CZRRRRZ.
The cursed knight swung his blade. It was seconds away from hitting the lionfolk adventurer’s exposed neck as he attacked with his special move.
“…Too late.”
An invisible shield blocked the cursed knight’s sword right as the lionfolk adventurer finished his move. It was Arisa’s Deracinator.
“Uoooooh! ‘Raging Thrust’!”
The lionfolk man’s special attack pierced the cursed knight’s chest, dealing the final blow. It seemed he went in fully prepared that he would be unable to defeat the cursed knight. I felt bad for doubting him.
“There’s still one more—!”
Fen finished the final one off.
“I feel stupid feeling jealous when there’s such a gap in skill.”
“Not at all. I feel like we could say the same to the girls fighting over there.”
The adventurers spoke among themselves as they watched Arisa and the other girls fighting with the cursed knights.
“Huh, who are those? Weren’t they the smooth-skins that ranked up to silver tiger even though they came here around half a month ago?”
“I feel like we can’t pick on smooth-skins anymore.”
“Right?”
“You over there! Rather than chatting among yourselves, spare some thoughts for me!”
The leopardfolk adventurer—whose guts were close to spilling out—called over. His party members ran over to heal him, pouring a waterfall of expensive healing potions in his mouth.
“You’re looking better.”
“And strong. Those cursed knights were way stronger than the champions, right?”
“Besides all that unnecessary toughness, that final move they hit was way too scary. You dodged it well.”
“Nah, someone was protecting me with magic. If it wasn’t for that, me and the knight would’ve both knocked each other out.”
The lionfolk man looked over at Arisa and the others. Noticing their gaze, Arisa shot back a peace sign from the slightly raised ground. Fen ignored the adventurers’ conversation and headed over to where the girls were.
“Genomos, return.”
The raised stone spikes returned to the ground as the group reconvened.
Oh, thanks to that first spell they cast, Arisa leveled up. The others are all the same level, though.
“Looks like everything is resolved over there, too.”
Arisa spoke casually to Fen, who had walked over to them. However, he walked straight past them and headed over to the Grudge Turtle. Using the back of the large bone sword, he struck the Grudge Turtle from below, and as it began to move, he pinned down its head and ripped off its shell with a tearing sound. He then discarded the shell behind him—
“Whoawhoawhoawhoa, that’s dangerous!”
Arisa bumped into him, shouting at him to stop. Fen paid her no mind as he jumped on the back of the Grudge Turtle, whose feet were still frozen, and stabbed his large bone sword into it, forcibly tearing it into pieces.
“What is he doing? Ugh…”
I wondered if Arisa used Space Magic like me and saw the same thing I did. It was pretty gruesome, so I didn’t want to go into detail, but there were two necromancers hiding within the rotten insides of the turtle, controlling it by using its greasy entrails. Fen grabbed the two of them and pulled them out. Due to the Anti-Curse spell, both of them were unconscious.
“…Man, that stinks.”
“Hmm. …”
Mia cast Bubble Wash and cleaned the rotten flesh off the necromancers. Fen remained silent as he watched, probably taken aback by the smell. After all, wolves had a keener sense of smell compared to humans.
“So…”
“Hmm, Shoushourai Little Shock.”
Arisa shot Mia a glance, signaling for her to send off a quick, small lightning bolt using Spirit Magic. It hit both of the necromancers.
“Uughh…”
The middle-aged necromancer had a blank expression in his eyes as he gazed into nothingness. However, the spark of life returned to the older man’s eyes.
“Are you the guys behind this?”
“Arcatia was so close to falling by my hand…”
The older necromancer, Zanzasansa, looked so defeated, he was close to the point of bitter tears as Fen spoke to him.
“Is this one of your soldiers? Wait, no—it’s a cursed item.”
Fen swung his sword as fast as a ray of light as he cut off the middle-aged necromancer’s head. Then the Grudge Turtle stopped moving. It seemed the middle-aged necromancer was strengthening the undead. Fen then pointed his sword toward the elderly necromancer.
“W-wait! If you kill me, then the city will fall!”
“Don’t joke—”
“…Nana!”
Nana moved in an instant, coming between Fen’s large bone sword and the necromancer.
“Move out of the way.”
“Haste makes waste, I declare. Arisa, ask for an explanation.”
Nana spoke, her face expressionless, asking Arisa to speak in her place.
“So, sir, in what way will Arcatia be destroyed?”
“Judging from the amount of mana spilling out of you, you’re the grand mage who was controlling that Fire Magic earlier. I had no idea such a fine specimen as yourself was here in Arcatia.”
“Hee-hee, you’re gonna make me blush.”
“No, Arisa. Please ask him about the main topic at hand, I advise.”
“Oh, yeah, sorry.”
Arisa turned to the elderly necromancer and asked again.
“Some of my followers have been dispatched to the Castle. If I die, they will probably invade here from the Castle.”
Oh.
So that lost group was actually a group attacking the Castle. Since there were no other settlements nearby except Arcatia, they didn’t chase after us once we had gotten far enough away, right?
“What for—? Wait, really?”
“Exactly, the subordinates will likely be defeated by the power of the Tauruses. However, the Tauruses, whose territory has been ravaged, will march forward in anger—toward Arcatia.”
“Master! Do you have an idea of the situation there?”
Arisa ignored the elderly necromancer’s smug expression and sent me a message.
“I know what’s going on. The other unit is right inside the inner wall of the Castle. Tiga and the others are fighting them, but I’m not sure they can stop them.”
“That’s no good.”
“Leave it to me. After all, that guy’s still got something up his sleeve.”
The elderly necromancer didn’t seem to think he was going to meet his fate. He seemed confident.
“I know. I’ll make sure to tell the others to not drop their guard,” Arisa responded.
I suddenly remembered something, so I warned her about that, too.
“The young necromancer the older man used as a pawn had a short horn on him. There’s a high chance he’s hiding something, too, so be careful.”
The elderly necromancer didn’t have an Item Box, but there were other ways of hiding things.
“All right, I’ll share that with the others. Don’t worry, we won’t drop our guard!”
Arisa responded confidently. Seeing how they were, I didn’t have to worry about them. I then made my way to the Castle before Tiga and his men had any casualties.
✦ ✦ ✦
When I came back to myself, Roro was peering into my face.
“Mr. Satou, it’s been quiet ever since that explosion and shaking earlier. Do you think everything is over now?”
“Who knows? I’ll go ask someone.”
“I’ll come, too—”
I stopped Roro in her tracks.
“You should stay here with the kids.”
The hamsterfolk children had passed out as a result of all the commotion.
“Okay, I’ll stay here—”
Roro nodded before hanging her head down low. It looked like she had something else to say.
“…Mr. Satou. Please don’t get hurt. Come back safe.”
“Of course. Don’t worry about it.”
Roro nodded as she laughed, hiding her worry. It seemed like she had an idea of what I was setting out to do.
“I promise you. I’ll come back safe.”
After all, I was known as Pendragon the Untouchable.