The large man, who wields an improvised earthen spear, charges straight at me.
He seems to be battle-tested, but at the end of the day, he’s still just a barbarian.
In terms of combat skills and valued armory, I am the superior.

However, if that girl attacks us with her magic during the battle, that could turn problematic for us.
We have more numbers on our side.
Not to mention a time limit, meaning we can’t afford to waste our time here.

“Two of you, throw away your bows and assist me. As for the rest, restrain the mage girl”

“Right!”

Out of my seven subordinates, two of them drop their bows, unsheathe their swords, and position beside me, while the other five encircle the girl from all sides.
She may possess powerful wind magic, but her use of it is limited in one direction.
By surrounding her, she can’t haphazardly shoot anywhere without exposing an opening from behind.

The two men who decided to assist me step forward.
One of them parries the large man’s spear thrust while the other aims his sword at his belly.
The large man abandons his weapon and jumps back, then he readily leaps to the left side of my subordinate’s horse.
However, it seems that my subordinate anticipated it and has already repositioned his sword.

“Looks like I don’t even need to take part in this farce”

When we compare them to their individual strengths, the large man is by far a lot stronger than any of my men.
But, if it’s a 2 on 1 duel, then that’s a different story. And, if I, Thunder Sword Rapal, were to join in, it would be even worse for him.

My subordinate then swings his sword at the large man who jumped back.
Just when he was about to reach him, the earthen spear that the large man let go before suddenly bursts apart and fragments of soil and sand fly in the air.

“Mm……”

Looking at the girl, I notice that her arm was pointing at the spear that bursted just now.

“D-Damn you! Ra ~agh!”

My subordinate swings his sword despite having his vision restricted.
His sword clearly hit a shadow in the dust cloud.
Even my subordinate felt that he hit something but is not sure what. Then, his eyes widened.

When the dust cloud cleared, the large man is seen bleeding and standing, while catching the sword between his left arm and shoulder.
My subordinate tries to break free, but the large man’s hold is too strong that the sword doesn’t budge.

“U ooo ora a!”

The large man then swings his right fist and pulls the sword in with his left hand.
My subordinate gets pulled in close as the large man’s right fist punches the lights out of him in the gut.

“Bu~agh!”

My subordinate then vomits and falls off his horse, landing with his shoulder hitting the ground first.

“What an absurd way to battle……”

Hearing me mutter to myself, the large man looks at me with hate as he pulls out the sword stuck between his bloodied left arm and shoulder.

“What’s the matter? Enjoyed watching me look down on you?”

“Filthy barbarian cur!”

He dares to get full of himself, the nerve.
He may have beaten one of us, but I am still far more superior than him.
If I get serious, it won’t even be a fight.
I just didn’t interfere because I was leaving it to my subordinates.

Before anything, let’s check the current condition of the red-eyed mage girl.
Looking at her again, she seems to be under heavy fire by men’s arrows.
She’s devoting herself to defense by using〖Clay〗to create earth walls, but who knows how long that’ll last.
At the moment, it doesn’t seem like she can freely support the large man now.
I’m honestly surprised at how she’s able to consecutively cast wind and earth spells like that.
Her skin is also pale. She may be reaching her limit soon.

“Well, I’ll have to give credit to these two barbarians for holding out this long”

I imbue magic to my sword and clad it with lightning.
Now then, a frontal attack is nice and all, but for now, let’s play it safe.

“Since you want it so badly, I’ll be your opponent, barbarian. Marx, watch him from the back so he doesn’t escape”

“On it!”

My subordinate, Marx, then distances himself from the large man and positions himself further back.

“…………”

The large man continuously glances at me and Marx with his black eyes.
A futile attempt. If you pay attention to both of us at once, you’ll be negligent at either.
It’s decided, I will play with you no longer. Time to end this little game with one decisive strike.

“…… Muh?”

Fog covers the area once again.
It’s the same fog when the red-eyed girl first appeared.
I turn to check the girl, and she’s currently shielding herself with earth walls from my men’s arrows and is crouching in place.
There are also two arrows stuck on her shoulder.
It’s clear as day that she’s reached her limit.
Setting up this fog must be her last-ditch effort.

“Another futile attempt! Enough with the arrows, I’ll finish her off myself……!”

Suddenly, I felt a severe pain in my left shoulder.
Looking back, a large spider with a white face on its head is clinging on the back of my shoulder.
It may have poisoned me because right now, my whole body is burning with intense pain.

“T-This blasted thing!”

When I was about to swing my sword, it jumped off me and hid in the fog.
I couldn’t see it, but it must’ve already attached a web somewhere so it would escape.
I didn’t expect another enemy would sneak up on me like that.

Then, my subordinates started screaming in the fog.
That spider might not be the only enemy that appeared.

“E-…… Everyone, calm down and deal with them rationally! Watch your surroundings and rely on your ears! If you kill that dying mage girl, the fog will lift up!”

I close my eyes and focus on searching the surrounding presence.
That mage girl is always giving off an eerie aura.
It didn’t take long for me to find her immediately.
I lock on to her position and approach her carefully while being on guard on my surroundings.

As I get closer to the girl, one of my subordinates suddenly screams near her direction.

“U…… uwa aa argh! Aa a agh!”

I speed up my approach, running towards them, and upon arrival, I could see my subordinate getting crushed from behind by the red-eyed girl.
When the girl releases her hand, my subordinate falls down to the ground, his presence disappearing.
I couldn’t quite see his face due to the thick fog, but it looked like his body was being squeezed.

W-What just happened……
And for some reason, the girl who was crouching in pain before is suddenly now able to stand straight.
The arrows stuck on her shoulder aren’t there anymore as well.

What a strange girl.
I only underestimated her as a barbarian mage, but everything about her is just not normal.
However, it doesn’t look like she noticed me yet. Now’s my chance to cut her head off.

As I was about to swing my sword, something grabbed my foot.
Looking down, there were many hands made of earth holding my feet.
One hand was holding my ankle, and two were holding the calf of my feet.

“Oh cra-……”

The girl turns at me and extends her arm.

“〖Gale〗!”

A powerful hurricane sweeps through the fog.
Unable to move, I receive the blunt force of the wind directly.
The wind lifts me off the ground and cuts through my body. I get blown away and slam on a tree.
My consciousness is slowly fading.

“How dare those barbarians… push me this far……”

I lean my body on the tree and wobbly stand back up.
I hold my sword with my other arm and check the condition of my left shoulder.
It feels numb to move around with. I’ll have to make do without using my left arm in the meantime.

I search my surroundings…… for my subordinates who’re still able to move.
Only three are standing.
They’re all anxious and their breathing is ragged.
There are bits of spider web stuck around each of them.
So, that spider didn’t come alone.

We… we should still be able to pull through with this.
I know what they’re up to now. If we confront the enemies head on, their cheap tricks won’t scare us.
We’ll regroup ourselves then head to their village…… We’ve lost too much time and received too much damage than expected.

“You rats have angered me past my patience. To think you would corner us to this point with nothing but cheap tricks……”

Then, a loud whistle sound is heard, echoing throughout the forest.
And up ahead, along with the man who ran back to the village taking the lead, there are 15 armed Lithuvar warriors lined together.
That man is holding the same whistle we just broke not so long ago.

Time is up.
That whistle will cause the two-headed dragon to return back to the village.
Added to that, the village is now on high alert again.
And to make matters worse, our team has suffered heavy losses, and we still have to deal with that eerie mage girl and that beast-like Lithuvar man.
Our chances of winning are way too slim. There’s no longer any merit in us staying here.

“…… Y-You’re telling me that… I’ve been outwitted by mere barbarians……? Preposterous……”

“Give up! It’s the end of the line for you!”

The large Lithuvar man catches up to me and declares to me so.

“…… End of the line… me?”

Hearing those words, I couldn’t help but laugh.
Apparently, they don’t seem to understand their situation that well.
I will certainly admit that I underestimated the enemy a tad bit, and that I was unable to fulfill my original objective.

“W-What’s so funny?!”

“I will give up on the village. But, the one at the end of line here… is you! Because only I will survive through this!”

Oh well…… I planned to use this to destroy the village, but it can’t be helped.

“P-Please wait, Rapal-sama! We’re still not……!”

“We can’t afford to waste any more time! All of you should just get as far away from here as possible!”

“But, that’s……!”

My three subordinates hesitantly get on their horses and leave the area with haste.
Meanwhile, the 15 Lithuvar warriors who just arrived ready their bows and arrows.
I see that they still don’t understand their situation at all.