"... Three orcs ahead. Let's go!"
The front line of the Winter Castle whispered this in a low voice and made hand signals so that those behind them could hear.
Then, some people nodded, while the others raised their hands slightly in understanding.
"As agreed, the mages will provide long-range attacks and support, and the Wonder Trio will be observing from the same location as the mages. Everyone else, we'll all charge in at the same time with a preemptive magical attack. Got it?"
The leader's instructions… or rather, a final confirmation of what had already been discussed many times… the party members nodded in agreement.
They knew he was being persistent, but this was something that needed to be emphasized again and again.
This helped to prevent mistakes and errors.
There's no problem with the leader's instructions or everyone's reactions...
Monica and Aureana nod in response to Marcella's whisper.
There seemed to be no problems with teamwork or mental preparation.
And his fighting ability...
"Icicle Javelin!"
"Ice Needle!"
After some quick chanting, the name of the spell was recited and the attack spell was activated.
Of the two mages, one was specialized in support magic, but it seemed that she was not completely unable to use offensive magic, and it seemed that she would take part in the initial attack on defenseless enemies.
Those who were good at attacking could use powerful single-target attack magic to reduce the number of enemies. Those who were not so good at attacking could use area attack magic that did not require worrying about accuracy and had low power but could lower the combat power of all enemies.
It would be the best choice for an attack to be carried out before the vanguard charges in.
Then the icicle javelin pierced the shoulder of one of the orcs, and the ice needles rained down widely, centering on the three.
"Charge!"
At the command of the leader of the Winter Castle, the vanguard leapt out.
Ice Needle was a great success if it could blind an enemy, but even if not, it was useful for confusing the enemy and lowering their will to fight.
Jumping into the confusion, two of the orcs had their shoulders pierced by an Icicle Javelin, while the remaining two attacked, slicing them down to pieces.
And the three orcs sank to the earth.
"Isn't it strong enough?! That's not what we said!"
Marcella made a somewhat unreasonable complaint.
"Well, I said we're strong because we're in the upper C ranks! Plus, two vanguards from the Goddess' Heroes and two mages have joined us, so we're about as strong as a B rank!"
The leader of the Winter Castle retorted in response to Marcella's unreasonable accusations but was offended. The members of the Goddess' Heroes chuckled as they listened.
This was not surprising, knowing the circumstances that led to the formation of this joint team and the hunt.
"The ones who would have a hard time are those below normal C rank, especially those without mages. And since we're high C rank, I told you that we'd be fine on our own if it weren't for you guys who have to guard us..."
"Uh, y-yes, that's what you said..." (Marcella)
Marcella became silent as she recalled the conversation at the guild.
"...Tsk, let's move on to the next one, next!"
As the group started walking, Marcella suddenly noticed that they had put the three orcs behind them into their item box.
The other party members seemed to be planning to leave it there as they were still hunting today and couldn't take any orc meat, but it would be a shame to throw away such a precious prey.
Marcella, the third daughter of a poor baronial family (now a viscount), was born poor.
Considering their future activities, there was no intention to hide the item box, but the two parties walking in front of the Wonder Trio did not notice that Marcella had put the three orcs inside.
Next up was a battle modelled on a 'typical, ordinary C-rank party'.
Only five people from the Winter Castle. There were no mages, and they were all physical occupations such as swordsmen, spearmen, and archers/dagger users.
"With this group, if we were to go easy on them and use the strength of a mid-level C-rank party, they would get hurt. I'll be attacking seriously, so you can just discount their strength and evaluate them accordingly."
"…I understand. Also, we will be ready to provide magical support at any time, and we have some confidence in our healing magic, so you needn’t worry. Of course, no matter how much you can heal, you still won't like the pain, and destroyed armor and torn clothes can't be repaired."
Marcella answered half-jokingly, but the truth was that if her expensive armor was destroyed, she would end up in a huge deficit between the fee she received for the job and the profit she could make from selling the meat she was able to take home.
"I won't make such a mistake!"
With these words in mind, the group made their way through the forest in search of prey.
And…….
"Forward, Orc 3!"
The scout, who had been a little ahead of us, returned and reported in a low but firm voice.
"...It really seems that the orcs are acting in groups of three..."
After this happened twice, Marcella finally seemed to believe the story that orcs tend to travel in groups of three even when not near their nest.
"Well then, as we agreed, the Goddess' Hero will guard the Wonder Trio and reserve attack magic just in case. Use single target attack magic, and be careful of friendly fire!"
"I'm not some rookie F rank, I wouldn't make such a mistake! …After firing the attack spell, all you have to do is move calmly into the line of fire!"
The three members of the Wonder Trio felt a little sorry for the leader of the Winter Castle who had been attacked by the female mages of The Goddess's Hero, who seemed to think that her professional pride had been hurt, even though he had simply been going through the routine of making sure the steps were followed.
"...Okay, let's go!"
The leader, who seemed to be a little upset after being snapped at by the woman, though he didn't seem particularly interested in her, pulled himself together and gave these instructions.
No matter how promising a battle might be, if you let your guard down you would die.
Before a life-threatening battle, it was necessary to be in top physical condition as well as mental condition.
So, no matter how depressed they were, when it came to fighting, they completely switch their mindset.
...Because they're professionals...
"What's going on...?" (Marcella)
Marcella muttered in shock and astonishment.
Monica and Aureana were also frozen in place.
The battle ended without any trouble, with Winter Castle winning without a scratch.
But…….
"Why would orcs coordinate their actions?!" (Marcella)
Yes. Orcs would normally fight separately, but instead they were protecting each other's backs and fighting together.
The party consisted of five people, which was a little on the large side for a party. And because they were veterans at the top of the C-rank party, Winter Castle was a safe victory, but what if the party had been smaller, with only three or four people? Or if they had been a lower-ranked C-rank party...
Even if they won the battle and wiped out all the orcs, if even one of them got injured, it would be a huge loss. Then the injured person would have to retire as a hunter, and the party would disband, etc.
There's no way they could routinely take on such requests for such a small fee.
There was a difference between "there are three orcs" and "a group of three orcs (three man cells)". It was completely different.
Just three together was three times the strength of a single orc.
However, if the three of them work together, covering each other's blind spots and fighting together, their threat level increased several times over.
"They move in groups of several and fight together rather than separately. They certainly don't have superior physical abilities like the new species, the enemy we fought in the final battle, but as an opponent, they overturn the overwhelming advantage that we humans had, and it becomes a battle based on the difference in physical ability..." (Aureana)
"That's damn bad!!" (Marcella)
After hearing Aureana's words, Marcella blurted out a vulgar swear word that hunters use.
It was indecent for a noble lady, but that must have just made her so shaken.
"...But their physical offensive and defensive powers are no different from those of an ordinary Orc. So, since our basic style is to attack first with long-distance magic, followed by a barrage of one-sided magic, it probably won't have much of an effect on us, right?"
"...T-That's true... In the first battle, the attacks of the two magicians from the Goddess' Heroes were effective as usual. Even though one of them isn't a specialist in offensive magic...
That means..."
"No problem!" (All WT)
Author's Note
Announcement! (^^)/
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