While Kazui and Yuri kept chatting, the explosions inside the forest drew dangerously close to the grasslands.
"They’re about to come out! Once the monsters emerge from the forest, rear guard — start long-range attacks immediately! Take out as many as you can!"
The red-haired adventurer on top of the wall continued shouting orders.
"Vanguard, crush any monsters that survive the barrage! Don’t let them get near the rear guard or the wall!"
Right after these standard instructions reached the adventurers near the wall, roughly twenty adventurers burst out of the forest. The team that had been fighting inside had retreated to the edge.
They were badly injured and protecting even more severely wounded comrades. They were no longer in any condition to fight and were retreating to the relatively safe area near the wall to receive healing and recovery support.
Slightly behind them, five monsters resembling dogs or wolves exploded out of the forest, blasting trees aside. Though they looked canine, they were several times larger than a human — as big as elephants — making it obvious they were monsters.
"Hellhounds!" the red-haired adventurer on the wall shouted sharply.
"Fire at will! Don’t hit our retreating allies!"
After giving the attack order, the red-haired adventurer activated his own offensive magic, creating a massive glowing projectile that burned with flame-like colors. He then fired it toward the Hellhounds.
In response, around twenty rear-guard adventurers near the wall simultaneously launched long-range attack spells. Projectiles and beams of various colored lights shot forward.
From the transparent defensive sphere surrounding Yuri, numerous white-glowing thorns began to sprout, transforming it into something resembling a sea urchin or chestnut. These thorns turned into glowing projectiles and flew one after another toward the forest.
Elinacheus not only created a transparent spherical barrier for defense but could also grow glowing thorns and fire them as long-range projectiles. It was an all-purpose offensive-defensive skill. While its defense was decent, it had the drawbacks of preventing movement while active and having relatively low projectile power.
Loud explosive roars rang out repeatedly as numerous light projectiles and beams split into five groups and slammed into the five giant Hellhounds that had emerged from the forest.
Multiple explosions erupted just before the forest edge, blasting away grass and dirt and shaking the air. Long-range attack spells with various effects detonated around the Hellhounds.
Under the barrage of raining light and the resulting explosions, the Hellhounds collapsed on the spot. Their bodies were blown apart in various places, crumbled while emitting light, and vanished, leaving behind gem-like magic stones.
The adventurers guarding the area in front of the wall cheered at having defeated the Hellhounds.
"This is no time to celebrate!" one of the adventurers who had fled from the forest shouted sharply.
She was a tall, beautiful woman with short golden-blonde hair wearing an olive-colored combat uniform. She looked almost like a handsome young man at first glance and wielded two swords — a dual-wielder.
The sharp-eyed, fair-skinned female adventurer had an urgent expression.
"A huge swarm of skeletons is coming right behind us! There are definitely over a thousand of them!"
Hearing about the thousand-skeleton assault, the adventurers in front of the wall grew noisy.
"Zaskia! Any other enemy information?" the red-haired adventurer on the wall asked the dual-wielding woman — Zaskia Valke.
"Monty!" Zaskia looked up at the wall, confirmed it was the red-haired adventurer Monty Slack, and called his name. Even though Monty was significantly older, they had worked together many times, so Zaskia spoke to him casually.
True to her somewhat masculine appearance, her speech was boyish and her voice was low for a woman.
"There are over three hundred ogres, over five hundred lizardmen, and a few hundred other small fry! I think we took out about ten percent in the forest, but there are just too many of them!"
While looking up at the wall, Zaskia answered Monty’s question. Although they had only reduced the numbers by about ten percent, Zaskia’s team had focused on taking out relatively strong monsters, so they had actually reduced the enemy’s overall combat strength by more than the raw numbers suggested.
"Also... there’s information that a Brigadier-class is mixed in!"
Upon hearing "Brigadier-class," Monty’s expression turned to shock. The adventurers near the wall became even more agitated than when they heard about the thousand skeletons.
"It’s a brigade, so having a Brigadier-class mixed in isn’t strange, but..." Monty muttered, then asked Zaskia again, "What type is the Brigadier-class?"
In this context, "type" referred to the monster’s species.
"The species is unknown, but it’s a humanoid with flight capability! Harty said she saw a humanoid monster with an eight-ring crest fly away!"
Harty was the female adventurer Harty Blues, who, like Zaskia’s team, had been conducting guerrilla warfare in the forest.
"Harty went after it to confirm the monster’s species and hasn’t come back since!"
Monsters possessed circular patterns called sun crests somewhere on their bodies. There were ten types of sun crests. The more rings they had, the more powerful the monster.
A crest with eight rings was called an eight-ring crest, and powerful monsters with it were defined as Brigadier-class. Stronger monsters also tended to be rarer.
Brigadier-class monsters were rare even among powerful creatures. In a horde the size of a brigade, however, it wasn’t strange for one to be present — just as Monty had said.