NOVEL NEXT Chapter 47
While Jeongjae caught the Kraken’s attention, Jenis hit another ship with a cannon. Unfortunately, this shot lacked precision and merely grazed the edge of the vessel, failing to sink it.
Even though the enemies started to cautiously assess the situation due to the cannon fire, I had no confidence on how much longer I could stall them this way. No, in fact, it seemed I had already exhausted the limits of what could be delayed by this method.
“It’s just the right time we need reinforcements.”
Jeongjae mumbled as he took a deep breath to steady himself. His anxious longing for Margaret was no less than Napoleon’s desperation for Grouchy at Waterloo.
Emmanuel Grouchy didn’t show up on the battlefield after all. Would Margaret really make it to the front lines before this battle concluded?
Now that I had confirmed that struggling against the Kraken was tougher than I anticipated, the only chance Jeongjae had to fend off the enemy’s invasion was the prompt arrival of the Elf Corps. No matter how I thought about it, it didn’t seem likely that they would bring their forces.
If the Elf Corps moved, they would undoubtedly have to pass through the neighboring territories and must have stayed around those regions for maintenance a few days prior. In that case, it would be reasonable to expect one or two lords from the surrounding regions to propose dispatching reinforcements while watching Eramenia.
The Eramenian army had either not moved or, if they had, it was too late for them to reach the battlefield today. In other words, the best situation Jeongjae could hope for now was for at least Margaret to somehow arrive at the battlefield to help him.
“Professor? The enemy’s lead ships are slowly approaching the shore again.”
“Five ships, right? If everyone disembarks from that vessel, the number that will probably land on the shore is…”
“At least a hundred, possibly two hundred. How do you plan to stop them this time? Should we use the fire ships again?”
“Right now, I don’t have the confidence to hold the Kraken by myself. And I think it would be better to conserve the fire ships.”
Meanwhile, the orcs, having witnessed several ships from the Demon King’s Army sink, hurriedly docked their vessels on the shore and prepared to disembark. Jeongjae still seemed exhausted, merely gasping for breath, with no intention of taking any particular action.
“Hurry up, Professor! I know it’s tough, but if you don’t give me an order, I don’t know what to do!”
Jenis shouted, rolling her hair in agitation. Jeongjae lightly raised both hands and summoned a small magic circle in each palm. The orcs prepared to disembark began to pour out like a horde of rats gnawing away at the wall. Jeongjae chuckled weakly and spoke to Jenis.
“Jenis, did I mention that I might have to deal with ten thousand enemies soon?”
“You just said that a moment ago. No way. Are you serious?”
“Consider it a rehearsal—one against two hundred. We can manage, right? We even have obstacles to help us.”
Without answering, Jenis loaded mana arrows into both hands. Jeongjae merged the two magic circles into one and mumbled something resembling a spell.
As the magic circle, which had gathered at his chest, burst and unfolded, nets that had been set in the sea rose to the surface, separating the leading ships from the ones behind them.
“Those nets were set by the fishermen…”
The local fishermen of this territory had set up traps in the sea using all the nets, including the magical net Jeongjae provided. Due to the scale of the enemy ships, merely having the nets installed wasn’t enough to impede their advance, yet ironically, because of that, even the Kraken couldn’t notice the nets, making it too cumbersome to destroy them.
Jeongjae decided to utilize the traps installed with all the strength of the fishermen in the best possible way. The nets, which rose high above the surface of the water, coiled around a dozen ships, preventing the sailboats from approaching. The orcs on the ships hurriedly tried to shake off the nets, but Jeongjae’s fully entangled nets weren’t something that could be easily discarded.
This was a close-range trap initiated from our side, capable of bypassing even the Kraken’s defensive power. The sea serpent, realizing it had unwittingly fallen into a trap, flailed its tentacles irritably, but in reality, its massive limbs couldn’t delicately shake off the net without destroying the ship.
Even though the Kraken wouldn’t hesitate to destroy allied ships if necessary, it simply became immobilized and refrained from destroying the intact ships.
As a result, only the leading vessels started to land on the shore. There were methods to send fire ships or cannons right now, but in Jeongjae’s mind, it was precisely the moment for Jenis to shine.
“With this, the remaining enemies won’t be able to land! Eliminate every enemy disembarking now and destroy their vessels!”
“I understand! Yes! Let’s show them that only the top graduate can pull this off!”
The first barrier was breached. While orcs typically wear thick armor when heading into battle, the monsters mobilized for this landing operation, due to weight issues, mostly wore only thin armor or didn’t wear armor at all.
In such cases, the spiked barricades exposed to the green-skinned monsters the size of a human skeleton served to significantly slow their advance.
In the front, the orcs, perhaps valuing the progress of the following forces, tried to use the spears used as columns instead of simply jumping over the barricade, attempting to break them. It was certainly a reasonable response, unless they were standing in front of a witch unleashing mana projectiles at a rate nearing rapid fire.
The orc trying to pull the spear from the deeply embedded barricade struggled and, at the same time, was pierced through the forehead by Jenis’s arrows, dying instantly.
Another orc following saw his comrade’s blunder, tried to cut through the barricade with his sword, but he was yet again subdued by Jenis before he could swing.
However, the enemies were green-skinned monsters with an average height over 180 cm, almost hitting 200. To Jeongjae, who had faced thousands and tens of thousands in regular battles before, those numbers might not have seemed that large, but to Jenis, who was effectively left to confront them almost single-handedly while focusing on the net, they appeared like a terrifying legion.
Even though she took down dozens of orcs in an instant, the rate at which the enemies continued to replenish was quicker than the rate at which Jenis was eliminating them.
The orcs, driven by the will to advance and survive, cut through the barricades, stepped over their dead comrades, and dashed forward.
The number of enemies that breached the first barricade exceeded fifty. Jenis, her face turning pale in panic, started shooting at the closest orc one by one, but curiously, as the enemies drew closer, her hit rate, which should have increased, only decreased.
The first barrier was virtually trampled underfoot, and a substantial number of enemies had also crossed the second barricade. There were even enemies gradually starting to surpass the third barricade.
As if crossing a no-man’s land in trench warfare, the orcs charged towards Jenis, unable to use any magic further.
Although her mana was still sufficient, she froze. She couldn’t move at all.
That massive green monster appeared as intimidating as an elephant. An orc that could fall with just one of her arrows now felt like an immortal being.
No matter how many she killed, they kept appearing, almost as if they were truly invincible.
Jeongjae noticed Jenis’s panic and bit his lip with regret. In fact, he understood to some extent already.
This girl wasn’t ready yet. While she might manage to shoot magic from a distance like firing at a target, she was not prepared to confront an enemy bearing weapons and murderous intent right in front of her.
Jenis had killed close to eighty orcs with the mindless barrage of magic arrows, which was indeed a considerable achievement. However, now she was faced with enemies she could kill with a mere flick of her finger, terrorized into a situation where she could suffer lethal damage.
Jeongjae had once been there himself. Even though he had arrived in this world as a powerful wizard capable of using spells, he had trembled in fear at the sight of a tiny goblin.
Yet even if the noble girl of a Count possessed sturdy mental fortitude, throwing her into her first real battle against two hundred orcs alone was unbelievably harsh.
Jeongjae thought that if Jenis came to resent him for the rest of her life after this day and no longer revered him as a master, he wouldn’t be able to say a word against it. As the orcs leapt over the third barricade and charged toward the final defense line, Jeongjae grabbed a dagger from within his robe and hurled it at the orc.
Unfortunately, Jeongjae was no Bernard Silverpoint. The dagger flying towards the orc merely brushed against the creature’s arm and failed to inflict any fatal wound.
However, Jeongjae’s attempt did awaken the panicking Jenis, who had been frozen in place, unable to do anything.
Jenis glanced at Jeongjae over her shoulder for a brief moment. Even though she was struggling with the magic net she was currently casting, beads of sweat forming on her brow revealed that her face was filled with guilt and regret.
Confronting two hundred orcs didn’t compare in difficulty to restraining two hundred ships and the Kraken all at once, and the feelings of blaming Jenis for failing that task rather than scolding herself were palpable on her face.
The shocked expression on Jenis’s face faded, replaced with calmness and affection.
How could she possibly blame that man? Even in a situation where nothing could be seen ahead, he was pondering what the right thing to do was.
Jenis rubbed the backs of her hands with her palms, each movement loading one mana arrow per finger.
Then, as the orcs at the front were overcoming the fourth barrier and rushed in swinging their swords, Jenis raised both hands, aimed her ten mana arrows forward, and released them all at once.
From a very close range, the mana arrows pierced through the heads of the orcs, splattering their brains. All ten arrows struck true—each hitting precisely the target in front of them, and the blood of the nearest orc splattered onto Jenis’s face, staining the area around her eyes and mouth.
With a slight lick of her tongue, tasting the blood of the enemy she just killed, Jenis shuddered and grimaced in disgust.
“Ugh, gross.”
At that moment, Jeongjae, who had been about to intervene by dropping the net magic, realized he no longer needed to after seeing Jenis’s hands weaving mana arrows.
With an expression brimming with confidence, Jenis clenched her eyes shut as she conjured another small magic circle in both hands.
“Unquenchable flame that dwells with my soul, appear here and now.”
The magic circle created by Jenis released a small fireball.
“Flame of the Inferno!”
The fireball, the size of a tennis ball, flew smoothly and hit the chest of an orc who was about to leap over the third barrier directly. The flame ignited upon impact, engulfing the orc’s entire body as if a lighter had been thrown onto a person doused in oil.
The orc shrieked in a terrifying scream and leapt in place. But soon, the screams faded because its throat burned, and its muscles melted, slowing its movements.
Jenis applied wind magic to lift the burning orc’s corpse into the air, moving it left and right to smash into the other approaching orcs, igniting them as well.
The fire spread rapidly among the orcs, and the winds turned into a fervent blaze.
Occasionally, some orcs would leap out of the living hell of flames and charge forward, but such monsters were easily spotted and soon fell to Jenis’s precise shots.
Before long, all that remained on the beach were mounds of wrecked barricades, dozens of orc corpses with gaping holes, and many burning orc bodies. Jeongjae couldn’t help but be in awe of the young girl’s achievements as if she had suddenly awakened, though he failed to notice that the underlying cause of this awakening was reflected in his own expression of effort.
Confirming that there were no surviving orcs left on the beach, Jenis gathered the burning orc corpses and began to push them slowly toward the sea.
The orc bodies were swept away amidst the wreckage and broken barricades, heading towards the shoreline, soon reaching the ships docked near the beach and igniting their sides with the flames of the inferno.
It wasn’t difficult to burn all five ships with a little magic. Jenis didn’t know how to unleash powerful spells like Jeongjae, but efficiently using the small flame she threw was something she had already become proficient at.
As Jenis observed the burning ships with a self-satisfied expression, Jeongjae smiled back at her, gripping the magic circle tightly in both hands.
That was no ordinary smile; it was a genuine smile filled with respect and admiration for her overcoming the panic of her first battle, which he had struggled to conquer for so long.