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Year 7446, Month 10, Day 21
Just as expected from veteran adventurers Kamu and Kimu made almost no sound.
They"re approaching the ogre with the sound hidden as the still strange sound of the wind inside dungeon rustles against the gra.s.s.
If it"s from here then there"s no way to accurately determine their location as they approach while crouched down.
"Hmn, after all putting aside Kimu-san, as expected of sis Kamu.."
Miduchi whispered.
You can tell!?
She sure is amazing~
"Right now around where are the two of them?"
He must have heard Miduchi"s whisper. Basutoral whispered as he asked Miduchi.
"Kimu-san is about 30..27~28 meters from the ogre on this side. Sis Kamu is on the right side..about 20 meters away I guess..It"s easier to tell Kimu-san."
Are you serious.
Zenom looked at Toris"s face while still holding the clock magic tool but Toris just shook his head.
Right~
Well, whatever.
...
Oh.
I see now. If it"s mentioned while looking then even I can somehow tell.
Over there and there.
Kimu is just about 15 meters from the ogre.
Kamu is just a bit closer to Kimu on the right side about 15 meters away.
It seems everyone else has noticed as well as they aren"t making a sound just focused on them.
They"re letting their guards down in watching the surroundings but the only thing ahead is the ogre and them and we just pa.s.sed through the rear.
There"s probably not much meaning in using {Detect.Life} or keeping watch with our eyes for a short while longer.
Kamu stood up and just as only her head appeared for a moment and a bow came up soon after as well.
And then an arrow was fired.
Since it was from a bit to the rear-side of the ogre it didn"t notice until it hit the back of it"s head.
"Giooo~!!"
The moment the arrow stabbed into it the ogre jumped up as if it was. .h.i.t and stood up while turning around at the same time.
However, after removing the irritating arrow it crouched down again.
It"s probably picking up it"s weapon.
Kimu wasn"t so slow as to miss that opening.
While still keeping her body held low she charged at it almost like a short-distance Olympic runner.
The only difference is that she"s holding a long spear.
Also, she has a long round tail which is the same gold and black stripe color as her hair.
Kimu charged at it without making a sound going in a straight line with her spear.
The moment the crouching ogre noticed Kimu I think there was already almost no distance.
The ogre raised it"s body in a hurry just as Kimu"s long spear stabbed deep into it"s right chest.
"Goo!!? Gaaaa~!!"
As the ogre screams in surprise and pain it seems to have already forgotten that it was just hit by an arrow a moment ago.
It grabs on to the spear stabbed into it"s chest with both hands in order to pull it out.
Kamu is running through the gra.s.s after throwing down her bow, it doesn"t seem to have realized that she"s approached aiming for the back of it"s knee.
Kamu is making use of her short height as a gnome as her head isn"t showing out of the gra.s.s.
Most likely the ogre"s lung was injured as blood is coming from it"s mouth as it fights with Kimu to try and pull the spear out.
Normally the spear should be immediately pulled out.
Putting aside it being grabbed, if it were to be broken then it"s all over and ogres have plenty of power to manage that.
Particularly when there"s multiple enemies the chances of the ogre breaking it are high.
However, no matter how stupid ogres are, it seems it"s not stupid enough to break the spear while it"s still stabbed into it"s chest(although, I don"t think this is related to intelligence. Not just limited to ogres, I think anyone would first reflexively try to pull it out) so just limited to this situation where there"s only one enemy, Kimu"s method is correct.
It also can act as a cover to keep the ogre from noticing Kamu"s approach, or rather that"s probably the aim.
"Aaaaaah~!!"
Kimu puts some fighting spirit into it as she yells.
The ogre is backing up as it tries to pull the spear out while Kimu takes another firm one or two steps forward as if to stab it in even further.
It"s easy to tell the muscle of the arms holding the spear is swelling as strength is being put into it.
"Guga!!?"
Kamu cut the back knee of the ogre with her short sword.
The short sword she uses isn"t quite at the level of the type-64 bayonet I made in the past(though it was mostly father and Arnold that made most of it) but even then it"s quite high quality and a sharp blade.
While the ogre showed an opening as it fell to one knee Kimu pulled the spear out and it seems this time she"s just trying to keep it in check.
It seems that Kamu cut the back of it"s left knee.
Even as blood was coming from it"s left knee, the ogre is showing some decent movements as it picks up it"s club and twists it"s face as if laughing.
It looks as if it"s saying that it can do anything as long as it has it"s weapon.
However, by that point Kamu had already turned back around in the gra.s.s and returned to pick up her bow before shooting more arrows.
Kimu is skillfully holding the ogre back so it can"t approach Kamu.
Hm~mm...
Other than how Kamu approached the ogre at the start I guess they"re fighting quite carefully.
Both Kimu and Kamu are calling out to each other as they fight with an emphasis on safety.
However, the ogre won"t be finished off with just that.
Look.
It"s dangerous.
Aaa~
Just from stabbing your spear into the left upper arm of the ogre you thought it did some good damage right?
But, that"s a big mistake you know.
Probably, that ogre intentionally was aiming for that.
As proof of that it tensed up the muscle in it"s left arm so the spear can"t be pulled back out.
And then soon after it swings the club in it"s right arm.
However, Kamu managed to shoot an arrow into the ogre"s face at just the right timing.
At the moment it flinched from that Kimu seems to have pulled her spear out.
In just a moment longer it was about to destroy the spear.
After Kimu had first stabbed the spear into it the {Strength} she used had long since ended.
Right now, she"s not fighting with power but speed and timing.
Kamu is skillfully following up with that.
Things still seem dangerous one on one but if it"s like this then it"s plenty possible to take on ogres.
And then as they injured the ogre, weakened, and defeated it.
"6:27:20"
Zenom said.
I think he said the start was at 6:21:30 so roughly 6 minutes up to here huh?
Since they used over 1 minute to approach the ogre, I guess that means they were actually fighting for about 4 minutes and 30 seconds?
That"s long.
They were too careful.
Well it still depends on how much time it takes for them to take out the magic stone.
It took almost just 15 minutes for them to take out the magic stone.
That"s a total of 21 minutes and 10 seconds.
It"s incomparably fast compared to the first time entered the 7th floor and gathered magic stones from the ogres.
It might even be as fast as Zulu and Angela now.
I guess they"re not losing any face as veteran adventurers.
Now then, next up is Basutoral and Angela"s turn. Shall we return once and then teleport back into the 7th floor once more?
Shouldn"t they be able to win?
.....................
This time once again we conveniently were able to encounter just 1 lone ogre.
Even more conveniently it was in the middle of some plains surrounded by tall gra.s.s again.
Just like Kamu and Kimu, Basutoral and Angela said they wanted a bit of time to go over things so I let them.
After having a simple discussion of some things they soon told me they were ready.
Alright.
Zenom lightly tapped on me from the side.
"Begin"
"7:26"
At almost the same time as I declared that Zenom said the current time.
Reflecting on just before, Zenom looked for a good chance while holding the clock and then gave me the signal at a good time.
Hearing my statement, different from Kamu and Kimu, Basutoral and Angela ran off without hiding themselves.
Obviously the ogre noticed them right away.
I can tell that at the same time it started running towards Basutoral holding it"s club.
"I guess they intend to earn even just a bit more time..It means fighting it head on but I guess that"s a method as well."
Toris whispered.
"I"m sure it"s possible for them right now after all."
Zenom said after hearing that but hearing his words Kamu and Kimu made a shocked expression before asking Miduchi.
"Really?"
"Fighting that ogre..head on.."
"Nn~ they have quite a bit of experience fighting against ogres after all..I"ve seen Maruso and Saji fighting one on one against ogres a number of times as well."
Miduchi replied without taking her eyes off the backs of Basutoral and Angela.
Basutoral ran to the left while holding his spear on guard and Angela is running while holding up her broadsword as well.
Soon after the two of them were within range of the ogre.
I thought that Basutoral would make use of the momentum from his charge to stab it with the spear but it seems he"s being a bit cautious.
He"s started restraining the ogre with his spear.
Angela is moving to circle around behind the ogre.
The ogre doesn"t want that so it"s trying to stop her with it"s club but Basutoral is efficiently holding it down.
Their movements show they"ve completely read the actions of the ogre.
Angela is keenly circling around the ogre and creating openings.
Basutoral is making good use of those openings to land thrusts with his spear.
After taking two clean hits from Basuotral when the movements of the ogre dulled a bit Angela quickly went in to cut the nape of it"s neck.
"7:28:20"
Zenom said.
It took them 2 minutes to take down the ogre.
While it might look like that they ended up acting quite cautiously.
Is it because it"s the first match?
"7:45:30"
A total of 19 minutes and 30 seconds huh?
Angela is used to taking out the magic stones of ogres so Basutoral was just acting as an a.s.sistant and following her commands.
Even then they were slower than Kamu and Kimu.
"Hmm.."
"..Mu~"
Kamu and Kimu were making sullen faces.
...................................
During the second round Kamu and Kimu said they want Basutoral and Angela to go first so I changed the order.
Basutoral and Angela"s time was a bit slower than the first round at 19 minutes and 40 seconds.
In comparison Kamu and Kimu"s time shortened quite a bit and even managed to cut 19 minutes.
It was 18 minutes and 10 seconds.
They managed to shorten it by just a bit by gathering the magic stone even faster.
One more round remaining.
Kamu borrowed the magic scimitar from Miduchi and Kimu also borrowed the magic spear from Gwine.
It"s thanks to that they managed to achieve that result.
They can fight the second and third rounds using these weapons after all.
Since I already said that they can fight however they want this isn"t against the rules or anything else.
If I were to say it"s not then I"d have to make them use the exact same equipment and if it comes to that then it would be basically impossible for the members who"s position overlaps with Zenom, Miduchi, and I.
Just, Basutoral and Angela were a bit displeased.
Don"t make faces like that.
Particularly Basutoral.
Even you"ve been using the {Bracers.of.Might} since the start right.
And then we started the third round after lunch.
The order returned to the start with Kamu and Kimu first.
If you"re wondering why there was this much time in between it"s because I wanted them to fight against a lone ogre for the first and second rounds, so it took us some time to search for just the right opponent.
This time, the ogre is in the same plains area but the gra.s.s is at highest 10 cm.
Though in exchange for that there"s waist-high rocks all over the place but they"re not really ones you can hide behind.
However, this time there"s 2 ogres from the start.
I announced that I would finish off 1 of them with magic and that would be the signal to start this time.
Everyone else would keep an eye on things from the forest just the same as until now.
There"s no bushes this time but undergrowth from trees that"s over 1 meter high we can hide behind and watch.
"It seems impossible to approach while hiding..It feels quite difficult."
Toris and Gwine were whispering to each other.
"I guess so."
Gwine replied with a complicated face.
"Hey, if it were you Gwine-chan what would you do?"
Kimu seems to be asking Gwine but if you don"t have any projectile weapons there"s no choice other than to charge at it.
There"s somewhat of a distance between the rocks so it should be possible to sneak up to the ogres from here to the first rock about 20 meters away from them.
However, I"m sure only one person could manage to stay hidden.
"I would attack with magic."
".."
Kimu fell silent.
I"m sure Kimu wanted to ask a method that doesn"t involve using magic.
However, they already knew very well that Gwine can use magic.
After all Kimu had the arm that was broken by an ogre healed by her.
And then, they know Basutoral can use magic as well.
But, they"ve never fought together so they shouldn"t know how well they can use it.
In the past when we met on the 7th floor, Basuotral didn"t use any magic after all.
Around the time Basutoral was just learning magic I remember him talking about his various elemental magic levels going up but soon after he stopped mentioning it.
Judging from Kamu and Kimu"s manner of speech it seems they must be thinking his magic is "nothing significant".
Well, in reality his magic isn"t all that significant though.
Even then, since he trained to progressively deal damage with it, he"s earned experienced in a tremendously efficient way.
All of his elemental magics are level 2 and his fire magic is level 3.
His void magic reached level 4 around three months ago.
He"s not completely at the level of a full-fledged magician but he can already use {Flame Javelin}.
"Are you ready?"
When I asked Kamu and she nodded.
Kimu as well.
"Zenom, since there"s also the timing this time it"ll be impossible to get an even time. Match it up with us."
"Yeah, got it."
I launched a {Fire Arbalest Missile} into the back of the head of 1 of the 2 ogres that was showing an opening faced away from us and finished it off.
Kamu and Kimu ran off at the same moment the ogre fell over.
Thanks to the magic weapons they were using this time they put up a hard fight and managed the good time of 18 minutes and 30 seconds.
That"s a total time of 57 minutes and 50 seconds.
In order to exceed that Basutoral and Angela will need to hurry quite a bit this time.
It"s probably no good if they can"t finish the combat in less than 2 minutes.