CH 39

Chapter 39: How They Fight on the Frontlines

We ran through the Flowtier Forest.

We’ve been running expeditions in this area for quite some time now.

Everyone is able to run through the terrain avoiding rocks and tree roots without tripping, and the pace is pretty quick.

Although.... there is one who is having a little trouble.

Henry: “Cyril, you alright?”

Cyril: “DーDon’t talk to me right now! I’m gonna trip and fall!”

Cyril is unable to keep up with us with just her physical strength alone.

Previously, she received a godly equipment, the [Sprint Boots], and she’s barely keeping up with us, but just watching her makes me nervous. She keeps letting the boots pull her legs forward, and she could lose her balance at any time.

……...hmmmmmmmmmm, I was trying to let her practice running with the boots, but doing it any further will just be too dangerous.

Henry: “Can’t be helped. HEY! Everyone! Just go ahead without us! Cyril, stop with me for a sec!”

I raise my voice. Everyone acknowledges that they heard with a quick “OK”, and Cyril manages to stop with some awkward footwork.

And she almost fell, so I grabbed her hand to keep her from falling.

Cyril: “(gasp……...gasp……….) What is it Henry? I still... have energy to run.”

Henry: “‘course you do. Sheesh.”

She doesn’t have enough breath in her to talk back.

Henry: “I’m being serious. You seem to be at your limit. I can’t have you fall and get injured in this area. It’ll be too dangerous.”

There’s a lot of rocks lying about, and just getting hit with one in the wrong place would leave a scar. I don’t think she’s clumsy enough to go face first but………

Cyril: “......ergh, I guess you’re right.”

Henry: “So here. Get on.”

I turn around and kneel down with my back facing Cyril.

Cyril: “Piggy back?”

Henry: “Don’t be embarrassed. We’re on an expedition, and it can’t be helped.”

It would be better if another woman carries her, but Teo is our scout, and Ferris is the newest member of our party and still needs more experience in these woods. If I give her to Ageha, she might be doing flips off trees while running.

And Jend has hard, uncomfortable protectors all over his body, so it should be relatively more comfortable with me. I only have metal protectors on my shins and forearms.

As I explain all these things to her, Cyril doesn’t look too happy, but after grumbling to herself a bit, she gets on my back.

Cyril: “Don’t you dare touch me in any weird places, okay?!”

Henry: “Yeah, yeah.”

I admit that I like the role, but I’m not going to blatantly rub my hands all over her. Doing so would crack the foundations of the good party dynamics we built up.

……...oh, she’s so soft. Wait, no, Henry! Calm down and empty your thoughts…

Henry: “HーHey, let’s catch up with the others. We’re a little behind, so I’m going to gun it.”

Cyril: “Huh? OH AAAAAAHHHHHHHH?!?!”

I ran as fast as I could.

……...Cyril is screaming behind me, but I decided to ignore it for now.

<<<<>>>>

Jend: “Oh, that was fast, Henry. I thought you were further behind.”

Henry: “We did hurry a bit.”

We catch up with the group, and I wave and answer Jend.

Jend: “..........so what happened to Cyril?”

Henry: “I carried her on my back, but apparently, I went way too fast.”

Cyril was currently out of breath and being cared for by Ferris.

I do feel bad, but I’m sure this won’t be the last time I have to carry her. She’ll just have to get used to it.

I glance and look around.

Henry: “Besides Cyril, it looks like everyone’s in really good shape. Maybe we don’t need to camp anymore and do day trips for Griffin hunts.”

Jend: “Hmmm, yeah, I think that might be better.”

Jend agrees.

Henry: “I’ll bring it up at the next meeting.”

Jend: “Sounds good.”

Alrighty then.

Cyril manages to recover, and we all gather together.

Ageha was stretching and warming up her body, and we all look upon the mountain sitting at the center of the Flowtier forest.

Ageha: “Wow! Look at how many Griffins there are!” Henry: “Yeah, there’s quite a bit of them. The mountain is pretty large though, so they're not all huddled in one group.”

Ageha: “If they want to see you and I fight……...then…….let’s go with Plan D.”

Plan D………

Henry: “Wait, was there even a Plan D?” Ageha: “I just made up the name right now!”

………..this girl……….

Ageha: “What, you don’t remember? We’ll use this.”

Ageha takes out of her pouch, a perfume bottle holding a green liquid. Ageha shakes the bottle next to her and smiles mischievously.

……..ohhhhhh, THAT plan.

Henry: “Pretty sure that they’re not gonna learn anything if we do that but……..”

Ageha: “They don’t have to be able to copy us. They just need to learn that there’s all sort of ways of doing things.”

Henry: “Well, yeah, but….. It’s a little risky…...what if you miss one?”

Ageha: “HA! I know you’re rusty Henry, but I’m still gonna rub it in if you mess up!”

Henry: “Fine, fine.” I nod and agree.

Ageha: “Here we go, and...”

Ageha takes the cap off the perfume bottle, and an intense odor begins to spread in the area.

The party members who were caught off guard hold their noses and back away quickly.

Jend: “THAT STINKS?!? WHAT IS THAT SMELL?!?!”

Cyril: “Ughhhhhhhh, I feel sick…….”

Ferris: “Wow, this is……….”

Teo: “Sister Ageha…..?”

………..Ageha, you could have at least warned them. Even though I know the smell, I still want to plug my nose up right now. I mean, if you have any good senses of smell, you’ll probably throw up with one whiff.

Ageha: “I don’t know why everyone hates this smell. I actually kinda like it.”

Henry: “Idiot! Go before you stink up the place permanently!”

Ageha: “Okay, okay.”

Ageha places a few drops of the odorous liquid on her body and begins to run towards the mountain. Her speed is unbelievable as always. She’s already a small dot on the horizon.

Cyril: “HーHenry! Ageha went by herself! Will she be okay?! I thought you were both hunting as a pair!!”

Henry: “Oh, yeah. She’ll be fine. She’ll be back in 2 or 3 minutes.”

While we’re waiting, I take out my Nyoiten Spear and begin circulating and concentrating the magic power within me.

Alright…...how far can I go today…….

<<<<>>>>

Henry: “Okay, she’s coming back.”

Ageha, who headed into the mountains, came back in about 3 minutes.

She’s not running as fast as she was going up the mountain though. She’s not tired. She just didn’t want to lose the guys chasing after her.

Jend strains a forced smile across his face at the sight. I guess he wasn’t expecting this at all.

Jend: “Yーyeah, she’s coming back, but…...Henry…...look……”

Ferris: “...........hey, Mr. Henry. If my eyes aren’t deceiving me…...there’s at least 50 Griffins behind her, right?”

Henry: “Yeah, she got a pretty good haul.”

My spear whips through the air as I prepare……

Ageha is sharp as ever. She’s luring the Griffins without letting them get close, but she also has them grouped up tightly by fine tuning her return route.

As soon as I can clearly see Ageha’s face….

Henry: “MOVE ASIDE, AGEHA!!”

Ageha: “Sure thing!”

With my shout, Ageha dashes and jumps to the side with a long jump. The Griffins immediately lose sight of their prey and confusion erupts in the group.

ーーIt’s the perfect opportunity. I throw my spear. With the Nyoiten Spear’s ability, I divide my spear into 30.

“GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?!?!”

“GYA, GYA?!?!”

“GAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!”

My spear hits the mark. The pack of Griffins is decimated on impact. My spear pierces the Griffins’ armor easily, and continues to pierce the ones behind them.

But there were 50 of them. There were some who only got light injuries and some who were unharmed.

At a glance, 4 left.

The remaining Griffins glares at our group who just killed their comrades but….

Ageha: “HEY, I'm over here!!”

Like the wind, a shadow overcomes them, and their heads fly off.

Of course, that was Ageha.

Henry: “Alright, let’s collect the drops.”

Jend: “......................huh? Hey, um, Henry. Wait a sec…..”

Henry: “You’re gonna make me do all the work? C’mon, let’s go～.”

Jend: “Argh, fine.”

I convince Jend to follow me, and we run to where the Griffins’ bodies lay strewn on the ground.

Their bodies transform into a corrupted magic mist, and evaporate into the air. Ageha is collecting the drops happily as we arrive.

Henry: “Oh look! A Griffin’s Wind Feather.” Ageha: “Already?! We’re in luck!”

We can sell these feathers that are imbued with [Wind] magic. Usually, you only get about 1 or two at most after defeating about 100. If you’re unlucky, you’ll leave empty handed.

Ageha: “Go ahead and keep collecting the regular feathers and talons. I’ll go out again.”

Henry: “You can gather more this time. I’m feeling pretty good today.”

Ageha: “You sure? Then I’ll nab 100 this time～”

Before Ageha runs off, Teo stops her.

Teo: “Wーwait, Sister Ageha. Can you hold on?”

Ageha: “Hm? What’s up, Teo?”

Teo: “Um...what….is this?”

It’s quite a vague question.

Ageha: “What is what?”

Teo: “This. What kind of fighting is this?”

Ohhhhh...that’s what you meant. Cyril, Jend, and Ferris are all nodding in agreement with Teo’s question.

Oh, well, I guess that makes sense. They’ve only fought the straight-forward way up until now.

Ageha: “I collect the enemies, Henry wipes out most of them, and I take out the remaining. It’s the Ageha • Henry • Ageha Plan D!!”

Henry: “You’re making up random names for the plan again….”

Not only is it hard to say. It doesn’t make a lick of sense.

Cyril: “Wa～it wait wait wait. What is this? This isn’t like any hunt we’ve ever been on.”

Henry: “Cyril, you need to expand your horizons more and think outside the box.”

Cyril: “Wha～....”

No, it’s true. Everyone has their own way of taking out demonic creatures.

You don’t have to always fight them head on. I’ve known scouts who would tear them up and take out Upper-Tier demonic creatures with just traps.

Henry: “And by the way, the perfume she put on before is something that attracts demonic creatures. Any demonic creature who gets a whiff of that scent will start chasing you down like crazy. And luring just the right number of demonic creatures is key and shows how good…..well, how good your legs are.”

Jend: “But it smells…..”

Ageha: “Hey! Don’t tell a lady she’s smelly!”

Well, it does reek. I’ll give it that.

Ageha: “So I’m good with 1 on 1 fights, but many to one battles are not my strong suit. So as a result, I came up with this plan.”

Henry: “Before Ferris joined us, Jend and I would stop the pack, and Cyril would finish them off with her magic. It’s the same type of plan as that.” Jend: “The number of demonic creatures is VE～RY different, and you’re just doing it with two of you....….”

Jend is flabbergasted and doesn’t agree. ……….but no, it’s really all stemming from the same line of thought though.

Henry: “And yeah, Ageha’s role is super difficult, but my role is pretty plain and generic. Anyone with strong area attacks can fulfill it. Cyril, you want to give it a shot?”

As far as this tactic goes, Cyril is better suited than I am.

Cyril glances briefly at Ageha and starts to think really hard.

Cyril: “Um……..will it really be okay? I don’t have any confidence that she won’t get caught in my blast.”

Ageha: “Oh! That’s right. You said you’re a sorceress, right? You strong? I’m sure that [Wind] magic you used last time wasn’t your strongest spell, right?”

Ageha doesn’t know Cyril’s ability, so I explain a little.

Henry: “It’s the first time I’ve see someone with more magic power than Mr. Reuel.”

Ageha: “Holy...you serious?”

Yeah, very serious. But even so, I’m sure Mr. Reuel can still dish out more powerful spells but…

Ageha: “Hmmm, could you show me real quick?”

Cyril: “Sure thing～♪」

Cyril’s bright singing voice fills the air.

After about a minute, she completes her song and…

Cyril: “[EXPLOSION]!!”

A small ember floats out from Cyril’s finger tips, and goes about 30 meters away and ……...a huge explosion erupts.

My spear can do more concentrated damage on a single point, but there’s no way I could ever beat her in area attacks.

Ageha: “Alright, that’s good enough. And if it’s about this range and blast radius, I can easily run away. Cyril, be prepared!”

And Ageha runs up to the mountain once again.

Cyril: “Uーummm….”

Henry: “Don’t worry, if you mess up, I'll follow up.”

I prepare my spear just in case.

<<<<>>>>

So that day…..

Griffins completely disappeared from the forest mountain for some time.

……….I mean, they do respawn from the corrupted magic in the area after a time, so they’ll be back in a few days.

But we got scolded like crazy by the church staff for completely overdoing it.

<<<<>>>>