Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem-Chapter 444: Casualties
Nora cleaned her dagger on the barbarian’s back before letting his body drop to the ground. She nodded to Soara before taking a step back and disappearing into the shadows of the city wall.
Soara’s eyebrows rose slightly before she nodded in appreciation. Nora was better at this kind of thing than Soara had expected and compared to her straightforward combat. Soara snuck a glance toward Zach, who was watching everything with tired but fully attentive eyes.
She couldn’t help but wonder if the fact that he only summoned battle maid variants had something to do with Nora. She was a battle maid who had been by his side since they were young, after all.
If his beautiful childhood friend was a battle maid, it was understandable if he had a thing for them.
Zach noticed Soara’s gaze and waved at her. Soara returned the wave with a smile and a light bow before turning toward the other two fights.
Alzara had landed two curses on the barbarian with daggers. She would win in a few minutes.
Mandra…
She apparently found the sword’s magic-nullifying abilities interesting. Instead of ending the fight, she was studying the sword by targeting it with different kinds of magic. The barbarian was confused and stressed but unable to do anything.
He had tried to retreat after Soara won her battle, but Mandra stood in the way. As soon as he took a step toward the side to slink past her, she did not hesitate to turn up the heat. The barbarian would have to risk turning into a piece of charcoal if he wanted to flee.
It was a hopeless situation. But the barbarian didn’t stop fighting. He entertained Mandra’s whim while constantly looking for an opening to flee.
They had underestimated the importance the Empire put on Rittel for them to have sent such strong warriors to its aid. He had to report this back to tribal chiefs and shamans. If he couldn’t do that, he hoped they would understand by their passing that there were strong people in Rittel.
And in a war like this, where each side couldn’t have too many combatants, there was no way the Empire would waste their manpower for something unimportant. There was a secret about Rittel that the barbarians didn’t know about.
The barbarian with the straight and thin sword had to report this. He was willing to sacrifice his life for it.
Unfortunately, not even his life could pay the toll of passing Mandra. Once he committed to fleeing Rittel, he had already thrown away his life since Mandra couldn’t get him to agree to let her experiment on his sword. That meant he had served his purpose.
With the final warrior barbarian dead, it was only a matter of time before Rittel won this battle.
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Mandra grabbed the sword from the fallen barbarian and looked up to see that the others were already done. She bowed apologetically toward Zach for taking so long to finish the fight and for getting caught up in her curiosity.
Zach didn’t care about that. They weren’t in a rush, and the fight outside the city was still going on. The barbarians had started to recover from the light and some had even started adjusting to the darkness, but it was too little too late. Rittel’s troops had an overwhelming advantage by now and no longer needed to make use of their sight to win the fight. They could rely on their numbers and morale to stampede the lightly armored barbarians.
Slowly, the barbarians started to pull back, unable to resist the Rittel troops. They didn’t signal a retreat. The barbarians just felt individually pushed back as they saw their friends and comrades cut down next to them. They fought back, of course, but once they took that first step backward, it had already become a losing fight.
The Rittel troops pursued the barbarians for a while before the commanders ordered a retreat back into the city. The win was intoxicating, and they wanted to cut down every last barbarian when they had the chance.
But if they followed too long, the barbarians would have the opportunity to regain their advantage or maybe even get reinforcements. They had the advantage in terrain outside the city. They were dressed for and more used to fighting in the darkness in the wild.
The eastern soldiers had training for similar scenarios, but they hadn’t lived the same lives as the barbarians. Pursuing them recklessly was a bad idea. They had to stop when it was still their win.
Tired but mostly satisfied, the soldiers dragged themselves and their injured or dead comrades into the city.
Their victory was cause for celebration. But at the same time, the barbarians were formidable foes, and they had lost several dozen valiant men and women. It was only a fraction of what the barbarians lost in comparison, but how could they not grieve the loss of their own?
The mood in the city was mixed. Some were happy, some were sad, and some didn’t know what to think or feel. But one thing was true for almost everyone. They could sleep well knowing that they had a guardian angel watching them and keeping them safe.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t purely metaphorical. Zach had an angel by his side, after all.
He had stabilized Storum. He had helped the injured in Rittel before saving numerous lives with his familiars’ magic and then devising a plan to turn the tables on the barbarians. If he was a traitor, the rest of them couldn’t even be considered human.
Zach did not think much about how this had changed the way the others looked at him. He stood on the wall and silently looked out over the trampled fields.
Most if not all of Rittel’s casualties had been cleaned up.
Now, it was time for the barbarians to collect theirs.
Zach’s expression was grim as he looked at the barbarians holding up black flags, signaling their intent to honor and care for their dead. Naturally, Rittel didn’t stop them.
But they watched.
Zach looked toward the skies. The clouds had scattered, revealing the stars and moon.
He didn’t like war. Explore stories on novelbuddy
