"My lord, in a moment, don't stray too far from me." Ashina gripped Field's arm and said in a low voice, "I'm confident I can break us out."
Field understood her meaning and nodded. "I will. But until the last moment, I'd rather not run."
"Drop the carts here for now. Get the crossbows out and nocked." Field had learned from last time and made a point of bringing crossbows.
"Hoo-hoo!" A dwarf-shaped monster vaulted the broken wall on long arms, landed on a guard, split its huge mouth wide, and began to bite. "Skreee-skreee~" — the scale armor screeched under its teeth.
The guard jolted in terror and thrashed wildly, but couldn't fling the thing off.
Luckily Ashina reacted fast and cleaved the monster in two with her long blade.
"This is... a corrupted monkey?"
Long arms, long legs, and a tail — a monkey, no doubt.
As if at some signal, all of Rum Village came to a boil; dwarf-fiends bounded everywhere in a black, churning mass, like a surging muddy torrent.
Field forced himself calm, sweeping the little map fast, working hard to calculate — one wrong step could trap them all in a death-ground. "Run — head southeast, there's a large courtyard there!"
One, two, ten — more and more dwarf-corpses clambered over Rum Village's ruins and leapt into Field's view.
"Loose!" At Field's command, the guards — long awaiting the moment — triggered their crossbows. The bounding monkey-monsters burst into blossoms of blood, as if they'd struck an invisible wall, bodies dropping all across the ground.
"Clear the way." Ashina swept a hand; the dragonkin wolf surged forward, spewing deadly flame as it drove ahead.
Ashina herself decisively took the rear. Five monkey-monsters lunged at once; the instant they fell into a single line, Ashina's form flashed out, her long cavalry blade sweeping through. After the cold flash, all five were cut in half at the waist, scattering blood as they dropped.
From the corner of her eye she caught a monster scrambling along the ground at speed, meaning to spring up for a sneak attack. Ashina lifted one snow-white, lovely leg and stamped hard on its head. Splat — the head burst, eyeballs popping loose and rolling away.
Buying time with Ashina's effort, Field led the men in a fast dash into the large courtyard; the guards beside him had already hauled stones and rotted furniture to block the gate.
"It's not safe here — fall back further, take cover in the buildings." Field checked the little map again; the tide of red markers stretched beyond sight. The one comfort was that the monsters' goal wasn't him — they were running in another direction, and had only happened to brush past Rum Village.
"Block the gate, rest in shifts. They're just passing through; they'll move on soon." Field pumped everyone up.
With the dragonkin wolf, Ashina, and the troops, holding the gate wasn't hard.
Before long the corrupted monkeys launched a storm of attacks.
But Field's formation was a stubborn dike. The guards held at the gate; fully armored, even paired with heavy shields, and the monkeys simply couldn't break through.
Ashina's giant wolf was all the more a flamethrowing tank — its thick armor wouldn't pop loose a single scale even when wrapped up by corrupted creatures like a rice dumpling. Its only drawback was that Ashina was again forced off her mount and into the role of infantry.
Field panted hard, his heart pounding. The cursed land's dread name was no idle rumor; that he was still alive owed no small part to luck.
"I have to get a high wall up fast." Rubbing his brow, Field was grateful the monsters hadn't been heading for the Grand Winery.
The men covered one another and held for half an hour before the monster tide slowly faded.
"Whew. So tired."
Ashina drew her long blade and flicked the foul blood off it. Chosen or not, her strength had limits, and this was the largest corpse tide she'd met since coming to the Nightfall Territory. Mercifully, the last corrupted monkey was cut down, and the monsters all around were wiped clean.
"You've worked hard." Watching Ashina drenched in fragrant sweat, Field's heart ached for her. She'd had to hold the line, deal damage, and keep easing the defensive pressure on the others — thanks to her presence, not one guard had died.
You could say everyone was dead weight dragging Ashina down, but training the guards was necessary all the same.
Ashina blinked playfully. "Hmph-hmph. No meal comes free."
"Thank you, Lady Ashina." The guards thanked her too, abashed — and their eyes held no more hostility or wariness, only simple reverence.
The humans of this world weren't like those folk on Earth with their eccentric tastes; they'd always recoiled from demi-humans, seeing them as monsters bred between beasts and humans, unclean things.
"Rest half an hour, then we move." Field poked a monster's body with his sword, curious about its build and its purpose in migrating.
Rum Village had endured ten years of corruption; most of its houses had collapsed, windows shattered. Call it a village, but it was really one big rubbish heap; Field hadn't held out much hope.
When the break was over—
"Five to a group, go search for spoils. Anything useful, take it."
The Nightfall Territory lacked everything; pots, pans, even scraps of wood had their uses.
Setting the mist-dispelling lamp at the village center, Field surveyed Rum Village, weighing whether it could serve as a stronghold.
Ashina toured the village and came back to report: "My lord, I noticed a strange plant just now, in one of the farm cottages — glowing with a green light. I sensed magic power in it."
"Oh? Let's take a look." Field shot to his feet; the word "magic" was especially alluring. "Could it be one of those heaven-and-earth treasures from the novels?"
They came to a house on the village's west side. The main structure had collapsed, but the courtyard's outer wall was built of stacked stone rather than a crude fence, so it had survived well.
Field spotted the small patch of green plants at a glance, glowing with flecks of starlight, as if by the very instinct of life. He hurried over at once and began studying it, curious.
"Looks a bit like bok choy that's just broken the soil." Field reached out a finger and poked it.
A strange smell surged up his nose.
"Achoo!" Field sneezed hard.
Seeing Field choke, Ashina gave a soft laugh. "My lord, don't go touching strange things at random."
"Wait — are you all right?" Seeing Field turn woozy, his eyes glazing over, Ashina got a fright and hurried forward to check.
The veins at Field's temple throbbed violently; sweat beaded across his skin, and a certain part of him reacted at once.
He'd caught the lovely scent on Ashina's body.
As if he couldn't control himself, Field's hand shot out and seized Ashina's wrist.