Madness Opening Its Eyes (4)
Without a doubt, that was the bandits’ hideout. We pulled back for the time being. To shut the kite up as it threw a tantrum demanding food, I tossed it some meat with the bone still attached.
“Shall we break in?” Tirsi asked, her body hidden among the bushes.
Before answering, I threw the kite another piece of chicken.
“Kii kiek kiiiiik? (How many humans?)”
“Kiet. (I don’t know.)”
Don’t tilt your head at me. It pisses me off. I still couldn’t believe these idiots were descendants of the king dragons. The thought that dinosaurs somewhere in this world might act just as brainless made my fantasies crumble.
“Kiiiik. Kek kikkek. (Still humans, though. There are some in the back too.)”
“…Kek? (…Back?)”
“Kiiit. (That way.)”
The kite cried out while stripping the bone clean. It was unexpected extra information. Tirsi and I circled around without being spotted and followed the bird.
“Kiiiiik! (Here!)”
“Kiikkim. (Quiet.)”
We silenced the noisy kite and examined the spot it indicated.
─Rustle.
What had looked like bushes was camouflage. Those thieving bastards. They had even prepared an escape route in case they needed to run.
“What do you want to do?”
We hid nearby again and began designing our strategy. If we charged through the entrance we had found earlier, the bandits inside would flee this way. Since hostages were involved, the only way to achieve total annihilation was for one of us to block an entrance.
─Crack.
We were still sharing our plan when the sound of a branch snapping suddenly came from the bushes right beside us. We exchanged glances and silently changed hiding spots. Two presences approached with careless footsteps.
“Ugh, fuck. This is goddamn exhausting.”
“This is exactly why everyone hates going out to buy supplies. Heart pounding, legs aching from all the climbing.”
The ones who appeared were unmistakably bandits no matter how you looked at them. Two male bastards. They wore hoods wrapped around their heads just like the quack I had seen at Clara’s forge. Were hoods the universal symbol of assholes in this world?
“Hehe. At least we’ll get to taste some women soon, right?”
“The deal finishes this week and we’ll move the base. The, what was it again? The mithril class adventurer woman doesn’t want to do business where she lives?”
“Bullshit. How can a bitch scare you so much you can’t even do your job as a bandit?”
“Kuk kuk. Should I tell the boss?”
“Do that and you’re dead too, you bastard.”
The pair kept chatting as they came closer. They must have let their guard down now that they were near their home, because they were too busy revealing their identities through their own mouths. These idiots were one hundred percent bandits.
─Nod.
Tirsi and I reached an agreement through gestures. A surprise attack is best when you strike first, but this time we decided to let them pass. Causing a commotion right in front of their den would only complicate things if we were discovered.
Swish…
The bandit bastards continued blabbering as they entered the cave. So it was a shortcut, not a secret passage. Or maybe they were so stupid they had built it and then just used it sloppily. People on Earth used fire doors as emergency exits all the time. It was all just desensitization to danger.
“──Those guys are planning their escape route.”
A few minutes after the bandits disappeared, we finally spoke.
“Yes. I don’t know exactly when, but we now have a reason to resolve this as quickly as possible.”
“I believe charging in immediately is best.”
I stared at the entrance.
“The trading partner they mentioned is probably a fence or someone similar. Our thesis is important, of course, but if the hostages they captured are still alive and those people are also trading targets for them──”
“──then today might be our last chance? I was thinking exactly the same thing.”
Tirsi picked up her wand and glared into the cave’s gap from between her hood and scarf.
“Should we enter from both entrances simultaneously?”
“Are you sure you can protect yourself without me?”
“There have been so many troublesome incidents lately that I learned several spells. There’s a shield magic that can be activated and moved, so I can cast it beforehand.”
Tirsi gripped her wand tightly and chanted several spells. One of them created a gentle breeze that reached even me. As the wind passed through my body, I felt my weight lighten.
“What is this?”
"Gentle breeze, lighten the step..."
⟨ Breeze Walk ⟩
“Breeze Walk. A spell that increases your movement speed. The duration is only an hour, though.”
“Only an hour? That’s more than enough. It’ll be a huge help.”
Whether because of the magic or not, my body felt light. When I rolled my foot, it barely made a sound.
“I’ll break in from the opposite side. We’ll follow the plan we made earlier. Understood?”
“Yes. See you inside, Arthur.”
“Let’s do that, Ash. You did well too, kite. Here’s your reward.”
“Kieeeeeeeeeek!! (Food!!)”
I flung the remaining chicken leg to the kite and moved to the opposite side. After taking a wide detour, I returned to the first entrance we had discovered.
Swish swish─. I stood before the entrance, removed my bag, and hid it in the nearby bushes. Just as expected, there was no guard posted at the cave mouth. That was their mistake.
Stupid bastards.
If they had posted a guard, the man might have heard the sounds of fighting and attempted to flee. The results of dumbasses squeezing out their lacking intelligence were always a complete mess. People who lived by the law could receive its protection even if they made mistakes──but murderous robbers received no such mercy.
In this other world, killing bandits who committed crimes was not a sin. Was it because of insufficient human rights awareness? The opposite. It was precisely to respect the rights of ‘people’ that the rights of trash were not protected.
Britannia did not treat those who refused to pay taxes as people. Some even sold themselves into slavery just to pay their taxes. Yet the lowest class and their dark evolution—the murderous robbers—paid no taxes and disturbed public order. That was why I called criminal bandits ‘humanoid trash mobs.’
How dare those kinds of bastards make me travel all the way out here?
“Grrrrrrr.”
I let out a beast-like growl as hatred surged inside me.
Kill the professors!!!
Kill the professors!!!!!!!!!
Kill every professor in this world!!!!!!
“Grrrrr─!! I can’t hold it anymore, Ungnyeo!!”
I suppressed the rage boiling my brain and whispered like a chant.
"Clouds, gather and obscure..."
⟨ Summon Cloud ⟩
Whoosh─.
The white clouds generated around me seeped into the cave like mist. It resembled the smoke effects commonly used in idol concerts. This magic was one of the reasons I had decided to charge into the bandits’ den alone.
──And its name was.
“Cowardly Leaf Style Stealth Camouflage Technique── Mamamu (Devil-Grinding Fog).”
Mamamu. In other words, the fog that grinds devils away.
The high-density water vapor created by Summon Cloud completely blocked human vision like thick clouds. Numerical superiority filled with riffraff meant nothing before this magic. Of course, my own vision was blocked inside the fog-filled cave as well. But I could cheat just a little to overcome the obstruction.
Shuuuu─.
It was magic I wasn’t yet accustomed to, but after spending some time the density and volume of the fog gathered. I could feel my mana decreasing in real time. The consumption was far lower than I expected.
Or maybe my mana pool has grown considerably.
Either way, having mana to spare was good. The generated fog would persist until I dispelled the magic. Just as Hotulusil controlled clouds to restore his intellect, I could manipulate the fog for as long as my mana lasted.
I can’t use it as an attack spell, though.
Making the fog move quickly enough to gain lethal power like blades or hammers was impossible. That was the limit of the magic itself. Granting that much physical force to highly sustainable, controllable vapor would require tremendous skill. If that were possible it would basically be a near-zero-cooldown area-of-effect ability. As a third-rate pseudo-mage, even if I had such a spell I definitely couldn’t use it.
Still, this was enough for today.
Obscure their vision and tear them apart with Beast Regression.
A perfect plan.
“Nin nin.”
Muttering quietly, I transformed into a single kimchi ninja and stepped into the bandits’ den. The fog followed me according to my will. Filling the entire cave with fog through magic? That would be foolish.
Why waste extra mana when it follows wherever I go?
The ten meters around me were shrouded in thick fog. Because the cave was narrow, the range was larger than expected. This was actually advantageous. The bandits outside the fog had no idea what kind of monster they were dealing with. That would stimulate raw human terror.
What if it wasn’t human but a monster? What if it was a crazy psycho killer even if it was human?
That was why the fog-shrouded night killer was so terrifying. Even if they shot arrows, hitting me would be ridiculously difficult. And even if an arrow somehow struck me, it could never pierce the mana coating of Beast Regression.
All I need to see is the ground beneath my feet.
My current field of vision was roughly shaped like a boa that had swallowed an elephant. To secure sight, I left the space above the floor within two meters ahead completely clear of fog. Through this I could glimpse the cave’s interior structure. If I hadn’t done so, I would have been bumping into walls and falling over in a slapstick comedy routine.
And if a bandit appeared in front of me──
“You bastards!! What the hell is this smoke?! Is it fire?!”
──only I could see it.
In the two-meter gap where the fog had been cleared, a human leg appeared. I clenched my fist, dashed forward, and drove a punch into the space above that leg.
Thud!!
“──Kuhuk!”
The bandit bastard had no time to panic at my sudden appearance as the fog parted. My single punch caved in the cheap armor covering his chest.
─Thump.
When I stepped aside, the corpse vomited blood and collapsed forward. It was as if gunpowder had detonated against his solar plexus—his ribs and heart were both shattered. Survival was impossible.
I kneaded my fist, checking the sensation left on my fingertips.
Easy.
It was no wonder the bandit had died so pathetically. The space above the legs was thick with fog; unless they came within one meter, they couldn’t secure any vision. The fog’s blank zone was shaped like an upside-down funnel.
From the bandits’ perspective, some strange fog was approaching and then, right in front of them, One Punch Man popped out. In other words, while the fog lasted I could launch a preemptive surprise attack on every single enemy. Mere bandits had no chance of avoiding it. Dealing with this kind of ambush required the skill and reflexes of stopping a car without a scratch while avoiding a jaywalker suddenly leaping out from the next lane.
The guys who can do that become adventurers or mercenaries.
Drip─.
I stepped aside to avoid the blood flowing from the corpse’s mouth. I looked down coldly at the fallen bandit with wide-open eyes. This was my first murder.
It’s not much, surprisingly.
There was none of the “Hoeng, murder is scary” cowering you saw in realistic war movies. It didn’t seem like this bastard would appear in my dreams later to throw a tantrum, either. If some people suffered PTSD after killing, then others apparently did not. I seemed to belong to the latter group.
It felt strangely dirty, but to survive in this other world you needed a touch of psycho in you. Living here made getting blood on your hands inevitable someday. It was a world where even a fourteen-year-old country girl would stab a goblin to death with the sickle she used to cut rice and then calmly return to work.
Even if I had stayed at the university and lived quietly, I might have been suddenly attacked by murderers, assassins, or monsters one day and died. I had learned that while exploring ruins during my slave days.
If dirtying my hands with blood was inevitable someday, there was no reason it shouldn’t be today.
─Swish.
I relaxed the strength in my tightly clenched fist. In this battle I would show no mercy. These bastards attacked and killed people. Even if some of them hadn’t killed yet, they would dirty their hands soon enough. Birds of a feather. There were no decent bastards among those who associated with murderous robbers.
If I let them live they might try to take revenge later.
If they came at me from the front demanding revenge, I could just beat them half to death and be done with it. But the words “fair and square” did not exist in a murderous robber’s vocabulary. The chance of them poisoning my food from behind was high. And it might not stop at me—they could harm Franc as well. Better to kill them here.
─Clatter.
I swiped the axe from the bandit’s waist. It would be wrong to stain Franc’s weapons with the blood of this trash. But what the fuck, why did the weapon look like a barbarian warrior’s axe? It really suited bandit gear.
“Ugh!! You idiots!! What the hell is this fog?!”
“Jacob said he was going to check it out, so why isn’t he back yet?!”
The bandits who realized the fog was spreading fell into chaos. With the thick mist blocking even their comrades’ faces, it must have been terrifying and confusing. Controlling natural phenomena really was this powerful.
When people heard the word druid they imagined touching grass or spreading plagues, but the true power of nature lay in the sky. Storms and thunder were also part of nature. A druid who handled nature was one who handled the power of the gods.
Therefore, the night of slaughter that would unfold in this cave tonight──was heavenly punishment I delivered in the sky’s stead.