The Labyrinth Raids of the Ultimate Tank

Translator: “Pink Tea” Editor: ”Ryunakama”

The number of goblins is seven.

They aren’t strong at all. A representative of monsters that an adventurer would have to fight at first.

But even so, dropping your guard would lead to a painful experience.

The most troublesome thing about goblins is their cooperation.

They rarely attack alone. Even if there is such a goblin, it’s either a trap or it was chased out by other goblins.

I observe how the goblins would act.

Their mugs are ugly enough to give some people a trauma.

They seem to have noticed our presence, twitching their noses.

It’s only a matter of time before they find us.

All of them are armed.

They might have stolen it from humans somewhere. In which case, they might be stronger than ordinary goblins.

Two goblins with bows, three goblins with swords, two goblins with axes.

All of them have a small stature, but their power can rival adult adventurers.

Goblins are lower rank monsters, but even so, by hitting vitals they can easily destroy an outer shell.

I take a stance with my great shield that I carried on my back.

「Rude, as usual, you are carrying this heavy thing without breaking a sweat.」

Milena runs her hand across my shield.

「Yeah, I’m already used to it.」

……It was slumbering in a certain small arms shop that I visited in the past. Not many used shields, so I was able to buy it for a pretty low price.

「Nin and Luna, prepare to use magic. Once you are ready I will jump in and gather their attention. Once they gather around me, your magic should hit their rear. ……Milena, shoot at will, just be careful not to hit allies.」

「Roger!」

Milena, who in her own way, loved fighting, excitedly readied the bow.

Nin, who began magic preparations, looked at me with an uneasy expression.

「For you to say such a thing, I guess Milena’s skill with the bow is pretty……」

「……Well, her accuracy is fairly low. However, there is a lot of power.」

Therefore, she will approach after I draw the attention of the enemies, and shoot them up close.

Though it’s a bit sad that despite using a bow she would be at a distance no different from close combat.

Each of the goblins had their weapons raised over their heads, laughing with glee.

Looking at how monsters act while they are alive makes it a bit hard to hunt them, but it’s useless to think about such things.

Milena is rehearsing the movements of shooting an arrow while humming under her breath.

In her imagination, those movements would give amazing accuracy.

But in reality, arrows fly nowhere near the target.

「What? You have a rude look, Rude.」

Milena glanced my way.

「Even I know that I suck at this. But I’ve been working hard, training in my spare time.」

「I know. So don’t be so angry.」

Milena’s build isn’t made for close combat.

She has a lot of innate magic power, but at the same time lacks talent for it.

In such a case, a bow is the only method of fighting left for her.

The bows have two ways of shooting them, using actual ammunition and arrows conjured with magic.

Most people would shoot arrows from magic power, and when they want to raise the power, they would add a normal arrow to it.

Since Milena had no training in archery, using an ordinary arrow she certainly wouldn’t be able to shoot straight.

And being able to use them without a proper training in magic is a strong point of arrows made of magic power.

「My spell is ready.」

「We are going to cast a flame circle with Luna responsible for the main component of the spell. Since we are going to cast it into the rear, it shouldn’t affect those in the vanguard.」

「Got it. When enemies notice us, begin preparations for the next spell. Then, I’m counting on you.」

Matching my movements with the magic cast by the two, I jump forward.

Before goblins have a chance to recognize casters as enemies, I intercept them with 『Taunt』.

『Taunt』seems to make the enemies field of view narrower, or rather, makes them incapable of seeing anyone apart from me.

An orb of fire flew past me.

Both goblins in the vanguard and goblins with bows pay no heed to the magic and ready their weapons.

The magic lands near the goblin archers.

From there, it burst into flames in a circular shape.

In the center of it are two goblins with bows. Raising piercing shrieks they drop their bows.

Those screams make the goblins in the vanguard turn around, as if they suddenly came back to their senses.

Looks like the effect of『Taunt』weakened. But as soon as I used 『Taunt』again, the attention of every goblin but one returned to me.

Looks like one has high resistance.

The goblin archers were saved by the water magic cast by that one goblin, but burns all over their bodies are distinctly visible.

Using『Taunt』I face the goblins in the vanguard.

As I Charge at them with the great shield, the goblins make full use of their nimble bodies and evade.

I tried to slash at them, but a goblin blocked it with a sword.

I managed to knock the goblin away through brute force, but it used that momentum to jump to the side and roll away from me.

The goblins coordinate using glances and voices, that they alone can understand.

Tracking these eye movements, I became aware of a goblin in my blind spot.

Turning around, I push out the great shield.

As I expected, a goblin was jumping at me.

I repelled it, knocking it away with the shield, but it doesn’t seem like it took much damage. f𝙧ee𝘄𝐞𝚋𝐧૦ѵeƖ.c𝘰𝓶

I use『Taunt』once again.

By now, they shouldn’t be able to see anything but me.

The goblins with swords approach me from the flanks. A goblin with an axe from the front.

Behind me, goblins with bows are taking aim.

They are quick to adapt.

The goblin with an axe leaped at me, slamming the axe on my shield.

Taking the attack, I catch the goblin on the shield.

Then, throw it at a goblin that was running at me with a sword.

The sword of that goblin pierces into the side of the goblin with an axe.

Its eyes go wide, then it stops moving.

「Milena.」

「Aye!」

As I call for my comrade, she jumps out without missing a beat. Approaching, she shot a magic arrow.

Making a pleasant sound of cutting through the air, the released arrow flies towards me.

Before hitting me, it disappears. Milena must have erased it. She became quite good at this.

「……」

「Wa-wait!」

Approaching even closer, she put her foot on the two downed goblins and shot them.

No, that’s a swordsman’s distance.

And we still have enemies remaining.

Arrows came flying from the goblins in the rear, but I blocked them with the shield.

Not paying attention to the enemies in the rear can lead to taking an unexpected attack.

Goblins with swords went for a pincer attack.

I bash the right one with the shield.

Immediately, another goblin jumped at my exposed back.

I didn’t see it. But I can tell by the sound.

Matching with the sound of it jumping off the ground, I turn around, slashing with the sword.

My sword clashes with the goblin’s. Knocking it away I activate 『Taunt』.

The two scream, sounding pretty agitated.

To provoke them even further, I teasingly motioned at them with the tip of my sword, after which the goblins rushed at me.

The moment the two became preoccupied with me, a scream came from the enemy’s rear.

The goblin archers breathed their last, burned with magic.

Hearing their shrieks, the two goblins in front of me turned around.

Using that chance I cut at them.

Slashing from above, I then take a step forward to add a shield bash.

As one might expect, goblins are pretty susceptible to damage even without skills.

Three arrows shot by Milena hit goblins with swords and the ground.

The last one. A goblin with an axe turned to Milena.

As expected, the attention went towards her, who defeated the most enemies.

But it’s too late. Since it’s the only one left, we can just attack.

As I use『Taunt』, the goblin turned to me for a moment.

That instant is more than enough. Ramming into it, I then slash at it.

Kicking the goblin in the back, I knock it to the ground.

Fire Lance falls there.

After burning the goblin to cinders the spell dissipated.

The fight is over.

We then collect magic stones and still unharmed parts of goblins.

「As expected, saintess-sama is amazing.」

「I just supported Luna’s spells this time. I’m not that good with offensive magic after all.」

「Really? In other words, Luna-chan is amazing?」

「No, I……」

They were exchanging praises.

「Milena, your accuracy today is pretty good.」

「Yup. I did my best with the training.」

「……Eh? And that is the result?」

「What? Saintess-sama, I know I’m not as good as professional adventurers, but even so….」

「But you missed more than half of the time.」

「No, no, I hit about half of the time!」

Milena said proudly.

Usually, even 20% is good for her……

Anyway, what really surprised me, is when she stepped on monsters and then shot them.

Previously, she didn’t like coming so close to monsters.

If she can do that, her accuracy should go up.

……Though it doesn’t mean that she grew as an archer.

Perhaps lured by the sounds of combat, but this time, a slime came out.

A lone monster.

……Good timing, I just had something I wanted to try.

「Luna, can I have a moment」

「Yes?」

「I wanted to check something about my Sacrificial Shield. Can you help me?」

「Understood. What should I do?」

「……I want to check if I can activate the skills on my own. So, it would mean that you will have to take an attack…… Is that fine with you?」

「Understood. This much is not a problem.」

I’m sorry. The enemy is a slime. It’s not as dangerous as goblins.

Is it a passive skill or can I activate and deactivate it at will.

I wanted to test it on a weak monster.

I wasn’t able to switch it off during the time when I didn’t understand its effects.

However, right now, I feel somewhere inside, that I can deactivate it.

Looking at Luna, I switch the skill off.

……This should do it, I think.

Slime slowly crawls closer.

「Luna, please.」

「Then, I will try it. 」

Luna approached the slime. Looks like the slime recognized her as an enemy, shooting a liquid at her.

The arrow-like projectile grazed Luna.

……I felt no pain. The endurance also didn’t decrease.

「Next, I will activate Sacrificial Shield.」

「Understood.」

After saying that, Luna took another attack.

This time, I felt a stinging pain.

…I see.

「Thank you. As I thought, I can deactivate it now.」

With this, I can temporarily deactivate it when for example my recovery doesn’t catch up.

Since confirmation was over, we return the favor to the slime that went along with the experiment.

After recovering the magic stone Milena stretched.

「Occasionally hunting monsters is good as well. It’s a good break from the usual work.」

Break from the usual work?

A rare phrase from the generally cheerful Milena.

Perhaps something happened with the number of adventurers in town going up.

「Did something happen?」

「No, not really. The shop is just so busy those days……」

Phew, she breathed a sigh.

Indeed, Regil’s store is the only one of its kind in the town, so adventurers frequent it.

「All of the weapons made by Regil are of pretty fine quality after all.」

If it can be bought cheaper than in a big town, then there would be people interested in it.

「Yeah… And my accessories are also selling pretty well.」

She said, bashfully, playing with her pink hair.

「Oooh, really? Isn’t that great?」

Accessories are instruments aiding adventurers.

They have to be custom-tailored and would exhibit their power reacting to the owner’s magic power.

The effect of accessories is by no means huge, but it’s still a lot better than having nothing at all.

The accessories made by Milena were sold at Regil-san’s store.

Equipping several at once is impossible. If one tried, the accessories would interfere with each other, preventing them from showing their original effects.

I also have one made by Milena.

「Yeah, I am happy about that. But…… Having something that you were making as a hobby now being seriously evaluated gives some mixed feelings. Can I really sell something like this?」

……I get what she is saying.

「But they are paying money for this. People wouldn’t buy something they don’t need.」

「……Yeah. So, from now on…… Well. I think of taking this seriously. 」

As Milena twirled her hair, a slight blush appeared on her cheeks.

「S-say something. That it’s not like me.」

「Why?」

「Well, you know how irresponsible I am…… Isn’t that unlike my character?」

「That’s not true. I won’t make fun of someone doing their best. Just try out what you want to do.」

「But, you know. Isn’t it an important life choice? What if I make a mistake?」」

「If it doesn’t work out you will think about it then. If you keep thinking about what if, you won’t be able to do anything.」

It’s easy to become worried if you think about the future too much.

Milena, who was looking the other way, turned to me.

「T-then…… If it doesn’t work out, will you be by my side?」

She asked with upturned eyes.

I almost choked, but Milena made an innocent-looking smile.

「Take it easy, Rude. You are so shy.」

「……I’m not good with this.」

Milena stood up with a laugh.

Time to return.

On the way back, we have another encounter with monsters. Goblins.

「O-okay! Rude, it’s a monster! Time to fight.」

「Yeah.」

I breathe a sigh, trying to get rid of the blush on my cheeks.

Then, I grip my sword and head towards the goblins.f𝘳ℯℯ𝙬𝒆𝚋𝐧oν𝑒Ɩ.c𝑜𝙢