The Extra Strategist’s Royal Road Chapter 200.
The scene turned into chaos due to the bizarre phenomenon caused by the dragon.
As everyone saw each other as monsters and couldn’t communicate, and with undead soldiers attacking as well, the situation became uncontrollable.
The level of training also became an issue.
Those gathered here weren’t soldiers. They had received no training for such large-scale confusion.
Most had experience fighting individually or in teams of 3-9 people, so in this situation, they ultimately resorted to individualism.
As they decided to fend for themselves, casualties increased exponentially. They treated anyone approaching as hostile.
‘If I stay here, I’ll get caught up in this too!’
I took Erina and retreated as far as possible.
Our destination was the hilly area in the rear. It was about the size of a small hill behind a house, but it was suitable for catching our breath.
“Whew! We got thoroughly beaten. To think they had such a secret weapon hidden.”
The state had basic information about the monsters in the Forest of Lament.
However, they probably didn’t know it was a dragon.
They certainly didn’t expect that dragon to suddenly appear, turn the space itself into its domain, and cast a wide-area illusion magic.
‘It was a prepared trap.’
It even seemed to have targeted this timing. This situation where the kingdom had issued a mobilization order and concentrated its forces in one place.
“We should be safe for now.”
After confirming there was no threat around, I examined Erina.
A horrific appearance like a corpse drowned in oil and then roasted in fire. Erina probably saw me the same way.
“Ugh!”
When I caressed that face, I felt a chilling sensation. Even though I knew the person in front of me was Erina, I wondered if I was being deceived.
Erina was just looking at me anxiously.
“Stay still for a moment.”
I closed my eyes and imagined Erina’s face. After imprinting her face in my mind for about 3 minutes as if casting a spell, I touched her face with my eyes still closed.
This time, I felt her smooth skin.
‘As I thought, it only looks that way.’
However, when touched while seeing the horrific appearance, the illusion activates.
‘I’ve never heard of illusion magic at this level.’
To even make the sense of touch deceive you.
Still, it couldn’t prevent communication through writing.
I tore the paper I had packed in my backpack into pieces suitable for multiple uses and communicated by writing as small as possible.
─It’s quite a dangerous situation.
─How about escaping?
─The enemy is likely prepared for that. Even if they’re not, we don’t know if escape is possible due to this red barrier.
This time, the monster’s power was stronger than before.
I’m not confident we can break the barrier that we barely managed to break last time.
It might just result in wasting magic and aura for nothing.
─Erina, we must never be separated. However, since we don’t know what might happen when, we should mark each other. So we can find each other if we get separated.
Erina nodded heavily and took out a red liquid resembling paint from her backpack. She dipped a pen tip in it and started drawing something on my back.
I thought she was writing a message, but that wasn’t it. When I took off my clothes for a moment to check, I saw the emblem of House Saleon drawn. Below it was a message wishing for each other’s safety written in the language of the Central Continent.
‘Not bad.’
This would be a mark that no one else could imitate.
I also drew the emblem of the Elaine family on Erina’s back.
“It’s done.”
With this, we had a minimal contingency plan for if we lost each other.
Around that time, people who had fled like us started gathering at the hill where we were.
People’s escape was accelerating. Since they couldn’t recognize faces in this situation, there was no problem with desertion.
Thud! Suddenly, a person with a monstrous appearance appeared before us.
It could be an ally, an undead soldier, or one of the black mages who caused this situation.
I held out the paper I had prepared in front of him.
─I’m Wade, a junior student at the Royal Academy. I belong to Class 17. In this camp, I was part of Joseph’s supply team.
The man who read the note nodded. He also took out paper and revealed his affiliation.
─I’m Asterson, a graduate of the Royal Academy. I was with the Paris unit. May I act together with you?
─Please tear a piece of cloth and wrap it from your left elbow to your shoulder. It should be wrapped in this way to be a visible feature.
I demonstrated it myself. The man nodded and took out a cloth from his backpack and tied it the same way.
─We’ll use this as a marker.
─You’re skilled at commanding. I’ve only been in the lab, you see. Can I leave the command to you until a higher-ranking officer arrives?
─Understood.
After that, another monster appeared.
This time, when I held out the paper, it didn’t respond at all and attacked.
“Is it an undead soldier?”
Even if it was a case of mistaking an ally, there’s nothing we can do. It’s such an urgent situation now.
Crunch! I pierced the attacker’s head with my spear, killing it instantly.
‘For now, we need to gather our forces.’
The correct form would be for the command center to come to their senses and resolve the situation, but I decided not to have such hopeful expectations.
People began to gather one by one.
Once their number exceeded ten, we were able to put our heads together and come up with a plan.
To prevent confusion, it was decided that I alone would communicate through writing, so I collected paper and put it in my backpack.
This time, I wrote in large letters so that everyone could see.
─Does anyone know how to distinguish friend from foe? It’s enough if we can just identify the enemy.
Everyone looked around at each other. Finally, one person raised their hand.
It was a man named Guriel who belonged to the Proud unit. I called him over and handed him the paper.
─I specialize in detection magic. Normally, I could distinguish between undead soldiers and dark mages, but now, perhaps because of this damned illusion magic, proper detection is difficult. Everything feels different.
Judging from the fact that he belonged to the Proud unit, which was the advance party, this man seemed to be a detection specialist that the kingdom had prepared in anticipation of the conquest of the Forest of Lament.
─Still, there’s a clue. Many undead soldiers have anti-magic shields cast on them. I can still detect that. At the very least, I can distinguish the undead soldiers who are receiving magical protection.
That alone was enough to change the situation.
I put Guriel at the forefront to identify the undead soldiers.
Guriel transformed his magic into the shape of butterflies. And he assigned different colors to each butterfly.
Monsters with black butterflies on them were undead soldiers.
Monsters with white butterflies on them were humans.
However, this alone wasn’t enough. People could also be using magical protection, and there were undead soldiers without magical protection.
Above all, we couldn’t distinguish human enemies – the dark mages.
If they disguised their identity and infiltrated us, trust between us would break, and this force we had gathered would collapse. So we had to prevent that at all costs.
‘Do I have no choice but to do it myself?’
I had been trying to conserve my magic as much as possible, but it couldn’t be helped.
I decided to use light magic on those trying to join us.
The light attribute is opposite to darkness, so when they collide, a repulsion occurs. If the opponent has dark attribute magic, a reaction will appear… Or so I’ve heard.
‘I can only hope that the shallow knowledge I read in books is true.’
In books, light purified darkness. When darkness received light, it disappeared as if melting away, and so on. There were many fairy tale-like expressions.
In other words, there’s a possibility that it was made up for the sake of a story of good triumphing over evil.
In fact, there were no such stories in professional books.
‘Well, there’s nothing to lose. It’s not like we have any other options.’
I cast Charm on those trying to enter anew.
Charm doesn’t consume much magic, and it’s also difficult for the person being charmed to notice.
Moreover, there were no risks to Charm right now. The situation was urgent, and thanks to my appearance looking like a monster, even if I used Charm, it only gave the other person a small sense of relief.
“Ah…?”
Surprisingly, there was a reaction. As if rejecting my Charm, black magical power writhed from the opponent.
This seemed to be an unexpected situation for the opponent as well.
The surprised opponent immediately tried to attack me by casting a spell.
More than ten jet-black blades were created in front of him and tried to pierce me.
Of course, my response was faster.
I drew my sword and swung it, aiming for the opponent’s neck.
But swish! Before the sword could cut the neck, the opponent’s figure disappeared.
“Tch! Teleportation scroll, huh…”
The enemy was few in number, and as they had predicted this situation, they were using teleportation scroll.
On the other hand, we had too many people to fully benefit from the teleportation scroll. There weren’t enough teleportation scrolls for all 60,000 people, and above all, it was too expensive. Probably only some of the advance party members were using it. Even that would have been nullified when the dragon made the surrounding area its own domain.
“Be careful! The enemy is using teleportation scroll! That means they’ll attack aggressively!”
My companions stared at me blankly.
“Ah, I shouldn’t have spoken out loud.”
I hurriedly took out the paper.
***
While Ars was gathering forces in the rear,
A fierce battle was taking place at the frontline.
It was close to where the dragon had landed.
The prince’s party, and the royal guard including Lucretia, were advancing towards the dragon.
They thought that if they could just defeat that dragon, this strange phenomenon would disappear.
Prince Proud, who was in charge of command, organized a unit of about 2,000 people in a similar way to what Ars had done.
This was thanks to the royal emblem he possessed. People moved believing in the royal flag.
Of course, the enemy’s resistance was also fierce.
Most of the undead soldiers and dark mages were deployed in this battle.
Elena was the one showing outstanding performance in this battle.
Elena was sweeping away enemies while swinging her spear in all directions.
Her expression was stiff.
‘I’d like to help Elaine if possible, but…’
Finding Ars now would be as difficult as finding a needle in a desert. That’s why Elena had switched to focusing on defeating the dragon.
Once we kill the dragon, the illusion magic will be dispelled, making it easier to find Ars.
‘Even so, this strange aura…’
Elena felt an inexplicable familiarity.
This method of creating a barrier and using special powers within it.
It was similar to the elven island.
‘Could it be that a dragon was also protecting our island…?’
Elena lightly bit her lip to shake off the stray thoughts. Now was not the time to think about such things.
“Haaah!”
The opponent collapsed as their head was pierced. Elena, being at the very front, didn’t even need to distinguish between friend and foe.
All she had to do was run towards the dragon and kill anyone who got in her way.
But that’s when it happened.
Swoosh! A javelin aimed at her vital point. Elena flinched at its unusual speed and timing, stepping back.
And in the place she retreated from, Ilya appeared and picked up the spear stuck in the ground.
Ilya spoke with a sour expression.
“That’s far enough. Come any closer and I’ll kill you.”
Of course, the words didn’t get through. To Elena, it looked like a lumpy thug was making strange noises.
It was similar for Ilya, but her situation was slightly better. Before the incident, she had received magic to protect her mind along with the teleportation scroll.
This was a measure taken for all the individuals of Article.
It was thanks to this that Ars’ charm detected Article’s dark mages. It was simply because they had mental protection magic cast on them, regardless of light and darkness.
However, even these measures weren’t very effective. The power of the berserk dragon exceeded even their expectations.
Even at close range to the dragon like now, Ilya’s situation wasn’t much different.
That doesn’t mean they couldn’t figure out each other’s identities.
As they exchanged blows in their confrontation, they instantly saw through each other’s identities.
‘This spear technique… Is it from the same school as Eonia!’
Ilya lightly dismissed it, thinking that there were indeed elves related to Eonia in this world. She didn’t think that Elena was Eonia’s master. She knew that the Valkyrie’s martial arts were passed down to only one person, and she had heard that Eonia’s own master had died.
On the other hand, Elena perfectly understood Ilya’s identity.
‘In this place, besides Elaine, the only one who can handle both sword and spear must be the master, Ilya Anfei. I don’t know why she’s cooperating with the dark mages, but…’
Elena felt a competitive spirit burning. The opponent would have used teleportation scroll anyway, so there was no need to show any mercy.
Moreover, to defeat the dragon, she had to break through Ilya anyway.
‘We’ll see if you’re really stronger than me.’
The two vassals stronger than herself that Ars had mentioned.
Elena grinned and shook her spear tip as if to say ‘bring it on’.
* * *
Kieran, the leader of Article who was watching the situation from a high place, was sweating cold.
‘To think the power of the berserk Mepatra was this much.’
It could be an annoying mistake or a pleasant miscalculation depending on the circumstances, but at least Kieran wasn’t feeling good.
‘Perhaps due to going berserk, it’s increasingly slipping out of control.’
Moreover, they too were under the illusion magic, making it difficult to distinguish friend from foe. Thanks to the mental magic defense they had cast in advance, they were less confused than the opponents, but there wasn’t much difference.
It only reduced the effect when they were at a distance from the dragon.
That’s why communication was possible at their main camp, which was at a distance, and their appearances also looked relatively normal.
‘The enemy’s resistance is fiercer than expected…’
Swoosh! Swoosh! Article’s mages kept returning to the main camp. The teleportation scroll had activated just before they were about to be defeated by the enemy.
Some of them reported to Kieran.
Kieran frowned after hearing the report.
“You say there’s a group gathering forces in the rear?”
“Yes, their numbers are gradually increasing. Moreover, it seems they’ve figured out a way to distinguish us, making it even more troublesome.”
“Distinguish us? How!”
“He tried some kind of mental magic on me. It seems to resist the mental defense we had cast in advance…”
“Tch, like catching a mouse while backing away, huh.”
Kieran felt that the group gathering forces in the rear was more threatening than the group rushing towards the dragon at the front.
The group at the very front could be crushed by counterattacking, but if the forces in the rear managed to build up their strength and hold out, it would be troublesome for them too. It was clear that support would be sent from the outside once they grasped the situation.
No matter how solid the dragon’s barrier blocking entry was, the opponent was a nation. It would eventually be destroyed. So they had to settle this quickly.
“What should we do? We could remove the mental protection magic and infiltrate their ranks…”
“It’s better to cut off the sprout for sure. We have no choice. Call Cuthbert.”
“…!”
“Also, deploy the personnel whose teleportation scroll hasn’t activated yet to that area.”
“Yes sir!”
A guerrilla unit was swiftly organized.
And so, Cuthbert, one of Article’s core forces, leads a group of dark mages towards Ars’ location.
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