'They haven't had them for too long, but they have already made so many modifications... Or maybe they just made new train cars from scratch?'
Reivan leaned into the soft velvet cushion of his seat, scanning the interior of the train car they were assigned — which was apparently one of the train cars reserved for VIP passengers.
Despite how spacious it was inside, the furnishing was actually minimal and meant to be occupied by just a handful of people. Instead of being stuffed with countless front-facing two-seater chairs like the passenger cars Reivan had ridden plenty of times these past few days, tables laden with delicious food and bottles of expensive wine filled the space that wasn't already taken up by opulent decorations.
Reivan had to admit that the gaudiness was a bit over the top, but he actually felt at home in this kind of environment. Sadly, Clover Salwyn wasn't supposed to, so he had to curiously scan his surroundings while maintaining a somewhat stony expression — conveying his unease to anyone watching.
It was a good thing that nobody was around to notice his faulty acting except for Maya.
"This is pretty nice, isn't it, Clover?" she asked with slightly rosy cheeks as she walked toward him, a wine-filled glass resting precariously in her hand. Some of it threatened to spill out due to the train’s shaking.
“What’s nice?” Reivan raised an eyebrow at her. “If you were talking about the booze, then I can tell how good it is from how much you’ve drunk in such a short span of time.”
“That too, but that wasn’t what I meant. This train. We save money and we even get to live it up for a few hours. This is way better than getting crammed in a train car with dozens of people.”
Maya — who also seemed quite comfortable in their current environment — had obviously been sampling the goods available to them.
“I suppose that’s true.” Reivan shrugged, reaching for a piece of fruit from a nearby bowl.
“And we have so many guards too! We’re definitely safe.”
‘Don’t raise flags, you idiot.’
He grimaced at her before taking a satisfying bite of fruit, holding back a smile when sweet juice burst into his mouth. Reivan then turned his gaze outside, enjoying the fruits of nature while admiring the view outside.
But since the train tracks cut right across a forest, there wasn’t much of a view to speak of — just trees, trees, trees, and, right behind some trees, were even more trees.
As for the guards that Maya was so happy about, much to Reivan’s dismay, there weren’t any Ascendants included in the train’s guard detail.
The majority seemed to be mercenaries hired to bolster the numbers and act as cannon fodder. They had a Might stat of anywhere from 9 to 12, making them only slightly better than ordinary people. Most of their combat capability depended on how well they could use their rifles, and Reivan knew nothing about how good they were at that.
Only about forty people seemed capable of mana augmentation, and they were apparently treated as captains. From the light armor and the short swords hanging from their hips, they were likely the Star of Fortune’s Naduls — a word that, in the language of a nation that had been lost to time, meant Clouds.
The Clouds had physical prowess only slightly above that of the common mercenaries. But from what Valter had told him, these men were all capable of advanced magic power application, bringing their actual power level up to at least 300.
This alone made them a decent force against lower middle-grade monsters, but there was a possibility that they were even stronger than his estimations.
While [Supreme Insight] could disclose when someone could utilize qi, it lacked the capability to indicate whether an individual possessed advanced magical abilities or gauge their proficiency in it. For all he knew, these people could boost their stats up to 600 — doubling his initial estimation.
The problem was that some monsters were also capable of mana augmentation. Together with their stronger physiques, Reivan and everyone on this train would be in quite a pickle if anything too strong showed up.
Numbers were an important factor too, of course.
‘Hopefully, the reinforcements won’t be outnumbered too much if anything too strong shows up.’
It wasn’t the Ascendant he’d wished for, but just before leaving, Reivan caught sight of five heavily armored men boarding certain train cars behind them. The men almost seemed like they were imitations of the kingdom's knights.
‘Custodian Guards… and five of them too. I don’t know if that’ll be good enough to get us through an attack, but I’ll just have to hope that it is.’
Aizen had knights, Arkhan had battlemages, and Argonia had… well, a lot of things. The empire was an amalgamation of the nations it conquered, after all.
And while their numbers couldn’t be compared to a national force, the Star of Fortune had the Zerdulas — otherwise known as Custodian Guards.
Each and every one of these elite warriors was bred, raised, and trained to protect the conglomerate’s holdings. From the moment they were born, a collar and a life of hardship were already waiting for them. The next few years of their lives would be spent competing against others for the right to survive.
They were also the Star’s attempt at manufacturing a second Gladiator King.
Valter had told him that they could be stronger, but the ones Reivan saw boarding the train only had around 700 Might each. If things went dicey, Reivan hoped those five could handle it without him having to do anything.
“Hey, are you listening?” Maya suddenly sat on his lap, pushing her butt against his crotch. “I was just saying how I forgot what you looked like without pants on… so you should remind me.”
Reivan scowled and tried to push her away, but she held on tight by wrapping her arms around his head. “Get off me.”
“Why? Let’s have fun~ It’s boring to just wait around~! Nobody’s watching us anyway. We have this entire VIP car all to ourselves, so we should make use of it!”
“That’s not the point.”
“C’mon…” Maya giggled, leaning in to kiss his neck. Her hands were already unbuttoning his shirt. “I bet you’ve never done it on a train before. Now’s your chance!”
‘I mean, she’s right about how I’ve never done it on a train before… but…’
After a bit of hesitation, Reivan sighed and shook his head, placing both hands on her shoulders to push her away. “We’re in a very dangerous zone right now, so it’s better to stay alert.”
Maya took one of his hands and put his finger in her mouth, reminding him of something else she had licked last night. After being satisfied by his blank reaction, she popped it out of her mouth noisily and whispered. “We can still stay alert while doing it, no?”
“I don’t think you can.”
“I actually don’t think so either. But you never know, I might suddenly learn today. Let’s find out…”
Just as she reached down to unbutton his pants, Reivan's body moved on its own, pushing her away with all his strength. She flew off him with a yelp but managed to somehow put a hand under her to break her fall a little. With a twisted grimace on her face, she looked up and glared at him.
“Not cool, Clover! What the hell was that for!?”
Reivan also didn’t know why he did that but the alarm bells kept ringing in his head. His survival instincts were screaming for him to get away from the window, and he wasted no time in doing just that.
A fraction of a second after he dived for the floor, something bullet-like penetrated right through the VIP car’s right wall, showering them with splinters. The force was so strong that whatever it was pierced right through the wall on the other side.
As if that was just a primer, more projectiles penetrated the walls, but this time, they came from both sides of the train. Reivan pushed the quivering Maya’s head down as he watched how the walls were steadily chipped away by hundreds and thousands of projectiles, creating two new entrances for whatever was attacking them.
‘Shells…? Wait, no… those are horns, I think.’
Thanks to a good pair of eyes that he got to keep despite his transformation, Reivan barely managed to tell what their attackers were chucking through the wall at them. The finger-lengthed javelins looked much like the spiral shells that one could find near the beach,
Except they were a lot thinner and were very pointy.
‘Good thing our attackers are aiming too high…’
“Wh-wh-what is happening!?” Maya whispered loudly, too scared to muster up a loud voice as the hail of attacks continued.
“We’re being attacked by monsters, you stupid bitch! Draw your wand already!” Reivan yelled as he drew his own wand, preparing a defensive spell. “And whatever you have in that ring, get ready to use it!”
"Y-you just called me a bitch! That's...! Why the hell do I like it!?"
"Shut up! Wand. Now!"
The force he’d seen made it apparent that the long-lasting but weaker wards would do him no good, so he opted for a spell that offered a stronger shield but only lasted for a second or two. He purposely slowed down his casting so he wouldn’t have to hold the spell back for too long.
‘Damnit, we’re actually being attacked when I least want it to happen…’
After about a minute, the rain of horns finally stopped, but the train car was unrecognizable.
With two gaping entrances on both sides of the car they were occupying, the noise of wheels traveling through the railway filled his ears. But that didn’t fully mask the numerous high-pitched screeches coming from all around him. Fortunately, it seemed the locomotive at the front was still intact. The VIP car Reivan occupied continued to chug forward despite the damage it suffered.
‘Ideally, the monsters just run out of steam and give up.’
Reivan’s perked-up ears caught the sound of something piercing through the air at great speeds, so he activated his defensive ward just in time to deflect a horn that was aimed right at them. It bounced off his magic, careening off to a yet-to-be-destroyed part of the car.
“W-wow, Clover, that was kind of… sexy.” Maya seemed amazed by his reflexes but she grew more concerned about something else. “B-but why’s there so much smoke outside… I can’t see anything.”
“...Me too.” Reivan pretended to agree, but his eyes were naturally unhindered by the deep dark smog that had suddenly seemed to pop out of nowhere, blotting out everything outside.
And that was also why he could see countless monsters running beside the train, easily keeping up with it.
Using as few words as possible, Reivan would have described them as “black rabbits”.
Each of the black bunnies was only as big as a normal hare, and had manes seemingly made of white ectoplasm. Their beady little red eyes glowed eerily and on some of their foreheads, a single needle-like horn grew out. A foreboding ebony mist trailed behind them as countless paws thundered across the ground.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Reivan checked the status screen of the closest one.
~^+— Unit's Statistics —+^~
Name: N/A
Species: Leporinas Coruntus Variant #1397
Realm: Mortal
Age: 1
Sex: Male
Special Abilities [None]
Might: 23 Extra Skills Elemental Affinities: [Darkness] [None]
Favor: (Caution) -23 / 100 Threat Level: E
‘They don’t look too strong… Thank the Sun God for that.’
The problem, of course, was that they were not only fast enough to keep up with the train, there were also loads of them.
Too many to count.
In fact, the dark smog that was apparently hindering ordinary people’s view of what went on outside was likely their fault. Black vapor was released from each of their bodies, but it didn’t seem to be very thick. With their numbers though…
It became a visually impenetrable smokescreen.
‘This isn’t looking good…’
After checking a few other ones just to make sure, he discovered that the first one he examined was actually weaker than most. Nearly all of the rabbits had a Might stat of 30 or so.
Nearly, because there were a few who had a much higher rating.
Some of the cute killer bunnies had a base Might stat of 150 and were currently boosting that up to 450 using qi — which didn’t bode well for Reivan and the others since there was a very high chance these stronger rabbits could use mana augmentation too.
The weaker rabbits weren't too concerning for their situation since they would still die from a bullet. But the stronger critters would shrug those bullets off unless they came from a special type of gun that the republic designed to combat beginner knights.
His current situation would also prove fatal to his intentions of staying low-key if there were more of them than he could see.
‘Horns were shot at us… and while most of the rabbits don’t have horns, some of them still do.’
With these facts, he presumed that this particular species of monster shot its horns at enemies. Of course, there was the possibility that only adults or only children had horns, or maybe having horns depended on strength or some other factor.
But being exposed to games and fantasy literature made Reivan incredibly partial to the idea of horn-shooting rabbits.
‘How original.’
Reivan commented dryly in his head, but even he had to admit that shooting high-speed projectiles from great distances wasn’t to be underestimated — after all, that was exactly how humans became the dominant species back in his old world despite being physically inferior to a whole lot of animals.
Also, one thing was for sure, the strength of those projectiles definitely wasn’t dependent on their might alone. The force he'd witnessed earlier could easily punch through thick metal slabs.
It wasn’t outrageous to assume that all the monsters with horns could do something similar.
‘Wait, are we actually screwed? By goddamn bunnies? Horn-firing bunnies? Really?’
"Clover..."
Reivan looked down at the woman pressed under him. Any other time, he would have told her to be quiet and let him think, but he caught sight of something appearing in her hand. "What is it?"
"I actually have this..." Maya showed it to him, still cowering from fear of getting shot. "I-It's a spell ball with an explosion effect. But I..."
"Is that right? Give it here."
"Okay," Maya answered immediately and without hesitation, seemingly glad to depend on someone else in a crisis. "I actually have five..."
Reivan took them and shoved all but one of them in his pocket before crawling over near one of the newest holes in the wall. He activated the spell ball in his palm but didn't throw it yet, delaying it right as it exploded. Before it did, he flung it at a group of weaker monsters who seemed all too eager to jump into the train at the first opportunity.
Perfectly timed, there was a loud explosion that rocked his brain for a bit because of how close he was, but Reivan shook off the headache that followed. Luckily, whoever was at the head of the train put the locomotive in full throttle, so the explosion wasn't too close.
The monsters were seemingly undeterred by the explosives at first, showing no fear of jumping into the jaws of death. But after a few more large clumps were blown up, they seemed to decide that there were better — less dangerous — train cars to get close to.
"You think you hit something?" Maya asked, unable to see through the dark smog.
Reivan shrugged. "Maybe. I heard a lot of cries, so probably, yeah."
"You could hear anything from how loud that explosion was...? That's kinda amazing... Ha ha ha..."
Met with a brief period of respite, Maya sighed in relief and slumped against a less damaged portion of the VIP car, while Reivan took a seat on the floor right next to her since she'd coincidentally chosen the safest spot. Just as he was about to start contemplating his next course of action, a heavily armored man suddenly dropped down from the ceiling — which, he hadn't noticed, also had a few holes in it.
“Are you two okay?”
Maya squealed and cowered in surprise while Reivan calmly threw a short glance at one of the Custodian Guards he'd seen earlier.
‘Good. So they do care about the two of us.’
“Yes, sir. We managed to avoid the attack in time." Reivan did not move to stand up and even pressed down on Maya's shoulder to prevent her from running off to wherever the hell she had planned to run off to. "There was a stray shot that almost hit us... but I somehow managed to defend against it.”
“You?”
“Yes. It was just one. I'm glad you arrived though, I wouldn't have been able to do anything if there were more.”
“...That's still impressive. It seems being a battlemage, even if a trainee, isn't just for show. It’s a good thing I came to save you, then.” The Custodian Guard grunted, his voice echoing within his helm. “I have been ordered to take you with me before regrouping with the others.”
“Th-thank you…” Maya sighed in relief, seemingly having found her voice.
“Any reinforcements?” Reivan asked as he kept an eye on the situation outside, noting how the rabbits that were keeping a safe distance from their VIP car seemed to have given up on firing projectiles at Reivan even though a lot of them still had horns.
“A special distress signal has been sent out,” The Custodian Guard answered in a deep and solemn voice. “If we’re lucky, there might even be an Ascendent coming. In the meantime, I shall protect the guests.”
“I see…” Reivan stood up and helped Maya up while preparing another spell just in case. As he patted down his clothes, he turned his gaze to the armored man. “You have a name, sir? At least let me know the name of my savior before I probably die.”
“You won’t die. I’ve been ordered to keep the guests alive until you are reunited with the Custodian. So that is what I shall do.'' The Custodian Guard paused for a bit before answering his question. “As for my name... I do not have one. But a few people like to call me Deni.”
“Then it’s nice to meet you, Mr. Deni.” Reivan crossed his arms and glanced outside. “I’d also like to thank you over drinks, but this isn’t exactly the right mood.”
“I am aware.” Deni grimaced before putting on his helm again. “I promise to get the guests to safety.”
"I'm counting on you then."
‘I would have rather he said that he would stay behind to slaughter the hordes of weaker monsters and act as a decoy, but whatever. I suppose this is good too. And there’s even the possibility of an Ascendent coming.’
There was a saying about how blessings rarely came in pairs, while calamities never came alone.
As if to say that this was true, their VIP car suddenly lurched to a halt, causing Maya to fall on her ass right after clambering up. Reivan and Deni both managed to stay on their feet, but at the same time, they both realized how horrible their situation was.
It was obvious that something happened to the locomotive at the front and a fight for survival was imminent.
Reivan licked his lips, internally cursing the tower for leaving their recruits alone and not giving them free express train tickets to Vel Ayala. But he quickly switched gears, thinking about his next course of action.
‘I’m not supposed to know any military-grade spells, so I’m forced to use just the spells Clover knows about. There's no way I'll make it out of this with just that.’
Since Deni and the other Custodian Guards present had a base rating of roughly 700, Reivan could count on them having at least 1300 Might with the help of qi reinforcement and mana augmentation. It could also be a bit more depending on their proficiency in controlling magic power.
There were also about forty Clouds who had around 300 Might to count on.
All in all, the Star of Fortune had a decent force when compared to the quality of the monster horde, but they were also greatly outnumbered.
Judging from the monsters’ body composition, most of their stats were probably focused on their legs, giving them great speed — meaning killing them was easy, actually hitting them with an attack would be the hard part. There was also no telling how much the smokescreen outside would affect the outcome of the battle too.
‘Should I just kill everybody here?’
Reivan still had the Sword Star’s bell to depend on if he ever needed to make a quick escape back to the Sword Sanctum in the heart of the kingdom. And he also had Saintess Frey’s gift to save his life if he couldn’t ring the bell in time.
But using those would be such a waste considering he could just kill everyone here by summoning Zouros.
The problem was what happened after the fact. He would have to pray that other battlemages wouldn’t get here in time to scry the area. Otherwise, he would be discovered and his schemes would have to be abandoned.
According to Valter, battlemages could scry up to an hour of events that happened in a designated area, so if Reivan went with the kill-everyone-and-leave-no-witnesses plan, then he would have to be sure that no help would arrive in an hour.
Unfortunately, Deni had just said that help was coming, and Reivan was unsure how quickly that help would arrive.
Hence, he had to think of something else — something that didn’t involve using any of his flashy powers.
‘I suppose I’ll just take things as they come. Worst case, I just abandon the scheme and go back to the drawing board.’
Reivan calmed his breathing. He had been slightly panicked at the start because he wasn’t in his real form with his true strength, but now that he realized that it was impossible for him to die here, his mind was cleared.
The notion of having years of scheming come to an end without any results to speak of was daunting, however.
‘Alright… Let’s do this.’
There was an Aizenian quote that said something about how one of the most important things to remember in a crisis was to keep your head — literally and figuratively — so Reivan simply needed to keep his.
“Grab on,” Deni ordered with a solemn tone as he picked up Maya and Reivan like sacks of potatoes, placing them on each of his shoulders. “We must go. Now.”
Maya squealed and held on for dear life, but Reivan was very used to being picked up like a piece of luggage, so when Deni suddenly jumped off the train and landed firmly on the ground before using the ground to launch himself upward, Reivan calmly used the opportunity to obtain a bird's eye view of the situation.
‘Well, there goes my optimistic thoughts. It’s worse than I imagined…’
The trees somewhat hindered his view, but he could tell that what he saw from the giant holes in the VIP car weren't even a tenth of the actual numbers they would fight. And there was a very real possibility that there were a lot more.
As soon as Deni stepped on the roof, a barrage of horns shot for him and his two sacks of flesh.
Fortunately for Reivan and his fellow human luggage, Deni had anticipated the attack, surrounding them all with a bubble of his own magic power. Countless horns bounced off the mobile shield as Deni the armored man ran down the train like a subway surfer.
‘Hm…? Their horns don’t grow back fast. So drawing fire like this will actually help later… It seems Deni is a man that knows his shit.’
Maybe the horns did grow back, but they certainly didn’t do so at a visible rate. Perhaps it took a day or two. Hopefully even a week or a few months.
Even with this weakness though, Reivan could understand how this particular species dominated their area and eventually grew too numerous to ignore.