Chapter 82 : Ice Castle (4)

At the leader’s cry, everyone gave strength and continued the battle by cutting down the approaching creatures with precision.
It felt like a baseball player hitting a flying baseball with a bat, if you could imagine it.

Kki kki kki k!
Kki kki kkk!!
Puhk! Puhk! Puhk!!

What more can be said about Melody-sama?
The sword in her hand relentlessly sliced through the bat wings and necks of the bat monsters.

Watching the bat monsters fall from being struck by her dazzling weapon made me wonder, are those creatures not even afraid?

It was as if they were throwing themselves at us like rocks against a stone, and even if their bodies shattered, their murderous intent toward us remained.
This madness of the monsters became apparent.

“The center is breaking through!! Support!!”
Killing the creatures charging at us wasn’t a problem, but as their numbers were overwhelming, we were naturally pushed back as time passed.

“How long… ugh! Do we have to hold on?!”
“Kreeek! Aah!”

Some of the team had their arms and thighs bitten by the bat monsters.
If we didn’t quickly tear them off, huge chunks of flesh would be torn away. It was maddening.

There were even some with larger frames who, with great strength, grabbed someone’s head with their feet and dragged them into the air.
“Ughhh! Help!”
“Hah! Grab them! Grab them!”

This won’t work.
With the number of monsters being unmanageable, we had no choice but to flee.

“Leader!!”
“Shield up!!! We’re grouping! Group together in the center!! We can do this! Don’t be afraid! The attacks aren’t deadly!”

But it seemed the leader had decided not to retreat.
He must have meant what he said.
He was confident he could handle it, that was certain.

“Do you think we can escape from these agile creatures by running away?! Right now, gathering together and fighting back is the best option!”
Even if the order was unfair, we had to follow the leader’s command during battle.
Because it was what would save the team.

Unlike the hesitant team members, I followed Melody-sama’s lead and gathered behind the leader.

“The leader’s decision is correct. Running away now would be futile. It’s better to stay together and fight back with minimal damage.”
Melody-sama kindly explained this to me, who was confused.

It was her words that made me understand, and hearing the leader was right from her mouth, I couldn’t refuse.
Other team members seemed to think the same, and they began to group together.

“Eh? This is actually fine?”
When everyone gathered and stood in a circle, each of us held our ground.

“See? I told you it would work!”
The leader smiled as he struck down the bat monsters flying overhead.

As the team clustered together, there was another advantage.
I was safely placed in the center of the circle, and my teammates stood with their backs to me.

‘This way, I can heal them instantly, right?’
As long as I was in the fight, none of my teammates would fall.
If they got injured, I could heal them immediately.

“I’m going to put my hand on your back. I’ll be healing you, so don’t resist, and try to stay as still as possible!”
“Aah!”

I spoke into the ear of a teammate, who was bleeding heavily but still fighting, and placed my hand on their back.
Since it was dangerous to approach from behind during combat, I warned them beforehand. The teammate nodded and, as if understanding, let out a scream.

Knowing that if they fell, I would be in danger too, everyone fiercely protected their assigned positions.
Melody-sama was blocking the attacks coming from above.

‘Fighting around terrain and using the environment is best when outnumbered. I should have done this sooner!’
Once I trusted that my teammates were guarding my back and sides, everyone seemed to gain confidence in dealing with the monsters.

“Alright, let’s keep doing this!”
At the leader’s cry, everyone’s spirits were lifted.

“Treatment is finished!”
“Whew! I feel like I can live now. Thank you, healer!”
“The wound’s only patched up on the surface. You’ll need to get treated again after the battle ends.”

Kkaang—!
Kkki kki!

“Die, you bastard! …Huh? What did you say?”
“…Be careful, if you get a shock to the wound, it’ll tear open again.”
“Yes!”

Even though I wasn’t sure if they would heed my advice during battle, I made sure to explain everything that was needed.
I continued to go around to my teammates, placing my hands on their backs, providing healing with divine power.

Princess Lasiell’s immense strength was especially impressive in this battle.
She was almost crushing the bat monsters with her hands.

Looking at the bat monsters, I couldn’t help but feel pity, even though they were our enemies.

After seeing the bat monster corpses piled up on the floor, the remaining bat monsters seemed to finally regain their senses.

“They’re retreating!”
Finally, the bat monsters stopped their attacks.
They cried out in frustration, circling around us in the sky, before flying back toward the Ice Castle.

“Phew~”
“We survived!”
“They were nothing, just a lot of them!”
“We won!”

It seemed that we had killed over a hundred at a glance.

Even just the bat monster corpses piled up tremendously.

The relief of the battle being over made my legs go weak.

I cautiously crouched down, trying to calm my racing heart, making sure I wasn’t noticed by anyone.

A teammate who had been treated by me earlier came over and thanked me.

“Priest, thank you! I thought I was going to bleed out and die!”

“It’s just what I’m supposed to do. And you came at the right time. You still need more treatment, so would you mind sitting here?”

“I’m fine! No pain!”

“You may feel fine now, but the pain will catch up later. Please, sit down.”

“Ugh, I don’t always listen to others, but I have to listen to you, Priest.”

As I was finishing the treatment that couldn’t be completed earlier due to the urgency of the situation, the leader approached.

“Thanks to your healing during the fight, my stamina recovered a lot.”

“I’m glad it helped. I survived because of you as well. You made a good call.”

Although there were seriously injured people, at least no one had died.

If the leader had chosen to run, I can’t even imagine how things would have turned out.

This battle truly demonstrated the saying, ‘If you scatter, you die; if you gather, you live.’

“Now, let’s discuss. What happened exactly?”

Just as the situation was being cleaned up,

the terrible smell of bat monster blood still lingered in the air, but the attention of the scouts shifted to the people nearby.

There were many who wanted to know what had happened earlier, even to the point of forgetting the dreadful stench.

“First, I was able to sense them approaching while hiding my presence.”

“Bats use echolocation instead of sight, right? So we had a disadvantage.”

Of all the monsters, it had to be one that didn’t use sight.

“It was pure luck that we stopped them.”

“So what now? The nest is packed tight.”

It was like a beehive where hundreds of bees would swarm if disturbed. We couldn’t just touch it recklessly.

“The difference in numbers is too great. It’s difficult to even enter now.”

Right now, entering was not the priority; we needed to think of another way.

“How about melting the Ice Castle completely?”

The mages started boasting that they could melt the Ice Castle with magic.

But that was impossible.

They had already used Fireballs twice and wind magic as well.

Even with all preparations, Fireballs alone wouldn’t be enough to melt the Ice Castle.

“Even if we melt the Ice Castle, there’s no guarantee the monsters inside will die. It might make the situation worse. Plus, even if we defeat the monsters, we won’t be able to take anything from inside, so it would be a loss.”

“Wait!”

At that moment, Melody-sama suddenly pulled out her weapon and spoke.

“Another monster?”

Everyone readied their weapons in caution, but Melody-sama spoke again.

“I sense several presences from behind.”

“Are the monsters coming from there? Not from inside the castle?”

“No. It’s not a monster.”

The leader seemed to sense the presence as well and followed Melody-sama’s lead.

“It’s people.”

“!!”

People we met in the labyrinth.

While meeting monsters might have been worse, meeting a group of hunters in front of the Ice Castle felt unsettling.

‘Wait, maybe this is actually good? After all, we can’t tackle the castle on our own.’

Maybe we could join forces with them to tackle the castle together?

I thought about joining forces, but it seemed others didn’t feel the same.

The sudden appearance of people made us all, almost instinctively, grip our weapons.

The group approaching from afar seemed to have already spotted the Ice Castle, and their faces lit up with excitement.

The hunters, who had been distracted by the castle, finally noticed us and stopped in their tracks.

But they didn’t seem as wary of us as we were of them.

‘The numbers are overwhelming here, too.’

They must have realized the difference in numbers.

Their group seemed to be a large-scale hunting team, so despite how intimidating we might have looked, they were confident they could overpower us.

‘What is this? This strange unease.’

Ever since we encountered this hunting team, my heart had been racing, as if I had met someone I shouldn’t have.

And then…

“Ugh.”

Princess Lasiell, seemingly irritated after noticing something, frowned deeply.

As the majestic figure of a person emerged from the group of hunters, I could immediately understand her emotions.

“Oh? Little sister, I didn’t expect to see you in the labyrinth.”

The prince, seeing Princess Lasiell, spoke with a genuinely pleased expression.