28 Chapter 6 7 : A field trip (1/2)
Chapter 6 (7): A field trip
The next day, it was time for the school's first field trip, also known as the party evaluation exams. Three parties other than ours made the cut to even go, two male, one female. Each went off in a different direction on a different quest. The other female party went on a D ranked quest, the male parties going on E and D ranked quests, and mine going on a C rank quest that was barely above D rank. Our job was to deal with an abnormally large number of goblins in the area around a small village about two day's walk to the northeast, and the party watching ours was, of course, Van's party (not including the twins). Ver was beside us, in wyvern form, and Bradley was the first to speak with a lecherous expression.
”Hey, looks like we have a group full of really pretty girls. I know that Ryuu is taken, but th- OW!” (Bradley)
”All four of them are taken, numbnuts. Get your head out of the area between your legs and start focusing on the job... not that there's much for us to do, with Ryuu on their side” (Ninya, the source of his yelp)
”Right, right. Ryuu, how've you been? You didn't go on a quest with us last week, so it's been a while” (Bradley)
”I didn't go on a quest with you because I was trying to avoid you. I knew that this would give me several times more exposure to you than I'd want for any given week, and I had other things to be doing in any case. Now, shall we actually get going? Wait, I guess introductions come first, don't they?” (Ryuu)
Everyone introduced themselves, save for Ninya and myself, and we went on our way. Because of my being able to use storage magic, my party's baggage wasn't slowing us down, and I did the same for Ninya and co's bags. That meant we were able to move faster than was expected, so we only had to camp out one night. Char and Mae brought down some horned wolves (D ranked alone, this pack of five low C) on our trip, which Elise cooked, and Ver scarfed most of it down, though there was still enough for both parties to eat their fill. Mae took first watch, Char got the second watch, I got third so I could feed Ver in peace, and Elise took the last watch because she's normally up early in any case.
Day two, we brought down a blade stag (middle C rank) and had that for lunch. About an hour after we finished lunch, we reached the village, to find it surrounded by several hundred goblins (E rank alone, 5+ are D rank, 25+ C, 100+ lower B) so I asked Elise to use her spectacular vision to scout in more detail and report.
”That's... not good. They're not... moving by instinct. Something's leading them... ordering them around. Most have metal armor... rest have leather. All have... iron weapons or better... save for mages... who have... rather strong staves. Hmm... Oh, that's bad. That's really bad. There's a large group... on the northern side... all are hobgoblins... protecting a goblin king.I'd say... minimum low A... this is bad” (Elise)
Goblin mages are D rank alone, but with the group of 10 or more goblins they're almost always with, they're usually C ranked. Hobgoblins are D ranks alone, and a goblin king is C rank alone, but with the medium-sized army he is always accompanied by, the task of taking him out is always upper B rank, minimum. Some have larger armies, which bump them up to low A or even high A.
”Well, looks like it's time for us to get to work. Can't be harder than that Gigant Basilisk we took down a few weeks back, right?” (Ryuu)
”Right... That was... fun...” (Elise)
”Stop, shock, and burn?” (Mae)
”Yeah. Elise, we don't need you to shoot its eyes, instead, you focus on making sure they don't try anything sneaky. Now then, just follow the plan and we'll win this in time to make dinner!” (Ryuu)
”Ah, you guys can leave this to us. We'll handle it. Actually... we'll open a path for you, you go help the people on the inside of the village's walls when we do” (Char)
”That's not what-” (Van)
”Your primary duty is to save lives, right? We can handle it if it's just goblins or hobgoblins, no matter how many we are up against. However, we can't deal with the ones inside the village. That's where you come in” (Ryuu)
At that, they agreed, and I launched the first spell, lightning magic that fried a few dozen goblins, and Van's group charged in that opening as we held the goblins back. Once they were safely inside, thanks to Mae's timely staircase made of earth, we destroyed the stairs, and moved to phase two. Mae used magic to cause localized earthquakes, keeping the goblins from moving much, and I cast rapid-fire weak lightning magic to paralyze them all, buying time for Char's casting Offering of the Inferno, fire magic that didn't have much power, but would drain mana from those it hit to spread the flames to more targets, in a chain reaction that swept through their ranks. When they were all burning, Mae and I switched to casting magic to actually kill them. Mae created spikes under their feet, while I rained lighting onto their strongest. Like that, we took out another 60 or more in a few minutes, rested for a moment, and did it again. The fourth time we did so, a few snuck up behind us, but I was ready for them thanks to Elise's keeping watch, and they died quickly. After we'd killed 500 or more, we got to the cluster of hobgoblins around the goblin king. They had goblin mages blocking the effects of our magic, so we charged into their ranks, Mae hacking and slashing them to bits, Char acting like she had five arms, each with their own sword, four of them made of lightning or fire, and in my case, slashing, stabbing, and strangling them as I cast my larger spells when I had the chance. Elise was on the wall, sniping the mages and archers when she had the chance. Ver, meanwhile, was hidden in my subspace, occasionally popping out to cast a spell or two and then retreating again. After a few minutes, we'd reduced the enemy numbers from over a hundred to under twenty, but those were all elite hobgoblins who were several times stronger than an ordinary hobgoblin, and had incredible coordination. Fortunately, we had a plan for that as well.
”Okay, time for shock and awe!” (Ryuu)
The three of us retreated, Char and I preparing large-scale lightning magic, Mae creating a barrier between us and the village, as Ver flew up above them, and then she released a roar as I removed most of my limiters at once. The shock of having a greater wyvern appear at the same time as someone with about five million mana did created an opening for just a second, but that was enough for Char's lightning magic and my own to fry them all. After that, the only one that was left alive was the goblin king, who died to Ver's jaws after I'd put my limiters back on. Around the time we had started to go into melee combat, however, Van and co had finished off the two dozen or so goblins that had made it into the village, and they were able to witness the whole thing while their jaws were hanging open. Ninya, to her credit, picked off a few fleeing hobgoblins, but for the most part, she just watched in awe with the rest of them.
”I think... we underestimated Ryuu's companions because we compared them to her...” (Bradley)
”I knew they were strong when they only looked at a blade stag as food, not a threat, but then... when she said something about a gigant basilisk being fun... I raised my expectations... and still didn't do so enough. Their teamwork is on par with those who've been fighting together for decades... but they haven't known one another for even two months yet... how...” (Irene)
”And Elise's support... she knew what targets to hit, and which ones would be dealt with by someone else... and she never missed. Not even once...” (Shion)
”That's the power of love, I guess... I sure as hell can feel it when I'm fighting with Ryuu” (Ninya)
”It'd be a waste of good talent to try to recruit any of them without all of the others... and even then, we'd just get in their way more often than not... well, maybe Ninya wouldn't” (Van)
While they were talking about that, my party was busy collecting all 922 of the corpses into one spot, and I was putting them en masse into my storage. When I checked later, the total numbers of each type came out to be:
[607 total goblins]
517 normal goblins (18 killed by Van and co)
35 goblin mages
26 goblin warriors (1 killed by Irene)
12 goblin thieves (3 killed by Shion and Ninya)
9 goblin archers
4 goblin heavy knights (1 killed by Shion)
3 goblin leaders
1 goblin strategist
[314 total hobgoblins]
97 normal hobgoblins (4 killed by Ninya, 1 by Irene)