When I went outside, the sun was setting.

Everybody was already in position.

Neusch, Talt and Epona were to act as the vanguard.

I was the middle guard, so basically, my role was to eliminate the enemy with magic, and take over for the vanguard in case they collapsed.

Dia would focus on her magic as the rearguard.

Rachel the knight and our instructor were further behind on standby.

Their role was to save us in case we ended up in a pinch and protect us from any monster we’d miss.

Also, if anyone was unable to fight, those two would switch with them.

[The orcs have come, huh.] (Lugh)

The landscape that could be seen through the gap of the wall Dia and I made was now dyed in the dark green of the orcs.

As for what we couldn’t see because of the limited visibility, the common soldiers stationed on the cliff were giving their report on it.

The mass of three-meter large dark green giants was marching along the canyon.

The grunts on the cliff shot their arrows at them, but they had no effect at all as they were blocked by their targets’ thick skin and fat.

…I immediately started chanting while holding back the desire to throw a foul stone on the verge of exploding at them. A foul stone explosion would reduce their number in one go, but there was no way I could show it to anyone.

As we intended, the orcs had their movements restricted by the wall Dia and I had created, and they headed for the narrow exit.

Once we saw that, Dia and I began to chant.

By the time the head of the orc pack reached the exit, our spell was already completed.

「「【Crimson Lotus Explosion】」」(Lugh & Dia)

I had a revelation about this spell after using fire magic twenty times in a row, so it was a spell you could’ve never acquired until you died if you only had an average amount of mana.

That alone packed quite a lot of power.

Basketball-sized fireballs flew in a parabola, crossed over the wall, landed on the mass of orcs and exploded into bright red flames visible through the gap in the wall.

The soldiers who were on the lookout shouted.

[It landed ! Eight of the enemies were defeated !] (Soldier)

I knew they would be tough. Dia and I, two first-class magicians with top-notch magical powers, could only manage to take out four of them each.

However, this was no time to feel depressed.

As the magic team, our role was solely to use the wall as a shield and cast magic, and the more we cut down the number of enemies, the easier things would be for the vanguard.

And of course, the vanguard’s role was to exterminate any orc who had passed through the exit.

They were already in position to intercept the first two that had passed through the wall.

Epona charged forward.

[Go die!] (Epona)

She just casually closed the distance and swung her backfist. As soon as it connected, one of the orc’s belly rippled, then it exploded, splitting his upper and lower body, and slamming him into the mud wall.

Epona didn’t use any weapon. If she wielded one with that strength of hers, the weapon would break as a result of not being made to withstand it.

Besides, she didn’t need to use a weapon.

…Whenever I think about all the times I had to deal with that thing during mock battles, I feel a chill running down my spine.

[Let’s go, Talt-kun!] (Neusch)

[Yes!] (Talt)

Talt and Neusch were fighting the second orc together.

They performed an impromptu but well-executed pincer attack from both sides, confusing the orc as Talt’s spear gouged out his eye and Neusch’s sharp blade sliced his wrist.

That was well done.

Orcs were clad in a thick armor made of tough skin and fat, so they couldn’t take any damage from normal attacks.

However, their eyes could be easily gouged out, and there was so little fat around their wrists that even a shallow cut in the arteries would make their blood spurt.

In fact, the orc who took both of their attacks was bleeding and going crazy, then after a while, he collapsed and turned cold.

That way, we could get rid of the orcs without exhausting our stamina.

As long as they followed the path we had made, there would be at most two or three orcs coming out at a time.

Epona, Neusch and Talt were enough to keep up and deal with them.

In the meantime, Dia and I would simply torch the orcs waiting for traffic.

If we kept up this pace, Epona wouldn’t go on a rampage and I wouldn’t need to show anyone the secrets of Tuatha Dé.

It was going to be be a tough fight, but nothing dangerous.

All we had to do was repeat our current strategy.

But the question was whether we would exhaust our stamina first, or the orcs would be wiped out first.

So now, it was time for an endurance contest.

_______________________________________

…Thirty minutes had passed since the battle began.

Something felt off.

The fight showed no sign of ending.

We should’ve already exterminated more than one hundred orcs. And yet, the enemy didn’t seem to lose any momentum.

We couldn’t get a full view of the enemy on the other side of the wall, so we were relying on reports from the soldiers stationed on the cliff.

Neusch, who normally displayed constant composure, shouted in frustration.

[Just how many are they!?] (Neusch)

[One hundred and twenty by our estimation!] (Soldier)

[What’s the meaning of this!? We’ve killed at least a hundred of them by now!] (Neusch)

[It’s just that, reinforcements keep appearing one after another from who knows where!] (Soldier)

Before the battle began, I already thought that the number of enemies increasing by 50% was bad news, but I didn’t think their reinforcements would keep spawning like that.

Counting them, that already made 220 orcs.

Not only that, but there was no guarantee that the number of reinforcements wouldn’t increase even further.

To begin with, how could they possibly hide when there were so many of them? …I had a bad feeling about this. For example, we had to consider even the possibility that there was a demon with the power to create monsters lurking around.

If such a demon were to show up, I wouldn’t have the leeway to hide my power anymore.

[I’m sorry, I… can’t go on…] (Dia)

Dia fell on her knees with a pale complexion. She had a mana deficiency.

No wonder, she kept firing the superior spell【Crimson Lotus Explosion】for thirty minutes straight.

Besides, Talt was in a tight spot too.

Her movements began to lose their sharpness.

She failed to dodge an orc’s club strike.

[Kyaaaaaaaahhh…!] (Talt)

She barely managed to guard herself with her left arm, but her bones made a cracking sound, then she was blown away, and she fell. She tried to get back up, but she couldn’t as she seemed to have failed her landing and twisted her leg.

Now that Talt was in such a state, an orc laid his carnal desires bare and reached out to her. He intended to take her away.

[You goddamn pig…!] (Lugh)

I cut the chanting of【Crimson Lotus Explosion】short and dashed. From the moment I put all my energy in the first step, I twisted my whole body, built up power in the palm of my hand and sent the orc flying.

And then, in this series of actions, I followed up by chanting to cast the wind spell【Wind Blade】to slice through the orc’s carotid artery.

Even if it had low offensive power, if you aimed it at a vital point, even an orc could be defeated by that.

[Lugh-sama!] (Talt)

[Talt, stand back! I’ll take over the vanguard!] (Lugh)

[I can still fight!] (Talt)

[You’ve reached your limits! If you can stand up, retreat!] (Lugh)

Talt didn’t try to argue anymore.

Probably because she realized that she would be a burden if she stayed any longer.

She didn’t train so mildly that she would be left exhausted after fighting for only thirty minutes. However, the overuse of Tuatha Dé’s eye had put a stress on her nerves.

It still hadn’t been long since Talt acquired Tuatha Dé’s eye, so this was becoming more of a burden for her than I imagined.

If only she’d had at least another week to acclimate to it, she could’ve fought longer.

I went to the vanguard to replace Talt. I faced the orcs while carrying her on my back.

…I wonder if Talt had been fighting all this time under this pressure I was feeling. I would have to praise her for it later.

[If you fight them here, then who will deal with the ones further away?] (Neusch)

[If I don’t fight them here, we’ll be overwhelmed. Besides, either the knight lady or the instructor will have to come forward eventually.] (Lugh)

[Good point, we’ve already fought this much, so I wish they could take over for us soon.] (Neusch)

Neusch spoke with a light tone, but he looked quite bruised too. I’d say he could only last for the next half hour.

The situation was dire, and things were starting to get worse.

Dia, who was on her knees with a pale face, screamed.

[Lugh, the wall we made is crumbling!] (Dia)

[Yeah, so it’s come to this, huh.] (Lugh)

The orcs who were waiting for traffic were not only vacantly standing around, but also rampaging to destroy the wall that was irritating them.

…If that was the only problem, we would’ve managed somehow, but the wreckage left after Epona slammed some orcs with all her might illustrated the considerable damage it had taken.

Even so, if that was their original number, then it was all over before the wall even collapsed.

It was all due to our lack of visibility.

An avalanche of orcs gushed from behind the wall.

The wall collapsed, and what came in sight was the same number of orcs as before the battle started. Unlike how it was until now, there were five or even six of them rushing in side by side.

…I had prepared myself for this, but I felt like I was about to lose my mind.

There was no way I could fend off that many of them. Also, behind me were Talt, who was injured, and Dia, who was out of mana.

This was no time to hold back anymore.

If I didn’t go at full power, it wouldn’t just be me, but everyone that would die.

I was reaching for a foul stone when it happened.

[Finally, I get to go wild. Killing you little shits one by one over and over and over and over and over and over and over again was so fucking boring…! NOW, I’M GONNA BUTCHER YOU ALL!!] (Epona)

Epona charged into the fray.

She had gone berserk.

In this kind of situation, the orcs would’ve immediately surrounded and ganged up on her.

And yet, the orcs surrounding Epona had scattered altogether. And Epona was smiling.

That was the smile she wore when things got intense during mock battles, and Epona once said that the reason she smiled when she fought me was because she had finally found the sparing partner she needed to become stronger.

However, as she was now, Epona looked like a bloodthirsty animal.

So that was the hero.

Neusch’s face twitched, and Talt and Dia were terrified.

Without noticing the looks we gave her, the frenzied beast began to devour its preys.