『Got it!』After confirming their replies, I count to ten while walking with Iris.
And then I cast 『Vision Illusion』.
『Vision Illusion』 is a magic that makes an illusion of someone that shouldn"t be there.
As this can be used even without having a direct contact with your opponent, even Disqualified Crest is able to deceive faraway opponent with it... But it"s easy to see through the magic if you just look closely.
However--whether you allow your enemy to have that chance or not depends on your skills.
『Now!』
Hearing my comm spell, Ruli and Alma go separate ways from us under stealth magic.
The level of stealth magic they"re using is not high at all, but it"s more than enough against these guys.
Right after Ruli and Alma went away, I turn around and shout out loud.
"It"s an ambush! Get ready to attack!"
Then I run toward the a.s.sailants.
Iris followed behind.
Since they"re focusing on us rushing to them, they won"t pay close attention to the 『Vision Illusion』.
"Dammit, they found out!"
"You s.h.i.ttin" me! Did you really tail "em right?"
"Of course! You know my tailing skills don"t you!?"
The a.s.sailants that carry a bow let loose their arrows toward us.
Around half of them carry a bow.
All of them are equipped with the Strength Reinforcement magic tools mentioned before.
I strike down all of those arrows with my sword.
But looking at the fact that every one of these arrows accurately flew to me... These a.s.sailants are pretty skilled for the present world.
At the very least, they"re not like your average bandits.
"Wha... That guy"s a monster!"
"How the h.e.l.l did he strike down arrows with a sword!"
On the other hand, Iris also attempted to mimic the feat with her spear, but it was in vain as all of the arrows ended up hitting her.
Well, mere arrows are no different from dandelion"s fluff to Iris though.
"The girl"s real bad news too! She"s c.r.a.p with spear, but arrows ain"t working on her at all!"
"No one told me about magic to protect you against arrows!"
And these guys went and badmouthed Iris for some reason.
Well, they"re right though, Iris is bad with spear.
"Hey, what do you mean by c.r.a.p! Mathias-san is the weird one here! You normally can"t strike down flying arrows mid-air!"
Iris swings her spear around while getting angry.
However, it"s all in vain as the spear keeps missing its targets.
"Ooh, then how about..."
Iris takes a stance as she gets ready to throw her spear.
But I stop her a moment before she could.
『Oy, they"re gonna die if you do that.』
『Ah... Oh right, I can"t kill them...』
『Yeah. It"s annoying, but it"d be better for us in the long run if no one died.』
Ordinarily, there"s no need to endeavor so hard just to avoid one or two casualties.
But, I have a reason why I try not to kill even one.
I intend to erase the fact that 『there was a battle here』.
And that"s only possible if the enemy suffers no casualty.
Because these a.s.sailants themselves wouldn"t want to report to their boss, 『We failed the ambush, everyone fell asleep before knew it』.
By simply creating a situation that would prompt the a.s.sailants to insist on 『there never was a clash in the first place』 narrative, they would take care of the rest on their own.
...Well, even though we"re not gonna kill them here, I"ve remembered their faces, thus once we"ve beaten the one behind all this, I will tell the proper lord about their deeds, practically sending them to the gallows.
"What the? They stopped movin"."
"Dunno what"s goin" on, but here"s our chance! Aim at the boy!"
Our opponents saw us being immobile, since I stopped her throwing spear, as a chance.
Unlike Iris who"s impervious to arrows, they must see me as someone that could be killed by one since I kept striking down their arrows.
Well, it"s all pointless though.
With how slow these slow arrows are, I"ve no problem dealing with even ten times the amount.
"Oy, do it seriously! These arrows are too slow they look like stop motion here!"
I struck down all the incoming arrows while provoking them on purpose.
"That ain"t no human feat..."
"What do we do? Should we retreat back?"
"Fool, like we could do that, we"re just up against just four peeps! We"ve just gotta get close and--"
Thus while we were buying time... Ruli and Alma were done with the preparations.
『We"re ready! Activating now!』