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The battle is bloody and desperate.

The mages were able to sink more than half of the fleet by creating huge waves with wind and water magic, or by simply firing huge masses of flaming rock at them with fire and earth magic.

But despite this, 300 or so ships still managed to reach the coast. So, the invaders still outnumber us 3 to 1.

And now all the mages have fallen into a magical coma due to excessive mana consumption.

On top of that, to make matters worse, the orcs have sticks that generate a thunderous noise, from which small balls of steel shoot out at high speed.

And, although it seems to take a long time to reload the devices, the pellets do far more damage than an arrow. Almost as much damage as my piercing mana bullets.

So, we have to close the distance and kill them when they are reloading.

But luckily, not too many of them use those strange sticks, and the rest of the invaders use conventional weapons.

Another piece of good news is that they don't have wizards either.

It would be quite catastrophic if we also had to face large-scale magical attacks.

Half an hour after the fighting started, we moved against our will away from Lilian and Sebastian.

She was fighting with her bow at the same time as amplifying her abilities with holy magic, while Azur, Sebastian, and I covered her.

The formation was very good...

But the waves of enemies were such that, although we only lost sight of Lilian and Sebastian for a few seconds, we could no longer find them.

I hope they are well...

While looking for Lilian, I saw many people on our side distinguish themselves in the fighting.

The queen fought with wide greatsword blows that annihilated several enemies in one blow, while for some reason, shouting 'spinach' every time she hit.

Next to the queen was a brown-haired human. Which, equipped with leather armor and church robes, wielded a roper sword and fought tirelessly alongside a golden wolf and a short red-haired girl who moved nimbly around the queen, covering her back and dispatching enemies who approached her majesty with swift slashes of a sinister dark-colored dagger.

I also saw Tomas Protego, who was fighting awkwardly with his sword in one hand at Octavo's side, while the other hand was pressed to his temple. I found it amusing to watch his fighting, until I saw a group of six orcs approaching him fall to their knees and begin to kill themselves. Then I understood that there was more to the way he fights than meets the eye.

Surely it has some kind of singularity or special magic, but I don't have time to check, as I'm moving from combat to combat and it's all very hectic.

And though I tried to hold my position to check my assumption, the instant I lost sight of them, I never saw them again.

Damn orcs! There are too many of them...

...

Just as I was about to resign myself to stopping looking for Lilian and focusing on the fighting, I finally saw a familiar face.

Ozy. He's fighting with his censer and his strange mask, which imitates a bird's beak, against several orcs. While a storm cloud follows him at close range as my friend moves.

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Lightning strikes constantly from the cloud, seemingly directed at the will of the elf.

Upon inspection, I see that where it used to say alchemist in his class area, it now says 'Storm Cleric'.

"Wow, Ozy, if you're so strong" I said, as Azur and I approached fighting alongside the elf "haven't you ever thought of going to the labyrinth? With this strength, you could make a lot more money killing things than with your shop."

"Killing people is easy, kid. The hard part is saving them" he says while some lightning strikes in his incendiary, and he channels them with the instrument to fulminate three enemies "and for that, my shop is better.... also, it's important to do what you like".

As we speak, Azur stops the attack of an orc coming for my back at the same time as sending me the image of the orc and a feeling of irritation through the link.

"But there are lives that are not worth saving; there are times when it is better to end certain people's lives..." I say, thinking of Debi and the man who had the 'Shifter' singularity, as I slash at an orc running in my direction with a gigantic ax, cutting him cleanly from shoulder to belly.

When I do, I also send the image to Azur through the link, so he can see that I am concentrating on combat.

My new sword is amazing.

It cuts through most of my enemies with minimal effort from my hand, and only those equipped with something of the mithril or orichalcum level offer resistance.

And my new armor is no slouch.

I see what Deirdre meant about Charity being the best smith on her continent.

"An old man once said that many who live deserve to die, and some who die deserve life. But, since you cannot bring back life, you had better not hasten to dispense death. For not even the wisest knows the end of all ways." says Ozy, launching several more lightning bolts in succession from his censer.

As we speak, an orc makes an ugly-looking gash on one of Azur's paws.

It's not the first time we've been injured during battle, but at least I can repair his body with my mana.

Azur has been in draco form since the fight began.

Although he cannot use fire magic in that form, this way he is much more efficient at fighting on the ground because of his shorter and thicker neck and the lack of wings, which could be a weak spot in a fight.

However, despite this strategy, his body is taking wounds from battles from time to time.

"And do you think that the old man was wise?" I ask with a smile, ignoring as best I can the pain coming through the bond as I parry several projectiles with my arm guard and reach over to heal my companion.

The repair process only lasts a few seconds, as the damage is not as severe as it would be if a limb were missing from the drake's body.

I'm almost out of mana again... Even though I'm saving it to heal Azur.

With that thought, I take out a potion of mana and, after sighing while I think about how much my head will hurt in a short time if we continue at this pace, I drink it to replenish my reserves.

"Well, wise he was indeed, but he had a strange tendency to block people's way" he says, as more lightning flashes back into his censer from the stormy cloud that seems to follow him.

"What..." I start to ask, but stop talking as I see four orcs coming running towards me from four different directions. "I think we'd better focus on combat," I say, as I finish defeating the orcs with Azur's help, since I feel my partner's irritation because I'm not concentrating 100% on what's going on around me.

"Yep, I think that's pretty reasonable. Ohh, I think my friend needs my help" says Ozy, and I see him running off in the direction of his friend, Volgar, who is surrounded by a dozen orcs. As he gets to his friend, a bolt of lightning strikes his censer that releases a shockwave, ejecting the orcs around him."

As I watch him walk away, I am fighting three orcs in front of me, two with axes and one with a mace.

And, as I finish off my three opponents, suddenly, I feel two jabs in my lower back. Looking back, I see a short orc with two daggers.

The cursed one is trying to thrust me with his weapons to the hilt, but my armor prevents him, and only half of his weapons have penetrated my flesh.

When I make the attempt to remove him from my back, I hear a grunt and see a furious Azur, who jumps and decapitates the orc with a bite.

The wound has taken about 20% of my health...

Sighing again, I pull a health potion from my inventory and drink it.

I still have my Survivor skill, but I'd rather save it for another situation.

After all, I don't know how much more battle is left…

***

We have been fighting constantly for hours.

Azur and I are very exhausted and, although it seems that the battle was leaning slightly in our favor, now the advantage is turning against us again.

I don't know how much longer we can keep this up…

The spiritual fusion skill, which has helped us so many times in critical moments, is of no use to us this time, since the problem is not that they are too strong, but that they are too many.

And, if I used the ability, we would have one fewer fighter when its 18 minutes of duration were over, since the ability uses Azur's body as an activation cost. So, it would generate a long-term disadvantage, since I would not have time to re-summon him.

Our enemies also show signs of fatigue. But, because there are so many of them, they are not as affected as we are.

Moreover, seeing our forces and energies dwindling, they are becoming more and more emboldened.

This leads them to make suicidal attacks that are intended to do a lot of damage at once.

The form of these attacks is that they rush towards our troops, ignoring the wounds they could receive for doing that. And when they arrive, they somehow explode, causing a lot of damage to a large number of our soldiers, with the sacrifice of a few of their own.

Something that does not affect them so much because of their great number, but generates a lot of difficulties for us. Since, for us, every soldier count.

We urgently need something that will give a devastating blow to the morale of our enemies; otherwise, we are doomed...