Chapter 53

Rorolf's proposal was truly an anticlimactic method.

First, Thor approached the river.

Yuril stood behind him.

This part was the same.

What was different was the positions of Moe and Sora.

They still waited in the rear, but they stood apart on either side.

In their hands, they held several stones they had picked up.

"――Let's start."

While calling out over his shoulder, Thor gave Yuril a quick glance.

The silver-haired beauty, who had moved about five steps forward from her usual position, nodded gracefully.

From their casual conversation, Thor didn't think they looked like the type to tell bad lies.

But they definitely had some plan in mind when they approached.

Therefore, he had asked Yuril in advance to help if anything happened.

As Thor stomped his feet on the riverbank, the water immediately rippled, and a red-black mass leaped out.

Thor's sword struck the first frog sharply, and the frog, knocked down, collided with its companion, hindering its movement.

He knocked down another frog that leaped over and then slipped away.

A cold, sleep-inducing breeze replaced the air, enveloping the monsters.

The spectators cheered at the sight of the red poison frogs suddenly stopping their movements.

"Wow, magic techniques are really amazing!"

"Being a magic user is great..."

"Bro, we should definitely make the fifth member a magic user!"

As Thor was about to close the distance to the sleeping frogs, a dorsal fin emerged from the waves and entered his peripheral vision.

Just as he thought another obstacle was about to interfere, something flew through the air.

It was a stone thrown by Moe.

The stone flew in a parabolic arc toward the water's surface, far from the fish and frogs.

Just before it hit the water, the stone was struck by a powerful water projectile and blown away.

The monster that had fired the water projectile also dove back into the water.

But the fish, dripping blood-red water from its scales, jumped into the air again.

The water projectile it fired from its sharp mouth headed toward the stone thrown by Sora.

The fish repeatedly leaped to hit the stones thrown alternately by the two, who were standing apart on the left and right.

This was the method Rorolf and the others had proposed.

In fact, the blood-spitting fish had a habit of attacking anything that moved on the water's surface, and if you knew this, it was easy to distract them.

It seemed they were helping the red poison frogs to steal prey that the frogs had dragged into the water, and if they had something they could catch themselves, they would keep firing water projectiles.

Thor began to cut the motionless frogs with a blade that had been sharpened to its maximum.

The audience cheered again at the sight of the monsters being bisected with a single cut.

However, just as he was about to finish off the fourth red poison frog, the fish's movements suddenly changed.

Its body twisted sharply in mid-air.

Originally, the stones were thrown from two directions to keep the blood-spitting fish from focusing on a single target.

But children tend to forget themselves when they get too excited.

Moe, absorbed in the task, accidentally threw stones in quick succession.

The fish, having knocked down the first stone, noticed the second one flying close by and changed its direction in mid-air, firing water projectiles in quick succession.

The second water projectile shattered the stone, and the last one headed toward the child.

"――Sora!"

"Leave it to me!"

"Ice, slide――<Ice Floor>"

Thor's call was followed by the overlapping voices of the two, and magic power surged.

The water projectile, which had suddenly decelerated, hit the riverbank just short of Moe.

The child, who was hit by the water splash at close range, was startled and tumbled over.

At the same time, a significant change occurred in the river.

Thor, who had confirmed Moe's safety, stopped moving and turned his gaze forward.

The water in front of him had also stopped moving.

It was as if time had been cut off in that spot, with the waves and splashes frozen in place.

No, they were actually frozen.

The surface of the red-black river was covered entirely by ice.

It took a moment for Thor's brain to recognize that this was the effect of Yuril's <Ice Floor>.

The original <Ice Floor> was a magic technique that lightly froze the ground to make it unstable.

But Yuril's version had such power that it froze the entire river.

The blood-spitting fish, which had been flying through the air, fell.

The monster, which collided clumsily with the ice, tumbled with a ridiculous sound.

The fish, which slid on the frozen surface, somehow ended up right in front of Thor.

The fish, which had been washed ashore with momentum, collided with the last frog, which was still asleep.

Thor mercilessly swung his blade at the frog's face as it began to wake up and make a sound.

He then thrust the tip of his sword into the fish's gills, which were still opening and closing, and pierced it all the way through to the other side.

Thor, who had finished off all the monsters, exhaled softly and returned his gaze to the river.

The ice had already shattered and was being carried away by the current as if nothing had happened.

Turning around, he saw the silver-haired beauty with her usual smile.

Noticing Thor's gaze, Yuril tilted her head cutely and winked.

"Did I overdo it?"

"Yes, a little. No, thank you. I appreciate it."

At that moment, the rough men came running over, shouting.

"Wow! I've never seen anything like that!"

"What was that? Did the river freeze?"

"Amazing! Yuril, you're incredible!"

The three men, surrounding the blushing woman, praised her in unison.

"I was really surprised. I thought ice magic was more subtle."

"I was surprised too. You really are different from the rest, beautiful lady."

"Hey, if you can do this, maybe we can trust you, bro."

"What do you mean by 'trust'?"

"What do you mean? Look――"

Noticing that Thor had joined the conversation, the three men stopped talking and turned to him.

"We heard it would be easy, but we didn't say it would be dangerous."

"Huh? Around here, that level isn't considered dangerous."

"Hey!"

The eldest, Rorolf, showed anger at the second son's response and suddenly slapped him across the face.

"I'm sorry. It was my fault for not explaining properly. I'm responsible for scaring that child. Please forgive me."

As the leader of the trio, he must have understood the pain and responsibility of a party member getting hurt.

The crucial Moe, who was being apologized to, seemed to find getting wet interesting and was laughing while rubbing his wet hair against Thor.

Thor, feeling a bit suspicious about the overly sincere attitude, voiced his doubts.

"......Did you have a reason for testing us?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to confirm something. An incredible swordsman, a beautiful girl with mysterious magic, and a little kid. You're just as rumored."

"Hey, you mean me? Ah, I'm blushing."

"No, I thought it was the beautiful lady at first."

"Yeah, I heard you were really cute, so it's a bit different from what I imagined."

"Ugh, I'll try harder to live up to your expectations."

"No, no! You're cute enough as you are, miss. Stand tall."

"Can we get back to the topic now?"

At Thor's call, Rorolf quickly returned to a serious expression and asked quietly.

"Are you called 'Mud Fisher'?"

At the familiar nickname from about a month ago, Thor furrowed his brow slightly.

"Yeah, that's my nickname."

At his straightforward answer, the men exchanged hurried glances.

Then, they suddenly bumped fists and cheered.

Surprised, Thor and the others watched as the trio suddenly bowed deeply.

"Please, help us! We want you to use your mud-cleaning skills to help us."