Makai Hongi

The forest at midnight.

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“Painy, I’m counting on you.”
“Yes, Sir Golan.
Leave it to me.”

The ten Reapers quietly slipped out from the forest.
They were headed to the fortress in Fara’s territory.
It was built on top of a mountain, and was surrounded on three sides by steep cliffs.
There was only one way to enter—a nearby forest.
That was all.

And it was this relatively small forest that we would attack.

Under the moonlight, Painy and the others silently stealed up towards the fortress.
Wraiths and specters were good at this kind of work.
And so even though there were guards watching, they were not discovered.

“Alright.
We charge in as soon as the gates open.
They will have double our number inside of the fortress.
But most of them will be asleep.
Crush anyone you see.”

Our strategy was about as simple as it could be.
A few Reapers would enter the fortress and open the gate.

Of course, they would be discovered at that point, and so Painy and her team would go in to defend the gate.
And the rest of us would rush in before the enemy could call the others for support.

I told Painy that she shouldn’t push herself too hard.
If there were too many guards, then they should retreat.

“…Come on…”

Time continued to pass without any sign of movement.
I could see the fortress from between the trees, but the gate was still closed.

When I turned around, I saw that Saifo and the other Ogres were swaying impatiently under their hoods.

As for this attack.
I was quite confident that it would succeed.
The fortress was quite small, after all.

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However, there was a possibility that someone very strong just happened to be there.
The thought made me sweat.
If we were defeated here, it would affect the entire plan.

And so I fought the urge to rush forward, and just stared at the gate and waited.
Just when the sweat from my foreheading was starting to stain the ground at my feet, I saw the gates slowly open from the inside.
They had succeeded.

…Good!

The time was ripe.
Now we just had to charge in.
“All of you.
It’s time to go!”

“Arggh!”

And so I ran.
Behind me, the Ogres and Reapers raised their voices and followed.

“…Hey, they’ll hear you!”

Had we charged in silently, we would have been able to buy some extra time…but it was too late.
The soldiers in the fortress would have definitely heard us now.

“Bah, just keep going!”

I raised my club.
There was no turning back.

“HYYAAAHHH!”
As we rushed through the gates, the Ogres tore off the hoods that were getting in their way.

“Hey! You idiots!!”

It was hopeless.
They were hopeless.
They had forgotten everything.

Ultimately, the carefully planned deception that I had pushed for so hard…vanished in a flash.

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“GOOOOO!!”

There was no helping it.
It was better to let them do what they wanted and stay motivated.

The Ogres flowed into the building.
The Reapers stood their ground in the courtyard, slowly but surely taking down the enemy.

“Golden Eye Orcs, eh?”

I could also see shrieking Goblins, but it looked like they had no intention of joining the fight.

The soldiers that came out of the building had pig faces and long fangs.
And their eyes were all one solid color.
It looked like they had poured gold into the sockets.

They were called Golden Eye Orcs, and were somewhere between the bottom and center when it came to demihumans.

They were high among Orcs, but lower than us Ogres.
“…I don’t think we have anything to worry about.”

I had brought with me the best of my Ogres.
And the Reapers were already near the top.

Besides, this was an ambush.
Surely we could not find ourselves at a disadvantage.
It was just as I was thinking this…

—Ba-bang.
Ba-ba-ba-bang.

“Shit! Thunder cannons.”

There were no guns or traditional cannons in the Demon World.
They had probably not been invented yet.
However, they did have gunpowder.

In war, it was only used to make sounds, like it was doing just now.
Like firecrackers.
No one had thought of using it to launch balls of metal.

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—Ba-bang, ba-ba-bang…ba-bang…ba-ba-bang…

And since the fortress was on the top of a mountain, the sounds of the thunder cannon traveled far.
It would easily reach the other fortresses.

Gunpowder was expensive.
And so I had not expected it to be here in a secluded fortress.

However, perhaps it had been necessary in order to guard Leninoth’s border.

“Sir Golan.
What should we do?”
Painy asked as she moved towards me.

“They will send people to see what is happening.
I don’t want them to see us retreating.
We’ll have to leave this place soon.”
“I understand.”

They would send their swiftest ahead.
If we waited too long, we’d be seen.

“The problem is…where do we run?”
If we returned to the forest and continued on straight, we would be going into Leninoth’s territory.

But we wanted to lure in Fara’s army, so crossing the border again would not be a good idea.

“We should go deeper then.”
While it would be very dangerous, I decided that we would move deeper into Fara’s lands.

“It’s time to get out of here.
All of you.
Follow me!”
“Arrgh!”

Fara’s army would never think that we’d move deeper into their lands.
Well, I hoped that they wouldn’t.
And so we melted into the shadows and began our retreat.

We headed towards the forest first, and once inside, moved as if tracing an arch.

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Once we were out, I saw that several lights had appeared in the fortress.
They were probably burning torches now.

“We’ll continue to move from here.”

They would be looking towards the border for Leninoth’s men.
And so we moved quietly into Fara’s territory, and found a safe area before the sun rose.

There were lots of spots like this in the forests.
Sudden clearings that were devoid of trees.
They were perfect for resting.

“We’ll be attacking at least one more fortress.
So you better rest up.”
I said before lying down.

 

That night, we took a small fortress that was far away from the town road.
We now found ourselves very deep into Fara’s lands.
And while they must have heard about the other attack, the soldiers did not seem like they were on their guard.

Just like before, I sent the Reapers in first and had them open the gate.

Both fortresses were overseen by goblins.
While they were not suited for battle, there were many of them, and they lived all over the Demon World.
And they were likely quite suited for these kinds of jobs.

When the gates opened and we rushed inside and trampled over the enemy, I heard the sounds of large wings flapping.
Someone who could fly had likely gone to call for reinforcements.

It was difficult to do anything about these kinds of contact methods.

If we waited too long, we’d get ambushed from the sky.

“Alright, retreat!”

Moderation was key.
And so I gathered my men and we started to move out.