Elven Ambush

The next day, our journey continued for a few more hours until we finally reached the forest where the mission was set. The task was to reduce the number of Stalkey, since we had been told their numbers had recently increased, and that could become a problem. To that end, we were asked to collect their fangs as proof.

“Are you sure this is the place?” I asked.

“Yes, the driver is already quite experienced. I doubt he took the wrong path.”

We had already been walking for a couple of hours, but we hadn’t found anything. There were a few small animals or the occasional monster we quickly neutralized, but not a single Stalkey in sight.

“Could the guild have made a mistake?”

“I don’t think so. They’re usually very professional… B-blood!?” Liz shouted in shock.

In the distance, we could see a pool of blood on the ground, staining the grass and some of the undergrowth nearby. We quickly ran to check, and to our surprise, we found the corpse of a Stalkey. No— not just one corpse. There were several more, all with severe wounds.

As I drew closer to the bodies and inspected them more carefully, I noticed that every single wound came from stabbings and slashes. This hadn’t been the work of a monster or a predator. A person had done this. Or several, judging by the number of Stalkey.

“Do you think someone got here before us?” Liz asked while staring at the bodies.

“No. They still have all their fangs.”

If another group really had gotten ahead of us on the same mission, then the corpses would be missing their fangs. But they were all intact. This wasn’t part of any guild assignment.

Wait a second… if no one had taken the teeth from these monsters, then we could take them ourselves and save some effort. The idea was good, and the opportunity was perfect.

“Naoya… why do you have such an evil smile?”

“I just had an idea, don’t worry.”

Rustle

However, before I could put my plan into action, one of the bushes behind us shook, and from it almost immediately came a bandit wielding a dagger, ready to stab me.

“Naoya, watch out!”

I reacted quickly, dodging the thrust by shifting to the side, and when I got a clear look at the bandit, I struck him with all my strength, sending him flying and leaving him completely unconscious. Strangely, he felt oddly light when I hit him.

Right after that, the other bushes in the area began to move, and more bandits came out—armed with daggers, swords, and even bows. They were numerous, but nothing we couldn’t handle.

“Let’s go!”

We managed to hold the situation under control for quite a while, fighting with my gauntlets and Liz’s sword, making use of the crowd of bandits as cover from the archers, who couldn’t fire without risking hitting their own. Still, even though I was handling myself well, Liz was running into trouble against the overwhelming number of enemies, who seemed intent on surrounding us.

“Liz, take care of the archers, I’ll cover you!”

“Got it!”

I attacked the nearby bandits to give her space, and she, after sheathing her sword, began casting basic spells rapidly, striking two archers at once.

“Magic!? How!?”

“Forget the guy, grab the mage!” another bandit shouted.

“Not so fast!” I exclaimed, hitting him.

Liz kept attacking the archers, quickly taking them all down while I bought her time by fighting off anyone who tried to get close. At times it seemed like several of them would rush me all at once, but I took advantage of my strength to hurl one bandit into the others, scattering them.

Once the archers were down, Liz began casting her spells on those who were still fighting me, and from that point on, the battle became quite one-sided. No matter how hard they tried to reach Liz, my strikes kept them at bay; eventually, I even used mana to enhance my attacks, greatly surprising the bandits.

“He uses mana too!?”

“Come on, don’t let yourselves be intimidated!”

The most they managed to do to me were a few superficial cuts, and that was only because they attacked in groups. With Liz’s help, we had no major complications, and after a few minutes, the bandits finally surrendered.

“We can’t beat them! Retreat!” one of them shouted. All the bandits in the area scrambled to their feet and ran, some barely able to, leaving Liz and me alone once more.

“Looks like it’s over.”

“Naoya, look!” Liz shouted.

When I turned, I noticed one bandit still lying on the ground. He had been completely knocked out and abandoned by the others. Seeing that, Liz and I exchanged a complicit smile and nodded. A few minutes later, the bandit was already tied up.

“I’ll take off the hood… Wha—!?” I shouted in surprise.

Once the bandit’s head was uncovered, revealing a girl, what struck me the most were her long ears. Without a doubt, she was an elf.

“Impossible!” Liz shouted as well. “Elves disappeared ages ago! What is an elf doing here!?”

It seemed one of my goals had already been achieved.

Perhaps because of our shouting, or maybe just by coincidence, the bandit girl slowly began to wake, glancing around while trying to process her situation. The moment she saw the rope binding her, she started to panic.

“Damn humans, release me!” she roared fiercely.

Seeing her appearance, it’s no wonder hitting her had felt so light. The girl was very thin, her skin pale, and she looked emaciated. A rather pitiful sight compared to the way elves are described in the fictional stories I had read.

“Let me go!”

“No way,” I replied firmly. “Why did you attack us?”

The radiant girl in white had told me to seek out the elves, that they could help me, but I couldn’t see how they could possibly do that when they looked more like bandits than anything else—and in such a miserable state, no less.

“Ha! I’d rather die than keep talking to you!” the elf girl exclaimed.

“There’s no point. Let’s take her to the authorities in Uvras. They’ll know what to do,” Liz suggested, and I nodded in agreement.

I would have preferred to handle this peacefully, but that didn’t seem possible, so I walked over to the bandit girl and hoisted her onto my shoulder to carry her out of the forest.

“Hey, put me down!”

“When will the carriage come for us?” I asked.

“I think it should arrive shortly after we leave the forest.”

Liz and I began retracing our steps. We hadn’t been able to fulfill the guild’s assignment, but we had no other choice. The elf girl kept kicking constantly while shouting, but suddenly she stopped, which struck me as odd.

“This… warmth,” she whispered. “What the hell are you? How can you produce mana like this?”

“I’d like to know that myself, but I don’t really know much either… Anyway, since you’ve calmed down a bit, do you know anything about a hero and saving the world? A radiant girl in white spoke to me about it and told me to look for you.”

“A girl in white… No, I don’t know what you mean. But if you say you were looking for us, I can take you to our hideout.”

“Eh!? Why so suddenly?” Liz asked. Considering how she’d been behaving until now, it was only natural to doubt such a sudden change.

“The way you generate mana intrigues me. I think you might be what we need, and besides, you were looking for us anyway, weren’t you? Maybe the boss knows more about what you’re after.”

To be honest, I doubted her words. Not long ago they had tried to kill me, and now, out of nowhere, this girl suddenly decided to change her mind and help us. What the hell happened? Was the way I generate mana really that important?

Either way, it was true this was a great chance to investigate more about the radiant girl in white and the elves, so I had no other choice.

“Fine, we’ll go with you,” I replied to her suggestion. “You’d better not try anything funny if you still want to be walking afterward.”

“Y-yes…” the elf girl answered nervously. It seemed the intimidation worked. “O-our hideout is deeper in the forest, on the other side.”

Once the plan was set, we followed the elf girl’s directions and ventured deeper into the forest in search of the rest of her people.