"Ah, you've got to be fucking kidding me!"
He shouted, irritated.
"Mages, raise the barriers now!"
Ordered Shigenori.
Alexander felt a chill in his stomach as if his unit had been covered by a large translucent sphere. A barrier that distorted what was outside, like looking through a soap bubble.
"I was right... fireballs being hurled," Alexander said, trying to ease some of the anxiety.
In a few seconds, the fire and earth balls collided with the barriers, exploding and shaking the ground. Some soldiers fell to the ground from the force of the impact, but Alexander stayed on his feet while Taigen fell to his knees.
"Gods, protect me!" he said, clearly scared, and Alexander helped him.
"Get up, Taigen! The real shit hasn't even started yet."
Another wave of fire and earth balls was fired by the enemy, hitting the barrier and shaking the ground.
Ah, damn it... If it weren't for the mages' barrier, we'd be dead by now. So this is how a battle works in this world...
"They've got a lot of fire mages, this is getting more dangerous than I expected!" Yasuo said, looking at the top of the hill.
"What do you mean, what's the difference between fire and earth mages?"
"You don't know? Fire is the most dangerous element there is. Healing magic, even the most advanced, doesn't heal burns."
"Fire is the most dangerous..."
So that means... The system shows me all my active and passive combat-related skills!
[!!!Sure, Player, here are all your active and passive skills!!!]
[Pyromantic Proficiency (Passive Skill): The player receives increased resistance against fire-type damage sources, and the player will also deal more damage when using fire-type abilities.]
[Destructive Fire (Active Skill): The player sweeps a wide area ahead with furious, powerful flames. Charging increases the range.]
[Burning Fortification (Active Skill): The player conjures a flame that envelops their entire body, increasing physical resistance and both physical and fire-type damage.]
[Powerful Presence (Active Skill): The player will emit a shockwave, revealing the power of their presence, causing the Fear effect in enemies with stats lower than or equal to the player.]
[Tengu's Typhoon (War Skill/Active): The player jumps after gaining momentum, delivering three spinning strikes in the air with increased range and power. Can be combined with other skills.]
Three fire-related skills… A deadly arsenal. What's the maximum range of 'Destructive Fire'?
[At the Player's current level, the active skill 'Destructive Fire' can sweep an area of up to fifty meters.]
Fifty meters…
He looked at the map once more. As the infantry troops advanced slowly, he could see three lines of red dots remaining at the top of the hill, but slightly further back, organized like a true artillery line.
I found the mages… Now I need to figure out how to get through the infantry. If they use the same strategy as us, they're probably very well protected…
"Men! We've received orders. We will march up the hill slowly."
Shigenori ordered, and the men began to climb. The barriers protecting them advanced with the squads, while the bombardment of magical fireballs, earth, and stone continued.
They keep attacking anyway…
Alexander looked up, watching a fireball fly toward him before colliding with the barrier protecting his unit.
There are two options: either they're at the top of the hill and these fireballs are guided to a target they can see… or they can't see us and are further back, aiming and firing like mortars.
The troops of the Crane Clan continued advancing up the hill at a slow pace, perhaps to conserve energy for the real fight. Alexander remained focused on the enemy's magical bombardment, paying attention to the trajectory of the fireballs and stones.
Screams could be heard from the top of the hill, probably commands. The bombardment stopped, and Alexander closely observed both the system map and the enemy troops descending the slope.
More shouts could be heard from the top of the hill, now louder and more intense.
Ah, shit, it's finally starting…
The soldiers and workers who had been descending the mountain slowly began to run, finally charging at them.
"Men, get in position!" Shigenori ordered.
Alexander's heart began to race.
What is this…? Am I anxious? No… Am I scared?
He held his spear in a defensive stance, as if about to charge, just like all the other warriors beside him. Alexander looked at his trembling hand.
Why am I scared? This makes no sense… I've faced many near-death experiences in the past few months; the demons in the village, the training with Lord Genichiro, the evil spirit, the mountain lions…
"Attack!" Shigenori shouted furiously.
Like an infernal and furious choir, the soldiers began to yell, all moving at once, raising their spears toward the enemy. Alexander charged with his squad, running toward the soldiers of the Wolf Clan.
"Kill them!"
"Attack!"
"Kill those damn Crane Clan bastards!"
"Die, you wolf scum!"
Hundreds of curses and insults were hurled at the enemies.
The men of the Wolf Clan advanced more quickly due to the downhill angle, but the soldiers of the Crane Clan seemed hardly to care.
The armies collided in a crash of flesh and weapons. Blades pierced, swords slashed, axes tore, hammers crushed, and clubs smashed. Alexander could see the men advancing toward him as clearly as day as if the world were in slow motion.
What is this… Why am I hesitating… Ah, it must be this… Even though I'm in a wild and barbaric world, I'm still a civilized man, as if I'm still bound by the morals of my world…
His red eyes looked at the enemies charging down the hill. Men of various ages, young, adults, men, people with dirty, torn clothes, with dirt and sweat on their faces from a peaceful civilian life.
Look at them… Workers, men who just wanted to support their families, people who had nothing to do with the greed and rivalry of greater lords… In the end, I can't kill a person; even though I'm not in my world, I'm still human…
Alexander was lost in thought, too lost, as the enemy advance didn't stop and they reached him. Maybe by reflex or for no reason, he raised his spear and attacked, piercing the chest of the man who was about to smash his head with a hammer.
His heart pounded relentlessly in his chest as if it would burst out, adrenaline coursing through his veins.His eyes met the brown eyes of the man he had just killed. The man let out a moan of pain and then fell silent forever, dropping to his knees on the ground.
I killed someone…
Before he could think of anything else, another soldier tried to cut off his head with a sword. In quick movements, Alexander pulled his spear from the man's chest and thrust it through the soldier's neck.
His breathing was heavy, and rapid, ten thousand thoughts racing through his mind until only one thing settled, just one line of reasoning, just one thought, just one idea.
I felt nothing...
A soldier with a red aura charged at Alexander, sword in hand, attempting a lateral slash. With the agility of a cat, Alexander drew the sword at his waist and defended the attack. Using the spear in his left hand, he pierced the soldier's chest.
The soldier dropped to his knees, clutching Alexander's spear while coughing up blood in painful, breathless gasps.
He looked at Alexander, staring deep into his eyes with a pained and desperate expression on his face. The red-eyed elf decapitated him instantly as if it were an automatic action.
"Now I understand…" he muttered.
He looked around, observing the hellish scene. People kill each other without remorse or pity, men kill men in cruel and barbaric ways without showing a hint of sympathy.
Screams from all directions, the sound of flesh being torn and bones breaking, the roars of hate and pain, all merging into a sonic amalgam. The smell of iron and blood, earth and sweat, all mixed.
This is war. There is no right or wrong here; I've been seeing things the wrong way. I was born in the 21st century in a developed country, and I would never understand something like this if I weren't in this situation. I don't have the luxury of civilization here; I don't have the luxury of morality or empathy.
I'm in a wild land in a barbaric period. Here, it's survival of the fittest; here, right and wrong are decided by the strong!
He took a deep breath, letting the air fill his lungs and clear his mind.
That's it… That's it! I'm human, I'm a good person, but here… Here it's kill or be killed! Here I can be everything I repressed in my world; I don't need to care about how I'll see myself… I'm a conqueror, damn it! I've conquered everything put in front of me! That's it… That's it…
"That's it, damn it!" Alexander shouted with fury. His aura erupted from his body like ferocious, orange flames straight from hell.
He dropped his spear and gripped his sword with both hands, then began to leap. Using the technique the tengu Hakuri had taught him—one, two, three, six, nine leaps. With each landing, his previously intense and violent aura retracted further, becoming even brighter. It was like... a spring.
He landed on the ground, the muscles in his legs coiled with such potential they seemed on the verge of exploding, and then they did—like a rocket engine ready for launch. Alexander surged forward like lightning through the enemy lines, moving like a cheetah at full speed. Every time his foot touched the ground, he covered an immense distance.
He was fast, faster than the enemy soldiers could track. With each movement of his katana, a life was taken. One became two, two became four, four became eight, and eight became sixteen. The last thing those men saw was the gleam of his sword—if they were lucky enough to see it at all. Slashes from above, from the side, below, left, right—he moved like an unstoppable, deadly typhoon.
"That's it... That's it!" he said, as excited as a child in an amusement park.
A soldier tried to rush at him, only to have both arms severed in a single slash. Before the man could even scream, his head was already flying.
"That's it... This feeling in my chest, it's the same thrill, the same adrenaline rushing through my veins as when I killed those insignificant weaklings in EverMagic!"
He heard something coming from behind.
At the last moment, he blocked with his sword—a bloodied enemy soldier attacking with his blade, his aura as orange as Alexander's. He was strong enough to put pressure on the red-eyed elf.
"You're strong!" Alexander said with a challenging tone, slowly beginning to overpower the soldier, forcing him into an unfavorable position. "But I'm stronger."
Alexander punched the man in the stomach with such force that it pierced through his armor entirely, penetrating his stomach like a spear, destroying organs in its path, and creating an exit wound with his fist.
The soldier screamed in pain before collapsing to the ground, dead. Alexander shook his hand to rid it of some blood and organ fragments, staring at it in silence for a few seconds.
"I can't let bloodlust take over; I still have to think about how to win this battle." He then smiled—a challenging and macabre smile. "But I also can't deny that this isn't... interesting."