Chapter 176: Central Sector [5]

"That’s madness!"

The senior warrior had spun on his heel before the young soldier even finished his sentence. His weathered face was twisted with something between fury and genuine fear.

"What do you possibly think you can accomplish?! Even Sir Leon is completely helpless against that monster! He is a Spire and he’s pinned in the dirt! What do you think is going to change if you go back?! This is suicide!"

The young warrior’s legs were shaking. He had watched Zeus erase a Spire-level spell with the same casual effort most people use to wave away a fly.

And he was still turning around.

"Call me a fool then," he said. His voice was unsteady but he didn’t let it drop. "I know I’m not strong enough to scratch that man. I know what’s probably going to happen if I go back." He swallowed hard against the thing sitting in his throat. "But I would rather die on my feet beside the people I’m supposed to protect than go home and spend every morning for the rest of my life remembering that I left Sir Leon to die alone in the dirt."

The veteran stared at him.

"If I run right now, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. I’ll keep hearing the voices of those vampires who killed my father while he begged them for mercy... I was helpless back then." He met the veteran’s eyes directly, without flinching. "So I’m not turning back. I’m scared. I’m terrified. But if I’m going to die, I’m going down fighting and taking as many of them with me as I can."

The silence that followed was different from the silence of the battlefield.

The veteran had fought in more wars than this kid had lived through. He had watched men he respected fall and told himself afterward that self-preservation was the highest law of the soldier. It was the only reason he was still alive.

And right now a boy half his age had just made it feel like the most pitiful thing he had ever believed.

He looked back toward the burning sector. At the smoke and the distant sounds and the weight of what was happening to one man in the middle of it. He looked at his own hands. His sword.

He clicked his tongue at himself.

"What was I thinking..." he said.

The young warrior turned to look at him.

The veteran pulled his broadsword clear and let the blade catch the light.

"If that bloodless monster wants to wipe us out he’s going to earn every drop he takes." He turned to face the warzone with his shoulders squared. "I am not running while our Spire is still breathing out there. Not today. Not ever." He raised his voice into a roar. "WE STAND AND FIGHT!"

The sound hit the retreating column like something thrown at high speed.

A warrior who had already crossed a ridge stopped walking. He stood there for one second and then without any apparent deliberation ripped his weapon from its scabbard and turned back.

A battle mage raised both hands. The yellow mana was already forming between his fingers before he had consciously decided to let it. "I would rather die with a spell on my lips than live knowing I ran."

"WE WON’T RUN!"

"DEFEND THE REALM!"

"STAND WITH SIR LEON!"

The retreat stopped. Boots scraped and changed direction. The fear didn’t leave.

But something stronger than the fear had gotten in underneath it and was lifting it from below.

The shame of abandonment. The fury of people whose home was being burned. And the specific unbearable thought of a man who stood when he could have broken and who kept standing while they ran away from him.

One by one and then all at once the broken retreating column reversed itself.

Weapons came out and spell circles ignited. Mana surged through the air and the sounds of the counter-offensive rose above the sounds of the rout and replaced them.

Emilia stopped mid-step.

She had been moving toward the rear as Leon had ordered. She had been fighting the urge to look back for the last several minutes and losing badly at it. When the roar of the turning soldiers washed over her she went completely still. ℯ

She looked at them, at the faces of people who were terrified and going back anyway because of a single man who wouldn’t stop being what he was.

A warm ache opened in her chest and tears she hadn’t expected came with it.

’You’re being admired Brother.’

She looked across the ruined field to where Leon’s form was barely visible through the smoke.

’Look at what you became.’

She saw it clearly now. They weren’t fighting for his power or his mana. These fleeing people turned to fight simply because of who he was when he stood his ground.

Her expression hardened. Her staff came up.

’I’m not going anywhere either Brother. Not while you’re still breathing.’

Down on the field Leon’s blood was mixing with the dirt beneath his face.

The fractured ribs had opinions about each one and none of those opinions were good. His fingers were still in the soil. He was still trying to find something to push against and still not finding it because Zeus’s boot weighed considerably more than physics suggested it should.

Through the haze of pain and the dark spots at the edges of his vision he heard the roar.

He managed to turn his head enough to see the human line that had been in full retreat reversing itself.

People who had been sprinting away from death were walking back toward it.

Leon stared at this.

His jaw locked. His eyes burned.

"Those idiots."

He strained his neck further.

"YOU DAMNED IDIOTS!"

His voice tore out of him and he didn’t care about what it cost his ribs.

"WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?! THEY OUTCLASS YOU COMPLETELY!" His face twisted with the specific anguish of someone watching people he’s responsible for choose something he can’t protect them from. "CAN’T YOU SEE THE GAP?! THIS ISN’T A FIGHT YOU CAN WIN ON HEART ALONE! VAMPIRES OF THIS CALIBER WILL KILL EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU!"

Blood dripped from the corner of his mouth. He didn’t stop.

"I AM IN COMMAND! THAT MEANS YOUR LIVES ARE MY RESPONSIBILITY! YOU DO NOT GET TO THROW THEM AWAY FOR NOTHING! TRUE COURAGE KNOWS WHEN TO PULL BACK! SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO RECOGNIZE WHEN AN ENEMY IS TOO MUCH! ONCE YOU’RE DEAD IT IS OVER! THERE ARE NO SECOND CHANCES!"