All My Summons Become Divine Girls

Chapter 269: First Blood at the Watchposts

The eastern post rang twice before dawn, bringing Hajin onto the wall beside Hans while the cleared basin remained empty.

Eight riders approached across the eastern rise, wearing scout leathers over narrow strips of ash-mirrored plate.

Juna watched from the raised western bank, keeping every Wing closed while Loccy guarded the northern road bend.

Orin’s survey lines covered the withdrawal lane behind twelve shield recruits, though the forward field showed only eight horses.

"Uriel counted thirty-six," Hans said, keeping the bell keeper below the parapet, "these eight want us looking at them."

The scouts stopped beyond bow range, spreading until every rider had a separate view of the post.

One raised a white command baton, signaling the Sixth defenders to abandon the barrier before their formation advanced.

"Turn back beyond the field marker," Hans called, lifting his spear above the wall, "cross it armed and we answer the attack."

All eight scouts reversed together, retreating several paces without leaving their observation positions on the eastern rise.

The dry irrigation channel beneath them erupted with hooves as twenty-eight armored cavalry climbed through concealed cuts.

Their linked plates covered rider plus horse, overlapping ash-bright surfaces across four ranks before the charge reached open ground.

Orin’s forward rods detected them after the channel walls stopped masking their movement, leaving the shield line several breaths to brace.

Flint riders launched weighted bolts before entering spear range, striking the post from an angle outside the prepared eastern barrier.

The first volley broke two shield frames, driving fragments across the bell keeper plus three recruits behind them.

All four defenders fell with serious wounds while the cavalry lowered lances toward the opened side of the post.

Hajin called two Rings around his right wrist, spreading Aegis across the breach before the second volley arrived.

Bolts stopped against the golden barrier, dropping into the withdrawal lane while Orin’s runners dragged every wounded defender toward Vella.

"The eight are pulling south," Hans said, keeping the remaining shields behind Aegis, "the charge intends to hold our eyes here."

Hajin saw the scouts turn beyond the rise, but the twenty-eight attackers had crossed his warning marker without slowing.

Their mirrored formation tightened around the final approach, presenting Juna with the same broad solar target Dreth’s observers had recorded.

She opened her first Wing above the western bank, sending Solar Vanguard markings across both forearms while the riders maintained speed.

The second spread beneath it as the front rank cleared the last house, leaving every reflected angle pointed into the evacuated basin.

Her third Wing opened across the bank, forcing the eight distant scouts to shield their faces before continuing south.

Solar pressure passed through Hajin’s bond while Juna stepped from the raised edge without asking him to choose her timing.

The cavalry commander lifted his baton, locking every overlapping plate toward the straight line expected from her ridge attack.

Juna rose above that angle with all three Wings behind her, then folded their light around one descending claw.

Her first contact struck the formation’s upper plates, activating the ash-mirrored countermeasure across every connected rank.

Two reflected streams tore sideways through the empty basin, cutting trenches across the irrigation sheds before their roofs ignited.

The redirected force left the central solar edge narrower, but Juna drove it downward through the joined armor seams.

Gold crossed the cavalry from rear rank toward front, cutting riders, mounts, linked plates, and the occupied road beneath them.

Ash-mirrored surfaces burst away from the line, carrying fragments into the evacuated fields while the descending edge continued through every rank.

Twenty-eight Flint riders died inside the formation they had chosen to maintain, leaving the road divided beneath cooling armor.

Juna landed beyond the severed front rank with all three Wings extended, watching for any survivor who lowered a weapon.

Nobody inside the strike remained able to surrender, while the eight rear scouts disappeared south without returning to fight.

Hajin dismissed one Ring before crossing the broken barrier, keeping Aegis over Vella plus the four wounded defenders.

Golden mana moved through their contract as she stabilized a punctured lung, two broken legs, and the bell keeper’s opened shoulder.

"They live if this channel stays steady," Vella said, pressing his borrowed healing through the worst chest wound, "leave the armor where it fell."

Orin reached the split road after checking every body, finding twenty-eight dead attackers without a hidden surrender or escaped line rider.

"The plates redirected her strike," he said, studying both trenches across the basin, "they moved less power than Dreth expected."

Juna folded her third Wing after confirming the count, though the remaining two stayed open while scouts watched the approaches.

"They aimed the reflection through our post," she said, looking toward the treatment lane, "Uriel moved everyone before they tried it."

System panels opened beside Hajin while Vella’s healing continued through his hand into the injured recruit.

[ Hostile Cavalry Kills Confirmed: 28 ]

[ Shared Summon Participation Reward: 1,850,000 EXP ]

[ Hajin Reward: 925,000 EXP ]

[ Juna Reward: 925,000 EXP ]

[ Hajin — Ring IV Progress: 20,345,000 / 25,000,000 EXP ]

[ Juna — Wing Progress: 4,105,000 / 7,500,000 EXP ]

No reward appeared for the retreating scouts, preserving all eight inside Dreth’s remaining field force.

Orin’s southern survey rod changed from blue to ash-gray before Hajin finished reading the final total.

Its route line showed repeated ground contact along the southern road, beginning while every watchpost eye faced the cavalry.

Hajin kept healing inside Aegis until Vella secured the punctured lung, costing several minutes before he could leave the post.

He reached the southern rise with Orin plus Hans, finding the eight scouts screening several wagons beyond the regional marker.

A separate Flint work team withdrew behind them with augers secured along the wagon sides, leaving the road shoulders freshly packed.

Hajin could catch the rear scouts with one Ring, but doing so would cross toward prepared wagons while four defenders still needed his mana.

"They bought road work with the charge," Hans said, examining the nearest shoulder without stepping onto it, "those holes were not here yesterday."

Divine Eye found shallow ash plugs repeated beside the road, although none carried active mana circulation Hajin could trace.

Orin counted more than fifty disturbed points before the route disappeared around the southern bend beneath the withdrawing screen.

"Dormant anchors or decoys," he said, placing warning stakes outside the first plugs, "digging one may wake whatever connects the rest."

Hajin ordered the southern lane closed to carts while survey crews marked every visible disturbance from outside the shoulder.

The work team vanished beyond the bend with all eight scouts, preserving its people while leaving its buried preparation behind.

Behind Hajin, three Wings had become one above the eastern post while clinic carts carried four living defenders toward town.

The cavalry had failed to take the watchpost, but Dreth’s untouched road plugs remained beneath fifty warning stakes.