While I would've liked to stay behind and defeat more monsters to prevent the destruction of property, I eventually chose to leave the area so I could clear out the path for the people running to Lord Auri's house; my fight against that dragon would be all in vain if I let them all die now, wouldn't it?
So what if they lose their homes? At least they get to live after this one if I manage to get them to safety. So, without further ado, I leave the village monsters, who almost immediately start destroying houses without care, and I mean, why would they? They are monsters, after all, not people.
Speaking of people, the ones I sent running away seem relieved once I reach them as their fighters try their best to open up the path clear of monsters, but they are struggling and tiring themselves out by the minute, leaving me with no other option but to help them.
"Thank god you're here! Please help us!" One of the tired warriors exclaims as they barely keep an orc at bay in their ongoing battle. I can see why everyone would be tired by now, as I even began to feel a little battle drain; I mean, I've been practically fighting for my life for over an hour now. If you count the mirror realm, of course, I'm tired too.
Yet this was not the time to complain about how I've been having a hard time. I must do what I can to help these people since it seems like I'm the only one strong enough to mount any decisive attack against the current wave of enemies.
Soon, I start running toward the creatures the village warriors struggle to fight off, simply using my sword and shield to cut the enemies in half for them. For a moment, I couldn't understand how I was so different from an ordinary warrior. Was the power scale difference really that big? "Appraisal."
I point my hand toward one of the village warriors to check them out, but what I see utterly shocks me.
[Generating Appraisal]
{RULER'S AUTHORITY APPRAISAL}
Adult Human
[Human]
Name: Ajax
Age: 34
Level: 70
HP: 2,000/3,000
MP: 1,000/2,000
SP: 500/2,000
Stamina: 356/3,000
Strength: 200
Damage Output: [D-tier]
Defense: 876/3,000
Speed: 500
Skills: No skills registered or notable enough to appraise.
Titles: None
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Information: An ordinary warrior from the Lao Village.
What the heck?! I knew that the difference between witches and humans was big, but I could never imagine it was this huge; I mean, even a level one witch poses an insane threat to an almost maxed-out human, no wonder they took the chance to kill a lot of us when they had the opportunity. I would do it.
Well, at least these guys seemed to be trying their best it would be more of a pain in the butt if there was nobody like them to help me out, even if just being able to stall; all I need is a couple of stallers to get everyone to safety so they're still quite helpful.
Even so, by the looks of their SP and Stamina bars, it looks like they are about to go into a stamina coma, which will make them faint, and then they will be even more of a burden than help, so I better keep things accessible for them, or they will collapse on the spot.
"Thank you there. Come on, everyone, keep moving!" One of the older warriors thanked me for my help and also didn't forget about the common goal I gave them, which was to run back to a safer place, in this case, Lord Auri's mansion, which seemed to be holding well so far by the looks of things.
I could see Lord Auri's mansion still intact, being fiercely defended by the Lord's soldiers with the help of who seemed to be Veronica's boyfriend, wildly using a fire sword to kill monsters at the very frontline.
I still couldn't see anyone else, which worried me; I'm sure Auri wouldn't just sit it out if he could help, meaning he was still unable to fight.
Oh man, now I've done it. I must hurry up to help with the mansion's protection, or so I thought before I heard screams coming from the east calling the attention of the Lao village people and warriors who begged me to check out what was happening nearby, so I did.
Just a few yards away from the Lao people, another group struggles with even more monsters. Still, in this new group, there doesn't seem to be anyone else left to fight, which means a lot of them are quickly dying to the giant orc, who picks humans one by one to rip their heads off with a single bite before dropping their dead bodies.
When I see the chaos at the site, I cannot help but want to hurry up and save them, especially the little girl the orc picks up next, who doesn't do anything else other than scream for her life like that would do anything for her. I jump toward the giant orc, who simply lets go of the girl to face me, probably thinking I will be an easy target.
"GAAAARRRW!" The orc lets out a warcry before picking up their big stick to try and kill me with a swing like I'm some sort of fly, and their stick is a flyswatter. At this point, I don't even bother dodging the attack, boldly choosing to take it head-on. I simply cast my new favorite spell.
"Full counter!" This time, the full counter works as expected, completely deflecting the orc's attack back at him, knocking them down violently toward the ground. Still, the full counter did not offer a free price this time as my nose started bleeding, and my HP took a mild hit of one thousand.
"Alright, you dumb oversized goblin, time to die!" Once again, I don't waste much more time with theatrics or mercy, simply taking advantage of the enemy being confused and startled by their own attack to push my sword deep into their neck with all my strenght.
Compared to the dragon, the orc's head slices right of their body much more easily, requiring a single slash instead of a struggle like the dragon. However, it only brought home the point even further: these people were way too weak to survive alone; how had they done so for so long?
I guess you don't fight monsters daily, but how would they help during war? I guess it didn't matter much since they would be fighting equally weak people, but still.
"Thank you!" "Bless you!" "Is that Yoimiya?" All the people suddenly start with their theatrics once more when they start recognizing me, all thanks to Lord Auri's announcement not so long ago. In any case, this was not the time to feed my ego, so I simply ordered everyone to keep moving and waste no more time trying to greet me or thank me for saving them.
"Move! Come on! Move it! There are Lao fighters at your west where I came from! Start running that way so we can make a bigger group. Anyone who can wield a sword must do so in times like these! We need brave men like you!"
"But we don't have swords to wield!" A man tells me this as I finish my little speech; I wonder for a second, could they wield my dark sword? And if so, could I make another one? "Here, catch this," I tell the man as I hand them the dark sword I had.
To my surprise, the man can grab the sword and move it without issue, but once it leaves my hand, I notice how some of my MP transfers to the sword, and a timer also appears on said item. [Dark sword non caster duration: 15 minutes left]
So they could all hold a weapon of mine for fifteen minutes? It was good to know, but I couldn't simply make more since they all would cost me way too much MP. I mean, that sword alone costs two thousand MP points.
[Time of wave remaining: 50 minutes]
[Current number of casualties: 54,790]