As we climbed up to the high ground, what we saw was a scene of over a hundred demonic beasts rushing into the labyrinth city.

''It's ......, that one,''

Marnell muttered in dismay.
His words were trembling, but no one pointed that out.
Everyone here could understand.

...... that in the current situation, they couldn't blame Marnell's reaction.

The demonic beasts that rushed in were not only orcs.
Aside from the large number of orcs, there were also upper-tier demonic beasts such as hobgoblins, middle-tier demonic beasts, and even lower-tier demonic beasts and liches.
Even under normal circumstances, if a swarm of demonic beasts of this size rushed into the labyrinth city, a great deal of damage would be caused.
On top of that, it's also possible that the monster beasts that would come over the city would be strengthened just like the hobgoblins that came over earlier.

If that happens, I can't even imagine how much damage will be caused.
In the face of such a situation, I was dumbfounded and moved my mouth.

"This is like ......... no, it's not possible,

Along the way, I denied my own words.
I decided that it would never happen.

I immediately dismissed the idea that had popped into my head and shifted my attention to the swarm of demonic beasts.
Now that I've come this far, I can't choose to escape from the labyrinth city.
The demonic beasts will reach the labyrinth city before we are ready to evacuate.
There is no other option left but to fight them.

The moment I made that decision, I made up my mind to fight the magical beasts in front of me.

''Marnell and the others, take care of the people of the city!

Yes!

At my words, the city's adventurers hurriedly made their way to the city's people.
Seeing them off, I secretly made a decision.

Absolutely, I must settle the matter with the demonic beasts before they arrive near the labyrinth city.

The city closest to the labyrinth city has a wall, but this labyrinth city doesn't have a wall.
In other words, if you've come this far, the magical beasts can enter the labyrinth city without any obstacles.
With the current state of the labyrinth city, it's easy to imagine what will happen once they're inside.
If that happens, no matter how many people evacuated, the people of the city will surely be harmed, and on top of that, all the adventurers in the labyrinth city might be unable to recover.
That must be avoided at all costs.

I wasn't the only one who made that decision.

''I will defend this place to the death!''

With those words, the intimidating feeling we feel from Zeke-san, who has his hand on the magic sword on his back, swells up.
Zeke-san, while embracing the tension himself, still opens his mouth to encourage us.

I told Lyra about the orcs before I came here. I told Lyra about the orcs before we came here, and the adventurers will be here in a few minutes. If we can hold out that long, we will have the advantage in numbers.

We'll be fine, won't we?

Regardless of that Zeke-san's concern, Narcena didn't feel as if she was nervous.
She didn't show the slightest bit of concern, and she seemed to be trying to say that they could definitely do it.

That might be an attitude that could be called too optimistic under the circumstances.
In fact, Zeke-san is surprised by that statement from Narsena.

But I felt the same way as Narsena.
Indeed, it would be an unprecedented crisis right now.
It's as if we don't even know the cause of the labyrinthine demonic beasts appearing on earth, and that too in an enhanced state.

Still, the situation was far better than that time when they fought the mutated Hydra.

Narsena's skills have been further enhanced in her previous battles against powerful enemies, and I've also acquired the ability to greatly enhance them.
Even if it was the first time we met, we've grown substantially now, and this time there's Zeke, too.
Regardless of how many enhancements are made, this level of numbers is enough to buy us some time.
That's what I'm convinced of.

...... But I hadn't realized that this idea was based on a naive estimate.

......... Huh?

It was Narsena who first noticed when the demonic beasts suddenly stopped when they were less than a few hundred meters away from the labyrinth city.

''...... what's going on?''

Did it stop suddenly? Why at this time: ......

Following that, both me and Zeke-san noticed the suspicious movements of the demonic beasts, but we never came up with a reason for it.
Just an unpleasant sensation inexplicably piled up, and my face contorted at the ungainly sensation.
It was then that Narsena let out an urgent, choked voice.

''.........! Magic! Um, Rich is trying to use the magical beasts around him to use powerful magic! And that's beyond the tactical grade.

The words of Narsena, a tactical grade magician, brought back a certain memory in my head.
It was a book about war that I read in the guild.
In it, it was written about how to activate powerful magic by combining the magical power of hundreds of mages, and the name of that magic was the tactical grade.
If you compare that story to the current situation, Rich is trying to use the magic power of demonic beasts to handle powerful magic and .......

''──!

It was only when I got that far into my thinking that I understood exactly the crisis I was in right now.
If Rich unleashed a magic like the one described in the book, I didn't need to think about what would happen to the labyrinth city to understand it.

Recognizing the crisis, Narcena and I couldn't hide our frustration.
One person, Zeke, didn't understand the situation and I tried to explain ...... that action turned out to be in vain.

'Tactical grade? How in the world can that be ......!

In the next moment, Zeke's words were interrupted and a magic circle with a radius of over 10 meters was formed around the area above Rich's head.
The blood drained from Zeke's face as he succinctly told me how bad the situation was right now at that sight.

The magic circle shines in the sky, and two words of despair pass through my head as I thought it was too late.
But Narsena's dignified words brought me back to reality.

''I'm still in the stage of building up my magic power! We can stop it now!

I don't know how much longer we have before the magic is complete, but it won't be long.
In the meantime, we have to get through that pack of monsters and kill Rich.

That's clearly a match that's too badly timed.

Let's go!

Nevertheless, we understood that there was no other way but to win the game, and taking Zeke's words as our cue, we started running towards the pack of demonic beasts.