While Ars, Loki, and Ilyce made their way downstairs.
　Fanon, who was in charge of the two basement levels, immediately took up an adversarial position against the swarm of bodos, as if they were filling the entire surface. Strictly speaking, they are surrounded by a perimeter, and the Fanon troops are being forced to close the distance between them jitterily.

''Well, what shall we do, Fanon-sama? I've never experienced fighting this many at once.''

　The weak-kneed mannerisms of the male troopers.
　A space that was forced to be narrowed by too much stuff in the first place. The members of the squad had taken up a circular formation, surrounding Fanon, as they routinely do, while keeping an eye on their surroundings. Now they are so close to each other, I wonder if they can reach out and touch each other.

　They were just barely within the range of handling AWR, and if they were forced to retreat any further, their means would inevitably be limited.

　They all braced themselves with cold sweat smeared on their backs, wondering when and at what point they would be told off.
　If the bodos attacked us all at once, it would mean a melee. Even if I could take out multiple of them with a single magic, that wouldn't even buy me time. Rather than bodos, demons have little concept of companions - fellow countrymen. They should have rushed in without paying attention to the corpses of their friends.
　If that happened, the outcome was clearer than the fire. The battle lines that had held out for so little would collapse in seconds.

　High or low rates are not much of a problem in the face of physical quantities. And rather than finding a breakthrough, the number of Bodos continues to grow. I wonder if there are more than a hundred of them.

　It was too uncomfortable for them to wait for instructions from Fanon, the captain of the squad.

　Fanon, as if to ridicule such a squad member's state of mind.

''Whatever, don't let your dirty blood fly on me. You guys hunt the small fry I'll hunt the strong ones, that's all. If you're about to die, I'll at least help you.

　All of us realize that we have been mistaken in our assumptions about the sound of voices that don't make the troopers cringe.
　There is a presence to protect in this unit, and the troopers are just going to have to devote themselves to it. Fanon decides that the troopers can get through on their own, meaning that he is not as much of a handful.

　Everyone interpreted the far-fetched words as such, and felt something hot in their hearts.
　Suddenly, I could hear someone sniffing.

　It may not have been inspired, but Fanon added as he played with the umbrella as he spun it around to follow up.

'I'm telling you, I'm not going to carry a corpse for you.

　The careless manner in which he speaks significantly improves the morale of the troops. Rather than a magician, it's more like the willpower of an adult and an elder. Regardless of rank or status, there is a common unspoken rule among the members of this unit. There is a princess in this unit who is to be protected, even if it means throwing her own life away.
　A kind of blind love.

　Perhaps they find the meaning of fighting close to home by substituting a noble thought in that way.
　That's why we shouldn't commit the folly of bothering them to death.

　Someone stepped forward this time with a retreating foot and rolled up his sleeve roughly. It was an unbecoming attitude for a magician, and it was with exactly the enthusiasm of an angry father.


　Fanon was resolute, thrusting the tip of his umbrella at the ground as if it would strike the ground.

'Work for me. I don't have time to waste in this place, so I'll just get it done!'

　Yes, sir! And so on and so forth, leaving each of them with a reply of approval, and then they all start to kick the bodos out of the way.
　As only a fierce man who has crossed the line of death many times, this is an initial move that he is used to fighting.
　He refrained from large-scale magic as much as possible, basically not letting them step in between and attempting to destroy multiple at once. As long as the target they were defending was behind them, there was no way for them to retreat.
　They had no choice but to step forward and overwhelm them.

　Little by little, but they would certainly expand the circle. In Fanon's squad, as a method of warfare when dealing with multiple opponents, there are those who kill the enemy at close range on the front line and those who follow up with magic to fill in the momentary gaps behind them.
　It is obvious that they are at a disadvantage in terms of numbers, so they cover for them at the right time. Although it was a breathtaking coordination, the concentration of those who provided magical cover at mid-range was uncommon.

　Leaving his back to them, this coordination was established in the realm of a strange technique to push forward with only his eyes on the front. For this reason, I stare into the tense nerves, including the choice of magic.

　A slash of wind drops Bodos' head on both sides of his sword-wielding companion in the front line.
　
　On the contrary, even if they turned their attention to their comrades fighting on the front lines, it was gradually becoming more and more difficult to defeat them with a single blow. The math of pushing in and wiping them out in one fell swoop would be corrected with cold sweat.

　After only a minute or so of fighting, I began to understand. At first, it wasn't hard to take down the dense bodos. However. From earlier, Fanon's troops were unable to advance. Even though it was only a few, the reduced number of Bodos gave them space to move.

　In other words, this meant that the bodos here were very capable of fighting as a unit.
　The companions of the support personnel who had begun to notice this anomaly were shaking their heads slightly to check the situation.
　They had cut both sides with one sword and driven them to the point where they were unable to fight, but now the sight of them cutting and tying up two or three pairs of swords was everywhere.

　If one of them collapsed, Fanon would be in trouble. The squad members had no qualms about analyzing the situation and accepting the current situation as unfavorable. They know the order of priority.

　The companions who share the same sentiment give a signal with only a glance.
　One of them, who was covering them, said, "We're going to change our ways! Immediately after he strained his voice, the troops who had been cutting and tying in the front line retreated in unison.

　Seeing the movements of the troops, next to Fanon, Exeles felt that their decision was appropriate. Even for Bodos, common sense doesn't apply when each individual has a weapon in their possession. Instead of using weapons taken from humans, they should have split off from their body tissues and generated weapons because they instinctively decided that they needed them.
　It's clear that the competition for survival in the deposit made it so. But is the concept of weapons something that demons are equipped with in the first place?
　If Ars is correct, the concept of a weapon - a sword or a spear, such as those used by wizards, which are highly lethal and often seen by humans - was created by demons from scratch?

　If this was the outside world, outside the deposit, there would be no doubt about it like this lump. Because demons eat magicians and read and reflect their magical information.
　But as he said, the closed deposit is another world that is isolated, so to speak. There is no room for human traces to enter.

　Fanon, who is silent next to Exeles, is probably beginning to notice the same thing.
　After all, the demons that inhabit the interior of this deposit are eerie.

　However, if you're caught up in such a chaotic doubt right now, you'll lose sight of even your original purpose.
　Exeles turns to the squad members to shake them off.

　You need to be wary of the number of bodos and pay close attention to their appearance, which is different from normal species. But even so, considering the difference in skill level and the number of shuras that they have crossed, it's not the number of things.
　The only people left in this unit are those who are strong enough to overturn any kind of inferiority complex.

　Their application skills are second to none. Rather, since the captain, Fanon, is of this character, he can work well enough with just his troops.

　As if he wasn't worried about it, Exeles turns his attention to some of the pillars. The pillar that seemed to have produced a large number of Bodos finally ceased to exist, and no new forms of Bodos appeared from it.

　Two members of the squad had taken up positions on either side of Fanon and Exeles, pouring vast amounts of magical power into the AWR.

''The Baptism of the Wing Wind (Skrynos)''
"The Right Hand of the Melting Current (Agni)