Vol 3 Chapter 13 (1/2)
LEVEL 3: Even the Best Laid Plans go Awry, but Such is This World
Chapter 13: Our Mistake
PART 1 of 2
Things got one-sided after that
The orcs froii did it take for the reservists to completely wipe out the orcs? Haruhiro didn’t know, but it wasn’t long One or two minutes at most The twenty plus orcs probably didn’t even knohat hit them before they died They were the enemy, so Haruhiro didn’t feel too sorry for theht he’d gotten used to the stench of blood and corpses, but nothing had prepared hi reek of the scene before him now
Kajiko and her Wild Angels rushed past Haruhiro’s party The white feathers decorating their scarves, helms, hats, and bandanas were splattered with bloodstains
“damn, they look HOT!” Ranta exclaimed
“Brittany!” Kajiko’s angry shout rose above the claate!?”
Co atop the ramparts of the eastern wall, shook his head “They haven’t broken through yet! I can’t see theh time!”
“Then we’ll bring down this fortress ourselves!” Kajiko raised both arot a bounty of a hundred gold on the head of the Guardian, Zorun Zesshu! And fifty gold for the head of the orc shaular army troops and Crimson Moon reservists!”
“What? A hundred!?” someone shouted
“Ten thousand silvers!?” another cried, incredulous
“No way! A hundred gold!?” cried another
Yet another, “FIFTY gold!?”
“A hundred and fifty GOLD!? Seriously!?” shouted someone else
When they heard the incredible bounty suiments froze in their tracks, as if cold water had been poured on theht when everyone was distracted, fresh arrows from the watchtowers assaulted them once more Several reservists were hit and went down The oafish warrior in Choco’s party was aan to heal him immediately
“S-shi+elds!” Haruhiro hurriedly scooped an orc shi+eld off the ground
However, the other reservists didn’t care about orc arrows any completely different now Reach the outer stair Get into the keep Kill the Guardian Kill the shaold Everyone’s thoughts were on nothing but that now Even Haruhiro found hie bounty He couldn’t even fathoe sum
An ear-splitting battle cry in a voice Haruhiro had heard before rose above the noise of battle It belonged to Ron “We’re gonna break into the keep first! No one can beat us!”
There had been a deadlock in the battle at the stairway by the eastern wall for a while now, but suddenly the enemy’s hard defensive line collapsed and the reservists broke through There was no telling the difference between Green Stor towards the outer stairs in one large mob Arrows flew in streah to stop the reservist tide Individual reservists disappeared in the torrent, and no one could remain stationary
Haruhiro was also picked up and swept along with the flood He knew nothing except that his companions were still with him
“I’ on!” Bri shouted “Kajiko, you’re in command here!”
“The battle will be over by the tiet back!” Kajiko shouted back
“Don’t get carried away!” Bri warned “You’re all big kids now so act like it!”
“Tell that to the useless regular aronna claim the bounty for myself!”
“Whatever!” Bri said with exasperation “Just try not to bite off more than you can chew!”
Bri disappeared Haruhiro had no idea where he went-probably towards the o where ever he wanted, Haruhiro was going to the outer stair Actually, he was already there, but the entire area around the entrance was so jaet through
Yet he was stillforward as the people in front steadily ascended the stairway In fact, they were cla up the stairs quite swiftly Before he knew it, Haruhiro was almost on the roof of the keep, too Whoa! What the hell!? The arrows There were three watchtowers at the corners of the keep and arroere being shot at them from all three It was a cascade of orc arrows A torrential downpour of the das
Haruhiro barely ed in his shi+eld before he ed to cross the distance to the entrance of the keep He ditched the shi+eld just as he was shoved inside by the streazo? Check Ranta? Still here Yuht he spotted Choco somewhere
The passageway inside the keep was so packed that he had no idea as going on Rather than atte with the flow Quickly through the corridor, down a flight of stairs, fro of the keep towered high above and the floor was spacious It was like one open room with no walls
Stairere built into the four corners and Haruhiro guessed that the one he was descending noas the one in the southeast He recalled that the stairways on the first floor were the only way to enter the watchtowers So he assumed that it was also possible to access the watchtowers from the northwest, southwest, and northeast stairs There were also four doors on each of the watchtowers’ inner walls, and all of them had been breached
Which meant that the inside of the watchtowers had already been searched? On his way through the corridor and down the stairs, Haruhiro recalled stepping on and over several orc corpses The situation on the ground floor of the keep was coh there had been so on before Haruhiro arrived Scattered around were the bodies of more than ten orcs, with a number of reservists mixed in
So healed by their co healed Dead, in other words
“Ah… noe find out which one holds the jackpot,” said Kajiko
It seeels had taken the northatchtohile Team Renji had claimed the southwest one The other reservists had realized this and were going for the re northeast tower
“Which one are we going for!?” Ranta asked, lifting his hel at each of the three watchtowers in turn “My vote’s for the northeast one! We ain’t gonna win against Kajiko and Renji!”
“No,” Haruhiro said
He had to make a decision So he decided before hesitation could set in and he started considering options too deeply; it was nition
“We’ll follow Renji,” Haruhiro announced
“Are you retarded!?” Ranta snapped “We don’t have any chance of clai the bounty if we follow them!”
“Does that in with!” Yume retorted
“Idiot girl!” Ranta shot back “Where’s your self-confidence!?”
shi+horu smiled sardonically “The person who claiht to talk about self-confidence”
“Yeah, well,” Ranta said “I guess Whatever! Let’s go steal his kill then!”
Mogzo forced a laugh while Mary glared at Ranta coldly “Coward”
Ranta grinned shest coet! Wahahaha! O Darkness, O Lord of Corruption… [DARK INVITATION]!”
A blackish, purplish cloud rose froan to spin itself into a cyclone and form itself into some kind of shape It resembled a headless human torso with two holes at the center of the chest area for eyes and a wide slit below for a ic
{“Keeehehehehe! Heeehehehe! Kehekehe! RANTA WILL DIE!}
“Oh it’s not ‘DIE RANTA’ for a change? You’re predicting that I’onna die now, Zodiak!?”
{Eeeehehe… KILL RANTA…}
“Now you’re saying I’onna be murdered!?”
“Zodiak, shake!” Yu
{DIE HUMAN PIG} Zodiak said even as he obediently reached out to touch Yume’s offered hand
“Wow! Good boy, Zodiak! Good boy!” Yuh…”
{Kehehe… SORRY…}
“Zodiak, what the fuck!?” Ranta said “You’re seriously apologizing?”
Zodiak’s response was to gaze blankly at Ranta Wow One-upped by his own ht Haruhiro as he debated what to do about Choco’s party
Finally, he settled with telling theuys should try not to overdo it!”
He didn’t knohether they would take his advice or not, but it seeo beyond the first floor for now Several other parties had stopped here as well The floor had already been cleared out, so it was safer Yes, it was better if Choco stayed here
In fact, maybe it was better if Haruhiro’s party stayed as well So eren’t they? Maybe because they’d already killed an orc They were no longer virgins and maybe that h and everyone wanted to keep a good thing going Or maybe that wasn’t it at all At least Haruhiro didn’t think so But the usual Haruhiro would have at least stopped to consider sitting out the rest of the battle here So why had his decision come so quickly this time?
Perhaps he thought that as long as they stayed close to Renji, it wouldn’t be as dangerous? Yes, that was probably part of the reason Tea as they stayed in Renji’s proverbial shadow, there was no danger of getting themselves killed… most likely But it wasn’t as if Haruhiro intended to cower behind Renji the entire tiot a chance By this point, there ought to be so they could do, however menial
Maybe it was strange for Haruhiro to think so, but part of him wanted to help Renji Even if they couldn’t play a decisive role, it wasn’t like they would be completely useless to have around At the very least, Haruhiro wanted to be more useful to Renji than any of the other parties around, even if there was a risk of getting in the way and beco a nuisance
If it was only Haruhiro by himself, then he would have been called an idiot and becohts But he wasn’t alone His co Warrior Ranta pissed him off in every conceivable fashi+on, but his unique way of using his skills hter So what if Yus with such optimism shi+horu’s personality was unrehted and cared deeply about her companions And Mary was always there for them when they needed it
Manato… we’re a good team I’m sorry you aren’t here to see how far we’ve come
With this teaher There was no need to rush or be impatient, but Haruhiro knew that they had it in them to rise above where they were
“Let’s gooooooooo!” Ranta charged at the head of their party as they chased after Team Renji
Unwilling to co for the southatchtower They ascended the spiral stairs at a run
“Yuled
Haruhiro could hear an incredibly loud cla from above them; the sounds of battle
“Jackpot!?” Haruhiro wondered
Just as they were reaching the top of the stairs, they ran into a group of five reservists huddled together
“What’re you guys doing!?” Ranta derily
“We couldn’t go further even if anted to,” soerous!”
“fucking idiots! You go in and fight because it’s dangerous!” Ranta gave his demon a hard shove forward “Zodiak! Get in there and tell us what’s going on!”
{I don’t wanna! Don’t wanna, don’t wanna, don’t wanna!! Keeeshi+shi+shi+shi+!}