Chapter 205 …
The moment she reached a decision, Lilieta raised Silvergrace and spoke urgently.
“Change of plans, Luka! We break through using the shortest route to where that fire is burning! We’ll lead, and have the special agents follow one beat behind!”
“Yes, Sister!”
Lucas immediately relayed the order, then transformed into his beast form and lowered his body. Rita climbed onto his back and aimed her gun forward.
Bang!
With a sharp gunshot, the head of the largest yeti-type magical beast blocking their path exploded.
Lucas kicked off the leaf-strewn ground and leapt over the massive, slowly collapsing body of the white-furred giant.
From atop the sprinting blue wolf, successive gunshots rang out, blowing apart the heads of the faster-moving gnoll- and goblin-type beasts, as well as the butterfly-shaped flying ones. Soon, only the slower creatures remained.
Kiiieeeek!
Kraaaargh!
The surviving magical beasts shrieked grotesquely as they chased after the running wolf. One of them tried to veer off in another direction to report, but by making such an obvious move and exposing its back to the gunner, it became the next target.
The special agents cautiously followed behind the magical beasts that were chasing Lilieta and Lucas. Rita glanced back at them to ensure their safety and maintain her oath, then suddenly flinched and turned forward again.
‘Wait… the number of magical beasts ahead…?’
She could sense hundreds of corrupted mana signatures. None seemed to be named-class, but there were far too many to simply break through—and her oath, which prevented her from overlooking any detected magical beast, became an obstacle.
If they dealt with them one by one, they might be too late. Using something like Twilight to wipe them out at once would risk setting the forest ablaze—and would drain too much of her stamina afterward.
And Gid might already be fighting Pascal beyond that forest.
‘To avoid Od’s punishment while preserving as much strength as possible…’
The urgent objective, the cards she had, her allies’ abilities and limitations, the battlefield situation, the enemies’ traits and numbers, and the terrain—all combined rapidly in her mind.
The moment she reached the optimal conclusion, she grabbed Lucas’s neck fur, turned back, and fired a rapid volley of magic bullets. As the pursuing beasts collapsed one after another, Lucas dug his feet into the ground and came to a halt.
“Sister?”
“At least 200, up to 500 magical beasts ahead.”
At Rita’s short words, the ears of the blue-furred wolf perked sharply. Before he could respond, she immediately explained the plan.
“We kill the command unit, create a decoy, and lure the beast horde to the Winterfield walls. Once the horde leaves the area, the two of us will head for Whispering Cave.”
When a certain number of magical beasts under the Commander gather, there is always a command unit—a creature more directly connected to the Commander and capable of receiving orders. The rest of the beasts are controlled not directly by the Commander, but through that unit.
Thus, if the command unit is killed, the horde loses control and acts on instinct until a new one is designated.
This was one of the key differences between human armies—who could distinguish allies from enemies and remember objectives even after losing a commander—and the forcibly bound magical beast army. It was also the basis for engagement rules against such forces during the Ashen Era.
Lucas lowered his voice.
“You’re saying the special agents have to lure the horde to the walls?”
“The Winterfield special agents train with ranger units, don’t they? I made this plan assuming they’re capable of navigating the forest. Do you think they can’t?”
“Uh… well, as long as there aren’t any extremely fast beasts, it should be doable.”
“I’ll snipe the ones that rush ahead first, so don’t worry. There are no named-class beasts, so with Winterfield’s support, they can handle it gradually along the walls. That’s what the cannons were prepared for.”
“I’m not worried about the fortress. Like you said, the cannons are ready, and they’re already prepared for battle. Once the ranger unit finishes dealing with the monster group, they’ll join too…”
“Our oaths should be fine as well. We’ll treat this as the battlefield being split, not ended. Once we finish here, we’ll go help them.”
Lilieta’s oath—to eliminate all magical beasts in sight—and Lucas’s oath—to never ignore the weak in danger—could delay punishment by recognizing that the battle was still ongoing.
It was the same method she had used before against the mimic.
Back then, she had suffered Od’s punishment first before rationalizing it afterward. But by planning in advance and framing it as “entrusting the beasts to allies” and “dividing roles according to strategy,” they could prevent the punishment from triggering at all.
It was a technique devised by experienced oath-bearers to survive complex situations—and one Rita and Lucas had mastered through experience and training.
“Yes, then it should be fine. But Sister, I don’t think our agents can properly create a decoy.”
“Ah, that’s the issue.”
In battles against magical beasts, a decoy required something rich in mana.
Since magical beasts were essentially mutated creatures corrupted by mana, they were drawn to untainted sources of it. That’s why, all else being equal, mages were usually targeted first.
To counter this, mages of the Ashen Era developed “decoy magic”—phantom constructs that appeared to contain more mana than their actual bodies. But since it required artificially inflating mana presence, it was difficult to master.
Back then, most mages learned it out of necessity. But Tritoma’s mages, with only a few years of experience, hadn’t yet mastered it.
Rita thought briefly, then asked the artificial spirit in her mind.
‘Gnyug, do you know decoy magic?’
[Analysis: I possess knowledge of the structure of decoy magic, but cannot cast it directly.]
[Opinion: Baby Gnyug was created to assist a gun mage, not for mage survival functions. This is not due to laziness or incompetence.]
‘I never thought that. Anyway, you said you know the structure. Do you also know the magic circle?’
[Search: …To assist the user, the creator input numerous magic circle patterns. The decoy creation circle is included.]
‘Good. Can you display it like you did with the butterflies?’
[Analysis: Of course, user.]
‘Do it.’
At the same time, she turned to Lucas.
“Luka, peel off some tree bark. Big enough to use like paper.”
“Like paper? Uh… is this enough?”
With ease, his claws tore off a large piece. Rita took it and quickly copied the magic circle that Gnyug projected in the air using her Od.
In the distance, another tremor shook the forest, followed by a thunderous boom. Birds scattered, and the faint smell of burning drifted in the air.
‘Gid.’
No matter how anxious she felt, rushing would ruin everything. Gritting her teeth, Rita finished drawing the circle and called over a mage agent.
“You have tools for magic circles, right? Carve this exactly.”
“Y-Yes, ma’am!”
The young mage, looking nervous, pulled out a carving tool set and began engraving the decoy circle into the bark with trembling hands.
Watching his slow progress, Rita estimated the completion time and adjusted the plan on the spot. After quickly explaining it to the others, she called Lucas again.
“Luka, while that’s being made, we’ll take out the command unit first.”
“S-Sister, I’m not like Gid hyung or Ethan hyung. If we get close, we’ll definitely be detected…”
“We’re sniping from long range. Why worry about being detected? Climb to the top of a tree and support me.”
“Ah, that I can do!”
Wagging his tail excitedly, Lucas partially adjusted his beast form, shrinking his size, stood upright, and carried her on his shoulders as he climbed the sturdiest nearby tree.
