In the banquet hall, there were ordinary citizens, but also combat-capable individuals armed with swords, spears, and axes.
The man who opened the door guided me and my companions inside.
There, a priest sat on the floor in prayer, guarded by a man standing next to him.
“You really came.”
Maran looked a bit paler than the last time.
“I didn’t think the letter would arrive; that person’s skills are certainly commendable.”
“How did you send the letter?”
I finally asked the question that had been on my mind the longest.
“A mercenary said he could leave without being noticed, so I asked him to send the letter.”
If he set his mind to it, it wouldn’t be too difficult to escape from here alone.
“Anyway, thanks for coming to this dangerous place.”
“But why aren’t you escaping?”
“It’s not that I don’t want to; it’s that I can’t. I need to take everyone here out, but there are too many enemy leaders.”
Maran spoke about the three Undead captains he had seen.
Hearing the story, I thought it would be impossible for Maran to protect all these people by himself.
“I see a few capable fighters.”
“Just barely capable of protecting themselves.”
There were about thirty to forty people in the banquet hall, and only around ten of them were combat-capable.
Maran didn’t seem to think highly of the skills of the people here.
“Those you brought look quite useful.”
“Do you have a plan?”
“Of course, we will take down their captain.”
Here, the only one who could properly fight the Undead captain was essentially Maran.
“I’ll help too.”
“I’ll do the fighting.”
“I can fight too.”
Epiro said she would help, but I knew all too well what her abilities were.
“We’ll do the fighting.”
“You’ll need my strength.”
“If needed, I’ll ask.”
Maran led me to the window.
There were markings all over the glass.
“Is this accurate?”
“Not exactly, but it should be close enough.”
They were using the cityscape visible through the window like a map.
The markings indicated the positions of each captain.
“And there’s a captain managing the others.”
As Maran described the figure, I urgently called for Jema.
“Tell me what you both saw.”
Maran and Jema began discussing the person they had seen.
Their testimonies were nearly identical.
“That’s the same person. Then he’s one of the higher-ups.”
“I see. I suspected he would be quite strong…”
Currently, Maran said that this person was not staying in this city.
I looked out at the city and searched for the location of the waterway we came through.
“If we clear this area, there’s a way out.”
“Was there such a place?”
“We entered from that direction.”
While Maran and I were talking, someone approached.
“That place has ruins.”
“Ruins?”
“Yes. There’s no one researching them now, though.”
Currently, the city was inhabited by various races, but Emerald Bay was said to be a village once occupied by elves long ago.
Back then, most of the elf village had disappeared as it was developed into a city.
They say one place was left as ruins.
That was the place we entered through the waterway.
“It’s not maintained at all for ruins, is it?”
“Basically, it’s almost worthless land.”
Even if it’s useless in the city, it would be the only escape route for the people here.
“Then we should take care of that captain first.”
As I pointed with my finger, Maran briefly explained the information regarding that captain.
The opponent was a giant nearly four meters tall.
He wielded a sword and spear, possessing considerable combat abilities.
“Where on earth do the giants come from?”
“They didn’t just appear one day. If I had to guess… a gate, perhaps.”
Ksaam, who came over through the gate, had not mentioned anything about giants.
I only heard that they were enemies that needed to be eliminated.
“Then we should eliminate that area first.”
Maran pointed to a location completely different from where I suggested attacking.
“Why that place?”
“That fellow is radiating strange energy in all directions. He isn’t strong, but there are a lot of troops.”
I recalled the beings that emitted a dark energy when we passed through the city.
It wouldn’t matter if we left them be, but they could become the most troublesome enemy over time.
Once our first target was decided, we took a day to rest.
Late at night, Epiro called for me to have a brief conversation.
“Please take me with you after all.”
“I know you can’t fight, so how could I take you?”
Epiro’s ability was solely to heal the injured.
No one knew better than I that she had no combat abilities at all.
“I can fight.”
“Can you prove that you’re not lying?”
“Yes. Shall we go to the rooftop?”
Walking confidently ahead, Epiro bumped her forehead against the entrance door.
“Can you really fight?”
“Ouch… that was a mistake. Follow me.”
After leaving the banquet hall, Epiro moved with familiarity as if she knew the building’s layout well.
“Huh?”
“What is it?”
“I’m sure there were barricades here, but they’ve disappeared.”
It seemed that Epiro had removed the barricades we had taken down when we entered.
“Well, anyway, let’s go.”
Once on the rooftop, the cold night breeze blew refreshingly.
“Now, please show me.”
“Yes, I’ll show you quickly.”
After tapping the ground a few times with the staff in her hand, a bright white light began to shine.
From the light emerged a pure white deer.
Epiro, having mounted that deer, replied triumphantly.
“I can also fight. As long as I have this one.”
Its clear and large eyes felt completely devoid of any evil energy.
However, I was curious how she would fight while riding it.
“How do you plan to fight?”
“First, I’ll run across the battlefield on this one.”
“And then?”
“I’ll take them down all at once with this sword.”
Epiro held a sword that emitted a soft glow in her hand.
Just as I thought about how she would target the enemy without even being visible, Epiro’s sword grazed just above my head.
“You weren’t cut, right? I deliberately brushed past you.”
“How did you… when you can’t even see?”
“This one substitutes for my eyes. It can share vision.”
In other words, that deer would serve as Epiro’s eyes.
But this alone was not enough to take Epiro into the battlefield.
As I furrowed my brow in thought, Epiro revealed one more thing.
Upon confirming that, I decided to take Epiro along.
The next morning, I assigned Melorna to guard Epiro.
“Do we really have to take her? This is the safest place.”
“I need her.”
I judged that Epiro’s abilities observed last night would very much be helpful.
Maran left the banquet hall with a worried expression.
The elevator wasn’t working, so we descended on foot to the hotel entrance.
“It’s time to prepare.”
Srinng!
Maran drew his sword and, in that state, severed the limbs of the Undead soldier patrolling in front of the hotel.
I wondered why he only severed the limbs and not the core when I asked.
“It keeps them from moving. If I destroy the core, they can restore themselves.”
Maran’s reasoning wasn’t wrong.
A new Undead soldier was made when the core was destroyed, and the leftover fragments gathered to form it.
But if the core wasn’t destroyed, the incomplete soldier would remain.
If the number of imperfect soldiers increased rather than perfect ones, the enemy’s quality would deteriorate.
“Try to aim for the limbs as much as possible.”
Maran said it easily, but only Jema could manage to do that here.
Targeting the core and only cutting off part of the Undead would be more difficult than it sounded.
During the fighting along the way, Revelin struggled quite a bit.
Not targeting the core and just cutting off the limbs wasn’t as easy as it sounded.
Even I managed to cut only after several attempts, rather than on the first try.
Given that situation, each battle took a considerable amount of time.
“Everyone seems to be struggling a lot.”
“Can’t I just destroy the core?”
Revelin suggested to Maran to smash the core.
“Now, you are indeed a magic swordsman?”
“No, I’m a battle mage…”
“Is that even a thing?”
“Not yet, but I’ll create it later.”
Maran squinted slightly at Revelin’s words and spoke.
“You’ll need to do a lot of research. There’s much to improve.”
“I know.”
Mages in Roran weren’t particularly interested in battle.
They were focused on merging magic and science to create something new.
So far, there was still no organization composed of mages specialized in combat.
Revelin said her dream was to gather mages like that and form a Knight Order.
For her dream to come true, magic combat would need to advance significantly first.
Currently, most of the paths were already paved by the Knight Orders to which magic swordsmen belonged.
If the goal was to form a new unit, a much more specialized approach is required than that of a magic swordsman Knight Order.
Revelin stopped complaining and focused on controlling her magic swords.
If it didn’t cut through in a single strike, she repeated the attempt several times.
Seeing that inspired me, and I focused much more on executing the swordsmanship I learned from the magic swordsman.
I thought I would surely notice any deficiencies as I used it, but.
Without any noticeable deficiencies, I was able to incapacitate the Undead soldier reasonably well.
I couldn’t be sure whether it was my swordsmanship that was excellent or the power of the wind sword, but for now, it worked easily.
Perhaps the deficiency was in my understanding of swordsmanship.
The swordsmanship that began and ended the same first slashed at the arms and legs of the enemies.
Only by turning it back could I finally see the limbs of the enemies separating from their torso.
While I dealt with one Undead soldier, Maran and Jema handled two or three each.
Before long, the two became competitive to see who could defeat more.
“You’re really impressive for a kid.”
“You too, mister.”
The two swept through the battlefield like the wind.
