meeting that was now in progress. No one questioned it; they knew mages required to rest after casting large or continuous spells. Except that Enji wasn’t affected by the magic he used, it was that he didn’t feel like interacting with other people at the moment.

In another cot, Oma and her child slept.

He rose and walked out of the tent. He squinted at the brightly lit sky as he walked to the palisade, where he climbed to the wall tower.

Laborers were busily hauling away the monsters’ corpses, and the knights guarded the entrance to the maze. It would take a while to clear the field.

“Lord Hasegawa, would you come with me?”

Enji turned. Maka’s head poked from the top of the ladder. “Sure.”

He followed her to Galakei’s tent, wondering what she needed him for. He hasn’t seen the mage since before the stampede.

She lay in her cot. The fast-paced events of the previous days must have worn her out. “You called me, Lady Galakei?” Enji bowed to her.

“Enji, what was that damned spell you used against the [graks]? The guild mages have been pestering me to teach them that type of magic! I had to resort to staying cooped in here, feigning sickness to get them off my back!”

“Sorry. I needed a replacement for the lightning spell. Pol couldn’t recuperate in time to cast water again.”

“You did well, but what is it?” The mage sat straight on the cot.

Enji explained what black powder was and how it had been used throughout history.

“Enji, where exactly is this land of yours?”

Enji glanced at the entrance, where Maka stood. He didn’t know her well enough to trust her.

“Maka, leave us alone. Ensure that no one approaches the tent. I don’t want any prying ears.”

“Yes, Mage.” She bowed and left.

Galakei patted the side of the cot.

Enji sat facing her. He sighed. “I’m not from this world. Tona summoned me from another world called Earth, which is very advanced in technology, and magic doesn’t exist.”

Galakei stared at him for a moment, then... “I had always suspected you were someone out of the ordinary. But another world, that’s something I would have never considered. Who else knows about this? The girls?”

“No, you are the first to know.”

“Make sure no one else knows. Now, tell me about this world of yours.”

Enji entertained the mage with descriptions of everyday life items and stories from his native Japan. After a long time, he stopped, realizing there was a lot more he could tell her, but it was probably too much for her to digest in a single sitting.

“Tell me, Enji, are you unhappy here?”

“He stared at her, not knowing how to answer.