As Mireille and the others ran away with Alice, more and more undead appeared. When zombies blocked their path, Misha gasped before leaping forward.
“Consecutive Slashes!”
She pivoted on her right leg and struck several monsters one after another. However, that one skill wasn’t enough to bring them down, and she only succeeded in pushing them back slightly. She was about to dash toward them to finish the job when Mireille stopped her.
“Misha, there is no need to chase after them.”
“R-Right!”
Misha hurriedly ran back to Mireille and the others, and they continued to flee. Lunoa used her wind magic to blow away a few ghosts that were closing in on them from the front, while Oulu destroyed skeletons with her kukri.
As the group attempted to get away from the square, a large number of skeletons unexpectedly jumped out of the stone pavement, separating them.
“Alice! Don’t move from where you are!” Mireille exclaimed while firing arrows of light at the skeletons.
Less than two meters separated Mireille from Alice, but a large being that had appeared between them pounced at the little girl.
“Alice!”
“Oh no! A ghoul!” Oulu said, rushing toward her.
However, the ghoul had already started bringing down its rotten arms, aiming right at Alice. Her eyes grew wide in shock, but before the ghoul could touch her, a cloud of dust rose. Someone picked Alice up, getting her out of the way while simultaneously destroying the ghoul in a fireball.
“Are you all right?”
“Mr. Flywok!”
The elven man who’d appeared was Lotton Flywok, a member of the empire’s Merchants’ Guild Council. Lotton noticed Alice’s knee had been grazed when he’d pulled her to safety, and he took out a handkerchief to wipe off the blood before healing her with light spirit magic.
“This place is dangerous, let us—”
More skeletons appeared before he could finish his sentence. However, Barl suddenly joined the group and destroyed the monsters in a heartbeat with a kick.
“Are you all okay?!” he asked as soon as he landed.
“Yes,” Mireille replied. “Barl, please take care of Alice.”
“Got it.” Barl picked up the little girl while Lotton stepped forward to face the undead horde that continued pouring in.
“Leave this place to me,” he said. “You must get the children to safety.”
“Thank you very much,” said Mireille.
“Sorry about that,” Barl added.
The group entrusted the rest of the monsters there to Lotton and began to run once more.
As soon as Mireille and the others were far enough away, Lotton waved his hands and all of the undead around him turned to ashes.
“That went better than I expected,” he whispered, looking at the handkerchief stained with Alice’s blood. He put it inside a small vial and tucked it into his pocket. “I was surprised when the young master told me about it, but that girl truly is...” Lotton trailed off.
He hadn’t meant for anyone to hear him, but he suddenly noticed something out of the corner of his eye.
“Who?! Ah, it’s just a carbuncle. If I recall correctly, I saw it around Alice before.” Lotton used spirit magic to summon a flame, but after thinking it over, he extinguished it. “I shouldn’t. Now is not the time to have them suspect me of anything. Go on, little beast, go find your master,” Lotton said, shooing Carol away with his hand.
“Kyuu,” Carol cried, looking at Lotton before running toward Alice and the others.