Avalon"s attacking force led by Procell had broken through the [Pig] Demon Lord"s dungeon.
At first, they encountered no resistance of any kind and that led to decent progress. However, as soon as they stepped foot in the [Transfer Labyrinth] room, they were split up into smaller groups.
The land forces led by Kuina and was composed of the Mythological Foxes and Abyss Howls made one group.
The golems led by Rorono, Rorono herself, Tindalos, and Procell made up another.
The other-dimension unit led by Ruhe and was composed of the Ocean Singers and the rest of the Abyss Howls were one more group.
And then, there was the sniper corps led by Aura and was composed of the High Elves.
Each group was transported via Transfer to a different point.
"Well, this is worrisome, isn"t it?"
Aura whispered so while cold sweat flowed down her face.
Through the tablet computer that Rorono made, Aura was able to view in real time certain gathered and shared information such as which group was being attacked.
As far as she could tell, the main body of the enemy force was the one sent to them.
The sniper corps was extremely strong. They could one-sidedly take down enemies using their high-power, ultra-long-distance attacks. As such, the role Procell had given them was to take down enemy elites as well as aerial enemies.
They were masters at their roles.
That said, they still had weaknesses.
One major weakness was they were rather poor at exterminating a large number of enemies. Their wind was useful, but lacked power. And while their beloved anti-materiel rifles boasted great power, it wasn"t great for rapid-firing and thus it didn"t have much ma.s.s extermination capabilities. The limited number of ammunitions the elves could carry didn"t help either.
And then, perhaps worst of all, they were in a labyrinth. That meant the elves lost the advantage of range.
"It can"t be just coincidence that the largest force is sent to us, can it? It seems the enemy knows us more than we a.s.sumed. And, yup, while facing these pests, the others seem to be facing just enough of the enemy to be slowed down from reuniting with us. We"re in quite a pinch, I must say."
However, this wasn"t the time for complaints.
"Everyone, retreat up to the pa.s.sageway we were in earlier! Fire at them while falling back. And don"t forget to use wind barrier either!"
Aura gave such a command to the High Elves.
Like that, half of the High Elves fired their anti-materiel rifles while the other half constructed barriers of wind.
As for the orcs, the ones in the vanguard have started their charge, while the ones in the back attacked with magic, arrows, and even thrown rocks.
There were many races categorized as orcs, and each one had a deadly role fulfill in this army. To name a few, there were Orc Warriors, Orc Mages, Orc Archers, and Orc Kings fulfilling the roles of frontline soldiers, magic users, bow users, and leaders, respectively.
If the sniper corps was to clash head on with this large and organized army, they would be crushed.
"Everyone, their attacks are coming! Ready yourselves!"
"""Yes!!"""
A downpour of arrows, spells, and rocks were coming down on the elves.
However, thanks to the wind barrier made by the High Elves, those projectiles were brushed aside.
It was true that their wind lacked power, but it made up for it via defense and utility.
In this world, most long-range projectile attacks were rather weak from being deflected by laterally applied forces. Considering some magic spell attacks—like the staple fireball—had little to no weight, the elves" wind could even bounce it back.
As for why Aura ordered a retreat to the pa.s.sageways, it was so that they didn"t have to fight in the open s.p.a.ce where it was disadvantageous for them.
Given the enemy forces" large numbers, it would have been easy for the elves to be surrounded.
By retreating to the narrow pa.s.sageway, she had limited the direction the enemies could come from to one.
Now, I wonder how long we can hold our position.
Like that, Aura and the High Elves fired their guns.
Because they were separated from the golems that served as supply trains, all the bullets they had were the ones they carried in their person. Once that was gone, they wouldn"t be able to get any more.
It was just impossible for their stock of bullets to ever be enough for the horde they were facing.
Despite knowing that, Aura still did her best.
She was even killing three lined-up enemy monsters using only a single bullet, her excellent sniping skills, and the support of her wind magic.
Even so, the enemies were not deterred. Not paying any mind to the corpses of their allies, they forged ever onward.
"Everyone, keep on falling back! Because we"re in a [Transfer Labyrinth], it will be hard for the enemies to flank us! So, keep falling back!"
The path that the elves had traveled so far was a direct one. It twisted and turned, but it didn"t split. As such, the enemies couldn"t take the rear.
And, even though the enemies were still advancing, the narrow pa.s.sageway had slowed their advance to a few monsters at a time. Additionally, since there was less s.p.a.ce to cover in the pa.s.sageway, the elves" wind barriers were denser.
It was a tense situation, but by taking advantage of the anti-materiel rifles" power, the elves had been whittling down the orcs" numbers.
Truly, retreating there was a good move for them.
That said, being in the narrow pa.s.sageway was also advantageous for the orcs.
Because the entrance to the dungeon room was gone and the only way out was through the designated exit point, the pa.s.sageway was essentially one-way. If the elves continued to fall back as they were doing, they would inevitably reach a dead end.
Thinking it was only a matter of time before their larger numbers drive the elves to that literal dead end, the orcs vulgarly smiled.
"Aura-sama, we don"t have bullets left!"
"Our wind barriers are also reaching its limit!"
The High Elves shouted so, panic clear in their voice.
In exchange for taking down over a hundred orcs, the elves" bullets as well as magic power were near exhaustion.
Aura had foreseen this and thus decided beforehand to conserve her own magic power.
"Don"t worry, everyone… Thanks to all your efforts, my preparations are now complete. Sorry it took so long, but it"s now time to unleash my special technique."
[Monsters of the Covenant] were beings that were deeply connected to a Demon Lord. Not just in the figurative sense, but also in the literal sense in that their souls were bound to their Demon Lord.
Moreover, unlike an ordinary monster, S rank monsters were capable of receiving all of a Demon Lord"s powers without any reservation. The result of which manifested itself in the form of a skill that was heavily influenced by their Demon Lord.
In Kuina the Celestial Fox"s case, her [Transformation] was the one to be influenced.
First off, Procell"s [Creation] was the ability to access the [Memory of the Planet] and produce things that existed in the past.
So, the way Kuina"s [Transformation] was influenced and evolved was that it gave her knowledge that was lost everywhere else except in the [Memory of the Planet] about the strongest being in the lineage of Celestial Foxes, and more importantly, it allowed her to transform her body into that being.
As for Rorono, a skill called [Materialization] had manifested. It took [Creation]"s aspect of creating anything that the user wanted and then added in Rorono"s ability to enchant things. The result was that she could create materials that contained one usable-by-anyone magic spell from Rorono"s repertoire of magic spells.
Given that Kuina and Rorono had skills that were influenced by Procell"s [Creation], it wasn"t much of a leap to a.s.sume that Aura had such a skill too.
Upon reaching a level on par with a static-level S rank monster, Aura unlocked hers.
There was no particular reason she hasn"t used this new skill before. She just didn"t need to.
Up until this moment, her anti-materiel rifle and her wits had proven to be more than enough.
This time, however, she had to use it.
As things were, not only herself but also her adorable little sisters would be trampled over by the orcs.
Her instincts as an elf were screaming loudly. Her instincts were telling her that if they were defeated here, they would be violated over and over again, be turned into nothing but breeding tools, and be forced to give birth to the orcs" children.
When compared to the orcs, elves were weak.
Their wind wasn"t enough to stop those huge lumps of meat called orcs, and their arrows found it hard to give the latter any fatal wounds.
For the orcs, the elves were great game. Once they"ve found an elf village, they would rally their allies and descend on the village right away.
After years and years of such a thing happening, it eventually got embedded to both the orcs and elves" instincts. Elves, even Aura, were inherently wary and resentful toward orcs, while orcs were inherently stimulated upon seeing elves.
So, for that reason, Aura could not tolerate the orcs. Add in that the orcs frightened her little sisters by their desire to rape and impregnate the latter, just the fact they were breathing disgusted her.
"I, an Ancient Elf, an avatar of the planet, wishes for something from the planet itself. I beg thee, lend me the use of the original wind."
The aspect of [Creation] to make things was its more noticeable part, but its true value lied elsewhere. Namely, it was its ability to access the [Memory of the Planet]. And that was what Aura"s ability made more use of.
Ordinarily, when using wind magic, one had to appeal to the mana in the wind. However, Aura was currently working with something of a much higher order: by accessing the [Memory of the Planet], she was now able to wield the primordial wind, the breath of the planet itself.
It was too powerful, too divine to be simply called wind.
As though some kind of proof of a contract, there was a crest of sorts embedded into her [Jade Eyes]. Moreover, the primordial wind surrounded Aura and dyed everything around her green. It was almost like she was donning a jade green dress. It was beautiful. She was sublimely beautiful.
And because of that, she named her skill…
"[Jade Wind"s Garment]"
The orcs trembled when they noticed Aura, but proceeded to charge forward nonetheless. They figured that because she was an elf, she was nothing more than the powerless, miserable, child-making tool that elves were. That the trembling they felt was nothing more than a pa.s.sing moment of hesitation.
Thus, their chance to escape was gone.
No matter how much force they put in each step, the orcs couldn"t advance forward, not even an inch. The jade wind became an impenetrable wall. Eventually, the orcs in front were sandwiched by the wall of wind and the orcs from behind.
"It"s futile. You can"t break through my wall of wind!"
The primordial wind had more force behind it.
No arrows, stones, or even orcs could pa.s.s an area that Aura had declared to be her domain.
Aura slowly raised her hand… and then all of a sudden brought it down.
When she did, the jade wind enveloped the landscape and crushed all of the orcs in Aura"s field of vision.
Aura displayed power beyond common knowledge. She was wielding the breath of the planet itself, after all. Although, in a sense, it shouldn"t have been so surprising. There was just no way a strong S rank monster like herself wouldn"t get an extremely powerful ability when she became a [Monster of the Covenant].
After seeing the carnage their brethren had suffered, the orcs that were reserved in the back began to flee, without thought of how cowardly they looked like.
Meanwhile, the High Elves cheered and began singing praises for Aura.
In response, Aura gave them a little smile, but then suddenly fell.
The High Elves hurried to support her body up.
"Aura-sama, are you ok?"
"I might have overdone it a little. The power of the planet isn"t something meant to be wielded by a mortal body."
[Jade Wind"s Garment] was the power to wield the primordial wind. However, the primordial wind wasn"t something Aura made, rather it was a power she had borrowed from the planet.
The burden of using the power of the planet was simply too much for any individual. A high-level S rank elf like Aura was no exception.
In fact, it was only because her extremely high affinity with the wind and the planet—represented by her three skills, [Personification of the Planet], [Divine Protection], [Ruler of the Wind]—that she was only left exhausted and out of action after using such a power.
If another monster was somehow able to wield that power, their brain would have been fried out, consumed by the wind.
"Lighten up, everyone. Reinforcements are coming. It seems Kuina"s group has already reached the exit point in the center and are heading our way as quickly as they could… it also seems I can"t walk anymore. Mind lending me your shoulder?"
"Not at all. Please!"
"It"s kinda frustrating, but my role in this [War] has ended. After I"ve reported to master, I"ll have an Abyss Howl transfer me out. After that, I leave the rest to you, vice-captain."
Hearing that, the face of the High Elf appointed as the vice-captain was instantly filled with anxiety, but was just as quickly filled with determination.
"Yes, leave it to me!"
Seeing the growth of her subordinates, Aura became delighted.
"Phew, the [Jade Wind"s Garment] sure was an amazing power, but I have to think at least twice before using it… I mean, my magic power and physical body"s fine, but my heart and mind are exhausted. Although I think if I get more used to it, I might become less exhausted. I guess I should follow Kuina"s footsteps and take some special training, huh."
Speak of the devil, Kuina and her group appeared and were waving to the elves.
It seemed like they had finished hunting down the remnants of the orc forces that the elves encountered.
While being supported, Aura smiled and began walking toward Kuina.