Elsewhere, around the same time, between a small town and a major city…

Greaves and his party are traveling along a forest road. Dense, deep and dark woods grow on the sides.

「Tsk… 4 silvers… Why can't you just wear normal clothes, Will?」

Greaves grumbles under his breath and asks. Will is trailing slightly behind Greaves, clanking his staff on the ground as he walks.

「Because it's unbecoming of a mage to be dressed like a slob, Greaves. I'm not supposed to get gored by horns, or shredded by teeth every day. Unlike you. Be glad yours were cheap.」

Will answers, his staff now clanks against the ground with more force.

「Guys… It's fine, we got some potions out of it too. Must you really keep arguing about it for days, as always?」

Alicia again tries defusing the argument, meekly prying in the middle of it.

「Alicia, I would not argue about it if Greaves for once showed some capacity for learning from his mista-」

Will looks over his shoulder at Alicia while pointing his palm at Greaves ahead of him. His rant about his friend is interrupted by an echoing growl from an indistinct direction, somewhere from the trees.

「-kes… Uh oh…」

Will's entire demeanor changes. His shoulders slump, and he clutches onto his staff tighter. Greaves peeks over his shoulder at his party. He sees terrified Will and unnerved Alicia holding onto her silver wand, keeping it closer to her body as her eyes dart from the left forest to the right forest.

「Hahaha! That shut you up real quick, Will! Ooooooh, look out! Maybe it's horndogs again! Hahaha! Ah! Look out there's one behind you Will!」

Greaves laughs, mocking Will. All of a sudden Greaves shouts and points behind Will.

「Ah!? Ah… Greaves!」

「Ahahahahahahaha!」 「That's not funny!」

Greaves has a fit of laughter as Will turns around in panic, only to see nothing there. Alicia managed to get fooled as well. Both of them look askance at Greaves.

「Ahh… Come on guys, we killed so many of them back there. You think there's more? It's probably regular wolves. I can chop those up like a salad.」

Greaves sighs once he finally gets his laughter under control. He shrugs with hands apart, and a smug smirk as he talks.

「And what if it isn't!? What if it's horndogs again!?」

Will shouts out his concerns at Greaves.

「Huh? What, you think they'd be out for vengeance? Not happening, we got them all. Besides, they're just big, stupid dogs with horns.」

「You have no proof we killed them all! And every time I try to explain the scholarly system and the importance of evidence to you, you call it boring! And- Greaves! Greaves!」

「What, you think I'll fall for my own prank?」

Greaves smirks even wider as Will points his shaky hand in front of him, shouting in panic.

「Greaves! On the road!」

「Huh?」

His smirk is wiped from his face by Alicia, who also points forward with a greatly worried expression.

「Uh oh.」

Greaves utters out as he sees three horndogs growl and drool in front of them on the road. Their sharp claws dig into the dirt as they flex their massive paws. They advance slowly towards the party. Greaves draws his sword.

Shwiinng!

「It's just three of them! Will, start casting!」

Will runs to the side of Greaves and sticks the tip of his stave out at the horndogs. He begins chanting out his incantation…

「Heed my call scorching flames, and incinerate those in my gaze…」

As Will is casting his spell, Greaves looks around. He spots more horndogs on each side, sneaking around the trees in the forest.

「Uh oh. Like actually.」

He says and takes a position between Will and Alicia, that allows him to cover both of them with minimal movement, leaving himself exposed to a potential attack from his behind.

「『Heat Ray』!」

The space in front of Will's staff blurs, and just as the horndogs in front of him are about to be enveloped by the scorching blur, two of them jump out of the horizontal cone that extends from the staff. The horndog in the middle that failed to dodge explodes into a blood splatter, and some of the trees at the sides catch flames when the cone reaches them.

「Dodged!? Greaves! Greaves Greaves!」

「I know! I see them!」

Will shouts in panic as he backpedals from the charging horndogs. Greaves rushes out in front of Will and slashes them with his sword, sidestepping the bisected bodies and their splashing blood.

「There's more in the trees! Back out a bit!」

「Greaves!」

Alicia calls out from behind them, two horndogs that jumped out from amidst the trees and are now dashing towards her. He jumps forward, then jumps again in the air towards one of them, slashing it apart. He turns to Alicia.

The horndog leaps at her throat with a slavering maw, she shoves the silver wand in front of her, and the beast clamps down onto it. Alicia wrestles with the horndog with all her insufficient might, trying to keep its twisting horns up and away, to prevent them from goring her. At the same time, Greaves notices more movement.

As many as six horndogs jump out in front of Will and begin charging at him as well. Will starts casting, but it's physically impossible for him to aim the spell so that all of them are hit, as they are spread out too far apart from one another.

《Shit, shit, shit! Alicia won't last, but if I help Will first, she might die! There's no guarantee the cheap potions we got will be enough for her if she gets hurt!》

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

Greaves's eyes dart from the horndogs charging at Will, to the one wrestling with Alicia, violently shaking her wand and tugging at it in an attempt to pull it out of her delicate hands, unsuitable for a contest of strength such as this.

《I have to help Alicia! Will is going to be fine! Alicia can just heal him when I deal with-》

Time slows for Greaves, without him really noticing it. Greaves takes a quick look at Will again while he's charging at the horndog fighting with Alicia.

《Wait. Wait wait wait. There's no way to be sure he's going to live! What if they wound him so badly, that even Alicia can't do anything!? Shit! It's already too late to change my mind! I just need to be quick about it!》

Greaves jumps twice, he slashes the horndog vertically at the neck, and the rest of its body drops limp to the ground, splattering Alicia's pristinely white robes with red. Greaves touches the ground with only the tip of his boot, and jumps through the air again towards Will.

「Will!」

He shouts out to his friend in desperation. He lands on the ground and rolls towards Will, without slowing down in the slightest. Despite Greaves's incredible speed he's still out of reach.

Will is only halfway into his incantation, and the horndogs are already leaping for him. Some of the monster-dogs are trying to take a stab with their horns, and some brandishing their jagged fangs. Greaves shoots up to his feet from the roll and continues dashing.

《I'm not gonna make it!-》

Swishswishswishwish.

The horndogs cry out in pain as a blue blur appears from the trees, with a late rustle of bushes and a handful of leaves. They are sent flying sideways into the opposite forest with a trail of blood in the air, loudly breaking branches as they go. Some slam into trees with a dull wooden thud.

《Wha-!?》 《!?》

Both Will and Greaves couldn't catch the slightest glimpse of what happened. Most of the horndogs that were attacking Will are now dead on the ground amidst the trees. A tall, slim woman in a blue, full bodysuit stands in front of them, facing the last horndog that was lagging behind the bulk of Will's attackers.

The tall woman holds a long spear in her hand, resting it against the ground with the point up as if it was just a mere walking stick. Seemingly unbothered that she's fighting against beasts, she stands casually with her free hand on her hip. Her black, neat, tapered ponytail stretches just a little past her shoulders and sways gently as she watches the horndog charge at her.

It leaps at her throat, in a rather challenging attempt due to the height difference. Her arms and spear become a blue-black blur, and the horndog is impaled through its torso with a yelp, and a cough of blood. She lifts it high up into the air, as if it were a flag, or a standard.

She spins around on her heel and swings the spear down. Greaves standing behind her has less than a split-second to react, to not be hit by the horndog flying off her spearhead. He jumps out of the way at the last moment, and lands on his behind painfully.

「Ow.」 「Hm?」

The woman humms softly with raised eyebrows when she notices Greaves was standing where she was swinging. The horndog slams into the ground with a deafening thud and distinct snapping of bones. The sound echoes, more blood shoots out of the horndog's maw, and its lifeless corpse bounces like a ball before falling limp some distance away.

「Ah, apologies. I thought you were standing a little further away.」

She looks down at Greaves, smiling softly. Although there is no detectable sarcasm in her voice, her smile does have a cocky twist to it. Her black eyes dart all over the party rapidly. Greaves, Alicia and Will look at each other, unsure what to say or do.

「Um, thank you for your help.」

Alicia is the first to step up to the woman, and thank her with a nod added. The woman waves her hand dismissively as she towers over Alicia, holding her spear once again as if it were just a walking stick.

「My, it was nothing. I was just taking a shortcut when I heard the shouting. Something is making beasts go wild lately, they're not usually this aggressive. Maybe the demon lord is back?」

Greaves gets up and his eyes widen, when he realizes she's at least half a head taller than his hair.

「Wow. You're tall, lady.」

「Greaves! Stop being immediately rude to someone who just helped us!」

Will turns to Greaves and scolds him. Meanwhile, the woman chuckles softly.

「Huhu. Oh, it's not rude at all. People of my land tend to be taller than you.」

「See!? And it's weird she's even taller than you!」

「Don't go around calling people that helped you weird, you dumbass!」

「Don't call people that saved you from the horndogs dumbasses!」

「It's your fault we ran into them to begin with, Greaves!」

「Huh!? We just followed the road! We didn't get lost! How is that my fault, Will!?」

Greaves and Will argue again. Alicia sighs.

「Quite the handful your friends are, aren't they?」

The woman says as she tilts her head slightly and smiles at Alicia. The woman's silky ponytail slides off her shoulder as she looks down at her. She hunches over a little to match Alicia's height better.

「…Yes. Will doesn't want Greaves to run off and be an adventurer alone, and I don't want them both to run off and die somewhere. So I'm kind of stuck tagging along.」

「Believe me, I can relate. I'm looking for my lovely idiot brother after he ran off.」

「Um. Are you a foreigner? Uh- Not that I mind, it's just your clothes and your face are a little exotic…」

Alicia asks as she looks at her gold-hemmed blue bodysuit, covering her whole body from legs to neck, seemingly as one piece. Her almond eyes paired with her long eyelashes give her uncommon face a strange allure. Greaves clicks his tongue as he finishes arguing with Will in the background.

「Something or the other like that…」

She says, straightening out. Will walks up to the spearwoman, adjusting his glasses.

「What's your name, miss? I'm the party's mage, Will. This idiot is Greaves…」

「Hey!」

「…And this is our party's healer, Alicia.」

He points his palm at Greaves and Alicia as he introduces them. Alicia nods towards the woman as Will says her name. The spearwoman readjusts the grip on her spear, as she leans her weight onto it and faces Will.

「I'm Lian. No fancy titles.」

She says with a distinctly smug, but friendly smile.