「Haa, haa, haa, haa……」
A man desperately ran through the city, which was now enveloped in darkness. He wore a set of leather armour, made from monster skin, so as to not obstruct his movements. He held an iron halberd in his hands. But contrary to his equipment, which made him look like an ordinary adventurer, the parts the leather armour didn’t cover were full of wounds. Blood ran down his wounds. Originally, the wounds weren’t that deep and wouldn’t have been a problem if he had rested quietly in bed……but because he had continued running through the city for so long, blood continued to flow out of his untreated wounds.
「Bolton that d.a.m.n b.a.s.t.a.r.d! How far is he planning to go!?」
Galahat, a B rank adventurer, was someone he admired. Because he had been seriously injured, he had asked Murt to do something for him and Murt had followed his instructions. That is……to protect Bolton, Galahat’s half brother.
However, that『Protection』led to Bolton’s loss of authority regarding his own actions. Bolton realised that and sent a private soldier to attack him, leading to Murt running around the city in the late evening with injuries all over his body.
Although it was dark, he was still in the city of Gimuru. Even though it wasn’t daytime, there were still people on the streets. However, Murt didn’t ask pa.s.serby’s for help and continued running towards his destination. Bolton’s private army was chasing after him and there were quite a number of C rank adventurers around. However, the number of C rank adventurers around was just one factor. Galahat had told him to avoid making the issue public as much as possible. As a result, he kept running to the place he needed to go to without asking anyone for help.
He had heard the information from adventurers he was friends with. The place where person who had triggered all this uproar currently was.
Originally, he was acting to protect Bolton from that person and to seek help from that person would be contradictory. In fact, Galahat had told him to keep the matter away from Rei. However, even so……
(In order to protect Galahat-san, there’s no choice but to borrow his help! ……I’m sorry, Galahat-san. The situation that Galahat-san wanted least to happen might occur. But, if Galahat-san dies and that Bolton survives, I will absolutely refuse to accept that!)
As Murt ran down the street thinking that in his mind, he heard the sound of something cutting through the air and instantly sidestepped. The next moment, something pierced through Murt’s previous location, burying itself into the ground.
「d.a.m.n, using bows in downtown……is he insane!?」
He glanced at the arrow for just a moment before spat out those words bitterly before running again.
Several more arrows flew towards him, as if following him. But, thanks to his light leather armour, he managed to avoid most of them. ……Yes, most of them.
「Guh!」
Pulling out the arrow that had pierced his leather armour into his left shoulder would cost him valuable time, he spat on the ground before continuing to run.
If it was the main street, where there would be plenty of people even in the evening, the enemy wouldn’t have used a bow and arrow. However, Murt was currently in the back streets, where pedestrians were rare even in the middle of the day. Although he had pa.s.sed by a few people earlier, most of them left hurriedly after seeing the injured Murt, considering it to be a troublesome thing if they got involved. He didn’t blame them. Even he would have taken a similar action if he had been in the same situation. However……
「d.a.m.n, just a bit more……」
Murt kept moving towards his destination. Two people moved out of the darkness to block his path. One had a sword and the other an axe, Murt wondered how long they had waited for him.
「s.h.i.+t, it was still okay until I got shot in my left shoulder!」
Cursing, he held his halberd in his right hand as he charged towards the two people ahead.
Even though his left shoulder had been shot by an arrow, he wasn’t too worried. Holding the halberd in his right hand, he could still use his left hand to a.s.sist its movements. And……
「Move you pieces of s.h.i.+t!」
As soon as he got within range, he made a large swing with his halberd. The advantage of a weapon made from the fusion of an axe and spear was its range. He used that advantage to make a big swing. In addition, Murt was currently in the back streets, which were a lot narrower than the main streets. There was no way to avoid an attack that took out the full width of the road……
「Uwaa~!」
「Tch!」
The adventurer with the sword had his blade broken with the sweep of the halberd and forced the sword out of his hands. The halberd’s power was weakened after that and the other adventurer managed to block it with his axe.
Halberd and axe. Sparks scattered into the night as the two of them collided.
「Haaaah-!」
However, Murt wasn’t phased and pushed all his energy into the halberd before releasing his grip on it just as it collided with the axe.
「Gah~!」
「Guh~!」
The man with the axe gave a groan at that attack. He collided with the man with the sword and the two of them collapsed after smas.h.i.+ng into each other. Murt glanced at the two of them for only an instant. He picked up the halberd after making sure both of them were knocked out and continued running.
Hyu~!
As Murt started to run, he heard the sound of something tearing through the air again.
「d.a.m.n it, these fellows hired by Bolton are quite persistant!」
Down the narrow streets, Murt made irregular movements so that the archer couldn’t lock onto him.
Because it was night time and there were others close to Murt, the archer had held back for a while. But now he continued to shoot arrows without hesitation as the obstacles were now out of the way.
(d.a.m.n it, even though that guy isn’t far……as it is, I’ll be taking my pursuers along with me.)
Thinking to himself in frustration, he suddenly thought of something.
(In the first place, if I consider his strength, these pursuers shouldn’t be a problem. Rather, his strength would be a great help. In that case……)
In a sense he was pushed to this situation by his pursuers, but considering his currently situation, he couldn’t think of any other way as he ran along the back streets. And he could finally see his destination……
「That’s enough!」
Just as he decided on what to do, three people jumped down from the roofs.
「d.a.m.n, is it thieves now!?」
「That’s correct. The back streets are complex and intricate, perfect for escaping into. ……If it weren’t for people like us.」
They wielded daggers, a long sward and a short spear. From their lightly clothing and movements, Murt realised that they were all thieves.
There were few people who held the occupation of a thief. Yet, it seemed that Azoth Firm, which controlled the trading of weapons in the city, had three of them,
Seeing the smile on the thieves’ faces, Murt would normally have had no way out.
……Yes. Normally that would be the case.
The thieves had just one miscalculation. However, it was one extremely large miscalculation. It was……
「Gururururu~」
While raising a cry, a monster emerged from the darkness. It was a monster with the upper body of an eagle and the lower body of a lion. It was a monster that originally wouldn’t be seen inside a frontier city like Gimuru. It was……
「A G-Griffon!?」
Among the thieves, the one with the daggers raised a shout as he threw one of his daggers. Yes, because of his panic on seeing something he thought was impossible, he threw a dagger on reflex.
Because he had thrown it on reflex, his skill from training shone through. The dagger with the black coloured blade cut through the night, it was a weapon that could be used to its greatest effect at night.
「Gururu~!」
However, that was only against other humans. For Set, an A rank monster, it was a laughable attack that he could deal with with a simple swipe of his claws.
「Tch, a Griffon!? That means that guy is nearby……the adventurer called Rei. Everyone, be careful!」
Murt guessed he was the leader. At the voice of the thief with the long sword, the expression of the thief with the short spear tightened. The thief with the daggers also snapped out of his confusion at that voice and took out another dagger from his chest.
Another person appeared with the sound of footsteps on gravel. The person who appeared on the opposite side of the thieves, sandwiching Murt, had a quiver on their back and a bow in their hands. It was the archer who had been targeting Murt previously.
「Tch, have you caught him yet?」
Despite giving a sigh, Murt’s eyes held no despair. This was because behind the thieves, the figure of a Griffon, Set, appeared. He growled at the thieves with hostility because they had attacked him. More importantly, Murt’s target was the building right next to Set, the smithy of a blacksmith called Pamidor.
(The problem is……that is, does that Griffon called Set treat me as an enemy. It’s only met me once, does it remember me? No, it should remember me for sure. ……It should probably remember me. I hope it remembers me……）
Murt felt like giving up for a moment, but as he looked at Set, his feeling of defeat gradually disappeared.
Yes. Though he had nothing to base it of, he was sure he would be fine. That’s why he believed.
Was it because he had been cornered, or was it because he believed he could survive past through this……he didn’t know. Nevertheless, with that belief, Murt took his first step.
1 step, 2 steps, 3 steps……slowly, he sped up from a brisk walk to a fast sprint.
「d.a.m.n it, don’t let him get away!」
Following the thief leader’s words, a man behind Murt raised his bow and aimed……
「Did you think I wouldn’t consider you would do that?」
Murt realised he was being targeted at the sound of the bow string pulling back and changed his path to be in line with the thieves. As a result, if the arrow didn’t hit Murt, it would go flying towards the thieves.
If he had been a top rank adventurer, such as A or B rank, he would have shot the arrow without hesitation. However, his skills weren’t as good as an A or B rank adventurer. Rather, since he wasn’t such a high rank adventurer, he had to consider the possibility that he would hit his own people unintentionally if he missed.
Right now, the highest ranked adventurer employed at Azoth Firm was Galahat. The only B rank adventurer they had and someone Murt looked up to as a brother.
(Even when I was fighting with other adventurers, he was afraid of hitting them and didn’t shoot any arrows. This means……)
With a grasp on the adventurer’s mindset, Murt bet on his intuition and in this case, it went well. As expected, no arrow flew at him from behind.
The thief leader noticed that as well. He held his long sword towards Murt, who was running towards him……but the next moment, he was swept away without a sign.
「Guah!」
Gush~, there was a sound like raw meat hitting a wall. The thief leader let out a groan before falling unconscious. In a sense, that was fortunate for him. After all, his right arm, wrist and waist had been broken by the impact. If he had still been conscious, the suffering would have been like h.e.l.l.
「Gururururu~」
Of course, being the strongest creature in the area, it was Set, the Griffon, who did it.
After smacking that man away, Set’s cute and round eyes turned sharp, ready to fight.
(Okay, I just need to break through that gap!)
Murt ran towards Set, putting more strength into his legs to slip through the gap created after the man with the long sword had been smacked away.
Running through the spot where the man with the long sword used to be meant running right past Set……but Murt had already made up his mind.
「Set, I’ll leave it to you!」
He shouted out as he dashed past the bandits, pa.s.sing by Set……who remembered him, as expected. Set didn’t make any moves towards Murt as he glared sharply at the bandit with the bow.
Murt gave a cheer in his mind……and jumped right to his destination, the smithy.
「Rei, are you here!?」
And raised a shout.139