The night after coming to this world had passed.
The villagers greeted them the previous day and treated them to many things.
The village people got along with them while offering meals.
The classmates also got into combat uniforms that Lukiross prepared.
They were red and white. The boys wore long pants while the girls wore skirts.
They were fairly fashionable, making even the picky Hadzuki view them favorably.
They apparently held the property of being to somewhat repel an enemy’s attack.
The villagers had prepared them weapons yesterday.
No matter how they looked at it, it seemed as if they could break at any moment, but they had no other choice.
Everyone chose a weapon that suited their End ability.
Seiki took a sword and shield.
Kaede picked a staff that could increase the duration of magic.
Hadzuki grabbed a rapier that focused on speed. Yashiro chose a shield that could put up a defensive wall.
Suguru decided on a bow that could attack from a distance.
After choosing their weapons, Lukiross led them to outside the village.
Only Gariud that anyone could beat appeared around this village.
Though they knew not to be negligent, everyone felt relieved upon hearing that.
However, as the weakest one, Suguru couldn’t help but be worried about any opponent he would face.
(Come to think of it, we just suddenly came to this world and then an old man we don’t know told us to defeat monsters…could it be that this was all set up?)
However, no matter Suguru would say, he couldn’t change the situation.
If he spoke out of line, he would become a target for being the sacrifice.
Suguru judged that he could only follow along.
They kept walking for about 20 minutes.
Lukiross pointed in a certain direction with his cane. There stood a large crowd of Gariud.
They had a spider-like appearance, and approached the students as a swarm.
“Those Gariud over there are called ‘Sweepers,’ and are one of the easiest Gariud to deal with.”
“Those Gariud look a lot like monsters.”
“There’s so many, creepy! Let’s get rid of them fast.”
“We shouldn’t get careless, it’s apparent that there are a lot of them…right? Let’s go with the plan we discussed yesterday, exterminate them while maintaining a formation.”
The classmates cheerfully replied to Lukiross’ words.
During strategy meeting they had yesterday, it was brought up that when Gariud die, they don’t leave a corpse behind.
Formation and tactics. Furthermore, how to wield their weapons and effectively use their End.
Lukiross taught them the knowledge he gained from battling in the past.
Now they only had to put what they learned into practice.
However, would things really turn out that well?
Suguru couldn’t help but worry about that question.
The sweepers approached while making irregular movements.
Everyone got into position for the Gariud.
Seiki and Hadzuki were in the front. Kaede was in the middle. Yashiro, who was appointed as the leader, was put in the back row.
Then there was Suguru, with a worthless ability and weapon, who was put in the back row as well.
“Take this! Their movements are disorderly, but they’re pretty tough.”
“They’re quite slow! We have a lot of room to attack, don’t we?”
In the front, Seiki and Hadzuki were instantly killing many Sweepers with spectacular movements.
Kaede annihilated the remaining Sweepers that got through with her attack magic.
“Everyone, I can take care of this! If anyone’s injured, tell me! I’ll heal you!”
She didn’t stop smiling, even during battle.
Suguru was astonished seeing his childhood friend and best friend.
(Amazing.)
That was the only word he could think of.
“Leave the rear to me! I will not let my students get hurt!”
On the other side, Yashiro was defending against the webbed attacks of the Sweepers with a protective wall.
They came in large numbers, but she managed to completely block their attacks.
Suguru soon looked at his back and felt overwhelmed.
Though the other students were amazed as well, they got used to their End abilities and weapons as they defeated the Sweepers.
Suguru couldn’t do anything and just stood still.
He gritted his teeth, unable to hide the frustration of being worthless.
“Those two will manage to work things out,” “Those two will offer protection.”
They were together, even when coming to this world.
Yet, Suguru couldn’t help but feel like he was taking advantage of them.
There were many times when he thought that. Certainly, if he followed those two, he could be safe.
However, Suguru wanted to accomplish something with his own power.
(This time…I’ll fight while standing beside those two!)
He tightly gripped onto the bow he equipped.
He set his aim on a hostile Sweeper.
Even if the situation was in their favor, they still shouldn’t get careless.
Suguru readied his bow and arrow, pulling the string.
If he couldn’t take it down in one hit, it would only alert the enemy of his location.
He heightened his concentration and shot the arrow at the Sweeper.
(Release! Now go hit!)
Suguru fired the arrow. It hit the Sweeper right in the head.
Although its strength was low, he had hit it in exactly the right spot and killed it with one shot.
“I did it!”
Suguru expressed joy while inadvertently speaking.
However, something occurred once all of the Sweepers had been killed.
Everything up until then was in accordance to Lukiross’ estimations.
He planned on ending the combat training here. However, one must always consider the possibility of something unforeseen in battle.
“W, what?!”
“A, a centipede this time? A really big one too.”
“To think that a ‘Chimera’ would invade a remote location like this…this is quite dangerous.”
(Did Lukiross call that large Gariud a Chimera?! But, why is it here?)
Everyone got into a panic and the formation was destroyed.
The centipede-like “Chimera” Gariud moved its many legs.
It moved fast despite its large build.
Even so, Seiki began to defend against its attack with his shield.
“It’s true that it’s big and fast, but with my attacks, I won’t let it come close.”
Seiki flung his shield, focusing on attacking.
With his sword in both hands, he attacked while descending from the sky.
That allowed him to penetrate through the Chimera’s hard flesh. Or at least, it should have.
“W, what?!”
“The weapon…broke, no! Run away, Seiki!”
He attacked from the Chimera’s blind spot.
However, the shell of the enemy was tougher than he thought.
It was about to bite down on Seiki with its fangs, which could kill him instantly.
Kaede screamed and tried to activate magic, but wouldn’t make it in time.
Everyone else was confused and could no longer function as a group.
It was at that moment.
Suguru, not intimidated by the desperate situation Seiki was in, fired an arrow towards the Chimera.
Naturally, the attack was repelled and didn’t do much.
However, the Chimera decided to head towards Suguru.
Even so, Suguru shouted in a loud voice without minding the danger he was in.
“Monster! Over here!”
“S, Suguru?”
“Don’t do it! That thing’s not an opponent you can face!”
Kaede and Seiki immediately attempted to cover for him.
However, with Seiki’s weapon being broken, he had no way to oppose it.
Furthermore, Kaede had used up too much powerful magic, and it her cane stopped activating it in recoil.
The Chimera monster, with its black flesh, was right in of Suguru.
He had no tricks up his sleeve.
Suguru frantically moved back to escape. However, with Suguru’s traits, he was soon exhausted.
He was short of breath, and when he turned around, the Chimera was baring its fangs in front of him.
“Teacher! A defensive wall! …Teacher?”
He could only hear the echo of his shouting voice in this empty area.
The teacher and other members of the rear had already fled.
Suguru, who had been desperately running away, didn’t pay mind to his surroundings at all.
Actually, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he failed to escape in time.
(If Yashiro blocked its attacks with a defensive barrier while everyone simultaneously attacked it, we might have been able to kill it.)
Suguru once again turned around. Despite that, it was impossible to run away at this distance.
However, the Chimera then headed towards Kaede.
Perhaps it had been cautious about her powerful magic. She no longer had a weapon to cast magic with.
Kaede fell down from the shock.
“Kaede! Damn it!”
Seiki had his hands full with exterminating the remaining Sweepers.
Though he had a spare weapon, he had too much on his plate already.
He had no leeway to take care of another person currently.
Anyone would think the same way, but Suguru mustered the last of his strength to break into a sprint.
(I’m scared, I want to run away…but, Kaede, I have to help Kaede no matter what!)
With teary eyes, Suguru used all of his power to stand in front of Kaede.
“C, come at me! I, I’m not…afraid of you!”
“Suguru?! Wait, that…”
The Chimera sunk its jaws into Suguru’s left arm at the same time Kaede shouted.
It’s sharp fangs instantly tore Suguru’s weak arm into pieces.
His flesh and bones broke, and with a muffled sound, the Chimera preyed on Suguru’s left arm.
“Gaaaaaaaaaah!”
“N, no way….Suguru?!”
“Damn it, I can’t use any weapons now…what do I do?”
Unable to withstand a pain he never felt before, Suguru crumbled to the floor.
Kaede got close to Suguru while shedding tears, praying for his safety as he bathed in his own blood.
However, the Chimera didn’t stop moving.
This time, it attempted to prey on the two. The Chimera thrived on prey that stopped moving.
Kaede shut her eyes, resigning herself to her fate.
“What, are you going to just give up and let yourself die, idiot?”
“H, Hadzuki…”
When she was quickly hunting the Sweepers, Hadzuki fought while keeping an eye on the load put onto her weapon.
She killed the Sweepers with the minimum amount of stress in order to prevent the weapon from breaking
It was as if Hadzuki had foreseen this situation.
She faced the Chimera with a serious gaze.
“Strengthen (Shifai).”
While chanting something in a low voice, Hadzuki’s equipment glowed with a blue light.
This allowed the sharpness and strength of her weapon to increase for a certain period of time.
With this, the tough flesh of the Chimera was of no concern.
While going around to its back, Hadzuki slashed at her enemy many times.
“I’ll leave the rest to you, Seiki.”
“Alright! Leave it to me.”
When Hadzuki fell back, Seiki took over.
Seiki pierced the area around the heart of the weakened Chimera.
In a feat of wonder, they successfully subjugated a Gariud that was superior to them.
“Suguru! Are you alright!”
“Guh…Suguru, Suguru!”
Seiki soon rushed over to Kaede and Suguru.
Seeing Suguru, who was about to faint from the agony, Seiki frowned.
Kaede didn’t know what to do, and could only stay close to him.
“It’s as I said, we’re better off sacrificing him…”
While wiping her blood-stained blade, Hadzuki looked at Suguru, who had lost his left arm, in pity.
“Hadzuki! Don’t say that.”
“No no, he put up a good fight.”
Perhaps he had been hiding himself somewhere up until now. Or perhaps he was sitting on the sidelines.
They didn’t know which it was, but Lukiross had arrived late.
Kaede was enraged at Lukiross.
“Why didn’t you help?!”
“It was hard enough having to help out in the back and get people to escape…there’s only so much I can do when the formation is broken.”
(Is that so? Is that why…?)
Suguru could no longer hold onto his consciousness and fainted.
Seeing that, Lukiross stopped the bleeding and initiated recovery magic as a first aid.
He then spoke to the remaining three people.
“Now do you realize? With your current weapons, there’s no guarantee that you all will be able to survive from now on.”
“…What is it that you want to say?”
“The Jar of Madness Enhancement. Everything will be resolved if you offer that boy with the missing arm to it.”
“Still, something like that is too much.”
“Leaving that aside, we have the privilege of being invited to a city named ‘Ragnaro’ away from this village.”
Lukiross spoke. In the village they were currently at, neither food nor safety could be guaranteed.
Getting to that city meant using the jar.
They could develop their weapons and armor by acquiring a large amount of End.
Then, they could get what they needed.
There was already no room for doubt.
Hearing that, Seiki’s and Hadzuki’s hearts began being swayed.
However, Kaede continued clutching Suguru’s right arm.
“Lady over there, next time it might be you who loses an arm, you know? If that were to happen…you would also become a candidate for being the sacrifice.”
“…?!”
“Think carefully about how much it would help if you offer a sacrifice! Now then, today’s combat training is over.”
Lukiross walked while tidying his moustache.
Seiki made a bitter expression. Hadzuki made a cold smirk.
Kaede stopped crying and let go of Suguru’s arm.
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