Chapter 66 – v2c27

As we climbed to higher ground, we saw more than a hundred monsters charging toward Labyrinth City.

「What… is that?」

Marnell muttered in dismay.
He was quivering as he said that, but nobody pointed that out.
Everyone in this place could understand.

……In this situation, nobody can blame him for his reaction.

The monsters that were charging toward us were not composed of only orcs.
In addition to a large number of orcs, there were Upper-Layer monsters like hobgoblins, Middle-Layer monsters, and even Lich from Lower-Layer could be seen among them.
Even normally, this amount of monsters charging toward Labyrinth City would cause great damage.
Not to mention the possibility of them also strengthened like the hobgoblins from before.

If that happens, I can’t imagine how much damage they will cause.
In the face of such a situation, I opened my mouth in a daze.

「This is just like……… No, it’s impossible.」

I denied myself before I finished.
Judging that it absolutely could never happen.

I immediately cut off my thought and shifted them toward the monsters in front of us.
After coming this far, I can’t even take the option of fleeing from Labyrinth City.
Before the preparation for evacuation ready, the monsters would have reached Labyrinth City first.
There is no choice but to fight.

The moment I judged that, I decided to fight the monsters in front of me.

「Marnell, I leave the townsfolks to you guys!」

「Y-Yes!」

In my words, the adventurers went toward the townfolks in hurry.
Seeing them off, I secretly made up my mind.

We absolutely have to settle this before those monsters come close to Labyrinth City.

Although the city closest to Labyrinth City has walls, Labyrinth City doesn’t have one.
In other words, at this point, the monsters can enter Labyrinth City without any obstacle.
In the current state of Labyrinth City, it’s easy to imagine what will happen if they get inside.
No matter how many people evacuated, it’s certain that the townfolks would be harmed, in fact, all the adventurers in the Labyrinth City can end up getting incapacitated.
That outcome absolutely needs to be avoided.

I wasn’t the only one to make that decision.

「We will make our last stand here.」

Along with those words, intimidating air from Zieg-san who put his hand on the magic sword on his back swelled.
Zieg-san, despite being nervous himself, still opened his mouth to encourage us.

「I already told Layla about the orcs before I came here. The adventurers should be coming soon. If we can hold on until that, we will have the advantage in numbers.」

「We’ll be fine.」

Despite Zieg-san’s concern, Narsena wasn’t tense.
She didn’t show any fighting spirit, and yet it seemed like she was saying we could definitely defeat them.

That attitude could be called too optimistic in this situation.
In fact, Zieg-san was surprised when he heard that.

However, I felt the same as Narsena.
Certainly, this right now is an unprecedented crisis.
The monsters from the labyrinth show up on the surface, on top of that, in a strengthened state, and we don’t know the cause of it.

Still, the situation was much better than when we were fighting the mutated hydra.

Narsena has been fighting against strong enemies so far, and her skill has been further improved, I also have acquired the ability to strengthen my body further.
Compared to when we first met, we have grown significantly now, and we also have Zieg-san this time.
No matter how much they’re strengthened, we should be able to buy enough time if there are just this many of them.
That was what I believe.

……But I hadn’t realized that the idea was founded on my naive thought.

「………Huh?」

It was Narsena who first noticed the monsters had suddenly stopped about a few hundred meters from the Labyrinth City.

「…What happens?」

「They stopped? Why? At this timing…」

Following her, Zieg-san and I also noticed the suspicious movement of the monsters, though the reason escaped us.
However, inexplicably unpleasant sensations started to build up, my face distorted from the mysterious feeling.
It was then Narsena shouted with a hint of urgency in her voice.

「………! Magic! That lich is trying to cast powerful magic using the monsters around it! Moreover, I think it’s stronger than tactical-class magic.」

The words Narsena just said, tactical-class magic, revived a certain memory in my head.
It was a book about war I read in the guild.
There, it described how to cast powerful magic by combining the magic power of hundreds of magicians, this was commonly called tactical-class magic.
Comparing that with the current situation, the lich was trying to use the magic power of the monsters to cast powerful magic……

「──!」

By that time, I finally realized what was at stake.
I didn’t have to think about what would happen to the labyrinth city if that lich was to unleash the kind of magic described in the book.

Recognizing that, Narsena and couldn’t hide our frustration.
Just one person, Zieg-san didn’t understand the situation. I tried to explain it to him…… but it ended in vain.

「Tactical-class? What is…… Wha-!」

The next moment, interrupting Zieg-san was a magic circle with a radius of more than 10 meters that formed above the lich head.
The sight drained blood from Zieg-san’s face, which briefly conveyed how bad the current situation was.

As the magic circle shone in the sky, I thought it was too late, I could only feel despair.
However, the dignified words from Narsena brought me back to reality.

「Not yet, it’s still accumulating magic power! We can still stop it!」

We didn’t know how long it would take until the magic was complete, but we mustn’t have a long time.
In the meantime, we had to penetrate that flock of monsters and kill that lich.

Obviously, the odds were not in our favor.

「Let’s go!」

Even so, we understood that there was no other way but to take the odds and win. With Zieg-san’s words as a signal, we ran toward the flocks of monsters.