Shirakome Arifureta Zero: Volume 4

1. Auflage 2020
ISBN: 978-1-7183-1806-9
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, Band 4, 415 Seiten

Reihe: Arifureta Zero

After receiving a plea for help from Badd, the Liberators' vice-commander, Miledi and the others race toward the Haltina Republic, which is currently embroiled in a fierce war with the church. Upon arriving, Miledi confronts the leader of the Holy Templar Knights, Laus Barn, once more. As their ideals clash, the spectre of one of God's Apostles looms over the forest. The battle between the Liberators and their true enemy draws near, but who will emerge victorious?

Autoren/Hrsg.

Shirakome, Ryo

Weitere Mitwirkende

Takayaki

Ningen

Leseproben

Chapter I: War and an Unexpected Reunion

The White Scarred Plains. Technically, it was a region that lay within the militaristic Odion Federation’s borders, but everyone knew that the area wasn’t actually in the Federation’s control.

As for why, the answer was simple. The White Scarred Plains lay on the border of the Pale Forest. As a result, they were covered in a thin layer of mist year-round. Of course, the mist that leaked out of the forest wasn’t thick enough to really obscure anyone’s vision, or beguile their senses. But whenever someone threatened to invade the forest, the fog covering the plains suddenly thickened. Everything for kilometers around became encased in the same mist that covered the forest. Any army hoping to push into the forest first had to win the battle at the White Scarred Plains. But even if they did, once they entered the forest the mist grew so thick that one could barely see a few meters in front of their face. Whereas on the plains, even when the mist was at its worst, there was at least fifty meters of visibility in all directions. Worst of all, the mist did far more than just obscure people’s vision.

“Haaah... Haaah... Dammit!”

A young soldier cursed. He was stationed on the southern fringe of the White Scarred Plains and belonged to the fourth platoon of the Odion Federation Army.

Screams and booms and other sounds of battle could be heard all around him. His heart raced, and cold sweat poured down his face. Some of it got into his eyes, and he took his hand off his hilt to wipe it away. The moment he did, a black shadow entered his field of vision.

“Shaaaaaa!”

“Gah!”

A sword suddenly came at him, and it was only thanks to his countless hours of training that he was able to block the side swing in time and keep his head on his shoulders. However, the shock of the impact was so strong that it bent his sword and sent him flying. As he sailed through the air, the young soldier realized the blow had dislocated his shoulder as well. He crashed against the ground, the pain snapping him out of his reverie. Though he wanted nothing more than to lie there and whimper, the screams of his comrades motivated him to keep fighting.

“Fireball!” he shouted, raising his one good arm. He was aiming for the tigerman warrior who’d just cut one of his fellow soldiers in half.

Unfortunately, the tigerman had heard him casting. He turned around to face the young soldier, who was still lying on the ground. Though the fireball was nearly upon him, he didn’t bother raising his massive claymore to protect himself. Almost as if to say he didn’t even need to block.

“Dammit!” the soldier shouted as he watched his fireball sail harmlessly past the tigerman. Just as the tigerman had expected it to.

This was the real danger of the fog that covered the Pale Forest. It provided a barrier to all the beastmen within it. Said barrier protected them from all long and mid-ranged magic as well as arrows. Anything shot at beastmen within the fog was redirected, no matter what direction it came from. And the thicker the fog, the more potent the barrier’s effects. Within the depths of the forest, there were even times where soldiers couldn’t swing their swords in the direction they wanted.

Naturally, the beastmen themselves were unaffected by the fog’s misdirection. In fact, their heightened senses meant even the lack of visibility wasn’t an issue for them. The Pale Forest offered the beastmen a massive geographical advantage, while debilitating the offensive potential of any invader. And that wasn’t even the worst part.

“Damn invaders,” the tigerman muttered, stalking over the young soldier to finish him off. But just then, someone came to his rescue.

“Don’t underestimate us, you filthy half-breeds!”

“Captain!”

A man large enough to rival the tigerman in stature swung his massive halberd down. The young soldier’s captain was a master of strengthening magic, and he’d earned himself the title Strongarm within the Odion Federation. Moreover, the tigerman was completely defenseless, since he’d just raised his sword to attack the soldier lying on the ground. The Odion captain had every advantage, and by all rights, he should have cleaved the tigerman in half.

“You owe me for this!”

“Impossible!”

Another beastman slid in between the tigerman and the captain, blocking the captain’s halberd. The surprising thing was she was a petite cat girl barely half the captain’s size. But her two crossed shortswords had stopped his halberd completely.

On average, beastmen were a lot stronger than humans, but catmen, in particular, didn’t have that much more physical strength than humans, so the captain’s surprise was natural.

“Uryaaah!”

“Wha—!?”

There was a thunderous boom as the girl kicked the captain in the stomach. Though he weighed over 120 kilograms with all his plate armor on, he was sent flying. That was how powerful her kick had been.

“N-No way... What the hell are you people? When did the beastmen get so strong!?” another soldier shouted.

The young soldier the captain had tried to protect had already been slaughtered by the tigerman. This was an absolute nightmare. Everything the Odion Federation thought they knew about beastmen had been turned on its head. That was just how strong the soldiers of the beastmen republic were.

“Don’t falter, men! We’re soldiers of the noble federation! The church is counting on us!”

One of the federation’s commanders tried to rally the men’s flagging morale. Thousands of Odion soldiers answered with a rousing war cry and charged the girl and her tigerman companion. The tigerman looked coldly down at the charging mob and raised a hand into the air. A second later, hundreds of beastmen of all races appeared from the fog.

“Pass down the forest’s judgment on these disgraceful invaders!” he shouted, and the beastmen answered with a roar that drowned out the Odion soldiers’ war cries. Then they charged forward, colliding with the Odion army’s line. The battle soon devolved into a melee, where the mist’s effects hurt the Odion army the most. Since they couldn’t be sure their arrows or spells would fly true, they couldn’t fire for risk of hurting their own men. Though even if they could have, pinpointing where the enemy was in a melee this chaotic would have been impossible.

The Odion soldiers had no choice but to rely on strengthening magic and their sword arms. Unfortunately, all the formations and tactics they’d devised were useless in this thick fog, especially since the beastmen were far stronger than they’d anticipated. The beastmen were unbelievably fast, seemingly had endless stamina, and possessed superhuman strength. Most weapons couldn’t scratch them, magic wouldn’t hit them, and their punches and kicks were strong enough to crush plate armor.

“Use our numbers to our advantage! Swarm them!”

That was the only tactic that stood a chance of working against the beastmen. The Odion soldiers needed an entire squad to take down even a single foe. Unfortunately, the beastmen also happened to have impeccable coordination, and they ran circles around the Odion army.

“Gah! Where are our reinforcements!?”

The Odion commander started to panic as he saw his units get taken out one by one. Just then—

“You’re mine!”

“Shit—”

The tigerman from earlier slipped past the commander’s guards and charged at him. He swung his claymore at the commander with inhuman speed. In the few seconds before the claymore parted his head from his shoulders, the commander’s life flashed before his eyes. He despaired, knowing that everything he’d accomplished was about to come to an end.

“Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

“Wha—”

But just before the claymore reached him, the tigerman vanished right in front of the commander’s eyes. Or rather, the tigerman was kidnapped. By a pale white dragon, which swooped down out of nowhere.

The tigerman screamed and tried to struggle out of the dragon’s jaws. He barely managed to avoid being bitten to death by using his claymore as a wedge, but one of the dragon’s fangs still sunk into his back. As he opened his mouth to curse—

“Don’t struggle. It’s unsightly,” the man riding the white dragon said. He was wearing the armor of the Templar Knights. He said something else the commander couldn’t quite catch, and the dragon flicked its head upward.

“Uwoooh!?” the tigerman shouted as he was flung into the air. Another white dragon shot out of the fog, and this time the tigerman couldn’t protect himself. It bit down on the hapless beastman, killing him instantly.

Blood rained down onto the plains below. The dragon carelessly tossed the tigerman’s corpse away, like it was nothing more than trash. The girl who’d saved him earlier looked up furiously at the dragons, as did the other beastmen. Once everyone’s attention was on the dragons, a loud voice rang out across the battlefield.

“Brave men of the federation! We have come to reinforce you! Let us crush these filthy animals together!”

The mist in the sky behind the Odion soldiers was blown away in a sudden gust of wind, revealing who had spoken.

“That silver dragon... I-It’s the...