by Yusuke Kishi
“Get back!”
We quickly retreated thirty or forty meters to avoid the rock. But as if it had seen us move, the next one came right toward us again. They were sniping us.
“Where are they?” Satoru yelled in frustration. “They’re watching us somehow. Saki, look for them!”
The spy should be nearby. But how should I look for him? If they were disguised like the tree fighters, it wouldn’t be easy. I was at a loss. There was a break in the attacks; the fourth wave hadn’t come yet. They probably needed time to prepare the rocks.
I had a sudden realization. Just following our movements was useless. The spy also had to be able to relay our position to the soldiers.
“Satoru, fall back!”
We retreated another thirty meters. There was still no sign of the spy. But what I was really looking for was the signal.
“Over there!” I pointed to the top of the thicket.
A bamboo stalk waved as if in a breeze, but the movement was clearly unnatural.
“That’s how they know our position!”
I didn’t need to say any more. Flames erupted violently from the stalk and burned with thick black smoke. A blood curdling wail echoed around us.
“We have to move now. Should we retreat?”
“No, keep going.”
Satoru started forward, and all the scattered queerats suddenly reappeared and went into formation.
“Gods, gods,” Squealer panted, “thank goodness you’re unhurt. With this, victory is in our hands. Please bring the hammer of justice down upon these evil Ground Spiders.”
“Stop trying to butter us up,” I snapped at him. “You said this path was safe. How in the world is this safe? There’s been nothing but ambushes the whole time.”
“I am deeply sorry,” Squealer bowed his head. “We sent out a scout earlier and he came back completely unscathed.”
“Isn’t that obvious? They didn’t want your scout, they were waiting for us.”
“That’s enough. We’ve come this far anyway,” Satoru said, grabbing my arms. “Let’s hurry and settle this so we can go home.”
Oh really, I thought. Something was off about him. In addition to being tired, I thought he seemed to be having trouble focusing his eyes. The boulder he had failed to block earlier came to mind. The usual Satoru would never make such a huge mistake.
“We cant keep going this way though. We still don’t know where the rocks are coming from,” I said uncertainly. “We should go back.”
“No,” Satoru shook his head. “The battle has already started. Turning back is suicide.”
“But if we leave the forest, we’ll be attacked by the rocks. And we can’t travel through the forest either because we don’t know what traps are here.”
“I will send scouts ahead,” Squealer said, as if trying to get back into our good graces. “We will find where they are catapulting the boulders from. And with the gods’ help, we can strike them down one by one…”
“Don’t make it sound so easy. Satoru is tired.”
Squealer threw me a deeply suspicious look. I realized I had made a mistake. Even though they might have suspected it earlier, now they probably knew for sure that I couldn’t use cantus.
Taking my silence as consent, Squealer started giving orders in his high-pitched queerat language. The Robber Fly soldiers spread out into the bamboo thicket instantly. Even though they had suffered extreme losses so far, their morale was as high as ever.
But a number of them returned within two minutes and made an anxious report to Squealer. He turned to face us. Although I couldn’t read queerat expressions, it looked like he had serious news.
“On the other side of the bamboo forest is an open area unobstructed by trees. It appears that the enemy’s main force is spread out over there.”
“Then we have the advantage since they’re easy to spot, right?”
“That…how should I say this? Please come see for yourself. This time I am positive that there are no enemies hiding in the thicket.”
Dubious, we followed Squealer through the forest. After about forty or fifty meters, we could see through to the other side. We crouched down to make ourselves less visible and crept forward slowly.
There was an open area of a hundred square meters. The Ground Spiders had felled the trees near their colony to prepare a site for the final battle.
“Amazing…” I said.
The sight of the clamoring troops could only be described as spectacular. Their armor and weapons glittered in the midday sun.
“Three thousand of them divided into five troops,” Satoru said, awed.
“But they’re all in the open, so it’ll be easy to beat them, right?”
I thought Satoru would agree immediately, but he thought for a while.
“It’s not a given.”
“Why?”
“Look at that formation. The heavily armored foot soldiers are at the front and the archers are hiding behind them.”
It was the phalanx formation commonly used in ancient Greece. The frontline had heavy shields and spears, preventing the enemy from penetrating the troop. If that row falls, the one behind would take its place, like a shark replacing its teeth.
“And that’s not all. See all the rocks in the back? The group next to it is probably the catapult.”
“Catapult? Where?”
Then I understood.
“You mean the group itself is the catapult?”
They were too far away for me to get a close look, but the group of queerats near the rocks were the most extremely morphed out of all the ones I’ve see so far. The tree fighters and mole troop didn’t even compare. They were huge; around three meters tall, with unbelievably long torsos that stretched and shrank like accordions and enormous muscled arms thicker than their bodies…
The ten members of the catapult troop working in tandem could throw a rock weighing hundreds of kilograms over a hundred and fifty meters into the air. Of course, I didn’t learn about this, or that they were called the catapult troop, until a long time later.
“Using cantus to wipe out the armored troop will take a long time. During that time, the archers and catapults will be firing, so we’ll have no choice but to block them. Then our position will be revealed and gradually the attacks will become more focused. In the end, we won’t have the time to attack and it’ll become a defensive fight for us.” Satoru sighed. “Actually, that’s not all. …something’s been weird for a while now.”
“What is?”
Satoru lowered his voice so that Squealer couldn’t hear. “It’s probably just because I’m tired, but I’m having a hard time concentrating. I can’t form an image properly.”
That was the worst. I looked up to the sky.
“Then, you can’t use your cantus anymore?”
“No, I can, but I’m at a disadvantage facing such a huge troop all at once.”
I knew that we should have run away after defeating the poison gas group on the hill. At that time, Satoru would have had enough energy left to beat the enemies that came after us. We could have escaped. But swayed by Squealer’s words and drunk on his victory, Satoru lost his powers of judgment. He shouldn’t keep sacrificing himself.
But there’s no use regretting something that’s already happened. Now, the only way to stay alive was to use our brains.
“Gods.”
At some point, Squealer had sidled up beside us. He called out to us with a concerned expression.
“We’re thinking about how to defeat the Ground Spiders right now. Don’t interfere.” I glared at the queerat strategist, but he didn’t back down.
“My apologies. But it looks like the enemy is moving.”
“Huh?”
We looked back at the troops. The five groups were slowly changing their positions. The center group hadn’t moved, but the two on either side had advanced slightly. Then the two groups on the outside reduced the distance between each other by half. In other words, they had
spread out into a V-shaped formation in preparation to attack.
Crane wing formation, called that because it resembles the spread wings of a crane. Originally a defensive formation used to surround attackers, the Ground Spiders probably had a different idea in mind. In other words, by stretching the frontline out to the side, they were decentralizing the targets vulnerable to cantus attacks while increasing their own angles of attack, making it harder for us to defend…
The reader might wonder how Satoru and I knew all the detailed warfare terminology we’ve been using. Of course, at the time, we had no idea. Books relating to war are either class three–forbidden, or class four–knowledge that must never see the light of day. The knowledge I’m writing about here are all things I learned much later on, discovered in the basement of the ruined library. “Invincible Conquests·A Complete Strategy Guide”.
Let’s get back on topic. In the face of the enemy’s impressive formation, we were at a complete stalemate.
“What do we do?” Shamefully, that was the only thing I could say. I couldn’t use my cantus, and I didn’t have the brains to come up with a solution.
“Well, we can only watch for now,” Satoru closed his eyes, trying to recover his energy a bit.
“Isn’t it better to run? Instead of meeting them head on, going into the forest…”
“We can’t. The reason they’re not attacking us directly is because they’re afraid of our power. They still think we’re hunting them. If we run, they’ll see our weakness and come after us.”
Nonetheless, sooner or later the enemy will question our lack of aggression and go all out on us.
That prediction came true sooner than I expected.
One of the archers stepped forward and let loose the opening shot that flew toward us with a loud buzz. The arrow went way over our heads.
A rain of arrows followed. We covered ourselves, but we could hear the wails of the queerats behind us.
“Shit. Should we retaliate?” Satoru opened his eyes.
“Not yet!” I said frantically. “They’re looking to see how we’ll respond.”
“Then not responding will just make them more confident.”
“If we retaliate half-heartedly, they’ll figure out the extent of our power. On the other hand, not doing anything will creep them out. They won’t expect that we’re waiting out the attack.”
“But, at this rate…”
The lead troop of the crane wing formation was advancing steadily. What should we do?
“Squealer!” I called the queerat waiting behind us.
“Yes. How may I be of service?”
“Where is the enemy’s base…its headquarters?”
“It has not been confirmed, but I believe it is straight ahead in the woods on the other side. The last line of defense for every colony is always in front of the headquarters.”
“Satoru! Set those trees on fire!”
He understood my plan and focused straight ahead.
Usually, it would take but a second for him to set something on fire, but this time it took a couple of seconds. But as the leaves of the Japanese snowbell tree started smoking and burst into flames, the enemy stopped. The rear guard rushed back to the nest and started hacking into roots of the burning trees with axes. It was a primitive way of destructive firefighting, but a few minutes later, the flames went out.
“Should I burn it more?”
“Wait. Let’s see what they do.”
We had to prevent Satoru from using his cantus ineffectively and wasting his energy.
If the enemy advanced, we could threaten them by attacking their home base. But I didn’t know to what extent it would work.
For a while, the Ground Spiders did nothing and waited. Then what looked like a messenger emerged from the nest and they started moving forward again.
“The queen’s been evacuated through the underground tunnels,” Satoru whispered. “They’ve taken care of what matters most. This time they’ll come at us seriously.”
Squealer let out a high pitched cry and ran off. His subordinates followed.
“This is it, huh,” Satoru sighed.
Once again, volleys of arrows flew toward us. Compared to the earlier attack, this was much greater. The sky was filled with arrows that fell on us like hail.
At the same time, the five catapult troops started launching boulders.
Chapter 6
Most of the boulders flew over our heads and slammed into the ground behind us. The few that were closer thankfully went in the wrong directions.
“They don’t know where we are,” I said in a low voice. “Run!”
Amazingly, even at this stage, Satoru still refused to move.
“No.”
“But…!”
“If we retreat, they’ll advance with a full powered attack. In this situation, you can’t go anywhere.”
“So we’re just going to wait to be defeated?”
I looked through the bamboo stalks at the Ground Spider troop. Without breaking formation they advanced slowly but steadily, keeping a careful watch on their surroundings. They would be here in two or three minutes.
“If only we could throw them off the trail somehow,” Satoru muttered.
Something clicked in my mind.
“Satoru, how much longer can you use your cantus?”
“I’m not sure, two or three more times? Depends on how hard it is to create the images,” Satoru rubbed his temples as if he had a headache.
“Deflect one of the boulders that’s farthest away from us.”
“What good would that…” he suddenly understood. “Got it.”
Using cantus requires a clear field of vision, but if he got any closer to the edge of the bamboo forest, the Ground Spiders might see him. We retreated into the forest, trying to find an area with a good view of the sky. When we found a rocky area without any bamboo, Satoru took a deep breath. As if he were using his cantus for the first time, Satoru chanted his mantra with immense concentration, trying to unify his thoughts.
Suddenly a boulder appeared from the west. I couldn’t tell where it was going to land, or how far it would go, but judging from the height, it would be far enough away from here.
The boulder stopped dead as if it had hit a wall. There were surprised cries from the enemy.
“Take this!” Satoru gritted his teeth and made a movement like he was hitting something on the ground.
The rock rocketed toward the ground like a meteor.
Since we couldn’t see the troops from here, it was a shot in the dark. Everything was riding on Satoru’s luck. I clasped my hands and prayed that it would hit.
There was a dreadful wail that filled me with foreboding, followed by excited shouts. Then there was the sound of clanging armor as the soldiers rushed about.
I crept forward. From between the dense growth, I saw three thousand heavily armed queerats running around in a frenzy. Not a hint of their perfect formation remained. In preparation for a cantus attack, they scattered themselves as much as possible.
I quickly found the place where the boulder landed. There was a giant crater in the ground, around which lay the corpses of numerous queerats. It seemed like one of the catapult troops had taken a direct hit. Judging from the angle, it was probably the troop that had launched the rock in the first place. I couldn’t think of a more fitting revenge. For the enemies, they probably really felt that they were battling with gods.
An even more ideal scenario would be if they lost the will to fight completely. But of course, that was just a dream. Once the confusion had settled, the Ground Spiders moved to counterattack.
They launched just as many boulders as before, and even more arrows tore through the air. The difference was that this time everything was concentrated on one small area.
“There’s no one there where you’re attacking,” I said, relieved that they had fallen for the trap. “We should escape while we can.”
“Wait. Let me do it one more time,
just to make sure.”
Satoru took a deep breath and clenched his fists.
“Don’t push yourself.”
He was obviously having trouble staying on his feet. Sweat beaded his forehead.
“I’m fine. Just one more time.”
We retreated into the forest again and looked up at the sky. It came. A huge stone, tracing a parabola through the air.
This time, he didn’t stop it, but sent it flying off in a different direction. There was a sharp warning cry. The rock disappeared from our view, and crashed noisily into the ground. It sounded like an explosion. Broken shards clattered as they bounced off the bamboo stalks. Is it possible for the debris to fly all the way here? I was a little worried.
“They’ve definitely taken more damage this time.” Satoru said triumphantly, but there was no energy in his voice. He was probably at his limit.
“Okay, let’s get out of here!”
The battlefield was to the north, if we came out through the bamboo forest in the south, the Ground Spider troops might spot us from the west. We turned east and started making our way through the shady forest. Quickly. Quietly. Making sure that we remained concealed.
We wove our way through the dense growths of bamboo. The ground was uneven and full of fallen bamboo and creeping vines that blocked our path. The branches scratched at our faces and snagged at our feet. Walking even a short distance was exhausting. When we had first followed Squealer into the forest, the path must have been cleared in advance.
“It’s okay. Don’t worry. We’ll definitely get home.”
“Mhm,” Satoru was just managing to stagger along behind me. His eyes were blank and he was barely talking.
Just a little more. Just a little more until we get out of here. Once we get out of this maze-like forest, we can return by our original path.
I came to a halt as I thought about how Shun and the others were doing. Turning toward Satoru, I put my finger to my lips.
Even without listening carefully, I could hear it. Conversation. The piercingly high-pitched voices of queerats.
We got down on our hands and knees and crawled into a depression in the ground. In front of us were broken stalks of bamboo entwined in dried vines. We were completely hidden from the queerats, but their sharp sense of smell worried me. I hoped that we were upwind.
