Chapter 786: 786: Antidemon Leadership

Fran leapt into the antidemon swarm, cutting down the swordsman-types one after the other. These lower class antidemons were still rather weak.

While swinging her sword in an elaborate dance, she avoided the countless blades that lunged out from all around her.

「Grrr!」

Urushi, too, ran around in his miniaturized state, biting the antidemons' necks. Some of them had their heads crushed by his claws as well.

Just as we had hoped, the antidemons began to surround Fran and Urushi.

『Oh, we also need to block the long-range attacks from the cannon-type.』

(What do we do?)

『I'll build a wall to hide the knights.』

(I see.)

If we build a wall to block the bombardment from the cannon-type, we can avoid the worst case scenario where they are wiped out by a single shot.

In order to protect the knights, I activated the land spell, Great Wall.

Now the fleeing knights were hidden from the antidemons, and all they could see was Fran.

Since antidemons can sense mana, that may not be enough to guarantee the knight's safety.

However, Fran and Urushi, who had much more powerful mana, were right next to them. That should make them their first priority.

『Urushi, crush the cannon-type from the shadows!』

「Woof!」

Once the cannon-type is defeated, the knights will be in much less danger.

『We'll cut down the small fry!』

「Nn! Haah!」

『Dorya!』

Our thunder magic wiped out the swordsmen in the vanguard at once. Seeing that, they must have understood how dangerous we were.

The movements of the antidemons changed.

The swordsman-types split to the left and right in an attempt to bypass us. Then, the knight-types came forward.

The decoy knights that entered the swarm were still trying to hold their ground. The back half of the herd was being drawn toward them.

However, it looked like they judged Fran more dangerous than the decoys, so more and more antidemons were being sent our way.

No, that's not all. These antidemons seemed to also be targeting the knights behind the wall. Some of the swordsman-types split off in an attempt to bypass the wall.

I guess the presence of such an excellent meal as Fran in front of them was no reason for them to ignore other prey as well.

Is their commander more logical than we had imagined, or did they have an appetite beyond our expectations? At any rate, it seemed to be their basic behavior to target any and all prey around them.

(Master, what do we do?)

『We'll be fine!』

I continuously invoked Great Wall, turning the earth into a wall to block the path of the swordsman-type. All I needed to do is to make it physically impossible for them to follow the knights.

However, it seemed that my opponent had predicted that too.

Immediately after creating the huge wall with my magic, the shots of the cannon-type came flying. A gigantic ball of magic was fired straight at it.

I couldn't help but be surprised to see they had charged a shot in advance to destroy my Great Wall, especially when they had only seen me use the spell once.

We might have to consider the antidemon commander to be as intelligent as a human.

However, being able to predict your opponent's movements is something we can do too.

I had been charging my telekinesis for the possibility of a blast from the cannon-type.

『Not happening!』

「Whoa, nice one Master.」

My telekinesis greatly diverted the trajectory of the magic projectile, which caused a big crater in the wilderness. The power was really something, so if it had hit, my Great Wall would have been shattered for sure.

『The antidemons are confused, so take that chance to move in! I'll protect the wall!』

「Nn!」

Fran moved further ahead, slamming her spells into the flustered swordsman-types that had their paths blocked.

Five knight-types came out to intercept her. These were more troublesome than expected.

I'd say each was around a threat level of D.

They are strong, but not that big of a problem for the current Fran. However, we were surprised by seeing their ability to coordinate in groups.

If we try to attack one of them, the other ones go in for the counterattack. And if we defend, they surround us from all sides. They worked together in perfect timing, complementing each other well.

Moreover, the support from the surrounding swordsmen and archers was also unbelievably precise. They would strike us right when we least expected it.

The cooperation of their movements as a group could even exceed that of the dwarven warriors.

Maybe they had some sort of mental connection to keep all of them in sync with each other.

Otherwise, it would have been inconceivable for their coordination to be so perfect.

But that didn't stop Fran. No matter how well the small fry work together, it wouldn't matter against someone as strong as her.

And to prove it, she perfectly handled the attacks of the swordsman and archer-types, while burying one knight-type after another.

Fran approached the knights who were still fighting, and they noticed her too. A look of astonishment appeared on their faces.

「Ehhh? A child?」

「Are you okay?」

「W-What's a kid doing here......?」

They're still breathing.

It probably helped that they were trying to stay alive as long as possible to buy their friends enough time to escape.

All five were wounded, but not dead yet.

We performed a series of Area Heals, so they shouldn't die any time soon. That healed the surrounding antidemons too, but that made little difference since we took them down with a single blow anyways.

「Gyiiiiiiii!」

『Looks like Urushi got the job done.』

A deafening scream emanated from the cannon-type. At the same time, I saw its figure crumble. Urushi just finished it off.

「Let's get out of here for now.」

「But, but......」

「With you guys here, I can't destroy them with area attacks.」

「I-I see......」

The soldiers had seen Fran use Area Heal without chanting, so they understood her words were no lies.

They immediately began to follow Fran's orders.

『Now we'll just have to wait and see how that giant knight-type will react.』

「Nn.」