Practicality of the Simple

"Calm down, me. You can do it." I was mumbling to myself, staying in a semi-destroyed quarter that was almost certainly once part of a warehouse type of building once upon a time.

I turned to the other room opposite me. A destroyed stair is there. In the hallway between this room and the opposite was a door to the exit, which I tried to get by right about now.

'Now's probably the good time, huh?'

While the wound between my legs bothered my train of thought, it wasn't enough to interfere with my movement as a whole.

"Yikes!"

That said, all I could do was stop my efforts to do the thing knowing that a dangerous object passed before my eyes the moment I tried to take my first step outside the door.

'Man, they're so annoying.'

The enemy snipers were the most problematic here.

Though, it's a miracle that I could still run away from them at all, so I guess I have no right to complain. Still, can you tone down the difficulty a bit? Juuuust a little bit is fine, you know?

"Yeah, as if that would happen." I chuckled. "I can only try to survive until so long. My death won't be wasted with it, at least."

For some unknown reason, they were stubbornly hunting me. It's the whole reason they didn't even spare a glance for my fleeing companions.

"By the looks of things, if worst comes to worst, it looked like I'll have to be prepared to lose some of my limbs, huh...?" I tried not to let negative thoughts invade my mind when I muttered those words.

'I hope my friends could get out of Old City safely...'

Would they cry tears of sorrow for me?

They were a good bunch, so good you could say they weren't cut out for life as volunteer soldiers. I'm no exception. And yet, that fact made the group only more fitting. I can feel a strong connection forming between us thanks to that.

'As long as Haruhiro lives, honestly, everything will be fine.'

Despite seemingly unreliable, he was someone with a clear capacity for leadership. He was able to establish a calming presence in battle, all the while maintaining his firmness on matters that Ranta particularly liked to complain about.

'I've always marveled at his emotional stability...'

He tends to think about things on an absurd level in his daily life. That's probably why he's able to make quick decisions at crucial times.

'Even in that situation, though, he keeps thinking of us.'

Even if he's a priest, undoubtedly the most protected role, he always puts himself last in everything. I don't like that trait, to be honest. We'll be in trouble if he isn't with us instead.

True, Haruhiro doesn't have a strong physique, outstanding looks, or high intelligence. He just looked like any normal guy you'd met anywhere. But he is, pretty much certain, a natural hard worker. He always thinks of whatever is best for the team as a whole. He's the best leader we, the leftover group, could ask for.

'And his ability to not let someone's shadow haunt him is most impressive.'

Renji and Kiyotaka were specifically the someone in question.

Renji especially became known among the volunteer soldiers in his recent active period.

Kiyotaka in reality was still considered a trainee. There were no special achievements that I personally heard of that made his team stand out. What made me think he was unusual was, of course, his actions on the first day we were in Grimgar. No one in the group would forget that badass moment of him back then.

'Even though I don't really understand why would he do it in the first place.'

I'm sure everyone who sees Kiyotaka will say that he's the most mysterious one of all.

His actions always leave me stumped, for one.

"Kikkawa."

"Bwuh...?!"

I reflexively swung my not-so-good sword to the back.

"Huh?"

I couldn't find anything from there. I'm pretty sure that it is the source of the voice coming from.

'Where did that come from, then?'

"Up."

'Up?'

I intuitively went up.

A figure clad in paladin-style white armor could be seen standing on the collapsed wall I was on. Although his face was covered by the soldier's design helmet, his distinctive monotone voice made me instantly recognize who it was.

"Kiyota---"

"Quiet."

I shut my mouth immediately.

'He can be a bit scary if he wants to huh?'

While his tone is still as monotonous as ever, his deepened tone causes it to sound quite scary to hear.

"Let's just get to the point," his tone back to normal. "Haruhiro and the others are outside, ready to rescue you when I give the word. Use that opportunity to escape."

As I heard his brief explanation any further, I couldn't help but feel doubtful.

"Isn't there another option?"

"Oh, there is," Kiyotaka answered right away. "I can throw you directly from down there to the other side of the wall right now. Although in that case, you might have to prepare for some broken bones."

"Yeah, no. I'll pass."

Other than that, the wall was also high enough for me to not be able to make the jump into Kiyotaka's reach. The structure of the room I'm in is simply unrealistic to get myself out of.

"Anyway, just do what I tell when I say the word."

I nodded stiffly.

Without speaking further, he disappeared from the scene silently.

'He's like a creeper...'

Speaking of which, as well, I remembered a greenish, or just plain green creature when I thought of that, for some reason.

Putting that aside, though, a crackling followed shortly after Kiyotaka left. At first, it was just one or two screams that weren't too noticeable. In no time, however, a real riot clearly has been emerged.

'What the hell...?' I felt goosebumps all over my body.

If a group of adults were being tortured en masse, their screams would probably sound like this.

'W-What did he do, I wonder?'

Before I could speculate on just what he was doing, "Now!" the high-pitched Kiyotaka, in a monotone of course, shouted.

One of the goblins fell right in front of the gate I was at. An arrow was stuck in its head. Had it been a misdirected arrow or something? Either way, the other goblin didn't fare as badly as him. Somehow or another, a single goblin, still alive, entered my room.

I was well-prepared, so I quickly thrust my sword into the goblin's poorly-protected stomach.

It rebelled wildly, of course. It swung its short sword around in an attempt to reach out to me.

'This guy...!'

With what was probably a cry of defiance, it pulled out all the stops to keep itself from being killed.

"Just die... already!"

Probably because I gave too much power into my thrust, something that I could normally stabilize well if not for my not-best leg condition now, I slipped directly into the gob.

I involuntarily laughed bitterly at that. 'I bet they'll have some hearty laugh knowing my cause of death.'

Nevertheless, I didn't expect that someone would save me from that outcome.

"Thanks!"

A loud voice along the massive force came from behind the gob, practically splitting it in half.

"Ohh, Moguchin!" I cried out his name.

He is one of the people of my group, and lucky enough to be invited by Kiyotaka himself.

His equipment is far better than mine, naturally. But his power is much more than that.

I didn't really expect help would be coming to me at such a perfect time.

This warehouse-like ruin is 'big', I'll tell you that. You can't blame me for losing hope of help from anyone here, okay?

Well, whatever it is, not only Moguzo, another figure come to my resque. It was a woman I know very well, or well, probably not so much, but---

"My neighbor!"

"O Light, may Lumiaris' divine protection be upon you, Cure."

My neighbor, Merry, ignored my cry and skillfully healed my leg, which had suffered some pretty severe twisting until now in a matter of seconds.

'It's a bliss.'

"Where's Sasha-chan?" I asked curiously.

"Helping your party, I assume." She shrugged.

Now that she said it, I could hear Shihoru's magic chanting and Ranta's distinctive shouts when he fought. I guess they really came back to save me, huh?

"Let's make our way out," Moguzo proposed.

Since obviously, no one was opposing, we did that immediately.

Moguzo went in the direction of the exit I'd tried to quit earlier.

'We go now? Like, now?'

While doing so, he looked behind him for a moment. I, too, was naturally curious and followed his action.

'Well, that's bad.' was my first thought.

Ranta was dealing with a particular goblin that we had faced at the beginning by a hair's breadth. While Ranta's power is not explosive, he has the speed to make up for it. The armored goblin has it all, though. Even Sasha whom he happened to be with had trouble positioning herself behind the goblin thanks to how alert it was.

"Ugh, don't run away so much, would you?!" Sasha clearly referring to Ranta rather than the goblin.

It's true that it is partially because of Ranta's orthodox movements that Sasha couldn't get the right angle to strike the armored goblin. But it seems like Sasha didn't really do better as a thief, as well. Her movements is just not sharp, you know? Wasn't she changing roles just today?

"Oh, shove off!" Ranta used Exhaust, a backward leap by using a certain leg technique to run away from the enemy. "If you can't follow my lead, then just quit! Quit, okay?!"

"Hell no! You went and did that yourself!"

"---Ohm, rel, ect, vel, darsh!"

Shihoru, who was now taking cover behind Yume, unleashed a bead of tangled cords of shadow aimed at the armored goblin. It was Darsh's basic magic spell, one of the four types of magic the guild provided, Shadow Beat. Its function was to give a kind of hyperoscillation to the victims.

'But that's no use.'

The goblin was no ordinary goblin. With the fact that he too avoided Shihoru's shadow magic support, he is essentially a trained, experienced, and professional goblin.

'I mean, I don't know for certain the standard of strong or weak, but I can say for sure that it is the first one that could take us all alone, not to say, with us being the loser in the end.'

Haruhiro didn't seem like he did much with his sleepy eyes, but on a closer inspection, he did more than all of us to watch for any threat on the battlefield. He would give the perfect order by the observation he'd get.

Yume was in charge of protecting Shihoru and Haruhiro by firing her bow. Once in a while, she would use her machete when they get too close.

The warehouse-like structure had two entrances on either side. Directly above it was the second floor which was also the top floor, surrounding the sides of the first floor with the center to the surrounding practically empty. The second-floor floor on my side in particular had collapsed, but the one Haruhiro's team was now on remained almost completely intact. They could have retreated easily if they wanted to because no visible snipers could snipe them out. Though, if they do that, they probably would have to be reaaaally careful with the armored gob's potential act. It's also so scheming, okay? They can't just leave Kiyotaka behind either, which currently is rampaging on the second floor.

'I mean, no kidding, if someone told me that he was raised by some secret facility of some sort, and be the number one from that place, I'd believe it right away.'

I could count six snipers on the second floor of the warehouse and a number of guards approximately five along with them. The remaining seven are on the ground floor.

At a glance, currently, I could only count two snipers and one guard on the second floor. It would've meant that he had killed six of them in less than a minute. That's nothing but awesome. For my standard, at least.

"Gyahhh!"

The last guard, armed with a sword and shield, was apparently scared by him. He tried to run away from Kiyotaka. The man in question is currenly making his way towards him.

'Well, I'd say you're pretty much a goner.'

True enough, with one step alone, Kiyotaka lunged at the goblin, stabbing him in the end.

Kiyotaka paid no heed to its cry, and proceeded to throw it at the sniper attempting to shoot him, knocking it lifeless almost instantly to the ground. At the same time, he swatted away of what I thought was a bolt coming from the remaining goblin's crossbow without even sparing a glance. And to boot it all, he uses the sword of the goblin as some kind of throwing knife to the sniper that is still on the second floor, and actually manages to kill it in one hit.

'He could practice something so hard with ease.'

It's simple only when you see it only. But very hard to practice. There's going to be some hardcore repetition in order to do the so-called simple act in such a precise way. I, and all the volunteer soldiers know that fact for sure by the strict training the guild gave to us.

"Retreat!" Haruhiro called out. "Kikkawa's safe. Our goal is achieved."

"Sure," Kiyotaka hopped off of the second floor, precisely into Haruhiro's aid.

'Won't his legs be broken by doing that?'

Welp, there's probably some trick to avoid that thing. He didn't just land with a thud, okay? He did a flexible crouching stance before going into a roll one time.

'Is it to spread the impact of the landing, perhaps?'

Once he landed, he easily scared away the armored goblin, who was most likely the big leader of the group away from my party. It's severe enough that it was clearly trying to retreat immediately. Where would that be is obvious.

On the ground floor, there were only four goblins left, the hobgoblin, who incidentally, was on the chase for us, and the other two who were trying to target Yume's group. They all hesitated as soon as Kiyotaka came down, though, and all of them were coming to the exit, which is to say, our way, the moment the leader shouted some sort of order to them.

"We can just run for now," Merry chimed in. "We don't have to fight them."

"Yeah..." I replied weakly, running as I did. "You're probably right."

Kiyotaka looked like he was giving the same order to my party. We should do the same.

"Are you feeling a little surprised?" Moguzo smiled dryly at me.

"I'm more confused than surprised, but yeah, I guess I did." I laughed awkwardly as we were on the run. "I mean, he's like a Simplification Savant, if you even know what I mean. Do the simple looking but hard to do things in a very simple looking way."

"...the wording is too convoluted, but I understand what you're trying to say."

I meant that as a joke, of course, but my neighbor surprisingly took it seriously.

"It's really fitting him."

"Yeah, you're probably right."