A large group of infantrymen proceeded down a straight forest path. They were the target for this mission. They carried their spears in their right hands and their shields in their left... Swords hung from their waists, and leather armor protected their bodies. It was the standard equipment for foot soldiers.
While still hidden away behind a tree, Asura counted how many people were in the infantry platoon. There were three squads, about thirty people in total. This was the first job that Asura's mercenary group had taken on, so they wanted to make their debut with a splash.
The thought of the coming battle filled Asura with excitement. She took a quiet but deep breath and with a small smile, signaled the countdown with her fingers.
Three—Listen up, you guys. You have to stick to the plan, all right?
Two—We're a platoon going up against a battalion, but there's no need to fear.
One—We are strong.
When Asura put down her last finger, her deputy, Lumia, shot a bolt of light magic towards the battalion. In this world, offensive magic lacked firepower. One could use it in a street brawl, but common sense dictated it too useless for actual warfare. That was why being a healer was the only way for mages to move up in the world. No one was counting on Lumia's magic to do any real damage.
Ah, but I'm a romantic when it comes to magic. And besides, it all comes down to how you use it. That was Asura's take on the matter.
The enemy army froze, standing on guard at the ball of light that had suddenly appeared before them. And then, the ball of light exploded with a dazzling flash.
"Go! Go! Go!" Asura yelled. At her call, her companions leaped out from the forest and swarmed the path. The front line of the enemy army had dropped their spears, moaning in pain as they clutched at their eyes.
"Ha ha! Never heard of 'Flashbang'?!" Asura leaped into the air, her long silver hair flowing behind her. One of her comrades supported her with wind magic.
Someone at the army's rear guard, whose eyes had escaped the brunt of the Flashbang, yelled out, "It's the enemy! Engage! It's the enemy!"
Too slow, Asura thought gleefully. While still midair, she scattered seven pink petals before landing on the other side of the road. Thanks to her comrade's support spell, her jumping ability had been greatly increased. Even then, this support magic was limited to a single target, so it was said that having several well-trained, physically strong foot soldiers was far more effective.
As soon as Asura's flower petals landed on the enemy soldiers, the delicate blossoms exploded. They were only strong enough to blow someone's head off, but they were sufficient. Not like humans could live without a head anyway.
Asura's magic was "Fixed Element: Flower." It was a Fixed Element found only in first-rate mages, but even so, its firepower was middling at best. Despite how long it took to learn magic, many of its uses were seen more as conveniences than anything else. That was why warriors were regarded more highly than mages.
While Asura leaped to the other side of the road, a foot soldier writhed in pain as embers swept up his body. It was the fire magic cast by a blond boy named Jyrki, a member of Asura's mercenary group. Fire magic at its strongest could only burn a single person to death. The commonly accepted view was that killing someone with a sword was faster. But for the purpose of sowing panic and chaos among the enemy's ranks, there was nothing more efficient than fire magic. One couldn't fault the panicking soldiers—they were watching one of their own be turned into a funeral pyre.
After using his attack spell, Jyrki quickly fled into the woods. Iina, the one who had cast the support spell on Asura, was already there.
Good. That's exactly what you need to do. "Fire and maneuver." Get out of the way as soon as you take your shot.
Lumia brandished her twin daggers and made her way to Asura's side, slashing the throats of three enemies as she went. As usual, her attacks were smooth and precise like a dancer's movements. Asura's team mainly used daggers as their weapons. Depending on the situation, they would wield other arms, but for this fight, they'd only brought knives.
Next, the battalion commander, the only person in the army on a horse, suffocated. One of Asura's companions—a large man named Marx—had created a water bubble right on the enemy's face, making it impossible to breathe. Water magic was usually used to treat wounds and cure poisoning, as well as to create drinking water. It was practically useless as an attack spell. Throwing water on an enemy wouldn't stop them. But drowning them certainly would.
"Ha ha! Your commander has just died! Well? You still wanna go?!" Asura yelled excitedly.
If she had her way, she wanted the infantrymen to come at her. She wanted to annihilate them all. But in both this world and her previous one, the enemy usually surrendered or retreated if their commander was killed. But just as that thought entered her head, one of the soldiers charged her. He must have dropped his spear, because he charged at her with his sword drawn.
"A suicide attack done willingly with no reinforcements? You're an idiot, but hey, this kind of chaos is part of what makes war fun." Asura readied her dagger with her right hand and gestured at Lumia to enter the woods with her left.
Lumia obeyed instantly. At the same time that Asura dodged the soldier's slash with the most minimal of movements, she slipped behind him and kicked the back of his knee with her boot with maximum force. He fell to the ground, then she wrapped her arms around him from behind.
"Oh my. A neck placed right in front of me?" She slid her dagger across his throat. "Did you think we were just a bunch of normal mages? Too bad. We're soldier-mages. We can fight in close quarters too."
Asura's expression softened and her lips pulled in a smile. Finally, a real war. Her heart couldn't stop racing and she couldn't stop smiling. Just from this first attack, thirteen enemies were dead. What an auspicious start.
Now then, I guess I should scatter some petals. Asura's magic could be used as land mines as well.
"Retreat! Retreat!" someone shouted, likely the enemy's vice captain. "Don't go into the forest! Take up a defensive formation!"
It was a wise decision, in Asura's opinion. The surviving foot soldiers adjusted their positions at once. Now Asura and the others were at a disadvantage. Even if they shot magic at the soldiers from the shadows of the trees, the enemy could easily deflect with their shields. And besides, the true essence of a soldier-mage's strategy was a rapid-fire assault. After that, the enemy would bring the battle to a location with plenty of obstructions to hide behind. But Asura's group had taken that likely scenario into account and planned accordingly. And that wasn't all.
"We're moving on to plan B! Wait for my signal!" Asura yelled as loudly as she could to ensure her allies on the other side of the road heard her. Things were finally starting to get fun, so she'd play until the end.
Her deputy Lumia approached her. "Asura," she said in a dissatisfied tone. Her voice was as husky and sexy as usual.
"What? Is there a problem?"
"We've already completed our mission. I don't believe it's necessary to massacre them all."
At twenty-eight, Lumia was the oldest of the mercenary group Moon Blossom, Asura's platoon, and an experienced combat veteran. The waves of her shoulder-length brown hair were obviously natural rather than the result of a perm. Lumia was on the whole, to put it mildly, extremely sexy. She had a very beautiful face with a captivating and mature allure.
Her breasts were on the larger side too, though not to the point that they were enormous. It felt great to bury your face into Lumia's chest. One of the things that made Asura grateful for being reincarnated as a girl was that even if she touched other women, it wasn't regarded as sexual harassment.
Granted, she only ever did that to Lumia.
"Our mission was to stop the enemy battalion and, if possible, deplete their forces," said Lumia. "Or that was what I thought it was, anyways."
Asura gave a slight shrug. It had been thirteen years since Asura was reincarnated in this world, so in other words, she was still only thirteen years old. She had trained her body, but it still felt weak and scrawny compared to her previous life as a man. In truth, Asura looked slim and her chest was small. She was so flat that the mounds of her breasts looked more like a trick of the mind.
Asura was very taken with her own face, however. It gave off a slightly frigid impression, but if you asked her, she'd say she was a young girl of unparalleled beauty. She knew she wasn't wrong, as she'd been told as such to her face several times. Oh wait, that's only after they also say, "If you keep your mouth shut," isn't it?"I believe we've more than accomplished our mission," Lumia said calmly.
"We did. So? Are you telling me that we should just pack it up? This is my first job, Lumia. The first job since we gathered our companions a year ago. I've been training my whole life to lead a mercenary group for exactly this purpose, ever since I awoke to my memories at the age of three. Besides, it's not as if killing more people would get us in trouble for providing too many freebies. And also, if I don't have to mince words, I just like war."
In her past life, Asura had been the leader of a mercenary group and fought in many countries. She could never forget how much fun that life was, and why she'd chosen the path of a fighter in this one as well.
"If you insist on killing everyone, then I will judge that you've crossed the line," Lumia said.
"Ah, I see. Well, well, aren't you kind to the enemy?" Asura chuckled. "But hey, Lumia, they're invaders. They've come to kill the people of the Arnia Kingdom. You know, our employer? They're soldiers, here to rejoice in slaughter. On the flip side, that means they should be prepared to be slaughtered themselves, no? Even if that means being killed by a contemptible band of mercenaries like us."
Lumia fell silent, but looked as if she was still deep in thought.
Ah, if I don't offer some sort of compromise, then we'll have to kill each other, Asura figured.
A battle to the death between Asura and Lumia—if Asura ever were to descend into nothing more than an atrocious murderer, then Lumia would stop her, even if it meant killing her. That was Lumia's resolve. But in the mercenary business, knowing where to draw that line was vague and difficult.
"What's wrong, you cowardly mages?!" the enemy vice captain bellowed. "Is that all you've got?! You cravens! Why don't you come out and fight us face-to-face?! Or is ambushing us and then scurrying away the only strategy that you have?!"
"There, Lumia, can't you hear that? They want to die. They're calling me—calling us. But..." Asura paused. "Lumia, I don't want to fight you. I don't want to kill you, nor do I want you to kill me. You're the only family I have, in the truest sense of the word. And so, how about I offer them an opportunity?"
"An opportunity?"
"Yes, Lumia, an opportunity for them to live as afforded by war. To put it in simpler terms, I'm going to give them the opportunity to give up."
"Are you saying that you'll call for their surrender?" Lumia asked.
"Yes, that's right." Asura replied. "I want to respect your opinion, so I don't mind kindly explaining to them the difference in our strengths. If you wish, then I'll even throw in a smile. But hey, listen, if they still don't back off after that, then I'm going to do it. I'll do it. We'll do it. Of course, that includes you, since you're my subordinate. We'll thoroughly and wholeheartedly show them the meanings of the words 'hell' and 'despair.'"
Asura stared straight into Lumia's brown eyes. Lumia eventually let out a sigh.
"I understand. If you're going to offer the enemy the right to choose, then it wouldn't count as crossing the line." With that, Lumia was convinced.
"Then, wait for my signal," Asura ordered. It was sure to be a wonderful signal—the beautiful and heart-pounding call to resume their battle.
Asura walked out of the forest alone. The soldiers had just started to relax their defensive formation. Quite a bit of time had passed, so they must have figured that Asura and the others had already fled.
"Defensive positions!" the enemy vice captain barked as soon as he saw Asura. The soldiers immediately raised their shields back up.
"My oh my. Don't you think that's a bit too cowardly considering your opponent is a cute little girl?" As promised, Asura had a bright and cheery smile. All that was left was to convince the enemy that they were outmatched and ask for their surrender. Then she could fulfill her agreement with Lumia.
"I recognize that silver hair and black robe! You're the one who ordered that ambush earlier, aren't you?! Just who are you?! You move more like an assassin than a mage. Who's your employer?!"
"I'm Asura Lyona, leader of the mercenary group Moon Blossom. Take care to remember that. We're neither mages nor assassins. We're—"
"Leader? You?" the soldiers murmured among themselves after hearing that.
I was in the middle of a sentence, Asura thought to herself. She had planned to say, "We're soldier-mages!" as loud as she could.
"Shut up and let me finish. Listen, we are incredibly strong. The day you win against Moon Blossom is the day that pigs fly. If we continue to fight, then it'll become a one-sided massacre. Now, I'm fine with that, but my kindhearted deputy isn't." Asura raised her hands and shook her head with theatrical exasperation.
"So I recommend that you weak, pathetic cowards just surrender. Don't worry. I promise that we won't kill you. We'll hand you over to the Arnia army and that'll be the end of it."
Even if that was the result, it was more than enough of a freebie for the Arnia army. But the enemy soldiers started yelling.
"Q-Quit screwing with us, you brat!"
"The Great Therbae Kingdom would never surrender to a little kid!"
"Mages or assassins or whoever you are! Don't think a single successful ambush makes you victors!"
Asura couldn't help but giggle at their delightful protests. The enemy soldiers froze at the sight of her smile. She wasn't aware of it herself, but Asura's smile was terrifying to behold.
"Then let us continue this reverie of a battle. A fight centered around magic, it's the stuff of dreams!"
Asura raised her right hand and snapped her fingers. In an instant, Iina literally flew out from the forest under the power of "Aircraft," a wind-element support spell. As she soared above the enemy soldiers' heads, she dropped several bottles right on top of them. After she landed on the opposite side of the forest, the soldiers burst into flames, all thanks to Jyrki's fire elemental spell, "Fireball."
"Oh, I guess this is more of a nightmare for you all, huh?" Asura corrected herself.
The bottles Iina had dropped were filled with oil. If magic wasn't powerful on its own, all you needed to do was amplify it.
Image here:
The sound of the enemy soldiers' death throes rose above the roaring of the fire as they thrashed in pain. Eventually, they fell to the ground one by one, never to move again.
"Sticking together in a defensive formation sure backfired on you guys," Asura quipped.
"Shut up, you shitstain!!!" A lucky soldier who had managed to escape most of the oil rushed towards Asura.
"Hey, watch out. My—" But at the same moment Asura opened her mouth, the ground beneath the enemy soldier exploded.
"GAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!" He fell to the ground, his right leg blown to smithereens.
"Didn't you hear me?" Before Asura could finish, the soldier rolling on the ground exploded yet again and his blood splattered onto her cheek. "I scattered my mines over there, so you'll be blown into pieces if you're not careful."
When Asura had snapped her fingers earlier, she'd activated her flower magic, "Mines," and set them in front of her. Her Mines took the form of seven petals, imperceptible unless one was looking for them.
"Lumia! Marx! It's time for cleanup! Keep one of them alive! You two can choose the lucky survivor!"
At Asura's command, Lumia and Marx emerged from the forest and slashed the throats of the remaining soldiers with their daggers. They were the most proficient at hand-to-hand combat within Moon Blossom. But they shared the same flaw of kindness.
Lumia killed with an elegant touch while Marx favored a more forceful approach. Both carved a path through the enemies, snuffing out their lives before Asura's eyes. It wasn't long before they'd virtually exterminated them, but one was still alive, so it wasn't a total massacre. In any case, the battle was over. In Asura's opinion, it was a terribly lonely revelation.
"All right then." Asura walked up to the final soldier and smiled at him. It was a normal smile that befitted her physical age, but the soldier remained rooted to the ground, a terrified look on his face as he stared up at her, unable to even get up to his feet. "There's a reason we kept you alive, you know. Now, let's have a little chat. Listen closely."
Asura crouched before him. On closer inspection, he was quite young, likely around seventeen years old. In many of this world's countries, he'd be considered a legal adult, albeit a very young one.
I see, those two let the youngest guy live.
"We're Moon Blossom. You got that? The ones that destroyed your battalion were the mercenary group, Moon Blossom. I recommend that you hire us the next time your country goes to war. Like they say, today's enemies can be tomorrow's employer."
(3.1k word count)