33
My Villains Chapter 33
9-1. Attack (3)
"That's right. So get lost while I'm still being nice. If you back off now, I'll spare your life."
A harsh laugh rang out, then quickly subsided.
Meanwhile, I had discovered this substance flowing through my blood. This foreign matter was in the process of destroying blood vessels and shattering nerves. Following the pull of instinct, I began to control the blood flowing through my body.
"Heh, I like your fighting spirit. I'll specially spare your life."
"What? Then..."
"Of course, the Bloody Swordsman must die. That's my mission after all."
Instead of an answer, I heard the sound of a stonebow being cocked with a click.
"Do you want to die needlessly? Put down your toy, fake magician."
As Ellen took a small breath and was about to say something, I opened my mouth first.
"Blegh!"
"Phoenix!"
As soon as I vomited black blood, Poison threw a dagger.
I had managed to gather the poison flowing through my blood and spit it out, but my vision was still dark, my stomach was queasy, and my head was spinning.
I staggered as I raised my shield to block the dagger, but...
Thwack.
I was hit by Poison's kick that came out of nowhere and helplessly rolled on the ground.
Following the light sound of feet kicking off the ground, a sharp cutting sound is heard. I gritted my teeth and rolled on the ground, but I couldn't avoid his attacks forever.
Ugh, I can't keep my balance.
Thanks to my blood being somewhat purified, I was starting to see a bit now—damn it. Seems it was too late.
"You worm, this is the end!"
As he said, there was no more way to dodge. I had rolled around and ended up blocked somewhere.
Is this also the effect of the poison? Even though I sensed death approaching, my mind was surprisingly calm.
My life didn't flash before my eyes, I didn't think of my family, and I wasn't afraid or angry.
I just felt a bit empty.
Dying to Ubar's underling, not even Ubar himself? To a minor mob that appears in just Chapter 2, not even a named dragon?
Yeah. In a way, this is quite a Kim Seung-soo like ending. The death of an ordinary citizen who suddenly fell into a world of barbarism.
A flash of sword light briefly shone in my blurry vision.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
While Phoenix was pathetically rolling on the ground...
"Uh, ah—"
Ellen was just watching, trembling.
Though she had put on a brave front with words, her body was frozen and wouldn't move.
Poison moved with inhuman speed, and his eyes were filled with cruel killing intent.
'Like last time, I just need to do like last time.'
She recalled when she had saved Phoenix from the lizard.
She loaded a tear gas round into the stonebow, but—she didn't dare to shoot. Her arms were shaking so much she had no confidence in hitting the target.
Tears kept welling up with an ominous feeling.
It was just like when her master died.
- El, Erenar.
- Master. It's, it's me, Erenar. I'm here.
- Cross... Cross the strait. Destiny awaits you there.
- Stop talking. The blood, it won't stop...
- Only you... Can stop the end. Only you, the heir of Radakalin.
- Please stop! Without you, I'm just... I'm just useless...
- You are... You are a late-blooming flower, child. Someday, your fragrance will cover all of the Middle World...
Her master's grand claims had been wrong.
No matter how hard she tried, Ellen couldn't cast spells, and she couldn't do anything when it was needed.
A sense of powerlessness brought Ellen to her knees.
"Huu, uuuu!"
Just as her mind was about to collapse under unbearable stress.
Half of the second floor of the Ship's Horn Inn was engulfed in flames.
Arnal, Grania's subordinate, shot an arrow piercing the heart of the last thief remaining in the inn.
The paralyzed thug foamed at the mouth and died of suffocation.
The guards summoned by Daria ran towards the inn carrying buckets of water.
Phoenix, crashed into the fence, closed his eyes.
And, power was engraved into Ellen's soul.
Ellen screamed.
"Phoenix, no—!"
"Phoenix, no—!"
Along with Ellen's scream, there was a popping sound of air bursting.
"Kuhek!"
Poison, who was swinging his curved blade, suddenly lost balance and staggered.
As my vision grew clearer, I saw that Poison was bleeding from his nose. As if he had been hit by an invisible fist.
...An invisible fist? The sound of air bursting?
As I scraped myself off the floor, I shouted at the same time.
"Ellen! Keep going!"
"W-what?"
Ugh, I must have missed it in the chaos, but Pulsion was rolling on the ground far away.
"Magic!"
"Magic?"
"Yes! You just used magic!"
Oh no, a mistake. Hearing my words, Poison straightened himself and turned to look at Ellen. Then, with eyes full of killing intent, he muttered, "Heh, a real magician? That wench?"
I rushed at Poison with my shield in front, though staggering.
"Wind fist! Keep throwing them!"
I caught a glimpse of Ellen shedding tears and shaking her shoulders.
She hesitated for a moment, but then swallowed hard and raised her hand to point at Poison. Then, the incantation.
"Ventus, exaudi me! Ictum!
Ellen chanted an incomprehensible spell in a clear voice, and in response, wind whirled in the empty air.
Then with a pop like a balloon bursting, Poison's face crumpled. As if he had been hit hard by an invisible fist.
"Kuk!"
As Poison's mouth filled with blood, I quickly swung the edge of my shield at him.
When he dodged it with nimble movements even in the confusion, I drew a dagger from my waist.
"Ictum!"
Another wind fist was shot.
Thwack!
"Ugh..."
As Poison clutched his side, I threw my shield in a surprise attack, and he gritted his teeth as he did a somersault.
He managed to avoid the shield that flew like a discus.
"Hup!"
I lunged forward with the dagger in hand.
I planned to subdue him instantly using overwhelming strength and stab the dagger into his neck.
It was a strategy that wouldn't be too difficult to succeed if Ellen's interference continued.
But, damn it. Because the poison wasn't completely eliminated, my vision blurred with a 'ping!' at the moment of the leap, and I lost my balance.
I rolled in an unexpected direction and quickly got up, wary of a counterattack. However...
"...Huh?"
There was no counterattack as expected. Instead of attacking me, Poison was climbing onto the roof of a building next to the inn with agile movements.
...Don't tell me that bastard is running away?
Damn, after all this trouble, I can't let him escape! If he gets away unscathed, there'll be no end to the headaches in the future!
"Ellen! We have to catch him!"
"B-but... He's out of range. The wind fist only works where the caster's control reaches."
"Fire bolt, no, shoot a flame arrow!"
"Flame arrow?"
"Yes! Hurry!"
"But I..."
Her expression was uncertain for a moment, then Ellen closed her mouth. Then she took a deep breath and started chanting a spell.
"Influ-unt flammae, Ignis-"
With that, small sparks flew from the tips of Ellen's slender fingers.
The sparks soon became flames, and the flames took the shape of an elongated skewer.
"Hurry! We're losing him!"
Ellen, who had been staring blankly at the flame, pointed at Poison at my urging.
"satus!"
Whoosh!
With Ellen's spell, an arrow made of fire split the sky.
It wasn't as fast as an arrow shot from an actual bow, but it was much faster than a person running.
It was fast enough to hit Poison, who was in the middle of leaping towards another building.
Thunk!
"Gugh!"
The flame arrow deeply embedded itself in Poison's waist and simultaneously burst into flames. Poison, hit by the flame arrow in mid-air, lost his balance and fell.
Crack!
He ended up being skewered on a wall full of stakes the size of a palm.
"Kuk! Urgh-"
Poison flailed his limbs a few times in that state before going limp.
...The guy who had driven me to the brink of death, dying so anticlimactically. I'm not sure if I should be happy or sad about this.
"I, I...!"
When I turned around, Ellen was on her knees, looking down at her palm.
She trembled slightly, then carefully clenched her hand. Then she looked up at me with a face that seemed about to cry.
"Is this, is this a dream?"
"What?"
"I, I used magic."
Ellen smiled brightly while shedding tears pitifully. I gave a bitter smile and helped her up.
"Yeah, I saw it too. Congratulations, you."
"Phoenix."
I forcibly lifted her up as she was mumbling, and gave her a grin.
"Save the sniveling for later, let's get out of here first. The building might collapse."
Ellen, who was about to say something, quickly closed her mouth to hold back her tears.
Contrary to our worries, the inn didn't completely collapse.
The smoke was particularly bad because the fire had caught on the salt-soaked timber... But the floorboards, which were slowly rotting from moisture, wouldn't burn so easily.
The reason the flames were so fierce was probably because Ellen's firebomb had such impressive power.
Anyway, thanks to Daria quickly bringing in the guards, the fire was soon contained.
It ended with one of the inn's only two staircases completely burned and about half of the second floor charred.
There was plenty of soot and burnt smell all over the building, but well, with some cleaning, sweeping, and repairs, it could probably be restored to its original state.
As I was dragging the corpses from inside the inn outside, I stretched for a moment to catch my breath.
"Phew."
I was arranging the bodies, separating the attackers from the victims, and it seemed there were easily forty dead.
"Ubar, you bastard."
As I was quietly grinding my teeth and looking around at the bodies, I suddenly spotted the innkeeper.
Next to the kneeling old man lay the cold body of a young servant boy.
The middle-aged man with a tired face wiped the ash from his hands with the inside of his apron and closed the boy's eyes.
"...He's gone to a better place, mister."
"Yes. He was a good kid."
As I quietly approached and patted his shoulder, the old man smiled bitterly and covered my hand with his.
"About the fire— I'm really sorry. If you'd like, I can—"
"No, no. You don't need to apologize. It was an unavoidable situation."
The innkeeper sighed deeply and continued as he stood up.
"I don't blame Lady Ellen. Thanks to the sudden fire, the mercenaries gained some time. If it weren't for that fire, I'd probably be a corpse by now."
"So there's no need to be sorry."
As he said this, the innkeeper turned his darkened eyes towards the guards.
Some guards were still diligently moving bodies, but most were gathered together, chattering.
"The church is going to make a fuss again. They say the cemetery is getting full."
"Then why don't we just hand over the wanderers to the undertaker?"
"The undertaker? Oh, that old man? Is it okay to keep giving work to someone who just arrived in the city?"
"What does it matter? It's better than getting cursed at and extorted by the priests."
It was irritating to see them treating the tragedy at the Ship's Horn Inn as a nuisance... But well, I guess they have it tough too.
From what I hear, there have been about ten serious crimes like robbery, murder, and rape just today. And this is in a city with a population of only ten thousand.
...At this rate, Detroit would almost look like paradise in comparison?
But even in this messed-up situation, the fact that nearly forty people died was clearly a serious matter.
It was easy to tell by the fact that even the captain of the South Harbor guard, no less, had personally come.
The innkeeper muttered quietly as he looked at the guard captain with chubby cheeks like a fat bulldog.
"...If only those lazy bastards had come a little earlier."
Before the guards could notice the innkeeper's negative emotions, I quickly patted his back.
"You must be tired, take a rest, mister. Maybe go upstairs and open a window. The wind is nice, so the burnt smell should dissipate quickly."
"...Right. I should do that."
As the old man nodded with a stern face and went into the inn, I walked towards the well.
Near the well, among the scattered debris, Ellen was sitting with her eyes closed, leaning against an overturned table. It was quite fascinating to see her deep in meditation despite the chaos around.
Fascinating is one thing, but while others are working hard to clean up the inn, why isn't she even bothering to help?
I want to say something to her— but I should hold back. It's understandable that she's absorbed in it after successfully casting magic, which she's longed for so much.
Besides... Sigh, she's still young, isn't she? I can't blame her for having a narrow perspective.
With that sigh, I was about to sit down next to Ellen.