“Yeah. That guy we fought before... Could you bust his armor without killing him?”
I knew that asking if he could kill the armor sounded ridiculous on its face, but for a man of his skill with a sword like that? It wasn’t impossible.
“Well... I wouldn’t know until I tried, but it does look pretty tough.”
“Speaking of which...” Alaina spoke. Hiding behind me, she peeked over at Gourry. “Master... Gourry, was it? How did you cut through that earlier attack from the astral side?”
...
“What?!” Zel and I cried out simultaneously.
Gourry cut through an astral attack?! If you didn’t already know, the astral side of reality—the astral plane—is like the flip side of the material world we inhabit. When we talk about casting spells, we’re actually talking about drawing upon that plane’s magical power to manifest various effects. It was a realm humans couldn’t normally perceive, but...
“You cut through it?!” I found myself asking.
Gourry just looked at me in confusion. “Asral Sai? Who’s that?”
“It’s not a person, dude. It’s—”
“Remember when you were about to slay the spider-like giant?” Alaina asked, still hiding behind me. “The cyclops one targeted you from behind, but you sliced through the attack with your sword.”
I recalled the way Gourry had whipped around to slash at nothing instead of sealing the deal with Spider guy.
“Oh, that?” Gourry said casually. “I just had this instinct, like, ‘I’d better cut through here.’ Did I cut something?”
How am I supposed to answer that, man?
“You did,” Alaina insisted.
He did?!
It was true that Cyclops armor had been open at the time. I remembered seeing Sagan’s face. I’d assumed he was preparing to cast a spell, but perhaps it was the opposite—he’d just finished mounting an astral assault.
“Think of it like slicing through an invisible arrow. But I thought humans couldn’t perceive astral phenomena... so how did you do it?”
“Well, it’s like...” Gourry pantomimed holding his sword. “I drew my sword to finish off that spidery guy, but then I felt like it was being tugged in that direction... so I thought, ‘Oh, I bet there’s something I need to cut there.’”
I wasn’t sure if that was the explanation of a master or a dunce. But hey, Gourry was both.
“Asking for a friend here,” I piped up. “What happens if a human gets hit by one of those astral attacks?”
Alaina responded casually, “In the best-case scenario, you’d be rendered unconscious. But more commonly, it would annihilate your spirit.”
“Freaky! Is it possible to avoid that?”
“Yes, if you dodge it.”
“Dodge it? But... if humans can’t see it...” Obviously, there was virtually no way for a human to perceive the goings-on on the astral plane. I couldn’t say there was no way at all, but certainly nothing you could do mid-combat.
“Ah... I suppose that’s true.”
“Is there any way to let us see it?”
“Elves can see it innately, so I’m afraid I wouldn’t know... Ah, I know. It does take quite a while to prepare an attack from the astral side. If you’re constantly on the move, it’d be quite difficult to land a hit from a distance.”
Constantly on the move? It sounded like the grand strategy amounted to “scramble like mad and hope like hell it misses.”
“I... I see.” Yet as absurd as astral attacks were, Gourry had cut through one. How had he done that?
Ah... He said it felt like something tugging at his sword. I wonder...
“Alaina!” I exclaimed as something suddenly dawned on me. “Gourry’s sword has a bit of a history. He actually had a dragon cast a spell on the blade to blunt it. As an elf, it should be possible for you to remove that seal... Could you try?”
“There’s a seal... to blunt the sword?” Alaina asked in confusion.
Yeah, I guess that sounds pretty weird out of context...
“Apparently the cutting power of its edge increases in response to magic in its surroundings. So—this is just a theory—but I’m wondering if that fundamental property of the sword reacted to the powerful magic of the astral attack, which made Gourry feel like it was being pulled in that direction.”
Alaina turned thoughtful at my explanation. “That... might be possible? I couldn’t confirm or deny it at this stage... but he did cut through the attack, so...”
“Theorizing aside, the sharpness of the sword gives it a bad habit of cutting through sheaths, which is why we asked a dragon to blunt it. But if we restore its full power... I don’t know if that would help it detect astral attacks or not, but it should at least let it cut through Zanaffar armor. So...”
“I should be able to remove such a seal, but not without tools. And I left all my things at the inn in town...”
“Understood. Then come nightfall, we’ll sneak back into town to get our stuff while Tessius’s gang is none the wiser, right? We also need to fill the others in on what’s happened, and we’d probably better check in on the damage as well.”
Everyone agreed to my suggestion.
I had the feeling I’d be going without a fluffy bed and a warm meal for a while, but hey, it was all the more reason to beat down those jerks as fast as we could! I was burning with a newfound will to defeat the Forest Hounds. I wanted my creature comforts back ASAP!
I looked up and saw the starry sky through the branches. I looked back down and saw the night-cloaked forest as an unblemished curtain of darkness.
No, not unblemished—there was a single tiny light among the trees. It proceeded through the pathless woods, swaying slowly. Three faces of the lantern were covered, leaving but a single point of flickering orange light that barely lit the way but still stood out in the pitch black of night.
Perhaps because my vision was limited, everything around me felt louder. The leaves of trees rustled in the wind. Unknown birds and insects sang.
I didn’t know how far from town the lantern’s bearer had come, but when the faint light finally stopped, it had reached an evenly spaced row of trees about the height of children. Probably the most recent replanting after a harvest.
More time passed. Before long...
“What happened?” came a woman’s whispering voice a short distance away from the light.
“The city... was attacked,” replied a man’s hushed voice from closer to the lantern. The light slowly approached the source of the woman’s voice. “There were casualties.”
At last, the lantern illuminated a humanoid figure—a woman wearing curiously shaped armor. Her face in the night was astonishingly beautiful, and a reflection of the lamplight danced in her eyes.
“I heard... elves did it,” the man with the lantern continued. “It can’t be true, right? You said you’d help us.”
“We elves aren’t a monolith. I am helping you, but the elves targeting the city are different. Still, I knew that if I told you who they were, you’d stop trusting me. That’s why I didn’t say anything.”
“Then... you really are on my side?” The man’s voice became plaintive.
“Yes. Believe in me. I’ll help you any way I can.”
“Okay. I trust you.”
“Thank you. Now, in order for me to be of assistance, could you give me more detailed information? When the city was attacked, there were people who looked like mercenaries who fought the elves. Who are they?”
“Oh, they’re just traveling—”
Interrupting the man’s response—“Don’t trust her, stupid! Freeze Arrow!”—I let fly my spell, unable to abide any more of what I was seeing.
A dozen arrows of cold streaked toward the woman!
“?!” Realizing she couldn’t dodge them, she swept out her right hand. When she did, part of the armor she was wearing transformed. It became a massive shield to block my icy bolts.
“What?! Ah? Er?”
As the man with the lantern yelped in surprise, Gourry ran at the woman. Yet before he could get into sword range, she jumped. No... she flew! When she leaped up, her armor unfolded and transformed. The shield transformed into wings, and she took off into the night sky!
The “Wings” Zanaffar?!
We readied ourselves for battle, but our opponent didn’t seem to be in the mood. She just continued flying off. Gourry sheathed his sword, walked up to the man she’d left behind, took his lantern, and turned it on him. Illuminated by the flickering orange light was...
“It’s you...” Here, I fell silent.
It’s not that I was shocked by his identity—I just couldn’t remember his name right away. It was the guy from the local security task force. You know. Uhhh... Randa, I think?
We’d been on our way back to Atessa, navigating by the light of the moon and stars, to grab our gear and touch base with our people. But just before hitting the city, we’d spotted someone sneaking out by lantern light. We’d followed them, which is how we happened upon the scene just described.
“What in the world are you doing?” I asked.
“Huh... You guys? What’s going on?” He looked around in confusion, unable to comprehend the situation.
We didn’t have a choice. “We can’t talk here. Let’s get your story back at the inn,” I sighed.
We could hear the distant commotion of Atessa’s nightlife.
After returning to the Silver Leaf Inn, we’d checked in with MacLyle and gathered in Gourry’s room on the third floor. It was a fairly big room, but it was still meant for one, and now it had to hold me, Gourry, Zel, Alaina, MacLyle, and Randa. Six whole people. Yeah, you could say it was a little cramped.
It would’ve been easier to talk in the first-floor eatery, but there were other customers around. No guarantee that we could go without prying ears.
I began by giving a brief rundown of what we’d been up to. I told them we’d headed out to lure away the Hounds attacking the city, but they’d pulled out the big guns, forcing us to hide out for a while. Then, on our way back, we’d caught Randa meeting up with that elf woman... Naturally, I didn’t mention the legendary name Zanaffar. Nevertheless, by the time I’d finished my quick and dirty recounting of events, Randa seemed to fully grasp the gravity of the situation. He’d turned noticeably paler in the lamplight.
“So,” I said, looking at him, “how’d you meet her and what were you doing together?”
“I had no idea until you brought it up today,” Randa said hoarsely, his eyes studiously averted. “I never thought... the people attacking the town would be elves...”