The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary

Chapter 355: From Infiltration to Collapse (1)

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Proofreader: Xemul

Several torches were lit.

Loren, Lapis, and Gula could see in the pitch-black darkness, so they did not need any kind of light, but Storm and the others could not. Even if the possibility of being found increased with the lights on, it would be impossible to act if one could not see anything. It couldn’t be helped, but Loren thought that humans were not suited for covert actions at all.

[‘Isn’t your way of thinking becoming a little bit un-human?’]

Shayna’s whisper almost made Loren let out a sound, but he held his voice in with a hand on his mouth and asked her to help him explore their surroundings.

As the King of Dead, the highest-ranking undead, aside from granting Loren the ability to see through darkness, Shayna could also detect life forces around him with great accuracy. That was why he was asking for her help, but as soon as Shayna synced her vision with his to show him the result, Loren once again had to suppress an exclamation with his hand. 

[‘Doesn’t this mean we’re completely surrounded?’]

There were so many life force reactions surrounding them that it was hard to believe the passage had been secret.

Loren thought that they were definitely being waited for, and Lapis, who seemed to have sensed the same thing herself, muttered in a resigned tone.

“To think about it, it’s so classic to have a secret path in a catacomb that it would be strange not to be on the lookout for it.”

“Is that so?”

“Probably. I think it’s pretty common.”

Loren, who was not very familiar with the topic of ‘secret paths out of a castle’ asked, and Lapis answered with a small shrug. 

Gula, too, seemed to have sensed the same thing with her Evil God ability. She let out a sigh, then gently pointed to a pillar at a distance and uttered in a small, clear voice, ignoring the soldiers who were bracing themselves to see what was happening.

“Burn.”

The pillar of stone suddenly burst into flames, letting everyone know that she had just used magic.

One of the soldiers, who was about to ask what she was doing when they were supposed to be stealthy, held his tongue when he saw the figure of a man roll out of the shadow of the burning pillar with a scream, his body on fire.

“An ambush?!”

Someone shouted, and shadows began to appear from behind the surrounding pillars. Storm and his team began to form a circle formation with swords in their hands.

“Aren’t their reactions too slow?”

The figures appeared from behind a pillar, all holding bows and arrows in their hands without any light.

The upper half of one of the figures, who was aiming at Storm’s group, suddenly vanished without a warning, and the remaining lower half crumpled on the spot, blood spurting from its severed surface.

Undeterred, another figure fired an arrow, which pierced the throat of the knight holding the torch and sent him falling back.

“Enemies! Intercept!”

“Too slow…”

As the knights were finally ordered to intercept, Gula looked at them with dismayed eyes while pointing at the pillars that the figures were using as shields, one after another.

With that simple action, the pillars, which should have been made of stone, burst into flames as if they were logs, and the figures emerged from their shadows, which were engulfed in flames, were shot down by Lapis’ >.

Loren did not just stand there in silence.

He blocked a flying arrow with the flat of his greatsword, and with his vision, which was as good as in daylight even in the darkness thanks to Shayna, he quickly closed the gap between himself and the archer and struck him with a single swing of his blade.

The archer was sliced in a straight line from shoulder to flank with little resistance, and fell down without even a scream. Not even sparing him a glance, Loren attacked another one.

In the meagre light, it was inherently very difficult to discern the line of a flying arrow. However, Loren, who had the King of Death’s vision, could easily see through it. 

He approached another archer, using his greatsword to repel the incoming arrows or duck out of the line of fire to evade them, then thrust the tip of his sword into the archer’s back as he was about to flee, and twisted it with all his might. That opened a large gaping hole in the archer’s back, from which a large amount of blood spurted out.

Loren kicked the body, which had lost all its strength and was hanging limp, and pulled his greatsword out. The dead archer’s body, sent flying away by the kick, slammed into a pillar and fell flat on the back, and Loren’s eyes widened when he saw it.

The archer was wearing a light leather armour suit, as was typical for archers. The bow in his hand was also in no way out of place. The problem, however, was the dead man’s face.

The archer was a man, but his appearance could be mistaken for that of a woman, and his skin was dark brown. His ears were long and pointed, like the blades of daggers.

“These are dark elves!”

A girl named Noel, whom they had previously seen beside Magna, was of this race.

Dark elves’ numbers were decreasing to the extent that they were said to be an endangered race.

The dark elf was lying on his back with lifeless, vacant eyes wide open. Loren was surprised to learn that the dark elves, who had been persecuted by both the elves, who were similar to them, and the humans, which were said to be the most numerous in the world, were the true identity of the people who surrounded them.

“If I remember correctly, that dark elf who became Lust said that she followed Magna by her own will.”

“We don’t know whether they act as individuals, a tribe or a whole race, but the whole race following Magna? That’s a troublesome idea, isn’t it?”

Dark elves had appearances that let them melt easily into the darkness and eyes that could see in the dark. The situation was not the best for Loren’s team, having to deal with dark elves, who had excellent physical abilities and were excellently skilled with a bow.

As for Storm and his group, they were unable to even grasp where the dark elves were shooting their bows from, and they were getting hit one by one.

“If we don’t intercept them with all our might, we could be annihilated here.”

“If they attacked us, they probably already know we’re here, so there’s no need to be stealthy anymore, right?”

“Indeed. In that case, Gula, I’m looking forward to working with you.”

“Why don’t you do it yourself? Well, it can’t be helped…”

Gula, asked by Lapis, waved her hand in the air while uttering a familiar incantation.

With that single movement, a strong light caused by magic lit up the space of the catacombs.

Illuminated by the light, the dark elves in hiding were startled. Storm and his men also began to panic at the sudden appearance of the light.

“The enemy will know we’re here!”

“They already knew we’re here when we were attacked. If we can’t get a clear shot, we’ll be wiped out.”

“But!”

“The point is to accomplish your objective before they have a chance to intercept you. In other words, hurry up and get rid of the shooters here quickly.”

Storm protested against the flashy light, but he had no room to argue against Loren’s reasoning. After a small grunt, he quickly changed his mind and gave instructions to the knights under his command.

If it was dark, the dark elves would have had an overwhelming advantage. But once they had a clear view, the knights, who had undergone rigorous training, cut off the incoming arrows and slashed at the dark elves who were hiding.

The dark elves seemed to understand immediately that they had lost the advantage of using bows, so they dropped their bows and drew their daggers and began to parry with the knights who were slashing them. Although the knights suffered some casualties, they slaughtered the surrounding dark elves one by one. 

When all the dark elves eventually fell, Storm quickly checked the damage to his team.

“Three men were killed by arrows, one by blade.”

“It’s a loss, but it can’t be helped. We will start moving immediately. At this hour, the King is probably in his chamber.”

Of the ten-odd members of the raiding party, four were down; the loss was quite painful. However, Storm chose to continue with the mission without taking the option of retreating.

Loren understood that if this tactic of moving troops as a diversion and making use of the secret path failed, there would be no next opportunity, and they were not in a situation in which they could retreat. But with things having started off on the wrong foot, Loren was not so sure about the future. 

Just then, a slightly older man’s voice came into Loren’s ears.

“This won’t do. Storm, why do you make such a racket under my feet?”

Loren and the others braced themselves at the sound of the voice, which echoed through the catacombs, where the corpses of dark elves lay and the smell of blood lingered in the air. Storm’s face stiffened and his eyes widened as if he had seen something unbelievable.

It was a middle-aged man, dressed in the regal regalia of a king. 

Following behind him was a black-armoured swordsman and a dark elf girl dressed in sensual garments. 

“Your Majesty…”

“My Imperial Guard, Storm, answer my question. What are you doing here, in the place where my forefathers rest? Depending on how you answer, you may or may not get away with it, so speak with caution.”

Storm and his men were shaken by the fact that their King, whom they had come to help, was now questioning them about what they were planning to do.

But Loren’s group was more concerned about something else; their eyes were on Magna, who was standing behind the king.

“He’s got both his arm and his armor restored.”

“What a troublesome guy. If we don’t kill him for good, he just keeps getting stronger.”

One of Magna’s arms had previously been cut off by Loren. However, his wound seemed to have been healed by Noel at the ruin of the Ancient Kingdom, and there was no trace of such a thing having happened. The black armour he was wearing was also supposed to have been cut by Loren, but there was not even a hint of a scratch on it. 

Loren, who was exchanging words with Lapis while inwardly clicking his tongue at the thought of how troublesome the guy was, suddenly met the eyes of Magna, who was watching with satisfaction as the king’s questioned Storm.

Magna’s face contorted in surprise as if he had not expected to see Loren here, and his expression grew even more irritated. He called out from behind to the king, who was scowling at Storm.

“I don’t care about the circumstances, King. I heard that your men went outside for help. As a result, my men have suffered. What will you do about this?”

Besides Magna and Noel, the only forces that could oppose Loren and his men here was the king himself. As Loren thought that it would be impossible to capture them immediately with such forces, Shayna issued a warning.

[‘Onii-san! We have multiple life forces approaching!’]

“Storm! More reinforcements are coming! What do we do?!”

Loren shouted at Storm, who was stuck in the middle of the king’s questioning.

“Hey King! Wake up! You have been deceived by that Magna!”

“Silence, Storm! It is an unforgivable act to rebel against me, against the Kingdom, and against my master Magna-sama!”

“Your Master?! You’ve gone mad…”

Storm had thought that he could somehow persuade the king, but the king brusquely rejected his entreaties and looked at him with a look of hatred and even disgust.

Realizing that there was nothing he could do, Storm immediately shouted to his knights.

“Retreat!”

“Do you think we’ll let you?”

Even if they were to retreat, the only route they could take was the secret path they had used to come here. That was why almost everyone’s eyes were on one certain coffin among those of the past kings, and the knights made to move toward it. But Noel pointed to that coffin, and flames engulfed it entirety; the knights who were on their way to it stuttered to a stop.

“This is getting boring.”

The coffin burned with crimson flames, and it did not look like anyone would ever make it through there and into the secret path. They would have to find another way out. Loren gritted his teeth as he watched Kingdom soldiers, as if on cue from Noel’s magic, rushing into the catacombs through the entrance.

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