Mightiest Melee Magician

Fire-based attacks.

Thinking about the characteristics of this narrow valley, there probably wasn’t a strategy better than this one.

“Grrk!”

“Grrrrrk!”

The thousands of mudmen that were running in started to flow through the tight path that led away from the fiery rain.

However, the path’s exit was already tightly sealed by Seta Malkiri.

He had summoned an impressively large two-meter-tall Battle Guardian to plug the exit.

The two mudmen at the forefront couldn’t break through the Guardian, and…

Crunch!

Their heads were crushed by the Guardian’s battleaxe.

But the strength of ten thousand mudmen flowing in couldn’t be blocked by a lone Guardian.

“Grrk! Grrrrk!”

“......!”

They were like a wave breaking on the shore, and the Battle Guardian started to falter. It seemed like it would collapse any moment.

However, this was enough to give Seta Malkiri the short time needed to prepare his next spell.

“I’ll roast you all.”

He raised his hands above his head.

Then, a fierce pillar of fire exploded out of a giant skull with two burning eyes that appeared in his hands.

Fire Breath.

The skull spewed endless flames into the valley.

Fwoooosh!

The hundreds of mudmen that couldn’t advance or retreat were baked by the flames and turned into hard bricks.

Seeing this, Seta muttered, confident of victory,

“Ruin, do you smell that? The smell of blood?”

“I think you’re just smelling the cooked earth.”

“…Ruin, shut up.”

Of course, I replied with a joke, but still, Seta had become much stronger in our short time apart.

“Seta! Above!”

“…I already saw it.”

The mudmen’s survival instincts were tenacious.

“Grrrk!”

They started to step on their fellow mudmen who had turned to stone and began running across them.

However, Seta used the same method to easily roast them again.

If they climbed up, they were burned.

After this cycle repeated a few times, the entrance to the valley looked to be completely sealed with the solidified corpses of mudmen.

“Uahaha! Ruin! How’s that?”

“......”

Although Seta cheered at having succeeded in his mission, I couldn’t cheer with him.

“Ruin! Over there.”

“…Yes, I saw it too.”

Putting it nicely, it was true to say that the entrance to the valley was completely blocked.

But on the other hand, the mudmen could use those baked statues to climb up the cliff.

They had already started to use the corpses of other mudmen to step up and climb over.

Damn it.

Jason was put in danger now.

Irene didn’t hesitate and shouted at me,

“Ruin! Throw me up there as well!”

She didn’t need a blanket, cotton, or wool.

I nodded and quickly lifted Irene.

Then, I threw her with all my might above the cliff.

* * *

“Wh-what!”

Jason, who had been standing on top of the cliff this whole time, fell onto his back upon seeing the frightening scene in front of him.

Although the fire plan seemed successful…

“Grrrrrk!”

“Uwaah!”

The mudmen continued to climb atop their fallen, bricked bretheren and went toward him.

Seeing this terrorfied him more than anything he had ever seen before.

But Jason shook his head with force.

“I-I haven’t even gotten a girlfriend yet… I can’t die here…”

Unlike the image of the ‘real man’ that he held to tell Ruin to become a ‘real man’ too…

He had never even held a girl’s hand before.

“I can’t just die here without ever having dated! Someone, save me!!!”

He felt too ashamed to die here.

Then, an angel descended from the sky.

“Wh-what! I-Irene! Ohohohoh! Why are you here so late?!!”

Having flown in at a time of danger, Irene Prius was like an angel, a savior, and a miracle for Jason.

Of course…

“Ah, so you haven’t dated someone before.”

“......”

He panicked for a second at having this savior hear his secret that he never wanted her to hear.

But in the end, the situation had become a lot safer.

“Please step back.”

“Y-yes!”

Clink—!

Irene used her a single ice spell to instantly freeze over the mudmen that were trying to climb up.

Looking at the wave of mudmen below, Irene said,

“…This spot is pretty good.”

There weren’t many ways to catch a magician who had settled on the high ground.

On top of that, if that magician was one of the geniuses that would define the next generation…

“Let’s sweep them all away.”

They would be untouchable.

From here, Irene’s bombardment began.

* * *

* * *

The entrance had been completely sealed by a stone wall after the bombardment of the two magicians atop the cliff.

So in this situation, what choice could the mudmen make?

“Th-they’re retreating!”

Shouted someone, and it became reality.

“Grrrrrk!”

Yeah.

Their only choice was to run away.

To give up the Red Plains and return to the ocean that they lived in before.

The mudmen that had struggled to escape the valley quickly turned around and started to retreat.

I turned my gaze to the side.

While we were distracting them like this, the 3200 soldiers from the capital would’ve passed through the beach and blocked off their escape.

However…

“Isn’t there still too many of them? There’s no end to them no matter how many we kill.”

“......”

“Seta, I’ll leave this place to you.”

“Alright. I got it, go!”

I moved to go support them.

* * *

The army of 3200 had all, as planned, hidden themselves near the road to the beach.

Then, using the chaos created within the mudmen by Jason’s magic, they moved themselves to the rear of the valley.

Their mission was to block off the mudmen’s escape and to wipe them out.

“Shh!”

While they were maintaining their formation and staying hidden, waiting for the mudmen to appear, it was a sound that made them nervous.

“…Th-the ground is rumbling.”

Boom! Boom!

Vibrations could be felt through the earth as it shook slightly.

Vwooooooaaaaaah

The sight of the mudmen flowing out of the valley struck fear in their hearts.

“H-hiek!”

“There’s too many of them… This is impossible.”

The soldiers took a few steps back.

Seeing this, Commander Murrow stepped forward, shouting out,

“You bastards! The next person to take a single step back will find their head flying off their body after a meeting with my blade!”

“......”

Separate from his excellent skills as a tactician, he was also a knight.

A readied soldier sent to battle by the command of the royal family.

“The magicians will definitely support us from the back. We just need to hold the line!”

The weakest nation on the continent.

Continued expedition failure.

Everyone here desired to wash away those disgraces.

In the eyes of Sir Murrow, there was a certainty that, in this battle, only victory would follow.

Schwing!

He unsheathed his sword from his hip and raised it high.

“At the edge of the King’s sword!”

“Lies great victory!”

Step!

The soldiers wielding pikes took a step forward, and readied themselves to turn the charging mudmen into skewers.

Simultaneously, the shieldmen stood next to the ones holding the spears and protected their bodies.

Behind them, the remaining soldiers prepared to fight.

And at the very back…

“Great… victory!”

The archers’ arrows thundered down like a storm.

Boom! Babababboom!

With the final shout by Sir Murrow, the force of 3200 collided against the endless tide of mudmen.

Crack!

The formation threatened to break the instant they collided, but they moved with practiced grace and maintained their positions.

However…

“Damn it.”

“Hold! Keep holding!”

It truly was too lacking.

Although an individual mudman was weak, their overwhelming numbers would lead to our defeat.

It looked only destined that they would hold on for but a few minutes before being trampled underfoot.

Yeah.

Theoretically, that should be the case.

There was no way for a force of 3 000 to defend against 500 000.

However, there were existences that could flip this natural outcome on its head.

“You dirty mudmen bastards! Let’s make a bet to see who kills the most!”

“Sure!”

“…One!”

“I’m already at three!”

With Commander Murrow at the forefront, the Golden Light Knight Order were real knights. Even inside the weakest nation, they were the few that had their talents acknowledged.

A knight at the edge of 5th-rank was deadly, and the aura blade these people emitted were enough to slice through dozens of mudmen at once.

While these knights were holding the line, a few soldiers on horseback cleaved through the mudmen.

Their combat capabilities weren’t so easy to dismiss them as those of a ‘weak country’.

Ten to one.

No, even killing a hundred for each knight was easily doable.

And the one who clearly stood out from among these knights…

“Look at that! It’s Sword Wind!”

“Holy crap…”

Ten thousand to one.

No, even higher odds were possible for this old knight.

The man who easily shot out both Sword Spirit and Sword Wind.

Spear Saint Bolvar Patten.

“I-is that truly the martial arts of a human…?”

Flick!

With a swipe of his spear, dozens of mudmen were destroyed, and the spots he swept through were left devoid of life.

The storm that brewed at the tip of his spear forbade the mudmen from even approaching.

It truly was just a slaughter.

However…

“Euk! Kugh!”

“Everyone! Keep going!”

The expressions of the soldiers started to darken one by one.

“Dammit! How come there’s no end to them…?”

No matter how incredible the Spear Saint was, it was still impossible for him to face them all by himself.

Although the others wished to help him more, seeing the endless swarm of mudmen, a sense of futility started to set in.

And unlike the mudmen’s numbers, their stamina wasn’t endless.

“Keep holding! The sea is behind us! We can’t fall back any further!”

The formation was being pushed back, and at some point, the sea water had started lapping at their feet.

They were getting tired.

A big change needed to happen.

It was then.

Vwoong—

A strong wind started to billow from behind the knights.

“…Euk!”

Looking behind them, a black-haired boy donned in leather armor moved like the wind.

And the place the boy ran was at the center of the mudmen.

Not even giving them a chance to pick out the boy’s face, explosions began to burst forth.

Bang! Boom! Baboom!

The number of explosions continued to increase without limit, and holes started to form in the Red Plain of countless mudmen.

——