70

Around noon, Id and his party appeared at the logging grounds. Though Aldebaran began to cast a spell with great tension, Id’s party did not come straight into the forest where Cronos’ reinforcements ambushed. They took a rest, sitting on stumps in the vacant lot. The distance between the man presumed Id and mage Aldebaran was about forty meters, a little too far for a surprise attack. When Aldebaran finished casting Aqua Blast, his most confident attack spell, a big man from Id’s party approached the ambush alone with a crossbow in his left hand. As Sasha entered the forest, Knight Commander Gabriel of the Pegasus Order sprang out from behind a large oak tree and swung the sword at him. At the same time, Aldebaran shouted an initiator.

“Aqua Blast.”

As a huge water column flew from behind his back, Id jumped into the air, doing a full one hundred and eighty, and swung his Aura Beam vertically from top to bottom. The water column that collided with Id’s Aura Beam exploded but caused no damage to Id’s party. Id rushed toward the forest where the magic attack was launched. Selena climbed up to the top of a thirty-meter-tall oak tree to find the location of the ambush. Lara stood next to Spica, unsheathing her sword as the latter’s magic armor wrapped around her body. Spica pulled her magic sword out of the sheath.

As soon as Sasha noticed the surprise attack, he threw the crossbow at Gabriel and unsheathed his sword lifting the shield. After blocking Sasha’s crossbow with his shield, Gabriel rushed to Sasha, wielding his sword several times in a row. Sasha stepped back to retreat out of the forest and join his companions. But when he took a step out of the woods, a red Aura Beam flew into his chest. Sasha held up the shield to block Chris’ Aura Beam wielding his Aura Blade at it almost simultaneously.

Id, who was running toward Sasha, saw the red Aura Beam and jumped up to swing down his blue Aura Beam at the middle-aged man attacking Sasha. However, Id’s response was a little too late, and Chris’ Aura Beam cut a corner of Sasha’s shield and split his blade. It tore Sasha’s chain mail and made a long and deep wound in his chest. If Sasha’s intense Aura Blade hadn’t reduced the power of Chris’ Aura Beam, he would have died instantly. After attacking Sasha, Chris shot a red Aura Beam from the end of his sword to block Id’s blue Aura Beam.

Id was furious to see Sasha stumbling back with a severe wound on his chest. Id’s manna hall seethed up momentarily, and he smashed Chris’ Aura beam with all his might. When two aurae collided, there was an explosion. Chris’ Aura Beam, which blocked Id’s attack, faltered and blurred, then Chris was pushed back, spouting blood from his mouth. Id once again swung his Aura Beam diagonally, splitting the body of the Knight Commander Gabriel, who was chasing Sasha. In the eyes of Aldebaran, who was casting another spell, Gabriel’s sliding upper body, which had been split diagonally together with his armor, seemed unrealistic. However, Aldebaran had no time to surprise since Id rushed toward him, shooting up a shiny blue aura.

Selena jumped from tree to tree to secure visibility to shoot arrows at the enemies. When she moved to the sixth tree, she arrived in a position to attack the ambush. Having loaded an arrow, Selena pulled the bowstring carefully. Her first target was a man who appeared to be a sorcerer.

Pegasus Knights surrounded Aldebaran in layers. As Id wielded his Aura Beam at them, the three Knights in the front row collapsed simultaneously. When the mage Aldebaran’s face turned pale, Id reversed his body as Chris, who had retreated at the first collision with Id, attacked his back. As the two Aura Beam Owners moved away from him, Aldebaran let out a sigh of relief. But then, he heard the last sound of his life.

Lara held Sasha, who stumbled back, and laid him on the ground. She poured a bottle of Benjamin’s magic potion into the wound on his chest and made Sasha drink another bottle. Then she began casting Healing with concentration.

Spica was as furious as Id. After checking Sasha’s condition for a moment, she ran to the enemies shouting an initiator.

“Hellfire.”

As mage Aldebaran, astonished by Spica’s voice, was about to say something, a scarlet sphere about fifty centimeters in diameter with a black dot in the middle raided him. Aldebaran and four Knights of the Pegasus Order around him burned down without traces, and several other Knights suffered severe burns. Selena’s arrows flew to the Pegasus Knights, who were at a loss, having been attacked by the Hellfire. Six of Selena’s arrows hit the faces of the Pegasus Knights, who were almost unprepared. It was a tragedy caused by their carelessness that they had not lowered their faceguards. The remaining nine Knights, overwhelmed by a series of attacks by the opponents, abandoned their wounded colleagues and fled.

Id’s blue Aura Beam struck Chris’ red Aura Beam repeatedly. Each time the two Aura Beams collided with each other, the red aura’s light gradually faded. At the fourth collision, Chris’ Aura Beam that blocked Id’s strike over his head split, and his body also split vertically from the top of the head to the crotch. Id glanced at the fleeing Pegasus Knights but did not pursue them. He returned to Lara, who was treating Sasha. Having just finished casting Healing for the second time, Lara told Id with a tired composure.

“I don’t think Sasha’s life is in danger. But it’ll take some time for him to come to his senses. Let’s find a place around here for Sasha to take a rest and recover.”

“Thank you, Lara. Let me check Sasha now, and you take care of Spica, please.”

Spica was utterly exhausted and fainted since she used all manna from her newly built manna hall in her human body and a considerable portion of manna from her Dragon Heart in her natural body located in the virtual space so as to initiate Hellfire engraved on Vega’s magic sword. Selena, who came down from a tree, asked Lara.

“How’s Spica?”

“She is entirely exhausted. It will take some time for her to recover.”

Listening to Selena speaking to Lara, Id grabbed Sasha’s wrist and sent his manna into Sasha’s body to check his internal injuries. Fortunately, Lara’s Healing spells had cured Sasha’s internal injury to some extent. If Lara’s treatment was a little late, she might not be able to save Sasha’s life. Having retrieved his manna from Sasha’s body, Id carefully removed Sasha’s broken chainmail and torn tunic. He poured another bottle of Benjamin’s magic potion on Sasha’s chest and then wrapped the wound tightly in bandages.

Having taken extra clothes from Sasha’s backpack, Id put them on Sasha and gathered all of his equipment. Broken chainmail, broken longsword, cracked shield, battle-ax, mace, crossbow, quarrel barrel and backpack were all stored in Id’s Subspace Pouch. Most of them were relics of his late master, Andrew Adelian, so he could not throw away the broken weapons. Id, who made Sasha lie comfortably and went to Spica, grabbed her wrist and spilled his manna into her body. Spica’s manna hall was almost empty. Her Dragon heart in virtual space must have been in a similar condition. The Hellfire, imprinted on Vega’s magic sword, required too much manna for Spica yet. Spica knew this would happen, but when she saw Sasha collapse, she could not overcome her anger and forced herself to use the Hellfire. Id told Lara and Selena.

“First, let’s find a place where Sasha and Spica can recover comfortably. Lara, please carry Spica on your back. Selena, can you remove our traces?”

Selena replied to Id.

“Don’t worry. I’ll completely erase your tracks and follow you, not leaving my traces.”

Id said, nodding.

“Let’s move before Duke Cronos’ other reinforcements come.”

Id, who carried Sasha on his back, chose the broad road to the southeast instead of going straight south through the forest as planned initially, followed by Lara carrying Spica on her back. They moved at a pretty fast pace, even though they carried a person on their back. Id and Lara went down the mountain to the territory of the Tartaria Kingdom. The southern part of the Polermone Mountains was not as rugged as the north. Moreover, the way down to Tartaria was not as steep as the way down to Icarus. Id, who found a small mountain village at dusk, entered the yard of a two-story log house. A woman in her early twenties who was feeding chickens in the yard looked surprised. She was carrying a newborn baby, and a girl about three years old was holding her skirt.

“My friends are hurt, so we need a place to rest for a few days. If you rent me a room, I’ll give you this.”

The woman gulped as Lara spoke softly, showing a gold coin. One gold coin was enough money for her family to live in abundance for several months. Relieved that the sudden visitors were teenagers, the woman answered Lara, entering her house.

“Come in.”

After laying the baby in a cot, the woman said, going upstairs.

“Follow me, please. You can use both rooms on the second floor. My husband who went hunting won’t come back until the next week.”

After putting Spica on the bed, Lara said to the woman, giving the gold coin to her.

“I’ll give you another gold coin if you provide us with meals while we stay here. You don’t have to prepare special food. The meal you usually eat is fine for us. And please don’t tell the villagers that we’re staying at your house.”

The woman nodded, holding the gold coin firmly in her hand, and went downstairs.