"What happened!?"
Eric could be heard shouting. His gaze directed at Regal and the demon who were just fighting, only for the demon to seemingly fall into the ground.
The heroes and the adventurers had followed after Kendrick once the mayhem had started, targeting demonic beasts which were distracted, injured, and separated from the horde. The adventurers easily slayed the singled-out beasts, the heroes following shortly behind and analysing their battles.
A few of them however, had their focus directed at Regal and the demon.
"Focus!", Tristain shouted back, regaining the attention of Eric and the some others, even Ren from his own party was distracted.
Slowly, the demonic beasts which were merely awaiting their turn to face Kendrick, began to notice the weaker and easier prey wandering about the outpost. A small group of wolves nearby switched their targets to the heroes, dashing forward as a pack without warning.
The adventurers quickly jumped between them, Turos brought his large sword down and crushed one of the incoming wolves underfoot, another jumping over its dead brethren with is mouth open, bearing its fangs and aiming for Turos' throat.
Unfortunately, it was met with an arrow through the eye, the arrow providing enough force itself to push the body to the side, flying past Turos to the floor.
Tristain was still occupied with a demonic deer nearby, so wasn't able to help or give orders regarding the pack of wolves. And because of that, three wolves managed to get past Turos and make their way towards the heroes, but not in one piece. One of the wolves had an arrow to its hind leg, while another had an arrow directly through its side.
Both were incapable of moving correctly, the one with the arrow to its side even seemed to be slowly dying already, streaks of blood flowing from its mouth. But who knows if that blood was its own.
The last one had no injuries, and was evidently in the lead against the weak heroes. The whole group hesitated, not sure what immediate actions to make.
The first to move was William, remembering his experience with the kobold where he took too long and ended up with an injury. He jumped forward in front of the group of heroes and readied a stance.
The stance was... slightly clumsy. It was better than any amateur swordsman, but it also wasn't that impressive. It was a stance with knowledge but no understanding, no understanding to why the stance is made, and why it's important, only to be used before swinging his sword.
But, he didn't have time to think about his stance. All he could do was hope that his mere week of training would prove itself useful.
The muscle training, the stances, the hundred- no, sometimes thousands of slashes at a single point in time, leaving his arms incapable of any movement.
As the first wolf approached, as if it was completely natural, he brought the sword to the position of one of his typical slashes. The moment it got close, he swung his sword and hit it directly on its neck.
Unfortunately, it lacked the power to push through the neck of the C-rank, but it did succeed in staggering the wolf, the creature itself almost believing its life was over. In that moment, Kendrick shouted at him.
"You idiot! How many times do I need to tell you!? Bringing your sword into a slash from the initial stance should be one fluid movement, One!", he shouted.
His loud voice caused multiple creatures to stop for a moment, the wolf next to William, was not included. Perhaps being this close to it's enemy made it focused. It jumped back from William's sword and joined the 2 other wolves who stopped and waited.
Kendrick was no longer bulldozing through the horde, but was now just standing and watching William. If a demonic beast jumped at him, he slashed at it. If multiple jumped at once, then he would simply slash all of them at once as if it was that easy.
'Do you really think it's the time to be lecturing!?', William thought.
William concentrated on the 3 wolves in front of him, Eric slowly making his way to his side before nervously asking with a large shield held in front of him, "So... is there a plan?"
William didn't change his gaze, maintaining focus on the wolves.
"Any chance you could just crush them with that massive shield?", William joked.
Eric gave no response. It was torturous to carry the shield all the way here, and the journey didn't make lifting the shield with his arms any easier.
The wolf with an arrow in its side whined. It looked like it was getting ready to pounce, perhaps in a last ditch effort to fulfil it's task.
Eric tried his best to move in the wolf's path, but failed to get between it and William in time.
This time however, there was something different about the situation. William was already in his stance, but this time he didn't prepare to slash, instead he waited.
There was hardly any time for anyone to react to his foolishness, but as it turned out, there was no need.
The moment the demonic wolf was within range, William moved his sword. And in one swift motion, he brought it directly down onto the beast's head. This time, the sword slashed through, just barely breaking the skull of the creature.
William was proud but also disgusted, it was not exactly a sight to behold, the head of a wolf split open. And while he managed to perform the strike, he didn't exactly target the most efficient of places, the skull is one of the hardest parts of the body after all.
He quickly jumped back, no time for celebration.
This time, both of the remaining wolves dashed forward, seeing William's current state as an opportunity.
However, before they could reach him, Eric was in the way, forcing himself to move with all his strength.
The wolf with a leg injury went headfirst into the shield and let out a loud yelp, it fell to the floor, but didn't seem dead.
The final wolf that William had originally given an injury to, easily changed direction and went around the massive shield. Eric tried to move but was too slow, the wolf decided to ignore him though and approach William who was holding the weapon.
William was now is another stance, his sword prepared at his side. Suddenly the wolf stopped, walking closer cautiously.
"W-whoa!", Eric panicked as his heavy shield fell forward, dragging him along with it. Thankfully, it crushed the injured wolf from before, leaving only one left for William to face, the one currently creeping towards him.
Eric quickly- well, as quickly as he could, tried to lift the shield back up, William left to deal with the final wolf in the meanwhile.
Behind him, Hinami was standing unsure of what to do. Anne next to her looked prepared to fight, but at the same time confused and hesitating.
'What... spell should I use? Do I even have a spell for this situation? How should I use it? Would it even help?', questions littered Anne's mind ruthlessly.
William looked for help from the adventurers party, but to his dismay, they were already fighting other demonic beasts which were changing their targets to the weaker prey, some already got past and were making their way to the heroes.
'Damn it! I need to deal with this, now!', William thought, holding his stance firm and narrowing his eyes at the wolf.
The wolf finally decided to move, this time it jumped higher than any of the previous ones, directly at William.
William didn't expect this but managed to bring his sword up anyway, the wolf swiped the sword away, causing it to swing to the side.
Suddenly William's eyes widened, but not because of the wolf but because of his sword.
'Isn't this... one of the movement's I practiced?'
Within less than a second, he swung his body around, his sword held firmly in one hand, and sent it directly through the wolf's neck, this time powering through to the other side, meeting with the cut from earlier.
Both the body and the held fell to the floor, limp and lifeless.
William was gasping for air, the tension and risk made everything so much more tiring than it ever was in training.
'So it's like that... the stance's I was taught, they help my sword and my body make complicated movements... and maintain the power behind them', William figured.
He looked at Kendrick, who was still watching but this time with a smile on his face.
'...like one fluid motion, huh'
William didn't have any time to relax, Eric was stood up and dug the base of his shield into the ground, a giant boar charging towards them from the other side, followed by another two wolves.
He sprinted forward next to Eric.
"What are you doing! Get behind me!", Eric shouted, panic in his eyes.
"Sorry! I'm hoping to make use of that massive shield of yours!", William replied, Eric looked confused but without any time for talk, just let him be.
'Still... will this be enough to deal with another three?', William wondered.
The boar seemed to be fine, as if it was charging directly at the heroes the whole time without resistance. The wolves however, did seem to have a few injuries.
'Can I even cut that boar?'
The demonic beasts were quickly closing the distance, the boar at the forefront, gaining more speed with each second.
Eric saw this and his face paled, he tensed his whole body as if bracing for impact.
A moment later, contact. The boar clashed right into the shield, but didn't push Eric back at all.
The shield was dug deeply into the ground, and combined with all of Eric's strength, he successfully matched the strength of the boar. His entire body going numb from the powerful impact.
William sent his sword into a thrust, he felt it lacked power, but it didn't matter. The sword went directly into the eye of the boar at an awkward angle, it shrieked and struggled for a bit but the sword only ended up sinking deeper into it's head.
Eric relaxed his body for a moment but William didn't stop moving.
"Hold on a little longer!", he shouted as he swiftly moved behind Eric.
A sudden force against the shield almost threw Eric off balance, even worse was the fact that the body of the boar was being used as a platform for the creature of the other side, allowing it to jump over.
Eric widened his eyes, at his impending doom.
Luckily for him, a sword was sent directly into the maw of the creature, and even more surprisingly, a spear of water was sent through the creatures side at the same time. The sword managed to kill the creature, the spear of water couldn't even piece it, it lacked the power. But it did work to push the creature to the side.
But even then, they had no time to look at the small individual behind them who cast the spell, as there was still a single wolf left, the one which caused the force against Eric's shield.
It struggled as it walked around the shield, no strength to follow the path of the previous creature over it. But weak or not, it was dangerous.
But even then, it was still slain.
For a few minutes after, the heroes continued this pattern of taking on demonic beasts who seemed to think of them as easy prey. And as time went on, they were becoming more and more difficult to attack. The group of the heroes found their rhythm, and without any actual training as a team, they found a way to work together.
Eric intercepted the enemy creatures, the creatures left with no choice but to make their way around the shield somehow, only to be met by a sword or a spear of water. The water wasn't fatal, but it bought enough time for William to reach the beast.
Hinami... wasn't sure what to do. She was only taught how to heal wounds, something which neither William nor Eric seemed to have. They were doing miraculously well, perhaps the only wound being a scratch or two.
But that probably wasn't going to last... not with the two of them gasping for air, slowly being pushed to their limits.