Chapter 152
Chapter 152
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 152
Chapter Title: Chapter 46. The Outlaws (4)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
7.
Whoosh!
A relentless blizzard raged on.
“Ugh…….”
A bitter cold more than sufficient to kill.
“Move that way.”
The band of outlaws traversing this stage, truly deserving of the name hell, were in surprisingly decent shape.
Aside from their condition being hampered by the cold, there were hardly any with serious injuries.
The secret was simple.
Awoo!
“It’s White Fangs.”
“How many?”
“Over a thousand again, it looks like.”
The moment the monster horde appeared, Ispa—who had now become the leader of the outlaw party—didn’t hesitate.
“Set bait and move.”
They threw the injured out as bait.
“N-No!”
The injured freaked out upon realizing they were being treated as bait, but that was it.
They were literally the injured—those who had lost their combat ability.
There was no way they could put up proper resistance.
Even if they tried, it would be no more than a worm wriggling before being impaled on a hook.
And it didn’t end there.
“Cut their backs. Let the blood spread. But leave their limbs intact. The neck too. They need to move and scream for the bait to work.”
Ispa spared no means or methods to make the bait more effective.
Nor was it just Ispa.
“Yes.”
Those who heard her order followed it without the slightest hesitation.
Spurt!
“Argh!”
They carried out the order with remarkable speed and precision.
As if it were something they were used to.
No, in truth, it was.
These were outlaws, for whom using the injured as bait in the Mystic Gate was as routine as breathing.
Moreover, they were hunters of adventurers.
They were accustomed to killing people—artisans in the craft, one might say.
“Gaaah!”
“Move.”
Having thus thrown the injured out as bait, the outlaw band swiftly relocated.
And what they sought was one thing.
“The exit?”
“Not visible.”
The exit!
There was nothing strange about it.
‘First, we find the exit.’
Their goals—taking El Pam’s head and Aran’s item—remained unchanged, but without finding the exit, even those would be worthless.
On the flip side, finding the exit meant they could escape in the worst-case scenario.
Thinking like true outlaws.
And for that, Ispa and the outlaws were prepared to pay any price.
‘We still have plenty of bait.’
Ispa also had no worries about running out of bait.
‘If needed, we make more.’
If they needed injured for bait, they could simply create more.
‘We haven’t encountered El Pam or the Witch of the Snowy Mountains yet.’
On top of that, they hadn’t run into any enemies yet, by some stroke of luck.
All in all, nothing to worry about.
That’s how it seemed.
Spurt!
“Argh!”
Until a scream suddenly rang out right beside Ispa.
“What happened?”
“An attack!”
“Attack?”
But they couldn’t immediately identify the source of the attack.
“Argh!”
Only after repeated screams.
Only after seeing the state of the corpses.
“It’s magic. Fire attribute Fire Arrow magic.”
“It’s El Pam!”
The moment El Pam appeared.
Ispa wasn’t surprised.
‘That bastard.’
Instead, she saw an opportunity in that instant.
‘Coming right to us.’
Capturing El Pam had been their goal from the start.
Of course, she didn’t underestimate him.
‘In this hell.’
But the environment here was far from favorable for El Pam’s party.
No, it was extremely disadvantageous.
Whoosh!
For one, the blizzard was raging. A fierce one where you couldn’t even see your outstretched hand.
Hitting something in that?
Far from easy.
No, normally impossible.
She only thought it possible because it was El Pam.
Moreover, the power of fire-attribute magic would be greatly weakened in this blizzard.
‘He won’t escape easily.’
Most crucially, this place was blanketed in deep snow amid the blizzard.
Even 5th Circle warrior adventurers, even thief adventurers, would struggle to move freely.
For a mage adventurer like El Pam, proper movement here was outright impossible.
Which meant pursuit was entirely feasible.
‘No need to watch our backs anymore.’
Decisively, this was the 4th floor.
The final Green-grade floor.
No need to worry about what came next.
They just needed to settle it here!
‘Capture him.’
That’s why Ispa intended to step up herself. She charged through the blizzard.
Boom boom boom!
Her charge was so tremendous it made the blizzard seem tame and scattered the piled snow like nothing.
She sliced through the snow at astonishing speed.
A speed no mage adventurer, not even fellow warrior adventurers, could easily match!
That was why she had become an outlaw hunter, and why outlaws feared her.
Few outlaws in the Elnas Mountains could stop her.
That’s how it was.
Whoosh!
‘What’s this?’
Until a single polearm flew at her.
Ispa immediately swung the two-handed sword she gripped with both hands.
Clang!
The polearm and two-handed sword collided, emitting a harsh metallic ring.
“Urk!”
Followed by a groan.
Ispa’s groan.
‘H-How?’
It was bewildering for her.
She was among the strongest 5th Circle warrior adventurers, one worthy of being counted on one hand.
No 5th Circle outlaw could block her.
Yet here she was, blocked.
And not just blocked.
‘I’m being pushed. Me.’
It was a single clash, but in it, Ispa felt a gap between her opponent and herself like that between an adult and a boy.
A massive difference.
Of course, there was no time to dwell on that gap.
This was a battlefield where lives were on the line.
No matter who stood before her, Ispa had to break through.
Moreover, she knew.
That strength wasn’t everything.
That skill could sometimes overpower strength.
And above all, she had that.
“Scaling Sword!”
A warrior technique, Scaling Sword!
A skill that imbued the held weapon with special power the moment it was used. Anyone struck while it was active suffered an indelible wound.
And the instant that wound was inflicted, their physical abilities declined.
Even against a strong foe, if you could land a wound, you could weaken them!
An excellent skill.
Unique-grade, yet its acquisition difficulty rivaled Legendary-grade, by no exaggeration.
It was what made her an outlaw hunter.
“Brave Slash!”
In that state, she immediately unleashed the Brave Slash skill as well.
She went all out.
“Come on!”
At her shout, the enemy facing her charged without hesitation.
The polearm flew at her.
Whoosh!
Ispa had no intention of meeting that polearm head-on.
Clashing strength-on-strength when she was being overpowered would be absurd.
‘Dodge the first strike and…….’
She aimed to evade the polearm and counter.
Clang!
But contrary to her intent, a collision occurred.
The polearm changed trajectory like a snake, pursuing the evading Ispa.
Her intentions read perfectly!
Naturally, she had no choice but to block.
“Urk!”
And as expected, she groaned from the impact.
At the same time, her balance crumbled.
Her opponent didn’t miss the opening.
The polearm bore down on Ispa.
Its movements were astonishingly fast and precise.
‘He’s reading everything.’
But what bewildered Ispa most was that her opponent was perfectly predicting her moves.
‘Where did this monster come from?’
It was a monster unlike any she’d ever faced.
That was remarkable.
As an outlaw hunter, she had confronted countless outlaws, most of whom—though lacking fame across Maple World—were recognized for their skill.
They were the real deal.
Yet the one before her was incomparably stronger than any of them.
Not just stronger.
On another level entirely.
‘Could it be Aran? The polearm hero?’
For a fleeting moment, she even wondered if it was the polearm hero Aran.
Naturally, the battle’s outcome was obvious.
When the clashes—the metallic rings echoing through the blizzard—reached twenty, the sounds ceased.
Spurt!
Replaced only by the gruesome sound of the polearm severing Ispa’s left arm.
The battle ended.
“You bastard!”
But in that instant, rather than surrender, Ispa issued a warning.
“My subordinates will have their revenge!”
A chilling warning.
“They’ll put a bounty on you and everything connected to you, and tear you to shreds!”
A warning born of rage.
And it was a profoundly chilling one.
Coming from an outlaw, no less.
At the same time, a very real one.
Her subordinates—over several dozen still here—remained. Add their allies, and it was hundreds on her side.
That was when it happened.
Whoosh!
The relentless blizzard suddenly halted.
A coincidence.
An abrupt one no one could have foreseen.
Thanks to it, Ispa could see.
‘This guy?’
The man standing before her, polearm in hand.
“Di?”
None other than Di, the warrior from El’s party—the first attacked by El Pam, the first discarded as bait.
Ispa’s face twisted in shock.
“H-How?”
They had thrown him out as bait.
Into a Hector horde numbering over a thousand, no less.
Yet he was alive?
Not just alive, but unscathed, displaying this level of prowess against her?
Utterly incomprehensible.
But in that moment, Ispa understood.
“You’re Dibo! You were in disguise!”
The full truth.
And having uncovered it, she shouted it for all to hear.
“El’s party was El Pam’s party! They were in disguise! This is our chance to catch them!”
She informed her comrades and subordinates of the truth.
As she turned her head, she finally saw.
“Groooan!”
“Uwaaaah!”
“My eyes, my eyes!”
“Ugh, s-spare, spare me.”
Her subordinates and the other outlaws, screaming and groaning from wounds.
No exceptions.
Every single one wounded.
At that sight, Ispa’s mind blanked for a moment.
Even she couldn’t comprehend it here.
‘Only a few minutes passed?’
Her fight with Dibo had lasted barely two minutes.
Yet all her comrades were injured?
Even in the midst of a blizzard?
How was this possible?
“The boss said to relay this.”
To her, wearing a dazed expression amid the questions, Dibo said as he slung his polearm over his shoulder.
“From now on, you’re the bait.”
Only then did Ispa realize.
That El Pam’s party hadn’t killed a single one.
That they had merely inflicted wounds—not fatal ones that would kill immediately, but enough to make fighting difficult.
And what that implied.
“By the outlaws’ rules.”
Whoosh!
At that instant, the briefly paused blizzard raged even fiercer.
The world turned white.
And amid that blizzard, she appeared.
“Th-the Witch of the Snowy Mountains!”
A witch made of ice.