Chapter 17
That night....
It was a moonlight night. Olivia, dressed as merchant, walked through the bridge along with Salvador who was pulling the cart (with a cover). The cart is big, it contains a huge pile of oranges with Felicia & Fiorentin hide in the bottom of the cart. Olivia was remembering what Elraven told her earlier, "You will only need to act as merchant. Just show those bastards your pass. When they opened the gate, step inside. Once you already in. I'll start killing them. All you need to do, is finding the right place to hide for tonight. OK?"
"I hope this plan works" Olivia muttered as she finally arrived at the town's gate. "Stop!" One of the soldiers, a sniper, commanded as the girls stopped. "Before you enter the town, please show us your pass."
Olivia handed them pass. "Do you know your peco will be counted as one person?" The soldier asked while examining the pass. "Yes" The high priest replied.
"What's there in your cart?"
"Oranges"
"Do you mind if I check the cart?"
"No"
The sniper uncovered the cart only to find a huge pile of oranges. "OK, it seems fine. Open the gate."
The other soldiers opened the gate and Olivia entered. But, not long after Olivia stepped inside the gate...
BANG!
A bullet pierced through the sniper's head, killing him. "What was that?!" The other soldier shouted. But before anybody could react, they heard another sound of a fired gun and one other soldier dropped to the ground, with a hole on his head. This distract the soldiers even more."That's the signal!" Olivia said to herself as she dashed towards the town, now that the soldiers have been attacked.
"We're under attack!!?!" One of the soldiers shouted when he saw another soldier killed by the shot. "Soldiers, march to the woods, we're under attack. I repeat, we're under attack!!!" One of the soldiers shouted.
"Close the gate!! Close the gate!!" Another soldiers shouted.
"Call for more reinforcements from the town, enemies are attacking!!"Again, another soldier shouted when he saw one of his comrades fell to the ground after a bullet pierced through his head.
As a large number of hunter and snipers, around 5 dozens man, marched towards the woods using the bridge, the girls already arrived in Payon safely. "My god, what an experience." Olivia said as she panted for air. "I hope those two won't get killed" Olivia expressed her worries. "Don't worry, they know what are they doing. Now come, we must find a place to hide!!" Fiorentin tried to calm her comrade as she came out from the cart with Felicia.
Back in the bridge....
The marching soldiers fell one by one when the shooting goes on. They panicked as their comrades got killed.
"Damn, this way we'll lose most of our soldiers before we reached the woods!!"
"Don't stop marching to the forest, once we reached the woods our enemies won't be able to shoot anymore!!" But another bullets dropped one hunter to the ground with a hole on his head. This scared the other soldiers even more, some even hesitating to continue. But, that didn't help. When they were hesitating, another one got shot.
From one of the trees in Payon forest, Elraven was seen aiming his Long Barrel towards the hesitating soldiers on the bridge. George was sitting next beside him. "Wow, you didn't miss a single shot, El!" George praised the gunslinger. Elraven pull the trigger of his gun, and killed another soldier.
"Of course!" Elraven replied as he killed another soldier. "Didn't I tell you I'm not going to shoot if I were to hesitate like those morons?" He continued as he shot another soldier in the head. By now, the soldiers already lost at least 2 dozens of them, before even reaching the woods. The remaining soldiers stopped at the bridge, they were afraid if they keep on marching they'll die, but even when they stopped there the shooting didn't stop. This scared them even more.
"Ok, now let's stop the shooting. George, get prepared for a big fight!" Elraven told his friend.
"Sure, but why stop the shooting?"
"If I keep shooting now, those cowards won't make their way here. And the traps I set in the woods will be useless. Now use this, I'll use one too" Elraven said as he handed George a gas mask.
"What's this?" George asked reluctantly as he accepted the mask. "It's a gas mask, it will protect you from poisonous gas. I'll use my poison sphere to attack them later." The Angel of Darkness explained while putting another mask on his face.
The soldiers who were waiting for the reinforcements, glad to find the shooting has stopped.
"The shooting has stopped, I wonder who did that?"
"It must be one of the gunslingers from Shcwaltzvalt!! I heard only one of them is capable of taking on the whole squad!!"
"But, how come they are down here?"
"How do I suppose to know!!"
The reinforcements finally arrived, at least 10 dozens soldiers. "What happened? Why aren't you marching to the woods?" The reinforcements' captain, a sniper, asked.
"The enemies set up a trap, so we decided to wait for you!"
"I see, let's head to the woods now under my lead!! Snipers, hunters, prepare your falcons and bows!! Watch your step!" The captain ordered as they marched to the forest of Payon.
"Here they come, I wonder if they will like my scatter mines I made using the flame sphere." Elraven muttered to himself seeing the fish is taking the bait.
When one of the soldiers entered the woods, he stepped in one of the mines, exploding it. The sound of explosion not only pierced throughout the forest of payon, but also killed at least 10 soldiers.
"My god, what's that?!!" One of the hunters shouted.
"It's a mine, the same as our traps. I repeat, watch your STEP!" The captain shouted warning his soldiers.
"Soldiers, use your falcons to spy and find the enemies inside the woods!!" The captain ordered as the soldiers flew their falcons to the sky, trying to find their enemies.
"George it's our chance! Those idiots flew away their precious falcons, now they can't use half their power. See, they gathered like a bunch of retards without even realizing they won't be able to use their bows properly in a mass group like that. Now, I need you to dash towards them, and knock as many of them as possible! Just keep going straight from this tree, I didn't put any mines there, go it? Don't worry, I'll support you with my rifle." Elraven explained while readjusting his purple glasses.
"Got it!" The champion shouted as he jumped to the ground and dashed towards the soldiers in a demon speed. "Call spirit, absorb spirit" He chanted as he approached the soldiers. "Hey, what's that?" One of the soldiers noticed. "It's enemy soldier, att.." George interrupted his words with a punch right to his face, knocking him to the ground.
"Hey, it's the enemy, attack!!" One of the soldiers shouted as he aimed his ballista to George, followed by the other soldiers. As they take a shot, George jumped to the air causing the soldiers bows to hit each other.
"Waaagh!!" "Guah!!" "Gyaaah!" "Aaaakh!"
Many soldiers screamed as their attack hit nothing but each other. "You guys sure are moron, much to Elraven's said to me!!" George shouted as he landed to the ground and beaten another soldier. "Ugh, somebody stop this man!" One of the snipers shouted before George gave him an uppercut with a grin.
Blood splattered from the soldiers as the champion continued his rampage. "Damn! We can't keep our forces this way, call the falcons back!" the captain ordered as he realized their bows prove ineffective in a mass close range combat.
As the falcons returned, they were shocked by another shot, this time hitting the falcons one by one. "No, no! Not the shooting again!! Soldiers, get inside the woods, get inside the woods!! Kill whoever's shooting, now!!" The captain ordered seeing the falcons died.
Five dozens hunter marched deeper to the forest, only to step in another mines and get killed by the explosions. "Hyeeeh!", "Aaaakh, help!!" They screamed as the explosions or the flames taking out their lives. The massacre continues as the forest of Payon shrouded with screams.
"What? There are mines inside the woods, too?!!" The captain shocked too hear his soldiers screams. More hunter and snipers died because stepping in the invisible mines as the captain widened his eyes in disbelieve.
"Damn! The champion here, and the mines there!! Who planned this all along?" The captain thought to himself. "Wait! Don't tell me, ever since the first shooting in the gate, it was...their plan. They made the soldiers gathered in the bridge, move in one large group, scattering the mines. They eliminated all the possibilities for us to fight back by making our weapons ineffective and our falcons useless, but created many chances for themselves to attack us! Damn, damn!! Whoever planned this all along, must be from another planet!!" The captain figured out.
"If the battle goes like this, we won't win" The captain said as he pull out two bloody branches. "Summon : Atroce!". Two Atroces appeared as the captain using the bloody branches. George shocked to find out he was watching Atroce again. "No way!! I killed him!!!" He shouted in disbelieve. The captain grinned and explained, "There are 5 Atroces in this world!! You only killed one, there's 4 other more!! Here's 2 of them!! Atroces, kill the champion and whoever attacking from the woods".
One Atroce goes to attack George and the other one goes inside the forest to search for Elraven.
One of the Atroce attack George with his giant butcher as he states, "You killed one of us? Well, let's see if you can do it again!!" He said in a menacing voice, trying to make sure George realized this isn't dream. He slashed his butcher again and George blocked the attack, countering him with a finger offensive using the spirit he called earlier.
The attack knocked Atroce to the ground, but George didn't manage to evade as the hunters attacked him with the Blitz Beats, wounding him in several parts of his body. "God, hunters and Atroce at the same time!!" He muttered to himself as his body started spilling some blood.
Meanwhile inside the forest, the other Atroce dashed towards the tree where Elraven was hiding as the scattered mines continue killing the soldiers. Elraven who looked from far away, started thinking "Hm, he didn't step in one of my mines unlike those idiots!! I wonder if...he knew where did I scatter the mines because of the stupid soldiers from before cause they exploded the mines!! This is bad" Elraven quickly jumped to the ground and prepared his Tristan & Lancelot with the Shell of Blood bullets as he dashed inside the dark forest, in the moonlight night, attempting to reach Atroce before Atroce reached him. "I'll finish this quickly!!" He ensured himself because he know he will have to support George in fighting the soldiers up front.
He knew where his opponent was as he keep running towards Atroce, it was like the hunch of a fighter, as he finally saw Atroce who was running towards him. Atroce slashed his butcher in the air, cutting a dozen trees in the process and throwing the trees towards Elraven. Elraven jumped to the air and shot Atroce with his guns from above. Atroce blocked all the bullets, as Elraven landed Atroce dashed towards him and gave him a big slash. Elraven evaded the slash and retaliated by throwing Atroce his coin right to Atroce's face, distracting the monster for a second. A second was more than enough for Elraven, because he quickly landed a kick right to Atroce's head using the iron boots and knocked the monster to the ground. Without wasting anymore time, Elraven aimed both his handguns and bombarded Atroce using the "Bullet Shower". "GWAAAAAAKH!!" The attack pierced Atroce body many times as the monster screamed to his own death. It was very quick of a fight, knowing Elraven killed one S-Class Monster in an instant. But, he didn't have time to admire his doing as he grabbed his Gatling Box, and readied his Inferno as he dashed towards George to aid his comrade.
Whereas Geogre was not so lucky unlike his Gunslinger partner. The continuous attack from Atroce and the soldiers cornered him in one of the trees. Bloods spilled from his body as he panted for breath.
"You're gonna die, take this!!" Atroce shouted as he slashed his giant butcher towards the champion. George closed his eyes, readied himself to take the slash. But his worry proved to be wrong, as the next thing his saw is Atroce knocked back several steps by a sphere, a purple sphere hit the butcher wielding wolf right on his stomach.
"Gyaaaakh!" Atroce screamed as the sphere exploded and the poisonous gas started spreading. The soldiers who were surrounding George and Atroce quickly affected by the gas, as they inhaled it through their breaths. "Aaakh!" They screamed as their body start dropping to the ground one by one.
Their falcons followed after their masters. But of course the gas didn't have any effect at George, since he's wearing his gas mask.
George was quick to settle himself and turned around. "El!" He shouted happily seeing the gunslinger running towards him.
"Sorry, I'm late. My god, you look like hell!"
"Nah, this is nothing! That was a good shot anyway!"
"Yes, but hey watch out!!" Elraven quickly shot his Inferno again towards the soldiers who were trying to attack them. The sphere spread another gas and killed the soldiers. "I'll take care of this morons, you take care Atroce, now!!" Elraven said as he jumped in the middle of the soldiers crowd and attacked them with his 'Desperado', killing whoever he hits. Before the other remaining soldiers countered the attack, Elraven shot his poison sphere again twice, rendering his enemies unable to counter. He shot more and more poison sphere as the captain ordered his troops to gather in one single spot.
Meanwhile, George quickly ran towards the poisoned Atroce, who was trying to regain his composure. "Finger offensive!!" George gave Atroce some of his spirits. "Khhkk!" Atroce muttered after the attack.
George continued his attack rampantly. He punched Atroce continuously, in the body, head, everywhere he could hit. Atroce, having been poisoned and weakened, couldn't do anything but endure, although his effort prove useless. Blood started splattering all around him. George cornered the monster in one of trees,and give him a shoulder blow to his stomach. George didn't stop the rampage, he gave another blow to the monster's head. "Spirit call, triple attack!" George chanted as he gave Atroce 3 powerful strikes. "Akkh!" Atroce screamed as his body took the strikes."Spirit call, Quadruple attack!!" The champion continued giving the black wolf 4 powerful blows. "Uaakkk!" Atroce screamed again, he almost lose his consciousness this time. "Spirit call, Raging Thrust!!" George gave Atroce one final blow, knocked the monster off to the air, and landed him right at one of the remaining mines scattered by Elraven. The sound of explosion not only pierced through the ears of the soldiers, but also scared the captain even more.
"Impossible, even two Atroces couldn't defeat them? And there only two of them so far, there is no way I can stop them!!" The captain thought to himself.
"Retreat, all of you!! Retreat, right now!!" The captain shouted in fear as he ran towards the bridge again, followed by his soldiers. "Oh no, not so fast!" Elraven said as he dashed towards the soldiers.
George chased the soldiers and managed to knocked out some of them, but the other soldiers were too fast for him to catch. Elraven shot his Scatter Mines, containing the poison sphere, towards the soldiers.
When the poisonous gas spread, the soldiers could do nothing but screamed, and fell down one by one.
The gas was effective enough to poisoned and killed one third of the soldiers.
"Run, run! Don't stop running!" The captain shouted when he saw his men who was running behind him fell one by one cause of the gas. George approached Elraven and asked, "El, are we going to chase them? We can't let them reach the town and call for more reinforcements, right?".
The gunslinger narrowed his eyes and answered, "Well, there are only 3 dozens of them remained. I can kill them using this", as he unattached the long metal box in his back and pick the long Soldier Gatling Gun. "Wow, is this the gun Olivia told me?" George said seeing the giant firearm.
"You bet, pal" Elraven answered as he aimed the gun towards the running soldiers and pulled the trigger.
DREDRERDRERDRERDRED!!!!!
The merciless firearm bullets pierced through the bodies of the running soldiers, killing them instantly. Bloods splattered all over the bridge as the soldiers bodies fell one by one, either to the bridge's floor or to the river. "AAAAAAAAAAAH, help!!" Their screams echoing the cold night sky of Payon.
The captain ran with the bloods of his men covering him, he was so scared, even just to look back seeing who's been doing the killing. He tripped himself because of some bloods in the bridge's floor and fell. With fear on his eyes, he turned his head back to see who killed his soldiers, as two men approached him. His body was trembling the moment they stood right in front of him.
"Well, I guess he's the only one left El."
"Seems so, can you believe we defeated 15 dozens soldiers with just the two of us, George?"
"Thanks to your plan, bro. Honestly, I didn't think it would go this smooth."
"Neither I did. They are more stupid than I though."
"W,w,w,wait,wait! You..only the two of...you defeating...all of us...?! Impossible, impossible, impossible!!!" The captain shouted in disbelieve.
"Well, we proved it's not impossible, pops. Fifteen dozens of morons against two well planned fighters, and you see who's come out winning, right?" Elraven replied while readjusting his purple glasses.
"You...you...are you the one who planned all this, gunslinger?"
"Yup. That means, if one gunslinger with the help of one warrior able to kill dozens of you, you won't win anything Valdomirs, not against Sagaramore or Schwaltzvalt" Elraven replied with smile as he aimed his Gatling gun to the captain.
"Now, I must bid you farewell" He said as he bombarded the captain to death, destroying the captain's body into pieces with his Gatling. "This man is really one hell of a fighter, somehow I'm glad I'm not on his bad side. I guess people didn't call him the Angel of Darkness for nothing." George though to himself in awe as he saw Elraven packing his Gatling back to the box.
****
Elraven and George walked away to the woods, crossing many dead bodies of the Payon soldiers.
"Well, El. What are we going to do now?"
"Let's find some nice tree to sleep, tomorrow morning we can go to the fun house to win the pass again. And then, we can follow Alexandria and the others to Payon before the news of this massacre spread through the entire Midgard and make it harder for us to make moves."
"OK. But, what if...we don't get the pass? I mean, there's always possibility like that right?"
"Well, I just got my head out of the reach of Queen of The Thousand Knights Claymore, let me enjoy this moment just for this night, OK? I'll come up with something if we don't get the pass"
"Ok, sorry. I'm just..well, concerned."
"Never mind. Somehow, I hope a goddess would lead me through that gate."
"You mean, you want to meet your love again? I knew you like that Frea girl!"
"I'm not in love, George. I was only...impressed by her."
"Impressed by her what, Elraven? Hm, hm, hm? The Angel of Darkness fell for a goddess? Hm?"
"Oh, be quite. I want to sleep." The gunslinger felt annoyed as his friend giggled uncontrollably.
****
Some say, this battle is far too easy for El and George, but what I tried to show in this chapter was not the superiority of Valdomirs (it will be shown in the later chapters). And not trying to defend myself here, but Valdomirs uses monsters not human, that's why their humans soldiers sucks! But, I admit I will have to learn to better in writing mass group battle^^.
Thank you for reading, the next battle will come up after two chapters (and this time Valdomir soldiers, in this case monsters, will show their true strength) . Don't forget to review, see you next chapter!!