Demons!
Creatures that lacked empathy, the only thing precious to them was the Demon Lord, and they were prepared to do anything to be of more service to their almighty Lord. Like humans, the strength of a demon's parents played a role in their child's strength. The crucial difference was that humans could break past the barrier of having weak parents to become strong, even if work needed to be put in, unlike demons, where the mana concentration at the time of birth and their parents would set their strength for the rest of their lives.
Demons were ranked by their strength and granted a noble title fitting of that strength. In the reverie for their Lord that demons possessed, attaining a greater title was the only way to have their Lord recognize them, and thus they did anything and everything to attain greater status.
Lower-ranking demons were typically only monsters that gained sentience instead of being demonkin and would thus find attaining noble peerage a tall task. However, some demon barons were such monsters rather than being demonkin, such as Arachnes or Liches; thus, it was a common dream for many sentient monsters to wish for.
Verdant Oakwoods was home to such a demon, a B-ranked ogre species born with sentience and great ambition.
"There it is!"
"Goddamn, I've never even seen a regular ogre before. Fuck, that's terrifying!"
To the average adventurer, this red-skinned, 3-meter-tall, sentient muscular ogre would probably be the only time they saw a demon. As one could expect of a creature that had gained intelligence, the greatest visual difference between a monster and its demonic variant with intelligence was the equipment.
As an intelligent demon, it was able to recognize the value that equipment was able to bring. Just by wearing the equipment of warriors it had felled and modifying it crudely to fit itself to form an armor torn at the corners and held together with vines, the threat it posed increased by an entire rank. This was the primary cause of Princess Elara's concern. How could four novices be pushed onto an A-rank mission for their virgin subjugation? She was expecting goblins or maybe orcs at most, not an A-rank Ogre Demon. Furthermore, being a princess, she was not permitted to accompany her friends to try to watch over them and could only pray to Calysta, the Goddess of Life, for their safety. Thankfully, the adventurer's guild was more sensible, and though they did not know that the heroes would be participating incognito, they had added an A-rank tank to the roster of B and C-ranked adventurers to ensure the subjugation would be successful.
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"Warriors, with me! Mages, prioritize hardening the muddy ground before providing rear support!"
As expected from an A-rank, he was experienced. The battlefield was in a swampy forest. Although the trees would be to their advantage, the swampy flooring would be of more benefit to the physically strong ogre, who would be less restricted by the mud and only serve to slow down the adventurers. Forcefully hardening mud was not a time-consuming or significantly draining task and was an auxiliary choice made by the de facto commander, the A-rank tank, due to being the highest rank present.
"Oy, the young couple doing jack shit! Get the fuck outta here if you're incompetent! Don't get the rest of us killed!"
Noah and Mia were fumbling. The performance they were currently exhibiting was not even at the level of that of a D-rank even though the training they had received over the past month should have been enough to place them on the same level as most C-ranks.
The adventurer who yelled these words out as he narrowly dodged a swing of the ogre's mace was not exaggerating. The mistakes of a couple could stagger the timing of all involved. There were a total of 10 warriors circling around the ogre and carefully alternating between themselves to strike and fall back a short distance, with 6 mages providing support from the rear. A delicate balance was necessary to invalidate the ogre's attacks, and Noah and Mia were acting as a ball and chain.
To be honest, it couldn't be helped. If the other adventurers here knew that 4 out of the 16 combatants here had gotten into the subjugation through the backdoor, they would retreat immediately. This was a dangerous job, and a sense of prudence was necessary to ensure one's own survival. It was the first lesson one learned as an adventurer, and it was often the hard way that it was learned. This was why adventurers had the highest chance of perishing at the beginning of their career, where they had not learned this lesson yet.
Noah and Mia were currently facing the consequence of their imprudence. Now that they were up and close to the ogre, the fear hit them all at once. They really were in another world. They had to face monsters like this all the time? No, since this was the first time, would it get worse from here? They were just children. They didn't want this. Who was going to stop them if they just ran right now? Surely, they could just find some cabin somewhere, just the four of them, and live their lives out there?
Mia with her longsword and her perfect physical reinforcement, was able to avoid slowing down the other adventurers even if her damage output was lacking, due to her exemplary talent in mana control. In contrast, Noah was a clear restriction to the rest, a consequence of not learning how to activate his skill yet, which he believed had to do with his lack of mana control, which also was the cause for his lacking physical reinforcement.
Evan was able to recognize the struggle the two were facing. After all, he had once been in their situation on Earth, and the thoughts going through their heads may as well have been written above their heads for him. This was why Evan ran up to Noah and Mia, much to the chagrin of the other adventurers, despite being one of the mages that was meant to stand at the backline.
"Fuck, another useless one. And I thought his trick with his boom rocks was interesting too! What a shame!"