Editing Dark Elf:Volume1 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 10===

Klaus slid down the slope.

He charged onto the life-size game board while keeping the locations of the dark elf girl and the warhorses in his head so as not to lose track of them.

First, he reviewed the battle conditions. He had chosen to save Slender. He would do so no matter what. But that good will was one-way and he doubted the dark elves would reciprocate. If he stood in the knights’ way, Slender might even shoot him in the back with an arrow.

…''I still don’t know why she disobeyed her village to save me, so I can’t let my guard down. I can’t speak with her, so she might think the human she saved on a whim returned the favor by calling a bunch of his friends to attack.

He could not expect her thanks.

But he had not chosen to save her to demand anything in return.

And…

…''I would have a hard time fighting directly against the knights. They’re combat experts. Even more so than martial artists. An amateur can’t accomplish anything by challenging them.

The only card in his deck was the Camouflize magic.

He could also tell he was woozy. He had a bad headache similar to a dehydration symptom. That meant he had very little magic derivative left after charging out here without grabbing any supplies.

…''I can only use my magic once. And even if it does work, I’ll have zero stem left in me, so I’ll pass out.

“That means my goal can’t be defeating the knights. No one could do that. I need to sow enough confusion for the dark elves to escape!!”

He could not rely on the idea that he could defeat a whole group of humans by camouflaging himself as a large magical creature like a dragon or griffin. These knights could ''slay one of those and move on.'' That was what it meant to be experts in the field of combat. It was wrong to assume they could be defeated as long as you were clever enough. He would die as soon as he tried to challenge them in their field of expertise.

The dark elf girl was not going to last long while helping sobbing Little Girl escape.

Professor Dissection’s objective was to take her alive and dissect her. That was why Loinbelt (who Klaus hoped was questioning his actions here) and the others were going easy on her as they pursued her, but there were no guarantees. If one of those 500kg warhorses reached her, she would be crushed. She would be killed just like the traffic accidents between a runaway horse and a pedestrian that he had occasionally seen in the royal capital.

…''I’ll show you a surprise before you can lay a finger on my wife. I swear it.

What would he transform into?

When and where would he use it?

“Of the three traits, I choose mercury. Mammal, perissodactyl, equid, kingdom, gone feral after domestication, an animal with no original. I have grasped thy nature like counting the corners of a polygon or star. The polygon emanates and the star gathers – together they symbolize the control of power. By knowing thee, I become one with thee.”

He recited the incantation while he ran. He worked to understand what it was he wished to become.

He couldn’t reach a full understanding. That would be as endless a task as painting the grains of sand on the beach or the stars in the sky by adding each individual dot to the canvas. So he selected a few aspects of the whole and filled in the gaps with his imagination to guide him. As long as he got that right, he could create a very realistic scene, like an oil painting that intentionally omitted information.

With that set, he only had to raise his voice.

He drew a square magic circle on the ground and stepped inside. So he could grasp the three traits through the four elements and connect heaven to earth.

''He had magic and now was the time to use it.'' Once he knew that, he had to act immediately!!

“Camouflize Decoration – now I am thee!!”

With an almost comical-looking blast of steam, Klaus Knockburn gained an entirely different body. But the distortion to his vision was not because the position of his eyes had changed.

(Cough, cough. Ugh, I’m so dizzy! I really am going to pass out like this!!)

He clenched his teeth, but he grinned on the inside. Of course he did. This was 100 times better than letting that girl die. Once he knew where he stood, all his hesitation vanished. He couldn’t understand her language and he couldn’t ask her how she felt, but he felt confident she would do the same in his position.

Now that he was on Slender’s side and viewing the world from her viewpoint, the world seemed to open up around him.

He had an entirely different body now, so he could appear in front of the dark elf and the knights without them knowing it was him.

“Wha-!?”

If they collided, it would mean a legit traffic accident, so he had known Page Loinbelt would immediately pull on the reins and stop his horse. Just like on the road earlier.

From up close, he noticed doubt and guilt on Loinbelt’s face. There was even a touch of relief when he was forced to unexpectedly stop. ''Geez, what an honest knight.

(Yeah, you would never agree with this, would you? You instinctively risked falling off your horse to protect a stranger. If that’s the kind of knight you hope to be, then you must hate being ordered to work as a group to chase after someone much weaker than you and take them prisoner, right!?)

There were times when you had to obey even if you didn’t want to.

Klaus himself had briefly hesitated because trying to directly stop Professor Dissection would only get him killed by the knights. So he wasn’t going to blame Loinbelt. He had no right.

(So I’ll stop you. If you’re silly sense of knightly duty prevents you from disobeying an order, then I’ll stop you instead! That’s my way of repaying you for saving me!!)

Now, what exactly had Klaus Knockburn Camouflized into?

And why had Loinbelt felt the need to pull on the reins while riding atop a 500kg warhorse?

Because Klaus was a mare.

And not just any mare. He was one any male horse would find irresistibly attractive.

“Kh…stop, swift and honorable Vainbux! I said stop!”

Loinbelt tried his best to stop the horse, but it was too late.

Klaus could not create a camouflaged form out of nothing, so he had based it on the warhorses he could see. They were all powerful males, but the observations for his camouflage magic only determined the species, such as horse or cattle. If he were camouflaging himself as a dalmatian, for example, he could adjust everything other than the species to his liking: coat, markings, sex, age, etc.

He would choose one of three traits to focus on when casting his magic. Salt meant leaving everything the same as the original, sulfur meant prioritizing the male side, and mercury meant prioritizing the female side.

(Hm, will this do the trick?)

He did not know how horses behaved and anyone who did may have thought this horse was acting very strangely indeed, but shaking his butt in front of the many warhorses had a dramatic effect. The knights lost all control like they were now riding racehorses injected full of banned drugs.

And Klaus made sure to continue his observations as a scientist.

(Whew, impressive. That one certainly lives up to the “hung like a horse” saying. Warhorses are normally castrated for better control, but maybe the idea is to sell them off as studs after they retire. Are the regulations looser with a second-class horse given to a page?)

Loinbelt did fairly well, but his Vainbux (who the baby-faced page insisted on praising as much as his knight) was not the only warhorse here.

Klaus heard more and more whinnies which were even more frightening than the sounds of a steam engine. Some knights were tossed about, some clung on for dear life, and others were thrown clear. It was a complete disaster. With the front row of horses out of control, the shock and panic spread as a chain reaction.

Alchemists had developed a form of explosive powder. that would make a loud noise when ignited, so it was sometimes thrown out onto the battlefield to confuse the trained warhorses.

(I’ve got them!!)

He felt like he was out fishing and he felt the imaginary tug of a solid bite. He had no actual numbers or signs to go by, but he knew he could allow Slender and Little Girl to escape now.

However.

(Wait. Distracting them is all well and good, but what do I do now?)

He hadn’t thought this through.

A chill ran down his spine(?).

He hesitantly looked back to find the muscular machos of the horse world breathing heavily and leering at his mare ass. He rapidly grew embarrassed by his own actions here. But try as he might, he could not shake their attention. The horse language was an even greater mystery than the dark elf language, but the looks in their beady eyes could not have been clearer.

''How kind of you to offer, you charming young lady.

''I hope you’re ready to be shared by all of us until dawn☆

(Ah, ahhhhhhh, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?)

Taking a quick look back at the dark elf girl before thoughtlessly charging into the nearby bushes may have been a mistake. The many warhorses rushed after their prey, despite being herbivores who normally peacefully ate the grass.

“''Bae?''”

He thought he heard Slender’s voice while she sat flat on the ground with her arms around Little Girl’s shoulders from behind.

Come to think of it, hadn’t she seen his camouflage magic back when he was being crushed below Leader’s ass as a Witch Pumpkin?