Extra: Yandere Milfs Obsessed with me!-Chapter 215: Scarlet Valerius

The sky had gradually darkened as they left the well-maintained lands of the duchy. Thick clouds covered the horizon, filtering the light and plunging the eastern districts into a heavy gloom.

Scarlet rode at the front, back straight, reins firmly held. Her white horse no longer had the pristine elegance it displayed at the start. The rain of soot falling from the sky, mixed with humidity and dust, had turned the ground into sticky mud. The hooves sank into it with every stride, splashing the armors.

Even though they could not yet see the monsters, the damage was visible. Many houses were destroyed with fire crackling everywhere, and distant screams could also be heard.

Scarlet took a deep breath.

"Let’s go!!!"

Her voice carried despite the wind.

The four hundred knights accelerated. The formation naturally tightened around her. Her presence at the front changed the atmosphere. The doubts about the duke’s punishment for their disobedience had faded as adrenaline took over.

A knight caught up to her...

"Lady Scarlet, monsters have been spotted in the distance."

She turned her head slightly.

"Good. Pass the order that about fifty knights stay here. To help the injured people recover!"

"At your command!"

He was about to go relay the order, then slowed for a moment.

"I want to thank you, Lady Scarlet. We would never have had the courage to do this without your help. Now I can go save my sister! Thank you from the bottom of my heart."

Scarlet looked at him from the corner of her eye. Despite the tension, her smile was gentle.

"It’s nothing—"

*Splash*

Something viscous splattered across her face.

"Huh?"

She blinked.

"What is this!? Blood?"

The knight galloping beside her toppled backward. His body fell heavily to the ground while his head was no longer there.

"What the—!"

Her gaze instinctively rose to the darkened sky.

Above them, shapes were circling in the low clouds. You had to squint to make them out clearly. Wide wings, slender bodies, shrill cries.

A horde of harpies.

"Take cover!"

She spurred her horse to gain speed and leave the exposed area. However, the mud made every movement uncertain and the horses’ hooves slipped.

She lost her balance when her horse stumbled and was thrown to the ground.

The impact briefly knocked the wind out of her.

"Shit, this is bad."

Her vision blurred for a fraction of a second.

Around her, shouts erupted.

"Defensive formation!"

"Shields up!"

A harpy dove and snatched a knight from his saddle before dropping him several meters away.

Scarlet pushed herself up on one hand. Mud covered her clothes. Her sword had fallen a few meters away.

This was her first real battle.

She had imagined an organized advance, clean lines, a controlled intervention. Nothing was going as planned.

Another harpy swooped toward her.

A knight stepped in and barely blocked the attack.

"Lady Scarlet, stay behind us!"

She shook her head and retrieved her weapon.

"No, don’t worry about me."

She took a breath, forced her mind to steady.

"Divide into groups of ten! Cover each other! Archers, aim for their wings when they dive!"

A captain repeated her order louder so it could be relayed.

"Groups of ten! Coordination!"

A harpy crashed down in front of Scarlet. She parried its attack; the impact rang through her arm. The creature tried to claw her face. She spun and slashed horizontally. Black blood splashed into the mud.

Her heart was beating fast, but her gaze remained focused.

"Do not break ranks!" she shouted.

A knight fell to his knees beside her, wounded in the shoulder.

"Hold on!" she told him. "Reinforcements are coming."

A new wave of harpies descended.

"Fight!!!"

Despite the initial surprise, discipline was taking over again. Shields aligned. Lances rose at an angle. Archers fired as soon as a silhouette came too low.

Scarlet wiped the blood from her face with her sleeve. The fear was still there, but she no longer had time to let it dominate her.

She raised her sword.

"Don’t forget that the objective is to protect the civilians!"

The battle was only just beginning. Scarlet tightened her grip on her sword.

The initial shock had passed. Now there was only the sound of metal, screams, and wingbeats above them.

She pivoted on her left foot, dodged by a few centimeters and struck vertically. The blade sliced into the creature’s wing; it let out a high-pitched scream before crashing heavily into the mud, then she cut off its head.

To her right, a knight was unseated from his mount.

"Down!" he shouted.

Scarlet leapt toward him, intercepted a harpy mid-flight and slit its throat with a sharp motion.

"Get up! Valiant knight." she ordered.

Around them, the area they had wanted to protect already looked like a field of ruins. Yet she saw almost no civilians anymore.

She quickly understood.

Most had fled.

Those who remained... had not had time to flee and were mostly already dead.

The ground trembled...

A knight turned his head.

"Lady Scarlet... these are not harpies."

Massive silhouettes emerged between the gutted buildings.

They came out of nowhere, advancing with heavy but relentless slowness, brandishing chunks of stone torn from the facades.

Scarlet clenched her teeth.

"Shit! Harpies and now this?"

A troll hurled a block of stone that crushed two knights against a wall.

She ran to one of them, still conscious but gravely wounded in the abdomen.

"Hold on," she said, briefly placing a hand on him.

A subtle but visible green light escaped from her palm. Her mana flowed instinctively. The knight’s wound partially closed, enough to stop the bleeding.

She stood up immediately.

A harpy grazed her and its claws tore open her shoulder. Blood flowed copiously.

She swayed for a second.

Then the same green glow enveloped her wound. The flesh gradually closed.

The pain, however, did not disappear.

Each cut burned twice: once on impact, a second time as the tissues reconstituted under the effect of her mana.

Her armor was already covered in blood, hers and the monsters’.

A knight shouted: 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

"Lady Scarlet, behind you!"

A troll raised its massive arm to crush her. She rolled to the side, rose in the same motion and struck the creature’s leg. Her blade sank deep.

Despite her slender figure, her raw strength was impressive. At eighteen years old, a C+ rank warrior, she struck with a power comparable to a rank B. But her real strength came mostly from her innate and automatic ability to heal her wounds.