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 Beasts and Silver Twin Mages—couldn’t clearly tell what was going on.

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 attack 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 almost in perfect timing, the beautiful Aeris  unleashed lightning Magic.

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

After all, a manticore was a monster that demanded B+ or higher combat capability.

Its hide was tough, and any halfhearted Magical attacks would simply be repelled.

Because of that, Tauro’s so-called Auroral Arrow didn’t seem like it would be enough to bring down a manticore, and while Aeris’s Magic was sharp and precise, it felt lacking in 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 aside the bushes and heading deeper in, they found Ragune already there, while Ankh and Zion—who had charged in earlier—were in the middle of 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 has lodged in the heart? … no, it’s a bit shallow. And this scorch mark… it’s the lightning spell that the young lady used…! So, does that mean they killed him just in time?”

Ack, the battle-axe user of Blue Thunder Beasts, carefully analyzed the manticore’s chest and analyzed it in detail.

“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 Beasts, staring in awe at Aeris ’s refined mana 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 approached the body in stride, believing it was only thanks to 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, was intrigued by what Tauro, the team leader of this supposedly newly B-rank team said and voiced this question shared by the others.

“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 elder twin sister and leader of Silver Twin Mages, blurted out. She had been left stunned in every sense—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 talking as if you conserved your strength from the start because we were watching! Hitting a monster’s heart by firing into a brush you can’t see is hard enough, and believing it would hit and then aiming Magic at the arrow’s nock at the exact right moment—that’s impossible!”

Gemma began ranting incoherently.

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

 it’s far more believable to say it was done 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, the Blue Thunder Beasts, 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..

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.