What was happening? I hadn’t picked up on a single monster signal on our way here. It was almost as if...
“This is bad...” I didn’t know why, but I knew what. The pack of high wolves, the monsters coming toward us...
“No way...”
I could only think of one possible explanation. We had fallen into a trap.
“What’s wrong?” asked Daggers, hearing my mumbling. They had yet to notice the approaching monsters, which were still ten kilometers away—too far to notice without detection magic or similar spells.
“It looks like we’ve fallen for a trap,” I said, revealing my thinking to Yui and the others.
“A trap?! Us?!”
“Yeah... There’s a horde of monsters coming our way from where we came from.”
“Wait, hold on a second. Really? I mean, why?”
Before us was a pack of high wolves, and marching on us from behind was a horde of monsters.
“Damn it! A horde of what monsters...? I mean, where were they hiding?” Cross asked.
“Sorry. I don’t know myself.”
The monsters were too far away for me to determine their species. But considering the signals seemed to be moving at slightly different speeds and in different ways, I could tell that there was more than one type of monster. At least ten, probably...
This was clearly planned by somebody. If they were sending this new horde of monsters our way, whoever had laid this trap no longer was trying to hide their intentions. But why...?
“Yui, have you done anything to earn a grudge?”
“O-Of course not!”
Yeah. Thought so. And even if she had, I had a hard time thinking it’d be enough to earn this bloodlust. “Sorry, I was just asking.”
“Seriously! Anyway, what do you know about these monsters?”
“The horde coming from behind us consists of multiple species, and they number...easily a few thousand.”
“Huh?! You’ve gotta be kidding!” The blood had rushed from Yui’s face.
If I had guessed correctly, the perpetrator was trying to eliminate us. No, were they trying to lure us out of Ishtar? In any case, they had gathered the high wolves here for a reason. Then, they had manipulated the victim into posting a quest to lure S-rank adventurers here—and they had probably also contrived things so the quest’s difficulty wouldn’t be labeled as S-rank. By ensuring this was an A-rank quest, they ensured our guards would be down. After all, we would have likely prepared a bit more if this quest had been labeled S-rank.
It was easy to gather intel on adventurers in Ishtar. It would only have taken a little investigating to know that Yui and her party were the only adventurers in town who could accept an A-rank quest.
But I had no idea what possible motivations this perpetrator could have.
“In any case, we better retreat, right? With Lloyd’s detection magic, we can probably avoid these monsters pretty easily, and—”
“No, we can’t.”
“Huh?! Why?” Yui suggested that we run, and I had considered the option too. If we hurried back to Ishtar, we’d be able to report this matter, which would be our best option if possible. But in that scenario, if someone on the perpetrator’s side had detection magic they could use to track us, then...
No, considering the timing they had sent the horde after us, it was safe to assume our perpetrator did have such an accomplice. That meant there was a chance we’d be taking this monster horde back to Ishtar with us. If we were forced into a fight near the city, ordinary citizens could end up as casualties.
“There’s no certainty that we’d be able to escape even with my detection magic. If we were detected and the monsters followed after us, the city could end up a victim.”
“You’re right...”
Leading these monsters to Ishtar was something we needed to avoid at all costs, which only left one option.
“Let’s fight, Yui.”
“Yeah, you’re right. We’ve got no choice, so let’s fi— Wait! Huuuuuuh?! Fight?!”
“Yeah. That’s our only way out of this.”
“Well, maybe you’re right, but... How are we supposed to take on so many?”
Yeah, it made sense that even S-rank adventurers would struggle against these numbers, especially for a party with only one offensive mage like Yui’s. They had no way of eliminating both monster hordes at once. Their odds were practically zilch.
But only if they intended on fighting both hordes, that is. Thankfully, there was no need to defeat them all at once.
“Cross, can you hit the stone?”
“Uh, the black one?”
“Yup.”
Cross pondered this for a moment. “I can probably aim, but... Well, I think I can hit it.”
“I see. So you can?”
“Yeah, there’s a chance. But I’m not sure I can break it.”
No matter how good of an archer you were, it’d be hard to break through stone with a normal arrow, even for Lulu, the archer of the Hero’s party. The farther away the target, the more force the arrow would lose. But that just meant I needed to offer my support.
“Cross, can I borrow an arrow?”
“Uh, yeah, sure...”
Cross handed me an arrow, so I cast a buff on it—one slightly different than the type you cast on living organisms. “All right. Done.”
I handed the buffed arrow back to Cross. With that, he’d be able to break the stone even if the arrow lost some force during its trajectory.
“Cross, aim for the stone.”
“G-Got it.” He slowly pulled back his bow and fired the arrow. Despite the wind resistance, it bolted through the air at a startling speed. The moment it pierced the black stone, it shattered.
“Woo-hoo!” shouted Cross, striking a victory pose. I couldn’t believe he had managed to hit his target from so far away on his first shot. He really was an S-rank adventurer. I mean, his skills might have even exceeded Lulu’s. “Hey, Lloyd? What’d you do to my arrow? Somehow, it was even more wicked than usual,” asked Cross, staring at his bow.
“I just buffed your bow and arrows.”
“For real? You can cast buffs on weapons and people at the same time?”
“Of course I can. Any white mage could. It’s really nothing special.”
“I don’t really think that’s true,” he said, looking displeased with my answer.
“Hey, Cross! Look at that!” shouted Yui, her finger pointed at the farm. The high wolves had turned their claws and fangs against each other—just as I had planned. Now that the black stone had shattered, its magic had dissipated. High wolves typically only formed small packs, but they had been manipulated by magic. So, what would happen should that magic disappear? Naturally, they’d begin to fight one another. That should get rid of some of the high wolves for us.
“Wait, Lloyd. Did you know that...?”
“Well, yeah. This won’t completely annihilate them, but they’ll lose some of their numbers, and it doesn’t seem like they’re focused on us at all. Now we can concentrate on taking out the other horde.”
“Wow! I can’t believe you thought all this out!”
So far, everything was going according to plan. But that could soon be about to change. This horde only consisted of a single monster species—one prone to infighting. Not to mention, the black stone casting this magic had been left behind, and Cross had just happened to notice it. That was why we had been able to break the stone and get out of this, but none of that applied to the monsters approaching from behind us. It was even possible that someone was controlling them directly.
“All right, what to do...”
I had kept my detection magic activated, so I could tell the horde was gradually approaching. The closer they came, the better I could sense their MP, so I had started to get a sense of the monster species we would be facing. There were weak monsters like slimes and goblins, but slightly more ferocious beasts like cockatrices as well.
“What an odd group...” Those words naturally escaped me considering this combination would have been unthinkable under normal circumstances.
“So? What do we do?” asked Yui, looking awfully worried. Thankfully, none of the monsters in the horde appeared to be a particular threat—actually, it was probably safe to assume that stronger monsters couldn’t be controlled. All in the horde were species an S-rank adventurer could handle without problem. But given their number, it still wouldn’t be easy.
“Yeah... I want to defeat them if we can, but it’ll be hard given how many there are.”
“Yeah, so what the heck do we do?”
“I’ve got an idea.” I had already put together our general plan of attack. The crux of its success was Silica, our one offensive mage. But depending on the elements she could use, this plan might have to change. “Silica, which elements can you use?”
“I’m capable of using all four basic ones.”
“The four basic elements...” That was fire, water, earth, and wind. The other two elements were ice and lightning, but since we didn’t need them for this plan it was no problem that Silica couldn’t cast those spells. “And how many arrows do you have left, Cross?”
“Well... Including the ones I gave to you, I should have around a hundred. Thanks to your storage magic, I could bring even more than usual with me.”
All right. In that case, my plan would work. “Yui, Daggers, Silica, Cross... I’ve got an idea. Will you hear me out?”
They nodded.