Night Battle in the Forest
The night battle raged on.
In the chaos of flashing flames and blade-light, with blood spraying through the air, Camibarez clutched Sasha's hand and ran for her life.
"You okay, Sasha? Can you keep running?"
When Camibarez glanced back to ask, Sasha, still holding her hand, gave a small nod. Camibarez was breathless herself, but she forced a bright smile all the same.
"The little brat's over there!"
One of the gang members came charging in with a crude mace raised. Camibarez swiftly curled one hand into the shape of a gun and took aim.
Blood Bullet
Twang!
With the sound of discharge, a crimson bullet streaked out and slammed into the man's chest armor. Boom! The impact sent him flying backward like a rag doll until he crashed into a tree.
"Where's the little brat?"
"Just grab that monster kid and take her hostage! Then we're done!"
The gang members kept swarming in. Camibarez whipped her head around, scanning the area, then dashed sideways.
"Where do you think you're going, our sweet little ladies—"
"!"
There was one on this side too.
Camibarez froze mid-step. A rough-faced gang member was approaching, blood pouring down his arm. He licked his lips and drawled:
"I'll buy you something tasty~ Wanna come with me?"
Sasha trembled like a leaf and burrowed into Camibarez's arms.
"It's okay."
Camibarez said it bravely, pointing her gun-shaped hand at the advancing man.
"S-stay back!"
"Oh my, my~"
The gangman raised both hands in mock surrender.
"Our little lady looks awfully tired, doesn't she? You doing alright? Why don't you come along with mister—"
ShhhhhRAK!
A rope whipped around the man's neck and yanked! he was dragged into the darkness of the forest. A moment later came a thud! and then silence.
"?"
"??"
Camibarez and Sasha, still clinging to each other, wore utterly bewildered expressions.
"Cami! GET DOWN!"
At the sudden voice from above, Camibarez flattened herself to the ground with Sasha still in her arms.
"HAHAHA!"
Dick came swinging down from a line snagged on a tree like Tarzan, and kicked the nearest approaching gangman clean off his feet.
"Your dashing hero, entering stage right!"
Having toppled the man, Dick pulled off a stylish double spin in midair before landing, sweeping the sword in his hand in a wide arc.
Clang! He batted away a blade that came slashing at Camibarez.
Clang! Clang! CLANG!
Dick and the gangman exchanged a rapid flurry of blows before locking blades, pressing steel against steel in a contest of strength.
Grrrrind!
The gangman's face went scarlet from straining with everything he had, but Dick looked perfectly relaxed, wearing his trademark lazy smirk.
"You kept it well maintained, but this blade's looking a little long in the tooth—"
Enchant
At that moment, the sword in Dick's hand turned jet black, and the darkness spread like an infection, crawling up the gangman's blade until it, too, was stained black. Both swords became impossibly heavy, and with a heavy CLUNK, the two of them dropped their weapons at the same time.
"Might want to buy a new one?"
Dick was already holding a fresh sword in his other hand.
"I'll give you a discount!"
ShRAK!
The gangman collapsed, spraying blood. Dick flicked the blade lightly to shake it clean, then glanced back over his shoulder.
"Cami! Grab the kid and keep running!"
"Thank you! Can you keep going, Sasha?"
"Yeah!"
Camibarez and Sasha began running again. Having seen them off, Dick turned alone to face the gang members thundering toward him from behind.
"Maybe I'll put some of what I learned at Kizen to good use!"
Dick dropped his sword with a light toss and clapped his palms together. A magic circle formed across his hands, and timing it to the gangman's charge, he slapped it firmly against the ground.
Venom Swamp
Glub-glub-glub!
Green liquid geysered up from the earth and rapidly flooded the area. The oncoming gang members froze at the suddenly ankle-deep sludge. They tried to retreat, but their feet were already glued fast, as if caught in sticky resin.
Dick grinned slyly and pressed his palm down onto the surface again.
Enchant
The liquid at their feet turned pitch black and hardened solid. Now the gang members couldn't cut themselves free even slashing at the goo with their swords.
"You cursed necromancer!"
"Now then."
Dick pulled something black and round out of subspace, tossed it casually in front of the trapped men, and ran off waving.
"Enjoy your time with my little friends!"
Dick snapped his fingers.
Dispel
As the black aura vanished, the gang members belatedly realized what it was they'd been left with.
"A-a hornet's nest?!"
The moment Dick's enchantment dissolved, the holes on the nest's surface widened and hornets came pouring out.
"GYAAAAAAAAGH!"
Camibarez and Sasha fled in a blind panic, and the gang on their heels was just as desperate. They knew it too — only by taking Sasha, the girl the necromancers were after, could they gain any leverage.
"Hah! Hah!"
Gang members kept pouring in from every direction. Then Sasha, still gripping Camibarez's hand, let out a sharp "Ah!" and collapsed to the ground.
"Sasha!"
She'd pushed herself too hard — it looked like she'd twisted her ankle.
Camibarez hurriedly threw up a wall of blood to block the incoming arrows, then bent down to examine Sasha's condition.
"...You go on ahead, unnie. Run."
Sasha said it quietly.
"No! Absolutely not."
Camibarez shook her head hard, knelt down, and offered her back.
"Hop on!"
Carrying Sasha piggyback, Camibarez started running again. But she was exhausted too. This ambush had begun with her, and she'd burned through so much blood in the meantime.
The gang members clambered over the blood walls she raised and kept coming. The gap between them was knife-edge — a hair's breadth from being caught.
"Gotcha!"
The instant a gangman lunged to grab Sasha by the hair, an ice spike came out of nowhere and slammed dead into his face.
Cruel Blizzard
Absurdly massive chunks of ice began hammering down from the sky onto the gang members. Only one person Camibarez knew could wield a dark-freezing spell of this caliber.
"Meilin!"
Meilin was walking toward them, shooting a wink in Camibarez's direction. She swung her free hand — the one not driving the blizzard.
Dark Flare
FWHOOSH!
Black flames clung to the grassy field and roiled hungrily, and the gang members halted in their tracks.
"Come at me all you like. I'll take every last one of you."
Meilin spread her arms wide with an easy smile. Magic circles of two different kinds were stacking up in both of her hands.
"Damn it!"
"Don't be cowards! Wait for the gap while she preps her dark magic!"
Two gang members charged at Meilin. She flicked a glance, and skeletons immediately intercepted them, swords swinging.
"Tch!"
Casting dark magic while controlling undead at the same time. Meilin's Summoning was better than most, too. Under the skeletons' cover, she safely completed her next magic circle and lifted it into the air.
Pierce of Blizzard
Sharp shards of ice burst from the magic circle, flying out in every direction. Tagged with Meilin's signature active-aim modifiers, their accuracy was so high they caught each advancing gangman dead-on, one by one.
Single-handedly swinging the tide of battle back and forth, Meilin exhaled lightly.
'They're nothing but small fry, but a few of them use mana or jet-black, which makes them annoying.'
CRACK!
Just then, the ice wall she'd erected up ahead began to fracture.
CRUNCH-crunch-crunch!
Crack!
KRA-BOOOOOM!
The thick ice wall shattered, and a man came flying through, crashing to the ground.
Meilin stumbled backward in shock.
"What the—?!"
WHOOSH!
A second later, another boy came flying in, stomped the man's face into the dirt, and skidded several more meters across the ground, carving a long trench behind him.
The stomped man gagged out a strangled, agonized sound.
As for the identity of this boy glaring coldly down at his enemy, eyes blazing out of the darkness—
"Simon!"
Simon looked up from his fallen foe, spotted Meilin, and waved cheerfully.
"Hey! BELOW you!!"
Without even glancing down, Simon stomped on his jet-black and shot upward. The slicked-back-haired gang leader, sprawled on the ground, had raised jet-black claws and swiped at the empty air where Simon had been.
Spinning once in midair, Simon landed soundlessly on the ground.
"Kid fights disgustingly well for his age."
The Sentinel Gang leader muttered, wiping the blood streaming from his nose. The surrounding gang members, seeing Simon appear out of nowhere, gripped their weapons and rushed him.
"Fall back! He's not someone the likes of you can handle—!"
'Open Gate.'
SHHHHHHRRRRK!
Shhhrrrk!
Six tears opened in the air around Simon, and tentacle-blades erupted from within, whipping through the crowd. In an instant, over a dozen gang members were smashed or slashed and went rolling across the ground.
"A m-monster...!"
One gangman, slow on his feet and thus the sole survivor of the strike, stared in terror at the back of Simon's head. When Simon turned around at the words, the man shrieked and dropped to the ground where he stood.
"...Well, that was a stroke of luck."
The Sentinel Gang leader said, pulling himself up.
"You're a Kizen necromancer, aren't you? Shouldn't you monsters be off fighting each other at Efnel or wherever? Do you really have to come torment ordinary folk like us down here in the boonies?"
"You people."
Simon flexed his fist open and closed as he spoke.
"You're connected to Efnel, aren't you."
"..."
"Planning to deny it? Without even knowing who that girl you tried to abduct is?"
The gang leader let out a long sigh.
"The payment was suspiciously fat, so I figured something was off — guess I was right. Sorry, but we know nothing about the client or anything else. Money changed hands, so we moved. That's all."
"I see."
"We'll give up on the girl, clean and simple. Won't you let us walk away?"
Simon smiled brightly.
"Why would I?"
"Ha! Figured as much!"
Even to himself, it had been an absurd thing to hope for. The gang leader curled his lips into a snarl and charged. Jet-black was visibly rippling along the blade of his sword.
"We may never have gotten your fancy elite education—"
The rippling jet-black sheathed itself onto the blade and transformed it into a jagged, razor-edged saw.
"—but years eating by the sword don't just disappear!"
The moment the distance between them closed, Simon slid his fingers out in a smooth arc.
Shhhlick!
A shot of teal smoke coiled around the gang leader's legs, and Simon yanked his arm back. The man's body was helplessly dragged forward.
"Ghk!"
Hauled forcibly into the air, the slicked-back-haired man swung his sword wildly, but Simon simply bent at the waist and slipped out of the way. As the man staggered, his feet barely touching down, Simon was already on him.
'How many attack patterns does this punk have?!'
CRUNCH!
Simon's knee smashed into the gang leader's face. Blood gushed from his mouth, along with teeth that glinted in the moonlight as they flew.
Ka-DANG-tang-tang!
As the man toppled, Simon drew out a long thread of Cloud connected to his finger and flung it upward. The cloud coiled around a sturdy tree branch, and Simon seized it with both hands and pulled hard. On the pulley principle, the gang leader was yanked off his feet, legs first, into the air.
"Gahk!"
Terror flooded the man's face.
Ssrk. Shk.
Simon's two fingers danced. The scattered bones of a fallen skeleton floated up into the air, buoyant as feathers.
Bone Nail
The bones rained down all at once onto the man suspended in midair.
THUD! Thud! Thud!
Amid the thunderous din, Simon released the Cloud. The impaled gang leader dropped headfirst to the ground and lay still, unconscious.
"Easy."
Simon murmured it and looked around.
"Th-the boss is down!"
"Just like that...!"
"Niiice, Simon!"
Meilin walked over, snapping her fingers at him in approval — then spread both arms wide toward the remaining gang members.
"If you're going to drop your weapons and surrender, gentlemen, now's your last chance~"
Clatter.
Thud.
As if they'd been waiting for exactly that, the gang members dropped their weapons.
"The S-Sentinel Gang, beaten this easily...?"
Sasha, still clinging to Camibarez, trembled in disbelief. Then she turned around.
"He's strong, isn't he, that oppa?"
Camibarez asked, her face flushed red. Sasha looked back at her.
"W-who... who on earth are you people?"