Chapter 304: An Abrupt Change

Chapter 304: An Abrupt Change

The monsters were immediately faced with a series of large walls. A few moments of unrest followed, as they looked to each other to determine their next course of action, but they soon picked up the slack and began flooding towards the sole exit we had constructed. I’d been a bit worried that they wouldn’t be able to find it, so I placed a small flame next to the corridor’s entrance to help show them the way.

Of course, we went above and beyond just the application of petty tricks. Awaiting those that entered the corridor was Fran. We had refrained from having her clean herself up in order to make her appear more exhausted than she really was. It had to seem like the incoming troops had a chance at victory.

I wasn’t sure if it was because they saw her in her “wounded” state, but our enemies charged at Fran. The fifteen meter wide hallway we had setup was literally overflowing with them, and every last one was blindly advancing towards its guardian.

The reason the term guardian had remained single was because I was just one of the catkin’s equips, and her companion, Urushi, wasn’t present. He was off on a different mission: hunting down the monsters’ recon unit. Of course, his sudden mission wasn’t without reason. Our foes had somehow managed to confirm that our paper mache fort was just a bluff, all while doing nothing but standing by. Based on their actions, it was only reasonable to assume that they had some sort of unit in charge of reconnaissance. The army would’ve either remained more vigilant of the fort or just attacked it head on had they lacked troops specialized in gathering intel.

It was always possible for said recon unit to determine exactly how far our walls ran while Fran was busy fighting off her attackers. Hence, it was absolutely necessary for Urushi to take out their scouts and thereby disrupt their lines of communication. Of course, there was always the possibility that such a squad didn’t exist. But that wasn’t an issue. It was still better for Urushi to be off on his own, as there was a higher chance that the monsters would attack Fran if he stayed away.

Fran roared her battle cries as she decimated the enemy lines. She was unstoppable. The monsters up against her were far too weak to pose any sort of a threat.

Magic Mastery had powered up Magic Perception, which in turn allowed me to scout out the entire army and judge their strength based on their magical readings. I was certain that there were no remaining monsters that ranked in at C or higher. It had seemed like a D rank or two was possible, but I highly doubted it. I suspected that everything we had to fight was ranked in at E or lower.

Still, the angry mob was so large that it was a threat in its own right. There was also always the chance that there were stealthier monsters lurking about, so we needed to remain vigilant, even though we were up against inferior goods. And on top of all that was a need to restrain ourselves. There was a good chance they would just give up on getting past Fran if she totally dominated the battlefield. We had to hold back or else risk encouraging the monsters to search for another path.

To that end, we kept the magic to a minimum. Fran focused on swordplay, while I made sure that there weren’t any holes in our defense of the corridor. The only spells I cast were ones that were absolutely necessary for finishing off the enemies that slipped past us.

“Khhhh!” Fran grimaced as she let a goblin land a blow on her armour.

“What the heck, Fran!? I know you’re trying to make it look like they can win, but you don’t have to go as far as to let them hit you!”

“Not a problem!” she said. Fran knew what attacks she could and couldn’t take, so she always made sure she never tanked anything fatal. Everything she was hit with landed on her armour and the resulting bruises could be healed right off. Still, I can’t say I think it’s a good idea...

Despite my suggestion, the catkin continued to repeat the action, taking hit after hit just to cajole her foes into rushing her down. She had no intention of stopping so long as her actions continued to provide the black cat tribe with the time they needed to escape.

This new army put the old one to shame. Compared to the well organised troops before me, the monsters we’d defeated had been nothing but a ragtag militia. Had its members not been evil beings, casting my eyes on them likely would’ve caused me to sigh in wonder and admiration.

And that was the problem. Every last member of the army was an evil being. There were hobgoblins, high orcs, and minotaurs amongst their ranks, but every single one of them was wearing an identical set of equipment.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me... Come on... This has to happen just when we finally removed enough of our foes for me to think of cutting down the rest as a feasible task.”

“Lots of enemies.”

“Yeah... Wait. Was everything fought so far just a part of the vanguard? Is the actual main force...?”

“Lots of strong foes.”

“You got it. You still ready to do this?”

We’d come so far, only to discover that our progress had been an illusion. A part of me had been worried that Fran’s spirit would break. But more of me had been expecting her to reply in the exact way she had. This is Fran we’re talking about, after all.

“Point taken.”

“Nn!”

We cannot fall. For the Black Cat Tribe’s sake.

“Let’s...”

“Win!”

Our wills in sync, the two of us once again began to engage our foes.

***