A little while after George took over the car, Ted in the back seat said to me.
“Oi, There are no monsters at all.”
“…yeah.”
Despite coming closer to the proximity of the hunting spot, we had yet to come face to face with a monster.
We could see some black figures in the grassland away from the road, but they didn’t seem to notice us and didn’t approach us.
“Let’s take a look with the goggles, shall we?”
I may learn something if I can observe the magic flow, so I put on the goggles again.
“Oh…this…?”
I didn’t notice it at first because I was distracted by the pillar of light in the southern sky. But there’s a light in the ground, lined up at regular intervals on both sides of the road.
The bundle of magic power that floating in the air was straightened up and sucked into the light without colliding with magic from other things.
“George, please stop for a moment.”
I asked him to stop the car and went down to see the light’s identity.
I crouched down on the ground and brushed off the dirt; then, I saw a fist-sized chunk of crystal.
“There’s a crystal buried in, probably all along this road.”
“Oh? Just like in the town? It shouldn’t be like this a while ago; I wonder who did this.”
“There could only be him.”
Betty replied to Ted.
“You mean Hayato?”
“Who else could it be? It’s not like the Knights are out here setting this up. He’s the only one who can do this on his own.”
“That’s right… It’s a lot of work just to prepare the crystal. especially in the midst of these mutant monsters’ situation.”
“Are you’re saying that he’s creating a safe path for us?”
“I guess so. He does that often… really.”
“That…”
Why he makes it easy for the rest of us to walk out of here when he has no intention of coming back?
I wonder how good-natured he is, but I also wonder why he would go to such lengths.
To see it in another way, it almost like he knows even if the master of the dark monster is defeated, the effect will remain…
To think of it, including the fact that the mutation makes the monster stronger, it would seem like the world’s total magic power was increased too.
“Oh, by the way, how much stronger is the mutant.”
“Plenty, If I had to put it into words, it’s like their density is increased; they were so tough.”
“Density?”
“Yeah. Do you want to try fighting one? Maybe if we stepped out of the street, the monsters around there would notice us.”
“e…”
… What should I do?
But I want to try it out. I want to know how much stronger are we? The monster and us.
“Let’s try …”
“Ok.”
Ted smiled, and Betty looked a little nervous but saw a glint of excitement in her eyes.
We agreed that there’s no need to take the risk, but we all wanted to try it honestly.
We all got out of the car and stood at the border between the road and the grassland.
The magic tools are ready.
Just as we were about to step out the road, George spoke from next to me.
“At least, Alice should know how good she is against mutants before we catch up with Hayato.”
“Right. You can’t say you want to be useful without defeating even one of them, can you?”
“That’s true.”
I stepped out onto the grassland.
“But if it looks like we’re in trouble, we’ll flee.”
“Okay.”
Something black is approaching us with incredible speed.
I sensed that space was distorted from my side; its sign is different from the one approaching us from the front. I reflexively swung out my black sword as quickly as I could.
I felt the slash connected, and when I turn my sight on it, I saw a pitch-black bear had its body split into the upper and lower part.
Fortunately, it seems that I was able to cut the core, and little by little, it turned into mist and disappeared.
“Eh?”
Ted shouted in surprise. George and Betty were next.
“What?”
“What? Alisha, did you know something was there?”
“No, I didn’t. I just had a hunch… but that thing wasn’t hard at all?”
“Seriously? You starting to sound like Hayato, you know? this guy is Blood Bear, but it’s blackened, normally it’s a B-ranked monster…”
“George, enough chitchat! They’re coming!”
A black object was coming from the front and jumped to the sky.
It was a locust.
Big, big locusts.
“Geh! King Locust!”
“No way! it’s the worst!”
“Hate that shit!!”
King Locust that everyone was swearing at was a large locust-shaped monster.
It’s not so much a threat on its own, but it will quickly multiply and become a swarm like a real locust if you are too slow to defeat it.
And it’s a mutated version of the most hated A-ranked monster.
George immediately threw his knife at this speedy opponent. The knife pierced King Locust in the sky, and at that moment, it burst into flames.
The person who threw it was surprised himself.
“Oh! That’s awesome!”
“It’s still alive! I’ll finish it!”
Ted intercepted the burning King Locust with his big sword. This is a great sword with a holy ward on it; the sword was shining with a silvery light and leaving a trail like a shooting star.
The black monster’s body was sliced open with a single blow, and the fight was decided.
Ted looks at his sword, admiring it.
“… Alice, this is amazing. The response is totally different. it didn’t feel hard at all.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
“Oh, Alice did well too.”
“OI! More is here; maybe it’s already started multiplying!”
I turn my sight to respond to Ted’s voice, Betty who was behind him, hold her wand in a defensive stance and stood beside me.
“I’ll do it!”
The wand flashed. The self-defense wand became an assault magic wand.
Two large ice spears appeared in the air and shot through the grass in a straight line. Two more stabs of the target followed, and a black mist rose.
“I… did it! Hey, did you see that! Look! There were two ice spears at the same time!”
Betty’s eyes lit up, and Ted looked happy too.
“Amazing! All this time, I thought only Hayato could do that; well, he could pull out much more, but still! It’s amazing! Congratulation, Betty!”
“Until now, no matter how much magic power Is pour into the spell, it won’t produce a second spear. This is the power of magic tools, isn’t it? Thank you, Alisha!”
“I’m glad that it was useful in real battle.”
…That was unexpected, was the number I put affecting the number, not the power? I might need to specify it if I want to increase the power.
As I was thinking about this, George picked up the knife and said this to me.
“Alice is the most amazing, though… By the way, is King Locust dead now? I hope there’s no more.”
“Oh, you’re right. It’s too early to let our guard down. But I feel like I can shoot as many as I want!”
As if in response to Betty’s challenge, another black King Locust jumped up from the grass.
George glared at Betty.
“Oi… Betty. Don’t you jinx it. You’re really going to have to shoot as many as you could.”
“S-Sorry.”
The ice spears are fired again from Betty’s staff. Two ice spears pierced King Locust in the air, leaving a large hole in his body, and it started to disappear.
However, another flew from the side, and George smashed it with his fist.
“Hey! This is not good….”
Innumerable black things wriggle in the grass.
–Too late.
The area behind me is already full of locusts.
“We’ll just have to defeat it.”
“Arghh, my luck is the worst! I can’t believe we encountered these guys immediately.”
The air was shaken by the sound of wings, and the locusts all jumped up at once. The air was filled with black things. It’s a pretty horrifying sight.
–Okay, let’s go all out then.
I used wind magic to create a tornado in the sky.
The locusts in the air are sucked into the tornado one by one, and soon a tornado full of black monsters is formed.
“Betty! Put fire in this!”
“What? Oh, okay!”
As I had asked, two large fireballs shot out from Betty’s wand, it becomes a tornado of flames, just like the one I used together with Hayato to fight the killer bee horde.
The fire spread from the locusts to the locusts and eventually turned into a huge pillar of fire that burned high into the sky.
“Woah, amazing ……!”
“Please add more fire from time to time!”
While maintaining the tornado, I cut the remaining King Locust on the ground with my black sword. The locusts have strong legs, and those that are clinging to the ground cannot be sucked into the tornado.
But at least they can’t jump, and it considerably makes their movement slower, thus make them easier to kill.
“You’re amazing, Alice! This is so easy to do!”
“Hey, why didn’t you join our party for real?
George is chatting during finish off the locust.
“I’m already in Hayato’s party!”
“Oh, right.”
King Locust was defeated one after another.
It was not too difficult to maintain the tornado and swing the sword. Eventually, the multiplying stop and the number decreased rapidly.
When he finally killed the last one, Ted breathed heavily and rolled over on his back on the ground.
“I’m so tired! so tired!”
“Ted, that’s just sloppy.”
“Yeah, thanks to Alisha, we don’t have a hard this time.”
“No, wait! It’s strange! Why you all still so energetic? It’s obvious that George has been using physical strengthening, and Betty was shooting her magic all the time. You both should be run out of magic by now!”
George tilted his head a little and answer.
“Right, it’s true that I don’t feel tired after using it. Oh… this knuckle has a healing effect too? How about your magic Betty?”
“Yeah, when I shot the magic, I can feel it decreased considerably, but it soon come back immediately; it happens every time. I see; this is the effect of the ring Alisha gives?”
When Ted heard this, he picked up the ring from the tag’s chain and looked at it closely.
“The ring’s effect? Really? That’s amazing. It recovers so fast without the need to consume a magic recovery potion. Using magic tools has made the battle so much easier.
… But why am I the only one who’s so tired?”
“… Oh, Ted didn’t have any recovery magic effects on his equipment. I’m sorry. Certainly, you will need it even if you are a vanguard.”
Ted laughed bitterly and stood up.
“Alice, I’ll pay for it, so please give me something with a recovery effect as well.”
“Understood.”
After that, another ring was added to the chain around Ted’s neck.
With this, the test of strength is over for now, and we get into the magic car and decide to move on.
The driver was changed, and now it was Ted’s turn.
George got in the passenger seat, and Betty and I lined up behind him.
“Let’s see; this is a gas pedal? When you step on it, it moves forward, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, that’s right. When you want to stop, press the brake on the side. Use your right foot for both.”
“Okay.”
Ted nodded and stepped on the gas pedal as hard as he could.
The car suddenly sped up, and a G-force hit everyone’s body.
“OUCH!”
“Hey, Ted! Take it slow at first! If you step on it too hard from the start, it will get…”
“Oh! All right! And if you turn this handle, it’ll change direction!”
Ted says, turning the handle to the right.
“Whoa!”
He’s moving so fast! so rough!
Thanks to sudden turn, our bodies were thrown to the left, and Betty was fallen from her seat and landed on me.
“Ugh…….”
“Betty, are you okay?”
“I’m fine, but… Oh my, Alisha, you’re so soft. And you smell so good, don’t you?”
“What?”
As I stared at Betty, who had suddenly said such a thing, Ted laughed and put the steering wheel back.
“My bad, I don’t know how to adjust its power.”
He turned his head to stare at us, then muttered to himself.
“… I think I’ll sit in the back. in the middle.”
Then Ted, who was holding the steering wheel, opened his mouth.
“You idiot… Hayato’s going to kill you.”
“Tch, right.”
“Isn’t it obvious! …You really are an idiot. If you come over here, I’ll kill you, even if I’m not Hayato.”
George, who was prodded by Betty, looked forward and chuckled.
