Chapter 15. A Magic-Eating Crystal Forced Me to Win with Basic Swordsmanship

Chapter 15: 15. A Magic-Eating Crystal Forced Me to Win with Basic Swordsmanship

She looked at me... and I don’t know how many times she’s going to look at me like that. Starting to think that she’s developing some feelings for me now.

What did I think of that? Well, of course... I’m just so goated with all my decisions.

Anyway... The way she looked at me right now... she held it long enough that I started to wonder whether I’d said something wrong, but of course... I’ll never say anything wrong, ever, because I think before I speak.

"You say strange things," she said at last.

"I get that a lot... and it’s not surprising from someone like me," I smiled, even though I said before that I always think before what I say.

But she stopped walking five feet away from me after that, and I felt like I’d won something... at least.

By late afternoon, we were deep in Blackthorn Forest, and I didn’t like it one bit. This place really gives me the creeps, and I don’t know what’s lurking out there.

It’s the kind of woodland where the trees grow so close together that the sky becomes a rumor. The trunks were black and twisted, the underbrush was thick with thorny vines, and the path itself was barely wide enough for a cart.

Something you would only find in a horror-type situation, and that’s why I’m on high alert immediately while staring at Alicia and Laura.

And there’s Martin... that guy had gone completely silent, and I could hear him breathing through his mouth.

I realized that I’d been hearing something for the last several minutes, which was nothing whatsoever. And what’s even worse is that the birds had stopped chirping.

"Laura," I said. "Now’s the best time to find what’s wrong with our surroundings."

"I know." She had already drawn her sword. "This quietness... it’s something that we shouldn’t underestimate."

"And the wheel tracks went off to the left a hundred meters back."

"I saw that too."

Alicia drifted back beside Martin and put a hand in front of him just to guard him. "Stay close to me... If I tell you to get down, you get down, understood?"

He nodded so hard, and I thought that his head might fall off.

Oh, it will fall off alright... if he tries to make a humorous move on my Alicia.

Then...

The ambush came a few seconds later, and it came from everywhere.

SWOOOOSSSHHH!

Arrows whistled out of the dark, thudding into the trunks around us, and a dozen men in dark gear burst out of the undergrowth on both sides of the path. They weren’t like the bandits in Dunmore.

These dickheads had matching armor, crossbows with proper stocks, and a way of moving that suggested they’d done this before. A short man at the back raised a polished brass rod and flicked it twice, and I realized that he was giving some kind of signals.

"Roland!" Alicia shouted. "Your left!"

I was already moving. Combat Instinct painted the whole fight in my head with the three archers on the left ridge, two swordsmen cutting toward Martin, and a spell glyph glowing on the ground between us and Laura.

I planted myself in the middle of the path and slapped an arrow out of the air with the flat of my blade.

CLANG!

"Martin, behind the cart!" Laura barked, and then she was gone, sprinting along the right side of the trail with her sword flashing.

What happened next was the best team fight I’d ever been part of... it’s like watching an anime fight scene in the making, and I mean that even though I’d only been fighting seriously for two days.

Alicia took the left flank. She was faster than she’d been the day before, because the Shared Knight’s Blessing had upgraded her speed and her stamina, and she danced through the archers’ fire with a grace that made me proud of her in a way I couldn’t have explained.

She smashed a crossbow out of a man’s hands, put a boot in his chest, and used the shield she’d borrowed from a villager to knock two arrows out of the air.

Laura did what Laura does. She moved through the enemy ranks with cold, absolute precision, every stroke exactly where it needed to be, and the bandits on the right were forced to scatter into three small groups.

She was spectacular, and she was also drawing every bit of attention in the forest. I noticed it a second before she did.

They were funneling their best fighters at her because she was the most experienced knight, and they wanted her down first.

"Laura, they’re boxing you in!" I yelled.

"I know!"

"Then stop making it easy for them!"

"I’m busy, shut up!"

"I can tell!"

I cut across the path toward her, and that was when I figured out how the other side was organized. The short guy with the brass rod wasn’t fighting at all.

Every time he flicked it, a squad of bandits changed direction, so it was less a pack of thieves and more a puppeteer with a stage. I started watching the rod instead of the swords, and suddenly the pattern made sense.

Three flicks meant retreat, two meant flank, and one meant focus fire.

Holy shit! How did I come up with that?! I really am a genius!

I picked up a rock the size of my fist and threw it as hard as I could.

BAGGG!

It hit the brass rod dead center and snapped it out of the man’s hand. He let out a high yelp and clutched his fingers, and for about five seconds the entire bandit line lost its rhythm.

"Over here, dickheads!"

It was enough time for me to jump a fallen log, cut down two of them, and haul Laura out of a trap by the back of her cuirass just before it closed.

A circle of green light snapped shut where her feet had been, and the ground under it cracked.

"A snare glyph..." she said, breathless. "Thank you."

"Thank me later... Right now there’s a guy behind you."

She spun, and her blade went through his guard like it wasn’t there. A moment later someone swung at my back, and Laura’s sword came out of nowhere to turn the blow aside.

I hadn’t even seen it coming. We ended up back to back for a moment, breathing hard, and I felt something warm and absurdly simple settle in my chest.

I trusted her. I’d known her for two days, and I trusted her in my back.

It’s a strange feeling, and I liked it more than I expected... maybe there’s some kind of development coming from her for me.

Can’t wait~!

"Left!" Alicia yelled. "Roland, the one with the pendant!"

I looked and spotted him. The man in charge was a broad, shaved-headed brute in a steel cuirass, and he’d just stepped out of the trees holding a glowing blue crystal the size of a fist.

As we watched, he slammed it into a socket on his chest plate, and the whole thing lit up like a lantern.

"Oh... shit," I said.

He moved faster than a man his size had any right to. One second he was twenty feet away, and the next he was in front of me, swinging a mace that left a trail of blue sparks in the air.

I threw myself sideways, and the mace hit the ground and dug a crater half a meter deep.

BAMMM!

"Oh wow... That’s not fair," I said.

"Is it supposed to be?" Laura shouted and cut at his flank.

Her sword rang against the plate and glanced off.

SLASSHH!

I pulled on Aether, reaching for the energy under my skin, and pushed it down my arm and into my blade until it glowed pale gold. "EAT THISSS!"

I swung hard at his shoulder. The edge hit his armor, and the light fizzled out like a candle dunked in water.

"What the hell...?" I said and jumped back from a second mace swing. "It’s eating my magic!!!"

"The crystal drains energy," Alicia called. "I can feel it pulling at me too!"

Ohhhh... That made sense, in a terrible way...

The thing wasn’t just a power source. It was soaking up all the loose magic around us and feeding it straight into the brute’s body, and the more we used, the stronger he got.

So I did what any logical person would, which was to stop using it.

I dropped the Aether and went back to basic fighting, the kind I’d learned the hard way, and I tried to think.

The crystal was mounted in a bracket on his chest, held in place by metal clamps. If somebody broke the clamps, then the crystal would drop out and the power would cut.

And that’s probably going to be our winning condition.

"Laura!" I yelled. "I need you to keep him busy for a few seconds!"

"How many is a few seconds!?"

"Uhh... I don’t know, probably five?"

"Five seconds of keeping a crystal-powered giant busy...? Sure, I’ll just do that!"

"Gee, thanks~! You’re the best!"

"I’m going to kill you later!"

"Yeesh..."

She went in, and I would like to remember the next five seconds forever, because they might have been the most courageous thing I’d ever seen.

She slipped under the mace, drew his attention with a cut across his knee, and danced just outside his reach... and damn, it was close enough to make him furious and far enough not to be crushed.

This female knight got that fucking skill, alright. She literally made him chase her in a circle, and every time he swung, she was somewhere else.

"Alicia, the clamps!"

"On it!"