Monica walked into the ruins, unease prickling in her thoughts.
Is it really alright to depend on a skill like this and take on the ruins stage?
The battalion continued to move into the ruins, with Monica at the head, flanked on either side by her guards.
Then, suddenly, an arrow buried itself in the helmet of one of her guards.
The downed man clutched at the arrow and rolled around on the floor.
Enemies. It’s the first wave!
Monica felt a burst of anxiety.
The troops were just as nervous.
She looked over in the direction that the arrow had come flying from.
There were hobgoblins armed with bows and arrows on one of the tall buildings.
“On the left! Archers and shields, rotate left!” Laurent shouted.
All archers apart from Monica and the warriors spread out toward the left together.
In the same instant, at the end of the street before them, a mixed horde of black wolves and hobgoblins appeared and charged at them.
The archer unit shot arrows at the enemy’s archers and kept them at bay.
The hobgoblins retreated into the shadows of the buildings, waited for the arrows to fly past them, and then returned fire again.
The tanks lifted their large shields up over their heads, but even they could not block every single arrow, and a few of them were shot down.
The vanguard clashed with the ground enemies before them.
Because the enemy had appeared so suddenly, Monica didn’t even have time to shoot her arrows before she was forced to retreat. The shields usually weathered the first strike for the warriors, but they were spread out on the left and there were incoming arrows from the enemies again. Despite their efforts, the battalion could not keep up.
This would be the closest fight yet since Laurent’s expedition had launched.
Slowly but surely, they were being pushed back, far too exposed to the enemies’ attacks.
“Monica—use [Hawk Eye]! Just like I taught you earlier.”
“Y-Yes.”
Monica activated [Hawk Eye] and looked down at her surroundings.
A position where I can snipe down both the enemy archers and vanguard… There!
Monica’s skill [Hawk Eye] helped her find the perfect position.
It had a higher altitude than the enemy archers’ positions, so the enemy would not be able to return fire, but with the range of [Iron Piercer], she’d be able to manage it easily.
Monica took two or three people along with her as guards, took a detour from a location without enemies and sprinted towards the target building.
The others could only hold out against the enemies’ attacks as best as they could until Monica reached that spot.
The enemy did not have bows of the same calibre as [Iron Piercer], so their arrows could not pierce the troops’ armour or helmets, but it could still do a bit of damage. The impact was still a blow to the body.
Their side had more fighters, but the battle was taking place on a narrow road. At most, only five adventurers could fight on the frontlines at one time, so their advantage in numbers was meaningless.
The frontline fighters were swapped out when they got injured, so they managed to keep the war front intact somehow (when someone in the frontline passed out due to their injury, they had to be dragged back and replaced by someone behind). Unfortunately, the enemy had the benefit of support fire, and from the very start, they were barely able to hold the line.
Some ten or twenty minutes later, the battalion had grown visibly restless and it was on the verge of turning heel.
But if they retreated here, then it would have all been for nothing.
Laurent continued to encourage the battalion, urging them to continue maintaining the front line somehow.
Their fatigue was only worsening, with hardly any soldier left unscathed. Just as they were close to giving up, the enemies’ archers shrieked.
Monica had struck them with her arrows from above.
The tides turned.
The enemy archers were being shot at from all sides—above, below, front and sides. They were pinned down with nowhere to hide, and they could not do anything to stop the onslaught of arrows.
Monica’s skills [Archery] and [One Strike Kill] decimated the enemies’ ranks in one clean sweep, and soon enough, she was raining fire down on the enemy’s warriors.
The enemy was clearly panicked. They backed away, preparing to flee.
The longer they stayed there, the more they fell prey to Monica’s [Iron Piercer] and [One Strike Kill].
Conversely, Laurent’s battalion suddenly had their morale renewed.
The warriors who had been losing their nerves rediscovered their courage, and they were in high spirits as they slashed the enemy with their swords.
At last, the monsters could no longer bear it. They turned heel and began their retreat.
Laurent’s battalion swooped down on the monsters from behind with their swords. Where their swords could not reach, their archers shot down the enemy. They kept chasing until the enemy had been thoroughly wiped out.
It was Monica’s first successful battle as an archer providing support fire.
I did it. Support fire… Using [Hawk Eye], even I can provide support fire…
After collecting the loot, Laurent and Monica regrouped.
“Good job, Monica. That is the way to use the skill [Hawk Eye]. Even if the enemy has launched the attack first, if you can secure an advantageous position, it’ll be our win in the end. This is how your battalion will fight.”
“Y-Yes.”
This can work. I can turn Monica into an A-rank adventurer. And creating a formation with her at its centre will work, too! Laurent had a look of utter conviction.
After that, each time they were attacked, Monica used her skill [Hawk Eye] and countered.
They managed it again and again, and the battalion grew more confident. Monica would activate [Hawk Eye] the instant they were attacked by enemies and respond accordingly.
The battalion, in turn, trusted Monica and maintained the front line. They did not even think of retreating.
At one point, the battalion came to a terrain of complex buildings. Monica froze, her instincts screamed at her.
They’re here. Enemies!
“Monica? Why did you—” Laurent broke off.
He realised that she had activated [Hawk Eye].
Did she somehow notice enemies?
“Laurent-san, please let the battalion advance along this road ten minutes after I leave. There will be enemies beyond this point.” That was all Monica said as she pointed at a road. She left without another sound.
As per her instructions, Laurent halted the battalion’s advance briefly, and began moving again after ten minutes.
Monica arrived at her firing location.
She spotted the hobgoblins.
Armed with bows and arrows, they lay in wait for her unit to arrive at the trap.
They can’t see me. Only I can see them. This is the power of [Hawk Eye]!
Monica nocked an arrow, so quietly that they couldn’t hear even the creak of her bowstring.
A hobgoblin archer grinned greedily as it watched her battalion enter the trap from above.
From their perspective, Laurent’s troops were walking straight to their doom.
One of the hobgoblins nocked an arrow, and took aim at the battalion.
But at that moment, its head was pierced by an arrow and his head ruptured like a cracked egg.
The other hobgoblins beside it were startled. They looked over at where the arrow had come from, and saw Monica standing ready with her [Iron Piercer].
The hobgoblins furiously shot arrows at her. But she had the advantage in positioning.
The hobgoblins were tragically wiped out.
At the same time, the battle had begun on the narrow road.
The monsters were expecting support fire from their archer unit, but instead of arrows coming down on the enemy, they came down on the monsters instead. Shaken, they crumbled with little effort.
I-I did it. I managed it. Before the enemy could launch a pre-emptive strike, I got an even better location than the enemy and…
Monica rejoined Laurent, still dumbfounded by her own success.
“Great job, Monica.”
“L-Laurent-san… I…”
“I’ll say it again. You have the potential to become an A-rank archer.”
I… I can become an A-rank archer? Really?
Laurent himself was observing the extent of her growth.
Extraordinary. She was able to read the enemies’ presence from the terrain and make a pre-emptive strike. It’s a practical way of using [Hawk Eye] to fight. Not to mention, she used [Silent Run] at the same time. She fought a secret battle by putting her two skills together. This proved, above all else, that she is able to move autonomously without taking instruction from someone else.
Laurent glanced at Monica, who was still uneasy.
She had yet to believe in herself.
Should I up the pressure by one more level? Laurent thought. He was about to call out to Monica when she suddenly fell to her knees, overcome by dizziness.
She gritted her teeth.
Hurriedly, Laurent caught her hands and held her shoulders up to support her. “Monica? What’s wrong?”
“Pardon me, I just stood up too fast…”
Laurent appraised her status and found that her stamina was severely depleted.
“It’s okay. I’ll be fine once I use a potion to recover.” She tried to take a sip of her potion, but she was stopped by Laurent.
By drinking a potion, adventurers could instantly recover their stamina and keep moving for hours, if not days, but overusing them was bad for the body.
Quite simply put, it was hard to fight normally with a stomach full of liquid.
Because of that, it was best to take potions several hours apart.
Monica had just taken a potion earlier.
Laurent sighed. I guess it’s a little too early to push her further.
If she forced herself while her stamina was depleted, that could develop into a serious problem.
Once she is able to use [Hawk Eye] continuously throughout one floor—that’s when I’ll place more pressure on her, Laurent decided. “Monica, we’ll stop here for a bit. You did well, so let’s just rest a little.”
“But, Laurent-san—”
She’d just started to really grasp… something.
She gazed pleadingly at him.
For a girl who had always been treated as a hindrance, this felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity at restoring her honour.
“Monica, this is an order. Rest.”
“… Understood.”
With how strictly Laurent spoke, she could only back down in disappointment.
Coincidentally, they also managed to find the teleportation point. The ruins stage was coming to a close, which made it the perfect time to take a break.
“Shaqma, you’re up now,” Laurent said, turning toward the rear guard.
“Finally.” Dressed in support mage attire, Shaqma stepped forward with an eager look, as though she could not wait a moment longer.
Up until now, Shaqma and Euphene had been allocated to the rear guard, where they did not participate in battle at all.
As Shaqma moved to the front, Monica fell back in her place.
“From here on, we’ll be advancing with you as the centre of the formation.”
“No worries. I’ll show you the power of my support magic. I’ll help my allies and delay our enemies!”
Monica walked into the ruins, unease prickling in her thoughts.
Is it really alright to depend on a skill like this and take on the ruins stage?
The battalion continued to move into the ruins, with Monica at the head, flanked on either side by her guards.
Then, suddenly, an arrow buried itself in the helmet of one of her guards.
The downed man clutched at the arrow and rolled around on the floor.
Enemies. It’s the first wave!
Monica felt a burst of anxiety.
The troops were just as nervous.
She looked over in the direction that the arrow had come flying from.
There were hobgoblins armed with bows and arrows on one of the tall buildings.
“On the left! Archers and shields, rotate left!” Laurent shouted.
All archers apart from Monica and the warriors spread out toward the left together.
In the same instant, at the end of the street before them, a mixed horde of black wolves and hobgoblins appeared and charged at them.
The archer unit shot arrows at the enemy’s archers and kept them at bay.
The hobgoblins retreated into the shadows of the buildings, waited for the arrows to fly past them, and then returned fire again.
The tanks lifted their large shields up over their heads, but even they could not block every single arrow, and a few of them were shot down.
The vanguard clashed with the ground enemies before them.
Because the enemy had appeared so suddenly, Monica didn’t even have time to shoot her arrows before she was forced to retreat. The shields usually weathered the first strike for the warriors, but they were spread out on the left and there were incoming arrows from the enemies again. Despite their efforts, the battalion could not keep up.
This would be the closest fight yet since Laurent’s expedition had launched.
Slowly but surely, they were being pushed back, far too exposed to the enemies’ attacks.
“Monica—use [Hawk Eye]! Just like I taught you earlier.”
“Y-Yes.”
Monica activated [Hawk Eye] and looked down at her surroundings.
A position where I can snipe down both the enemy archers and vanguard… There!
Monica’s skill [Hawk Eye] helped her find the perfect position.
It had a higher altitude than the enemy archers’ positions, so the enemy would not be able to return fire, but with the range of [Iron Piercer], she’d be able to manage it easily.
Monica took two or three people along with her as guards, took a detour from a location without enemies and sprinted towards the target building.
The others could only hold out against the enemies’ attacks as best as they could until Monica reached that spot.
The enemy did not have bows of the same calibre as [Iron Piercer], so their arrows could not pierce the troops’ armour or helmets, but it could still do a bit of damage. The impact was still a blow to the body.
Their side had more fighters, but the battle was taking place on a narrow road. At most, only five adventurers could fight on the frontlines at one time, so their advantage in numbers was meaningless.
The frontline fighters were swapped out when they got injured, so they managed to keep the war front intact somehow (when someone in the frontline passed out due to their injury, they had to be dragged back and replaced by someone behind). Unfortunately, the enemy had the benefit of support fire, and from the very start, they were barely able to hold the line.
Some ten or twenty minutes later, the battalion had grown visibly restless and it was on the verge of turning heel.
But if they retreated here, then it would have all been for nothing.
Laurent continued to encourage the battalion, urging them to continue maintaining the front line somehow.
Their fatigue was only worsening, with hardly any soldier left unscathed. Just as they were close to giving up, the enemies’ archers shrieked.
Monica had struck them with her arrows from above.
The tides turned.
The enemy archers were being shot at from all sides—above, below, front and sides. They were pinned down with nowhere to hide, and they could not do anything to stop the onslaught of arrows.
Monica’s skills [Archery] and [One Strike Kill] decimated the enemies’ ranks in one clean sweep, and soon enough, she was raining fire down on the enemy’s warriors.
The enemy was clearly panicked. They backed away, preparing to flee.
The longer they stayed there, the more they fell prey to Monica’s [Iron Piercer] and [One Strike Kill].
Conversely, Laurent’s battalion suddenly had their morale renewed.
The warriors who had been losing their nerves rediscovered their courage, and they were in high spirits as they slashed the enemy with their swords.
At last, the monsters could no longer bear it. They turned heel and began their retreat.
Laurent’s battalion swooped down on the monsters from behind with their swords. Where their swords could not reach, their archers shot down the enemy. They kept chasing until the enemy had been thoroughly wiped out.
It was Monica’s first successful battle as an archer providing support fire.
I did it. Support fire… Using [Hawk Eye], even I can provide support fire…
After collecting the loot, Laurent and Monica regrouped.
“Good job, Monica. That is the way to use the skill [Hawk Eye]. Even if the enemy has launched the attack first, if you can secure an advantageous position, it’ll be our win in the end. This is how your battalion will fight.”
“Y-Yes.”
This can work. I can turn Monica into an A-rank adventurer. And creating a formation with her at its centre will work, too! Laurent had a look of utter conviction.
After that, each time they were attacked, Monica used her skill [Hawk Eye] and countered.
They managed it again and again, and the battalion grew more confident. Monica would activate [Hawk Eye] the instant they were attacked by enemies and respond accordingly.
The battalion, in turn, trusted Monica and maintained the front line. They did not even think of retreating.
At one point, the battalion came to a terrain of complex buildings. Monica froze, her instincts screamed at her.
They’re here. Enemies!
“Monica? Why did you—” Laurent broke off.
He realised that she had activated [Hawk Eye].
Did she somehow notice enemies?
“Laurent-san, please let the battalion advance along this road ten minutes after I leave. There will be enemies beyond this point.” That was all Monica said as she pointed at a road. She left without another sound.
As per her instructions, Laurent halted the battalion’s advance briefly, and began moving again after ten minutes.
Monica arrived at her firing location.
She spotted the hobgoblins.
Armed with bows and arrows, they lay in wait for her unit to arrive at the trap.
They can’t see me. Only I can see them. This is the power of [Hawk Eye]!
Monica nocked an arrow, so quietly that they couldn’t hear even the creak of her bowstring.
A hobgoblin archer grinned greedily as it watched her battalion enter the trap from above.
From their perspective, Laurent’s troops were walking straight to their doom.
One of the hobgoblins nocked an arrow, and took aim at the battalion.
But at that moment, its head was pierced by an arrow and his head ruptured like a cracked egg.
The other hobgoblins beside it were startled. They looked over at where the arrow had come from, and saw Monica standing ready with her [Iron Piercer].
The hobgoblins furiously shot arrows at her. But she had the advantage in positioning.
The hobgoblins were tragically wiped out.
At the same time, the battle had begun on the narrow road.
The monsters were expecting support fire from their archer unit, but instead of arrows coming down on the enemy, they came down on the monsters instead. Shaken, they crumbled with little effort.
I-I did it. I managed it. Before the enemy could launch a pre-emptive strike, I got an even better location than the enemy and…
Monica rejoined Laurent, still dumbfounded by her own success.
“Great job, Monica.”
“L-Laurent-san… I…”
“I’ll say it again. You have the potential to become an A-rank archer.”
I… I can become an A-rank archer? Really?
Laurent himself was observing the extent of her growth.
Extraordinary. She was able to read the enemies’ presence from the terrain and make a pre-emptive strike. It’s a practical way of using [Hawk Eye] to fight. Not to mention, she used [Silent Run] at the same time. She fought a secret battle by putting her two skills together. This proved, above all else, that she is able to move autonomously without taking instruction from someone else.
Laurent glanced at Monica, who was still uneasy.
She had yet to believe in herself.
Should I up the pressure by one more level? Laurent thought. He was about to call out to Monica when she suddenly fell to her knees, overcome by dizziness.
She gritted her teeth.
Hurriedly, Laurent caught her hands and held her shoulders up to support her. “Monica? What’s wrong?”
“Pardon me, I just stood up too fast…”
Laurent appraised her status and found that her stamina was severely depleted.
“It’s okay. I’ll be fine once I use a potion to recover.” She tried to take a sip of her potion, but she was stopped by Laurent.
By drinking a potion, adventurers could instantly recover their stamina and keep moving for hours, if not days, but overusing them was bad for the body.
Quite simply put, it was hard to fight normally with a stomach full of liquid.
Because of that, it was best to take potions several hours apart.
Monica had just taken a potion earlier.
Laurent sighed. I guess it’s a little too early to push her further.
If she forced herself while her stamina was depleted, that could develop into a serious problem.
Once she is able to use [Hawk Eye] continuously throughout one floor—that’s when I’ll place more pressure on her, Laurent decided. “Monica, we’ll stop here for a bit. You did well, so let’s just rest a little.”
“But, Laurent-san—”
She’d just started to really grasp… something.
She gazed pleadingly at him.
For a girl who had always been treated as a hindrance, this felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity at restoring her honour.
“Monica, this is an order. Rest.”
“… Understood.”
With how strictly Laurent spoke, she could only back down in disappointment.
Coincidentally, they also managed to find the teleportation point. The ruins stage was coming to a close, which made it the perfect time to take a break.
“Shaqma, you’re up now,” Laurent said, turning toward the rear guard.
“Finally.” Dressed in support mage attire, Shaqma stepped forward with an eager look, as though she could not wait a moment longer.
Up until now, Shaqma and Euphene had been allocated to the rear guard, where they did not participate in battle at all.
As Shaqma moved to the front, Monica fell back in her place.
“From here on, we’ll be advancing with you as the centre of the formation.”
“No worries. I’ll show you the power of my support magic. I’ll help my allies and delay our enemies!”
