Familiar Enemies

"We have to split them up first! Wendy, Zack and I will each face one of them! The rest of you will handle the other two!" Ophelia commanded firmly while facing the enemies in the front.

"Yes!"

If Ophelia, Wendy and Zack were not there, the rest of the troupe should have been able to handle those monsters.

It may have been tough, but doable.

"This should be a cakewalk with them in the front!" one of the members said relaxed.

Naturally, with the presence of those three S-rank mages, the others felt reassured and had nothing to fear anymore.

Even Wendy, who was tensed up just a few minutes ago, returned to her usual carefree demeanor.

"Let's end this quickly!" she declared with a cheeky smile.

At the same time, she used a wind force to throw one of the monsters deep into the forest again.

Ophelia engulfed herself in lightning and kicked one to the side, sending him flying.

"How can you be so full of energy already..." Zack remarked seeing his two comrades pursuing their assigned enemies.

He still seemed tired, but he did his job as he isolated himself and one monster by surrounding themselves with rock walls so high that the monster's head was not to be seen.

Now, there were only two left.

"Those, who are A ranks, will face them directly whereas the others will back us up with magic!" someone in the group shouted.

Everyone else shouted back in agreement and quickly took up their formation.

"We're more than I thought..." Mika muttered taken aback.

With those numbers, their enemies would get completely overwhelmed.

Even the monsters sensed it and reflexively took a step back.

"Don't let them escape!"

Following that, the group launched their attacks.

Meanwhile, Ophelia was facing one of those monsters alone.

"Damn, can't they tone it down a bit?" she said feeling a little bit annoyed.

She was still near the camp when she heard the others screaming.

"Grrrr..." the ape-like monster was bearing its fangs towards her as it stood up from her previous kick.

Ophelia did not waste time and proceeded to strike it with lightning coming from above.

But as expected, the attack did not do much as the monster was approaching her slowly and unfazed by the lightning.

She switched back to melee combat and charged at it.

This time, the ape swung its long arms wildly around making it harder for her to close the distance.

One arm tried to punch her straightly, another one came from the left, then one from the right and the other attempted an uppercut.

With the speed the attacks were coming, Ophelia managed to avoid them only barely despite enhancing her speed with lightning magic.

And when she was finally right in front of it, it tried to squash her by clapping his hands together, but she instantly leaped into the air.

"I knew that you would try that..." she commented with a confident smirk.

Doing a somersault in the air, she charged right at it from above.

The ape lifted its head up, but that was all it could do before it could react to her next move.

She clenched her fists together and hammered them down on its head with full speed.

Its head dove into the ground causing a few cracks around that spot.

With all four arms pushing against the ground, it managed to get its head out of the ground.

Blood was pouring down from its head nonstop and it seemed like multiple facial bones were shattered.

It was glaring at her intensely, however, Ophelia did not care.

"My job is done here." she said disinterested and turned her back on it.

Feeling disrespected, the grumbling monster charged at her while she was facing it with her back.

It stretched its hands to her, but before it could touch her Encore activated.

Walking back to the others without looking back, she only heard the sound of something slamming to the ground.

"As if I would struggle with an enemy I've fought already." she said offended.

The monster did not move anymore after the last attack.

And while she defeated one of the monsters, the others also did their part of their job.

"So you managed to defeat them before I returned, huh? Good job." she stated with a mocking smirk.

"Well, the monsters were pretty much overwhelmed by our sheer numbers..." Mika responded bashfully while scratching the back of his head.

Ophelia turned her eyes to the rock walls, where Zack was fighting.

The walls started to crumble revealing Zack and a lying monster.

"Is it dead?" she asked.

"Yeah, it took me longer than I thought. His long arms were making the fight a bit annoying." he replied while stretching his body.

She looked in the direction, where Wendy went to.

"Now it's only Wendy, I guess?" Zack wondered.

But as soon as he said that, the bushes near them began to rustle and a small person came out.

"Speaking of the devil..." Ophelia grinned.

"Were you talking about me?" Wendy asked pointing at her tilted head.

Wendy checked out the camp.

She had a smile on her face.

However, that smile quickly vanished and she turned serious.

"Everyone, listen to me. As much as you want to rest, it's better that we get moving again." she announced.

"Hm? Why's that?" Zack asked.

"..."

Her head hung low when she told them what she saw deep in the forest.

"When I fought that monster in the forest, I caught a glimpse of Carl..."

Her voice sounded bitter.

"Carl? Now that you're mentioning him, I was wondering where he was." Zack said unaware of his fate.

"I quickly took care of the enemy and rushed to him. I checked him up, but it really was too late..."

"W-Wendy...?"

"..."

Most members of the group, like Wendy, knew from the beginning what was coming.

"There were no traces of a battle breaking out, however in his chest was a wide hole..."

"..."

Zack's eyes widened.

He just clenched his fists tightly until his palms started to bleed.

Nothing came out of his mouth.

"I don't know if those monsters were capable of such a feat, but I have an uneasy feeling about the forest..."

"So I suggest that we leave this place for now." she added.

Nobody was against it and just nodded their heads.

Thus, everyone packed their things and loaded the carriages before moving on from the forest.

In the meantime, Ray, who had the worst injuries among everyone, was treated.

Everything was done in silence and in sorrow.

"So this is where she was sleeping all the time, huh..." Mika said weirdly taken aback, when he looked down to the carriage's floor.

"It's amazing that she didn't hear the commotion outside." Ophelia commented.

Judi was currently sleeping on the floor peacefully as if nothing happened in the past days and weeks.

"You can go ahead and take a nap, too." she suggested.

"What about you?"

"I have no need for that anymore. Instead of making me tired, the fight woke me up."

She heaved a sigh.

"Furthermore, you will need every last ounce of your energy as soon as we arrive." she elaborated sternly.

"Got it~" Mika said with a yawn.

He tried to make it comfortable and fell into a slumber.

"..."

Ophelia stared outside the window as she was in her thoughts.

She was constantly tapping the floor with a foot and a thigh with one finger.

"What a bad joke. This couldn't get worse!" she muttered in utter annoyance.

Moments before they departed from the forest.

"Hey, Ophelia can I talk to you for a quick second?"

Zack approached Ophelia with Wendy on his side.

"Sure. Is something?"

"Well, how should I say... In retrospect, this is good news for this group, but for you, it may be a tiny bit unpleasant to hear, I would say..." Zack responded sheepishly.

Her gaze sharpened.

"Get to the point."

"Ahem, what he's trying to say is that there's news about the reinforcements." Wendy chimed in as sheepishly as Zack.

"Oh, did you receive a message?"

"Yes, we just got a letter from a delivery bird."

"And what did it say?"

Wendy took a deep breath.

"We initially requested the help of our fellow retainers, however, someone else accepted this task."

"Someone else than a retainer? Can we even allow someone weaker than a retainer for this mission?"

Ophelia was confused as retainers were recognized as the second strongest power in Rostanta.

"The person is not weaker... That's for sure..."

Both of them averted their gazes from Ophelia.

"Don't beat around the bush. Spit it out already. Who's coming?"

Zack and Wendy each grabbed one of Ophelia's shoulders.

"Promise us that you won't run away this time, okay?" Zack wanted to affirm that.

"Is it such a big d- Wait a minute..."

She instantly tensed up and began to frown.

"Don't tell me..."

The two nodded their heads empathically.

Zack proceeded to inform Ophelia about the identity.

"The queen is coming."