The Principle of a Philosopher by Eternal Fool “Asley”

They were huge — like really huge, considering how large the surrounding Ogres were.

Behind a phalanx of Imperial Ogres, the King and the Queen observed the vicinity and saw that a great number of their kind had been slaughtered.

All movements ceased.

And then,

“”GWOOOOOHH!!””

The two Ogres’ roars shook the heavens and the earth.

Their voices resounded throughout the sky, freezing up even the Magic University juniors in the back lines of Squad 8.

Their ears rang with the vibrating air and their bodies shivered.

The Ogre King’s movements were light but all eyes were fixated on it. It took a spear from one of the Imperial Ogres’ dead bodies and glared at its tip.

And the next instant, the Ogre King threw the spear as if it were a mere twig.

It was as if the spear warped through the air. A disaster occurred in a corner of Squad 5.

One of the Squad 5 members felt as if a fierce wind blew past him. He remembered there being squadmates to his side, be it his rivals or old friends.

–But not anymore.

All that was left was the lower halves of human bodies, with the upper halves gone.

Not by any identifiable attacks such as severing or decapitation.

If they had been pierced by the spear, one would still know where it had struck. But they had been obliterated by the sheer force of the throw.

The correct way to define it would be being blown off — or torn apart.

When the adventurers of Squad 5 realized that, they ran away at full speed. It was by the adventures’ survival instincts, fear of overwhelming strength and general confusion. With all that piling up on their emotions, they ran. They pushed and shoved people in their way and hit those who were slower in front of them. The whole scene reflected clearly in the eye of Betty, the Squad leader.

“…T-that thing’s crazy…”

The Ogre King was powerful enough for an A-ranked adventurer to say such a thing.

There was no one who did not think of escaping.

Only Betty was left standing, dumbfounded at the Ogre King’s overwhelming figure as it swung its arms.

“Betty!!”

Blazer called out to her from nearby. Betty snapped back to her senses and started moving, intending to evade any incoming attack.

But at that moment, the Ogre King’s second throw landed near her.

She hadn’t seen when the throw had occurred, but she had an estimate of the timing.

Relying on her honed instincts, she threw several daggers.

Little metallic clashes rang in the air, and then a shot of wind blew past her cheeks. As she’d expected, that ‘wind’ was too fast to be seen by the naked eye.

Nevertheless, Betty had been saved by the daggers which changed the spear’s trajectory.

Paying no heed to the blood streaking across her cheek, she dashed all the way to Irene’s Squad.

“Solidify the formation!!”

Irene promptly ordered.

Warriors gathered in front of Squad 1 with Blazer, Bruce, Dallas and Betty in the very front with their weapons ready.

“You can’t take it on alone. We’ll focus our strength to parry that spear out of the way… wait for my signal and strike with your swords straight ahead.”

Dallas explained to the three.

Bruce’s whole body shivered profusely. Blazer, noticing that, was naturally worried.

“Bruce, you can still fight, right?”

“Man, you know I’m shaking because I’m not allowed to say no, right?”

“…Yeah, right.”

Blazer patted Bruce’s shoulders — his hands were also shaking.

However, Bruce had no leeway to let that weigh on his mind nor did Blazer have the time to worry about it himself.

Irene’s Squad cast defensive magic and behind her, Warren’s Squad cast support magic for the frontliners. Strength fortification, defense fortification, weapon enhancement, body optimization, title amplification — various effects layered on top of each other.

“Incoming!! …Now!”

At Dallas’ signal, the four warriors brought down their blades with all their might.

BACHIIINNN!!

A thunderous roar echoed.

They parried it… or perhaps not — no one could tell.

No matter how one looked, the four warriors’ arms were already pushed to their limits. Their weapons were still intact, Irene saw for certain that they were on the verge of being dropped from their hands.

“Billy!!”

Irene called the name of her old friend and rival.

No one could possibly understand what she wanted. The man in question knew what to do before any order was issued.

“High Cure Adjust!!”

He cast his best recovery magic for the four warriors.

“Grrrr… That little shit’s way too strong, man…”

“…Hmph. Looks like all we can do is hold the line.”

“Ugh… I won’t forgive that thing if my arms put on too much muscle… Ugh…”

The members of The Silver complained when they regained their composure.

They knew full well that if they were to fall, the combatants behind them would likely be annihilated.

Dallas understood that as well, so he gritted his teeth and took up his sword once again.

The three, their hands shaking, exerted pressure onto their weapons.

“…Ugh, Incoming!! Now!”

BACHIIINNN!!

“””UGH–!!”””

“High Cure Adjust!!”

This time, the Queen and the phalanx of Imperial Ogres started moving forward.

“Whoa whoa, that’s not funny, man…”

“Well, in times like this…”

“Of course it’s no joke, huh…”

“Heh, The Silver sure is composed of amusing people…”

“Thank you very much, sir…”

Banding together as they gasped for breath, the four A-ranked adventurers cracked jokes among themselves.

An overwhelming enemy force drew near.

There was not much they could do to keep on standing their ground.

And then…

“Garnet Hell!”

“Diamond Cutlass!”

A red light flashed from Squad 8 at the very backline. Solid wind blades streaked forth from Squad 1.

The two advancing enemy forces took direct hits. The red flash went for the Queen’s phalanx, and the wind blades went for the other group.

The Ogres were burned. Although they had high resistance against magic, the Imperial Ogres showed an expression of pain as flames from Irene’s attack engulfed their bodies.

The Ogres were torn to pieces. The magic’s power was even more overwhelming than the last. The damage was almost catastrophic, splitting even the earth.

Darkness spread from the hollowed earth. The splits were so deep that one wouldn’t be able to fathom how strong the impact must have been.

The Ogres anguished, their limbs falling all over the place. They stopped in their tracks.

“Humph, with how things stand now… Asley, head out! Billy isn’t looking good — Switch with him!”

“Yes, sir!”

“Have a safe trip!”

“You’re coming, too!”

Pochi was visibly displeased and upon seeing so, Gaston grinned.

“Fwahaha, curse your rotten luck, little girl!”

“Master, he called me a little girl!”

“You aren’t supposed to be happy, dammit!”

“Irene, Billy, Blazer, Dallas, Bruce, Betty! Defend against the King’s third attack!”

“”Yes, sir!””

“Warren! Don’t let the enemy near Billy’s Squad!”

“Leave it to us!”

After issuing simple orders, Gaston’s horse galloped ahead, catching up with Asley and the gigantified Pochi.

Their target was the Queen, which had shaken off Gaston’s attack and was now charging forth by itself.

Gaston thrust his deep crimson bishop’s staff up to the sky.

“Octa Boundary!”

Stakes of light came tumbling down from the sky, embedding themselves in the ground in eight directions around the Queen. A barrier promptly formed, and a curtain of lighting ran within the perimeter.

[“Whoa — that’s even stronger than your magecraft, Master!”]

[“Damn, I can only go up to Hexa!”]

“GWOOOHH!”

The Queen bent its knees down to the ground, its movements stopping at last.

“Tear off its defense! Acid Red!”

On horseback, Gaston invoked his next magic spell and looked behind him. What he focused on was Pochi and her Master, Asley.

“Young man, strike now!”

“Be reasonable, sir!”

“Master, I’ll go!”

“Oh, right! Go! Purgatory Breath!”

Pochi unleashed a stream of dark red fire from her mouth. At the point where it felt like it might outdistance Gaston, the bishop’s staff spouted out a toxic flame.

“Envelope its body! Venom Death!”

In an instant, the Ogre Queen took direct hits from the toxic green flame and the deep crimson hellfire.

The Ogre Queen’s expression was of pure agony as it kept trying to shake off the two encroaching flames.

Although it couldn’t move, its electrical resistance was terrific, as the Octa Boundary’s stakes were already starting to crack.

“Octa Boundary!”

Once again, eight stakes tumbled down.

In the further strengthened barrier, the Queen’s body was now finally down on the ground.

“What on Earth is he, that old monster?!”

“Master, he can hear you!”

“Fwahahaha! I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that! Anyway, are you going to let the fight end before getting a piece, young man?”

He looked specifically at Asley.

Although Asley knew that it was half in jest, his body still stiffened up all the same.

Seeing that there was no other choice but to act, Asley brandished his Star Rod.

“Rise, A-rise, A-rise! Hit Point Reduction!”

“Oo-ho, it’s the spell that directly decreases the target’s HP… But in a decisive battle that needs to end as soon as possible, it won’t be effective enough, don’t you think?”

“My Master has far more to show than that, sir!”

“Come again?”

Asley’s staff was trained on the Ogre’s Queen.

And with an extremely serious face that he rarely showed to anyone, he slowly closed his eyes.

Asley sent the Spell Circle flying away slowly, then opened his mouth once more.

“Rise, A-rise, Demonic Acceleration!”

The Craft Circle covered the Spell Circle as if swallowing it whole.

“Isn’t that… Magecraft!?”

As soon as Gaston witnessed the magecraft that he didn’t have any knowledge of, Asley put an index finger over his own lips.

[“Please keep it a secret, sir.”]

“Oo-ho… so that’s where you’re coming from. Keeping a secret, eh… so you owe me one now, all right?”

“You make that debt sound so difficult to repay, sir.”

“Take it or leave it. So, what is the casting’s composite effect?”

“The original effect is minus 10 per second. So, with the acceleration… it should be minus 100…?”

“What–!?”

Gaston glared at him once again.

It was so intense that Pochi sat down, which caused Asley to fall off her back.

“Ouch–! Dammit, Pochi, you–!”

“Pochi, let’s see what you’re made of. Finish it off!”

“AWOOOOO!!”

And so Pochi unleashed a breath attack, not on Asley’s instruction, but on Gaston’s.

This time, it was a bluish-white light. With an overwhelmingly intense force, the Ogre Queen was finished off.

Retaining some electrical shock, its body twitched for a while before ceasing all movements for good.

“Oh-ho, a Zenith-level Breath Attack. It’s a surprise that a Familiar possessing such a skill resides in Beilanea.”

“You can’t just order other people’s Familiars like that, sir…”

Asley slumped his shoulders down.

He didn’t pay any mind to the level up fanfare that rang within his brain.

“Boy, that was quite the large-scale battle experience!”

“Fwahahahaha, you two are interesting people! Now, onto the next target. We finished up over here faster than expected, so let’s go help that old lady, eh?”

Gaston said and gripped his horse’s reins, setting his sights on Irene’s Squad, which was still having trouble dealing with the black spears.