Normally it’d be hard to hide in the open in broad daylight, but it was a different story when the grass came up to a normal man’s stomach or chest. Crouching and keeping her head below the grass and out of sight was a simple matter for Camilla.

Sadly, there was no hiding Elyss, which was part of the reason why the plan never even considered complete stealth. Elyss’s presence was enough to ruin any attempt at it.

Instead, after Camilla, Kagriss, Lucienne, and the twins took up positions around the entrance in a formation the shape of a crescent, Elyss charged out from the front. She made no attempts at hiding her mana. 

The abundance of power that coursed within Elyss leaked out in a show of power, challenging any beast inside the mole’s nest to come out and face her in combat. Sure enough, movement came from beneath the earth along with the movement of several mana signatures.

From deep underground they came, climbing up toward the surface. Silencers—mana beasts with limited range, their magic affecting only what was nearby. For earth silencers, that usually meant that they could easily create walls of earth or tunnel effortlessly through the ground using magic, but had a hard time doing things like firing earth spikes or lobbing giant boulders with magic.

Elyss was an earth silencer herself, but was a light crier at the same time. More powerful beasts tended to be able to use more than one affinity, but that tendency, like almost everything else about mana beasts, was not a hard and fast rule.

Two lumbering signatures approached the surface from the direction of the entrance as expected, but three more did not. They moved underground as fast as a fish swims through water, coming to a stop right below the patch of ground that Elyss stood on before shooting upwards.

“It’s as you said. They’re not stupid at all,” Elyss said. She stomped the ground with her paws, compacting and hardening the earth beneath her with magic. She even made spikes that aimed downwards to welcome the incoming moles’ arrival on the bottom of the compacted ground.

A split second before the moles could burst out of the ground in ambush, she jumped away, just as the ground erupted in a fountain of stone, dirt, and grass. Three mana beasts, each about the size of a hog, appeared at the epicenter of the destruction. They turned this way and that, their nose twitching, trying to find the intruder. 

They swiveled their heads until one of them locked onto Elyss. Pulling themselves up with their huge, curved, and robust claws, they climbed out of the holes they had been in. At the same time, the decoy moles that came from the entrance tore out of their nest, racing toward Elyss, kicking dirt behind them with each step as their claws offered plenty of traction.

Built like a miniature moving fortress, the moles collapsed in on Elyss’s position. Unfortunately, no matter how fast they were compared to normal moles, they were moles nonetheless and Elyss easily dodged them with a jump, landing far away.

“They’re armored too. They have a layer of stone on them. Long claws that look like they hurt. I think they can swim through earth if they want to ambush something too. Also, they might not actually be as smart as I thought since I’m leading them by their nose.”

Still in hiding, Camilla noted down Elyss’s observations in her mind. Based on what Elyss said, these moles have exceptionally small ranges for magic, reaching only their immediate surroundings. They weren’t smart either. She was willing to bet that the brains behind that ambush was the mole king.

Individually, the monsters weren’t especially strong either, at least from a sheer number’s point of view. If they came one by one, it shouldn’t be a problem to defeat them, but that probably changed when more appeared. Camilla didn’t know if these monsters were the type to work together or if they’re going to trip each other up. Some monsters became drastically more dangerous when near each other.

That was all she could get with the information she had now, but that was enough for a decent safety margin. Any other information will have to be teased out through battle.

And battle began now.

It’s been such a long time since she participated in a mana beast extermination that she was getting a little excited. The last time she did it on a request was some years ago when she led a group of templars and destroyed a nest of what the guild would have called wind criers—birds that harassed travelers and merchants that took a shortcut under a sheer mountain face. 

She couldn’t help but feel a bit nostalgic, even if the people around her were different and this time she did it for money, not out of duty.

Camilla stood up, mana gathered in the palm of her hand. When it grew big enough, she tossed it up into the sky where it exploded in a flash of golden light. With her signal, all of a sudden, four more mana signatures, two big and two small, appeared all around the mole’s nest entrance. The moles that had been chasing Elyss with their slowly, lumbering frames stopped and sat up on their haunches, alarmed by the enemies that had creeped up so close without them noticing.

One of the mana signatures rose into the sky, a large sphere of black mana trapped between her outstretched hands. The mana took a moment to accumulate before Kagriss released it in a wide ray of sickening black mist that surged forth from her hands, a parallel to the ray holy magic that Camilla liked to use. 

But whereas Camilla’s ray burned what they touched, igniting them with holy flame, Kagriss spread death directly, draining away life and leaving only husks behind. 

The black mist poured onto the ground, engulfing the monsters, billowing outwards. Like a wave of ash from an eruption, the mist smothered the life it covered. The grass it touched withered and died, and any insects unfortunate enough to be caught up in it died on the spot.

Only the moles remained alive, too hardy to be reaped on the spot. But just because they didn’t die doesn’t mean they were fine. An instinctual fear of death that accompanied the spell made them squeal out in pain. 

They quickly raised a wall of dirt, but unlike light, the billowing mist moved around corners. The mist surged over and around the wall, chasing after its prey. 

Camilla unfurled her wings and flew up to hover next to Kagriss, looking down at the panicking beasts, taking note of their reactions. “Are you sure this is fine?” 

“What do you mean?” Kagriss asked.

“The elves are planning to expand here eventually, right? I don’t think that using this kind of magic here is particularly conducive for plant growth.”

The magic was undeniably effective, especially against monsters that couldn’t move very well, like these moles, but it was a scorched earth method that left the land unusable.

“That’s what you’re concerned about? But it’s not mentioned anywhere in the commission, is it?”

“Yeah, but…”

“Besides, all we have to do is to clear this nest of beasts since it’s growing big enough to threaten the settlement in the future. How we do it doesn’t matter, does it?”

That was technically correct, but when Camilla saw the mess left behind by Kagriss’s spell, she still didn’t think it was right.

“Milla…you’re still thinking like you’re a templar, aren’t you?”

“Huh?”

“That’s why you were acting like that earlier, and you want to go above and beyond what is necessary. You want to show your kindness to the people that rely on you.”

Camilla nodded reluctantly. She had to admit that there was still an element in her that remained from her time as a templar, and there was no way to keep it from influencing her thoughts and actions. After all, just because she changed didn’t invalidate what built her up to become the person she was today.

“But you’re not a templar anymore.”

“But just because I’m not a templar anymore doesn’t mean I should lower my standards. If I’m going to do a job, I want to do it right.”

“That’s true, but you’re defending the people and trying to make a better life for them back then, aren’t you? As what is essentially nobility and with the power to match, you have a duty to them that you’re willing to give your life up to fulfill. Can you say the same right now?”

“No…”

“So there’s no need to go to such distances. I think it’s better to complete the task at hand with the safest and most effective means possible, since the people no longer come first. We do.”

Kagriss intensified her magic, causing a surge of black mist that poured down into the earth, spreading out even further until the ground was covered with a lingering cloud of miasma. 

After a moment, the squealing and sound of the rock-armored moles struggling stopped. No sign of movement came from beneath the cover of the opaque black fog.

“What’s going on?” Camilla muttered. The moles weren’t dead since she could still feel their mana, even if it was hidden under the effects of Kagriss’s magic. She had Kagriss cut off the flow of black mist. There was already plenty on the ground after all.

“It seems that they learned and covered themselves in a dome of earth.” Kagriss flicked her wrist, manipulating the fog. Slowly, the fog pulled apart, revealing a dome of cracked dirt and stone, filled in with clay and soil. It was big, big enough to hold the five moles that had been there before.

“Can we suffocate them then?”

“I doubt it. They can just tunnel and leave. Should I pour my mist down into the tunnels? It’s harder to control the further it gets away from me, but it shouldn’t be too hard to just leave it in there for it to disperse on their own. It’ll be a waste otherwise.”

“You’re running low on mana, aren’t you?”

When Kagriss nodded, Camilla whacked her on the shoulder, although she hid a smile. “It’s your own fault for making so much!”

“So should I?”

“No, don’t bother. We don’t want to make them too mad since we still need to see how difficult it is to fight them up close. They’re mostly underground, so we might have to eventually go down there with them where our magic is less effective. Elyss, Lucienne, ready?”

“Is it finally time?” Elyss’s hair was standing on end and her tail lashed to and fro in excitement. 

“Yeah, I’m ready to go. Ari, Sari, stay back.” Lucienne strode forward and drew her sword. But as soon as she left the twins' side, the ground beneath her quaked and a rumble sounded behind her when a huge, solid stone tower rose out from the ground, complete with rudimentary ramparts. The twins gasp in surprise.

Lucienne almost jumped up to rescue them before she realized that it was Elyss’s work to give the twins a better vantage point. Even though it made them a more prominent target, the ramparts gave them some protection and because the mana beasts weren’t supposed to be criers, they shouldn’t be targeted in the first place.

She nodded gratefully toward Elyss before waving toward the excited girls at the top of the tower, as casual as a mother off on a shopping trip. 

“Be careful, Lucy!”

“Don’t tell me to be careful. You be careful too, and pay attention!”

Lucienne shook her fist at them before turning back toward the earthen dome that shielded the five moles from the miasma. 

Camilla looked on with a bit of jealousy. Sighing, she signaled toward Elyss. “Crack it open.”

“On it!” With a thundering roar to psych herself up, Elyss slammed the ground with her front paws, causing a magical shockwave to ripple through the ground toward the dome. Then, the ground began to split; a jagged fissure ran from her planted paws toward the dome before splitting it clean in two. Cobweb-like cracks splintered off from the main fissure, further breaking the dome apart, revealing the moles huddled up in a circle. 

Surprisingly, they weren’t tunneling away.

Despite her good work, Elyss growled in frustration.

“What is it?”

“…I tried to kill them inside their own dome with spikes, but it didn’t work,” she said sadly.

“Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of keeping them alive so we can figure out their capabilities?” It was kind of funny seeing how disappointed Elyss was, but that still wasn’t what they planned so Camilla was still a little upset at the lion. But in the end, all’s well that ends well, so she signaled to start phase two.

Behind her, Kagriss began weaving a dark reinforcement spell that descended and entered Camilla’s body. Camilla accepted it gratefully and power surged through her. Black smoke rose from her skin before dispersing ominously. The spell was an enchantment dedicated to defense.

Hopefully she won’t need it, because that would mean her armor failed her. Speaking of her armor… blood seeped over her body and solidified into a suit of golden armor that was tinted with red. Compared to before, the red had deepened a little more.

“Alright, let’s go!” she yelled, and charged in the lead. Her cry caught the huddled moles’ attention and they turned toward her, their beady, cloudy eyes peering at her through a gap in their armor of stone. 

From afar, the armor looked quite formidable, but now that she was closer, Camilla could see that there were some rather large chinks in the moles’ defense. The dirt that covered the gaps between each stone plate looked a lot thinner and more fragile than the stone plate itself.

However, the armor was still heavy enough that slashes will probably be less than effective.

“In that case, how about a thrust?” she muttered as she charged toward one of the moles. The mana beast had reared onto its hind legs, waving its stubby but powerful front legs reinforced with thorny claws at her.

If everything went well, she’ll probably be able to take one out right at the start. However, she had to make sure that she doesn’t get blindsided when she enters these moles’ magical zone of influence.

For her first strike, she chose the rightmost mole. Once she was near enough, she slashed toward the mole who raised its claws to block her sword. However, instead of following through with her slash, Camilla stepped aside and walked past the mole, pulling the sword’s trajectory out of the mole’s claws’s way.

She found herself right beside the mole. Stopping her slash with her armored hand, she thrust toward the mole’s side. The tip of her sword stabbed through one of the weak points in the mole’s armor and stabbed through. The blade slipped between the monster’s ribs, tearing through its heart.

Camilla spent a quick pulse of mana through her sword. Combined with the corrosive property of the weapon itself, the blast of undead mana sealed the mana beast’s fate. 

When Camilla pulled out her sword, a spurt of blood followed from the open wound, splattering on the wasted ground. A body collapsed right next to the growing pool of blood, the rocks on its fur crumbling and falling away.

“Slow. Tough, but I can still hack them apart if I tried, although Lucienne might need to target a weak point. But overall, their biggest weakness is how slow it is,” Camilla said to herself as she went over what she learned from that brief exchange. “And… predictable.”

She sensed the movement of mana below her. Stepping to the side, she narrowly avoided being skewered a spike of stone breaking out of the ground from beneath.

Filing away the information to share after the battle, she moved on to the next mana beast, never letting down her guard, avoiding all the spikes of stone that pierced toward her. 

If all the monsters were of this level, then this commission was as good as done. Unfortunately, there was still a mole king hidden deep underground, and several more smaller mana signatures moving through the ground toward them. Camilla counted three more.

It might be time to temporarily retreat soon, but until then, she was going to kill as many moles as she could.