Satou here. With online games, there’s always someone further ahead than you, so you find pretty much everything you want to know by checking the FAQs. But those on the front lines have to forge ahead with no help at all.
“Take that, sir!”
Pochi was wearing golden armor and a yellow cape, throwing herself into a squad of ten Tauruses—bull-shaped monsters.
Sword arts as powerful as her frame was tiny, swiftly slashing the Tauruses’ tendons and rendering them inert.
“Lyuryu! Now, sir!”
LYURYU!
The white baby dragon bonded to Pochi let out a breath so focused and narrow, it might as well have been a laser, blowing off the heads of every immobilized Taurus.
This dragon was still less than a yard from head to tail, but the power of its Dragon Breath was prodigious, and the Tauruses were mowed down, their heads turning to ash and crumbling away.
Far higher DPS than its level should allow—which was helping Lyuryu gain levels steadily. It seemed to need a lot more XP per level than the beast girls did, but that level gap wasn’t proving to be an issue so far.
“Mrow, delicaciessss!” muttered Tama. She wore a pink cape over her golden armor.
She was likely lamenting the loss of the Tauruses’ eyeballs. The ears on her helmet moved with her cat ears, lying flat as she gazed dejectedly at the corpses.
“If you stop to sulk, the others will be incinerated, too,” Liza called.
Her words were strict, but her armor-clad tail slapped Tama’s back encouragingly.
“Right! Tama fiiight!”
Tama vanished into her shadow, and I saw her pop back up where Pochi was leading the forerunners.
“Nin-niiiin?”
She’d come up behind a Taurus, and in the blink of an eye, she’d claimed its head. And as that spin completed, she snared more Tauruses with her shadow, shooting through the crowd and leaving severed heads in her wake.
The corpses were all swallowed by the shadow. A ninjutsu mastered by our party’s shadow ninja. She’d likely tucked them away to keep their bodies from being harmed by Lyuryu’s next Breath attack.
“Ah! You stole our prey, sir!”
LYU?
“Lyuryu, we’re racing Tama now, sir!”
LYURYU!
Feeling competitive, Pochi and her dragon upped the speed of their devastation.
“The children are all fired up, and we have naught to do,” Arisa declared.
“Mm, youth,” Mia said, pulling the age card.
“Liza, Nana, not joining the competition?” Lulu asked—but they were making precision attacks anytime Pochi and Tama looked like they might be in danger of getting surrounded.
“No, Lulu, a tank cannot shine against weaker foes, I declare,” Nana said, thumping her shield on the ground.
“Nana, three champions, two o’clock.”
“Yes, Arisa, moving to engage.”
“Master, I’m joining her.”
Nana and Liza headed off to intercept the Taurus champions as they came around the corner of the castle.
“Less resistance than I expected.”
“Sure we didn’t just get stronger?”
It had been the better part of a month since Zanzasansa, the necromancer, had led an undead army to the fortress city of Arcatia. My party had struggled against the greater demon there, but clearly that had motivated them to gain some more levels since.
“Conceit bad.”
“I know! I’m keeping my eyes peeled!”
They’d already cleared out all the Jungle Labyrinth’s trickiest areas, including the area around this castle, and were now taking a stab at the grand finish—the castle interior.
The Arcatian adventurers considered this place untouchable, but thanks to Arisa’s Space Magic, we could Warp directly inside the castle and conquer it off the books.
“Master, any signs of Tauruses fleeing the castle?”
“None. Not just the gates; I’ve got an earth wall too high for them to get over all around the exterior walls. And spells are strengthening the ground so they can’t tunnel under.”
It wasn’t just my spells—Mia’s pseudo-earth spirit, Genomos, was helping out a lot.
“It’s nice to be prepared.”
“We can rest easy?”
“You could say that, yeah.”
Even as we chatted, Arisa was casting Deracinator and Dimension Slasher to back the party up.
“Mrr, mage.”
Nana had been hit with a magic attack.
That said, she’d dealt with it using the “Magical Slash” she’d learned from the Hero and the master swordsman, so had taken no damage.
“Magic and projectiles do not work on me, I declare,” she cried.
I clapped for her.
She was making that move look easy, but it was actually pretty hard to pull off.
“It’s hiding where it can’t be sniped.”
“Go, Genomos.”
The Taurus mage was in cover, so Mia sent her pseudo-spirit to take it out.
“Archer spotted! Sniping!”
A Taurus archer had poked its head out on the balustrades, so Lulu took it down with her Fireburst Gun.
That was a mid-range weapon—sniping with it proved how good Lulu was.
“Nana, heads up! The captain and the elites are coming out from back! They’ve got gunners with them!”
“Yes, Arisa. I’ve completed the charge required to activate Fortress, I report.”
This was the toughest place in the Jungle Labyrinth, the interior of the Tauruses’ castle, so it was absolutely swarming with the things.
The gunners were firing rot shot, but Nana blocked that with her armor’s Fortress function, and when the volley died down, Liza charged in, trailing red light in her wake, slaughtering Taurus elite with her Magic Cricket Spear.
“You haven’t come to watch for a while. Everyone’s showing off.”
“Eh-heh-heh, Arisa, you’re using a lot more attack spells than usual,” Lulu said, ratting her out.
“W-well, I don’t have to focus as much on commands! That frees me up to take more actions and cast more spells!”
“Today only?”
“Urghh!”
Lulu grinned at her.
These sisters were very close.
“Master, I heard things were crazy busy. Can you afford the time away from Hero’s Rest?”
“I can, yeah. Things got hectic after the expansion, but we’ve staffed up, and Roro’s gotten used to delegating.”
This was also a test, one I hoped would wean her off me.
If she strengthened her ties to her new leadership, that would make the Hero’s Rest management that much more stable.
“Breeeeach?”
“Gate guardians eliminated, sir!”
Oops, no time for chatter. We were about to breach the main building of the Tauruses’ castle.
“Lyuryu did great, too, sir!”
LYU…RYU…
“Lyuryu?”
The dragon settled on Pochi’s head, drooping, and dove into the artifact on her chest—the Dragon Cradle.
“Sleepy tiiiime?”
“Sleep helps babies grow, sir!”
Lyuryu had just hatched and took a lot of naps.
Pochi rubbed the Dragon Cradle pendant gently, speaking in motherly tones. “Leave the rest to us, and take a load off, sir.”
“Listen up! There’s a whole herd of powerful cattle inside!” Arisa said, confusing everyone with a bad joke.
This one in particular required, you know, the kanji.
“S-so let’s give ’em all we got!” she spluttered, recovering.
Everyone reset, and our scout—Tama—led the way.
The Tauruses’ lord led a bunch of advanced Taurus types—Taurus knights, Taurus warlocks, Taurus bishops, and Taurus captains—but the party handled them with ease.
“‘Helix Spear Attack—Avalanche’!”
Liza was using her special attack like a regular one, charging through the Taurus king’s guard into the audience chamber where the Taurus king awaited.
“The gold one in back’s the boss!”
A massive Taurus king was seated on the throne behind a “herd” of the advanced types we’d already fought—scattered among them were attack-focused Taurus executioners and Taurus avengers, as well as defense-focused Taurus king’s guards and Taurus paladins.
They were all buffed quite a bit—they must have been casting Support Magic while we were on the way.
“No prince or queen? Did she take the kids back to her parents’ place?” Arisa joked, but against this many powerful foes, even she sounded tense. “But putting your mages in front is just silly.”
BZUUMZOOOO!
As Arisa raised her staff, the Taurus king raised his scepter like a mace.
And the Tauruses stampeded toward us.
“Take this—Vortex Blade Rampage!”
Arisa thrust her staff forward, unleashing an advanced Space spell.
The space faults in the chamber were disrupted.
The Tauruses were sliced up by faults thinner than molecular fiber.
“Ha-ha! Say hello to my cubed steaks!”
“Splatteeeeeer?”
“That looks painful, sir!”
Arisa was cackling, but the kids were covering the visors on their helmets with both hands.
“Remain vigilant.”
“Yes, Mia. Some enemies remain alive, I report.”
Like they said, the king and some of the top-tier Tauruses had used some kind of artifacts to protect themselves from Arisa’s spell. Likely the kind that took a hit for you.
“Garuda—Tempest,” Mia whispered.
The pseudo-spirit Garuda had been hiding, translucent, but now it revealed its golden form, activating a secret art and pulverizing the walls and ceiling of the audience chamber.
That art used up Garuda’s mana, so it faded out.
The Tauruses momentarily appeared to be wiped out, but a few had survived—much like they had survived Arisa’s Space Magic spell.
“Mrr.”
“Surviving Garuda’s Tempest? These are some tough cookies.”
“But they’re not unharmed.”
The king was covered in blood; those at lord or paladin class were on death’s door. Looked like the king’s guard had hung in there, too.
BZUUMZOOOO!
The king howled and thumped his scepter, and a squad of unharmed Tauruses appeared—brought in with Space Magic. The king seemed to have a minion “Summon” skill that pulled in Taurus captains and Taurus leaders that were patrolling outside the castle.
“Well, he is a king. The rest is up to Liza and the girls.”
“We’ll take care of it. Pochi, Tama, follow me. We’ll cut a path open. Nana, keep the rear guard safe.”
“Nin-niiiin!”
“Roger that, sir! Lyuryu’s sleeping, but I’ll fight for the both of us, sir!”
“Yes, Liza.”
They’d grasp the final victory together.
BZUUMZOOOO!
“Here we go!”
Liza’s cry and the king’s bellow overlapped.
The Taurus army began to advance, and Liza’s eyes lit up.
“‘Blink—Helix Spear Attack—Bore.’”
The red glow of a “Spellblade” swirling before her, she was through the center in the blink of an eye.
Like an isekai hero after meeting Truck-kun, the Tauruses went flying.
“‘Quick Draw, Vanquish Slicer,’ sir!”
Pochi went spinning down the path she’d opened, her blades like whirling death.
The Tauruses tried to dodge her fearsome weapons, but shadows grabbed their legs, preventing it.
“‘Ninpo—Shadow Bind’!”
“Aku Soku Jajan, sir!”
Tama’s ninjutsu had the Tauruses pinned down, so Pochi used magic to alter the length of her Holy Sword, a streak of blue light following it as she cleaved them in two.
A Taurus assassin appeared behind the cleaved one, aiming at Pochi’s back from behind.
“Not todaaaay!”