Volume 7, Chapter 69 – One Wave After Another

At Camilla’s suggestion, Laxy moved between the various fronts with the group. Although for some reason, monsters above level 20 had suddenly stopped pouring out of the giant pit, this situation only lasted for less than five minutes before new monsters began to surge up again. Among them were even many of the green slimes from the Water Tree’s lake. Although no slime giants had appeared yet, the ever-increasing numbers still made Laxy’s heart sink.

“Tiffany, you and Laxy deal with the undead on the left. I’ll take care of the slimes on the right.”

“No more magic.”

“What about Mary? Do you still have magic, Mary!”

“My magic has bottomed out too.”

“Then use a magic potion.”

“But Miss Camilla, we ran out of magic potions a long time ago.”

“Tsk.”

Camilla’s brow furrowed at Mary’s answer. Due to the long battle on multiple fronts, everyone’s stamina and magic power had significantly declined. Although Camilla had been consciously conserving her strength, she had been running around nonstop, and her breathing had become erratic, causing her to miscast her spells several times.

And as the vanguard, Mary, who had the heaviest task in the team, had no magic power left at all and could only rely on her physical strength to hold up her shield. In order to fight for as long as possible, the group had given most of the magic potions Yisi had provided to her. Even so, they had all reached their limit.

Purifying an undead with a single sword strike, Laxy, having bought a moment to breathe, turned her head and scanned the battlefield. Her hand gripping her sword couldn’t help but tighten slightly.

The situation was not optimistic.

The defensive line, which had initially been held at the edge of the giant pit, had now been pushed back to the entrance of the street. As far as the eye could see, apart from the Margaret adventurer team, the entire labyrinth plaza was filled with nothing but monsters. The smell of blood and beasts in the air was so thick it was numbing. The teeming, countless hordes of monsters were still tirelessly assailing the soldiers. The soldiers could only use shields, stones, and even wooden planks abandoned in the alleys as obstacles to block their charge. No one was thinking about pushing the monsters back into the pit anymore; everyone was conserving their strength, or rather, they had very little left.

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At most ten minutes, no, five minutes or even less. If another powerful monster like the Rock Golem were to crawl out of the pit, the defensive line would collapse in an instant.

Laxy took a deep breath.

The soldiers and her group had held on for nearly a quarter of an hour. To evacuate all the residents of the city would take at least several times that—at least an hour. If they couldn’t buy an hour, tens of thousands of people would be left in this mining city forever, and Gota would become a city of the dead.

One hour…

If there were an army of judgment angels here, never mind holding them off, even annihilating all the monsters would be easy. But she couldn’t hope for an impossibility right now. She had to find a way to buy time.

“Dealing with the undead is easy, but I can only defend one section of the line by myself…”

Slaying another monster that was trying to ambush them from behind, Laxy shared the burden of the group while thinking calmly.

“No, let’s try another approach. What if I don’t participate in the battle directly, but cast reinforcement magic on those soldiers?”

Area-of-effect reinforcement magic was at least third-tier and above, which was not a problem for her. The only difficulty was the effectiveness of the enhancement and the coverage area. One spell could at most buff fifty people, and there were still nearly a thousand soldiers on the field, not including the wounded. In other words, she would have to cast the spell twenty times in a row to cover all of them. With her current magic power of 382 points, it was impossible. Not to mention, the soldiers’ base stats were very low. Even with reinforcement magic, their abilities would not improve much.

“Is there only one path left…”

Laxy’s expression became complicated.

Rely on her mobility from flight to specifically assassinate powerful monsters, thereby greatly reducing the pressure on the defensive line.

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This was indeed the best choice to maximize her own advantages. But the problem was that she had to protect her master’s family. This was both for the sake of the order and for the future of the Four Holy Spirits of the Revelation.

What a cruel choice.

Laxy couldn’t help but frown.

Although it was obvious which choice she should make, to watch humans die before her very eyes was an action that was hard to feel at ease with, one that would burden her with a sense of guilt.

“Master!”

Amidst Refina’s shout, Edith, whose stamina was nearly depleted, was unable to dodge in time and was struck in the arm by a quill shot from a hedgehog monster.

“Tch.”

The pain from her elbow made Edith raise an eyebrow. She subconsciously wanted to lift her arm to pull out the quill, but her arm hung limply, not obeying her command at all. Soon, even the pain disappeared, and her entire arm lost all feeling.

Poison.

The feeling of being plotted against made Edith’s eyes narrow, a dangerous signal flashing in her azure eyes.

If she were an adult pureblood, she could have controlled the poison to a single point by controlling her own blood. But she was not yet an adult and had not mastered this ability, which was precisely why she was so enraged.

[Shadow Fang]

Instantly transforming into countless tiny red bats, Edith reappeared by the side of the hedgehog monster that had shot the quill.

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The monster, sensing danger, curled into a ball, attempting to defend against the bats with its quills—but it had miscalculated its attacker’s methods.

Dispelling [Shadow Fang], Edith grinned, revealing a cruel smile. Then, she swung Gungnir down with force.

Splat.

Blood splattered everywhere.

However, after killing the monster that had harmed her, Edith felt no joy at all.

[Shadow Fang] had consumed her last bit of magic power. In other words, she could no longer continue to fight.

“Hmph, it’s time to fall back. I had no reason to fight for humans in the first place.”

The only reason she had fought was to enjoy the pleasure of slaughter and of defeating a strong enemy—of course, there were also some other unspeakable reasons mixed in.

Muttering in a low voice, Edith, who had broken away from the group, shouted to Camilla and the others.

“Retreat behind the line and recover your magic power!”

“Understood, Master! Mary, Tiffany, you retreat too!”

“Yes~”

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“Miss Camilla.”

“I still have magic power left. I’ll stay here with Laxy and wait for Onee-sama to return.”

“Miss Camilla, you can’t even maintain the rhythm of your spells anymore. Staying here will only be a burden to Miss Laxy. Lady Yisi will definitely come back. Let’s fall back for now and stabilize the defensive line!”

Refina’s words made Camilla look impatient, but since she wasn’t wrong, she hesitated. Only when Refina forcefully grabbed her arm did Camilla reluctantly nod.

“Retreat.”

As if all her strength had been drained, as soon as her voice fell, she nearly collapsed. Refina immediately rushed forward to support her.

“M-Miss Camilla!?”

“I’m just a little tired.”

“Let me carry you.”

“No need. I can walk back on my own.” Camilla turned to Laxy, who was completely unscathed. “I’m leaving this to you. We have a Charles protecting us. You wait here for Onee-sama—if you can, try to thin out the monsters. Although I don’t want to give Onee-sama to anyone else, I can’t deny that bringing her honor is not a bad thing.”

“As an angel, I will naturally think for my lord’s sake.”

Without another word, Camilla glanced at Laxy and then left the battlefield with Refina and the others. The entire plaza was now left with only Laxy.