“What the? What the hell just happened?”
Gula, startled by the explosion that shook the rocky surface, tumbled out of the cave she had dug. Loren hurriedly grabbed her to stop her from rolling down the mountainside, then quickly looked around as he threw Gula into the cave again.
“Where the hell did they come from?”
“From that direction, I think.”
Lapis looked in the direction where the light spheres were coming and pointed her finger. Loren turned his eyes to that direction, but it was getting dark, and he was unable to see the shooter.
“Do you think they’re aiming for us?”
“‘I don’t think so. There’s only one shooter, and the barrage is thin.”
Before Lapis could finish, another light sphere flew in, causing an explosion near the cave they were in. Loren raised his arm to protect his face from the blast and shattered rocks. He was now sure that the shots were coming from the direction Lapis had pointed, but he still couldn’t confirm who was shooting.
“Can you see the enemy, Lapis?”
“No, unfortunately not. I can only guess about their number and method.”
If there were more than one enemy, Lapis believed that they wouldn’t fire one shot at a time, but would strike consecutively in a flashier manner. But these attacks were single shots, and the intervals between them were long.
“Our opponent is a magician or something similar. Their skill is not that good. It’s not about their aim, but about how they’re unable to handle anything but an intermediate level of magic like <<Fireball>>.”
“I’m not familiar with magic, but maybe they’re using it together with another spell?”
“That… Indeed! We can’t see our assailant because they’re ‘hidden’. So they’re using <<Seal>> together with <<Invisible>> or <<Camouflage>>… then <<Fireball>>. I take back what I said earlier. They’re a first-class magician.”
“Stop praising our opponent!”
Loren grunted. Just then, another light sphere hit near their cave, blasting flames and shockwaves and sending shattered rocks flying.
“Is there no restriction on how many times they can use it?!”
“They’re probably using <<Scroll>> to increase it.”
The number of times a magician can use a spell in a day was limited by the magician’s ability. The difficulty of the spell itself also played a part in it, but it was difficult to imagine a single magician shooting spells at them one after another like how they were being attacked now.
However, by using pre-made scrolls, a magician could use their magic without caring about the limit, as the spells made with scrolls wouldn’t be counted into the limit. Any magician with a bit of money in their pocket would always carry a couple of magic scrolls with them.
“In any case, if we don’t deal with that magician as soon as possible, we might attract some unwanted attention.”
“But we can’t even see him.”
Shayna was still unable to detect any other signs of life besides their party. Loren tried to look around more closely, but with the sun going down, it was too dark for him to see. To make matters worse, the sound and flames of the fireball exploding nearby made it harder for his eyes to adjust to the darkness and for his ears to pick up any other sound.
As Loren gritted his teeth at how they were unable to do anything, right then he heard Shayna spoke in the back of his mind:
[‘I’ll try a bit advanced version of <<Energy drain>>.’]
Before Loren could ask how flashy it was, the presence of the King of Death surged up from inside Loren. Gula, who had been tossed back into the cave and Lapis, who was standing next to him, widened their eyes. The presence shot forward, straight at the direction where their assailant was lurking.
“This is…”
It was not surprising that Lapis was shocked.
Another light sphere was shot, but it lost its light midway and disappeared just like a candle that had been blown out. In addition, the surface of the mountain suddenly burst up into dust as if hundreds of years had passed and it had been weathered. And finally, in the middle of the area where these changes occurred, a small scream from a woman could be heard.
“They have a practitioner!”
Although Loren’s eyes did not see it, Lapis’ eyes seemed to have caught the figure of the magician in the darkness. Gula, who also had excellent senses, jumped out of the cave with the speed of a hound at the same time that Lapis used <<Light>> to secure their vision.
Illuminated by the light, Loren’s eyes finally caught sight of a figure collapsed on their four in a slight depression in the mountainside a long distance from where they were.
“What’s that?”
The figure there looked like nothing Loren had ever seen before.
She seemed to be wearing leather armor, but not the kind that mercenaries liked to wear – it was made to fit the lines of her body. That was why Loren could see that the figure was female, but what surprised him was the color of the woman’s skin and hair.
The woman’s skin, illuminated by the magic light, was a dark brown, and her long hair, fluttering in the wind, was pure white.
Her ears were long and pointed like blades of daggers, and they reminded Loren of a particular member from the party of silver-ranked adventurers with whom they had worked on the way to the demon territory.
“An elf?!”
“You surprised me, Loren. She’s from an endangered race, the Dark Elf.”
Before Loren could ask Lapis what ‘endangered race’ meant, Gula jumped at the elf. The elf dodged while unsheathing two daggers from her back, then furiously slashed at Gula. Even from a distance, Loren could still notice the slight gleam of those blades.
“Careful, Gula! They’re poisonous!”
“Is poison effective against the Evil God of Gluttony, I wonder?”
That was the cold retort he received, and the corners of Loren’s mouth turned downwards. It was true that Gula would not only eat the poison but also eat the plate without a care in the world. It was no wonder that Loren’s warning was irrelevant.
“What’s the deal with ‘endangered race’, by the way?”
Wanting to change the subject, Loren asked. Lapis didn’t want to dig further into his miss either, so she answered frankly:
“It means they’re going extinct. I’m sure you’re right. Dark elves are persecuted by other elves and hunted by humans, which leads to a drastic decrease in their population.”
Lapis explained that the dark skin of Dark Elves is abhorred by other elves. Dark Elves had organized large armies to fight against other elves many times in the past, but they were outnumbered and defeated.
In addition, as they were basically another race of elves, they were also extremely attractive, and were hunted by humans to be captivated and sold off as slaves. As a result, their numbers had been greatly reduced, and nowadays, they could hardly be seen anywhere.
“You can see that unlike Nim and other elves, the proportions of Dark Elves are closer to those of humans, though as a maiden, I can’t exactly spell out what kind of proportion. Furthermore, even if humans hunt them for their beautiful forms, other elves won’t complain at all.”
“That’s sad.”
“They are skilled in the use of poisons and have good concealment techniques. As they’re also skillful at magic, they are valuable assassins. The entire race makes a living out of it, and that’s another reason for the detest.”
“What an annoying race.”
They could easily blend in with the darkness of the night, with their dark skins, their bodies were light as typical of elves, and they were skilled with magic and poison. It was natural that they would take up assassination as their main occupation. Loren admitted that he was being racist, but he thought that it couldn’t help that they were hunted if they chose to make a living business out of assassinating people. But he also thought that it would be too much to wipe them out.
“Well, I’m sure she’s not Gula’s enemy. I’d like to see her captured alive if possible.”
Calmly receiving the dark elf’s poisonous dagger with her palms, Gula approached her barehanded. Even though it was an unbelievable thing that her blades didn’t cut into Gula’s flesh, the dark elf didn’t lose her composure at all. She slipped through the Evil God’s arms and precisely slashed at her abdomen and leg.
But the blades still didn’t penetrate Gula’s flesh. Even though the elf was thrusting the tip of the daggers in and sliding the blade over the exposed skin, Gula’s skin was not even scratched.
The dark elf’s daggers had a very strong protective magic applied on them and their blades were coated with poison, but it was very likely that they were ordinary daggers without any magic infusion. Lapis said that they would not be able to hurt Gula.
“Captured alive?”
“It is not necessary to reduce the number of a species that is already small by one. The effect that the extinction of a species has on the world is immeasurable.”
“That’s in theory, but the truth is?”
“Do you want me to say it out loud that scarcity value is a lovely thing?!”
Loren’s expression turned weary, he wasn’t sure if Lapis had accidentally slipped and revealed her true intentions, or if she was just going with the flow of the chat. Then Lapis just started hitting his side with her fists.
Loren didn’t bother to fend her off. He continued to watch Gula’s fight. Acting as if her opponent’s attacks were nothing, she was gradually cornering the dark elf. As she was just using brute force and not her Evil God’s power, she probably didn’t plan to kill the elf.
Loren began to think that it was only a matter of time before the elf was captured and that he should start preparing the rope, but as if to interrupt him, a deafening roar of overwhelming volume echoed in the mountain.
“What the?”
“I think we did it, attracting unwanted attention.”
Loren and Lapis hurriedly covered their ears while searching for the source of the roar. The loud noise reached Gura’s ears as well, making her reflexively stop moving, and the dark elf took advantage of the opportunity to flee.
The efl’s escape could only be summed up with one word, ‘splendid’, and when Gula thought of pursuing her, she was already out of the range of the magic light launched by Lapis and had melted into the darkness of the night.
Gula was unsure if she should go after her, but when she heard another roar, she hurriedly ran back to where Loren and Lapis were.
“What the hell is going on?!”
“The only thing that can make such a roar in these mountains is…”
“Yes, it seems like we’ve been discovered and have attracted some attention.”
In a somewhat strained voice, Lapis said as she looked up at the sky.
As Loren and Gula looked up at the sky, the Lord of the mountain seemed to about to reveal himself as another roar rose up as if piercing through the ever-present thick black clouds that were hanging low in the night sky.
