Chapter 36 (1/2)

As the battle in the east continued as planned, as expected, the number of Orcs was reduced. And as several parties attacked the Orcs, fighting Axe of the Thunder God, from behind, the Orcs were caught in a pincer attack between Axe of the Thunder God and the other parties.

「It seems the pincer attack from several parties is same strength as Axe of the Thunder God. They certainly can be called an A rank party.」

「Guru~」

Several hours had passed since the night attack began, but sounds of battle could still be heard from the east, held by Axe of the Thunder God.

As expected Min’s magic power had started to deplete and the intervals between magic casts grown longer. Still, ice arrows and fireballs kept falling without a break, magic such as Lightning Rain and Gusty Wind could also be seen cast.

「Though the number of Orcs has been significantly reduced, why hasn’t the leader of the Orcs come out?」

Rei and Set alone had taken out 10 Orcs. Though he didn’t know how many the other parties had defeated, there was no doubt that it was a considerable number. Of course, Axe of the Thunder God, who had been fighting continuously since the start of the night attack, had the most kills out of the subjugation force, especially Elk.

In fact, judging roughly from the sky, the number of Orcs gathered at the east of the settlement was already less than 50. No matter how you looked at it, it was abnormal that the leader of the Orcs still hadn’t come out.

Feeling some doubt at that question and searching the ground while flying over the settlement on Set, his eyes caught a group moving west under the cover of darkness instead of the east.

If it were a normal human, it would have been impossible to see things moving under the cover of darkness. On the other hand, it might have been a different story if it were a race with good night vision.

Though the night’s darkness had weakened due to the flames burning the settlement and the moonlight, if you chose certain places, it was still possible to hide while moving. However, the reason the group caught his eyes was because as the subjugation force invaded from every direction, they were leaving the settlement. Several visible figures of adventurers that were part of the Orc subjugation force could also be seen nearby.

Basically, all the parties distributed to the eight locations had started their invasion almost at the same time as Axe of the Thunder God. In that situation, from what Rei saw from the sky, the group moving to the west was extremely unnatural.

As the Orcs were continuously reduced by the subjugation force, a group was hiding under the darkness and moving opposite to the east, where the fiercest battle was happening. The group in the west was taking a different action. The moment the thoughts gathered in Rei’s head, he directed a sharp gaze to the ground while smiling ferociously.

「Indeed, this Orc settlement is already useless. The number of Orcs is also dropping at an increasing rate, the settlement will burn itself out before long. However, I can’t accept Orcs running away for even a moment. Set!」

「Gururu~!」

To Rei’s voice, Set dived sharply to the ground while raising a brave cry. But rather than the Orc group that was running away from the Orc settlement……he aimed in front of the western adventurer group.

With the heat from the burning settlement, the gust from Set as he landed on the ground could be described as a true tropical night wind.

「Uwaa~!」

Naturally, the adventurers who saw Set suddenly appear in front of them scattered and readied their weapons while raising voices of surprise……however, they put down their weapons after seeing that they was familiar faces from the subjugation force, the G rank adventurer Rei and the Griffon, Set.

「Hey, don’t surprise us like that.」

The voice that came over was from a female warrior in her mid twenties……no, it was a female fencer. Holding a sword that shone sharply in her hand, she wore leather armour that didn’t inhibit her movement. Next to her, was a man aged in his mid forties holding a cane and wearing a robe. At the back, a young girl in her teens lowered her bow while giving a sigh of relief, it was a girl with short hair who looked to be a little older than Rei. She was also wearing leather armour that didn’t inhibit movement.

With the female fencer as the leader and the middle aged mage, who were both rank C, and the girl holding the bow, who was rank D, they made up the party Scorching Wind.

「Ah, are you doing well Set-chan?」

The female fencer Milein stroked Set’s head. The male mage, Sulunin, spat out a sigh while seeing that and called out to Rei.

「So, why are you here?　If I’m not wrong, your job is a mobile attack unit. As you can see, we’re on our way moving to the center of the settlement now, there’s no battle here.」

「Well, there were a few fights before you came.」

To Sulunin’s words, the archer Ecryll cut in, poking fun.

Rei saw the three people and got off Set before looking around.

「That’s a relief……though it’s a funny story, there is a group of Orcs coming just ahead.」

「Impossible. Surely all the Orcs have gathered in the east. There’s no way they would come here.」

Milein spoke while stroking Set’s back.

Though Set would usually give a joyful cry in these circumstances, as expected, Set only stared into the darkness as the enemy was nearby.

「I know right. In fact, when looking from above, most of the Orcs are fight with Axe of the Thunder God in the east, all the other parties have attacked from behind as part of the strategy.」

「Then, why are there Orcs here?」

「You don’t know? The Orcs are doing their best to deal with the night attack and the pincer attack between Axe of the Thunder God and the other parties. Incidentally, Set and I have also killed several high ranking species. In other words……」

He stopped his words there. However, Sulunin understood what Rei wanted to say and immediately looked at Set with with a serious gaze.

「The individual leading the Orcs realised that there’s no chance of winning and is running away?」

「Eh!?　You’re talking about the Orc leader, the boss, right?　Yet it’s escaping and abandoning it’s subordinates and companions?」

At the same time as Ecryll’s surprised voice echoed into the surroundings, Rei struck out sharply with the Death Scythe.

With a kin~ sound, an arrow was cut in two and fell to the ground.

「-!?　Enemy attack!」

The moment they saw it, Milein gave a sharp shout and Sulunin and Ecryll immediately prepared for combat. Milein went forward as the vanguard with her sword. The archer and mage, Ecryll and Sulunin stood behind Milein. They smoothly fixed up their battle formation at once with Milein’s words, Rei was able to understand that this formation was the reason why Scorching Wind could win their fights.

While looking at them with admiration in their mind, Set and Rei prepared for battle as usual.

Rei readied the Death Scythe to slash or cast magic at any time. Set flew up to cover Rei from the sky.

「……They came.」

At almost the same time Rei and the others entered combat readiness, the Orcs showed up out of the darkness.

There were 5 ordinary Orcs, an Orc Archer with a bow and an Orc Mage with a cane. Slightly larger than the other Orcs was an Orc General wearing armour.

「Uwa~, not just normal Orcs but 3 high ranking species……we’re definitely saved because of Rei and Set’s reinforcements.」

Milein muttered as cold sweat covered her forehead. The reason was that she judged they wouldn’t have been able to defeat that group by themselves. However well the fight went, a couple of Scorching Wind’s members would have died. If it went badly, they would have been wiped out.