Chapter 88: Winter Twilight (Part 2)

“Don’t be hasty,” Roland said. “Not yet.”

Lightning was already in the air, circling with the impatience of someone who had been told to wait and had decided to do that at altitude. She was not afraid — that was what always surprised him. She was twelve years old and circling above a wall that had been fighting demonic beasts for four hours, and there was nothing in her expression that suggested she found this unusual.

“Same pattern as last time,” he said, pitching his voice to reach her. “You’re the lure, not the weapon. It can’t fly but it can jump — when it goes up, you go higher. Keep something between you and it at all times. Maintain your line of retreat.”

“I already know all of that,” she said, with the confidence of someone who genuinely did. “I won’t let it touch my clothes.” And then she was gone, banking south toward the point where the mixed species had breached the outer barrier.

Roland watched her go, then turned. Anna and Nightingale were already at his side, waiting.

“Go. Be careful.”

Nightingale bowed once — the small formal gesture she used when the moment called for it — then took Anna’s hand and pulled them both into the fog-world.

Roland folded his arms behind his back and stood where every militiaman on the wall could see him.

This is the part I can do. He could not hold a pike with any skill that would be useful here. He could not outrun a demonic beast. He could do arithmetic and engineering and logistics, and he could stand at the top of the wall for four hours with his feet going numb and refuse to come down, because everyone fighting below him could see that he was there, and that visibility had a value he could not precisely measure but had learned to trust.

He looked out over the field. This winter’s attacks had been heavier than anything Iron Axe had recorded from the year before — four mixed-species assaults instead of the usual one or two, attack waves that lasted hours instead of minutes, groups of twelve and larger moving out of the treeline. The flintlock production expansion had been the right call; a hundred-man gun team was the reason the killing rate had held. With crossbows, he wasn’t certain they would have managed.

The gunpowder reserves were taking serious damage. He made a mental note — again — to accelerate the production schedule. He was already rationing more carefully than he had at the start of winter, and the end was in sight, but the reserves were thin.

The mixed species had cleared the outer barriers and was moving toward the unguarded section of wall, its scaled-lion body carrying it in long lateral bounds. The militia held their positions, eyes on their own sectors, waiting for the hunter captain’s commands. Then Lightning appeared, swooping low across the beast’s sight line, and lobbed a stone precisely at its skull.

The creature’s attention snapped to her. It jumped — a huge upward arc, wings opening and closing uselessly — and she was already ten feet higher when it crested, hanging there with the casual ease of someone who could stay in the air indefinitely. It landed. She dropped lower, two rooftops ahead. It jumped again.

Methodical, Roland thought. She’s counting the jumps. She knew how many it needed to travel a given distance, and she was deploying that knowledge with the systematic patience of someone who called herself an explorer rather than an adventurer, and meant the distinction seriously.

Seven turns, eight. The creature was deep in the town center now, exactly where Nightingale and Anna were waiting. Its lion-lineage gave it a sharp nose; ordinarily it would have detected them. But Lightning had its attention completely, weaving and teasing with the specific skill of a person who understood that you did not need to be faster than something, only smarter about where to be.

On the far side of the town square, Nightingale emerged from her world of fog moving at full speed, Anna’s hand in hers. Thirty feet. Twenty. The creature hadn’t turned. They were behind it, closing on the tail—

“Attack,” Nightingale said.

Anna’s fire came from somewhere in her chest. Green, detached, expanding — she released it from her fingertips and let it grow outward into a cage of flame that enclosed the mixed species completely. The temperature inside that cage was sufficient to melt steel. The creature had no time to register the shape of what was happening to it before it became part of the fire.

Even at this distance, Roland felt the heat push against his face.

“They’ve managed it,” Wendy said, from beside him. She had taken Nightingale’s position as his guard while the others were engaged. She was watching the green light fade across the rooftops with an expression that was trying to be neutral about the fact that she had been given nothing to do. “I suppose I’m not needed today.”

“I would prefer it stay that way,” Roland said. Then, after a moment: “Nana did well.”

“She did.” Wendy glanced toward the section of wall where, earlier, Nana had been moving among the wounded — steady-handed, efficient, her father one step behind her the entire time. “You let the militia see her today.”

“The militia has been fighting beside witches all winter,” Roland said. “Today I let everyone else see it.” He looked out at the crowd of soldiers on the wall, at the townspeople who had come to their doorways as the fighting near the square drew their attention. “One winter. That’s what it takes.”

The gunfire at the wall’s perimeter was thinning. The groups at the base were fragmenting, pulling back from the wall.

Retreating.

He had not dared to hope for it and now it was happening, and then before he had finished processing it, the first shaft of light appeared — breaking through the clouds above the treeline, a single column of winter sun hitting the snow below and scattering bright. Then a second. Then a dozen, then a hundred, punching through the grey in all directions until the cloud itself seemed to dissolve and the light arrived all at once, too bright to look at directly, and the world that had been grey and cold since the first Months of the Demons horn went suddenly, shatteringly white.

“The day when the sun rises again is the end of all evil.” He had read that in an old account of Border Town’s history, and had thought it was poetry.

The wall went quiet for one breath.

Then the cheering started. Section by section, militia voice by militia voice, building south along the fortifications, and then doors opening in the streets below and townspeople coming out and adding their voices to it, and the sound grew until it was no longer possible to identify separate voices within it but only a single continuous thing that was the whole town at once, celebrating the survival of a winter none of them had been certain they would finish.

Roland stood at the highest point of the wall with his arms still folded behind his back, and the light came down on Border Town, and he let the warmth of it reach his face.

He did not have to perform being moved. He simply was.

Chapter 88 Winter Twilight (Part 2)

“Don’t be so hasty, now isn’t the time to act,” said Roland. He could only sigh when looking at Lightning who was eagerly flying around.

God only knows why she is so interested in fighting against that demonic beast. It’s obvious that she isn’t the fighting type. But, compared with ordinary people this little girl doesn’t even show the least bit of fear.

“Just follow the same pattern we used when dealing with the last one, don’t try to be brave, you’re just a lure so that it will focus its attention onto you. Always maintain a high degree of awareness! Even though it cannot fly, when it jumps up, it’s still a very serious threat!”

”I already know about that,” Lightning spoke with a voice full of confidence, “It isn’t my first fight with something like this. Rest assured, I already know my limit. This time, it won’t even be able to touch my clothes.”

During their talk, the mixed species had come even closer to the wall. It had already crossed the barriers, and leaped in the direction of the unguarded area, trying to climb the wall. But this time, it was ignored by the militia members. They just kept defending their own sector, always waiting for the Hunter Captain’s next stab command.

“Then, we begin the special operations mission against this mixed species!” shouted Roland.

Hearing this, Lightning who was already flying out stopped for a moment and looked back to Roland.

“What’s up?”

“That phrase of your’s…” Lightning thought it through once more, then shook her head, “It seemed slightly strange. Well forget it, I’m off.”

Seeing the little girl’s small figure flying quickly away, Roland turned towards Anna and Nightingale and asked embarrassed, “Did you also thought that it was strange?”

“Well,” they both nodded.

All right… it seems even in this place these two lines were strange, “You both can go now as well. Be careful!”

“Your Highness, take care,” Nightingale bowed to Roland, then she took Anna’s hand and pulled her off into the fog.

Roland put his arms behind his back, standing straight while facing the wind, trying to imitate how a BOSS would look like. He knew that many soldiers, when they had the time to catch their breath, would secretly glance at him. Because of this, even though his feet were already numb, he stood stoically at the highest point of the wall, clearly visible to everyone – demonstrating that the Prince was always on their side. Since he couldn’t put himself into combat, this way he could still serve to inspire them.

This time, the intensity of the demonic beast attacks had exceeded all attacks previous. According to Iron Axe, during last year’s Month of Demons, there would always only appear one or two mixed species. But this year, there were already four attacks of them on Border Town. The duration of these attacks was also unusually long, even now, groups of twelve or even larger would emerge from the forest, always continuing to dash towards the city wall.

Fortunately, the flintlock production has increased in the last month, and I’m now able to send out a team of one hundred armed with flintlocks. Without them, I would have never been able to guarantee such a high killing speed. If we had to use crossbows, I’m afraid killing all of them would have been very difficult.

In the long run, the advantage of guns, which needed less physical exertion, will become even more apparent.

Of course, the large consumption of gunpowder was enough to give Roland a headache, he had already ordered more than twenty packs of explosives from the warehouse, which tore a huge hole in his reserves, so he was already thinking about rationing gunpowder.

At the same moment, Lightning was already flying around the mixed species’s head. She fished a stone from her pocket and threw it at the beast’s head. The stone accurately hit the target’s head, startling it so that it jumped forcefully back, only to discover that the attack actually come from the sky.

To provoke it further, Lighting flew always at a low altitude and directly in front of its head, slowly luring it towards the town center. Although the mixed species certainly had the ability to think, but seeing this annoying little girl flying around in front of it, it didn’t feel any threat. So it immediately pounced up, opened its wings, and in a few jumps it quickly crossed more than a hundred meters. Lightning seeing it prepare for a jump, immediately flew a bit higher and turned around, always keeping a few cottages and a street between herself and the beast.

In this way, after seven or eight turns around, she was finally able to lure it to the town center, which was the ambush location on which Nightingale and she had previously agreed on. As a former lion, its sense of smell was naturally very sensitive, it should even be able to discover Nightingale even when she was in her world of fog. Because of this problem, they had to pull the demonic beast’s attention away from them, before Nightingale and Anna could start their surprise attack.

For this kind of job, Lightning was perfectly suited. She was able to enrage the mixed species so much, that it jumped around like a maniac, with an opened wide mouth, always trying to get at this annoying fly. But Lightning who didn’t have to bear any weight, was always a small distance away from it, always flying up and down teasingly, making each jump fruitless.

At the same time and from another direction Nightingale also arrived at the town square – compared to Lightning, in her world of the fog she could ignore all houses and fences, always moving in a straight line towards her goal. Since Anna’s flame was only able to cover up to ten steps (5 meters),

she had to get close to the mixed species, so she closed on it from behind, hoping to not be discovered.

When they had to face the mixed species for the first time, this part was very troublesome. However, now it was already their second run against this kind of mixed species and Nightingale had already gotten fully familiar with Anna’s attack. So when they still were thirty feet away from the beast, she raised her speed to the limit, covering the distance in an instant, as if it was in only a single step. When Anna was able to see again, she discovered that the mixed species’ tail was already directly in front of her face.

“Attack, now,” cried, Nightingale.

Around Anna, the black and white world swapped away like a wave. Within the blink of an eye, she was back to the familiar towns square. Directly releasing her green flame from the tip of her finger and expanding it into a great fire cage, covering the whole demonic beast.

Facing this flame, Nightingale had to hurriedly retreat, even only feeling the heat wave, was already enough to make her feel like she was burning.

Enclosed by the cage of fire, which was even able to melt steel, the mixed species did not have any time to struggle, it instantly turned into a ball of flame and crushingly fell to the ground.

“It seems they were already able to solve the problem,” Wendy informed him when she discovered the green flame in the distance. In the absence of Nightingale, it was her turn to protect Roland, “It seems like I won’t get any part in the play…”

“If possible, I would like it if it could stay this way,” Roland answered, still maintaining his straight stance, pretending like he was riding along an easy road. Having said that, he still knew, that without the help of the witches defending the town, the jumping mixed species would have thrown the militia once more into chaos.

But today, even Nana had come to the walls, giving fast treatment to the injured soldiers. Her father was always at her side, protecting her. Today

was the first time that Roland publicized the power of the witches in front of all the militiamen, and he was very pleased. Within the ranks, the love for their angel Nana rose to new highs, but when Anna and Nightingale killed the mixed species together, the crowd also began to cheer loudly.

Of course, he clearly knew that not everyone wouldn’t mind them, such a situation like with the militia was very rare. But when they were fully accepted by the militia, he would still try to get them accepted by the whole town.

Suddenly, the sound of gunfire began to taper off, and Roland noticed that the demonic beasts began to evacuate the wall. Are they finally retreating? He couldn’t believe his eyes. But just at this moment, a beam of light broke through the thick clouds, covering the ground, followed by a second, then a third… Soon, tens of thousands ray of lights broke through the holes within the clouds. Then all the light beams merged into one, becoming dazzling and unable to look at. The earth had suddenly brightened up.

“The day when the sun rises again is the end of all evil.”

There was a short moment of stillness on the wall, but then, a wave of cheering swept across the wall, towards the direction of Border Town. Gradually, the townspeople came out of the houses and also started to cheer. Welcoming the long missed sunshine, celebrating their surviving of the winter, or in order to thank the Prince. In the end, all the cheering merged into a flood, resounding throughout the entire Border Town!