"A new enemy!"

"Heavy cavalry? Haha, fools. They’re nothing more than targets."

The enemy aimed at us.

For some reason, the enemy was making a fuss.

"Everyone aim for the one in front! Concentrate all your magic on him!"

"Stop him no matter what! We’ll somehow manage the rest!"

The enemy magic users casted their spells on me.

Most of them were fire spells.

We went to the enemies according to Mithra's tactic.

Three of us were at the front - Irijina, Demia and I were protecting ourselves with large shields. Mithra was slightly behind us without a shield.

A lot of the fire actually flew toward us.

Most of the spells missed us but some hit our shields.

"Dalish art... Arcane nullifier!"

As she yelled, Mithra dashed past us and faced the small fireballs.

"Eh?"

"Our magic disappeared?"

One of the male magic users stared in disbelief with his mouth hanging open.

"Don’t think, just shoot her!"

Mithra thrust her enchanted sword at another blast to disperse the magic energy, then split apart the fire coming at her like a wall.

She also cut down an icicle which seemed like it would hurt if it hit us, and finally deflected a wind-guided fireball with her empty hand.

Some of the spells hit me. My shield was made using a steel furnace so it’s extremely resistant to heat.

However it didn’t dissipate magic like Mithra's skill did, so the embers which scattered on impact with the shield were hot enough to hurt.

"Magic doesn’t work!?"

"She erased the magic…… no, she absorbed it?"

A wall of fire was deployed by three yelling magic users.

It might be as ferocious as the fire I saw in Torose, but it’s still ultimately magic.

With a swing from her sword, the fire faded away like it was an illusion.

"A…… ah……"

"You’re in range of our path."

Meanwhile, Irijina and Demia reached them. They cut down the magic casters.

When a guy tried to escape, I kicked him from horseback, slamming him into the ground.

With how lightly armored he was, that should be enough.

"Run all over the place!" Leonhardt Strauch commanded.

"O-oh spirit of flames――"

"Hmp!"

I kicked one right in the face as he formed some sort of hand sign.

"Gusting winds, blow like a whirlwind――"

"Too slow."

Sekrit chopped off the head of another along with his favorite staff.

Mirai knocked away the incoming ice shard and answered by stabbing his throat with her kodachi.

This was my first time fighting a squad of magic users, and it’s going surprisingly smoothly.

I didn’t have to worry about any attacks beside magic, getting close enough to attack them was like a fatal blow, and I could pretty much know what type of attack was coming based on their chanting.

"O Great Earth, release your anger in the form of a rock!"

Cracks form in the ground and a stone flew out…… though not high enough to reach Sekrit's horse. She bent down and cut the caster.

"Kya!"

A small fireball grazed Malty's shoulder and her armour was burning but she sped up her horse towards a magic caster with two soldiers between them. 

Two of our knights attacked the soldiers while Malty's horse jumped past them. She cut the magic caster down before he finished chanting.

Despite being defended by soldiers, the magic squad was defenceless against our gung-ho onslaught.

Mithra was the most active running everywhere. She no longer killed anyone but her action of making the magic attacks dissipated causing the enemies to panic. That made the enemies easy targets for our allies.

"Don’t falter! Surround her with the entire squad and then launch a barrage of spells!"

A nearly-elderly man swung his staff to release his magic.

His magic was definitely more powerful than the others we'd faced so far.

"Haeh?"

Gheyna shot her arrows.

His swirling winds did not alter the trajectory of Gheyna's arrow at all, and the arrow proceeded to sink deep into the old man’s chest.

"The sage got hit!"

Here was when the magic squad finally started to run.

"Magic squad fall back! Infantry, stop that woman!"

Spear-wielding infantry swapped places with the magic users.

These opponents were way more troublesome to deal with.

No incantation was needed to thrust a spear after all.

"I won’t let you!"

At that moment, our Redcliffe squad came running in.

However, it seemed to have been within the enemy’s expectations.

"The remaining magic users will stop the other heavy cavalry! Magic should be effective against everyone except the woman!"

The magic users casted spells directed at our unit.

Mainly fire magic bombarded the cavalry, causing sounds of explosions and neighing to resound in the air.

Crap, a few might have gotten hit although they remained on their horses.

I saw Leonhardt, Myla and Reina were still fine among them.

"We did it!"

"Next is the woman! Stop her no matter what!"

A small cheer leaked from the magic users’ mouths.

When the smoke cleared, the escort squad looked unharmed.

"I see…… it’s the armor. Their equipments protected them."

Moreover, I was thankful that the attack was magic-based.

If oil was used, the human body wouldn’t survive even if the armor did.

Magic wouldn’t burn for an endless amount of time so surviving the initial heat was enough.

Demia, with a somewhat soot-stained face, gave the order to charge again.

"N-not a single one got wounded!"

What came afterwards added to an already desperate situation.

"Dalish art...instant move."

When she was just between the rank of the magic casters, Mithra disappeared.

Her teleportation magic was a lot less effective than Mirai's as it was only effective when she was within range of enemies.

She appeared, killed an enemy before reappearing at another man. She disappeared and appeared until all magic casters around her were dead. By then, most of the magic users either escaped or were dead.

The magic users prepared to flee after their spirits got crushed, the infantry couldn’t hide their shock either, and both groups gradually got taken out by my escort squad.

Now the battle seemed to have devolved into a slaughter.

"How many casualties do we have?"

"None! "

And so we thoroughly massacred the magic squad until the enemy reinforcements came.

Considering how rare magic users were, we could rule out future attacks of the same type.

Seeing us crushed the magic squad, the Montfort and Ambroise army’s morale also recovered, bringing the battle to a standstill once again.

The fighting would continue until evening, and ended when both sides exhausted themselves at the same time the sun set.

After that, a vicious cycle of defense and offense would repeat itself until the morning of the fifth day, where our regular war council took place.