Chapter 55: The Opening Shot of the Decisive Battle

As the beastkin, armed with rifle-shaped magical tools, began firing in unison, Yuria, Lulu, Kasai-san, and the rest of the frontline team surged forward.

While I watched the scene unfold, someone tapped me on the shoulder. Turning around, I saw Fere grinning from ear to ear.

"Sora, let’s sing!"

"Ah—that, huh…"

It was one of the skills we got during a gacha pull in the middle of winter—specifically, one that came up when we, for some reason, did our first pull together because Fere insisted.

Its name: Chorus Magic. Apparently, it’s a skill that produces powerful effects when two people sing the same song at the same time. It’s more about support than offense, so in a large-scale battle like this, it should come in handy.

"Here we go~!"

"Yeah, yeah…"

We stood side by side, took a deep breath, and began to sing in unison. The song was a bright, festive tune—one Fere liked, often sung during festivals in this world.

"“――――♪”"

Magic circles began to spread beneath our feet. If I remember right, the song enhances physical abilities and boosts natural healing. Neither effect is massive, but they’re well-balanced.

The beastkin, now clearly moving faster, mowed down the unmotivated adventurers with ease.

I mean… you guys aren’t even resisting much. It’s a relief that we don’t have to go around killing unnecessarily, but still—aren’t you taking this a little too easy!?

"Haaah!!"

Yuria, wielding the Lion King’s War Axe she got from a gacha, shattered incoming spells and charged at Cain.

Master dealt with an oncoming panty thief with a single slash, then turned to take on more of the advancing adventurers. Honestly, we could’ve given her a bit more screen time… well, I guess she had some pent-up frustration.

Lulu, using the newly acquired skill Assassination, was efficiently knocking out adventurers left and right. Since we’re aiming to minimize fatalities, it’s an incredibly handy skill.

"Yuria! Snap out of it!"

"I am in my right mind!"

Kain barely dodged the descending axe, but the force that shattered the ground left him visibly rattled.

He seemed to have decided to focus on restraining Yuria first. Four women nearby also began assisting him—with magic, spears, swords, and more. As expected, Yuria isn’t invincible—five-on-one is too much even for her. With help from the beastkin, she hurriedly retreated beyond their range.

Still, the enemy's not half-bad either. A blue-haired swordswoman and a green-haired spear-wielding girl quickly closed the distance to Yuria.

"You’re in the way!"

"Your presence isn’t good for Kain! I’m sorry, but we’ll be eliminating you here!"

"I told you I have no intention of going over to your side!!"

Love-drunk people never believe anything outside their tunnel vision… what kind of brain chemistry causes that, anyway?

Yuria batted aside the incoming spear with the handle of her axe, then used its blade like a shield to block the chasing sword. She’s clearly used to fighting Master and Kasai-san—she’s got some breathing room when it comes to defense.

Still, being outnumbered made me anxious. But just then, a short distance away, Master—who’d been going around knocking out capable adventurers—raised her sword and shouted:

"Crimson Soaring Blade!"

In the next instant, flames burst from her sword and took the shape of a bird, flying toward the two women attacking Yuria.

"Wha—!?"

"Kh!"

The spear user leapt back instinctively, while the swordswoman, perhaps not as quick on her feet, held her ground with her sword raised like a shield.

"Holy Light Impact Wave!"

Just before the flaming bird reached the swordswoman, it was blasted away by a flash of pale blue light that struck from the side. The one who fired it—Cain—glared hatefully at Master and prepared to charge with his sword drawn.

It’s probably some kind of holy sword technique from Master, but apparently that useless man can use it too.

…So it turns out he really was talented after all. Why does it have to be him…? The world really is unfair.

“Coward!”

“What’s cowardly about it?”

Cain shouted, while Master wore a look like he was suppressing a headache. I get how he feels.

Meanwhile, the low-ranked adventurers were all knocked unconscious by the rapid-fire shock spells coming from the rifles.

The skilled adventurers were taken down one after another by Master, Kasai, and the other squad leaders. The only ones left standing were the party led by Cain. Honestly, it’d be easier if they just surrendered, but the thought of taking that guy prisoner is irritating… I’d really rather not.

“Sniping a woman from the side out of nowhere! You call yourself a man?!”

“If you step onto a battlefield, you should be prepared for that. Besides, indiscriminately showing kindness isn’t exactly admirable.”

Yeah, exactly. With someone who’s got natural charm like him, if he acted nice to everyone, his harem would just keep growing without end. In fact, Master seems to deliberately keep a cold distance from anyone outside his own harem. It’s not like he’s outright rude, but his attitude is so businesslike that people apparently just give up on approaching him.

“It’s only natural to be kind to women!”

“You’d better wake up. If you keep acting like this, you’ll just end up making everyone who cares about you miserable.”

As they exchanged sharp words, their swords clashed. Realistically speaking, Master could probably knock Cain out in a single blow given the difference in skill.

But it seems like he’s trying to give Yuria a chance, maybe to let her take the spotlight.

While that was going on, Kasai took on the swordsman and spearman, and Lulu was dealing with the two mages. That left Yuria free to act.

With a burst of speed, she dashed forward, raising her massive axe high and swinging down toward Cain’s back.

“What’s that got to do with anything?! All I know is, Yuria will be miserable if she stays with you! I can’t accept that! For Yuria’s happiness, I—whoa!?”

“Enough out of you!!”

The ground exploded beneath their feet, and the two of them vanished into a cloud of dust. A split second later, the sound of violent metal clashing rang out, and Cain came tumbling out of the smoke.

Yuria burst out right after him, slicing through the dust, and spun her body with momentum, smashing her battle axe into the off-balance Cain.

“For my happiness!”

Cain instinctively tried to block the high-speed, centrifugal-powered blow with his sword, but it got knocked flying along with his arm, sending him sprawling to the ground. Yuria deliberately didn’t kill the momentum and spun again, bringing her axe down on the fallen Cain.

“Don’t go deciding things for meeeeee!!”

“Aaaaaaaagh!?”

Cain’s scream rang out as the ground cracked, forming a small crater. The axe landed right between his legs, just below the crotch, showing off its full destructive power. As Cain’s face twisted in agony, Yuria glared down at him with an icy stare.

“Goodbye, Cain. I didn’t dislike you back in the day, but now I absolutely hate you. Go ahead and live however selfishly you want… just do it somewhere I’ll never have to see you again.”

“Wa-wait, Yuria—gah!?”

Yuria delivered a sharp kick to Cain’s stomach, silencing him as he struggled to get up, trembling. After that, she didn’t spare him a single glance and simply smiled at Master before moving on to help restrain the remaining adventurers.

It seems her winter training wasn’t wasted… but honestly, it’s scary.

With their leader defeated, the remaining members of the party stopped resisting as well.

Once I confirmed the battle was over, I stopped singing, and the soldiers, basking in the victory mood, broke into applause. Unlike Fere, I’m not used to applause, so it’s a little embarrassing.

“So, what do we do with them?”

“For now, we’ll box them up and ship them off to the Adventurers’ Guild.”

While discussing how to deal with the adventurers after the battle, a sudden explosion erupted from a section of the forest again. There must have been a separate unit… the location of the blast—if I remember correctly, it’s near the embassy?

“…I see, so these adventurers were just meant to stall us.”

Unlike the soldiers who were starting to get a bit restless sensing the arrival of new enemies, Master remained calm, gazing toward the direction of the explosion with understanding.

The plan must have been to throw these guys at us—if they managed to take us down, great, and if not, they’d at least buy time until the enemy achieved their real goal. Still, I doubt Master would leave things completely unchecked.

“Shuuya, what’s the plan?”

“Makoto will lead ‘FOX’ to sweep the forest and hunt down the separate enemy unit. Once they’re found, wipe them out. The rest of us will take the quick-moving gunner squad straight to the embassy. Everyone else stays behind to guard the castle.”

Following the orders, the beastkin immediately moved out to fulfill their assigned roles. I mixed in among them and made my way to Master’s side, looking up at his face.

“No leaving me behind, okay?”

“Stay close to me, alright?”

Unlike before, there was no protest—he agreed easily this time. And so, we set out on a mission to rescue the prince.

◇◆ADVENTURE RESULT◆◇
NO BATTLE
◆ [Sora Lv.105]
◆ [Lulu Lv.43]
◆ [Yuria Lv.46]
◇―
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
Sora Lv.105 [1057]
Lulu Lv.43 [431]
Yuria Lv.46 [461]

【RECORD】
[MAX COMBO] >> 40
[MAX BATTLE] >> 40

【PARTY-1 (Main)】
[Shuuya] [Lv125] HP 3700/3700 MP 3950/4560 [Normal]
[Sora] [Lv105] HP 70/70 MP 1185/1685 [Normal]
[Lulu] [Lv43] HP 950/950 MP 22/42 [Normal]
[Yuria] [Lv46] HP 2540/2540 MP 51/91 [Normal]
[Fere] [Lv40] HP 445/445 MP 1250/1450 [Normal]
[Makoto] [Lv85] HP 5500/5500 MP 100/170 [Normal]
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝

“Nice kick, Yuria!”

“Seriously… why did I ever like someone like that?”

“Guys like him… for some reason they always seem to attract women…”