—The wasteland before the east gate of Balse.
The tide of battle turned primarily around two figures.
A tall man draped in wolf pelts and wearing a wolf mask—Wolfman—thrust his right fist deep into the back of a massive two-headed lizard. Without sparing so much as a glance at the giant beast as it collapsed, spilling its entrails, Wolfman sprinted across the plains with the swift agility of a beast. Closing in on his next prey, a one-eyed giant, he used the sharp claws on both hands to tear its head into mincemeat.
An ogre as large as a house charged with earth-shaking strides toward a blue-haired, middle-aged man clad in pure white armor—Kingdom Knight Commander Arnold—and brought an iron club crashing down toward his skull.
In a flash, Knight Commander Arnold's greatsword ignited in brilliant crimson, tracing countless blazing arcs through the sky.
The descending iron club was sliced into ribbons, and an instant later, the colossal ogre collapsed to the ground, severed into scattered chunks of flesh.
"Incredible..."
The murmur slipped from the lips of the B-Class Hunter, Ilza Harnish, laden with pure awe.
The monsters those two were dispatching with such casual ease were from the Deep Zone. Under normal circumstances, they were terrifying juggernauts that demanded a coordinated team effort. Yet the pair were butchering them effortlessly.
"With those two around, we might just handle this even without that new guy showing up."
One of her fellow hunters strolled over, tossing out the casual remark.
She couldn't disagree. And according to Knight Commander Arnold himself, Kai Heinemann was supposedly even stronger than he was. Truthfully, someone of Ilza's standing couldn't even fathom the depth of Kai's power.
Regardless, their current division of labor was clear: Wolfman and Knight Commander Arnold dealt with the Deep Zone monsters, while Ilza and the other adventurers handled the rest of the small fry. The strategy was working remarkably well, holding the line against the surging hordes threatening Balse.
"Don't go letting your guard down! Our job is just to buy time until Kai Heinemann gets here. This is going to be a long fight, so if you're getting tired, pull back and rest!"
"Yeah, yeah. Serious as always, Ilza."
Her companion shrugged and sprinted off toward a pack of approaching kobolds.
"All right, time for me to get to work too."
Though she had chided the others, Ilza had secretly begun to think the very same thing: with Wolfman and Knight Commander Arnold on the field, they might actually survive this crisis even without Kai Heinemann.
However, considering the reason why those Deep Zone monsters had struck this city at this exact moment, she should never have indulged in such wishful thinking. She should have kept her nerves wound taut to their absolute limit.
After all, true disaster almost always strikes the moment you let yourself believe the worst is over.