Chapter 96: Escort Missio

Once everyone we could reasonably expect arrived, Anbu quickly took a stick to draw a makeshift map of Kengir. Since the horde was coming from the west, the villages that lay there were under the gravest threat. There was barely enough of us to go one each to a village and escort them singlehandedly, but we'd have to make do. Five of us were rank B creatures, and there were eight villages to the west. Durreg and I volunteered to take one of the remaining three each, and the Regillus twins took on the last one. Nisos was assigned to a village to the north, so it was unlikely that we'd meet before returning to the city.

The port town to the west was by far the largest and closest inhabited area to the horde, so the Ionian fat man and the Tameryian noble, along with whoever was left, were assigned to escort them to the city. Anyone who managed to finish their job was to move to their aid as quickly as they could.

Anbu was one of the rank B warriors, and the village he was assigned was rather close to mine, so we'd agreed to rendezvous before heading back. Since he couldn't fly, I also happened to be the one to give him a lift.

"I know I've said this before, but I am eternally grateful for your help." He said, his voice thick with emotion.

We were almost at the village, so I saw no harm in indulging him.

"You've no need to thank me. I'd decided to go into the academy in the first place to recruit help. You only beat me to the punch." I answered nonchalantly.

The air was pushed aside as I pushed through using my draconic form. Just to get even a little more speed, I was launching wind breath after wind breath, hoping to reduce the air's push even a little.

"Is that the village over there?!" I stopped to yell at the young man.

"That's right! Your target village is just a few kilometers south from here!" he yelled back.

I descended rapidly as the village came into view. The villagers were embroiled in a fight with crazed cattle, and they seemed to be getting thrashed.

"I'll handle this, go help the others!" he yelled, jumping off my back and rolling on the ground when I was about to land.

I veered upwards and turned left, leaving the village in his hands.

If that village was struggling with livestock turning into monsters because of the mana, then my village is as well.

I stopped flapping my wings and fell into free-fall as I transformed midflight into Ati's [Supersonic Thunderclap], partly because I had no idea how the villagers react to a dragon landing in their midst, and partly because his was the fastest form I had access to.

I slowly turned into a beastwoman, with my armor changing form to suit my size, and my staff's holster was moved from my side to my back. As I began to approach the ground like a fleeting comet, I flapped my small, yet sleek wings with great force.

I was instantly thrown forward with tremendous power, all downwards momentum simply gone. The ground was rapidly moving beneath me, and it only took mere seconds to get there.

My fears were confirmed as I witnessed a number of monsters laying waste to the village, with the villagers fighting a losing battle against them.

A few bodies littered the ground, and more would continue to do so if no one intervened.

[Mad Bull Lv. 9]

[Rabid Dog Lv. 7]

...

[Minotaur Lv. 14]

The last monster in particular was wreaking havoc on the villagers, tossing mangled bodies left and right with a woodcutter's axe in each hand.

I furiously descended on them all, mana blades slaughtering the chaff. I approached the minotaur, and with an underhanded swing, my staff blasted into the minotaur's skull into smithereens. I pulled up and slowed down, looking for any more monsters, but the battle – if you could call it that, was over.

All of the villagers were in the square, though they seemed to be in terrible shape. Some were trembling in fear, and others were holding crushed limbs and screaming in pain.

A child was holding on to a corpse and begging it to come back to life.

As I landed, some of the unharmed people looked towards me with varying expressions. I tried to speak up, but the scene simply overwhelmed me. A young man with a furious scowl on his face approached me and grabbed me by the armor's collar.

"Where the hell have you bastards been?!" he screamed, his eyes filled with bitter hatred and sorrow.

"We pay you enough taxes to the point of risking starvation, and you still fail to do the one damned thing you promised us?!"

He threw his arm back to prepare to punch me, but another fist crashed into his face, throwing him off me and into the ground.

"That's enough, you fool!" the middle-aged man yelled harshly, making many of the people around wince at the man's voice.

The man turned to me and bowed his head.

"Please forgive this boy for his insolence, Hero. My name is Inbusha, and I promise that he will be thoroughly punished, so I humbly ask that you spare his life." He said, getting down on his knees to beg.

...What the abyss is wrong with this village?

"Please stand up, Inbusha. I am a foreigner to these lands, and I have nothing to do with Kengir's authorities. I came here to warn you of danger and to escort you to the city."

The old man slowly stood up and faced me with a grim expression.

"As you can see, the danger has already arrived, and took with it the lives of many villagers." He said with a sorrowful voice.

I shook my head.

"That was nothing; the real danger is yet to come. A massive monster horde is coming from the sea to the west; I am sure you felt the massive wind blowing from its direction."

At my words, the atmosphere grew even grimmer, and a few survivors who'd been traumatized fell into panic attacks and sobbing.

The boy from earlier stood up to speak to me.

"I am not leaving without burying our dead. I am not leaving them to be eaten by the monsters or to turn into undead!" he yelled, and a few survivors nodded in silent agreement.

"You're just going to get yourselves kil-" I said, trying to object, but the middle-aged man held my shoulder and shook his head.

"They won't be convinced to do otherwise. If what you said is right, then we've no time to waste. Let's go." He said, as he stepped back to gather the remaining survivors.

Half a dozen young men remained behind to bury the dead, as the remaining hundred or so villagers laid eight of their seriously wounded on a wagon to be dragged by Inbusha and a few other men.

The wounded were barely bandaged with bloody scraps of cloth, and a few of them were looking pale.

"What are you people doing?" I asked incredulously.

"I am sorry, young lady, but some of our wounded are not capable of making this trip on their own. We will stay behind to pull them with the wagon; in the meantime, I humbly ask that you escort the rest of the village for us."

I shook my head before activating [Law of Exclusive Attraction] at 1 m/s2 and [Force Coefficient] to reverse the direction. I kept increasing it until the wagon began to float, before turning back to the villagers.

"I am not abandoning any of you if you wish to follow me. Next time, ask for my help; I am not going to hold out on you. Now head for the city – I'll be flying overhead to take down any threats before they get close to you. Call for me if you need anything!" I said to the dumbfounded villagers as I took off to fly a few hundred meters overhead.

Mission Issued: [Escort the Villagers!]

Rank: C

The lives of an entire village rest upon your shoulders, as they race against time to reach safety. Whether they live to see another day's sun rise depends on your efforts!

Rewards: Title – [Protector of the Meek]

I ignored the mission for now and looked over the western horizon. I only saw the ominous mana pillar, and there was still no sign of the horde or mom and auntie.

I hope it stay that way for a good while.

***

The villagers moved on to the dirt road heading towards the city. Fortunately, the terrain was an open desert, with greenery surrounding a branch river on the way to the city. That meant that nothing was going to ambush the villagers without me seeing it a long way coming. This branch of the river reunites with another downstream, where Anbu's group should be waiting for us.

We might just be able to make it in one piece if things keep going this smoothly.

Just as that thought passed through my mind, the desert sands hundreds of meters away exploded, and a massive worm monster with rows upon rows of teeth rose from its depths.

[Sand Devourer Lv. 23]

Rank C creature. The sand devourer lurks beneath the ground, waiting for unsuspecting prey to walk within its vicinity.

A bunch of other sand devourers emerged next to the first one, and they roared before charging towards the frightened villagers.

Damn it.