<strong>Itai no wa Iya nanode Bōgyo-Ryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu 424</strong>


    <strong>Defense Specialization and Tryouts</strong>


    At around the same time when “Maple Tree” joined the fray at the fortress, the “Congregation of Holy Swords”, which was marching a little ahead from there, continued to march towards the enemy’s castle while defeating every yer they encountered.


    “Heey~ Isn’t anyone actually gonnae and try to stop us~?


    “Isn’t that a good thing? We get to continue to press forward pretty much for free?”


    “Someone will definitelye at us before we reach the castle.”


    At this moment, the “Congregation of Holy Swords” was in a rocky area at a much higher altitude than the forest they had juste out of. The special effect of the area was “increased damage taken”, which no one wasn’t very excited about, but still wasn’t something that they had to be particrly careful about.


    “Are they now, really~? …!”


    Frederica, who had been fiddling with her staff as a way tobat her boredom, quickly found herself looking at several white lights blinking like stars in front of her eyes, and her expression instantly changed to a serious one.


    “Look out, everyone!”


    At Payne’s call, everyone hid behind a rock to cut the line of fireing from the front.


    “‘Anti-arrow Wind Barrier’!”


    Frederica prepared for the enemy’s follow-up attack by deploying a wind barrier that could nullify the same type of projectiles that had shown to be so effective earlier. The “Gathering of Holy Swords” had ess to skills that could deal with that kind of preemptive long-range attacks.


    “Knots, ‘Sonar’! …Just ahead of us, on top of that stone pir. Hm? There’s two people there?”


    Frederica grasped the positions and numbers of the attacking yers thanks to Knots’ Skill.


    After using “Sonar” for a quick survey of the surroundings, Frederica was convinced that there were no enemy yers within range other than the two people she had just detected.


    “Haha, they think that just two yers are enough!?”


    “Is it safe to assume that they’re Lily and Wilbert from ‘Rapid Shot’?”


    “Yes. There are no monsterpanions in the area, nor any monster that can be tamed with items during this event.”


    Hearing that, the rest of the guild members showed their uneasiness. They clearly outnumbered the enemy ahead of them by arge margin. And more than trying to drive Payne and the others back, the fact that there were only two of them made them think that this was some kind of trap.


    “They must think they have a chance of winning like that… or at the very least, that they can retreat safely.”


    Not only Payne and the others, but arge number of allied forces were on the move, and since all of them were stepping into enemy territory, it was only natural to think the enemy would have some kind of retreat route.


    “Let’s show them where our confidencees from. And if they show us any kind of opening, we’ll cut them down on the spot.”


    “Okay, I’ll pave the way. Let’s do this the way we nned it…”


    Dred promptly summoned Shadow, as he was the easiest way to gauge the enemy’s ability to respond.


    “Time to fight, Shadow! ‘Shadow World’!”


    This skill, which allows party members to crawl under the ground and move freely, could target all yers from the same faction within range during this event.


    One by one, all members of “Congregation of Holy Swords” quickly ran through the shadows, safely moving to the nextrge rock that would serve them as shelter.


    Wilbert could be a great archer, but not even he would be able to shoot through the ground. The party arranged their formation so that it would be difficult for an archer to take aim at them without having to be constantly moving from their position, and the moment they would return to the surface behind the safety of a rock, they instantly casted their spells.


    “‘Multi-Smokescreen’!”


    After producing a white smoke that would obstruct only the enemy’s vision,pletely covering the ground, Frederica stuck her head out from behind the rock to check the situation above.


    “Whoa!?”


    At that moment, a white light burst in front of her face, indicating that her “Anti-Arrow Wind Barrier” had just been triggered, and Frederica hurriedly went back to hiding her entire body behind the rock.


    “He can still see us~? That’s strange…”


    “I knew it, his eyes are special. I don’t know what kind of Skill it is, but it looks like he knows our position at all times.”


    “But it’s not perfect, huh~”


    Although Wilbert’s arrows were as deadly as theye, they can onlye in a straight line from the position where he is shooting them. With the current formation of “Gathering of Holy Swords”, if he wanted tounch simultaneous attacks, he would literally have to be in more than one ce at the same time.


    “Knots, ‘Carrier Pigeon’! Here, give them this, please~!”


    With a chirp, Knots went out to deliver the buff of Frederica’s choice to her allies, who had otherwise been out of range. Although it takes time depending on the distance, this will allow everyone to enjoy the benefits of “Anti-Arrow Wind Barrier”.


    “Let’s go!”


    Once their setup wasplete, everyone jumped out from behind the rock and, encouraged by Dred’s warcry, quickly ran forward to close the distance with their attacker.


    Their advance was met by a rain of arrows that indiscriminately fell upon the entire area from the sky.


    It was a really strong attack. However, the “Congregation of Holy Swords” would naturally have an answer for any ranged attack that they knew wasing from above.


    “‘Large Magic Barrier’!”


    “Shadow, ‘Shadow Dive’!”


    “Earth! ‘Rock Dome’!”


    Being highly skilled, each of the members of “Congregation of Holy Swords” would quickly have a response for that rain of arrows, with half of the team conjuring up arge defensive barrier, while Dred and Drag relied on the power of their monsterpanions, which had been trained to that degree of strength in a rather short period of time. In addition, they continued to use Dred’s skill to hide under the ground and even inside the rocks to make the iing arrows even more useless.


    “Earth hase up with a great way to help with the defense, huh~”


    “Well, I’m the one giving him instructions! ‘Earthquake’!”


    The moment Drag knew his target would be within range, he mmed the ground, causing a big tremor. The shockwave traveled up through the nearby rock pirs, which made them tremble violently.


    “Hah! Down you go!”


    Any yer affected by Drag’s skill will find themselves blown away by its huge knockback effect. This was particrly effective this time as well, since both of his targets were on a tall and narrow surface.


    “Payne! You’re up~!”


    The smokescreen created by Frederica was cut open, and the white dragon soared into the sky, charging straight at his targets.


    “’Quick change’!”


    Seeing that, Lily and Wilbert quickly switched their equipment while they were in the middle of falling from the rock pir.


    “’Flying Machine’ ‘Servant’s Chair’”


    Lily activated her Skills in quick session, causing arge number of drone-like machines to appear, which then all joined together to form something that resembled a rescue mat in order to catch them and keep them airborne.


    “Ray, ‘Total Magic Release’ ‘Torrent of Light’!”


    Seeing Payne’s sword had started to emit a tremendous light, Lily also produced arge number of summoned soldiers to prepare the iing blow.


    “‘Holy Dragon’s Sword of Light’!”


    “‘Puppet Wall’!”


    The light that erupted along the arc drawn by the sword’s swing cracked the wall of lifeless soldiers open at a terrifying speed.


    “’Reproduction’ ‘Repair’!”


    Still, the speed at which Lily could recreate it was nothing to sneeze at. She quickly created more soldiers, which threw themselves in front of Lily to create another wall.


    This wall was also promptly destroyed by the torrent of light emitted by Payne’s sword.


    However, it seemed that as long as the two of them were able to keep Payne and the others busy and buy some time for their side would be good enough for them. Once the light subsided, Lily and Wilbert had moved to another nearby pir, and had set several soldiers in a row, all of them pointing firearms at Payne.


    “I see. Formidable.”


    “Hahaha, it feels really nice to beplimented like that by someone like you, Payne. Don’t you think, Will?”


    “Yeah. Let’s start over, Lily.”


    When Wilbert was about to use a Skill to buff both of them, the ground around the area began to glow red.


    “…!”


    “This is… Will!”


    “Yes, it’sing from above!”


    Payne nced at the sky and found himself looking at a phenomenon that seemed strange even for Lily and Wilbert.


    Arge number of magic circles were floating in the sky, and a huge ck dragon was facing them.


    That’s right, the kings of both countries were also participating in this battle. This wasn’t an attack focused on an area that was upied with yers, but rather, a random attack that could happen anywhere in the entire map. The red glow on the ground that they were looking at was a sign of where the dragon’s attack wouldnd.


    “The king is about to attack this ce! Dred!”


    “Shadow, ‘Unleash the Pack’ ‘Shadow World’!”


    At Dred’smand, arge number of shadowy wolves started running around Shadow. The effect of this Skill was topletely refresh the cooldown of the next Skill Dred mentioned.


    With “Shadow World” active once again, everyone was able to dive into the ground one more time to safely escape the area.


    “If only we hadn’t been interrupted by that thing… We’ll get them next time!”


    “Yes, that’s exactly what I intend to do.”


    By staying here, at this rate, the “Congregation of Holy Swords”, which had rallied a lot of other guild members, would be suffering a lot of damage just to eliminate two yers. Moreover, there was no telling when Lily and Wilbert’s reinforcements would arrive.


    And Lily and Wilbert had no reason to pursue them if they were to retreat.


    As a result, both parties quickly left the scene before the attack from both the magic circles and the dragon’s breathid waste to it.


    Lily and Wilbert used the drones summoned by “Servant’s chair” to escape the area and quickly retreat to their own base.


    “Phew, as expected. Payne will jump in without hesitation as soon as he sees that he can defeat his target, huh?”


    “I thought he would be a bit more hesitant… Sorry if I was too rash.”


    “No, it’s fine. You did well. Besides…”


    A little while after their escape, Lily and WIlbert finally saw the figures of two yers running towards them as if they were riding a lightning bolt.


    “Huh? Where’s the ‘Congregation of Holy Swords’!?”


    “…Besides, our reinforcements were a littlete.”


    The one riding the lightning bolt was Velvet, who had Hinata clinging to her side using her gravity control. Although they were a fighting force that could change the battle situation greatly the moment they arrived, unfortunately for Lily and Wilbert, they were originally too far away for them to get to the battlefield on time.


    “We’ll do our best next time.”


    “Ve-Velvet… Can we go a little slower next time…? I’m dizzy…”


    “Are you okay?”


    “Hop on, you two. It wouldn’t be strange if that breath attack came down here as well.”


    “Let’s stay vignt. Velvet, if you see the ‘Congregation of Holy Swords’ chasing after us, you know what to do.”


    “Got it!”


    Thus the four of them returned to their own camp riding Lily’s special vehicle.