Resolution and the Time to Retaliate
I couldn"t find Daniela. I was searching while staying hidden on the rooftops, but I couldn"t see her anywhere. Did that mean she was inside one of the buildings? That would suggest that she wasn"t able to move properly yet… I would have to hurry.
"There he is!"
"Tsk…"
On the other hand, I kept getting caught. Maybe I was just really bad at hiding. I could only pray that I would eventually gain a skill for that, as I ran along the roofs and escaped my pursuers. Thankfully, I was very fast on my feet.
"Where the h.e.l.l is she… The guards…no, bandits haven"t said anything about catching her, so she is likely still hiding somewhere."
However, I could not relax until I knew where she was. My emotions were causing me to grow frantic, but it was here that I thought to return to where it started. In other words, the guard house.
I went back to running on the roofs, but this time was more careful to stay hidden. Not that it seemed to matter much in my case… I didn"t understand it, I shouldn"t even be visible from down there…
"Over there!"
"What…"
I had no confidence in my ability to hide at this point. Maybe there was some malfunction when I was sent to this world?
I clicked my tongue as I ran towards the guard house. After jumping to another building, I crouched down to catch my breath. This really was tiring…
"Mmm…mm…hmmm?…"
I created water in the palm of my hand and drank it. Drinking from a floating sphere of water made me feel like I was in a s.p.a.ce station in zero gravity. The clear water ran down my throat and I sighed while looking up at the sky. And then I saw a building in the corner of my vision. When I looked at it I saw that it was a tower. It was a simple building, but it would likely give me a great view of the entire town. Maybe from there I could find Daniela… No, there"s someone there… It"s…
"d.a.m.n it! Bandits!"
The people who were looking back at me from the top of the tower were bandits. From that position, my roof running exploits would have been completely visible!
I hadn"t noticed, as I was too focused on looking down and searching for Daniela. Ahh, now I can see one of them shouting. I didn"t know what was being said, but it sounded like he was barking out orders to his subordinates.
"Maybe I should get rid of them before searching for Daniela…"
I couldn"t focus on looking for her like this. If she was hiding, then I should trust her and search for an escape route while also chipping away at the enemy forces.
And with that, my plans were altered as I headed straight for the tower. I rose in the air as if I were running up stairs. Then the bandits on the top of the tower ducked frantically before returning with spears. Those weren"t going to reach me.
"Ice Arrow."
From what I could see, there were four bandits up there. And so I created four ice arrows and launched them towards the bandits. The arrows found their targets almost as if they were being sucked towards them. The brightness of the sun behind me insured that they could not react in time. I"m sure that with a little testing, you could create invisible arrows and even swords, but I was incredibly clumsy and imprecise, so I was not too confident in being able to do it myself.
I let myself into the tower, its floor was now covered by the fallen bandits. One of them tried to stand up while holding a spear, but I bound the irritating person to the floor with Frostheim.
"d.a.m.n it. Let me go!"
"I don"t want to."
"b.a.s.t.a.r.d…when boss hears about this…"
"I don"t care."
I didn"t feel like talking either, and so I moved to suppress the tower. First, I block the stairs with ice, as it was the only entrance to the tower. I made it very thick so it would take time to melt even after I stopped sending magic energy into it.
There really were four men up here after all, and when I looked down from the veranda, arrows came flying at me from below. Woah, scary, scary. I better stay inside.
The top floor of the tower was stacked with bows and other weapons. I tried opening a wooden crate and saw that it contained food. Lucky me. I was still dressed for the road, and so I had the hollow bag with me. Besides, it no longer contained the wooden boxes, so there was plenty of room. I was still fighting, and taking this would contribute to weakening the enemy, and so I decided to confiscate them by tossing them into my bag.
"You b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Do you have any idea how hard it was to smuggle that up here without the boss finding out!!"
"Yeah-yeah. I"m kind of busy right now."
"d.a.m.n you!!"
Just how angry was he…
"It was so hard getting pa.s.sed security to bring them here…"
"Aye…we went through so much…"
"The boss is intimidating, but she never came here. It was our sanctuary…"
"And now it"s all ruined because of him!"
"You took the only place we were able to slack off!"
"I don"t care!! You guys actually hate her, don"t you?"
They didn"t even seem to be obeying her very well.
"Of course we do."
"There is no other woman who is so terrible…"
"I heard that a man was tortured recently for breach of discipline…"
"I don"t live in this town by choice. I had nowhere else to go…"
I guess they had their reasons… Well, I wasn"t going to help them because of that. At the end of the day, my att.i.tude towards bandits would remain the same. I didn"t want anything to do with them. For a second, the possibility of persuading them to join me crossed my mind. But they would definitely betray me. As soon as I lost the advantage, they would flip right over.
"Your feelings towards her have nothing to do with me. I"m only fighting here because your boss attacked us."
"You and that light elf, eh? We were notified of that…"
"Aye, she was targeted. We"ll be leaving this town as soon as I find her. In other words, I won"t hurt you and the others if you stay out of our way."
"You"ve hurt us quite enough already…"
That"s because you got in my way with your spears. Just be grateful I didn"t shoot you in the face.
In any case, this watchtower was now out of commission. No orders would come in or out. Now, I just needed to go to the guard house…huh!?
"d.a.m.n it!!"
I frantically ran away from the veranda and to the other side of the room, where I fell to the ground. Immediately after, there was the sound of an explosion as a hurricane of wind came and blew the roof right off of the tower.
What I saw was a ma.s.sive ball of fire that shot straight towards me from the guard house. That was clearly Eve… So she knew I was here?
Rubble from the part of the tower that had broken was pressing down on my back. I would get bruises from this…but at least I didn"t break anything.
"Hey, you…"
I looked up to see what had become of the bandits. All four of them were dead. Either burned by the flames or crushed by the bricks… I didn"t think it was because I had wounded them. It just happened this way. I folded my hands together, though I was sure it would mean no comfort to them.
"I feel sick…"
She"d kill her own men in the process…it was horrible. And she was an elf like Daniela. Though, Daniela was about a hundred times more kind.
"And it came from the guard house…so it won"t be easy to go there."
We would try to kill each other for real this time. I was clearly at a disadvantage in terms of magic, but I was confident that I could kill her if I could take her by surprise. But, was it alright to kill her? Daniela had tried without a moment"s hesitation…
But Daniela was in danger even as I stood here and considered the question. I needed to go with the resolve to kill her, or I could risk losing what is actually important to me. I would not be able to remain sane if that happened. I would probably go berserk until I died in this world. No, I knew that I would.
"She tried to kill us… No one can complain if I kill her."
A chill ran up my back. If I looked in the mirror now, I would likely see the eyes of a murderer.
Kill before they kill you. Take their lives before they take yours.
I could feel my heart growing colder already.
However, falling into this state would help me save Daniela. And I wanted nothing more than to help her now. That warm sentiment entered my heart as well, and my heart was big enough to house both emotions.
I didn"t want to kill. But I didn"t want Daniela to die. And so I would kill first and save her.
The two emotions led me to a single answer.
"Even if I have to kill, I will protect her…!"
I was small, and it was a small resolution. However, it now spread throughout me. Then strangely, a strength seemed to well up in my battered body. I got up and moved to the only spot that would allow me to go outside. There was no hesitation. I felt that if it happened again, I would be able to kick that fireball right back at her.
I took out the Schwarz Tempest from the hollow back and pulled my hood down over my face. My body was ruled by an almost frightening level of concentration. I bet I could make that invisible sword now.
My clothes flapped in the green and silver wind that blew out of me, but I didn"t care.
If anything, the wind felt very comfortable. I felt that I could fly through the air.
Now, it was time for some revenge. I would defeat Eve and get Daniela back!