In The Name Of Ingrad! (10)

At the same time that the familiar voice rang out, the explosions and flashes dominating the battlefield were a sight Linda had never seen even once in her life.

Moreover, the sight of that Demonic Tribe army, which had seemed so powerful, being helplessly pushed back was not something that existed in the common sense she knew, and even Bella, who had been steeling her resolve while thinking of death until now, was staring ahead with a vacant expression.

“It’s frightening…”

The first emotion Linda felt was fear, and concern.

She knew that the elite forces of Ingrad who had come here as support were powerful, but because the Demonic Tribe’s numbers were far too many, she began to worry that the people who had come as support might be hurt.

However, Bella beside her reacted differently.

“They are certainly frighteningly powerful. As expected… the phrase strongest truly suits the whale beastkin unit… Ah… This is not the time to be doing this!”

At Bella’s words, Linda turned around with a puzzled expression, and Bella grabbed her wrist and ran toward the carriage. Soon, she put Linda into the sturdiest carriage and spoke to the soldier beside her.

“Escort the artisans and Lady Linda to a safe distance. The remaining troops will… support our allies!”

“No! I will remain too!”

Linda urgently shouted, but Bella stood in her way and said,

“To protect Lady Linda and the artisans, many people cannot participate in battle. If even one more of our people helps, the damage to our allies will be reduced… so please follow my judgment. Otherwise… I will use this.”

Bella took out the crystal and held it before Linda’s eyes.

She was leading the Relief Group under the clause that, when battle occurred, all decision-making authority had to be delegated to Bella. It had been that way until now, and it would continue to be so in the future, so Linda could not bring herself to insist any further, and Bella spoke as she watched Linda nod and sit in the carriage.

“This is not something for you to feel hurt over. It is a decision made because we can protect more people, so please follow it.”

“I know. I understand. I will follow it.”

The carriage door closed, and soon the carriages carrying the artisans, some of the mercenaries, and some of the Ingrad regular army began moving again with Linda.

Bella then looked around at the remaining eight hundred regular troops and asked,

“We move quickly. First, report your supply status!”

At those words, the lower-ranking commanders began quickly checking the soldiers they commanded. Then they ran over and reported to Bella one by one.

After checking every shout from many people rushing in at once, she had the platoons with many supplies spend part of their supplies and distribute some to the units with few supplies. Then she pointed at the whale beastkin unit that was slowly beginning to show itself directly on the battlefield and said,

“The number of our allies is roughly five thousand. All of them are presumed to be whale beastkin units, and right now, they are likely achieving great results because they ambushed the Demonic Tribe while the enemy was off guard. Therefore, we will quickly turn around and shave away the enemy’s flank.”

“Would it not be better to join up with them instead?”

She shook her head at the middle-ranking commander’s words and said,

“Their direction of troop operation differs from ours. Because of that, I judged that we must not interfere with their movements. Therefore, we will aim for the flank.”

“If close combat occurs, there will be limits to weapons with strong explosive power.”

Bella asked the command staff member who had just posed the question,

“Where were you in the previous battle against the Kingdom of Josephine?”

“…I was under the corps commanded by Sir Wijel.”

“I see. Then you may not know. Today, you will witness why the whale beastkin are called the strongest, so… make sure you survive and tell me later. What is your name?”

“I am Kren, Rad One-Star middle-ranking commander.”

“Understood. Kren, I will remember you. So now is the time to move. Move out!”

Bella quickly gave orders and began moving with the equipment at the front, and like that, the eight hundred elites began running to break the rock that was slowly forming cracks.

Meanwhile, Ulde, who was examining the Demonic Tribe rushing toward them from the high ground, slung his firearm onto his back, looked at some of the troops who were not retreating, and asked the subordinate who had come with him,

“What do those kids seem to be trying to do?”

His subordinate, no, Oliver scratched his head at Ulde’s question and said,

“It seems they stayed behind to help us, so what should we do? Will this not disrupt the plan?”

“Hmm… It should be all right, but caution will be needed. How are the preparations?”

At Ulde’s question, Oliver looked behind them and said,

“It seems they are almost finished, but is that really effective?”

“They told us to try using it and report back, so we have no choice but to use it…”

Just before they went out to the battlefield, there was an item Richard had handed over for testing purposes. Ulde had asked about the situation with preparing that, and since it was nearly done, Ulde said,

“Once the preparations are finished, have them use it immediately.”

“For now… understood. I will go.”

Because the gunfire was too noisy for orders to be delivered by shouting separately, Oliver moved personally, and soon Herman came to the place he had left and asked,

“Is there no close combat?”

“Do you especially want to get blood on yourself?”

“Kehihi, that shout from earlier really struck my heart, you see.”

Ulde became slightly embarrassed as he recalled the shout about wetting their skin with blood. So he looked at Herman and asked,

“There seem to be many nobles. Can you survive?”

“What do you take me for?”

“Well, that is true…”

Herman and Oliver could be called the very strongest among the whale beastkin. Honestly, if one tried to decide who was stronger, it seemed it would only end when one of the two died, so Ulde had never tested it, but because he thought one must not be arrogant, he spoke to Herman again.

“This is land. Those bastards mainly use magic. Can you withstand fire magic?”

“That much is simple if I wrap myself in aura.”

“What about lightning-type magic?”

“That would be… a little prickly, I suppose…?”

“What about air magic? If they remove the air or dry it out, your skin will crack open, will it not?”

Ulde spoke to the troubled Herman.

“They are a race that lives for a very long time. That means there may definitely be some among them who know how to deal with us beastkin. So I intend to avoid close combat if possible.”

“Then why did you bring that greatsword?”

Ulde had slung a gun and a greatsword in an “X” shape, and he looked at the Demonic Tribe’s numbers in the distance and said,

“If supplies run out, clubbing them alone will not solve it.”

At the word clubbing, Herman looked down at the absurd firearm he was holding. It was a firearm made extremely sturdy so it could be used as a “blunt weapon,” and it was so tough that it would not even be scratched by ordinary means, making him like it enough that admiration had naturally come out.

“Close combat should be left to me…”

It was when he was about to say that he would step forward.

Several whale beastkin wrapped large iron balls in thick leather and began spinning them around. Ulde, who was watching this, said to Herman,

“They said only we could use that, and that its power is tremendous, so let us see.”

“…Ah, those are the balls we received when we began the march, are they not?”

“It did not seem to be a simple ball. They said it had to be operated separately and thrown.”

“Can it not be fired with a cannon?”

At Herman’s words, Ulde looked at the iron balls and said,

“Those will not fit in a gun barrel. Besides, each one is a 120-kilogram shell. No one but us can throw them.”

Moreover, the order to throw those had also only been given to especially large whale beastkin among them, enormous fellows reaching 3.5 meters tall.

With that size and strength, and even using partial beastkin transformation, they were spinning them with tremendous force. Soon, the leather, which had been letting out an endless uneasy creaking sound, was released from their hands, and the iron balls were seen being thrown into the air.

The iron balls looked as if they would fly extremely far, and when they cut through the air, the whale beastkin temporarily stopped firing.

Was that why? After being beaten down for a long time, the gunfire suddenly stopped, so the Demonic Tribe began charging fiercely, and just as those fearless bastards were trying to pick up quite a bit of speed, some of them seemed to sense something strange and faltered.

“They must have seen them.”

Black spheres, and quite large, so there was no way they could not see them.

Moreover, among the Demonic Tribe, demons of viscount rank or higher seemed to move as if trying to stop the iron balls with magic, and Ulde wondered what kind of weapon those iron balls seemed like to them.

The moment he fell into thought over that, an opaque barrier appeared and began blocking the first iron ball that had flown.

Craaaang!!!

First, when the iron ball and the barrier touched, they created a tremendous roar. Surely they had not asked them to test it with mere iron balls, right? It was when Ulde had that thought.

If the iron ball had clearly been blocked, it would normally immediately plummet. But the problem was that it did not plummet, and soon, with a “bang,” it split into pieces in midair and sprayed out in all directions.

‘What is that?’

It was the question that surfaced in everyone’s mind, but it did not take even two seconds for that question to be answered.

It was the moment when the black something falling in all directions touched the ground.

Kwaaaaaang!!!

Countless fierce, continuous explosions rang out, and almost hundreds of meters instantly turned into a sea of fire. They had no choice but to stare down at the situation in a daze amid the endless wailing coming from there.

“…What is that?”

At Ulde’s extremely bewildered question, Herman was too dazed to speak, and after realizing that the other whale beastkin were not much different, Ulde had no choice but to fill his breath with aura and shout.

“Come to your senses!! Fire! We have to concentrate our blows when the enemy has taken damage!!”

Only then did the bullets cut through the air one by one, as if the clockwork of a broken watch had begun turning, and as they fell, they once again made the battlefield noisy. However, Ulde thought it would not be easy to shake off the bewilderment even now.

Meanwhile, Lukram, who had been watching all of this from a place not far away, barely clenched his trembling hands together along with a feeling of disbelief and had to take deep breaths.

‘What in the world is that…?’

The tremendous range and destructive trail, far surpassing great magic, were something he had never heard of or seen before, so his head was growing complicated.

On top of that, because something unusual was happening in the Demonic Tribe’s central region, it was already becoming difficult to mobilize troops, so the loss of troops was painful for Lukram.

Furthermore, the troops he had pulled out this time were close to the private soldiers of the Demon King “Salgram,” who led the invasion army, so if the damage was great, Lukram would be put in quite a difficult position, making him utterly miserable.

Lukram looked down at the battlefield with a complicated heart and thought over his moves, but he was not the only one in this place.

“Oh my, to think the famous Lukram is having quite a bit of trouble.”

“It seems you regard this as mere trouble?”

The being who spoke slyly at Lukram’s sharp reply was Belkamen, who was called a servant of the Demon God and held the position of archduke.

Lukram thought her beautiful, leisurely voice seemed to provoke even more irritation and said,

“Get lost. I will pay the price for all the problems.”

“I came to watch something entertaining… This side will be quite the headache. Besides, your role is not to pay attention to those things, is it?”

“I am doing this after sufficiently carrying out what I must do. It is not something for you to interfere in.”

At Lukram’s words, Belkamen let out an unpleasant chuckle and said,

“There must be no disruption. The Demon God is moving personally…”

“…What is happening?”

“As the one at the bottom of the hierarchy, you need not know?”

Lukram’s expression twisted violently, but as Belkamen said, Lukram only needed to do well at the work he had been ordered to do.

As a result, that work was also proceeding well, but it was a moment when he could not help feeling displeased.

A moment later, Belkamen nodded and disappeared into the shadows, and Lukram, who found that displeasing, was only left seething inside over the tangled situation.