Chapter 67:
Monsters
“So anyway, it looks like we’ll be going monster hunting tomorrow.”
“ Hang on, hang on, now hang right on!!! ”
The Devils’ Paradise and the Fellowship of Flame were momentarily shocked at this sudden change of plans, but they were not truly all that taken aback. Including the Crimson Vow, they had fifteen C-rank hunters, enough that ten or even twenty orcs or ogres would not pose too much of a threat. Add some powerful dwarves into the mix, and there would be hardly any danger at all. Thinking about it that way, this really was no big deal.
The merchants, meanwhile, were fairly well aware of the extent of the abilities that the Crimson Vow possessed—with Mile, who was a hunter despite her ridiculous storage magic; Mavis, who could wield her sword like a hatchet; and Reina, who was a master magical tea kettle—having observed them at the
campgrounds and during the battle with the ogres. They were none too surprised by this news, either.
“Phew! I guess we’re in this then. All right, we’ll come with you. When do we head out?” asked Wulf, of the Devils’ Paradise, a tired look upon his face. Vegas, of the Flames, nodded in agreement.
“Huh?” Mile cocked her head curiously. “We’re going to be the only ones accompanying the villagers, actually. We need you all to stay here to guard the village while we’re gone. If all of the dwarves who are capable of fighting ogres are out on the mission, along with all of the hunters, it would mean the literal destruction of the village if some monsters decided to come here while we were all gone.”
“Wh…?”
The other hunters paused in disbelief, but as they paused to consider the idea, a group of orcs and ogres that had only recently settled in could not be particularly sizable in number. With the Crimson Vow in tow, the dwarfs really should be able to take out the monsters in one go. This in mind, the other two parties understood that it probably was best for them to stay behind to protect the village, just in case.
Naturally, protecting the village also meant protecting the merchants. It was all just a part of the job.
“Oh, and of course, since you’ll be protecting the village, you’ll get some extra pay from the village for that job as well.”
Neither Mile nor Pauline would ever neglect to mention such a crucial item.
The village chief was not the sort of person to change his mind merely because he wanted alcohol. He had come to realize, however, that with all of the damages they had taken, their current forces were not enough to escape from their current predicament. His hesitation was due mostly to the fact that he still lacked the resolve to go and petition the humans for help, fearing that, should they take any more damages, there would be no coming back. However, a single offer from Mile had changed everything.
“If we accept your extermination request, then we will also heal all of your people who are currently injured. We have two very skilled healing mages in our group, and we can recover all of our magic quickly with a good night’s sleep. It’s for the sake of strengthening our forces and preparing for the upcoming battle, so it won’t cost you another copper. Naturally, we can provide the same guarantee for any injuries incurred in the battle tomorrow as well.”
This was the first that chief was hearing about the Crimson Vow’s healing magic. With two healing magic users, any serious injuries—short of death or the loss of limbs—could be repaired. Given that the opponents they were facing were not people armed with blades or magic, and could not go chopping or blasting off anyone’s arms or legs, most injuries would be easily dealt with. Granted, if anyone’s limbs or fingers or toes were smashed or torn off, no magic could fix them, and if they had their heads bashed in or their bones or organs twisted up, they would surely die. However, there was nothing to be done about that.
At any rate, the chief would never be foolish enough to pass up on the chance to have access to skilled healing mages and added combat strength to bolster up the forces protecting the village—along with the chance to bring the already injured villagers back to fighting shape.
Why would he go and pay just for healing if he could get it included as part of their extermination services entirely for free? They would have to deal with the monsters either way, for the sake of the village’s future.
Indeed, once he had heard Mile’s offer, the chief had no other choice.
Of course, that “just in case” item that Mile had pulled from her inventory hadn’t hurt. Just a few bottles of spirits she had set aside, pressed into the chief’s hands, had been enough to get the conversation rolling.
Once they were alone, Mile said to the other members of the Crimson Vow, “Okay, guys. We can’t let our guard down on this one. The villagers honestly should have been successful in eliminating those monsters last time, so there must be some reason why they ended up so badly hurt. I’m pretty sure this isn’t a case of the villagers just slipping up or having bad luck. If they could sustain injuries like on a fluke, then there’s no way that this village would have been able to stand in this spot for centuries. In any situation, it’s always important to try and imagine the worst-case scenario. Then, you can prepare yourself for an eventuality three times worse and come at it from every angle. That is the nature of reality.”
Silence fell following Mile’s words of warning.
***
“You have my thanks.”
The battle leader of the dwarves, head of the Mine Recovery Operation Force, Part 2, bowed his head toward the members of the Crimson Vow. Previously, he had been one of the individuals laid up with an injury, but now his broken left leg and the deep wound on his side had been completely healed, allowing him to return to the front lines.
Dwarves were not often ones to show such deference to other races, particularly not to humans or elves. Unaware of this, the Crimson Vow politely waved their hands and shook off his thanks, but the eyes of the members of the other two parties were wide with shock.
“Roll out!” the battle leader decreed, and the operation was underway.
There were twenty-eight dwarves and four members of the Crimson Vow—a force of thirty-two in total.
The first extermination force had apparently consisted of exactly thirty men. Of those thirty, six were never to be heard from again, and three lost fingers or limbs and were no longer able to return to the battlefield.
If Mile really pulled out all the stops, she might have even been able to do something about the missing body parts. However, that was beyond the bounds of what the people of this world considered to be healing magic. Obviously, she had no intention of displaying such unimaginable skills to outsiders, unless it were under the most extreme circumstances. No matter how much anguish a person was in, it was impossible to save absolutely everyone , and even Mile could guess what might happen if a person of influence were to find out that such an ability existed.
At any rate, with seven volunteers to replace the missing nine, and with the Crimson Vow in tow, they had thirty-two people.
They moved out, thinking of those who had lost their lives, and those who had lost their limbs, and with them, any hope of a future as a craftsmen. This time, the villagers were giving it their all, the lost hopes of those fallen nine carried on their shoulders.
Soon after they departed, Reina issued a complaint: “Why are we right in the middle?!”
“I mean, it should be obvious,” answered a dwarven youth, “You always put the women and the weaklings in the very middle.”
“Just what do you mean by ‘weakling’?!” Reina raged. “Besides,” she added, as the lad began to look troubled, “it makes way more sense to put Mile at the front—she has location magic!”
Here, the combat leader interjected. “If anything happened to the little lady booze-seller, every one of us here plus that old geezer would be slaughtered! Now settle down and stick to your positions!”
The other dwarves desperately entreated them to stay put, fully in agreement with their leader. This arrangement was, first and foremost, meant to protect the one who had supplied their booze.
If anything were to happen to Mile, they would never be able to get in another shipment of high-quality liquor the way they had this time. And, if this were to happen because of this mission, and the others in the village determined that it was due to some mismanagement on the part of the extermination team, none of the men involved would ever have standing in the village again—even if they were successful in today’s mission.
Reina was taken aback, unable to say anything in reply in the face of such desperation.
“It’s fine, Reina,” said Mile. “My magic will still have enough of a range from this position.”
“Plus, from here, we can jump in to help no matter which way an attack comes from—front, back, or flanks. It’s really not such a bad spot at all,” Mavis added.
Reina, who was fairly skilled at striking opponents with her staff, had forgotten this—mages were normally stationed at the back in smaller groups, and in the center in larger groups, to protect them from ambushes or close-range attacks.
None of these dwarves had any idea of the Crimson Vow’s combat abilities, and even though they knew that they were C-rank hunters, as far as any of the dwarves could see, they did not appear to be anything more than a bunch of children. Moreover, compared to dwarven girls, who were round and healthy, these girls were clearly emaciated, all skin and bones, gangling, frail, and sickly.
As such, the dwarves intended to relegate the Crimson Vow to the position of healers, leaving Mavis the swordswoman and Reina the magical fighter to protect Mile and Pauline, while the dwarves handled all of the actual fighting. There was no one amongst them who doubted that this was the righteous decision…except for the Crimson Vow, the Devils’ Paradise, and the Fellowship of Flame, of course.
“We should be reaching the monsters’ lairs soon. Be careful.”
“I’ve picked up on something, three hundred meters ahead!”
Before the leader could even finish his sentence, Mile announced her radar finding to the group.
Three hundred meters was still a bit too far to actively enter into combat stance. And besides, three hundred meters carried a far different meaning on a mountain or in a forest than it did in an open field with no obstacles. So here, on this steep terrain, dotted with thick groves of trees, three hundred meters was still quite a distance.
“How many, and what type?”
Rather than wasting time on the usual reaction of, “How do you know that?!” the combat leader merely asked for clarification, using the minimal amount of words. Apparently, he was a very capable sort.
Yet Mile’s response was unusually tepid.
“Um, well… Normally, I could tell you that, but there’s something weird about them… Are there any rare monsters in this area?”
“Nope, just your garden-variety, run-of-the-mill monsters around here. We’ve got orcs and ogres and goblins and kobolds, jackalopes and vampire bats, giant worms and mountain wolves…”
All of the monster types that the leader had just tossed out, Mile knew well. Furthermore, her radar had already been attuned to the reactions that each of those types would give…
“That’s really weird. Oh, okay—there are eight of them.”
Finally, she was able to report something more.
Because Mile knew these to be larger monsters, if describing them in Japanese, she would have used the counter for large animals, “- tou ,” instead of that for small animals, “ -hiki .” By Mile’s calculations, anything that a human could hold was “small,” and anything that a human could not hold was “large.” Of course, the reason that she defaulted to what a human could do, and not what she could do, was that Mile was fairly certain that she could lift a horse, so there was no way that anyone in the world would accept a system where Mile was the baseline.
This time, they were aiming to eliminate. They had no intention of avoiding the monsters or running from them. Therefore, they would continue straight forward. With Mile counting down the distance, there was no reason to draw their swords and get on guard prematurely. The dwarves felt blessed to be able to make it through this mission with as little damage to their pride as they had so far.
For a while now, everyone had been on edge, not knowing whether they might suddenly stumble upon or be ambushed by monsters, but with someone who could use surveillance magic among them, they could be a bit more at ease.
Though Reina had told them ahead of time about Mile’s abilities, they had assumed that, given that Mile appeared primarily to be a swordswoman, her search abilities just meant that she could vaguely sense the life signs of nearby monsters. They certainly did not think that she had the ability to pick up on monsters that were as far as three hundred meters ahead.
Thus, the reclamation team faced down the eight monsters, standing ready, with perfect form.
“I see them! Orcs—eight of them!” the dwarf at the head of the line reported to the others in a low voice, signaling with his hand for everyone behind him to stop.
They were still downwind, so the orcs appeared not to have noticed them yet. The leader spoke quietly, gesturing for everyone to get in formation to strike the orcs head-on. With the difference in number, there was no worry of the orcs getting away right from the start, so there was no need to surround them.
Mile, however, was racking her brain.
Orcs? But that feeling I got…
“What are you standing around for?! Let’s go!” Reina said, clapping her on the shoulder.
Mile hurriedly drew her sword.
For this rush, the Crimson Vow were positioned only on the second line of the attack. This was a battle that rightfully belonged to the dwarves; they were there only to assist. Besides, from back here, they were in far better position to rush to the aid of someone in trouble or heal someone who was hurt.
It was some comfort that it was only orcs that they were up against. With ogres, things might be different, but there was no reason that a group of stalwart dwarves, who had protected their village and mines for ages, should have anything to fear from a couple of orcs. Plus, they did not seem to be underestimating their opponents nor giving them any quarter. So, the members of the Crimson Vow watched the battle with no great worry, prepared to launch a healing or attack spell as needed should any unexpected turns arise. Yet to their surprise…
Ka-fwump!
Ker-smack!
Ka-thud!!!
With a cry, three of the dwarves were sent flying the moment the battle started.
“Wh—?! Th-they’re so weak!” shouted Reina.
“I guess dwarves aren’t as strong as they look!!!” Pauline cried, a second jeer to smash straight through the dwarves’ pride.
Hearing this, Mavis shouted, “You dummies! Why would you go and lower your own allies’ morale?! And the people of this village aren’t weak!”
“They aren’t!” Mile followed up. “The monsters are too strong! These guys aren’t at the level of normal orcs! I got a different reaction from them with my search magic than from normal orcs, too. They don’t look anything like the normal, muscular, rotund orcs we’ve seen. If we don’t come at this like we’re fighting ogres—or maybe something even stronger—even we won’t eliminate them. Instead, we’ll be the ones annihilated!!!”
It was then that Mile finally realized why these dwarves, who had protected their own lands from monsters for so many years, would suddenly suffer such heavy losses.
“Well, if they weren’t normal monsters, then why didn’t these guys figure that out the last time?!” Reina shouted angrily.
However, a different, much scarier thought was floating through Mile and Mavis’s heads.
If the orcs are this much stronger, then I wonder if the same goes for the ogres…
“Pauline, use your healing! After that, start using your attack spells! Right now, we need to prioritize making sure that no one ends up seriously injured or killed! Reina, please start attacking. We’re in an all-out battle now, so just keep it to simple rapid fire. Be careful of allies, and make sure it’s nothing that’ll kill anyone if you miss! Mavis, be mindful of the time limit, but use your True Godspeed Blade! Let’s go!!”
For once, it was Mile, not Reina, who was giving the battle directions—quickly and forcefully. However, the directions she was giving were logical ones, so everyone reflexively obeyed.
Pauline rushed toward the three dwarves who had been knocked back, approaching the most injured of the three, not wishing to waste the healing spell that she had already been holding in wait. Then, she began rapidly incanting an attack spell. It was monsters they were up against this time, so there was no need for her to conceal the nature of her spell by performing the incantation silently.
After releasing the spell that she had likewise been holding, Reina began a simple attack spell as well. She made sure to limit it to something that would not injure someone to the point that healing magic would be ineffective should she accidentally strike one of her allies. Of course, it would not do anything to the orcs if it was too weak, so she still had to put a little oomph behind it.
Mavis had not thought there would be any reason to break out her ultimate technique in a battle against orcs, of all creatures. However, heeding Mile’s judgment, she began using her True Godspeed Blade. Even Mavis knew that her normal Godspeed Blade would not be enough to get them through this, and her body could only stand up to the power of the EX version for a few short moments, lest she self-destruct. Truthfully, she could not use the True Godspeed blade for much longer, but at least it was much more bearable than EX.
The moment Pauline and Reina released their held spells and began casting again, Mavis and Mile flew forth together, plunging into the thick of the battle, each swinging their beloved swords in tandem.
In a frantic melee, where both enemies and allies were close at hand, it was much easier to strike with a blade…at least when there was a clear difference in strength between you and your enemy.
Thankfully, that was an advantage that Mile and Mavis had.
The two blades danced through the battlefield. Rapid fire bursts of magic struck again and again.
If the Crimson Vow had not been present, this would have been a battle of twenty-eight on eight, and the dwarves would have ended up with several major casualties. It was possible that they might even be wiped out—against an opponent that they could normally clean up with nothing more than a few minor injuries…
However, with Mavis and Mile now in the fray, the dwarves were able to hold out, and with the assistance of Reina and Pauline’s magic, they were able to successfully exterminate the orcs without the dwarven side sustaining any major injuries.
***
“So, what’s the deal here?”
While Mile and Pauline tended to any men with minor injuries, beside them, Reina questioned the combat leader.
“What deal?”
“Don’t play with me! I’m clearly asking you why those orcs are so strong and why you didn’t tell us about it!” she screamed, but the leader looked dumbfounded.
“I mean, I thought we did tell you that the monsters were strong…”
“Well, we thought that was just a threat, or a warning, so that we didn’t let our guards down!! Why didn’t you explain the situation more clearly?! Did you really think you had any chance of winning against monsters like that in the first place?!”
The leader, however, coolly replied, “Whether we have a chance or not, we will win. On that we stake our dwarven pride. That’s all there is to it.”
“But last time you lost and came running home in shambles, didn’t you?!?!”
“So, what do we do?” asked Mile.
“What should we do?” echoed Mavis.
“We already had the merchants draft up a formal contract, and we received payment beforehand so that there would be no disputes later,” Pauline replied.
“There’s nothing that we can do!” Reina cried.
Indeed, there was nothing they could do.
The Crimson Vow had already received their pay for the job ahead of time, requesting the aid of the merchants, who were pros in the field of contracts, in writing up theirs. When taking independent jobs, where the agreement was made directly between employer and employee and not through the Guild, disputes were a frequent occurrence. In order to prevent against this, they had prepared a contract and gotten their money up front. However, there was a downside to this, by which the Crimson Vow were now bound.
If a client’s report of a situation were found to be untrue or incomplete, typically, the contract was to be torn up immediately and the fee confiscated. However, there were no lies or deficiencies in the report that the dwarves had given them. The opponents they were to fight were monsters in general, orcs or possibly ogres, to be specific. The dwarves had tried to take them out before, but the monsters were too strong and so they lost. In order to try at driving them out a second time, they had requested backup.
In truth, there was absolutely nothing amiss here.
“We did tell you that the monsters were a lot stronger than normal. I’m sure that the chief told you that much before you finalized the contract. So, what are you so upset about?” the battle leader interjected, having overheard the exchange.
“No loser is ever going to tell you that their enemy was weak!” Reina roared. “Obviously, you would say that they were strong! No one would ever assume that was true!!!”
Reina continued gnashing her teeth, Mavis consoling her with a soft “there, there.”
“Well, whatever we think about it, there’s nothing to be done now. It’s not like monsters have special training camps, and this wasn’t some elite band of orcs. Every once in a while some stronger individuals appear, but that’s only on a case-by-case basis.”
As Mile said, none of them had ever heard of monsters forming any special elite units. The fact that these orcs were strong was just a fact. That was all there was to it.
“They had the strength of high orcs, but otherwise they were still pretty much like normal orcs…”
Mavis was correct as well.
Back when the Crimson Vow were first starting out, they had gone out into the hills, packing their own lunches and water in order to save money. Their grand aim was to hunt the fabled “high orc and goblin king.” In other words, they went out high-king . Thanks to that, they were very familiar with high orcs.
“Plus, there shouldn’t be any orc hordes made up only of high orcs. That’s like having a single army squad made up of nine generals. Who would want a squad like that?” Reina added, and Mavis nodded in agreement.
“There’s a saying in my country, though,” said Mile. “‘With enough boatmen at the helm, a boat can climb a mountain.’ It means that with enough powerful people on hand, you can achieve the impossible”
“Mile, I’m pretty sure you’ve said the same thing before, and I’m pretty sure that’s not true at all, considering all the things I’ve read in combat manuals.”
Mavis had very little confidence in the “wisdom” of Mile’s homeland. Such aphorisms were about as credible as the Japanese folktales she told.
“W-well, anyway, this is fine. The real question is, what do we do from here?”
Reina was also correct.
“We know at least that the orcs are strong,” said Mile. “What we don’t know is, why? We already felled eight orcs, so we should be able to find any stragglers easily. With the combat strength we have now, they shouldn’t be any problem. Even if we come across some goblins or kobolds or jackalopes and they’re several times stronger than normal, we can deal with it. The real problem here is…”
“Ogres, right?” asked Mavis. “There’s the strength of a normal orc, and then there’s the strength of those orcs we faced earlier. If you applied that same difference in power to an ogre, then…”
“Yes, we’d see the birth of a hyper ogre. The Aura Road is opening. It’s the ‘Ogre Battler Dunbine!’”
This time it was Mile who completed Mavis’s sentence. No one had the faintest idea what she was talking about, but they got the gist of what she was trying to say, and ignored the rest.
“Well, what should we do?”
“Ain’t much that we can do.”
This time it was the dwarves who joined in.
“We may’ve won now, but if we don’t get rid of the rest of these monsters it’ll be the end of the village. As long as the old-timers in the village are the ones callin’ the shots, we’re never gonna be able to go and ask other humans for help. Given the amount of time this village has left, and our budget, we’re probably never gonna have another chance to have such a powerful group here to help us—especially not one with two skilled healers that the elders can tolerate. This is our first, last, and only chance. I hope you girls don’t mind, but we’d like it if you would stay by our side.”
The members of the Crimson Vow all looked to one another.
“Um, I’m only thirteen years old, though… It’s still a little soon for me to be accepting any formal proposals.”
Reina karate-chopped the top of Mile’s head.
“That’s fine,” said Mavis, “but there aren’t any dragons living around here, are there? And there aren’t any swarms of souped-up dragons roaming around here, right?”
The dwarves went pale and shook their heads rapidly.
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