Black Iron Magician
chapter-58

Chapter 58 To The Battle

The Goblin Hero was looking around the destination where the troops were heading. He received a message from his subordinate that they had engaged with those who seemed to be led by the knight leader Nell. But since then, there hasn’t been any good news. There’s only bad news that the leading unit has been wiped out and uncomprehensible things like the arrows were caught with bare hands.

He can see some kind of magical light from here, and then he can hear his subordinates screaming afterward. He knew that Nell uses powerful fire magic. So he guessed that the light is due to that magic.

(Magic is something we goblins can’t understand, and above all, there’s some potential unsuitability. That’s why we compensated it with weapons and physical training… But, it seems that we are at a disadvantage even though my subordinates can fight quite well. After all, I have to――)

When the hero was thinking about it, a Goblin Commander rushed over with new information. From the awfully panicked expression, it’s easy to guess it even without hearing it.

「R-Report! Ogre! Three! Death!」

「What…!? Were they killed by that glittering magic?」

「No! Bare hands! Bare hands!」

「B-Barehanded, against the ogres!?」

The ogres are so powerful that one of them can deal with a unit of trained goblins. In other words, they are the goblins’ trump cards. It’s obvious that the Goblin King would be impatient when the three of them were defeated by a human barehandedly. If they were defeated by magic, he could make an excuse that they were attacked one-sidedly from out of range. However, if they were defeated in hand-to-hand combat by an Adelheit knight who’s good at magic and in a state of being outnumbered, is it possible to win? It will only decrease their force if they use the armed soldiers to surround the enemies, and the ogre’s superhuman strength doesn’t work. The only thing left is to have the Goblin Hero come out. The moment he thought so, he realized something and then raised his face.

「It seems that it’s my time to go. Dropping any more forces would be futile after all.」

「P-Please wait! Hero-sama is our last stand, you shouldn’t go into the battle that easily! If we keep on pushing with numbers, even Nell will run out of stamina. Then, we will have the chance to――」

「What if we lost most of our force by then? Even if we could defeat her, we wouldn’t have enough force to capture the fort. That’s why I’m going now. I’m the hero who represents the group after all. I will leave the rest of the command to you, okay?」

「Y-Yes!」

Goblin King bows deeply to Goblin Hero from the top of the portable shrine. It seems that he doesn’t remember anymore that he is a body double.

(I expected some damage, but I didn’t expect the difference in strength is this much. I’m not going to say too much about what has passed, but I sure got the short end of the stick… Since the knight leader Nell is here, I’m sure the orcs approaching from the south are trampling down the enemies. Good grief, being a hero means taking the unfavorable role.)

Fluttering his blue cloak, the Goblin Hero went to the front.

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「Gu, ohh…」

Haru defeated the fourth ogre. It fell down to the ground while making a thud sound.

「Even with bare hands, she’s unharmed, huh? I guess they were no match for her.」

Haru was fighting on the opponent’s ring barehandedly from the second ogre. Even though it was the opponent’s ring, it was a trivial thing for Haru, who was using her martial arts and other things. Well, it was certainly tougher than fighting with the black staff. However, Haru didn’t receive any attack and it splendidly ended with her complete victory.

It might be too late saying this now, but parrying with aiki is too strong. In terms of power alone, the ogres are far superior to Haru. However, such monstrous strength didn’t matter, Haru parried all the attacks, made them fall to the ground, and sometimes adding her own power when counterattacking.

Moreover, this aiki is more advanced than when she was fighting the Ash Kobold Boss. When touching the opponent in the process of parrying, Haru shrewdly used Heart Hash magic. This magic, which shakes the target’s mind, is surprisingly very compatible with aiki. It turns the mystery of not knowing what happened into fear, and luring the enemy into further confusion. Even I don’t understand the principle of that fantasy-infused parry. For the ogres who have no knowledge about it, Haru’s technique would be nothing but fear.

Also, that fear is not limited to the ogres. It also had a great influence on a large number of goblins in the front lines. Well, it would be difficult for them since the ogres, which should be much bigger and stronger than them, were defeated flawlessly. Haru is using the black staff against the goblins since she’s putting importance on the speed of subjugation, so that might be another reason for the goblins’ dismay.

「Fume Fog is in place! Chinatsu-chan, I’ll move forward!」

「I’ll recast the support magic on you first. You should take a break here for a second!」

Haru, having annihilated the enemy troops, scatters the poisonous fog and pushes up to the front line. She then returns to the deep part of the poisonous fog, where Chinatsu waits for her. and takes a short rest while drinking a potion. In the meantime, Chinatsu recast Regen and Recover Bless to extend the duration of the effect. Once that’s done, Haru shoots the iron balls again and Chinatsu shoots the Glitter Lance. When the iron ball runs out, Haru goes back to the front line―― and so on. Their teamwork has become quite polished.

The goblins are unable to advance through the poisonous fog, and they can’t even shoot arrows carelessly due to the fear of counterattack. Fighting against about 1000 enemies, there are only two people on this side. Even so, now they have enough time to take a short break.

「I think we’re almost at the halfway point. How’s it? It’s about time to get rough on the MP side, isn’t it?」

「I already drank a potion, and I’m thinking about keeping some MP. Maybe I’ll come to the front with Haruna.」

「I think I can still drink about two or three potions, so I’ll do my best as it is!」

「… Haru, you already drank three, didn’t you?」

It’s the PET bottle size ones, you know? And it’s the kind that stays in your stomach.

「I’ll do my best!」

「Y-Yeah, good luck.」

「Yes! Then, I’m off again.」

Haru ran off energetically. I wonder if she has a wonderful metabolic ability? If she can drink that much, it may be better to use recovery medicine for daily training of using magic until MP runs out. The more she consumes, the more proficient she will be.

「Weil!」

Oh, she started using new magic. 『Weil』 is a level 30 dark magic that turns the corpse you touch into a living corpse. In short, a zombie. Haru defeated the goblins without damaging them as much as possible to make the corpses into zombies.

「Vaa…」

Yep, that’s a zombie without a doubt. In this battle situation where there are not many friends, even zombies are a good way to increase the number. However, this magic has its drawbacks. The status of the target who became a zombie is much lower than when it was alive. In other words――

「Pagya…!」

「Ah, my goblin!」

It will lose in a one-on-one fight with a normal goblin. For the magic that Haru learned, it’s not very efficient since it consumes a lot of MP.

――Hm? The goblins suddenly opened the way. Did they lose the will to fight? No, a red-skinned goblin is comes walking in from the back. They opened it for him, huh? Still, I’ve never seen this type of goblin. He’s wearing a blue mantle, but his headgear is not a crown. Is he a subspecies of goblin king?

「Haha, nice to meet you. You are Nell, the knight leader, aren’t you?」

「No, you’ve got the wrong person.」

But, he seems a bit stupid.