“Take them out!”

  “Don’t let them get away!”

  “Aaaaaaahhhh!”

  The cacophony of screams from the desperate officers filled the air. Alexa and Phoebe both readied their spells while they looked at the men ahead of them. Their faces, full of fear and desperation, looked truly ugly and pitiful. Yet they bravely charged anyway in the face of terror.

  And, well, Alexa supposed she and Phoebe were terrifying. Phoebe began conjuring hundreds of shards of light around her, while Alexa activated nearly a dozen various spells with her circling paper glyphs. Their enemy, in comparison, charged at them mostly with their melee weapons and skills. Some had the foresight to try opening fire with spells using their wands.

  But it was all for naught. Phoebe’s blessings and barrier spells protected the both of them completely, making them impervious to an attack. In fact, the same was true with the troops behind Alexa and Phoebe, who were currently locked in battle with the enemy forces trying to take them down.

  Alexa locked eyes with General Horatio Dupont. The man’s eyes was now darkened, his teeth gritted, as he braced himself for impact while pointing his saber at her. It was a pitiful display, which made Alexa ask why he even still continued to charge when he knew he was going to be doomed.

  Whatever. I’ll deal with it later.

  Alexa raised her hand and brought it down. Immediately, the spell circles surrounding her, generated by her archdemon blood-infused paper glyphs, fired their spells. It was mostly just ice spikes that were blunted and specially designed so that they would only shatter their shields or knock them off their horses.

  Phoebe did the same when she brought down the barrage of light shards at the enemy. Neighs and screams of terror filled the fields as the group of officers were knocked on the ground. While the spells of the two girls were ‘nonlethal’ in nature, they were still quite violent, enough that anyone directly hit likely suffered from broken bones, internal organ damage, and other nasties.

  And that was exactly what happened. As the dust plumes cleared out, it revealed the officers, many of them screaming in pain or raging through it. A few of them still managed to stand and raise their weapons, but they were brought down by the combined firepower that Alexa and Phoebe had.

  Alexa finally looked at General Horatio. The man managed to stand upright, but his face was bloodied and bruised, most likely because he was dropped face-first into the rough ground. His face contorted into rage, and he shouted at the top of his lungs as he continued to charge with his saber.

  “I am not losing to a damned brat!!!”

  “Unfortunately, you already lost to me,” Alexa scoffed.

  “Excuse me, Lady Alexa,” Phoebe said, as she summoned a sword made out of light on her hands. “I’ll deal with him.”

  “Careful, okay?”

  “Mhm.”

  Then, as if a knight protecting her liege, Phoebe faced off against Horatio, skipping forward almost in a flash of light. When their swords clashed, Alexa barely managed to watch an exchange that lasted for three seconds before Phoebe sliced through Horatio’s sword and brought down the pommel of her weapon straight into the man’s noggin, knocking him unconscious.

  Out of the fog, another officer emerged. He was also heavily injured, but he got close to Phoebe. Alexa’s eyes widened in worry, and she quickly activated a paper glyph around her. It quickly fired a fireball straight at the officer before he could lop Phoebe’s head off. Unfortunately, the display made both girls flinch.

  “Aaaaah! My eyes! My eyes! Get it off me! Get it off me!”

  The officer dropped his saber as he fell on his knees, screaming as he tried putting out the blazing inferno that consumed him. The terror in his voice was enough to make both Alexa and Phoebe seize and freeze up, with Alexa suddenly feeling lightheaded, her heartbeat intensifying. She wanted to scream at Phoebe to reverse what she did, but she was unable to do so.

  Instead, she just watched as the officer continued screaming.

  “It hurts! It hurts! Please! Please…p…p…”

  And then, he collapsed, his body still on fire, while his hands raised up in Phoebe’s direction, as if he was begging to be healed. One moment, he was an enemy attacking her to kill her; the next, he looked like someone who just desperately wanted to live, like everyone else. Alexa felt tears coming out of her eyes.

  “I…I killed…”

  Phoebe shook herself off and then quickly summoned her staff back. She planted it straight on the ground, as her halo glowed brighter. Then, she began to profusely chant a spell.

  “Oh holy mother of all life. Please grant these lost souls salvation. Restore their health and vigor, and deliver them from certain death…”

  Alexa watched as Phoebe continued to desperately chant her area healing spell. It was certainly working, as many of the unconscious and knocked-down soldiers had their injuries healing, not to the extent that they would be able to stand up and fight again, but enough that they would be able to live.

  Even General Horatio was the same. On the other hand, the officer that Alexa attacked simply continued to burn. Alexa had her eyes trained on the man, praying desperately that Phoebe’s spell would work, but it was to no avail.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  “No, no, no, this isn’t a part of my plan…” Alexa muttered, as more tears came out of her eyes. “I…I didn’t mean to…”

  She was planning to just use nonlethal spells to knock down all of General Horatio’s guards, then Phoebe would chant a quick spell, like what she was doing now, to heal them, and no one would die. Then, while they were still unable to move, Alexa and Phoebe would fly General Horatio out of the Second Continental Army’s grasp, removing their leader and imprisoning him on her side.

  But now, a single fatality happened on the enemy side, all because of Alexa’s spell. All because she didn’t notice that she ran out of her nonlethal spells, and the one she fired was a proper fireball spell. Worse, this wasn’t an indirect death because of her decisions anymore—no, she fired off a fireball on her own, with a glyph that she personally drew, straight to living, breathing human being.

  Alexa only ever killed monsters and demons, but a human?

  “W-what?!” Phoebe’s voice cracked. “Why isn’t it working?! Work! Please work!”

  Alexa, however, could only walk languidly on the officer as the fires of her spell ended, revealing a charred body that was barely recognizable. The stench of death was so thick, it almost made her vomit, but Alexa steeled herself, and she tried to get close to peer at the man’s uniform.

  She saw a pinned symbol on the officer’s collar. He had two silver-colored flowers that resembled a diamond’s shape. It looked…similar, way too similar to the ones that adorned the colonels she saw last time in the Army of the Leine’s command tent. Unfortunately, she was unable to look further when the two began to hear shouts in the distance.

  “Shit! Someone attacked the command staff!”

  “Get in there quick! Surround them, damn it!”

  Alexa snapped out of her stupor and turned to Phoebe.

  “Take him and fly us out of here!” Alexa ordered. “W-we have no time left. Let’s go. We have to go!”

  “Right. On it, Lady Alexa.”

  Clumsily, Phoebe cast a levitation spell on both General Horatio and Alexa, and then, she flew upward, dragging the two with her. By the time the revolutionary soldiers arrived on the scene, they barely managed to fire a few crossbow bolts at them. Worst of all, the general of the Second Continental Army was now gone, and every other officer was knocked unconscious or combat incapable.

  +++

  Out of the smoke appeared thousands of soldiers from the eastern flank of the Army of the Leine. Collectively, nearly thirty thousand soldiers charged forward after an intense artillery barrage. General Stefan von Bismarck watched from one of the hills on the flatlands east of the Second Continental Army as his men surged forward.

  This was after he received reports from the center that the enemy had launched a chaotic attack on the Army of the Leine’s central force. It slammed straight into the battalion that Alex Theresa and the saintess brought with them, but the enemy’s attack was disorganized and seemingly confused.

  Units of the Second Continental Army attacked in piecemeal; others stood in their staging areas for too long before being scattered by Stefan’s shütze artillery. The rest managed to reach the lines of the retreating 33rd; others slammed straight into Stefan’s defending units, but the enemy’s attack was weak.

  Now that their reserves were sapped, Stefan thus ordered this assault. A grin grew on the old general’s face as he watched the enemy using his telescope. His men charged forward like possessed, and the enemy, outnumbered and caught off guard, could only fire their weapons in panic or scatter out of their trench lines in a rout.

  He looked at one of his officers as he lowered his telescope.

  “Get the hussars and dragoons in the field. I want them to chase those bastards straight into their fortress.”

  “Aye, aye, sir.”

  The officer saluted before climbing up on a horse. Then, Stefan continued observing. The enemy…they sure weren’t functioning properly now, were they? He wondered why that was the case.

  I see.

  An impressed smile grew on the general’s face.

  I suppose even girls can do war now, huh?

  +++

  Lieutenant General Max Clausewitz watched as the enemy cavalrymen fled the scene in panic.

  They had arrived earlier at the rear of the Second Continental Army. Unfortunately, the only ones that Max managed to bring here fast enough were his dragoons, hussars, and a few lancer regiments. Luckily, all they found were enemy cavalrymen trying to escort wagon convoys.

  “Kill those who resist! Capture anyone who surrenders!” Max ordered, as he brandished his saber while rushing forward in the plains with his trusty horse. His aide, who was close behind, tried to shout for him to remain behind, but Max was overcome by glee and adrenaline.

  Around him, the Second Continental Army’s supply line escort force was melting. He watched as the enemy cavalrymen found themselves being cut down viciously by rapidly charging dragoons. A few groups of unfortunate crossbowmen attempting to form a firing formation found themselves crushed by a determined lancer charge.

  The few unlucky swordsmen trying to run and flee to the forest were hunted by the hussars, their sabers cutting their armor easily, forcing the rest to cower on their knees and beg for mercy. It was a sudden, unexpected collapse that Max didn’t expect. It was as if the enemies he faced had no idea what they were doing.

  And it filled him with joy. Victory in the field was definitely in the air today.

  +++

  “Oh. You two are back.”

  Alexa felt her eyes nearly shutting down as she landed softly on the green grass with Phoebe and Horatio, who was still unconscious. In front of them, Wilhelm stood still on the side of a wide crater. Alexa looked around briefly.

  The battle was still ongoing. Smoke and fire were everywhere, and she could hear the continuous rumbles of war. But here, in this section of the frontline, nothing was happening, save for a few soldiers guarding the area and Wilhelm looking down on them with a concerned face.

  “Are the guys okay?” Alexa asked as she stood up, still lightheaded.

  “The retreat went extremely well. Not even a single fatality.”

  A smile grew on Wilhelm’s face. “And you both are in one piece, with the enemy commander in hand. Why the long face then?”

  Phoebe didn’t answer, instead opting to tend to Horatio’s wounds. Even if he was an enemy, he was already disarmed, and there were soldiers coming around him to detain him, so Phoebe must have thought that it was fine to heal him and reduce his misery.

  On the other hand, Alexa looked down as Wilhelm’s stare bore down on her. Then, she looked at her hands. Her white gloves was untainted by blood, with only a few hints of mud and dust on it. Yet…as she looked at it.

  Blood. There’s blood.

  Alexa looked up at Wilhelm in tears. “W-Wilhelm…”

  “Alexa? What is it? Wait, shit, are you hurt?”

  “No!” Alexa shouted. “I…I killed someone! I killed someone with the glyphs you taught me, Wilhelm!”