It seems that, I had woken up a few minutes after Satou-kun substituted in for me .
There was a violent and thunderous roar and a torrent of light .
The shaking ground was the worst thing to wake up to and having woken up, I was captivated by the battle unfolding in front of me .
Due to the battle just now, every time I moved my body, my muscles would scream in pain and I couldn’t move, but even if I could, I wouldn’t be able to join in .
「Holy Sword—-『Divine Punishment』」
From Satou-kun’s sword that he held above his head came a large pillar of light, blinding my eyes .
From that pillar of light, I felt a terrible power that had been compressed .
After leaving the castle, we had made remarkable progress in our levels due to our respective trainings and experiences in battle .
Even so, we couldn’t reach Satou-kun .
Perhaps it was characteristic of the hero occupation, but when we take one step forward, he takes ten or even twenty .
He had collapsed just now, but that was also because he was fighting while protecting Ueno-san and I .
And, Satou-kun grew stronger as he fought .
That’s why, with a bit of unreasonableness, I had Satou-kun recover .
「Haaaaaa!!!!」
After the pillar of light swung downwards, the monsters were all annihilated .
It would be correct to say that this holy sword skill did not kill, but annihilated .
That was an overwhelming difference in power .
Seeing Satou-kun who swung his sword downwards, I seem to have seen the back of Commander Saran who opened up a path of retreat for us at the Continent Dungeon .
This didn’t change my admiration for Asahina-kun, but I think that everyone, regardless of gender, admired Satou-kun .
「O–i!」
The monsters were exterminated by Satou-kun’s skill, and just when I thought that the forest had returned to its previous calmness, Nanase-kun’s voice resounded .
I was relieved by that voice of his that didn’t sound any different from normal .
Nanase-kun was with Zeal-san, so I didn’t think that they would be defeated by the monsters, but even so .
Nanase-kun could get along well with anyone, and he was someone who would even call out to me who was in the corner of the classroom, so if he died, I would be extremely sad .
「Nanase-kun, Zeal-san! Are you ok?」
The originally quiet Ueno-san raised her voice .
Judging from their appearance, the two people had no injuries, and we were relieved .
And just as Satou-kun was about to ask them what happened on their side, before he could do so, Nanase-kun shouted as if in a panic .
「We’re not injured! Rather than that, hurry up and get away from this place!」
Zeal-san picked up Ueno-san who couldn’t move, and Nanase-kun and Satou-kun who looked as if he had no idea what was going on supported me who was completely exhausted with their shoulders .
I wonder if something happened .
「Zeal-san said that, there was a possibility that the lord of this forest would react to Tsukasa’s attack just now . It seems that it was a monster that the previous hero avoided as well! It would be better to escape before he notices us . 」
My jaw dropped at the explanation that was given as we were running .
When I looked beside me, Satou-kun too had the same look on his face .
「The lord of the forest?? There’s such a thing?」
「Yes, that’s why we’re rushing . 」
And, when we were a hundred meters away from the place that we just in, the ground suddenly shook and we collapsed onto the ground .
「Is it an earthquake?」
「No, it’s the voice of a monster . It’s the lord of the forest I just mentioned . 」
Zeal-san said this in a lowered voice .
According to him, it seems that the lord of the forest could shake the ground with a shout, and when he moved, there would be…cracks on the ground .
Nonetheless, it seems that he heard about it from Kurou-san, so it was highly credible .
「…it seems that it is not chasing after us . I should’ve told you about the lord of the forest before we came into the forest . I’m sorry . 」
After traveling a bit further, Zeal-san came to a halt, put Ueno-san on top of a rock, and performed first aid on her injured foot .
It wasn’t an injury that would have any after-effects on her after it healed, but it seems that it was hard for her to walk .
「For now, let’s make meeting up with Asahina-kun and the others our highest priority . We need Hosoyama-san to treat Ueno-san’s leg . 」
Satou-kun said this, but how were we supposed to meet up with them .
This forest was quite dense, and because we moved around, we didn’t even know where we currently were .
No matter where we looked, there were nothing but trees .
「Naa, everyone, look at this!」
Just as everyone was troubled, Ueno-san, who was sitting on top of a rick, pointed to a tree .
「Ahh! This is… . 」
–
「Asahina-kun, Waki-kun, Hosoyama-san . It’s great that everyone’s ok . 」
The place where all eight people gathered at once again, was the slightly open area that we had split up .
When we arrived at that place, Asahina-kun and the others were already there, and had arranged the fruit that they had gathered, waiting for us .
The three people were all uninjured, and even if there were any, they would be tiny scratches, probably from the tree branches .
Everyone took out the food they found, and everything was distributed equally .
It seems that Hosoyama-san knew what was edible and what wasn’t, and had already tasted them for poison .
As a result, because both Zeal-san’s group and mine were caught up in a battle relatively early, we didn’t have as much as Asahina-kun and the others .
Catching fish in the river was extremely difficult, and fun .
Asahina-kun spoke as we ate .
「Even so, you guys did well to get here . You guys didn’t make any marks, did you? There are monsters within the forest as well, so we couldn’t burn smoke signals either, and I thought that the three of us might have to make camp tonight . 」
Perhaps Asahina-kun was also glad we met back up, as he was more talkative than usual .
Ah, this fish, it tasted like sea bream and was delicious .
Even though it looked just like a carp .
We had seasoned the grilled fish with a bit of salt that we had on hand, but it was often said that hunger was the best seasoning .
I listened carefully as I tore through the fish .
Deciding our next plan of action was mostly done by Asahina-kun and Satou-kun .
Zeal-san would sometimes say a few words, but usually, he would not interject and would go along with our plan .
I had also become accustomed to hearing Asahina-kun speak, even though I rarely saw him talk in the classroom .
Perhaps it was unconscious, but Asahina-kun’s tone of voice was a bit similar to Oda-kun’s .