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Wielding his instantly-made earthen spear, the tall man rushes towards me. He seems to be somewhat capable, but he’s ultimately no more than a barbarian warrior. In terms of both power and weapon proficiency, I am overwhelmingly superior.

But being taken by surprise by magic from that red-eyed girl would be a nuisance. We have more people. I can’t allow us to be delayed here.

“Two of you, throw away your bows and cover me. The rest, keep the mage in check.”

“Hah!”

Two of my seven subordinates cast aside their bows and draw their swords as they move either side of me. The other five spur their horses in different directions, surrounding the girl. If they shoot from different directions, she shouldn’t be able to block them all.

My two subordinates pass in front of me. One of them stops the man’s swing, while the other thrusts towards his body. The tall man abandons his weapon and jumps back, then immediately leaps at the horse of the subordinate on my right. But my subordinate has already reacted by readying her sword.

“It doesn’t look like I’ll be needed.”

It appears he’s a bit more capable than my subordinates. However that’s not the case in a two-on-one. And he’s still much less capable compared to me, Lightning Sword Lapar.

My subordinate swings her sword towards him. Just as I think it’s going to hit, the earthen spear he threw away explodes into a cloud of dust.

“Mu…”

I look towards the girl and see she has her hand extended towards the exploded weapon.

“D-damn it! Raah!”

Still unable to see, my subordinate swings her sword. The sword definitely appears to hit something inside the cloud of sand. Perhaps having felt a response, her expression loosens. But a moment later, her expression turns into a frown.

As the cloud of sand clears, I see he has caught her sword with his shoulder, and though bleeding, stands firm. She tries to pull her sword out, but he grabs hold of it tightly, and it doesn’t budge.

“Uooooraah!”

He swings his right arm while pulling back the sword with his left. Then, twisting his body to accelerate, he punches my subordinate in her solar plexus.

“Oboh!”

With vomit flying from her mouth, she falls from her horse and hits the ground shoulder-first.

“What a crude, violent way of fighting…”

I mutter as I glare at him, and he glares back while extracting his stolen sword from his bloodstained shoulder and holds it ready.

“What’s wrong? Are you just gonna watch!?”

“Filthy barbarian!”

His elation is irritating. He might have taken down one, but the advantage is still ours by far. Were I to fight him properly, the likes of him wouldn’t even be an opponent. But being interrupted like before would be tedious.

I check on the problematic red-eyed mage. She’s taking concentrated fire from all five of my subordinates. She’s managing to defend using shields made with [Clay], but I expect it’s only a matter of time before she goes down. It doesn’t look like she’ll be able to support the man. She’s firing wind and earth magic in quick succession, so she must have quite the quantity of magic power. Her complexion is bad. Her limit might already be close.

“I suppose I should commend you two barbarians for surviving this long against my elites.”

I pour magic power into my sword and restore its shroud of lighting. Now then, fighting from the front is fine, but I should make certain of my victory.

“As you wish, I’ll take you on, barbarian. Oi Marcus, we’ll pincer him.”

“Hah!”

My subordinate, Marcus, distances himself and moves to the opposite side.

“……”

The man’s eyes dart between me and Marcus, trying to keep us both in view. But it’s pointless. If he tries to pay attention to both of us, he’ll be careless of us both. I’d rather not spend any more time here. I’ll end it in a single blow.

“…Hmm?”

The fog has thickened again. It’s the same fog that came when the red-eyed girl appeared. I look at her and see her crouching weakly behind walls of earth. Two arrows stick out of her shoulder. It’s clear she’s used up most of her health and magic power. It’s just her final vain struggles.

“It’s useless! Enough arrows, finish her with your swords…”

Sudden sharp pain races through my shoulder. I hurriedly look back to see a giant spider with a sinster white mask on my shoulder. It’s likely venomous, as a burning sensation is spreading into my body from my shoulder.

“Th-this!”

I forcefully swing my arm to fling it off, and it separates from me and disappears into the fog. I can’t see it, but it’s probably hanging from a thread somewhere nearby. I never considered than an enemy would come silently from above.

The screams of my subordinates fill the air. It seems that spider wasn’t the only enemy that appeared.

“C… Calm down, deal with them calmly! Search for their presences, and rely on your ears! If you kill that almost-dead mage, the fog should clear up!”

I close my eyes and focus on sensing presences. I don’t know why, but that red-eyed mage is emitting a strange presence. Perceiving others is difficult. Having located her, I try to approach while paying attention to my surroundings.

As I get closer, I hear a scream of one of my subordinates from next to her presence.

“U… Uwaaaah! Aaaah!”

I run faster, and see my subordinate being hugged by the red-eyed girl from behind. She steps away from him, and he limply falls to the ground. I can’t see his face clearly in the fog, but he looks as though his life force had been sucked out.

Wh-what was that…? What’s more, the girl who should have been on the verge of death stands up straight. I can’t see the arrows that were stuck into her either.

What a creepy person. I looked down on her as just a mage, but there’s something odd about her. But she hasn’t noticed me. All I have to do is slash her now.

As I prepare my sword, I feel something clinging to my right foot. I hurriedly look down and see arms of earth sprouting from the ground. One clutches my right foot, while two, three wrap around my calf.

“Damn-…”

The girl turns to face me and raises both hands.

“[Gale]!”

Powerful winds close in on me, parting the fog. Unable to move my leg, I have no choice but to receive it head on. The wind flings my body up and tears into me. I tumble across the ground, receiving heavy hits all over my body. My consciousness flickers.

“These barbarians have, to me…”

I use a nearby tree to prop myself up. I pull my sword out of the ground and lightly swing my arms to check their condition. My shoulder where I was poisoned doesn’t move very well. I’m better off using my left hand.

My subordinates who can still move… I look around to check. Three are still standing. With ragged breathes, they look around nervously. Things that look like scraps of spider thread cling to their bodies. It seems it wasn’t a single spider.

I should still be able to do this. I know my opponent’s abilities. There’s no way I could lose in a straight fight without any tricks. I need to quickly reorganise and head to their village… We’ve taken on a lot of time and injuries.

“You’ve angered me. This is as far as you’ll go with your cowardly tricks…”

The next moment, a bizarre whistle-like sound echoes throughout the forest. The man that ran back to the village a short moment ago is there, with fifteen Lithovars arranged beside him. Another whistle like the one that was destroyed is in his hand.

We’re out of time. Because of the sound of that whistle, I worry that the double-headed dragon will come here. The village will also be on high alert. To make matters worse, in our current state of near-destruction, we need to deal with both the creepy mage and the Lithovar warriors. Our chance of victory is too small. There’s no benefit in dragging this out.

“…I-I, I have fallen behind mere barbarians…? What foolishness…”

“Surrender! This is as far as you go!”

One of the Lithovar warriors who ran here shouts towards me.

“…This is as far as I go?”

When I hear those words, laughter wells up inside me. It seems they don’t understand their position at all. Indeed, I will admit it. I mistook my opponent’s power and fell behind and so could not complete my objective.

“S-something’s wrong!”

“I’ll give up on the village. But the ones who are done for are you. I will be the one who survives.”

Good grief… I wanted to use it to blow apart the village, but there’s no helping it.

“P-please wait, Lapar-sama! The preparations still aren’t…!”

“There’s no time. You lot should get away from here as fast as you can.”

“No way…!”

The three subordinates who can walk frantically straddle their horses. The Lithovar warriors their aim bows towards their retreating backs. They really don’t understand the situation, for them to be taking their time so much.