A piercing cry sounded.
“T-they’re here!” someone cried out.
Still flying, the Mazoku reached them in an instant.
Suddenly, just as the Mazoku approached, Lefille dashed forward to meet them, accelerating nonstop before leaping into the air.
“HAAAAAAA!”
—Before the other guards could even react, Lefille had already taken the lead in attacking the enemy.
Her blade flashed. With a single slash of her sword, longer than she was tall, three of the attacking Mazoku were sent flying.
As they touched down on the ground, Lefille and Mazoku faced off against one another.
The start of this battle had been crushing for the Mazoku.
This left a strong, clear impression on Mazoku and guard alike.
The guards shouted with both surprise and delight. From their safe place where they were watching, several of the merchants mirrored their excited cries.
—Just as Lefille had seized the initiative with this stunning display.
“—?!”
Mazoku presences suddenly descended from above.
Sensing this, several people looked up.
“From above!”
The magician girl’s warning was a second late as they were suddenly ambushed from above.
The Mazoku had apparently distracted them with an attack from one side while preparing to ambush them from above.
They’re trying to throw the battlefield into chaos! Shit, if they break our formation, we won’t be able to fix it.
This would destroy any advantage mages and archers held, and if this became a close-combat, tooth-and-nail fight, then they likely wouldn’t be able to separate themselves from the enemy until the battle was over.
If they were trained in how to handle situations such as this, as soldiers were, then things would be different, of course—
In any event, this was bad.
Accordingly, Suimei prepared to invoke his magic, when suddenly—
“In that case…”
A calm and cold voice left Lefille’s lips.
Accompanying her words, something happened.
“Wha—?!”
What did she just do?
Lefille’s surroundings suddenly began to glow with scarlet light.
A brilliant light that seemed as though it would sweep away the darkness radiated from the young girl. This light could only be described as the phenomenon commonly known as “aura”.
Concurrently, an enormous power altogether different from mana began to surge forth.
This power bathed her body, sword, and surroundings in dazzling light.
“—HAAAAA!”
Lefille slashed, as though to part to the heavens themselves.
Her sword was, of course, nowhere near long enough to reach her enemies from where she stood. As far as her enemies were concerned, she was simply slashing at the empty air. On the contrary, however, a brilliant crimson light traced the arc she drew in the air with her sword and continued onward, slicing apart all the Mazoku before her. Their corpses dropped to the ground.
Not even stopping to take a breath between strikes, she swung her sword relentlessly. As if a sudden storm, in an instant she’d attacked all the Mazoku who had encircled her with a tornado of slashes.
For these Mazoku, having misjudged her attack distance, this sword storm was an unavoidable, demonic whirlwind. Without so much as a cry, they were transformed into a pile of corpses.
“Wha…?” Suimei mumbled in shock.
The words “one-sided slaughter” passed through his mind.
The scene before him felt unreal. If he had to say why, then it was that scarlet light.
“Hey, wait…!”
From what he knew, that light was not something that could possibly be found in the physical world.
Generally speaking, unless some external factor were to directly interfere, something like that would never manifest physically.
—The cries of the others were of a different sort than Suimei’s. They, too, were unable to fully comprehend what Lefille was doing, but their shouts were of joy.
“Amazing!”