Chapter 549: Conserving Strength

Because Tauro and Aeris had finished off the manticore beyond the dense forest undergrowth that blocked their view, the two teams—Blue Thunder Beast and Silver Twin Mages—couldn’t clearly tell what had happened.

Strictly speaking, they could tell that a battle was taking place with a monster deeper in the forest.

In fact, what they had seen was a beautiful woman with a shield—who was also apparently a spear user—block an incoming earth-magic spell that flew out from the brush. They also saw a greatsword wielder and a young priest-warrior girl charge into the depths of the forest.

Then the boy leader, Tauro, fired arrows into the thicket, and at almost the exact same moment, the beautiful Aeris unleashed lightning magic.

Even so, Jack, leader of Blue Thunder Beast, estimated that it would still be a weak attack against something like a manticore.

After all, a manticore was a monster that required B-plus-or-higher combat capability.

Its hide was tough, and any halfhearted magical attack would simply be repelled.

Because of that, Tauro’s [Aurora Arrow] didn’t seem powerful enough to bring down a manticore, and while Aeris’s magic was sharp and precise, it appeared to lack the raw power for a killing blow.

That was why Jack doubted his ears when Tauro calmly reported,

“It’s been taken down.”

Unable to sit still any longer, he and his friends ran off into the depths of the forest to check.

Pushing through the bushes, they found Ragune already there, while Ankh and Zion—who had charged in earlier—were dismantling the monster.

“…It’s definitely a manticore… Hey, mind if I take a look?”

Jack and the others examined the manticore’s cause of death with keen interest.

“Jack, the injuries to the right eye, foreleg, and scorpion tail are minor. Was the cause of death the arrow fired by Lord Tauro, which lodged near the heart? …No, it’s a little shallow. And this scorch mark… it’s the lightning spell that the young lady used…! So does that mean they killed it at the last possible moment?”

Akku, the battle-axe user of Blue Thunder Beast, carefully examined the manticore’s chest and analyzed the wounds.

“It’s an incredibly precise and efficient kill. Saying it was ‘barely’ defeated sounds misleading—but in their case, it feels more like they deliberately finished it off using just the bare minimum of power through team coordination.”

“And landing lightning magic precisely on an ally’s arrow, right on target… I couldn’t do something like that,” said Bomarne, the mage of Blue Thunder Beast, staring in awe at Aeris’s refined magical control and pinpoint spellcasting.

Just then, Tauro and Aeris arrived.

“Ankh, let’s save the dismantling for when we make camp—we don’t want to keep everyone waiting. I’ll put the rest into [Magic Storage] for now.”

Without boasting about the manticore kill at all, Tauro strode over to the body, believing the victory had only been possible through everyone’s teamwork, and stored it away.

Then he said,

“Good work, everyone. Ankh, Zion—thanks for drawing the target’s attention. Ragune, you handled the enemy’s opening attack perfectly. Thanks to that, Aeris and I could hold back our power and still finish it. Just like today’s theme.”

He praised his friends.

“Theme?” Jack asked, intrigued by what Tauro, leader of this newcomer B-minus team, had said. The others shared his question.

“Yes. The theme was conserving strength—yours, Jack-san, and ours as well—by fighting in a way that avoids unnecessary waste.”

“So… you’re saying that it wasn’t that you barely won because you were at your limit, but that you deliberately defeated it using only the bare minimum of your actual abilities…?”

Jack’s eyes widened in shock as he asked.

“Hmm… yeah, I think that’s a fair way to put it,” Tauro thought for a moment to make sure he was saying the right thing, then nodded in agreement with Jack’s words.

“Y-You’re lying!”

Gemma, the older twin and leader of Silver Twin Mages, blurted this out. She had been left stunned both by the clean execution and by how little Tauro’s team seemed elated after defeating what should have been a formidable enemy.

“Lying?” Tauro tilted his head.

“It was just a fluke! You’re only claiming you conserved your strength from the start because we were watching! Hitting a monster’s heart by firing into brush you can’t see through is hard enough, and believing the arrow will hit and then aiming magic at its nock at exactly the right moment—that’s impossible!”

Gemma began ranting incoherently.

If anything, accomplishing both of those things by sheer luck would be nearly impossible.

It was far more believable that they had done it deliberately—

No matter how difficult the technique itself might be.

“…Gemma, calm down. You’re not making sense.”

Seeing her sister in a near-panicked state, the younger twin, Gemis, stepped in to restrain her.

“Why!? Even you, Gemis—why are you siding with them!?”

Gemma snapped, clearly agitated, but—

“Gemma, settle down. Even we in Blue Thunder Beast know a manticore isn’t something you can deal with by luck alone. Their strength is the real deal.”

With Jack stepping in to back them up, Gemma finally had nothing to say.

And then, after regaining a bit of composure, she muttered,

“…Fine. I’ll admit that, at least, they’re a team worthy of this quest…”

She then turned away with a huff, hiding her expression.

From [Presence Detection], I could sense frustration—but there didn’t seem to be any malice.

After confirming that, Tauro said nothing more and simply suggested to Jack, “Let’s hurry on.”

And with that, the group prepared to move forward once again.