About an hour after we arrived at the Stone Forest, the extermination strategy meeting finally started with all the adventurers in attendance, and Guren-san started the talk.
“Alright! Everyone seems to have made it here! Then, this will be the same as yesterday, I will leave it to the rear guards.
Hmm, it seems that Guren-san has divided the teams into two, the front and rear guard.
The vanguard utilizes weapons such as; the sword, axe, and daggers, most of which are short range weapons. Obviously, I entered the vanguard, and even Guren-san and Marubuta entered it.
The people that use bows and magic are in the rear guard, it seems that Iguru is in it. By the way, no one is allowed to use magic in this extermination strategy.
I enquired to the others if there were any students from the Magic Academy that became adventurers, but apparently they chose much safer paths. I could now understand why Guren-san hated the Magic Academy a little.
After a few minutes,
It was confirmed that the teams properly split into their respective fronts.
“Alright, the vanguard and the rear guard seem to have split properly. Then, let’s quickly depart! Everyone, make sure that you look out for your comrades and don’t let them die. Alright then, let’s go!”
And so, lots of us entered the Stone Forest.
The rear guard entered the forest first, in the front was me and Guren-san.
A little behind us was Marubuta and the other adventurers.
After walking for a few minutes, there were signs of monsters, so I walked to where Guren-san was,
“Guren-san, there are signs of monsters.”
“Oh, I noticed the signs, there are probably three goblins.”
Hmm, as expected, Guren-san noticed it before I could.Well, it’s true that Guren-san does have a higher level of Sign Perception than mine.
“Then, i’ll go first.”
“No, i’ll do it.”
And then, Guren-san ran to the place where the goblins were.
Oi! Aren’t you the Leader of this Extermination Group!?
“LET’S GOOOO!!!”
While screaming, Guren-san ran toward the Goblin. Umu, that's quite the agility, Guren-san instantly reached the place where the goblins were and said,
“TAKE THISSSS!!!”
While swinging the Long Sword he had.
Yup, his swing packs quite the punch.
Somehow, it reminds me of Grace-san’s way of fighting.
And with that, the Long Sword landed right on target,
“TAKE THISSSS!!!”
The nearby Goblins were startled as well after hearing that.
And then, the Goblin that put up no resistance was split in two from the waist just like that.
And then,
“Sorry about that Yuma! I wasn’t able to take all of them down at the same time.”
No, you aren’t, you did it on purpose.
Is it because you didn’t want me to show my power’s in front of everyone else?
But, for the mere threat of Goblins,
“I don’t even need to use my weapon.”
For going up against a Goblin,
“Hmm!”
I kicked a stone. It was just a quick kick with no extra skills. That stone blow was enough to crush the head of the goblin at the edge, then it fell down immediately.
“Like that!”
The adventurers who were watching from the back were stunned, but Marubuta wasn’t. Well, he watched me take down an Orc King.
“OOoooo! As expected of Aniki, your absolutely amazing!”
And then, soon after,
“Wha-What was that just now!? That monster just now was a Goblin, and you just took care of it with a kick!”
“I haven’t seen anyone take down a Goblin without using weapons!”
“But, the kick itself was so fast that I could barely see it.”
“So, this is the level of Headhunter who was able to hunt a Cyclops alone……..”
Some weird stuff is being brought up here.
And then, Guren-san came over,
“Ha ha, Yuma, you are quite outrageous! I thought I could see you fight with a Goblin, but I never imagined that there was a skill that could raise the power of a mere kick!”
Hmm, no skills or anything extra was added to the kick. If possible, next time, it would be a good idea to learn a few bare handed fighting techniques. In a battlefield, if you don’t have a weapon, then it would make it impossible to fight.
“Ha ha, actually, I thought about doing it flashier.”
However, I wonder about making such a huge ruckus inside the forest, if I do, monsters are more likely to come toward this location.
While I was thinking that,
“Guren-san.”
“Ah, it’s the monsters. Moreover, there seem to be quite a few. Alright! Everyone, get ready for battle, lots of monsters will appear this time! It’s fine though, because this time we have the Headhunter and me here. Don’t get shaken~! Let’s Go!”
Hmm, the adventurers who were celebrating just a moment ago suddenly started getting battle ready, which showed on their faces. Guren-san seems to be good at motivating and increasing morale. And then, everyone took out their respective weapons,
“Alright! All of you, it’s time for battle. The vanguard group, don’t move forward too much! The rear guard, try not to hit the vanguard as much as possible! Me and the Headhunter will handle the Cockatrice! ~Let’s go everyone!”
And soon, the monster appeared in my sights.
When I gazed at them, there was apparently two Cockatrices mixed along with the monsters.
I took out the Demon Ripper and said,
“Guren-san, I will go on ahead!”
I ran at full speed toward the Cockatrice.
It looked liked the adventurer’s around me moved just a little.
And then, soon after,
“I’ll take your head!”
I immediately cut the neck of the Cockatrice, and soon after, I ran toward the next one.
The other Cockatrice didn’t seem to have noticed me yet.
And so, just like before,
“Got the second one.”
I slashed its neck, and continued on with the same momentum.
Alright, the troublesome Cockatrice seems to have been taken care of. Then, up next is the clean-up.
When I looked around, everyone was fighting with favorable conditions.
Guren-san, as usual, was swinging his Longsword. Marubuta was using his Hit and Run Tactic.
And from the Rear Guard came an attack from a bow that decimated the monsters. To be honest, I was a little worried about working together with a group, but if it's like this, then I believe that I can handle it pretty easily.
Oh, there seem to be some adventurers who are in danger here.
There was an adventurer who was almost crushed to death by a club, so I immediately ran to where they were, and blocked the club with a smack of my left hand. I swung my left hand with the same momentum, and clenched my hands onto it’s head. *buri*
After that, I turned to the fallen adventurer, and said,
“Oi, are you alright?”
“It's Headhunter! I'm sorry, I seem to have been injured, i'll find a corner.”
“Got it!”
And so, I picked up the fallen adventurer.
“Ahhhh!”
I will place this fellow where the monster’s attack won’t reach.
Well, it’ll hurt a little, but it will definitely be better than staying here in that condition.
There was the possibility of using Heal to make him recover, but in reality, Heal requires a period of rest before moving around again, so that wouldn't help an adventurer who was in the midst of battle.
Alright, it's time to continue the operation.
After fighting for several minutes, all the monsters were successfully annihilated.
And Guren-san, realizing the end of the battle was near,
“Alright! Everyone, quickly finish the battle! All the monsters must be exterminated without fail! Injured and poisoned adventurers need to head to the healing unit and get yourself treated! Dismantling team, please start dismantling!”
What? Monster dismantling?
“Guren-san, will you start the monster dismantling right here?”
“What? That's obvious. We definitely can't bring all these monster's back. Therefore, only bringing back the precious parts of the monsters will do fine. Well, these are just Goblins and Hobgoblin's, they don't have anything worthwhile like magic stones or anything else after all.”
“What about the Cockatrice? If it's too much of a hassle, I could put it in my Item Box and take it out later.”
“Oh? That would be really helpful!”
And so, I put the Cockatrice into my Item Box and sat on the ground. The adventurers that became free started to stare at me.
And when I was sitting alone,
“Yo, Yuma, good job! I didn’t expect that you would be so strong, and on a completely different level.”
“Aniki, good job! Aniki’s battle was truly amazing to look at!”
Oh? These two have come over for a chat.
“Oh, good job Iguru and Marubuta. Marubuta, you did good, I was watching really closely too.”
Marubuta was extremely pleased. To what extent though? Well, he just started jumping right where he stood, I guess it's fine.”
And then, Iguru said,
“Haha! Good for you Marubuta. If only I wasn’t in the rear guard, I would have showed you my brilliant Bow Judgement skill as well.”
“Well, I guess I would be able to witness it since there's plenty of time left, and also, the extermination job is still incomplete.”
When I said so to Iguru,
“No, the extermination operation is over. Yesterday, it was decided that we would kill 30 or so, and today we already cut down over 30 pretty easily. So, with this, the operation is complete.”
Seriously!?
It ended much earlier than I expected.
Well, I guess it's fine to finish earlier.
“Is that so, it’s already complete, huh. Then, I guess we’ll just head home.”
Iguru, who was talking suddenly, stopped with a pale face. Even Marubuta, who was jumping around, also stopped. Both of them then started to have cold sweat.
“Umm, Yuma, by chance, are you going to go in the same way as before?”
“What? That’s obvious.”
“Is-is that so…. Yuma, could you please slow down while going this time?”
“Yeah, I understand.”
And so, while we were talking, Guren-san came forward and started to speak,
“Alright everyone, we were able to reach our target this time. Therefore, the extermination operation this time has been completed. Everyone, good job!”
And in this manner, the extermination operation was completed.