However, the scent he smelled just now had been clearly different. It was soft but strange—a smell difficult to describe.
The man grabbed the twinblade in his stomach and used the last of his strength to pull it out. Blood burst out of him like champagne. The presence of death hung in the air.
“I should get out of here.” Zig didn’t know what his enemy was up to, but he was bound to die without anyone to treat his wounds. The place was surrounded, so he could come back and check the place out later once he was dead.
…But that decision came too little too late.
“I give you…my blood.”
His face pale, the man pointed at the blood that painted Zig’s body. Although he was dying, there was no resignation or despair on his face. He wore the look of one who had accomplished his purpose.
“My master…will send you to the other side.”
It happened just as Zig was about to bolt out of the house.
“What?!”
His body started to glow. No, that wasn’t it.
“It’s his blood!”
Unfortunately, his realization came too late. Light enveloped Zig as he struggled in vain to take off his clothes.
A dazzling light lit up the darkening night. And when it faded…
…Zig the mercenary was nowhere to be found, disappeared from Halian.
As his vision was engulfed by light, Zig looked back on the mistake he made.
The estoc wielder was actually supporting the mage, not the other way around.
“I guess that’s one way to protect your employer.”
The way the estoc man treated the mage like some kind of throwaway pawn had completely fooled Zig. Even in death, the man had carried out his duty. Despite being an enemy, Zig felt a tendril of admiration for him.
Why did the mage attack the guild? Who was he working for? He probably held the answers, but there was nothing Zig could do about it now.
“I’ll just have to trust Katia and her guys to do their part. For now…”
Zig observed his situation. The sensation had felt familiar. He had probably been transported away. Although transportation magic wasn’t usually this powerful, there was no other explanation. The transportation stone the guild used was composed of something different, but that fact wasn’t relevant right now.
No, that wasn’t the problem. Zig silently clenched his fists.
The light slowly began to fade.
When his senses returned, he could feel the presence of other people and hear a commotion in the distance. The muffled noises became clearer and clearer until the light fully dissipated.
“What the…? Who are y—guaaaah!”
When his sight returned, Zig grabbed the face of the man in front of him with his right hand. Squeezing his hand and lifting him off the ground, he looked around at his surroundings.
He seemed to be inside a rundown shack with three other men, including the one in his hand. They didn’t seem to be surprised at the sudden appearance of another person, but they were still on full alert. It looked like any other old shack with a decaying wooden door and a dinged-up table—a common sight on the outskirts of town. However, with the aura of violence the three men were emitting, it was highly unlikely that they lived here.
That man must have transported Zig to their hideout.
“Who are you?” one of the men asked, overflowing with bloodlust. “What happened to Stilts?”
Stilts must’ve been the name of the estoc man.
They were dressed like drifters, but the air around them said they were used to violence.
“Hrm.”
“L-let go… Gaaaah!”
Zig ignored the man and squeezed the one in his hand to shut him up while making sure he wouldn’t get ambushed. The men were holding daggers and weren’t armored, but he couldn’t dismiss the chance that they had magic items on them like the assassin from the other day. He could state that they were poorly prepared, though he couldn’t really say that considering his own state.
Zig had left his twinblade inside Stilts and didn’t even have his hunting knife on him. His gauntlet had been damaged to the point that it didn’t fit right; it probably wouldn’t stay in one piece for very long. The only pieces of armor he had on him were his chest piece, greaves, impact gauntlets, and a few coins he used as projectiles.
He didn’t know how many shock waves his impact gauntlets had left. He didn’t use it very often, but every time he did, he always cranked the output.
“What a depressing state to be in.”
“If you won’t give us an answer, we’ll beat one out of you.”
Those words were their signal.
Zig ignored the man who was threatening him with a dagger and threw the man in his hand at the other who was quietly casting a spell.
“Gwah?!”
The man dodged his comrade and continued casting, but Zig flicked a coin at his neck. Although the small cut it left behind didn’t make the man flinch, the indigo adamantine coin dispersed the mana in his spell, taking him aback.
Zig used the opening to close in on the other man. He blocked the dagger with his left damaged gauntlet and landed a body blow with his right.
The powerful punch landed right below his ribs with a dull thud, causing the man to curl up as he ejected bile from his mouth. With his face lowered, Zig followed with a knee to the face, breaking his nose with a gush of blood.
“Hmph!”
He pivoted on his right foot and smashed the now defenseless man’s Adam’s apple with a left straight. Zig felt something crumple through his hand.
“Urgh!”
The man couldn’t scream. His throat crushed, he crashed into the wall.
Zig wanted to use his impact glove sparingly, but the damage it could inflict on the man’s windpipe would have him die in a few minutes if he did.