A Deal

From behind the column, Souma watched the two bandits cautiously entering the massive chamber, hands on their sword hilts. Thankfully they seemed to be mostly focusing on the giant door set at the far end of the hall, and the carnage leading up to it. They had not yet noticed himself and Selina. He had no idea what a Rabbit Clan was, but watching them carry themselves, he was getting a strong sense of what made them so famous as bandits. At the very least, they didn't seem like the sort that would be open to a peaceful resolution.

"Do you think you could take them out?" He whispered.

"Take them out?" Selina craned her neck up to look at him. "You mean alone? Are you insane, human?"

"Can't you transform into Demon Lord mode?"

"Oh. That. I can only do that once a day."

"You're kidding me."

"What about your freezing power?" Selina hissed.

Souma wrinkled his nose and felt about in his mind.

"No, I don't think I can do that either... Maybe just a little."

Selina seemed to think about it for a minute. "Wait a minute. So when you said before you'd freeze me andmmph-"

"Shh! They're coming!" Souma covered Selina's mouth as the bandits made their way past their hiding spot.

Souma looked around the other side of the column toward the door leading out of the hall. It was a clear run, but they'd definitely be noticed if they made a break for it. Maybe they could just wait it out? Surely as soon as the bandits realized there was nothing to loot they'd give up.

"What happened here?" The first bandit said, looking at the still smoldering pillars. "A fight?"

"Some kind of fight. But where are the bodies? There's nobody here."

"Other side of that door?"

The second bandit paused thoughtfully. "That is a big door. What do you suppose such a big door is doing at the top of a tower?"

"I don't see a way to open it, so I suppose it's doing a whole lot of nothing."

They were both silent for a moment.

"So what the hell did you see up here?"

"I don't know. There's no way further up, is there?"

"Just that door." He threw his hands up. "Alright, I'm calling it. This place gives me the creeps. I told you we shouldn't come up here. Come on, let's go."

That's right! It's creepy here! Go away!

"Hold on, what's this?" The first bandit paused, and knelt down in the rubble. When he stood up again, Souma felt his stomach fall away from under him. He was holding Selina's dagger.

"Did somebody drop that?" The second bandit narrowed his eyes, and drew his sword, dropping into an easy stance, blade held out in front of him.

The first bandit kept the dagger in one hand, and drew his own sword with the other. His ears swiveled about on his head. "Somebody's still here. Two of them." As though he could see right through the concrete pillar, he pointed where Selina and Souma were hiding.

"You there! Come out where I can see you! I can hear your hearts beating. Play nice, we might even let you live."

"What are we going to do, human?" Selina hissed, and pushed herself back into Souma. "They're going to eat us and make us slaves!"

"I'm pretty sure they can only do one of those things."

"Then they'll eat you for sure. I'm too beautiful. They'll definitely sell me as a slave."

What goes on in that head of hers?

"Stop whispering and get out here!" The bandit called. "Come on, I won't really kill you. Just show me your faces."

"Human! I don't want to be a slave!" Selina grabbed at Souma's shirt.

Meanwhile, it had not gone unnoticed to Souma that while the first bandit had been calling out to them, the second bandit had been slowly edging around to cut off their escape. Every moment they didn't do something, their chances of doing anything were decreasing dramatically.

For a second time he reached about in his head for his unique skill. He could feel it slowly growing in power with each second, but it was painfully slow. Drops of water slowly filling a giant bowl. He'd used it way too much the first time. Holding Selina in place while she'd been in Demon Lord mode had been enough to drain away almost all of whatever it was the unique skill ran on.

As it was, he knew instinctively if he used Restrain again, he would only be able to keep it up for a few seconds. If they were going to fight their way out of this mess, it might be enough to let them land the first blow, but then what? Both he and Selina were unarmed, and even if they could kill one bandit, there was still the other to worry about.

Fighting these two seemed like a bad idea. But then Souma had never been that good at fighting anyway. He wasn't half bad at running, though. If he used Restrain on the one closest to the door, it might give them a second or two head start. But he already felt exhausted. They were going to need a lot more head start than that. Restrain wouldn't be able to help them out in that case either.

Then again... Was it possible he'd been approaching this the wrong way? Come to think about it, hadn't he been doing this all wrong?

Quietly, he gripped Selina's hand. If it wasn't now, whatever window of opportunity they had would vanish. When she looked up at him, he motioned towards the door at the far end of the hall with his head. She looked at him blankly for a few moments, then seemed to resolve something within herself and nodded, giving him a little thumbs up.

Souma took a deep breath. And then pulled Selina out from behind the column, running as fast as they could toward the small door.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going!" The bandit who had been slowly trying to cut them off yelled.

Souma and Selina had a clear run to the door, but the bandit would easily be able to cut them off. While other bandit who had been calling out to them readied himself to bring up the rear, the muscular, rabbit eared man who had been sneaking up on them dashed forward to block their exit.

As soon as he started running, Souma reached out with his skill. Not to wind it around the bandit's whole body, like he had done with Selina. Just one small part.

"Restrain!"

Souma focused his skill on the bandit's raised leg, just the area around the knee, and activated his skill for just a fraction of a second. It couldn't have locked his leg in place for more than half a second, but it was still enough to throw off his stride. The bandit let out of a small yelp, and his own speed carried him face down into the floor, sword clattering noisily out of his hand.

"What the hell!?" The other bandit yelled. Souma didn't have to look around to know he would be running after them.

Already feeling his lungs burning, Souma pulled Selina through the blasted open door, and found himself on the threshold of a long set of stairs that wound back down around the tower.

He turned and, alarmed at just how much ground the other bandit had gained on them, pulled the half blasted door shut. The lock was totally gone, blasted clean off when Selina had come in, but he doubted he would have had time to mess about with something like that in any case.

Once again, Souma reached out with his unique skill. He could already feel there was barely any of it left for him to use at all, but he really only needed just a little more. He focused his mind on the hinges of the door.

"Restrain!"

For a second time he called out, and felt the burning pain at the back of his skull as his skill grabbed onto the small pieces of metal holding the door to the wall and clamped them in place. He barely finished casting the spell before the bandit shoulder barged the door. The frame buckled and threatened to swing open, and Souma felt a sharp pressure in his head, but the door stayed in place.

"Come on! Quickly!"

While the two bandits yelled at them and bashed at the door, Souma pulled Selina along as quickly as he could manage down the stairs. He knew his power would run out soon, but holding hinges in place was much easier than a whole body. He felt as though he could keep using Restrain on them from farther away. For now, he concentrated on not tripping over his own feet.

The stairs led them in a long, wide spiral. It was uncomfortably dark, with just a few narrow slots in the stone wall letting in the very last of the day's light, and fleeting glances of the outside world. Souma had known the tower was tall, but it wasn't until this moment that he felt as though he really understood just how tall.

Before they had made it even a third of the way down, they heard a splintering crack from above them, echoing down the spiral staircase. Souma let his grip on the hinges relax, and the pressure in his head eased back. There was no point in using Restrain anymore: The bandits had broken the door clean off its frame.

"Come on! They can't have gotten too far!"

"Hey! If you two know what's good for you, you'll stop running!"

Voices shouted at them from above. Far too close for comfort.

"Come on! Keep going!" Souma urged Selina. He felt as though he could concentrate more on not tripping down the stairs now, but using his unique skill for just the few seconds it had taken them to get this far had left him feeling sluggish. Souma grit his teeth and forced his body to move.

His breathing heavy and legs burning, Souma kept pulling them farther along. All the while the sound of the bandits haunted them. Sometimes a little further, sometimes right on their heels, but always nearby.

When they finally arrived at the bottom of the tower, and the stairs ended abruptly at a door leading outside, Souma felt as thought he was going to die. Not considering that there might be more bandits waiting outside, the two of them burst out of the tower, the cool summer air of the night a salve for their burning lungs.

Outside, two heavily packed horses grazed lazily on the grass growing at the base of the tower, and looked over at them curiously.

"What now?" Selina wheezed, bent over, resting her hands on her wobbling knees.

The bandits would be here soon. They couldn't just stop here.

Fighting the urge to collapse on the ground, Souma looked around, trying to appraise the situation. He thought briefly about using the horses, but quickly decided against it. He didn't know about Selina, but he'd never ridden a horse in his life. This didn't seem like the time to learn. Even more briefly, he considered slapping the horses in the rump and having them run off to lead the bandits on a wild goose chase, but he abandoned that idea even fast. He'd seen it happen plenty of times in movies, but knowing his luck the horse would either kick him in the head, or just plod off a few steps and stop.

They had to keep running.

"The forest!" Souma pointed into the thick line of trees that surrounded the tower. He knew it wasn't a great plan. He could vaguely recall rabbits having better night sight than humans, so running into a dark forest seemed to be giving their pursuers the advantage. But it was better than running in the open, and at worst they could better find somewhere in the thick tangle of trees to hide.

Selina nodded, and they started running.

Be it through age or design, the woods were very close to the tower, almost hedged to the walls in places. It took them almost no time at all to pass through the first curtain of trees, and not long after that before the tower was no longer visible. They staggered, and stumbled, and pulled themselves up so many times Souma had lost count, but eventually the forest swallowed them up, and they could hear no sign of the bandits.

As they finally started to slow down, they came to a shallow river. Not terribly deep, but wide enough to cause a small break in the trees and let the moonlight through.

Is it already this late? How long were we running?

"H-human..." Selina panted. "Wait, stop."

"Right," Souma readily agreed.

The two of them fell to their knees at the bed of the river and drank water from their cupped hands. Then they lay on their backs in silence as they caught their breath and waited for the numbness in their legs to wear off.

"I'm going to die," Selina said matter-of-factly after some time. "Your friends are going to make it all the way up to Hantarl. Then they'll come down here and kill me."

"They're not my friends," Souma said, pressing his palms into his eyes. "And about that. I think I might have a way to track down the others. Way faster than your grandfather was able to."

"What? How? Is this why you were asking about Altoria Dungeon?"

"I'm still receiving messages meant for the others. And when they enter a dungeon, I get a... A divine missive, or whatever you called it."

He heard Selina shuffling about. When he took his hands off his eyes, she was right over him, faces inches from his, eyes wide, catching the moonlight. Souma felt a sudden, dizzy rush of blood to his head, and looked uncomfortably to one side.

"Are you sure? You know where the summoned are right now?"

"Y-yes! Probably! Why are you so close?" He squirmed uncomfortably out from under Selina and sat up cross-legged. "Don't get me wrong, it's not like I care what happens to those idiots, but... I'd still like at least her... I don't want to them die, or kill anybody. I think maybe our interests might be aligned."

Selina sat back on her knees, and looked at him seriously for some time. Slowly, a smile broke out over her face.

"If you can lead us to the summoned... Then maybe we can figure out how to kick them out of my world. And if that doesn't work I can still kill them before they're too powerful."

"Something like that," Souma nodded. "But no killing. Not unless we have to."

"Fine. No killing." Selina stuck out her hand. "Unless we have to."

Souma took her hand. "Deal."

Across from him, the tiny Demon Lord grinned, her lips parting to show her slightly more pointed than usual teeth. Her cheeks were still pink from having run all the way here, and her ruby colored eyes gleamed at him through the moonlight.

"Then it's settled. You work for me now, human," Selina snorted proudly.

"I don't work for gremlins."

"I'm not a gremlin!"

Not that he'd ever admit it, but for just one fleeting moment, as she closed her eyes and smiled happily at him in the moonlight, Souma caught himself thinking that maybe, just possibly, she wasn't.