We dropped Rey off at Azazel and headed north.

There was only one reason for this.

If Ivy went all out, Rey and the others wouldn't be able to unleash their full strength. The same reason applied to Shannon's departure.

To be honest, if Ivy fought seriously, she could handle everything on her own.

The people around her would only get in the way when she exerted her full power.

However, letting such capable individuals go to waste would be too much of a loss.

So, the strategy Ivy and I devised was as follows.

First, we would drop Shannon off in the first town, then Rey and the others in the next town.

With them deployed, we would be free to fight without worrying about our surroundings, allowing us to head straight for Galaria—the northernmost and most dangerous area.

We would approach from the north while the others advanced from the south, sweeping away the monsters as we went.

By the time we regrouped, the monster threat would be gone.

By the time we arrived in the city of Galaria, the situation was already quite dire.

Galaria was designed with several fortresses between the waterfront and the city, allowing for a rapid concentration of forces.

However, all the fortresses had already been destroyed or occupied by monsters, and the creatures were now attempting to scale Galaria's outer walls.

Monsters swarmed around the outer walls, and a massive horde was lined up at the main gate.

The adventurers and knights defending the city were fighting back, but they were clearly at a disadvantage. On top of that, their supplies seemed to be running low.

They had run out of proper projectiles and were now throwing anything they could find—bricks from houses, rotten vegetables, anything remotely throwable.

Oh, a rotten daikon just stabbed a goblin straight in the throat. Impressive... Wait, this is no time to be calmly observing.

“Sanshita, low-altitude flight!”

[Leave it to me!]

Our landing point was the main gate, which was on the verge of being breached.

The knights defending the gate would see us dealing with the monsters.

Given the urgency of the situation, there was no need to hold back.

“Ivy!”

“Mii!”

Ivy shifted into her battle form and grew in size.

Sanshita and I took to the sky once more, aiming at the monsters clinging to the gate and firing down on them to thin their numbers.

“Light Arrow!”

While not on Ivy’s level, I could still fire a considerable number of spells in single-action combat.

Goblins, orcs, ogres, kobolds… The usual monsters we often saw in Akoup were swiftly taken down with magic.

But how did these land-dwelling monsters come from the sea…?

Upon closer inspection, it seemed they had ridden on the backs of aquatic creatures.

A massive whale was near the shore, carrying a horde of orcs on its back.

And to my surprise, even ogres were emerging from its mouth.

It appeared that the whale-like monster could carry creatures not only on its back but also inside its stomach.

“Miiiii!!”

Returning to her true form, Ivy stomped on the monsters bottlenecked at the gate while simultaneously using monsters to fight the ones scaling the outer walls.

Not stopping there, she also cast healing magic on the knights and adventurers fighting from above the walls.

Not wanting to fall behind, I increased the number of Light Arrows I fired by ten.

[I’ll do my best too!]

Sanshita breathed fire and cast magic to attack.

Thanks to recent training, his stamina and magical power had clearly increased, allowing him to cast spells continuously without tiring.

We rained down Light Arrows, sweeping away the monsters.

Given the excessive power of the attacks, the monsters were annihilated in no time.

After eliminating all visible enemies, we landed on the ground.

“...Mii.”

Shrinking down with a soft rustling sound, Ivy returned to her handheld size.

She seemed exhausted, letting out a slightly weaker-than-usual cry as she perched on my shoulder.

The knights and adventurers around us stared with their mouths agape, looking utterly dumbfounded.

One knight cautiously approached, clearly unsure of what to make of us.

To avoid scaring him, I put on the friendliest smile I could manage.

“By order of Marquis Endlord, we have come to your aid. I am Bruno, a First-Class Adventurer.”