Chapter 38: Am I worthless?

 

Sylendri saw the humans arrive at Prashyufa at dawn and thought that she could catch them off guard while they were still setting up camp. Her plan was that she could swoop in with an army, give them a severe blow while also destroying the giant crossbow and come back to the safety of the walls. The enemy would never have expected an attack like that coming their way. In a way she was right, the enemy was indeed unprepared for such an attack.

Nodding to her own brilliance, she ordered her men to open the gates for a strike and sounded the horn— the signal to charge right at the enemies beyond the walls of the citadel. She ordered her force of at most ten thousand demons versus a force of humans, elves and dwarves that have numbers nearing a hundred thousand.

The result was obvious, of course. Even if the humans were unprepared, the demons basically gave up their one only advantage in order to do a folly strike at the enemies. Within an hour or so of fighting, they realised that they were outmatched. The enemies who quickly rallied fought back with ferocious intensity. Before long, the Ak’hims were flanked and surrounded. It took the humans merely a few hours to end the slaughter. It was an utter defeat for the Ak’hims.

The Demon Lord who somehow managed to survive, blew a hole through the surround and whatever remains of the army retreated to the Citadel. The surviving Ak’hims ran for their lives as a mob of humans, elves and dwarves chased after them. The gates of the citadel, however, were closed during this retreat. Being a Succour, Sylendri tried to fly over the walls and back into safety but soon found out that an ominous shroud surrounded the citadel. The shroud prevents any flight.

In her desperation, she ordered her soldiers to open the gates to let the survivors in. A fatal mistake as the demons were unable to close the gate in time before the enemy could catch up. The bruised and battered army and the lack of soldiers on the wall meant that the Alliance soldiers who were chasing them soon poured into the citadel from the gate. The enemy commanders saw this and ordered more men to pour into the Citadel. The enemy had given them a chance to strike, so they might as well take it.

Within the next few hours, the citadel was overrun by Alliance soldiers as they entered and started wiping off any retreating Ak’hims. Their first aim was the giant castle that the Demon Lord retreated to.

Klauna’s prediction was right. Six hours was all it took for the Citadel to fall. While the humans haven’t quite managed to reach the other side of Prashyufa yet, soldiers could be seen appearing here and there. They were motivated by their hatred of the Ak’hims and started to plunder the city, killing any demons that came their way whether it be soldiers or civilians.

The First and Seventh army who were still escorting the remnants of the people had several skirmishes against these humans. The demons and the humans clashed with each other as the Ak’hims protected as many civilians as they could. So far, the hardened veterans were able to hold back the humans, but they won’t be able to keep it up for long. Their time in Prashyufa was running short. Leida herself led a charge against the humans who were pouring out of the castle in order to buy more time for the Seventh Army to escort the rest of the demons to safety.

During this time, the Seventh Army was escorting the last of the people, the remaining residents who made a last-minute decision to leave the city instead of staying. Once this batch is done, they will start to leave the city themselves. They will be done evacuating within the hour. There were still a few thousand more citizens who have yet to evacuate, who opted to barricade themselves in their homes and remain in Prashyufa. The soldiers just left them be. There was nothing that can be done for them now.

Looks of frustration could be seen on the soldiers as they did their jobs. Klauna’s orders were clear. The other citizens who haven’t been evacuated at that point were to be left behind. This was the first time that their pride was hurt to such an extent— soldiers of a Kingdom that can’t even protect its people. Still, they have no choice. If the First and Seventh army were to die here, there would be no one left to protect the other citizens who were on the way to the next city. Their survival was of utmost priority.

As they escorted the civilians out of the city, Medica’s cries could be heard raging out from the grimoires. She was talking incoherently and with tension in her voice. Yuupiecca, who just so happened to be next to her at the time, had to take her grimoire away as she was disturbing the communications too much.

“Calm down! What’s wrong with you?” Yuupiecca yelled to Medica.

“Itiedherupandlockherinacargo. Ican’tfindher!!”  Medica only replied in a rapid-fire motion. Yuupiecca could barely understand her.

“Just calm down alright. Take a deep breath. You got a job to do, don’t get dragged down by this,” this was the first time Yuupiecca saw someone as composed as Medica panic this way.

Listening to Yuupiecca’s words, she took a couple of deep breaths and tried to calm herself down. Medica took a whole minute to calm herself to the point where she could talk normally. “I-I don’t know… where she went. I’m afraid she’s still in Prashyufa… Lord Lina...” 

The Succour known as Lina was missing yet again, in the worst possible timing as well. Yuupiecca let out a curse as he thinks about the places where Lina could have gone in this kind of situation. He then remembered the last time he found her— within one of the iron boxes.

‘Could it be?’ Yuupiecca thought to himself.

“The city is overrun… Is she dead…? Medica said as her shoulders dropped low, her knees buckling.

Yuupiecca clicked his tongue. “I’ll find her. You just stay with the others and continue to evacuate the city,” he yelled before bolting off into the distance.

“Wait, Yuupiecca!!” Medica’s faint yell could be heard as he ran further into Prashyufa— towards the location where they dump the remnants of the iron boxes.

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A good thirty minutes had passed since Yuupiecca left the west gate to find Lina. He soon arrived at his destination, a row of iron boxes lined up neatly within the burning city of Prashyufa. Wasting no time, he immediately opened the hatches to every single one of the iron boxes. He started to panic when he opened a majority of them and realised that nothing was inside. His fears were put to rest when he finally opened the hatch to the last one and found what he was looking for.

Within the iron box was a wingless Succour who covered herself in bedsheets, looking outside in fear. Lina was a little bit frightened when someone opened the hatch to the iron box but felt a little bit relieved when she realised it was Yuupiecca.

Yuupiecca saw Lina and went straight to the point. There wasn’t much time to spare. “The humans are invading Prashyufa. We need to get out of the city before it’s too late. Come on,” Yuupiecca said as he brought his hand out to Lina.

Lina stared at the Analyst before covering herself further. “...Leave me alone.”

Yuupiecca felt annoyed at her reaction. He was risking his life for a woman that he hated so much and yet all she had to say was to leave her alone. “Like hell I’m leaving you alone. I’m risking my damn life here. You are coming with me whether you like it or not.”

Yuupiecca grabbed her hand forcefully and tried to drag her out of there. It was met with resistance as Lina pulled her hands backwards with strength unexpected of the thin and malnourished Succour. Despite her appearance, she still retained a part of her strength from before she lost her wings.

Yuupiecca tried harder but she wouldn’t budge. Even if he can move her, her resistance would only cause him more time and probably even his death. Feeling even more frustrated at the matter, he turned his eyes towards the Succour before banging his hands on the iron wall.

“I don’t get it!? You are going to die if you stay here!”

“Then let me die! Why do you care so much about me!?”

“I don’t! She does... Medica and the other Succours, they care a lot about you. If you die, then they will feel sad as hell,” Yuupieca explained to her.

“...they don’t need me… I’m just worthless trash...”

“That’s not true,” Yuupiecca refuted her words. It only made her more protective of herself.

“I am! You guys don’t need me to do anything. You all can do just fine without me. I call myself a captain but all of you never needed my advice. Why even bother bringing me in to those meetings?!” She yelled back.

“...” Yuupiecca couldn’t find any words to respond to her.

“...what good am I anyways… I’m not needed. There is nothing left I can do… I’m just wasting their effort,” she then paused for a while. “Just let me die… It’s better for everyone that way. I know you all wanted me to die at Fort Kron anyways.”

Yuupiecca gritted his teeth. “...That’s not true you know. You can still—”

Yuupiecca’s words were cut off by Lina who bared her fangs at him. “Just leave me alone! A damn Analyst like you will never understa—!” 

There was something about that statement that triggered Yuupiecca. Having his patience stretched to the limits, the Analyst gave a huge slap towards Lina, which immediately shuts her up.

“...eh?” A dumbfounded face was seen on Lina, her face glowed red with Yuupiecca’s handprint.

“I don’t understand huh…? Please, you make it sound you are the only one who had a hard time. I’ve been called worthless my entire life dammit! Look at me. I don’t have claws! I don't have tails! I don't have wings! I never had wings like you.”

Yuupiecca pointed to his legs. “But you have legs like this right?! Then freaking use those legs to run you moron!”

Yuupiecca then pointed to his hands, “You still have hands like this right?! Use those hands and do freaking something with it, you insufferable slut!” 

Yuupiecca then gave another slap to her face. A hard one. “You have a bloody brain behind that pretty face, right? Bloody use it for once!”

“...eh?” Lina let out another dumbfounded look. 

“It’s such a dumb excuse you made for yourself. Calling yourself worthless but doing nothing. Oh boo hoo, I’m so sad. I’m done with this. You are coming with me whether you like it or not dammit!”

Pumping mana into his hands and legs, he forcefully dragged Lina out of the iron box and started running towards the west. Lina was too shocked to even give a response, she just ran along with him, so as to not injure herself while being dragged. That was the first time somebody actually slapped her.

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They ran in that state for a good ten minutes before they were intercepted by a bunch of humans who saw that Yuupiecca was wearing a military uniform. Yuupiecca clicked his tongue before releasing Lina to free up his arms. He wasn’t the best at fighting, but his capability for magic was not to be underestimated.

The humans didn’t say a word. They just aimed their sword towards him and swiftly launched an attack. Seeing the first guy launching himself towards him, the other humans did a follow-up and launched an attack to his back. Yuupiecca’s response was to simply clap both his hands together and yelled out a quick chant.

“Exhaling winds of judgement... Windforce!” As he spoke the words, a large blast of wind permeated out of his body, blowing away the humans.

All except the one who was in front of him. He was somehow unaffected by the attack, possibly due to his magic resistant armour. He moved even faster now and once in range, lunged his sword right at Yuupiecca. 

Yuupiecca did some quick thinking and created a small but fast force field around himself. He then put his left arm to a position to intercept the sword coming towards him.

The force field was nothing like Klauna’s Hexagonal one, nor was it as good as the other more stronger Analysts. It was just a normal red translucent bubble that surrounded him. Due to the nature of how fast he created it, it's also not as strong as he liked it to be. The sword went right through the barrier and stabbed him at the location where he placed his left arm.

The bubble didn’t stop the blade, but it stopped the sword enough for it to not slice his arm right off. Although the force of the attack did cause him to lose balance and fall to the ground. The human, recomposing himself, raised his sword high to strike down Yuupiecca.

He would have died if it weren't for an ice bolt that struck the human’s face. Blood spurted out of the human’s head before he dropped down to the floor. Dead. Yuupiecca immediately turned around to see who the person who shot the ice bolt was. To his surprise, it was Lina who did it. She had both her hands out and small magic circles appeared on them.

The magic that struck the man was weak, but it did its job. Lina just stood there in shock and amazement. Her expression was that she couldn’t believe what she had just done. Her stupor ended when Yuupiecca grabbed her arm again.

“Don’t just stand there like an idiot! Run!” Yuupiecca yelled out as he started running again. 

As they ran, Lina just stared at Yuupiecca’s back. For the first time in her life, she felt safe. Like everything was going to be fine. Wiping her eyes, she started to pick up her pace and ran properly through the city. It wasn’t long before they reached the others at the west gate.

Leida, Cera, Harbin and the elites from the two armies were holding the gate off from any encroaching humans. Yuupiecca felt relief seeing the safety of his army and quickly went past the gate to find Medica. As he did so, there was something he overheard that made him want to facepalm.

“Lord Klauna is still missing!! Where is she?! Arghhhh.” 

Harbin’s panicked scream could be heard all over the west gate.