《12 Monster Banquet Party ~Stampede~》
When they arrived at the Adventurer’s Guild, Dan, Sarah, Galwin, and Lisa waded through the crowd and read the urgent requests posted on the temporary bulletin board.
【Emergency Request】
・Adventurers of Adventurer Rank C or higher should respond to the stampede as an emergency request.
・Adventurers of rank D and below are free to participate at their own risk.
・Adventurers who wish to avoid urgent requests must pay 10 platinum coins.
・The scale of the stampede from the Labyrinth of Lament at this time would be about 500 demons.
・Adventurers who have received this urgent request are requested to go out of the north gate of Dallas and take down the enemy from the northeast direction.
※The Lord’s private army and guards are in charge of the northwest sector.
・The rewards are determined by the number of monsters each person has defeated, as shown on the guild card.
When she finished reading the content, Lisa said a few words to the other three, then offered the guild receptionist to avoid an urgent request, handed her 10 platinum coins, and hurried out of the guild.
The three of them who remained looked at each other and ran towards the north gate in high spirits.
The three of them didn’t notice that whoever was watching them was in contact with someone else.
◇ ◇ ◇
Louis and Airi were waiting for Lisa’s return in the garden of their house.
Louis had a bad feeling, but he knew he couldn’t do anything about it, so he forced himself to turn his attention to Airi to change that thought.
She was also restless and anxious, and she was soaking it up.
Hoping to alleviate Airi’s anxiety, Louis held her hand and encouraged her.
It was painful when Airi forced herself to smile at him.
As he was doing this, he saw Lisa running towards him. Louis and Airi joined her, and they hurried to the south gate.
And so, without any problems, the three of them were able to escape Dallas.
◇ ◇ ◇
Dan, Sarah, and Galwin left through the north gate and headed northeast, arriving at the place where the adventurers were gathering.
In their vicinity, a considerable number of adventurers were carrying weapons with tense faces. There were probably 500 adventurers who had gathered for the emergency request. A group of monsters were camped out in front of their gaze.
The most common type of monster pack seems to be the goblin species.
Goblin leaders, goblin mages, goblin generals, goblin knights, goblin lords, and other higher species were about to pounce.
There are also other monsters of various orcs and ogres.
The three of them turned their gaze toward the direction of the Lord’s private army to the west.
The lord’s private army has gathered to protect the city of Dallas as well as adventurers who have received emergency requests. The number of those people would be as many as two thousand.
「Looks like we got quite a turnout, huh?」
Dan spoke with a tone of voice that showed a little joy.
「I guess. I think we can suppress this without any problem. However, we are likely to take quite a bit of damage taking them out……」
Galwin agrees with Dan.
「Now we just have to figure out when to get out of here. ……」
Sarah seems to be thinking about getting out safely anyway.
「It’s a shame to waste the materials from the monsters we defeated, but we have more important things to do right now than that!」
「All right! Don’t you dare die!」
Dan called out to Sarah and Galwin, probably to get them fired up.
Galwin and Sarah responded.
「Of course I will not die!」
「Yeah, I’m not going to be killed by a monster like thatー!」
Dan then beckoned to them and began to whisper and discuss the escape plan.
◇ ◇ ◇
At the Lord’s private army camp, someone was carefully watching the eastern side where the adventurers were.
Alfred von Windsor is now a young man of 20.
He’s always had a thing for older women, and when he happened to see Sarah on the street about a month ago, he told everyone close to him that he was determined to get her. 『I’m going to get my hands on that woman no matter what!』
A man approached Alfred and opened his mouth with a disgusting smile on his face.
「Alfred-sama, I’ve just received word from my messenger. They are about to arrive – or have already arrived, he said. It was a good thing we had the Adventurers’ Guild watching over them for us.」
「Well, thank you for the report. It was a precautionary order, but it seemed to have helped. And now we know when they’re coming to us.」
「However, our information suggests that one of their party members, an elf, has left the Adventurer’s Guild and is headed elsewhere. How may I serve you?」
When the man asked him about it, Alfred looked thoughtful and said bluntly.
「Hmph. I have no interest in the elf. The only one I’m interested in is …… Sarah. More importantly, what’s going on at the front?」
「Ha, no problems. We have already infiltrated the adventurers’ side with a very skilled assassin known as Kira. If it’s her, she will definitely get the job done.」
「Hmm, that’s good. I can’t wait to kill Dan and take Sarah away from him. I had two days left until the deadline that I gave to I the man. …… Unfortunately, I’m not one to miss an opportunity this good.」
Alfred said with a vulgar smile on his face.
◇ ◇ ◇
And so the battle begins, with all sorts of speculation and confusion.
「Okay, Galwin, Sarah, let’s go!」
「Yeah!」
「Yes!」
From the east, not only Dan and his team, but also 500 adventurers, and from the west, the Lord’s private army went to face the monsters.
Garwin uses his shield to block the arrows flying from the goblin archer.
With Garuwyn in the lead and Dan diagonally behind him, Sarah positioned herself in the rear guard further away and fired a series of magic shots.
「Hey! That attack won’t work!」
「I’m not done yet!」
「Great fire, pierce the enemy!【Fire Arrow】！」
Garwin swung his one-handed sword, slashing at more and more goblins as they came towards him.
Dan uses his one-handed axe to slash through the monsters that Galwin’s attacks miss, while Sarah uses her magic to preferentially kill monsters that attack from a distance, such as goblin archers and goblin mages.
「I’ll use wide area magic! Dan! Galwin! Follow me!」
「Yeah!」
「I’m not letting any of them through!」
After calling out to them, Sarah began to focus her consciousness while manipulating her magic. After a while, when enough magic power was gathered, she activated a wide area magic.
「Come, conflagration, now manifest! Let us burn in the fires of hell!【Hellburning】！」
Sarah’s magic caused about a hundred goblins to burst into flames and scream.
「「「「GUGYAAAA」」」」
The battle lasted for about two hours, and the number of monsters had dwindled considerably, but the adventurers had also suffered some damage.
However, Galwyn, Dan, and Sarah had used potions as soon as anything happened, so they inccured no noticeable damage yet.
「Fuu, we have to slow the pace down a little. We’ll have to start thinking about when to leave.」
Dan suggested to them, and Galwin, looking tired, teased Dan.
「Dan is already exhausted, he has gone sloppy, haahahah」
From his tone, we could tell that he was joking and trying not to let us know how tired he was.
In response to Galwin, Dan said, 「Yeah, that’s right. Should I leave all the rest to Galwin?」 he retorted.
「That’s enough joking around for both of you! I wanted to take a break, but I guess I can’t say that. Here comes the Ogre General!」
The Ogre General is an A-rank monster that a party of A-rank adventurers can defeat without much difficulty.
But two hours had already passed since the battle began, and all the adventurers, including Galwin, Dan, and Sarah, were exhausted. Also, Sarah hadn’t been in a battle in a long time.
For those reasons, the three of them clearly had a hard time.
However, as expected of A-rank adventurers, they gradually began to overwhelm the Ogre General.
Galwin defended against the Ogre General’s attack with his shield, and while the opponent wobbled in reaction, Dan swung his one-handed sword down at the Ogre General’s neck.
All three of us thought that the Ogre General’s head would fly through the air ―― and at that moment, it did.
――What waited in the air…――
It was Dan’s head. ……