The 16th floor wasn’t one worth mentioning as things were basically the same as the previous floors. The only difference is now we have three supporters. It seems they are useful enough to at least distract the enemies with their chantless magic. The one doing the killing were still me and Azanthys though.

Right now we are already on the stairs leading to the 17th floor. As it was a forbidden ground for the three they don’t know what lies in wait but I think that there should be a proper reason for such a rule to be implemented. After more than fifteen minutes of climbing in silence, they learned their lesson not to be noisy it seems, we finally reached the 17th floor and I immediately noticed something strange. I didn’t check it while I was climbing the stairs but right now there is no presence at all on this floor which means no demon beast.

“Master… careful… here… dangerous… enemies… many…”

Azanthys warned me while furrowing her eyebrows a little but I really can’t sense anything at all. Half in doubt I, followed closely by Azanthys started walking while scanning the surrounding that is filled with ruins of stone buildings in higher quantity than on the 15th floor. With paved but old and battered road this place is giving me the vibe of a ruined urban setting.

For several minutes we walked through the ruins but nothing happened. We took the long way of circling the floor to avoid getting too close to the hole as always but Azanthys suddenly told me to prepare my weapons as she created a great sword. Albert, Juno, and Novia also quickly prepared their weapons with strained and tense face.

“Master… enemies… soon…”

Not long after I held the serrated sword in my right and a wyvern fang dagger in my left I suddenly felt the many presence surrounding us, however, this feeling is… not demon beasts?

Jumping out from behind rocks, crumbling remnants of stone walls, and from the top of the buildings are humanoid figures. It seems they possess high enough concealment ability if they can go undetected, but wait… Azanthys was able to detect them. I dismissed the urge to think for now and intercepted one figure who leapt next to me and sent a punch aiming for my head. Wait, not a fist but claws?

“Uwaaah!

“Kyaaahh!”

“Hurmph!”

Ignoring Albert trio’s screams as they tried hard to defend from some attackers I dodged the scaly hand with long sharp nails like that of a beast. Taking the chance to counter I dove right in close to the assailant then I stabbed him in the stomach followed with a cut to widen the wound with my wyvern fang dagger. I used the serrated sword in my right and made a vertical upward slash to cut another assailant who was going to attack me from behind right in the stomach until the neck. I quickly chose to get away from there as the other figures used that timing to surround me so I tackled one and hit another at the back of the neck with my elbow before taking a distance enough to take a breather.

“Demon race?”

Horns, each one of them got a pair of horns on their head. Different with before, this time they are clearly hostile though. They are also barely clothed but most of them got scales or fur covering the important areas. Some but not all of them of them also got dark purple skin and even red or blue. I don’t really want to have a bizarre colorful naked fighting fest and most of them are male. I don’t have such… hobby.

When I parried some more melee attacks I saw a glimpse of Albert trio who could barely fend of their attackers so I told Azanthys to also assist them whenever possible.

“Master… above…”

Warned by Azanthys who is fending off some assailant herself while skillfully controlling another ice sword to assist Albert trio, I looked up to find some giant fireballs forming imposingly.

I’ve seen Liz use the same spell, this is bad.

Countless flares extended from the fireballs and is coming here like a rain. I judged that it is almost impossible to dodge hundreds of those flares so I,

“Azanthys!”

Maybe because she already intended to, in less than a second after I said it huge dome of Ice covered each of us separately. After some noisy explosions and vibrations Azanthys thawed the ice to reveal a messy blackened and gouged earth littered with charred crumbling corpses of some of the assailants that surrounded us. I just glanced to see that Albert and friends are also fine albeit they all fell with their bottom on the ground while trembling in shock. I didn’t order it but it seems Azanthys protected them from the flares as well.

“So, they didn’t even care of friendly fire?”

“Intelligence… have… emotion… none…”

Azanthys have been talking as if she knows who or what they are but I don’t have time for a chat. Judging by the damage from their magic each of them might be stronger than Orcus. Thankfully I got Azanthys here, without her I don’t have the mean to defend against large scale magic and if it was Liz’s earth wall, I would have been pulverized along with it.

I killed two and 10 more died from the magic launched by some others looking down on us from the ruined building rooftops. There are at least still more than 50 of them around.

“Okay then Azanthys, you take the left! I’m going… what?”

Right after they hid behind the buildings their presence also disappeared?

“Enemies… retreating… fast…”

“Azanthys, you can sense them?”

“... Master senses… life… Azanthys… mana… different… Master’s… more amazing… range… also wider… but not… usable… to them…”

Azanthys nodded to my question then she added an explanation before I could ask.

First time I ever thought of how I could sense others’ presence but then how did I could not sense them anymore? They’re living beings so they should be alive, right? Uhh, somehow I felt like I just thought of something along the line of that infamous ‘people die if they are killed’…

I have been able to sense close hostile enemies thanks to the training I had when I was a hero but I think I only got the ability as said by Azanthys during my lone tower conquering before. Did something special happen or my body just naturally gained the ability?

While I was thinking, Azanthys suddenly changed herself into her weapon form, floating in front of me.

(Master… Azanthys’… presence… there?)

… Nothing… I can see her but there is no presence. Weapons don’t have any vital sign so I guess that’s why. Don’t tell me, the enemies can also turn into weapons? They can turn into weapons that can move by themselves, what the hell?

I got two myself but… so what?

“What are they? How are they different from the ones we met on the 15th floor?”

(“Second gen… demon race… mother… created… enemies… imitated… made third gen… including… demon beast…

…cannot… say more…”)

So our assailant is the imitations of demon race but more powerful?

The enemies will probably try to ambush us again while we’re en route to the stairs but I’ll need to go there nevertheless. I’ll just hold my weapons ready at all times. Azanthys can warn me when they are close by so their ambush will not be so much of one.

It seems I’ve taken my ability to sense others for granted too much, this silence where you don’t know when the enemies will strike is rather nerve-racking. I wanted to ask for more details from Azanthys but I got the feeling she might be ‘unable to tell’ again anyway.

After Azanthys turned back to her human form I told her to ready a weapon as well and to warn me when they are close by. Thus we resumed our march. Of course Albert and friends are following us while carrying our luggage. Protecting them will just be a hassle so I told them to prioritize retreating. They barely spoke since we got on this floor and their face are pale as day. Where did that arrogant Albert just disappear to?

Albert told me before that when they hunt they usually choose a lone demon beast and then gang up on it with everyone on their party consisting of at least 30 people so yeah the earlier battle is totally different. The earlier enemies also moved too fast for Albert trio to react properly and the strength behind their attacks are strong enough to make Albert stagger when he blocks. I think they might be able to defeat one of those attacker as long as they stay calm and is fighting 3 on 1 but it is not like the enemies will only attack alone. I’d prefer Albert trio to survive the trip but I will prioritize myself and Azanthys. I mean they knew the risk but still came anyway. I told them this beforehand and they just responded by saying ‘as long as we can be of help to the savior’. Doesn’t sound very convincing if you look at how tense they are right now.

As we continued walking in silence we reached a place densely packed with buildings like a jumbled shopping district with many intersections. A perfect place for ambush

“Master.”

The surrounding is silent but Azanthys warned me. Just a few seconds after that I felt multiple presence but not as many as I thought, definitely not even close to half the number that ran before.

A full frontal assault? The enemies showed themselves and charged at us right from the front but I doubt that is all. Taking the stance of ‘those who strikes first wins’ I dashed at the attackers while brandishing my weapons. I have confirmed that they are at least at Orcus’ level so let’s go full throttle from the start or it won’t turn out well for me.

Stealing a head start I threw the serrated sword, impaling one of the attackers positioned in the middle, then I took out the other wyvern fang dagger so I am holding two daggers now. Too bad the enemies didn’t show any hint of being surprised and just continued their charge. So it is true that they don’t have any emotions. Their looks are even blanker than the usual Azanthys. The impaled guy also continued attacking me with a sword in his body, although he slowed down significantly.

The attackers that stayed behind launched long range magic attacks, but while the scale of each one is big the magic scattered around like buckshots. With the earth lances coming from below, enemies in the front and various magic attacks from both the front and raining from above my only option is to fall back, if I don’t have Azanthys that is. Rather than simply creating a shield, two huge great swords floated above me and cut the magic projectiles that was about to hit me while I continued my fight. The numerous magic hit some of the attackers, conveniently reducing their number if not for the fact that the ones that were hit actually tried to sacrifice themselves to make me stay in a position that gives the others a chance to attack me from my blind spot or by the magic projectiles.

Despite the support from Azanthys and magic barrage from Albert trio to cover my solo vanguard ‘this is getting annoying’ was how I honestly thought while shifting my focus on defense. After some parrying on those steel like claws I sheathed the dagger on my right and plucked off the serrated sword from the now dead enemy before making a big slash against two other enemies with it. Suddenly some enemies strangely formed pairs and held hands. In an instant one of each pairs turned into bizarrely shaped weapons, like a multi-pronged sword and black thorny slime oozing whip.

That surprised me and gave a chance for the enemies to make attacks that hit. I got some cuts on my arms and other parts unprotected by my armor. The whip was especially dangerous. I have never fought a whip user and couldn’t predict the path of the attack perfectly. I don’t know what that slimy substance is but just a graze melted my clothes and burnt my skin like acid.

I immediately jumped back and used a wide mana infused slash to unleash a wind blade to halt their attacks and give me a breather. Azanthys’ ice swords also managed to stab two enemies that was stopped by my wind blade.

(Master... jump!)

When I was organizing my next move Azanthys suddenly gave me a warning to which I responded by doing as she said and jumped up. Right after that many of those bizarre weapons came raining down to the spot I was standing from the rooftops around the area. I didn’t feel any presence from them so they must have been moving to attack me as weapons.

The weapons that stabbed the ground really then moved by themselves. Each one of them moved and some even floated midair. Just what kind of disfigured giraffe skeleton robot is that?! While some looked just like your standard sword or spear, there is a strange bladed weapon with appendages, yep, bladed joints as legs and one bigger sword head with multi-jointed neck raised as high as 3 meters. Followed by a snake look alike or a whip which whole body is made of a kitchen knife set, well more ominous than kitchen knife of course, just expressing my opinion.

The combined attacks from those weapons and more fluid attacks by the ones being wielded made me opt for my main style, dual dagger. After doing a spinning slash with the serrated sword I once again threw it to impale an enemy and drew my other dagger. Whoops, here it comes, the giraffe blade head aimed at me from above right when I just finished the spin and vulnerable but Azanthys’ greatsword blocked it for me.

The weapon-wielder pairs sometimes switches and as the other has different form of weapon, the sudden change of pattern in attacks is difficult to cope. Completely trapped in the chaos I could only look at some enemies that ran past me to attack Azanthys and Albert trio instead.

I can’t really bother to look at how Albert is doing but Azanthys won’t be able to fight properly if she keeps her support on me and Albert.

(Azanthys, prioritize yourself. I’ll be fine here.)

(... Yes…)

Her voice was tinged with hesitation but she complied anyway. Okay, now I should increase my focus and output if I want to get through this in one piece. By rough estimation, currently my mana capacity might be almost on par with Liz as I know of but I still can’t use magic beyond intermediate class. So I will have to make use of the dagger’s flame and wind slash without holding back.

Taking more magic attacks without Azanthys’ support is difficult so I broke through the swarm of enemies around me and charged at their magicians who were preparing another big magic attacks. Disrupting their concentration with both flame and wind slash I plunged into their ranks and easily killed three but the rest managed to fight back with claws and kicks. I forgot that all of them are as capable in both magic and physical attack. I almost failed to notice that this time the first group that attacked me opted for magic.

“Oh, shit!”

Faster than I could consider what to do Azanthys dropped several ice boulders on the first group, halting their magic usage and even killing some. I thought I told her to prioritize herself. I am thankful by the way.

This will be hard on my stamina but I made double blitzkrieg on both sides to not allow any big magic from being used. I stopped my attack on each side and move to the other before they could finish any magic processing and with just enough interval to not allow them to join as one group.

I can kill the humanoid enemies without much trouble since they are neglecting to defend themselves for a berserker style attacks so my dodge, parry, and counter tactic is working well. But how can I kill the weapons? Obviously, they aren’t brittle and most are as strong or stronger than the wyvern fang dagger. Pure blocking will chip the blades so I mostly parried by changing the trajectory of their attacks before moving in to counter.

Having experienced many gruesome battlefields during the war certainly helped to make me calm enough to observe the slightest sign of attack and its trajectory at the moment the enemies started their attacks. With their number though, I couldn’t avoid all of their attacks and my body is starting to be covered in wounds albeit mostly just small cuts. My armor now looked like I have worn them non-stop for years. Fighting multiple enemies who are capable of coordinated attacks is more difficult than dealing with demon beast.

Given the long fight I finally managed to kill all humanoid enemies on this side but the remaining problem is the biggest. How can I destroy those weapons?

(Azanthys, how are you doing over there?)

(Enemies… few… will finish… soon…)

Come to think of it, I’m dealing with most of the enemies here.

While dodging the attack from a sword’s flying thrust and a charge from giant centipede which body segments are like shields, short swords as the legs, and long sickles as mandibles I asked Azanthys on how to deal with these weapons.

(How can I kill the weaponized enemies?)

(Full destruction… or… aim… the… dragon’s heart…magic… stone…)

Okay, full destruction sounds impossible for me, so I have to look for this dragon’s heart.

I observed the weapons and easily noticed the magic stones embedded on the standard weapons type, like at the base of a sword’s blade or under the hilt. Those so called dragon’s heart are deeper in color than most magic stones I’ve seen and now that I looked closer on one, it is covered by some kind of thin pulsing smoky aura of the same color.

I then lured a sword to make a flying thrust and changed its trajectory so it will hit and stab the ground hard. While it struggled to pull itself out I attacked the magic stone with my daggers but I needed to attack it twice to just make some cracks forming on its surface. In my haste to dodge another incoming attack I attacked again with both daggers at once and infusing mana to create combined blast of wind and fire before moving away and the magic stone finally crumbled. The sword stayed in place while its color changed into its paler variation.

That did it. The sword stopped moving. Like that I gradually disabled all the swords, spears, knives, etc. but the bizarre weapons are still there. I don’t see obvious magic stone of any form on them.

(Master… please… hold on… a little more…)

(Huh? I think I’ll be fine here so don’t be hasty and keep your guard too.)

That's what I told Azanthys but I was surrounded by 3 giraffe skeletons, 2 centipedes, and 4 snakes, the other type is just like a sea urchin with longer barbed spikes. The giraffe skeletons uses a stabbing attack from above with its blade head while the snakes moves its body erratically as whip. The centipedes just outright tried to cut my legs with its mandibles and the urchin does a roll attack. Each are simple attacks but when done simultaneously with cooperation their attacks are super difficult to deal. Just one mistake in timing or distance calculations will be fatal and getting away with just one or two wounds deserves to be called a miracle. I dodged a giraffe skeleton type attack and hooked a dagger on the first joint behind its blade head and jumped up as it pulls back its head. Before I made a somersault and landed behind the giraffe skeleton, out of their encirclement I noticed that hidden behind the base of the giraffe’s blade head are two black gems like eyes or… the dragon’s heart?

They are located at a difficult to attack place but now that I know where it is I should be able to do something about it.

Exerting myself I unleashed multiple wind and flame slash on the giraffe skeleton’s back and head finally triggering the mild sign of mana exhaustion. I should still be able to go on if it’s just this much so I continued the barrage. While its inorganic body barely showed any significant sign of being damaged with that many attacks the giraffe skeleton staggered and stopped moving so I jumped onto its iron ball-like main body and ran up its tubular neck. Knowing that one attack won’t be enough I went wild and crushed the two dragon’s hearts with some mana infused stabs, creating blasts of raging wind and flame that covered its whole blade head.

I quickly jumped away from the crumbling giraffe skeleton. Okay, that much use of mana just to destroy one looked to be bad for me obviously. I also haven’t looked at the other types’ dragon’s heart location.

With my strength, if I have a strong enough large hammer I might be able to crush the centipede’s shield like body and not need to look for its dragon’s heart. Too bad I don’t.

I aimed for the other giraffe skeleton since I know its weakness. At least there will be one less enemy to worry about like that.

“Ouch, you guys won’t make it easier for me eh?”

Before I could start attacking the remaining enemies gathered around the other two giraffe skeletons.

“Argh, damn it!”

I made a mad dash and plunged right to the middle of the enemies. I dodged a knife snake by sliding down followed by a jump to avoid the centipede.

Landing in front of a giraffe skeleton I immediately shifted my center of gravity and spun while leaning diagonally to the left to avoid its head stab. I then bite into the handle of one dagger and use my free hand to grab the neck right behind the blade head and thus I was pulled above when it retracted its head. I spun midair and ride on its neck, grabbing the other dagger again I did the dual elemental stabbing frenzy, destroying the dragon’s hearts.

(Master… fall…back…)

As I heard Azanthys’ voice in my mind I immediately jumped off the crumbling giraffe skeleton and ran. The enemies might be surprised since they didn’t chase me right away but after I have made some distance they started moving to chase. But too bad for them, it's too late. From this far I finally noticed that thing. Azanthys might have finished over there for quite some while since looking at the size she would have needed several minutes of preparation. I see, so that is why she told me to hold on.

The enemies are inorganic so they might not be able to notice the temperature drop while I cannot feel cold from her magic. The dungeon is dimly illuminated by some light emitting type magic scattered around the ceiling and wall so it didn’t cast much shadow until it got close. I also didn’t notice it since I was focusing on the battle.

It was an ice boulder more than 20 meters in diameter blanketed in hazy white mist. Azanthys held it in place until I was far enough to not get involved in the imminent impact then she dropped, scratch that, she shot it right onto the enemies gathered in one place.

Amidst the rumbling sound, shaking earth, and flying debris from the destroyed buildings and ground within the mix of dust cloud and cold mist all I thought was that I have once again confirmed that while I am better at man-to-man fight, Azanthys sure has more destructive power than me even when she’s not in her wing mode. It is amazing that she didn’t punch a hole on the floor. The floors in this tower must be thicker and stronger than I thought.

(Master… not yet…!)

“What?”

A black figure came out of the dust cloud and came ramming onto me. It moved so fast that I barely dodged in time. I guess that speed also enabled it to avoid the ice boulder. The urchin type sped up even after it got past me and aimed at Azanthys instead who used two ice sword to stab it from the front. With a loud clanging sound the ice swords were deflected and Azanthys opted to jump up to avoid the urchin.

(Azanthys, do you know where is this thing’s dragon’s heart?)

(Center… main… body…)

Figures, should have guessed that one.

Without stopping, the urchin made a u-turn and returned to attack Azanthys. She was still mid air but gravity has started to pull her down and by the time she landed the urchin will have the perfect timing to ram her. Did that thing calculated it? I increased my pace, intending to jump and grab her midair. Before I could, two small tornadoes appeared in front of the urchin, followed by floating fireballs and earth spikes. Albert trio, eh? The tornadoes, exploding fireballs, and the earth spikes slightly hindered the Urchin and gave me time to change my plan.

My daggers won’t be able to do much against the thing that might be as fast as the blue hedgehog, only bigger and more dangerous. Azanthys’ ice swords also got deflected easily. But I have one more, far stronger weapon so I sheathed my daggers. There won’t be a problem now that there is only one enemy so a supporting role is unnecessary.

“Azanthys!”

“Yes… master.”

I grabbed her outstretched hand as she landed in front of me. She turned into a dense cluster of light particles and transformed into her weapon form.

As it is coming from the front horizontal slash will do no good, attacking from above is also a no-no but what if I do a diagonal upward slash? Done from a perfect angle with Azanthys’ blade my attacks can make it bald.

I side stepped just barely out of the range of its spikes and with a quick slash, faster than the rate of its spin I cut most of its spikes. It is impossible to cut all its spikes with just one attack but thanks to the remaining uncut spikes its move became erratic and the main body is revealed with less than 30 cm remains of the cut spikes. It struggled to turn to my direction while I prepared a magic.

I created a ramp and in front of the urchin and soon the thing was midair. I immediately ran below it and cut the main body using Azanthys. Different with the daggers, I could only feel some resistance as her blade cut through the dragon’s heart, cleaving it into two.

Silence finally returned and Azanthys transformed back into her human form.

“Enemies… no… more…“

Azanthys gave me a victory sign with expressionless face while Albert trio were sitting on the ground as they were whispering some lines about being alive. Well, it is good that they survived. They were also unexpectedly useful at the perfect timing so with that in mind I approached them.

“Thanks for earlier.”

Huh? There is no need to mention Novia who’s been so for some time but Albert’s eyes also got teary. I don’t know about Juno who was looking down as he sat powerless on the ground though.

“W... were we of use… to you…?”

The teary eyed Novia said so hesitantly.

“Well, yeah… I guess. Your magics slowed its movement for a bit and gave me time to use Azanthys. It seems you guys also defeated some of the enemies as well.”

And… now they looked happy. Oh well.

The earlier fight was the hardest since the colossal dragon and both me and Azanthys used up huge amount of mana so let’s have a long rest in one of the ruined buildings. After I confirm that there is really no more enemies around.

***

Was it really a good decision to follow the savior? I have experienced his strength firsthand before but looking at how the savior and Lord Azanthys killing the giant battle beast with ease I started to feel like a dead weight. I’m sure Novia and Juno felt the same way. However turning back now will be a disgrace not just to me but also to everyone else in the village. It was crushed once by the savior but I still have some pride.

Then things turned to the worse after we entered the forbidden ground. The enemies only looked a bit different from us but far stronger. Their speed and strength might not be on par with the savior but it is still beyond me. If Novia and Juno weren’t there I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to fight back at all. We could barely defend ourselves but then Lord Azanthys helped us by sending one of her huge ice sword over here.

I almost pissed myself when I saw that fire magic attack Novia sometimes use, only bigger and too many to count, floating above us. Novia grabbed me by the neck while screaming and Juno protected his face with his arms. I myself could only close my eyes as the flares were raining down but then, nothing happened.

I opened my eyes again to a cold darkness which begin to unfold not long after, revealing its true form. Novia, Juno, and I were protected by Lord azanthys’ ice twice as thick as Juno’s arms.

Ah, we’re really just burden aren’t we?

I expected some scornful laugh or even scolding from the savior when he looked at us after things were over but he just told us to prioritize retreating before he looked at me in wonder. He asked me some questions and after telling us that we might be able to win if we were to fight calmly 3 against 1 finally he told us that he will prioritize himself and Lord Azanthys. I thought that he was kind enough to tell us that beforehand so after Novia, Juno, and I looked at each other we answered with ‘as long as we can be of help to the savior.’

After some time another battle ensued but the savior charged at the enemy by himself. This time it seems the savior is going all out since he moved so fast that the only thing I could properly grasp is his first attack by throwing his sword at one of the enemies.

The savior did tell us to prioritize retreating but I felt that I might regret not doing anything so I used the few long range magic attacks that I know. Novia and Juno soon copied me but it doesn’t seem we’re making much difference to the tide of battle by just attacking the far and quick moving enemies so I chose to protect the savior from the enemies’ magic instead.

Not long after that, the tide of battle shifted by a surprise attack from enemies… weapons? Grandpa told me in his stories about enemies that just like the lords, can transform into weapons. I never thought that I would see some myself. Wait, some of the enemies are coming here?

“Albert!”

Novia shouted and while she look scared she uses her magic to attack the incoming enemies. Juno also raised his battleaxe. Believing what the savior said to us before I told Novia and Juno to focus our attack on one enemy. Juno and I flanked one which was possible due to Novia’s magic barrage and lord Azanthys who is taking care of the other enemies.

“Haaa!”

I made a slash but the enemy used a claw to catch my sword while raising the other claw to attack me.

“No, you don’t!”

Juno swung his battleaxe at that raised arm and severed it. I took that chance to pull my sword from the enemy’s weakening grip and stabbed the side of his stomach.

“Novia!”

“Yaaaaaa!”

She dashed and stabbed the enemy in his chest with her spear.

I was speechless as I looked at the enemy who collapsed to the ground, lifeless.

“W, we did it!”

“Un.” “Yeah.”

Juno and Novia slowly nodded to my words.

“Alri-”

“More… incoming...”

Before I could express the feeling of accomplishment, lord Azanthys warned us of one more enemy that was coming this way.

Our morale was raised so with more determined look than before Novia and Juno also raised their weapon.

After some more brush with death against those strong enemies I felt like I’ve used all my strength and fell bottom first onto the ground. Fortunately, lord Azanthys had defeated all the enemies that attacked here by the time I lost my strength. Novia was already on her back to the ground while Juno knelt clutching onto his battleaxe.

The savior… is still fighting!?

There are more corpses of the enemies littered around him than it is over here. But there are still many of those living weapons surrounding him. Dammit… can’t I be more of a help to him? I was once again struck with the sense of helplessness as I realized that I will only hold him back even if I was able to go over there.

At least lord Azanthys can go to his side now… huh? She’s not going? Is she protecting us in case some enemies attack here again?

“What the?”

I realized the reason lord Azanthys stopped moving when I saw a giant chunk of ice floating high above the savior. Will the savior realize the ice in time though? With the distance between us and the savior he might not be able to hear us shouting especially since he is also under a hard fight.

Surprisingly, even when I never saw the savior looking up he jumped away from the swarm of enemies and ran over here. Then the ice suddenly accelerated to fall right on the enemies.

I thought things were finally over but a single enemy that looked like a ball covered in spikes came out of the floating cloud of dust and sped up to the savior who dodged at the nick of time. If it was me, I would be dead by now… wait, wait, that thing is coming over here!

I was relieved when I realized that the thing was aiming for lord Azanthys but the awful feeling returned once again. I was about to ask Novia and Juno to do something about that enemy but they were already looking at me when I turned my head to look at them.

It is fine even if our attacks aren’t effective. I just want to do something to rid of this awful feeling. Thinking so I mustered all my remaining strength and used my wind magic. I intended to create as many tornadoes as I can but only two came out. Novia who usually could conjure more than fifty impact mines could also only produce slightly more than ten of them. Juno’s earth spike area of effect was also smaller than normal.

So in the end… we’re useless.

The savior then ended the fight by himself after having lord Azanthys turn into a beautifully ornamented weapon of a type I have never seen before.

“Damn it… is this the extent of our capability? I feel stupid for boasting about being the strongest hunter before when I am this useless to the savior. How shameful.”

Novia looked at me with teary eyes, perhaps she has been thinking the same way as me. But then Juno patted me on my shoulder.

“Then we just have to become stronger. As long as we are alive we can still grow stronger.”

I wanted to believe what Juno just said but my mind was filled with how much difference there is between us and the savior.

“You’re right… at least we survived the fight.”

I didn’t notice the savior standing behind me until he thanked us.

Huh? Thanked us? Why? The savior did most of the fighting while we struggled on just a measly number of enemies.

“W... were we of use… to you…?”

Novia then said the question that has been bugging me all this time. I was afraid that the savior will laugh at us, no… perhaps that is better than him being indifferent and just ignored the question.

But then, what the savior told us erased that awful feeling in an instant.