> Narrator PoV

The Eagle Forest that lied south of Runetap was infamous for being huge. The territory this tree range took up really could not be understated. Even the renowned adventurer team [Black Flame] had only explored an estimated 30% of it during their year of residence within these woods. If it wasn’t for the paved road they helped establish through the heart of it, traversing its territory would take weeks rather than the comfortable 3 days by horse carriage. Long story short - the forest was really really big. A fact a trio of relatively inexperienced adventurers were currently lamenting.

Grom, the former Legionnaire from Ecebis, made his way through the thick brush. He used his axe and shield to clear the way as best he could, making sure his two compatriots could follow easily. The heavy weight from the tower shield on his back as well as his well-worn Legion-grade plate armor easily trampled any errant bushes or tall grass.

Russ, the young human mage, followed the dwarf closely, making sure not to fall behind. His stamina had improved significantly over the last few weeks of adventuring. He was quietly proud that his weak body was no longer slowing down his teammates on these long treks. He had also traded his apprentice robes for a set of light brown leather armor with a yellow undershirt.

Last in line and scowling fiercely like usual was the female salamander, Yuri. The official leader of this three-man Rank C team known simply as [Scales]. Her brass-colored metal bracers were still on her forearms, though the rest of her ‘outfit’ was nothing more than a leather bikini. Like usual, she relied on her naturally tough hide, powerful muscles and sharp claws to safely carry her through danger.

Well, that and she caused an incident that one time her teammates convinced her to get fitted for some proper armor. The Runetap City Guard were quite troubled whether that event would count as a K-5 or not, but the fact remained she rampaged for nearly an hour when the blacksmith tried to grope her breasts. As a result, she was arrested, fined, and gained a bad reputation that was somehow worse than that of a certain short-tempered red-haired mage.

The three of them made their way silently in no particular direction before Grom, who was in the lead, finally started complaining to Russ.

“By my father’s beard! We’ll never make it out of this damned forest! I told you we should’ve gone back sooner!” (Grom)

“Don’t look at me! I wasn’t the one who took an afternoon nap in the middle of a forest!” (Russ)

That was, in fact, the reason for their delay. Yuri had ended up collapsing suddenly, falling flat on her face in the soft snow. Grom and Russ tried to wake her up, but to no avail. She was too heavy to move and they couldn’t just leave her there, so they stood guard. Until she woke up a few minutes ago with a yawn saying how she slept well.

“Huuuh?! You trying to say something, brat?!” (Yuri)

“Yes! You need to keep track of your environment more!” (Russ)

“Wasn’t my fault!” (Yuri)

“Then whose?!” (Russ)

“...” (Yuri)

The salamander was telling the truth. She had no idea why she suddenly collapsed like that. She seemed to remember hearing some distant whispers while she slept, but had no clue as to what was going on.

“Yeah, thought so! Honestly, you need to be aware of your surroundings more!” (Russ)

“Aye, I’m with the kid. Maybe we should send our fearless leader back to basic training?” (Grom)

“... Grom. Don’t even joke about that. You know we’ll get dragged into it, too.” (Russ)

“Ugh, yeh. Good point.” (Grom)

“And now it looks like we’ll have to camp out here for the night. I really don’t like this forest, you know. Unpleasant things happen in these woods once the sun goes down!” (Russ)

“Oy! Don’t say things like that, lad! Next thing you know-” (Grom)

A piercing howl carried itself through the normally dead-silent forest. Numerous other growls, snarls and yells started rising up all around them. It’s as if every single dangerous thing in this forest had woken up all at once, and boy were they angry!

“... Me and my big mouth.” (Russ)

“Call it, boss!” (Grom)

“It might be an ambush! Prepare for battle! Russ - light us up!” (Yuri)

The mage reached into his backpack and pulled out a melon-sized crystal ball.

“--- [Magelight]” (Russ)

The ball shone with a brilliant white light. It floated out of his hands and flew over to stand just over his head. This was a special magic tool from Ecebis they acquired thanks to Grom’s old connections with the Legion. It’s mostly used by the dwarven miners to light the way in their tunnels, but it makes for an excellent light source for a group of cautious adventurers. Especially considering Russ could not use Light Magic to save his life.

The adventurer trio carefully treaded forward, keeping an eye on all angles. The various noises around them kept coming in from all directions. Just then, Yuri’s keen sense of smell detected something approaching.

“Goblins from our right! Twelve- No, fourteen of them!” (Yuri)

All three of them turned to face the incoming threat with practiced movements. Yuri and Grom were in front while Rust was going to cover them from the rear.

“Gugyaa!” (Goblin)

Goblins appeared from the direction Yuri stated. The small green-skinned, pointy-eared creatures infamous for being cannon fodder entered the range of Russ’s light one after the other. However, something was off. The gang of monsters was not headed towards the adventurers, but slightly to the left of them. They ran past them, one after the other, as if they didn’t even notice the trio, all while yelling and waving their crude spears and rusty swords around.

“What in the world… ?” (Grom)

“They’re… not attacking?” (Russ)

Indeed, a group of fourteen goblins passed as close as 4 meters away from their formation and kept going onward through the forest. As if they had more important things to do than fight people who trespassed on their territory.

“... Boss?” (Grom)

“Hold!” (Yuri)

All fourteen of the creatures passed by uneventfully. The adventuring party stuck to their training and made no attempt to stop them. Getting into fights they could’ve avoided was one of many bad habits that Ellie had systematically, metaphorically and literally beaten out of them during her course.

“Move forward, be on guard.” (Yuri)

This bizarre scene repeated itself multiple times over the next few minutes. Trolls, giant spiders, wild golems, goblins, orcs, lizardmen - a veritable carnival of creatures all passed by them. Always coming from their right and going towards their left. Whatever was going on, it would seem this particular adventuring team was clearly not their target.

“Guys! Look to our left, above the trees!” (Russ)

The dwarf and the salamander both looked towards where Russ was pointing. Flashes of white, blue and yellow light were visible in the night sky, clearly signs of magic being flung about with reckless abandon.

“... Isn’t that the direction of [Black Flame]’s home base?!” (Grom)

“Let me check!” (Russ)

The young mage pulled a map out of his pack and quickly studied it. Several points of interest were clearly marked on it, including the nearby highway, some streams and lakes with clean drinking water and, most notably, a big red circle with the letters ‘B.F.’ scribbled next to it.

“Yeah! Should be in that general direction!” (Russ)

It didn’t take a genius to figure out who those monsters were going after now. If this situation was truly what it appeared to be, then it was possible every monster in this entire forest was headed their way for some reason.

“What do we do, Boss? I don’t know if they can hold out…” (Grom)

Even Rank A adventurers had limits. Mana would run out, blades would dull and stamina would deteriorate.

“... I don’t know. What do you two think?” (Yuri)

“Isn’t it obvious?! We have to help them!” (Russ)

“I agree. Our team owes a substantial debt to that blue-haired girl.” (Grom)

The three of them eventually understood Ellie was being rough on them for their own good. Indeed, her harsh training had gotten them out of several tight spots so far. They might have some bittersweet memories of that infernal course, but they were truly glad they took it.

“Oh yeah! We’re going to get right into the thick of it, as soon as possible!” (Yuri)

“Uh oh…” (Grom)

The over two-meter-tall salamander scooped up both the teenager and the dwarf, carrying each of them under her arms like they were luggage. She then started running through the brush at her top speed, taking steps that were closer to leaps than strides.

This was far from the first time Yuri had done something like this. One of her companions was a teenager with a relatively weak body, and the other one was a dwarf with short, stubby legs. Both of them had no hope of keeping up with her full-powered sprinting. The solution the salamander had come up with was to put her powerful muscles to work and simply carry them with her.

“Should’ve known. I freaking hate it when she does this!” (Grom)

The former understandably soldier had some misgivings about being treated as luggage. It injured his pride as a dwarf, a Legionnaire, and a veteran, but he begrudgingly had to accept that it truly was for the best.

“Oh get off it, Grom! It’s not that bad.” (Russ)

The young mage, on the other hand, enjoyed this particular act more than he let on. Even if some part of him understood that having his face pressed against the side of Yuri’s bountiful, bouncing breasts was necessary, that didn’t mean he couldn’t be happy about it.

Yuri chased after the light show in the distance, weaving through the trees as if she were a stream of water going around rocks in its way. Well, apart from that one tree she had to kick down because Russ’s magical light had problems keeping up with her and she didn’t see it. Regardless, she made good progress through the dark forest. She felt she was getting closer with every step. The lights were getting brighter and the sounds of battle were growing louder. The monsters around her had also grown thicker, but she focused on charging forward rather than being delayed by them.

After a total of 2 minutes of running, the salamander finally arrived at her destination while carrying her comrades. She leapt out from between two trees and into a wide clearing, the site of Ellie and Kira’s home. This was this team’s first time being here, but they should have recognized it immediately from the rumors going around town. [Black Flame] was famous through the kingdom, so people loved to gossip about them. It was simply the natural order of things. Yuri, Grom and Russ had a more personal interested in such things, so they had a very good handle on the facts surrounding the #1 adventuring team in the country.

Yet knowing about something and seeing it for themselves were entirely different things.

“What in the…” (Grom)

“T-this is the place, right?” (Russ)

“I… think so?” (Yuri)

It was definitely a tall black tower, surrounded by an ominous-looking metal fence. That much was as expected. But a few things were clearly out of place.

First of all, it was lit up. Several bright spotlights shone from the top of the tower and illuminated the area around the outer walls perfectly, almost as if it were the middle of the day. Russ’s [Magelight] tool would definitely feel inadequate if it was capable of such things. However, what was far more shocking was the scenery that was lit up.

In a word, it was carnage.

Dozens, possibly hundreds of monster corpses were strewn about, their sticky blood oozing into the snowed-over ground and dyeing it crimson red. The terrain itself was gouged out by numerous explosions in places, and burned black by magical fire in others. But the battle was far from over. Screams of monsters being slaughtered could be heard all around the place, melting together into a truly terrifying chorus of death.

No, carnage wasn’t quite right.

Looking upwards, Yuri saw someone familiar gliding through the air, the Rank A adventurer known as Ariel. The lights coming off from the tower illuminated her golden plumage, causing it to shine with an almost otherworldly light when seen against the backdrop of the night sky. The avian woman pointed her metal wand towards the ground and invoked her magic.

“--------- [Grand Tornado]” (Ariel)

As one might expect, a tornado appeared out of nowhere. Dust, grass and monsters alike were sucked into the vortex and thrown up to 40 meters in the air. Even if they would survive the impact with the ground, they would doubtlessly be too injured to even participate in the fight anymore.

“---- [Wind Blade] ---- [Wind Blade]” (Ariel)

Invisible blades tore through the trolls and goblins that managed to escape the still ongoing natural disaster. However, they bounced uselessly of the wild stone golems, which wasn’t a good thing. These 3-meter tall moving piles of rocks had a vaguely humanoid shape and would be able to easily scale the wall if they got close.

*PA-CHEWWW*

If they got close.

*SPLAT*

Nano’s squad of five Gunner-type androids were perched on top of the tower. The green plasma bolts coming out of their PLR-76 Rifles provided cover fire, taking out problematic targets with pinpoint precision. They had an astounding hit ratio of 104.35% due to their shots sometimes piercing through their primary target and taking out a secondary hostile behind it. Even if the Nanomachine AI gave the excuse it was conserving ammo, it was hard not to feel like it was showing off.

That was all well and good, but what if an opponent was simply too large to take any meaningful damage from such weaponry? Like, say, a 20 meter tall lizardman king that happened to make its residence in this area.

*KUHWAAAAAAAHN!*

That particular threat, the one Kelly liked to refer to as ‘Lizzie,’ was drawn here much like all the other monsters. He looked, plainly put, like a gigantic alligator that had learned to walk on its hind legs. His backside was covered in large, dark green scales while his front was yellow in color. A row of sharp spines that ran along its spine, from the tip of its head to the end of its tail. The face was wide and flat, with an enormous protruding jaw that contained a set of terrifyingly large teeth.

And this monstrosity was now bearing down on the tower, yet not a single shot was fired at it. Surely one swing of its powerful tail would send that black tower crashing to the ground, so how come Nano was taking no steps to prevent it from doing that?

Because Kelly had simply stated ‘I’ve got this!’

Stompy’s four wheeled legs spun up and carried it forward across the battlefield, trampling any unfortunate monsters in its way into pulp. Lizzy tried to intercept this charge with a devastating claw slash, but the already smaller Smashy simply extended its legs and feet, adopting and even lower profile and ducking under it. It then threw a house-sized fist with all its momentum behind it at the giant lizardman’s abdomen. It hit, pushing Lizzy back several meters, although he showed no signs of having felt any significant pain. He then swung both his clawed hands at the Titansteel giant, but they were deflected by a shimmering barrier that appeared out of nowhere. Kelly followed up with a long-winded uppercut, which was returned by a tail swipe from the side. It slammed into Stompy’s midriff, but the supersized golem’s arms simply grabbed hold of the tail and used it to judo throw the gigantic lizard overhead, slamming it face-first into the ground. The after-effects of the impact not only created a crocodile-shaped crater, but also viciously shook the ground.

It didn’t look like Lizzy was quite done though, seeing as how he stood up and immediately resumed trading blows with the golem. There was no finesse or strategy to this fight. It was essentially two angry people having a brawl in the street, only on a much bigger scale.Yuri was convinced that each heavy impact would be making extremely satisfying noises, but such things were lost in the sea of noise this chaotic battle gave off.

And yet a single voice drowned them all out.

ALL SHALL KNEEL BEFORE ZUBLOS!

A red blur was recklessly charging around the place. Monsters lost their lives wherever it appeared, as if Death itself had manifested itself and was currently reaping a harvest of lives. Zublos, who was in town on Kira’s request, had been mobilized and brought in as reinforcements by Nano. It’s times like this that the magical tool known as a [Gateway] was extremely convenient.

But would they really need reinforcements? Looking at it objectively, the three newcomers could confidently state that ‘carnage’ was not the best way to describe this battle.

‘One-sided slaughter’ was much more apt.

“Boss… What do we do?” (Grom)

“I v-vote we get away from here. T-t-they’ve clearly got a h-h-handle on this.” (Russ)

“You’re just more scared of the adventurers than the monsters, aren’t you?” (Grom)

“Of course I am! Look at that! Those people are insane! We have no business being here!” (Russ)

“We still owe them, Russ! Even if they’re good at their jobs, the numbers will eventually overwhelm them! It’s our duty to help them out!” (Grom)

Both of them had good points. Yuri was momentarily struck with indecision as to what to do, but it would seem that particular decision would have to wait. The three of them had entered the fringe of the battlefield and were close enough that the monsters no longer simply ignored them. She was just about to sound the retreat, when she felt an extremely terrifying scent approach them.

“Grrooooar!” (Cyclops)

A cyclops, much like the one they faced during their training, roared and charged at them. This was bad. The salamander had already drained her mana earlier today, so she was unable to utilize the power of her runed bracers to blow it away. However, the terrifying scent she felt wasn’t that of the cyclops, but of the being approaching rapidly from behind it.

A shadow leapt over the monster, accompanied by the flash of a blade and the distinct sound of flesh and bone being severed. The cyclops’s massive head plainly slid off the monster’s shoulders and fell towards the ground. The shadow that caused this landed in front of Yuri, Grom and Russ before the decapitated cyclops was done falling over. A chill ran through the trio’s spines, because they instantly recognized who that was.

Covered head to toe in various monster guts, a bloodied sword in each hand and two glowing sidearms strapped to her thighs, it was the one person they would never dare oppose - their instructor, Ellie. The psychotic psionic’s glowing purple gaze locked onto her former students and she pointed at them with the sword in her left hand.

“You three maggots!” (Ellie)

“Yes, ma’am!” (Grom, Russ and Yuri)

It was a unanimous, reflexive response. The three of them were saluting before they could even stop themselves.

“We need to buy 15 more minutes before we can lift off, and you three worms will be helping us out! Go to the tower and take down any monsters that make it over the wall! Nano will cover you so focus on running until you get there!” (Ellie)

“Yes, ma’am!” (Grom, Russ and Yuri)

The cat-girl’s eyes narrowed until they were nothing more than slits..

“And the next time we catch you paralyzed by indecision, we are making all three of you take our basic training course all over again!” (Ellie)

It would seem the three of them never quite graduated from being her disciples, at least not in her mind.

“Now move!” (Ellie)

“Yes, ma’am!” (Grom, Russ and Yuri)

Ellie extended her other arm upwards and fired her her grappling hook. It effortlessly snagged onto Puff, who was circling overhead, and she zipped up to the gryphon, mounting it in a smooth motion. The two of them then flew back into the heart of battle, spewing blue flames and green plasma bolts onto the horde of monsters that seemed to flow in without end.

“... Looks like we got volunteered.” (Grom)

“You heard the mons- I mean, woman! We’re going!” (Yuri)

Still holding onto her two comrades in her armpits, the salamander rushed forward as instructed. Nano’s Gunner androids expertly provided cover from their sniper nest, taking down any trolls, goblins and golems that got in their way.

“Oy, you almost called our teacher a monster!” (Russ)

“She just said what we’re all thinking, lad!” (Grom)

“Yeah, though that’s just as bad! I swear, I always felt like she could read our minds like an open book!” (Russ)

“Hah! Now that’s just stupid! What’s next? We find out that Yuri and Ellie are estranged twin sisters or something?!” (Grom)

“Haha, yeah, that really was a silly idea, wasn’t it!?” (Russ)

The two of them shared a chuckle as Yuri leapt over the black metal wall.