An army of a few dozen witches rushed out of the gates, heading toward Axel.

"..."

Seeing this, Axel felt a mix of worry and relief.

Relief that he was no longer alone in facing the demon army on the ground—and worry that they might figure out his real aim for coming out here.

'No, I just need to retrieve the dolls from fallen enemies quietly, and I should be safe!' he decided quickly, renewing his resolve.

"Ugh! Bastards...!"

"Haaa! Take this!"

"Keep your formation, don't let the demons break through!"

However, he quickly realized a problem... The witches were struggling to reach him! They were stuck near the "front" of the battlefield, unable to take even a single step further!

Axel found this situation a blessing and shouted, "Stay there and draw the enemy's attention. That should help me more than enough!"

This way, the danger of them realizing he was just cleaning up after his mess was reduced. At the same time, although they were risking themselves by stepping in, the pressure on Axel was eased—at least slightly.

With enough room to move, he quickly "stole" the dolls from enemies near the girls and let the witches deal with them. For the rest, he moved fast, slipping through gaps in their formation and acting like a pickpocket.

With his speed, in just a split second, he had already gathered a dozen dolls!

And with the nonstop attacks from the witches on top of the walls, demons who lost their protection quickly fell. This gave Axel more breathing room, and his pace increased even further.

Thanks to this, positive feedback formed through their impromptu cooperation—orchestrated by Axel himself!

"Everything's going smoothly...!"

Just as he thought that—

"GRAAAAAH!"

"...!"

He passed the line of small monsters and reached the medium and large ones.

Of course, his objective was still the same: only kill when necessary, and rob the rest of their Substitute Dolls. However...

'I can't leave these big guys to the girls! They're too weak to handle this head-on!'

With them already struggling against smaller monsters, it wasn't hard to imagine the tragedy if a large one reached them. Thus, Axel took it upon himself to protect them—and by extension, protect himself.

[A Hill Giant is coming from the right! Let's go~!]

Navi was so absorbed in watching that it even started giving Axel hints while cheering. Ignoring the fact that Navi was already on its second bucket of popcorn, Axel was thankful for the timely warning.

Turning right, he leapt forward, slipping into the space between the fifteen-meter-tall monster's legs.

With his speed, it must've looked like he simply vanished from the giant's sight. But he wasn't done. He bounced back and forth between its legs, climbing higher until he reached a vital spot.

"HAAAP!"

With a powerful upward slash, he severed the giant's trunk and the crowned jewels beneath it in one stroke! The castrated giant lurched forward in agony, its arms instinctively covering the area as it let out a dull, pained cry.

The surrounding monsters flinched at the sight, copying the giant by shielding their own privates... but Axel didn't stop. He seized the moment and moved faster.

Using his momentum, he ran up the Hill Giant's body, hopping across folds of fat and sprinting along its arm. Soon, he reached its neck and slashed at the spot where a human's carotid artery would be.

Blue blood sprayed like a broken faucet. Axel continued upward, stabbing both of the giant's eyes before finally running down its curved back.

"Hup!"

As soon as he landed, he pulled away from the surrounding monsters while grabbing their Substitute Dolls. The next moment, the blinded Hill Giant rampaged in pain and fury, killing its own allies in its final moments.

After all, it could no longer see. It thrashed about, desperately trying to reach Axel—unaware that he was already on a second Hill Giant, dozens of meters away!

His way of fighting was brutal, but efficient... the only problem was his stamina.

"Huff...! Huff...!"

It had barely been five minutes since he entered the battlefield, yet he was already out of breath! If he kept this pace, he might even collapse from lack of oxygen before long.

'But I don't have time to rest...!'

He was right in the middle of the battlefield. There was nowhere safe enough to catch his breath. With no other option, he improvised.

Pulling out another Greater Recovery Potion, he downed it in one gulp. Though it was more of a side effect than its main function, the max-level potion restored some stamina thanks to the permanent vitality boost it provided.

His shortness of breath eased instantly. Still, 'I can only drink six more of these before I'm in the red...!' Axel grumbled internally.

No matter what, money was still the problem!

And so, Axel continued fighting nonstop for thirty minutes.

During that time, he collected roughly half of the Substitute Dolls used by the Demon Army, allowing the witches to reduce their numbers by half. As for the kill quest, he had already completed it, so killing dropped lower on his priority list.

Normally, an army would have retreated after suffering this many casualties. However, it seemed that the concept didn't exist for them.

They continued marching forward—with renewed vigor.

"This is bad..." Axel muttered.

Glancing back, he saw the witches several hundred meters away. Bloodied and nearly half-dead... yet still fighting bravely. On the walls, the frequency of curses began to drop.

Mana was no longer an issue, but their mental stamina thinned with each spell cast.

In short, the defense line was weakening.

"As expected, fighting an enemy that's more than ten times our numbers isn't easy...!"

So far, the witches hadn't suffered a single casualty—but with fatigue steadily mounting, it was only a matter of time.

'I can't let this continue...!'

Axel wasn't moved by justice or pity. He didn't awaken his nonexistent conscience either.

His thoughts were purely pragmatic—if the witches fell, then his death would soon follow.

To survive, he had to preserve their numbers until the end!

"Fuck... no choice!"

With that, he settled on his final resort.

Putting distance between himself and the enemy, he skimmed through his inventory and grabbed the items he'd set aside earlier—accessories.

He swapped his loadout in an instant and took a deep breath.

"Time to gamble!"

He stepped forward—and vanished—

—reappearing one kilometer away from his original position!

All the small monsters along his path got flung away by the air pressure alone!

"Damn!" Axel cursed, gasping for air, his face pale. "It's way too fast!"

No matter how he looked at it, +60 speed was simply too much!

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