They shouldn't have accepted this mission in the first place. Surely, they could have saved themselves from this tragedy, Alina thought.

Alina didn't want to die, and she knew that her other party members wanted the same.

For once, she regretted going on a mission.

The previous day, the Guild had issued a request. To sum it up, it said that a two-star or above adventurer party was required to exterminate three ogres in the plains.

According to their sources, they'd witnessed the migration of a wandering ogre tribe and, for reasons unbeknownst to them, seen three orgres separating from the tribe and choosing to stay behind.

The request stated that the adventurer party who accepted the quest had to eliminate these monsters before they could wreck havok in villages nearby.

The reward was good and for a two-star party like theirs, taking care of three wandering ogres was not an impossible task. Even if they were some minor errors in the report, they could somehow cope with unwanted situations, at least that's what they had thought before.

Yet now, here she was, regretting her stupidity. If only she could turn back time, if only she could tell her comrades how ignorant they were.

Coming here unaware of the danger, they had started searching for the ogres — Not that finding monsters of their size was any difficult. After a quick scout round the plains, their rogue, Giraud, had returned with information of sighting two ogres just a hundred yards away. Apparently, one less than expected.

Knowing this, they had further lowered their guard. A folly they are now dearly paying for.

Arriving at the place, they had been welcomed by misfortune. Seven ogres had encircled them. Three and four from the front and rear respectively.

Seeing that, Giraud had jumped in panic. "I swear there were only two when I came here!" He had gesticulated wildly in order to defend himself.

Having had worked alongside him for the last two years, they knew he hadn't been lying. Besides, there was nothing for him to gain by betraying them.

Not to mention, they had known it would do them no good if they didn't focus on the matter at hand.

The rules of Adventurers Guild stated that if the level of difficulty of the mission was higher than the initial assessment, the adventure party should avoid any sort of confrontation and immediately head back and inform the guild.

Adhering to the rules, they'd tried to run, but to no avail. Although ogres were monster with low intelligence, they still held an overwhelming edge over human in terms of physical abilitie

"Ugh…Alina…hurry up, heal Giraud." She heard one of her teammates shout, causing her senses to return to her.

Taking the stock of her surroundings, she was overwhelmed with desperation and fear.

Having tried lunging past the encirclement, Giraud was now lying on the ground, his arm bleeding profusely.

Her rest of the teammates — Reeve and Sanse were engaged in a fierce battle with the ogres. Though as far as she saw it, they wouldn't be able to hold out for much longer.

I must do something, Alina thought. She was a cleric, so it was up to her to heal her teammates' injuries.

Stiffing her upper lips, she gathered all the courage she could muster and strode towards Giraud. She needed to be in close range to cast a healing spell. 

Alina was just a rank-one cleric, so she knew she wasn't capable of casting her spell from a long distance.

O' Almight Gurushu, please listen to the plea of your devoted worshipper and grant her your protection, she prayed to her god.

Unfortunately, it seemed like even her god had abandoned her, as an ogre immediately hurtled towards her.

Seeing it bolting towards her with such velocity caused her to stumble and trip over a rock.

She felt as if someone had striked her head with a hammer as she hit the ground. The concussion was so strong that she nearly passed out.

She tried to move but failed. Her knees were bruised and her whole body felt numb.

Her ears could sense the ground underneath her vibrating.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. 

The ogres and her death were getting nearer by each passing second.

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"AlINA!" Shouts echoed in the distance. Shouts to which she was unable to respond.

Soon, she felt it, for the first time in her life. The fear of death.

"No, no, no, no!" Tears crawled down her cheeks.

She wanted to live. She wanted to go home. Otherwise, what will happen to her little brother waiting for her at home?

What fate will be in store for that poor child?

She dreaded the mere thought of it.

Looking up, she saw an ogre standing before her, brandishing a club.

The club swung, sparkling in the sunlight as if to say that taking her life in a single stroke would be an act of mercy.

Alina shut her eyes. She didn’t want to be biting her lower lip. She just had no choice but to accept what was about to happen.

If she had even a little power, she probably would have been able to shove the figure away and escape…

But she was powerless.

And so there was only one ending.

She would die. Her comrades would die. Her little brother would probably starve to death.

The club came down—

…The pain still hadn’t come.

She unscrunched her eyes.

The first thing she saw was the club, stopped mid-swing.

The next was the figure holding the club. The ogre was practically frozen. His eyes seemed to have lost focus.

A golden sword was jutting out from the area where his heart must have been located, blood dripping down from it.

And then—

Like a puppet with its strings cut.

—He fell down.

"By the bells of Altertis, you guys look like a mess! Cloven, take down the three ogres to the right. I will take care of the rest." A calm voice—that sounded out of place—was heard.

Alina struggled to look sideways and caught the sight of two other adventurers forty yards away. She felt a momentary rush of euphoria, which ended shortly afterwards when she saw the one-star tattoo on the two individuals' necks.

Her heart sank. Maybe she was really destined to die here. Wait, no! One of them killed this ogre from such a long distance away just by throwing his sword. Maybe they can really save us.

Alina pinned all her hopes on the fantasy that they were not ordinary adventurers.

Though soon she would realize that she had grossly underestimated these two.

Aline focused her eyes on the raven-haired adventurer. There was something peculiar about him that she couldn't quite put her finger on. Something told her that he was a lot more dangerous in comparison to the ogres.

As soon as she laid her eyes on him, the man looked directly at her. Alina was quite some distance away from them. More importantly, she was lying down the ground, and it wouldn’t be easy to spot her, considering the shape she was in.

It could have been a coincidence that he looked at her, but something told her that wasn't the case.

The raven-haired man came walking at a brisk pace.

It was at an incredible speed. Whenever she blinked, he had closed an incredible distance as if he was teleporting.

Even though he was just walking normally, he moved at a speed that the brain refused to register.

Soon, he was standing near the dead ogre. He bent down a little and grabbed the golden sword out of the ogre's body.

"Could you hold out for a little longer?" He turned to look at her.

"Uhm, y-yes." She replied in a flustered manner.

"Glad to hear that. Don't worry, you'll be just fine." The man smiled warmly.

Yes, he actually smiled. How could someone be capable of smiling in such a dangerous situation, she wondered.

But what felt even more strange was how her heart had felt relieved after seeing his smile.

She suddenly felt a sense of security she had never experienced before.

The man walked towards the ogres at a leisurely pace.

No one, looking at his gait, would imagine he was headed into a fight against charging monsters. 

It looked more like he was taking a stroll through the meadow than navigating a combat zone.

As the nearest ogre was getting closer, the raven-haired man tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword and readied his stance. Aline gasped.

She sensed it and her comrades must have felt it, too. That man, who only had the one-star tattoo imprinted on his neck, was emitting the pressure only those of very high-rank adventurers would be able to create.

The atmosphere gradually changed to one filled with killing intent, the previous tension surrounding the battlefield was further intensified.

Even a goblin, with its low intelligence, would consider twice before charging at him. But the ogres continued to barrel, too dim-witted to second-guess his strength.

It looked like the ogres would get the first attack, but then the raven-haired man rushed at them.

He was like a hurricane. Then, in an even faster flash of silver, the sword in his hand flew through the air as if it were cutting space itself.

The attack was too magnificent. Regardless of the fact that she hadn’t even been cut, Alina felt the sudden presence of death right beside her, so much so that every hair on her body stood on end.

The man shifted his attention from the ogre before him to another ogre.

As if waiting for him to leave, the top half of the slashed ogre stayed on for a while before finally falling to the ground; the bottom half was still standing.

The spray of blood, slop of innards, and diffusion of an awful stench throughout the area were the signs that this was neither a dream nor an illusion.

The downward diagonal slash made a clean cut.

It was over in that single swing. She couldn't comprehend what she was seeing. Or rather, she refused to comprehend it.

Not that such a feat was impossible to accomplish. The crux of the trick was to use both the slash’s centrifugal force and sword’s weight to attack; it wasn’t meant to be wielded with only one arm’s strength.

Hence either the raven-haired man's sword was enchanted with powerful magic, or his strength in one arm was overwhelmingly stronger than a normal warrior using two hands. Or maybe even both.

Seeing this shocking scene, the ogre unconsciously stopped, made an expression of horror and backed away.

“What’s the matter? Do your huge bodies only amount to this much ?” His quiet, casual voice floated over the battlefield.

Even just that question scared the ogres—because they’d just seen how overwhelming the gap in strength was between him and them.

He advanced like greased lightening to close in.

“Waarghh---!

The ogre let out a howl that was a cross between a wail and a shout, raising the club in its hand to face the man who was attacking. But everyone knew that was too slow.

The man once again swung the sword in his hand horizontally after he got close.

The top half of the ogre spun in the air and landed at a different spot from its lower half.

That was a horizontal slash, slicing the ogre in half with one strike.

"…Is he even human?" Alina couldn't help but murmur out loud.

The man took a step forward, the ugly faces of the ogres froze stiff and they backed further away.

Then, as if to crush their morale further, the man's sword swung in a huge arc. No one could hear anything but the sound of it slicing through the air and then something heavy falling to the ground—two things, in fact.

As everyone expected, the number of ogre corpses had decreased. Now the only ogres remaining were the two cowering before the raven-haired man.

Alina was stunned once again. No words came out of words her mouth. In fact, she couldn't even find words to describe what she had just seen.

She wondered how someone so powerful was only a one-star adventure. It didn't make sense. His power must rival the twin knights of the capital, if not surpass them.

"You will do well to tell me as to why you didn't you move, Cloven." An icy voice travelled out through the air.

Alina directed her line of sight to the other man who had been standing there silently since the battle had commenced. Due to the spectacular display, his presence had been unknowingly ignored.

"You were having so much fun killing these monsters that I thought my interference would spoil your mood." He replied in a low raspy voice.

"Is that so?" The raven-haired man mused.

"It is already spoiled, anyway. Finish off these two. I've had enough."

Just after the raven-haired man finished talking, the image of the man wearing baggy pants blurred.

"…huh?" Alina exclaimed. She saw him suddenly appear above the heads of the two ogres with a black dagger in his right hand.

Even before her mind could register what was happening, two giant heads flew in the air, accompanied by two fountains of blood pouring upwards and the sound of bodies falling to the ground.

"What the hell?!" She heard her one of her teammates, Reeve, shout. She couldn't blame him, though. In fact, she wanted to know what had just happened as badly as them, if not more.

What occurred in last five minutes had turned all her beliefs upside down. She knew that she will never forget this moment for the rest of her life. It was firmly imprinted in her memory.

"So you aren't slipping, after all." the raven-haired man clapped.

"Tch-" was the only response he got in return.

Unaffected by the sneer, the man looked around to survey the battlefield before walking towards Giraud. She saw him give Giraud a Healing Potion, which he gratefully accepted with trembling hands.

So it's finally over. And I am still alive, huh?

 Alina heaved a sigh of relief.

Drowsiness promptly overcame her. She touched the back of her head and found out that she had been bleeding a little too much.

She tried her best to fight off the fatigue, but shortly afterward her mind chose to concede to the call of sleep as she fell unconscious.