Chapter 181 - Attacking the Party

Attacking the Party

As Daniela had did her best to rob me of energy, the demon of sleep caught up to me very quickly. And of course, I had no reason to resist it, and so fell into a deep sleep. It was as if I was making up for what rest I had lost.

Daniela shook me while I basked in the world of dreams. When my eyes slowly opened, her face was looking into mine.

“Are you awake?”

“Ahh…uhh…”

I yawned and stretched my limbs. The carriage was running through a road in the forest. It was still bright outside.

“Where are we?”

“We are close to Yukka…but…”

“What?”

Daniela signalled with her eyes. I looked at the others. They were all holding weapons as if ready to fight.

“What, what happened?”

“Someone has entered the area. I feel it with Presence Detection. They are humans and in large numbers.”

“You mean…”

I gulped. I had a bad feeling about it.

“…Bandits.”

I sighed upon hearing her answer. Again…again… We would be killing more of them.

“Asagi. This is not a battle we can avoid. We will make contact with them within a few minutes now.”

“…Yeah. I know. I’m fine.”

I couldn’t complain about having to do things. Those who didn’t fight tended to die first. And those who didn’t kill, lost what was important to them.

I took in a deep breath and pulled the hood over my face. When I was ready, I put a hand at the Glampanzer by my waist. Everyone else was doing the same. And I noticed that they all had short range weapons. Daniela noted this as well, and took out her bow. She would be able to take the enemy down without missing a single shot.

It was just as that rousing thought entered my mind, that I sensed them with Presence Detection. There were forty in all. That was a lot…

“How many?”

The woman in light armor asked me. I was impressed that she was able to tell that I had that skill by looking at me.

“There are forty. Twenty on each side of us. That’s quite a party…”

I said.

“What trouble.”

The man with the scar frowned. But I wasn’t worried.

“We have this many people with us. Just try to take out five of them if you can.”

They all looked quite strong, and likely had more experience than me.

I think.

“Well, we’ll just have to do our best and fight. Though, perhaps I’m not the one to be saying that, as I’ve been napping up until now.”

They smiled at this little joke and unsheathed their swords. The driver stopped the carriage. We might be surrounded, but we couldn’t fight the enemy from a moving carriage either. We would wait for them here and drive them back.

“Here they come!”

Daniela shouted, and I returned my attention to Presence Detection. They would be in sight at any moment now.

I raised my hand and with a cracking sound, created Ice Arrows. Someone in the carriage gasped, but I ignored them.

Just then, an arrow shot out from the trees.

“Get down!”

Daniela cried, and everyone but me lowered their heads. Those who could not fight flattened themselves on the ground. They were the prostitute, the young nobleman and the merchant. Surprisingly, the beastkin girl was a fighter. She had brass knuckles on her hands. I did not see that coming…

Daniela tilted her head as the arrow shot passed her. It did nothing to her nerves, and she shot back without hesitation. Her arrow found its target as if being sucked in by a magnetic force.

Apparently, the archer had been riding on a horse, and the animal came running towards us, now riderless.

“Horse!”

I crushed the Ice Arrows with my fists, returning them to mana. Then I jumped out of the carriage and onto the horse’s back. My hands grabbed the reins awkwardly as I quickly activated Jack of all Trades, Master of None and viewed ‘For Dummies! Easy way to calm a horse!’

“There! There!”

I patted it on the neck. After a while, the horse whinnied and calmed down.

“I can ride horses! Let me!”

The woman in light armor shouted as she got out of the carriage. And so I willingly got off and gave her the seat. I wouldn’t be able to do much with it anyway. If I tried to ride through the forest, I would be smacked by every tree branch until I was knocked off.

“Good. Let’s go!”

The horse neighed and rose up on its hind legs as the woman swung her sword in the air. It was quite cinematic.

Then she rode off as I and the scarred man, who had gotten out as well, began to chase after her. According to Presence Detection, the others had gone in the opposite direction and a few had stayed by the carriage to guard it. Daniela was among them, but she would offer support with her bow. How reliable.

“To the right!”

“I got it!”

The scarred man swung his sword as he disappeared into the forest. There were bandits running towards the carriage from that direction, so he would probably run into them.

I continued on straight ahead, chasing after the woman in light armor. Now that the archer and the three others were gone, there were sixteen left, and they were sticking together. Perhaps they were the main group. There could be an especially dangerous one among them in that case.

“Damn, that horse is fast!”

I couldn’t move as quickly in the forest. And since I had no choice, I activated Legs of the Forest Wolf and ran after her. Well, that fixed the issue.

“You sure are fast!”

“I guess. Anyway, I think this is the main group. Their sticking close together!”

“Then I’ll just have to trample them with my horse!”

She was quite confident. As an ordinary person, this situation was intimidating. I was scared. And so I clenched my sword tightly.

“By the way, you’re Silvergreen, aren’t you?”

“Some people like to call me that…”

“Haha. How reassuring! I am Tetra. Nice to meet you!”

“Asagi. Well, let’s not die or anything.”

She laughed with amusement. But the whole thing was a little embarrassing, and so I pulled my hood down lower.

“They say that you should beware once Silvergreen has lowered his hood. Nothing will remain after that… Are the rumors true?”

“What? What kind of rumor is that? I hope you’ll tell me about it later?”

Where did that come from! What stupid bastard spread that nonsense!

Well, enough about that.

“We’re almost at the clearing! They’ll be waiting for us there. I’ll go first and scatter them!”

“I guess I have no choice but to leave it to Silvergreen!”

She gave me a hearty thumbs up, but I don’t think that was true at all. But then I remembered the orc battle. It would be pretty embarrassing to be mowed down by arrows as soon as I made an appearance.

But I was able to avoid them.

Remembering a trick I learned with Legs of the Forest Wolf, I raised the speed of the wind. Once I was far enough from Tetra, I pushed the wind to its limits and shot through the forest. Then I burst through the trees and straight into the bandits. As expected, several of them were waiting with their bows drawn. However, they were just looking up with faces lacking comprehension. There was only one there who could react to my speed.

“F-fire!!”

It was probably the boss who had frantically shouted the order. I stopped above the person who shouted before shooting straight down and swinging the Glampanzer. It entered through his collarbone and came out at his groin. And like that, the boss was split in two. There really hadn’t been a need to go so far, but it had the effect of showing what I was capable of.

“The b-boss…”“Ahh…”

The remaining bandits froze. From behind me, Tetra charged in with the sound of thunderous hoofs. I held my sword in one hand and created an Ice Sword with the other, which I used to cut down the closest bandit. Finally, the realization came to them. They screamed and tried to run, but we had no intention of letting them escape. It had been decided and we would do it. It wasn’t pleasant work, but any who escaped would surely hurt other innocents.

And so Tetra and I single-mindedly swung our swords. By the time they were all dead, we were both covered in blood.

Every one of the bandits had been cut through the back.