As we continued cutting down antidemons one after another with Elemental Sword, their numbers started to dwindle. That’s not to say we were anywhere close to done, since they still had us completely surrounded.
However, their pressure on us obviously decreased, slowing the rate at which they filled the gaps in their lines left by Fran.
Zero high-level antidemons came out despite the heavy casualties to their forces, so this horde must be composed of entirely lesser antidemons. They were definitely sent to scout us out after all.
Getting defeated to measure our strength must have been their goal.
As expected, Fran and the other B Rank adventurers couldn’t handle the entire horde, so a good number of antidemons managed to reach the city walls.
But the adventurers were ready and waiting for them there. They easily eliminated the stragglers with ranged attacks, avoiding any damage to the city.
All of them had high morale, and cheered loudly for Fran and the other B Ranks.
「Woohoo! That’s our Black Lightning Princess!」
「Go for it!」
「You’re so cool!」
「I’m in love with you!」
Who the hell was that last guy?! You’re not getting away with this!
「Master?」
『……It’s nothing. I just overheard the adventurers cheering.』
「Nn. I’ll do my best.」
Fran’s motivation soared as the adventurers cheered her on. This wasn’t simply about relieving her stress anymore. She felt a desire to protect the city too.
Swinging her blade again, Fran cut down the antidemons at an even faster pace than before. The adventurers on either side of her were still going strong too.
There were still more than several thousand antidemons left, but Fran and the others will be able to clear them out in no time.
Suddenly, a new group entered the battlefield. Not enemies, but a group of adventurers.
They must have exited from the east gate on the opposite side of the city, then worked their way around the city walls.
Before we left the town, we heard that the adventurer squadron was supposed have over 200, right……?
『But there’s only like thirty of them?』
「Nn.」
And they didn’t look like they were here to fight. They seemed to be in a hurry, looking around for someone? Maybe Fran?
My intuition was right. After catching a glimpse of Fran, they started making their way over through the horde. Since they seemed friendly, I blasted away some of the antidemons to clear a path for them.
The adventurers managed to squeeze through the gap and reach Fran. All of them looked to be about Rank E or so, as they had trouble with antidemons of this level.
Even the leader was probably only Rank D.
「A-Are you a Rank B adventurer?」
「Nn.」
The adventurer didn’t have the ability to perceive Fran’s real strength, and was surprised to see someone so young on the battlefield. He only managed to understand that this was no mistake after seeing her throw out a powerful spell.
The other adventurers dispersed to hold off the surrounding antidemons, while the man in the lead spoke to us hurriedly.
「I-I have a favor to ask you!」
「What is it?」
「The north and south gates are in big trouble!」
「Not enough adventurers?」
It seems the antidemons reached the other gates as well. However, they had enough forces to send Rank B adventurers as Fran’s backup, so the north and south gates should have also gotten reinforcements as well……
But it seems the city’s deployment scheme didn’t work the way I thought they did.
In the case of an antidemon attack, the Adventurers Guild generally defended the east and west gates. Outlaws handled the north, and the town guard and Sanatorium took charge of the south side.
The heads of each organization would discuss where reinforcements will go during the antidemon season. But apparently, they decided today that each would handle their own gate by themselves.
And yet, there wasn’t enough people defending the gates.
「At the north gate, it seems the outlaws were reluctant to send out their forces because of the impending war between the gangs.」
The higher ups of the Beastmen Union and the Dragon King Syndicate hesitated sending their members to fend off antidemons because they suspected a raid from the other gang.
The same went for the Sanatorium, which said that they could not reduce the number of security guards because they had intel that the saintess was being targeted by assassins.
Even though Filuria failed to set up Fran, she took advantage of the false information to skimp out on sending troops.
I guess the outlaws and the Sanatorium were both being short-sighted. They didn’t expect everyone else to be slacking off as well.
「I’ll be there as soon as I’m done here.」
「Thank you!」
Fran got fired up and dove into the antidemons again. Since we couldn’t test Elemental Sword anymore, we switched to mass area spells to prioritize speed.
The other B Ranks got briefed on the situation too, so they ramped up their speed as well.
And at the same time, someone else joined up with us.
「Woof woof!」
「Urushi! Where did you come from?」
「Arf!」
Urushi came rushing in front of us, taking out all the antidemons along his path. The last time we saw him was when I asked him to investigate the underground passage.
However, the direction in which he appeared made no sense. He came in from behind the antidemons, aka the opposite direction of the city.
Could it be that the underground passage led to somewhere over there?
『We can get the details later. For now, let’s deal with these antidemons.』
「Okay.」
「Grr!」
With Urushi here, we could now split up to help out both gates. He really showed up with perfect timing.
「Teyaaaaah!」
「Grrrr!」
Soon after, we succeeded in wiping out all the antidemons in front of the west gate.
