“Clena, Roni, are you–”
“We’ll leave that up to you.” Clena interjected.
“We can’t escape the void without your water, Sir Touya...” Roni added.
“Sorry if this seems harsh, but it’s not exactly the kind of situation where we can just choose the better option.”
Clena and Roni were going to leave their fates up to me. Now I had even more responsibility to bear. I had little hope of winning if I fought, but I’d become a prisoner to guilt if I ran. In this situation, a hero would probably fight. I honestly didn’t care about whether or not I acted like a hero, but it wasn’t as if that made running away seem like the better decision.
When I sent Clena and Roni a glance for help, I saw Haruno’s face in their own for a moment. If I ran here and survived, would I be able to proudly look Haruno in the face when we reunited? No way. I wouldn’t even be able to stand in her presence any longer. I’d feel too ashamed. And it’d fill me with regret.
As I looked down to the ground, the faces of the lizardmen came to me. Dokutora and his hearty laugh. The solemn elder and his hard-to-read facial expressions. The young warriors who always did their best no matter how injured they got. The mischievous children, and the rest of the villagers.
That’s right. If I abandon the Torano’o tribe here, I’ll regret it forever.
That settles it. I’m not going to run. I’m going to stay with them and fight. I may hold them back if I fight normally, but I should be able to support them with my cleric magic.
When I looked up, Clena and Roni were staring at me with worried eyes.
“You’re going to fight, aren’t you?” Clena asked me, after she saw my face.
“Yeah.” I nodded, and she let out a small sigh. Judging from her lack of surprise, I guessed she’d expected this from the beginning.
“See?” she said. “I told you he’d end up staying, didn’t I?”
“Well, Sir Touya was nice enough to save us when we were in trouble, too...” Roni seemed unsure of how to respond to Clena’s triumphant declaration, so she gave me an awkward smile.
Wait... Do they think I’m some kind of brave person who can’t ignore people who are in trouble? No... Maybe they even think I’m heroic! They know I’m a Hero of the Goddess, after all...
I wanted to make sure I straightened out this misunderstanding, so I called out to them. “Just so you know, I’m only doing this because I don’t want to regret having run away.”
“Who cares? I wouldn’t blame you for running in a situation like this.”
“Besides, you wouldn’t be able to make this decision without at least a little bravery,” Roni added.
It was like they could both read my mind. Of course, it made sense that people in this world knew exactly how fearsome monsters really were.
“Relax, it’s still better than bluffing your way through!” Clena said with a smile, and her words felt surprisingly reassuring. She had seemed frail when I was healing her burns, but in this moment, she looked like a truly reliable woman. “...You’re not thinking about anything weird, are you?”
Sorry. I was remembering when I healed the burns on your boobs.
Once we decided we were going to stay, we made preparations to fight, rather than run, then left the tent. I had Roni help me put my brigandine on. It was a different type than mine, but the metal armor that Clena wore was hard to put on alone, so Roni was used to helping. Thanks to that, she was an extremely skilled assistant. I could feel the villagers’ eyes on us as we walked up to the warriors. Rulitora was the first to notice us.
“Sir Touya, why are you dressed like that?!”
“You need a healing squad, right?” I smiled, and Rulitora turned to Dokutora in shock. I was trying to act cool, and hoped that it hadn’t backfired.
“I’ll plan our strategy!” Clena proudly declared in front of the Torano’o warriors.
Rulitora and the others gave her an incredulous look, but Roni jumped in and nervously explained. “Lady Clena comes from a family of strategists, you see...”
Despite Roni’s vague wording, I concluded that Clena came from a family that studied military tactics. Compulsory education didn’t exist in this world, which meant that Clena probably came from a family of military nobles or knights. Judging from the way she carried herself and her ornate sword, it made sense. The Torano’o tribe seemed clueless when it came to strategy, especially since they hadn’t thought of fighting in groups of four until I brought it up, so I decided to mediate and listen to what she had to say.
“Still, there’s only so much we can do in a situation like this,” Clena began.
She ended up suggesting a plan where we’d leave the settlement and attack the monsters head on. There, the warriors would split into two groups: one to stop the mob, and another to attack it from the side. The Torano’o tribe’s settlement was located in the center of a flat wasteland, and only had a simple fence around it, which made it rather unfit for defending. Rulitora and the others agreed that it would be hard to fight and protect the settlement at the same time, so they accepted the plan. According to Clena, this plan wouldn’t work against a human army, but it would be effective against a mob of monsters, since they’d lose their order with a single solid hit. In exchange, taking out whoever was controlling the monsters was an absolute necessity.
The small hooded man. Even without the plan, there was no way we could ignore someone who had the ability to quintuple his forces in a single week.
The warriors would split into a front and rear group and march out. The group in front would defend from mob attacks, while the rear group would circle around and attack from the side. Clena, Roni and I planned to stand in the back of the front group. The only question left was who would command each group. Rulitora and Dokutora were good candidates, but Rulitora wanted to use his giant scorpion armor to assist in the defending, and Dokutora declined outright.
“I’m the current warrior chief,” he said. “It’s my job to protect the settlement.”
“Hmm...” Once he heard that, Rulitora became unable to stand his ground – especially considering how he had stepped down from his post as warrior chief and left the settlement – and decided to join the attackers.
Rulitora had probably wanted to use his armor to become everyone’s shield. But in the same vein, his glaive was much stronger than the spears Dokutora and the other lizardmen were using. Having him work hard as an attacker seemed to be the best choice.
Once we got a bit out from the village, the massive monster horde came into view ahead of us. They were closer than we expected. If we had departed even a little later, we might have been forced to fight them in an area that could have ended up damaging the settlement. Dokutora stopped the warriors, and we prepared to engage the enemy.
“Touya, can you summon three light spirits?” Clena asked.
“You want to send them out as a pre-emptive attack?”
“Yeah, but I don’t want you to hit the monsters. I’m going to utilize your power for something else.”
“Oh, I see.”
I did as Clena told me and summoned three light spirits, which cost me hardly any MP. Clena possessed a spell that allowed her to borrow power from various spirits in order to attack. The Stone Throw she’d used to help me when we were out hunting had been magic powered by earth spirits. In this world there existed people who could borrow some power from certain spirits and use their magic. In the case of earth spirits, they were known as geomancers. Clena, however, could borrow power from almost any spirit. It was a very unique type of magic, something she’d learned from trial and error, rather than a textbook or a teacher. And since she’d never found anyone else who could do such a thing, she didn’t have a title like geomancer. Apparently, she’d never even thought to give herself one in the first place.
“If you can borrow power from spirits... Maybe you could call it spirit magic?” I asked.
“I don’t really have a name for it, but I guess t
hat isn’t bad,” Clena answered. “I’ll just call it spirit magic.”
“Y-you sure you don’t need to think harder about it?”
In the end, our conversation led Clena to adopt the ‘spirit magic’ name I’d proposed. Since magic in this world was split up as ‘cleric magic and everything else,’ all that fell into the latter half was categorized in a surprisingly haphazard manner.
“Lady Clena, the fire is ready.”
“Thanks, Roni.”
Below us on the ground, Roni had started a fire in order to borrow power from fire spirits. Clena’s spirit magic had one drawback – she could only borrow power from spirits that existed around her. In other words, if she was inside where there was no wind blowing, she wouldn’t be able to gain power from wind spirits. If she was outside and the sun was shining, she could borrow power from light spirits that way, but summoning them allowed her to absorb more power with less MP. That’s why Roni was making a fire – in order to call fire spirits to Clena’s side.
Roni was skilled at these sorts of things. She had high STR and TEC stats, and was kind of like a jack of all trades. She was even almighty when it came to housework. This was all based on her lycaon race, though. She had a low STR stat compared to other lycaon, but was still as strong as an average human adult. The same went for the sand lizardmen – demi-humans’ physical abilities were truly astounding.
“Um, Sir Touya. The fire’s hot, so please be careful!” she called out.
“O-okay,” I answered.
Aside from the fact that she had wolf ears where her human ears should have been, and a wolf tail coming out from her behind, she looked exactly the same as a human, and was actually pretty cute. As I continued to stare at Roni, the mob of monsters got close enough that I could now see each individual monster, and I spotted sweepdogs, gembolics, and gold oxen midst the crowd.
“I can’t find the hooded guy,” I muttered. “Maybe he’s hiding in the back, or hidden in another squad...”
“There is no other squad.” Clena quickly shot down one of my ideas.
“Where’s your proof?”
“I’ve heard about demons having ways to control monsters, but they can’t gather up monsters that don’t exist. I doubt he was able to herd that many in only a week.”
“Then how...”
“With summoning magic, it would be difficult, but not impossible. Especially if he summoned in monsters from nearby.”
“In other words, the hooded man used summoning magic to amass so many? And that’s why there can’t be another squad? Because if he gets too far away from them, he won’t be able to control them?”
“...Surprising. I didn’t expect you to figure all that out on your own.”
“Wow! How did you put it all together?!” Roni shouted.
“...Guess I just got lucky.” I’d just taken a wild guess based on all the games I’d played, but it looked like I’d been exactly right. Clena and Roni stared at me in surprise, and it didn’t look like I’d be able to give them an explanation they’d understand, so I just decided to stay quiet and casually play it off.
“Time for our pre-emptive strike!” Clena unsheathed her sword and raised it up to the sky. Soon, the three light spirits gathered at the top and formed a large light orb. “Blow them away! Flash!”
In the next instant, it looked like the orb was going to expand even further – then, it transformed into a ray of light that slashed horizontally across the mob. Once it passed, a delayed explosion rocked the ground, and some of the monsters in the very front went flying.
“Now!”
Following Clena, Rulitora and the other lizardmen started throwing rocks at the monsters. Stones that ranged from the size of baseballs to soccer balls could deal serious damage when thrown from lizardman arms. Faced with a rain of stone projectiles, the monsters cowered and stopped in their tracks.
“Gooo!”
Instantly, Dokutora’s group thrust their spears out and charged. Their goal was to take the full brunt of the monsters’ attacks and stop them in their tracks, but there was no need for them to stand and wait until the monsters reached them. After Clena’s magic and Rulitora’s group threw stones, a powerful head-on attack could allow us to gain the advantage. This was the key to Clena’s strategy.
Once Dokutora’s attack was successful, Rulitora began to move. “Okay! Follow me!”
With that, he led the warriors around so they could strike the side of the mob. Meanwhile, the humans remained in the center and supported the defending warriors from behind.
“Lady Clena!” Roni shouted. “That one’s in trouble!”
“He’s only focused on what’s in front of him... Flame Arrow!!”
Roni continued to scan the front line and let Clena know when anyone was in trouble. Whenever Clena got the signal, she’d cast a Flame Arrow, and a fiery dart would arc up from the fire and go sailing toward a monster. Now that the warriors and monsters were fighting side by side, she couldn’t cast any more spells like Flash, but she could target individual monsters with spells like Flame Arrow. Since Clena wouldn’t be able to keep up with casting and finding people on her own, Roni used her eyes to help.
Meanwhile, it was my job to using Healing Light to heal whoever got hurt. Everyone was still doing pretty well, though, so I didn’t have anything to do. I didn’t have good enough eyesight to help Roni out, and since I couldn’t waste my MP, I had no choice but to stand and watch the battle develop.
It looked like the lizardmen had gained the upper hand for the time being, but since the monsters had us beat in numbers, no one could let up. It was about ten stutes from where I stood to the front lines, and I could hear angry roars and shouts echoing. This was a battlefield. I thought I’d gotten a little used to fighting, but it was far more intense and frightening than hunting had ever been.
I didn’t have time to be scared, though. Next to me, Clena and Roni were performing their duties without even flinching. I didn’t care about looking cool, but I didn’t want to look pathetic, either. I tried to strengthen my quivering legs, and continued to stare straight at the battlefield as thoughts ran through my mind. Am I going to be fighting like that someday?
“There he is! I can see Rulitora!” Someone called out.
Sure enough, just when the monsters regained their composure and started pushing Dokutora back, Rulitora’s group charged in from the side. The monsters were taken by surprise, and completely lost their momentum. Meanwhile, Rulitora and his warriors never stopped rushing forward. As I watched, I was reminded how large Dokutora and Rulitora were. Their heads always remained above the crowd, so I could see exactly what they were doing.
Rulitora’s moves were especially impressive. With one swing of his glaive, he sent several monsters flying into the air. Even when he wasn’t using his usual forward-bent charge, he could still swing his glaive around and slash his way through the enemy, as if he was cutting a path through the wilderness. This was the strength of a Level 29 ex-Torano’o warrior chief. Dokutora, the current warrior chief, didn’t look as flashy as Rulitora because he was busy shutting down the monsters’ attacks. He was probably around Rulitora’s level in terms of strength.
It looked as if Clena’s plan had been a success. The scales were tipping in our favor. Still, it’s not as if we hadn’t suffered any damage. Once a few warriors got seriously injured, others stepped up to take their places, while I healed them with Healing Light. Soon, I was faced with a young warrior who had taken a golden ox’s charge head-on. He had a large wound in his right side, and blood was gushing out. I needed to touch the wound in order to use Healing Light, so I put my hand over the gored hole.
“Gggh...!”
“Just hang in there!” I said.
I felt my hands touch something wet and squishy. But this warrior had gotten injured after risking his life to fight – I couldn’t allow myself to feel afraid. For the time being, I’d only be able to stop the blood, but it was better than letting him go on figh
ting without it.
“...Thanks,” he said. “You can do the rest once the fight’s over.”
“Don’t do anything too rash,” I said.
The young warrior placed a hand on his throbbing side and went back out to the battlefield. I was worried, but I couldn’t stop him. If he wasn’t there, the other warriors would only have a greater burden to bear. Once I saw him off, I prepared some more water for the next warrior. I didn’t want to touch someone with bloodied hands.
Afterwards, I healed five more warriors. During that time, three monsters slipped through the front lines, but the defending warriors took them out for us. Thanks to Rulitora’s group, the monsters’ numbers kept decreasing. Then, once I healed my sixth, I heard a voice coming from ahead. It sounded strangely shrill and irritating.
“Dammit! You can’t let them get any further!”
Once I stopped the warrior’s bleeding, I looked in the direction of the voice. I couldn’t tell what he said after that, but I knew I’d heard it somewhere before.
“That voice just now...”
“I think that’s the hooded man who was chasing us,” Roni said, as her ears twitched.
“If we can defeat him, the one who summoned these monsters, will we win?”
“Just so you know,” Clena quickly answered, “defeating him won’t make the monsters he summoned disappear. Remember how he got trampled last time, yet the monsters were still around?”
“Now that you mention it...”
With summoning magic, there were three parts to the process: the summoning itself, assuming control, then returning whatever was summoned back to its original location. Depending on what was summoned, some things could be instantly returned by defeating the summoner, but that didn’t seem to apply to beast-type monsters.
“Maybe I’m actually being controlled, too...” I began.
“No, no,” Clena said. “We’d be able to tell with a glance if you were.”
Mixed Bathing in Another Dimension: The Hero of the Unlimited Bath Page 17