Chapter 210 - She Detains the Beasts I

Robin's shopping trip was going well, and she had nearly toured the entire shopping district. But her fun was cut short by the sound of thunder. The ground shook. People could be seen fleeing from around the corner, while knights were seen heading towards the epicenter.

'Hoh. That's quite the ruckus!' Robin noted, overlooking the scene from a doorway. '...Should I go take a look?' She pondered.

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"Quick! Where are the water mages!?"

"Is anyone proficient in earth magic?! We need to clear the rubble to search for any victims!"

A large warehouse made of stone and wood had suddenly exploded. Flames were quickly beginning to spread among the newly wrecked storage place.

'Hmmm? Why does it smell like somebody burned their toast?'

"Can anyone use earth magic? Please, we need help!" A soldier called out to the surrounding crowds that were watching from a safe distance.

"Um...If you're okay with me, then I do know a bit of earth magic." A voice sounded from behind the soldier.

"Ah, thank goodness-Wait, who the heck are you!?" The soldier exclaimed, seeing a young man dressed in green with a peculiar brown feathered mask upon his face.

"What, you haven't heard?" Robin asked. "I'm Hero Robin. If you have any questions about my background then you can ask Bastian Lave of Lave Mercantiles. He can vouch for my identity. But for now, there is not much time for talk. Shall we begin moving the debris out of the way, for now?"

"Eh-right. I'd be grateful for the help!" The soldier replied, embarrassed at his improper display. Robin began by spreading her mana over the area, to examine the damage.

"It looks like there's no need to be alarmed. There are no victims within the rubble.... Huh?" Robin tilted her head, trying to understand what her mana was sensing. Her eyes widened as she shouted to the other mages.

"Get away from the building! Quick!"

"What is it?" The soldier asked.

"Something's coming from below!" Robin called out, beginning to deploy a barrier in front of the ruins. Hikaru had taught it to her in passing that morning, while she was shopping, but Robin had never made one larger than a hand before this.

The earth began shaking once again. The surrounding mages took the hint, and began to move away.

"Hurry! Get out of there!" Robin urged, as the water mages ran towards her. When the last mage passed her, she finished the last part of the spell.

"[Spatial Barrier]" She said, her voice echoing with imbued mana. Underneath Robin's voice, Hikaru muttered. '[Light Shield]'. This spread out visibly, covering Robin's spatial barrier so that the people could see where it was.

'Hikaru...What is this?' Robin muttered, looking at the glowing symbol that was the same design as the one on Hikaru.

'What? It's not bad to do a bit of advertising now and then. The Hero should be given credit where it is due. This is also part of justice.' Hikaru replied.

'You and I should have a talk after this.' Robin sighed, before strengthening her barrier with magic. It was none too soon. A second explosion burst from the ground of the warehouse, scattering earth and flames into the surroundings. Due to Robin's barrier there were no casualties, but everyone was shocked to see a great magic beast in the center of town.

It stood 18 ft high, with heavy armored segments, like an armadillo. Yet its face and horns resembled a rhinoceros. Steam billowed from its nose as it stood there, to recover from breaking through the stone ground.

"It's a Rhyllos! Run!"

"What's a Rhyllos doing here!?"

"The city is doomed!"

"Which insane idiot thought to drag a Rhyllos here!?"

"Hikaru, I have a question..." Robin asked slowly.

'Yes, what is it?' Hikaru asked.

"What's a Rhyllos?" Robin asked. The people in the surroundings almost unanimously felt like collapsing to the ground.

"What the heck! You're the Hero, but you don't even know what a Rhyllos is!?" The soldier exclaimed.

"Is it tasty?" Robin asked, pretending to be stupid.

"No one's ever been able to kill one, so no one knows!" The soldier replied, feeling disillusioned.

"I see..." Robin nodded. "Then, I'll take this one down so we can find out once and for all. But I'll have to leave the smaller magic beasts up to you while I'm dealing with it."

"What? What do you mean smaller magic beasts?" The soldier asked.

WHAM!

The Rhyllos bashed into the spatial barrier that Robin had set up, causing the soldier to yell in surprise. Several magic beasts filed out from the hole in the shattered ground.

"Those ones." Robin replied.

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A little bit earlier, in another underground part of the city, Keith and Christian were tying up the men they had knocked unconscious.

"Did we get all of them?" Christian asked Keith.

"Looks like it. If you want to be sure, maybe you should just camp down here for a few weeks or so." Keith joked.

"Um, no. While I'm sure the underground is quite lovely for rats, I'm pretty sure I'm not included amongst indigenous underground species." Christian shot back, as he tightened the rope bindings. "Do you think Jasmine's got the other end already finished up?"

"If she hasn't blown the sewers sky-high, then probably." Keith surmised.

"You don't think..." The question remained unasked, but that didn't stop the other from understanding it.

"...At this point, I wouldn't put it past her." Keith had no choice but to reply. "Let's hurry up and move these brigands out before we're burried alive."

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"Hurry up and bring the children out!" Jasmine told the illegally enslaved people that she was rescuing. Her expression was dark. Those who were strongest had been given weapons to protect the weakest while they escaped.

The blasted dark guild had even kidnapped children of different races. Every single one of them had been branded with an illegal slave crest that had taken the majority of her mana capacity to remove. Even after draining an entire box-full of mana potions, there were still several left whom she had yet to erase the crest on.

Even so, how wicked the dark guild was! All sorts of binding spells were prevailent among the soldiers and peacekeeper brigades. But slavery crests were a forbidden magic that only the magi were allowed to know about.

At this point, she couldn't guarantee that a magi wasn't involved in this. That meant that a bunch of other forbidden spells might very well be secretly circulating about, under the very nose of the Magi Circle. Just thinking about it was enough to drench Jasmine's back in cold sweat. A thorough investigation would need to take place on how much the dark guild had gotten ahold of.

"Dash it all!" She glared at the few remaining crests left to release. 'The magic beasts I released from the forbidden beast pens should be enough to keep the dark guild on its toes, but I'm not sure how long it will be before they turn back around and head towards this place.'

"Savior, please hurry!" A freed slave begged.

"Savior, please! One of our scouts says he caught sight of a magic beast not far away from us!" Another one informed.

In Jasmine's defense, she hadn't checked inside all of the pens, before releasing them. She had merely unravelled the magic binding circles that were placed upon the beast pen doors. Then she had used magic to conceal the path to the slave dungeons.

In other words, if there weren't innocent people that she had to worry about, she would have razed the very foundations of the dark guild to below sea level.

"Dash it all!" Jasmine's frown deepened as she grit her teeth in frustration.

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"So? Why are we in an abandoned warehouse?" Liam asked Chelsea, baffled at her need to bring him to strange locations.

"We're here to rescue people!" Chelsea announced.

Liam looked pointedly around at the sight of the empty building. "And how are we going to do that?" He asked, bemused.

"The same way we did last time." Chelsea's mysterious smile deepened. "You are going to dig."