Rei and Set glided through the night sky and successfully landed near the center of the camp without a sound.
They held their breath as they checked their surroundings, but fortunately, they hadn’t been spotted by the guards.
It was the night watch after a hearty dinner and they were only a day’s march from the Imperial Capital, so they were aware that it was completely within their sphere of influence and there wasn’t much tension.
Of course, not everyone was relaxing, some were keeping watch properly and diligently.
Even so, few were paying attention to the night sky as they didn’t expect someone to fly into their camp at night.
If the information that Rei might have joined the rebel army had spread, there may have been quite a few people keeping watch over the sky.
However, that rumor had yet to be confirmed and if it was revealed, there would definitely be some soldiers who would run away, knowing Rei’s strength from the Spring War and fighting tournament. Even if they didn’t run away, it would be inevitable that morale would drop. Because of those reasons, the rumor was still kept secret.
In fact, it was the Wyverns at the enge of the camp that noticed Rei and set coming down from the sky.
As Wyverns ridden by Dragon Knights, the few that were part of the punitive force, they noticed Rei and Set with their excellent senses. However……they were overwhelmed by the difference in monster rank and instead of making a fuss, they cowered in fear.
If their partners, the Dragon Knights, had been present, they might have been able to soothe the Wyverns enough for them to take action.
But the fact that the two were not together resulted in disaster.
「……Alright, it doesn’t look like anyone has found us. Set, can we do this?」
「Guru~」
As Rei asked under the darkness of night, Set gave a quiet cry.
Set also knew what place this was.
If they messed up here, they wouldn’t be the only ones caught, the guerrilla force heading towards the camp on horseback would also be found and likely surrounded and annihilated.
To stop that from happening, they had to make sure their night attack was successful.
(If I had Flame Ore, I would have been able to do more damage, but……no, if it were that powerful, it might drag the guerrilla force down as well.)
The guerrilla force would gather near the entrances to the punitive force’s camp and could potentially take fatal damage from the effects of Flame Ore.
Thinking of that, Rei shook his head to regain his focus.
All he could hear was the snoring of soldiers from a nearby tent and the chirping of insects in the autumn night.
They waited for about 30 minutes until the agreed time with the guerrilla force had arrived before Rei looked at Set.
Set understood what that look meant. Set gave a short cry before using the Tornado skill towards what seemed to be the center of the camp.
Watching the tornado that was created, Rei also began and incantation with the Death Scythe in hand.
『Flame, manifest your burning, scorching power as a vortex.』
As the incantation completed, he threw the mass of flame created at the Death Scythe’s butt towards the tornado.
『Swirling Hellfire!』
A wind tornado and a fire tornado. Seeing the two overlap, Rei used the Death Scythe skill, Wind Hand, to touch both tornadoes as he poured his magic power into the wind tornado that was on the verge of being consumed by the flames.
At that moment, the wind tornado that was about to be consumed by the flames increased in power, growing to the same size as the fire tornado.
The two tornadoes, fire and wind, became the same size as the overlapped……and the next moment, the two merges, transforming into a fire whirl.
By this time, the soldiers had woken up, having sensed something was wrong within the camp from the voices of those who had been on guard, and some had rushed out of their tents.
However, the moment they stepped outside their tents, they saw the fire whirl before them and could only be stunned, not understanding what was happening.
Still, it could be said that the soldiers who were further away from the fire were lucky.
Those who had been in the tents near the fire whirl had been burned to death the moment they stepped outside without eve knowing what had happened.
It wasn’t just the soldiers who stepped outside either. The fire whirl also engulfed tents which were directly around it, which had soldiers who were still sleeping, those who had only just woken up, and those who were hurriedly putting on their armour, burning them all to ashes.
Furthermore, the fire whirl Rei created with his magic power only grew stronger as time passed.
The soldiers only came to their senses when several stunned soldiers screamed as they were engulfed by the flames.
The fire whirl at the center of the camp had already burned nearly 1,000 soldiers to ashes at this point.
But that was just the beginning as the fire whirl grew larger over time.
The flames burned people, tents, carriages loaded with supplies, and unfortunately, the horses that were pulling those carriages.
The roaring fire whirls didn’t stay in one place either, like the one used at the Selemus Plains. Perhaps due to the fact that Wind Hand’s level had increased since then, it swung through the camp as if unable to bear it’s own weight.
Although it moved slowly, the size of the fire whirl was such that the heat spread much further than the visible flames. The sight of it taking people’s lives without even touching them made the fire whirl a literal calamity that no one could do anything about.
A few minutes after the fire whirl was created……in just a few minutes, the First Prince’s punitive force, made up of elite soldiers, had been half destroyed.
「Retreat, retreat! Get outside the camp and regroup. Hurry, hurry!」
Such voices were heard all over the camp.
But……the punitive force’s misfortune was yet to end.
Due to the thunderous roar of the fire whirl, the surrounding soldiers could barely hear the cries for retreat.
Those who were further away managed to evacuate, but those who didn’t hear the shouts simply stood where they were, as if mesmerised by the huge fire whirl approaching the, their bodies seemingly paralysed with fear as they were engulfed by the flames, burning to death.
Even for those that did hear the cries to retreat, their misfortune only continued.
The defensive fence that had been set up to protect the camp from bandits and monsters now prevented the soldiers from evacuating quickly.
As they tried to escape from the camp that was overrun by fire, they had to run to places the fence didn’t cover and many died in the confusion that ensued.
The punitive force’s struggles continued past this point.
As they tried to leave the protective fence, the designated entrances and exits were not large enough to accommodate more than a dozen people at a time, let alone several dozen people.
A massacre broke out among the soldiers who tried to escape through the narrow exits on their own.
The so-called elite soldiers of the First Prince’s faction were nowhere to be seen right now.
Fearing that the fire whirl might catch up to them at any time, many of the soldier panicked and pushed aside comrades they had been laughing, drinking, and eating with just a few hours earlier as they tried to leave the camp.
As for those who were pushed aside, the price to pay for losing time now would be their life. Naturally, no one was willing to accept such a fate and a few drew their weapons to eliminate their opponents.
If they had thought about it rationally, they could have all worked together to destroy the protective fence.
No matter how sturdy the fence was in order to deal with monsters and bandits, 10 people combining their strength would have been more than enough to knock it down.
However……with the gigantic fire whirl approaching them from behind, they were unable to make such a rational decision.
As they were only a day’s distance from the Imperial Capital, they had let their guard down thinking they were safe.
The punitive force was thrown into a fatal confusion, proving that no matter how elite they were, they weren’t a match for even ordinary soldiers when not on guard.
The confusion was particularly sever among those who had participated in the Spring War. Many of them fell into a state of hysteria, having seen with their own eyes a fire whirl ravage the battlefield with heinous power.
Not only was the current fire whirl larger than the one in the Spring War, while it had barely moved back then the fire whirl now as making its way freely through the camp. ……This increased threat only caused even greater fear among those who had known what it was like before.
Many of those soldiers were already pushing their mental limits as they brandished their weapons, slashing at anyone they could find nearby.
「It’s him……he’s hereeeeeeeeee-! Die, die, die, we’re all going to die!」
「Calm down! Damn it, we have to calm them down now……that’s right, can’t we do something about the fence? The defensive fence?」
One noble managed to subdue a rampaging soldier as he shouted to his subordinates around him.
Meanwhile, the fire whirls continued to move freely through the camp, causing even more damage.
At this point, about 70% of the punitive force was dead.
However, the current state of the punitive force was best reflected in the fact that over a hundred people had lost their lives in internal fighting between confused soldiers.
Confusion……that word didn’t do justice to the chaos that had befallen the camp, which was now closer to a cage than a camp.
……Yes. This was what Rei was aiming for.
While it was natural to set up a defensive fence around a camp to deal with bandits and monsters, the fence that protected those inside also served to confine them.
If they had been able to work together as the fire whirl approached, more people would have survived.
However, few people could do that when their lives were on the line. Knights and nobles were able to keep a certain level of composure, but it was unreasonable to expect the same from ordinary soldiers.
As the soldiers rushed for the exits, those that were lucky enough to make it out were still not safe.
「Haah, haah, haah……hey, we managed to get out!」
「Yeah. But what on earth was that? A tornado of fire……」
「I’ve heard a little bit about it. You know, they said we lost the Spring War……」
「Hey, wait! What do you mean? Crimson is working with the rebels!?」
「I don’t know if he’s working with the rebels, but he’s definitely hostile to us at the very least. Otherwise, why would he suddenly create a fire tornado in our camp and……guph!」
The soldier looked as his comrade, who had suddenly let out a strange voice in the middle of their conversation. For a moment, he saw a shadow due to the firl whirl in their camp and the moonlight pouring down from the night sky, but the next, his consciousness faded into darkness.
「Hey, what’s wrong……an arrow?!」
「Gah!」
Another soldier was killed as an arrow pierced their forehead.
It was only then that the remaining soldiers realised they were under attack from archers.
They frantically tried to call out to the few survivors around them, but the arrows that flew through the air drew an arc before falling on their heads, taking their lives in an instant as they collapsed to the ground.
Yes. The ones carrying out this attack were the guerrilla forces led by Rei, or rather, Pernyx.
Although there were only 30 of them, there were all elite soldiers that had been trained by Rei and Set every day to the point that they would fight to the death to survive. For them, it wasn’t particularly difficult to shoot a bow at night with the light from the fire whirl and moonlight.
There were about five entrances and exits in the camp. Groups of six were sent to each one as they continued to fire their arrows at the punitive force soldiers leaving.
of course, considering their numbers, they couldn’t shoot and kill everyone who tried to escape.
But even so, the arrows, taking advantage of the moment of relief as the soldier escaped the chaos, continued to take the lives of many.
……For the punitive force, this disastrous night, this terrible night, had yet to end.
Dawn was a long way away.