Re;Blade

Chapter 39 - The traps

Alonso, Faela, and Cecilia stood side by side, overseeing the plains and the fields from the top of the hill. Behind them was part of the army ready to fight against the worshipers.

They had been there for a few hours but there hadn't a single living being moving as far as they could see.

"I hope they don't come," Cecilia's voice was so low voice only Alonso heard. She clutched the reigns of her horse harder.

The armor she wore, with the symbol of her house, a hammer tempering a sword, only enhanced the fact that she was a young girl.

But her age doesn't matter. Because of her name, she has to lead the arm, Tetsuko thought.

"I know the feeling, Lia. But they'll come. They always do," Alonso said in a frustrated voice, his expression matching. The next moment, his face softened and his tone was paternal, "If so, it's best to end this as soon as we can. But don't worry. You'll be safe."

No matter how much he tried, it was hard to sound reassuring as they waited.

The girl flashed a wry and tense smile. "I wish that was my biggest worry, uncle."

Tetsuko couldn't blame her. As they prepared the weapons and the traps to fight the enemy, they received terrible news; the Worshipers had almost six hundred more than Alonso and the others thought.

Not only the exiled villagers and the runaway bandits. A group of the Sand-dwellers had joined them. The Worshipers over fifteen hundred men and women and children ready to fight for their God of Evil.

Those numbers are terrifying. Facing those almost human beasts... Cecilia's traps have to work more than ever now.

The Lord of Iron wished to use the mining hill for more than one reason. Not only it was the best strategic place to fight the incoming enemy, she wanted to make an uphill battle for them. But there was another reason. The plan was to thin their numbers and bring most into the mines. That way they wouldn't have to deal with those beast like leaps.

I can't believe she came up with those traps... it's too ingenious for a kid!

Or maybe they're so creative because it came from a kid.

While the blacksmith worked hard to make thousands and thousands of weapons, the soldiers had worked day and night to set everything.

One of the traps were metal spikes spread around the hill. They were made like the weapons Baltasar and Tetsuko had come up with. The combination of living metal and hard metal would certainly hurt, and with any luck, kill a few Worshipers. Along with the arrows, the plan was to lead the Worshipers to certain places on the hill.

Those were the real traps.

Underneath those places, covered with earth, there was a high concentration of pure living metal. Attached to that, a thin chain alloy of high concentration of living metal. When Alonso and the others send the signal, the soldiers inside the mines would send their Celeste through the chains and explode traps.

It should be enough to kill a lot of Worshipers, but the real goal was to bring as many as they could to the underground. On those narrow corridors, their numbers and brutal strength be too much advantage.

It'd still need at least three or four soldiers to take down one Worshiper. But that's based on a peasant with abnormal strength... Will be much difference if the worshiper was trained to fight?

And what about the priests, high priest and the grand priest Alonso said? Are they that much different?

Instead of fear, Tetsuko felt thrilled.