Chapter 49

Chapter 49. "What the Dead Feel Toward the Dying." 9

The moment they heard her words, sparks seemed ready to fly from the eyes of the two men and the two golems.

Kal moved like lightning, nocking three arrows at once onto the Great Bow, drawing the string, and loosing them. The arrows flew forward with a strange shriek.

SCREEEEEECH!! THUNK!!

Kan's face twisted instantly. He had blocked Kal's arrows with the Small Shield strapped to his arm, but the arrows had pierced through the shield and buried themselves in his forearm.

The moment I saw that, I frowned and hurried forward. But what flew at me instead was a massive log mace.

I dropped my waist sharply, feeling the log barely graze over my head, and when I looked up, the Iron Golem with the gold trim was swinging a tree it had just ripped up by the roots with both hands.

Beside it, the silver-trimmed golem that had just set Narsh down had uprooted a tree in the same way, but instead of swinging it, it hurled it forward with a huge motion suited to its massive body at the Lizard Men charging in with shrill cries.

The flying tree missile went straight toward one especially unlucky one among them. Seeing the log coming at him, he failed to dodge in time and gritted his teeth as he raised his Small Shield.

"SKRAAAH!!"

BOOM!

The Lizard Man, struck by the log with a heavy sound, was flung backward together with it. Kan, turning his head to follow the sight, bared his sharp teeth, tore the arrow that had punched through his shield and lodged in his arm free in one swift motion, hurled it aside, drew the shortsword stuck in the tree beside him, and shouted,

"SKRAAAK!! Itsra mu-t!!"

At Kan's cry, the Lizard Men raised their weapons and charged at Narsh's group with incredible speed, faster even than Rene running through the forest.

Kan was in the middle of them, running so fast his legs almost vanished from sight, holding his bleeding shield out before him.

At the sight, Kal clenched his teeth, raised the Great Bow again, nocked three arrows as before, and loosed them.

The arrows flew into the Lizard Men, either burying themselves in their bodies or punching clean through.

Seeing them fall, I clenched my teeth. Then, barely dodging the arrows flying past, I ran forward to stop them.

"Please stop!! We cannot fight each other like th...ugh?!"

There was no helping it. Running forward with my arm over my face, I was struck by one of Kal's arrows. Damn it all! I snapped the arrow off halfway and yanked out the part that had driven deep into my forearm.

Red blood ran from me, the same red blood the Lizard Men bled. Did those who shared the same blood really have to fight each other?!

When I looked up again, arrows were flying sideways through the air like summer rain outside a window, each one roaring horribly. The Lizard Men struck by them either fell back bleeding red or kept charging forward with five or six arrows buried in them.

But they could not get anywhere near Narsh and the others. The instant they approached, they were either smashed aside by the golems' log maces and sent flying deep into the woods, or slashed across the chest and shoulders by Jeff, who had drawn Iriyad.

At that moment, Jeff, who had just planted a punch in the face of a Lizard Man charging at him with arrows stuck in his shoulder and thigh, shouted with a grimace,

"Why are these bastards so damned tough?! You lizard freaks! Kaaal!! Let us get out of here! These bastards are trying to make you run out of arrows—ugh?! ...Y-you miserable son of a—! What the hell are you doing, attacking while I am talking?!"

Baring his teeth, Jeff slashed upward from below with his sword. The Lizard Man before him, who had been standing with a bloodstained shortsword in hand and shield raised before his chest, took the same kind of wound across his shoulder and dropped to the ground clutching it in shock.

"SKREEEK!"

Kal kept firing arrows to pin the Lizard Men down and shouted without even turning his head,

"Are you all right?!"

"You call this all right, damn it?!"

Spitting back that answer, Jeff kicked the fallen Lizard Man in the stomach and sent him rolling, then turned his head, glanced at the wound on his shoulder that was pumping blood in great spurts, and called to Kal, who was tossing aside an empty quiver and opening a fresh one.

"Damn it! Quit fooling around and run! Lizard Men have the kind of grit elves do. A few arrows will not kill them easily! Narsh? Narsh!! Where is the young lady?!"

Jeff looked around frantically for Narsh, and then he spotted a shortsword spinning through the air. To my eyes, his reaction to it looked terribly slow.

Jeff's head turned bit by bit, and before his face, the rotating shortsword spun just as slowly. He widened his eyes at it.

Then time snapped back to normal, and almost by reflex he raised his sword and barely managed to knock aside the shortsword aimed at his throat.

CLANG!

"Ugh?!"

But that had not been a knife. It had been a shortsword. Jeff was already wounded, to begin with.

He barely stopped it, then rolled aside anyway, and Iriyad flew from his hand, scattering glittering sparks of metal before lodging in the ground.

I turned toward the Lizard Men. Unable to get any closer because of the golems, they had begun hurling their shortswords instead.

Seeing that, the golems, which had been swinging their log maces about, threw the logs away and spread both arms wide to block the flying blades.

CLANG! CLANG! SKRRAK!? CLATTER!

"Get your head down, young lady!"

Kal threw himself over Narsh, who was crouched on the ground clutching the Dragon Heart. There had not been that many swords thrown, but even so, the golems kept their arms raised, shielding them for a while.

Kan, who had thrown aside his shortsword and was now drawing knives from his waist, smiled coldly when he saw that.

And when I saw his gaze move from the fallen logs nearby up to the golems, a sickening thought flashed through my mind.

I stepped forward, about to run.

But Kan moved first. Holding a knife loosely in one hand, he ran in swift, light steps. As he came, the silver-trimmed golem narrowed its blazing red eyes and twisted its body sharply to hurl a powerful punch at him, but Kan only let out a light laugh and ducked neatly beneath the slow fist. Then, bent low as he ran, he rushed past the golem and straight for Kal, who was behind it nocking another arrow to the Great Bow. Kal calmly set the arrow to the string and aimed at Kan charging toward him.

Then he drew.

"Do not come any closer!"

"SKRAAAK! Itmaaa!"

TWANG!!

Kal released the string, and the arrow shot from the Great Bow at terrifying speed, flying straight for the center of Kan's brow. In Kan's lowered hand, the knife shone sharply in the light. And for a single instant, time seemed to stop in that exact position.

A moment later, time resumed. Kan slipped past Kal's side and dropped to one knee on the ground. Still in that posture, he lifted a hand to touch his head, then turned it slightly.

He was smiling.

Kal wore a stunned expression.

The arrow Kal had fired had buried itself a quarter of the way into the tree beside me. And Kal, drowning in a sense of disaster, was sitting on the ground staring down at the Great Bow, its string snapped.

Kan wiped away the blood trailing down from his face, around the part that would have been a human cheek, with the back of his hand, flashed a grin, rose, and began walking slowly forward.

Toward Narsh, who was sitting on the ground trembling.

At the sight, I rushed forward.

"No more! Stop this no—!"

"Dieeeeeee!!"

THUD!!

"SKRAAAH?!"

I doubted my own eyes. Kan's body lifted from the ground and flew sideways through the air, his long tail whipping wildly behind him. What?! I turned my head, searching for whatever had sent him flying. The two golems were still holding back the others. Then who?

At that instant, something hit the ground with a heavy thump.

And I understood how Kan's great body had gone flying like that.

It was Jeff.

He had charged in and thrown his whole body into a drop kick, and that sent Kan spinning through the air, rolling over and over across the ground. In any case, it looked as though the fight had stopped for the moment.

Thank goodness.

I hurried over, braced Jeff, and hauled him back to his feet from the ground. Jeff leaned on my shoulder and flashed me a crooked grin.

"Heh heh, is it really fine to help the other side like this?"

"I am not on anyone's side. I merely happen to want the same thing they do."

I said it while looking at Narsh sitting on the ground, but her head was bowed low and she was clutching the Dragon Heart tightly against her chest, so she never saw my face. I could only give a bitter smile.

At that, Kal, who had been staring at his Great Bow with a hollow sigh, turned his head, looked from Kan, who lay unconscious after taking Jeff's drop kick, to the Lizard Men, who had paused in the middle of fighting and were all looking this way, and said,

"Is there truly no way? Can you not grant us even a few hours? Once the young lady's illness is cured, we will return it exactly as it was. And if you wish, we will compensate you as well."

Hearing that, I realized they still did not know what story lay behind that Dragon Heart. As far as I knew them, once they heard it, they would almost certainly give it back without much resistance.

Of course, it would be a cold solution, not a very good one, but there was no help for it. I shook my head at Kal and began,

"I am sorry. If this were merely to cure her illness, then they likely would have allowed it for a time. But—"

At that very moment, just as a subtle change passed over Kal's face, Kan's furious voice erupted from where he lay on the ground.

"SKRAAAH!! Itsra mut! Kuta neipo nuriima!!"

At his cry, every Lizard Man's head turned toward us at once.

What?!

Kal looked around in confusion, then raised the Great Bow with its broken string and pretended to nock an arrow, but they did not recoil in fear. Rather, the Lizard Man at the very front bared his teeth and said,

"Human, are you mocking us? What do you think you can do with a bow whose string is snapped? We will exact the price for our wounded comrades. Prepare yourselves."

And then they charged again.

If they could still move at all, they came on, heedless of the arrows buried in them or the blood pouring from their wounds.

From the bushes ahead, the Lizard Man who had earlier been blasted away by the log the golem threw came running back too, after tearing off his utterly shattered shield. Every last one of them who could still move came at us.

In some way, I felt as though I understood their hearts.

I was the same as they were.

I lived here too.

If the king rose, he would destroy everything in sight, and so they meant to stop it with their own hands, here and now.

But....

I turned my head and looked behind me.

There was Narsh, collapsed on the ground, clutching the Dragon Heart tight against her chest with her head lowered.

She had said she wanted to live.

Should one human life be saved at the cost of the forest?

Or should the forest and those who lived in it be saved regardless of what became of her?

I already knew what I ought to do here.

And yet I could not stand with either side.

I hated this kind of battle. I could not throw a punch at an enemy I could not hate. I did not want to ask someone who wanted to live why she had done it.

And I was sick of this kind of senseless fighting. I truly did not want to fight this way anymore.

Slowly, I turned my head.

Kal bit down on his lower lip and swung the Great Bow like a rod at the Lizard Men. At his side, Jeff slipped his arm from where it had been resting on my shoulder, yanked the sword from the ground at his feet, and cut a red line across the chest of a Lizard Man charging toward him.

Then he stepped forward, stood beside Kal, held his sword upright in both hands, and shouted,

"Fuhahaha! Come on, all of you! Since it has come to this, let us have a truly glorious fight!"

And with that, he threw himself into battle against one of the Lizard Men, using both swordplay and brawling.

Beside him, Kal's horizontal swing of the Great Bow was dodged by a Lizard Man who abruptly dropped low, crawled across the ground at terrifying speed, and drove his shoulder into Kal's stomach. Kal cursed as he fell backward, then struggled to his feet and gasped,

"Cough, cough?! ...Urgh. Mir, Kali. Stop them."

At his words, the two golems turned their bodies and swung their arms at the oncoming Lizard Men.

But none of them were hit.

Because the golems were so large, their strikes swept through huge ranges, and even Luna could probably have dodged them lightly. You could more or less tell where they were coming from.

I turned my head.

I saw Narsh.

She was crouched there with her head bowed. Her shoulders were trembling a little, so she must have been crying. At the sight, I knit my brows sharply. Stop sitting there and crying! Look ahead! Look in front of you!

Hearing a strange sound, I turned my head and saw Kan clinging to the back of one of the golems, hacking down at its head with a shortsword.

It was an Iron Golem, so he could not cut it, and sparks flew instead, but Kan paid no attention to that. With one arm wrapped around the golem's neck, he kept striking its head again and again.

The golem, having stopped fighting the Lizard Men charging before it, raised both hands above its head and flailed them around while making a strange sound.

"Oo-oo, oooooo~~~"

It was a mournful sound.

A sound like a child begging someone not to hit its head.

In front of me, Narsh heard it and raised both hands to cover her ears.

Damn it all!

The people fighting for your sake are right in front of you!

I bared my teeth.

This could not go on.

We could not keep fighting like this.

She said she wanted to live. How was that such a terrible crime?!

Why did those who bled the same color have to fight each other?!

Why did everything have to come to this over one mere gemstone?!

If it came to that, why not just kill the damned zombie dragon?!

"Enough alreadyyyyyyy!!"