⟬4 Hours after the interrogation⟭
Jouzu and co presented the three culprits related to the cult called Pleonexia to the king, they're currently in a hidden chamber inside the castle along with few people that King Xander brought with himself which were Sir Draginus IV, the head of the royal guards, Madame Angela Doran, head of the city law enforcement troop and Sir Kloy Argefard, commanding officer of the Vrojen's King Guard unit.
"To think that you would capture some of the Apprentice of Greed's important chess pieces in such a short amount of time, I'm truly perplexed and feel somewhat terrified of your abilities. I would like to send my deepest gratitude to you Sir Varix." The king said as he sat down in the chair.
"We have only responded to your requirements, there is no need to give us your thanks your highness. There is also no need to feel fear in us, we only do what's been asked with the best of our abilities and it may have been luck to have Sigrun as one of our main assets" Varix courteously replied with a bow, "We have made progress, but it is only just a single step. These people as important pieces as they were for the Apprentice of Greed's scheme, have no knowledge anything about him. It seems that Pleonexia's head is not just smart but also cunning, not even telling his subordinates the purpose of his commands."
"I see" Draginus muttered, "That may be the reason why we haven't been able to learn anything about that demon for a long time. He likes to keep everything and everyone in silence as he does his work what a truly cunning individual."
"But Sir Varix, if we do not even know what the head is thinking then this all amounts to nothing does is not? I'm not trying to be someone who brings the bad mood but finding out the pieces but extracting nothing from them is nothing but a number that is equals to zero."
"Madame Angela, it is as you said. These all amounts to nothing without being able to gain anything out of these three but there's also the fact that the head will soon make an action, though what that action is unknown for now, we should anticipate and expect it since he has no pawns or pieces now. Besides, we should be able to control anything that happens within the city right now that these three are here, things that worried you before such as economy and security should slowly return back to normal or if not, close to normal which means for a certain amount of time, members of the law enforcement units and guards can go back to their usual time of duties."
"Isn't that great, Angela?" Draginus said with a smirk.
"Well, I couldn't disagree with that. Everyone likes a little bit of a breather don't they?"
"Then let's move on to the next thing" Kloy said without wasting any time, "What do we do for now?"
"For now, let's discuss about the next thing once everything about Pleonexia ends, specifically, the Demon beast Kash'Nir. As we all know, we barely escaped from his domain before we arrived here and as his majesty told us before, the demon has also been causing problems to your relations outside of Vrojen resulting in your isolation. We can offer some of our very best Adventurers but I believe that we would need more than a hundred people to make it a success, we cannot tell how much damage would the demon cause once we start to subjugate it but I am giving you my word, we would do the best we can to minimize the loss of your people."
"But does it not burden your people more than ours? I cannot help but doubt that doing something like that doesn't require a price to be paid for."
"Sir Draginus, Vrojen has already paid us by giving us rights to build our own settlement near it. It is more than enough for us, besides we Adventurers have confidence in our combat and cooperation abilities. We also came from another world and thus have only one purpose and that is to come back to our home, everything and everyone we left behind is there after all."
"But still, that would be too much for us to ask of you as Draginus had said... Perhaps we should give you more opportunities to compensate for that. I cannot help it but I feel that we are just using you for our own good like a convenient tool, if there is anything you need then you can always ask us and we will try to provide you with it." King Xander interjected with composed but sympathized expression.
"There is no need to worry about such things your highness, please do not think about it too much. We would help regardless if it s beneficial for us or not, that's just how we Adventurers are" Varix replied with a smile, "Though its like our job to help since this was just a game before..." he thought afterwards.
"I believe and trust your words Sir Varix. Now let's go back in track, what kind of people do you need when the time comes to subjugate Kash'Nir? We don't have much to offer in terms of our military strength but we can atleast give you some of our elites."
"For that matter, I will leave everything into Jouzu and Sigrun's hands." He said as he stepped back to let the two said person speak.
"Before we came here, I and Jouzu personally had an encounter of Kash'Nir before everyone else did. The very first time we saw the demon with our own eyes, there's no doubt that it is slightly, if not a lot stronger than the Noxious Stinger. At our current state, we do not have the abilities to take it out with our own and as such, we would need a lot of help." Sigrun said for the opening remarks.
"First thing we would need is people who can take and be in the frontline or in short terms, vanguards. Nimbus, our prized vanguard can only take minutes of beating from Kash'Nir, be it physical blows or magic attacks. I'm going to be frank and maybe a little rude, but only a few would actually last long like him when the time comes for the awaited battle and as such, we would want some of the best and toughest soldiers you can lend us to be alongside with him. However, if you think there's no one who can match up with Nimbus's toughness, then we would instead ask for the hardest and highest quality equipment you can give for our fellow adventurers who would take the frontline with him." Jouzu followed.
"I'll leave that to Sir Kloy's hands, I'm pretty sure he has some men that can live up to your expectations." King Xander replied as he looked and gave a quick nod to Kloy.
"Thank you, your highness. Then we move on to the next thing, healers. As much as I hate to admit, there are only few skilled healers in our side since majority of the Adventurers were left in Hedia. We would need the best healers the city could offer to replenish and rejuvenate the vanguard who will take the most damage in the fight. We would take the role of the main attack force to compensate both of what we seek from you so any kind of damage will be minimalized as much as possible on your side, we are confident with our skills in fighting so you can be rest assured from that. I'm not being arrogant or anything but we took out the Noxious Stinger with only six people, from that you can scale and imagine how good Adventurers are in terms of fighting." Sigrun followed after, her words earning some gasps from the few people inside the chamber.
The Scoropede being took down by only six people were news to the people inside the chamber since they haven't had any connections outside because of the problems brought by Kash'Nir. Some couldn't help but doubt about it since the monster is literally written in their legends and myths as something to be terrified of. It is also rumored to be one of the Demon Lord's favorites, and thus people in general were afraid of it.
"Then from that, we can be assured that we are guaranteed to win am I correct?"
"Madame Angela, we can't always be sure of things. Everything is governed by chances, no matter how small the chance for something to happen, there's always the possibility of it happening. As such I would like everyone to be cautious and careful once we begin the operation, we need the full attention and of course, full cooperation of everyone who will be involved in the battle." Sigrun retorted.
"Miss Sigrun is right, Angela. No matter how sma-"
In the midst of Varix's speech a person banged the door open, "E-Emergency situation!" a guard yelled in panic as he panted heavily, "Pardon for my sudden intrusion but several groups of unidentified monsters have been spotted rushing to the city's direction! Furthermore, it seems that the place where they came from are from the direction of the Cursed Mountain and they are closing in fast!"
"I didn't think that it would be this soon, seems like the Apprentice of Greed is in a hurry huh?" Sigrun said in low voice.
"Your highness, Sir Kloy, Madame Angela, please leave this matter to us. Most likely, these unidentified monsters are a group directly sent by the Apprentice of Greed" Varix suggested and explained, "Also, since the monsters are unidentified they're abilities, strengths, and weaknesses are still unknown and thus we would like to get a grasp of these things. We will send notice once we're done and give the necessary information about the monsters."
"Then we will leave it to you, we shall continue our conversation once this emergency matter is over. For now, the meeting is adjourned. Sir Varix and your company, I wish you good luck."
"Thank you, your highness. I promise that we will return with good news." Varix replied with a bow before rushing out of the chamber along with Jouzu and co.
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"Geh! what weird looking creatures!" Nimbus exclaimed as he saw the figures of the rushing monsters.
The unidentified monsters looked like a being made by necromancy, like it was straight out of a nightmare. Easily standing at around the height of 3 meters the monsters have a large frame and build with arms and legs sticking our from the torso, some didn't even have heads and had their eyes and other face parts placed somewhere in the body. There is also a noticeable black aura that looked like a thick miasma coming out from them, giving the impression of a creature that truly belonged to evil.
Despite of the many misplaced limbs and being overall disproportionate, the monsters moved considerably fast, about the speed of 8 miles per hour. The guard really didn't lie when he said that they are closing in fast.
"Shard." Jouzu called as he signaled a look to none other than the group's sharpshooter.
She fired off one shot from their distance with pinpoint accuracy. The projectile undoubtedly pierced its target but it wasn't really enough to see noticeable effects so Shard followed it with a burst of three shots, then a volley of twelve shots.
"So their size and intimidating appearance isn't just for looks huh?" Mischa said.
The monsters remained unfazed even after receiving Shard's bullets, they continued their rush with constant speed even after being hit several times.
"Shard, give them a hard one." Sigrun suggested.
Shard just nodded as a reply and quickly brought back her twin magic pistols to her inventory, switching it with a magic rifle that resembled the looks of Mannlicher M1895 straight-pull, bolt-action rifle. She aimed using one of her skills ｢Scout's Eye｣, and pulled the trigger hitting and completely piercing the target's body as the bullet flew past it.
"Right, so it seems to not feel any pain. This is going to be troublesome." Mischa groaned.
"No, it's not like they can't feel pain, take a look where Shard's pullet pierced again."
The place where Shard's bullet hit just a few seconds before is now already back to its normal state like nothing even happened.
"Regeneration!? That fast!?"
"Seems like it and because of that, they're going to be troublesome to deal with."
"I'll call Varix and tell we'd need some help dealing with these. We can't clear them out with our current numbers, we'd need to get some Adventurers to deal with the other groups. Sigrun, Mischa you know what to do."
"Of course, leave it to us."
"Nimbus, take on everything you can and divert the monsters' attention towards you, taunt them if you can. Irish keep and maintain everyone's HP, I'm counting on you to monitor it. Shard, stay here with Irish and try to take down some if you can. I'll be joining the front soon after I make this one call." Jouzu said as he gave their roles and to-do list.
Everyone gave a quick nod on his command and then rushed to do what they have to and then the battle began while Jouzu hurriedly contacte Varix and the Division leaders via telepathy (voice chat), and then spurred onto the action soon after he's done.
The first group of monsters were quickly annihilated and then they moved on to the next one and another yet it seemed like the monsters came endlessly after they took care of the others. They also came in waves of 12 to 30, thus accumulating over a hundred in a short period of time. It was obvious that the monsters' volume of arrival was too much for them, but they currently can't reveal their trump cards (Unique Items) in that place so they have no choice but to fight them with their current best gear.
"Dammit!" Nimbus grunted as he blocked one swing after another from the monsters, "I take more than this, when will help be coming?"
"Their on their way now! We have to hold them off for a little more" He replied as he parried a big swinging monster arm, "We can still keep up so let's just wait for now!"
"These things are tough! One hard swing isn't enough to take them out, their numbers are also slowly increasing every second. We're going to be overrun at this rate!" Mischa shouted as she slashed the monsters in her sight.
"Each and everyone of them also has different Max HP, it seems their stats are also random!" Sigrun announced.
"Jouzu, approximately 50 monsters are coming from your west. My hands are currently full taking out monsters, I can't send any more supporting fire!" Shard communicated via telepathy.
"Good news everyone! Mr. Varix said they're coming in a few seconds, please hold out! I will be healing you so all will be fine~"
"Yosh! Then let's take them on shall we? HOOOOOOAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Nimbus charged and bashed everything using his shield.
The swordsman trio (Jouzu, Sigrun & Mischa) also turned up their gears and killed more quickly and ferociously, leaving a great number of monsters lay dead on the green plains.
"We're here everyone!" Someone shouted from over a distance, "Alright! Let's go kill some monsters today! Everyone, commence attack!"
""""OOOOUUUU!!!""""
It took only one command before magic, arrows, and bullets came flying everywhere on the battlefield, swordsmen and the like flocked into the frontlines and soon overrun the horde of monsters in a flash and just like that, everything was decided. Although the monsters kept coming and coming, their current numbers and strength as people who came from another world are more than overkill and they one-sidedly won the battle.
However...
"Incoming magic attack! Everyone brace yourselves!"
A sudden shockwave of magic were felt from a far away place, some lower level Adventurers got knocked back of its strength. Thought it was not enough to take even at least 5% of everyone's HP, the strength of the magic used is without a doubt top-class, considering it came from far away and were able to knock some of them down.
"That was quite strong isn't it?" Nimbus said in a low voice, "Sigrun, how far do you think the caster was?"
"Approximately 2- no, 8 kilometers away." She nonchalantly replied.
"I see, then from that distance is it safe to assume it came from the Cursed Mountain?"
"Its not there exactly, but it was somewhere near. Looks like we can take it as a greeting from the Apprentice of Greed."
"Then our reply would be this" Jouzu gazed at the dispersing bodies of the monsters they slain from the battle a little while ago, "that makes us all even, for now."
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