The Wizard's Story (9)
The Wizard's Story (9)
#
An ostrich.
The largest living bird. Its height and weight were at least twice those of an adult man, and its massive talons proved that it was descended from dinosaurs. No, birds were dinosaurs, so ostriches were essentially modern, toothless raptors. And not the historically accurate Velociraptors that stood less than a metre tall—the cold-blooded demons from Jurassic Park!
Anyway, we couldn't handle them alone. Even back on modern Earth, knock-off ostriches had beaten a professional army, so charging that flock was literally suicide.
Which brought me to the wizard. The one person who should've been most useful, and here she was.
[Name: Ariel Ionia]
[Life Force: 400 / 400]
[Mana: 10 / 1450]
Hang on. Hadn't her mana been zero just a second ago?
[Mana: 0 / 1450]
Ariel's mana rose, then immediately plunged back to zero. You've got to be kidding me. What on earth was happening? Was this tied to why she'd kick up such a huge mess later?
Whatever the case, we were in serious trouble.
If the problem was just low mana capacity, I could handle it with a buff. But while I could turn 1 into 5, I couldn't turn 0 into 1. You couldn't multiply something that was zero.
If I could, my power wouldn't be a buff—it'd be closer to divine creation. It'd be the same as conjuring something from nothing.
But that was a problem for later. Right now, I didn't even have time to cast a buff.
"Reni. Use Acceleration. We need to run for now."
Luckily, there was a large tree nearby. We could take shelter on top of it.
"Let's climb up there first. Those bastards aren't exactly going to fly."
"Well, um... uh..."
"What? Don't tell me they actually fly?"
Monsters in a dungeon always twisted the originals in weird ways, but with those wings, they could actually fly?! That wasn't what Yuri meant, though.
"I mean, no, they probably can't fly... but climbing up there won't..."
"You got a better idea?"
"No..."
"We’ll figure something out once we’re up there. Come on, Elf."
"I have a name. It is Ariel."
The elf grumbled, but she still climbed the tree obediently. She was short enough to need my help, though.
And so we took refuge in the canopy before the flock arrived. But the ostriches didn't simply pass us by. They circled once, passed the tree, then circled again. Each time they made a lap, the vibrations grew stronger... they were clearly trying to intimidate us.
"Hey. You sure these ostriches aren't carnivores or something?"
"...Who knows?"
"Then I'll pick them off with arrows, slowly... gah?!"
"Kyaa!"
Now the ostriches weren't just passing by—they were kicking the goddamn tree! Only a few were at it so far, but if the whole flock kept this crap up... Yuri muttered under her breath that she'd known this would happen. But what other option did we have!
"...Tch."
Ariel clicked her tongue and reached inside her robe.
"...Sufficiently advanced alchemy is indistinguishable from magic..."
As she muttered nonsense to herself, she pulled something out. A round orb with several devices attached—
"Is that a bomb?"
"Indeed."
"If you had something like that, you should've brought it out earlier—"
"I cannot use it."
WHY NOT?!
Before I could say a word, Ariel went on with a strangely smug attitude.
"Because it is excessively powerful. Its lethal radius should be one hundred metres. Unless you possess superhuman strength, using it from here would..."
For someone who carried herself with such gravitas, this elf sure spouted a lot of bullshit. Still, no reason to humour it now. I snatched the bomb.
"So, how do you use this bomb?"
"It has a delay fuse and an impact fuse. A delay fuse is..."
Pretty elaborate. The elf had been making all sorts of things. I cut Ariel's explanation short.
"Can you adjust the timer too?"
Ariel's eyes went wide at my question.
"Ah... you know of it. In—in that case..."
She was a little flustered; her voice wavered. The woman who'd been perfectly composed in front of an ostrich horde was suddenly stammering over a little explanation, which actually made it kind of funny. I adjusted the bomb according to her instructions.
It would detonate five seconds after the pin was removed. To maximize lethality, it would explode in midair.
"Yuri. What do you think?"
"Seems doable."
Ever since our fight with the goblins, Yuri had gotten pretty good at tying things to her arrows and shooting them. A lethal radius of a hundred metres? Then we'd set it off from a safe distance of about a hundred and fifty metres.
"Urk!" "Eek!"
The tree shook violently every time an ostrich passed it. The bastards were definitely learning. More and more of them were kicking the trunk. At this rate, two more—no, the very next pass might...
"Yuri, you know what to do, right?"
"What do you take me for?"
With a scoff, Yuri drew her bowstring far back and loosed it in a single motion.
-Boom!
"...!"
What—the hell!
Hundred-metre lethal radius, my ass! I thought a goddamn nuke had gone off!
Sure, it didn't actually blind me like a nuclear blast, but a small mushroom cloud rose as if several tonnes of TNT had detonated...
If Reni hadn't thrown up a Protection spell beforehand, we would've been caught in the shockwave!
"...It seems they have all been dealt with."
Ariel was right: most of the ostriches were down. A few were still alive, but they were just staggering around, too dazed by the blast and the noise.
"...Magic is not simply the act of manipulating mana to produce a phenomenon. Making the impossible possible—that is what truly deserves to be called magic. Whether mana intervenes is not the point. In that sense, this outcome can be regarded as magic."
Ariel nodded to herself while spouting utter gibberish.
Something, something felt seriously wrong here. I was about to say as much when Yuri grabbed me.
"Hey, look at that."
In the direction she pointed, one ostrich was wobbling unsteadily. And on top of it, something was...
"That thing. Someone's riding it."
"A person?"
"Yeah. Oh, I think I made eye contact."
The rider swerved back and forth, then apparently managed to regain control of the ostrich. They turned away from us and...
"They’re getting away?"
They were riding an ostrich in the middle of all this and trying to escape? In that case...
"Shoot the ostrich and knock the rider off. You can do that, right?"
"Yeah. Give me a sec."
A moment later, the bastard went tumbling across the ground.
#
The ostrich rider lay facedown before us, bound tightly. Apparently, the ostriches had trampled him several times; he was covered in dirt, his clothes were torn all over, and he looked thoroughly wretched. I'd used Heal to treat his external injuries, but there was no helping how ragged he looked.
[Name: Orma Tailrunner]
[Class: Tamer]
A Tamer, huh. As in, someone who tames monsters? For a native who didn't have a Familiar skill like I did, becoming a Tamer would take considerable experience. So why had someone like that attacked us?
"Hey. Get up."
-Sploosh.
"Get up. Get up!"
-Sploooooosh.
"Guh... agh! Wh-what the hell is this?!"
The bastard finally opened his eyes only after I'd emptied an entire canteen over his head. I'd considered slapping him awake, but using violence in front of the girls felt a bit off. They should only see the good stuff.
"Guh... wh-who are you! What is this?! Why am I tied up? Release me!"
"Not happening. You're the one who had those ostriches attack us."
"Wh-what are you talking about..."
Seemed this guy had no talent for lying. His eyes were practically vibrating. Was this his first time pulling something like this?
"Orma Tailrunner. Monster Tamer. That's you, right?"
"H-how do you know my name?!"
...Pathetic. That was the moment you deny it. Was everyone from this other world this naive, or was it just him? Actually, when I thought about Lize, the simpler explanation was that this moron was just stupid.
"It’s obvious you can control this many monsters. You were even riding around on an ostrich for everyone to see, and now you’re trying to play dumb?"
"I know nothing! I work alone!"
So that was it. He was going to deny it to the end, was he? I clenched my fist.
"Hold a moment."
Ariel pulled at my arm.
"Within a dungeon, it is not permitted for adventurers to attack one another."
"What? Why the hell not?"
This elf was spewing nonsense again. She had a particular habit—she'd drop the conclusion first, then explain her reasoning, which made it feel incredibly jarring on the listening end.
"Attacks between adventurers are recorded on their adventurer cards."
"Th-that is correct! You cannot harm me!"
Adventurers couldn't attack each other. Had Lize mentioned that? I didn't recall. But Yuri considered it for a moment, then clapped her hands as if she'd just remembered.
"...Right. I think it was written in the Guild registration agreement. Didn't you read it?"
"I mean... who reads that stuff nowadays..."
"You're supposed to go over that kind of thing thoroughly... wait. S-so what, am I going to get arrested?"
Yuri looked guilty. Fortunately, Ariel offered a further explanation.
"No. Adventurer's cards respond only to direct harm. Determining intent is beyond them."
So that was why he'd used monsters instead of attacking us directly. He'd even employed a whole flock of ostriches rather than carnivorous monsters. There was a reason he'd gone to all that trouble.
"Really?"
Yuri, however, seemed to have thought of something else—her face lit up. It was the look of a mischief-loving brat.
"In that case, if we dangle him from the tree and then shoot the rope..."
"..."
"No, actually, would a cliff be better?"
"Yuri..."
Both Orma and Reni turned pale. Good, I could count on you to play the villain. And Reni, this didn't even involve you—why did you look like that? Scumbags like this needed to be taught a lesson. But the approach wasn't quite right.
"Don't worry. I've got a better idea."
#
"Wait over there."
"Huh?" "But... what are you planning to do?"
"It’s a conversation between men. Nothing good will come of you hearing it. Understood?"
"Hnnph..."
I tied the bastard tightly to a tree and sent the girls away. Orma stared up at me with terrified eyes. But he still had a big mouth.
"What do you intend to do?! This is illegal! Once I report it to the Guild, you will not get away unscathed!"
"Ah, of course. I've got no plans to cause you any direct harm, so you can relax."
Something in my attitude must've tipped him off, because his whole tone dropped and he turned all ingratiating. This guy had zero spine.
"W-would you not release these bindings? If you do so now, I will refrain from pressing charges. There appears to have been a mutual misunderstanding. Might it not be better to resolve this with words?"
"Sure. We'll resolve it with words. You're going to be doing a lot of talking."
I took the Aphrodisiac Slime out of my pocket.