Epona the hero overwhelmed the orcs.
With a wave of her arm, she made mincemeat out of them, and occasionally, she would shoot fire bullets that penetrated from the front to the back of the mob before flying out of sight.
This wasn’t a fight, this was a one-sided slaughter.
Orcs were incapable of feeling fear, therefore, they continued to challenge such an overpowered creature.
Neusch, who was standing next to me, forced out a few words while shaking like a leaf.
[Ahahaha… What the hell… is that thing…? She’s handling those orcs like we could never have. We should’ve just let her deal with them from the very beginning. Epona alone is more than enough. There is no point for us to be here at all.] (Neusch)
Neusch had seen her fight me many times during mock battles, but this was the first time he’d ever seen her rampaging with such madness.
The abnormality of that scene threw him into disarray.
[You don’t say. If we hadn’t divided up our roles and just let Epona charge into them, we could’ve eradicated them a long time ago now.] (Lugh)
[You sound like you were already aware of it. Then why didn’t you suggest tha-] (Neusch)
Neusch was interrupted mid-sentence.
Because of an orc’s head that came flying with the speed of a bullet.
I had been pouring mana into Tuatha Dé’s eyes for the past while, which is why I was able to react in the nick of time.
I struck the side of the flying orc’s head with the hilt of my knife to shift its trajectory, leading to it being buried very deeply in the wall behind me.
If I had taken that kind of projectile head-on, it would’ve cost me my arm, so I swept it away instead.
If you had taken a direct hit, even if you had mana, you probably wouldn’t have gotten out of it safely.
That was a mere stray bullet, something only Epona could make possible when she put her mind to flailing her arms around.
[You just got your answer. Getting mixed up in Epona’s fight is a lot more terrifying than fighting orcs. That’s why I didn’t want to create a situation where she would go all out. Neusch, don’t let your guard down from here on.] (Lugh)
[You mean so I can run away with all I’ve got?] (Neusch)
[Even in this situation, what’s hard to swallow is that it’s still no different from deserting in the face of the enemy. If fleeing was an option, even I would’ve done that a long time ago now.] (Lugh)
I looked behind me. Dia, who had run out of mana, and Talt, who had exhausted her energy, were gradually backing away.
We had to defend this place to the death, at least until they could both reach the safe zone.
Even if this was Epona we were talking about, she couldn’t handle that many orcs at the same time. Some of them had gone past her.
And they came here right away.
Two of them came through Epona’s flanks.
I signaled to Neusch with my eyes that he and I would take down those two.
[You shitty pigs! Don’t think you can run away from me!!] (Epona)
Epona gathered her mana into her right hand, and without chanting, she unleashed it as it was toward the orcs.
The reason I bothered using magic that required chanting was that neutral magic had little to no offensive power.
If merely striking with a bundle of mana was a useful way of attacking, then no one would use verbal magic.
But even so, Epona’s blows were enhanced by her enormous amount of mana and the multiple S-rank skills unique to the hero, turning them into killing blows.
I leapt with all my might.
That mass of mana was on a direct course to the orcs. But the problem was that Talt and Dia were just beyond them.
That thing was about to perforate the orcs and hit the girls behind them, and it was impossible for them to dodge or withstand the projectile.
…Should I go all out here? I had full control of my【Hyper Regeneration】and I could release ten times more mana than the average people. However, that was a fact I hid by keeping my mana at a level that was considered within common sense.
If I went all out here, I could protect them without getting a scratch.
…Or could I actually deal with it without playing that card?
I had made my decision.
By infusing my mana into it, I could strengthen my inner wear made from monster skin. Originally, the owner of this pelt had that sort of natural disposition, and even now that it was made into an armor, it was still the case.
Not only was it even tougher, it had a double structure divided into two layers, a hardening one, and a shock-absorbing one. If you poured enough mana into it, it would become the best protection.
This was also a feature I wanted to hide, but it was still better than exposing my extraordinary amount of mana.
I blocked the mass of mana that smashed through the orcs with my back.
It shattered my scapula. I braced my legs with all I had, but I was still blown away.
…I managed to withstand it. Getting away with only that much after stopping one of the hero’s attacks was a most satisfactory result. With my【Hyper Regeneration】, I could recover in a few minutes.
However, at this rate, I was going to crash into Talt and Dia.
I shot a ball of mana toward the ground.
Even if it didn’t have the same deadly power as Epona’s, I could at least use the recoil to alter my direction. I was now out of the direct course to the girls.
Considering my momentum, even if I managed to land safely, I had to be prepared for one or two broken bones, but I was fine with that much damage.
[Lugh-sama!] (Talt)
Or so I said, but Talt jumped and caught me after I had altered my trajectory so I wouldn’t crash into her.
Even though she was worn out and couldn’t use her mana to strengthen her physical abilities.
I rolled over several meters with Talt caught up in the fall.
Finally, we eventually stopped, but Talt, who had stopped me in my momentum, had fainted. Maybe it was because of a cut in her mouth, but blood was spilling from its edge.
[Talt!] (Lugh)
Why did she protect me!?
She should’ve known that she would end up like that if she tried to catch me while I was flying with such force despite being unable to strengthen herself.
…No, she did know.
It was precisely because she wanted to protect me that she acted recklessly.
That’s the kind of girl she is.
I looked ahead.
My eyes met with Epona’s, she was looking at me with a frightened expression.
You wouldn’t think that she was the same person who was drunk on fighting earlier.
Her movements had noticeably gotten worse.
She was starting to move hesitatingly.
Even so, that was no problem for her. After all, even a blow from an orc at full power couldn’t hurt Epona.
With a faint voice, she spoke to me like she was pleading.
[I-I didn’t mean to… It was an accident…] (Epona)
I knew that fully well.
The one I couldn’t forgive was myself.
I knew this would happen if Epona ever went all out, so I put up a plan.
Not only that, I also conceitedly thought that I could actually manage while hiding the fact that my mana reserve was abnormally large, then I failed and made Talt pay the price for it.
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