I followed the path taken by the monsters’ reinforcements.

I covered myself in the blood of the monsters I had defeated to remove my scent, and as I hid my presence, I moved away from the road just far enough so that I wouldn’t lose sight of it.

I proceeded cautiously but bravely. It would be a pain if they noticed me and I had to engage them in battle.

At any rate, it was obvious that should they spot me even once, their reinforcements would arrive here in the middle of the fight, and I wouldn’t be able to deal with all of them.

…How terrifying that would be.

Then, after walking approximately three kilometers farther, I found him.

At first glance, he was an orc, but he was clearly different from the others.

He was wearing a magical beast leather armor and his entire body was covered in old scars.

He also had gray hair and a long beard, giving him the looks of an old seasoned warrior who had experienced countless battles.

His jaw was completely dislocated, and his mouth was wide open.

Then, orcs and goblins came out of his mouth.

It was a grotesque display.

[It’s really not a sight to behold.] (Lugh)

That was how they kept increasing their numbers, so no matter how much time passed, our struggle would never end.

I took out a tool from my pochette.

It was a flare gun.

A special gadget given by the academy to those who had been tasked with locating the demon.

You used it by igniting the fuse.

The tip shot up like a firework rocket, creating an explosion of red light in the sky.

With this, it should be visible for several kilometers around.

And Epona should show up before long.

But if there was flaw, it would be…

[Well, I figured this would happen.] (Lugh)

A pack of orcs and goblins came all at once to attack me.

Using my flare gun to signal my current position to the hero was a fair decision, but obviously, doing so also revealed my position to the enemy.

I would’ve been safe if I had shot it from farther away, but then, the accuracy of the location would’ve suffered.

Besides, there was no way I could leave this place. If that old orc warrior, who seemed to be the demon, decided to move, me using the flare gun would lose all meaning.

I had to keep a close watch on him.

A few agile goblins were jumping from branch to branch and closing in.

As soon as they jumped into the air, I threw my knives and pierced them between their eyebrows, causing three of them to crash on the ground.

Because I was in the woods, the large orcs were hindered by the trees and unable to move correctly.

Consequently, I had the time to chant.

「【Flame Storm】!」(Lugh)

I roasted their thick hide with a storm of flames.

By increasing the precision of my magic, I trapped all the heat inside that storm, creating what you may call a fire cage with no flying sparks.

I turned two orcs into roast orcs.

However…

[This is but a mere drop in the ocean, huh.] (Lugh)

There were hundreds of goblins and orcs.

Thus, defeating a few of them meant absolutely nothing.

I closed my eyes, took out a flash ball and threw it at them.

These were valuable tools of which I only had three, but this was no time to be stingy.

The world was dyed in pure white.

I already knew that this would be effective against the orcs as well.

In that moment, I leapt away with all my might and hid.

The monsters searched around where I was standing.

It helped that their searching abilities were not so great.

…Now, let’s stay in the shadows until the hero arrives.

_______________________________________

I kept hiding and changing location regularly while also monitoring the zone.

So far, they had shown no indication that they had found me.

However, something was off.

Judging by their strategic movements for this war, the demon involved was quite intelligent.

He should’ve understood that what I fired was a flare to call the hero.

Then why wasn’t he moving?

That demon should’ve already figured out the hero’s position and whatnot a long time ago now.

Not engaging the hero directly despite knowing where she was meant that he didn’t want to fight her.

And yet, he was waiting here.

I looked around carefully to see if I didn’t miss a detail.

Come to think of it, there were not only monsters that were leaving this place to act as reinforcements, but also monsters that were coming back here.

Looking closely, I had the impression that these ones were carrying some luggage.

It looked like a large jute bag, and its content was moving occasionally.

When the orcs opened the bag at the order of the demon, what came out of it were student who were rendered unable to move, probably because of a paralytic poison.

So that’s how it was.

Originally, orcs had the particularity of increasing their numbers by kidnaping and impregnating females.

The demon exploited this to have them collect students.

To use them as shields.

He must have prepared those shields because he learned of Epona’s weakness during their last raid.

It was precisely because he knew the hero was afraid of accidentally harming her own allies that he opted for that strategy.

Since we had the upper hand when defending the eastern side, we didn’t notice the other sides were being outnumbered, which led to their kidnappings.

…Well, this sucks.

Now Epona wouldn’t be able to fight at full strength.

Was it possible for me to rescue them before Epona arrived?

[If it were one or two people, I would’ve managed. But twenty-three of them…] (Lugh)

Not a chance. It would’ve been a cinch if all I had to do was kill the orcs near the hostages, but retrieving twenty hostages or so by myself and escaping from here was realistically impossible.

I heard an explosion and turned my attention there.

[I’ve finally found you. My enemy. I’ll kill you and fulfill my mission. I’m going to become a real hero, a hero who will meet everybody’s expectations!] (Epona)

Epona showed up while I was pondering what to do.

She had carved a path on her way here.

Her surroundings were knocked down by sheer wind pressure, and she left a crater wherever she kicked the ground. As usual, her power was off the charts.

The mass of orcs laughed at her, and the old orc warrior… the demon came forward.

[I see the current hero is a greenhorn. A naïve and inexperienced fledgling who was merely given the hero title.] (Demon)

[You may be right. But I’ll show you how I live up to it.] (Epona)

[Ooh, how brave of you. Very much so. I will tell you my name. Although, even if I told you, you wouldn’t be able to make it out, so I shall spell it in your own words. Orc General. And I’m the ultimate orc.] (Orc General)

When he said that he would spell it in human terms, he meant to make the distinction with his choice of words.

The general of orcs. It was really easy to tell that he was their commander.

[…I’m Epona, Epona the hero.] (Epona)

[Hohohoh! Epona, I’ll remember it. First, let’s take care of the first hero here. I have to earn a few points before everybody wakes up.] (Orc General)

Wait a minute, what did he just say?

The first hero?

If that wasn’t a slip of the tongue, this meant that there were going to be multiple heroes.

Even the archives never recorded the existence of more than one hero at the same time.

Their battle begun while I was thinking about that matter.

A pack of sturdy orcs seemed to gang up on Epona.

However, she completely ignored them.

Just by swinging her arm like she was swatting away a bunch of annoying gnats, countless orcs were torn apart and blown away, and just by casting and throwing a mass of mana that didn’t even require magic, she scattered the orcs in every direction.

She was that overpowered.

Or so I said, but the Orc General was laughing it off.

And as he laughed, he opened his mouth to keep creating orcs.

Epona’s movements eventually got worse.

The orcs used the students they had kidnapped as shields.

They strapped them to their repulsive bellies with some kind of cord.

[You cowards!] (Epona)

[This is a strategy. Because heroes can’t help but fight monsters fairly.] (Orc General)

I could hear the Orc General’s loud laughter.

Meanwhile, Epona was fighting.

In a way that wouldn’t harm the students.

Originally, Epona was so strong she didn’t have proper control over her strength, so she couldn’t fight right.

Even so, the fact that she wasn’t at a disadvantage thanks to her outrageously high durability was typical of a hero.

[Hm, I thought you would understand without me having to spell it out for you, but… since you don’t seem to realize it, I will say it. If you don’t quit fighting… you know what will happen, right?] (Orc General)

When the Orc General gave a signal, one of the male students was devoured head first and died.

Epona gritted her teeth and glared at the Orc General.

However, she didn’t stop fighting.

[I see, this hero has no blood or tears.] (Orc General)

[If I lost, you would kill us anyway!] (Epona)

Well, color me surprised.

Considering Epona’s personality, I was convinced that she would definitely comply with the enemy’s demands, but from the look of it, she saw reality for what it was.

Like she said, if Epona died anyway, it would be the end, so there was no need for her to worry about the hostages.

…Frankly, she now looked nothing like the one who felt depressed over being responsible for my injuries during our previous fight.

Maybe I misunderstood her. It wasn’t that she didn’t want her allies to be hurt, but rather, she wanted to avoid killing them with her own hands to the bitter end.

[Gahahahahahaha! You! You! You, sir! It appears you’re not a fool. But even so, why are your movements becoming so dull?] (Orc General)

Only the orcs that had hostages tied to them came forward.

Epona was fighting while avoiding the hostages, albeit clumsily.

So I was right. Epona was extremely afraid of becoming a murderer.

I could tell what she was thinking based on her facial expression. Rather, she wished they would kill the hostages. Because if they did, she would be liberated from the possibility of killing them herself.

I wonder what happened to her that made her develop such a twisted mentality.

As she continued that same fight, Epona’s appearance became abnormal.

She was looking freakier by the second. There was a fiery glitter in her eyes, her mouth was curved upward, her mana was overflowing, and her muscles were inflated.

She was now thirsty for blood and battle.

[FUUUUCKIIIING PAAAIIIIN IN THE AAAAAASSSSSSSS!!!] (Epona)

Then, in the end, she swung her fist with all her power.

It ran through both the orcs and the hostages.

[AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!! I…!! Not again…!!] (Epona)

When they saw her screaming like that, many more orcs attacked while blatantly thrusting forward their hostages.

Epona fought back almost unconsciously, killing more victims in the process.

Her face turned pale and her teeth were rattling.

…During the struggle, she had lost all reason because of one of her skills, then the shock of having murdered people brought her back to her senses.

I could understand being shocked from killing people, but this was disproportionate.

There seemed to be some kind of deeply rooted trauma in her.

She vomited on the spot and finally sat down.

She was in no condition to fight anymore.

And I couldn’t just sit here and watch.

It was impossible for me alone to save the hostages.

However, now that Epona was here, there was a chance to rescue them.

I was also going to participate in that war, and I couldn’t afford to lose to the hero right now.