Werner and the others continued their attack on Juliane in the growing brightness of the surroundings, unaware of the disturbing conversation going on behind their backs.
“Sir Werner fights well.” is not a compliment. Werner himself attacks his opponents with his spear, but more than that he restrains their actions, making it easier for Neurath, Schunzel, Augen, and others to attack Juliane.
Whenever Neurath makes a move to slash at you, you use the reach of your spear to get him in your line of sight and make it difficult for him to respond to your next attack by making him avoid you with a check attack, and conversely, when he tries to attack you, you aim at his arm and thrust the tip of your spear at his leg.
Standing in front of him, Werner’s spear controlled the enemy’s movement and made it easier for his allies to attack.
Each blow is not a major wound. But the small wounds accumulate steadily, and Juliane can’t help but realize that she’s slowly being driven into a corner.
Juliane casts a spell. A storm and a hammer of air swirled around them, striking the knights and scarring their skin. But Juliane raised her voice in question.
“What the… What the hell is this?”
Juliane raises her voice in doubt. Even though you haven’t maintained it for a long time, your magic which should have been powerful enough to collapse the ceiling of the underground canal just now couldn’t defeat any of the feathery knights around it. I understood that the power of the magic had decreased, but I didn’t know why.
Werner, seeing the agitation, raises his voice sharply.
“Change!”
Take over, I’ll take care of it!
Goretzka, the Kingsguard, rushes towards Juliane with the Kingsguard in response, striking her with a heavy blow. Werner and the rest of the Zehrfeldt Knights, wounded by the magical attack, fall back.
In terms of individual fighting strength, the Kingsguard are stronger. Werner has also brought a trading company with him, armed with the most sophisticated equipment the kingdom has ever seen. A single blow that would have been enough for several mere soldiers would have wounded Juliane from all sides.
Juliane was forced into a defensive position. Juliane, still in doubt, is forced to fight a new enemy, unable to stop him from attacking and replacing her with another knight.
The sorcerers had been experimenting with the idea of depleting what they had tentatively named natural magic. They had come this close to finding something.
And the last step was taken just the other day. Uwe… who had been studying the magical devices of the Ancient Kingdom… brought a warding device from the time of the Ancient Kingdom to Svurlitz.
In this world where patents don’t exist the contents of research are basically kept secret or at most only shared with direct disciples. But Uwe had explained his research in detail along with the samples he had taken, and had been able to recreate some of the techniques for harnessing magic from the time of the Ancient Kingdom. The scouts had placed a large number of large, shining magic lamps all around them.
Fogt of the sorcerer corps later explained to Werner in technical terms that “the magic of the magic stone is usually used as it is, but this one uses the magic of the magic stone as a suction port to efficiently absorb the magic of the surroundings. That’s what it says.
Werner isn’t strong when it comes to magic. He is content to let it go as long as he can use it. In Werner’s mind, it’s like using a pestle and mortar instead of burning a magic stone directly to break up natural magic and make it easier to use. That’s about all he understands.
But if you’re able to use it in a way that wastes magical power, though I don’t understand the logic behind it, then lend it to me. Werner, who had experienced firsthand that his opponent used monkish magic, borrowed it and used it for the first time here.
Get him patched up now! The badly wounded will fall back and regroup.
“Don’t use magic, use medicine.”
Werner and his men are instructed to treat the wounded knights and reschedule their numbers for the next attack force. The reason why the side with the greater number has the advantage is proven here. The wounded and weakened are moved to the rear and a new force is thrown in front of the enemy. The enemy has no choice but to respond to the new attackers, and cannot even pursue them. The wounded knights in the rear receive potions from the scout scouts and those who have recovered prepare to take their places.
In the meantime, Juliane is pierced from afar by an arrow from a composite bow as powerful as a longbow. When she turns her gaze in that direction, she is slashed in the back. Juliane uses a recovery spell on herself, but even that is losing its effect.
The wounds she receives are far more numerous than the injuries she sustains.
While Annette is having a short conversation with Lily, the Barkei squad has joined the frontline under Seyfert’s direction. Seyfert has not let up his vigilance in the area while leaving the responsibility of dealing with the attackers to Goretzka and Werner. The soldiers under Seyfert’s command watch the area around them as they slay the remaining demonic beasts.
Werner gave detailed instructions to the Zehrfeld Knights who were used to fighting in groups. One to attack the enemy and one to hinder his movement. and “Take away their legs…” he instructed.
The knights of the Zehrfeldt knighthood, who have replaced the Kingsguard, are holding Juliane back, aiming at her face and arms, while Max, Augen, Barkei and other men of skill aim only at her legs and finally cut off her right foot.
For a moment not only the Knights but also Werner looked a little reluctant, probably because Juliane’s torso, which was visible through her shredded priestess uniform, also had the appearance of a bee. Beautiful but strangely long and slender human legs sprouted from the body of a bee. Grotesque would be a better word.
But he did not flinch and when he lost one of his legs the knights who had surrounded him attacked him more fiercely. One of the knights later recounted what happened.
”In terms of their individual combat power, the other party might have been as strong as a giant snake and we might have been as strong as ants. However, the hundreds of ants that were prepared as much as possible continued to bite from all directions and finally defeated the serpent.
Juliane, who had lost her legs, her arms, her antennae, her magic power had run out after repeated use, and she had been beaten to death by the group, finally screamed.
“I melt… “If I lose my body, I will melt and disappear…”
Juliane’s mind wanders as she catches the attacks on her shattered body. With her body so badly damaged, she can no longer escape in the usual way.
I thought about how to escape from this situation, and then it occurred to me that there was only one person whom I might be able to take over even in my current weakened state, and whom the enemy would hesitate to attack.
“Daughter… It’s you… Your body!
The surrounding guards were so startled that they stopped moving. Juliane ripped off her own head with her remaining arm and threw it at Lily.
The next moment Annette, who was standing next to Lily, swung her arm. It collides in midair with a small crystal perfume bottle thrown by Annette, and Juliane, drenched in the contents, lets out a scream. Immediately afterwards her head is skewered by a spear.
“Guys like you, they’re always trying to make things worse.”
The bee’s head is sewn into the ground and Werner snickered. The thing that Annette threw was the amulet that Werner had given her when Rafed had taken Lily to Reslatoga, replacing its contents with a bottle of perfume just in case.
Werner had told Annette in advance that he still had it with him and that he wanted her to keep it in case she needed it once she had secured Lily’s safety.
The reason he didn’t let her throw the ball was because he didn’t expect too much from her athleticism, but when he explained this to her a few years later, Werner was seen hurriedly quieting down Lily, who looked unusually hurt.
Goretzka told the Kingsguard to examine the bee’s head and body. If the enemy is a general he will have found the black gem. Seifert tells the surrounding knights to stay alert.
Werner let out a deep breath as he came to himself and stepped straight to Lily’s side. He knelt down on one knee in front of Lily and took her hand, looking into her face.
“I’m sorry. I scared you. I’m sorry you had to wait, Lily.
“…”
Lily’s hands touched Werner’s armour and cheeks, as if she had seen a vision. A shudder escapes his lips.
Um, Werner-sama, right?
“Oh, God.”
Werner responded with an expression of “What in the world?” but he panicked in a different way than before. Lily hugged Werner with tears streaming down her face.
Lilly?
“Thank God… Thank God you’re alive, Werner! You’re alive and well. You’re alive.
Especially when you’ve got a precious child kidnapped and you’re neither cold nor withered to the point of being able to calm down! Werner shouted at him and jumped into the hidden staircase of the temple alone, Neurath and Schunzel, who were watching him, were smiling somewhat smugly.
The actual a lot more the better.
“Uh, Lily, let’s just go back to King’s Landing. I’m dirty, you know.”
“King’s Landing…”
Lily looked up. For a moment Werner gulped at the sight of Lily’s desperate eyes, wet with tears, before him.
Yes. Master Werner! The warding of King’s Landing is in trouble!
Warding? I don’t think there’s anyone in there.
At this point, Werner and the others don’t even know that the other party’s name is Juliane. Therefore, Lily’s sense of urgency is incomprehensible.
But Lily’s expression is so blank that I can’t help but listen to her and silently urge her to go on. Lily continued in a tone that was an effort to calm her down.
No, no. Well, the other guy said… That you damaged the wards. That there’s more than one set of wards…
“It’s the library that’s scratched. There’s another magic circle painted on the floor of the library.
