The fall of the Halberd Hero

In my field of vision, I could see at least ten monsters, of which eight were currently chasing after Bran, who was struggling, while running down a steep hill.

When one of the monsters finally charged at him, though he could deflect the blow, it managed to crash the old man's body to the ground, stumbling down the incline.

He was about to accept his death, lying in a pool of filth and dirty cloth, until he saw a single flash of a bright blue light. Immediately, the temperature dropped to a freezing point, as a few of the monsters, that were about to strike him, fell apart in halves.

The old man couldn't believe his eyes at this brave display of pure strength. And following the destruction, his jaw dropped at the sight of Yukiko: Was she always this strong?

.

The monsters weren't trouble for the [Halberd of the valiant hero], that cut through them like a hot knife through butter.

It was in stark contrast to the bull monster that I had fought, yet it was a welcome change of pace.

'I could do this. I could save these civilians and I could save my friends.'

Though I was lost in thought, causing one of the monsters to let out a piercing screech, followed by the entirety of the horde to erupt in ear-deafening screaming.

Following the scream, I could hear a slight thump noise, as both Elisa and Bran fell to the ground, seemingly paralysed.

[Passive skill: Debuff resistance] activated

So, grabbing the old man by the waist and putting Elisa over my shoulders, I decided to make a run for the village. There, I could get Bran to safety while also helping out the villagers.

Burdened by the weight, my steps fell heavy, yet I was fast enough to drop the monster's aggro.

All of a sudden, flying-type monsters appeared in the skyline, seemingly headed for the villagers.

But as I noticed them, so did they notice me, causing the wave of flying rats to crash down into me, similar to a kamikaze.

The overgrown rats just barely missed me, yet continued crawling after me on the ground at unparalleled speeds.

And just as one was about to latch on to my feet, a cone of water pierced it.

"Forget what I did earlier, okay? I swear it was only to wake you!", the blushing girl on my back let out.

"Ah, of course.", I said, but I was sure never to forget that moment. Just thinking about it made my ears warm up, and blood stream up my head.

"I don't believe you! Look at you, your ear is so hot, I can feel it from here!", she let out annoyed.

Finding an opportunity, she bit down on my ear in retaliation, causing my run to become shaky.

Annoyed, the old man grunted, "You were so strong earlier but you cant even walk straight?! One of those bastards almost bit me, please hurry up!", causing Elisa to break out in a denouncing laughter.

Annoyed by her snickering, I grab her by the legs and stand her up straight next to me, seeing as her paralysis already wore off.

Although she was surprised, she managed to keep pace pretty well, mostly due to her magic affinity.

"Say something before you throw me off next time! The same thing happened on the ship, did you already forget how embarrassed I was because you just plopped me down like that?", she remarked, yet I could tell that she didn't actually mind it.

"THERE ARE MONSTERS CHASING US, PLEASE STOP CHATTERING SO LEISURELY!", The old man screamed, completely petrified by the raging horde behind us.

Yet, instead of taking his request seriously, he just ended up making me chuckle.

'This is fun!'

.

.

When we arrived at the village, Elisa had already managed to get rid of the monsters chasing us with her water drill ability, that proved insanely effective at eliminating masses of enemies.

She was the typical AoE mage, that we needed to make use of during the waves, if we were to actually go through with saving the village.

I was only really useful when it came to the beefier monsters, that survived the first wave of Elisa's spells.

There were a lot of monsters roaming the village, while there were also a lot of corpses of villagers, that were unable to barricade their homes enough to keep out the monster horde.

The few blocked houses, we presumed to have people in them, so we tried to prevent any monsters from entering or breaking them.

And although we searched almost every house of the village at that point, Meredith and the others were nowhere to be seen.

And although we were happy with just keeping some of the villagers safe, a particular sentence, that Elisa said, left a steep impact on me.

"Weird, the boss monster should be nearby. Maybe it's just too far away to hear it?

By this time, the other heroes must have already encountered it."

The appearance of a boss monster was not out of the question in my mind, but when Elisa mentioned it, I still felt a shiver run down my spine.

"Well, I hope they'll be alright without our help. Knowing Tanaka, they won't have any trouble probably.", or so I said, yet I was still scared.

Because if they weren't able to kill it, I wouldn't be either.

.

For the rest of the wave's duration, we just went a few laps around, killing any monsters we could find, feeling that this was easier than it should be.

The village was made up of a flimsy wall, that barely did its job at all, and, at best, 30 houses or so.

Although I was scared before, I could now see that it was quite an overseeable spot, that was pretty easy to defend.

And since the village itself was surrounded by cliffs and hills, there was little space for monsters to hide or bunch themselves.

For the time, I was resting easy, maybe even relaxed.

.

That was, until *it* appeared.

When it entered the village through the wall, that crumbled upon contact with its monstrous body, the thud could be heard echoing through the entire region.

It was a giant, ugly rat. A beast that looked anything but natural. A being that couldn't possibly have been created under the supervision of any gods.

Its mere existence defiling creation itself: A muscly human body, covered in Gray fur, topped with a giant rat's head. On its back, a row of green spores, that released a puff of gasses, that I knew to be toxic just by looking at them.

This was… my opponent.