Forest of Death, once more

That forest seemed to be enveloped with magic power which kept people away.

「It’s nostalgia inducing.」
「Indeed. Though there was only 4 us including Kaede-chan at the time, our members have grown considerably.」
「Yeah, yeah! We were in such a pickle with Elder Treant-san toooo.」

Sophia and I were lost in our emotions as I looked at the forest. Maria remembered the Elder Treant we encountered. I felt the nostalgia in that too, I was a novice adventurer and it sure was dangerous.

No, isn’t it still dangerous even now?

「The outer edge looks like it’s got a lot of Treants like always.」
「Treants will not attack unless approached unnecessarily, so I believe it would be best if we ignored them.」
「Right.」

We stepped into the forest with Kaede at the front this time too.

As expected, the Forest of Death was entirely different from the other monster nests. The density of monsters was strangely high. We tried advancing to the inner section while avoiding monsters, but even then, our encounter rate was still high.

Zan! Dosa!

I sliced a camouflaged Chameleon Mantis.
The Chameleon Mantis was a 3m long praying mantis monster. Just like its name, it hunts for prey while camouflaging based on its surroundings. Well, facing against our search abilities, it was basically a wooden doll though.

Since our search capabilities were high, we were always ahead of the monsters, so we were able to defeat the monsters in a short time no matter how strong they were.

Originally, monsters such as the Chameleon Mantis, an assassin who swings its scythe-like arms unnoticed, and the Killer Ape, a brute that suddenly attacks from above, were said to be the natural enemies of adventurers, but we were able to defeat them before could showcase their distinctive characteristics.

We tried to steer clear of monsters that have a flocking nature and groups with a leading specimen as much as possible, but there were also those that we absolutely had to fight.

Bufuuuuuuuuu!!

The screams of aroused monsters could be heard.

「Haa, all members aside from me are women, so it’s a pain when we’re found by these guys but……」
「It’s inevitable. Let’s cut the roots of the enemies of women.」

Sophia’s spear slit the throat of the aroused monster, and Maria burned another. The other girls joined in and opened fire.
What they crushed was the Orc King leading a drift of Orcs and Orc Knights.
Because it was an Orc King, it commanded a large drove, perhaps over 200 all in all.
Titan and I were set on following up Sophia and the girls.

「Ahh! Don’t use Fire magic in the forest!」

I shouted, but the girl’s fierce attacks did not stop. They would surely stop at nothing until all the orcs were decimated.

Baribaribari!!

Berkut called down a rain of lightning together with Gloam. I monitored the girls’ remaining magic power, while defeating the orcs that approached Akane and Lulu-chan.

Luna Wolf Ferryl, a huge wolf monster, ran around Akane, its master, at high speeds so that orcs couldn’t come close.

This was the result of finding a large colony inside the Forest of Death.
Normally, a large colony would be very difficult to achieve in the Forest of Death. This was because it was a fierce fight for survival, where even the colony led by the Orc King would have found it difficult to increase their numbers.
Particularly inside the Forest of Death where man do not set foot. Races which had little to no females like the orcs needed to abduct other females to breed, making it even more difficult to build a large colony.

And Sophia found the orc colony from the Spirit’s voice. Nevertheless, if an unusually large colony were to grow in the Forest of Death, Sophia and the girls’ wish would be the annihilation of that colony.

「「「「Gyaaaaaaaaaaa!!」」」」

The hoarse shriek of orcs echoed all around.

「An Orc King is as strong as a mid-grade dragon, right?」
「……Ｗａｔｃｈｉｎｇ　ｔｈａｔ，　Ｉ　ｔｈｉｎｋ　ｉｔ　ｉｓ　ｐｉｔｉｆｕｌ.」

The Orc King, which was over 3 meters in height and had arms and legs that were thicker than my torso, was exposed to the all out attacks from our girls, showering in it.
The excitement it held when it first discovered Sophia and the girls was no longer there.
It was only a monster exposed to a vicious storm, screaming, and being hunted.

Nevertheless, the Orc King was still tough. It endured around 20 minutes fighting with the girls and Titan and I supporting them, until finally…

Zudoooon!!

It’s huge body fell. I thought the refreshed smiles on Sophia and the girls’ faces at their accomplishment was a bit scary, but it wasn’t unusual.

Aside from them, Kaede came back after dealing with the small fries, so while all the girls were resting, Titan demolished the colonies’ structures and I went around processing the orc wreckage.

“Didn’t you all fight way too much?” … something I was too scared to say. Let’s just say it’s fine because Berkut leveled up a bunch.