Chapter 16:
Purple Robe and Red Staff
THE BALL OF FLAMES reflected off Gol’s back, diffusing into a magnificent spray of particles.
What was this? What exactly had happened? Strangely, despite the ferocity of the flames, I barely felt any heat.
Behind me, Teru let out a small scream. The horses whinnied, waking the old driver from his nap. Mr. Chotos also scrambled out from beneath the wagon.
Thank goodness. It looked like everyone was fine.
“Hey, you all right, Gol?! You’re not burnt or anything?” I quickly slipped out of Gol’s embrace and checked her back.
Spotless. Slick and smooth. Indeed, it was unnaturally fine. Even though it had come into direct contact with an intense flame, Gol’s white skin didn’t feel remotely hot. I couldn’t find a trace of soot.
When I stroked her back in concern, her long ears fluttered contentedly. Good; she seemed energetic as usual. On the other hand, Gol’s crimson eyes were fixed somewhere beyond the mist.
I followed her gaze and strained my eyes into that great blank white. “That large ball of fire was an attack, right…?”
The enormous fireball had come flying at me from within the mist. I’d never heard of such a natural phenomenon. This was probably some fire spell, or even fire sorcery.
My first thought was of the crazy pyromaniac Flame Bicorn of rumor. At the same time, that didn’t feel right. How could the Flame Bicorn elude Gol’s notice? Her Surface Detection was perfect. Besides, I didn’t think Gol had sensed anything suspicious until the second before the fireball hurtled toward us.
Since I was no hunter, I only ever knew about incoming wildlife when Gol stepped into her protective position because she sensed an unfamiliar presence. If she had sensed the suspicious horse earlier, she would’ve taken a defensive stance.
To be fair, the ancient Earth Dragon had eluded Gol’s detection, but according to Master Speria, that dinosaur was half-spirit or something, and as one of the four god-saurs of this world, it was an exception to every rule. We couldn’t possibly have run into another absurdly rare phenomena, could we?
My doubt was spot on. The one who shot the fireball wasn’t the Flame Bicorn.
The mist began to dissipate, and we heard a person’s voice. “Wow. Did you see that guy? He made his golem react to a surprise attack from a blind angle. He’s a pretty decent wielder, heh.”
Figures emerged from the fading mist, chatting amongst themselves.
“Aww, come on! You’re jokin’, right? We cast Curtain of Haze, y’know? It’s an advanced anti-detection spell. I can’t believe this guy…”
“Ha, after this, I think I actually believe the rumors that he instantly defeated the Swordbreaker and his crew.”
The group emerged one by one until there were more than ten of them. All of them wore robes similar to mine, meaning they were likely spellcasters. For some reason, they were surprised that I was unharmed. Despite their backhanded praise, they reeked of confidence. One of them was even cackling.
“Oh my, oh my. They were supposed to be burnt to a crisp by my Flame Bullet so it would look like the work of a Flame Bicorn. Looks like this is going to be more annoying than we hoped,” a woman standing in the middle of the group muttered in displeasure. She was a female spellcaster holding a uniquely shaped red staff. The moment I caught sight of her, my eyes widened.
“N-no way. Impossible…”
She was an unexpectedly busty spellcaster. Each time she spoke, those two jiggling mountains demanded attention.
W-wait… Don’t misunderstand. Look, I was just surprised from the bottom of my heart by the appearance of a real live busty woman in this bleak world that was barren of any feminine charm. I wasn’t by any means upset, just a bit shocked.
Although it did seem she had been the one who shot that fireball. Who exactly were these guys? Was this a gang of highway robbers? Or did they have another goal in mind? To tell you the truth, I couldn’t make sense of anything at that moment.
I glanced at Gol next to me. To tell you the truth, I was a bit concerned. Other than to protect me from the fireball, she hadn’t yet reacted. We had made a promise before entering Tibar, one with the basic activation condition: “an attack from the enemy.” This condition had already been fulfilled.
Normally, the second someone aggressed against me, Gol rushed the enemy like a bullet and knocked down everyone in her path. In fact, given the violence of that fireball, I suspected she might not be satisfied with a beating—she would want to kill them. She might even give in to her base impulses and unleash a chain of frenzied, gruesome techniques.
Gol was especially merciless to those who tried to kill me. Those gruesome techniques always made it seem like she was trying to take mindless, excessive revenge because she could no longer control her emotions. I’d seen far too many monkeys horrifically mangled as a consequence of this self-expression. I hadn’t ultimately been able to bear witness to their grotesque demise, as it had secretly hurt my heart.
As such, I expected—and feared—that these culprits were in for the same treatment. But if so, why was Gol sticking so close and refusing to leave my side?
“Well, this situation does look pretty bad…” I gulped.
After all, behind me were an elderly man, a middle-aged man, and a young girl—three overwhelmingly weak people. I knew Gol would risk her life to protect me, but at the same time, I had a strong suspicion that she wouldn’t be as diligent when guarding those three.
Worse, this situation was completely different from our dispute with the debt collector punks. We were far from any human settlements and that fire spell had definitely been meant to kill us. Our opponents were, without a doubt, vicious criminals. They were no simple hired thugs.
But I had to protect children and the elderly no matter what. I had no choice.
I dropped a bit from my standing position, letting the sleeve of my olive-brown robe lightly touch the ground. There, I chanted in a voice low enough that the three people behind me wouldn’t notice. “Earth Battle-Axe…”
Earth particles gathered inside my sleeve. Earth Battle-Axe was a beginner Earth spell described in Introduction to Spellcrafting IV. The single-edged axe it created was quite small and lacked the reach of Earth Spear, but it was tough enough.
More importantly, because it was small, I could create the weapon in secret and keep it concealed within my sleeve. I coaxed it into a vertical position, holding the handle up and facing the blade downward. Just as the battle-axe neared completion, I activated my sorcery. I concentrated on my new friend, the axe, and made my request.
“Hi, friend axe, this is my first time asking anything of you. Please aid me in protecting an innocent five-year-old and a kind, old gentleman. Oh, and add a bad-mannered middle-aged man while you’re at it.”