The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'-Chapter 306 - I’m Right Here, Burning For Attention

The Army’s withdrawal hastened with the need to catch up with the forces at the rear of the civilians. Wounded men were supported between able-bodied fighters, with no one left behind as they shifted toward the main evacuation corridor with eyes on the ’waiting’ Voidling forces.

Along the route, there was more advantageous ground than this open townscape. Everyone there hoped that the creatures would not fully commit before then, though the chances were slim.

"Keep it tight!"

Captain Cyera called to her soldiers as Qatrand moved along the side with the thickest glows of white fire-points. The shield bearer paced behind her while Kefa and Helace took to the other side in case of smaller ambushes. Ryder stuck to the center ready to pivot in either direction if needed.

"Scout from the escort teams reported clear paths to the rendezvous point."

A sergeant reported to the older woman.

"Then we follow as planned. Quicken the pace by another beat."

After making it out of the town gate and down the road, it was clear that the numbers of the invading creatures seemed to have doubled. Pulled in from the surrounding land, they flowed around and buildings. The obstacles nothing to their single-minded purpose of staying at a certain range of the combatants.

’Just as ordered.’

The Void Defense Society member thought to himself before sharing his observation.

"They’re converging while waiting for us to press close to the others. So that it doesn’t have to divide its forces and chase stragglers."

"We’ll be as ready as we can. Every one we kill is one less-"

Qatrand’s pep talk was cut short as a massive surge of the creatures broke from their wall. This assault came with renewed ferocity, as if whatever guided them had decided to let them commit fully to the attack this time now that they had the numbers.

Her swing hit the first two to reach her and the shield bearer grunted as five whole Voidlings slammed into his defense simultaneously. The impact drove him back a pace before he steadied his footing and brought his axe slamming along the length of his shield.

Their thin barbed ’arms’ would recover from the slicing cuts without a killing blow to their ’center mass’. A task which the spiked end of his shield took care of for a pair of them at once.

"Lock shields and fire into open lanes! Position seven!"

Helace and the remaining Army crossbowmen loosed a volley at the thick of the advancing creatures. There were precious seconds to buy for the lines to circle around the wounded mortal fighters.

Yecine swordsmanship slammed into one after another group to thin the impact on the line of soldiers. However, as she turned to engage another group, something unusual caught her attention. A Voidling that had been rushing past towards the back of their shield bearer suddenly stopped when she looked at it.

Its ’eyes’ flickered wildly, then all oriented toward her like compass needles finding true-north. It abandoned its intended prey and charged directly at Qatrand instead. She dispatched the small amorphous ’humanoid’ with a powerful slice... while dismissing the behavior as coincidence.

But then it happened again - another closeby eldritch invader broke off from the main assault to target her when her eyes landed on it. Then another. Each time, the swordswoman felt a growing warmth in her chest and across her skin.

For the first time in her life, her Cynosure Physique was truly activating. Guiding the nearest enemies to see her as the most important threat. Started from the moment she gazed and wished the first one so ’taunted’ would have not gone after her compatriot.

But the response it was triggering seemed far stronger than she expected.

A fourth and fifth stuttered to a stop in the same way before changing course to attack her. She hadn’t even looked directly their way this time. The heavy blade cut them down easily enough, but the pattern was becoming unmistakable.

Even to her companions.

"Some of ’em are fixating on you. Why is that?"

Kefa ran past while asking, burying her blades into enemies knocked back but not killed by the Army soldiers. The shield wall of theirs was bending under the pressure even as the five cultivators danced around with a tempo no mortal could match to ease as much of it as they could.

But the numbers seemed endless.

’If a few more of them would attack me at once...’

A large group that had been pressing against the shield wall abruptly disengaged. Like the first, the white glows wobbled and swiveled in unison to lock on her position. These creatures began pushing through their own ranks with abandon. Seemingly intent on reaching her regardless of obstacles.

"What in the..."

A soldier muttered as the pressure against their shield suddenly lessened, seeing the pack of enemies that seemed to be running the other way in the middle of the assault. Ryder looked in the same direction to see the raven-haired heir cleave through five of the disturbing invaders with careful application of quick counter forms.

But for each one she killed, two more seemed to decide she was a problem. It wasn’t long before a dozen and a half surrounded her and forced her to focus entirely on defense. A realization struck her... a dangerous opportunity.

’It’s their Hivemind, isn’t it?’

While the information that the Void Defense had suggested that their spirits were strange and that the leaders could gather and command them, it was nothing on her El’s explanations of exactly how they worked. At the time, Qat had wondered why she was even being told.

Yet, now she knew. Her wife had foreseen... if not this exact scenario, that her Physique might do things in the middle of fighting them. Things that would require her to *know* what was going on. So that she could make appropriate decisions.

"Captain! Focus your forces on a retreating fight! I’ll draw them away!"

Cyera’s eyes darted towards the yelling cultivator parrying barbed arms and holding her own amidst a storm of leaping and lunging surreal black madness. The young, foolish fighter that reminded her of every soldier she’d lost throughout her tenure all at once. frёewebηovel.cѳm

"That’s suicide!"

She called out, but Qat had already found her moment. With a stomp and spin, she knocked away most and killed four before stabbing the point of her blade into one of them without killing it. Pigeon-blues glared at the white fire as her physical energy marshalled toward every pore on her body.

"No, it’s a strategy. Come and get me."

Qatrand’s low voice was meant only for herself and for the intelligence linking these creatures and the effect... was immediate and far more profound than she anticipated.

The battlefield went unnaturally silent as hundreds and hundreds of ’eyes’ rotated toward her position with singular, almost robotic intent. Voidlings that had been lunging at shields or running after the other cultivators froze mid-motion.

Void-formed bodies rippled with the indecision born by the sense of their target control being interfered with. The warmth that had been over her skin now burned like fire. Like every flame in their eldritch eyes seared her skin, pulsing in time with her racing heartbeat.

A heart that hammered against Qatrand’s ribs as the full magnitude of what she’d successfully done crystallized. The massive crowd of creatures stood motionless for five seconds - just long enough for Captain Cyera to recognize the opportunity. The older woman’s battle-worn voice cut through the eerie silence, as even her soldiers had stopped attacks in confusion.

"All units fall back! Get the wounded clear! Move!"

Among the countless white flame-points focused on the Yecine ’heir’, a pair of dull mint eyes watched from the shadows of a distant rooftop in the town. Elua er Goltbred’s fingers tightened around the obsidian mirror she’d been gripping tight since her ’fortress’ had arrived.

As she observed her beloved standing before the horde, the fragment of her spirit in Qat’s chest remained intentionally silent. Restraining her impulse to interfere, to manipulate, to protect the one taking it all on her own shoulders.

Allowing her husband-wife to make her own choices, as silly as they looked to her. Because that nature of her Qat was the very inspiring beauty she hoped others to see. To respect, revere, and rely on.

’Within limits. Her limits... and mine. Because we’re-’

The stillness shattered as the Voidling impaled on Qatrand’s blade emitted a piercing shriek. Like a dam breaking, the entire mass trampled their own damaged kind in their frenzy to reach her. Clawed and barbed limbs raked at the air in fury over function.

Their singular purpose to eliminate the ’interference’ now terrifyingly clear.

Qatrand wrenched her blade along the center of the one she’d kept underfoot, darker than black ichor spattering across her boots. One less to chase her. Removing a drop of dark water from an entire lake of it.

The shield bearer caught her pigeon-blue eyes from twenty paces away when she turned in place, ready to draw them off. His expression was clearly torn between duty to the overall mission and loyalty to the fellow Ironclad Order member.

"Go with them! Protect the mortals!"

Her command rang out for him and her other compatriots. Qat’s excuse for them to engage alongside the Army was no longer perfectly valid. The army of the Void was coming for her...

And her alone.

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