The Story Of The Second Son Of The Baron Family [EN]: Chapter 22

Gulp-

The sound of someone next to me swallowing, their Adam’s apple bobbing, was crystal clear. Usually, with the monsters thundering across the ground, you’d have to shout until your throat was sore the next day just to be heard, even standing right next to someone. How could this be? It didn’t take long to realize that the sound was actually me swallowing.

“It’s a variety pack.”

A variety pack. That was the perfect way to describe the scene. Not just the sheer number, but the variety of monsters was enough to overwhelm anyone, even with all their fingers and toes. Filling the ground, blocking out the sky as they charged—it was definitely the largest scale I’d ever seen.

“You’d think they’d fight each other. What’s so appealing about us…?”

They’re different species. We conveniently lump them together as ‘monsters,’ but just like calling pigs, cows, and horses ‘animals’ doesn’t make them the same, does it? Besides, there are omnivores, but no herbivores. If there’s a clear hierarchy of strong and weak, they should be eating each other. Why are they teaming up to target humans? Especially when they usually spend their time eating each other.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking about, but focus. This is going to be a tough fight.”

“I was just wondering why they’re running at us to eat us, even with prey right next to them.”

Are humans tasty? As someone who’s never tried cannibalism, I couldn’t say. But I didn’t think we’d be particularly delicious. Not much meat on us, and the texture probably isn’t great.

“I have a few theories, but I’ll tell you when this battle is over—or maybe tomorrow. If we’re both still alive, that is.”

“I guess I have to survive to hear the reason.”

I exchanged banter with Ild to ease the tension. I noticed he was also moving around, approaching those who were tense and afraid, telling them we could win, that we had to survive. Even Ild, with all his experience, couldn’t seem to get used to this; I could feel his tension. Maybe he was just telling himself that.

“Well, here’s hoping we see tomorrow’s sun.”

I recited my usual pre-battle mantra and stopped overthinking. Even focusing solely on the fight, it would be difficult. Even with the experience I’d gained, the Terra Barrier [a defensive structure] wasn’t a place where you could survive while daydreaming.

#

“Hah… hah…”

As expected, the battle was much fiercer than usual. There were many reasons, but the biggest was that, for some reason, the higher-ups—who usually just watched from the sidelines, letting the lower ranks do the work and then taking all the credit—were now charging headfirst toward the barrier. With the enemies being so numerous, strong, and aggressive, it was bound to be a difficult fight.

Thump-

“Aaaargh!”

Inevitably, things were missed. Every time a higher-level monster used its massive body as a battering ram against the barrier, someone would lose their balance and fall over the edge.

Normally, the knights and mages would have provided cover, but with so many enemies, it was impossible to stop them all. It wasn’t like they were slacking off, but it was unavoidable.

Ding, ding, ding, ding-

Even though the monster attack had been going on for a while, the alarm bells didn’t stop ringing. The red alert, which rarely sounded more than a handful of times a year, was going off. It was the first time this year, and only the second time since I’d arrived—and even then, I’d been away on the autumn expedition. So, this was my first red alert. And as if to prove the alarm was justified, monsters were climbing over the barrier more frequently than usual.

We had to hold back the monsters at the base of the barrier, but we were being hampered by the monsters climbing over the top. This led to neglect at the base, and even more monsters climbed over. It was a vicious cycle.

‘How long has it been?’

The three mage squads had been on the barrier for a long time, and there was barely any mana [magical energy] left. Looking down, the corpses of the monsters formed a small hill, but that was irrelevant. The fact that even more monsters were using that hill of corpses as a stepping stone to climb the barrier was a huge problem.

Duke Zieg, who was fighting the higher-level monsters at the base of the barrier, seemed fine, but his armor was stained with monster blood to the point where you couldn’t even see its original color. The others fighting alongside him were undoubtedly in even worse shape.

Oil and fire magic rained down, incinerating the monsters, and arrows followed. The monsters climbed the barrier in their own ways. The battle between those trying to defend the barrier and those trying to take it never seemed to end.

“Aaaargh! My, my arm!”

Not far away, a soldier was having his arm bitten off by a dog-like monster. If left alone, he would surely lose his arm. I drew the gun from my right hip and pulled the trigger.

Click, thud- Bang-

Even if the trigger clicked, there shouldn’t be a gunshot sound. I must be hallucinating from being too focused. The two bullets flew without resistance and pierced the head of the nameless monster.

After reaching the 4th Circle [a level of magical proficiency] and being able to use single-word enchantments, I had asked a blacksmith to make another pistol, so I now carried two.

One was a special-ammo pistol where I sacrificed my mana to engrave two-letter enchantments onto the bullets, loading and firing them in the same way as before.

The gun I just used to save a soldier was the new one I had commissioned from the blacksmith. Since the first gun was for special ammo, this gun wasn’t about power or special effects.

It was simply a gun for rapid firing. To achieve that, I had the blacksmith engrave it with the ‘Rapid Fire’ enchantment. Structurally, it was designed to raise the bullets from the magazine each time the trigger was pulled, which the blacksmith complained was difficult.

The bullets were replaced with iron balls engraved with ‘Pierce.’ As a result, it didn’t reach the speed of sound like a pistol from Earth, but the penetration was enough to pierce the skin of those small fries. Of course, it had the disadvantage of being ineffective against creatures larger than humans, but it wasn’t made to fight those creatures in the first place, so it wasn’t really a disadvantage.

Also, if you aimed well—there was no recoil, and the magic made it fly straight—you could easily deal with enemies that were stuck close and difficult to handle with magic.

“Get down!”

“Th, thank you! Thank you!”

Thump-

As I sent the injured soldier down inside the barrier, another monster seemed to have rammed into the barrier. And quite close by, too. It wouldn’t shake this much otherwise. Sure enough, not far away, I saw a behemoth [a massive, powerful monster] struggling to pull its massive horn out of the barrier, as if it had just headbutted it.

‘Eat this and die!’

A special bullet that I could only make one of a day. Born from the sacrifice of all the mana of a 4th Circle mage, and with the enchantment being more efficient than normal magic, I was confident that its power was comparable to that of a decent 6th Circle spell. Moreover, the enchantment on the bullet currently in the chamber was ‘Explosive Thunder.’ In terms of destructive power against a single target, it was one of the best special bullets.

Fzzzzz-

The bullet lodged precisely between the behemoth’s eyebrows. Immediately, electric currents flowed across the behemoth’s body. The visible electric arcs crackled and burned the behemoth’s body. Smoke poured from its relatively weak eyes, nose, and mouth, and the electricity burned its muscles, but it still wasn’t enough to kill the behemoth.

In fact, I never expected to kill the behemoth with this attack. The behemoth was not only nearly unmatched in physical ability, but the lightning bolts from its horns were also threatening enough to instantly barbecue most monsters.

Frankly, Duke Zieg was probably the only one on the Terra Barrier who could face that thing one-on-one. So, while I wished it would just die, I was satisfied with just staggering it.

If I threw a good batting ball, it was up to the batter to make it a home run. And the Terra Barrier’s cleanup hitter wasn’t going to just watch a batting ball fly by.

The behemoth’s head and body, which could withstand the aura of knights that could cut through steel, were separated as easily as cutting tofu with a knife. That must be the aura blade, the exclusive domain of masters who have surpassed the limits of ordinary knights.

Nod-

Duke Zieg, having confirmed that the behemoth’s head had fallen to the ground, looked up and briefly met my eyes above the barrier.

Even though people looked smaller than fingers from that height, I could feel that we had made eye contact. But soon, Duke Zieg returned to the battle.

Even if he was a master, he was still just a knight. He couldn’t eliminate multiple enemies with a single swing. But every time he swung his sword, the number of deaths decreased by several, so his sword would not stop until the battle was over.

I also gave a brief nod as a final greeting and turned my gaze back to the barrier to reduce the number of casualties, when suddenly, everything went dark. When my vision returned, I realized it was a symptom of mana depletion. It seemed that the small amount of mana I had used to activate the enchantment on the Explosive Thunder bullet was my last.

“I’ve become a burden.”

It was impossible to continue fighting in this state. I remembered what my seniors had said: if you’re running low on mana, don’t be reckless and just go down. They were right. A mage without mana was no different from an ordinary person. As I tried to stand up again, forcing strength into my legs that were trembling from the aftereffects of mana depletion, everything went dark again.

“Ah.”

For a moment, I remembered the diary left by the previous owner of my room. The diary entry about his comrade, Kane, being crushed to death by a cyclops’s boulder. And how my current situation was no different from Kane’s.

‘Am I going to die?’

Numerous thoughts flashed through my mind like a slideshow. At the same time, my will to survive was working hard to find a solution.

But no solution came to mind. I didn’t have enough mana left to deploy a defensive spell, and by the time I pulled out the special bullet in my pocket, the boulder would have already crushed me.

It was a boulder big enough that even if the enchantments on my robe and clothes activated, I doubted I could survive. As negative thoughts consumed me, someone threw themselves between me and the oncoming boulder.

Thud-

“I told you not to let your guard down. What kind of idiot stays on the barrier until all their mana is gone? You should have saved at least a little mana in case of an emergency. Don’t you want to hear why the monsters are teaming up to eat humans?”

“I’m sorry…”

The person who had taught me so much and would teach me so much more. The person who had saved my life several times had saved my life once again.

“And thank you, Ild.”