Chapter 8

Thanks to the information obtained through the sacrifices of the town’s young men, we were able to smoothly head towards the ogre’s lair.

If things had gone according to my plan, there would be ogres drooling and searching for prey in the area, making it an even more perfect situation.

Now, all that remained was to arrive at the ogre lair and begin the hunt.

“Hah… Hah…”

Even though I was protecting my body to the best of my ability with Divine Power, I was feeling quite exhausted due to the fatigue from healing the villagers yesterday.

Did I push myself too hard yesterday?

But there was nothing I could do.

There was no way I could stop healing just because I was tired, so despite my body screaming that it couldn’t go on, I had no choice but to continue.

Fortunately, it seemed that my talent for Divine Power was at an all-time high; I had only slept for a day, and I was able to walk once more…

I should consider myself lucky for that.

“Are you okay?”

When Dannes asked, I smiled slightly and replied that I was fine.

If I said I was struggling here, it would sound rather disheartening…

I wished I could say I was tired and suggest taking a short break, but it felt a bit strange for a saint to say that they wanted to rest.

Pain and fatigue are two different things, after all…

How long had passed? We finally arrived at the ogre’s lair, which had felt like it would never come.

I couldn’t see them well, but it seemed the ogres were living as they pleased.

If they had had the intelligence to live like humans, perhaps they could have avoided raiding and coexisted instead.

This was always something I thought every time I saw the village that the ogres built.

Except for the missions we were given, defeating ogres never provided good gear or items, so during gameplay, I often didn’t want to hunt them. There were days when the request board was filled only with missions to exterminate ogre lairs, which was quite irritating.

Now, those are just meaningless memories.

“Everyone remembers our plan, right?”

Just before we began our strategy, a voice, presumably the leader, called us to confirm whether we remembered the operation we had planned earlier.

The plan.

It wasn’t anything special.

While ogres were stronger than goblins, they were still just ogres, and their intelligence was relatively similar.

Physically, they were superior to ordinary humans but slightly lower in intelligence than goblins, which meant a C-rank adventurer could easily take them down, and while a D-rank might struggle, they could still manage to defeat them.

Naturally, a B-rank adventurer could take them down with ease.

Despite this, the fact that this request was classified as B-rank stemmed from the fact that it was, after all, an “extermination of the lair.”

Defeating a monster or two might be relatively easy, but when their numbers increase, it becomes exponentially harder.

Especially in a colony where dozens of them reside, even a C-rank adventurer could meet their demise easily when facing even one ogre.

If a situation arises where one ogre is dealt with, the others flock to defend in an instant, making it difficult to strategize safely.

That’s why B-rank adventurers are sent.

So what exactly were they calling a plan?

As I said before, it wasn’t anything special.

“Are you ready? Mirna.”

“Of course! I’ve already memorized it!”

In a lair where they are packed close enough to recognize if one side has a problem immediately?

They were particularly vulnerable to area bombardment spells capable of devastating the entire area at once.

And the best way to do this was to use ogre bombs.

“‘O fire mana, rain down flames upon my enemies! Fire Rain!’”

As I recited the spell, summoning a rain of fire from the book, a massive magic circle activated in the air, causing a rain of fire to pour from the sky.

And then it began to literally burn down the ogre lair.

While the spell summoned slender and elongated streams of flames like rain, it wasn’t highly destructive, but it was perfect for annihilating a wooden lair or a vast forest.

There was nothing like it for wooden lairs.

Especially since the flames were directly created by a magician using intermediate fire magic, it was nearly impossible for just ogres to respond.

A magician’s incantations especially channel thoughts into magic power, and as a result, there was no way they wouldn’t realize when I activated it.

Fire Rain— as I explained before, it’s a spell that causes a rain of flames in the game.

When dealing with an ogre lair, one fire spell would usually do the trick in the game.

The AI would extinguish any fire encountered, so only wide-area fire magic would be effective, and sometimes due to the fire magic itself, ogres would enter a state of alert, ruining the mission from the start.

However, Fire Rain was different.

Although it was intermediate magic, the size and length of the magic circle were enough to cover the entire lair.

Was that all?

I never imagined that a B-rank adventurer magician could utilize Fire Rain to such an extensive degree; it was beyond my expectations.

Although it was only intermediate magic and didn’t consume excessive mana, a magician of normal talent would faint from mana exhaustion when used this widely.

This is it!

This will do!

‘Great…!’

The increased likelihood of the ogres coming here became incredibly high.

Since ogre lairs are mostly made of wood, I expected them to use fire magic for assault, and it turned out to be spot on.

The smell of burning wood, and the scent of the ogres burning among it… This aroma would ride up on the wind as a scent of meat for the ogres.

At this point, it would be surprising if they didn’t come.

As I delighted inwardly, Mirna, the magician who effectively made the first strike and drastically reduced the number of ogres, took a moment to rest due to mana exhaustion, while the two members who were supposed to take the advance immediately plunged into the ogre lair.

Oblivious to the sudden rain of flames, the patrolling ogres couldn’t react in time, as Dannes and Curt, the leaders, slipped inside and began to cut them down one by one.

Given the chaos from the fire, there was no need to align formations; rather, it was essential to utilize this confusion to reduce their numbers before the elite ogres could reorganize.

This was the most fundamental strategy for tackling a lair, especially effective against ogres who feared fire.

‘Certainly… even if it’s a lair, it’s nothing to a B-rank adventurer party…’

Watching them easily take down ogres one by one certainly reinforced the idea that they were indeed B-rank.

If there was any silver lining, it would be that I couldn’t directly see the ogres being killed, given my limited view.

After all, seeing living beings being torn apart in a game was quite different from witnessing them burning or being cut down in reality.

I didn’t want to watch them die.

However…

The thoughts of the ogres around me gradually fading and the sense of their limbs being severed through spatial detection didn’t feel great at all.

In any case…

It appeared the extermination of the lair was going as expected.

If things continued like this, the ogre lair would be completely exterminated, and the mission would be practically finished. If it were just a three-way battle, it was highly unlikely anyone would get hurt as long as the ogres were the only ones showing up.

However,

Boom!

“What is that sound…?”

The forest was trembling.

“An earthquake…?”

“No, it’s not an earthquake. It’s… footfalls…?”

The forest was screaming.

Crack…!!

A massive tree, stretching tall towards the sky, bent under an overwhelming force as a gigantic hand emerged from the forest.

With each step, the surrounding ground echoed as if it were screaming.

Soon, appearing through the trees was a being of overwhelming strength and stature, the blue king of the forest.

“Ah, ahhh…”

The instinct of life was ringing alarm bells.

If I didn’t run from this spot, I would die—don’t turn back, just run.

“That’s… no way…”

“That’s an ogre…?”

A predator capable of devouring us all had now appeared here.

And,

‘As planned.’

I murmured with a beaming smile filled with joy.