03-04 Bandit Hideout 3
Editors: Kuroe, C. Mickael
After laying down the boy who had become tired after crying, Alysia stood up to look at the situation of the people in the dungeon. The tears from the boy and the dirt from the dungeon that dirtied her chest was less than trivial at this point. She was already determined to defeat the boss of the bandits and free everyone here as soon as possible.
Looking around, everyone was either sitting on a box, leaning against the wall, or looking around in a daze while rolling around on the ground. Everyone looked so depressed they didn’t have the will to keep living.
However, there were still a few individuals that stared at Alysia with hope burning in their eyes.
They thought that Alysia might be the goddess and saviour whom they had been waiting for.
All of their heavy expectations did nothing but burden her. Furthermore, seeing her appearance, it’s no surprise that someone would mistake her for a goddess.
Anyhow, a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, and Alysia began by illuminating the dark cave which was lit by only one lamp powered by elementary light magic.
“Illuminate!”
“…!?”
“Wha⸺? Whoa…This is…?!”
Alysia placed her hands in front of her chest, and illuminated the whole dungeon with enough light. That spectacle looked divine to everyone present.
Incidentally, Alysia used the light spell after confirming that people without night vision were present in the dungeon.
“Healing Sphere…there.”
Alysia had erected a healing barrier inside the dungeon.. The barrier healed everyone that was present inside the barrier in one go.
The amount of mana used for this magic is dependent on the number of people under the effect of the barrier. Though it was but a meagre amount to her.
Alysia started to speak to the catkin man who was sitting on the ground. He was one of the four people who were brought to the dungeon together with Alysia.
“I’m gonna let you guys out of here. Everyone can just wait here. I’ll just go beat the big boss for a bit and come back.”
“You sure it’s alright? Didn’t they manage to catch you earlier?”
“Well, I was just a bit careless…”
“I was really worried…really…”
Conveying his concern, the man looked down and went silent. Even though the dark cave was illuminated by light magic, it was still impossible to discern someone’s facial expression.
“Just don’t forget to come back…go, quickly.”
“Hehe, got it. Go tell everyone else while you’re at it.”
Sensing ‘something’ under the pretense of his blunt speaking manner, a smile floated upon Alysia’s face as she walked out.
Looking at her back, the man muttered in a small voice.
“Are you…a vampire?”
“…So you’ve realised?”
“You know that your fangs were completely visible when you smiled just now, right?”
“Ah…It’s not like I’m trying to hide it, though.”
After activating her teleportation magic, she broke out of the dungeon and dashed through the cave with all her might.
The passage was dark and narrow, almost like a cave.
She relied on her earlier memory of when she was being carried into the dungeon and used sensory magic to get through. And last, but not least, her own intuition.
She finally arrived at an intersection.
On her left was probably leading to the entrance Alysia was at before, and on her right she could feel the presence of more than ten people.
Just when Alysia turned right, she immediately found a large wooden door hindering her path. Eager to slash and smash the door into pieces, she proceeded to grab the katana on her waist,
“!?”
In her dream.
Her precious partner was not there to be found.
“Fine! Edge of Gust Esoteric!” (TL:Wind Blade Revised)
This technique was originally developed to equipping wind blades unto weapons, but Alysia revised it and used it on her own hand. Cladding her own hand with wind blades, she continued to pour down slashes on the poor door.
door breaks
“The heck!?”
“Wha!?”
The broken remnants of the door blown away by the strong wind turned into deadly attacks which assaulted the members of the room. The fragments finally stopped their attacks after rendering two of the bandits unconscious.
“Bastard!! Didn’t we put this one in the dungeon earlier!?”
“I’m certain that we did…”
“Oh, I escaped.”
“WUT?!”
Annoyed by the loud squealing of the three grown men, Alysia teleported behind them and slashed them with her wind blade.
“No! I’m going to die…”
“I’m going to get into trouble if you really did die.”
Blood flowed onto the surface of their clothes. Alysia judged that their wounds were shallow.
Giving a slight glance at the unconscious three bandits behind her, Alysia focused her gaze at the interior of the room. Seeing that slight glance, the bandits flinched for a moment.
“My katana…no, have you seen my thing that resembles a black curved rod?”
“Who would tell a bastard like you!!”
Even though the man said so, Alysia didn’t miss the slight hesitation on the man’s face before he opened his mouth. And he was clearly trembling.
She honestly wanted to start interrogating them right here, but just by knowing that her katana was only taken by the bandits put her heart at ease.
“Well then, just tell me where your big boss is.”
“Did you really think we would just tell you?”
Their answers were nonetheless too cliché. They probably wouldn’t tell her anything like this.
Alysia then took a small breath and said:
“Blaze Storm. Open your mouth before I reach one from ten. Ten…”
Flame started to form around Alysia. Being lead by the wind, they gather together to form a vortex, with their force increasing by the second.
“Eight, seven…”
“Wa–wait! I’ll tell you!!”
“T–this way!! Come this way, please!”
One of the bandits panicked and pointed his finger towards the right side of the room.
Alysia never had the intention to unleash her firestorm in first place and proceeded to disperse the remaining fire. She then started following the man. Although it was only a threat, the fact she was very close to turning each of them into charcoal hurt her conscience.
“H–here…”
“Right, thank you very much.”
Arriving at the last boss’s lair, Alysia gave the tour guide her thanks with a heartfelt smile on her face. It was the least she could do to ease the feeling of guilt from earlier. However, the guy’s face turned bright red immediately as he turned his face away. Looking at that, Alysia thought,
(Well…Of course he’d be angry if someone threatened him and then said ‘thanks’ afterwards, right?)
Alysia unexpectedly turned out to be quite thickheaded like those cliché protagonists.
Finally, in front of her was a large expansive area which resembled a hall, in which the last boss seemed to be at.
“Is anyone home?”
“You…”
Towards her carefree attitude, a guy who seemed to be the bandit boss responded from behind the desk where he was sitting at. When she looked closely, she realised that he was the guy who was standing across from her when she was being tied up.
“Well then, Let’s have a chat, shall we? Attacking the catkin village and even indiscriminately kidnapping the women and the children, just what are you planning to do, I wonder?”
“It’s none of your business, LEAVE Otherwise⸺”
“Please don’t say that line!! I’ll faint, you know?”
The boss stopped mid-sentence and gulped down his word. Why? Because Alysia had rushed towards him and crushed his solar plexus with her fist which had been imbued with magic.
“Answer me, what were you planning to do?”
“Do…”
“What?”
The boss said something but his voice was too quiet that she couldn’t hear it. The moment Alysia tried to ask him again,
“Did you think I was gonna answer you with just that?!”
“Aah?!”
Alysia took a full fist to her right flank. Although it was too late, she regretted the fact that she hadn’t pinned both of his hands down.
She felt something broke inside her body. Although she barely felt any pain, it seemed that quite a few of her ribs were broken. However, due to her high-tier self-healing (spontaneous recovery) ability, every one of her injuries were healed in the blink of an eye.
“If you want to know then you can get it over my dead body.”
“Understood. Then, I’ll just have to try!!”
Having invoked the wind blade (revised) spell, Alysia immediately aimed at the boss and fired her attack.
Whoosh!
ThatGuyOverThere 