Catherine, who had been walking along the path, looked around and frowned again.
Even the desolate land she had seen after coming to this planet felt like a beautiful garden compared to the swamp she was looking at now.
That was how dreadful this swamp was.
The soggy ground that swallowed her feet with every step, the greenish muddy water, even the bubbles that surfaced here and there.
This marshland was like hell.
On top of that, the smell was even worse.
The powerful stench rang in her head and scraped at her bronchial tubes.
It was a noxious aura so toxic that an ordinary person might collapse just from breathing.
She had heard about it before setting out, but she had not expected it to be this bad.
Catherine and some twenty members of the unit were crossing that swamp.
What they were walking on was a narrow path running through the middle of the marsh.
They were following the signals indicated by the expedition team.
Another signal came into view.
“There’s smoke rising over there… ma’am.”
At Sterling’s words from behind, Catherine looked ahead.
Just as he said, smoke was rising in the distance.
Seeing the smoke, Catherine tilted her head.
“The color of the smoke is different.”
At Catherine’s words, Sterling looked at the smoke again.
“Now that you mention it, it isn’t red.”
The smoke was purple.
Looking at the purple smoke, Catherine asked,
“Which smoke signal is this?”
“The fourth, was it?”
Catherine asked again,
“How curious. I thought we couldn’t bring modern weapons here?”
“A smoke canister isn’t a weapon.”
“Doesn’t a smoke canister contain gunpowder?”
Sterling shrugged.
“I don’t really know about that part…”
Catherine had not been hoping for a proper answer either.
Even at his lukewarm reply, she continued speaking.
“Mr. Hyun becomes more curious the more time passes. Don’t you think he’s hiding more than just this? The same goes for the fact that he took down a scout monster by himself.”
When Captain Hyun came up, Sterling frowned.
He did not particularly like that subject.
However, if only for the sake of his pride, he could not belittle someone with lies.
“…I don’t know about anything else, but he was good at fighting.”
At Sterling’s answer, Catherine looked at him with a strange gaze.
“Look at that. This is the first time I’ve seen you acknowledge someone else. And the other party isn’t even American.”
At Catherine’s words, Sterling turned his head away.
Perhaps Catherine had nothing more to say either, for she began walking toward the smoke in silence.
The other members did not join their conversation.
They simply walked on in silence, their faces twisted in grimaces.
Both the atmosphere and the air were too unpleasant for conversation.
All they wanted was to get out of this marshland as quickly as possible.
Thirty minutes later, they were able to reach the place where the smoke was rising.
The smoke canister, now no longer emitting smoke, was wedged between dead trees.
Once they arrived, they understood why the color of the smoke had been different.
There was someone where the smoke canister was.
The expedition leader, Captain Hyun.
He looked exactly the same as when they had set out.
Seeing his calm appearance made it feel as though they were the ones at fault for struggling against the poisonous miasma of the swamp.
Catherine hid that feeling and asked Captain Hyun,
“What happened?”
At her question, Captain Hyun pointed behind him.
“If you go just a few more kilometers, there are ruins we call the Warehouse Ruins.”
Catherine let out a sigh of relief inwardly.
They were almost at their destination.
There would be a monster there, but in any case, they had nearly reached a place where they could rest.
“We’re finally here. Were you waiting to tell us that?”
Captain Hyun shook his head.
“The scout monster that was in the ruins has come outside. The monster is coming this way. It seems to have realized that people are approaching.”
At Captain Hyun’s words, Catherine frowned.
“Wasn’t it your group that got discovered?”
It was a natural question, but Captain Hyun shook his head.
“If that were the case, it wouldn’t be coming this way. It would have gone toward where we were.”
Come to think of it, the other expedition members were nowhere to be seen.
It seemed the expedition members were hiding somewhere else.
“I see.”
After hearing his answer, Catherine sent hand signals to the unit members.
The unit members immediately began preparing for battle.
The people here had coordinated with her several times before.
Elite members she had carefully selected.
It was the worst possible swamp, but the members formed up quickly enough to satisfy her.
Clack, clack, clack.
Various relics obtained from Paradise began to emit light.
Swords and spears, hammers and other weapons—among them were even pieces of equipment Captain Hyun had never seen before.
Watching the scene, Captain Hyun asked again,
“Do you intend to proceed according to the original plan?”
Catherine nodded.
“Yes. We will handle the battle. The expedition team’s job ended with guiding us to where the scout is.”
In truth, Catherine wanted him to fight alongside them.
Though he had received outside assistance, he had still taken down a scout monster alone.
If he fought with them, they would be able to kill the monster more easily.
But she could not allow that.
The higher-ups were uncomfortable with the Intelligence Department’s growing influence.
For some time now, because of that man Hyun, the Intelligence Department’s influence had been growing tremendously.
With the new monster corpses and black stones he had sent over, there was no avoiding the rise of the Intelligence Department’s authority.
There was no way her family and the existing power holders would like that.
On top of that, Captain Hyun was not American.
One of the orders given to her when she was sent to this planet was to weaken the Intelligence Department’s power.
Her adoptive father had spoken indirectly, as always, but she had immediately understood what he meant.
She could not refuse that order.
An adopted daughter was different from a biological daughter. Refusal and mistakes were not permitted for her.
Her life hung by a thin thread, but she did not want to fall.
“Understood.”
Hyun stared at her for a moment, then turned and left.
As if flying through the air, he glided away over the swamp.
While she was watching Hyun grow smaller in the distance, she heard another member’s voice.
“Tentacles approaching from the front!”
In the distance, black tentacles could be seen approaching.
It was the scout monster they had only seen as a corpse.
Catherine shouted,
“Formation A! Everyone, do not forget that the enemy is powerful!”
Confident replies answered Catherine’s words.
“Don’t worry! It’s not like this is our first fight.”
“With this many people gathered, there’s no way it’ll be a problem!”
It was only natural for the unit members to be confident.
Until now, they had never faced an enemy with this many people. No matter how strong the enemy was, ten people had been enough.
This time, Catherine had brought an excessive number of people.
Everyone had thought Sterling would oppose it.
However, Sterling had not objected, and they were now able to face the enemy with this many people gathered.
Catherine also did not think they would fail to kill the monster.
The reason she had gathered an excessive number of people was to prevent deaths or injuries.
Graaaaah!
Following the tentacles, the monster’s form appeared through the poisonous fog.
A black mass covered densely with tentacles.
The monster looked even more horrific than it had as a corpse.
However, Catherine shouted loudly as she looked at the monster.
“Begin combat!”
Along with those words, she extended her hand.
A magic circle unfolded from the ring on her finger, and blades of wind shot toward the monster.
At the same time, the unit members also began their attack.
The fireball Sterling fired burned the monster’s tentacles, and the members holding weapons charged forward.
The fight between the American main force and the scout monster had begun.
***
“They fight better than I expected.”
I had shown them the sight of me leaving, but I was still near them.
The place where I stood was atop a tall dead tree rising from the middle of the swamp.
Standing on the top of a tree that rose just above the poisonous fog, I watched the main force fight.
Thanks to the magic concealing my body, neither the monster nor the main force knew I was here.
Bang! Rumble, thud!
Though the distance was great, I could still see the fight clearly from here.
The monster lashed out with its tentacles, and the people scattered in all directions.
The people who had scattered swung their weapons at the tentacles.
Catherine, Sterling, and the people with powerful weapons attacked the monster’s body.
Muddy water surged upward, and white blood spurted out.
Catherine’s wind blades had wounded the monster’s body.
The people with weapons rushed at the monster and tore into the wounds.
They truly fought better than I had expected.
[I’ll have to reevaluate the abilities of Earthlings. Their claim that they would bring it down by themselves wasn’t empty boasting.]
Soph, who was watching the scene, was impressed enough to say that.
“There’s a big difference compared to the advance party. Catherine seems to fight even better than Sterling.”
She used her magic, the wind blades, with great skill.
She cut down the tentacles flying toward her with blades and wounded the monster’s body.
When the monster tried to press down on her with its body, she even used wind to push herself away and evade.
At a glance, she was clearly on a different level from Sterling, who merely stood at a distance and fired fireballs.
[Her firepower is thanks to that ring relic, but her skill also appears superior.]
Soph was of the same opinion as I was.
Because I had continued fighting scout monsters until now, I was beginning to understand how this battle would turn out.
Those people would likely be able to bring down the scout monster.
However, it did not seem as though all of them would survive.
A tentacle swept out, and I saw a person fly through the air with his waist severed.
Already the third.
There were even more injured.
“Will about half of them survive?”
At my words, Soph gave a different answer.
[If you stop it, that is.]
At Soph’s words, I looked up at the sky in the direction of the Warehouse Ruins.
Whoosh.
A huge fireball was flying through the sky.
That fireball was magic fired from the Warehouse Ruins.
The fireball was flying toward the main force, which was in the middle of fighting the scout monster.
Magic flying across several kilometers without even being able to see its target.
Though it was a sort of trick, thanks to having learned magic, I knew how impressive that spell was.
I could not help but admire it.
“It reaches this far.”
[It’s long-range magic. Since it has the scout as a target, hitting it won’t be a problem even without seeing it.]
Did that mean it was using the scout itself as the target, the way I targeted things?
It was not a bad idea—no, it was an excellent one—but there was one problem.
“It looks incredibly powerful. At that level, even the scout will take damage.”
The power I felt from the fireball was no joke.
It felt as though it had the strength to blow away the entire area.
At my words, Soph snorted.
[As if those bastards would care about that.]
Soph was right. There was no way the monsters would care about such a thing.
The one that had fired that fireball was a monster in the ruins.
A monster different from the scouts, the humanoid monsters, the defensive monsters, and the other Akzar monsters.
It was the monster Soph had called a “magic monster” while shuddering in disgust.
In the end, the factory city had produced another kind of monster.
“I’ll have to stop it. I’m the one who lured them into this trap, so if I let them get hit from behind as well, I’d feel pretty bad.”
There were other monsters in the Warehouse Ruins besides the scout monster.
[It isn’t my fault. How was I supposed to know there would be one that uses magic to hide itself?]
Those monsters had evaded Soph’s eyes and were hiding in the ruins.
“We found out before it was too late, so it’s fine. I just have to stop this one, right?”
I raised my spear. The black stone at the spearhead pointed toward the approaching fireball.
[Even that thing won’t be able to fire magic of that level recklessly. Besides, after this, your unit members will interfere with it, won’t they?]
Right now, the expedition members were hiding near the ruins.
After realizing the situation in the ruins, I had been the only one to slip out in order to inform the main force.
At first, I had intended to advise them to retreat, but I had not even been able to bring it up.
Still, I could not pretend I did not know.
They could not be wiped out here.
Even if they suffered great losses, they had to return alive and inform the others of the situation.
[Good. I’ll shatter that fake magic with real magic.]
A large magic circle formed in front of the spear raised toward the sky.
A fireball appeared before the magic circle.
It was not as large as the fireball flying toward us, but it was brighter—a blue fireball.
[!@!@!!]
An incomprehensible incantation rang out, and then the blue fireball shot forward.
Kwaaaang!
With a shockwave, the fireball flew away.
I continued pointing my spear at the incoming fireball.
The blue fireball gradually changed direction, and in the end, the two fireballs met in the sky.
Kwaaaang!
A massive explosion erupted in the sky.
It was powerful enough to blow away the poisonous fog over the marshland.
An explosion great enough to make the fighting people and monster stop.
The explosion was so powerful that even the magic hiding my body was blown away.
Catherine, who had turned her head at the explosion, discovered me.
Upon seeing me, her eyes widened.
I raised my hand and pointed at the frozen monster.
This was not the time to stand there in surprise.
This was their chance.
Startled, Catherine charged at the monster again.
The battle resumed, and I launched myself toward the ruins.
Bang! Tatatatang!
From the direction of the ruins came the sound of bombs exploding and gunfire.
After seeing the magic fly, the unit members had begun fighting as well.
I kicked off the ground with all my strength.
Splash! Splash!
I had to hurry. I had told them to be as careful as possible, but I also had to join them before it was too late.
Great Magic Battle (1)