The False Hero, Volume 12, Chapter 13

Chapter 13

----- Julius -----

“This is what we’ve trained for, men.” Julius steadies his stance as an Abyss Knight bears down on him. “Stay focused, and victory will be ours.”

The response is a round of clattering from the men around Julius. He assembled his squad long before he ever met Lutz, each one chosen for their loyalty to him, rather than their individual strength.

As a part of the Reinhold family, Julius has always had a certain amount of authority and influence, even if he was only the secondborn son of a branch family. His close relations to Duke Bradley de Reinhold, once the second most powerful man in the kingdom before his betrayal, allowed him to form his own squad with his hand-selected men.

Knowing that his nephew’s unwavering morals would be a liability to him, Duke Bradley sent Julius on a fruitless hunt for Forsaken in the far east, simply to keep him out of the war and politics that were erupting. That decision ultimately led to the opposite result, with Julius meeting Lutz and becoming an integral part of the war against Chaos, as Duke Bradley had expected would happen.

His squad has been strengthened first in a dungeon, then with Lutz’s powerful, enchanted equipment, hand selected for each member. Although they aren’t individually strong enough to take on an Archfiend, he’s certain they can handle one or two without him.

Unlike Lutz, Julius isn’t standing out in front of the other soldiers. He’s in the front row, shoulder to shoulder with his men, holding a spear and shield. He chose the spear precisely because it’s the ultimate weapon in formation-based infantry battles.

Although Julius is good in a duel, his true talent lies in tactical, squad-based combat.

A glob of acid splashes onto the chest of the huge Abyss Knight, the thick liquid sizzling as it oozes down the fiend’s body. Julius can’t be called an exceptional mage, but Lutz did train him in both Earth and Light magic. As one of the few level 91’s alongside Lutz and his closest companions, Julius has enough raw Intelligence to more than make up for his mediocre magic growth.

[Acid Splash] is only a second-tier spell, but it lowers the Constitution of anyone hit, making it great for weakening an opponent just before battle.

“Shields steady!” Julius shouts, the fiends so close that their thousands of footfalls feel like a small quake.

A heartbeat later, the final battle begins.

The Abyss Knight aims his massive warhammer right at Julius, the green acid still dripping from its body. Few can survive the charge of the strongest fiend outside the Archfiends themselves, but Julius chose his position on the battlefield precisely because of the Abyss Knight.

The warhammer falls, the metal head large enough to crush his entire body in a single attack. Even bunkered behind a shield and braced for the attack, most succumb to such a gory fate.

A heavy blow strains Julius’ legs, the warhammer hitting with the force of a collapsing building, fully directed at his body. And yet, his shield remains firm.

“Strike!” Julius drops his shield to a new position.

His fellow squad members follow suit, his men having absorbed the initial charge of fiends, as he had done. Now, it was time counter.

Spears appear from Julius’ squad, not just from the front line but from several rows of his men. Just like how it’s impossible to avoid the needles on a porcupine when reaching down to touch it, the fiends find it just as difficult to avoid the mass of spears, especially when they’re being pressed into them by the force of their own charging army.

As for Julius himself…

“[Gale Stab]!” His spear glows with energy, the tip bursting with power as it pierces straight through the Abyss Knight’s armor.

The High-Class fiend is huge, standing over twice Julius’ height. Even with his weapon’s reach, getting past its armor and hitting a vital point in the neck or face is near impossible without abandoning his position in the formation.

Having settled for the Abyss Knight’s gut as his target, Julius pulls his spear from the fiend’s stomach, the tip coated in the monster’s blood. He can see the perfect opening to continue the assault. A quick step forward, followed by a second strike to further break the monster’s guard.

Then, he can unleash the power he’s holding in reserve.

But Julius keeps his feet planted, standing shoulder to shoulder with his men. Charging forward to finish the Abyss Knight would leave the formation weaker, forcing his men to fight harder against the onslaught of fiends.

A single fiend, even an Abyss Knight, isn’t worth abandoning his formation.

“Shields up!” Julius raises his own as he shouts, covering his face and upper body.

The men’s spears are pulled back, his squad refocusing on defense now that their counterattack has thinned out the enemy’s front line. For each fiend fallen, another takes its place, fresh and uninjured.

With the momentum of the enemy’s charge, the fiends in front are pushed directly into the spears and shields from Julius’ squad, though the enemy doesn’t really need any encouragement to charge to their deaths. Julius just can’t allow them to hit his men while they’re in an aggressive stance.

The mass of fiends crashes into his squad again, backed by the full force of their army pushing forward. A tug of war ensues, the might of the enemy’s charge pressuring their defensive line.

Spears find the flesh of fiends, while claws return blood for blood. Men shout, some to rally their determination, others crying out from the pain of sudden injuries.

Julius takes a quick glance at his squad. The battle line has warped from the enemy’s charge, but it hasn’t broken.

One man falls as Julius watches, but he’s quickly dragged back into the rear line and replaced by another. If the man survives, he’ll enter the reserves and likely step back onto the battlefield before the day ends.

“Crush them all…” The Abyss Knight raises its warhammer, the fiend’s massive body acting as impassable terrain to the army behind it. “[Megaton]!”

“[Barrier].” Julius protects himself with the third-tier Light Spell, holding his shield steady.

The warhammer hits an invisible forcefield around Julius’ body, the defensive magic powerful enough to stop even an Abyss Knight’s martial skill.

“[Cure All].” Julius follows it up not with an attack, but with restoration magic.

Normally, mages in the back supply most of the healing, with the frontline soldiers using personal spells only when needed. But Julius isn’t a normal soldier, he’s been lifted up to a height that even past Great Heroes couldn’t achieve.

His area of effect restoration magic blankets the entirety of his squad, giving his men a recovery speed unmatched even by the army’s most powerful Light Mages.

“Assault formation!” Julius calls for a change of tactics. “[Earth Wall].”

Amidst the brutal fighting, a wall of stone erupts, appearing behind the first few rows of fiends and tossing weaker enemy types skyward as it rises from the ground. The [Earth Wall] separates the opposing army, cutting a sliver from bulk.

“Charge!” Julius leads the attack, being the first to step forward.

His men follow, spears forward. The fiends that had once been battering on them, backed by the forward pressure of the army behind them, now find themselves stuck between a wall of stone at their backs and a mass of spears approaching from the front.

The fiends, not known for the tendency to give in to fear, are undaunted by their terrible tactical situation.

Fear is a survival instinct. Julius sticks his spear into the Abyss Knight’s gut a second time. One that I’m thankful these opponents lack.

Although his strategy doesn’t make for much of a spectacle compared to Lutz, the section of line where Julius is making his stand has become one of the most impenetrable points on the entire battlefront.

----- Boron -----

“You can have one of these.” Boron tosses a green vial at the fiends below. “And one of these.”

A red vial loosely follows the first, gravity pulling it from the sky. The two descend, tumbling through the air and separating as they fall before disappearing into the mass of fiends below.

“Three, two…” An explosion of green and red interrupts Boron’s count, the blast from the fireball spreading the acidic goop far and wide. “Never trust a countdown.”

“How about a little help up here, too?” Hunter looses a barrage of arrows, and a handful of Imps fall from the sky. “We’re not exactly well equipped to deal with a swarm like this.”

“At least you can shoot them!” Adrian leaps at an Imp, slicing it in two with her sword. “I have to keep chasing them down!”

A cloud of Imps zip around the three adventurers, harassing them with claws and spells. Being the lowest class of fiend, their attacks aren’t threatening, but they made it difficult to find a chance to attack the ground army below.

The magical barriers overhead the army have already shattered, forcing the three to keep their eyes upwards to watch for the rain of spells coming down on them, while also dealing with the Imps.

At the same time, they can’t ignore the army on the ground, as the soldiers below are depending on them to take out the toughest fiends. Instead, they end up getting dragged into a scrappy melee in the sky.

“Of course my friend!” Boron shouts as he tosses up a ball that pops and shoots out small balls made of silvered steel that pierced the wad of imps above them. “I wasn't sure that one would work!”

“Less contemplating nonsense more fighting!” Hunter sighed for the…everyone lost count.

“Look! I’m getting really tired of chasing these things!” Adrian slices another Imp in half. “There are a lot of mid-class fiends below, let’s get those guys instead!”

“This is why I said we should stay on the ground.”

“Out in front of the army like Lutz?” Boron asks. “Or in the formation like Julius? Neither option seems pleasant to me. Now, see that Mutant there? Kindly use your [Tempest Shot] on it.”

“We’re doing that?”

“We’re doing that.”

“Finally.” Adrian stops chasing the mosquito-like Imps, dropping closer to the ground and readying her sword.

“Hey!” Hunter pulls on his bowstring. “At least get these things out of my face when I’m aiming!”

“Sorry! I got a little excited about finally doing something!” Adrian looks up at Hunter, who’s getting mobbed by a swarm of Imps while drawing his bow.

“Whatever.” He looses an arrow that glows with a magical, green light.

It hits the Mutant at center mass, lodging itself deep but doing no real damage. It is, however, right in the middle of the enemy line, without a single allied soldier nearby. The perfect place for a [Tempest Shot].

A gale appears, growing into a small tornado, centered on the Mutant stuck by the arrow. Its body has become the center of the raging winds, but unlike its natural cousin, this tornado has no eye, a fact the Mutant is finding out the painful way.

Those around the unfortunate fiend aren’t spared from the shredding winds, laced with magic. Dozens of fiends are caught in the skill, a shot that would be considered a grand success to any archer.

But that’s just the beginning.

“Now, where did I put that thing…” Boron feels around beneath his coat. “Ah, there it is!”

His hand reappears, holding a bottle filled with a glowing, purple liquid, far larger than the vials he tossed before.

“I’ll just–whoops.” Boron stares at his empty hand, which once held the bottle before he dropped it.

“You idiot.” Hunter derides him, sounding like he’s holding back a sigh. “Don’t act like that was an accident.”

“Ohoho. Seems he’s capable of learning, after all!”

The fiery bottle falls right in the center of the raging [Tempest Shot], exactly as intended. Boron plays a small sound effect of shattering glass in his head when the bottle bursts, as the noise of war covers the real sound.

The harsh winds from Hunter’s bow skill darken, like the air is growing ill. Any creatures caught in the area of effect are hit with the thick liquid blown by the wind, turning them as purple as the concoction Boron had in that bottle.

“See ya!” Adrian cancels her [Air Step], falling to the ground below.

She doesn’t aim for the center of the battle, where humans and fiends are clashing, nor does she target any enemy in particular. She simply drops down into the middle of the chaotic enemy lines, amidst a literal army of fiends.

With her eyes set on a Blighted whose tattered coat is splattered with purple goop, Adrian activates the special skill held within her unique blade.

“[Dragon Fire Charge]!” Her sword buzzes with power, bursting with magical flames.

That same power flows into her, the special skill enhancing her speed to extraordinary levels. Just as the fiends around her finally catch up to the enemy in their midst, Adrian kicks the ground, leaving them behind.

In her wake, a trail of fire burns, setting alight any creature stepping through the flames.

Her dash takes her right by the Blighted splattered with Boron’s potion, her sword cutting at the creature’s body as she passes. Like a whirlwind, she spins her blade, slicing any fiend within melee range of her skill-enhanced dash and leaving them with a charred wound.

The fierce winds of Hunter’s [Tempest Shot] rage around her, having dove straight into the skill’s effects. Her momentum carries her right through and out the other side, her sword surprisingly clean when compared to how many fiends she sliced up.

She ends up surrounded by even more fiends, who are no longer surprised at her arrival. But before any of them can land a strike, a familiar voice reaches her ears.

“[Grand Pyroclasm]!” Boron shouts, his hands held out as if he were casting some secret spell, despite the fact that he’s standing on an [Air Step] and can’t double cast.

However, despite him just standing there uselessly, a massive explosion rocks the battlefield.

Taking the opening, Adrian leaps back into the sky, landing on another [Air Step]. With a few jumps, she ends up right back beside Boron and Hunter.

“That never gets old.” Adrian wipes off some of the purple goop that stuck to her when she went through the [Tempest Shot].

“That’s only natural when you’re casting a forbidden spell crafted by my own hands. [Grand Pyroclasm] will surely be recognized as a Divine-Class magic one day!”

“I doubt that.” Hunter grabs an Imp and throws it down to the ground, where a group of soldiers stab it to death with their spears. “It’s not even a spell. It’s just us combining our own magic and skills together to make an explosion.”

“A raging wind to carry my concoction, and a fiery finish to set it ablaze! Truly, a [Grand Pyroclasm]!”

“Yeah, whatever. Let’s just get out of the sky. I’m sick of these Imps!”

The three adventurers continue to battle the fiends–and each other.