Chapter 109 : Invasion & Confrontation (Part 2)

Exactly 15 minutes ago when Rei and Eindride still fighting [The Sky Dragon, Jormungand], The Elf Kingdom—Viorgrand, were thrown into chaos because of the sudden magical power and pressure that spread out from far away.

On the balcony of the royal castle where the Elf Queen–Erna Liv Viorgrand along with the guests who came to accept her quest to protect the Kingdom were gathered in one place.

They're watching one person who fought against a [Dragon].

They couldn't see it very well, but they could see the large body of the Dragon flying through the sky, shooting out condensed air pressure that was enough to blow the forest into smithereens.

Until they saw something unbelievable, when suddenly the Dragon was surrounded with a large wall of trees and it created some sort of dome, trapping the Dragon until they couldn't see it.

"That's, [Grand Chamber]...Eindride's skill." Erna spoke as she could see it using her eyes.

"Eh?!–Onii-chan?! But that size...isn't it way too big?!" Ruru asked.

"Indeed, the size looks abnormal but considering he has that magic item that can increase his magic element, it's not impossible for him to be able to do that."

Erna explained while observing the dome made out of trees. She couldn't see what's happening inside of it.

"I hope nothing happens to them…" Erna prayed for them but...

*BOOM*

An explosion caught everyone's attention that was present on the balcony. It's coming from the Kingdom.

"What happen?!–"

Erna shouted and she saw the white wall that protected and surrounded this Kingdom...

was destroyed.

"Did the wall break?" Fang asked in disbelief the moment he saw the huge gaping hole in the wall

"That's impossible! The wall was enchanted by magic! So it won't break that easily!" Ruru argued.

"Calm down! We must stay calm and assess the situation! Since the wall had been breached, we must quickly to take action…"

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

Then another explosion came from the other three directions, and it surprised them again when all three of those explosions managed to break it as well.

"Wha–?!"

In the midst of the rubble of the broken wall, four silhouettes appeared from the smoke on each holes in the wall.

"What happened...how did this–" Erna was confused since this is the first to happen in her long life.

*BAM*

A soldier barged in through the door from behind the balcony.

"It's an emergency! The wall has been breached on four sides!"

"I know and I can see that! Tell me the situation!" Erna asked him straightforwardly since she was more concerned about who's the enemies are.

"Right now, our soldier is trying to identify the one who breached the wall...but..."

"But what?!–we don't have time for riddles!"

"B-but–hordes of monster came out from the holes of our wall! And attacking the citizen!"

"Monsters?! How can that be?!–This is the sacred ground where our Great World Tree was standing and not only that this place have been protected it with magic that prevent any monster that would come here! So there's no way monsters could ever walk in!"

"W-we assumed that too! But from what I heard from the report, it seems the monsters are being led by someone who breached the wall!"

"Wha–lead?! Then what about our guards on the wall! If there was intruder, they should be able to see them from far!"

Erna asked as she didn't know that the guards that were stationed on the wall that she mentioned…

…were annihilated without them noticing.

"W-we don't know...there's no report about them and no contact from them."

"Then...does that mean..."

The soldier nodded his head while his body trembling, "W-we had already assumed that they had…already been annihilated."

"N-no way..."

Erna swayed slightly, Ruru rushed in to catch her in case she fell down but Erna only took a step back. She felt all her energy was drained from her body and it took her entire willpower to remain standing.

She was in shock and horrified as she wondered who could have done such a thing

******

When the smoke dissipated, monsters started swarming into the wall.

*GRAAAAAA*

*KIEKKKK*

*AWOOO*

From Goblins, Ogres, Cyclops, Wolves, all kinds of monsters that could be found throughout this forest, have spilled out through the hole and attacking everyone within their sight.

When the smoke cleared out, the silhouettes finally revealed the perpetrator behind the breaching of the wall.

A short-looking boy–Kara, on the north-eastern wall.

A twin-tail green haired girl–Mira, on the north-western wall.

A large-bald man–Guld, on the eastern wall.

And finally, the leader of them all, a woman with brunette hair and a tattoo of a rose on her neck–Hera, on the northern wall.

"Now then~ cause chaos around the Kingdom and use every means possible to find that person!" Hera shouted amidst the monster's horde.

*GRAAAAA!!!*

Of course some of the soldiers anticipated their appearance, but they never expected that there would be multiple monsters coming out from the hole.

"Noooo–!!!"

"Agh–!!"

"Kyaa–!!!"

Screams and explosions resounded throughout the Kingdom as monsters swarmed the place, spilling blood all over the places.

And the Elf Queen–Erna watched in despair as her Kingdom was attacked.

'How…how did this happen–No…no, I must stay strong...' Erna ground her teeth, frustrated at her inability to foresee something like this.

Fang and Andrew stared at each other for a moment, then they walked towards her.

"My Queen, may I suggest?" Fang had spoken to her.

"Not now, sir Fang...I need to focus of what should I do." Erna replied as she racked her brain on how to solve this problem.

"Then I shall be straight, can you send us into the battlefield along with your soldiers?"

Fang asked her so suddenly and it surprised her.

"No, you are our guests, we cannot endanger your life with our Kingdom's matter anymore."

Fang looked upon her, but he shook his head, "Unfortunately, we cannot comply with your words, my Queen, this was the order our leader gave to us...which is to protect this Kingdom from any unnecessary danger."

"Your leader? You mean Crimson knew this would happen?"

"He didn't say he knew this could happen, but he had a hunch that something bad would happen if he left this Kingdom unattended. Well I can say is that his instinct is much better than mine." Fang joked on the last part of his speech.

"Since we had the strength to fight, it would be a waste if not being used...we are Adventurers, we fought for our freedom to adventure and explore, unlike Mercenaries that fought for money." Fang explained.

"And we have the freedom to choose what we want...so if you would like, how about hiring us to fight against them." Fang smiled.

Erna widened her eyes as she couldn't say anything to argue his words. It's true they are lacking the manpower, especially since the Royal Guard–Eindride have gone to the frontline to fight against that Dragon alongside Rei.

Then…the only choice she had right now was…

.

.

.

.

.

...to accept the offer.

"Very well, I shall hire you all! Protect the Kingdom with all cost and I shall rewarded you handsomely!" Erna spoke to them with dignified manner.

Fang grinned widely, showing his sharp canines, "Heh! You heard her right?! Since our leader is fighting over there...we should fight to protect this Kingdom that he entrusted to us!"

"Yeah!!" They answered him with excitement.

Erna looked at them from the sideline as she couldn't help but feel grateful, 'To think you were able to think this through...Crimson–No, Kiritsuka Rei...I owe you one~'

"My Queen, may I have a map of this kingdom?" When Fang asked about it, their plan began.

Fang stretched out the map on the table, circling the place where the broken walls were located.

"We will be divided into groups."

"Andrew and Lena will go to the north-east, Wise and Kagura will go to the east, Erica and Dahlia will go to the north-west, while I will be going to the north alone." Fang gave out his order on each of them as he pointed at the locations.

"Focus on clearing out the monsters and do not engage with anything dangerous, make sure to guide the survivors if there's any, but most importantly is to focus on staying alive." Fang explained, and they just nodded.

Fang acted as the sub-leader in this group, in between all of them, he was the veteran in this field despite having a goofy character unfit for a leader.

But after knowing Rei, he learned how to behave like one and stayed calm when necessary.

"How about me?" Ruru spoke as she already prepared her bow and equipment.

"You will be guiding all the citizen that still remained in the area to a safe place." Fang spoke.

"But I have the power to fight! Especially you are going to the north by yourself!"

"That's true, but you are also the princess of this Kingdom and we cannot risk a scout to fight against a horde of monsters."

"What if you run out of arrows, remember what Crimson had told us, you need to think all the possibility that could happen in battlefield." Fang explained the most basic fact about archery, which was that if they have no arrows, it would be their loss.

"Ughh...understood." Ruru replied while looking a bit disappointed.

Fang could tell, "But if the situation on my side got worsens, I will call you for help."

Ruru widened her eyes and smiled cheerfully like she always did, "Heh~ that's more like it!~" While punching his back lightly.

"Ouch, you don't have to do that!"

"Heh~ weakling~"

"Say what?!–" And just like that, the mood lightened up due to these two arguing like usual. The others felt the same as they were able to calm down.

Erna then approached them, "I shall lend you my soldiers to clean up the monsters, they are not much but since more help can make your work easier."

"Thanks, that would be very helpful."

"But remember, the enemies can control those monsters and we don't know what kind of power they hold." Erna warned them.

"I understand, since our leader nagged us many times, survival is our priority."

"I see, it seems you have quite handful leader there."

"Heh, you could say."

"Then I have nothing to worry about." Erna smiled then turned towards Ruru.

"Ruru…please be careful." Erna spoke as she gently caressed her cheek.

Ruru looked up to her and smiled, "I will, Onee-sama...I will come back for you~"

Fang who watched them from the sideline, smiled.

"Then, we shall depart now!"

"Yes sir!"

******

In the North-eastern side of the wall, Kara stood on top of the roof of a house in that area, watching the monsters rampaging the whole place on his side.

"Hmmm, there's nothing much here..." Kara muttered as he jumped down and walked to look at his surroundings.

"It has been a few minutes, and none of the soldiers came, no wonder this Kingdom is too lax because it's too peaceful." Kara spoke as he walked.

"Our Leader told us if we went rampaged here the soldiers would come attacking us."

"But I don't see any soldiers coming around here? but I guess they are too scared to face the monsters here, keke." Kara mocked them while snickering.

But as he continued to observe, his sense picked up on something.

"Hah, finally~ they finally came, hm? Ohhh~ what do we have here, I sensed...among them, someone is pretty strong." Kara spoke as he smirked widely.

******

Andrew and Lena were on their way to the north-eastern wall, followed by some soldiers that were lent by the Elf Queen.

While they were slowly approaching the wall, they already started cleaning up the monsters that stood in their way.

*SLASH*

*GRAAAA!!*

Andrew swung his sword, cutting through an Ogre monster in one slash while being enveloped with a blue aura around his body.

"Is everyone alright!" Andrew asked the elf soldiers who helped him, but they were shocked when he just one hit killed a monster that's double the size of his body.

"W-we're fine!" One of the soldiers stuttered as a wolf monster approached him from behind.

*SLASH*

But with a quick reaction, Andrew slashed through the wolf body into half before it was able to reach the soldier.

"Stay focused!" Andrew spoke.

"Y-yes thank you!" The soldier nodded as he ran to help the other soldiers.

Andrew sighed as he observed the situation that slowly calmed down after they reduced some of the monsters that were on their way.

Andrew then looked at his sword that he was holding, 'I...finally became stronger.' he thought.

'But I'm really still far from him...I will get stronger and stronger, to protect my friends.'

Just as he said that in his head, Lena approached him.

"Do you need any healing?" Lena asked him as she just came back from healing some soldiers.

"I'm fine, are you done with your side?"

"Yes, the soldiers are healed up since I only give them a minor heal for the moment, I need to save up some mana when we arrive at the location." Lena spoke calmly, as if her former self who's always stuttering and worrying about simplest things, changed the moment she gained more self-confidence.

'What a surprise...to think such a person could change this much after meeting him but…well, I could also say the same thing to myself.' Andrew smiled as he was still a bit surprised about their changes.

'It's thanks to him that I could learn how to use aura.' Andrew felt grateful to have met Rei, but when he remembered his training, his body began to shiver.

'Brrr...let's stop thinking about that part.' Andrew shook away that thought and focused himself on the mission.

"The rest is over! We must continue to clean up the remaining monster!" Andrew spoke firmly, leading the group as he tried to imitate his leader, Crimson(Rei).

Lena could see that, so she smiled as she watched him.

But...

"...?!"

Andrew and Lena sensed something.

'Something approaching at high speed!–' Andrew thought.

When the soldiers seemed to have relaxed, Andrew's complexion changed as he suddenly began to feel nervous.

"Everyone brace for impact!–" Andrew warned them.

Something approaching through the sky.

'It's coming!!–'

A short-looking boy was flying towards him, with both of his hands turning into a monster's black hand.

"Ora!" He shouted as he swung his fist towards Andrew who drew his sword.

*TING*

Andrew managed to block the strike as Lena quickly took a step back to distance herself away from them.

"Ugh–" Andrew gritted his teeth when he held his fist with his sword.

'Who–a kid?!–' Andrew finally noticed that the one who striked him was a boy that was shorter than him, who also had a large monster's black arms.

"ORAAA!" Then suddenly, Andrew was pushed back and sent flying.

*BOOM*

...and crashed against a house behind him.

"Andrew-san!–" Lena called his name, but then the boy immediately jumped towards her and started to swing his fist at her.

"Heh–"

*SWOOSH*

But before he could touch her, Andrew dashed through the dust created from the house's rubbles, cladding his body with his blue aura and swung his sword.

"Huff–!"

*TING*

His sword deflected the boy's fist before it could reach Lena and forced the boy to jump back.

"Hooo~ as expected, you are pretty strong~" The boy spoke as he landed on the ground.

The elf soldiers were taken back from the sudden confrontation with the enemy that caused this mess in the first place.

Andrew gripped his sword as he glared at the boy in front of him.

"Who are you?" Andrew asked while pointing his sword at him.

The boy grinned widely, his arms turned back to normal while his horn on his forehead was still visible.

"I am [The Ogre, Kara], I acknowledge you to be the strongest among the people here! So I shall let you live if you answer some of my questions."

Kara introduced himself with such a proud look despite being shorter than the people around him.

Of course they couldn't answer him because...

'What the hell is this situation?' Andrew couldn't comprehend what happened just now.

'Me the strongest?...I'm not even the strongest among my team.' Andrew misunderstood what he meant.

'But...that aside, who the hell is this kid, that strength and that arm that changes, and that horn...the aura he releases…he is not ordinary.' Andrew observed quietly.

"Hm?" Kara realized that no one is answering him, then...

*SWOOSH*

Andrew saw Kara was jumping towards the elf soldier who stood there watching on the sideline. His arms changed into a massive monster's arms once more.

"Oi, I'm talking to you all." Kara spoke coldly and swung his right arm at them.

*SWOOSH*

*TING*

Andrew responded to his strike quickly as he managed to run and blocked Kara's large monster's arms that was about to kill the elf soldier.

"Kugh–" Andrew this time was able to stand his ground, but that strike...

*CRACK*

A crack was formed on the ground when they clashed.

One of the soldiers who stood at front, dropped on his feet as his legs gave up due to the strong pressure in front of him.

"H-huh?"

"What are you doing standing there?!–hurry up and draw your sword! Don't let your guard down!"

Andrew warned them while he was still defending them from Kara's fist.

"Ohh~ how dependable, I wonder how long you can keep up with this~" Kara sneered as he commented on his bravery and strength.

"I don't know, but speaking of which...I haven't used my all here." Andrew replied with a smile despite he could barely block his attack before.

Kara's lips curved widely, showing his pearly teeth, "Heh, then me too!" His eyes turned red as his strength from his fist caused Andrew to take a step back.

"Ughhh...then how about we move to another location...you don't want anyone to interrupt us right?" Andrew suggested.

"Heh, you are a brave man...though I like that idea." Kara replied with a large grin forming on his face.

Andrew glanced at Lena who stood on the sideline, then he nodded his head.

Lena who saw it, immediately understood what he meant and nodded back at him.

"Then...how about we go now!"

*TING*

Andrew used a bit of his strength to push the fist back and deflected it to the side.

Then he immediately ran in a random direction.

Kara, who was taken back from the strange force that was strong enough to deflect his monster's arms, suddenly filled with excitement.

"Hah! Then I shall take the offer!" Kara jumped and followed Andrew who was running now.

Meanwhile Lena immediately stood in front of the elf soldiers.

"Everyone! Do not forget what we must do! Andrew-san now is trying to distract our enemy! We must do our part to help him, which is cleaning up the remaining monster!"

Lena took the position to lead the group as she stood there with such a calm composure despite being a nervous wreck inside.

The elf soldiers immediately raised their swords when they heard her words.

"We are the proud Viorgrand's soldiers! We will clean up the monster while sir Andrew is fighting against the enemy! We shall not fall behind him!"

Then one of the soldiers spoke to boost their morale.

"Y-yes!"

"We are going to fight!"

"Woahhhh!!!"

They somehow were able to overcome their fear and Lena sighed in relief.

'Andrew-san…be safe.'

******

After that they finally arrived at a secluded part of the kingdom which looked like a shop district area.

"So you are separating me from the others? Heh, do you think you could win against me alone?" Kara spoke as he stood there face to face with Andrew.

Andrew turned around to look back at him.

'Sorry Fang-san...I don't think I can avoid this fight after you warned me that much.' Andrew gripped his sword as his gaze turned at him.

"Well I don't think I could win against someone like you...more like I am unsure myself, whether I could defeat you or not."

"But there's still one thing you need to know." Andrew spoke as he took his stance that seemed similar to someone he knew.

An image overlapped on his body, which came from one person.

His leader–Crimson(Rei).

"If you think I'm the prey here...you got it all wrong."

*SWOOSH*

"Because from now on....

.

.

.

.

you...

.

.

.

.

are my prey."

Andrew spoke as he released his blue aura, while showing a similar attitude like his leader.

Kara's forehead was filled with many veins that showed up because of his words.

"Hooo...then I shall show you who's the real predator here."

As they were about to face off...

On different locations, the Adventurers team met the same enemy who was the cause of the broken wall.

Erica and Dahlia were facing a twin-tail green haired girl.

Wise and Kagura were facing a bald, large man.

And finally, Fang was facing a woman with brunette hair and a rose tattoo on her neck.

This time, it's their turn to show what they were capable of.

To be continued…