๐๐ถ๐บ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ล
"KIYYYAHHHHH!!!" A loud cry reverberated in the ears of everyone in Bellken.
The people in the adventurers guild went outside and immediately noticed our presence.
"Oi what happened, Himura-" Astoria questioned me but before I could respond to anything the thing from earlier interrupted me.
"KIYYYAHHHHH!!!" A giant flaming bird rose to the sky and screeched as if its in pain.
"Isn't that..."
"A phoenix!"
"But why the hell is it here?" The adventurers spoke to themselves about this creature who seemed to be called a phoenix. Suddenly a voice similar to the guild receptionist Lin orders instructions in their mind. "THIS IS ADVENTURERS GUILD RECEPTIONIST LIN. ON BEHALF OF THE GUILD AND THE CITY OF BELLKEN, ALL ADVENTURERS PRESENT IN THE CITY MUST PROTECT THE CITIZENS OF BELLKEN AND DEFEAT THE PHOENIX TERRORIZING THE CITY. ALL ADVENTURERS WILL BE COMPENSATED AFTER THE QUEST."
I looked around me and saw everyone nodding to each other, I found out that this announcement was heard by everyone.
Alcor then shouts at everyone before wielding his axe. "You heard her, let's go protect this city!"
"""""ORAAAH!""""" All of the adventurers including Astoria and Freya respond with seriousness.
Putting down Alice, I went to my room and took my adventuring pack and put it on my waist then I checked my equipment and after confirming that they are all in good condition, I took off my jacket, put it on my bed before following the adventurers and soldiers to the battlefield.
Looking back, I saw Alice also following the adventurers although a bit hesitant as if she doesn't want to kill it. I turned my head and looked ahead, trying to calm myself. "I'm scared to fight it...no all of us must be scared too. But although I have no attachment to this city, I can't just abandon it. Besides, not like I'm losing anything of value if I lose this battle, after all, all I have is myself."
After resolving myself, I arrive at the battlefield. Looking around where the phoenix was summoned, the phoenix itself was assaulting the people who arrived to fight it.
The houses around the 1-kilometer radius of the phoenix were either burned to ashes or straight up gone. And the explosion caused earlier made the battlefield also look like a meteor crash site.
"Pikemen, I need 20 of you in a row of 10. Swordmen, 20 of you in a row of 10 in between the pikemen." Captain Dral's instructions to the soldiers and adventurers were heard clearly throughout the battlefield.
I joined a platoon of adventurers being ordered by Alcor as the temporary commander for the adventurers.
Currently, there are 16 groups of both adventurers and soldiers created to deal with the phoenix with their close ranged weapons.
The people who use bows like Astoria were put in the archer platoon and were positioned farther away from the melee platoon and closer to the groups of mages circled around the battlefield. Actually, it wasn't any type of mage but mages who specialize in water specifically.
The current tactic is that the water mages were going to try to weaken it using water magic so that the phoenix could go down so that the melee platoons could kill it.
As for the other mages, archers, and fighters, they were all ordered to provide support and evacuate the citizens. Currently, half of them aren't available to fight since they are trying to calm the panicking citizens and one of those adventurers is Freya.
Currently, she is running around the battlefield trying to restore the mana of the water mages.
"W๊ซ๊ชป"
"แญ๊ชt๊ซr"
Those words were the only spell available to the water mages since currently, no one can use a 6-word or above water spells in bellken.
A month before this battle, I found out how magic truly works. Today's magic and more specifically magic spells were made using the combination of arcanum which is an old language used by ancient mages, and common, the universal language of this world and the reason why spells today are weaker, and of course mana, the one that connects them both.
Although the number of spells available is low, how you use them is what makes a great mage since mana can make you shape the spell based on your imagination.
For example, the spell called W๊ซ๊ชป, in general, is described as "Creates a small ball of water"
A mage with a small bit of imagination and mana, you can shape water into a spear or an arrow and by using a certain amount of mana, it can either be a strong spell that can destroy continents or it can be a weak spell comparable to someone throwing a bucket of water at you.
A great mage can also use W๊ซ๊ชป and create a ball of water however this time the water itself would have been compressed making it lethal even in its ball shape. That is why you cannot underestimate any mage even if they only have one spell that they are proficient at.
As for the แญ๊ชt๊ซr spell, it is described as "Creates a large pool of water"
A more versatile but hard-to-cast magic. The ones who use this spell current is shaping into a one giant spear/arrow or small but high amounts of spears/arrows.
But due to it being more versatile some of the mages decided to be closer to the melee platoons to protect them by creating walls of water to protect us but unfortunately, the phoenix's fire was far stronger than a single water mage making a wall of water and it can only slow the fire breath so that the platoon can dodge.
Right now there are still no deaths however there are already a hundred soldiers and adventurers wounded and are being treated, thankfully there are no civilians wounded even during the explosion due to that part of the street is where most nobles and merchants set up their shops and no nobles or merchants except for Alice lives in their own shop in a 1-kilometer radius.
As for the current situation, we are at a stalemate, right now since most of the water mages couldn't hit the phoenix and a single water mage was not enough to weaken the fires of the phoenix meaning they had to attack at the same time however the phoenix was not dumb enough to stand there and take it so every time they cast it, the phoenix would just simply dodge and because of that the archers platoons can't shoot it down which also means the melee platoons can't hit it with our weapons.
The thrown water spears and even the arrows that Astoria has cast Sh๊ชrฯ on only get burned by the fires protecting its skin.
A single mage was also preparing a binding spell known as bi๊ชแฆ but it would take about 15 minutes to fully cast not because of how hard it is cast but because it is being reinforced using the mana of the caster and almost all of the mages who don't specialize in water magic.
It only has been 3 minutes after organizing us all into platoons leaving us twelve minutes to stall it.
*****
๐๐น๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ธ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ป
'I....if only I wasn't a fool then this wouldn't have happened. I don't want it to die, what if my parents are inside of that thing?' I was slowly walking to the battlefield with a really complicated face.
'But...if I do that then...Himura and many more would die...' I look ahead of me and saw Himura running faster so that he could arrive at where the phoenix is.
'Why, why should I care about his well-being? I've only been teaching him and we don't even talk much during that.'
'No, if I'm thinking of him more than my parents who could inside of that thing...then that must mean...I did it wrong and I summoned a phoenix instead, a phoenix I couldn't control!' I was both relieved but also sad at the same time after knowing that her parents would be in that phoenix.
I take a deep breath. "I should be the one to fix this mess not them. I should be the one that should suffer because of my own failure"
I resolve myself to fight it and slowly but steadily I arrive at a burning battlefield, looking around, Himura was already positioned in a platoon of adventurers on the frontline and many mages and archers were positioned around the phoenix.
'The phoenix should not be staying in one place and should rampaging on the city but thankfully that it was a summoned homunculus that has not been controlled by the summoner meaning it can only stay on a 1-kilometer radius until then.' I opened one of my big packs in her waist and inside of the pack was many what looks like feathers, tooth, and claw all divided into their own sections although it was not actually divided by anything like a thin piece of wood or plastic.
I grabbed a lot of feathers of the same pattern and color and summoned them. "riแฆ๊ซ"
Suddenly the 15 feathers she threw to the winds soon turned into eagles however, it was twice as big as an eagle and its toes had a color of steel.
I took a deep breath and resolved myself to fight the phoenix as well. "Steel-toe eagles, your instructions are simple, all you need to do is help the water mages so that they can hit their spells." All of the steel toe eagles responded to my orders with a loud cry before rushing to battle.