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Chapter 59 – Battle – Part ten (Luilui’s point of view)
“What’s wrong?”
We are almost out of the forest, when Hikari suddenly stops.
“I hear something.”
I don’t hear anything. I look at Talia, and she shakes her head.
But I don’t think Hikari would say that unless she meant it.
I tell Casey I’m going to use Sync.
I close my eyes and start searching. It would be great if there was a bird, but let’s see.

There it is.
I focus, and the next moment I’m seeing through a bird’s point of view.
I focus even more, and now I’m controlling the bird.
Sync has a couple of problems. It leaves the user completely defenseless, it consumes more magic energy the further away the target is, and the amount of magic energy it spends ramps up dramatically if the target is outside the effective range. The connection is forcibly severed if I run out of magic energy, and the recoil leaves me in a poor physical condition.
I make the bird fly towards the village.
I hear a lot of noise.
Those are
 Orcs. They’re fighting orcs. Five of them. Yor is doing her best to fire magic, but can’t take them down.
Mister Locke and his party specialize in defense, so it doesn’t look like they’re trying to go outside of their field and take them down.
They probably figure they just have to drive the orcs away.
But at this rate, we can’t get near the village.
It would be one thing if it was just the four of us, but we have the villagers with us.
I look around and try to see if there are more orcs nearby, but don’t find any around the village.
I look towards the main road. There aren’t any. I look further ahead. I see remains of wagons. There are fifteen orcs.
There are multiple people inside the wagons and scattered around.
Those aren’t all the same type of orc. I recognize that one, it’s an orc general.
I think we might need to meet up with the others as soon as possible.
I stop using Sync.
“What did you see?”
Asks Talia, with a concerned tone.
“They are being attacked. There are five of them. I don’t think they will fall right away, but I am not sure what will happen if the battle drags on for very long.”
They still have magic energy, so they should be fine.
But that inn is full of non-combatants. The situation could turn volatile at any moment.
“I’m going.”
Hikari volunteers.
I agree that someone should go help, but is this really all right?
“I’m going too. You stay here, Casey and Luilui. Protect the others if any orcs come this way.”
I look at Casey. She hesitates for a second, but nods.
“Give us a signal when the orcs have been defeated.”
“One of us will come back to tell you. A smoke signal would draw attention, so we shouldn’t do that.”
That’s true. I think it will be fine, but we should refrain from doing anything that will attract the attention of the other orcs.
I don’t have the magic energy to keep using Sync, and I can’t have Casey protecting everyone by herself either.
Talia and Hikari check their equipment, and take off running.
They’re fast. I think I’m pretty agile too, but I can’t match those two.
“I hope big sister catches up with us.”
“
Yes.”
Casey doesn’t talk a lot, but I can feel her concern.
I hope they managed to get away. Could Mister Sora block the entrance with his magic?
At the very least, I know they shouldn’t try to face that thing head on.
Orclord. One of the monsters said to be a calamity. We met one in the dungeon once, and just watching that battle made my body freeze.
Back then, two A ranked parties joined forces to bring it down. There weren’t any casualties, but a lot of people ended up seriously hurt.
Just remembering it makes me feel as scared as I did back then.
“It’s all right. Big sister is strong, and she won’t misjudge the time to pull out.”
“Yes, you’re right. I’m sure she will be fine.”
I’m worried, but let’s believe in her.
That’s all we can do. Believe and wait.
And if we’re worried, it might influence them in a bad way.
“
Someone is coming.”
I feel a presence coming from the forest.
My enemy detection abilities aren’t as strong as Talia’s, but I can feel presences.
Casey turns around and stands up. She draws her sword and looks ahead with caution.
“That’s
 Big sister!”
It’s big sister Leila who emerges as she pushes through the trees.
Behind her are two women and Mister Sora.
“Thank goodness. Everyone is all right.”
Big sister says with a smile.
The same smile as always.
She’s happy for us, but what she says is what we are thinking.
Thank goodness she’s all right.
But what about the other two women?
“Big sister, those two
”
I’m about to ask, when one of the women we saved runs towards them and hugs them.
There are tears in her eyes, and she holds them like she’s never going to let go ever again. She’s crying while trying to remain silent.
“We found them in the back. It was close, but we managed to help them regain consciousness.”
Big sister is happy to see them too.
I had no idea there were still people in the back.
No, I do remember someone saying there were still people there when we ran away.
“Big sister, what happened to the lord?”
“Don’t worry, we took it down.”
Eh? What did she say?
Did I mishear her? Took it down?
I look at her, and then at Mister Sora.
I don’t understand what happened. I have more questions than before.
“I don’t see Hikari and Talia. What happened?”
She asks me a question instead.
But then something passes right in front of me.
“Master, welcome back.”
Hikari runs at an incredible speed, and jumps at Mister Sora.