Yuexing shook off the blood on the sword, sheathed the sword and said
"Phyllis, how are you?"
"——Sorry, it still didn't work. Let them commit suicide successfully."
Phyllis hung her head
"It's useless to stay depressed like this. Just look at it. Okay, next one."
"Meow!?"
Ricardo roughly rubbed the frustrated Felice's head and asked him to stand up.
Phyllis was startled for a moment by this random encouragement, but he quickly patted his cheek and stepped forward again
Seeing Felice like this, Ricardo grinned with satisfaction.
"Well——, it's too relaxing. I always feel like my body is not strong enough——How does Tibi feel——?"
"It's good to have an easy job. My brother will be annoyed if I let my sister do dangerous things. It's great for me to have such a relaxed job."
"Mum! You're still a boy, you're too cowardly—!"
The unrestrained sister and the rational brother, the combat coordination of these orc sisters is inversely proportional to the difference in personality.
Mimi, who has no flaws in offense and defense, and Tibi, who is unexpectedly aggressive, have perfect coordination.
"How should I put it? After everything is resolved, they will become enemies again. These people," Subaru said with emotion.
"It seems that you already have time to worry about what happens next," Julius said.
Subaru was silent for a while, then slapped his cheek hard with his hand.
"——I'm sorry, I was completely stupid. I have to continue fishing, please."
The expedition team followed Subaru a little way behind. In order to make the witch cultists come to Subaru like moths to a flame, his companions did not reveal their presence at all.
There is no exception this time
…
"What's wrong?"
Yuexing received the signal and appeared next to Subaru.
"Group of four, they left separately. I'll go after one person. If you're on the other side..."
"I'll do it, leave it to me"
A fox-faced young man from Iron Fang said, and then led several people to chase the trio in the direction they left. Before their backs disappeared from sight, Subaru shouted
"Never take action casually. As long as you find a stronghold, we will meet you immediately."
"Understand, understand"
After twirling his thin beard, the fox man immediately disappeared silently into the forest on the right.
Yuexing followed Subaru and soon caught up with the shadow that kept walking deeper into the forest.
In fact, Subaru's behavior of secretly following the witch cultists doesn't make much sense.
Subaru doesn't have the ability to hide his aura and track people, and after all, he can't hide it in front of the Witch Cult.
Perhaps Subaru was tracking the matter itself and had already been noticed by the witch cultists who were walking ahead.
The reason why they remained silent was because they blindly followed the instructions of their superiors. Subaru's actions that he could not understand were considered by them to be beneficial to the Witch Cult.
Walking through the forest in one breath until you reach the clearing that suddenly opens up, and then——
"What are you doing!?"
The green in the field of vision disappears and is replaced by a gray landscape
In the rocky clearing that was a battlefield a few hours ago, the collapsed cliffs and unmarked graves remain intact.
However, the witch cultists are busy digging graves, trying to dig out the corpse of the madman buried inside.
This is where sloth dies
Subaru screamed out uncontrollably, attracting the unemotional gazes of the witch cultists.
There are nine witch cultists digging graves, plus the one who just met them, there are ten people, a complete team of fingers.
The witch cultists, who already knew about Sloth's death, immediately reached out to Subaru.
The extremely fast silver sword light flashed, blood foam was scattered, and the witch cultist who was approaching was cut into two pieces diagonally.
The shadow spurted out dark blood and fell, its silent scream before dying igniting the fuse of the battle.
"Back off, Subaru"
Wilhelm cut down one person first, and Yuexing pulled Subaru to a safer position behind him.
Ricardo's huge body and Julius's slender figure also sprang out from Subaru's side, and rushed towards the hostile witch cultists together with Yuexing.
——The battle situation is completely one-sided
The combat power of the expedition team seemed not to notice the Witch Cultists at all, and they dominated the battle situation in one breath.
Within tens of seconds, they ended the battle, leaving only the corpses of the witch cultists on the battlefield.
"What are these guys doing here?"
Seeing that the battle was over, Subaru looked at the rocky clearing that had once again turned into a battlefield and said
No one could answer this question. The witch cultists remained silent. The last person committed suicide in the arms of Phyllis who was trying to save her.
Another finger was destroyed, but it was not a happy time at all
"...There is always an ominous premonition." Yuexing looked warily in the direction of the other team.
"Go and meet the people who are chasing the trio on the other side, hurry up"
…
The smell of blood ruthlessly fills this space
"...There seems to be no survivors," Ricardo said with his nose twitching.
"Treatment... treatment must be given to the injured person..." Subaru said tremblingly
"I've already told you, there are no survivors, wounded or anything like that, there's no one here."
Ricardo put away his usual boldness and shook his head.
The situation in front of us is clear at a glance, and there is no need to say anything more.
All the friends here have been wiped out, no one survived
"——This situation is too strange. After all, there are too few traces of resistance," Yuexing said with a frown.
"That makes sense. Considering how elite the Iron Fangs are, it's hard to imagine that they would be killed unilaterally like this." Julius looked around and said.
"Unilateral...what do you mean?"
"That's the literal meaning. There are only Rajian and the others here, and there are only the corpses of our friendly troops. It's too unnatural no matter how you think about it."
"The opponent is a witch cultist. It is impossible to be killed without any resistance. The elite of the Iron Fang failed to take the lives of any of the enemy... This situation is very strange, right?"
Julius explained the situation in detail to Subaru who was speechless, but Subaru was unable to respond.
"Phyllis, have you found anything?" Yuexing asked
"...In short, no one is alive. Judging from the wounds, they were killed by the same person, but it was not a knife wound, and of course it was not magic. This one was directly torn into pieces."
"In other words, is he a guy like Warcraft, my God?"
After hearing Felice's flat report, Ricardo gritted his teeth.
"I'm afraid, the Witch Cult's stronghold is not far away. Since friendly forces have been attacked, it means that the terrain here is favorable to them. At least, they should leave here," Wilhelm suggested.
"Retreat first. Even if you want to attack the enemy, you must first regroup."
Ricardo held his head high and gave instructions to leave this place.
"...at least, bring back everyone's relics."
"Those words have been recycled. Although they are just rings and hair, meow."
Phyllis calmly said to Subaru who looked nostalgic.
Just when Subaru was stunned, Phyllis had already finished everything
Yue turned around and took another look at this miserable scene
The corpses lined up in the open space were the same companions who were chatting and laughing with each other more than ten minutes ago.
"Subaru-chan, let's go."
"……I know"
Under Phyllis's shout, he slowly followed the leaving team at the end.
Then--
A silver figure flashed in front of him, and the unsheathed sword turned into an arc of moonlight and cut off the dark hand that silently approached.
"Enemy attack——!"
The broken black palm hit the crowd, and when there was nothing in front of him, he felt the touch of a heavy object.
"It's the invisible hand!!" Subaru shouted
The demonic hand dancing in the air reacted to Subaru who screamed hoarsely.
The numerous palms are like snake heads, with their fingertips pointing intimidatingly.
"Sir Subaru, Lord Yuexing, please point out the position of your arms!"
Wilhelm raised his sword and shouted to the two of them
Everyone looked around in horror. The people who were knocked down pushed away the "air" on their bodies and looked around in fear.
"Disappearing? Did the sneak attack fail?" Yuexing's eyes were fixed on the arm that was slowly dispersing.
"Brother, where is the attack!? Where will it come from!?"
"Gone! It's taken back! I don't know why!"
Subaru responded to Ricardo's roar with a roar, and then looked around desperately
"Subaru, be careful!!"
The attack by the invisible hand was silent and invisible, only Subaru and Yuexing could detect it.
His actions were directly related to the life and death of his companions, and Subaru risked his life for it.
But because of this, I missed myself
Looking at the moon and stars speeding towards him, Subaru suddenly felt a sense of disobedience in the back of his head, making Subaru groan.
Then, with the force of the grip that almost crushed his neck bones, Subaru's feet left the ground.
Once lifted into the air, struggling will be useless
Subaru moved his hands and feet in a panic, but he was still pulled into the darkness behind him.
"Oops! Subaru—!"
"Julius, no! There are enemies!"
Julius hurriedly reached out his hand, but was stopped by Phyllis' low voice.
Before being dragged away, what caught Subaru's eyes was a black group rushing out of the forest.
The witch cultists launched a surprise attack from the side against the friendly forces who were on alert.
Only the moon and stars turned into a blue gust of wind and rushed towards Subaru who was dragged away.
"Damn it! Let go...let me go!"
Subaru, who was held by his arm, moved his hands and feet around, getting scratched by branches.
As a tearing sound came, Subaru lost control and fell to the ground, rolling around.
The flight in the air was suddenly interrupted. Subaru's back hit a big tree and he collapsed beside the tree.
Yuexing appeared in front of me holding a long sword.
"Ahem, damn it! Which bastard is it..."
Subaru coughed and glanced around
"Woohoo - the brain is trembling"
——From the darkness, a thin figure slowly walked out
Yuexing stood up vigilantly, pointing his sword at the figure
This person put down his hood and revealed his true face
"But... who is it? Who are you...? Who are you...!?"
The woman who appeared before me was a red-haired young woman with conspicuous freckles on her face.
"She is the finger, the finger of sloth," Yuexing said seriously
The woman is like a spring-loaded doll, raising her head instantly
Then, she raised the fingers of her right hand, stuffed it into her mouth, bit it down hard, and chewed it
The dull sound of chewing and dripping blood are no different from the madman's self-mutilation behavior that violated the body——
"I am the finger! I am the one who returns favor! The faithful and diligent apostle who performs trials and obeys the guidance of love! Woohoo! Ah, are you lazy!?"