It has been five days since the siege of Lapolka Fortress began.
　It's also the fifth day in a row of war against the demon king's army of endurance operations.

　The number of blessings they use per day exceeds 2000, but the elves are desperately fighting with faith in the end.
　Allen regularly sends the summons of bird B to carry the replenishment of the blessings to ensure that the blessings are not lost in the fortress of Lapolka.

　About ten percent of the 300,000 elven soldiers have died in the past five days, and their defenses are slowly weakening.
　With the abundant magic power available, summons that are willing to take the initiative to fight, and a strong outer wall, we may be able to say that we only had to sacrifice so much.

　Such a five-day offensive and defensive battle, but there was also a great achievement.

　The monsters on the east and west wall where the dragon B and bug B summonses fight, halved the number of 500,000 of them each.
　It was easy to fight with enough recovery magic to keep the monsters coming at you for five days straight, as the tireless summonses hunted half a million of them in total.

　In five days, the number of summoner sons of Bug B, Aripon, increased by 3,000, and their speed of destruction is still increasing.

　The Demon King's army also has no change in its policy of annihilating monsters in all four directions, east, west, north, south and west, and they are trying to adjust the number of monsters by distributing 200,000 monsters from north and south to the east and west walls.

　Although the outer wall has been filled with hexenbiest corpses, it's still February and it's a good thing it's cooler than usual.
　If this battle happened in the summer, there might have been an outbreak of plague from the rotting hexenbiest corpses.



"Hey, man. Is he coming back soon?

It's time to go. Last night, you said you'd be back today.

　Kiel confirms Allen's arrival to Cecil, who is sitting in the back.
　On the four birds B summons are riding with six people, excluding Allen.
　It's the pair of Formar and Sophie, and the pair of Keel and Cecil.
　Dogora and Crenna each ride on one bird B summoner alone.

　Since both Krena and Dogora are in complete melee combat, they continue to fight to protect the outer wall by riding the bird B summons and cutting the backs of magical beasts that try to crawl up the outer wall, prioritizing A-ranked magical beasts that are beyond the control of the elven soldiers.

　To his comrades, Allen simply tells them to fight the elves to make it easier for them to fight.
　The battle is fought by riding four bird B summons and working together as a party.

　Allen has always told us that it's important to fight as best we can in the ever-changing battle conditions.

Three dragons coming from the front!　Dogora too, please!

"Oh!

　Krena notices three A-ranked monsters, the dragons, rushing into the hull.
　With A-ranked dragons, the damage to the elves' soldiers will be enormous, so you must act quickly.

　With Crenna and Dogora and Formar working together to keep one down, the other dragon approaches the outer wall. The elf soldier aims at it with arrows to strike first, but it still approaches aggressively.

　Meanwhile, a voice comes from behind Folmar.

I'll go!　Mr. Krena, Mr. Dogora, please step back!

　Sophie screams loudly so that everyone can hear her when she is defeated.
　Immediately, the durability ring you were equipped with is replaced with a ring of increased magic power. Now, both of the rings you are wearing have been changed to rings of increasing magic power.

　Furthermore, grab the blessings of heaven and increase your magic power to full strength.
　Then clench your staff with both hands and focus your attention.

　Sophie's form is refracted like a shimmering fire.
　Crenna and Dogora move away from their dragon companions.

"Great Spirit. Speak to me.

　A mass of flame forms in front of Sophie.

　It grows larger and larger, and then turns into a huge humanoid.
　There's something close to a broad-shouldered, dragon-like figure floating in the air.

...... I am Efreet, the great spirit of fire. Son of the elves, by contract with the Spirit King, I lend you my power in exchange for magical power.

　Sophie used her extra skill, the Great Spirit Reveal, to reveal the great spirit of fire, Efreet, to this world.
　The lump of fire doesn't have a mouth, but a voice comes out of nowhere.

I beg you. Mr. Efreet!

　As if Sophie's request made it all make sense, the fire that covers her entire body becomes more intense.
　And then, all at once, it rushed toward the dragon.

　The dragon's belly, which wasn't facing Crenna or Dogora, is rammed into the dragon's belly with tremendous force, causing it to explode and turn into a piece of charred flesh.

Powerful as ever!

　Cecil's ability to use fire magic surprises him the most.
　Turning a fire-resistant dragon into charred pieces of meat is impossible with Cecil's fire magic.

　As it is, the remaining two dragons will also be turned into charred pieces of meat, and they will also attack the other monsters.

"Oh, it's Efreet today!

(Last time it was Undine. I guess the odds are still the same, unbiased.

　Allen has seen the manifestation of Efreet.

　Sophie's manifestation of the Great Spirit manifests one of the Great Spirits of fire, earth, wind, and water.
　These spirits will attack, heal, and assist you. The cool time is one day.

　Efreet can kill multiple A-ranked creatures without difficulty.
　Sophie seems to be able to manifest more freely during the war that has been going on for about a month now.

　Since the time it takes to manifest is proportional to the amount of magic you've paid for, Sophie replaced her ring with a magic power boosting ring and increased her maximum magic power to manifest with all of her magic power.

''Master Allen!

　Sophie noticed that Allen had returned.
　Allen came riding a commanded bird-B summoner.

Oh, you're back. I knew it would take you quite a while.

　Saying that, Cecil moves to the bird B summoned by Allen.

Yeah, it took me a while to eradicate it. I haven't finished eradicating it yet, but I've been rounding up.

　Allen came back from the ocean in the same number of days as we had originally planned.
　There are still nearly 100,000 monsters left, but there's no need for Allen to stay until the end.
　I hurried back on bird B, figuring that the summons we left behind would finish the eradication while Allen was returning to the fortress of Lapolka.



　The sooner we come back, the less we'll have to pay for the soldiers in the fortress of Lapolka.

(Okay, we've checked all the outer walls except the north, but this one has the highest number of magical beasts. It seems like there are still about three million hexenbiests in the whole area. I don't want to say ten days, but it's going to take a long time to destroy them. (Mm-hmm)

　After going to the east-west south wall, finally Allen came to the north outer wall.
　On the south side, there were only four commanded stone B summons, so I added five more dragon B summons.

Dradra and the others, come out and join us!

"'Oh!'

　Seven dragon B summonses are newly summoned.
　Burn off the monsters on the wall so that they don't burn the elves.

　The number of summons defending the fortress of Lapolka is increasing rapidly.

(As I thought, the dragon B with a ranged attack is the quickest way to eradicate small fry.

Then, I'm sure the demon king's army has already been replaced?

"Huh?　It's long overdue.

(I see...)

　The demon king's army is rotating the battle every twelve hours to exhaust the elven soldiers. Even magical beasts, with the exception of a few types, do not have infinite energy.

　And about two hours ago, the changeover was completed and new monsters are fighting on the outer wall, while the monsters that were fighting just now are going down the mountain to take a break.

Let's go kill these exhausted monsters! Are you still ready?

"Huh?　Of course.

"Oh!　Allen-ish

　Cecil says it's possible, and Krsna is convinced. All of my friends agree that attacking a tired hexenbiest is a very Aren-like strategy.

(Alright, after two hours, the lasting effect of the battle will wear off and the full experience level will be in our favor.

　Experience is allocated to everyone who participates in a battle.
　What constitutes participation in a battle is rather vague, but one thing is clear to me.
　After too much time has passed, you won't get any experience from participating in a battle.

　For example, if an adventurer attacks a hexenbiest, wounding it but letting it go.
　If another adventurer stops him the next day, the previous day's adventurer will not receive any experience.

　If a certain amount of time has passed since the last battle, the person who fought last time will not gain any experience, even if the monster is killed by someone else.

　This time, since 2 hours have passed, no experience points will be given to the elves even if they are defeated.

Let's go then.

""Oh!"

　Allen took part in the siege and defense of the fortress of Lapolka, and the battle against the demon king's army was to continue.