Chapter 76. One Month After Forming the Party (1)
Chapter 76. One Month After Forming the Party (1)
Adventurers.
People who seek out strange happenings across the continent, seize valuable loot, resolve problems that threaten humanity in the process, and collect their reward.
Some dismiss them as nothing more than glorified mercenaries or drifters, but those with genuine skill command the same respect as the knights and elite soldiers who serve the nobility.
Naturally, if someone destined to be the Hero who saves humanity were to work as an adventurer, a great many people would place their hopes in them.
"Uwaaaaaah!!"
Of course, that fact had not yet been publicly revealed, and the one currently designated as the Hero was operating under the pretext of training, without any meaningful support whatsoever.
Needless to say, no assistance from any kingdom or specific organization was forthcoming. So if she ran into something beyond her abilities, fleeing was her only option.
Say, for instance, a situation where she had to face down a pack of demon beasts raiding a farmstead — all by herself.
"One! They said it was just one big one! Nobody told me about this!!"
Screaming as she sprinted across the grassland at the edge of the farm, Serika burst into tears and frantically glanced back at the pack of monsters pursuing her.
Bodies sheathed in black fur, four legs with enough strength and spring to match her pace even through the tall grass covering the plain.
At a glance they resembled wolves, but what sprouted from their heads were not ears — they were insect-like antennae. And their eyes held not pupils, but hundreds of segmented ommatidia.
A grotesque fusion of insect and beast.
Considering they originated as chimeras created by combining the genes of countless organisms, calling them that was hardly inaccurate.
"...You should have at least considered that 'one' meant one mother beast, you idiot."
Ymir let out a sigh as she watched Serika being chased by that hideous swarm of monsters from atop the hill.
Despite the dire situation, unlike Serika, her face showed only weary exasperation.
It was only natural. When they first took the quest, Serika had refused to listen properly to her cautions and had strutted around insisting she would resolve everything on her own.
'Don't worry! The farmers said only one's been appearing! Even if it's strong, one's something I can handle no matter what!'
As if sheer numbers weren't the bane of any lone fighter.
And yet the person who knew that so well — the Hero, no less — had the nerve to charge into a fight without even bothering to learn the basic traits of demon beasts?
"Listen, you little brat, demon beasts are creatures whose entire operational principle revolves around nothing but splitting and massing. Their intelligence may be low, but their reproductive drive puts even orcs to shame, so if you're heading somewhere a fully grown one's been sighted, you have to assume dozens more of the same kind are lying in wait."
"Then why are you only telling me that now?!"
"I was going to tell you, but you stormed off without listening to the explanation, dumbass."
The sheer brazenness of that behavior almost made Ymir wonder if her own understanding had been wrong.
Demon beasts were said to have originated from the demonic races, but once she learned their influence on the human body was markedly minimal, she'd cut ties with that field entirely.
So naturally it wasn't strange that she wasn't eager to step up with knowledge outside her specialization, was it?
"Ymir! Ymir, fast, faster! Do something about these things!!"
Even so, she'd assumed the Hero had more field experience than she did and would therefore have some reliable card up her sleeve.
Tch. Clicking her tongue, Ymir finally pushed herself upright and began concentrating mana into her body.
"For the record, I still haven't fully recovered my feel for actual combat, so I can't modulate high-output spells yet. That means if you want me to wipe them all out at once, you'll need to lure them away from the farm first. Until then, I can only support you with telekinesis at best. If you start whining about getting splattered by burst organs again like last time..."
"Anything's fine, just stop talking and knock these things back, hurry!!"
"...Such a mouth on someone begging for help."
-A low, resonant hum!
The moment mana gathered in both hands and the boulders rooted into the ground around her were ripped free.
It was a fundamental technique that dealt in pure physical force, but with the ability of a Grand Archmage, even such a novice's skill could easily hoist several body-sized boulders into the air.
Simply letting that attack drop down the hillside under gravity would be threat enough against demon beasts.
-BOOM. CRUNCH!
In the moment the plummeting boulders crushed the bodies of several demon beasts. Black blood sprayed, and the creatures convulsed hideously, but the dozens of demon beasts chasing Serika paid their kin's state no mind and simply continued the pursuit.
It was only natural. The operational principle of demon beasts was purely predation and division.
To creatures devoid of kinship and fear, the barrage raining into their pack was merely a problem of reduced pursuer numbers — nothing more.
-SHRRRRK!
Of course, even thinning their numbers like that secured enough breathing room.
The moment the monster closing in from her flank was flattened under a boulder, Serika — as if she'd been waiting for it — used the rock as a springboard to leap upward and plunged into the midst of the pack.
"Hhup!!"
With a sharp battle cry, the mana gathering in her hand soon gained momentum alongside the swing of her sword and began to stretch its length.
The moment the blade swept around her like a whip with the slash.
The flurry of steel carved chunks from the demon beasts' bodies, yet not a single strike managed to properly target a vital spot.
-Grrrrr, gyaooo!
Shrieking in agony, the demon beasts pushed themselves upright and prepared to resume the chase.
The parts not fully severed were already regenerating, and even the severed pieces writhed, preparing to give birth to new demon beasts.
Of course, it was not proper division, so achieving a fully formed body would take time. But conversely, it was a sight that made it all too clear: failing to break through this situation would cause the number of demon beasts to multiply explosively.
'As I thought, to annihilate these things, we need to herd them into one place and wipe them all out at once, not butcher them one by one.'
If she was thinking in terms of an area-of-effect attack, she wouldn't even need fine control.
She'd barely begun mentally planning it when Serika noticed one demon beast that had broken away from the pack and was racing across the hill.
"Ymir! Danger!"
"Oh, for fuck's sake!!"
Letting an enemy's attention get drawn to a mage who should be providing rear support.
But then again, expecting a lone swordswoman to hold the attention of that many enemies was absurd to begin with.
Having reached a rational conclusion, Ymir converted her irritation into competitive fire and drew mana into her hand.
The ground beneath her split open, and countless jagged stone shards erupted outward like a barrage of bullets in the same instant.
-Graaagh! Grraaah!
But the demon beast dodged every attack coming from a linear trajectory on instinct alone, rapidly closing the distance to Ymir.
For Ymir, who struggled with precise aiming, this was a genuinely dangerous situation.
'No choice — even if it costs me an arm...!'
Right after she'd resigned herself to taking the hit and then detonating the mana gathered in that arm at point-blank range.
-THWIP!!
A single flash of light flew in from afar, pierced precisely through the demon beast's eye, and brought its movement to a halt — creating a momentary gap.
More than enough time to slam the mana she'd rapidly concentrated into it at close range.
-BLAM!!
The moment the mana clustered in her hand detonated, blowing the demon beast's body apart alive.
As the guts and blood that erupted from it soaked her body, Ymir dispelled the mana sheathed around herself to shake it off and exhaled in relief, looking down at the severed head of the beast.
At the single small arrow still embedded in the eye socket of its twitching head.
"...I've said it before, that's really incredible. Hitting a vital point dead-on from that distance with an arrow."
At the heart of the village.
On the shadow atop a tree barely visible to her own unaided eyes, a girl in a black hood stood aiming her bow in this direction.
An outrageous feat of marksmanship — planting a shot precisely into a target with nothing more than a short bow in hand, without any magical assistance whatsoever.
For Ymir, whose combat instincts hadn't yet returned and whose accuracy remained diminished, it was an attack she couldn't help but admire.
"......"
Unlike Ymir, Heira merely stared at the situation in silence.
The distance was far, but not so far she couldn't see anything. The blurred image of Serika entangled in a melee with the demon beasts was still visible to her.
Her arrows had sufficient range, but a misplaced shot risked hitting Serika.
With the wind blowing across the grassland and the distance involved, she also had to account for the travel delay to her intended target — making it all the more crucial to shoot with caution.
-THWIP!!
So, what she needed was a few seconds' time.
At the end of that, Heira's arrows — her calculations complete — were loosed high into the sky, and every one of those arrows traced a parabolic arc before raining down like a torrent upon the designated zone.
They hadn't been aimed at vital points, so they wouldn't completely halt movement, but over this past month of questing together, Heira had grasped to some extent the latent power each member of this party possessed.
Including that, given an opening, the mage could unleash the firepower to annihilate them all.
And that, equally, the one currently holding the vanguard in this chaotic brawl was a being boasting immense growth potential.
-SHWIP-SHWAK!
So yes, what she needed was only a brief reprieve.
The instant the demon beasts' movements were checked by the arrows, the momentum of the blade exploiting that gap began shifting into something far more ferocious.
Vast combat experience, gained from a life-or-death battlefield, was integrating in real time and began driving her actions forward.
-SLAAASH!
After swinging her sword, Serika burst out of the blood-soaked heap, rolled her body free, and began racing across the grassland once more.
"I broke free, Ymir!!"
"Good, lure them toward that ravine over there!!"
Ymir was gathering magical power, preparing one massive blast.
The demon beasts' pursuit continued, but at every dangerous moment, arrows shot from afar checked their movements with exquisite timing.
Support combining luring and sniping fire.
At the end of such coordination, Serika arrived at the ravine and shouted urgently toward Ymir, who had followed her as far as the overlook above it.
"Ymir! I'm at the spot you mentioned! If you fire from here, the farm won't get caught in it!"
"Good, you lured them well! Now leave the rest to me!"
WHOOOOSH! Flames materialized around her body.
They soon converged into a single mass, and the enormous sparks bursting around it amplified the energy beginning to gather at the sphere's core.
A colossal force perceptible through her skin. Just feeling the vibration alone made it visceral. The attack that would follow wouldn't need aiming or anything else — it would simply scorch the entire target zone into ashes.
Yes, with an attack of that magnitude, she could annihilate the dozens of demon beasts pursuing her in one blow.
Along with herself, standing in the middle of it...
"Huh? Wait."
Only then did Serika, having finally grasped the situation, ask Ymir in a trembling voice.
"Ymir... how exactly do I escape?"
"I won't forget your noble sacrifice. All right, here it comes."
"You son of a...!!"
-KABOOOOOOM!!
The fireball that descended onto her head spectacularly collapsed the ravine.
A maelstrom of heat swept through the gorge, and the landslide triggered by the impact crushed the pack of demon beasts alive.
***
"...So that's why Serika ended up in this state?"
"It's fine~ She just lost consciousness. She'll bounce right up the moment she wakes."
By the time they returned to the farm's lodging after finishing the quest, Ymir — who had just encountered me — casually glanced back at Serika draped over her shoulder.
Serika, who'd half-lost her wits from the impact of being buried under rubble.
"I'm going to kill her. Someday I'm really going to kill her...."
At the murderous mutter slipping from her lips, I tensed up and looked at Ymir.
"...Serika is definitely growing fast, I admit, but even so, aren't you being a little too rough with her?"
"It's fine, it's fine~ In the first place, I've gotta put her through this much hell if she's going to be satisfactory when that walking slab of armor gets back...."
A faint smirk crossed Ymir's face as she glanced again at Serika.
In her eyes was a trace of an emotion you could call affection — the kind she never showed when facing Serika directly.
As if to suggest her actions up until now hadn't entirely stemmed from disliking her.
"And the more things there are that keep her from fuming somewhere else, the more your burden lightens a little, too."
"Huh? What do you mean...."
"Just talking to myself, so don't mind it. Anyway, I'm going to dump this one in bed and then come back. Can you handle the meal prep? Oh, and the bathwater too."
"Ah, yeah. I'll take care of it."
Just like that, Ymir headed toward the room carrying Serika.
As I watched her retreating figure with concern, someone approached from my side and carefully spoke.
"Dave."
Heira.
The elf girl who had joined the party last and who, even now after a month, was still struggling to adjust.
"The meal prep. Can I help?"
I fell silent for a moment at the girl's cautious question, then answered with a warm smile.
"Any time."
Now, one month after this party's formation.
I said it like I was looking favorably upon her gradual, increasingly proactive cooperation with the group.