(MC POV)
Eris pouted at me.
I looked to the side to see Bait, Denna and even Laverna joining her in their pouting.
"Umm… I'm sorry…" I apologised, feeling a little lame.
I thought they were upset that I stole the fight from them but unexpectedly, the four of them gasped in surprise at my apology.
"Why… Why is Master apologising?" Eris asked.
I blinked at her, "Eh? Aren't you all upset that I stole the kill from you?"
All four of them tilted their heads at me.
"Why would we be upset about that? Master was so cool! We're just sad that we couldn't even protect Master properly!"
"Err… What? Why would that even be a worry for all of you?"
Bait shook her head "What kind of partay' lets their healer get attacked in the middle of a fight like dat'?! Ugh… We're such a disgrace…"
Oh, so that's why they were pouting… It wasn't directed at me in particular but at themselves.
I reached out and started patting each of their heads in succession, "It's ok, I'm here as your support right? You can count on me to support all of you."
"Master… Spoils us…" Laverna groaned.
She's lamenting over the fact that I spoil them a lot but it feels good for them to be spoiled. So cute~
Well, I would be worried about spoiling them too much if they weren't such overachievers in the first place. In fact, it's because they were like this that I feel like spoiling them all the time.
Otherwise, I'd be worried about them being all work and no play since they would most certainly do that.
After the four of them were satisfied with the head pats, we proceeded deeper into the cave in the same formation as before.
We figured out that since that boss was waiting there, this tunnel should at least lead us closer to the demon lord's castle on the other side.
pαndα---noνɐ1,сoМ Sure enough, when the tunnel started sloping back up towards the surface, we found ourselves right in front of it. It appears the demon general had just gone ahead to dig a tunnel down towards the valley from here to lay a trap for us.
"The Demon Lord's castle… Feels really tacky if ya' ask me," Bait remarked, tapping her Greatsword against her shoulder.
Indeed, it had the stereotypical look of an evil villain's castle with its dark and edgy architecture. There was even a pair of giant gargoyles standing guard on either side of the entrance too.
If this was some video game, then the gargoyles would come to life and start attacking us.
Oh who am I kidding? This was already a stereotypical hero World so of course those gargoyles came to life to attack us.
All of us leapt back as the three metre tall statues jumped up from their pedestals to swing their spears at where we had been moments ago.
Everyone reacted immediately and took up fighting positions, I even remembered to nerf myself so that I'm on the same level as the others too.
The two gargoyles tried to flank us from either side so Eris and Bait split up to intercept each one.
The material the gargoyles were made of were some kind of magic metal that made them very resistant to both physical and magical attacks, making them the perfect guardians for the entrance.
Not to mention the fact that they have anti-divinity auras as well that negate Eris's divine powers.
Even without their divinity, Eris and the others still retained their sword skills and were able to skillfully evade their attacks while returning strikes of their own.
As Eris was the hero in this World, she had the advantage as her abilities were boosted slightly even without her divinity. Thus, her gargoyle was already riddled with scratches all around its body without being able to land a hit on her.
Bait had a harder time since she did not have a s.h.i.+eld so I had to constantly heal her to make sure she was in top shape. She was undoubtedly getting better as she started to avoid the gargoyle's attacks much more efficiently with each pa.s.sing second to find an opening to strike back at it.
Laverna and Denna were not idle either as the former started firing explosive arrows at each gargoyle that presented an opening for her while Denna made use of her magic to bombard them as well.
It was a truly gruelling fight but I could see that the girls were adapting to their own roles properly to subdue these two monsters as a party.
I realised that they were basically also using this chance to get used to their weapons as well, since they have never used them before.
You would not be able to tell that they were fighting with them for the first time, but I suspect they had made use of this World's memories to aid them.
The gargoyle Bait was fighting tried to stab its spear into her chest and she reacted by taking a step to the side quickly, just enough so that she had s.p.a.ce to swing her sword.
While the monster had its arms extended, Bait brought her greatsword down with a roar and cleaved through both of the gargoyle's arms and the spear along with them.
While the gargoyle was distracted in trying to process the loss of its limbs, Denna pointed her magic staff at her target, letting loose a beam of light that shot out from the end of her staff that pierced through the monster's head.
That was one of them down…
I turned my attention to Eris who had just deflected a spear thrust using her s.h.i.+eld, allowing her to get past its guard to stab her sword into the gargoyle's chest where the heart should have been.
It should have been a fatal blow but this monster did not rely on a heart to live so it was not enough to kill it.
Eris was aware of that so she swung her arm upwards to cut through the gargoyle's head vertically, her hero's sword slicing through the monster easily.
Laverna then dealt the finis.h.i.+ng blow by shooting an explosive arrow right in between the gargoyle's eyes, blasting its head into pieces and killing it instantly.
The moment those two gargoyles crashed into the ground, the four of them immediately rushed up towards me.
"How was it, Master?! Did I do good?!"
"Didja' see that, Master! Aye' was like wham and bang and that thing was dead!! That was awesome!!"
"Mnnn… Praise…"
"This one also humbly requests for Master's praise."
Looks like they were proud to have taken down their first boss monster in this World.
All of you are really cute~ Head pats for all of you!