With a sharp whistling sound cutting through the air, the skeleton swung its longsword at Kazui. The tip grazed his body but didn’t land a clean hit.
Kazui had good dynamic vision and reflexes. He skillfully read the attack, dodged it, and countered with punches and kicks. His limbs, protected by Aura Mail, delivered powerful strikes comparable to being hit with metal blunt weapons.
The hand-to-hand combat style used by fighters in this world was based on martial arts from the Eastern Continent, mixed with techniques from other continents. Fighters chose and mastered skills and techniques that suited them from a vast pool.
To Kazui, who grew up in Japan, the movements felt like a blend of Japanese and Chinese martial arts with kickboxing elements. By the way, non-skill physical techniques were called "techniques" in this world’s martial arts.
Powerful combination techniques that mixed skills and regular techniques — essentially finishing moves — were treated as "Killer Techniques." The simple combination of Aura Mail and basic strikes that Kazui used wasn’t powerful enough to be considered one.
Kazui’s right leg sweep produced a sound like breaking bamboo as it shattered the skeleton’s left ankle. Striking the main body allowed him to inflict damage.
However, the broken left ankle regenerated almost instantly, as if watching a video in reverse.
(Skeletons are annoying because they regenerate quickly unless you crush the head.)
Though they were weak enemies, skeletons had high regenerative ability. Unless their head — their vital point — was destroyed, they would quickly repair any other damage.
Kazui narrowly dodged the skeleton’s thrusting longsword and countered with a high kick from his right leg. His foot connected with the skeleton’s head.
The skull-like head shattered like a broken vase. The headless skeleton collapsed, emitted light, and vanished along with its longsword and round shield, leaving only a magic stone behind.
Usually only one magic stone was left behind, and stronger monsters tended to drop larger ones. Most were black, but magic stones of various colors existed, with non-black ones being more valuable.
For weak monsters like skeletons, they almost always left small, bead-sized black magic stones. The Hellhounds that had first emerged onto the plains were stronger, so they left colorful, gem-like magic stones.
(First one down!)
Having successfully defeated a skeleton, Kazui cheered inwardly.
(I want to pick up the magic stone, but there’s no way.)
He glanced regretfully at the spot where the small magic stone had rolled into the grass and disappeared. Normally, adventurers would collect the magic stones dropped by defeated monsters and sell them at the guild for money.
But with many enemies around and the battle still raging, Kazui had no time to pick it up. Unfortunately, he had to abandon the skeleton’s magic stone.
Incidentally, defeated monsters didn’t only drop magic stones. Sometimes they dropped equipment like weapons or other items (called "drops"). In this case, though, everything had vanished.
After that, Kazui continued fighting and defeating skeletons one after another. Compared to the other vanguard adventurers, his pace was slower and he took down fewer, but he steadily eliminated them.
"Ogres!"
"Lizardmen too!"
Shouts rose across the battlefield. Just as Zaskia had reported, ogres and lizardmen had also emerged from the forest.
Lizardmen were lizard-like beastmen — monsters that looked like a fusion of beast and human. They were stronger than skeletons but still considered weak.
Ogres were Western-style ogre-like monsters. They had powerful physical abilities and various skills, making them average-to-strong monsters.
Both lizardmen and ogres wielded weapons and wore armor like human adventurers. Humanoid, bipedal monsters often used equipment.
"Rear guard! Focus fire on the ogre groups!" Monty’s voice reached Kazui from afar.
Ogres were generally stronger than skeletons or lizardmen and sometimes had long-range attack capabilities, so Monty prioritized them.
(Just like the blonde swordswoman said — if there are ogres and lizardmen, the Brigadier-class is probably here too.)
Having heard Zaskia’s report, Kazui felt a growing sense of unease while fighting the skeletons.
(Please don’t let me run into a Brigadier-class!)
Fighting on the overwhelmingly disadvantaged side, Kazui’s chance of dying wasn’t low. Still, if they could hold out until the reinforcements arrived, there was a possibility of survival.
But if someone as weak as him — one of the weakest adventurers — encountered a Brigadier-class, survival would be nearly impossible, he thought.
"Something’s coming from the sky!"
"Is it the Brigadier-class?"
Some adventurers spotted roughly five monsters flying in from the northern sky and shouted. Thanks to Zaskia, the information that this brigade included a flying Brigadier-class had been shared among the adventurers.
Naturally, they considered the possibility that the monsters flying overhead were the Brigadier-class.