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After the Goblin attack, I lectured Mark’s group for a bit, but they seem to have fully learned the importance of vigilance so I went and let them return to their old position. After that, the journey continued without a hitch as we repelled attacks without ever getting ambushed.

As we passed the mountain area at the country border, we entered the grasslands, so the view became even more unobstructed and the safety grew. On the way, there was the Randa river that used to be a perilous pass, but that was in the past. At present, there was a splendid bridge spanning over it, so we easily crossed it.

And now…

“Come on, good luck. Reid, Cortina!”
“Michelle, can you stop calling that name?”

Michelle whipped the carriage horse to raise the speed. We were in the middle of escaping from the Stalk Dogs.

Stalk Dogs were quite nasty monsters that lied in wait in the grass and chased their prey with their nearly inexhaustible stamina until it was too tired and attacked. But their biggest trait was their numbers. They hunted in at least groups of ten, so they were often too much to handle with only a few Adventurers.

We’ve seen through the enemy’s stealth this time too, but they numbered thirty in number so we chose to escape from them, but they just kept persistently attacking us. Michelle didn’t have thirty arrows on hand either, so we decided to flee, but I didn’t expect them to keep chasing us to this point.

And the name she was yelling out now… wasn’t referring to me but to the carriage horse.

“Huh, I mean it’s the name of a Six Hero, right? Isn’t it a sign of good luck?”
“I mean, the guy in question is dead, so it’s just a bad sign!”
“I’d rather you don’t use that name either.”

Cortina and my protests made Michelle pout. However, Finia was surprisingly in support of it.

“I-I think it’s a good name!”
“Now’s not the time to argue about that!”

Cloud’s horse ran to the backline while saying that.

Normally, a single horseman like him excelled in speed the most, but he was stuck running in the back now because of the enemy pursuit. He was acting as a so-called rear guard. He was expertly swiping away the chasing Stalk Dogs with his greatshield while glaring at the back.

During this one-month journey, he had gotten quite used to horseback combat. However, there was no time to stay impressed now. As Michelle was holding the reins, she couldn’t shoot her bow, and her arrows wouldn’t be enough, either. Naturally, there were reserves in the luggage carrier, but there was no time to take them out now.

Cortina had a hard time coming up with a plan with nothing but grasslands spreading around, so we could do nothing but run single heartedly.

“Cortina, you’re a Six Hero, so go and beat up those small fries already!”
“It’s impossible with that number. Maxwell would be one thing, but I can’t handle them. Michelle doesn’t have enough arrows either, so we need to get away and reform somewhere.”
“You’re useless!”
“Whyyyy!?”

Inside the luggage carrier, Cortina and Tricia were engaged in a big dispute. Still, the fact that Cortina looked composed was probably because she had a plan in mind in case they caught up with us.

But that would mean we’d be putting Temuru, an ordinary person, in danger. If possible, I wanted to deal with them while there was a distance between us.

“I guess it can’t be helped, huh?”

We couldn’t lose them like this. If we did, Cloud who was at the end would have to be sacrificed. As expected, escaping while sacrificing a comrade wasn’t something we’d do. I stood up from the coachman’s seat and looked back over the carrier.

“Michelle, I leave things here to you.”
“Wh-, Nicole! Don’t tell me you plan to jump off!?”
“Of course not. I don’t wanna die.”
While saying that, I leaped to the back.

I was outside the carriage now, so the grass under me was moving at terrific speeds. If I fell down as is, I’d definitely get seriously injured. But a horse suddenly appeared where I was falling. Naturally, it was Cloud’s.

“Dwah! What are you doing, Nicole!”
“Let me ride behind for a bit.”

I landed behind him like a swooping bird, and saddled the horse as is. When I turned around, Stalk Dogs were right behind me.

Rather, they were even attacking me every now and then.

“Wahh, there are really so many looking at it from here.”
“Moreover, they don’t look tired at all. It’ll really be bad at this rate.”
“Yeah, I get it.”

Temuru’s carriage and the one Mark’s group was riding were running ahead of Michelle. They were safe as long as we kept these things here. The problem was how to deal with them. At present, we had no way of winning as long as this situation persisted.

“Yah!”

As I turned around, I flung a throwing knife. The knife landed true to its aim, cutting the leg of the Stalk Dog running at the forefront, making it fall down. Moreover, the Stalk Dogs at the back got tripped on the fallen one and tumbled alongside them.

After throwing knives over and over, I managed to take down ten of them. Both the carriage and the Stalk Dogs were moving at high speeds, so the fallen enemies would probably no longer be able to catch up with us.

“Their numbers still look visually unchanged though.”
“Uhh, can you stop moving too much back there? Something soft and squishy is rubbing on me every time you do…”
“There’s no time for that crap!”

I smacked the back of his head and continued attacking. In the next ten minutes, I managed to take down ten more.

My knives weren’t as lethal as Michelle’s arrows, but due to how useful they proved in the past, I constantly carried about ten on me. If I tied them with threads, I could even collect them back.

From Cortina’s perspective who sat inside the carriage, it probably looked like I was taking out and throwing daggers without an end. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make a clear display of using threads when she was watching.

If I continued attacking the chasing enemies while clinging to Cloud’s back, their numbers would eventually run out. Especially when they were running at full speed and had no way to dodge my attacks.

I continued taking down the enemies without needing to do anything special. And when they had gone down to about ten, they finally stopped their pursuit. Our horses were already fuming from the mouth, so it could be said that we barely made it.

“Okay, time to make use of this time! Michelle, get the arrows from the cargo. Cloud, Mark, Tony, John, form a wall and protect the carriage!”

Our horse was also at its limit, so we couldn’t keep running any longer. However, Stalk Dogs would eventually come back at this rate. Those monsters were famous for being persistent. That’s why Cortina commanded us to make use of this little time and prepare for combat.

“Line up the carriages as a defensive wall. Sir Temuru with the coachman and the horses head inside the wall. Michelle, you prepare to shoot from atop the carriage.”
“Okay!”
“Got it!”
“If something slips by, you handle it, Finia.”
“Understood!”

They made the formation according to Cortina’s instructions. Michelle climbed up on the carriage and grabbed spare arrows from the cargo. With this, there was no fear of running out of arrows.

“I’ll preemptively attack them with the max intensity Light spell to blind them, so make sure not to get caught up in it.”

Cortina made a magic wall and announced her plan to blind them as she climbed up to where Michelle was. Shrewd she was, she even made pitfalls with Tunnel just in case.

As we finished our preparations, Stalk Dogs came attacking once again. But now that we were fully ready to meet them, we managed to easily repel them. Thus, with this as my first experience in the Holy Tree Kingdom of Forneus, we have finally arrived in its capital, Berith.