Strange Grief Wants to Retire ~ The Weakest Hunter Dreams of a Hero ~ - Volume 2 - Chapter 6

Chapter Six: Ignoble

Talia Widman had first encountered Sitri Smart shortly after joining First Steps.

Alchemists were scarce among treasure hunters because they had to devote an enormous amount of time and resources to their studies, and yet in return, their direct damage output barely increased. A running joke among hunters described Alchemists as knockoff Magi; the joke stuck around for so long because most Alchemists talented enough to be counterexamples would not choose to become treasure hunters.

In her years of treasure hunting, Talia had never met another Alchemist-hunter before meeting Sitri. One of the reasons Talia’s party had decided to join First Steps was to gain access to the documents and facilities required for her to practice alchemy. She’d heard that First Steps offered a catalog of resources that rivaled those in institutions dedicated to the art of alchemy. These resources were out of reach for most individuals because of their exorbitant price tags or rarity.

And after joining the clan, Talia had discovered that First Steps offered amenities for Alchemists comparable even to those of Primus Institute, the authority of magical research in the capital. The clan provided even more resources than she’d hoped for: expensive equipment, rare catalysts, and even dedicated laboratories. But what had been the most surprising to Talia was that all of these resources had been compiled for the sake of the only Alchemist in the clan—Sitri Smart.

Sitri had been the most promising Alchemist in the capital until a certain incident; after which her name had disappeared from all headlines and conversations. And despite her being a member of one of the best hunting parties in the city, Sitri’s accomplishments had always seemed to be overshadowed by those of the other Grievers. Her soft eyes and her favored bland, gray robe had made her look like anything but a masterly hunter.

Talia had known of Sitri because of the infamous incident, which had preceded their first meeting by a few years. But that preconception had soon been wiped from Talia’s mind after they’d started working together. Upon meeting her in real life, Talia’s impression of Sitri had been that of a kind, humble, and incredibly brilliant young woman.

With open arms, Sitri had welcomed the newly inducted Alchemist to the labs which only Sitri had been using despite their doors being officially open to all clan members. At first, Talia would tremble when they met, but over time, Sitri had provided tutelage to Talia, and they’d become fast friends before long despite the busy Sitri not being in the clan house often.

Eventually, Sitri had called Talia her friend and said she’d been glad to have met her. When Talia had asked Sitri about her bright-pink hair, which she’d kept shoulder-length unlike most female Magi and Alchemists who’d grown out theirs, Sitri had explained with a rueful smile that she’d kept hers short because her sister had liked to grow hers out. And in return, Sitri had complimented Talia’s blazing red hair and eyes, which Talia had always thought were garish.

It’d been evident how dedicated Sitri had been to her craft. She’d pursued every branch of alchemy there had been, at times even conducting—without hesitation—experiments too difficult and dangerous for the likes of more experienced Alchemists; though, she’d never dabbled in any unlawful experiments. Even Talia, who’d pursued alchemy despite the pushback from friends and family, had been overwhelmed by Sitri’s fiery passion for their craft.

But funnily enough, this had helped Talia realize why such heinous rumors about Sitri had circulated—she’d been far too eccentric, and other Alchemists had been apprehensive of her obsession and talent for alchemy. What’s more, Sitri had been unnervingly humble about her talents. She’d been a person who would go with the wind; if anyone had transgressed her, Sitri would just laugh it off. When asked about the cause of her infamy, Sitri would attribute it to her inexperience at the time, accepting the blame for a crime she’d been framed for. Sitri had even assumed, without a fight, the greatest demerit a hunter could ever receive—the demotion of her level, a punishment no lawful hunter would expect to face. Yet despite Sitri’s kindness going so far as to threaten her own career as a hunter, Talia could think of no other person if she were asked to name the single best Alchemist.

According to her own standards, Sitri had considered herself too inexperienced to mentor another Alchemist, but Talia had considered herself Sitri’s apprentice nonetheless. And as they’d collaborated in the labs, Talia’s respect for Sitri had soon turned into adoration. One day, she’d vowed to herself, she’d become an Alchemist as spectacular as Sitri. In order to catch up to her friend, Talia had lost herself in books, written down every word Sitri had uttered, and conducted experiment after experiment deep into the nights.

As far as Talia had been concerned, she’d owed Sitri a debt she could never repay. And so Talia had thought, Sitri had always been alone all because of the scandal years ago; if Sitri ever needed anything, she’d be there for her.

Nonetheless, she’d been painfully aware of the vast divide that had lain between their ability levels.

***

Hunters steadily marched in formation through the woods. Night had fully fallen upon the forest, but with the Magi providing illumination, the hunters saw through the dark as though they were under broad daylight.

“Are you all right, Gark?” asked Sitri. “This is a dangerous quest. Maybe you should go home—”

Gark scowled. “Your sister thought I couldn’t handle this too. I’m not that old!”

“I’m happy to have all the fighters we can get, but did something happen?” asked Sitri.

Walking beside them was Gein with his second sword in his left hand. He said, “So...the Thousand Tricks isn’t showing after all?”

“No,” admitted Sitri, “I’m sorry. I’ve asked to take over because I have a history with the culprits.”

“I’ve got nothing to complain about you,” said Gein. “I just wanted to see the famous Level 8 in action.”

For all the rumors surrounding him, the Thousand Tricks rarely showed himself in the field. Yet he remained as the ever-mysterious Level 8 clan master.

A smile blossomed on Sitri’s face as she cupped her cheeks with her hands and said, “Krai was born to be a treasure hunter. Everyone in our party has earned a moniker, but Krai stands high above the rest of us. I have no doubt he’ll reach Level 10 one day.”

“Even you gotta admit that’s going too far,” said Gein. “There’s only three Level 10s alive! They’re unparalleled heroes! Is your leader really that strong?”

“He is. And strength is just a small part of his extraordinary talents. Even if Krai couldn’t beat a sand rabbit in combat, my statement would still stand.” Sand rabbits were at the bottom of the food chain in the ecosystem around the capital.

“A sand rabbit?” Gein cocked a brow, noting how earnest Sitri was.

“They aren’t attacking us anymore...” grunted Sven, scanning the woods around them. They had not encountered any sign of their enemies since the faux slimes.

“Don’t let your guard down,” said Sitri. “Magi always act with caution, and that’s especially true for the Master of Magi. They have to be meticulously careful to have survived this long when every nation has a bounty on Akashic Tower. There will be another attack.”

While the woods offered substantial cover for any potential attackers, a hundred hunters (plus two Vault Investigation Bureau agents who’d insisted on staying with the group) were constantly scanning every direction. Even if another faux slime were to attack, the hunters wouldn’t be caught unawares.

Sven opened his map and estimated their current location, and he noted that they were a few kilometers away from the cliff Sitri had set as their destination. Once they were close enough, a team of Thieves would scout out the area. But if they couldn’t find the Akashic Tower hideout, the entire battalion would have to return to the capital and regroup.

Talia, who’d been following Sitri from a few paces behind, peered into her face and offered a vial from her belt bag. “Are you feeling all right, Sitri? You look a bit...tired. I have a potion for it if you like.”

“Oh, thank you, but I’m fine. By my estimation, we’re almost there.”

Disheartened, Talia stowed the potion.

“By the way, Sitri, where’s the thing you always tote around?” asked Sven.

Sitri had usually brought a very unique-looking magical creature—nothing ordinary like a golem nor a slime—with her to make up for her lack of combat capability.

Turning to Sven, she said, “Oh, Killiam’s in maintenance right now—”

Flashes of light broke the night without warning. The high-level magic spell Calamitous Thunderstorm lived up to its name. Lightning magic was one of the most difficult categories of spells to perform, and only the best of Magi could cast them. Bolts of light rained down before the seasoned hunters could even think about avoiding them. Roaring thunder and explosive impacts followed the blasts of flight. Countless thunderbolts, as if unleashed by a wrathful god, tore up a large clearing in the woods and blew away a horde of hunters. And after a split second of blinding light and deafening sound, the forest began burning around the hunters, leaving many of them charred on the ground.

Seeing that none of the hunters were rising to their feet, a figure descended from the sky. Above the hunters, a brown-haired Magus with a pale face and slack limbs rode on the back of a winged beast.

Chuckling, the Magus said, “Mere hunters are no match for my power! Her measly ‘defense system’ is obsolete while I stand guard. Master will surely commend me for this!”

Magi boasted unparalleled damage output with their powerful spells. Even the long incantations and enormous expenditure of mana were no longer drawbacks when they had the element of surprise. Moreover, Calamitous Thunderstorm was Flick’s best spell: it was an extremely powerful and difficult spell achievable only by those born with great talent in magic and who had dedicated their lives to pursuing the craft of spell casting.

With faltering feet, Flick dismounted the Malice Eater. At his command, the chimera—with a lion’s head, dragon scales and wings, and three swords for a tail—lowered itself to the ground. Flick felt the symptoms of mana deficiency: rattling disorientation and nausea. With a flickering gaze, he caught a glimpse of Sven Anger, who was holding himself up on one knee.

“Hunters are hard nuts to crack...” muttered Flick through heavy breathing.

“What was that spell...?” Sven managed to say. “So you are one of Cochlear’s minions.”

“Didn’t think any of you would still be able to talk...”

Lightning magic was so powerful partly because its sound, impact, and electricity could stun most targets even if they survived the bolts themselves. However, Flick hadn’t expected his spell to prove lethal against the hunters with their superhumanly durable bodies. That’s why he’d brought the Malice Eater down to the ground: to finish off the foolish invaders. No matter how high-leveled the hunters were, they stood no chance against the Malice Eater if they were unconscious.

“You can talk, but you can’t stand,” observed Flick.

“Dammit...!”

Gritting his teeth, Sven tried to stand, but his electrified muscles failed him. He was flattened onto the ground. Slowly, the Malice Eater approached him, its steel-slicing claws digging into the ground.

Flick cackled with elation, overcome with the sense of power. He had no mana left to cast spells, but it didn’t matter. The humiliation of being labeled as useless in front of his master and of being bossed around by a colleague he’d deemed inferior had almost been unbearable, but he’d endured it.

“You’ve caused enough...trouble. But now, it’s all over! Master, it was I, Flick, who—”

“Impressive,” interjected a voice.

The impossibility of it short-circuited Flick’s brain. His prime target, the one he had to kill at all costs, was standing on her feet before him. Dust covered her robe and hair, but her footing was far steadier than Flick’s. Patting her robe with her hands, she was clearly unscathed.

Confusion racked Flick’s mind. Impossible! I’ve made sure my spell would hit her if not anyone else.

Sitri was wearing a weary smile.

It wasn’t that Sven had let his guard down, but he simply hadn’t expected an attack to come from the sky like that. Sven sprawled on the ground; the lightning, having shot through his armor, had severely affected his brain and heart.

Following his gaze, Sven saw Marietta, one of the Obsidian Cross Magi, also sprawled on the ground. Marietta’s eyes were slightly opened, and she was conscious; but as far as Sven could tell, she was relatively unhurt. This could only mean she was lying there waiting for the opportunity to take Flick by surprise. Since Magi’s own reserves of mana acted as armor against incoming spells, Sven expected most of their Magi to regain consciousness shortly. Most other hunters were also likely to survive if properly resuscitated—this was far from a wipeout.

“I never expected an area attack, especially when we have prisoners.” Sitri chuckled. “I knew I couldn’t replace Krai.”

Flick still couldn’t understand why Sitri was unscathed, nor why she seemed so calm while the rest of her battalion was on the ground.

“H-How...are you still standing?”

Sitri cocked her neck and said, “Why would you think otherwise?”

His face twisted in terror, Flick took a step back. He’d even forgotten to sic the chimera on his foes.

As if to drive him off further, Sitri approached him. And as she did, Sven saw her reaching into her belt bag behind her back.

“I belong to a Level 8 party,” said Sitri. “Spells like that are commonplace in the dungeons we frequent.”

Flick’s eyes went wide with bewilderment, unobservant of Sitri’s hand behind her back. “N-No...! A top-level lightning spell...commonplace?! That was my ace...!”

Still concealed behind her back, Sitri’s hand emerged with a pink pistol that fitted in her palm. Without so much as a glance, she pointed the barrel right at Sven.

Sven remembered how Krai had once described Sitri as meticulously clever. Clever indeed, he thought.

Sven tilted his head without arousing suspicion from Flick and exposed his neck to the pistol. Whatever Sitri was up to, Sven trusted her. Maintaining his position, Sven scanned his surroundings for the weapon he’d dropped.

“In other words,” said Sitri, “you lack imagination.”

Pulling the trigger, she fired something into Sven’s neck silently.

In an instant, Sven felt reborn. Immediately, he leaped to his feet and reached for a sword on the ground nearby.

Flick watched, dumbfounded.

“Thanks!” said Sven.

Sitri bolted. “I’ll get the others!”

Letting Sitri run past him, Sven swung the sword—not at the Magus on the brink of collapse, but at the far more intimidating chimera. But before the sword could reach it, the chimera whipped its triple-bladed tail at Sven, who barely managed to parry the series of slashes.

“It packs a punch!” said Sven as he was forced back by the unexpected force of the impact. This is not gonna be an easy kill. How many of these things does Akashic Tower have?

The chimera let out a lion’s roar.

Then, an enormous figure flew past Sven.

“Sorry for the wait!” shouted the War Demon, swinging his halberd that dwarfed Sven’s sword by comparison. Gark’s Relic, Hail’s Tusk, glowed with an icy aura as he crashed the blade down onto the chimera’s scaled back.

“Fire Arrow!” Marietta’s spell found the chimera’s face.

The tables had turned. Sitri was weaving through the fallen hunters, shooting them with her strange pistol and kicking their heads to jolt them awake.

“Healers, tend to the fallen!” she called. “If their heart isn’t beating, kick them! We can still bring them back! Hurry!”

Looking more carefully, Sven saw liquid being shot out of Sitri’s gun. And as soon as the liquid impaled a fallen, they rose to their feet.

“Is that...a water gun?” noted Sven. “Shooting doses of potion? How pressurized is it to pierce my skin? What a gadget.”

“Enough chitchat, Sven,” said Marietta.

“My bad.”

Sven returned his attention to the chimera. It’d just fallen down, having been severed in half by Gark’s lethal blow. The lion’s head was still twitching, but it was a matter of time until it didn’t.

“This...can’t be happening!” gasped Flick.

“Now’s your chance to surrender,” said Sven as he pointed his sword at the Magus and flashed a dangerous grin. “Not that you could fire another spell if you tried anyway.”

“No casualties, huh?” said Gark with great relief.

“We were able to treat them in time,” said Sitri. “Lightning isn’t as destructive as the other elements—the agents from the Bureau were close calls, but we were able to bring them back too. If we’d been struck by a spell more geared towards dealing damage, we might’ve lost a few people.”

But regardless, the attack had been harrowing. Lightning magic was deadly in itself; without immediate resuscitation, those hearts would never beat again. There would’ve been several casualties if Flick hadn’t hesitated in his assault, being shocked from seeing Sitri.

“I’m impressed you could move right away, Sitri. Are you completely unhurt?” asked Gark.

Sitri shrugged and said, “Of course not, even with Lucia having blasted me with enough magic over the years that I’ve built up my resistance. I would’ve been unscathed if I had Killiam with me though.”

“Your party’s insane,” said Sven, although he couldn’t help but wonder if he should have Marietta regularly blast the rest of their party with magic to boost their resistance. That was a close call, he thought. I didn’t expect a surprise attack from above. If there had been more than one attacker... He shuddered at the image of the potential outcome. “We need eyes on the sky.”

“I doubt they have anyone else who can cast spells as powerful as that,” said Sitri. The more powerful a spell was, the more difficult it was to master. “They would’ve sent them both if they did—two consecutive spells like that would’ve killed the majority of us.”

Wiping soot off her face, Marietta said, “Yeah, I can’t even cast a spell like that—I’d be surprised if Akashic Tower has many Magi of that caliber waiting to be deployed.”

“Exactly. And a high-level Magus attacking us means we’re closing in at our destination,” said Sitri, looking towards the clearing that the spell had created in their path.

“Wanna make him talk?” asked Marietta.

Sitri glanced at Flick, who was now tied up. “Not now; I don’t want to waste any more time. If he was their last line of defense, they could be making a run for it right now. Let’s end this before they can regroup.”

Flick, meanwhile, remained quiet—aghast even. His eyes were glued to Talia, who drew her hood forward and hid behind Sitri rather unsuccessfully since they were of the same size.

Brows raised, Sitri asked her, “You’re very popular today. What’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” she muttered, barely loud enough for even Sitri to hear.

The battalion regrouped quickly and carried on with the three prisoners in tow. Tension in the air was palpable. A faint glow guarded each hunter: it was the mark of a defensive spell that increased their resistance to magic. Having faced off against a magical creature that even a monikered hunter struggled to defeat and a Magus who could cast a spell powerful enough to strike all nearly one hundred of them at once, they were painfully aware of how vast the syndicate’s arsenal spread.

They trudged through the overgrown woods until they came to a clearing, where they scattered in all directions without so much as a call. There was no need to send in a scouting party—before them stood a towering cliff with a decidedly man-made cave on its side.

Sven could hardly believe his eyes. “You called it, Sitri.”

“I have good intuition—not as good as Krai’s though, of course...”

Cloud-filtered moonlight illuminated three silhouettes in the sky. Only when they focused their eyes on the silhouettes could the hunters identify them: they were the same as the chimera that Flick had brought out.

“Three?” asked one of the hunters.

“No, five. Two on the ground on either side of the cave.”

Collectively, the hunters braced themselves against the murderous intent of the creatures—foes far deadlier than the wolf knights. While the hunters could hold their own in most scenarios, they were overwhelmed by the chimeras.

“There are too many of them,” said Gark as he lifted Hail’s Tusk and frowned. “Each of them has gotta be the equivalent of a Level 6 or 7 phantom: they’re fast and durable. Whatever creatures they’ve based them off of, they’ve put a lot of effort into these chimeras. And there are five, huh... This welcome’s a bit too warm for my blood.” Turning to Sven, he continued, “Let’s work together and take one out at a time?”

Sven could feel his face tensing up. He said, “Can’t let them stay in the air. If we don’t drag them down onto the ground, they’ll be attacking us unilaterally.”

Knocking an arrow on his bow, Sven quietly exhaled. At this distance, Sven had a fifty-fifty chance of making the shot.

“There’s a Magus on the back of one of the chimeras,” pointed out Sitri. “That’s their master most likely.”

“Would taking out the master confuse the chimeras?” asked Sven.

“If they’re as stupid as the other Magus, we may be better off just leaving them alone,” said Sitri, drawing a chuckle from Sven. Deadpan, she motioned towards the cave and continued, “Jokes aside, depending on how wide the cave is, it could be better to lure some of them inside. Fighting these agile and flying chimeras outside isn’t a good move.”

“You want us to run right past them...into their hideout?!” asked Sven.

“Beats fighting them in a clearing like this,” said Sitri.

Sven considered the idea, feeling his heart drum under the tension in his body. If that’s our only move, we won’t be lucky enough to keep everyone alive a second time. Worst case we’ll be wiped out.

Right now, they needed quality over quantity, and they were sorely lacking in that.

Apparently sharing Sven’s estimation, Sitri twisted her brows and said, “It’ll be tough. We may lose a few—no, let’s not get into that.”

“Can you take one, Sitri?” asked Sven.

He, Gark, and Sitri were no doubt the top three fighters here. Sven and Gark were accustomed to close-range combat, so they felt confident in taking on a chimera, or maybe even two for a short amount of time. On the other hand, Sitri was an Alchemist, just about the class weakest in close combat. While the Griever had displayed chilling cleverness, she hadn’t exactly dealt direct damage all day.

As Sven scowled at the dreadful predicament, Sitri contemplated for some time before saying, “I’ll hold off one—no, two of them no matter what it takes. But I need you to take out the rest while I do.”

“Two?! Are you trying to kill yourself?!” blurted Sven.

No matter how many high-level treasure vaults she had been into, there was only so much physical strength Sitri could’ve accumulated as an Alchemist. It seemed impossible that she could hold off two Level 7 threats at the same time.

“I’m not going to die. There’s plenty of things I still want to do,” said Sitri, wearing her usual smile. “Give it your all, Sven. If I bring anyone home in a box, I would never be able to look Krai in the face again knowing that he’s entrusted me with this quest.”

***

The hunters had finally arrived at the hideout.

Only Noctus and the recon agent remained in the tense war room now that the last apprentice had left to make a last stand against the hunters’ raid.

Noctus gritted his teeth. We would have crushed them already, he thought, had Flick not been such a monumental imbecile! Employing an area-attack spell was one thing, but he was too confident in his power and too desperate to outperform Sophia. “Damn! Why did he not take more than one Malice Eater? Sophia had told him to take them all! That pathetic, helpless bastard of an ignoramus!” Had I overestimated him? Ambitious as he was, I thought he would have seen the bigger picture. Or is Sophia’s talent so dazzling even for a man talented enough to cast one of the most difficult lightning spells there is?

Convinced of Noctus’s defeat, the recon agent suggested with a pale face, “Professor Noctus, let us make an escape from the back. Not to suggest our defeat, but those are our last line of defense. Now, we can still make it out without being caught. Nothing has gone as expected: the fall of the transmogrified phantoms, Flick’s defeat, and the hunters discovering our hideout. It all has happened so fast.”

Noctus had had at his disposal a force that could’ve easily overtaken the hunters—if it hadn’t been for the series of unexpected events. And at the center of every turn had been none other than Sitri Smart, the very hunter Sophia had warned him about.

The tide of the battle had shifted the moment she’d arrived at the hunters’ base camp. Noctus had seen it all through his magical surveillance system: Sitri had been the one who’d defeated the first transmogrified phantom, caused Flick to rush into deploying the rest, and allowed the hunters to recover so quickly from Flick’s surprise attack. If it hadn’t been for her, Flick would’ve wiped out the hunters right then and there.

Noctus had known that Sitri was worth keeping an eye on when Sophia had first mentioned her, but he hadn’t quite expected this. While Sitri hadn’t seemed too physically powerful, she’d proven herself an exceptional asset in the battles so far. Funnily enough, she’d reminded Noctus a lot of Sophia. Perhaps that was why Sophia had paid her much mind.

Scratching through his white hair, Noctus groaned, “Not yet. We still have Akasha. We shall confirm that we are defeated beyond a doubt before we make an escape. A master must see the battles of his apprentices through.”

Sophia, his first apprentice, possessed the talents to bring a massive fortune to the syndicate someday. Even though Noctus was forced to admit how powerful Sitri could be, his money was still on Sophia. Just as Sophia herself had pointed out, he attributed her advantage to their difference in available means: Sophia wasn’t bound by law and had all the connections, knowledge, and technology of Akashic Tower at her disposal.

Sophia had no chance of losing as far as Noctus was concerned. Every defeat they faced today was attributed to an apprentice who let his envy for Sophia get the better of him. Sophia herself had yet to step up to the plate. Noctus wouldn’t turn his back until he witnessed his dear apprentice see it through with the battle against her rival.

“Win, Sophia Black,” he commanded, “and you shall finally have everything.”

The Sounding Stone sat silently on the table.

***

“Use magic! Keep them away!”

“W-We can’t—they’re too fast!”

While these creatures didn’t wield power as bizarre as the faux slimes did, flying chimeras proved to be even more of a threat than expected. By the hunters’ estimation, the beasts flew faster than a hundred kilometers per hour. Worse, they flew so deftly that they could evade Sven’s arrows. Even direct hits of magic failed to slow them down; their scales were clearly resistant to magic as well as physical attacks.

But what gave the hunters the most trouble were the chimeras’ hit-and-run attacks from above. While the beasts couldn’t attack the hunters from afar, they charged hard enough to knock shielded hunters off their feet, and their fangs and tail blades tore through their armor like butter. The time it took a chimera to soar back up to the sky and reposition after each attack was enough for the hunters to heal the wounded, but if any of the hits proved fatal, it’d be the end of the line.

“Dammit! They won’t come near us!” shouted Sven.

Much to the hunters’ terror, the chimeras were smart enough to be wary of Gark and Sven. The beasts always kept their distance from Gark and the Crosses, making sure to somehow dodge Sven’s pitch-black arrows flying at them through the veil of night. Yet there were too many hunters for them to gather up and defend everyone.

Though there was a silver lining: Sitri was successfully holding off two chimeras on the ground. Without swords or shields, she was flawlessly evading their claws, fangs, and tails with nothing but dexterity. Still, Sitri couldn’t keep this up forever.

Despite holding the overwhelming upper hand, the chimera master and their beasts showed no sign of letting their guard down.

Sitri tumbled.

Claws pursued her, but she managed to dodge them and get back to her feet without a moment to spare.

Time dripped past with the hunters being unable to land so much as a single hit on the chimeras. They were out of time and choices.

“Everyone, buck up! We gotta tip the scales! To the cave!” said Sven. Throwing Sitri on his shoulder, he bolted and dived into a crater that had been created.

It’s going to be tough, thought Sven.

The chimeras would no doubt pursue them, and Gark and Sven couldn’t protect the rest of the battalion alone. And if anyone was to be injured on the way in, neither could they stop to collect them. Some of them were going to die, here and now. Sven knew that his fellow party members may end up among the fallen. But still, this was the path to minimal casualties. At an overwhelming disadvantage, with air superiority on their enemies’ side, they had no shot at winning. Their only shred of hope lay within the cave where the chimeras couldn’t fly as freely.

Understanding the subtext in Sven’s command, the hunters roared with determination; it was a roar of courage to extinguish their fear.

As the battalion rushed towards the cave, two of the chimeras swooped down as expected. Running with the crowd, Sven rapidly fired arrow after arrow, yet still to no avail. Even in the face of this charge, the chimeras still hadn’t lost sight of Sven.

A chimera slammed into a part of the group, knocking several screaming hunters to the ground. But they couldn’t afford to stop.

Roars of the chimeras discordantly entangled with the roars of the hunters.

Just as Gark, leading the charge, was about to reach the cave entrance, he slowed his run.

“Shit! There’s another one!”

A towering bipedal silhouette blocked the entrance. Its black and golden body towered over the hunters and even Gark, who stood at over two meters. Sticking out from its already massive torso were limbs disproportionately large, wielding an enormous sword and shield veined with crimson light. And glowing on its head was the inverted-triangle sigil of Akashic Tower.

The giant knight moved its arms and legs as if to prove it was no puppet.

“A golem?! Dammit! When will this end?!” said Sven, his heart pounding like a ringing alarm.

Sven put all of his strength into drawing his bow and loosed an arrow. In this dire situation, Sven’s years of training gave him his best shot yet. Like a shooting star, the ebony arrow flew true towards the center of the golem’s shield.

A thunderous clang echoed in the air, and the giant faltered back a few steps—then the splintered arrow fell to the ground.

Sven stared at the result in disbelief: the golem had caught his arrow, not just deflected it. Whatever powers it held weren’t all looks.

Gark roared and slammed Hail’s Tusk into the golem’s shield with all his might as a storm of magic spells assaulted the giant. At the same time, the chimeras turned in the air and homed in on the injured hunters. There was no getting past the golem that stood tall as ever, unaffected by the blast of magic.

There’s no way out. Is this it? thought Sven, stopped and trapped by the golem standing before him and the chimeras flying behind him. I’m not giving up! Not yet.

Sven pulled out all the arrows left in his quiver and nocked them all at once; he was preparing for the attack Stormstrike—the namesake of Sven’s moniker. Once he fired it, he wouldn’t have time to gather any of the arrows. But if he was lucky, he could shoot down a chimera with this; by some miracle, maybe even two at once. This was his final gambit.

Every drop of blood, sweat, and tears prepared him for this moment. Sven sent all thirteen of his arrows flying through the night, each of them as powerful as his single shot.

One of the chimeras screeched, and it attempted to twist out of their trajectories.

Blood drew from Sven’s lips. “Dammit...!”

Some of the arrows had hit the chimera, but none killed, let alone hit its wings: they barely scratched its scales. The chimera hadn’t dodged the arrows; it’d only gotten lucky.

The winged beast spun in the air and roared as if to celebrate its victory—before falling to the ground as if it was being pulled by an invisible hand. A crunch announced its plummet, halting another flying chimera in its place in confusion.

None of Sven’s arrows had been fatal, nor had they been poisoned. He could only watch uncomprehendingly. Sitri, who’d gone back to drawing and dodging the attacks of the two grounded chimeras, went wide-eyed.

At the sound of a soft landing, all hunters’ eyes gathered on a revealing breastplate of red and black, a pair of sturdy metal boots, a wrist guard on a right hand—and the body encased in them, a body as powerful and toned as a carnivore’s.

Throwing back her head, she gazed up at the sky, her ponytail pointing to the ground.

And a drunken moan echoed through the night air. “Ooh, that hits the spot! Bravo, Krai Baby. I’m falling in love with you all over again.”

In the clearing, the genocidal, troublemaking, uncontrollable, and unpredictable Stifled Shadow stood. The fastest runner in the world had materialized in the thick of battle.

Sven stammered out, “L-Liz?! Why are you—”

“Shut the fuck up, ’kay? I’m riding high real good right now.”

Liz’s face melted into an ecstatic smile as she watched the fallen chimera’s head finally roll off.

***

She ditched us...

Stricken, Tino and I trudged through the pitch-black forest.

I’d be the first to admit that I was afraid of the dark. And I was afraid of forests. Multiply that with each other and I was exponentially afraid of dark forests. While Owl’s Eye was still active, I could bear it, but when it ran out of juice...

After walking in the forest for some time with the two of us, Liz suddenly shouted, “Found ’em! See ya later!” and bolted, abandoning her job as my bodyguard. It left me wondering if she thought we were on a picnic or something. Although I knew her too well to be surprised, I couldn’t help but feel like my hopes were dashed.

“I’m sorry I always rope you into things,” I told Tino.

“No, Master...I don’t mind!” she said with an encouraging pump of her fist.

Apparently, she was mostly learning from her mentor how not to act.

No monster nor phantom crossed our path along the way—probably because they were too terrified of Liz. And soon, light illuminated the woods ahead of us.

The forest was burning in what looked like the aftermath of a bomb going off; the smell of broken trees and burnt grass assailed my nose. That took me by surprise for a moment, but I saw no corpses.

Maybe a thunderstorm has come through here.

Tino stood still and stared at me, her doll-like face colored with subtle emotions. “Master...” she said.

“Yeah, uh-huh.” I really wish Tino would start explaining things right about now. “Let’s hurry. I better go do what I’ve come here to do”—babysitting Liz. I’d failed even that minuscule task that Sitri had entrusted me with. Every time I thought I hit the rock bottom of uselessness, I managed to find another trapdoor opening beneath me.

Tino’s eyes flitted before she drooped her head and said, “Y-Yes...um...I’m sorry, Master...that you have to stay with me. Um...if you’re in a hurry, you can go on...without me.”

Traversing this dark forest all alone? That would be cruel. To me.

Gravely, Tino observed the clearing and said, “Marks of a very powerful lightning spell...cast from above most likely. We should be careful of eyes above.”

“I see...” I nodded knowingly, secretly pitying Tino. She’d succumbed to “hunter brain,” an occupational hazard, the sort of hypochondria that made hunters imagine the worst-case scenarios at all times.

Even I knew about lightning magic: it was a super difficult branch of spells that only the best of the best Magi could dream of casting. Ark had earned his moniker “Argent Thunderstorm” precisely because he was a master of that branch of magic among other things. Magic, however, became more difficult and mana-intensive the more powerful and wide-range it was. No chance there was a random Magus capable of casting a spell this destructive—let alone a lightning spell—in the depths of the forest. Clearly, this was the mark of a natural disaster, and Tino’s nerves were getting the better of her since Liz left the task of guarding me to her.

Another look around confirmed that there were no dead bodies. There was no sign of rain either, but they say the weather was fickle in the woods.

If there’s a Magus who can cause such destruction nearby, I’d want to get far, far away from them.

“Don’t worry about anyone above us. Let’s get going,” I said.

“Are you sure, Master...?”

“Yep, yep. No problemo.”

Tino beamed at my bargain-basement reassurance and said, “Th-Thank you! Then I’ll leave the sky to you, Master.”

“Wha— Uh-huh, yeah.” In charge of the sky I was? That worked for me since I could leave Tino in charge of any threats on the ground we’d have to contend with—including Liz.

Tino started leading the way, her spirits brightened. As I followed, I noticed that we weren’t even following a path, and Tino didn’t look like she had a compass either.

***

Individual combat styles, in addition to brute strength, played a large part in determining the tides of battles for hunters. For example, Gark’s halberd was powerful enough to sever a chimera’s body, Sven’s arrow could fly far and pierce most things, and what Sitri lacked in combat power, she made up for in problem-solving and strategizing.

The chimeras were formidable foes; their careful hit-and-run tactics had rendered Gark useless because of his short-range attack style, and their dexterity in flight had meant Sven’s arrows would seldom hit them.

Liz, on the other hand, was a hunter who specialized in speed. Mana material bolstered the physical abilities of all hunters exposed to it, but the specific aspect of physiology it would power up depended largely on the intentions of the hunter. Liz had dedicated a majority of the mana material she’d taken in during her explorations of high-level treasure vaults to her speed to a point where she could outrun Sven’s arrow and pick every pellet of a buckshot midair.

“Having trouble performing, Siddy? That’s what you get!”

“L-Liz?!”

Sven and Liz, if they were to go toe-to-toe, were almost evenly matched, but Liz’s combat style was better suited to taking on the chimeras than anyone else in the battalion.

Mistaking Liz’s confidence for an opening, a chimera descended upon her, ready to tackle her with a force powerful enough to knock out hunters more steadfast than her. However, a split second before the flying beast struck the girl, she was gone. Even Sven could barely follow her movements with his eyes. To Liz, a zealot of speed who could catch flying arrows, the chimera might as well have been standing still. Without so much as a glance at the beast, Liz dodged the tackle and straddled the winged creature, of all things. With Liz on its back, the chimera thrashed and soared high into the air, but it couldn’t shake the little human off it.

Liz was the embodiment of the high-quality fighter the hunters had been hoping for. Meanwhile, the wounded hunters now had the chance to heal.

“Stop goofing around, Liz! Finish it already! Sitri’s not gonna last!” shouted Sven.

“Shut your goddamned mouth! You’re telling me what to do after you’ve cut me out from this much fun?!”

Liz leaped off the chimera and landed perfectly on the ground several dozen meters below. Moments later, the chimera Liz had ridden into the air crashed onto the ground, its neck severed with blood spewing from the cut. Liz made it look unbelievably easy after all the dread the battalion had gone through.

“Why are you here?!” cried Sitri.

“I couldn’t stand it anymore, so I begged Krai Baby until he said yes.”

Krai, the bastard... He’s finally sent us backup! realized Sven.

Liz couldn’t have come at a more crucial time just as the fear of a wipeout was becoming more and more real among the hunters. Krai’s miraculous foresight had struck again.

At this point, Gark and several others had the golem surrounded. As powerful as the giant was, its blows came slow. Now it was the hunters’ turn to hit-and-run.

“The Thousand Tricks has sent us backup! We can win this!” shouted Sven, not caring that he was giving the enemy information.

***

Sophia Black stood amid the battlefield, biting her lip. Nothing had gone as expected. She’d learned to expect the unexpected to some degree of course, but this was getting ridiculous.

Chief among the unexpected turns of events was Flick going rogue. Despite their differences, Sophia hadn’t expected him to disregard so much of her orders. Wasting the transmogrification serum was one thing, but Sophia actually was terrorized when he’d struck the hunters with lightning magic from above. She neither expected that her colleague could cast a spell of that caliber, nor that he’d use magic as his main mode of attack when she’d ordered him to use the Malice Eaters. Her biggest takeaway from it was the realization that she’d underestimated Flick’s abilities and pridefulness. She wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

With the blindsiding emergence of the Stifled Shadow, Sophia’s plan was completely derailed. Malice Eaters, apex chimeras that could take dozens of ordinary hunters at once, were being torn apart like toys Liz had grown tired of. Their claws and tail blades were completely useless if they could never find their mark—how could they ever find their mark on Liz?

Still, while the Malice Eaters were dangerous on their own, their greatest strength lay within their reproductive abilities. Unlike other chimeras, which were sterile, Malice Eaters could sexually reproduce like most animals.

While Sophia had found the reproduction experiment insightful, she knew that the chimeras had no special ability to make up for their dreadful lack of speed against Liz. On that note, Sophia hadn’t expected the Magus leading the chimeras to command them so timidly either.

Not only was Sophia now hopeless about eliminating the hunters, but the attack had also failed as a field experiment.

What a waste. This was such a rare opportunity to test the chimeras against a whole group of hunters of varying classes.

The Stifled Shadow soared high into the air with a single kick off the ground, her eyes set on the Magus commanding the chimeras at a great height. As Liz reached about the halfway point to the Magus, her acceleration dwindled until she was suspended in the air at the high point of her leap. Then, she kicked the air and rapidly ascended again; it took the Magus commander by surprise.

Sophia knew Liz’s Relic well: Apex Roots allowed its wearer to kick the air just once mid-jump. This was a simple Relic, but it produced an astoundingly powerful effect when on the feet of the Stifled Shadow, who had superhuman speed.

Having reached the final Malice Eater in the air, Liz brought it down, Magus and all.

As far as Sophia considered, the remaining two chimeras on the ground would provide no useful data. Data on a fight against the Stifled Shadow was pointless anyway.

What was left on their side was Akasha—the weapon they’d designed specifically to take on Grieving Souls. Sophia and Noctus had worked to the bone to design this golem with a proprietary alloy armor that protected every inch of its structure and a shield that protected against any cut imaginable. Equipped with a sword and cannon, the giant artificial knight could handle short- and long-range combat. Sophia and Noctus had considered all possible scenarios when designing the thing, and they’d charged it with enough mana to make it through dragged-out battles. A golem’s most glaring weakness had always been its subpar “intelligence,” but with a human taking over decision-making for the golem, it was no longer a problem. This golem was a true weapon of war, worthy of the name “Akasha.”

Noctus had devoted so much funds to the development of this golem that he’d received complaints from the Akashic Tower headquarters. For all the money and time they’d sunk into the golem, they were confident that it could hold its own against even a crowd of hunters.

Sophia watched Akasha, wielding its sword and shield and keeping all hunters, like gnats buzzing around a light, at bay. Even the spot where Gark had directly struck its armor only had a small mark to show for it with no damage at all. She imagined that the golem’s controller was drunk with power.

Useless. Sophia bit her lip again. You haven’t even unleashed a fraction of Akasha’s potential.

In her eyes, her comrade in the driving seat seemed like a child wildly swinging a stick. Her fellow apprentices, for all their skill and knowledge in the labs, were amateur fighters. Sophia could already sense Noctus’s disappointment at the controller’s performance, which put the sigil on the golem’s head to shame.

The Stifled Shadow took out the remaining two Malice Eaters in one breath before gleefully charging at Akasha.

Unlike the hunters, no backup would show up to aid the golem’s controller. Their objective had been to diminish the number of hunters as quickly as possible, but apparently, Akasha’s driver had forgotten even that. Even now, the golem seemed too preoccupied with blocking the series of attacks coming from the other hunters to pay Gark any mind, even when he was one of the most dangerous targets.

I’ll have to take over as planned.

Sophia concentrated her mind and moved her fingers subtly so as to not tip off the hunters around her as she activated the spell to control Akasha. Using her administrator access, she took over control of the golem from her fellow apprentice. The golem halted for a moment before the true Akasha was unleashed.

***

We’re doing good. We can win this. Sven was assured.

Now that Liz had taken out the chimeras, the enemies were left with just a single golem to stop the hunters from invading their base of operations. Despite that, the black giant overwhelmed the hunters at every turn: its arms swung hard enough to send hunters flying; it wore steadfast armor that had barely taken a scratch from Gark’s attack; and it wielded a giant sword that threatened lethal blows. Still, Sven would take the golem over several chimeras any day, primarily because the golem’s fighting was amateurish. Golems were incapable of executing complex orders. Even those created with great care had processing power inferior to humans, and thus they were usually relegated to only simple roles.

While this golem seemed “smarter” than others, it still fell far behind the ingenuity of hunters who had to adapt to new threats at every turn in treasure vaults—these hunters weren’t so fragile as to fall to a hunk of metal blindly swinging a sword, no matter how powerfully. All the while, Gark’s attacks had been affecting its armor tangibly, as long as they could get past its shield. Extraordinarily durable though the golem was, Hail’s Tusk’s blade hadn’t chipped at all while clashing repeatedly with its armor. But on the contrary, part of the golem’s armor had frosted over faintly where the halberd had struck.

“I’m gonna tattle on you, Siddy. I’m gonna let Krai Baby know you’re having a tough time,” said Liz as she charged the golem. “And you owe me one.”

“Don’t you dare, Liz! Why did you come anyway?!”

Crazed as she always was, Liz leaped into range of the golem who was wildly flailing its sword. She darted past the tempest of the blade and kicked the golem square in its shield, shaking the four-meter-tall golem where it stood.

“Mmm!” cheered Liz. “It’s so hard! I love it!”

She darted up the shield which was held up almost at a right angle, positioning herself too close to the golem for it to attack her with its sword. Then, she stretched her right leg out and struck the golem’s head with a roundhouse kick. The impact forced the golem to step back, and Liz landed a few meters away. The golem—apparently unaffected by the kick—swung its shield at Liz, who dodged it without trouble.

With an index finger on her lips, Liz was in serious contemplation, her zealous ecstasy having faded. “Metal armor. Boosters on feet. Cannons on arms. Shield. Broadsword. No wings. All metal; even the joints are protected. It’d be tough to break head-on, huh...” she muttered to herself. “Well, I thought it was going to be easy. I should’ve known Krai would’ve never let me out just to deal with some half-decent chimeras.”

Rushing over to Sven, Henrik handed him the arrows he’d gathered. For the most part, as they hadn’t hit their mark, these arrows were in perfect condition.

As he took the arrows, Sven shouted to Liz, “I’ll help, Liz; this thing’s slow. My arrows and Gark’s halberd can’t put a dent in its shield, but the rest of it is a little softer.”

The frozen patches on the armor looked especially weakened. If they were able to distract the golem while they blasted the patches with full force, they may be able to finally break through it. Liz might be fast, but Sven, Gark, and a few others still boasted better single-hit damage outputs than her.

“You’re a Thief!” Sven reminded her. “Let us have some fun once in a while!”

The only thing that stood in their way now was Liz’s lack of communication. In fact, asking Liz questions often ended up with her rejecting just because she could, even if she had no strong feelings about it beforehand.

“I’ll do what I want, so you’ll do the same,” said Liz casually. “Your arrows won’t hit me anyway.”

Sven was counting on Liz to draw the attention of the golem, which would create an opening for the rest of them to strike. They couldn’t find any discernible weak point on the thing, so, while Gark aimed for its torso, Sven decided to shoot for its head.

“We don’t have much time anyway,” added Liz.

“What do you mean?” asked Sven.

Immediately, the golem, who’d been flailing its sword around, suddenly stopped moving. It slumped as if it’d suddenly been switched off and remained completely still.

Did it break down? Or is this part of a plan? Regardless, now’s the time, thought Sven.

Sven nocked an arrow; his arm throbbed in pain from the repeated firing. In an instant, the arrow was loose, and it flew straight for the golem’s head.

But just as the arrow was in the air, the golem reactivated and swiped its shield to intercept the projectile at its trajectory, displaying a level of purposefulness far beyond anything it’d shown so far. Instead of blowing the giant’s head off, the arrow struck the shield with an explosive impact and fell to the ground.

The golem moved differently now, and every hunter could sense it: the hunk of metal, which had been defending against the hunters without moving from its original spot, suddenly took a stance that seemed infinitely more human. One lunge, and it swung its shield at the group of hunters who’d been avoiding its attacks with ease until now.

The golem had suddenly become sentient; it’d inspired terror in the hunters.

“Run!” shouted Sven.

Warriors with steadfast shields were tossed into the air like a burst of paper confetti and, a moment later, crashed to the ground.

Swift and deliberately, the metal giant swiped its sword in the next movement.

“Fall back! Get on guard!” called Sven.

With a proper shift in weight, the golem lethally swung the sword. Barely missing the hunters, the blade ripped a trench in the ground.

Gark, having moved behind the golem, whirled his halberd around. With a roar that shook the air, he swung his halberd down at its leg—and found only air.

A shadow obscured the moonlight. The four-meter-tall hunk of metal had leaped into the air, only to succumb to the forces of gravity. Landing on the ground, it fractured the earth to spew a billow of dust and assaulted the hunters with sound and a shock wave.

What...just happened?

Sven couldn’t believe his eyes. The golem, who’d moved like a child playing soldier, now moved like a seasoned warrior all of a sudden.

The metal hulk lifted its sword. Splitting the air as it brought the blade down, it pointed the sword straight at Sven—it was initiating a challenge.

“For its size, this thing’s too quick!” noted one of the hunters.

Healers were tending to those who’d been thrown into the air, but the golem paid them no mind. Neither was the golem fazed by the storm of magic striking its frame as if it was well aware that it was impervious. Only Gark, Sven, and Liz captured the golem’s attention.

Below the towering frame in the night, a realization struck Gark.

“That thing’s...acting like Ansem!”

Ansem Smart, monikered “Immutable,” was the impervious Level 7 Paladin of Grieving Souls.

Liz, Ansem’s biological sister, quizzically stared at the golem and said, “It’s about the same height as him... Maybe they’ve modeled it after him.”

“Why would they?!” blurted Sven.

And the golem was once again on the attack. Literal tons of metal charging at such a speed created a force too powerful for even them to block.

Its colossal blade—two to three meters in length—swiped at Liz, who breezily leaped over it. As fast as the golem was now, it was still far too slow to catch the Stifled Shadow.

Liz can outmaneuver it at least, assessed Sven, who was steadying his breath and searching for an opening.

Midair, Liz’s eyes flickered in astonishment.

Streaking across the night air, a blazing line of laser shot out from the blaster on the golem’s upper arm and grazed Liz’s midriff.

Liz frantically kicked the air to propel herself back onto the ground. But by the time she’d landed, the cannon was already zeroed in on her.

Liz sprinted, her composure uncharacteristically rattled.

“What the hell?!” she exclaimed as another laser beam scorched the ground. “This thing’s got a ranged weapon too?!”

The new feature pushed the hunters closer to despair.

While laser beams weren’t as powerful as other weapons, they were extremely difficult to avoid—even Liz couldn’t outspeed light. While Liz could predict the trajectory of the laser by observing where the blaster was pointing, there was no avoiding the beam midair if she’d expended her midair kick for that jump.

Relentlessly, the golem hacked at Liz with its sword, apparently recognizing her as its number one threat; every swing of the sword threatened a lethal blow to Liz’s minimally guarded, small figure. Whenever Gark reared his halberd, the golem struck it aside before he could bring it down, and every arrow Sven fired at what he thought was its blind spot was deflected by its shield—the golem was evidently aware of its surroundings at all times as if it had a bird’s-eye view of the battlefield.

“Why is it going after Liz?!” asked Sven.

Unlike before, the golem was fighting intelligently, prioritizing its targets. But this made it even more perplexing as to why it was hounding Liz: as dexterous as Liz was, her attacks were relatively less impactful on a golem plated from head to toe.

“Knock...it off!” grunted Liz as she managed to stay a half step ahead of the laser beams fired in anticipation of her movements. A red welt marked her side where the first blast had hit her.

We can’t take it out. It’s too sturdy, thought Sven, calculating in his mind. This is a different game from the chimeras, which could be taken out as long as Liz’s attacks hit... Maybe knock it off-balance then? Can we pull it off now that the thing’s almost as nimble as Liz?

On the other hand, now that she was ignored by the golem, Sitri was observing her sister’s battle in deep thoughts that veiled all emotions. Submerged in concentration, she was muttering to herself.

“Sitri!” called Sven. “Do you see a way out?!”

“Oh, yes... Good thing it doesn’t have an area attack. My sister doesn’t handle those very well,” she answered distractedly.

“What are you talking about...?”

Liz was moving faster and faster as she avoided the laser beams and jabbed the golem’s legs with kicks. Still, the golem remained steadfastly standing.

“I believe its weakness...is its endurance,” noted Sitri. “Alchemist-made golems are powered by mana provided by a battery built into its structure. When it runs out of mana, it will naturally cease all functions, and the faster it moves, the faster it’ll deplete its battery.”

“We need to drag this out then,” said Sven.

“Laser attacks expend more mana than anything else...I think. It shouldn’t last long if it continues to fire lasers like that. I doubt its plating is ordinary steel, so taking it out with brute force won’t be easy—this is our best option.”

So the battle would end when either Liz or the golem runs out of power, thought Sven.

For whatever reason, the golem had given up on attacking the other hunters, who’d been taking refuge from the battle. It either had no interest in killing the weak or had considered Liz a great enough threat to demand all of its attention.

Its sword cleaved the earth, and its wall of a shield swiped at Gark as if to brush off a speck of dust. Gark met the shield with his halberd but was knocked back, tumbling on the ground for a few rolls before using the momentum to return to his feet.

The clearing now bore scars from sword and laser; the smell of burnt dust permeated the air.

We can outlast it, decided Sven.

With their greater numbers and the several healers among them, he felt confident in their odds. Prolonging the battle would take the most toll on Liz, but Sven knew she’d sooner die than throw in the towel.

“Wear it out, Liz! Take your time and draw out those laser beams as much as you can, but pace yourself! We’ll keep the sword and shield in check!”

“Like hell I will! I’m gonna waste that junk heap if it kills me! We don’t have time for this!”

“Snap out of it! Think about it!” shouted Sven.

Kicking the hunk of metal couldn’t be easy on her legs. Ignoring him, Liz sprinted to attack the golem from behind. The golem turned to follow her with its sword and laser beams. There was no question about who the last one standing would be in a full-force clash between flesh and metal.

No time? No time for what? wondered Sven.

Liz was visibly agitated by whatever clock was ticking down in her mind. She leaped above the swing of the sword before landing on and running up the golem’s leg. With a perfectly timed jump, she avoided the laser and struck the golem’s temple with a devastating kick. The golem wavered. But even so, the blaster on its left arm focused on Liz.

Instinctively, Sven fired an arrow at the golem’s leg rather than its head. It struck behind the golem’s right knee, forcing it to bend and causing the laser to miss its mark.

Gark, who was already rushing at the metal giant, fiercely struck down on the same knee with his halberd.

The enormous hunk of metal finally tilted; its left leg slid under it as it began to fall backwards.

“Hell yeah!” shouted Sven in triumph.

With a bit of good luck, it all came together: the golem had begun to lose its balance as it relentlessly followed Liz, and the combination of their attacks had struck in perfect succession. It’d take some time for the hunk of metal to regain its footing; even fully armored humans would take some time and effort to stand up once again after falling flat on the ground.

This is our shot, thought Sven. Gark can strike its head once it’s on the ground, and I’ll fire at its head if it lets go of its shield. Maybe we can take it out here and now—

But Sven’s flicker of hope was quickly crushed.

He and Gark watched dumbfoundedly at the golem—which was not on the ground—as it held itself up with jets of air blasting out of its back. The stream of air gradually raised the golem until it was standing on its two feet again, its sword and shield poised like nothing had happened.

“Th-This can’t be happening...” muttered Sven.

Every threat that Akashic Tower had thrown at them thus far had been formidable: the seemingly impervious faux slimes, the top-level lightning spell that had incapacitated nearly a hundred hunters, and the pack of elusive chimeras. Each one of them would’ve been a rare and deadly challenge for Obsidian Cross if they encountered them in any of the Level 6 treasure vaults they frequented. But this golem with flawless fighting tactics was something else. Sven didn’t have much prior knowledge about magic syndicates, but if all of these threats were a product of Akashic Tower’s experiments, he wouldn’t hesitate to label the syndicate as a terror to the entire world. He couldn’t help but wonder if the golem’s endurance surpassed even Sitri’s expectations.

“Rraaaaagh!”

As Sven watched astonished, Gark and Liz roared and charged at the golem with unrelenting spirit. Sven saw true heroes in them both. Inspired, he nocked an arrow. He was aware that even the other hunters who couldn’t so much as approach the golem were running around the battlefield to gather his arrows.

There’s more I can do, he told himself. This one hasn’t seen Stormstrike yet.

While Sven’s signature attack had no effect on the faux slime nor the chimeras, he’d vanquished countless deadly foes with it in the past. Stormstrike demanded almost all the strength he had left—it wasn’t supposed to be fired more than once in a quest—but still, Sven was sure of his decision. Mindful of the weight of the bundle of arrows his allies had gathered for him, he readied his shot and poured his soul into his bowstring, focusing his mind through his exhaustion. He was sure he’d find his mark. He watched Gark and Liz dart around the golem, but this wasn’t a problem—his target was clear.

This time, I won’t miss, he thought.

And with utmost concentration, Sven drew his bow with all his might.

Then, Liz suddenly relented on her onslaught and retreated a few meters away from the golem. Her face was red, her breathing heavy; her eyes were bloodshot, and her face was covered with pouring sweat.

“Time’s up! That’s it!” she said.

Time’s up? Sven wondered what the self-centered, reckless berserker prioritized over fighting a formidable enemy.

Then, as if time itself had come to a stop, the golem halted where it stood.

“What are you all doing...?” A voice so incongruent with the sanguine situation before them broke the silence.

Sweat rolled from Sven’s every pore as the realization came to him: the voice belonged to a man who looked so out of place without any power in his frame nor a weapon on his body—as if he wasn’t a hunter at all. Adding to his forgettable appearance were his dark hair and dark eyes. With an utterly unintimidating gait and aura, he was so ordinary that no one would’ve noticed him in a crowded street. But here, while his eyes were looking at no one in particular, most hunters recognized him. And those who didn’t would never forget this day.

“Krai...? Oh...I get it now,” said Sven. “So you brought Liz with you.”

At the edge of the woods stood the Thousand Tricks, one of the three Level 8 hunters in the capital, naturally outranking everyone here.

He was infamous for his thorough secrecy of his tactics; he was a man who seldom left the capital.

Krai didn’t bat an eye at the marred battlefield. He didn’t so much as turn to Sven when he spoke. A calm expression lay on his face, in contrast to the nervous Tino beside him. Krai almost looked transcendent as if he was oblivious to the scene before him and the air taut on the brink of snapping. Even the golem had ceased its rampage in the face of this intruder as if it, too, was awestruck.

Liz was the first to move. And she said, “I’m sorry, Krai Baby. I couldn’t finish the job!”

“Yeah... Huh?” said Krai quizzically.

Even now, I can’t get a read on him, thought Sven as he lowered his bow.

Although the golem was just standing there, there was no need for him to fire any more arrows because he knew that everyone who encountered Krai would come to understand the meaning behind his moniker. Despite having worked with Krai for years, Sven still hadn’t the slightest idea of how Krai’s powers worked.

“I see... It’s all over then,” muttered Sitri.

Then, the golem finally moved again, exploding the ground with each step as it lunged into a charge faster than it had shown so far. It showed no interest in Sven, Gark, Liz, nor any of the other hunters—the golem was rushing towards Krai at the other end of the clearing.

Tino, whom Krai must’ve brought along to observe and learn from his fighting, squeaked out a cry. “M-Master...!”

“Yeah. Uh-huh.” Unbothered by Tino’s terror, Krai simply took a step forward without even attempting to evade the enormous sword coming down on him.

Those who didn’t yet understand the meaning of the Thousand Tricks’s action cried out at what seemed like his last moment.

Just as the blade was about to meet the unmoving Krai—the golem was blown away. None of the hunters saw or heard anything, but the golem that three of their best fighters had failed to even knock over was tossed onto the ground dozens of meters away from Krai, tumbling over a few times on its way. Its sword, having been knocked out of its hand, was now stuck in the ground askew.

Gark, frozen, watched in disbelief. He saw no hint of Krai’s attack: not even had he used a physical attack, magic, or Relic. Sven, as much as he was convinced of their victory with Krai’s appearance moments earlier, had not expected this.

“So that’s what a Level 8 can do...?! After they’ve struggled so hard against it...” muttered one of the hunters.

“I thought the Thousand Tricks wasn’t a fighter!” said another.

“What? What did you do, Krai Baby? That was incredible! I couldn’t even see what happened!” cheered Liz.

The golem sprawled motionless on the ground. Even though it’d withstood the fierce battle beforehand, the impact with the ground alone didn’t seem to have destroyed it. And this left the hunters wondering what exactly Krai had done. The light faded from the inverted triangle—a symbol of truth and the sigil of Akashic Tower—and the golem fell completely silent.

With all eyes drawn to him, the Thousand Tricks simply wore his signature half smile and said, “Sorry, I couldn’t really see in this dark. Did something happen?”

***

It was too dark for me to see diddly-squat. Owl’s Eye had run out of mana, leaving me as blind as a bat rather than an owl. It was so dark in the woods that I could barely see the back of my hand if I held it out. Blurred moonlight left a faint impression on the clouds, but that was far from enough for my bat eyes. Walking in darkness really made me appreciate all sorts of illuminating technology from the bottom of my heart.

“Can you see in this dark, Tino?” I asked.

“Master...” said Tino in a tone that suggested she was pouting, “you underestimate me too much. I am a hunter, you know. I can see in the dark at the very least.”

Apparently all hunters had night vision. And this was when I realized why Owl’s Eye was so cheap.

My heart was telling me to go home and take a bath, but I’d never make it back on my own, and we couldn’t leave Liz out in the middle of the woods either. My only hope was in Tino, who would be leading the way as she continued to scout out our path.

Suddenly, Tino said, “Master, there’s a bloody battle ahead. I sense one very nearby.”

“What? No, there’s not...” I said incredulously, and immediately I wanted to swallow those words. Who was I to contradict Tino—an observant Thief—especially now when I was blind in the dark and to the dangers ahead.

Tino muttered after a few seconds of silence, “I see. This isn’t even considered a battle to you... I still have so much to learn.”

The better question should be, “Do I ever learn?” For the record, I was far more useless now than I had been when I flew into White Wolf’s Den in my desperate attempt to save Tino—which was truly setting a new low. Maybe I was the reckless one if I kept leaving the capital when I was pathetically powerless.

After a few minutes of me silently discovering a new definition of rock bottom as I followed my trusty lackey, Tino suddenly stopped.

“There’s life nearby, Master.”

“Uh-huh?”

“There are several of them, and they ran, breathing heavily, when they noticed us. Should I catch them?” asked Tino.

As to why she’d asked this, I was clueless. Surely there were more than several animals in the forest, right? If they were running away from us, there was no sense in changing that. Live, love, and make peace, I’d say.

“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “Just let them go. Let’s keep going.”

“Yes, Master...”

Tino should learn to disagree with me once in a while. For example, if she’d suggested that we ditch Liz and return to the capital, I would’ve agreed to it in a heartbeat. Of course, I’d blame Tino when Liz inevitably demanded an explanation for why we’d left her behind.

Soon we made it out to a clearing. Even though I could barely see at all, I could tell that there were no trees here.

The air was electrifying like how it always was during a battle. Just barely, I could make out a black silhouette moving across my darkened vision.

“Time’s up! That’s it!” said a familiar voice. As suspected, Liz had joined the hunters before us.

Whatever battle that had been taking place was apparently already over.

Thank goodness. I felt that weight was lifted off my shoulders as I tried to observe the clearing. “What are you all doing...?” I asked the groups of indistinguishable silhouettes.

I was getting the feeling that even though Tino and I’d been following Liz’s trail since she’d run off, we hadn’t arrived at White Wolf’s Den as far as I could tell.

“Krai...?” said Sven. “So you brought Liz with you.”

A small victory for me. At least it didn’t sound like they were mad at me for cutting Liz loose from her leash.

As I stood there confused, Liz said, “I’m sorry, Krai Baby. I couldn’t finish the job!”

“Yeah... Huh?”

Couldn’t finish what job? A monster? A phantom? Save for a breeze, the world around us was quiet. I did have a Safety Ring on, so one surprise attack wouldn’t kill me.

Then, I heard a small explosion or something. Tino said my name, sounding very scared for some reason.

“Yeah. Uh-huh.” I nodded along.

My eyes weren’t good enough to see in this darkness, and my brain wasn’t good enough to deduce the situation.

I took a step forward, and an upside-down triangle came flying at me. Confusion overpowered me, nailing my feet to the ground. Then a strong gust blasted right in my face and made me squint. The next thing I knew, the triangle had vanished. Moments later, the sound of a heavy impact resounded from the ground afar. My Safety Ring hadn’t activated, and I was in the dark as to what in the world was happening.

“What? What did you do, Krai Baby? That was incredible! I couldn’t even see what happened!” cheered Liz.

What a coincidence—neither could I! Won’t somebody please tell me what’s going on? And turn on a light or something.

Without a clue, all I could do was put on my usual, pathetic smile and say, “Sorry, I couldn’t really see in this dark. Did something happen?”

***

With a bitter look on his face, Sven emerged from the cave that he’d cautiously gone into some time earlier. He stood across the bonfire from me as I shrank into the warmth.

“We got our hands on equipment and documents but no sign of the culprit himself. Shit!” he spat.

“There was an exit in the back,” chimed in another hunter. “Seeing how prepared they were for us, I doubt he’d left a trail we could find.”

From the little context I was able to learn, Sven and the others had figured out the people behind the changes in White Wolf’s Den. The hunters had chased them down to this place—their hideout—but they’d got away at the eleventh hour. Whatever enemies they had to face must’ve been formidable; everyone looked beaten-up and exhausted.

Monsters that even Sven, Liz, and Sitri could barely defeat...? Those would surely rank pretty high on my avoid-at-all-cost list.

Tino and I, very fortunately, had arrived just as the battle had wrapped up.

The majority of the hunters were now pushing through their weariness as they extracted documents and materials from the hideout.

A Vault Investigation Bureau agent whom I had spoken with a few times in the past said gauntly, “We’ll put in a report as soon as we return to the capital. At least we’re able to confiscate all this. If Noctus Cochlear had followed through with the research he’d theorized in his thesis, the empire itself would be in peril. The knights’ order will take it from there.”

Things had certainly escalated since I’d sent them out. I could only hope, against all odds, that they wouldn’t rope our clan into this any deeper.

“Hey, Krai,” growled Gark, “what did you do back there? Was it a Relic?”

What’s he doing out here on the field in full gear anyway? I thought he’d retired for a while. Poor Kaina must’ve been astounded, I thought. “What...? Nothing... I didn’t use any Relic.”

Now that I could see thanks to the firelight, I couldn’t help but notice that I was drawing some prying eyes. According to them, I’d blown away some final boss in the blink of an eye—which I had no recollection of, of course. The only thing I could remember was that something had been charging at me, but there’d been no chance in hell that I could’ve taken out a golem that they’d struggled against. And since my Safety Ring hadn’t activated, it was clear that I hadn’t even been attacked.

“Really, I think it...just went flying on its own.”

“Like hell it did!” snapped Gark.

No, of course it didn’t; that doesn’t even make sense, but it’s slightly more plausible than me having anything to do with it.

Somehow, even though I hadn’t performed a single useful action all night, my body felt heavy. Now that I was surrounded by a crowd of hunters (bodyguards), I felt like I could relax for a bit. Stretching and yawning, I was ready to head back to the capital now that things had clearly wrapped up here.

“Hey, where are the Magi we captured? Anyone got eyes on them?” asked one of the hunters in the crowd.

“They were gagged and bound on the ground somewhere last I saw, so they can’t possibly have cast spells... We couldn’t really afford to pay them mind once the golem had shown up...”

“They gotta be somewhere around here—look for them!”

Immediately, several hunters broke out in a search, weary and daunted by yet another task.

Tugging on my sleeve, Tino whispered to me, “Master... Could they’ve been...the ones we ignored in the woods?”

“Y-Yeah. Uh-huh?”

I’d pretend I hadn’t heard that—I’d seen no evil and heard no evil there in the woods.

How was I supposed to know that Tino was talking about humans when she said “life”?! She should’ve spelled out that those were captives on the loose!

Having given directions to the search party, Sitri approached me. Her face looked completely refreshed, with only marks of dust on her robe indicating that she’d so much as taken a break since returning from another treasure vault. She was far too energetic, especially for someone stationed at the back of a party.

Beaming at me like she usually did, Sitri said, “Thank you for the backup. I didn’t expect us to be as outmatched as we’ve been. We might’ve suffered some casualties if it weren’t for your aid.”

Letting go of Liz’s reins had been completely on me, but I guess that had worked out fine in the end. At least Sitri’s clear eyes were not scrunched in reprimand.

My chest aching with guilt, I spewed a few very uncharacteristic words out of my mouth. “Can I help with anything?”

Sitri’s smile blossomed as she held my hands in hers and said, “Thank you. If something comes up, I’ll count on you. But I’ll do everything I can to settle this myself—this is my battle.”

***

In one of his emergency hideouts in the capital, Noctus was pensively scratching his head. His neatly trimmed white hair was disheveled, and dark bags pooled under his eyes, which twinkled with deep, boiling wrath and a hint of fear.

The former Master of Magi was cornered. For ten years and change, Noctus had steadily carried out his experiments undetected. Now, with completion nearly within grasp, he was teetering on a precarious balance with his entire project. With his base of operations uncovered and most of its contents confiscated by the Association, the researcher had suffered nothing short of a devastating defeat.

Akashic Tower, the infamous magic syndicate he belonged to, allowed its members to use any means necessary to pursue true knowledge. Noctus had been fully aware of how many enemies he’d be making by joining the syndicate, and that had been exactly why he’d dedicated a considerable amount of resources to implementing protective measures against potential raids on his labs.

His security system—made up of Sophia Black, a Magus with extremely rare talents, and his other apprentices, who were sufficiently capable albeit less so than Sophia—was powerful enough that Noctus had been ready to accept defeat if said system was ever to be completely defeated.

In fact, the first line of defense—the faux slime—had held its own against a band of a hundred hunters. If it weren’t for Sitri, the hunters would’ve never reached their hideout. Akasha in particular even had comfortably taken on several monikered hunters and a retired hero.

In fact, Noctus had been completely assured of his victory until the Thousand Tricks appeared out of the blue. Despite that Noctus could close his eyes and vividly relive the last moments of the battle, which he’d observed through magical surveillance, he still couldn’t understand what had happened. In the blink of an eye, just as Akasha had approached the Thousand Tricks to attack, it’d been blown away. A single blow, whatever it’d been, had overpowered the golem. And this was despite the fact that Noctus had developed the golem over years of experiments to make it extremely durable to both physical and magical attacks thanks to its soulless nature.

Even more chillingly, the Thousand Tricks hadn’t even considered the interaction as a battle. His abilities seemed otherworldly even when compared to those of the former Level 7 hunter, the War Demon.

Dumbstruck by those turns of events, Noctus had made it out through the hidden exit only because the Thief who worked in reconnaissance had guided him.

Now, the Thief and Noctus, along with four apprentices of his, were crammed into a room in this capital hideout. Save for the Thief, everyone looked as pale as if they’d encountered Death himself.

The experiment had failed. Now their only way out was to escape as far away as they could. Since Noctus’s memories were the only remaining copy of experiment records they could access, it’d take years to recover their progress. However, that was still better than having to start over from scratch.

His apprentices were mostly unharmed except for the one who’d been knocked off of the chimera by Liz. Unfortunately, that apprentice was now detained with a severe injury. The spirits of the apprentices in the hideout now, however, had been completely shattered: their eyes were blank as if all ambition had been wiped from them. Seeing their trusty Akasha being destroyed in a split second had left even Noctus—who’d seen his fair share of bizarre occurrences in his long life—shaking. His less-experienced apprentices fared far worse than he did. Flick and the two apprentices who’d been captured were the most severely traumatized among them.

“The Thousand Tricks...let us go on purpose! As we ran for our lives, shaking in our boots, he stared right at us and said not to worry about us—with a grin on his face!” said Flick.

After so long, he was still shaking with his knees held to his chest. His worldview of “Magi superiority” had been uprooted.

Sophia had marked Sitri as the most dangerous opponent, but Noctus now realized that they should’ve prepared for the Thousand Tricks more than anyone. Ever careful and calculating, Sophia had never once assessed a situation incorrectly before—but if even that had been manipulated by the Thousand Tricks, Noctus wondered what game the clan master had in mind.

“Why has the Thousand Tricks let us go again?” asked the Thief. “With all that power and information on his hands, why didn’t he just come and arrest us himself?”

Noctus had to agree: there was no debating that the Thousand Tricks was a foe they couldn’t take on. But the most enigmatic thing about him was the way he’d cornered them to the edge of a cliff just to let them get away next. If he’d wanted to, he could’ve easily apprehended all of them already. The Malice Eaters wouldn’t stand a chance against a hunter who could take out the golem in one shot, and Noctus doubted that the Thousand Tricks didn’t have his own way of circumventing the transmogrified phantoms’ mana barrier.

In hindsight, he realized that the Level 8 hunter had always been at the center of this entire battle, pulling the strings all along. He’d been the catalyst too: if it hadn’t been for his involvement, the changes in White Wolf’s Den would’ve gone unnoticed for much longer, very likely leading to the successful conclusion of Noctus’s research. And next, Noctus had only decided to eliminate the hunters instead of retreating because the Thousand Tricks had walked up to their base in the decaying district as if to warn them that he’d find them wherever they hid. Speaking of which, Noctus was still puzzled as to why the Thousand Tricks had given them a warning at all.

Noctus’s research was highly illegal; he’d gotten away with merely being banished from the empire because of the legitimate accolades he’d accumulated over his career and the fact that his thesis had been purely theoretical at the time. If his experiments on manipulating mana material—the performance of which was one of the ten capital crimes in the empire’s law—ever came to light, Noctus would be lucky to be only imprisoned for life; more likely, he’d be executed for it.

Noctus didn’t think a Level 8 hunter would have mercy on his enemies, much less fear the syndicate. And this left the reason behind his warning bell a mystery.

Snapping out of his contemplation and burning feelings of incompetence and defeat, Noctus said, “Enough. At this point we only have one choice. We shall leave Zebrudia behind.”

Zebrudia, home to various treasure vaults his research had required, had been the perfect environment for his experiments. The prosperous empire had also provided easy access to all materials they had needed. And Noctus had to admit that he’d felt personal satisfaction in wreaking havoc on the country that had banished him.

But now he had to relinquish all of that. After his banishment, he’d rebuilt his research underground. So as long as he lived, he could start over again. Whatever the Thousand Tricks’s motive had been for letting them go, Noctus felt no drive to retaliate.

Letting out a long sigh, the researcher asked the Thief, “Any word from Sophia?”

The Thief’s brows furrowed.

Sophia was the only one of them who was unaccounted for currently. While she was already participating remotely during the operation, she’d neither shown herself nor answered her Sounding Stone since the battle in the clearing outside their hideout. Since she’d wrested control of Akasha halfway through the battle, Noctus had assumed she had been alive and well then. But now there was no telling if she’d been captured, killed, or forced into hiding.

Sophia could handle herself and wasn’t the type to ghost Noctus just because of a single failure. She’d only joined the syndicate a few years prior, and Noctus had suspected that his research would’ve come to fruition much sooner if he’d been working with her from the beginning. If they were going to leave the empire behind, she was the person whom he desperately wanted to be with them.

Flick lifted his head. “Professor, I need to speak to you about Sophia...” he said, sharing a grave look with the other two apprentices who’d been captive to the hunters.

“You better not start your nonsense now,” warned Noctus.

Ever the prideful apprentice, Flick had pleaded his case of demoting Sophia several times before. If he let his jealousy get the better of him in these dire times, Noctus would consider him truly useless.

Flick trembled for a moment, but he held his master’s gaze and said, “No, Professor... I couldn’t believe my eyes, but—for whatever reason I don’t know—Sophia has infiltrated First Steps.” His face was strained and his eyes bright with fear.

“What...?” said Noctus.

Flick’s voice quivered as he said, “I...saw her with my own eyes. She dressed very inconspicuously with her hood drawn and spectacles on. But there was no mistaking her.”

Noctus peered into Flick’s eyes and found him to be in earnest. Beside him, the other two former captives were nodding in fervent agreement.

It seems I need to have one more conversation before we part the capital for good.

With a deep inhale, Noctus gave his next order.