Chapter 67: What Remained Was… We proceeded deeper into the forest and reached the area where the slimes appeared, causing the Court Mages to also partic.i.p.ate in battle.
"『WATER WALL』!"
A water wall appeared to guard against the venom that the slimes were spewing out.
The well-timed wall blocked the venom, and as soon as it had disappeared, the mercenaries swung their swords, shoving the slimes back.
Then another mage cast offensive magic to finish the slime off, ending the battle.
"Jou-chan, thanks!"
"You"re welcome!"
Airchan had cast 『WATER WALL』.
The mercenaries, who were standing between the mages and the slimes, thanked her and Airchan smiled in response.
Although they had to improvise, they worked well together.
It"s about time.
"『AREA PROTECTION』."
"Woah! Support magic?"
"Thank you very much 【Saint-sama】!"
"You"re welcome."
The support magic that I had cast on myself had timed out, so I recast it.
If this were a game, then it would be easy to tell when to recast the spell because the remaining time would be reflected on the screen, but this world didn"t have anything convenient like that.
I had no choice but to cast the magic on myself and keep track of time.
To measure time, I had to cast AOE magic since there was a lot of people, so of course, the mercenaries were also buffed.
Unlike the knights and mages, a lot of the mercenaries had never had support magic cast on them, so they got a bit excited every time I cast it.
Some people would say "thank you" to me each time, and I had mixed feeling as I got used to being called 【Saint-sama】.
"There are more slimes now."
"We"re nearly at the same place as last time."
"Now comes the hard part."
I nodded at Captain-san who said "hard part" and looked at Head Magician-sama.
Head Magician-sama noticed a gaze on him and tilted his head to ask what was happening, and I shook my head side to side.
A little further ahead was the place where we"d withdrawn.
Are there still a lot of slimes?
There probably are.
I became weary when I recalled how many slimes had popped up last time.
Even if we had more mages this time, they might not be able to cope with the slimes with their usual offensive magic.
AOE magic would probably be more effective from here on out.
My request to Head Magician-sama about holding back also ends here.
There was less green around, and the landscape was becoming deserted.
I looked down and couldn"t find any medicinal herbs.
At the end of the day, a person"s life was more important than medicinal herbs.
If it is required, Head Magician-sama could cast magic faster than I could cast the【Saint】technique.
Having the front of the forest remain was good enough.
I sighed in my mind and proceeded to the depths of the forest.
"Shyt! There"s too many of them!"
"Don"t break formation! Mercenaries too!"
"Yeah, I got it!"
As expected, many slimes came out all at once when we reached the area where we withdrew.
The knights and mercenaries made a semicircle as if they were surrounding the mages and I, and the mages cast offensive magic from behind.
Physical attacks didn"t affect slimes much, but the knights could damage them a little by swinging their swords, and they could also hold the slimes back.
Moreover, we didn"t get hit by the liquid that the slime vomited out as they literally protected us with their bodies.
Even if we can heal wounds and abnormal status with recovery magic, what hurts will hurt.
In fact, the knights, who were being attacked, were grimacing.
I earnestly cast healing magic on them while thinking that they must be in a lot of pain.
"Sei!"
"Hawk-sama!"
A slime fell down from above when I cast recovery magic on the knights who had abnormal status.
My reaction was late because I had just finished casting magic and was a little distracted.
Captain-san pushed me out of the way, so I didn"t receive any damage, but he had.
The slime, which had fallen down, coiled around Captain-san"s right hand and began dissolving it.
Magic gently started rising from the inside of my chest.
However, someone put their hand on my shoulder to stop me from activating my magic.
"It"s not time yet."
"Dreves-sama!"
"『FIRE ARROW』."
I looked back and saw it was Head Magician-sama.
The fire arrow hit the slime. It let go of Captain-san"s hand and fell onto the ground.
Head Magician-sama cast the next spell immediately and defeated the slime.
"Thanks."
"No problem. There! Sei-sama, cast healing magic."
"O-okay. 『HEAL』." I quickly cast healing magic on Captain-san when prompted by Head Magician-sama.
"Thanks."
I finally let out a sigh when his skin returned to its original colour, and the wound was healed.
"Sei-sama," Head Magician-sama called out to me as I sighed.
I turned to look at him. Surprisingly, he had lowered his eyebrow and gave a hesitant smile.
"Yes?"
"There"s too many slimes. About the thing, you asked me-……"
"About not damaging the forest too much, right?"
"Yes."
"It"s fine."
It was decided that I would do my best to not use the 【Saint】technique until we reached the black swamp, because it consumed too much MP.
Also, the more extensive the effect of the skill, the more MP it consumed.
We didn"t know how big the swamp was, so it was better to not use it with the materials shortage.
Head Magician-sama had stopped me because he concluded that it wasn"t useful to activate the technique against one slime.
If I refrained from using the technique against demons, then I had no choice but to rely on Head Magician-sama.
Because he could use AOE attacks.
However, he would damage the forest because it was an AOE attack.
I was extremely reluctant, but it would be too selfish of me to refrain him from using AOE magic in a situation like this.
Thus, I let him go wild.
The speed at which we were moving increased after I gave him my permission.
We were also able to damage a lot of slimes in one go because Head Magician-sama cast AOE attack straight away.
The slimes that weren"t defeated in the first attack would then be defeated by the other mages.
Thanks to that, the knights and mercenaries didn"t suffer from injuries or abnormal status, and my MP consumption also decreased.
I felt sorry for the knights and mercenaries who did their best to endure the attacks from the slimes until now.
If I knew it would be like this, then I would have let Head Magician-sama do as he liked as soon as we got to the area with the slimes……
More slimes appeared the further we went, and we finally found the black swamp when felt as if we were in a slime pond.
The swamp, which filled the area where dead trees were spa.r.s.e, was wider than the one at the West Forest.
Isn"t it okay just to call it a lake?
I was at a loss for words, and I didn"t have much time to look at the swamp.
Like with the one at the West Forest, slimes gushed out from the swamp one after the other, and we didn"t have any time to spare even though we were coping with them.
"Keep them back!"
"Use any kind of wall magic!"
""『ICE WALL』."" ""『EARTH WALL』.""
Captain-san yelled and the mages cast their magic in succession, and walls of ice and dirt sprouted from the ground.
The slimes, which came from the sides, were cut down with swords by the knights and mercenaries, then pushed back.
Thus we were able to approach the swamp, but the slimes" attacks became more violent when we reached a certain distance.
I wanted to use the 【Saint】technique, but if we don"t advance further, then the range was too broad, and I might not have enough MP to cast it.
"Sei-sama. Can you purify the black swamp from here?"
"I think we should get a little closer."
"Then, I"ll scatter the slimes, so advance at once."
Even though he didn"t need to hold back anymore, he still chose what magic to use.
That was what I thought when I saw the magic he used next.
"『INFERNO』." He cast, and flames burst out from the ground.
At the same time, the other mages quickly built a water and ice wall in front of us, 『WATER WALL』『ICE WALL』.
I see. Is this to alleviate the hot air?
"Woah, awesome!"
"So this is the Destruction Devil"s speciality?"
"I haven"t seen Head Magician"s best fire attack in a long time."
"Now"s not the time to be impressed! We have to move forward now."
"Alright, let"s cool the ground with ice and water magic."
The mages cast water and ice magic after Head Magician-sama"s attack and they killed the surviving slimes as well as cooled the ground at the same time.
Water vapour surrounded the area, and another mage blew it away with wind magic, returning our vision to us.
We moved forward at once, and I concentrated on activating the 【Saint】technique when everyone got into formation again.
After a while, I felt magic swelling up from the inside of my chest.
The magic became a golden torrent and swept towards the swamp from under my feet.
The further it went, the wider it got. Finally, it was enough to cover up the whole swamp.
I put my hands in front of my chest and spread my magic while I prayed.
Please purify all of the demons and swamp.
While thinking this, I activated the technique when the gold haze covered the swamp.
The light snapped, and golden particles fell from the sky.
No one said anything as they watched the gold particles fill the air.
After that, only the dead trees and bare ground remained.
Translator: Blushy
Editor: Sam