The Death Mage Who Doesn’t Want a Fourth Time The Death Mage That Doesn't Want A Fourth Time 20

「UOOOOH! You pig-headed cowards! Do you not have the courage to come and face me?!」

With a disheveled mane and bared fangs, Vigaro let out a roar and jeered at the Orcs. Though the Orcs and Goblins standing in his way likely didn’t understand his words, they retreated as if they were afraid of him.

Vigaro’s role in this battle was to act as a diversion.

One glance at Vigaro was enough to tell that he was highly-ranked among the Ghouls. Leading a group of ten warriors including female mages, he made a show of rampaging around, defeating every enemy that came into his sight. The plan was to have a separate group including Basdia rescue the captive women while this was happening.

It was a simple plan; if their enemies were humans, they would have quickly realized that it was a diversion. However, it worked against monsters.

Aggressive behavior is something that all monsters have in common. With members of their own race being killed by Vigaro and his group, they could not help but to focus their attention on him. Orcs in particular were a race that were quick to become enraged, and Vigaro had even quickly defeated the leaders like the Orc Generals. There was no time for them to gather their troops together.

A rare kind of Orc called an Orc Tamer set monsters like Wood Wolves, Huge Boars and Giant Pythons on the Ghouls, but even those were easily crushed. They were nothing compared to the Undead led by Vandalieu.

(I didn’t have a hard time at all fighting against the Orc Generals that are supposed to be of the same Rank as me. Rather than me having become stronger, this is Vandalieu’s work.)

The effects of the【Strengthen Followers】skill and the battleaxe that was a Magic Item that Vigaro had been given. Even the various supportive spells cast on him by the mages were still active because Vandalieu had transferred his Mana to the mages to recast them.

And when Vigaro and his group had encountered Orc Mages and Goblin Mages that would have been difficult opponents, Vandalieu had appeared out of nowhere to release a black fog that surrounded the enemy mages and sealed their magic.

That was why they were experiencing such an overwhelming victory with not even a single injury, let alone a casualty.

The Ghouls did feel a little shameful to be completely dependent on this child, but Ghoul society placed value on ability. It was only natural for superior individuals to stand at the top.

And Vigaro understood that Vandalieu was superior to himself.

Without a doubt, Vigaro had the advantage in muscle strength and physical ability. In battle techniques, too. However, Vandalieu had the overwhelming advantage when it came to magic and Mana. And above all, he possessed the【Strengthen Followers】skill, the skill that a superior individual should have.

(I have the capacity to become the chief of a hundred Ghouls, and Vandalieu has the capacity to stand above me.)

Vigaro understood this. However, he couldn’t help but to feel pathetic. As he was now, wasn’t he pathetic for someone serving under Vandalieu – no, for someone who was Vandalieu’s family member?

「BUGAAAAAAH!」

That was why when Vigaro heard a roar even more powerful than an Orc General’s, both corners of his mouth twisted upwards in a smile.

There was a young n.o.ble Orc whose body that was over two meters tall made Vigaro look small in comparison. His features seemed to be made out of pure ugliness and pride other than his brilliantly-shining blonde hair.

As his rage-filled pupils spotted Vigaro from a height of three meters, his expression softened into one of scorn.

He would scatter these insolent small-fries in place of his useless subordinates.

That was clearly what he was thinking.

「A n.o.ble Orc!」

「Vigaro, what are we going to do?!」

Seeing not an enemy of the same Rank as Vigaro like an Orc General, but a powerful n.o.ble Orc that was clearly a superior foe, even these elite Ghouls couldn’t conceal their unrest.

Vigaro was a Rank 5 Ghoul Barbarian, and this enemy was a Rank 6 n.o.ble Orc. Though the number was only different by one, the actual difference was significant. Generally, in battles between monsters, if two monsters face off head-to-head starting at healthy conditions, the higher Rank one will win unless the other monster has some significant advantage.

No matter how much experience a fox has and how much it practices its skills, there is no way it can win a head-on fight against a tiger. Vigaro himself had once said that if he were to fight a n.o.ble Orc, he would definitely lose.

「What are we going to do, you say? ... WE FIGHT!」

But right now, he didn’t feel as if he would lose!

Letting out the roar of a lion, Vigaro closed the distance between himself and the n.o.ble Orc. Looking down at him, the n.o.ble Orc performed a sideways sweep with his own axe that was even larger than the axe that Vigaro had received from Vandalieu.

Vigaro crouched close to the ground as if crawling to avoid the blow that could have sent his head flying if it connected. He felt anger at the fact that some of his mane was cut off, but before paying too much attention to that, he used three of his limbs to leap sideways.

「BUGIH!」

The reason Vigaro did that was because the axe that was supposed to pa.s.s over his head instead came swinging down with a loud crash.

Normally, axes have bad balance and after swinging them once, time is needed to prepare one’s stance again. Regaining one’s balance immediately after swinging an axe is impossible. But the n.o.ble Orc’s incredible physical ability made it possible.

「BUOOOOH!」

It swung its axe consecutively with no technique, only pure physical strength. It seemed that there were plenty of openings in between, but if Vigaro were to let up his focus on evasion to attack that opening, he would likely be cut to shreds.

Vigaro kept dodging the attacks nimbly.

One of his hands was still holding his axe while the other gripped the earth and helped him kick his body off its surface to avoid the n.o.ble Orc’s attacks.

Each of the n.o.ble Orc’s swings contained terrifying power, and its physical strength made them quick as well. But each of its movements was obvious and linear.

Against an opponent like Vigaro, it was like telling him,「I’m going to attack like this, right now」, before every swing.

「GAAAH!」

「BUHIHI!」

「WAAUUH!」

Vigaro, the n.o.ble Orc, and the warriors that each of them led were engaged in battle.

Vigaro had an idea of how the battle was progressing through the Ghouls’ battle language, but the n.o.ble Orc’s head was completely focused on his Ghoul opponent in front of him.

Why wouldn’t any of its attacks land on him?!

He was one of his great father’s sons, the strongest of them all, Bugibulio! Why could he not land a single attack on something like this Ghoul?!

For n.o.ble Orcs, male Ghouls were just small fry and female Ghouls were nothing but meat pots! So why were such Ghouls making him embarra.s.s himself in front of his subordinates and slaves?!

「BUGAAAAAAH!」

With his rage and irritation taking over, the n.o.ble Orc unleashed the martial skill,【Bisection.】It was a level 2 martial skill but even if a human were to use it, it would be powerful enough to cut down a tree in one strike. If a n.o.ble Orc used it, it was capable of smashing a boulder.

However, the more powerful the n.o.ble Orc’s attack, the larger the opening following it was.

Vigaro avoided it and made great use of the chance at a counterattack that he had finally found.

「【Axe Whip!】」

Vigaro’s long arm bent loosely like a whip.

「BUOH?!」

The n.o.ble Orc immediately tried to bend backwards to avoid it, but Vigaro’s long arm bent once more and his axe inflicted a deep cut in the n.o.ble Orc’s right arm.

「GAAAAAAH!」

Vigaro’s right hand left the handle of his battleaxe. And then he gripped the mid-air battleaxe with his left hand and –

He used his martial skill once more.

「Bu-buhyiih!」

The n.o.ble Orc deflected the axe aimed at his neck with his own axe. But after Vigaro’s axe was repelled, his arm suddenly changed direction and severed the n.o.ble Orc’s right leg, which the n.o.ble Orc hadn’t been paying attention to.

Unable to keep his balance, the n.o.ble Orc toppled over sideways. This time, Vigaro’s axe dug its way deep into his neck and decapitated him.

The【Axe Whip】technique in which the user increases the flexibility of his arm and flings it like a whip, and the【Triple Axe Whip】technique in which the process is repeated consecutively. These were martial skills taught only to the long-armed Ghoul men.

「Uoooooh! Who’s next?!」

Vigaro let out a roar of victory and stamped down on the head of the n.o.ble Orc, which was still wearing the screaming expression at the moment of his death. Seeing this fearsome sight, the Orc knights began to fall apart and flee for their lives, but... there was no way that these slow Orcs could get away.

The few remaining Goblins and Kobolds followed their masters into the grave.

「Grrr! How’s that, Vandalieu? Your family is strong!」

There was a small child who had called the Ghouls his family, gotten involved in a battle he didn’t need to get involved in and even took on the t.i.tle of King. Even now, he was working harder than any of the Ghouls. How could Vigaro call himself a young chief, a warrior, if he didn’t produce results that could make that child proud?

Standing in a pitter-pattering rain of blood, Vigaro gave a pride-filled roar.

Bugogan’s third son, Budibis, had absolute confidence in his own beautiful looks and his skill with a bow.

He wasn’t proficient in close-quarters combat like his brothers. But he believed that a n.o.ble should not clash with their inferior prey directly and become stained in an unsightly way by their blood. He believed that a n.o.ble should shoot their prey from a distance with elegance.

「Bugoh, buhihiih?!」

When he had heard a report that there was a group of Ghouls being led by a female Ghoul, he could only think of how fitting the prey was for him.

That group apparently contained many female Ghouls. His only thoughts were of capturing them, picking out ones that he fancied, presenting the other attractive ones to his father and distributing the rest among his subordinates, thus placing him in a superior position to his brothers.

「Buhiiiiih! BUGYAAAAAH!」

He had no intention of letting his guard down. He had given five Orc Knights the honor of serving as his advance guard, and also brought with him ten Orcs and thirty small-fry Goblins.

At first, things were going well. The warriors serving as Zadiris’s advance guard were unable to completely stop Budibis’s subordinates, and his arrow powerful enough to pierce straight through an adventurer in full plate armor was only barely stopped by the female Ghouls’ wind-attribute Magic.

At this rate, the female Ghouls would run out of Mana in less than five minutes, and then the Orcs could push into them. Budibis was confident in his victory.

And then much more than five minutes pa.s.sed and the female Ghouls had showed no signs of running out of Mana.

「GUOOOOOOOH!」

「GEEEEEEH!」

Instead, a group of Undead attacked from the side. With clouds of the Rotten Beasts’ poisonous breaths floating around and a Phantom Bird’s long-ranged fire from its spirit wings raining down, Budibis and his subordinates were shaken.

In the opening created by the Undead, the female Ghouls rallied, causing even more unrest in Budibis’s forces, and then the Rotten Beasts rushed in.

The female Ghouls had been supposed to run out of Mana long ago, but they were releasing spells towards Budibis even now. Budibis’s subordinates who were supposed to have pushed into the female Ghouls were instead pushed into, and turned into twitching, bloodstained corpses.

「Buhiiiih! BUGIBULIO! BUBOBIO! BUOOH!」

With his face that he conceitedly believed to be beautiful twisted in fear, Budibis called for help from the brothers that he secretly looked down on and the father that he despised. However, what reached out to him was not the helping hand of his family members, but the cold hand of death.

「Tch, how noisy!【Great Wind Blade!】」

The enormous, greatsword-sized blade of wind created by Zadiris’s spell cut Budibis in half horizontally as he tried to make an unsightly escape.

Budibis managed to take a few more steps with the top and bottom half of his body still intact, but then his strength gave out and he collapsed, his organs spilling onto the ground.

「Fuh... Surprisingly, he was not a greatly difficult foe, but he was a noisy rascal with a scream that pierced the ears. Boy, we are fine now.」

As Zadiris exhaled, a semi-transparent, thin, string-like object detached from her shoulder. This was Vandalieu’s Spirit Form that had been transferring her Mana.

He had apparently attached it to Bone Bird and had it bring it to her.

Without even seeing Bone Bird off, Zadiris raised her staff high.

「Everyone! There are few enemies left! But do not let down your guard!」

A short while earlier...

The group of Ghoul warriors including Basdia quickly finished securing the building containing the captive Ghoul women.

There had been Orc guards here as well, but it seemed that their primary job had been to make sure none of the other Orcs did anything excessive to the women rather than to prevent the women from escaping. As they hadn’t planned on killing members of their own race, they weren’t very well-equipped.

And the ones who had come here to procreate had been even more poorly-equipped; they might as well have been fully naked.

The outer wall turning into Wood Golems had caused the village to fall into a state of chaos; most of the Orcs had tried to run out of the buildings while Goblins and less intelligent Orcs tried to get into them. Basdia and her group had charged in during the middle of this large traffic jam and cleaned them up quickly before things escalated into a proper battle.

The women inside the buildings were in a terrible state. In order to keep captive the Ghoul women who possessed the【Superhuman Strength】skill, their bodies had been immobilized by being half-buried in boulders, likely with a spell cast by the Orc Mages or n.o.ble Orcs. In addition, it seemed that they had been tormented; there were whip-marks on their skin.

There were some women who weren’t in this state, but they had been treated just as horribly – their hands and feet had been deliberately broken.

Ghouls had much more vitality compared to humans, so they functioned as tools to give birth to Orc children with no problems even if they were treated horribly. That was why they had been treated this way.

The human women in the same building... The Ghouls expected them to be in better conditions, and that expectation was correct. They couldn’t say this out loud after seeing their actual situation, however.

Unlike most monsters, the Ghoul women had a sense of values. Perhaps this was why they were not rendered mentally crippled, even after receiving such deep emotional scars.

「What do we do with these women...?」

But the human women seemed completely broken. Their eyes were lifeless and their bodies were limp, like corpses.

Even though the humans were mortal enemies for the Ghouls, as a fellow woman, Basdia couldn’t help but to sympathize for them.

She wanted to do something for them, but...

「GRRRRR!」

Hearing words from her allies’ in the Ghouls’ battle language, Basdia recollected her thoughts.

The meaning of those words were,『A powerful enemy is approaching.』

「BUOOOOOH!」

Basdia came out to the front of the buildings to see an enraged n.o.ble Orc with fangs bared, as well as Orc Knights guarding him with shields raised.

「GRRRRRRRRR!」

Her companions didn’t hesitate to call for reinforcements. None of the Ghouls here, including Basdia, possessed outstanding ability in combat. They could easily defeat Orc Knights, but a n.o.ble Orc would be too difficult.

Even factoring in the supportive spells and difference in equipment, there was no way that this group of Rank 3 and 4 Ghouls could win against ten Rank 4 Orc Knights led by a Rank 6 n.o.ble Orc.

In fact, they would be trampled one-sidedly.

「Did their leader decide to dedicate some of his forces to recapture the women? I would have thought that they would be headed to where Vigaro and the others are.」

Seeing the n.o.ble Orc arrogantly looking down upon them, Basdia couldn’t help but to wonder this out loud. In fact, the reason the Ghouls had come here was so that the n.o.ble Orcs and their subordinates wouldn’t use the Ghoul women as hostages.

But on the other hand, there was nothing more of value here.

Even if the n.o.ble Orcs defeated Basdia and the other Ghouls here, the battle would definitely not go well for the Orcs as the groups led by Vigaro, Zadiris and Vandalieu would be able move about freely.

Recapturing the women would increase the Orcs’ morale to some extent, but it would not increase their strength in battle.

Common sense would have told the Orcs that it would be a better decision to leave Basdia’s group alone, instead dealing with Vigaro and Zadiris’s groups. Of course, most monsters didn’t possess common sense, but everyone had expected that at least monsters with the n.o.ble Orcs’ intelligence would have made that decision.

「Bubuh, bufufufu.」

However, the young n.o.ble Orc looking down on Basdia and her group, Bubobio, was a n.o.ble Orc that defied those expectations.

He was aware that the battle would not turn around with just the efforts of his subordinates and slaves, but had confidence that if he stepped into battle himself, he could win.

Like his brothers, he led his subordinates to act separately from them and add achievements to his own name. The thought of helping his brothers didn’t occur to him at all; his head only contained thoughts of defeating them and currying favor with his father.

「Gubububuh.」

That was why Bubobio had chosen to secure the women. There were no n.o.ble Orc or Orc women; they were races made up entirely of males. In order to preserve themselves, the females of other races were absolutely necessary.

If he were to recapture the women for the village, it would become a highly-valued achievement.

That was what Bubobio thought. It was a choice not to win the battle, but a choice brought about by the thought of gaining the greatest achievement to his name while exercising the least effort.

It was only natural for him to decide against what would be considered common sense.

「BUOOOOOH!」

Pointing the tips of their prided greatswords in the direction of the Ghouls, the Orc Knights raised their shields and lowered their center of gravity in a prepared stance.

「Grr! (They’re going to charge in!)」

「Garr! (Buy some time!)」

They had to somehow hold out until reinforcements arrived. Basdia and the other Ghouls hardened their resolve while the ten Orc Knights simultaneously charged in while using their【Shield Bash】skill... Or as they began to, the ground surface began to move.

『UOOOOOOOHN!』

The ground turned into dozens of Earth Golems that stood to face the Orc Knights.

But there was no way that these brittle clay-doll-like Golems could stop the【Shield Bash】of Orcs that weighed over a hundred kilograms. They should crumble instantly, but...

「BUGYAAAAAH?!」

Before the Orc Knights clashed against the Earth Golems, their legs were caught in holes in the ground, causing them to fall down.

Earth Golems were made from the dirt on the ground. It was only natural that holes with the same volume as the Golems would form.

And then the Earth Golems collapsed on top of the fallen Orc Knights, burying them alive.

After seeing these unbelievable events unfold, both the Ghouls and Bubobio were silent.

「They were more effective than I thought, these Golem-made improvised pitfalls.」

『Oh, such tremendous technique! As to be expected from you, Bocchan.』

『You even gave them a burial. Though we’ll have to dig them up again later.』

With the rattling of carriage wheels, Vandalieu and Sam appeared.

「V-Van?」

「Yes, it’s me. Ah, there’s still the n.o.ble Orc left, so let’s not let our guard down.」

「Y-you’re right.」

「And the enemy’s head is still intact, so please defeat him quickly.」

「Well, that goes without saying... Wait a minute, you want me to defeat him?!」

「Yes, from an Experience-Point perspective.」

Basdia was fl.u.s.tered and surprised, but Vandalieu requested that she defeat Bubobio as if it was the obvious thing for her to do.

「It’s alright, I’m going to support you.」

「No, I think it’s impossible for me to defeat a n.o.ble Orc even with you supporting me!」

「It’s impossible because you think it’s impossible. Even that s.h.i.tty professor that valued results over anything said that.」

「And you’re alright with learning from those words?!」

「But you know, he was really a rotten-brained, idiot professor.」

Even though Vandalieu was the laboratory animal, the professor should have been the one taking responsibility when the experiments didn’t succeed, but he always said things like,「You don’t have enough spirit...」He was a nagging, disagreeable fellow. The only time Vandalieu had a positive feeling towards him was when he let out his dying scream.

Looking at Bubobio, Vandalieu recalled that professor’s blonde hair.

「It’s fine; if I support you, Basdia, you won’t die. He’s coming this way now.」

With a sigh, Basdia raised her axe. Bubobio stood before her, trembling with rage.

「BUGOOOOOOH!」

Bubobio was enraged at the fact that Vandalieu and Basdia had forgotten him and were having an enjoyable conversation together. With a roar, he raised his greatsword. As he did so, the ground beneath which the Orc Knights were buried began to crawl.

Vandalieu was calm. He knew that he hadn’t managed to dig holes deep enough to kill the Orcs instantly, so he had been expecting that they would emerge eventually.

「Rita, Saria and everyone else, please finish off the ones that are buried. Basdia, let’s defeat the n.o.ble Orc together.」

「Kuh, alright!」

Still wondering if she would really be alright, Basdia stepped forward.

From behind her came the screams of the Orc Knights who had managed to finally crawl out of the ground, only to be slaughtered by a glaive, halberd or Ghoul claws.

「BUOOOOH!」

Bubobio charged towards Basdia with the force of a brick wall. And then he swung his greatsword towards her head with a speed too fast to be seen by the eyes.

『Evade to the right.』

Basdia obeyed her instincts to dodge that lethal attack that her eyes couldn’t follow.

「Buh, BUOOH!」

As if dissatisfied that his lethal attack had been evaded, Bubobio forcefully pulled his greatsword back and performed a thrust.

『A half-step to the left.』

And in the next moment, Basdia had evaded that thrust as well.

「Buh... BUOH! BUOH! BUOOOH! BUGOGOOOH!」

As if panicking now that he had been dodged a second time, Bubobio began unleashing attacks one after another.

A sideways-sweeping【Single Flash】, a diagonal【Flowing Cut】from above, a【Triple Thrust】aimed at Basdia’s neck, stomach and leg.

If any of these brutal attacks landed, they would have been fatal regardless of Basdia’s well-trained body and high-quality armor.

But Basdia evaded them all.

Just how?! How could this female Ghoul move so fast?! Why did Bubobio’s blade not find its target, even though he was supposed to be unrivalled?!

The expression on Bubobio’s face had gone beyond anger, and there was now even some fear of Basdia.

(How am I able to dodge these attacks?!)

And even Basdia was surprised. Indeed, after the battle so far, she had seen that Bubobio wasn’t particularly highly skilled. He was about as skilled as she was.

However, there was a vast difference in their basic physical strength. If Basdia was lucky, she would be able to dodge one or two attacks, but having these attacks unleashed one after the other should have ended in her being chopped to pieces.

But for some reason, Basdia had known what she needed to do to avoid dying.

She had sensed that she needed to move right, immediately did exactly that and the greatsword had swung down at the spot that she had been standing.

She had sensed that she needed to take half a step back, and then the tip of the greatsword had pa.s.sed right in front of her.

As if she could see the future, she had known what she needed to do to survive. It was as if she had acquired the【Future Sight】skill.

(I see; this is Vandalieu’s support!)

A cool, soft hand was supporting her. It was this hand that was telling her how to avoid being killed.

Vandalieu’s arm, which he had used【Spirit Form Transformation】on, had fused with Basdia’s back. Through that arm, Vandalieu applied the【Danger Sense: Death】that was constantly active for himself to Basdia.

【Danger Sense: Death】was a skill that detected the danger of death, which meant that it could definitely detect each of Bubobio’s lethal attacks.

【Danger Sense: Death】wouldn’t detect the attacks of a Kobold’s sword whose individual swings inflicted only light damage. If Bubobio had simply kept his composure and mixed feints in with his attacks, things might not have turned out so one-sided.

However, the enraged, impatient, scared Bubobio was unable to keep his composure and repeated only these lethal attacks that would kill in one hit.

The three brothers, Bubobio, Bubidis and Bugibulio, were weak compared to the n.o.ble Orc race as a whole.

Rather than them having been born this way, their weakness was a result of the environment that they had grown up in and Bugogan’s failure to train them adequately.

Since they had been born after Bugogan had made his escape from his home into this Devil’s Nest, they had been surrounded by nothing but servant Orcs and slave Goblins and Kobolds from the moment they were born.

They had made most things work with the physical strength that they were blessed with from birth, and all the enemies they had faced were foes that were easily defeated by swinging weapons at them, not requiring them to improve their techniques.

Naturally, they neglected their studies and since they faced only lower-Rank enemies, their levels didn’t increase and their combat-related skills didn’t go beyond level 3.

The rivals that they did compete against were their brothers that were just the same as themselves, so rather than working hard, they simply competed over who could get the easiest achievements.

If this had been a harsh environment such as the large Devil’s nest to the south that housed many other n.o.ble Orcs and other monsters that could challenge them, Bubobio and his brothers would have been forced to work hard to survive.

The n.o.ble Orcs thought that children who could raise themselves were superior, while children that required the parents to directly raise them were inferior. If Bugogan had discarded this notion and trained his sons himself, then perhaps they would have had high-level martial and magic skills.

Instead, what he had produced were three foolish sons who had only experienced easy victories against weaker foes.

They hadn’t had any problems with this until now. Their enemies were all inferior, after all.

However, Basdia and the other Ghouls were far more diligent than the Orcs in training themselves.

Vandalieu and Tarea had even provided them with equipment even better than that of adventurers.

Factoring in the supportive spells and the effects of the【Strengthen Followers】skill, this was more than enough to overcome a Rank difference of one.

Even then, Basdia would have a hard time defeating a n.o.ble Orc without taking any damage. But with Vandalieu’s support, she wouldn’t die.

Since a one-on-one battle would only end when one of the partic.i.p.ants died, the outcome of this battle was already clear.

「Buhih, buhih!」

Now out of breath, the n.o.ble Orc’s movements became noticeably slower and it stopped using its martial skills. Using martial skills normally consumes Mana, but in this case, it also drained Stamina as well.

「【Bisection!】」

「Bugiiiiiih!」

And then Basdia went on the attack and Bubobio’s arm was severed by her axe.

She unleashed a merciless series of martial skills, as if returning the favor.【Strong Flash】,【Instant Response】,【Single Flash.】

As Bubobio tried to turn and run, he toppled forward as Basdia’s axe, empowered by the weapon-throwing skill【Lightning Attack】, buried itself in the back of his head.

「I defeated him... I defeated him, Van! I defeated a n.o.ble Orc!」

Basdia was likely exhilarated at the fact that she had gained a large amount of Experience Points by defeating this powerful enemy. She rushed over to Sam’s carriage and picked Vandalieu up and started swinging him around.

「You defeated him, you defeated him, so please put me down.」

He was happy that Basdia was so overjoyed, but having his vision shaken up, down, left and right wasn’t a pleasant experience. The other Ghouls wouldn’t stop cheering, either.

But it was fortunate that Basdia had gained the Experience Points, just as he had planned.

Vandalieu couldn’t gain Experience Points on his own because of his curse, and even if he could he was already level 100 so it would have been pointless for him to gain the Experience Points himself. That was why he had wanted Basdia, who could use the Experience Points, to defeat the n.o.ble Orc.

「Now, we have to deal with these guys’ dad –」

「BUGOAAAAAAAAH!」

An angry roar came from the largest house in the village, interrupting Vandalieu. At the same time, the walls of that house began to collapse from the inside, but even the sounds of the walls falling were drowned out by the roar.

A n.o.ble Orc well over three meters tall appeared. He was holding a magic sword with a two-meter-long blade and wore an extravagant suit of armor.

Even Vandalieu and the group of Ghouls that was with him could see this n.o.ble Orc.

They were rendered speechless. The happiness that they had felt moments earlier had vanished, and they were now trembling in fear instead. But it couldn’t be helped; this was a true n.o.ble Orc. This was a monster that could rival a Dragon.

Vandalieu took this opportunity to slip away from Basdia’s arms and a.n.a.lyzed how much of a threat Bugogan was with【Danger Sense: Death.】

He wondered how they would win this battle.

If he cooperated with Basdia to fight him... No matter what he did, Basdia would die.

If he waited for Zadiris and used magic as their primary way to fight... No matter what he did, the rear guard including Zadiris and the Ghouls of the advance guard would die.

If he used Vigaro at the center of his tactics... No matter what he did, no matter how good or bad his luck was, Vigaro would die.

If he used Zadiris, Vigaro and Basdia as the primary fighting force while also combining the strength of himself, Sam and the other Undead... He thought he could win. But no matter how good their luck was, some of them would die.

If Vandalieu stepped forward to face Bugogan alone, with everyone else just supporting him... There was more than a fifty percent chance that he would die, but only a ten percent chance that the others would die.

「Well then, please lend me your support.」

Before anyone could express their surprise at these words, Vandalieu used the no-attribute spell【Flight】to float into the air, and then flew towards Bugogan with the speed of a bullet.