“What the heck? That thing’s fast!” Hartwin exclaimed as he followed a pair of creatures moving around.

  It was a four-legged monster with dark bare skin, its legs were elongated — claws were at the edge of its four fingers. Its body was thin and bony. The face was nasty, wide mouth with sharp teeth, eyes were completely black, and forehead was a bit rounded. It was like we were facing an alien creature, but this was just me.

  And there were two of them. Again, I hated the monsters of this fucking island. They were ugly as shit. This pair of monsters were moving incredibly fast, like how you’d see how cats run around. And their reaction time in evading attacks was exceptional, too. Hartwin tried swinging at one monster when he got close, but the monster evaded too quickly.

  The other monster attempted to attack Hartwin from the flank. But before it could reach him, Velar deflected the monster’s claws. The moment its attack was driven away, the monster quickly backed away and immediately sprinted around us. These monsters were not standing still at all.

  Nira, who was standing before me, groaned in irritation as she was about to pounce on an enemy. However, I placed a hand on her shoulder, stopping her in place. She flinched and froze in place.

  “Patience, Nira. You have the opportunity to observe, use it.”

  She quietly gasped before nodding. “Y-Yes.”

  “Observe their pattern.”

  “W-What pattern?” She seemed nervous.

  The monster moved all around us, but then a moment later, one lunged at Hartwin. The latter fended off the attempt, but then the other suddenly jumped in for a follow up attack. And again, it was averted by Velar, stepping in between them.

  “Who are they frequently targeting, do you think?”

  “... Um, Hartwin…?”

  “Yes. And why do you think that is?”

  “... Um…”

  “Because he seemed the most vulnerable.”

  “I-I see. So I should keep a close guard on him?”

  “Is that necessary, Nira?”

  “Uh…” She glanced at Hartwin, then to Velar. “No. Velar is already there.”

  “Good. Then what shall your role be?”

  “Attacker?”

  “Good. Now then, that is not the only pattern of the enemy.”

  “What…?”

  “The way they revolve around us. They each circle in opposite directions. They’re coordinated, converging at a particular spot. And that spot tells which they are targeting. Where are they converging?”

  “... In Hartwin’s direction.”

  “Good. And what else?”

  “W-What else…?” She seemed to be thinking hard.

  As she did, the monsters attacked again. The same pattern.

  “You didn’t notice?”

  “I…”

  “You didn’t count? Fine. They circle around us four times before moving in to attack.”

  Her body jerked up when she came to realize that. “I didn’t notice…”

  “That is fine. At least now you have an idea how they attack.” Despite how terrifying these monsters may look, the way they fought was quite simple. A perfect learning material for the little girl. This was not about first learning patterns, sometimes patterns were just not there, you know. The lesson here was to study the enemy in the first moments of the encounter. And perhaps that might reveal how they move and engage. “Know your enemy. And that will give you an advantage.” It would make things a bit easier. If given the chance, why not observe and study?

  “I understand.”

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  “Now then, how should we deal with this?” Velar and Hartwin couldn’t keep up. And the monster seemed to sense which among our group was weaker. “If we take one down, it should mess with their coordination. Coordination is their strong suit, then break it away.”

  Nira nodded with a determined expression.

  “Attack the second one, Nira. I think you’ve quite observed how they move and respond to our actions.”

  “I-I think so.”

  “Good. Engage whenever.”

  At that moment, one monster swiftly moved in to strike at Hartwin. The bard shot a piercing magic at the enemy, but the monster evaded it. Hartwin parried off its claws. At the same time, another monster swiftly pounced towards Hartwin. Velar quickly moved in to drive off the monster. Nira’s body turned into a fog. The monster jumped back after being blocked by Velar. The moment it did, Nira was already heading towards it.

  Nira quickly stabbed one of its rear legs. The monster cried in a shrill sound. Nira quickly clawed the leg again, clinging tightly to it. The monster reached out and scratched the little girl. Its claws even dug into her face. But the little girl kept on clinging and damaging the leg.

  Oh, Nira…

  There was no need to keep on clinging and allowing the enemy to damage you that terribly. The wound she inflicted should have been enough. I admired her endurance. But it was not a good view for the team.

  Velar quickly moved in to help. “Nira, let go now!” Velar swung his sword at the enemy, successfully landing a hit on the side of its body.

  This was one of the reasons I didn’t want Nira to keep doing this. The sympathetic of us, which was the rest of the people here except me, would dislike a little girl being torn apart like that. It causes emotional turmoil for the team. And that was aside from her own mental state.

  I was trained with pain, for me to grow endurance. But for Nira, she already had those qualities. She was a cursed monster doomed to feel perpetual pain during the night. She already had decent endurance. But letting yourself get hurt for something unnecessary, get beaten constantly just to make good damage to the enemy when there were other options, was not exactly a good thing. I have good endurance, but does that mean I want to feel pain all the time? No way. It would be tiring.

  It would be a different case if she was protecting me, though. But throwing yourself into the fire to beat an enemy, that wasn’t a healthy habit. That was just being a brute. I would at least like my guards to be smarter in their approach.

  Nira removed herself from the monster just as it cried from the sword strike. With their coordination broken, the other monster stopped. Instead of circling, it proceeded to confront Hartwin directly. As it ran, Hartwin swiftly swung his blade in the air multiple times, sending arcs of light. The monster dodged all of them. But Hartwin had already sent a follow up magical piercing strike. And it struck the monster in the body.

  “Hah! Got you! I have the feeling of how to deal with you now,” Hartwin boasted with a confident grin.

  It may move fast, but having it move the way you want was a way to win. And considering its size, it was a hard target to miss. Hartwin kept the storm of subsequent attacks. His true skills in a rapier were finally showing up in this part of the battle. His were swift strikes, one after another.

  He managed to hit the monster on the frontal legs before it got close to him. He took a step back and swung his rapier towards its claws. With the wounds of its front legs, the monster’s strikes were a bit slower than before. That gave Hartwin plenty of windows to land a direct hit, physical or magical, on the enemy.

  Judging from how things were going, he might be able to win.

  As for the other monster. Velar and Nira were working together. Cleave and slashing at the monster. It stood no chance, of course. A bit hilarious to see that Hartwin was getting the most challenge here.

  Go Hartwin! You can do it! I’m cheering hard for you!

  I didn’t need to do anything, by the way. Oh, perhaps you were wondering what Taneva was doing. He was just standing behind me. We didn’t let him fight this time. Our crew needed experience in fighting powerful monsters. And we couldn’t just always rely on the powerhouse. So I asked him to let others handle things, and only intervene in the most dangerous situations.

  And so far, things were going great.

  As expected, Velar and Nira defeated their opponent first. The monster was quite relentless at its dying moments. Despite being heavily damaged, the closer it was to the brink of death, the wilder it got. The final struggle of a dying beast. But of course, in the end, it was defeated.

  Hartwin, on the other hand, quickly sprinted backwards as he was getting a bit overwhelmed. “Good, you’re done! Little help here!”

  Velar quickly jumped in to divert the monster’s attention to him. At the same time, Nira pounced on the monster’s body and started stabbing it with her claws. Hartwin quickly stepped in and thrust his rapier into the monster’s neck, unleashing a piercing armament magic, and the magical projectile penetrated through all the way out. The monster cried and attempted to withdraw. However, there was no way that was going to happen.

  A short while later, after my crew inflicted more damage upon it, the monster finally let out a final cry before dropping to the ground. The three of them panted heavily as they stared at the monster before them.

  “Splendid,” I said with a bright smile, clapping mildly.

  “I have to be honest, I’m getting tired of facing this many monsters,” Hartwin remarked with a tired sigh. “First of all, they’re all ugly.”

  “How do humans even survive in a land like this?” Velar asked no one in particular as he leaned on his greatsword.

  “Humans are tougher than you grant them credit for,” Taneva casually said as he pushed the dead monster with his foot. “Still, they weren’t this big the last I saw one of these. Could they have evolved?”

  “That’s a scary thought,” I said genuinely. Who would like a monster like this to evolve? Why was that even a thing? That shouldn’t be a thing!

  “Whatever the case,” Taneva continued. “We should move out now. These are a couple, and they should have a couple of offspring nearby as well. Best we don’t get spotted by them.”

  Ew, monster children.

  I mean, I wouldn’t mind getting rid of those too. Anyway…

  I nodded. “Okay. Let’s move out then.”

  I approached Nira, who was quietly standing, and placed a hand on her head, patting it lightly. “There’s still plenty of work to do with you. But at least you learned something this time. Well done.”

  “Uh… Um, thank you.”