Yuu Tanaka Page 6
arrows, firing them from under Miguel’s arm. They were almost close enough to graze
Fran’s face. Not bad for an ambush. Following the archer, Dufaux prepared his attack.
All the time they spent together was paying off.
Dufaux’s sword flickered like a mirage thanks to his Illusion Blade—a skill that
allowed him to mask his swordsmanship. It was a useful thing to have in close-quarter
combat.
However, it would prove worthless against Fran. She could feel his presence and the
air. She broke the arrows in midflight with her bare hands and dodged Miguel and
Dufaux’s attacks by a hair’s breadth. Then she jumped away from the circle of death
and left the three cadets stupefied.
They thought nothing could evade their highly coordinated attack. The three tried to
land any kind of strike on Fran, but she dodged with ease. Once Gammod gave her the
go-ahead, she kicked them all away, knocking every one of them out cold.
The other adventurers could only watch in stunned silence. If that level of
coordination wasn’t enough to beat her, they couldn’t imagine how they would land a
hit. Even so, the sparring session continued. The second group ended the same way as
the first, and we moved on to the third. It was a party of three: Wander, a Flame Mage
who was as powerful as Dufaux; Red, the Shielder; and Riddick, the straight-man
Lancer. Red was terrified, while Riddick looked the most prepared. Wander looked
confident enough—although he was helpless against Fran in a one-on-one duel, he
had a fighting chance now that he was in a group. His attitude was a far cry from his
initial surrender in the solo match.
He had a good reason to be confident. Get good enough with magic and you learn how
to manipulate the path of a spell, making it very difficult to dodge. Red and Riddick
drew Fran into position and the Flame Mage cast his spell.
“Flare Blast!”
He was serious, too. The spell was powerful enough to gravely injure a C-Rank and
leave a mark that even Greater Heal couldn’t mend. And it wasn’t like Wander lost
control. He smirked, knowing that sweet revenge was at hand. He knew exactly how
much mana he had used. The whole thing made me want to crush him. We needed to
leave something behind for Gammod, I guess, but Wander’s ego was about to be
obliterated.
“Flare Blast.”
Fran fired the exact same spell back at Wander. They exploded and canceled each
other out.
“That can’t be! Flare Blast!”
“Flare Blast.”
“No… Fire Javelin!”
“Fire Javelin.”
“No no no no no!”
Canceling a spell like that wasn’t as simple as it looked. You had to cast the exact same
spell as your opponent and control it so that they met. That meant Speedcasting your
opponent’s spell the second you knew what it was. It was a complex move and only
possible if you knew the type and intensity of the opponent’s spell. Then again, maybe
we only pulled it off because we were up against Wander. He didn’t conceal his mana
output and took a long time casting his spells. Any skilled magician could have seen
through his attacks. Fran wasn’t even that good at magic. This was the hidden cost of
always casting spells in your allies’ shadows—Wander was only focused on magic and
neglected his other skills.
When he realized this, he lost the will to fight and fell to his knees. In the end, Fran
responded by sending him flying through the air with a single kick. We thought the
sparring session was over, but Gammod had other ideas.
“What if all nine of them come at you at once?”
“Hm? Sure, I don’t mind.”
I swear Gammod was a Spartan drill sergeant, intent on breaking his cadets’ spirits.
Fran had no reason to refuse, seeing as she had barely broken a sweat. The final match
began. The rules were the same as before: Fran wouldn’t attack until Gammod’s signal,
and if the adventurers managed to land a hit on her before that, victory was theirs.
The whole thing was a wash, of course. The cadets didn’t manage to land a hit, even
after chasing her for ten minutes. The initial barrage soon faded into half-hearted
swings as it dawned on them they were not going to win. It was kind of sad.
Fran wiped out the entire team by putting a tiny bit of effort into her attack. Gammod
was caught in her fire spell, but he looked right at home. It wasn’t that powerful, really.
The cadets should be strong enough to stand their ground, but they did nothing but
scream. They needed more mental toughness.
Gammod examined his unconscious pupils and thanked Fran. “That was a good
sparring session. Thanks for coming.”
“Hm.”
“I just hope this motivates them to become stronger.”
Gammod sighed. His smile disappeared when he remembered how pathetic the
adventurers had been. “Gods, you won’t believe how hard they wanted to explore the
depths of a Haunt.”
“You mean the Crystal Cage?”
“That’s the one. You’ve been there?”
“Only halfway.”
“See, even you only made it halfway.”
The last time we went to the Crystal Cage was to collect some meat for the cooking
contest. That was the first time we saw Forlund. It was quite a shock seeing him take
down a B-Threat Thunderbird with little to no difficulty.
“So they wanted to explore the depths?”
“Yeah. Anyone’s free to explore the midpoint of the Cage, but entrance to some of the
areas is restricted. Not that we have guards posted there at all times, of course. It’s up
to each individual adventurer to know their limitations. Although folks who go over
their limits have a nasty habit of dying.”
Monsters of various threat levels spawned in the Crystal Cage. Adventurers did well
to avoid areas that were far above their rank, but the whole thing basically ran on an
honor system.
“The higher the Threat Level, the more dangerous the area. But with more danger
comes greater rewards. A lot of adventurers can’t resist.”
By nature, adventurers were a reckless lot. They took on great risks in the name of
great fortune and never once thought about the bad things that might befall them in
the process. They might be able to defeat a powerful monster. They might be able to
harvest rare herbs and materials. They might get lucky and avoid encountering
anything too powerful. To them, bad luck was something that happened to other
people. Adventurers readily bit off more than they could chew with that kind of
mindset. Apparently, it was the same in Bulbola.
“They’ve managed to clear the midpoint several times in the past.”
Given the cadets’ abilities, that was certainly possible.
“They’ve been pretty lucky so far. They’ve never run into tough monsters… That’s why
they’ve been pestering me for permission to travel the depths. That’s the only place
that has a barrier.”
“I see.”
“They’re after some precious ore that can only be mined in the depths. Probably to
craft gear.”
“So they don’t plan on fighting?”
“Nope. If they’re confident with anything, it’s their ability to run away.”
At least the cadets weren’t stupid enough to think they could beat a B-Threat monster.
But I remembered that Thunderbird being pretty fast. I didn’t think we could’ve made
it out without our teleportation spells. And the Thunderbird couldn’t be the only
deadly creature in the area. Gammod arranged this sparring session to talk the cadets
out of anything stupid.
“They can’t run from a Thunderbird.”
“Not to mention a flock of Storm Eagles.”
“They can’t run from a Darkness Wolf like Jet, either,” said Fran.
“Oh right, you have one of those as a familiar. How’s he doing?”
“Sleeping in the shadows.”
Jet had been asleep since early morning, showing no interest in the sparring match as
he had no part in it.
“You know… I have an idea.”
Some time passed. The cadets regained their consciousness and stood in line.
“Well? Have you realized how weak you are?”
The adventurers looked at the floor, but I could still sense some discontent from them.
They felt it wasn’t fair to put them up against a prodigy like Fran, and that it wasn’t
their fault they lost. Gammod wanted to see if they had given up on exploring the
depths, but they clearly hadn’t.
“Alright, moving on to the next round.”
“Whaaaaat?”
“Are we still doing this…?”
“Please, no more.”
“Shut up and listen! This final round’s going to be a little different. Little lady, if you
please.”
“Hm. Come out, Jet.”
“Woof!”
>
The black wolf rose from the shadows at Fran’s behest. The mere sight of him was
terrifying, and he had the decency to come out in his giant form to boot. The
adventurers gulped.
“This is Jet, Fran’s familiar. He’s a C-Threat Darkness Wolf. The kind that could just
show up in the midpoint of Crystal Cage.”
This was a big lie. A Darkness Wolf was a C-Threat, but Jet was a unique specimen and
had grown far stronger thanks to fighting alongside us. If anything, he was closer to a
B-Threat now—certainly not a monster that would spawn in the midpoint of Crystal
Cage. But the adventurers didn’t know that, of course. Red checked Jet’s species and
confirmed that the old man wasn’t bluffing.
“If you can run fast enough to escape Jet’s claws, I’ll give you permission to travel the
depths.”
“You will?”
“Of course. A man doesn’t go back on his word!”
The rules were simple: the adventurers would start at the center of the training hall,
while Jet would stand opposite the exit. If five of them managed to leave the room,
they won. If five of them were knocked out, Jet won. Gammod decided that having half
of them survive was more realistic than expecting all of them to make it out.
The adventurers brightened once they heard the conditions. They were up against a
single monster and all they had to do was get half of their crew out of the room. And
so, the game of tag began.
“Go!”
“Raah!”
“Come on!”
Their plan was to sacrifice four of their party members so five could make it out. The
fastest adventurers made a mad dash for the exit as Miguel tanked Jet head-on to buy
them some time and Wander sent out volleys of fire arrows.
“Ha ha! He’s having trouble fighting all four of us!”
“And look at the size of him! He can’t be that fast!”
“He can’t catch us!”
Despite the fact that the advance team was inches from the exit, Jet didn’t move a
muscle. The cadets smiled, convinced that they had this one. But it wasn’t as if Jet
couldn’t move—he just had no reason to. His thick fur blocked all of Miguel’s attacks,
and a swipe of his paw was enough to dispel Wander’s fiery arrows. Jet took a deep
breath and let out a loud roar.
“Awooooo!”
The adventurers stopped in their tracks. They froze like stone statues with fear. Jet’s
howl was imbued with Roar, Fear, and Shadow Magic. It inflicted lower level enemies
with terror.
“Ah…”
“Eek…”
“Woof.”
Jet ignored the frozen adventurers and melted into the shadows. The cadets balked
when the giant wolf reappeared at the exit, blocking their path to victory.
“Bark!”
Jet sent the five adventurers back to the center with a claw swipe and a shadow spell.
I thought that would be enough to make them give up, but the adventurers still looked
motivated. They thought they still had a fighting chance.
“Come on! Together now!”
“Gooo!”
The adventurers coordinated themselves. However, Jet’s fur deflected all physical
attacks, and he immediately regenerated from the few miraculous strikes that made it
through.
“No!”
“One more time!”
They kept trying, changing their tactics again. Slowly but surely, they managed to pull
Jet away from the exit. Unfortunately, they only managed it because he was going easy
on them. Miguel had taken on the role of bait, and Jet chased him. The direwolf could
easily have secured victory by simply standing guard at the entrance, but he knew they
couldn’t train that way.
Meanwhile, Dufaux and four others rushed the exit. Their ears were plugged up with
cloth in an attempt to lessen the impact of Jet’s roar. At this rate, the five of them would
make it while the other four fell to Jet’s claws. They smiled, thinking they had won.
Gammod sighed and shook his head. Once again, his pupils had underestimated Jet’s
powers.
“When will they learn…”
“Grrr!”
Jet wiped out the four decoys with a single shadow spell before they’d bought their
friends a single second. The runners were visibly shaken, but they kept on running
regardless. The exit was right before them, but in the end, they couldn’t outrun Jet. He
chased them down with unbelievable speed.
“I-Impossible…”
“So fast!”
They realized that Jet had been going easy on them. His actual speed and strength
were off the charts. They didn’t know what to do. Running away was out of the
question. All they could do was desperately try to fight back…
They didn’t put up much of a fight. The first adventurer fell with a single claw swipe.
The second was flattened to the ground with Jet’s paw. The third fell unconscious with
a tackle, and the fourth with a tail swipe. Finally, a shadow spell pierced Dufaux’s
abdomen, leaving him half dead. It had taken all of thirty seconds. If they were out in
the field, they would all be dead. Anyone with half a brain could see that.
“Jet wins!”
“Awoooo!”
Jet howled with delight. He hadn’t had the chance to go wild for a while.
“That concludes the sparring session!”
The adventurers looked haggard, even as their wounds were being healed. There was
no way they could survive the depths of a Haunt. I hoped it would stop them from
doing anything reckless.
“Come here, Fran. Just leave the healing to Beth.”
“Got it.”
Gammod and Fran returned to his office, giving time for the adventurers to cool their
heads. The Guildmaster was more than pleased with the results. He grinned, looking
like he had gotten away with a horrible crime.
“That was perfect. Sorry it took so long.”
“It’s alright. I learned a lot today.”
“Did you, now?”
“Hm. Thank you very much.”
Fran bowed her head in gratitude. At first glance, the express purpose had been to
knock some sense into the pigheaded youngsters, but was that really all there was to
it? Maybe he also wanted to advise Fran in the process. Don’t get cocky. There are
people far stronger than you. You’re going to die if you stick your head where it doesn’t
belong. Fran understood the Guildmaster’s intention and thanked him. Gammod
turned away, slightly flustered. The stubborn dwarf would never admit it, but he’d also
had Fran in mind when he scheduled the sparring match.
“Whoa now, I didn’t do anything that deserves a thank-you.”
“Hm. I still want to.”
“You’re still young. Just take it slow.”
“Loud and clear.”
Fran took her reward, and we left the guild.
We can finally look for that boat now.
“Hm. Let’s hurry up and get it over with.”
“Woof!”
Well, you two seem awfully motivated for once.
Were they still riding the wave of the sparring session?
“We’re having Io’s curry for dinner tonight.”
“Woof.”
“And we’re not going to be late.”
“Arf.”
Fran and Jet nodded in unison. Their appetites were perfectly aligned. If we couldn’t
find a boat, we wouldn’t make it to the orphanage in time. If that happened, they
couldn’t eat Io’s curry. Therefore, we should find a boat as fast as possible! Perfect
logic. I appreciated their motivation, but I didn’t want to get on any old ship. If we
couldn’t find the right one today, we could leave it until tomorrow. I’d rather do that
than have Fran sulk over missing Io’s curry.
“Let’s go to the harbor.”