49 Avarice – Good Luck (1/2)

I scan the area around me carefully while moving forward. I continue this way for a while and then change directions. Out of consideration for Kama, I wait for the formation to adjust before moving forward again.

So far we have only come across non-hostile monsters. We haven't discovered any signs of recent battle or camp. I think the weight of my actions finally hit me. The possibility that none of these requests that I took would be resolved successfully. What would happen if we failed all of them? I don't want to think about it too much but that possibility appears in my head. It sends a shiver down my spine.

An hour later, a very small fire particle flies past my shoulder from behind me. It reignites the previous confidence I had as this is the signal we agreed on if someone saw something. I gesture Banni and Jetia to regroup. I smile slightly and quickly rejoin with the girls. Optimistic, I ask, ”Did someone see something?”

Kama raises his hand. ”Yes, it was me. I think I saw a group of people over there.”

He points to the direction where he was positioned at. I ask quickly, ”Okay, which direction were they going?”

”I didn't get a good look, sorry.”

Really? I want to scold him for not doing something so basic and obvious. I thought he already mentally prepared himself. Did the sight of a group of people scare him immediately? I know he's an amateur, but this is an important time for us. I only have myself to blame for deciding to take all of these requests. If I want to get something done, I'll have to do it myself. I don't let my true thoughts show on my face. I simply sigh and say,”Okay, tight formation everyone. I'll lead a bit and see how many there are.”

I move forward quickly with light steps. I reach around the point where Kama should have been and then look around. There's nothing. Did Kama see a monster move and passed it off as a group of people? I don't want to consider that possibility further because I want to believe in him. If there's something, I figure it has to be from the direction perpendicular to us otherwise they would have spotted him.

I move further in that direction. There's a faint sound in the distance. I stop moving to listen closely. It grows quieter with every passing moment. I walk deeper at a slower pace than before. I'm careful not to step on anything that could create noise. I'm not going to let a stupid mistake like stepping on a twig blow up everything into flames even though I don't see anyone around. Better safe than sorry. I smile, seeing the large group up ahead.

I stop behind a tree and peek out slowly. Their front isn't as visible as the back. I estimate there are a total of at least three dozen. Four of them unarmed with two young children included in the back. They're enclosed around three men behind them. I don't see anyone out of place other than those four. They look like an ordinary group of bandits to me. I'm a bit disappointed, even though it feels wrong.

I rejoin with the others nearby. ”I don't think they're the ones who we're looking for, but there're children mixed up in there. We gotta help.”

”Oh no,” Vicki interjects.

I point in their heading and continue, ”They're moving in that direction, so we'll move over there too. When we ambush them, it'll be better if we can reach them faster after being in plain sight.”

”Ho-how many of them are there?” Kama asks.

”At least three dozen…but don't let that number scare you. Most of them don't have any armor and probably aren't very skilled,” I inform. Although some of us aren't very skilled either.

”If we fail this time…more people will die, right?”

”You're right. That's why we won't fail. It's good for us if the hostages are all gathered in one place at the back. We hit them before they notice and secure the hostages immediately. Then we can go wild without having to worry about them. And remember what I said—”

”Yeah, yeah…Kill them before they kill us,” Jetia says.

I frown. ”That's not what I—”

”We all know what to do. Can we get on with this? They're going to get away.”

You guys know what to do? I wish that was the case. Then Kama would've paid attention to which direction they were heading in before I checked for myself. If I'm not thorough in my explanations, some of us won't understand. I refrain from rebutting, though, because what Jetia's saying is right. I'll give everyone the benefit of the doubt. ”Fine, Let's go. Same formation as before.”

I lead the way. The group of bandits is still moving in the same direction. I gesture everyone behind me to stop while I close in on them.I scan the front and middle of their lineup. No hostages, but several of them have Iron armor. Could this be one of the requests? I can't rule out that possibility. I hope that's the case. I regroup with the others. ”I didn't see any hostages in the front, but no large-scale magic until we're sure they're just bandits. Got that Ruby?”

”Got it,” Ruby answers quietly.

”I'll take care of the three guys in the back. Charge in after me. Ready?”

Everyone grips their weapons tight and looks at me in silence. We slowly approach the enemy from the path I took a moment ago. I move Scrap Mana into my leg, foot, and core muscles of my body in higher amounts compared to earlier but with the same ratio. I instruct my Mana to strengthen them for thirty seconds this time.

I deduce that the three in the back must be bandits. If there were adventurers mixed up in here, they wouldn't be placed around the back where they could plan an escape. I unsheathe both of my blades. We're almost out of the safe zone. I activate my Mana and dash forward. They haven't noticed us yet and continue on. I focus on the three behind the hostages. My best chance is when they haven't noticed.

The guy toward the left turns his head toward me with a blank expression, but it's too late for him. I slice through his neck while continuing forward. I slash through the back of the other two bandits' necks too. They scream and go down without a struggle. While looking at the hostages, I exclaim, ”Run for it while you can!”

The unarmed man and woman turn around, but so do the rest of the bandits. One of them yells, ”Enemy attack!”

”Let's go!” the unarmed man exclaims. The couple grab the girls' hands and run. Must be a family of four.

”Oh no you don't!” one of the bandits exclaims while swinging his weapon toward the woman. I step in front of him and parry his blow.

There's another one attempting the same attack on the man. I push my blade forward, pushing the guy I'm crossing swords with back for a moment. I dash toward the other guy but an arrow flies into his head. I smile. I can always rely on Marin. He drops his weapon and falls.

Screams resound from the front of their formation. They're fighting each other. It seems that the adventurers were mixed up with them. With several of the bandits gathering toward me, I jump back. The four hostages have successfully gotten away. I can't distinguish between who's who at the front. Now that I know that this could be one of the requests, I'll just take out whoever attacks me first. I wouldn't want to accidentally attack an adventurer.

Jetia, Kama, Dano, and Banni gather up in a line on the right side. Fire and Lightning magic activates in the distance. I widen my eyes. It never crossed my mind that the bandits could use magic. Is this the adventurers or the bandits? It won't be good if it's the latter. If they target those four who don't have any means of defending against it, things will end badly. I'll find the magic users and take them out.

Four of them are heading my way. A gust of wind knocks them down toward the left. ”Flame pillar!”

Flames appear in the shape of a circle cover the ground in the center of them. Fire erupts inward and upward at the same time, enveloping three of them completely. A magic I've seen before with an adjustment. Images of that day flash through my mind. I shake my head and run past them. I run along the left side to avoid confrontation. Most of them are facing the right side. My Enhancement magic ran out already, but I don't need it anymore.

Most of the bandits are using Iron weapons in poor condition; they're chipped. The ones wearingIron armor among them are using Iron, Platinum, and Cobalt weapons in good conditions. Are they the adventurers? One of them is holding onto something I've never seen before.It doesn't look like something you swing and it's not a bow. He has it pointed at another guy in armor. One of these two must be an adventurer.

One of the men in a nearby cluster turns toward me. I prepare Rich Mana in my right elbow and point it at him and the others near him. I'm about to shout my keyword, but I refrain since I still don't know who is an enemy and who isn't in the cluster. Even if these guys at the front are bandits, the magic could go through and hit an adventurer.

”We found someone by 'imself! Let's take 'im out boys. Whoever kills 'im gets his weapon!” the man exclaims. Seven others near him turn around.

”What?! He's got two Cobalt swords!” one of the seven exclaims. A few of them with armor step out in front.

”Wait. Leave this one to us. He must be stronger than yer ordinary soldier since he's got those weapons. Handle the other ones at the back. You'll get yer hands on better weapons based on yer performance,” the man holding onto a large Platinum hammer says.

”Fine,” the earlier man says. He and three others run toward the backline. There are four men in armor in front of me. The one in the back was the one I saw with that strange object. He has two of them, one in each hand. It looks like its made out of Iron. So the other guy must have been the adventurer. Alongside the hammer guy are two other guys. One with an Iron sword and Iron shield. The other one with a long, heavy Platinum sword.

They snicker and split themselves around me. The heavy sword guy asks, ”Here for revenge are ya? Saves us the trouble of lookin' fer more of ya.”

I pay no attention to their words. I grip my weapons tightly. The man with the strange objects in his hands has them pointed toward me. There's a small opening in the long part of it. I don't think anything threatening can possibly come out of there.

I recall my fight with Captain Albius. It was because I underestimated him that I lost pathetically. I won't make the same mistake twice. I'll play it safe until I know how good these guys are and what those strange objects do.

Two smooth, spherical rocks come out of the strange objects and speed toward me. What?!

These rocks are larger than the opening of the strange object. I block them with the flat part of my swords. There is power behind these rocks too. How's it able to pack such power? I don't understand. The heavy sword guy points his blade at me with his arms fully extended, showing many openings. Flames appear and extend out from the tip of the sword. I jump back.

So this heavy sword guy's one of the magic users… I'll be careful around him since he might be capable of stronger magic. He must be trying to lure me in with his poor form. I dodge the small rocks coming from the strange objects by swerving left and jump while moving backward. They come one after another with no pause. There's no way that those strange objects can hold so many rocks. Is there an Earth Crystal inside he's binding his Scrap Mana to?

I let out some Unrefined Mana from my left elbow and instruct them to form a small wall in front of one of those rocks. A noise resounds as it clashes with the Mana. This guy's really good. He can program instructions into these rocks rapidly without a keyword.

A few seconds later, the rock falls and stops emitting noise. The Unrefined Mana I let out stays in place. The shield guy moves toward my flank while the hammer guy charges at me. It's actually beneficial for me that the shield guy does, so I can unleash my magic on him with no fear of hitting an adventurer. The hammer guy swings horizontally. I barely avoid it with a backstep. The force of his swing generates more wind than I thought. Things wouldn't have ended well if I didn't dodge it. This guy's strong too!

His balance is way off. It looks like he's about to tip over. The right side of his neck is vulnerable. Is this a trap or is he stupid? It confuses me for a moment as he could be luring me since the heavy sword guy is near. Instead of waiting for an opportunity, he fully extends his arms again with his blade pointed at me. I take this chance and dash in toward the hammer guy. My sword approaches his unguarded neck. Blood gushes out of the cut. He drops his hammer and keels over. Weak. How can he make the most fundamental mistake when he has such a powerful swing? It's beyond me.

Flames extend out from from the tip of the heavy guy's sword again. The other guy has his strange objects pointed at me on my left. It's about time the shield guy repositioned himself. I point my right elbow toward the shield guy running toward me and exclaim, ”Fireball!”

At the same time, I lunge forward and jump over the flames. The other guy follows my movements with his strange objects. I prepare some Unrefined Mana just in case. His balls of rock appear, but not matching the direction of his strange objects. They appear and fly straight to my previous position. I make note of this.I land next to the heavy sword guy. He steps back a bit and swings his weapon down.I dodge it easily with a sidestep. I stab him through his throat. I overestimated them. These guys are idiots. How're they using magic?

”Damn it!” the last guy exclaims. I look around. Their numbers have reduced drastically. Kama, Jetia, and the two others have surrounded one person. They simultaneously attack him. It's good to see them make up their lack of strength with teamwork. The last guy is only holding onto one of the strange objects now. He takes something blue out of it. He reaches into his pocket and then puts in a blue crystal. He closes the opening and then points the object at me again. ”Yer done fer!”

I charge at him while swerving left and right. If I do this his accuracy will decrease. The rock balls that appear are faster and larger in size, but their trajectories are always in the location I was in a second ago. I close the distance between us. ”Shit!”

I pierce through the front of his throat with one of my blades. He croaks while he gradually raises his trembling arm with the strange object. I knock it off his hand with my other blade. His hand goes limp a few seconds later. I remove my sword from his neck. I step out of the way from his fall. Til the very end, he was only capable of doing the same magic over and over again with no change. He should have used Unrefined Mana much earlier if he could. I'll commend his speed in programming instructions to the Mana. Even I couldn't do that.

Eight men remain in front of me. Six have two surrounded. I figure the six are adventurers.

The two in the middle are quickly cut down. The difference in skill is obvious. Of those six remaining, four have armor and two don't. Marin and the others are already finished and are heading this way. The four unarmed people are with them. I slash both of my blades to remove as much blood from them as possible and then sheathe them.

”Kai!” Ruby exclaims as she runs over to me. ”Are ya hurt?”

”No, I'm fine. How's everyone else?”

”I'm fine. Marin's fine. Umm…Vicki's fine. Uhh…the mean guy with the shield has some scratches…”

”Mean guy with a shield? Jetia?”

”Yeah, that guy!”

I almost let out a chuckle, but I keep a straight face. Some parts of her never…

No, I don't finish that thought. She's Ruby, whom I met a month ago. I never knew this side of her is all. I sigh and then say, ”It's been a month since we formed this team. Don't you know everyone's name by now?”

”I know yer name, Marin, 'n' Vicki. Ain't that good enough? I don't need ta know anyone else.”

”How are Kama, Dano, and Banni?”

”The guys that look kinda the same are hurt kinda bad. The other one ain't hurt as bad.”

The guys that look the same? Must be Dano and Banni. I used to have a hard time distinguishing between them too. ”Well, at least everyone's alive.”

Marin, Vicki, and the four we rescued join us. I smile and say, ”Glad you two aren't hurt.”

”Yeah…but the others…” Marin says quietly.

”I heard from Ruby already.”

She makes eye contact with me for a second and then looks away. ”I see…”

The children's parents come forward. The man asks, ”You are the leader?”

”Yeah, I'm Sergeant Kai.”

”Thank you so much for helping us, Sergeant Kai!” the man exclaims while bowing.

”Thank you very much, Sergeant Kai,” the woman says with a bow. She turns around for a moment and gestures the two young girls to come. ”Remember what I told you?”

The two girls come forward and then bow. They say simultaneously, ”Thank you for saving us, mister.”

”No problem, we're just doing what's right. It's our duty to help those in need. What happened before you were caught?”

”We were traveling to Drymo with a team of four guards. Bandits attacked and killed them. They robbed us of everything and brought us with them,” the man answers.

”I see. We'll escort you to Drymo ourselves once we've finished our business here. We'll drop you off at Beltan in the meantime.”