As Gareth draws his magic sword from its scabbard, his contracted spirit appears beside him.
With a body larger than a normal tiger or lion, covered in gray fur and emanating cold air from its entire body, its appearance was majestic and somewhat eerily beautiful.
Beowulf the Ice Wolf – that’s the name of his partner, the contracted spirit.
Beowulf, capable of both ranged attacks and close combat without any weaknesses, and able to fight without using flashy techniques, is the perfect spirit for the current situation.
“First, Beowulf will create a path with one strike, then you dash to the stairs. After that, Rourke and I will hold them off. Is that okay?”
“No objections.”
As I nod, Celia and the others also agree by nodding their heads.
Gareth, having confirmed it, turns his gaze towards Beowulf while readying his sword.
Understanding his master’s intention through his gaze, spiritual power begins to overflow from Beowulf’s body.
“Well then, I’ll start the countdown. 3… 2… 1… Go, Beowulf!”
“GRAAAARGH!!”
Simultaneously with Gareth’s command, Beowulf lets out a roar so loud it might echo throughout the entire ruins. At the same time, an ice tunnel forms from our location to the stairs, spanning just over 200 meters.
“Everyone run! It’s not that sturdy, so it’ll break soon!”
With Gareth’s shout, everyone sprints through the ice tunnel at full speed. Meanwhile, Beowulf leaps high to hold off the approaching Guardians who are wielding halberd-like weapons, trying to eliminate the intruders.
“Go.”
I also summon a small wind spirit bird from my medium to cause a distraction, form a contract, and send it towards the Guardians before starting to run, slightly delayed.
“Tch! Too slow!”
“Eh? Kyaa!?”
Soon after starting to run, I head towards Leia, who isn’t exactly slow but is falling slightly behind compared to us. I scoop up her small body in a princess carry and resume running at full speed.
Leia looks confused by the sudden turn of events, but there’s no time to worry about that now.
“Rourke. Me too.”
“Is this really the time for that!? You’re fast, so run!”
“I object to this rough treatment.”
“This is all your fault to begin with, isn’t it!?”
As my physical abilities are enhanced by spiritual power, far surpassing the others, I catch up to Lily running ahead. She shows a disgruntled expression for who knows how many times today. This girl… should I seriously smack her head once?
As I’m thinking that, the ice behind us shatters loudly. It seems the Guardians that Beowulf and the wind spirit couldn’t handle are catching up.
There’s no time for pointless arguments with Lily anymore.
“Just run!! I’ll do it next time if you want!”
“Okay, promise.”
Amid screams at the scene behind us, I promise to carry her next time, and Lily nods with satisfaction. Lily’s composure to have such a conversation in this situation is truly remarkable.
“The stairs! Keep going up!”
“Leia, I’m putting you down! Can you manage!?”
“Y-Yes!”
At Celia’s shout, I check with Leia while looking towards her.
Perhaps because she was being carried by a man who once insulted her, her face was bright red with anger. I’m sorry, but please forgive me, it’s really an emergency right now.
As I confirm the three of them, including Leia whom I just put down, disappearing up the stairs, the ice tunnel completely collapses, and numerous Guardians come charging towards us.
“Can you handle this, Gareth?”
“Who do you think taught you how to use a sword?”
Facing the approaching Guardians, Gareth and I exchange smiles before readying our swords to intercept them.
“Haa!”
“Huh!”
Gareth and I each dash towards the Guardians closing in, dodging their swinging halberds and aiming our swords at their exposed chests as we pass by. The swords collide with their armor, producing a high-pitched metallic sound that echoes through the ruins, but we feel no resistance at all.
“Tch!?”
“This is tough!”
As we turn back, our opponents also face us again. We look at the part of the armor we just slashed, but there’s only a single line on the chest plate with no apparent damage. Wait, isn’t this bad?
“Whoa!?”
“Rourke! Ugh!?”
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While feeling this anxiety, a Guardian charges in again, swinging its halberd horizontally. I hastily use my sword as a shield to block the attack, but I can’t completely nullify the momentum and end up being blown back against the wall. It hurts like hell, but I guess it’s fortunate that I didn’t hit the mural.
Gareth, seeing me blown away, tries to come to my aid but is immediately overwhelmed by defending against the attacking Guardian. I look towards Beowulf, wondering if Gareth’s spirit could help, but Beowulf is also fully occupied dealing with several Guardians, albeit without much difficulty, and doesn’t seem to have the leisure to assist us.
By the way, it seems my wind spirit has already been defeated. The temporary contract has been broken, and I can’t sense its presence anymore. It’s probably safe to assume it was defeated by the Guardians and sent back to the Spirit Realm.
“This is bad.”
Two Guardians, now focused on me since the distraction is gone, charge towards me with their halberds ready. I dodge the wide swing of the first one by jumping to the right, but the second one, as if coordinated, brings its halberd down aiming to split my skull.
“Tch!!”
Judging that my arm would be torn off if I took it head-on, I time it to hit the side of the halberd’s shaft with my sword, deflecting its trajectory. The deflected axe blade of the halberd hits the ground beside me, shattering it with a thunderous sound.
Hey, hey, come on now.
“The Guardian is destroying the ruins!”
While making this retort, I channel spiritual power throughout my body and into my sword, gripping the hilt tightly and delivering a more powerful slash to its side.
“Tch!?”
The Guardian, caught off guard and taking the blade directly, bends its body into an L-shape and rolls forcefully towards the entrance.
“Tsk.”
I click my tongue, unsatisfied with the result. I had intended to cut it down completely, but I only managed to crack its armor. It seems I still lack power.
“Having a hard time, aren’t you, Rourke?”
“Shut up, you’re not one to talk.”
“Grrrr!”
As I lament my own ineffectiveness, Gareth, who seems to have been knocked back by a Guardian, stabs his sword into the ground to kill his momentum and lines up next to me. Further back, Beowulf, who had been fighting, also runs along the wall to avoid the Guardians and stands in front of us, sensing his master’s peril.
His massive gray body, while not bearing any major injuries, has several lacerations here and there, indicating that even he found it tough to handle multiple Guardians.
Or rather, considering they’re technically a higher-ranked species, it’s quite strange that he only sustained minor injuries… Come to think of it, looking closely, there are a couple of Guardians frozen solid and lying around in the back, so he’s definitely been more useful than me who hasn’t managed to take down even one yet.
As expected of Gareth’s contracted spirit, I suppose.
“Well, what should we do? We’re at a disadvantage if this continues.”
“Yeah, and it’s pointless if we keep worrying about the building.”
I mutter while staring at the Guardians lined up in front of us.
I wanted to fight while minimizing damage to the ruins as much as possible, but facing this many Guardians, we’ll almost certainly be defeated if we continue like this.
Besides, what’s the deal with us being careful about the ruins while they, who are supposed to be the ruins’ guardians, don’t care at all? They’re too focused on eliminating the intruders.
“After talking big earlier, I don’t want to retreat just like this.”
“Yeah, I at least want to incapacitate them.”
Gareth mutters with a wry smile beside me as I involuntarily grimace.
It’s not just about looking uncool, we don’t know how far these guys will chase us. We need to render them immobile as much as possible to avoid trouble later.
…I guess this can’t be helped.
I exhale, steeling my resolve, and slowly readjust my grip on my sword. And then—
“Sword of Karmic Fire.”
The fire lesser spirit floating gently beside me inhabits my sword spirit, causing its blade to burst into red flames.
Simultaneously, an incredible spiritual power is released from the sword spirit, and the Guardians take a few steps back, overwhelmed by the intensity of the spiritual pressure.
“Weren’t you going to conserve that?”
“Doesn’t look like we can take them down if we keep trading blows like this.”
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