Chapter 120.1

「Let’s go Zeph! … Double Blue Gale!!」 I matched Milly’s timing and cast Blue Gale alongside her.

Double Spell Synthesis: Double Blue Gale.

The tornado of water rose up and threw off the remaining Guardians.

「We did it!」

「T-there’s more!! A lot of them!」

With cracking noises more and more Guardians began to gather. Because there was almost nothing to obstruct one’s view inside the Tiros Abandoned Factory, and because the monster’s view range was quite broad, if we were to ignore them they would only continue to gather.

「Head for the passage. We’ll be surrounded if we stay here.」

「Zeph-chi, everyone! Come after me!」

With Lydia at the front we advanced while sticking close to the wall. Thankfully there was a narrow passage between the buildings, otherwise we would have probably been surrounded.

「Tsch… These fellows are incredibly hard…!!」

Lydia got into a fight with a Guardian that appeared before her. However, she seems to be having a pretty tough fight because of the Guardian’s metal carapace. Guardians are made out of Magic Metal so it was hard to wound them with anything else besides magic. I crashed a Green Sphere into the Guardian that Lydia blew away. The Guardian was squashed by the enormous ball of magic power, and without giving it a second glance we continued forward.

On top of being hard these guys are also pretty tough. If we take care of every single one of them we encounter, we’ll get surrounded in no time.

「We’re almost there. Run to the passage.」

「Okay!!」

We desperately ran through the inside of the factory until we finally jumped into the narrow passage. Inside the passage there were two Guardians which we quickly took care of and finally felt relieved in our hearts. Everyone then sat on the ground and took heavy breaths.

「Ha… Ha… I’m tired…」 said Milly

「The monsters here really are really hard.」 Lydia agreed with her.

「Our attacks don’t even make them budge…」 said Claude as she looked at her sword to see if it had been chipped anywhere, after which she put it back into its scabbard.

「We’ll just have to overcome it with effort.」

「That’s right!! Me and Zeph will take care of it!!」 said Milly as she wrapped her hand around my shoulders and made a peace sign.

It’s all fine but your hand is so short it can’t even cover both of my shoulders… However, with that out of the way we can now focus on hunting. This passage is surrounded by walls on both sides so we don’t have to worry about surprise attacks.

「So, what are we doing?」 asked Lydia

「You and Claude will invite monsters here while I and Milly will take care of them by using Double Blue Gale. Shirushu will take care of restoring our Magic Power, as well as our recovery in case someone gets injured. In the worst case scenario, we’ll have her transform and go wild.」

「O-okay. I’ll try and do my best!」 Shirushu said as she held both hands in front of her chest.

Claude and Lydia nodded as well. It seemed like they were both ready with their preparations. Milly looked at everyone’s faces and made a wide smile.

「Well then, let’s begin!」

「Claude, Lydia, I’ll make sure to keep up Black Boots on both of you. I’ll make sure that it doesn’t run out, but just in case you should watch out for it as well.」

「Okaay.」

「Understood.」

After I cast Black Boots Claude and Lydia’s bodies were surrounded by wind and their hair softly swayed.

It’s perfect. With their increased speed they won’t be caught easily.

「Make sure not to go overboard, okay?」

「Yea, yea, we know already♪ … Well then, we’re off.」 Lydia said while raising her thumb and then dashing off.

It took just a bit before we couldn’t see her anymore.

I’m worried she’ll do something crazy.

「I’m going as well.」 said Claude as she went in the opposite direction of Lydia.

Both of them went around and began pulling the Guardians.

I guess I should call out Ain before both of them come back.

「Ain, come on out.」

After casting Summon Servant, Ain appeared from the light. She dramatically spread her folded wings and slowly opened her eyes.

Stop with those poses, just stop.

「Hmph… It’s not bad but I should think of a cooler way to appear next time… Gramps did ya call me?」

「More or less. I might end up needing your help.」

「What’s up with that! I’m quite busy as well you know!」

She says after she appears out of nowhere whenever she pleases. What a wilful fellow.

A fight with multiple monsters was efficient, however it was also dangerous. We could get wiped out if we couldn’t dispose of the monsters fast enough. That is why I had decided to keep Ain on standby and prepare to use Divine Sword Ainbelle if push came to shove. Additionally, there was one more use for Ain.

「The monsters here drop gemstones. It’s your job to pick those up.」

「WHOA!! What a fantastic job!! Roger!!」 she replied as she stretched herself and saluted almost like a soldier would.

Ain was throwing a tantrum just a minute ago, but upon using the gemstones as bait she easily got hooked.

That change of attitude is way too fast. As always it’s still a mystery to me where she learns all of this stuff…

「… They’re coming.」 said Shirushu to which me and Milly got ready for battle.

It seemed like either Lydia or Claude was back. After we turned our gazes to the place that Shirushu pointed out we heard the ground ringing.

《Zeph-kun, I’m heading over there. I’m bringing Guardians…A total of six of them!》

Claude huh. Seems like she’s in a tough spot.

Milly and Shirushu prepared themselves so that they could fight back. And Ain on the other hand had a face akin to that of a dog waiting for its food.

「Milly, aim carefully!」

「Right!」

In the next moment Claude, and the couple of Guardians that were chasing behind her appeared. The Guardians’ position was quite split up. I concentrated on Milly’s movements. I matched her breath and the way she was beginning to gather magic power in her hand, and cast Blue Gale as well.

「Double Blue Gale!!」

The doubly strengthened water tornado hit the pack of Guardians and as if drilling through them it raised them into the air. However, it appeared to have missed one of them. With a clunking sound the Guardians fell down and within the midst of the pack of disappearing Guardians, a single Guardian appeared and charged at us. Claude noticed that and turned around in order to face it. However, her worries were unnecessary.

「Claude, do not worry. Just continued pulling him the way you were doing.」

「WHAT?!!We won’t kill it?」

「It’ll be more efficient to take him out alongside the next pack, don’t you think?」

「I see… Now that you said it…」

Seeing Claude agree with me I re-cast Black Boots on her and she went off to gather more monsters. This was how the Train tactic worked with more people. The Train was a type of tactic where you used yourself as bait to gather a large number of monsters and then wiped them out in a clean sweep. This time, due to having more than one train the rotation of monster packs was higher. And since we were within the Tiros Abandoned Factory, which was surging forth with monsters, our hunt would turn out to be quite the efficient one.

《Claude it’s fine if you don’t tell us the number of monsters next time. At any rate if we fail to kill some of them we’ll just add them to the pack afterwards. One more thing, it’s be great if you could try and gather them in one place as that will make it easier to aim our spells.》

《… Understood.》

This type of tactic depends heavily on the skill of the person who takes up the train role. I’ll have Claude work to the utmost of her ability.

And then the second wave came. Claude had gathered an even larger number of Guardians in one place and was pulling them towards us while blocking their attacks with her shield. 　

Oh, so she can do it if she tries.

「Claude! Do your best!!」

「Ha… Ha… Okay!!」

Still, she does seem really exhausted.

Claude was breathing heavily as Milly continued to cheer her on. As a result of Claude’s effort, this time we were able to wipe out the whole of the pack with a single Double Blue Gale. Ain then began to gather the dropped gemstones.

「YEY! Food, food♪」

「Good job Claude.」

「Hihihi… Thank you.」

「All right, let’s go again.」

「Understood!!」

I re-cast Black Boots on Claude and sent her off. As Shirushu saw that she whispered something out.

「I somehow feel like doing that as well…」

Her tail was wagging back and forth like she was really eager to give it a shot.

This reminds of that time. Before when I had a dog it would excitedly catch and bring back everything I threw…

「Go get them!」

「Woof?!」

Shirushu let out a faint sound when she heard Milly’s words.

「Milly, even if you’re thinking it you shouldn’t say something like that out loud.」

「Um… Zeph-san, you were thinking the same thing, weren’t you…?」 asked Shirushu with a disheartened tone.

While I was trying to cheer both her and Milly up I saw Claude coming back. We wiped out the pack brought by Claude and then sent her off once more. And then Ain continued to gather and eat the dropped gemstones.

For christ sake, where are your manners?!

After the fourth time that we went through this process I noted that Lydia hadn’t come back even once.

「Lydia-san sure is late…」

「That’s right… I think she’s probably fine… It’s her we’re talking about after all.」 It seemed like Shirushu and Milly were both worried as well.

Still, Claude already came back a number of times. I don’t think she died, but it’s possible that she got surrounded and isn’t able to escape. I’ll call her to check just in case.

《Lydia is everything okay on your end? I’m afraid that Black Boots might run out if you take too much time.》

《Oh!! I’m sorry Zeph-chi, I got immersed in gathering the monsters that I forgot. I’ll be there soon!》 said Lydia with a laugh.

It seems like she’s fine… Wait… She’s been gathering them all this time…? Just how much did she manage to pull?

At that thought shivers ran down my spine. It was then that Shirushu’s ears twitched.

「Lydia-san is coming back… I p-pick up a huge number of monsters behind her…!」 Shirushu said as she pointed in a direction.