One Chance at the Captain

"Krohk-cha!!"

A hideous rage coiled through the bellow of Grash, captain of the strike force.

The roar tore out of him only after he found the corpses of the orc riders he had sent ahead, and even hidden a good two hundred meters off, it raised gooseflesh along our skin.

At the same time a cool clarity spread up from my underwear and wiped the tremor out of my body. That was enough to settle the matter.

Fuck. A status effect, from this distance?

I could not fight that thing head-on. Not under any circumstances. I turned to check the kids and found every face gone pale.

"Ugh..."

"B-big brother..."

"M-mister..."

The spirits Vartus and his brothers had been quietly putting to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠work, just to keep from remembering their fear, scattered to nothing at a single roar from far away.

"Quiet."

I called a fire spirit and heaped on heat, then a wind spirit, pinning our scent so it could not leak past the stealth shroud.

"Kids— no. Young masters. What did I tell you a moment ago?"

"We wear this, circle out along the edge, and take the goblins first."

Just as I'd expected, the captain's fury at his men's corpses had sent the rest of the force scattering across the whole mountain to hunt us down.

"And?"

"We recover every paralysis needle they're carrying. No exceptions."

"That's right. Shall we start ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠moving, then? Little by little."

"Y-yeah."

Perhaps it was the hero's childhood showing through. Vartus was the first to ease a careful foot forward.

The stealth shroud was never an artifact meant for more than one wearer. Even so, Vartus and the children were small. Move carefully enough, and it ought to cover them.

If the distance closes, though, there's a good chance we'll be found.

So we had to be exceptionally careful. I watched the enemy scatter—the goblin warriors most of all—and circled wide toward the ones who had pushed out farthest.

One unit, maybe too eager for its own good, had crossed a ridge and slipped out of Grash's sight.

"Karil!"

"Kucha!"

They moved as a knot: a single orc rider with close to ten goblin warriors stuck to him. The warriors rode small wolves of their own and wore steel, but set beside the orc rider they looked plainly weaker.

Which meant—

"Let me confirm one more time. What did I say?"

"We take the goblin warriors and recover the paralysis needles!"

"Not that. When we fight."

"While Char handles the orc rider, we cut off the sound around him. And bind their feet, if we can."

Once again, Vartus answered first. That seemed to lend the others courage, and Balthazar and Cartus followed after him.

"We don't get close."

"If it gets dangerous, we run!"

"Good. You must remember that. Absolutely."

"Yeah! Don't worry, Char. And you be careful."

"...I will."

With Vartus's words in my ears, I slipped out of the stealth shroud alone and dropped flat in the brush.

It'll be fine. It has to be fine.

If this didn't work, there was no other answer anyway.

From here on, it's a race against time.

Still prone, I lifted the bottle of Dew of Concentrated Mana (Rare) and drank about half.

The thing held barely eighty milliliters. Half of that filled my mana to the brim in an instant—and then overflowed it.

This mana's going to vanish soon anyway.

I spent the surplus on an earth spirit to cake myself in soil, and a wind spirit to kill sound and trap scent. Moving through the dark the forest made, I worked earth and wind off in a direction where neither I nor the children were, and set the brush shivering.

Rustle.

It took.

"Kyarura!"

They crashed through the undergrowth, snapping branches, and started tearing the dark brush apart in earnest. In the middle of it I realized they never once looked up into the trees, so I climbed and settled onto a thick limb.

Good. Very good.

Drag this out, of course, and either I or the Vartus brothers might still be found.

Then I just have to finish it before that.

I eased my steps in behind the orc rider as the distance closed by inches, and used a slow breath to master the tightness in my chest.

If the ambush fails, I'm genuinely fucked— no. No unlucky thoughts. Ptui. Ptui.

I shoved the anxiety down, worked my mana, and steadied my breathing.

One of them isn't so hard.

When I judged I was close enough, I shifted the soil on the orc rider's far side and yanked his attention that way.

"Kyareuk!?"

I kicked off the branch, dropped, and drove for the nape he'd left wide open.

Hup!?

The instant I poured every surge of overflowing mana into the blow, a portion tore free of my control and set the spear shivering. Rather than simply cranking up the Resonance Spear's vibration, that runaway current retuned the mana already in the weapon, so the flow fell in behind it of its own accord.

And then the point went in.

Got him!

A sharp, electric jolt ran through my fingertips. I had cut the enemy's breath so cleanly that I felt no resistance at all.

The System's voice toasted that thrilling success. But I couldn't stop.

"Keong!?"

Only then did the giant wolf sense that something was wrong and fling its head back. By that point I had already yanked the spear free and was rolling across the ground, and I drove it into the beast's neck.

Kiii... The giant wolf, too, lost the light in its eyes without leaving so much as a proper scream.

The operation was a perfect success. In that same span, though, the goblin warriors around us noticing was unavoidable.

"Kira!"

"Kyak!"

Ten goblin riders, trusting in their numbers, came charging without a scrap of fear. Several of the wolves snagged on brush and earth that heaved up beneath them and went tumbling where they stood. At their comrades' absurd mistakes(?), a few more pairs of eyes turned—and just like that, they failed to manage a proper joint assault and came at me one after another.

I didn't miss that brief gap. I ran the first two charging goblins through the neck in succession and gave ground.

"Keong!?"

Unlike the giant wolf, the wolves under the goblins seemed to freeze, seized by panic. Even that was an opening.

"Kyak!"

I cut down one more goblin rider as it leapt in, clear of those wolves. Then, seeing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the goblin warriors behind them leveling blowpipes at me, I charged straight at them instead.

The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠needles came in a hissing volley. As if to prove they were no ordinary goblins, all seven struck true—straight into the skin bared between the plates of my shattered armor. I'd been charging with no thought of dodging, guarding only my face, so perhaps it was inevitable.

A chill set in the instant the needles lodged. A breath later, that same cool clarity rose and washed the dreadful poison clean out of me.

And so—

"Kiet!"

I drove the spear straight into the torso of the goblin warrior who was whooping in triumph. At the same time I felt the others, who had been cheering right along with him, go rigid. Maybe they couldn't make sense of what they were seeing.

All the better for me!

I used the gap to rush the one beside him. Only then did the creature move, swinging a short machete—

Too late.

Volante Footwork carried me into the blind angle between wolf and goblin, and the spear that shot out from there was more than he could stop. With that, I'd already handled half of them.

"Kyaaak!"

The remaining five shrieked, but their reactions didn't match. Some still had fight in them. Some had only fear. There was no way their timing would come together, and once again the spirits' power hooked the wolves' legs and collapsed their line completely.

Taking the other five was no great difficulty.

"Haaah..."

The fight hadn't been difficult, but I'd been wound tight through all of it, and when it ended a sigh escaped me before I knew it. A moment later, from a corner a little way off, Vartus and his brothers came bursting out.

"Char!"

"Mister!"

"Char!"

Only when I saw them did a smile come. I hadn't forgotten the work, though.

"Find the paralysis needles. Quickly!"

"Yeah!"

Without thinking, I'd dropped into plain speech. Fortunately, they didn't seem to find it strange. And fortunately, the goblin warriors had gathered their paralysis needles in a single small pouch.

Nice!

Each goblin warrior, as it turned out, had been carrying more than fifty.

"What are you even planning to do with these?"

"First, let's move. Even with the sound cut off, they may still feel that something's wrong."

"...Yeah."

I led the children off and, as we went, dumped the needles straight into the Goblin Basket.

"What's that?"

"My hidden trump card."

There was no need to hide the Goblin Basket from children I'd met through a quest. I told them the truth and waited for the result.

A moment later, a glint.

Done!

I'd gotten the weapon I'd been hoping for. A paralysis needle strengthened two whole grades, synthesized from more than four hundred of them.

This has to work.

The moment the orc who captained the strike force rose in my mind—Grash—my flesh still trembled.

But there was no method other than this. Thinking that, a little courage welled up.

"That... don't tell me. They combined?"

"Yes."

"A treasure like that—where did you...?"

"That isn't what's important right now, young master. First we need to take another squad or two, just like this."

"...Y-yeah."

Vartus, who had been raising a perfectly reasonable question, nodded at once.

Handle one or two more squads like this, and I can make a few more. The odds will climb with them.

I nursed that hopeful little circuit as I moved slowly on. The situation refused to follow my will.

"Krohtus!"

Once Grash confirmed that a whole band—an orc rider and his goblin warriors—had been wiped out, he did the opposite of what I'd hoped and called the entire force back in.

"Krohk, Ragus!"

Then, holding a fixed spacing, a force of hundreds began to search every quarter at once, all advancing in a single direction. Of all the luck: the dense forest that continued on from where we'd done our hunting ran in only one direction. And the direction they picked was exactly the side where we were hiding.

Damn it. What now?

I looked at Grash in the center of the horde, and my chest went tight.

That was when Vartus spoke.

"That orc. The captain. If we catch him... there's hope, right?"

"What?"

"If we just get that one, it'll work, won't it?"

I couldn't be certain. Even so, I couldn't turn away from those eyes—bright with hope, and shaking.

"Yes. Probably."

"Char made that weapon for this, right?"

"...Yes."

"Then we just have to make a situation where Char can ambush him. Right?"

What was this kid trying to pull? I asked it while those eyes of his glittered up at me.

"How?"

"The thing Char showed us earlier. I think I can do it too."

Me?

What did I show him?

In the moment I stood there baffled, Vartus whispered his plan. And as for me—

"...If that can actually work, let's try it."

I decided to gamble on that possibility.