Fighting without killing… That’s a first for me.

  Well, I’ve sparred with Carol and Katja before, but that was using wooden swords. Not real swords with technology to make them extra deadly. Will it be fine if I use the blunt side?

  “Here I go!” Sarasa was the one who set things in motion by diving into the bushes. All of the wolves, who had been stalking us through the forest, immediately started moving and started their attack.

  “Strange, isn’t it? I’ve gotten really good at dealing with your kind.” It took almost no time for Sarasa to get surrounded, but she handled it without breaking a sweat. Wolves jumped at her from every side. With the back of her daggers and the pommels, she knocked them away each and every time.

  Must be strange, huh? I get what she means. From the perspective of the wolves, it must be strange to lose to a cat so badly.

  Galene used a double-edged sword, so she used the flat side to defend herself. Bashing her sword against the claws of jumping wolves was very effective at driving them off. She blocked their attacks while hitting them at the same time.

  “Ga- Galene… I can’t keep this up for too long!” Abby kept herself safe by creating small barriers around herself whenever she got attacked.

  “That’s plenty…” She couldn’t drive them off on her own, so Galene had to step in. Galene put herself between Abby and the wolves, and… “Sword Slam!” A shockwave burst from the ground, sending all the attackers flying.

  As for me… I got so distracted watching that I forgot I was being attacked too.

  From every side, the wolves ran up and lunged at me. They tried to get me with their claws and their jaws, but they were so slow I was able to dodge them subconsciously.

  Is this good enough? I had to do my part too, so I bonked the head of one of my attackers in midair. He fell to the ground, looked up at me, confused, then jumped again with his mouth open. That was too soft, huh? “How about this?” With a bit of spin, I hit him with a kick and sent him rolling to the ground.

  “Wait… No way that actually killed…” I got worried for a second, but the wolf quickly got up and ran away in a hurry. Whew… I think I’ve got it now.

  Embarrassingly enough, one of the wolves actually managed to land a hit on me. By the time I noticed, one of them had his mouth wrapped around my ankle, biting as hard as he could. Has he been there for long? The bite was so weak that it couldn’t make it past the protective cloth of my dress. Or in this case, the thigh-high.

  “You should probably just let go…” I raised my leg and kicked forward to shake him off. He couldn’t hold on, and after bouncing against a tree, he got up and immediately ran away.

  It wasn’t a fight they could win. After we smacked them a few more times, they started retreating one after the other and disappeared into the forest.

  It’s like what Galene and I discussed before… These guys really aren’t acting like monsters.

  If they were monsters, they would probably fight to the death here. They ran away because there’s something else they value more. Most likely, protecting their territory. Makes them much more likely to be animals rather than monsters.

  It also helps that we didn’t kill them from the get-go… They realized we weren’t seriously trying to hurt them. That we were not a threat worth laying down their lives to stop. Obviously, that’s not how things go in game…

  “Great job, girls! We did it! We saved the day!” Sarasa returned, covered in leaves and shouting like crazy. She leaned against me and wrapped her arm around my shoulder. “Let’s get some drinks, Galene’s paying!”

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  “Why would I be the one paying?” Galene returned with Abby, brushing her long, black hair with her hand.

  “Isn’t it your duty to make people happy? Besides, this is your job we’re helping with. You’re the one getting paid.” Sarasa shrugged.

  “The hero’s duty does not include buying drinks for anyone! It’s a noble mission only for the chosen ones. Don’t you make light of it!” Abby pointed at Sarasa.

  Galene let out a laugh. “Regardless, we’re nowhere near done, are we? We’ve pretty much confirmed these monsters we were tasked with killing were just animals, but we’ve still got more to do. Until we check out their nest, we can’t be sure the people will be completely safe.”

  “Their nest should be on the cliff past this forest, right? We’ll get there in no time.” Though the closer we get, the more aggressive the wolves are gonna get.

  “Let’s go then.” Galene nodded. “Good call on not hurting the wolves, Iroha. They backed off rather easily thanks to you.” She flashed a grateful smile.

  “Ehh?” Is this the power of the heroine’s charm? “I- it was nothing! Thank you for hearing me out.” I stuttered, looking slightly upwards to meet her eyes.

  She giggled at my reaction. “Let’s see this through to the end.” I nodded.

  …

  After making it through the forest, we were met with a big slope down. We were the ones on top of a cliff… I hadn’t noticed.

  Peering down, there was a perilous, winding path going down all the way to the bottom. Is this where the wolves are? It looks kinda like how I remember, but this is a different perspective. There were some shadowy spots along the slope. One of them might be a hole. Like a small cavern used for a nest.

  That’s what we agreed on, so we went down to take a closer look.

  “Oh?” Sarasa was leading the group just slightly when she stopped in her tracks. “They’re getting closer again… I think they’re looking for another beating.”

  They quickly surrounded us again, but unlike last time, they had nowhere to hide here. Not that they wanted to. They growled at us while balancing on ridges of the cliff above and below us. This was their turf. They had mastered the terrain and had the ability to use it to their advantage.

  “We must be on the right track then…” Galene drew her sword. “Again, try not to harm them too much. Maybe this time they’ll understand we’re not really their enemies.”

  “Roger that!” Sarasa pulled out her daggers again, and I followed her lead.

  The battle started right after. The wolves jumped from ledge to ledge, using their superior agility to strike us from every angle. Meanwhile, we were stuck on a narrow path with little room to dodge. The situation looked much worse than before, but…

  “There, there, there!” Sarasa parried all attacks without breaking a sweat.

  “Hm! Just let us through already.” Same thing with Galene.

  Right… Even with all their advantages, the fight was no different from last time. The difference in power between us was just too great.

  They were more persistent this time, but after enough of them got slapped around, most of them ran off and disappeared into a variety of small holes. I knew it… This would have been a slaughter if we weren’t holding back.

  “Why haven’t they all left?” Abby asked, looking at one staring at us from above.

  “Uhhmmm…” Sarasa grabbed her chin. “I think they’ve finally recognized it’s pointless to fight us. No point in fighting someone who’s not into it. They’ll stick to monitoring us from a distance.”

  “That works out for us. Very smart of them.” Galene expressed her approval, and we got moving again.

  “Is it here?” We gathered around a hole in the wall. Abby was the one to notice it, and she poked her head inside. It looked like a small cave, big enough for one person to fit in. If we wanted to go deeper, we’d have to advance in a line.

  “I think so… I can hear something echoing from inside.” Sarasa poked her head in from the other side. “I don’t sense a lot of hostility… Should be fine if you just wanna take a look.” She turned to Galene.

  “Taking a look wouldn’t hurt, then?” Galene confirmed. “Let’s go…” She didn’t hesitate to go in and lead our group. We were able to fit in through the tunnel, but it wasn’t wide enough for anything other than small animals to use it easily.

  We made our way through the darkness until we saw light bouncing off the walls. “There they are…” The wolves were there again.

  The light we saw came from a chamber at the end of the tunnel. A chamber that looked like a natural opening with a hole in the top. That was enough for us to see what was going on.

  Guarding the entrance to the chamber was a pair of wolves growling at us. “Stop… Don’t get any closer.” Galene crouched and extended a hand to stop us too. “They let us get this far, but I think they’ll attack if we get any closer.”

  “What do we do now? Do we just go back?” Sarasa moved her head, trying to peek into the chamber around Galene’s body. Abby and I did the same.

  “There’s no point in going any further. Look.” Galene pointed forward, to the chamber, where a handful of wolf pups were huddling together. “There’s nothing for us to do here. They’re protecting their young, and we’re disturbing them.”

  “But then, why were we given this quest? Hunting animals is not a task befitting of the hero!” Abby complained as Galene started pulling back. “Are they messing with us?”

  “Give them the benefit of the doubt.” We all turned around to go back outside while Galene spoke. “The people that got attacked probably didn’t know this was their territory and assumed they were monsters. Either way, we didn’t see any remains from humans, so it’s safe to assume they’re not a threat.”

  “If you say so… But… If I ever see the person who came up with this, I’m gonna give them a piece of my mind!” Abby clenched her fist.

  Galene’s way too good for this world… A misunderstanding…? Yeah, right… Liars. Trying to use her for her own gain…

  We used Galene’s gryphons on the way back to the village. We hadn’t gotten that far on foot, so in a few minutes, we’d be back. “The small ones were quite cute, all things considered. I’m glad we didn’t end up hurting them.”

  “Yeah…” I’m just glad she didn’t do anything she would regret. Being by her side this whole time, knowing what could have been, made me feel really bad for her. I’m really glad…

  The sun was going down, and our quest was about to come to an end without any issues. But before that could happen…

  “Huh?! Ughh… What’s that smell?” Sarasa suddenly coughed as we went over the forest. Smell?

  “I- it’s smoke…!” Abby pointed to a cloud of smoke rising from the other side of the forest. What’s going on? Is something on fire?

  “That’s where the village is… Don’t tell me…” Galene’s eyes widened in shock. “Let’s hurry!” She tapped the magical gryphon and her speed practically doubled.

  Why? Where did this come from? Did something happen to the village? The commotion grew louder as we got closer. Sizzling, rumbling, howling. Why? It wasn’t supposed to be this way…