“Reinforcements? When are they coming?”

Something was off… Hei never saw the enemies raising that much dust when they were moving. Besides, they were coming in a hurry for some reason, like they truly had come to finish things as soon as possible. However, instead of moving to attack another area… they came directly to the back of the enemy formation, and soon bodies and weapons began go fly around.

Hei never saw anything like that happen… was it an enemy division that decided to rebel for some reason? However, when the dust curtain began to spread, he soon saw warriors without wearing body armor attacking the heavy infantry. They also had their bodies covered in body painting.

“The natives? How did they come from that direction?”

Hei had no idea, but he knew that Heirina and the others were among them, so there was only one thing that he could say to his troops.

“Kill them all!”

The group and the natives arrived on the battlefield in the morning… at least the scouts did. After watching how things played out, they reported what they saw to Reina and then she quickly knew what they had to do. They moved around the area in a half circle on foot to make sure that the enemies wouldn’t see them and when noon came and the enemies attacked again, they began to mount and then attacked them from behind…

The enemies’ leaders only noticed what was going on too late when the natives were already between their camp and their armies, so there was nothing that they could do. However, the group had traveled with little time to rest, so they weren’t in tip-top condition. Kaitrine was suffering the most because of that, but she didn’t complain and just clenched her teeth.

“What the hell are those guys… they are huge.”

The giant warriors turned around and tried to face them… Irlan thrust his spear toward them, but the large shields completely blocked all areas that could be hit and at the same time, Irlan’s thrusts didn’t even slow down the enemies. When they tried to smash him, he used his trait to move to the side and then stabbed them in the neck.

Zelos was on his right side trying to cover for Edea, who was behind and looking for an exposed neck… he didn’t like fighting like that, but he knew that Edea could pick up the enemies faster than him.

All of a sudden, one of the enemies charged toward her after seeing three of his allies falling with arrows in their heads and then Zelos moved his sword to the side and then swung it with all his might. The sound of metal colliding echoed in the area and made those around flinch. The enemy stopped his charge, but at the same time, Zelos was feeling his bones vibrating… it would have been better if he had brought his club for this kind of situation.

“Not the best way to stop a charge like that…”

Still, as soon as the impact made the enemy flinch, an arrow flew toward his head and pierced it. That was a disappointing way to finish things, but that was a battlefield, it wasn’t a place for duels.

While resuming his job to cover for Edea, Zelos looked to the side and then saw the natives fightings… they looked like madmen jumping around and giving their all with every single swing. The guy who kicked him was spinning like a top with his stone club and smashing the shields of the giant warriors. Another one armed with short swords looked like he was dancing on the battlefield as he claimed the necks of the enemies. There was no order or coordination with them.

Still, amidst all that chaos, Reina stood out like a sore thumb. The natives let out all their rage, and wild nature take over their bodies, but she remained completely focused on the task ahead. When one enemy approached and tried to stab her, she thrusted her spear to the side and deflected the attack. In the same motion, she pierced the enemy’s arm with her weapon, and when the enemy flinched thanks to the pain, she pierced their heart.

When another tried to slam his shield against her, she pierced the ground with her spear and then used it to propel herself over the enemy. While she was spinning in the air, the enemy tried to stab her, but he missed, and when she landed behind him, she stabbed his back with ease and made him fall.

The giant warriors quickly realized the menace that Reina was and soon tried to surround her and stab her from all sides, but nothing that they tried worked… trying to stab her, smashing her from all directions… throwing weapons. She avoided them all, but the weird thing was the fact that it looked like she never let the enemies truly finish their attacks and soon attacked them first.

“Retreat! Retreat!

“What the hell is headquarters thinking? They let those guys attack us from behind without warning, and with only this much, they want us to retreat?”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Stay here and die then!”

Hei’s warriors were approaching, so those who had a functional brain quickly realized that they would be completely surrounded and had to escape that. They had to analyze the battle once more and re-plan things based on this force that just arrived.

The natives tried to surround the enemies and slow down their retreat to decrease their numbers further, but they didn’t have enough numbers to pull that off… They barely could create one line to contain them. Moreover, when the giant warriors were determined to run away, they were quite hard to stop. Some of them tried to chase the enemies, but soon they saw the reinforcements of the enemies approaching, and then they decided to stop.

“You all really came, huh?”

“Dad!”

“It is Captain for a while, young lady. Or perhaps calling you a random soldier would be more appropriate as well.”

Heirina didn’t mind that. She was just happy to see her father alive and well… just by taking a quick glance around, one could tell that the battle so far had been quite difficult. Hei looked at the group and then saw Zelos recovering his iron balls and then saw Reina. A quick glance was enough to tell that she was the leader there.

“Hello. My name is Hei, and I am really thankful for your help… we barely were able to hold our lines here. You also surprised me with a back attack like that in the middle of the day.”

“I am Reina. I am going to help around here for four days only, so I will be counting on your cooperation.”

“That should be more than enough. Thank you once again.”

Dozens of the giant warriors had fallen in a couple of minutes, perhaps close to one hundred and until now, barely five of them had died in each confrontation. It was difficult for Hei and Kai to find them, after all. They had five hundred on their side, and since the natives had around the same numbers and looked even more impressive, perhaps they had a chance of winning.

“Let’s regroup… we need to set camps for everyone, and…”

Hei furrowed his eyebrows when he saw Zelos… his face was darkened for some reason; he looked to be quite in a bad mood, but one couldn’t tell why just by looking at him.

“It is a long story, and you have other things to worry about, Dad.”

“Right… let’s get going.”

Zelos was mad for a very simple reason… the area that he was forced to defend. The truth of the matter was the fact that before reaching the front lines, Zelos crossed the farm where he lived, and he felt very angry about it when he realized that the battlefield was close by… once again, he was forced to defend that shitty place.

Zelos was usually a pretty composed kid. He rarely showed any emotion, but when he did, it was only anger. Even Heirina and the others felt surprised when he showed that for so long as they crossed that farm. Eventually, they connected the dots and realized why Zelos was angry… when he saw the old quarters, the forest where he trained. Free people were working on those now, but that didn’t make his memories go away.

However, he soon was forced to forget about it when he heard that the people on the front lines were losing because of the enemy generals, Elmer, and his older brother. Apparently, the enemies decided to invest all of their fortunes in this last battle and hired a clan of giants that had an unstoppable infantry.

Zelos was forced to forget about that when they approached the camp and then saw the wounded… they were tired, but they were mainly unscathed, so they decided to help treat the wounded. It was a pretty unusual sight… but most of the wounded people had broken or smashed limbs instead of wounds created by sharp or pointy weapons. The heavy infantry didn’t have to be skilled to do that much. They just had to be big and don’t hesitate in front of the enemies…

When night came, the group finished helping the wounded… fortunately, at least the Carli clan had a bunch of healers, so treating the wounded was pretty straightforward.

“With the money they saved by using slave kids, they should have had the chance to hire these guys… I already know that thinking like this will keep me mad pretty much forever. So, perhaps I should stop before I fall into that spiral.”

“Hey, Zelos. Dad wants to talk with us all. Let’s go.”

Zelos wondered why Hei wanted that when their squad was basically inexperienced when it comes to large-scale confrontations, but he decided to wait and hear instead of thinking about it.

“Thanks for coming. You can sit.”

Aside from Hei and the group, Reina and the guy who kicked Zelos were also there. Despite his personality, it seemed that she was someone Reina trusted. In any case, after everyone sat down, the mood changed a bit.

“Reina told me the situation about her coming to help and what she and her people can do. She also told me that she wants to finish things tomorrow in one way or the other, even though she said she is also fine with staying here for three more days.”

Everyone nodded. Reina was important in the mountains, and her people needed her there. While the group wasn’t particularly fond of the idea of recklessly charging toward the enemies to solve the conflict, those were the conditions for her help.

“We need to defeat the enemies before we can use them. That is why we are going all out tomorrow. Today, we were a bit tired, and only a few of us used our traits, but tomorrow, that will be different. I will lead the charge.”

After Reina’s declaration, everyone studied her for a moment. Although the natives were quite passionate people when it came to a lot of things, she almost deserved the title of ice queen. Even in the face of such a dangerous situation, she felt completely unfazed. Regardless, the idea that the natives were able to win against giants without using their traits and without being completely rested was simply insane. Tomorrow, they will probably make it rain blood if they go all out.

“With that in mind, your group will be on the front lines like me since you all called upon me. You will share my fate and the fate of my people.”