Nigoru Hitomi de Nani wo Negau
chapter-31

Walm’s consciousness began to awaken rapidly due to the subsequent echoes of the earth. He stretched his limbs out of a dingy cloak and raised his head from his backpack and waist bag, which he used as his pillow.

Walm’s mood was terrible when he felt wet in his left hand and looked down. Noor grabbed Walm’s left hand and drooled it.

Indignant at the unreasonable treatment, Walm closed Noor’s nose with his free hand. As Walm expected, Noor began to suffocate.

It was Barito who suffered secondary damage. When Noor swung her limbs, it hit him many times, Barito moaned and held his head with his hands to protect his own cockscomb.

When Walm was satisfied, he released his hand from Noor and rubbed his hand against the soil while burning off the dirt with fire magic.

The dirty men were asleep side by side. The three idiots were still entwined with the bad sleep, and Squad Commander Duwei was snoring.

From a distance, a magic attack landing sound and an angry voice echoed. The stinks of viscera and filth drift in the wind. It was Walm’s daily routine as usual.

Water was taken out of the water bottle and the throat was moistened. Then, as the dried potatoes were bitten with the back teeth, the sticky texture and sweetness spread on the tongue.

After flattening the potato, Walm tilted the water bottle again and laid down again.

Walm decided from the color of the sky and the condition of the rising sun that it was about to take a few hours for them to replace the reserve team. It was too early to get up.

Walm, who was physically and mentally worn, fell asleep early, but his sleep didn’t last so long. So, he wanted to sleep again.

“Wake up. All of you Get Up! It’s an enemy’s big attack. We’ll be out soon.”

The angry Squad Commander Duwei, who had woken up before Walm knew it, shook his eardrum. But, rather than being forced to wake up by the magic or skills of the enemy, it was a fairly good wake-up.

Walm jumped up to wear equipment with a dexterity that wasn’t an exaggeration to say that he did it without thinking. It took less than a minute to get ready for battle, and all the squad members had lined up.

“Listen well, the squad was ordered by Commander Kozuru to help the Parma’s Platoon. The enemy formed a shield from the trench that they had dug as usual and tried to rush. We will block this as much as possible, and if a breakthrough is about to form, wipe it out with Walm’s 《Demon Fire》. It’s an easy task. Walm should save his mana. Jose, you look over Noor and Barito. Willart, it will be a burden for you as the only other magic user, but use your mane to the bottom. Reinus, Tibird, and Danfan, you three shall look closely at the gap as usual and crush it. Let’s go. Today too, we will return those bastards from Craist and send them all to heaven!!”

“””Yes, Sir!!”””

The squad rushed into combat with an explosive shout.

Dust rose into the sky due to magic attacks, and arrows with wind noise were coming and going between the two armies.

Walm grabbed a fist-sized stone and threw the stone at the Craist soldier who struggled hard on the slope.

After a dull blow that would have hit the body, the Craist soldiers lost their balance and fell from their heads onto the slope.

The soldier who tried hard to get his balance looked really enthusiastic and healthy. Impressed, Walm presented a fist-sized stone once again. This time, the soldier couldn’t bear it and rolled down to the bottom.

Still, the Craist soldiers who found the slight dents to breakthrough didn’t stop advancing. A fireball hit the shield set up on the slope, sprinkling pieces of wood and earth and sand around, soldiers hiding in the shadows were thrown out of the shadows by a shock.

An arrow pierced the back of a soldier trying to hide behind the wreckage. The air trembled. At the edge of Walm’s field of view, Noor was seen trying to shoot a second arrow.

The second shot was also sucked into the clavicle of the Craist soldier who had turned away from the shield. Walm whistled and wanted to praise the smooth movement. In close quarters, Noor, who had only the average skill of the Highserk Empire soldiers, was actually had the best archery skill in the squad.

With this, cockscomb Barito who is the same new recruit, his position in the squad is dangerous.

After thinking so much about Barito, Walm noticed something.

This is bad. I’m thinking too much again.

It was Walm’s bad habit to be deep in his thoughts during the battle. For now, he put the rookie’s reputation matter into the corner of his head.

Even though the offensive continued several times, this time Walm could see the seriousness of the enemy. No matter how many soldiers had fallen, they were persistently setting up scaffolding and shields on the slopes to try to break through the line of defense. Even the magic-user soldiers, who always provided support from the rear, were leaning forward.

Perhaps one of the magic-users didn’t like the cockscomb, a magic attack approached Barito.

“Uwow!?”

Barito bowed into a depression in the ground like a wild rabbit. When water magic pierced the embankment, it instantly formed a pillar of ice. Walm crushed it with a longsword.

When a crushed ice block fell on Barito’s whole body, he made a stupid voice.

“Uhihi”

“Hah”

Barito screamed badly at Walm, who sneered at him.

“You don’t have to laugh like that!”

This time it was Walm’s turn. An earth bullet that seemed to have been formed by earth-attribute magic flew toward Walm. Earth-attribute magic, which was one of the four-attribute magic, was useful, contrary to its apparent blandness.

Base building, siege battle, increasing the overall power of troops by a golem. There were many types used on the battlefield just by what Walm knew, but among them, 《Earth Bullet》, even though it might be the basic magic, was the most used earth attribute magic.

Rather than creating something out of nothing based on mana, it was much more efficient to consume mana to twist and manipulate existing substances. As magic that literally made you hold your head down, it was harder not to see a 《Earth Bullet》 on the battlefield.

Walm saw the stunned face of the magic-user from behind the golem. It seemed he was very shocked that the magic that he was proud of, was shattered with a sword. But he didn’t give up and shot 《Earth Bullet》 at Walm again and again.

“It seems that you want to play with mud huh.”

When Walm knocked it down the third time, a fireball came flying from another direction. Walm showed a pretense to avoid it, but his heart said differently. After all, as someone with a fire-attribute, he was strong against the same attribute magic.

Even if the fire caused burns to others, it would only be hot if you had the fire-attribute. After acquiring 《Demon Fire》, Walm gained resistance to fire and heat, and its status was exceptional even amongst the ones who had the same attributes.

As a result, some flames struck Walm, but Walm, covered with a magical barrier, including equipment, was literally unharmed. The problem was that the hands that held down Walm’s body that came of nowhere.

“Oi, using your comrades a wall, are you serious?”

Walm was slightly angry with Jose and the two rookies who had slipped into his shadow.

Walm was terribly indignant at his companions who chose the meat shield as their best choice, even though they could afford to dodge or shield.

“Well, Walm-san is amazing!”

“Rightー, even if that flame hits directly, it doesn’t hurt him at all.”

“This is good, I don’t need fireproof equipment.”

If you could kill the three, the schemer, the cockscomb, and the bow idiot, with only your gaze, Walm was confident that his gaze could kill them now.

“Tch, what a bunch of noisy people.”

Walm wanted to get close to the three, but he had no time for that. Perhaps, the enemy soldiers thought they had got the troublesome ones, they vigorously jumped out from the trench coming at Walm.

“Follow me!!”

Soldiers jumped out all at once. The proportion of knights that was higher than before, was reflected in Walm’s eyes. Especially the knight who ran at the front looked so burdensome to deal with.

The flowing purple hair and the fineness of the body could be distinguished even from the top of the armor. Seeing that, Walm thought that she must be a woman who had become a knight because of her family, and so he decided to pay not much attention to her. At first, he thought like that.

However, Walm changed his mind when he saw the round shield, which the woman held, and covered with her mana, countered the 《Wind Blade》, and the friendly army leaning out of the embankment was pierced by a javelin.

The female knight seemed to have 《Iron Wall》 and also had a ridiculous amount of mana. Contrary to her appearance, the knight seemed to have muscle-brain as she jumped into her own death without hesitation. Walm didn’t want to fight such a person. He thought that she was only suitable for Squad Commander Duwei.

Squad Commander Duwei smiled with shining eyes, such imagination crossed Walm’s mind.

In any case, Walm didn’t want to have hand-to-hand combat with her.

“Walmmmm, use it, nooowwWW!”

Walm’s ears received a heartbreaking cry from Platoon Commander Kozuru. Taking in the intentions of his boss, and the wish to not have a head-on fight with the knight, Walm took the mask from his waist bag. The mask continued to vibrate as if it couldn’t wait any longer.

The horror ―― the convenience of this mask is that it’ll stick to your face.

Without any hesitation, Walm wore the mask, and prepared to use the skill.

Walm was ready to spit out his mana from the whole body, and used all of his preserved mana at once. Hot air and flames started to come out from his body. Still, the female knight in front of Walm didn’t waver at all.

The sharp eyes captured Walm’s attention wholeheartedly.

In peacetime, Walm would welcome such gaze since there most likely no murderous intention behind it, but the current situation where neither of them, Walm thought, at the very least, it was a horrible thing to come at him.

Still, Walm didn’t waver, his dominance still there. He had an experience seeing a human continued to move even after the whole body was covered in《Demon Fire》.

But it was different from then, now Walm was in a favorable situation. In addition to the support of the friendly army, the enemy was still running up the slope. Walm had only to shoot the fire and burn the enemies under his eyes.

The moment when《Demon Fire》 was activated ――The group stopped rapidly and kept their posture low and took as much contact as possible to the ground.

Some of them form clay walls and trenches. If it was just magic, it was enough as a measure, but in front of 《Demon Fire》, there was no point in defending unless you block all directions.

There was no longer any assumption that the knight would rush and slash into the 《Demon Fire》 that Walm was afraid of, but at the same time, doubts arose.

Why does she still stand perfectly and solidify her defenses despite that momentum? Why do the Craist soldiers didn’t learn from yesterday and choose the same assault tactic?

Am I thinking too much?

――Wondering if he was thinking too much, Walm tried to switch his thoughts, but he was stunned by the mana that swelled in the rear trench.

“You’re kidding me.”

Momentarily squinted and searched for its source. Then, Walm found something out of place, a boy with black hair and black eyes, and a girl with chestnut skin and black hair, the two were looking at him.

Walm knew only a few people who had mana visible to the eyes. And it was still bulging multiple times. Once he looked closely, he saw many other magic-user soldiers were lurking.

Goosebumps ran all over the body and cold sweat flowed.

F*ck!

Walm cursed himself while glaring at the boy and girl. He was trapped. He was put into the enemy’s plan. His eyes were struck by the wide variety of magic that filled his field of vision, especially the dazzling light.

While leaning toward the one with a slightly lower density, shoot 《Demon Fire》 with all of his might. Countless magic clashed causing a big explosion. The shock caused the hair to flutter, and the whole body was beaten up by flying objects and the shockwave.

As if to erode 《Demon Fire》, the magic rushed to Walm with only a slight decline in power. He manipulated the hot air, deflecting his body backward as far as he could, but he was too late.

“Walmmm!”

Squad Commander Duwei, who called his name, appeared at the edge of his field of vision, but the stream of light swallowed the whole squad.

“Aaahhh― “

As the last resistance, Walm folded his limbs, closed his ears, and exhaled. Pain ran all over his stiff body. He could feel that the light, the explosion, the shockwave, were in contact with his body. The front, back, left and right was unknown. Swallowed by the stream, he started to lose the sense of the body.

Again, will I die again?

―― After the sensation of being twisted ran through the body, and at last, the field of vision started to disappear and it became dark. Even though it was so noisy, all of the sounds disappeared. And lastly, Walm’s consciousness disappeared completely.