Trapped in Another World With No Magic

Chapter 152: The Summoned Heroine

"Close ranks! Close ranks! Defend the caravan!" shouts Wulfsten, a former knight now working as a mercenary escorting a merchant caravan. He was an officer for the Montarre household until he was discharged. Unfortunately, that means he's singlehandedly the most experienced warrior and combat leader present. "Guoevad! You're out of position!"

"Aaghhh!" Just as Wulfsten is calling him back, the junior swordsman is hit by an arrow in the shoulder, toppling.

Damn! curses the former knight silently. They're being attacked from two sides, a massive monster engaging the caravan at the front, and the bandits that provoked it to the rear. "Archers! Focus on the flanks!" Wulfsten says this as he rushes forward, intercepting the monster as it lunges at Guoevad, driving the other mercenaries back.

The beast is a massive insect-like beast known as a zaftamben. It possesses a body almost twice as large as a female boruan, with powerful forelegs that it swipes at enemies and prey with. The claws slam and shriek against Wulfsten's shield, stumbling him back.

As a male boruan, he is stronger than the average human-kin, but even his added strength is being sapped away by exhaustion as the relentless assault tears away at his defenses.

The zaftamben lunges its head forward, trying to snap at him with its jaws, and he swings his sword, parrying the mandibles before narrowly blocking another barrage from the foreclaws.

One of the other mercenaries jumps in, shouting as he stabs a spear forward, but he doesn't have enough strength to penetrate the monster's exoskeleton.

Given the rather light loadout of the mercenaries, a zaftamben is one of the worst matchups they could have stumbled into.

The zaftamben whirls towards the spearman, batting him away with the backside of its claws, and he flies through the air with a yelp.

"Pikemen! Get behind it! Let's go!" shouts Wulfsten. The mercenaries are being whittled down one by one, and the merchants that they're supposed to be guarding are facing the pressure of the multi-sided assault as well, with several injuries the healers are desperately trying to get to.

Suddenly, the shrill chatter of two more zaftambens makes Wulfsten's blood run cold.

The mercenaries are barely holding at all against one, and two more burst out of the treeline. They strike their wings with vibrant movements that look like blurs to anyone watching, but the sound is like a razor on stone, shrieking through the air with a faintly visible pulse.

Several men scream as even the boruan leader of the mercenaries flinches. Gatonines and shenwulves, particularly, are heavily affected by the shrill pulse, doubling over in pain as they cry out.

And, even as he continues shouting out orders to try to rally the men, Wulfsten can't even hear his own voice.

The battle is looking dire, and he's losing men faster and faster.

Just as the despair is taking hold of his soul, the sound is slowly returning, and he hears a man cry out as he sails over the line of carriages, slamming into the first zaftamben and knocking it off balance while its focus was on Wulfsten.

It squeals as it topples to the side briefly from the impact, and the man who was launched through the air flops to the ground lifelessly below where he hit the insectoid monster.

His outfit is not one belonging to any of the mercenaries in Wulfsten's group, including the ones he met only on the trip. It's a human wearing green and brown clothing to blend in with the forest around them.

Given the circumstances, he looks to be one of the bandits attacking the caravan from the flanks.

Suddenly, what sounds like a female voice shouts from above, "Heeyaaaahhhhhh!". A figure falls from the sky like a vengeful archangel, spearing into the body of the insectoid behemoth while it tries to scramble back up to its feet, swatting its claws in vain at the incoming projectile of a warrior.