Initial Engagement

Medrauta’s chest heaved, her body soaked in sweat. She clutched her blade tightly, watching as its gleaming steel cleaved through her pitch-black enemies. Her eyes burned not with fury or determination, but displeasure. It had only been hours ago when she had stood by Viviane’s side, but now she was surrounded only by monsters, and she found herself missing the noblewoman’s presence greatly.

Behind her, the ground was soaked in liquid as black as night, its slippery surface soon dissipating back into the air as mana. Bodies lay strewn across the length of the treeline, but for each dead soldier, ten more witchspawn fell before Eris’ blades. Taking full advantage of her agility and Scarlet’s Crest, Eris moved at speeds faster than possible even for the quickest knight, allowing her to cover the entirety of the troops’ defensive formation while Medrauta focused on driving forward through the seemingly incessant swarm of monsters.

Silver arrows streaked through the sky, their arcs drawing gleaming trails in the air before driving themselves into their targets. Countless witchspawn fell under the rapid storm of arrows, each of them like rays of moonlight heralding the coming of night.

“Just a little more...!” Viviane muttered as she emptied her latest quiver. She lowered her bow, receiving yet another set of arrows from a nearby soldier. She had spent the past hour firing arrow after arrow into the mass of witchspawn, cutting them down from afar while Medrauta drove deep into the enemy formation. Though the battle seemed bleak at the moment, the setting sun dipped lower by the second. Once the witchspawn fell dormant, they would be able to push the front line forward.

Viviane took solace in that thought as she nocked an arrow to her bow, raising it once more. She winced slightly as the string dug into her fingertips, a sliver of blood running down the calloused skin. But she knew the pain was fleeting. Once she released her arrow, it too would be gone.

“Lady Viviane...” Scarlet murmured beside her. While nobles traditionally stayed far in the rear lines and away from the battlefield, Scarlet had chosen to stand beside Viviane instead of retreating to a place of safety. Though capable of maintaining her Crest on Eris even across vast distances, Scarlet’s pride simply would not allow her to wait safely while Viviane risked her life on the front lines.

Despite that, Scarlet simply couldn’t help but feel useless. Skilled in a vast array of subjects, Scarlet was used to being the most accomplished person wherever she went, but here on the battlefield where soldiers were being torn apart by witch-made beasts, she felt sorely out of place. A talented tactician but sorely lacking in any sort of combat ability, Scarlet could do nothing but watch as her friend’s fingers bled with each arrow shot.

Even during the civil war, she had been able to contribute on the front lines by combining her abilities with Rosaline’s to create incredible effects that wiped out vast swathes of witchspawn, but here, even that option was lost to her. She scanned the battlefield with an almost desperate gaze, unaccustomed to doing nothing.

Though the soldiers had barely advanced past the treeline as incessant waves of witchspawn crashed into their position, neither had they lost many men. There were only about a dozen dead, and though any losses were regrettable, Avimorne duchy’s civil war had only just concluded and Scarlet was no stranger to death. Meanwhile, Eris continued dashing across the length of the shield wall, cutting down all the witchspawn intercepted by the brave soldiers at the front.

...Is there truly nothing for me to do? Scarlet bit her lip, her violet eyes trembling as if tears might fall from them at any second. No matter where she looked, there was simply nothing for her to do. Even if she tried to help, her presence would be nothing more than an obstruction. Of course, she had known this even before coming. She thought she had been prepared for this feeling of uselessness, but now that she was experiencing it firsthand, she simply couldn’t stand the hollow feeling in her chest.

“Lady Scarlet?” Viviane’s worried voice broke the raven-haired noblewoman from her trance. “Is everything alright?”

“Y-Yes. Of course, Lady Viviane.” Scarlet replied, slightly embarrassed. It was only after seeing the concern written on Viviane’s face that Scarlet realized the other noblewoman had probably called out to her more than once. “Is there something you need?”

Viviane smiled, nodding. “Yes. As you can see, I’ve emptied three more quivers. My muscles certainly don’t feel sore yet, but I can’t say the same for my fingers. If you could go fetch me some bandages, that would be lovely.”

Instinctively, Scarlet frowned. Although she always tried to keep a level head despite knowing the extent of her power and influence, she was still one of the empire’s greatest and most reputable noblewomen. For Viviane to ask for something that should be done by a mere soldier was tantamount to a serious insult, and even the man standing by to supply quivers to Viviane stared at the blonde-haired noblewoman in surprise and confusion. In every other case, he should have been the one to go retrieve the bandages.

Ah. I’m such a fool. Scarlet’s eyes widened as she realized what Viviane’s true intentions were. Reflexively, she drew the hand fan that hung from her waist and snapped it open, obscuring the lower half of her face as she breathed a sigh of disbelief aimed both at herself and at Viviane’s keen insight. Despite focusing on providing cover fire for both Eris and Medrauta, the blonde noblewoman had still managed to keep an eye on Scarlet’s mental state.

“Of course, Lady Viviane.” Scarlet curtsied elegantly, recovering from her initial shock with grace and poise. “Seeing blood flow from your delicate fingers pains my heart. I almost wish my own blood would stain the ground and mix with yours so that we could share this burden together.”

“Careful,” Viviane grinned. “You’d better not say anything like that to me while Medrauta’s around or she’ll get the wrong idea.”

Scarlet closed her hand fan, returning it to its previous position and revealing a knowing smile. “Now that you mention it, I shouldn’t do so while Eris is in earshot either. That girl can get frightfully jealous.”

The two shared a laugh together before Scarlet quickly made her exit, heading through the forest to reach the medical tent set up deeper inside. Seeing as Viviane was choosing to take a break, the soldier who was supplying her quivers decided to escort the raven-haired noblewoman instead of standing around.

Viviane cradled her bleeding fingers, staring at the fierce battle that raged on the front line. Her keen vision could pick out Eris flitting across the shield wall with ease, the tiny knight moving so quickly that she almost seemed to appear in multiple places at once. Although her arrows had only stopped seconds ago, the lack of covering fire was already beginning to have its effects on how the front line was operating.

While the soldiers in the shield wall were once slowly pushing the waves of witchspawn back, they had responded almost instantly to the lack of ranged support covering their advance. The troops now firmly entrenched themselves in their positions, content to wait for their covering fire to return before even daring to continue distancing themselves away from the treeline. Similarly, Eris had noticed the lack of covering fire after seeing the new waves of witchspawn unthinned, forcing her to attack more conservatively and only when the soldiers in the shield wall had successfully managed to impale their targets.

However, it wasn’t Eris or the soldiers that Viviane worried about. It was Medrauta, her very own knight. Because of her overwhelming martial skill, Medrauta had been sent directly into the witchspawn formation to disrupt their advance and prevent the monsters from crashing into the shield wall all at once. Accompanied only by a small group of five knights sent from the town of Spinel who had arrived with the reinforcements from the Revelo duchy’s garrison, Medrauta was beset by enemies on all sides.

Viviane’s keen eyes strained as she struggled to make out the image of her knight’s glowing armor in the middle of the writhing black mass that buried its luster. They were distant and woefully small, and though Viviane had tried her best to support Medrauta with ranged attacks, the wind made her accuracy vary greatly, and it was likely that Medrauta and the knights with her simply hadn’t noticed the lapse in covering fire.

And in fact, they didn’t. Medrauta and her cohort of knights were concerned only with surviving until nightfall, and any support they received from the main force would only be a bonus. Incredibly deep in the enemy formation, Medrauta’s main goal was to seek out the position of the massive behemoth that she and Viviane had seen, but despite carving through countless beasts, she could find no trace of the colossus at all.

“Medrauta!” Marcus’s voice strained against the din of battle. He was one of the knights who volunteered to wade deep into enemy territory with Medrauta. Wielding a large greatsword, his contributions in clearing the way and keeping the group safe were irreplaceable. “There’s a big one coming from my left!”

“Got it! Rotate now, Marcus!” Medrauta shouted, cutting rapidly to dispatch the droves of witchspawn that leapt at her. Karalyn, Medrauta’s shieldbearer, immediately darted forward and shoved her large tower shield forward, displacing the monsters that quickly filled the gap Medrauta had opened, buying the silver-haired knight some time to swap places with Marcus.

Medrauta nodded her approval, changing her position in their formation smoothly. The entire combat plan centered on the knights’ ability to work together, and though the five knights accompanying Medrauta were all senior knights, they were all aware of her martial skill and more importantly, her ability to slay the witchspawn. As the linchpin of the formation, Medrauta was the one who gave the final orders when it came to any changes mid-combat, and although she found the novelty of authority quite empowering at first, she quickly understood how burdensome it was after watching one of the knights receive a serious injury as a result of her overconfidence.

Medrauta now relied on her allies to signal her before she made a final judgment, allowing for much safer adjustments at the cost of speed, a price that she would gladly pay to avoid endangering her companions any further.

“‘Bout thirty minutes left, yeah?” Beatrice grinned as Medrauta slid into position, her sword flashing rapidly to cut down several witchspawn with a single slash. Beatrice was also one of the shieldbearers, previously covering for Marcus before he and Medrauta swapped places. Now, she held her shield up, holding back the tide for Medrauta as the silver-haired knight slowly but surely thinned the numbers around them.

Medrauta nodded, her expression still grim as she looked at the setting sun reflected on Beatrice’s shield.

“...Yeah. Let’s hope we all make it out here alive, Beato.”