CH 79

As Emina moved further from the cliff where she had defeated the sentries, toward the middle of Mount Dena, she saw another sentry’s magicraft.

“Looks like that’s where the bandits are holed up.”

Magicrafts are standing guard over the entrance to the cave, the hideout is probably there as Alana said.

“Two guards, Emina, can you do it again?”

“Copy that. I’m on it.”

With that, Artemis activated her camouflage and blended in with the scenery around her.

“We’ll go in after Emina takes out the guards.”

“Are you sure you want to be found now?”

“I can see glimpses of infantry, so there’s probably a limit to how much we can hide, and if they’re going to find us anyway, it’s better to subdue them all at once.”

Indeed, it’s impossible to take out all the infantry without being detected.

In the same way as before, one of the guard’s magicrafts collapsed – the moment the other guard looked at the fallen magicrafts its head was blown off. Artemis appeared, pointing the bow gun attached to her left arm at the magicrafts whose head was destroyed.

“Okay, let’s go! Ignore the infantry and prioritize destroying the magicrafts!”

We entered the cave in the order of me, Nanami, Alana, Arthur, and Emina, as the entrance allowed only one magicraft to enter at once. The cave turned out to be a large space, with a lot of cargo in it, and a few magicrafts.

The bandits were running away, making a lot of noise, and the magicrafts came out with weapons to intercept us.

“Alana and Emina, you take the right magic side, Nanami and Arthur, you take the left side, and I’ll deal with the middle.”

We scattered in three directions and began to attack the enemy’s magicrafts.

I hit the body of the magicraft that attacked me with a long spear with my tonfa and crushed it, then I kicked the approaching magicraft with a two-handed sword and took it out of action.

I twisted my body to avoid the attack of a large axe that rammed into me from the front, then I crushed his legs and head rendering him unable to move.

Enemy magicrafts attacked from both sides at the same time, turning my body and swinging the tonfas, I destroyed their heads almost simultaneously.

I took out all the nearby enemies and looked around, it seems that Alana and the others have already taken out their opponents. It would have been impossible to escape from the cave, which had been conquered within minutes.

“Who are you? The Duke of Holomel’s private army?”

While shouting this through the external speaker, a lion-like creature appeared. It was a white magicraft with a head that looked like a…

“No, we’re mercenaries.”

I replied.

“So, you’ve been hired by the Duke of Hormel?”

“Not exactly hired. We came to take you down in an exchange.”

“In exchange……if you weren’t hired, that means there’s still room for negotiation, how about we just talk, no loss to you…….”

“I’m not going to negotiate with a bandit, you should just surrender.”

Alana retorted to the bandit’s suggestion immediately.

“Hmm, sorry, but I can’t let you catch me, so if you’re not willing to negotiate, I’ll fight you to the death.”

As he said this, the lion’s magicraft held its sword and adopted a fighting stance.

“Alana, wait a minute, let’s just talk to him, we can catch him afterwards.”

I was curious about what he had to say because I had a feeling that he wasn’t a normal bandit from what I heard about his reputation in town. When I said that, the lion’s magic machine relaxed its fighting stance.

“It’s not the kind of thing you want to talk about in a magicraft, so if you don’t mind, I’d like to come down and talk to you.”

“Fine, but it’s just me and one other person getting off, I don’t want anything to happen to us, so I’m going to ask the rest of you to stay in your magicrafts.”

“That’s fine, I’ll have my men move back as well.”

The figure that came down from the lion’s magicraft was wearing a lion’s mask, just as Jean had informed us. After confirming that the other party got off his magicraft and that the bandits were backing away from the area, Alana and I got off as well to listen to what he had to say.

“First of all, let me say thank you. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to make my point.”

“That’s very polite of you to say to someone who destroyed most of the magicrafts on your side.”

Alana’s sarcastic words did not anger the lion mask, instead he remained calm and collected.

“What I have to say it’s more important than a few magicrafts.”

“Why are you talking to us mercenaries about something so important?”

“If I don’t, you’ll capture me, because I’ve seen the battle and I don’t think I’m a match for you.”

“Oh, I see, you tricked us.”

“I’m sorry, but I had to do it.”

He seemed to be smiling a little at this point, though I couldn’t see the expression on the face of the man in the lion mask.