Chapter 10 - The Awaited Conflict (4)

Chapter 10: The Awaited Conflict (4)

The cold evening breeze wafted over Ralogolar as he looked down at the colossal breach in the castle wall. His sword rested gently over his shoulder as screams that reminded him of Mythril Encampment filled his ears. Blood and shredded bits of flesh colored the air like crimson confetti, yet his breath remained steady as he watched the remains of his comrades soar skyward.

Despite the hundred thousand-strong army storming the capital, there was only so much they could accomplish. Without any aid from the seven who led the revolution, the army had practically zero chance of survival. Starved. Desperate. Sleep-deprived. The humans lasted a mere six minutes against the High Elf Royal Guard. In that time, nearly two thousand lives were scattered to the wind without a hint of mercy, the death toll climbing as each second ticked by.

Yet the army marched straight into the slaughter, driven by a unified righteous fury, in the hopes that at least one of them would survive and emerge with their lives. Amidst the chaos raging below, Ralogozen and Roloxither landed behind Ralogolar, impatience written across their expressions. 

“Ralogolar, how long do you plan on waiting?” Ralogozen asked, his voice gripped with agitation as he stepped closer.

The chilly wind drifted between the three of them as silence grew. Despite the clear intent of his question, Ralogolar paid no mind to Ralogozen, as his thoughts lingered on the slaughter below. Ralogozen’s and Roloxither’s eyes met upon his rude silence, as they both recalled their conversation before reaching the castle wall.

‘Damn that bastard Feno, he didn’t mention anything about the Queen having guards,’ Ralogolar cursed inwardly as he witnessed the death toll continuing to skyrocket. 

With each passing second, Ralogolar’s mind raced, cataloging every possible variable in the crossfire below to devise a plan to overcome the unexpected obstacle. Yet before any such plan could form, a blunt pain radiated through the back of his head. He stumbled forward slightly as his sword clattered against the roof, forcing his Skill to deactivate. 

Ralogolar turned around as the strength and stature granted by his Skill slowly withered away. Ralogozen stood right in front of him, his fist slightly swollen in a way it hadn’t been before. A deep-seated anger teemed in Ralogozen’s eyes as he stared him down, but as he watched Ralogolar’s body slowly shrivel into its true form, confusion wound its way beside that fury.

“Explain yourself, Ralogolar,” Ralogozen said, stepping within arm’s length. “Why are we sitting here doing nothing while our people are dying right in front of us?! And what happened to your body? Have you been faking your strength this whole time?”

Seeing Ralogozen’s pent-up emotions spill over, Roloxither lunged forward and grabbed his arm with the intention to hold him back. Her efforts proved fruitless, as Ralogozen shrugged her off, sending her staggering backwards several paces instead before closing the distance between him and Ralogolar. 

Despite his comrade’s hostility, Ralogolar maintained his silence. Though they were of a similar height, his current frame barely amounted to half of Ralogozen's. Yet he wasn’t deterred. As the two stared each other down amidst bloodcurdling screams, a flicker of an empty expression flitted across his face. The utter lack of care that Ralogolar displayed only drove Ralogozen further into rage, spurring him to shout directly in Ralogolar’s face without restraint.

“You snake! What are we waiting for!?”

However, as those incensed words left Ralogozen’s mouth, he missed a subtle change in his comrade. Ralogolar’s pupils shrank. The roof beneath them began to creak wildly, and two clean lines appeared beneath their feet. The sword that rested on the roof was no longer there; it now rested gently in Ralogolar’s left hand with chips of stone and wood caught on the blade.

The space between the cuts gave way. The building shook, knocking Ralogozen flat on his back. Through the billowing dust, the change he had missed became glaringly clear; Ralogolar’s body was twisting and morphing back into its enhanced state, and his intense gaze was focused on him.

“What are we waiting for? Why am I letting so many of our comrades die? You ask questions without even considering our situation,” Ralogolar finally said, pausing afterwards to brush the dust off his tunic. 

“Consider our situation?” Ralogozen murmured, using his shovel as a crutch to stand. “We’re fighting for our freedom! Yet you’re letting our only trump card dwindle with each second! Even if you’re the strongest out of all of us, how can you stand there and do nothing!?”

Despite Ralogozen’s temper and the indignation behind his words, they had little effect upon Ralogolar, only succeeding in sparking a faint feeling of disappointment within him. Letting the disappointment cloud his face for Ralogozen and Roloxither to see, Ralogolar pointed to the onslaught below and asked,

“Are the two of you able to defeat the entire Royal Guard by yourselves?” Ralogolar paused, the disappointment draining from his expression as he stared into Ralogozen’s eyes. “Can you two beat even a single Royal Guard on your own?”

Silence reigned over Ralogozen and Roloxither as they hesitated at Ralogolar’s question. That silence was short-lived, as seconds into their hesitation, Roloxither’s Skill triggered unexpectedly. As the roofing beneath her feet began to crumble, Roloxither leapt back, barely managing to pull Ralogozen along with her. Having barely escaped the unexpected calamity, the source of the collapse became clear.

“You could barely even dodge that attack, even with that combat-gifted Skill of yours,” Ralogolar said, flicking his sword through the air to shake off the bits of debris caught on the blade. “What makes you think you could even beat one Royal Guard? If you can barely manage to react to me?”

Had he not skimmed through a small portion of the book handed to him by Feno Jerrie Heleris, Ralogolar wouldn’t have attempted the stunt he had just pulled. Out of the small handful of names he had time to investigate, Roloxither’s was one that caught his eye. Not just because she was amongst the strongest humans in the rebellion, but because of her Skill and how the High Elves used her.

Roloxither’s Skill, Battle Star, was in the same class as his own. A combat class Skill that enhanced the user under specific conditions. And although the book did not delve into the specifics of her Skill, the very fact that the High Elves used her to detect rampant monsters approaching the plantation where they held her was strictly not a coincidence. 

“Just from what I’ve seen, it would take the four weakest among us seven to take on a single Royal Guard,” Ralogolar intoned, turning his back on them. “So if you’re done throwing a fit, stop wasting the precious time I could be using to map out our next move.”

Ralogolar’s tone sent shivers down Roloxither’s spine; even without the use of her Skill, she could tell that every word he spoke was like a knife pressing against her delicate skin. The hostility he displayed dwarfed Ralogozen’s in comparison, forcing her to realize that even though they were all humans, Ralogolar would have no qualms putting them down if they stood in his way. As Roloxither remained frozen in place from Ralogolar’s words, Ralogozen’s mind slowly began to race.

‘Damn it,’ Ralogozen cursed internally, only catching on to what happened after Ralogolar finished speaking. 

To him, the past few seconds had been a blur, one second he was standing, ready to strike Ralogolar again should the need arise. Yet in the next his back was against the roof once more, as the spot where he once stood gave way without warning. 

‘He must have an enhancement type Skill like Roloxither’s, otherwise his crazy strength doesn’t make sense…’ Ralogozen thought, resting his head against the roof without any intent to get up.

Ralogolar’s words riddled his mind as he stared up into the hazy sky. Despite his morals completely rejecting Ralogolar’s actions, Ralogozen had no choice but to accept the truth of the situation. As if possessed by something other than himself, he sat up in a bizarre fashion, seemingly letting his arms go limp as his head slowly followed after his torso.

“What do you have in mind?” Ralogozen asked, staring at the back of Ralogolar’s head as he spoke. 

“Gozen?” Roloxither questioned, unable to process the sudden change in Ralogozen’s demeanor.

“Not now, Xither,” Ralogozen replied, stopping her before she could say another word. “Ralogolar is right, we’re just wasting time right now. And the more we dawdle the more deaths we cause.”

Ralogozen hoisted himself up off the roof, leaving his shovel beside Roloxither as he walked toward the edge. His ears still rang vividly with each step he took, with the screams of death below only adding to his torment. Yet the intense anger that once radiated from his expression was nowhere to be seen, as a calm, yet still clearly irritated expression supplanted it. 

Ralogozen reached the edge of the roof, standing stoically next to Ralogolar as they watched the ongoing slaughter below. Although neither knew how much time had passed since the chaos began, there was one thing they could tell from the sheer number of battered corpses strewn by the castle walls. 

“The amount of deaths has nearly tripled.”

As Ralogolar muttered to himself his eyes glided smoothly over the hellscape. In the short time that their focus had shifted away from the chaos, humanity’s army had been driven back to the breach in the castle walls. The fifty-one Royal Guards held their ground firmly and continued to march forward into the army of humans with terrifying precision.

“What are you looking for?” Ralogozen prompted, following Ralogolar’s gaze as he scanned the battlefield.

“An opening,” Ralogolar replied hesitantly, still unsure as to whether he could trust Ralogozen. “Unless we can find a big enough gap to overturn the Royal Guard’s momentum, we’ll never make it to the castle.” 

“Why not the walls themselves? It doesn’t look like there are any Elves taking positions up there?” Roloxither chimed in, speaking up before Ralogozen could reply.

“We don’t have any long range attacks, there wouldn’t be a point,” Ralogozen replied, clearly annoyed that his speech had been interrupted. 

“That won't matter, we can still come down on them from above, we’ll get two or three of them that way.” 

As Roloxither and Ralogozen continued to bicker, the opportunity Ralogolar had been looking for presented itself in the form of a single High Elf, donned in bloodied golden armor marching forward with a vile smile across his face that separated himself from the rest of the Royal Guard. Both in demeanor and physical appearance, he alone stood out against the numerous silver-plated guards, somewhat uncannily.

“Seriously Gozen, we don’t need-”

“Both of you, enough,” Ralogolar commanded, silencing them both with a single sentence. “You two take position on top of the wall. When I give the signal, smash the remaining section of the wall and drop it onto that Royal Guard.”

Ralogolar’s sudden agreement stunned Roloxither and Ralogozen. Before they could respond, a gust of wind whipped them in the face as Ralogolar leapt from the roof. Leaping nimbly from roof to roof as if he were weightless, Ralogolar swiftly made his way to the lone advancing High Elf. As he moved his arms and legs twitched and writhed, yet only growing his stature ever so slightly as he reached the final rooftop upon which he could stand.

Without wasting a single breath, Ralogolar leapt downward with his sword drawn. An intense blue aura ignited around him, vivifying as he plummeted downwards. The advancing High Elf continued forward, unaware of Ralogolar’s descent; he drew his sword and began cackling uncontrollably recalling each life he had stamped out, as if he had missed partaking in this type of brutal slaughter. 

Just as Commander Trasys’s sword was about to cleave another human neck, Ralogolar’s sword crashed onto it, sending it clattering across the stone street. He had landed atop the Commander in a heartbeat, pinning him to the ground, knee against his neck.