Chapter 102: Dealing with Problems

"...What a little freak..." Ryu murmurs, watching Nio flying above the Theocracy. Most people don’t notice, but Ryu, thanks to her level, experience, and ability to see magic in a unique way, can see Nio firing beams of magic so powerful they completely obliterate the monsters without leaving a trace.

Ryu notices that Nio only focuses on the high-level ones and launches these attacks so fast that Ryu only catches them because she’s literally keeping her eyes on her almost the entire time, but Ryu knows from this experience that Nio could handle the Raid alone, and that’s why she considers her a freak for being so strong.

"Miss Ryu, what are you talking about?" A paladin among the several paladins grabbing their equipment from a table after a short break questions Ryu, who didn’t bother to hide what she said.

"I’m... just talking about these stupid monsters... anyway, how are the defenses? You came from inside, so you should know whether or not it’s working." Ryu asks after a moment before giving orders to other paladins nearby.

"Everything is going well, Miss Ryu!! Thanks to Saint Stelaria’s predictions, we knew exactly where the monsters would appear."

"And with that, we managed to get all the people away in time, and we also managed to surround the entire area with large tungsten stakes pointed at the enemies."

"We also spread several flammable and combustible materials to create a wall of flames to drive off and stop the monsters’ advance. Since tungsten handles heat well and the tips can hold their shape without issue even after piercing something, we were able to keep the monsters from spreading out."

"Although it must be really expensive, right?..." The paladin stops talking, while Ryu already knows the cost of this was immense. Normally the Theocracy has thousands of these tungsten stakes used for various things.

They have such a large amount of them that they could surround the entire Theocracy. However, it’s still costly. Repairing all of them after this will cost a true fortune, not to mention they’re often used to lure the enemy in before blowing everything up with an attack.

"Inform the other paladins that fortunately we won’t need to blow anything up, so they can enter the fire barrier without worrying about that." Ryu tells the paladin, who quickly runs off to relay the information using the Theocracy’s new communication artifact.

"This is going to be a problem... how is Stelaria going to deal with this?" Ryu is worried about Stelaria, because she knows that for years Stelaria worked extremely hard to stabilize the Theocracy’s economy, and just when it was starting to improve, this happens.

’I shouldn’t think about that. Using the tungsten stakes was necessary to stop the monsters from advancing...’ Ryu even considered having soldiers form a barrier of shields and magical attacks.

But that would mean risking thousands of lives to stop the monsters’ advance, and it would tire out their troops far too much. The stakes and the fire do almost the same job without the cost of lives and without getting "tired" — at most, worn down.

"Since when did I get so greedy... lives are worth more than a bit of gold... HEY, YOU THREE!" She shouts at three paladins who were getting ready to enter by climbing over a support to jump inside the ring of fire.

"Tell them to raise the stakes a little!! They’ve started tilting downward, and monsters are going to start jumping over them if this keeps up!!" Ryu orders with an authoritative voice, and the paladins quickly head back.

"Hey, are they going to be able to lift those fast enough?" A man dressed entirely in white with equally white armor asks Ryu as he approaches, resting his sword on the support. He’s a high-ranking paladin serving directly under Ryu.

"...Probably not. The stakes are too heavy, and now that they’re covered in flames, the ropes can’t be used the same way as before, so we’ll have to use chains, which is even more exhausting for those who’ll have to pull them by hand since we don’t have enough pulley machines. A section of the defense will inevitably fall."

"But they’ll manage to keep at least a good portion of it... I think... only the stakes on the south side will actually fall to the ground from their own weight, since the ground there is less stable." Ryu tells the paladin, who looks toward the ring of fire.

"The flying monsters have been getting past the defenses. The paladins’ magic team has been handling it well, but these monsters are grabbing civilians, flying very high, and throwing them onto the stakes, just like they’ve been doing to our paladins."

"They seem quite intelligent. It’s scaring the paladins who aren’t used to battle." Not every Raid is the same, so while in one Raid the monsters might be complete instinct-driven beasts, in others they can have a certain level of intelligence, which is the case for the Theocracy, whose Raid has smarter monsters.

"..." Ryu doesn’t quite know what to say about that. It’s an attack; it was obvious that civilians would die, and there’s no way to simply stop the fact that the flying monsters kidnap people and throw them onto the stakes, creating an agonizing, hellish scene to demoralize them.

"There’s not much to do. We can’t remove the stakes just because they’re being... used for that. They’re still holding back the monsters’ advance... but we should reduce casualties. Order all archers to shift their focus to the flying monsters."

"Also, have the mages create a gap, like a trench about five meters from the stakes, and the trench should be three meters wide. That makes it harder for the monsters to try jumping over them while it won’t affect their stability in the ground..."

"It also still allows us to get in there... though it’ll make getting out harder, but I’ll think about that later." She adjusts the orders based on what they need at the moment.

"Understood, Ryu, but... why is Saint Nio up there?" The paladin points to the sky where Nio is hovering in one spot.

"She’s preparing an area-wide strengthening spell... yes, that’s it. Tell everyone that our saints will do everything they can to help them survive!" Ryu decides to use that fact, which is true, to boost the troops’ morale.

"..." The paladin gives a nod and goes off at a much calmer pace to carry out the task he was given, since whether he runs or not in this situation doesn’t change anything.

"Haa... this is still going to take a while to end... I hope it doesn’t start raining. That would be awful..." Ryu murmurs with a tired tone from having to deal with so many problems at once in different places without being able to enter directly, since she’s the one managing the command network.

’Stelaria... I hope she’s okay... I don’t know if it was the best decision to hide her in a safe location while she keeps making constant predictions. She might collapse from using so much blood in that magic...’