Chapter 85
Chapter 85
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 85
Chapter Title: Human Hunter (4)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
8.
“Fire Arrow!”
The moment that cry rang out, all the adventurers moved swiftly.
The warrior raised his shield, and the rest of the adventurers took cover beside it or behind trees.
Like gears in a clock.
Without exception, everyone responded perfectly to the attack.
“How many?”
“Three!”
Against their flawless response, the incoming Fire Arrows seemed utterly pathetic.
The sound of those Fire Arrows clashing against the warriors’ raised shields echoed out.
Clang!
A truly pitiful noise.
Yet not a single adventurer sneered at the feeble assault.
Instead, their eyes narrowed fiercely.
Proof.
“Don’t move recklessly.”
That the adventurers here weren’t some ragtag bunch, but the real deal.
“It could be a trap.”
In their eyes, this pathetic attack might just be bait to lure them out, a ploy to provoke them.
That was when it happened.
Whoosh!
Another Fire Arrow came flying.
This one was a single shot.
Clang!
And that attack vanished beneath the warrior’s shield with an even more pitiful sound.
At that point, every adventurer thought the same thing.
‘Over there.’
The direction the Fire Arrow had come from was identical.
That was where the enemy was.
So if they charged in that direction now, they’d find the target they’d been hunting for.
But the adventurers here didn’t charge.
“Chan.”
“Bi-hoss!”
“Cho!”
The party leaders called out names, and at each call, one adventurer stepped forward from their group.
Thieves.
The nimblest of them all, they immediately darted toward the direction the Fire Arrow had come from.
Their leaders instructed them.
“Scout it out.”
Don’t push too hard.
Truth be told, it was almost an overreaction.
The enemies who had infiltrated this place numbered only five at most.
Even allowing for the unexpected, that was laughable compared to the group gathered here.
Yet they remained cautious.
Not out of fear of the foe.
‘Preserve strength as much as possible.’
‘The real fight starts on the third floor.’
What they feared were the strategic allies breathing beside them.
‘From the third floor on, everyone’s an enemy.’
They couldn’t afford even a shred of strength wasted in front of those who would soon become rivals.
In other words, no one intended to go all out, and everyone knew it.
And that included him.
9.
‘Just as expected.’
El Pam watched from the exact opposite direction of where the Fire Arrows had flown.
It was child’s play.
Manipulating their trajectory with telekinesis was trivial for him.
And using that telekinesis to wipe out about twenty percent of the visible adventurers would be equally effortless.
Yet the reason he concealed his power here was simple.
‘They’re playing it safe.’
If he revealed his true strength, he could certainly deal a fatal blow in short order.
But in turn, they’d band together immediately to face the monster that was El Pam.
And adventurers united like that wouldn’t be easy for him to handle.
‘That’s what I want.’
So El Pam deliberately lobbed ordinary stones.
To hide his power.
And he planned to do the same going forward.
El Pam intended to unleash attacks that were threatening yet entirely reasonable.
At this moment, that attack was straightforward.
El Pam used telekinesis.
“Gahk!”
In response, one of the thieves racing toward the Fire Arrow’s origin far off let out a choking gasp and collapsed.
At the same time, he shouted.
“Poison!”
10.
“Poison!”
No one flinched at the cry.
‘Just as expected.’
Everyone had anticipated this scenario.
Yellow Scorpion Chio was no exception.
‘They’re using poison.’
He wasn’t surprised.
For the weaker side, poison was the surest way to tip the scales.
‘Perfect.’
Moreover, no group wielded poison better than the Red Scorpion Gang, one of which he led.
They were named for scorpions because they wielded the venom of the myriad poison scorpions in the Nihal Desert with astonishing skill.
They had hunted countless monsters and made fortunes with that poison.
Yellow Scorpion Chio was the same.
He carried a variety of scorpion venoms.
‘Plenty of antidotes.’
And just as many antidotes.
Meaning Chio and his men were quite safe against whatever poison that adventurer was using.
The other adventurers, however, were not.
‘Best-case scenario.’
For Chio, this was ideal.
Naturally, he hoped for one thing here.
‘I hope this thins out the other competitors a bit.’
A favorable outcome.
The other adventurers thought the same.
Everyone tapped away at mental calculators.
Of course, they all reached the same conclusion.
‘Play it safe.’
Conserve strength.
“Gahk!”
Around then, the second victim emerged.
“Who is it?”
“Looks like one from Desert Fox Heshan’s party?”
“Yeah? Wait, then?”
“Yeah, second one.”
A second victim from the same party.
“Tough luck.”
Of course, no one placed much weight on that fact.
“Third victim.”
“Poison again.”
“Affiliation?”
“Heshan.”
But when the third victim appeared, the adventurers’ mental math began to shift.
Soon, the fourth victim followed.
“Heshan’s party again.”
Four in a row from the same group.
“Really unlucky.”
Of course, not a soul suspected it was intentional.
In a situation where killing even one was a challenge, deliberately targeting members of just one party was impossible.
But one thing was clear.
‘It’s good luck for us.’
Everyone except Desert Fox Heshan’s party had no desire to question this misfortune.
The same held when more victims kept appearing.
Everyone kept calculating.
Sure, each had taken losses.
‘But Heshan’s party took the heaviest hit.’
With one group suffering the most, they all chose to keep calculating rather than go all out.
“Argh!”
That calculus halted with the thirty-fourth victim.
By then, everyone realized.
“This is weird. Thirty-four dead, and twenty from our party alone? Does that make sense?”
“Heshan’s party getting hit every time? Something’s off.”
Could they really chalk up such one-sided devastation to mere bad luck?
They could.
But they couldn’t just let it slide.
“We need to talk.”
That was when it happened.
Whoosh!
“Fire Arrow!”
Another Fire Arrow flew at them—the same pathetic one they’d seen before.
“One shot!”
Just one.
Still laughably few.
“I’ll block it!”
Faced with that feeble single shot, one adventurer warrior raised his shield toward it, and seeing that, everyone let their guard down.
They’d seen it before.
They’d witnessed the pitiful end of those Fire Arrows countless times.
So they dropped their guard, and in that moment, they saw it.
Ssshhk!
“Guh!”
The Fire Arrow slithered like a snake in front of the shield, leaping over it in an instant to pierce the warrior’s right eye.
“What the—?”
Amid everyone’s shock, they soon spotted it.
“F-Fire Arrows.”
Two Fire Arrows incoming.
11.
Two Fire Arrows.
Pathetic as ever.
But everyone had seen it.
‘What was that?’
‘The last Fire Arrow moved like a snake?’
The warrior who’d raised his shield taking a Fire Arrow to the eye and dropping dead on the spot.
Of course, no one had seen it clearly.
It was too fast to track properly, and even if they had, comprehending it wouldn’t be easy.
“Incoming!”
That was why, the instant they spotted the Fire Arrows, every adventurer reacted exactly as before, without exception.
When thinking failed, people fell back on training.
And the adventurers here had drilled responses like clockwork gears in situations like this countless times.
So the warriors raised shields, and those with cover nearby ducked behind it.
Business as usual.
‘Just as expected.’
That was precisely what El Pam had intended.
He’d pulled those crude, tedious tricks all this time for exactly this moment.
Now it was time to reap the rewards of his efforts.
Ssshhk!
El Pam’s two Fire Arrows traced eerie paths, like swallows flitting through the forest.
Pffht!
They embedded into the eyes, temples, or foreheads of adventurers hiding behind trees or shields.
“Argh!”
Screams erupted here and there.
Those who managed to scream fared better.
Thud!
Plenty more adventurers died instantly without a sound, collapsing to the ground.
Even then, the intact Fire Arrows pressed on toward their next targets.
It happened in a flash.
Ssshhk!
With that mere 1st Circle fire magic, Fire Arrow, fourteen adventurers fell.
“Damn it!”
“The healers are down!”
And all of them healers.
No adventurer here was ignorant of the rule that a healer’s life was more precious than any other.
Gulp!
Every adventurer swallowed hard.
A chill ran down their spines.
Ssshhk!
Meanwhile, another attack flew in.
But no one noticed it.
It was far smaller than a Fire Arrow—and far faster.
Above all, no one knew it was Apollo’s Fiery Arrow.
The result of that ignorance was gruesome.
Pfft!
Two Apollo’s Fiery Arrows zipped through the adventurers’ ranks in an instant, claiming lives.
Moreover, Apollo’s Fiery Arrows pierced straight through.
The difference was immense.
The prior Fire Arrows had felled one adventurer per shot, but Apollo’s Fiery Arrows could slaughter dozens with one.
Massacre territory.
Before those Apollo’s Fiery Arrows, no profession was spared.
Warriors, thieves, mages, pirates.
Every type except the already-dead healers was skewered and slain.
Twenty-five more adventurers dropped dead in a heartbeat.
“At this rate, we’re all dead!”
Using those deaths as fertilizer, the adventurer leaders realized.
“Scatter!”
The best way to survive.
The right call.
Sticking together meant dying fast.
Scattering, at least, bought time between deaths.
Of course, mere survival wasn’t the endgame.
“Once scattered, target the bastard!”
Target for revenge!
“No exceptions! We’re all one team now!”
And for that revenge, every surviving adventurer truly became one team.
“If we don’t kill him, we all die!”
A team staking their lives.
El Pam knew it too.
‘They’ve changed.’
The adventurers charging now were nothing like the ones weighing options before.
Like a pack of cornered wolves.
‘Even the assassins are in there.’
Including the most dangerous killers of all.
‘Confirmed twelve of them.’
Over ten in number.
That was why.
He’d pulled those tricks to whittle their numbers even one more.
If their headcount had been just ten higher, El Pam’s odds would’ve been near zero.
‘No problems now.’
In other words, El Pam was confident of victory.
Because he had it.
‘With Hermes’ Boots, no issue.’
El Pam slipped on a new pair of shoes.