by Ao Jyumonji
“It’s kind of on me to prevent it, huh?” Kuzaku asked.
“That’s what makes it so tough,” Haruhiro said. “Being the tank, I mean.”
“Being the leader, too, I’ll bet.”
Haruhiro didn’t respond.
Kuzaku’s probably not a bad guy. I don’t really know yet, though, he thought. He’s been blessed with a good physique, and he has a decent amount of physical strength. But he’s not able to maneuver well. He doesn’t have Moguzo’s finesse, or his attention to detail. He doesn’t seem that tenacious, either. He lacks a strong core, you could say. He’s shaky and unreliable.
—This is no good. It’s really no good. I can’t help but compare him to Moguzo. Kuzaku’s not Moguzo.
“You should do this,” or “You should do that”—like, “You’re opening yourself too wide,” or maybe “You need to lower your hips more”—there were plenty of things like that Haruhiro could have told him. But how applicable would the things be that Haruhiro, a thief, mentioned? Kuzaku must have been thinking things through himself, and it was best to leave the fine details to him to figure out. If someone started lecturing him on how to move as a thief, Haruhiro would probably think, What the hell do you know, anyway? He hadn’t known Kuzaku long, so he couldn’t predict his reactions. He didn’t know what it was okay to say and what would just make things worse. He was still getting a feel for that.
What a pain. I’m starting to feel sleepy, he thought, and soon his consciousness had sunk into the darkness.
When he awoke, maybe not mentally, but physically, he felt better. It looked like everyone just left their tents out, so Haruhiro and company did the same. So long as they didn’t leave their belongings behind, too, nobody was going to bother stealing a cheap tent. They got breakfast in the back streets of the outpost, and now it was time for another fine day in the Wonder Hole.
With a little research the day before, he’d found out that the pseudo-chickens were creatures called melruks. The clubmen were duergar. The hairy monkeys were bogies. The gem kids were spriggans.
These three races that inhabited the area just inside the Wonder Hole were known as the three demi-humans. The three demi-humans were all mutually hostile, and they would kill each other on sight, but their greatest enemy was humans.
However, they wouldn’t touch humans that looked strong. In other words, the three demi-humans had judged Haruhiro’s group to be weak.
Of the three demi-humans, spriggans, or rather their gem-like eyes, sold for a good price. Sometimes, they were hunted to near extinction for them. That said, very few volunteer soldiers could be bothered to focus on the three demi-humans.
The demi-humans hunted melruks in groups, or captured other demi-humans and ate their meat, somehow managing to survive on that. They were, without a doubt, the weakest creatures in the Wonder Hole. If they were able to keep the party from advancing, this whole endeavor was going to be a nonstarter.
Put another way, the area inhabited by the three demi-humans was like the first barrier to any volunteer soldier looking to make their fortune in the Wonder Hole.
“But...!” Haruhiro added aloud.
While Swatting Duergar A’s club, Haruhiro checked what his comrades were doing. Kuzaku was focused on blocking Duergar B’s club with his shield, while Ranta was running circles around Duergar C. Yume was trading blows with Duergar D using her machete, and even Merry was fighting a Duergar E. It was a fight they could just barely handle. Like the day before, the three demi-humans had taken Haruhiro and his group for weaklings again today, and they’d gotten into a situation like this in no time. Breaking past the first barrier wouldn’t be easy.
“Ranta, just kill that one already!” Haruhiro shouted. “Someone needs to protect Shihoru!”
“Shove off!” Ranta hollered. “I know that! You don’t have to tell me, pal! Here it comes! My super move! Invincible Exploding Slashhhhhh...!”
When Ranta stopped and started swinging away at Duergar C, the duergar quickly leapt backward to put some distance between them.
That duergar’s much calmer than Ranta, Haruhiro thought. Actually, it’s just that Ranta’s way too stupid.
Kuzaku was focused entirely on defense, so he wouldn’t be throwing Duergar B off balance any time soon.
Even if he can’t beat them, it’d be easier if he could do like Moguzo and take on not just one, but two or more by himself sometimes, Haruhiro thought regretfully. How did Moguzo do that, again...?
Merry and Duergar E were evenly matched. Yume was struggling a little against Duergar D.
Is it just me, or is Duergar D kind of bigger than the other duergar? Haruhiro wondered.
He wasn’t imagining it. That one was clearly a full size larger than the rest. It was that much stronger as a result. If he had noticed from the beginning, he could have had Kuzaku or Ranta handle Duergar D. This had been a mistake on Haruhiro’s part.
It looks like Shihoru’s looking for an opening to use her magic, but, right now, if enemy reinforcements, or bogies or spriggans, turn up, we’re in serious trouble, Haruhiro thought. It’s up to me. I have to do it.
Moguzo, the one they had been fully reliant on for both offense and defense, was gone now. Ranta sometimes showed bursts of strength, but he wasn’t stable. They couldn’t rely on him. Shihoru was trying to acquire some firepower, but she wasn’t used to it yet, and it was only once a mage’s safety was secured that they could dominate enemies with their powerful magic.
Just being a leader wasn’t enough. Haruhiro had to become a genuine asset in combat, too.
Haruhiro used Swat on Duergar A’s club, then immediately stepped in and stomped on the duergar’s knee. Shatter.
“Gugyah!” the duergar howled.
For an instant, Duergar A stopped, and in that time Haruhiro slipped past him. With a backhand grip on the dagger in his right hand, he jabbed it into Duergar A’s neck, following that up with a whack to the back of the head with his sap.
Haruhiro rushed over to Shihoru. “Shihoru! I’ll protect you, so cast a spell!”
“Right!” Shihoru responded eagerly, immediately beginning to chant a spell. “Ohm, rel, ect, nemun, darsh...!”
A shadow elemental flew forth. It attached itself to the ground right behind Duergar D.
“Diagonal Cross!” Yume attacked, causing Duergar D to take a step back. Its right foot landed on the shadow elemental. Shihoru’s targeting for stuff like this was exquisite. Duergar D couldn’t move.
Knowing it was now or never, Yume pressed the attack, but Duergar D fended her off with his club. He was a stubborn one.
“Jess, yeen, sark, fram, dart...!” That’s when Shihoru slammed a Lightning spell into him.
Shihoru had some trouble with the accuracy of her Falz Magic at the moment, but she didn’t miss a stationary opponent. Duergar D took a clean hit from the lightning, his entire body jolting and convulsing. If his right foot hadn’t been glued to the shadow elemental, the shock might have sent him flying. It didn’t look like it had killed him, but he’d probably lost consciousness.
“Ooh-hah! Take that!” Yume cut Duergar D up with her machete.
Duergar D’s done, Haruhiro thought. Now there are three left.
“—is something I’m not thinking, okay?!” he added aloud.
That was what he had to tell himself, because here they were. They were coming. The hairy monkeys known as bogies. Out of a nearby tunnel.
A thought occurred to Haruhiro. It’s the same order as yesterday. That means the spriggans’ll be next, huh? At least, we should be prepared for them. We can sell spriggan eyes. They’re good money.
Using that thought to motivate himself, first he would have to deal with the remaining three duergar and three—no, four bogies.
Uwah, Haruhiro thought in dismay. That’s seven people in total. That’s more than we’ve got. Maybe we ought to run...?
“Ha! Anger! How do you like that, huh?!” Ranta ran Duergar C through and killed him.
Shihoru’s magic burst forth. Not Lightning, but the higher-grade version of it, Thunderstorm. Her target was the bogies.
There was a pretty incredible thunderclap, and two of the bogies were blown away. It looked like it was close to a direct hit, so those two probably wouldn’t be getting up. Kuzaku was taking Duergar B and Merry was taking Duergar E, while the new enemies were Bogie A and Bogie B. If it was four in total, they could take them out.
No, that wasn’t the issue. Could they finish them off quickly? That was the key thing.
“Yume! Switch with Merry!” Haruhiro shouted.
“Meeeow!” Yume cried.
“Ranta, we’re taking out the bogies!” Haruhiro shouted.
“Gwahahaha! I can do that myself, man!”
“Yeah, I wish!” Haruhiro shot back. “Merry, watch Shihoru! Shihoru, meditate if you can!”
“Okay!” Merry called.
“R-Roger...!” Shihoru added.
Yume quickly swapped out with Merry, while Merry put herself in a position to guard Shihoru. Ranta charged headlong towards Bogie A. Haruhiro’s opponent was Bogie B.
He had his uncertainties. He was so scared, he couldn’t help himself. He couldn’t dwell on it, he knew that, but the thought always came to mind, If only Moguzo were here.
But, when Manato had been there at first, when Merry had joined, and when Moguzo had been with them, the things that Haruhiro and the others had built during those times hadn’t all been reduced to nothing. The teamwork between Haruhiro, Ranta, Yume, Shihoru, Merry, while it may not have been complete, had reached a level where they could communicate everything they needed to with eye contact and maybe a few words. Their individual strength had also risen considerably.
If they got overconfident, they would fail, but they needed to have self-confidence. To believe in themselves. Just enough not to be timid. That would be difficult, but they had to do it.
We can do it, Haruhiro thought.
These duergar and bogies, lacking any real equipment, were no match for Haruhiro and the others. The one thing they had to watch out for was their numbers. They had to divvy them up well, and swiftly go about reducing them.
We ought to be able to do this, Haruhiro thought.
“It’s a race, Ranta!” he called.
“You’re on!” Ranta shouted.
What they were racing for went without saying: to see who could kill their bogie the fastest.
“Leap Out!” Ranta zoomed off on a diagonal, instantly landing in front of Bogie A. Then he swung his longsword like a scythe. The top half of Bogie A’s head was lopped off. “Mwahaha! I win, Parupiroooo! Be my slave from today on!”
“I never agreed to those terms!” Haruhiro deliberately chose not to attack Bogie B, instead going on the defensive and using Swat on its claws as it attacked.
Ranta circled around behind Bogie B. “Chestooo...!”
His longsword carved into Bogie B, the back of his head this time. Bogie B was mowed down.
“Gwah ha ha!” Ranta laughed. “Damn, I’m stroooong! I’m the strongest! Parupiro’s weak! Peh!”
Haruhiro was pissed off enough he couldn’t restrain himself from clicking his tongue in displeasure. Still, it was just as planned. So long as he took the necessary precautions and used him well, Ranta was an asset.
“Haru...!” Merry cried.
“I know!” he shouted back.
When he looked over, there were spriggans popping out of another tunnel. This was within expectations. The problem was the number of them.
“Five... six, huh?” Haruhiro yelped in alarm. “Shihoru?!”
“I can go once more!” she cried.
“Okay! I’ll leave the timing to you!” he shouted.
“Right!”
“Ranta, don’t run out yet!” Haruhiro added. “You’ll get your turn soon!”
“Sure thing!” Ranta hollered. “After all, I’m the star player on this team!”
Haruhiro peeked over at Kuzaku and Yume. As Yume shouted “Chaaa...!” and cut down Duergar E, Kuzaku was still using the Block skill with his shield to defend against Duergar B’s attacks.
No, I know I said to focus entirely on doing that, but isn’t he still taking way too long...? Haruhiro thought.
“Jess, yeen, sark, kart, fram, dart...!”
Shihoru cast Thunderstorm. The moment that bundle of lightning came down, the spriggans scattered. Even though they did, one of them failed to evade it and was blasted away.
“...Sorry!” Shihoru called.
“Don’t worry about it!” Haruhiro called back,
While consoling Shihoru, Haruhiro thought, Five. Five of them, huh. Damn. If Kuzaku had hurried up and killed Duergar B faster, we’d be able to support this number. Do we run? It’s a hard call. I don’t have time to be indecisive, though. The spriggans are almost on top of us.
“Everyone, defend Shihoru to the death!” Haruhiro called. “I’ll take them down one by one!”
Is it okay? he wondered. Saying something like that? Isn’t this plan kind of bad? I dunno. But I can’t take it back now. I don’t have the time.
“A man looks coolest when he’s defending a woman!” Haruhiro added. “Ranta! Show us how manly you are!”
“Damn straight I’ll do it, you moron! Leave it to me!” Ranta hollered.
Ranta, Merry, and Yume each readied their weapons and surrounded Shihoru.
The spriggans surged towards them. Ranta and the others focused on a defensive fight, not breaking formation even when it turned into a melee. Just one of them, Haruhiro, dashed out from inside the spriggans’ weak encirclement.
Changing direction, he targeted the spriggans from behind. That guy. The one attacking Merry.
Rather than Backstab, Haruhiro chose the more guaranteed kill of Spider. He grappled the spriggan from behind, stabbed it through the kidney, then slit its throat from ear to ear.
When one was dead, the other spriggans swarmed towards Haruhiro.
“—Oh, crap!” Haruhiro shouted.
“Nice decoy work, Piropiroooo!” Ranta took that opportunity to take a slash at one spriggan’s back.
Too shallow. It wasn’t a fatal blow, but now the spriggans couldn’t focus entirely on Haruhiro.
Two spriggans closed in on Haruhiro, A and B, while Spriggan C went for Ranta and Spriggan D went for Yume. Thanks to that, things were slightly easier on Haruhiro, but it was still two-on-one. This was going to be tough.
“I’ve got this!” Merry cried, and with a sharp jab of her short staff, she kept Spriggan B in check. Spriggan B spun to avoid the short staff and turned to face Merry. Merry had successfully pulled Spriggan B away from Haruhiro. Now Haruhiro could focus solely on Spriggan A.
Haruhiro couldn’t carry out his plan of killing them one by one, but there were four one-on-one matches now. It might not be the best outcome, but it was one of the better ones. Shihoru was likely exhausted from using her magic power, but even if they didn’t rely on her spells, each time one of them took down a spriggan, things would swing further in their favor.
While using Swat on Spriggan A’s knife, Haruhiro couldn’t help but think, It really is Kuzaku. I can’t blame him, I guess. He only just joined the party. He hasn’t been a volunteer soldier for that long, either.
Haruhiro and the others had been pretty awful themselves when they’d started out. They might not be anything special now, but they’d been much worse before.
When I think back to how we were back then, I can’t make fun of Kuzaku, Haruhiro thought. No, I wasn’t making fun of him. For now, I’ll just have to have him do the best he can.
But, still, I dunno that it’s okay for him to have been evenly matched with Duergar B for so long. I mean, we’re in a battle with time here.
“—Ah! They’re here, huh!” Haruhiro shouted.
That was a close one.
Haruhiro nearly failed to Swat Spriggan A’s kni
fe. He was panicking. Of course he was.
More spriggans had just come out from yet another tunnel. He wasn’t sure how many. Somewhere between three and five, maybe. Shihoru probably couldn’t use Thunderstorm again.
This is not good, he thought.
“Or rather, it’s impossible!” he shouted.
We have no choice but to run.
“Everyone...!”
“Ohhhhhhhhhh...! Hatred...!” Ranta cut down Spriggan C, then charged at the new spriggans.
“Huh?! Man, what are you—Urkh...!”
Haruhiro nearly failed his Swat again. He was losing his mind badly enough as it was. He wished Ranta wouldn’t make things worse.
“Ranta?!” he shouted.
“Tough it out, Haruhiro!” Ranta acted like he was going to charge into the new spriggans, but then he used Exhaust to zoom backwards and run away. The spriggans chased after Ranta. “If we back down here, it’ll be the same thing over and over! I’ll buy you time! We’re gonna murder all of these guys!”
“That’s not...!” Haruhiro burst out.
Pride, willpower, guts, all of those things are important, yes, Haruhiro thought, gritting his teeth as he used Swat on Spriggan A’s dagger again and again. But, no matter how we strain ourselves, we’re not going to be able to do things we can’t do.
“Ohm, rel, ect, nemun, darsh...!”
Shihoru’s shadow elemental flew forth, attaching itself to the ground and stopping one of the new spriggans in his tracks. However, it wasn’t nearly enough to make a difference.
Ranta was using Exhaust to its fullest, somehow dragging the spriggans around after him, but he’d run out of steam eventually. Now that it had come to this, it would be hard to retreat without abandoning Ranta. They’d have to accept the situation for what it was and go all-out.
“Wa ha ha!”
Haruhiro heard someone laugh. That voice wasn’t one of his comrades. Who was it...?
He looked and saw a volunteer soldier in tough-looking equipment walking along at a leisurely pace. He might have been fifteen meters from Haruhiro and the others, not far at all. Despite that, why did those people look so calm?
Because they actually are calm, I guess, he thought.
