Chapter 68:
Stronger Monsters
Seriously though, why were those orcs so high level? I’m pretty sure they aren’t high orcs! High orcs, high oc—oh! Maybe they ate some high-octane food, and it gave them greater fuel efficiency…
Mile let her mind wander as she walked, her search magic activated. It was time to proceed with the monster extermination, and since the dwarves were the primary agents here, the Crimson Vow were to serve as little more than extra reinforcements. It had been up to the dwarves to decide when and where they would act. However, at the time that the decision to proceed was made, Mile made several firm suggestions, to which the leader of the dwarves acquiesced.
First, if they were to encounter a group of ogres, the twenty-eight dwarves were to split up into four units of seven dwarves each, with each unit taking on just one ogre.
Second, the members of the Crimson Vow were to be free to station themselves as they pleased during both travel and any battle. Moreover, their combat style and order of operations were not to be interfered with. If the dwarves had something to say about any of that, they could say it when the battle was through.
Third, the dwarves were to never breathe a word to anyone about the Crimson Vow’s combat ability or special skills.
Mile’s first provision was reasonable, especially after the egregious loss the dwarves had already suffered at the hands of the orcs. There was no telling how many orcs the Crimson Vow would be able to take on themselves if they were beset by several at once, but the previous battle had clearly shown the dwarves that the girls’ power was orders of magnitude greater than theirs. As for the rest, the dwarves were well aware of the hunter taboo of spilling secrets about others’ abilities and knew better than to tread on that land mine. They also knew that the hunters’ team-based tactics differed from the direct, head-on approach that the dwarves employed, and had no intention of interfering with the party in battle.
As they proceeded once more in search of the monsters, their spirits restored, Mile stopped the group with a signal.
“There’s a big group of monsters ahead. I’m getting a different reaction than from the orcs, so there’s a chance that they might be ogres. There are eleven of them!”
“Wha—?!” the dwarves all cried.
If the dwarves took on four, that would leave seven for the four members of the Crimson Vow. They would be leaving seven ogres of above-average strength to attack four little girls younger than their own children and grandchildren—maybe even their great-grandchildren.
“This is no good. We should retreat…”
“Let’s go, everyone!”
“All right!!!”
The combat leader’s directions were drowned out by the Crimson Vow’s battle cry.
“Ice Bullet!”
The moment they locked eyes with the horde of ogres, Reina struck them with an ice spell she had incanted ahead of time. A swarm of icy bullets came raining down on the ogres, who stopped in their tracks, trying to shield their faces with their arms.
Given that they were in a forest, Reina had to fall back on ice magic, which was not her forte. Then again, this only meant that she wasn’t as good at ice magic as she was at fire magic, her personal specialty. Compared to an attack from a normal mage, this spell was still plenty powerful. However, because this was an area attack, the firing power of each tiny bullet was not much. They would have been able to take out something like a kobold, perhaps, but unless they struck one in the eye, they would not do very much damage to an ogre.
That said, the ogres had stopped moving, and they were obstructing their own vision by covering their eyes. Reina’s goal had been sufficiently achieved.
The moment that the ogres realized that the icy attack was over, they lowered their arms, but it was already too late. Mavis and Mile plunged into the horde together, swords swinging.
However, as they swung those swords, they found…
“Guh! They’re tough!”
Mile managed to cut into the side of one of the ogres, but Mavis’s sword barely left a scratch on the hide of the ogre she had attacked. Seeing this, Mile yelled, “I knew it! These ogres are… Hey everyone, get your butts in here!”
Though the dwarves had been following behind the Crimson Vow as the party advanced, they had yet to jump into the battle, standing dumbly behind the hunters instead. As Reina was currently engaged in incanting her next attack spell, it fell upon Mile to be the one to scream at them. The dwarves, accustomed to much politer speech from Mile, were momentarily startled, but when they realized how stupid they looked standing around staring while their allies took on powerful enemies, they returned to their senses and hurriedly jumped into the battle.
“Split up into four teams as planned! Don’t think too hard about it!” Mile reminded.
Reina was finished with her next spell in the blink of an eye. Now that her allies were in the fray, the attack she launched was a simple ice javelin instead of an area spell. Pauline, meanwhile, did not immediately attack. Instead, she held a simple spell, ready to launch the moment it seemed an ally was about to come under attack, her eyes on the whole battlefield.
A battle was not merely about engaging the enemy directly, nor about matching an enemy’s numbers one-to-one. Fighting as a party meant keeping the right people in the right places, ready at the right times.
And Mavis was…
“O beautiful blade of mine, show us your true form!”
…incanting a strange spell for some reason?
I’m pretty sure my backup dagger responded to my feelings in the battle against the elder dragons. I don’t see any reason why this sword, my primary blade, shouldn’t do the same!
OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGOD NOW’S OUR CHANCE !!!
The poor nanomachines in Mavis’s short sword had been forced to sit and watch, squirming and seething with jealousy during the battle with the elder dragons, while the nanomachines in her dagger hogged all the glory.
But now, finally! Finally! Their opportunity was finally here!
Unlike her dagger, the short sword didn’t have any gimmicks like a deadly cutting edge that was normally kept hidden. It was merely a sturdy, unassuming blade. There was nothing unusual about it.
BUT THAT’S NO PROBLEM FOR US!
Indeed, for these nanomachines, now riding high, such matters were nothing more than a technicality.
SHARPEN IT! SHARPEN IT! SHARPEN IIIT!!!
MITHRIL COATING!
MONOMOLECULAR BLADE FORMATION! LET’S GOOO!!!
SPECIAL EFFECTS, FULL THROTTLE! WE GOTTA MAKE THIS LOOK COOL!!!
The sword began to glow with a golden sheen.
“All right!!!”
This time, as Mavis swung her short sword, it cut through the ogres’ bodies like butter.
“What the heck is that?!?!” The sword suddenly had functions and abilities that Mile did not recall imbuing it with. She stared, wide-eyed, but there was no time to sit around.
No matter how strong these ogres were, Mile could match them in strength, speed, and endurance. The same could not be said for the others, who could be killed in a single blow. All the wheels in Mile’s head were turning as she tried to keep a close eye on both her party members and opponents at once. Technically, that duty had already been entrusted to Pauline, but Mile felt uneasy leaving Pauline to shoulder the responsibility alone. What she wasn’t sure of was whether this was a wise course of action or whether it showed a lack of faith in their ability to work as a team.
As some of the ogres turned toward the dwarves, Reina launched an ice javelin that bypassed four of the enemies but plunged straight into the fifth. It was a blow that would have done in any ogre under normal circumstances, but while this one was deeply wounded, it was still able to fight, and it turned its rage toward Reina.
Reina fell back slightly and began her next spell. Pauline then fired a second ice javelin into the ogre approaching Reina. Once she was sure that Reina was safe, she turned back to surveying the battlefield, quickly preparing her next spell.
“Mavis, on your right!”
“Got it!”
The Crimson Vow kept their ogres in check so that the enemies would not turn their attention to the dwarves. Landing one injury after another, they opened up enough of a gap to land more fatal blows.
By the time they had finished felling seven of the ogres, the dwarves were still in combat. Even fighters as hearty as the dwarves had difficulty cutting through the thick hide and muscle of the ogres while dodging the monsters’ swinging clubs.
Understanding that it would be a blow to the dwarves’ pride if they stepped in to swiftly clean things up, the Crimson Vow waited, taking up positions to intervene if things got particularly dangerous. Soon, however, the dwarves managed to slip past the ogres’ clubs and rush in, and as they landed one decisive jab after another, the ogres all fell to the ground.
***
“This should do it.”
Once all the dwarves’ wounds were magically healed and the fallen ogres put away into storage, the first stage of the reclamation team’s mission was finally complete.
Mile was as easy-breezy as ever, but in stark contrast, Mavis could not seem to calm down.
For…obvious reasons.
From the moment that the fight with the ogres had concluded, the dwarves could not seem to take their eyes off of Mavis, and she could feel their searing gaze on her.
Or not upon her, but rather, upon the short sword at her waist.
Ah, so that’s what it is… thought the other three. This was only inevitable. They averted their gazes from Mavis and her awkward fidgeting.
I need to know! All the dwarves had the same thought, but none of them could bring themselves to ask Mavis. To inquire about a hunter’s past, question her abilities, or to share information about her was taboo—verboten. Especially not when they were working together on such a dangerous mission, carrying out such an important task.
Even so…
I need to knooooooooow!!!!!!
There was no way that a group of blacksmithing dwarves, undying in their devotion to their craft, could look upon a sword like Mavis’s and think nothing of it.
The swords that they carried had all been forged in the village, and the ones swinging them were strong and sturdy dwarves with bodies honed by long years of hard work. And yet, in the battle against the ogres, they had been shown to be lacking. Was it because their swords had fallen short? Or was it because they lacked the strength to draw out the swords’ full potential?
This frail, gangly human girl had slashed through the ogres like it was nothing. There was no way that her muscles could possibly be stronger than theirs.
The sword?
Was it the sword?
Could it be that sword?!?!
Their collective gaze followed Mavis like a laser beam.
Meanwhile, no one seemed to take much interest in Mile, although she, too, had cut through the ogres with comparable ease. Why was that?
“Little miss, what is your lineage?”
“Hmm? What do you mean?”
“Well, miss, I was wondering if you’re a half-dwarf? I mean you’re powerful, short, flat as a board, and tiny. Clearly you’ve got some dwarf in there—”
“How rude!!!”
Mile reached her boiling point quickly when it came to this particular topic. The dwarf, of course, had been complimenting Mile’s physique, so he was completely in the dark as to why she would get so angry.
…Dwarves, apparently, had very different standards of beauty.
That’s it! All this had given Mile an idea. If I just eradicate the dwarves, then all of their measurements will be eliminated from my physical data set, and my height will…
THAT’S NOT HOW THIS WORKS!
Mile didn’t actually have the slightest intention of going on a dwarf-slaughtering spree, but the nanomachines, riddled with fear at this uncharacteristically wicked thought, immediately jumped in to deny her.
I wasn’t being serious!
Though the nanomachines were able to converse with Mile by reading her mind, even they could not tell whether or not she was joking.
At any rate, there was Mavis, the obviously pure-blooded human, and her sword, which had begun to shine with golden light. And then there were the bodies of the ogres, which the sword had sliced through like a hot knife through butter. This was enough for the dwarves to completely ignore Mile and focus all their attention on Mavis’s sword.
“Grnnh, I can’t die in a place like this…”
“Not until I find out how that sword was crafted and from what…”
“I’ve gotta make it home alive! If I can just make it home alive, then once their contract is finished, we can just sit and chat, and…”
“What are you all doing? Let’s go! We still aren’t done taking all the monsters out!” Reina shouted hurriedly.
According to what the dwarves had told them, there should still be a number of orcs and ogres around. Plus, they still had yet to actually reach the ogres’ lair, which the initial expedition had been unable to find. They had undertaken grave injuries and were forced to retreat before they could determine the precise location.
“According to our investigation, the ogres have settled close to the entrances of the tunnels. The orcs live a short distance away in the forest; they don’t like to come near there. Other monsters are around too, but they aren’t anything significant.”
For some reason, it seemed that the orcs had settled not terribly far from the ogres, who were natural predators of theirs. It was a bit suspicious, but there was no point in dwelling on it.
The other monsters, such as goblins, kobolds, or jackalopes, would not pose much of a problem. Even several times stronger than usual, they would still pale in comparison to a single normal orc. Besides, according to the dwarves’ report, it was only the orcs and ogres that were abnormally strong.
Why the heck would that be?
For everything, there was a reason. For every effect, a cause.
Mile thought deeply.
Is this evolution? Like how Pikachu turns into Raichu? No. If that were the case, the orcs would turn into orc warriors or high orcs or something. And then maybe orc kings… The ogres would likewise evolve into ogre warriors, then high ogres, then ogre kings. But as far as I could tell, they were all normal orcs and ogres…
Even if this was evolution at work, it would only impact those individuals of sufficient strength to be candidates for leveling up. There were no cases of an entire group evolving all at the same time. That would be evidence of the birth of a whole new, superior type of monster. And if that happened…
It wouldn’t be a big deal for a superior class of jackalope—a “high jackalope”—to appear. However, if a new class of “high ogres” began to emerge, weaponizing their superior battle strength and impenetrable flesh to spread throughout the continent…
A terrifying thought floated through Mile’s head.
It would be the death of humanity.
The reclamation team proceeded on toward the tunnels, finally stopping just short of their destination.
“Can the tunnels withstand attack spells?” Mile asked suddenly.
The leader was a bit taken aback at first, but as he pondered her question, he supposed it was an obvious one, considering that they were about to do battle near the tunnel’s entrance.
“Yeah, the tunnels don’t actually go that deep. They’re just deep enough that you couldn’t call this open-pit mining. They shouldn’t crumble easily, and even if they do, we can easily dig them back out. Compared to actually mining the bedrock, clearing out a little bit of rock or sand is nothing. Plus, we could probably just dig a new one somewhere else… It’s no big deal if we lose ’em.”
What he said sounded about right. This was not like a gold mine, which could stretch for tens of kilometers underground. There was no reason for anyone mining iron ore to go to such lengths—and besides, the dwarves didn’t have the technological ability to do so.
The ogres, who were only using the tunnels to shelter themselves from the wind and rain, were probably camped out relatively near the entrances. If they went too far in, there would be no water or prey or light. Additionally, fighting within the narrow tunnels, where it would be difficult to swing a sword, put the recovery team at a disadvantage. They were better off starting the battle out here.
“There aren’t any trees near the entrance, are there? I should be able to use fire magic this time.”
“And then at the end, I can pour my hot magic into the tunnel to clear out the rest!”
“Mile, when we’re down to the very last of the enemies, is it okay if I practice with my True Godspeed Blade EX?”
“That should be fine. Oh, I’d like for you to try using your Wind Edge at the start, though. It would be good to figure out just how effective it is against these ogres, for later. I’m not sure it’ll really work as much more than a smoke screen or diversion for now…”
The Crimson Vow discussed the battle as though it were already won, without even knowing the number of ogres they would be up against. Hearing them, the dwarves could only look on, utterly resigned…
“Wind Edge!”
“Crimson Hellfire!”
“Hyper Hot!”
Mavis let off her Wind Edge attack, and a beat behind her, Reina and Pauline fired off their own attack spells. If they acted any sooner, it would have made it impossible to determine the effects of Wind Edge. Pauline also had a trick to try, with an upgraded version of her hot magic serving as the ace up her sleeve.
After approaching the tunnel, the reclamation team had launched their surprise attack on the few ogres who were standing outside of the tunnel as lookouts. So as not to be detected too quickly, they had made sure that they were still downwind and then launched a ranged attack from their hiding place in the trees.
The Wind Edge struck the ogres first. Mavis used the spell with the understanding that, while it might work against humans or goblins or kobolds, it was not likely to land a fatal or even severe blow against orcs or stronger monsters. It just had the advantage of allowing her to strike from afar without being able to use magic. No matter how much she trained, this particular technique wouldn’t get any stronger; the most it could do against these abnormal ogres was inflict a scratch or two. It would be more effective to strike them in the eyes, but the ogres weren’t going to stay in one place long enough for her to try to aim that precisely. The most Wind Edge could do was serve as a diversion when her allies were in trouble…
Still, even being able to use that kind of ranged attack gave Mavis an edge as a hunter. As far as the members of the Crimson Vow knew, there were no hunters other than Mile who could call themselves a “magic knight.”
Well, there was the boy named Veil, whom Mile had also trained. He probably wouldn’t be claiming such a title for himself, though.
While Mavis did not believe that she was using magic, but rather, her “spirit,” the others had convinced her that she should pass the technique off as wind magic, so as not to “reveal the secrets of the Ascham line” to outsiders. And so, that was what she did.
Wind Edge: Honest-to-God wind magic, being passed off as wind magic by someone who thought her claim was false.
…It was a deception of the highest order.
As expected, Wind Edge glanced right off the ogres, who began to look around them for the source of the attack. Then came the second and third strikes.
“Guhgyaaaaaaah!!!”
First Crimson Hellfire, Reina’s specialty.
Then Hyper Hot, one of Pauline’s most underhanded spells—her normal hot magic, remolded into something even more devilish. The ogres were struck in not only the eyes, nose, and mouth, but also in the wounds that had been inflicted by Mavis’s Wind Edge, which made the pain all the more unbearable.
Whipped up by the wind, the fire magic raged into an even greater blaze, while a red mist emanated from the hot magic…
Ka-shnk!
The air began to shudder, and a sword-wielding human appeared from out of the mist, slicing one ogre in half.
Naturally, this was the work of Mile, who had sat out from the magical onslaught in order to cloak herself in a visual, auditory, and olfactory barrier.
Gwsh, ka-splt, kshnk!
Mile dispatched the ogres, already frenzied by the magical attacks, within an instant and then immediately retreated to the dwarves and the rest of the Crimson Vow, all of whom were now on the advance. The ogres, who had no concept of siege warfare, were certain to come rushing out in defense of their lair—and they had just as certainly heard the screams of the lookout ogres and the sounds of battle.
They cleared enough space for all the ogres to exit, with Mile, Mavis, and the dwarves lining up to surround them. Pauline and Reina were a little bit farther away, concealed in the surrounding shrubbery. There was no need for a mage, who could use ranged spells, to actually get anywhere near the enemy.
Thus prepared, they waited a short while. There were no signs of the ogres.
Judging by what the investigation team had reported, there should have been at least seven or eight of them. The fact that not another one had yet to show its face must have meant that they were all off hunting or that the only other ogres were females and children, who were typically noncombatants. Unless they thought that the lookouts would be enough of a force…
“Fireball!”
With tentative consideration of the tunnel’s stability, Mile fired a fairly powerful attack into the mouth of the structure. After a brief pause, the ogres came flooding out. One after another they appeared, consumed with rage—twenty of them in total.
“Wh—?! There were still that many in there?!” shouted one of the dwarves. He could talk all he liked, but it would not change the fact that the ogres were there.
Once these ogres had been wiped out, Mile thought, they would move into the tunnel to rout out all the females and young. And just as she was thinking this, following after the twenty ogres who had already exited, came the others.
Ogre warriors, hyper ogres, and ogre kings. The whole of the evolutionary line.
A horde of unique creatures, the likes of which had never been seen in this area. They had probably moved in from somewhere else. Taking caution, collective action that was unlike their species, they’d stationed lookouts at the front of the tunnel.
“There must be a leader, huh?” Mile muttered as the answer dawned on her.
Mavis did not appear to be particularly perturbed by this conclusion. In their commitment to fulfilling their duties of their station, a knight placed very little value on their own life. The dwarves, however, were at their wit’s end. As skilled craftsmen, they could run the necessary calculations. They could tell just how much stronger these special ogres were compared to normal ogres, and they knew that no matter how much strength they mustered, the battle would be dire. And then there were the regular ogre warriors, the regular high ogres, and the “ogre kings,” the mere knowledge of the existence of which was almost enough to make them abandon their village and run as fast as they could.
A single squad of elite units could never have faced them. No matter how strong the Crimson Vow were, they were still just four C-ranked little girls. They couldn’t possibly take on an entire army. Even if they ran, they would be overrun from behind, picked off one by one and killed, with no hope of defending themselves.
“It’s over. This is the end of our village. All we can do now is send word to the villagers to take refuge. Then, we have to tell the humans and hope that these creatures don’t begin to multiply and spread across the continent, and set all of the sentient races on the road to annihilation…” The leader spoke in a calm voice, so as not to rile the ogres prematurely. “This is no longer a matter of pride. This isn’t a dwarf problem or a human problem or an elf problem—this concerns the continued survival of all of our races. If we can get word out, even if we should all perish, at least our names will live on in dwarven history as the heroes who saved everyone by delivering the warning.
“Mavige, Llewbert—stand down and head back to the village as quick as possible. Tell all of the villagers to evacuate and then inform the humans. Everyone else, let’s try to buy as much time as we can before the fighting starts and then drag it out for as long as possible before we all die. We have to let those two get away safely. Looks like you guys get the short end of the stick, though. Sorry ’bout that…”
And suddenly, now that he had given up on the idea of returning home alive, a defiant air overtook him.
“Heh! We knew it’d come to this, huh? We accepted this the moment we volunteered for the reclamation squad! Ain’t that right, everyone?!”
“Yeah!”
The dwarves gave a powerful yet reserved response, careful not to pull the trigger on the battle just yet. Their voices and legs were trembling, but a man who would calmly face an enemy like this…was nothing more than an idiot. Foolishness did not constitute courage.
Knowing the difference in strength between you and your enemy, quivering in terror and despair, and fearing the inevitability of your own defeat—likely even your own death—experiencing all of that and yet standing firm, refusing to run away…
That was what people called “courage.”
“All right. For now, let’s just keep staring them down. Try not to startle the ogres… Mavige, Llewbert, go!”
The two, who had probably been selected as messengers because they were the youngest of the group, silently nodded and began to break away from the circle. But just then—
“Firebomb!”
“Frozen Helix Shot!”
Reina used her favored fire magic, while Pauline tore into the enemy by mimicking an earth magic technique that she had seen Reina use previously. It was a nasty attack that was likely to be able to pierce through the ogres’ hides. Pauline’s specialties were water and healing magic, and this attack had the greatest piercing strength that she could hope to achieve.
As for her hot magic? Well, she couldn’t use that when her allies were about to jump into the fray.
Ka-slam!!!
Shnk shnk shnk shnk shnk!
“Let’s do it!”
As the attacks spells landed and Mile issued her decree, she joined Mavis, who had already taken it upon herself to take a dose of Micros, and they both flew straight into the horde of ogres.
“Hyaaaaah!” the two shouted.
“What the hell are you doing?!” the dwarf leader cried at the top of his lungs.
To buy time in a protracted battle, the best thing to do was to hold the enemies’ gaze in a standoff as long as possible. Especially when it came to an enemy as strong as these ogres.
The leader wailed in sorrow as all his careful plans were laid to waste. “You’ve gotta be kidding meeee!!!” he screamed, but it was already too late to take back what the girls had done. He waved his hands, sending the two messengers off toward the village as planned. Then, he and his fellow dwarves turned back toward the ogres.
Their fate was already sealed. They had lost seven men getting to this point, and now there were more than twenty more ogres to face—including several individuals of a higher order entirely. They had absolutely no hope of winning.
If they were to rush in, they would just be demolished, and if they were destroyed too quickly, the two messengers would be overrun. Their only hope now would be to hold back and land the finishing blow on the ogres after they had been worn down and injured by the Crimson Vow.
These girls, still so young, who had offered themselves up to aid the dwarves, were about to become mere pawns in this sick game they were all playing. Guilt lay heavy on the dwarf leader’s shoulders.
But just as he steeled himself to make his tragic decision…
“Hyaaaaaah!!! Secret Technique, True Godspeed Blade EX!!”
“Supreme Secret Technique, Godkiller Blade!”
“What?! That’s so much cooler—no fair, Mile!”
“That’s not my problem! Go think up your own cool name!”
“Fire Spear!!!”
“Drill Javelin!!!”
The number of ogres steadily continued to fall. The dwarves observed the scene, their eyes glassy. Would they actually be able to make it through this?
Just as the thought occurred to the dwarves…
“Gwah!!”
Mavis took a blow to the side from one of the advanced ogres.
She might talk a big game, but she always took combat seriously, never letting her guard down. However, given the strength and number of their opponents, Mavis had realized that the battle might drag on for a bit. This meant that her body, enhanced by the Micros, would reach its limits in the middle of battle, and she would collapse, no longer able to fight. That would mean death for Mavis, as well as destruction for the party, which would not be able to fight effectively with their melee forces halved.
With all this in mind, Mavis had suppressed her ridiculous speed as much as she possibly could, trying not to make any powerful moves that would damage her muscles—and this had made her unable to avoid the monster’s attack. While she was expecting the speed of a normal ogre, the attack had been one step higher in power and speed, and she had misjudged the distance.
To take an attack straight to the side like that would probably mean several broken bones.
“Mavis!”
Mile turned her attention to her injured companion.
No matter how fast or strong she was, Mile was essentially still a complete amateur when it came to battle. Even these high-ranking ogres, who were experienced in battle, could anticipate her softheartedness.
Mile relied on her speed and power to avoid and deflect enemy attacks, and the moment she turned her attention away…
“Eek!”
She took a full-force hit from one of the advanced ogres, and though she had managed to meet the blow with her sword, the sheer force of it was enough to send her flying. Her low body weight was a disadvantage in these situations.
The dwarves were now left face-to-face with the ogres.
“………”
It was all over, the dwarves thought. And yet, they stood steadfast on trembling legs. They had to buy more time—no matter how brief.
Reina and Pauline launched two more shots but only substantially injured one normal ogre. Reina had been firing simple spells in order to avoid friendly fire, but now resigned herself to catching her allies in the crossfire and began incanting a hot magic spell. Pauline dashed out from their hiding place in the brush to rush to Mavis’s side. Thankfully, Mavis had been tossed a fair distance from the ogres, which made it safe for Pauline to reveal herself and go to her.
What about Mile? She was known for her ungodly durability, and it seemed she had been able to block this latest attack with her sword. Plus, the only sound she had made was “Eek!” If she had really taken any serious damage, it should have been something like “Gyah!!” or “Gwahh!!” Making such a cute sound meant she hadn’t been seriously injured at all, and so neither Pauline nor Reina was particularly concerned about her.
For now, their top priorities were to defend the dwarves and buy a bit of time until Mile and Mavis could return to the fight.
Normally, using hot magic would be a job for Pauline, who was the originator of the spell. But while even Reina could use crude hot spells, Pauline was the only one of the two of them that could use high-level healing magic, and getting Mavis back into the battle as quick as possible was a priority.
Of course, Mile could also use healing magic and was actually the closest one to Mavis, having been thrown in her direction by the ogre’s blow. However, if she had the energy for that, it was better that she utilize her skills to stand between the dwarves and the ogres. Even Mavis, writhing on the ground in agony, recognized this.
Before Reina could even finish her hot spell, which should have bought them a little bit of time, the ogres came bearing down on the dwarves.
The attack was overwhelming.
A one-hit K.O.—a massacre.
Unable to withstand a full-force attack from the ogres, the dwarves were smashed into the ground or blown away one after another. They desperately scrambled to protect their heads, so they were able to avoid being killed instantly, though their limbs were wrenched and their ribs smashed to pieces. Even that was of sheer luck…and their luck was about to run out.
One ogre’s great, log-like arm went swinging at full power. Directly in its path was one dwarf’s head. He’s dead! the dwarves all thought.
And then, with a loud thump, the ogre’s arm fell to the ground.
“Hold it right there!”
Without missing a beat, Mile swung her sword right into the next enemy. Because she was so light, Mile had taken little damage when she was thrown by the enemy and had been swift in returning to the front lines. As she moved to protect the dwarves from attack, one of the ogres swung its club forcefully toward her, making a priority of eliminating this vexing creature. The attack came from directly overhead, meaning that she could not simply shove it off. She blocked the blow with her sword, but the clash swiftly became a contest of strength.
This was a bad situation. If Mile was pinned in place, the other ogres would turn their attacks right back toward the dwarves. Furthermore, some of them would probably come gunning for Mile while she already had her hands full.
Previously, Mile had assumed that her physical strength and toughness were roughly half that of an elder dragon. However, in the battle against the elder dragons, it had become clear that her abilities weren’t quite at that level. Logically speaking, no matter how scientifically advanced her pseudo-God was, it was patently impossible to produce a human that had even a sizeable fraction of the strength of an elder dragon. When organizing one’s base materials into a plausibly human form, there was no way to avoid the vast differences in muscle and bone mass between an elder dragon and tiny little Mile. The only way to make such an achievement possible would be to construct Mile’s body out of some manner of advanced alloy, and if that were the case, then Mile would not be human.
Furthermore, Mile’s height and weight were not at the median between the greatest and smallest living things in the world, nor were her reasoning, faculties of memory, voice, or other such abilities at the average point between all things. In other words, the only areas in which God had granted her the true “average” were the ones that would not make things too inconvenient for Mile.
Though she might not truly have half of an elder dragon’s strength, what she did have still showed great skill on God’s part. Within the scope of his limited conditions, he had done fine work. Thus, even as she was, Mile was still able to repel a full-strength attack from the advanced ogre’s mutant body, with its muscular form and weight dozens of times her own, without a great deal of effort.
Unfortunately, she was in a bad position.
The ogre had the advantage of putting its full weight behind the attack as it swung its club down, allowing it to leverage further power by bowing its sturdy back. Mile, on the other hand, had only the muscle of her shoulders and forearms to ward off the strike. Indeed, these were the exact conditions she had faced in the beginning of the fight against Mavis’s father, Count Austien. She could not move an inch from her position. All of her strength was being channeled into her upper body, and owing to her light weight and the unsteady positioning of her lower body, if she tried to move her legs at all, she would lose her balance.
Having never faced such a situation before, Mile was unable to come up with any swift solutions. However, just as she realized she was in a deadlock, it arrived. She thought that she saw something red out of the corner of her eye…
“Gyabreaghahagabragahh!!!” came a collective scream.
It was a vision of hell.
And the color of that hell was red…
Indeed, it was Reina’s hot magic spell, which she had cast with desperate speed despite being unfamiliar with it. It was just now making its impact.
“Gyaaaaaaaaah!!!”
Everyone on the field—friend and foe alike—let out a horrid scream and began writhing in agony. The only ones exempt were Pauline, Mavis, and Reina, the caster, who were all outside of the area of effect…
“B-b-b-b-barrier!!! Filter, ventilate, purify!!!”
Mile desperately funneled all of her magic into the spell. First, she put up a barrier to isolate herself from the outside air. Next, she expelled the inside air, using the barrier as a filter. The lowered atmospheric pressure then sucked the air back in from outside, while the filter kept the capsaicin particles out. She then applied cleansing magic to herself to remove and dissipate all of the capsaicin particles that had lodged on her skin, in her clothes, and within her body.
“Hff, hff, hff… I thought I was gonna die…”
Meanwhile, the ogres and dwarves, who did not have access to such convenient magic, were still writhing on the ground.
“Wind!”
Once Mile had blown the red fog away with a wind spell, Reina came closer, accompanied by Mavis and Pauline, who had now finished the healing process. Mavis and Mile ran the ogres through with their swords to put an end to them, while Reina and Pauline went around to the dwarves, applying purifying magic to save them from the spicy heat.
Only one of the ogres, the strongest out of all of them, had managed to stay on its feet. It came lumbering toward Mile and Mavis, but it still was unable to open its eyes, had lost all sense of smell, could not easily breathe as a result of the pain in its throat, and was racked with intense pain from open wounds and mucous membranes. As such, it was largely unable to fight and absurdly easy to fell.
So then, why hadn’t they just used the hot magic from the start?
Well, that would have made putting together a reclamation team composed primarily of dwarves pointless.
By all rights, this fight was one the dwarves were waging to protect their village. The Crimson Vow had been employed as backup, nothing more and nothing less. Whatever the final outcome, the proud dwarves needed to be able to say that they had stood on their own two feet, eradicated the monsters, and defended the village.
Besides, if the Crimson Vow had defeated the monsters all by themselves, the dwarves wouldn’t have been able to confirm the strength of these aberrant creatures and the threat they posed with their own two eyes. If no dwarf had experience facing the monsters, they would not be able to leverage that experience later. Thus, they had intended to at least let the dwarves participate enough to say that they gave the fight their all, while simultaneously making sure that no one was seriously injured or suffered any negative aftereffects.
Of course, if these had been “normal” ogres, it wouldn’t have been a problem even if their numbers had turned out to be slightly higher than what the scouting party had confirmed. Extermination jobs rarely went exactly as planned. However, the Crimson Vow, who had had a relatively easy go of things up until now, had been a bit too optimistic.
***
After the battle was through, the Crimson Vow headed into the tunnel alone, guided by a lighting spell, and dispatched the few females and young within.
Given that the females were sufficiently strong enough to have joined the fight, the fact that they had stayed behind was likely for the sake of minding the young—or else because they were sick or injured. However, these were not creatures to be pitied. To let any individuals of this unique and dangerous species escape unharmed would be a treasonous act, a wholesale betrayal of humanity and every other sentient race.
Even if a few were still away from the lair, it would probably be two or three at best, a number the dwarves should be able to manage later. The Crimson Vow could not be expected to babysit them indefinitely. That being said, they did still intend to double back before heading into town again and make sure that no survivors had returned immediately to the nest.
“All right! Back to the village!” said Reina.
“Yeah!!!” cried the other three.
JUST A MOMENT, LADY MILE.
The four of them had all begun walking, but when Mile—the only one who could hear the nanomachines’ voices—abruptly stopped, the other three stopped as well. The dwarves, seeing that the Crimson Vow were not moving, all halted in place as well.
“Hm? What’s up, Mile?”
Seeing Mile fall silent, a suspicious look upon her face, the other three gathered around her. Her expression was serious, and she was deep in thought…or so she pretended, all the while complaining to the nanomachines inside of her head.
Jeez! What is it?! Everyone’s looking at me. I can’t talk right now!
WE’LL…WE’LL BE DONE SOON! PLEASE, JUST ORDER US TO “PLUG UP THAT HOLE!”
Huh? Is that really that important?
IT’S IMPORTANT!
I see, so it’s important, huh…? Well, in that case…
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
Will you tell me the reason for this afterward—truthfully?
Crackle! The air seemed to freeze, though what was really happening was that the current concentration of nanomachines within the area had grown far greater than the normal distribution. As a result, the nanomachine density within the air was immense, and when all of these nanomachines stopped moving at once, Mile, who was perceptive to this, felt as though the air had actually solidified and frozen.
You’re petitioning me to give you an order because you aren’t allowed to act independently, right? But even though it wouldn’t normally be permitted, this is something that you absolutely must do. Is that correct?
The nanomachines were silent.
And this is something that I, as someone of authorization level five, am able to command… Even though just attempting to make natto requires a level seven authorization!
It would seem that Mile still held a grudge over the setbacks she had faced in her earlier Japanese cuisine project.
“Plug up that hole,” huh? That seems to be happening a lot these days—plugging up things that have opened up…
………
I wonder if the hole was similar to the one from the last time…
………
Is this “hole” a hole that connects one place to another? If I don’t know that, I’m not sure that I can give the appropriate command…
W-WE’RE GONNA KILL YOU!!
***
“…So anyway, if we don’t figure out where these monsters are coming from, there’s a chance that another group of these unique monsters might appear again in the future. I was just wondering if it’s really okay to head back just like that, without investigating further,” Mile explained as an excuse for why she had suddenly fallen deep into thought.
The dwarves paled at her words. Every single one of them recognized that sheer dumb luck was the only reason they had managed to successfully exterminate these abnormal monsters without taking any lasting injuries or casualties. Well, they had taken a number of severe injuries, but they had fully recovered thanks to Mile and Pauline’s healing magic, so those didn’t count. By the time the fighting was over, however, about seventy or eighty percent of the dwarves had been injured, half of those significantly so. There were even a few that had taken fatal injuries—if Mile and Pauline had not been present with their absurd healing abilities, they would have died before they could make it back to the village.
In short, they got lucky. The success of this mission hinged entirely on the good fortune of having a party like the Crimson Vow present to be hired on as their backup.
Suppose that the ogres they had faced this time had not in fact naturally evolved here. Suppose that there was a large-scale outbreak of these ogres somewhere else. Suppose that the ones they faced had been merely a vanguard, scouting ahead before the rest of them went on the move. And suppose that another group of such ogres arrived in the future.
“L-Let’s investigate!” the dwarf leader declared, looking queasy. “There might still be some ogres out there, and while we’re at it, we should find the orcs’ lair and destroy that, too. The job request that you all accepted was to ‘aid in exterminating the monsters,’ so this falls under your contract… I’m begging you!”
“Well, I guess we have no choice, huh? That is within the terms of our contract, after all. We’ll stick with you until it starts to get dark out… However, battling at night is out of the question.”
Even without Reina’s injunction, the dwarves had no intention of fighting orcs or ogres in the middle of the night in a place like this. And so, it was settled.
“All right, then! Change of plans: let’s investigate the perimeter of the mines. If anyone finds anything that seems off—anything out of the ordinary at all, report it immediately. Everyone, split up!”
There was no point walking around in large groups if their aim was to comb the area. Should anyone come across an orc or ogre, the leader asserted as he split them into groups, they were to come back and notify the others. They must absolutely not attempt to fight the monster on their own.
Of course, none of them would even think of attempting something so reckless…save for the Crimson Vow.
“It’s this way,” Mile indicated to the others without skipping a beat. The other three stared at her with wide eyes.
“Well, that’s Mile for you,” Reina said, resigned. Mavis and Pauline nodded in agreement. They assumed that she was using her search magic or something along those lines.
They followed her to a place where…
“Wh-what is that?”
It was not far from the tunnel that the ogres had inhabited, right in the center of what the dwarves had indicated as the orcs’ stomping grounds. There, they saw a rift.
It was not a crack in the rock face or a crater in the ground, but a sort of tear, floating in midair, with nothing else around it. Indeed, it was just like something else that the Crimson Vow had seen very recently.
“This is like that time with Faleel…”
Yes, just as Pauline said, the rift that they faced was almost—no, exactly—the same as the one that had begun to open and then quickly closed up during the incident with the cultish kidnappers.
“This is probably—” Mile began.
“I’ve got it!” Mavis shouted, cutting her off. “This is probably a crack in the air, just like last time. There’s another place on the other side of it, and all of the orcs and ogres are coming out from here. The orcs and ogres from the other place probably look the same, but they’re actually a completely different variety. So, if we can just stop up the rift, then they won’t be able to come through anymore!”
“Whooooooaaaa!!!” the dwarves shouted, in awe of Mavis’s powers of deduction.
“But that’s what I was about to say…” Mile’s sulking went completely ignored.
“But wait! Suppose whatever mage used the spell to open that rift opens it right back up again?” asked Pauline.
“G-good point. If we don’t deal with the perpetrator first…” Mile began to agree, when she was cut off again by Mavis.
“I don’t think we’ll have to worry about that, actually. If this thing was man-made—like if someone had a reason for putting it here—I can’t imagine that they would have just left it unattended. There are no signs of a struggle around the rift, and no traces of blood, which makes it unlikely that the mage was overrun and killed by the orcs and ogres, either. Therefore, we can assume with a fairly high probability of accuracy that this is a naturally occurring phenomenon. I do think it’s possible that the magic those other mages were trying weakened something and made the air more susceptible to these rifts, but if we were to stop up the rift here, I think it’s unlikely that another rift will open up again in the same place. If another one opens up, it’ll probably be somewhere else…”
The other three stared at Mavis, dumbfounded.
“M-Mavis, how in the world did you—?”
“D-don’t tell me…”
“She’s an imposter! What did you do with the real Mavis?!”
The dreadful accusations came flying.
“Guys, I’ve read Miami Satodele’s spirit world adventure series, too!!!”
“Ah…”
They all fell quiet again.
Now that she mentioned it, the concept of a rift in space-time had been introduced in some of Miami Satodele’s works. Mavis may have been a sword-wielder, but she was no muscle head. Brought up as the daughter of a noble household, she had received an extensive education.
Nanos? Mile gently asked, seeking confirmation.
HAHAHA… AHAHAHAHAHA!
Apparently, Mavis was correct.
AAAHAH HAH HAH!!!
They seemed desperate.
“V-very well, then… I, Mile, command (the nanomachines): Mysterious rift to the spirit world, be mended!!!”
Naturally, Mile only said the nanomachines bit of the incantation in her head.
Meanwhile, the nanomachines had fallen into a state of self-deprecating despair, overwrought at the fact that Mavis, who knew nothing of the reality of the situation, was able to so plainly state something which they were forbidden by their programming to speak of. Still, upset or not, they were not about to dally on such important work and set to actualizing the spell’s command straight away.
Honestly speaking, the nanomachines were probably just being a bit cheeky. It was hard to imagine they would be programmed to actually grow depressed—but then again, there was no telling what logical structures governed the thoughts of such superior life-forms, possessed of an intelligence that humans could scarcely hope to grasp. Who knew how much these beings, wrought directly by the hands of God, truly resembled “normal” living creatures? Ultimately, Mile found it easiest to take them at face value, treating them the same way she would any other living thing.
Plugging the hole of their own volition was beyond their permitted reach, given that it was outside of the functional parameters with which their creator had programmed them. However, the fact that they had deemed this something that they still absolutely had to do—and that they would utilize any means within their reach to bring this compulsion to fruition—displayed their compatibility with Mile’s understanding of them, or at the very least, an immense level of individual agency.
If Mile were not around, they would probably find some other technicality or loophole that would allow them to do this. The thought gave Mile a newfound respect for the nanomachines.
The nanomachines, meanwhile, had set about the work of repairing the extra-dimensional rift. Before beginning, they called in a large quantity of emergency reinforcements from the nanomachines in the surrounding region—so many that they would temporarily lower magical efficacy in said region by about seventy percent. Once these reinforcements were gathered, they began the actual task of repairing the internal cohesion of the space-time continuum.
Access to the parallel dimensional warehouse that Mile called her “inventory,” as well as the subspace pockets that the people of this world referred to as storage magic, were all facilitated by the nanomachines. With enough of them gathered in the area, repairing a rift like this was a trifle.
Truthfully, they probably didn’t even need as many as they summoned. It was even possible that the additional individuals were merely present to give the impression that magical things were happening, making the air dance with kaleidoscopic magical formations around the rift. The nanos knew how to create quite the visual spectacle.
IT IS COMPLETE. THE PROBABILITY OF A NEW RIFT REOPENING HERE, AS OPPOSED TO A NEW LOCATION, HAS BEEN SIGNIFICANTLY LOWERED.
Hearing this, Mile nodded. Ah yes, it’s just like how when a bone is broken, it heals back stronger than before… She caught and corrected herself, remembering that this was just an old wives’ tale—in fact, such fractured portions would only break more easily the next time.
Hey nanos? From now on, tell me when a rift forms somewhere, okay? I’ll give you the order to fix it every time.
HM? ACTUALLY, IF YOU JUST ISSUE US THE ORDER AHEAD OF TIME, THEN WE CAN PROCEED WITH REPAIRS ON OUR OWN IN SUBSEQUENT CASES WITHOUT EVEN GOING THROUGH THE TROUBLE OF ENACTING MAGIC SUCH AS THIS.
Apparently, they were hoping to get permission to handle this issue on their own without reporting it.
Denied. That would mean I’d never get to determine how these rifts develop!
ER…
Mile was filled with a vague regret that she was unable to see the looks on their faces.
I did consider having you simply tell me after the fact every time, Nano-dears, but I get the feeling that you would just find ways to dance around the truth to deceive me.
UHHH…
I knew it!
Of course, this little performance was probably yet another act on the part of the nanomachines, but it was only proper for a young maiden to play along with their farce.
Well, I doubt it will happen, but if another rift opens up in this location, please tell me right away.
AS YOU WISH.
Nodding, Mile turned to the dwarves. “It’s over now. I don’t think you should see any of those rare monsters appearing here anymore. Now we just need to eliminate the rest of the creatures that have settled in the area to make sure that they don’t keep breeding.”
“All right!” the dwarves shouted. The Crimson Vow just looked on complacently, as though this could not have ended up any other way—Mile was here, after all.
So why then did Mavis not appear to be very happy? Perhaps it was because, once again, their troubles had been vanquished, all thanks to Mile…
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