Chapter 322
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 322
Chapter Title: Got a Problem?
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Kilimanjaro.
Africa's tallest sacred mountain, rising 5,800 meters high.
Even near the equator, its peak was eternally capped in snow, a sight that inspired awe and majesty.
...Or at least, that's how it used to be.
But right now.
The majestic mountain was dyed black and red instead of pure white.
From the smoke of nonstop barrages from various weapons and the blood spilled by people.
Ratta-tatta-tat!
"Gah!"
"Hata!"
A burly man.
Umbaru hurriedly supported his comrade, who had collapsed spurting blood while firing from beside him.
He glanced at the long gash from a grazing bullet on the side of his head and the rolled-back eyes, then whipped around.
"Shu! Hata's down!"
"Hold on, I'm coming!"
"I'll cover you—hurry!"
To back up his own words, Umbaru immediately poked his head out from behind the rock.
Tat-tat-tat!
As if they'd been waiting for that exact moment, dozens of bullets flew in, sparking off the rock and peppering Umbaru's body with minor wounds.
But Umbaru didn't care.
He simply tossed aside the spear he was holding.
Against soldiers spraying bullets, a mere wooden spear felt pathetically inadequate, almost laughable.
Boom!
But the result was astonishing.
The spear lodged in the ground behind the soldiers erupted in a massive pillar of fire.
It was the effect of Umbaru's unique skill, 『All-Purpose Bomb』, imbued into the wooden spear.
Even so, he frowned instead.
If the soldiers had let their guard down, it could have inflicted serious damage.
But since they'd already fallen for the same trick several times, it barely hurt them.
"How's Hata?"
"Just wait! Can't you see I'm treating him?"
Thanks to the time Umbaru had bought, a woman who had half-crawled her way over arrived.
As Shu closed her eyes, a soft light flowed from her hand, seeping into Hata's wound and staunching the bleeding.
"Wake him up quick once you're done!"
"You think that makes sense? His brain's messed up too—you see that? This is just emergency aid!"
"If you can't, then run with the rest of the tribe! I'll hold them off."
"Are you insane? How do you plan to stop all those guys alone?"
"Protecting the tribe is the chief's duty! No more arguing—go!"
"You idiot, that's exactly why you have to come back with us! What happens to the tribe if you die too?"
"Better than all of us dying here!"
Even as the two bickered, the soldiers' gunfire continued relentlessly.
The remaining tribesmen were fighting back desperately too.
But with only about twenty people, including the wounded, they couldn't handle over a hundred soldiers.
And the soldiers' arsenal wasn't limited to guns.
Boom!
"Argh!"
"Get down!"
Reinforcements must have arrived.
The soldiers began unleashing mortars, grenades, and grenade launchers, turning the area into chaos in seconds.
They were mass-produced weapons, hardly cutting-edge.
But to tribesmen armed with nothing but rusty AK-47s, they were a catastrophe.
"Ugh... we're done for..."
With no hope of escape, Shu groaned while cradling the unconscious Hata.
Umbaru, on the other hand, gritted his teeth.
"If we die, we'll die fighting!"
"Surrender's not an option?"
"Surrender? They'd just execute us or turn us into battle slaves! I'd rather take down one more than die for the Lukuma tribe's scum!"
"Ugh, what kind of chief are you..."
Grousing under her breath, Shu still picked up Hata's gun.
As a healer, she might avoid execution, but she'd face all sorts of horrors instead.
Better to go out in a blaze of glory here, and she agreed.
Exchanging glances with their remaining comrades and bidding final farewells, they all leaped from cover and opened fire.
But their counterattack didn't last.
Whoosh!
"RPG!"
"Damn it. We're dying without taking a single one."
Targeting the most troublesome Umbaru first, perhaps.
Shu made a defeated face as not one or two, but five or six RPGs flew straight at them.
The moment Umbaru tried to shield her with his body.
Crackle.
"...Huh?"
"...What?"
Space rippled.
And two figures appeared.
Right in the middle between them and the soldiers.
Directly in front of the rockets hurtling toward them, no less.
Kaboom!!
The first rocket's flames engulfed the others, chaining explosions several times over.
The inferno that should have swallowed them.
Instead, it consumed the two who had appeared out of nowhere, belching thick smoke. Umbaru and Shu blinked in shock.
"...What just happened?"
"No idea..."
They weren't the only ones bewildered.
The other tribesmen, and even the soldiers who had been firing nonstop, halted their attack.
They couldn't comprehend what had just occurred.
But the peace didn't last.
As if they'd figure it out after the battle, the soldiers resumed firing, forcing Umbaru and the tribesmen to duck back into cover and counterattack frantically.
As combat reignited and bullets whizzed through the air once more.
A voice cut through the fading smoke from the RPG blasts.
"Everyone, stop."
"...!"
Umbaru flinched.
Not just from glimpsing a shadowy figure through the smoke that would pulp even a high-level player.
The voice pierced the cacophony of gunfire with unnatural clarity.
It reminded him of the chill he'd felt fighting a lion with nothing but a spear...
No—even several times more terrifying.
"C-Cease fire! Stop shooting!"
"Hey! Are you crazy?"
"Just stop anyway!"
"What nonsense..."
Despite the absurdity of halting fire amid a hail of bullets, Shu couldn't pull the trigger.
It wasn't just because the chief's orders were absolute in battle.
She felt the same ominous vibe.
"What are you doing? Fire..."!
The soldiers' commander, meanwhile, ordered them to keep shooting.
For a soldier in war, it was not just natural but exemplary.
But it was a mistake.
Thwack!
Before he could finish.
A figure burst from the smoke and kicked him in an instant.
"I said stop."
It kneed his bowed solar plexus.
"When someone's talking, you listen!"
Grabbing his collar as he fell back, it slapped his face a dozen times.
"I was gonna let you off easy, but you try shooting?!"
Finally, it flipped him over and stomped his solar plexus repeatedly.
As Umbaru and Shu gaped at the man reduced to rags in a blink.
The soldiers realized too late it was their commander and frantically aimed at the assailant, shouting warnings.
Slash!
"Seems many of you missed that gentleman's warning, so allow me to repeat it."
The soldiers froze.
Before they could even aim.
A flash sliced the air, and the guns around the commander shattered in unison.
"No one move from now on."
Somehow already there.
A blue-haired beauty in what had once been neat but now tattered travel clothes stood between the commander and soldiers, speaking softly.
She smiled gently through her cracked glasses.
"Disobey this warning, and you'll be testing the limits of my mercy."
On any other day.
The soldiers would have laughed.
Battle-hardened with curses, her mild warning sounded feeble.
Yet they swallowed dryly and stiffened for two reasons.
One: the razor-sharp sword in her hand, untouched after cleaving their guns.
Two: the vein bulging on her forehead.
No matter how deep her mercy, anyone could see its limit was near.
"Hoo, damn it. These kids nowadays don't listen unless you make 'em."
How much time passed?
The assailant finally stopped pummeling the commander and brushed back dusty hair.
Then turned casually.
"Hey."
"..."
"Don't play dumb. You, big lump."
"M-Me?"
"Yeah, you."
Suddenly singled out.
Umbaru stammered awkwardly, and the figure tossed out a question.
"Just to confirm—you were fighting these guys, right?"
"...Yes."
"Perfect. Tie 'em up."
"Tie them?"
Umbaru blinked like a cow at the abrupt order.
"Take their guns, ropes, shackles—whatever. Make sure they can't run."
"Why us...?"
"Want me to beat you like this guy first?"
Thud!
As if happy to rack up more karma if needed.
The figure nudged the unconscious commander's head with a small foot, eyes gleaming. Umbaru nodded frantically.
"D-Do it! Everyone, tie them up!"
"Hey, you moron! You gonna do whatever they say...?"
"Talk later. Just do it!"
In the end, Shu and the tribesmen reluctantly disarmed and bound the soldiers.
Not wanting to end up prisoners, some soldiers resisted or tried to flee in rage.
The outcomes were miserable.
Those caught by the blue-haired woman merely had their guns smashed—a mercy.
Those snagged by the commander's attacker got beaten from head to toe, per precedent.
By the time it was done, no one dared resist.
"All tied up."
"Good job. Let's take 'em and head out."
"...Head out? Where?"
"Where else? Your village, obviously."
"Our village?!"
Umbaru freaked out.
Binding the soldiers was one thing.
But bringing them—especially these two—to the village was entirely different.
"Why?"
Exactly.
These people, of all people.
"Got a problem?"
Glinting gold hair in the sunlight.
Bronze skin tanned like leather, yet softer than hard.
Upper body bare save for a gold necklace and bracelets, slim waist and lithe frame on full display.
A rectangular cloth loincloth draped low, Egyptian-style, covering just to the knees.
Youthful face with upturned eyes that looked all the snarkier on his small frame.
He looked like a child, yet felt fiercer than any beast. Facing the blond, tanned pretty boy, Umbaru couldn't help but break into a cold sweat.