Ambush in the Dark

Crunch. The ash crushed beneath the man's foot crumbled weakly. Ignoring it, he continued to close in on his target. At this distance, such a faint sound wouldn't be heard anyway.

'It's definitely him.' Dull blonde hair. A physique that seemed a bit too slight to be wandering outside the barrier. Even the Holy Relic he held matched the boy he had seen back then.

'Why is he alone?' When he saw him last time, he was definitely with that red-haired monster girl. Yet, for the past week, he had only been spotted traveling by himself.

'Did he not follow the girl?' Out here, outside the barrier, the more questions you asked, the better. It increased your chances of survival. But as a bandit, he couldn't afford to let a golden opportunity slip away either.

'Anyway, since that girl isn't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠around, this is a sure chance.' That boy was incomparably weaker than the girl. His instincts told him so. Since those very instincts had kept him alive outside the barrier for years, they were bound to be reasonably accurate.

'Then...' He raised his hand and signaled his subordinates. 'Begin the attack.' At that moment, the archer loosed the arrow notched on his bowstring. The hidden subordinates ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠also began to rush out, brandishing their respective weapons.

He calmly watched the arrow fly. 'It's a hit.' He felt a strong premonition. The arrow was heading straight for the boy. And the boy's posture was such that even if he noticed the arrow, it would be difficult to dodge immediately.

But in the next instant, something bizarre happened. Whoosh! The arrow, slicing through the air, suddenly veered sharply right next to the boy. It hadn't simply missed. The arrow had clearly bent off course. His instincts suddenly rang alarm bells. 'What is this?' The boy was already sprinting toward the archer.

Despite my stats having increased slightly in the meantime, the difficulty was still considerably high. A danger level of B was the threshold where players were recommended not to challenge it unless their characters were thoroughly built. However, my current items and skills were quite decent compared to my raw stats.

'Just don't let your guard down.' This was definitely a good opportunity, but complacency was the ultimate enemy. I recalled my very first quest. 'I almost died to a wolf.' Of course, the current me was different from back then. I had been on high alert the moment the quest popped up.

'Should I stop Wind Authority for now?' Two pieces of straw were spinning in the empty air next to my head. This was a training exercise to raise my proficiency in Wind Authority even while hunting Chaos Beasts. It might seem trivial, but it consumed a non-trivial amount of mental focus, so I wasn't yet confident in fighting at full strength while maintaining it.

At that moment. Crunch. I sensed a presence. I'd felt this for a while, but Alan's body had surprisingly sharp hearing. Not that it was particularly useful most of the time. 'Are they here?' Naturally, as the name "bandit band" suggested, it wasn't just one person. At least nine individuals were closing in from all directions. Pretending not to notice, I began to assess them one by one.

'Four with swords, some with spears or axes... and one archer?' Of course, this might not be all of them; more could be hiding elsewhere. 'An archer makes things a bit annoying, though.' I wouldn't have the leeway to worry about an archer while engaged in close combat. Normally, anyone with common sense wouldn't shoot into a chaotic melee where their allies were tangled up, but expecting common sense from bandits was laughable. Thus, my priority target narrowed down to one. 'Take out the archer first.' Just as I made that decision, I saw the archer notch an ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠arrow.

'At this distance...' The archer would release the arrow before I could reach him. Yet, the distance wasn't far enough for me to easily dodge a flying arrow. Since I didn't know the archer's skill level, I needed another way. 'I have no choice but to use Wind Authority.' At that moment, the arrow flew toward me. I withdrew the authority from the straw floating in the air and focused all my attention on the rapidly approaching arrow.

'Now.' Something foreign was detected within the range of my authority. The authority was faster than anything else. Even if catching the arrow with my bare hands was impossible, deflecting it with my authority was entirely feasible. "Whew..." Having successfully deflected the arrow with absolute focus, I exhaled, feeling a wave of fatigue wash over me. As expected, doing this while engaging in close combat was still impossible. In that case, taking out the archer first was indeed the correct path. I began to sprint toward the archer.

"Get him!" The bandits lunged from the surroundings. But they couldn't catch me. After all, utilizing my experience as a track athlete, I was quite nimble. On top of that, the Gravitus Replicant I held was currently in its lightened state due to its unique effect. Unless they were a Regular Hero, catching me in a footrace would be near impossible. The archer, flustered, scrambled to notch his next arrow. But it was already too late. I was already right in front of him. I raised my sword. A strange resistance tugged at my arm.

'I knew it.' It was Alan's resistance. Even though these bastards had tried to kill him first, Alan was hesitating to kill them. 'Idiot.' No wonder he died every single time. Of course, it wasn't as if I had no aversion to killing people either. But here, in the Chaos Zone, killing your enemies was an unavoidable choice. If you didn't end their lives cleanly in one go, they might undergo Chaos Beastification. 'Kill him.'

The faint resistance in my arm vanished. I swiftly swung the lightened Gravitus. As it slashed diagonally and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠made contact with him, I released a portion of its weight. Boom! A violent vibration reverberated through my hands. At the same time, fragments of the man splattered onto me. Yes, I had to be this thorough. I smirked at the remaining bandits who had frozen mid-charge. 'You made the mistake of messing with me.'

Taking my smirk as a provocation, several bandits rushed forward. Of course, there was no way mere common bandits could stand against B+ Rank swordsmanship. Furthermore, the Gravitus Replicant, with its weight instantaneously released, possessed a destructive force that could not be blocked head-on. "Aaargh!" The two bandits charging at me were instantly torn apart. Watching this from behind, the remaining bandits finally seemed to realize they stood absolutely no chance. They each pulled a black lump from their pockets. It was the same item they had used to escape from Gwen last time.

'Are they fleeing?' I had no reason to chase fleeing opponents. After all, the quest's objective was to defeat the bandits, not to annihilate them. However, the smoke bomb-like things they threw were a bit troublesome. Pop! Black particles began to pour out of the black spheres as they detonated against the ground. The black particles filled the surroundings in an instant, completely blinding me. This was bad. It left me highly vulnerable to a sudden ambush.

'The quest difficulty was definitely B.' If so, there was no way it would end this anticlimactically. Something else had to be coming. With that thought, I maintained my tension inside the black fog. ... Just then, Wind Authority triggered an alarm. It was from behind. I hurriedly spun my head, only to find a dagger already inches from my throat.

The archer was sliced in half in an instant. The other two subordinates who had lunged forward were also killed in the blink of an eye. Seeing this, the rest of the subordinates fled on their own without waiting for orders. In a way, it was the worst possible situation. Outside the barrier, where finding even a single person was difficult, how hard had he worked to build this bandit group? Even when that red-haired girl had killed one of his men last time, it had been an agonizing loss. And this time, three had died. Among them was even the archer, who was incredibly hard to replace.

And yet... he felt strangely excited. 'That's the one.' His gaze was entirely fixed on the Holy Relic the boy held. It looked so ordinary that it was hard to even recognize it as a Holy Relic—a sword completely devoid of any ornamentation. But he knew. Most of the boy's strength came from that Holy Relic. He trusted his instincts. They had never been wrong. The boy was weak. But only when he swung that sword was he strong. In that case, there was only one answer.

'I must obtain that sword at all costs.' It didn't matter if he lost a few subordinates. He wouldn't need to recruit any more anyway. With the money from selling that sword, he would buy a clean identity inside the barrier. Then, he would quit this godforsaken business. He raised his dagger. Conveniently, the dark mana bomb his subordinates had detonated had filled the surroundings with darkness. The conditions for his victory were perfectly aligned.

Amyah. That was the name of the dagger he held. A weapon that had protected him ever since he became a wanted man. And at the same time, a Holy Relic. He instantly melted into the darkness. Due to the effect of the Holy Relic Amyah, he could completely conceal his presence as long as there was a certain amount of darkness. Having erased his presence, he slowly approached the boy. Finally, the moment the boy came within reach of his blade, he swung the dagger. The boy, completely unaware of his presence. The dagger aimed precisely for the boy's neck.

'Kill him in one blow.' Just as he channeled strength into his hand with that thought... Throb. A sharp pain flared in his right hand. It was a pain unlike any he had felt before, completely unbearable. Because of it, he had no choice but to drop the dagger. The falling dagger. Above it, he saw his open palm. On his palm was a cut he had received from his own dagger not long ago, and around that wound, a dark, reddish-black, turbid substance was spreading.

Voices began to echo in his head. It wasn't the first time he had heard them. They were the same voices he had heard when he cut off his own left arm. It was the symptom of Chaos Beastification. 'Damn it.'

'What?' The man dropped his dagger right before it reached my neck. I had no idea why, but it was a relief nonetheless. I had truly come close to dying just now. You could say heaven's luck was on my side. But what happened next was not so fortunate. "Aaargh!" Having dropped his dagger, the man began to let out a bizarre shriek. At first, I couldn't comprehend the reason behind his strange behavior, but soon, I realized. The man's body was slowly swelling.

'Chaos Beastification!' I had to prevent Chaos Beastification at all costs. A human undergoing Chaos Beastification was extremely dangerous. There was a reason why humanoid Chaos Beasts were rarely seen outside the barrier. For some reason, unlike other animals, humans could not fully assimilate Chaos. If a human underwent Chaos Beastification, that Chaos Beast would run wild endlessly... eventually self-destructing after leaving nothing but immense destruction in its wake. So, I had to stop it. Just as I swung my sword with that thought... Grab. Something grew out of the empty space where his left arm should have been and caught my sword. It was a grotesque thing that looked more like a tentacle than an arm. 'This is getting messy.' That was my thought as I was flung back along with my sword.