Chapter 109: Elfnapping

Cranberry's baseball bat tore through through the first werewolf as if it was just a paper-mache model.

...though all the blood and gray matter were a rather clear indication that it was a real living being.

Or rather, it was a living being just a moment before.

The other werewolf got hit by the gore of its comrade and instantly lost all the vicious fighting spirits that it was showing up until then.

It started running with its tail between its legs, not looking back at all.

Well, that was a mistake.

Cranberry did move on to the other targets that started panicking, still hidden behind the trees - but the red-haired girl wasn't alone in her offensive.

Just when the runaway werewolf thought that it might be safe, something fell on its back and pierced through both of his shoulder blades.

"...uuuugh...!"

It only managed to breathe out pitifully and died before it even hit the ground.

"Graough! (Master! I got one!)"

Zombie exclaimed happily, crouching over the werewolf that he pierced with the thin high heels of his boots.

"Graough...! (Ah! It's dead!) Graough! (Master, be careful! Those are the weak ones!)"

He growled after Cranberry.

"Of course they are! We're you not listening to what I've just said?!"

The red-haired girl shouted back and broke a large tree in half with a single swing.

When the tree had fallen, two people who had been hiding behind it had nowhere else to go.

Zombie was blocking their escape route from behind and Cranberry was in front of them, while the fallen tree was blocking their right side and the left side led straight onto the open fields with no cover.

"So? Anything to say after attacking us?"

Cranberry asked without lowering her weapon, if anything she was right about to strike at the two people in front of her.

A young man and a woman, both incredibly beautiful, even with faces twisted with shock and disbelief.

Both of them were a part of the group that got kicked out from the inn by Zombie for being rude to Cranberry.

Literally kicked out.

"Die, ugly!"

The woman shouted and raised her glowing palm at Cranberry.

It shone brightly and a beam of light shot out of it right at the red-haired girl's face at the point-blank range.

Unfortunately for her, it was something that Cranberry had been anticipating and was ready for.

With another counter, she deflected the shot right back at the woman.

Half of the woman's body evaporated in an instant and only the steaming crystallized remains fell on the ground.

"!!!"

The man that was the only survivor trembled while clenching his palm.

His pinky and ring fingers got burnt because he was too close to the reflected attack.

"Haa... why don't you just say what's your problem?"

Cranberry sighed and rolled her eyes.

The fresh blood on her weapon dried up completely from the interaction with the beam of light so now the red-haired girl could rest the baseball bat on her shoulder without worrying about dirtying her clothes.

"I know you guys are known for acting like unreasonable assholes but isn't attacking a carriage with THE prince, a bit much for an act of revenge? At least wait until he's away?"

She asked with a bored expression.

"?!?!?!"

The man's shocked reaction and quick, panicked glances towards the wreckage told enough to figure things out.

Well, it wasn't that shocking, after all the prince was unconscious in the carriage while the Envys and the joint adventurers' group confronted each other.

But to think that they didn't do any sort of research...

Being hot-headed and so easy to hold grudges was the most known trait of the people from the Envy family, and those ones here didn't seem like exceptions.

"Copycat and power steal, those are some annoying skills most commonly inherited in your family, it's a shame that clear mind isn't amongst them."

Cranberry smirked and tilted her head mockingly.

"Shu...!"

"Graough... (I would rethink how you want to address my master...)"

The beautiful man seemed like he wanted to curse out Cranberry but as soon as he opened his mouth, Zombie's cold hand fell on his shoulder and the blue undead lowered his head, growling into the man's ear in low voice.

That made the beautiful man shiver and lower his head as if he suddenly developed an interest in his own feet.

"..."

Cranberry squinted her eyes and glared at him.

"Where's the rest of your group? Were you four the only stupid ones enough to..."

"LAI-LAI!"

The answer for that question came shockingly fast, but not from the subdued man.

Both Cranberry and Zombie turned back to the carriage wreck only to witness that Roan, Uresha, Shanks, and Rotte, are locked in a fight with a group of werewolves while one of the beasts was carrying away the unconscious elven mage whose head was bleeding profusely.

The one who shouted the mage's name was Rotte.

His body started glowing and he started to chop his way through the monsters but in the end, got overwhelmed by the numerical advantage.

"Tsk...!"

Cranberry clicked her tongue and clenched her hand on the neck of the man that Zombie was holding securely.

"Zombie, bring her back, kill all of those furry impostors."

The red-haired girl gritted her teeth and commanded her servant while the beautiful man's eyes were bulging out from the pressure she put on his neck.

"Graough! (Yes!)"

Zombie groaned and kicked the ground in the same time frame as he finished growling.

The earth trembled and the blue undead disappeared.

"Abducting an elf...? Seriously? You actually do that?"

Cranberry's voice was so cold that the strangled man could feel his veins getting filled with ice.

Or maybe it was just how he reacted to asphyxiation.

The next second a sound of explosion erupted and the tremors made everyone waver.

"Zombie! I told you to bring her back! Alive! Not a corpse!"

Cranberry roared angrily but when she looked at her servant, there was only him standing up in the middle of an empty field.

"What the...?"

She gasped in shock.

She quickly looked around as if expecting that her servant kicked the werewolf together with Lairs and their bodies are still flying through the air.

But there were simply no traces of the elven mage and her abductor.

"Graough! (Master! They're gone!)"

Zombie growled in panic.

"Graough, graough! (Right before I got to them, a third person appeared out of the thin air, grabbed them both, and then disappeared!)"

"...?!"

Cranberry flinched and glared back at the man she was strangling.

Even though his face was getting more and more blue his eyes and body was faintly glowing as if he was using a skill.

"Oh no you don't!"

Cranberry roared, raised him in the air by the throat like a ragdoll, and slammed him down on the ground forcing all the air out of his lungs and making him fail to activate the skill properly.

Whatever skill it was supposed to be.

"What do you think you're doing? We need to have a talk."

Cranberry eyes were wide open and full of pure cold fury while Zombie killed the rest of the werewolves.