by Mamare Touno
As he spoke, the vague emotions inside Touya took shape. That’s right, he thought. What was I worrying about?
Why had he been looking for a reason?
Had he been planning to justify his actions to someone?
No reason should be necessary to justify helping those who needed it in the first place.
“See what I mean? You, too, Minori. Guys. If we want to save them, let’s just do it. Right? Because, I mean, we want to!”
Touya threw out his chest, practically shouting.
“Well said!” The first one to respond to Touya’s words was Rundelhaus. He nodded firmly and set a hand on Touya’s shoulder, expressing approval as though to shake off the silence of a moment ago. “Heh-heh-heh. To be honest, it seems that even I had lost my composure You’re right. We are Adventurers. If we took to our heels now, we’d never know why we became Adventurers in the first place. That would have been getting our priorities backward. …Goblins! What can they do, anyway?!”
Rundelhaus shrugged off a concerned Isuzu’s hand. “Even I am an Adventurer, in a minor way. I have no intention of shamelessly fleeing back to Akiba without saving the village!”
“W-wait just a minute! How?! How are we going to protect the village? It doesn’t have a town wall, and the enemy is twice our size!”
As Touya and Rundelhaus hit it off, Serara broke in with a protesting shriek.
“Minori’ll figure that part out.”
“What?”
At Touya’s abrupt through pass, Minori’s eyes went round, as though he’d caught her by surprise. Touya felt a bit bad about throwing her a curve ball like that one, but if he didn’t get Minori fired up as well, this enthusiasm would go to waste.
Getting Minori fired up was Touya’s job.
As her twin, he knew that throwing her curve balls was the best way to do it.
“…Protect. Town wall… Can’t. …The number of enemies… No.”
Minori began muttering to herself. Touya saw her lips move: What would Shiroe do…? It made him feel very slightly bewildered, alongside a ticklish kind of joy. If his big sister was thinking like this, they had nothing to worry about.
Three steps, five steps.
As Touya and the others watched, Minori stopped in her tracks, then nodded once.
“I’ve got it… There is a way.”
Yeah, that’s how Minori’s gotta be.
Touya’s big sister was a very responsible type. Before, he’d felt as if she was fragile, as though the weight of that responsibility was liable to crush her. However, conversely, he thought it was Minori’s strength as well. Since joining Log Horizon, it seemed to Touya that Minori had learned to convert that sense of responsibility into the power to move forward.
It was probably due to the way she idolized Shiroe. Touya idolized Naotsugu in the same way—as both a warrior and a man—so he understood her keenly.
“A way?” Serara asked Minori; she sounded nervous.
“Let’s hear it, Mademoiselle Minori.”
Rundelhaus and Isuzu, whose expressions were conflicted, gathered around Minori as well.
“There aren’t enough of us to protect Choushi from the goblins. …Even if it was just the goblins, and it isn’t: There are sahuagins, too. They’ve got more than twice our numbers. We don’t even know if we’ll all be able to fight. Besides—even if we managed to protect it, if the fields are ruined, it’s sure to do great damage to the townspeople. And so… We can’t protect it.”
Minori’s words were decisive, and their strength made even her brother Touya lose his voice.
Her hard-hearted words left every one of her friends speechless.
Minori looked around, as if confirming their expressions. Then, suddenly, she whirled around as though she’d been stung.
“Oh…”
“Hm. Mewr instincts have gotten better, Minoricchi.”
“We young gents are patrolling to make sure none of you kids are trying to pull a fast one without permission!”
“I happen to be an old gent, thank mew.”
“Nyanta!”
It was Nyanta and Naotsugu. Behind them, a short distance away, they saw Shouryuu and Lezarik as well. Serara had already latched on to Nyanta’s thin, taut arm and was nearly hanging from it.
“Master Naotsugu!”
Touya also straightened up, on reflex. It wasn’t that Naotsugu was the type of teacher who was strict about manners; the issue was Touya’s mind-set. In front of this veteran Guardian, he naturally tended to stand up straight. Of course, ordinarily, even Touya and Naotsugu had careless locker-room conversations.
“Nyanta…”
Minori’s expression was a little troubled, but she wasn’t about to back down. Looking up at Nyanta with a force that nearly made it a glare, she bowed her head: “Please give us permission.”
“Yeah. The manly thing is to keep quiet and let us go this time, Captain Nyanta and Master Naotsugu.”
Touya came to stand beside Minori.
He was sure Minori had hit on something. Because she idolized Shiroe, because she’d tried to learn everything in order to follow in his footsteps, there was no doubt that she was harboring some way to break out of the situation. In that case, Touya couldn’t let Minori stand in the line of fire alone.
“Permission? No, Adventurers are free. If mew’ve truly made up your minds, it doesn’t matter whether your enemy’s level is higher or mew’re part of our guild. Adventurers have the freedom to carry through. Only… That in itself is quite difficult, Minoricchi.”
Nyanta spoke as if he understood everything, and Minori nodded.
“All right. The nights are short—especially in summer. The pack is on the move, so mew’d best hurry. Understood, Minoricchi?”
Nyanta gave a skillful wink, with Serara still hanging from his left arm. Upon hearing him, Touya and Minori exchanged looks, then bumped their fists together.
2
“Approaching from the east ridge. One squad. One more unit forty behind them, and two units to the northeast, as expected.”
In the nighttime forest, the shadows of the trees were jet-black in the moonlight.
Minori had called down from a treetop. She was peering intently through a pair of binoculars she’d borrowed from Naotsugu.
“Roger that.”
“Understood. I’ll begin chanting.”
Minori’s group was on a forested ridge not far from the Great Zantleaf River. The time was near midnight. Off the leaf-mold-covered track that wasn’t quite a forest path nor farm road, in a grove about the size of a gymnasium on top of a rounded hill, Minori and the others lay in wait, holding their breath.
Minori had climbed a large tree that resembled a sturdy Japanese zelkova and was currently looking in all directions and reporting what she found to her friends, who waited on the ground. She used the binoculars to help her work as a long-range monitor.
Touya had had a Damage Interception barrier cast on him, and he was sprinting through the darkness, relying on the mirrorlike effect of the barrier spell.
He’d gone to draw in the goblin unit from the east ridge. Before long, the sharp twang of a bowstring echoed in the darkness, followed by the screams of the goblins and a sound as if someone was pushing through the undergrowth, coming closer.
Touya had received all-round combat training at Log Horizon that included projectile weapons, even though they weren’t very practical in dungeons. It wasn’t as if Samurai were ill suited to bows and arrows; in fact, they were able to equip both longbows and recurve bows, which were for use on horseback. This time, Touya had used a longbow to get the attention of the distant goblins, and he was now attempting to lure them back to Minori’s group.
“…Approaching. As anticipated, two units have noticed.”
At Minori’s warning call, her companions readied their various weapons and took up fighting stances. In open spaces, the distance at which battles began naturally widened, which, understandably, necessitated a cha
nge from the combat methods they’d used in the cramped dungeon. When monsters and Adventurers caught sight of each other at a distance, it was only natural that projectile battles broke out as a preliminary to hand-to-hand fighting.
However, one problem with long-distance battles was that they drew attention from the surrounding area. The bow attack had put the goblins on their guard, attracting two squads—probably about ten goblins—to them. Minori had come to that conclusion from the flickering torches and the sounds of parting undergrowth; it wasn’t possible to accurately grasp numbers in the darkness.
“Countdown, please.”
Serara’s voice was tense.
Through the binoculars, Minori strained her eyes in the darkness. The night was lit by moonlight, and a faint phosphorescence had begun to appear. Moon Fay Drops were midlevel eyedrops that could be made by an Apothecary. They cost quite a bit, but all you had to do was put them in your eyes and you’d be able to see as well as a cat, even in the dark, for twenty-four hours. They’d gotten them from Naotsugu before beginning this operation.
“Five…four…three…two…”
Minori focused her nerves and began the countdown.
Serara loaded the spell she’d had waiting into her staff, then—at Minori’s “Zero”—activated it.
At a point about thirty meters away from Minori and the others, the trees suddenly rustled and the weeds writhed, beginning to grow thicker.
Druid was one of the three Recovery classes.
Each Recovery class had its own unique recovery spells, but they were distinguished from the others by more than just recovery properties.
As their name suggested, Druids used forest magic. The source of the magic they used lay in the mysteries of nature. This characteristic wasn’t as obvious in dungeons, but when they were outdoors like this, the latent magic in nature held hidden power for them that couldn’t be ignored. Since Druid wasn’t a Magic Attack class, the power of their spells that dealt direct damage was weak, but in return, they were able to wield a variety of strong, unconventional magic.
Willow Spirits—the spell Serara had chanted—acted on the surrounding plants, making leaves and vines grow. They would wrap around the enemy and limit their movements.
“Here they come.”
Flinging his catalpa bow under the trees, Touya drew his katana, gazing forward steadily. Minori had gauged the distance before activation so that the obstacle spell Serara had set earlier would only tangle around the second unit. That meant that beating down the first group of goblins was Touya and Rundelhaus’s job.
“I can see clearly. The opening move is yours. Do it well, Touya.”
During their recent team training, Rundelhaus seemed to have adopted a new mind-set.
He probably understood that his turn would come even if he let Touya go first. He no longer chose attack spells hastily, and he didn’t show off. Even now, he was chanting the spell Icicle Blade to increase the attack power of Touya’s katana.
When Rundelhaus’s chant ended, freezing cold air gathered around Touya’s katana, and it gleamed with a clear light in the darkness.
“That isn’t like an Enchanter’s spell. It will only add additional damage for a few attacks, so make sure you start with a large one.”
In response to Rundelhaus’s instructions, Touya nodded.
He’s right. We’ll have to finish them off quick.
The enemy was goblins, and they were stronger than Skeletons. On top of that, if they took time here, the second unit would probably slip free of their bindings and come after them. Serara’s obstacle spell affected the land over a wide range, hampering monsters’ movements, but it didn’t last that long.
In addition, it wasn’t just the one following squad; there were still lots of goblins lurking in the surrounding mountains and forests.
Two hundred at most, Nyanta had said, but even that was questionable. Many presences squirmed in the shadow-blackened forest tonight, and it was hard to imagine just how many enemies there were in this darkness.
“You save your big moves for later, Rudy, and keep them on the defensive with lots of smaller moves. I’ll back you up for thirty seconds, but that’s it… Maestro Echo!!”
Having steeled herself, Isuzu cast her support spell, and Touya and Rudy rushed the goblins.
Swords and spells danced wildly.
Understanding Isuzu’s instructions, Rundelhaus abandoned powerful, stand-alone attacks in favor of a rapid series of lighter spells. In exchange for inflicting less damage, these lighter spells had short cast and recast times. They were spells that could be used back-to-back.
Once he’d discarded huge spells that took about five seconds to chant, Rundelhaus’s serial magic attacks consisted of spells that were ready every second and a half, on average. Isuzu’s perfect tremolo style turned each mad dance of flame and ice into a circular round.
Deep crimson notes for flame impacts. Marine blue notes for ice impacts.
Isuzu’s own attack power was fairly low, however, given that she was a Bard.
That was the fate of all support classes, and there wasn’t much to do about the characteristic.
On the other hand, there were things she could do precisely because this was so.
Based on the information her five senses gave her, Isuzu ad-libbed copies of Rundelhaus’s spells and sang them with a slight delay.
This was a hidden Bard technique: the ability to copy other players’ magical attacks and reproduce them on the spot.
Sorcerers had explosive attack power to begin with. What happened when all that power was doubled? The multilayer barrage, which even Isuzu’s throat managed to sustain for only thirty seconds, annihilated the goblins in the blink of an eye.
When the second wave of goblins came, they attacked Touya and inflicted many injuries, but Minori’s Damage Interception spell negated them, and the damage that did slip by was dealt with by the recovery spell she chanted immediately afterward. With the arrival of the two Recovery classes, who had switched roles, and Rundelhaus, who’d finished preparing for his big move, the group managed to wipe out ten goblins.
3
“Yeah. They’re tough, but… ’S nothing we can’t handle.”
At Touya’s words, Serara, who’d been treating him, suddenly said, “You mustn’t get careless.”
Isuzu took a swallow of tea from her canteen, then handed it to Rundelhaus, who was retying his bootlaces. Accepting it, Rundelhaus admonished Serara: “Carelessness isn’t good, Mademoiselle Serara, but if you caution against courage, victory will slip through your fingers.”
While the four of them caught their breath, Minori was in the center of the group, desperately struggling with a folded map. Shiroe had given it to her when the summer camp began, saying, I don’t expect you to need it, but… It was a highly accurate map centered on the Zantleaf Peninsula, and it showed the ruined city of Eastal and the town of Tsukuba.
Even though Minori could see in the dark, it was hard to make out the contents of the map, and so she’d used Bug Light to summon a lamp. She was now hiding in the bushes to keep the light from showing.
Over her shoulder, Serara’s voice continued abruptly:
“Yes… Yes. We’re fine. We’re taking a short break now. You’re heading north-northwest, aren’t you? All right… About three kilometers, yes. I understand. You and the others take care too, Nyanta.”
It seemed Serara was telechatting.
The maneuver Minori and the others had chosen was simplicity itself.
They planned to infiltrate the goblin plunder unit in the forested hills and strike from the inside.
If it was impossible to protect the town, they’d just have to attack ahead of time. They would use the forest in which the goblins were hiding to their own advantage and battle at night. There was no need to wipe out the entire unit.
Although goblins were vicious, too, unlike Skeletons they were demihumans. If the Adventurers struck hard enough, they’d probably dam
age the goblins’ will to fight, and some might desert.
Even in terms of defending the town, if they cut down their numbers with a preemptive surprise attack, it would be much easier to protect it all the way to the end. It was a savage, almost desperate strategy, but at present, it was working far better than they’d expected.
That was the outline of the maneuver. If Nyanta and Naotsugu hadn’t fine-tuned it and loaned them items, it probably wouldn’t have gone this well. After all, Nyanta and the others were also deep in the forest, fighting separately from Minori’s group.
Nyanta, Naotsugu, Shouryuu, and Lezarik were in an area where the fighting was much fiercer compared to where Minori’s group was: They’d practically rushed into the center of the Goblin plunder tribe.
Nyanta’s party of high-level players had, in fact, charged into the heart of the goblin unit. They had annihilated over and over, drawing attention to themselves. Minori’s group was waiting farther south, attacking goblin units that had made it past Nyanta’s group, along with any terrified, confused, or isolated squads. Two hours had already passed since the operation began.
In those two hours, Minori’s group had defeated around twenty goblins. Lone goblin scouts were actually more trouble than organized squadrons of five or six, because it was often hard to tell what they were trying to do.
Come to think of it, their own maneuver had been an arbitrary act, too: They’d failed to discuss it with Marielle of the Crescent Moon League, who was in charge of the summer camp. Of course Minori felt terribly bad about that, but she’d tried not to think about it too much. When she’d reported in via telechat a little while ago, Marielle had read her the riot act, but she thought there was really no help for that.
This operation was built on the premise that most of their forces would be left in Choushi as a defensive unit. The fewer strike units there were, and the more confusion and damage they caused the goblin plunder unit, the more the gap between the power of the town security forces and the goblin attack units would shrink, and in turn, the higher the likelihood that the goblins would give up.