“Form up! Standard four-person cell!”
Lefiya quickly barked orders.
Luke leaped to grab his sword sticking out of the ground and quickly linked up with Nano and the others as a procession of monsters befitting the term parade swelled before them.
A long, winding line of monsters of all types shifted their target from Lefiya to the 7th Squad and roared in anticipation of a feast. Faced with an absurd number to even begin to count—the sort of swarm that even School District students rarely had the chance to see—Nano recoiled and whimpered, “Uuuugh…!”
Lefiya had considered just running away with the adventurers earlier, but she had just concluded her fight with Luke, and if all they did was run, nothing would be resolved, so she chose to meet the monster parade head-on here.
If the alternative was putting parties of third-tier adventurers in danger, then she and the 7th Squad would just have to exterminate the monsters themselves.
That was her decision after gauging the strength her party could bring to bear.
A pack of liger fangs in front! And behind, minotaurs, hellhounds, and tomahawk-wielding al-miraj!
Her eyes narrowed as she quickly grasped the makeup of the parade. The larger ones were dangerous, but the small al-miraj and medium hellhounds in the back could not be ignored, either. Or more precisely, their ranged attacks and fire breath deserved caution. The 7th Squad wasn’t lacking in raw power, but mistakes could happen with longer-range attacks.
And so Lefiya immediately decided to erase the enemy’s back lines.
“I’ll hit the monsters in the back! You focus on the head of the parade!”
Without waiting for acknowledgment from the students, she immediately leaped into the air.
“I beseech the name of Wishe.”
Floating high overhead, stealing the attention of the stunned students and the monsters looking up, she began to cast her spell.
The verses of an incantation rang out as she traced a gentle arc through the air, dismembering an al-miraj and hellhound upon landing, just as she had announced.
“Giiii?!”
“Guaaa?!”
Wielding Tear Pain like a conductor’s wand, she slashed three times in quick succession, drawing a chorus of death cries.
She immediately continued her charge.
Rushing through the middle of the swarm, she struck down hellhounds before they could unleash their deadly breath attacks and batted away all the tomahawks the al-miraj had hastily thrown her way. Their rabbit eyes widened, seeing their weapons shatter, only for a silver flash of metal to claim multiple heads in a single sweep.
“Ancestors of the forest, proud brethren. Answer my call and descend upon the plains!”
Scattering the end of the procession, she hunted down her next prey while Concurrent Casting.
Her powerful voice and the violent eruption of magic power forced the monsters to focus on her. She kept the back and center of the parade busy all alone with her flashy display, entrusting the students to handle the monsters at the front while she performed a beautiful and sublime dance.
It was a complete rampage.
“I-is she really a backline fighter?!”
Consumed by awe ever since the fight with Luke, Miliria shouted even as Lefiya, without worrying about the particulars, cut a crystal mantis in half. Its crystalline body shattered into countless shards as she finished off enemy monsters without even resorting to magic.
“Come, ring of fairies. Please—give me strength!”
With her unbroken chanting, she prepared the spell Fairy Ring and then placed it on standby. Due to the effect of her skill, Double Canon, the magic circle became a ring around the wrist of her left hand.
“Unleashed pillar of light, limbs of the holy tree.”
As she proceeded to load up the next spell to deal with the unexpected, a hellhound slipped out from behind a minotaur and leaped at her from the left.
“!”
“Gaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”
Enraged by the one-sided domination, it hugged the ground as it charged, eager to tear into Lefiya’s soft flesh.
Her right hand wouldn’t make it in time to stop the monster since she had just cut down another enemy moments earlier. Somewhere in the corner of her mind, she felt it was improper even as she mercilessly kicked the hellhound in the face.
“Ghhhg?!”
She had taken inspiration from Bete’s wild kicks, which she had experienced firsthand countless times in training.
It was nothing more than a pale imitation, but that was enough to turn her Level 4 legs into deadly weapons. The hellhound’s jaw and head shattered in a spray of gore as her skirt fluttered, revealing her pale, slender thighs.
It is poor manners, but screw manners. That Lefiya Viridis is long dead.
As she said farewell to her past self, a single image burned itself into Lefiya’s mind. She traced it, copied it, and projected it onto herself.
✦ ✦ ✦
