“Can you see them?” When Ririna and I arrived near one of the fields where the monsters were, we hid behind a rock to stay out of sight. We were still very far away from where the monsters were, but from this place we were able to see the whole horde. Ririna poked her head out of cover and pointed at the monsters in the field.

“Wow… That’s a lot of them…” Not a very encouraging sight. I could make out all the details from over here, but there were a big variety of monsters in the field. There were wolves with two heads and something that looked like a bear with bright yellow spots on its fur. Giant bugs, bats, and birds with some very intimidating beaks. Lots of plant monsters and many other kinds. I don’t think I recognize any of them from the game at a glance. I feel like I’ve seen everything. It’s like every single possible combination of monsters has shown up… This is bad…

“This is worse than I imagined… The dirt I made wasn’t supposed to have enough magic to lure so many monsters. How did this happen?” Ririna shook her head and retreated back into cover. She sat down against the rock and let out a sigh.

“Uhmm… Do we really have to kill all of them? Isn’t there anything else we can do?” I sat down next to Ririna. The sight of so many monsters is pretty demotivating.

“Like what?”

“Isn’t there a way to repel them? Maybe you could make something with your alchemy.”

“I thought about that, but I don’t think it would work for two reasons. The luring effect and the repelling effect are both magical, so they would cancel each other out. Eventually, the monsters would go away, but we don’t have the time for that. The other problem is that even if we repelled the monsters away from the fields, where would they go? They would still be close to the town, so if someone got close, they would get hurt. The only solution is to defeat them.”

Ririna gathered her resolve and stood up. “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. I said I would give it a try, so this is not the time to give up. What do you think, Iroha? Are those monsters stronger than you? Can you defeat them?”

“Well, I’m not sure. It’s hard to tell from this far.” This area is pretty low-level. As long as the lured monsters didn’t come from too far away, they shouldn’t be too strong.

“Should we try getting closer then? You should see if you can fight some of them. You’d be able to gauge their strength that way. Just don’t get yourself hurt.”

“They do look pretty weak. Maybe the situation is not as bad as we thought…” I’ve been easily cutting monsters in half with a single slash. If these monsters are as weak as the previous ones, I can kill them all on my own. But I’m sure there are stronger monsters mixed among the others that are gonna give me trouble. That’s what happened when we were gathering crystals, so I’m not about to let my guard down.

“They look weak? That’s reassuring to hear. If you’re going to fight them, let me give you a few things. I can’t help you in combat, but I can help you in other ways.” Ririna rummaged through her belongings and pulled out a few objects. “This is a monster smoke bomb. When you toss this on the floor, it creates a cloud of smoke that only blinds monsters. If you think you’re gonna get hurt, use this and get out of there. These bottles contain a lightning spell. You crush them in your hands, and then a thunderbolt shoots out when you point your hand in the direction of a target. They’re very good for dealing with flying enemies. And take this one too. This last one will give you energy when you drink it. It will instantly make you feel better and give you enough energy to allow you to run away.” Once she got started, Ririna pushed item after item into my hands. These all seem pretty useful, but I’m not even sure I can carry them all.

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“Thanks…”

“I wish I could help you out more since you’re doing this for me, but this is all I have on hand. Be careful, okay, Iroha?” I responded with a nod and tried to cram the things she gave me into my pockets.

I left the cover and walked towards the monsters. Even when I got closer, I wasn’t getting swarmed by them, which I’m grateful for. Initially, we thought the monsters would attack on sight, but that didn’t happen. They’re more interested in the dirt and the overgrown crops. I still needed to get their attention, so I threw some rocks in the monsters’ direction. I hit a white, two-headed wolf-looking monster, and it sprinted at me. Two other monsters noticed the commotion and followed after the wolf.

The wolf monster was pissed I hit it and tried to bite me as soon as it got close. I took a step to the side and hit it with my sword. It was a good hit, but I didn’t immediately kill it. It tried to run away, and I quickly caught up. Looks like they’re not completely unintelligent. It realized I was stronger, so getting away would be the best thing to do. I finished off the monster and ran towards the next one. If all they’re all this weak, this will be a breeze. The other two monsters looked like lizards with an axe on their tails. One of them was green, and the other was blue. The green one was closer to me, so I took it down before it could even react with my Agility Burst into Slash Flurry combo.

This is it… This feels good… If I can keep going like this, we’ll be done in no time. I broke into a dash towards the other axe-lizard monster. I was about to cut it when another monster appeared out of nowhere and stopped me in my tracks. Another two-headed monster appeared and tried to bite me, but I avoided its mouth, and we bumped. This little… I switched targets and cut the new monster with Slash Flurry.

Now things are back on track, and I moved to attack the lizard again. It jumped into the air and brought its axe down on me by twisting its body. I knocked the axe to the side with my sword and finished it off. All this commotion ended up attracting more monsters. Oh well, I can keep going. All the monsters were weak enough that I could defeat them in a short amount of time. This is intense. As soon as I cut one down, I immediately run towards the next without stopping. I narrowly dodge and deflect everything they throw at me, and my heart starts thumping. Ahahaha… This is pretty fun.

After defeating about a dozen of them, there’s a sudden pain on my left shoulder. Some kind of bug monster swooped down from above and bit me. I punched it on instinct, and it let go of me. I took one of the lightning bottles out of my pocket and crushed it with my hand. The glass broke pretty easily, and now there were some visible electrical effects on my hand. Ohh… It stings, but it’s also tickling me. I quickly point my hand at the bug hovering near me, and the static in my hand turns into a bolt that pierces the bug’s body. That was crazy! Is that what using magic feels like? Does it count as magic or just as an item? That was cool, though! I wasn’t expecting the lightning to stay in my hand after breaking the bottle.

I didn’t have too much time to think about the thunderbolt, as more and more monsters kept approaching. “Iroha, come back! You’re getting surrounded!” Ririna was worried about me. She looked through her things again to see what else she could do to help me. They’re not that strong. I can’t go back yet… I can keep going…

More monsters continue to break away from the horde to swarm me. The quicker they come, the faster we’ll get rid of them. What were we even worried about? We can do this, right? My pace was pretty good, but it’s slowing down. I’m still able to cut them down with ease, and their attacks don’t pose much of a threat, but I’m still slowing down. With so many monsters at the same time, I keep having to dodge in the middle of my attacks. It’s too much… I can’t keep up. I really have to pull back…?

Suddenly, there was a strange light coming from above. A fireball?! What the hell? I dodged to the side, but I still felt a searing pain in my leg. “Guhh…” Behind the monsters trying to attack me, there was a fox monster with a tail made out of fire. Was that magic? That’s a dangerous one… It’s on a completely different level from all these other monsters. I didn’t know there were going to be any monsters capable of casting magic here. I wanted to finish it off before it could cause any more damage, but I had to accept that this fight was a loss. I’ve been using Agility Burst and Slash Flurry too much, so I’m almost out of MP. Ririna was right. I need to get away from here. The monsters I killed aren’t even 20% of this horde. Is that all I can do? I thought I was doing pretty well… This isn’t even the only horde. How are we gonna kill all of them in time? I don’t have time to be worrying about that now. I pulled the smoke bomb out and threw it onto the floor. Just like Ririna said, the smoke was transparent, so I was able to see where I was going.

For now, I have no choice but to run away and regroup with Ririna. This isn’t good. How are we gonna do this?