“M-monsters are attacking us!!”

“Wake up!”

“Tsk, what is going on!? Eh!? …Uugh”

A small arrow lodged itself between the eyebrows of one of the guards who responded and tried to assess the situation. Stunned, the man collapsed whilst holding the arrow that struck his forehead.

“Guruaaaaaaaah!!” (I’ll keep firing away!!)

Blazer, who has activated the small crossbow gauntlet on his left hand, holds two more arrows in his right hand and fires at the adventurer-like man who emerged from behind the carriages.

“Gu, uaahhh!!”

The small arrows found their way to the man’s flank and right leg and sent him kneeling on the ground. Two more guards who were about to follow the man stopped in their tracks and became wary of the tall, skinny Kobold who had taken out three more arrows with his right hand.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the camp, Ax and Dagger held back the guards who became aware of the situation and tried to join in the fight.

“Kuruaaoon!” (Burn!)

A ball of foxfire flew and enveloped the guard who had been sleeping with his back to one of the carriages as soon as he woke up and grabbed his weapon. 

“Uaaaaaaaaah!!”

The warrior screams and rolls on the ground and somewhat manages to put off the fire, but the foxfire clings to him relentlessly, causing burns all over his body. The three other guards who saw it happen were quite visibly unnerved.

Under this situation, I could hear the mage muttering as he finishes his incantation.

“I made it in time. With this, I…”

The wryly smiling sorcerer waves his arms, scattering numerous white shards that successively sink into the ground…

“Clear away thy regrets, o undead soldiers! Rise from the depths of the underworld!!”

“Uuuuhhh…urhhhh…uhh…”

Voices were heard from underground as white, skeletal arms sprung up from the soil. Next, the skull and the upper body of the Skeleton Soldiers appeared as they crawled out from the ground.

(So those were skeletal fragments earlier… Isn’t that a type of forbidden curse…?)

Quickly thrusting my hand downwards, I channeled my earth magic to the ground.

“Gaua guruaoh! Voooaan! (Return to the earth! Turn undead! 【※Bluff】)

“Uuuuuhhh….”

“Aaaa…aaahhh”

The soil in front of the Skeleton Soldiers who were crawling their way out of the ground rises and buries them back like an avalanche …It was not the advanced Holy magic spell, Turn Undead, but it was simply the Earth-type magic spell called “Earth Flow”.

It saved me a bit of time from having to deal with those, but… It was more than enough.

“What the heck!? Impossible, they can even use earth magic!!”

“Kuruaah!” (This is my chance!)

Lancer took the opportunity and rushed at the mage who was left defenseless and shaken after I forcibly buried the Skeleton Soldiers that he especially summoned. Following Lancer, I also grabbed my weapon and went to subjugate him. 

“Garuaaaaah!!” (I’m not letting you get in the way!!)

“Guuh!!”

Clangg

The Dagger Wielder who blocked me was momentarily stunned as he crisscrossed his Large Knives in time to block the slash from my Scimitar, but Lancer used this time to rush beside him and stabbed the mage in the abdomen.

“Guu….aah, to fall… in this kind of place… gahah…”

Since the Caster was fatally wounded, the Skeleton Soldiers who were struggling from beneath the mud avalanche instantly stopped moving and fell limp like a puppet with its strings cut.

“Shit, this isn’t worth it! I’m outta here!!”

The Dagger Wielder retreated after seeing what happened and tried to make his escape by hiding himself in between the three parked carriages.

“H-hey did Raios just…”

“Kuh, he’s right though; this really isn’t worth it!!”

It seems the other guards also saw what the Bouncer-like Dagger wielder did, and the five remaining guards, after seeing the destruction and chaos surrounding them, also retreated slowly and fled the scene. 

And as soon as they were quite a distance away from us, they turned their backs and ran towards the direction of Kelp city.

“Kyuuh, gauan?” (Big brother, shall we chase them?)

“Guu, kyuaoon.” (No, there’s no need.)

Our main objective was to rescue the Werecat mother and daughter as Wallace requested after all… and also to secure the merchant and the others, I guess? I turned towards the covered wagons where I could smell the faint scent of iron among the Werecats and humans. 

“Gau, voruaaan…” (Now, shall we end this…?)

Holding the curved blade in front of me, I inched closer to the covered wagon where the Werecats’ scent was strongest.

“U… uwaaaaaaaaah!!”

As I suspected, a man holding a dagger with both hands springs out from inside the carriage. I safely avoided the attack by generously sidestepping. I then brought down my curved blade which I held at the ready in a sloping manner.  

Slash

“Guuh, aaah… uu, ughh..”

The merchant-like man who was not even wearing any armor fell with a grunt as I pulled him forward when I cut him from his right shoulder to his chest with my curved blade.

“Hiii, hiyaaaaaaaah, monsters!!”

“Vonn.” (So loud.)

“Uwaah!?”

I grabbed the fat merchant by the collar as he was hunched over and screaming from inside the wagon and dragged him outside with force. As I did so, I made sure that there were no more threats coming from inside and pointed the tip of my sword at the cowering merchant who awkwardly crawled on the ground.

“Hiii!”

“Garuoaah, wauuh!” (Knock him out, Ax!)

“Waouh!!” (Eii!!)

As the slightly overweight merchant froze and stared at me in fear, the big blue Kobold took a step forward with his dominant foot and brought down his huge Shield on the man’s head as he approached from behind!

Thunk

“Auh…”

I then took out the hemp rope from the bag on my waist and walked over to the man who laid limp and unconscious on the ground. And as my companions kept vigilance in our surroundings, the kidnapping Slave Trader became the prisoner.

(… There are still around two of those merchant-like men inside the other two carriages, but if we also incapacitated them, then no one would drive these coaches.) 

“Varuaaooou, guaou.” (Dagger, go fetch my mask.)

“Kuu, woauoonn.” (Okay, I’ll be back in a bit!)

I received my Mithril mask after a few beats and headed to the other two carriages where I “persuaded” them by showing them their captured leader.

“I, I got it! I’ll throw away the weapon!”

“Th-this is fine, right?”

We also captured the men who emerged from the carriages with their hands raised, ending tonight’s hunt.