Previously
Kalinin and Billy discuss the absurdity of Henrietta turning the carriage parking lot into a flower drying area and bringing tea sets into the barracks. Despite her eccentricities, the 24th squad has grown to accept Henrietta as a comrade, even teasing her about her new muscles.
In front of the Chapel of the Wheat Ears stood a temporary treatment station swiftly assembled by medics and priests from other denominations.
Watching the wounded flood into the station, Henrietta stood in a daze, nearly out of her senses. Looking over their faces, she recognized people she had exchanged cheerful greetings with only a short while ago. Men who had been perfectly whole were now being carried in on stretchers, bathed in blood.
Some had limbs twisted at unnatural angles, while others gasped for breath with flesh torn so wide that bone showed through, as if ripped apart by bears.
“Private Matyas! Matyas! Henrietta!”
Only when Amelia called her name a third time did Henrietta finally come to her senses.
“Yes? Oh, Amelia!”
“Are you just going to stand there? Pull yourself together!”
“R-right. What should I do first?”
Henrietta asked hurriedly. If they were to save even one more wounded soldier, this was no time to freeze up.
“Private Matyas, sort the wounded. Tie a white ribbon around the wrist of anyone with minor injuries. Use a red ribbon if they’ve lost a limb or are bleeding heavily. If they don’t have a hand, tie it to their ankle. And if they look beyond saving, use a black ribbon.”
Henrietta was taken aback by the ruthless, cold triage.
“What kind of condition counts as beyond saving?”
Amelia replied flatly.
“You have to judge that for yourself.”
“!”
Leaving it at that, Amelia thrust the colored ribbons into her hands and turned away in a hurry.
Henrietta’s heart hammered with anxiety. The colored ribbons felt impossibly heavy in her grasp. Based solely on her judgment, some would be deemed hopeless and denied even basic care.
The crushing weight of responsibility pressed down on her, but looking at the groaning soldiers, she could not simply stand around like a fool.
Henrietta ran toward the soldiers who had just been carried in. Yet their uniforms looked unfamiliar, and their injuries appeared far more severe than anything she had seen so far.
“Are these men not part of our unit?”
she asked the priests examining them.
“They are heavy cavalry from the Stampede’s first line of defense. That is why their wounds are so severe.”
“Ah. I see.”
Henrietta hurried to classify their injuries, helping the priests administer basic first aid. Possessing even a modest amount of healing divine power, the priests were able to temporarily stem massive hemorrhaging or dull the pain enough to ward off shock.
Watching the priests and Amelia treat the patients, Henrietta gradually set aside her terror and grim thoughts.
The enlisted men who followed suffered comparatively lighter wounds, allowing her to tie mostly white ribbons, and with that, Henrietta’s heart steadily found its footing.
‘Our squad are regular soldiers too, so they won’t be hurt that badly. They’ll all make it back safe.’
By the time she could entertain such thoughts, the urgent first-aid cases had largely been managed.
“Over here, look over here, please!”
Just when she thought she could finally catch her breath, screams and wails erupted once more from the distance as a fresh wave of wounded poured in.
Priest Ronda’s eyes wavered uneasily as she caught sight of their faces.
“This man is from the rear support unit. Why…”
Before Priest Ronda could finish her ominous murmur—
“Aaaaargh!”
“Everyone, get out of the way! Aaargh!”
Desperate, harrowing shrieks suddenly rang out from beyond the treatment station. Priest Ronda dashed outside, and Henrietta sprinted after her.
“Ah!”
The sight awaiting her outside froze Henrietta in her tracks, completely paralyzed.
They said that before an overwhelming terror, fear itself consumed you. Looking at the house-sized monster tearing through the encampment, Henrietta could not even muster the will to flee.
“An Elek!”
“It’s an Elek!”
The priests and walking wounded who had rushed outside cried out in horror, all naming the beast an ‘Elek.’
Though it resembled a deer, its colossal bulk defied comparison, armed with muscles like boulders and horns as sharp as lances.
The Elek rampaged wildly, smashing headlong through anything in its path. With every charge, burly soldiers were tossed into the air like paper dolls.
‘No… this can’t be real. How could this happen?’
The sheer unreality of the spectacle made Henrietta feel as though she were trapped in a nightmare.
Unlike Henrietta, who was witnessing the monster’s terrible might for the first time, the soldiers of the Krakow Army were seasoned and brave. Those pursuing the Elek scattered in every direction, clanging steel together to make noise and hurling stones with slings to draw its attention.
“Gwoooooh!”
Howling in fury, the Elek faltered, unsure of which way to turn.
Seizing the opening, three knights guarding the rear charged in, focusing their strikes on the Elek’s neck.
“Gwoooooh!”
As the Elek shrieked in agony from the blade piercing its throat and tried to bring its foreleg crashing down on a knight, the soldiers pelted stones directly into its eyes.
In that gap, another knight drove a sword into the opposite side of its neck. The hide was so thick that even the knights' blades could barely shear through. Yet in the end, the third knight’s blade severed the Elek’s neck, leaving the head dangling.
Thud.
Only when the Elek’s massive body crashed onto its side did Henrietta, who had been holding her breath without realizing it, finally exhale.
“More Eleks! More are coming!”
“It’s not just one! One, two—no, three…!”
Unfortunately, it was not merely a single Elek that had breached the rear lines. The faces of the soldiers tallying the beasts turned deathly pale.
“Call the artillery!”
someone shouted with a trembling voice.
“No! Fire cannons here and we’ll all die!”
No matter how massive the monster, its defense was merely tough hide and dense flesh; a cannon could dispatch it with ease.
At a glance, cannon fire seemed ideal against a swarm of monsters, but being in the rearmost line posed a severe obstacle for the artillery. Carelessly firing wide-area cannons risked engulfing their own allies.
“We don’t have a choice either way!”
The argument held weight. Standard doctrine left few combat troops stationed in the extreme rear, and with the Eleks nearing the medical station, the wounded were as good as dead.
“It’s already too late for cannons! We can’t shell our own camp! Hold them off no matter what! At the very least, keep them from reaching the village!”
At the knight’s command, the soldiers threw themselves forward without hesitation to block the Eleks. If even one beast reached the village, the civilian casualties would spiral beyond control. And in that village were the soldiers' own families.
Yet rushing in with their respective weapons, the soldiers could not leave so much as a scratch on the Eleks' bodies; instead, they were kicked, trampled, or impaled on horns.
“Aaaaargh!”
“Ugh!”
Amidst the grisly chaos, one Elek suddenly charged toward Amelia. Absorbed in treating patients even as the beasts ran amok in packs, Amelia had failed to notice it in time.
“Amelia!”
Startled by Henrietta’s scream, Amelia turned her head and met the Elek’s eyes. Just like Henrietta moments before, she froze solid, unable to even think of running.
The beast was on the verge of ramming straight through her.
“No! Amelia!”
“First Wing of the Main God!”
As Henrietta shrieked, Priest Ronda’s resonant prayer rang out. Unfolding with the prayer, a brilliant, translucent shield barred the Elek’s path before Amelia.
Whether it failed to see the barrier or was too frenzied to stop, the Elek slammed straight into it.
Boom!
The air shook with a deafening crash. The shield struck by the Elek fractured instantly. One more impact would shatter it to pieces.
“Amelia! Hurry! Run!”
Priest Ronda’s face turned white as she screamed desperately. There was no telling how much divine power she was straining to squeeze out. Yet Amelia’s legs shook so violently she could not stand.
Seeing the peril threatening them both, Henrietta looked frantically around, at a total loss. Then her eyes caught a crossbow resting beside a wounded soldier.
There was no time to think. Without hesitation, Henrietta snatched up the crossbow and ran. She put distance between herself and the beast—as much distance as possible. Since her running speed ranked among the best in the squad, she managed to open up a gap before the Elek could break the shield.
Stopping at her chosen distance, Henrietta raised the crossbow toward the Elek with trembling hands.