The smithy adjacent to the Adventurer’s Guild building was as busy as ever. Adventurers of all ranks came in and out for various purposes involving their equipment, including but not limited to maintenance, repair, or brand new purchase.

There were multiple forges inside the smithy, each with its own blacksmith and assistants operating it. All of them were full-fledged experts in the field of work with thousands of hours of working experience under their belt.

There was one particular forge in the smithy which always drew the interest of adventurers more than others. It was physically no different than other forges there, but the one operating it was none other than Keith Biggwarde, one of the legendary Five Heroes who had brought the age of peace to the land twenty years in the past. Many adventurers, especially newbies, came to the smithy only to get a glimpse of the heroic figure in the flesh.

“Hey!” One of the other blacksmiths called out with an annoyed face. “Get out if you’re here just to look at the guildmaster!”

A trio of rock rank adventurers were startled having been shouted at by the gray-haired blacksmith, and they quickly left the smithy without saying a word.

“Brats these days..!” The blacksmith who had shouted said with a dispirited sigh.

Clank! Clank! Clank!

While hammering a piece of metal, Keith laughed and spoke. “Don’t be so hard on them, Donovan! You might’ve shooed away a future Diamond!”

“Ha! As if!” Donovan snorted. “And good riddance anyway. Too many customers, quality suffers.”

Keith only let out another laugh as the response while putting the metal piece into a water-filled container.

Pssshhh...

“And there’s that.” Keith said while taking the metal piece out of the water. It now had the perfect shape of a halberd’s head.

Donovan, with his arms folded, spoke to Keith. “To this day I still envy your skills. I can do what you just did, but it would take me twice as long.”

“Don’t sell yourself short!” Keith said with a grin. “Twice as long, but better in the fine details!”

“Hmph.” Donovan averted his eyes with a subtle smirk while his fingers playfully twirled his mustache. “Can’t be helped. That’s the way I work after all.”

“Anyway! Time to go back to office!” Keith said while wiping sweat off his face and body. “Take care of the rest.”

“Yeah sure, Guildmaster.” Donovan said as Keith left the smithy through the door which connected it to the guild building.

Keith went through the main hall of the guild, occasionally waving back to those who waved at him, and climbed the stairs to the floor where his office was. Once he was in the office, he went to the wardrobe and changed from his blacksmith work clothing into his guildmaster suit.

“And another day as a guildmaster begins.” Keith said, stretching his arms forward before sitting behind his desk, on which a good amount of sunlight was shining through the window behind.

After sifting through the reports of newly coming quests and also concluded ones for half an hour, Keith couldn’t help frowning in suspicion. He noticed something that could be merely a coincidence, but still concerning nonetheless.

“Multiple calamity beast activities north of the city...” Keith mumbled while looking out the window. “I need to have this investigated further.”

Knock! Knock!

Somebody knocked on the door while Keith was pondering about his concern, and thus he straightened up his posture and spoke out. “Come in!”

The door soon clicked open, revealing a team of four adventurers behind it. Keith knew all of them very well thanks to a recent event involving them and the doctor of the spacefarers. Nevertheless, he greeted with an enthusiastic smile.

“Ah, the Enforcers! Welcome! Great job coming home alive and well from the extermination quest!”

“Sorry for the intrusion.” Juliana, the leader of the team, said a little nervously as she went in followed by the other three behind.

“Take your seats.” Keith said in a more reserved tone. “Is there something you need?” He continued after all four of them were seated.

Juliana replied, visibly having a difficult time to look at Keith in the eyes. “I-I just feel that I need to let you know.” She briefly took a deep breath. “Many adventurers know everything now.”

“Hmm, yeah. I know. Sedhoust told me earlier about what happened.” Keith said before a brief pause. "Any idea in your mind about how to go on from here? If you need my help don’t hesitate to say it.”

Juliana lowered her head. She was smiling, but her eyes looked sad. It was at this time Keith noticed the dark bags under those eyes. “I think... I need to get help first. I talked big in front of Lord Grasmord that I wouldn’t waver, but... I can’t take it anymore. I just can’t.” She said as her eyes began leaking tears.

“Ana!” Yuril, who was sitting next to Juliana, called while trying to comfort the latter.

“Let her sit over there and stay with her.” Keith said while gesturing towards a sofa on another side of the office. “You two can speak on behalf of her, I believe.” He continued, looking at Reiter and Mathias.

“A-Ah, yes! Sure!” Mathias said as Yuril gently guided Juliana away from Keith’s desk. “Like Juliana said, for now we intend to get help on her lingering nightmares. None of us are any good when it comes to this.”

“How bad is the nightmare?” Keith asked.

“Very bad.” Reiter said with a sigh. “She has been reliving the moment of her mistake every night, and thanks to that her sleep rarely lasted longer than two hours.” He continued while glancing at Yuril and Juliana. “In fact, she didn’t sleep at all last night.”

“That’s indeed concerning.” Keith said while leaning back with his arms folded. “I can counsel those who lose motivation and need encouragement, but this is definitely a mental trauma. You can’t simply motivate out of it.”

“What? We thought you could do something about it!” Mathias said while twitching forward with his eyes wide.

“No, what she needs isn’t my counseling.” Keith shook his head. “I believe she needs a mind doctor.”

“Mind... doctor?” Mathias tilted his head. “What’s that?”

“Never heard of it.” Reiter said.

“It’s a pretty new profession so it’s natural that few people know about it yet.” Keith said. “Sadly demand for it is also low so this city still doesn’t have one.”

“How come?” Mathias asked.

“It’ll take too long to explain. Let’s just say that people are vain.” Keith said before reaching for a piece of paper nearby. “Anyway, I have a proposal for your team.”

“What proposal?” Reiter asked. “Is it going to help her?”

“Not directly, but hear me out.” Keith said as he began writing on the paper. “The best mind doctor I can recommend to you is all the way in Arstjipta, so you’ll be in for a long trip if you decide to go there. But it’s convenient that I happen to have a quest located northward.”

“Oh, I see.” Mathias said. “At least hearing the details won’t hurt. Right, Juliana? Yuril?” He said while glancing behind. Juliana seemed to have notably recovered, visibly nodding with a slight smile.

“Alright then.” Keith said while still writing. “I have concerns about the increase of calamity beast activities north of the city, so I want someone to investigate further.” He paused while his hand reached to a different piece of paper. “What I want you to do specifically is to go to Krochi Village and clear their job request while also scouting out possible abnormalities in the area.”

Keith handed the paper he had recently taken to Mathias, who immediately asked. “And this is...?”

“The request from the village.” Keith replied. “Parts of their fields have been recently ravaged by quad apes multiple times so they want someone to exterminate the beasts. The pay is frankly low for you since this is an iron rank quest in the first place. However, I’m going to reward you with eight large silvers for my quest. Paid upfront!”

Mathias and Reiter took a closer look at the piece of paper given by Keith briefly, while Juliana stood up and approached the two from behind. “What sort of things you’d want us to look out for.” She asked.

“We’re dealing with calamity beasts, so it could be anything.” Keith replied. “Anyway, you can leave your scouting report to the village chief and continue your journey to Arstjipta once you’re done. I’ll send a messenger to retrieve it after a couple days. What do you say?”

Mathias and Reiter didn’t say a word in response to Keith’s question. Instead, they looked up and behind, straight to Juliana who sighed.

“You can’t just leave the everything to me, you know.” Juliana said. “This is a big decision. Arstjipta is so far away, I don’t know if it’s worth the weeks spent traveling there and back.”

“Look at yourself, Juliana.” Reiter said, standing up. “You need help, and there’s someone who can help you. Let’s take the chance.”

“But what if it doesn’t work?” Juliana shook her head with her eyes averted from Reiter. “We’ll be wasting time and money for nothing. Maybe I should just endure this. Maybe the nightmares will pass, or I will get used to it.”

“No! Look at me, Juliana!” Reiter said, holding Juliana’s hands with both of his. “You have been suffering, and I can’t stand it. More than anything else, I want you to be happy like you used to be.” He continued, which startled Juliana and made her cheeks visibly redder.

“R-Reiter..!” Juliana stuttered. “I...”

Reiter gritted his teeth and clicked his tongue before taking a deep breath and spoke out with his own face getting red like Juliana’s. “I love you, Juliana! I’ll do anything to help you recover, no matter the cost!”

Juliana was unresponsive to Reiter’s sudden love confession. Her mouth was agape and her eyes were fixated on Reiter’s. Meanwhile, Mathias smirked with a sigh and Yuril covered her face with her own hands, but her eyes were peeking through the gaps between the fingers.

The awkward silence lasted for five seconds until Keith spoke with a grin on his face. “Nicely said, lad! But we should get back to business.”

“A-Ah, sorry.” Reiter said, letting go of Juliana’s hands and sitting back down. His face was still visibly red and the same applied to Juliana, who was nervously looking away from Reiter.

“What do you say? If you decline, I’ll post this quest on the public board.” Keith said, showing the piece of paper he had been writing on.

Juliana looked at the quest paper briefly, took a deep breath, and made a determined nod before speaking. “Yes, the Enforcer team will take both quests.”

“Good to hear!” Keith said, marking the quest paper from Krochi Village and the one he had just written with a stamp. He then handed both of them to Juliana. “Give these to any of the receptionists downstairs. Feel free to wait until tomorrow if you need to prepare.”

“No.” Juliana shook her head. “If we start preparing right now we still can depart today and arrive at Krochi Village by sundown.”

Keith leaned back and folded his arms. “If you’re sure then I won’t stop you. Although, you didn’t sleep last night, did you? Are you going to be alright? Not to mention that you just got back from the extermination quest yesterday.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll manage.” Juliana said.

“Oh right, almost forgot.” Keith said with his index finger pointing at the quest papers in Juliana’s hand. “The name of the mind doctor in Arstjipta is Gill Bouchard. He’s pretty well known in the circle of adventurers over there so I’m sure you won’t have any difficulty looking for him.”

“Gill Bouchard. Got it.” Reiter said while writing on his own notebook.

“Oh, right. This means we won’t be seeing each other for quite a while, so...” Juliana said before bowing to Keith. “Thank you for everything, Guildmaster!”

“Thank you, Guildmaster!” Reiter and Mathias said together before Yuril joined and bowed with them.

“Good luck out there, lads!” Keith said.

***

“Gill Bouchard, eh?” Sedhoust said before taking a sip from his mug. “Yeah, he should be able to help her.” He continued as he resumed eating in the guild eatery, where Keith as usual worked in the evening as the chef. The bar-style seating right in front of the kitchen section was mostly vacant, so Sedhoust could freely chat with Keith while enjoying his meal.

“I sure hope he will.” Keith said as his hands worked with the wok and spatula in front of him. The fragrance of whatever dish he was cooking would definitely stimulate the appetite of anyone smelling it. “I’d hate to hear them having wasted time and energy going there for ultimately nothing.”

“But either way, they will have to move base there for a while.” Sedhoust said. “Healing a traumatized mind takes time.”

Keith nodded. “Yup, no doubt. But sadly not many people agree.” He said before pouring his cooking on several plates evenly and then shouting. “Order eight ready!”

“By the way, you have noticed it too, haven’t you?” Sedhoust asked while Keith handed the freshly made dish to a servant. “The activity of calamity beasts seems to be on the rise lately.”

“Of course.” Keith said while cleaning the wok and spatula for the next batch. “The recent infested area to the south, and then the common beasts being pests at villages to the north.”

“Should I start panicking?” Sedhoust asked with a small smirk, but Keith easily noticed the seriousness hidden within.

Thus, Keith shook his head in response. “No, I don’t think so. At least not yet.”

“If you say so.” Sedhoust said. “But I’ll try seeing for myself tomorrow.”

“Must be convenient being able to fly at high speed, eh?” Keith said with a wide grin as he began cooking the next batch of dishes.

“Yeah, definitely.” Sedhoust said. “Worth all the effort learning it.” He continued before he resumed eating.

“Should’ve asked you instead of sending adventurers out there.” Keith said jokingly.

Sedhoust, without looking at Keith, replied. “I’ll be doing it on a whim. Never count on it.”

The following day at high noon, after finishing his morning classes at the academy and changing clothes into a rugged-looking one which made him look more like an adventurer, Sedhoust flew north. As he had told Keith the night before, he wanted to try seeing the situation for himself because he couldn’t help being concerned about the recent rise of calamity beast activities. He had seen the nightmare-inducing scenes back in the old days, and he would never let anyone else get even the slightest glimpse of it. Not on his watch.

“Krochi Village should be that one, right?” Sedhoust said to himself upon spotting a village below him. It was a village built next to a small river which flowed around the west and north side into a forest to the northeast. There were visible dirt roads between the cluster of houses, branching away to other towns and villages to the north, south, and east.

Sedhoust flew a little further north, looked around to see if there were nobody who would spot him landing, and upon confirming the apparent fact he lowered his altitude and landed on both feet. After checking on his own clothes all over, Sedhoust took a quick deep breath and began walking south towards the village.

Now that he was walking instead of flying, Sedhoust could notice that some parts of the farm fields had been ravaged. The crops there had been either trampled on or bitten off, and seeing all the waste made Sedhoust feel displeased. There were a few villagers on the field cleaning up the mess and trying to salvage anything that still could be saved. From their facial expressions, Sedhoust could feel the sadness and anger lingering over the villagers.

“Excuse me!” Sedhoust called from a stone’s throw distance loudly. The villagers looked at him as he spoke again. “I’m a wandering adventurer! What village is this?”

“Krochi Village, sir!” One villager replied with an equally loud shout while another approached Sedhoust in a slightly hurried pace. The one approaching was covered in dirt and sweat, and his face looked mildly tense.

“I apologize that you have to see us like this, sir adventurer.” The villager said while audibly panting. “Ape beasts ravaged our fields and they just kept coming every night no matter how many we killed. We’re trying to pick up any leftovers we can save.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Sedhoust said, trying to speak less formally. “Do you need help?”

“Oh, please don’t let this bother you, sir.” The villager said with his back hunched. “We have already hired a team of adventurers, and they’ve already gone into the woods this morning to take care of it.”

“There?” Sedhoust asked while turning his head to the woods at the other side of the road.

“Yes.” The villager nodded.

“I see. Hope that they will bring good results.” Sedhoust said. “Oh, sorry for the intrusion. I’ll be on my way.”

“Oh, yes sir. Welcome to Krochi Village.” The villager said. “Check out our specialties if you have time for it.”

“Will do.” Sedhoust said, and he resumed walking to the village while the villager went back to the middle of the field.

A minute later, Sedhoust was already walking on a wooden bridge, crossing the river which separated the farm fields from the cluster of houses. The knee-deep river water was clear and fairly calm, allowing villagers to cross it without needing a bridge if they were okay with getting their feet wet.

Sedhoust looked to his left, taking a look at the woods the river below him flowed into. He sensed nothing ominous at first glance, only a picturesque scenery of nature city folks would love to see from time to time. However, with the recent signs of calamity beast activity in the area, Sedhoust didn’t feel any bliss from the view.

With the skepticism in mind, Sedhoust activated his lesser flight spell and flew into the woods ahead. He kept himself flying above the river, following the route of its flow while keeping himself vigilant to his surroundings, both with Detection Weave spell and his own senses.

After flying for a little more than ten minutes, Sedhoust didn’t find anything worthy of attention in the woods, thus he decided to land and walk deeper into the cluster of trees instead of following the river. Having decided, he landed on the dry ground at the north side of the river.

Sedhoust’s trek through the woods lasted for another ten minutes before he stopped to lean back to a tree and think about the current situation. Contrary to the reports, there seemed to be no calamity beast activities in the area, or at the very least, Sedhoust didn’t find any. However, the fact remained that the farm fields of Krochi Village had been ravaged by the beasts.

Common beasts like quad apes generally don’t hide themselves from humans. If I can’t find any traces of their presence, that can only mean...

Thwack!

Out of a sudden, there was a sound akin to an arrow impact at the other side of the tree Sedhoust was leaning on. He immediately crouched in reaction and expanded the range of his detection spell farther back.

Four people. Bandit scouts...? Or perhaps...

“Who’s there? Come out from behind that tree calmly if you’re not an enemy!” A voice of a man was heard. Sedhoust remembered the voice, thus he stood up and walked from the tree to reveal himself to the other party.

As expected, the other party was none other than the Enforcer team. Reiter, the archer of the team, immediately lowered his bow upon seeing Sedhoust.

“Who are you?” Mathias, the melee fighter, asked from afar his broadsword brandished.

“Same as you, an adventurer.” Sedhoust replied while walking towards the team. At this point, Juliana who was standing at the back looked visibly surprised, and so did Yuril next to her.

“Wait! Don’t come close- Ow!” Mathias spoke before Yuril gave him a pretty hard smack on his back. “What’s wrong?”

“Matty! Don’t you realize that’s Lord Grasmord!?” Yuril asked in a raised voice.

“Wha-?” Mathias looked at Yuril and Sedhoust back and forth. At this moment, Sedhoust used his lesser flight spell to approach the group quicker.

“Yes, indeed.” Sedhoust said as he arrived. “But I am here not to flaunt my nobility so think of me as a fellow adventurer, nothing more.”

Reiter bowed to Sedhoust apologetically. “I apologize for shooting my arrow at you, Lord Grasmord.”

“What’s there to be sorry for?” Sedhoust asked with his arms folded. “You shot the tree to get a reaction and confirm if the presence you detected came from something hostile, and it simply was not.”

“Ah, right. You’re correct, Lord Grasmord.” Reiter said, seemingly relieved.

“Nevertheless, your team is here for a quest from Keith, no?” Sedhoust said, scanning over the members of the Enforcer team. “What have you found so far?”

“We exterminated a number of apes earlier, and we thought that there’s a nest somewhere so we went deeper into the woods.” Juliana said.

“I see.” Sedhoust said. “I have not encountered any beasts so far, which is strange.”

“Why is it strange?” Mathias asked.

“A villager said that the apes kept coming every night, so there must be a notable number of them in the woods. But even my Detection Weave spell isn’t picking up anything.” Sedhoust replied. “Although I must admit the range is not that far since Detection Weave is outside my expertise.”

“Oh, there’s something strange about the apes we encountered.” Yuril said with one hand raised. “Some of them tried to escape from us.”

Sedhoust frowned. “Abnormal behavior. This isn’t good.”

“Indeed.” Juliana said with a nod. “There must be a leader. A calamity beast of the same type and higher hierarchy.”

“Likely a boulder gorilla, or worse, a ghirdys.” Sedhoust said. “Too dangerous for your team if it is the latter. You should go back.”

“No.” Juliana shook her head. “We were tasked to scout out abnormal things here, and now that we know there’s a leader, we need to see what the leader is. We have to.” She spoke with clear resolve written on her face.

“Hmm...” Sedhoust evaluated the equipment worn by the Enforcer team members for less than five seconds before he shook his head. “Nope. You can handle a boulder gorilla but definitely not a ghirdys.”

Mathias retorted in response. “Our quest is to scout! We’ll just run away if it’s really a ghirdys!”

“Good answer.” Sedhoust said with a nod and a small smile. “But are you prepared if a ghirdys notices your presence and goes in pursuit?”

“Yes, we have some tools and tricks up our sleeves for that!” Yuril said enthusiastically. “Right, everyone?”

Mathias, Reiter, and Juliana nodded, confirming Yuril’s words.

“Alright, I won’t stop you if you have decided.” Sedhoust said. “Best of luck.”

After wishing luck to the Enforcer team, Sedhoust used a Teleportation Weave spell to relocate himself to a higher altitude and activated his lesser flight spell to ascend farther up. He was straight above the ground he had stood on earlier, but he could barely see it and the Enforcer team due to the canopy of trees covering them.

“Now what to do...?” Sedhoust mumbled while floating high. He had a principle not to stay near adventurers longer than necessary in order to prevent them from becoming complacent, but he still wanted to search the woods some more, especially now that he had basically confirmed the existence of a leader somewhere in the woods.

But why am I here in the first place? Keith has tasked them to scout out the woods and they are doing it. There was no need for me to come here to begin with. I should just go home now.

Sedhoust made the decision, but it didn’t stick for long. His mind kept thinking out conflicting thoughts which rendered him unable to decide firmly.

What if they end up dying after I leave? Wouldn’t that be my fault? But they said they were prepared to escape, and none of us know if the leader is a ghirdys anyway. Could be a mere boulder gorilla, and they should be able to handle it.

But if it’s really a ghirdys... and they fail to escape...

Sedhoust let out a big sigh, and he decided to linger over the adventurers a bit longer. His Detection Weave spell still provided him with a live approximation of where they were, so there was no need to lower his altitude. Just in case, he also coated himself with an Illusion Weave spell to render himself nearly invisible.

Over the next half an hour, Sedhoust observed the actions of the adventurers. They had been advancing carefully, staying vigilant to their surroundings. They also maintained a solid formation which kept the leader covered from almost all sides. It was always a pleasure for Sedhoust to see a team working together well.

Soon after, Sedhoust noticed that the adventurers below him stopped advancing, followed by rustling sounds of shrubbery farther ahead. Sedhoust frowned as he redirected his Detection Weave spell towards that particular spot. The moment his spell reached the area, he became aware that a swarm of quad apes were gathering among the trees.

The four-armed primates seemed to be having some kind of a party, based on the readings of their movements. A number of them were walking in circles while pumping their fists high up, some others were jumping around from one tree to another, and more were clapping their hands in place while gibbering like normal apes would, except for the fact that these apes were all calamity beasts instead of natural wildlife.

“Tch!” Sedhoust clicked his tongue upon noticing a reading which signified a larger beast lazily lying down in the middle of the swarm. It was a three-meters tall bulky humanoid figure, and its athletic-looking arms were disproportionately long, long enough to reach its own knees while standing straight.

It was most definitely a ghirdys, a primate type calamity beast of an equal threat level to a rock golem.

“Are they retreating?” Sedhoust thought while looking at the Enforcer team down there, hoping with all his heart that they had noticed the ghirdys and were retreating.

Sedhoust’s hope was immediately shattered upon witnessing that Reiter, the hybrid archer and melee fighter of the team, shot consecutive arrows at the nearest apes while the other three prepared for battle. They clearly failed to notice the presence of the ghirdys because it was lying down and thus covered by shrubbery in addition to the swarm of apes drowning out the presence of the ghirdys.

“Tch!” Sedhoust immediately went down and landed right behind the team, the impact of which dispelled his invisibility. “Run, you fools!”

“Eh? What?” Yuril was the first to speak out in reaction to Sedhoust’s sudden arrival. At the same time, Reiter’s shots hit their mark and made the struck apes explode in bloody bursts.

Other apes noticed the ones which had just been slain, stopping whatever they had been doing and directing their fierce glares towards the assailants. At the same time, from the middle of the swarm of apes, a large figure covered in dark brown fur rose from its doze scratching its own head and back before joining the apes in glaring at the Enforcer team.

“It’s really a ghirdys!!?” Mathias shouted with his eyes as wide as they could be.

“Everybody retreat!” Juliana commanded, and everyone else in the team immediately turned tail and ran for their lives. Sedhoust followed them, flying while having his detection spell directed backwards.

“Grrraaaaaugh!” The ghirdys roared, sending out a wind shockwave to all directions. All flora caught by the shockwave swayed away, pushed by the wind blast which the group could feel even though they had built a notable distance. All the apes around the ghirdys growled and immediately began pursuing, as if the roar earlier had been a command to give chase. The ghirdys itself also followed the apes in pursuit, running in a strikingly similar posture to a human’s.

“L-Lord Grasmord!” Mathias called while running. “Won’t you, y’know, smite it?”

Yuril immediately intervened. “Don’t be stupid, Matty! There hasn’t been any rain for over a week!”

“What’s that supposed to mean!?” Mathias retorted. “Lightning Weave doesn’t depend on the weather!”

“Not the spell, but the forest is too dry!” Yuril spoke back. “Lord Grasmord will end up burning the entire forest down if he smites with a power strong enough to slay a ghirdys!”

“Oh come on! Seriously!?” Mathias shouted in frustration.

Sedhoust then chimed in himself. “Inconvenient indeed, but it doesn’t mean I have become totally useless. I still can smite the apes with smaller lightning strikes.”

Crackle! Crackle! Zap!

A bunch of lightning bolts struck down a number of pursuing quad apes, instantly stopping them in their tracks. The struck apes keeled over, dead without any visible major wounds other than singed fur.

“And I also can do this.” Sedhoust said without looking back.

Sedhoust shot out a series of large wind blades backwards, cutting trees and apes alike, including the ghirdys which shrugged the blades off with only a few flesh wounds. The unfortunate apes hit by the wind blades lost at least one of their limbs, and numerous trees fell down with cracking sounds and loud booms of their trunks hitting the ground, effectively making a quick barricade which bought them a few seconds.

Sedhoust kept throwing wind blade spells behind as the group kept running away. The wounds he inflicted on the ghirdys were almost negligible, and new apes kept joining the pursuing swarm despite having been constantly thinned out. However, the wind blades still served to slow the pursuers down, thus the group steadily gained distance. However...

“In front!” Juliana called out, pointing three quad apes intercepting the group from the front.

“Dammit!” Mathias gritted his teeth as he ran ahead of the team. “I’ll take the right! Yuril!”

As Mathias unsheathed his sword, Yuril’s hands moved in a certain pattern before glowing yellow. “Augment: Sharpen!”

Mathias’s sword began glowing in the same color as Yuril’s hands, and he bisected a quad ape diagonally with a single slash. Blood and innards gushed out of the slashed beast and dirtied Mathias’ face and clothes.

“Yuril!” Reiter called while holding his bow and a single arrow at the ready. In response, Yuril danced her hands once again.

“Augment: Penetration!” Yuril shouted and the single arrow in Reiter’s hand began glowing green. He then quickly drew his bow and shot at a different intercepting quad ape.

Reiter’s arrow flew forward at a high speed and hit the targeted ape right in the forehead, going right through and leaving a hole on both sides which immediately spurted out blood and liquified brain.

“Ha!” Reiter shouted while pointing forward with his index finger. The magically augmented arrow he had shot earlier suddenly changed its course and curved sharply to the last quad ape, piercing it through its temple before returning to Reiter for him to catch. All the intercepting quad apes had been slain in bloody manners.

“Alright! Keep running!” Juliana said.

“No! Wait!” Reiter shouted, and everybody stopped in response.

The trees ahead of the group creaked and came crashing down, having been pushed aside by not just one or two, but three bulky four meters tall primate beasts with solid rocks embedded on their arms, especially their fists.

“Three boulder gorillas!? How and why none of us noticed them before!?” Mathias shouted, looking at the other members of the team with anger and frustration displayed clearly on his face.

“Better ask the question after we get out of this.” Reiter said while glaring at the boulder gorillas, and then he glanced at the distant pursuing ghirdys and swarm of quad apes behind. “If we get out of this alive.”

The entire team immediately looked directly at Sedhoust, clearly wishing that the renowned royal archmage and legendary hero would get them out of the dire situation. He could simply fly away if he was alone, but he was not and he would never leave them behind. His conscience wouldn’t allow it.

“This isn’t good.” Sedhoust said while looking at the pursuing ghirdys. “Either I keep the ghirdys busy while you break through the gorillas, or I smite them all with lightning and then you have to escape from the ensuing forest fire. Either way, it will be difficult for me to keep all of you safe alone. Make your choice quickly.”

Sedhoust didn’t feel pleased in any way saying those, but unless someone had a different, brilliant idea those two were the only options available in his mind. The only silver lining was the fact that the Enforcer team still had a chance to survive, because if he had decided to go back to Arxhige earlier, or had never had the whim to come here, definitely none of them would make it out alive.

***