23. This farce has gone on long enough

Beldroth finished up the most pressing paperwork and after lunch went to inspect the ‘recruits’. The Silvermoon clan was destroyed twenty years ago, these recruits are the sons and daughters of current or retired soldiers that have been in service to the Queen since the fall of the Silvermoon clan.

They were all in a training field on the Princess’s side of the palace. They all wore cheap leather armor and wielded wooden training swords. Some were sparring, while others were practicing on wooden dummies.

Their skills were surprisingly good for only a few months of practice, but due to the limited time frame, most were stuck at the C grade for their sword skills.

Through hard work and practice, anyone can reach the D grade with a skill. To upgrade to the C grade requires the person to have talent with the skill. They have to learn the limits of the skills and push them to greater heights. To upgrade to B grade, like Beldroths B grade in Wind Magic. A person has to achieve enlightenment. Do something that impresses the world and makes you a cut above the rest.

For Beldroth it was realizing that the wind was not helping him but instead restricting him. Something he has since called “Air resistance.” Since having this enlightenment, he began using Areokinesis to move the air away from himself, instead of using it to push him around the battlefield. By having no air resistance, his speed increased by three times, and his skill upgraded into the B grade.

To upgrade to A grade, however, is almost impossible without money and connections. He would need to get his hands on a Wind Elemental Stone to upgrade his mana circuit, or he would have to form a contract with a Wind Spirit. Considering how rare both of them are, a person who finds either is unlikely to sell the location or the actual item to anyone else, but instead, take it for themselves.

If one ever does go up for sale, its price is usually ridiculous as even Kings and Queens will attend and use their vast wealth to acquire them. Either for themselves or an elite in their ranks that have signed a soul contract for eternal loyalty.

Beldroth shook his head to remove the lofty thoughts of ever achieving A grade and focused on the recruits. He quickly rounded them all up and took them to the treasury. They all got excited when he handed out real metal armor and swords, they had only ever used leather and wooden stuff.

Beldroth gave them a few hours to get used to moving and attacking with the extra weight, and then they set off.

***

The journey to the noble's house was rather smooth, we made it in good time and to my surprise, the noble came without a fight. He was imposingly tall, and I even had to activate some wind magic to distract my mind from his gaze.

The mountain of a man then entered the car alongside his sister? They look nothing alike, so there's something fishy going on, but it's not up to my decision, I will discuss it with the Princess when we return.

I also checked the parchment that Imyrll is clutching and to my knowledge, they look like Luna runes. But I can’t be too sure, as my knowledge of any runes except Wind runes is rather limited.

***

The pervert Psychic mage Elaith warned us of a Druid lurking in the woods to the north. Druids are rather rare, so to find one acting as a scout was rather weird. I ordered everyone to stay alert and we marched in a tight formation around Princess Emilia’s car.

Sure enough, after only ten minutes we entered a large clearing in the bare forest, and loads of black-cloaked figures emerged. The recruits seemed flustered at the thought of real combat, so I started shouting out orders.

They fought surprisingly well, I can’t really discern the strength of the opponents since they seem far below me, but so far we have no casualties just some minor injuries.

After the final figure falls, I approach the dead body to verify the identity. A lot can be assumed from the corpse. I reveal its face and it's a type of undead. I personally have never fought the undead as necromancy is so rare, but it explains their peculiar fighting pattern and lack of skills.

Then I look around and realize all the recruits have abandoned the formation and are also looking at the corpse with me. These fools! In combat, you always maintain the formation, what if we were surprised attacked by another enemy at this moment from a blind spot…

“Ahhhhhhhughgh”

For fuck’s sake! I spin around and see the fucking pervert on the ground screaming, I feel no remorse for him, he would use his Clairvoyance skill to watch the Princess and Queen change clothes all the time. Utterly disgusting.

But before I can reorganize the soldiers, one particularly hot-blooded one runs forward to avenge the mage. “Stop-” I try to shout, but he's busy screaming out runes to use a skill.

Oof, I don’t think in all my years as a soldier I have seen someone die so pitifully. Dagger to the head while being held onto by a corpse. All to avenge a bastard pervert.

I quickly regain my focus and order everyone to focus up. The bodies begin to rise once again. I think long and hard on my training, trying to remember how to defeat the undead. Fire and Light magic were noted to be effective, but I just had a load of recruits that had sword skills. Sure, some of them could heat up their swords, but that's not the same as a Fireball or Light Beam.

My Wind Magic was laughably useless in this situation. No matter how hard I flung them away or how many limbs I cut off with my sword, they stood back up.

For ten minutes we fought, slowly the fatigue accumulated, and eventually, the recruits stopped activating skills, they were gasping for air as the mana depletion cramped up their body and minds.

Suddenly, a young elf to my left screamed as a zombie's claw had ripped out a chunk of his throat. He had been too slow to parry due to fatigue. The elf dropped to the floor and died within seconds.

Despite my years on the battlefield, an emotion that I had locked away through years of training had emerged.

Fear

For the first time in 20 years, I felt fear once more. Another scream sounded as two more elves fell, they were quickly mauled to death by the zombies.

Our formation started to fall apart. With only sixteen of us left, surrounding the car and protecting it from over a hundred zombies was near impossible.

I could run away at any moment, but I would be leaving too much behind. Emilia would never forgive me if I lost both the Luna runes, her favorite spy, and also her car behind.

A minute passed and only the deep breaths and clang of swords could be heard, everyone was focusing on survival. But slowly everyone began to realize…

Is this the end? No help was coming, none of their attacks worked on the undead, they were outnumbered ten to one. The zombies did not tire, but they certainly did. With every sword swing, the recruit's muscles screamed in protest. They cried for their bodies to recover even a single drop of mana but they refused to do so. Everything hurt. Was this what real combat was like?

A few minutes passed, and seven more elves fell in quick succession. The formation was abandoned and the remaining nine soldiers tried to cover just a single side. The car rocked back and forth as the zombies tried to climb over from the other side to attack the soldiers from the rear.

“Captain, what can we do?” A young elf girl said through labored breaths. Beldroth almost broke down into tears from the sight. Her silver hair was a mess as it was stuck together with dried blood, likely to be both her own blood and the blood of her friends. She had a deep wound in her shoulder and dried tears on her face, yet she still stood strong and fought off the zombies, to fulfill her duty.

“There's nothing to be done,” Beldroth said grimly. He planned to grab the Luna parchment from Imyrlls hands and run back to the Palace. Everything else would be left behind.

The young elf soldier just gave him a pained smile “Its alright Captain you can leave me behind, it was an honor to fight-” she grunted while parrying a claw from a zombie, “-alongside you and the other elves, I always wondered what war was really like, my mother always told me stories.”

Beldroth unleashed a powerful gale for the hundredth time, sending them all flying back, just for the zombies to stand back up moments later and resume the charge. “Persistent bastards.” Beldroth cursed under his breath.

Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as a zombie's claw went for the young elf's head. He tried to react, but his body refused to respond, his mana was depleted and needed to recharge.

Just before the claw impacted the girl's head, the door to the car opened and pushed it away.

The giant of a man emerged with blood dripping from his mouth, Beldroth could see Imyrll and Fay passed out in the car’s seats.

“This farce has gone on long enough, don’t you think, Captain?” Damien gave Beldroth a wide and sinister grin.

Damien's eyes shone blood red as his nails elongated to the size of daggers. His bloodlust burst forth, causing the usually mindless zombies to falter for a second.

“I think it's time for a slaughter,” Damien muttered coldly.

Don't think I'm ever gonna write so much in one day again, this was a mistake for my hands and brain, if you spot any errors please let me know!