To Daniela"s Side
My vision returned to normal after resting for two minutes. But it felt much longer… Still, Presence Detection hadn"t caught anything. Not the bandits or Eve or Daniela. But I knew in which direction Daniela had gone. It was time to go after her.
I found a trail of blood. Of course, it was Eve"s. I followed the still wet trail until I could hear the sounds of fighting up ahead. I ran faster then, it was towards the river, or what was the center of the town. As I advance, I detect more and more figures through Presence Detection. I didn"t know if they were bandits or citizens, but I decided to antic.i.p.ate the worst and be prepared.
"Ah, you!"
"Huh…!"
A guard jumped out from the shadows. I raised my sword to cut down the bandit.
"Wait-wait-wait!"
"What?"
"It"s me! You know, you left us those boxes!"
"…Ah."
I"ve seen him before. The nice old man who had blocked our exit behind the guard house. He had a sword on his belt now, but he did not unsheath it. Did that mean he had no intention of fighting?
"What are you doing?"
"You"re trying to kill Eve, aren"t ya? I wish to join."
"Oh? But aren"t you bandits as well?"
"No-no. I"m really from the other side of town. We"re enemies, you see. And we"ve been planning on taking them down for a while."
Huh. It seemed that Eve"s ident.i.ty wasn"t exactly a huge secret here. Apparently, they just hadn"t been able to get evidence, but it was an open secret. But Eve was rather cautious, and it had been hard to catch her off guard.
"The other two that were with me. They"re also spies."
"And yet, who was it that wouldn"t let us go and forced us to meet Eve?"
"We had no choice then. But I knew there must be something to it, and so we were watching you."
"I see…"
Had they stuck out their necks to defend us, people would have become suspicious. So perhaps they really did have no choice.
"In any case, there really isn"t anything left to do."
"Really? Hmm…well, take this then."
So saying, the old guard pulled out a few bottles from a pocket. All of them were filled with a bright liquid…
"Recovery potions. The green one is for strength, the blue is for magic and the yellow one is to cure tiredness."
"Are you sure? Those look expensive."
"Aye, these are the best potions we can get. It"ll heal most wounds and replenish your magic."
"But these are really expensive! Are you sure? I won"t give them back…"
"That"s fine. They won"t be of much use to me now."
In that case, I would accept them. I did happen to be very tired…so the yellow potion would do just nicely. I removed the cork and drank it.
"…Ahhhhh. Yeah, that seems to work…"
"That is good. Well, I"ll be hiding and staying out of your way then. Be careful."
"You too. And thanks for the potions."
"Don"t mention it. Goodbye!"
The old man waved a hand and then ran away. He had good legs and managed to hide in the shadow of a building very quickly.
That was an unexpected encounter… But now I was in peak condition. This really was an interesting place… And I learned a thing or two. We just needed to get to the other side of the town. As they were enemies of Eve, they had no reason to be antagonistic towards us. Especially if that old man spoke in our favor. I was now feeling quite enthusiastic.
"Alright, let"s go."
My tiredness had blown away and my feet felt lighter. The green and silver wind would carry me, like it always did, to Daniela.
"Well, I"m still the one who is actually running."
It was my will that drove me. I ran and achieved victory with these very hands. And I would do so again. Yes, without letting my guard down. I wouldn"t mess up again like I did a moment ago. I would put an end to Eve as quickly as possible. And I meant to do it through an ambush.
I flew through the city in a blur of green and silver wind. As I cut my way pa.s.sed bandits who swung their weapons, I could occasionally see guards who were giving me a thumbs up. They must be here undercover as well. And so I started to attack with my gauntlet, so as I wouldn"t accidentally kill any of them. The pain might make them want to die, but they wouldn"t. I would just have to apologize later…
"Hey, hey!"
Just as I had thrown my thirtieth bandit, a guard called me from the shadows. He was tall…the strong-looking guard!
"Ah, I see you are well."
"Judging by your expression, you must have met one of us? Well, that is good. Eve and your partner are fighting up ahead. Thanks to you, Eve is thoroughly wounded, however, I can"t shake off the feeling that she has a trump card somewhere."
"Then I have to go to Daniela at once!"
"Be careful! Ah, that"s right. Take this with you!"
"Huh…?"
He grabbed my hand and put something in it. I stared. It was a ring.
"Um, uh…the thing is, I"m already seeing someone…I can"t go off marrying other people."
"Are…are you stupid? It is a magic tool that blocks Presence Detection. It"s not the most precise, but I thought it might be useful!"
Oh…that"s great! I put the silver ring on my index finger. It reminded me of something. I think I bought something like this once in Harajuku. For one 1,000 yen.
"Thank you, I appreciate it!"
"Aye, see you later!"
We b.u.mped our fists together. He grinned at me before disappearing behind a building. And so did his presence. Hmm. Was this the power of the magic tool? As I wondered this, the old man poked his head out again and gave me a thumbs up. Yes, it allowed you to stay hidden. He disappeared for good after that.
"Magic tools are great, as you only have to fill them with magic to use them…"
A way to stay hidden. A Presence Detection block skill. Though, apparently not that good. If only using this would help me gain a new skill. Well, life would never be that easy. But for now, I relied on what cover it offered as I ran in the direction the old man had pointed.
I noticed more and more destroyed buildings. If this was the aftermath of Daniela and Eve"s fight, that meant that Eve still had a lot left in her in spite of the wounds. I felt a cold sweat drip down my back. It made me anxious about Daniela.
Daniela had lived for many years, but she had avoided combat as much as possible. On the other hand, Eve was an elf who had done little but fight during her many years of life. Being a bandit was its own type of race. A race that lived by the killing of others. Fighting was something they did daily.
Daniela had started to fight a lot more recently, and was happy to see that her level was increasing. But I still doubted that she was close to Eve. Still, as someone who believed in her wholeheartedly, I could not doubt that she would win.
"I should try blocking my presence now…"
There would be no Legs of the Forest Wolf from here on. I wanted to approach her without her noticing. I would finish this fight with an ambush.
The sound of an explosion echoed. Dust and bricks flew up into the air. And there was Daniela and Eve!
I ran. Thanks to the presence block, I pa.s.sed by some bandits without being noticed. I could have taken them down easily from behind, but there was no time. I had to reach Daniela as soon as possible.
I ran. A mountain of bricks lay in front of me, and I used Legs of the Forest Wolf for just one second in order to jump over it. I jumped much like a certain character I had seen on TV a long time ago, but I messed up the landing and rolled. Practice. I just needed practice.
I ran. A pillar of fire lay ahead. Just after that rubble. I pulled out the Schwarz Tempest.
"AHHHHHH!!!"
Eve"s voice rang. I jumped over the rubble and inspected the battlefield. All of the buildings here had been leveled. There were a few spots on the ground that were burning from Eve"s fire.
"Ah…"
There she was, Daniela. Eve"s flames shot out towards her. Daniela dodged it. They were right in the middle of this barren area.
I could see that Eve"s face was twisted monstrously. I didn"t know why, but I became terribly worried.
"I can"t shake off the feeling that she has a trump card somewhere."
That"s what the old man had said.
Her face wasn"t like that because she was angry that her attack had missed.
It was because she knew she had won when Daniela moved to that position.
"DANIELAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
I shouted and ran. Something was about to happen. Something bad.
"DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE!!!"
Something was slammed into the ground as Eve screamed. Then a magic circle appeared at Daniela"s feet. I had never seen anything like it before. It floated in the air and shone with a jade light. What appeared next was a giant jaw. Its red tongue and rows of fangs tore into Daniela"s left arm. Then the rest of it climbed out of the circle. It was huge and something I had never seen before. But I knew what it was.
It was a dragon.