Chapter 17: Chapter 15 – First Battle Conclusion

Lance Corporal (2nd Adjutant), Reichel Schwertspinne, Russiva Imperial Year 782 Month 3, Day 9, Urganschoft, Deutsche Imperial Army

Reichel calmed herself down with several large breaths of air.

'Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out...' 

She was doing slow breaths of air in a large interval, Or so she deluded herself into thinking so.

But in reality...

"Hufuhufuhufuhufuhufu--" She was hyperventilating yet again, not because she couldn't keep her calm after Michal explicitly triggered her superiority complex which was a sensitive subject along with many things, but because she was trembling.

Trembling from the drawback for using [Fleeting Rush] without preparing her body with the appropriate footing technique.

It was fairly obvious to a certain extent, that she overdid herself.

'Am I really this weak!? After a whole year aside from learning a dozen techniques I'm still basically the same person!' Reichel cursed her own weakness.

She had the Essence of Gluttony, yet for a year she really didn't eat properly enough with the expected parameters of a diet for a literal incarnation of Gluttony, Which was why she looked so anemic that she would have been mistaken for a vampire.

Not only was she lacking strength, But she also lacked any means of actual choices for combat. Against small fry she would have been fine taking down a dozen, bu against opponents if Michal's caliber she needed to use the techniques she learned from 'her' old man against them.

Which was the problem, considering she can't even use three in the same day without fainting.

'Wait, this isn't the appropriate time for this!' Reichel said as she suddenly remembered that she was literally so far inside the front lines.

The goblins look dazed, as if they didn't know what was happening.

'Don't they know that I've won?' Reichel thought, she could never understand the mentality of inferior creatures.

'No wait, This is a chance!'

Reichel grabbed Michal's green longsword and considered her next plan of action for next few paragraphs.

'Should I kill him? No, I should take him prisoner for interrogation later. But what about the battle then?' Reichel verified the situation of the battlefield as a whole shortly with a single gaze.

'Not good, The goblins are high in morale while the recruits are on the verge of deserting.' The goblins were still whittling down the number of her allied forces at an alarming rate without any regard for their own lives. As long as the goblins have a morale that makes them suicidal she couldn't see any way to win the battle with only the resources she has in her disposal currently.

"Schwee?" The goblins suddenly realized that Michal wasn't moving, and started to close in.

'Then I really should kill him then!?' Reichel pondered as she brandished the green longsword, bringing it close to Michal's neck.

It was then when she saw her reflection in the green blade that she suddenly found a moment of clarity in her mind which was riddled with uncertainties and contingency plans.

A spark of inspiration!

'No wait, I know a way out of this situation.' A plan rang out inside her head, as if it came suddenly without any kind of notification. And as she reviewed the contents of the plan a second time she suddenly got the urge to facepalm herself.

'Sometimes I wonder if I'm actually retarded.'

Her empty fist held the top of Michal's head tight, and after squaring herself up with a huff...

*KRAK*

She brought down Michal's head with her right hand while hitting him square in the neck with her knee, knocking him out almost instantly.

And then as the goblins fully started running towards her, she breathed in a large amount of air that was unimaginable for someone with a lung capacity like Reichel's.

And using that breath of air, she shouted with a volume that completely overrode all of the goblin's screeching and the recruit's screaming.

"REICHEL SHWERTSPINNE HAS SLAIN THE ENEMY COMMANDER!"

---

Goblin Footman, Hubert Nistor, Russiva Imperial Year 782 Month 3, Day 9, Urganschoft, Czuch Union Army

Hubert was about to bring down his crude iron sword on a recruit that belonged to the enemy, The Deutsche Empery's side.

"AAAAAAAAAAAA!" The man...the boy looked like he was barely even an adult judging from human standards, most likely he was only forced to join here because he had grandiose dreams about being a hero, like many of the other enemy soldiers here.

Hubert, even though he was a goblin had a sense of guilt. He couldn't bear to kill younglings, but with what the Black-Haired Stalker did, he found himself fueled by rage as he marched into the battlefield after abandoning all of his belongings, searching for a place to die.

'Blame yourself for being allied with a monster!' Hubert swung down his sword, but he stopped his swing midway when something interrupted his blind rage.

"REICHEL SCHWERTSPINNE HAS SLAIN THE ENEMY COMMANDER!" The black-haired girl shouted in a voice that overrode every shrill scream and shriek on the battlefield, and with her proclamation the goblins found themselves a new target of rage.

Hubert, as well as every other goblin who was fighting on the frontlines, suddenly stopped their movements, And just like moths to a flame they found their own gazes drawn away from the opponents in front of them and into the center of the formation which was behind them.

It was a black haired girl, who was standing amidst the middle of their formation, and in her hands...

Was the sword of their commander, Michal Kratochvil, formerly of the Ogre Knights.

"SCHWEEEEEEEEEEE!!"

'Unforgivable unforgivable unforgivable unforgivable unforgivable unforgivable!' 

Consumed by rage, He suddenly found himself running on four legs. Not only him, but it looked like other goblins held their own weapons using their teeth, and started running on four legs unconciously as well.

Countless goblins withdrew from the front and advanced to their rear when they found out that once again, The Black-Haired Stalker took something of importance to them.

"KILL HEEEEEEEEER!"

Hubert suddenly found himself leading the charge against only a single girl who was barely over 160cm with countless goblins at his side, It could be considered overkill at this point but there needed no kind of self-control against someone who could obviously square up against an Ogre Knight.

The goblin's object of rage suddenly did unexpected, she suddenly adapted a weird stance. She put the blade of the sword behind her head, while grabbing the handle with both hands instead of pointing it towards the incoming wave of goblins.

It was like she was a batter in a baseball game, preparing for a pitch. Not that goblins would know what baseball is though. However the sheer disgust in her eyes when she stared at the numerous goblins implied that she was preparing for something more than what was supposed to be just a simple manuever from a normal ball game.

'No, It doesn't matter what she's planning! With these numbers it's basically impossible to escape death unless you're Level 8!'

"SHOW HER OUR RESENTMEEEEENT!" Hubert shrieked, with all his other remaining comrades shrieking their loudest SCHWEE's.

'!?'

It was when the Black-Haired Stalker's image suddenly overlapped with something more horrifying. It was like she suddenly turned into some sort of undescribeable demon spider, as 8 appendages which looked like spider legs suddenly appeared out of her back, and his surroundings of a bloody battlefield suddenly turned into something else.

A spiderweb.

They had been caught in the spider's trap.

"[Dust Devil]"

*Swoosh*

*Swoosh*

*Swoosh*

Massive sounds of air being ripped apart sounded through the front of the charge, until finally blood, bone, and flesh flew.

The goblins at the front found their bodies torn through like paper, and a few behind them weren't as lucky as the ones in the front who managed to escape unscathed. About more than 10 goblins have died with a literal single stroke.

This filled the goblins with a sudden sense of uncertainty, After all what kind of fight are they getting into to willingly charge inside the range of a monster who could swipe ten heads in a single stroke.

"KEEP CHARGING, THAT WAS JUST A LAST-ATTEMPT AT RESISTANCE. SHE MUST BE OUT OF ENERGY AFTER THAT STRIKE!" Hubert shrieked to further rile up the goblins and raise their morale.

But with Reichel's next action, Their morale dropped yet again.

"[Dust Devil]" The Black-Haired Stalker swung the green blade again, and another 10 fell to her blade as wind blades cut deep into their flesh and tore off their limbs.

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Those who didn't die at the front were immobilized when large chunks of flesh were torn when they only so much as grazed the wind bullets.

"[Dust Devil]" It was only at the third swing when another 10 had fallen that the goblins at the new front suddenly stopped straight on their tracks.

"What are you doing!? Do you not want to avenge our commander!? Why did you stop!?" Hubert shouted at the goblins in the front.

"He's right..."

"We have to avenge our commander! And our comrades!"

"If we don't then we what have we betrayed our country for!?"

The goblins at the front once again took a step forward, and then--

"[Dust Devil]" Yet another 10 had been cut down.

It was then that the goblins finally realized the severity of their situation, And just how deep in shit they were, and how they had already set one foot inside the grave.

'She keeps taking down 10 in a single strike...and there are only 500 of us left!' Although they had the superior morale and fighting skills at first, the cost it took to take down a single goblin was roughly 1.5 in the enemies side. They had sustained heavy losses, but because they had their commander in the rear covering their backs, they all shoved it aside as noble sacrifices.

But what now? He was gone, his body lay unmoving at the feet of a demon, and his own sword was being used by the demon to cut down his soldiers. There was no noble cause anymore.

Fear struck the faces of the goblins as their suicidal tendencies and morale took a nose dive as their rationality slowly came back.

What good came from dying?

*clang*

One goblin dropped his weapon, and ran away to the forest, followed by another, and then another.

"[Dust Devil]" And as if to encourage deserters, The Black-Haired Spider took down another 10 goblins, which caused the whole front of the charge to flee for their lives as a result.

It was then that Hubert realized, that there was no more goblins standing in front of him. He was the front now.

He was at the front, meaning...

'I'm...next...' The realization struck him like lightning, and as Reichel raised her sword up again for another swing.

*clang* And before Hubert realized it, He had already dropped his own weapon, and was fleeing like the wind as he ran through to the trees, clinging for dear life.

Along with the other goblins that found a new value in their lives, they ran, they ran as far as they can from the spider's fangs.

---

Second Sergeant, Wilhelm von Habsburg, Russiva Imperial Year 782 Month 3, Day 9, Urganschoft, Deutsche Imperial Army

"REICHEL SHWERTSPINNE HAS SLAIN THE ENEMY COMMANDER!" A voice rang out through the entire battlefield, reaching ever ear including Wilhelm's.

And although slaying the enemy commander was certainly a cause sufficient enough to warrant a celebration, the place he was in simply didn't allow him to catch a break.

'Chance!' Instead he took it as an oppurtunity to slay the enemy in front of him while he was distracted by the sudden wake-up call.

"AAAAAAAAAAH!" 

"SCHWEE--"

*stab*

"-EEEEeeeee"

*stab*

*stab*

*stab*

Wilhelm just kept stabbing with his spear, not even realizing that the goblin had already died on the second strike.

"Sergeant!" A voice called out to him, but he paid it no heed as he kept stabbing the goblin's chest.

"AHHHHHH!"

*stab*

*stab*

It was then when he felt two hands grab his shoulders from behind while he was stabbing the goblin that he stopped.

"AHHHHHH!" Wilhelm was struggling to get out of the enemy's grasp, fearing for his life. He didn't want to die, He didn't want to die so early in his life just like his good friend Veit. He wanted to live, He wanted to get married to a loving wife who he's going to bang and make kids with, He had so much planned in life, He didn't want to die just yet.

"AAAAA--" He kept screaming and struggling for his dear life, until suddenly--

*SLAP!*

A hand slapped him across the cheek with a force that could have made his jaw dislocate, It was then that he snapped out of it.

"Li-Liutenant Colonel von Radnitzer?" It was Maurius, who was covered in blood from head to toe, both in goblin blood and his own blood.

"Hah...hah..." Wilhelm wiped the sweat off his brow.

Every single muscle in his body was aching, and his hands which were gripping his spear tight have shed so much skin from holding the shaft tight that he was starting to feel anemic. He looked at the goblin he stabbed multiple times in the chest, lying down on the corpse of another one of his comrades.

"What-What was I doing?"

"You were out of control, Your instincts to survive took over your sense of mental rationality, But it's okay now, you don't have to fight anymore." Maurius said to Wilhelm, who was utterly confused.

"What? B-But what about the enemies!?"

"Take a good look, They're fleeing."

"Flee...ing?" Wilhelm asked, as if the definition of the word was foreign to him. He turned around, to see the goblins clearing the battlefield and heading to the forest with expressions of cowardice plastered on their green faces.

"We...won?"

"That's right, We won."

They had won the battle, They had driven the enemy off, But why...Just why...

Why wasn't there anybody celebrating?

Instead of a joyous feeling of victory, what only wafted in the air of the battlefield was the smell of death. There was no glory, They didn't save anybody. A thousand civilians were mixed inside the land which was filled with corpses as well. There was just nothing to celebrate.

And eventually as the recruits broke down in tears after the horrid experience which was their first battle, A single figure came into view just a short distance away.

Wilhelm approached the figure with slow and heavy steps. And as the light of the rising shine replaced the glint of the setting moon, she realized just who the figure was.

"Lance Corporal."

Reichel was bleeding from her nose, and her eyes were unfocused, she was covered head to toe in blood, and she smelled like crap. She was obviously at her limits. Reichel used twice the amount of high-level techniques that her body's threshold allowed her too. And she used much more stamina in just covering up the traces of the Essence of Gluttony, just so she wouldn't leave any trace. She felt like her body was on fire from the massive fatigue that assaulted her.

But even then...

"Priso...ner..." Reichel said, even while she bleeding from numerous wounds. And as she pointed towards Michal's body, which was thought to be a corpse.

And with the last puff of stamina Reichel had, She fainted while standing, holding her new green sword as it cracked slowly, losing it's green colour.

 

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