I tried to scan my surroundings, but the snow made it impossible to see anything. I quickly cast Detection to pinpoint it.
“Amur and the others are fighting someone on the opposite side of the mansion!”
Amur, Eliza, and two female knights from the royal guard who had been assigned to Amy were fighting someone. Jeanne and Aura were keeping their distance from the fray, shielding Amy along with one of the knights. The other three were directly fighting their opponent.
And they were quickly losing ground. At this rate, the enemy would break through their defenses and reach Jeanne and Amy.
“Who the hell is that?”
I started flying faster and closed in within five minutes. I set my sights on the battlefield just in time to use Identify on the enemy. They were fighting...
“Chaos Mysails...”
He was the ex-tournament champion I’d fought against in my very first tournament.
“This is a good one, Amur.”
I wasn’t really too interested in fashion, but Jeanne had insisted I go shopping for dresses for future parties I might attend with Tenma, so I reluctantly agreed. And I ended up finding something really nice. But it wasn’t a dress—it was a knife. I still didn’t know how to pick out clothes, so I had Jeanne and Amy do it for me. If I were to leave it up to Aura, she’d probably mess around and pick out something weird, so I told her not to from the beginning. Anyway, I was looking at a beautifully constructed knife, probably made by a real craftsman. There was no way something this nice should be this cheap.
“Amur, since we’re all out together, how about we stop for some tea?” Jeanne suggested to me. It had probably been Aura’s idea, but I didn’t have any objections. Tenma’s snacks were way better, but if we brought him home something from this café, maybe it would ignite his competitive spirit and inspire him to come up with something even more delicious.
Or that’s what I thought when I followed Aura into the café, but...
“I’m not impressed.”
“Yeah, it’s not as good as everyone said it was.”
“Amur, Eliza, don’t say that while we’re still in front of the café!”
It was a total disappointment. Even the desserts Jeanne made tasted better than the ones here. She got all flustered when I told her that, and she pushed me away from the front of the store.
“Someone who worked near the castle once told me this place was amazing, but yeah... It wasn’t that great,” Aura agreed.
Amy nodded too.
It seemed all of us shared the same opinion, except for the two knights. Those two seemed confused, but that was probably because they’d never tasted Tenma’s desserts. I knew they’d understand after one bite of his, though.
“It looks like it’s starting to snow pretty hard. Should we head back soon?” Amy asked quietly while we were all still talking about the food.
She was right—this really was turning into quite the storm. Since I had grown up in the south, I didn’t tolerate cold weather very well. And now that I was paying attention to it, all I could think about was getting home.
“Ugh, it’s freezing! Let’s go back!”
As soon as we get home, I’m gonna take a hot bath and have some cold milk. Seriously, why does ice-cold milk taste so good after a hot bath, even in winter? Well, who cares? What’s good is good.
“Bath! Bath!” I started chanting as I marched towards the mansion, urging the others to hurry up. “Ba— Wait a minute! Everyone, halt!”
Just as I rounded a corner, I spotted a sketchy guy heading towards us. His clothes were ragged, and his face was hidden behind a filthy cloak. He looked like a vagrant. But this wasn’t a slum or some back alley—we were in the middle of the city, and I’d never seen a vagrant out here before. But most of all, he gave off a really bad vibe.
“Amy, get back!” Eliza yelled, noticing how sketchy the guy looked. She tried to move beside me while she pushed Amy behind her. But...
“You move back too, Pigtails! Your magic’s too dangerous in the snow!” I said.
“Stop calling me that! But fine, you have a point. I’ll retreat a bit. The front line is all yours!” Eliza yelled. The moment she stepped back, one of Amy’s guards stepped forward.
Eliza’s lightning spells were incredibly powerful. They were probably super effective against human targets, but in this snowy weather, there was too much of a risk of friendly fire.
The second knight, Jeanne, and Aura all surrounded Amy. The three of them would cover her while the other knight and I went after the suspicious guy.
Jeanne and Aura already had their weapons drawn. They were ready to summon the golems at a moment’s notice, but the street we were on was too narrow. If they were to activate the golems too soon, we’d lose visibility on our target, and that would be too dangerous. I could tell that they knew that as well since they were waiting for just the right moment. If we’d been on a wider road, they would’ve summoned the scorpion golems right off the bat and made a break for it with Amy.
And that would’ve been pretty awkward, had this guy just been a regular vagrant. I could tell he was an actual enemy, though. The second we finished getting into formation, he pulled out a sword that he had hidden and charged.
“He’s fast! But...”
He pretended to attack me and then swerved and went for the knight instead. But the knight was ready—she dodged the blow and delivered a clean counterattack. The guy just barely blocked it.
“Argh!”
I had taken my chance to strike and had sent him flying.
“Damn it. Should’ve used the bardiche or halberd instead of the spear. That way, I could’ve finished him off,” I muttered. Since I’d been using the spear a lot lately, I had grabbed it out of habit. A cleaving weapon would’ve been a better choice for this fight.
“This guy doesn’t look that tough, so I should be fine.”
Sure, he was tough, but I didn’t think he looked all that strong. He wasn’t anyone I couldn’t handle solo. I even had Eliza and a knight at my side.
“Airball!” Eliza launched a spell at him just as he was getting up. The knight rushed forward at the same time and attacked again.
“All right, that’s that!”
The knight landed the final blow, and the man dropped into a pool of blood. It looked like he was just barely alive. If we stopped the bleeding, a city guard could take him away for questioning. The knight must’ve had the same idea, because she went over to tie him up, but...
“D-Don’t you dare underestimate me!” the guy yelled.
He pulled out a suspicious-looking vial from his pocket and downed it in one gulp. The second we saw that happen, we both jumped back reflexively, figuring it had to be poison or something explosive. But once we realized he was drinking it, we thought either it might be a healing potion or the guy was trying to finish himself off. The knight rushed in to stop him and make him cough it up.
But it wasn’t poison. And it wasn’t a healing potion either.
“Argh!”
It was something that had an effect I’d never seen or heard of before.
The guy had been close to death moments earlier, but now, he was up on his feet. He punched the knight and knocked her down. His body had swelled to more than twice its previous size, and his muscles were bulging unnaturally.
“Get back, Pigtails! Farther! And Jeanne, Aura, get the gol— Huh?!”
I slammed my spear down hard on his head, using my full body weight, but...
“Arghh! That hurts! That hurts, damn it!”
He caught my spear with his bare hands to block my strike, then swung my spear around with me still hanging onto it.
“Nngh!” I let go of my spear before he could slam me into the ground with it. Then, I jumped back to put distance between us.
“All right, fine! Let’s chop him down, then!” I yelled, drawing my bardiche.
Jeanne and Aura sent out their golems to keep the guy busy while I waited for my chance. I thought maybe if several golems rushed him all at once, I would have a chance to strike. However, he tore through most of the golems with two or three punches. Some of them shattered with a single hit. I hadn’t expected the golems to break like that at all.
“Now!”
One golem had managed to get behind him and was now stopping him for a moment. This was my chance. I raised my bardiche high and charged, slamming it down with all my strength.
“Arrrgh!”
“Ahh! Nooo!”
The man raised up his right arm to defend himself from the blow, and I ended up hacking off that arm of his and tearing into his right leg. But in the next second, his attack hit me from the left and sent me flying. I was pretty sure he’d shattered the bones in my arm. I knew I had to get away, but the pain was so intense that I couldn’t even move.
“Come over here!”
Eliza was casting Airballs over and over again at the man. He let the spells hit him as he continued moving closer to me.
“His arm... It’s growing back...”
Something that looked like a bundle of tentacles sprouted from his bloody stump and twisted into the shape of a new arm. The wound on his leg was sewing itself up as well.
“Everybody... Run...”
He stopped in front of me and slowly raised his new arm. I could see Eliza rushing towards me out of the corner of my eye, but I knew she wouldn’t make it in time.
His arm rose high over my head, and I squeezed my eyes shut. I was sure I was done for, but...
“Get away from Amur!!!” I heard Tenma shout, and the guy’s right arm went flying again.