On the morning of the day the attack was predicted to happen,

“Are you alright, Guts?” Lily suddenly asked.

“I feel a little unwell, but nothing I can’t deal with,” he shrugged.

“We are counting on you, okay?” Lily said.

“Yes, Leave it to me!” Guts thumped his chest.

There was still a little awkward smile on his face, though.

…Well, they just had to believe in him.

Deciding that, Lily nodded once and turned to Rey, “How is the preparation going?”

“Normal,” Rey said.

“Could you please elaborate?” Lily asked, sweatdrop at the too concise response.

Rey was as taciturn as ever.

“…That Ruse thief was doing his job well. We were able to create quite a number of traps thanks to him. Though, it took a while to persuade him to simplify the traps in favor of quantity,” Rey elaborated.

“Oh, that seems good! Anything else?” Lily inquired.

“We have prepared bare minimum necessities for the upcoming fight. Though, we would be in a bit of trouble if things didn’t go as planned. If the battle is prolonged, our potions won’t last. It would be better to prepare more, but as you know…” Rey’s words trailed off at the end.

“…We lack the funds for it, huh?” Lily said grimly.

“Well, we could only hope things will go well,” Raphael took part in the conversation.

“I-It would be quite burdensome on you, though,” Elvis commented.

“Well, it couldn’t be helped considering our financial situation. All we could do now is scratching each other’s back in our time of needs,” Raphael shrugged. After that, he turned a sharp eye towards Guts.

“I will try my best to protect everyone during the battle, so you have to pull your shit together as much as possible, too, Guts.”

“Yes, I know,” Guts lightly punched Raphel’s chest armor and gave him a grin.

“We only have a damn lunatic like you as our heavy physical attacker, after all,’ Raphael smirked back.

The other three couldn’t help but smile at the display of the two’s friendship.

Although everyone in the party had their own roles, the two’s roles were the closest.

They might seem like completely opposite roles at first glance, but that was not the case. Without a good defense, the attacker couldn’t entirely focus on the offensive. And if the offense was too flimsy, the burden on the defender would be increased.

That was why the two had created a unique bond with each other.

Of course, everyone in the party knew this, so they gave them some space at this moment.

…

…

…

Deep in the forest,

FINALLY! FINALLY! FINALLY!!!

The lord thought with delight as he looked at his magnificent troops.

It had been hard for him.

Even though he succeeded in destroying some settlements, stealing some quality foods, and mating with the females, he lost an eye in the process.

Not to mention, his war did not go on for long as the hateful humans – same as the one who took away half of his eyesight – defeated his troops and repelled him back to the forest.

Since then, he had been accumulating his forces once again, even greater forces.

The time had come once again for him to rob the quality foods and mating with good females.

Since his troops were much greater than the last time, he decided to start by invading a big settlement which certainly had a lot in terms of quality foods and good females.

Unconsciously, his saliva dripped down from his mouth as he thought about his would-be rewards.

This was the time for him to display his dominance over those lowly humans once again.

Let’s depart!

He gave his troops that order.

They didn’t fail to comply and began the march.

Towards good foods, and most importantly, good females!

…

…

…

“There are sightings of the enemies from the scouts! Prepare to engage!” Gin, the leader of the guard, commanded his troops and the cooperated adventurers.

Everyone tensed up their bodies, preparing for the fight ahead.

Five minutes later, the battle began.