I finished off the enemy Mage. Errr... StepMe I think his name was? Ah, whatever, doesn't matter.

What matters now is the large army of monsters surrounding us from all sides.

"This is all you fault Gothra!"

"I don't want to hear that from you!" She said, pointing at the burning trees!

"What!? We just stay away from it and that's that. The monsters are actively trying to kill us!"

"Yeah? But at least they give us EXP and loot! What does you burning down the forest do, huh!?"

"Uhhh, I hate to interrupt you two idiots, but how about we get to killing this wave?"

We were currently being surrounded by about 60 enemies of the same types we had encountered the night before. It wasn't as much, but still a pain to deal with.

"Agreed. You should really work on being more mature Gothra."

"Sorry old man. I feel like you're about to NTR someone. Hahahaha! Oh hey, that rhymed!"

...

"NTR..." Valkjure was murmuring, almost as if she was visibly shrinking. "No, no, I don't need an explanation. I will ban you, okay!? And everyone else, do yourself a favor and don't look it up. We might be functionally immortal, but losing years is still not a good thing."

"A haiku for you: Y U NTR; Very bad Fira cry; I call FBI." And Gothra's still not done yet!

"Gah! If anyone's doing that, it's clearly you!"

"Oh, I'm that good at it? Finally, we agree on something Fira!"

Geh... Nothing gets past her!

"Rawrr!"

A ghoul had made it to our position, Valkjure parried its claw and proceeded to cut it down with her blade.

"Ooohhh. Amazing." Gothra clapped.

"You can be amazing too! Join me! Seriously this is too much!"

"Okay, okay," Gothra chuckled, picking up her mace and joining Valkjure just as Bereo began to give cover fire from the back.

Hmph, I better earn my keep too I guess.

I ran towards the other side, ready to take on this other half by myself, with the occasional support fire from Bereo.

[Burning Weapon] [Fireball]

I made it to the front of their group and slammed my hammer along with a fireball onto an unsuspecting zombie.

[Hammer Batter] [Shockwave]

Shortened the latter as well, it's nice how the game allows you to do that, as long as you have a proper image of the skill you have in mind. Kind of like hotkeys, to use old terminology.

Flash! Boom! Zoom! Kaboom!!!

The force of the attack was such that the zombie died instantly, catching fire, and then launching far back into the enemy line, setting many of them ablaze as well. The fire quickly spread out, charring the unsuspecting monsters!

Phew. Using [Hammer Batter] at point-blank is turning out to be such a good fucking idea. It's almost like this is how it was truly meant to be used!

In addition, just that one attack has caused devastating damage as even the shockwaves can give the [Burn] debuff of unsuspecting enemies thanks to [Burning Weapon]. Add on top of that the effects of [Arsonist], and now [Wildfire] that increase my proficiency at applying the burn debuff, and having it spread around... That's why I prioritized fire-based magic out of the other basic ones I could have gotten.

"Roooaaawwrrrr!!!"

"Grraaaahhhh!!!"

"Keeaaahhyyyyaa!!"

Of course, despite the impressive show of strength, none of them were wise enough to just count their losses and turn back.

Smash!

So I decided to at least make their ends swift!

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Clash!

A ghoul swung its arm at me, but was completely repelled and then pushed back by my hammer!

Bash!

I killed the ghoul along with the goblin behind it!

Splatter!

Blood and gore explode all around as a zombie lost its head!

Zoom!

Arrows whisk past me, but none ever hit. The skeleton archers take too long to shoot, It's almost harder to get hit!

Splat!

Except an arrow just got me! Shit, from the back! I can't dodge what I cannot see! What the hell!?

I look back at how my companions were doing, and they were... doing well I suppose. They were killing a good number of them, but most notably, it was mainly Valkjure leading the charge while Gothra runs around. Oh, that arrow must have just been a lucky shot, and I won't have to worry about it anymore because Gothra's just taken out the last enemy archer.

With that said, I looked back at my enemies, already whittled down to half of what they once were.

SMASH! BASH! CRASH! BOOM! DOOM! DIE! FIREBALL! WHOOSH! SPLAT! KERSPLAT! ZOOM! DEATH!

Like a raging demon lord, I ran through the enemy ranks, smashing up whoever I ran into left and right. Bones scattered upon my fury, flesh flung about, and blood seeped deep into the ground!

Fire spread all throughout, until eventually, everyone was burning. Even ghosts were set on fire, which I'm not sure how that worked, but maybe because this fire was magic?

Attacks came at me from all sides as well, but I managed to dodge most of them. I let some get through, but I made sure that none of the truly damaging ones got me.

In the end, the monsters on my side all died in one gruesome way or another, until I finally made my way to the skeleton archers out back who've been taking potshots at me this entire time.

My hammer's already back to normal, my MP having ran out, but that doesn't make me defenseless!

Slam! Scatter!

With of hit to the head, the living pile of bones was reduced to a non-living one.

Arrows whisked past me from both sides, their aim being alright but not exactly suitable for trying to hunt down a living target.

I took care of the ones to the right first, smashing them in the head and heart respectively.

Then, for the remaining two, I decided to experiment a little and use fireball. I didn't use [Hammer Batter] this time as I was sure I'd just miss anyway.

Boom!

The skeleton... actually died instantly! Hmm, these guys sure are brittle.

With the fireball being on cooldown, I took out the last one the old-fashioned way.

Shatter.

And that's it. I'm done on my end.

I turned to watch how Gothra and Valkjure are doing, and saw that they weren't done yet.

"I'm the one going solo and you're the ones struggling?" I asked them, teasingly.

"Geh! Just you wait til I get my gun! I'll show you up, I swear!"

"We'll be done soon. You're just more specced for AOE, but I'll finish this rabble off soon. Just watch."

They each had their own rebuts. And well, I knew that. They got through their opponents last time faster than I did as well.

"Yeah! Yeah! Exactly! You were the one crying for our help last time!"

But that's not what I mean!

"I wasn't! And you were too busy to give out the support anyway, chasing each other like idiots! Just get a room you two!"

"Maybe we will!" Gothra fumed at me!

"E-eh!? W-we will!?" Ah, Valkjure missed her attacked and then got clawed on. Hahaha.

Smash!

Oh, Gothra went to the rescue and fear'ed the enemies by smashing a corpse so Valkjure could recover.

I repeat, Gothra smashed a corpse.

Her damage is quite low so she's been taking care of crowd control, and... gathering them in one place, like really tightly?

"Ok, now!" Valkjure declared, just as she produced a copy of herself who immediately got into a swinging motion. She also did so herself as destructive red energies gather at the tip of their blades.

Slash! CRASH! BOOM!

A slicing shockwave of energy was released from their blades, ripping apart all those who came in contact with it! A rainstorm of blood spread all around as the destruction shredded meat and bone alike, leaving none alive!

"Wow! Amazing!" I couldn't help but blurt out!

"Fufu. What's this? Impressed, Fira? Gahahahahha!"

"Why are you the one bragging, Gothra!?"

"I-I'm the one who set it up!"

"Bullshit! Well, maybe, but that's not what I was referring to when I said that!"

"S-she really was a huge help..." Valkjure muttered from the sides.

"Right!? You get it right, Valkjure?" Gothra grabbed her hand with both of hers and swung it up and down.

"Yes...!"

"Pfft! She's just being nice Gothra!"

"Eeehhh?? Are you, Valkjure-chan?" And now the weeb speak comes out!

"No of course not! I really do like you Gothra!" Valkjure, having said that, looked away in a hurry! "I mean like, what you did. It was a big help, really. I only had one shot of it, you know? Well, two because of my summoning of myself... but you get what I mean! Gathering them all up like that, taking out the ranged ones, this victory is as much thanks to you, as it is to me."

"V-V-Valkjure!!!" Gothra's eyes gave out into tears as she hugged the confused streamer!

"G-Gothra...!"

Oho? So that's how it is. Hahaha!

"Skkkkrraaahhhh!!!"

Oh, it seems Valkjure didn't take them all out after all. The ghosts were just A-OK.

Do they lack the ability to read the mood because they are dead, I wonder?

Guess I'll take care of them then, as the alleged "mage" of our group.

Valkjure and Gothra also readied their weapons for a fight

Hmm, Gothra does have the [Hautned] skill, but it'd take too long. Valkjure also doesn't seem to even damage them in the slightest.

"Grr... ghosts are really a pain. And my build is focused on strength, though I did grab some basic magic just because I could."

Oh wow. Rich people really do think different.

"I don't got magic either, but you don't have [Haunted] Valkjure?" Gothra asks.

"Huh?"

Oi, oi, Gothra plans on revealing that? Well, it's her skill too that she got through her own efforts. But in front of so many people? Really? Has she forgotten that Valkjure is streaming?

And she told her the alleged conditions for acquisition. The specifics are not actually told to us, so we can only infer, but I think this one is fairly easy to guess.

Eh, whatever. It's not really a big problem, and such a useful skill will get out eventually. It's not like we're ghosts and are sharing our only weakness. Hahaha!

(For those... If there was a joke here that you didn't get. Count your blessings and do not look it up. I know saying this might have the opposite effect, but fun fact, it actually works on me. If I'm warned not to look up something, I don't. And you should too. You know you should.)