I finished up on my bread. My chewing was interrupted at the sight of him slowly drawing his greatsword again.

"Actually, put that rest on hold…" He raised his greatsword like one would a throwing spear. "Duck."

"Wha?-"

Without further warning, he threw his heavy blade, inches over my head. 

I almost choked. Barely did as he instructed but I did, fortunately. 

A clear audio cue of a stone being impaled by steel rang by my ears. Just that sound and I hopped off my bench towards Clyde’s direction. He jumped off his bench to retrieve his greatsword all before landing right behind me so only then I turned around to see what was happening.

A Marble Golem, roughly the size of an average human, was laid stationary. The color and composition was the same as the ruins that scattered the place, solid yet cracked. It had quite the mouthful of Clyde’s greatsword. With one forceful tug, he was able to retrieve his weapon and left the golem crumbling to rubble.

Golems?! How come I'm only picking up traces of mana now??

Only then, the area was riddled with sounds of rumbling stones.

"Looks like this night’s about to get interesting! Hey Lily. How bout ye back me up with’is one, eh?" Both of Clyde’s eyes glinted with a bright red color as he held a determined smirk.

"O-Okay!" I retrieved my wooden staff from my bag.

…with beloved light as my and mine peer’s companion, I call upon your holy protection!

"Light Barrier!"

The same bubble-like shield enveloped Clyde and myself individually.

The rumbling didn’t stop. They seemed to all have come from all sorts of directions too. Our only light source for that dim, moonless and starless night was our bonfire.

From what I’ve heard, golems of almost any kind are generally resistant to magic. Unless, their cores are exposed for more ranged, offensive magic. So all I need to spend my mana on is making sure that Clyde doesn’t get hurt and striking when I see these cores.

The first golem that entered the boundaries of the bonfire’s light, Clyde lunged to greet it with an overhead swing. With one hit from his greatsword, his target got pulverized to rubble. Not even the core in its chest was spared with that one attack.

S-So strong…!

"Come on! I’m right ‘ere ye lump ‘f shitstones!"

Such language… If I had to reference anything similar, might it be scottish? Well whatever, I’ll just need to keep myself out of trouble. Hopefully his screaming would draw all their attention to him only, as I’d think he’d be more than capable of handling himself with my support…

A rumbling of stones could then be heard from my left side. I turned to see one golem dragging its feet as it was on its way towards me like a zombie.

Of course… 

I just had to let the world subvert my expectations.

A crystal orb was twinkling at the left side of its face.

Might as well try to see if that’s a core.

…to light I call, its magic shall befall… From the reaches of the heavens, I summon thee!

"Triple Light Beam!"

All three beams of light converged on its head. Two, of which, made direct contact with the twinkling crystal which cracked into pieces. The golem tripped and fell, until it simply crumbled into pieces as well. Instead of minding Clyde’s well-being, I stood my ground and looked around.

Of course, I still couldn’t see anything besides our dim-lit area and the grass patch I was stepping on.

Should I cast that one spell I have that further lights up my vicinity? Mmm… considering how this bonfire’s light alone caused these golems to wake up—let’s not become a ‘magical girl flashlight’ at the wrong place and time…

With that in mind, I turned back to look at Clyde. In his vicinity, there were ten piles of rubble. He was seriously overpowering them with one strike per target.

Am I… even needed here?

Just then, two golems appeared from my right peripherals. Feet dragging like zombies still. I turned to look at them and saw nothing on them that resembled golem cores.

I can’t expect myself to whack them with a wooden rod. But Clyde is still busy with most of the horde. W-What else can I do while I’m on my own here…?

I gulped and took a step back and turned my attention to the lit bonfire. Luckily, there weren’t any godforsaken rocks for me to trip on. Something unexpected caught me off-guard.

Wait… 

What’re they doing?

They idled like statues near the bonfire. They only seemed to be interested in it. This was further proven when a golem casually strutted inches beside me as I tensed my body stiff and forced me to hold my breath, only for it to head straight for the bonfire and follow suit.

They weren’t even trying to be hostile… 

They just wanted some warmth?– I guess?

I carefully went over to where Clyde was, who seemed to already have amassed quite a number of them, though more still came.

"Alright! Who’s next!?"

I tugged on his pants. He turned to me with red glinted eyes and his heavy weapon drawn… at me. I gulped down at the sight of such a big edge hovered right over my nose.

"L-Let’s just–leave. They’d… j-just be a waste of energy. Look…"

Without looking and moving much, I shakily pointed to where the bonfire was. Clyde followed where it was, moved his weapon away and he resorted to a nervous chuckle.

"Oh. Sorry sorry, I—got carried away there." He immediately sheathed his greatsword.

What remained of the actually docile horde walked right past us and followed what the other golems did: surround the bonfire as a party of eerie statues.

"I’ve faced a lot ‘f golems but I don’t think I’ve ever seen this behavior befer te know that this—’s a thing." He scratched his head. "If ya weren’t ‘ere, I would’ve kept hackin’ stones fer no reason all night. That’s fer sure…"

His confusion despite knowing his powerful capabilities brought an unconventional smile to my face.

Ah, yes. ‘The meathead’. At least he’s the strong, all-around good guy-type. That’d matter more.

"First time for everything, I guess."

I brought myself to yawn by reflex. After realizing that the danger was a false alarm, all my fatigue had finally caught up to me.

"We’ll just be camping elsewhere, perhaps somewhere nearby. Just hang in there fer a little while longer, Lily."

"…mmn…" I only nodded.

The night was spent setting up another camp, without a bonfire this time. More sluggish on my end, of course. After exchanging our good nights, I laid down in my tent. It was cold and uncomfortable and I had a hard time sleeping even though I was already so tired. The best I could work with was being half-asleep. Suddenly, I could hear flaps from my tent. After which, I felt that I was wrapped in more layers than what I know I’ve prepared for.

Clyde…? 

My tent flapped for a second time and then there was silence. I tugged onto the oddly warm covers.

And finally, I fell asleep.

Mm.

Smells like…

hay.

_ _ _

The next morning came. Clyde woke me up early, offered me some of his supplies and food, then we were back on the road that led all the way to our destination.

"We’re here." I put down my map and folded it back neatly.

It was a small village. More or less the same architecture as the main city but the scales are more miniature this time. 

With the lack of walls or fences, the village very much looked like it was vulnerable to attack from all fronts. But… that's a concern they'll have to figure out. Not me.

Wearing a loose buttoned up farmer’s top, an old man with a long, pale brown beard tapped his wooden cane to the ground as he intercepted our entry.

"Ah! Hello Adventurers! And welcome to our humble village of Grais! What brings you wonderful people here?" The old man asked, looking at Clyde majorly.

I reached behind me and dug my hand into my bag for the quest paper, which I brought out and showed to the old man. Only then the old man turned to me and received what I was reaching out to him.

"Ah… Those monsters. F-Forgive the rude gesture. See, I was already convinced that no one would take such a quest…" He chuckled into a cough. "Adventurers nowadays only seek the gain, and I… can’t blame them."

Well… (O …  O””)

"Well well, not te worry, old man! We’ll take care ‘f it!" Pulling a cheek grin, Clyde stuck a thumb out to point at himself.

For someone who probably didn’t sleep much last night, he sure is pumped up to kill Slimes… Some people just have all the energy, I guess.

"C-Can you show us the way to where our targets would be?" I meekly asked with a small bow.

"Why, of course dear-" after turning to me, he suddenly stiffened, muttering, "White, blue and purple… mage armor…"

Mage armor? My armor? What… about it?

"Mm?" I tilted my head at him in response.

"Oh, o-oh, don’t mind this decrepit statue of bones. Unimportant recollections. There’s still the matter of monsters at the moment. B-Best be on our way." He turned tail and started walking with his cane in tow. "This way! This way!"

The walk took at least seven minutes, us traveling straight through the lightly-populated village. The end of it was nothing but sectioned lots of farmland huddled beside a tall cliff wall. The land we were stepping on was a little more elevated than these crop lands. A few hectares of this low land area had flattened crops and an abundance of water mixed with… other brown and greenish fluids. It didn’t take long for the culprits to show themselves. 

Earthen Slimes and your-average-RPG Slimes littered the scene.

One, two… five… eleven… fifteen?? Wait, there’s even more than that!

Clyde whistled slowly. "That’s a lotta Slimes in one place!"

"These… insufferable creatures have been terrorizing these farmlands since last week. I would even wager they’ve been falling over from the peak of the nearby mountain-cliffs, accumulating into the problem we see of them now. Only a handful wouldn't normally be difficult, but even those capable of combat from the village’s ranks only ended up getting hurt when they lended their aid." The old man sighed lengthily. "At the very least, no one got into anything serious. While those monsters didn’t seem to plan on expanding their territory anytime soon, this is an issue I ought to seek out help as early as I could."

Breathing out slowly, I brought out my staff.

"Let’s go, Clyde."

I was already so determined to get it done. My cape swayed and portrayed how cool I look when I felt like I was in charge of the situation. The gentle sun was even shining over where I was heading.

But then, the Silent god (proverbially) said:

No.