When they arrived, everything was utter chaos.

“Looks like they evacuated the citizens at least.” Medrauta said as she rapidly surveyed her surroundings. She and Viviane had finally taken a break the previous night, lodging at a nearby town before finishing the last stretch of their journey. Of course, Viviane had rejected the idea vehemently, but Medrauta’s dogged insistence and the prospect of fighting while exhausted managed to win her out.

Viviane nodded, a grim expression on her face as she watched soldiers struggling to hold the desperate line of defense they had established. As luck would have it, the pair had arrived at a moment of great pandemonium where their presence hadn’t even been noticed. Worse yet, they had arrived too late.

The duchy’s border walls had already fallen. Massive chunks of steel and stone were strewn all across the battlefield that used to be a peaceful town, their source traced back to the holes that now gaped through the walls. The massive border gate itself had been torn off its hinges, its metal corpse resting on the ground, as if regretfully mourning the failure of its one and only duty.

Foul beasts of black-red coloration swarmed the makeshift barricades constructed by the desperate soldiers and their officers, their ravenous shrieks striking terror into the hearts of those subjected to the ear-splitting sound. Yet, the soldiers continued to fight, casting their fear aside and replacing it with undying courage earned from their stalwart desire to protect their homes and those they loved.

Medrauta grimaced as she watched one of the beasts tear through a hastily constructed palisade. When even steel and stone failed to stop the witchspawn onslaught, wood had no chance of impeding them at all. In one quick motion, she drew her blade and turned to Viviane.

“I think it’s time we jumped in. We’ve assessed the situation for long enough.” Medrauta said.

Viviane nodded in agreement, unslinging her bow from her back and nocking an arrow to the string. “I’ll cover you.”

Medrauta leapt from her mount, darting forward with lightning speed even as Viviane bestowed her Crest upon the silver-haired knight. Normally, Medrauta would have preferred charging into the fray on horseback, but in such close quarters where men and beasts were already packed together so tightly, the large warhorse would be more of a detriment than anything else.

Glowing silver armor manifested around Medrauta’s body as her sword flashed forward, deflecting a witchspawned beast’s claw just before it could rend one of the soldiers from head to toe. With a roar, she swept the beast’s limb aside, thrusting her sword forward and burying her blade to the hilt. The beast released a horrifying shriek as it died, thrashing against the ground for a few moments before going limp.

The soldiers around Medrauta stared at the knight with a mixture of awe, surprise, and relief, but such emotions were short-lived. Not only were more witchspawn pouring through the hole in the palisades, but they were still wary of the creature Medrauta had slain. Tentatively, the silver-haired knight removed her blade from the beast’s corpse, watching to see if it would regenerate just as they did when they were struck by the soldiers’ weapons.

“H-Huh...?” One of the soldiers stared at the beast’s corpse in surprise even as it slowly began to dissolve into a puddle of black-red sludge. “It’s not healing...!”

“It’s not healing! It’s not healing!” Another soldier cried, his voice laced with relief.

Medrauta thrust her blade in the air, taking advantage of the soldier’s rise in morale to rally them as Viviane provided supporting fire, her arrows streaking through the air rapidly and piercing through her targets without fail. Seeing as the beasts she shot remained slain, it would be safe to assume that whatever power the Lake granted Viviane extended to her own attacks as well.

“Rejoice, brave men and women! Your courage has been rewarded! So long as my lady and I are here, these foul beasts stand no chance! Raise your heads and your swords, for we drive them back here and now!” Medrauta shouted. Though her speech was brief and rough, it was more than enough to restore the soldiers’ nearly exhausted fighting spirits, especially after witnessing a beast finally being felled by the knight’s blade.

In truth, the witchspawn hadn’t managed to overwhelm the border wall due to the soldiers lacking skill or resolve. Rather, the true issue lay in their endless regeneration. As unholy creatures birthed by corrupted mana, their forms would constantly be maintained and regenerated so long as the source of that mana remained. Their grotesque appearance alone was a testament to that.

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It was difficult to truly describe the creatures’ forms as their appearances greatly varied, all of them grossly chimeric in nature. While some appeared as mere shifting blobs of red-black ooze, others bore a resemblance to common animals, albeit disgustingly misshapen and sometimes even shifting in form with each passing second.

Medrauta dove into the fray, engaging one of the larger creatures that looked like an amalgamation of a wolf, a deer, and a snake all mashed into one repulsive monster. Its flesh sloughed off its body with each movement it made, leaving small puddles of smoking liquid in its wake.

“Ugh!” Medrauta winced as she parried the beast’s latest series of attacks. Although they were telegraphed and easily deflected, the creature’s immensity still managed to put some serious force behind each strike, causing the knight to skid backward despite her greatly enhanced strength.

Normally, she would have simply leapt up and eviscerated the beast without a second thought, but numerous other witchspawn birthed from the smoking puddles on the ground clustered around Medrauta, harrying her with their incessant attacks. She swept her sword around herself in frustration, its blade cleaving through the smaller beasts and ending their pitiful existences only seconds after they were born.

Even so, the massive beast struck before Medrauta could issue a decisive attack against it, and so the knight was trapped in this irritating rhythm. She would slay the newly formed witchspawn in preparation to attack, only to be stopped as she was forced to defend, causing the cycle to repeat anew. Meanwhile, men and women who charged forward with her were dying solely as she was forced to focus on this beast.

It was beyond frustrating for Medrauta, especially after the soldiers had placed their trust in her. She tightened her grip around the hilt of her sword, preparing to launch herself into a desperate maneuver, but before she could, a hail of arrows fell from the heavens and crashed into the smaller witchspawn as they emerged from the smoking pools of black-red liquid once more.

“Now, Medrauta!” Viviane shouted from atop one of the makeshift barricades.

Medrauta nodded quickly in response, whispering a quick thanks to her lady before leaping upwards and swinging her blade mightily, bisecting the beast once and for all. As its two halves fell apart, it crashed into the earth with such force that the ground shook, unbalancing both beast and man for a moment before its body started to dissolve.

Allowing herself to fall freely, Medrauta landed on top of another beast, crushing its head with her heel before darting forward and slaying yet another. The men behind her let out cheers of victory as she cleared the way for them, but despite their small triumph, massive waves of witchspawn beasts continued to advance toward the duchy, their innumerable waves visible through the holes of the border wall.

This would not be an easy fight, nor was victory truly in sight despite Viviane’s ability to somehow negate the beasts’ regenerative abilities, but at the very least, the possibility of winning existed now. The soldiers alone would have stood no chance against the countless waves of witchspawn, especially as any damage they inflicted would simply be regenerated instantly. But with Viviane and Medrauta here, they would finally be able to start fighting back.

Thanks to Bastiche’s machinations, the duchy’s troops were greatly divided, and the number of soldiers present paled in comparison to the enemy’s own numbers. While the forces defending the border still surpassed the forces Baron Dietrich commanded during the siege of Revelo Castle, Viviane could see that they were barely enough.

As the noblewoman released arrow after arrow into the charging witchspawn, she could only hope and pray that Marilyn and the baron had sent out missives calling for reinforcements at the border wall. If not, she feared this battle would be lost regardless of how fiercely she and Medrauta fought. After all, her mysterious powers did not extend to the rest of the troops, and though they fought valiantly in their efforts to stymie the advance of the beasts, they could not permanently end the beasts’ onslaught.

It was only through sheer numbers that they could continue to delay the enemy’s charge, allowing for them to be slain repeatedly and mercilessly until Medrauta and Viviane were able to clean them up for good. In other words, the entirety of the duchy’s victory hinged upon two people, and that certainly wasn’t a realistic victory to Viviane.

Indeed, Viviane didn’t want reinforcements merely to chase such foolish dreams of heroism. Rather, she wanted them for the sake of plugging the walls and constructing barricades rapidly. Such a thing would not stop the endless waves of witchspawn, but it would give the duchy’s soldiers a brief reprieve at the very least. But even so...

...Isn’t there another way to kill witchspawn? Medrauta frowned as she cleaved through numerous beasts. Primitive and mindless, slaying countless witchspawn entangled in combat was easy enough for the knight, but she knew a plan that relied solely on herself and Viviane would quickly fall apart. For some reason, the knight had a feeling she should know of another way to slay witchspawn, but the method escaped her mind for the moment.

The knight growled in frustration, allowing herself to ride the wave of adrenaline that washed over her. It didn’t matter whether she could remember or not. All she needed to do was slay more and more of these beasts until she tore the memory from their corpses.