“Whoa, jeez!” George dodged a heavy hit from the king.
“Hmm? Well, don’t just dodge me, George! You’ve got to counter me with your sword!” The king laughed as he kept on his relentless attack, chasing George as he dodged to and fro.
“Yeah, no, Your Majesty! Oof! My katana’s way too thin to fight off a large sword like yours!” George just barely managed to dodge the next attack, thinking he would hate to break the sword he’d gotten from the Eastern Empire in a place like this. What was worse was that he’d gotten so caught up in the moment that he’d asked for a reverse-blade katana, so he could very easily hurt himself if he tried.
“Ugh... The king’s totally lost it...” William wasn’t confident in his skills, so he hid behind a tree for shelter and watched as everything unfolded. The king had been bathed in more monster blood than anyone else, so he was still raring to go.
“Oouggh... Emmaaa!”
“Pfffff ha ha ha ha ha ha!”
“Prince Edward’s crying, Lord Arthur won’t stop laughing, the king’s all like that... I never realized status effects could affect people in so many different ways...” He’d read about them in all his monster textbooks, but now he was realizing what a huge pain they were. It was like just being around a bunch of bad drunks. The only ones still sane were the three who’d shown up later. The knights, the Skyte lord and hunters, and everyone else were each their own definition of crazy.
“It’s like I’m the only sober person at the third party of the night...” While William did think fondly back to the old drinking parties from his previous life, he was struggling to come up with something the three sane people could do to solve this mess.
“W-We need to tell my father as soon as possible... P-Professor, can you do that for us?”
“A-Ah, of course. I’ll be right back.”
They’d definitely need more people to help hold down the frenzied king, so William asked the Hunting Techniques instructor to call his father and the others back. George was currently holding off the king while William was trying to scour every last bit of knowledge he had to come up with a solution. Unfortunately, things were tougher than he could have imagined. The king was far too much for his brother to face alone, because he really was ridiculously strong.
“Oh, professor... Please get my father here soon... Sometime before my brother gets cut in half, please!”
George might have had gorilla-like stamina, but he was up against the king and couldn’t fight back. He was in a defense-only battle against the king’s constant merciless strikes. To rub salt into the wound, the king looked positively elated.
“George might be as strong as a gorilla, but the king’s gotta be as strong as a bear...”
At the very least, William could keep himself out of harm’s way to reduce the burden on his brother. All he could do was watch George from the tree’s shadow. It would’ve been fine if George had Violet on his head, but unfortunately, the cats and bugs were protecting Emma.
Fwoosh!
The king was utterly clueless about William’s worries. No, he was in top form, having the time of his life. He stuck the sword he’d been swinging into the ground, and just as they wondered what he was thinking, he yanked out a poor tree ahead of him and began swinging it at George.
“Ack!” Getting hit with a tree wasn’t enough to kill George, but unfortunately, the forest ground wasn’t stable. He got caught on a tree root or something on the ground and stopped short.
“George, dodge!”
George had only barely managed to dodge the first strike, but now that his foot had stopped, he’d given his opponent a perfect opening. The king seemed ready to finish it all off as he grabbed his sword from the ground once more and raised it high. Having lost his balance, it didn’t seem like George would be able to get out of the way of this strike.
“Agh...! Huh?”
However, just as the king was about to land the finishing blow, he stopped.
“George?”
“Y-Your Majesty! Have you...regained your sanity...?” George breathed a sigh of relief.
“Something moved out there! We can finish this match later! Come along, now! Our prey’s getting away! Hya hah! Get a move on!”
“Of course not...”
After having mowed down a bunch of trees, he had greater visibility and was able to spot new prey. He gave chase immediately.
“Come on, everyone! We’ve got monsters to kill!”
“Y-Yes, Your Majesty!”
And he was taking all the crazed knights and hunters along with him. Even when he was hit with this negative status effect, his leadership skills were still top notch.
“Wha— Wait! Your Majesty! Don’t go off on your own!” William tried to get them to stay until his father and uncle could get there, but alas... He called out to the king as he jubilantly chased after the monsters, but the king was so focused on his new prey that he couldn’t possibly hear him.
“George, the king’s running toward the edge of the forest. If he keeps going, he’s gonna get too close to the barrier.” The closer one was to the barrier, the more often one was going to encounter monsters.
“Amateurs really are the worst... After them, William!”
“Got it!”
Thus, they were unable to meet back up with the vanguard team. The monster hunting party had fully been split in two.