Chapter 115: Reason (3)

Although there were no demerits and Luke also could train his kissing technique, he couldn't use her to eliminate all of the monsters. It was rare to find the chance where all of them would attack him, at the same time, after all. In fact, if they use Fire Tornado too many times, the Koriri will get cautious over it. So, they decided to seal that tactic for some special situations. Like when they approach the crystal.

"As expected, I ran out of luck when I decided to do that… there is no loot, and we killed two hundred of them," Luke said. "Speaking of loot, the others are quite quiet… I only heard a few signs of battle here and there this morning."

"Stay on your toes around them… something about them smells fishy," Shalia warned.

"I will," Luke said. 

You obtained 17 experience points.

You obtained 17 gold coins.

You obtained 17 experience points.

You obtained 17 gold coins.

…

Although Luke claimed that he had killed two hundred of them, about half of those were small, like a few weeks old. They could fly and could use magic, but they were weak compared to the big ones. Still, he couldn't help but gulp while imagining what would happen in a few weeks if he let those things keep reproducing like rabbits.

In any case, thanks to his continuous hunt, Luke realized that the temperature of the city was increasing. It didn't surprise him that the monsters had such a powerful aura that they ended up changing the weather in dozens of kilometers. Still, he didn't progress enough to see the crystal, and it was about time to meet Claire's group.

"Oh, well… it will be fine even I stay here for a few days," Luke muttered.

On Artiuno's back, Luke began to fly away from the center of the city. Once again, he took a roundabout way to reach that place, but in the end, since they didn't find any enemy along the way, they didn't lose that much time.

Regardless, when he reached the east side of the city, Luke felt that something was off. The number of bodies of the Koriri was too low… he didn't find bodies or parts of humans, so it didn't seem like Claire's group had been annihilated. Either they were slacking off, or they were doing something else, and it was hard to imagine something more important than defeating monsters. Maybe they found some survivors…

While Luke was thinking about that, he saw the meeting spot in the distance, but he gave Artiuno the order to stop. His instincts were warning him that something was off… he was feeling some bad vibes coming from that spot. However, he didn't pay attention to his instincts soon enough…

"Look out!" Rina shouted, and then Luke saw a Spark Ball leaving one of the nearby buildings.

Artiuno didn't have time to dodge, but Luke swung his sword and blocked the projectile. The electric torrent paralyzed his right arm, but it was fine. It was better than getting hit in the head. Suddenly, Luke felt something on his left side as well. When he turned his head, he saw numerous arrows flying toward him. Shalia blocked some of them, but others still flew toward her. In the end, unable to use his sword or have the time to grab the other, Luke blocked the projectiles with his left arm.

"Ouch… that stings!" Luke muttered while sweating bullets due to the pain. "That was a pretty underhanded thing to..."

Before the next wave of attacks could come, Artiuno flew to the high in the sky to escape. That had been the right choice because they couldn't attack the enemies when they were inside the buildings. In any case, while he was looking toward the places both attacks came from, Luke began to pull the arrows out of his arm. Due to his high endurance, they didn't pierce deeply, but the arrowheads still caused a lot of pain while Luke took them out.

"They aimed at us…' Shalia said. "Now, I get it why I felt that something was weird… They killed some dark elves and obtained their power. It is the only explanation."

"Claire's group, huh…" Luke furrowed his eyebrows while trying to control his rising anger. "This isn't something they decided right now… they planned this whole ambush since yesterday. The fact that they are hiding inside the buildings is another proof."

"What are you going to do, Luke?" Shalia asked.

"Demand compensation," Luke replied. "In one way or the other, they will compensate for the lie and for this ambush."

This time, Rina didn't try to stop Luke. She also had been targeted, and while she could imagine that it was out of fear, it didn't change the fact that the ambush almost killed Luke. 

"Why did things have to end like this…" Rina asked and then let out a long sigh.

"Humans are foolish creatures. They tend to attack first and ask questions later in most scenarios… I suppose that is how things worked for Claire's group so far," Luke said. "Still, to think that people could obtain power by killing beings like you… I am surprised we didn't run on people like those guys earlier."

"The system recognized sapient being like us to be the same type of creature, so it is natural that they would gain special abilities, but since we are way stronger than you people, they probably gained a boost in their parameters as well," Shalia said. "They are using the excuse that we are the enemies to gain more of those."

"Still, would that still work?" Luke asked. "I thought it would only work when you guys arrived here."

"Until this morning, that would be true, but now I can be targeted," Shalia said. "We become physical beings in this world, even in this small shape once we show our true power at least once. I guess I should have warned you about that..."