After passing through the fallen tree area, the Popoi Road entered the forest in earnest.
The Kilket River, which originates in the Citroln Mountains, does not flow through this area, so water monsters such as slimes and mashuras are no longer to be found.
Instead, we were attacked many times in that forest by a herd of ulfes.
They are not peculiar monsters like slimes or mashuras. Ulfes are easy-to-defeat monsters that Clarice is familiar with.
Clarice, who was now motivated, began to kick monsters around with great enthusiasm.
Occasionally, there would be a few medium to high level Ulfes mixed in, but Clarice was able to hit and away with them, taking them down with precision.
“How’s that? That’s my swordsmanship from Burgess.”
Clarice is very proud.
But.
A single Ulfes jumped out from the grass behind Clarice and suddenly leaped at her.
The Ulfes seemed to be using other Ulfes as decoys while moving through the grass without making a sound itself.
“Clarisse, watch out!”
Loloi exclaims, unleashing a remote strike from Aluminas.
With that Loloi attack, Clarice was just in time to dodge Ulfes’ special blow.
“That was close, what the hell was that Ulfes!”
Burgess, who was a little ahead of me, rushed back.
“Obviously it was moving differently than the other Ulfes…”
I said, and Burgess nodded with a grim look on his face.
Apparently, he had come to the same conclusion as I had.
“This is the work of a beastmaster!”
As he said this, Burgess lowered the great sword on his back and replaced it with the short blade at his waist.
It must mean that it is difficult to use a large sword in a battle in the forest.
“Could it be some kind of bandit?”
“Probably.”
I got out of the Ushama, too, and took a look around.
The movements of the now Ulfes were clearly different from those of the normal wild Ulfes.
Ulfes are monsters that hunt in packs, but they don’t use their friends as decoys in that way.
Perhaps the wild Ulfes were mixed in with the Ulfes that had been trained by the beastmaster.
In a battle in the forest, a beastmaster who controls a magical beast-type monster is a very troublesome opponent.
The beasts controlled by the beastmaster were indistinguishable from ordinary wild beasts on the outside, so we could not tell whether these guys were wild or the beastmen’s minions.
Burgess then stood in front of me and Clarice, who were up against a large tree.
“If you’re dealing with bandits, the beastmaster isn’t the only one you’ll be facing!”
Burgess shouts.
Just as Burgess said, magic and arrows flew one after another toward us, who were frozen in place for easy aiming.
“Hmph!”
But they were all fended off by Burgess
At the same time, Ulfes and others attacked, but Burgess and Clarice returned fire and finished them off as well.
“Beastmaster or not, if it’s not a surprise attack, this is how it’s done!”
“Don’t let your guard down! New ones are coming!”
Burgess shouts as he deals with more flying magic and arrows, and the Ulfes that appear.
Burgess loudly chided him, and Clarice shrugged.
The remote attacks with magic and bows and arrows, and the coordination with the beasts controlled by the beastmaster.
The opponent must be very skilled, including the fact that they have not shown theirself to us at all so far.
In this forest, an enemy that attacks remotely without being detected is a considerable threat.
And so it was for the other side.
“It’s about time. ……”
Loloi, who had not been seen since a moment ago, seemed to be hiding in the woods at some point.
Loloi’s fighting sense at times like this is not half-bad.
I don’t know if it was calculation or sensation, but she acted so naturally to outwit her opponents.
“I noticed that the magic attacks from the enemy began to weaken, and there were signs of battle coming from all over the forest.”
Loloi is shooting and hitting the enemies one after another from the forest with his aluminous remote attack skills, inflicting heavy blows on them.
It seems that the bandits have had their positions captured by Loloi due to the one-sided attacks from earlier.
Screaming cries were heard one after another from the forest, and soon no magic or arrows were flying at all.
“I guess we’re all good to go.”
Before the balanced offensive and defensive duo of Loloi and Burgess, the band of field thieves, which had seemed to number roughly 10, had been wiped out in the blink of an eye.
Loloi was hungry.
Loloi appeared out of the woods in a flash and joined us, looking as she had when she returned from her walk.
Then Burgess and Loloi jumped on the Ushama again, each with a look of ease on his face.
They are seriously dependable escorts.
I wonder if these guys really want to be my escort. ……
I’m starting to feel really sorry for them.
In the midst of all this, Clarice was slumped over and not speaking at all.