The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary

Ch. 84: Causing an Accident after Attack

 

“Seems like there’s a lot of them. Any idea what they are?”

Loren drew his giant heavy pitch black great sword.

Lapis braced herself as she put Feuille behind her, while Feuille tried his best to hear the footsteps and identify them.

“From the footsteps, I think they are forest wolves.”

“Oh, those.”

Loren had heard of them before.

They were wolves that lived and hunted in packs inside forests and were somewhat dangerous and were responsible for a lot of the deaths of new adventurers that went on easy jobs in the forest.

As soon as Feuille identified them, they howled and started running towards the camp and jumped at them.

When Loren swung his great sword across, it went straight through the wolf in front, from its brows to its tail, and I fell onto the ground in two pieces.

A return swing caught the body of another wolf that pounced to bite him, and splattered blood and intestines on the ground.

“What the hell is this?”

Although he had killed two if the wolves in the blink of an eye, a third one immediately attacked him, and as he kicked it away since he didn’t have time to swing his great sword, he looked around and couldn’t help but mutter at what he saw.

Forest wolves usually moved in packs, so Loren had expected that there would be quite a few of them.

But the number of wolves that surrounded the camp while he was dealing with three of them was way more than he had expected.

“Maybe a few packs gathered together?”

Shielding Feuille behind her back, Lapis raised her right palm towards the wolves that surrounded them.

Reacting to her movement, one of the wolves jumped at her to tear off her hand, but in the next moment its head turned behind it along with a blunt sound.

Not minding their fallen comrade, the other wolves started pouncing on her as well, but while another one got its head spun backwards, another was twisted so hard its lower body was facing upside down with its hind legs facing upwards, and one by one, the wolves started dropping dead like flies.

“Huh? What!?”

As Feuille looked at Lapis in bewilderment, not able to believe that was the work of the priestess that was protecting him, Lapis shook her right hand, which did all the work, and looked at the rest of the forest wolves, who didn’t seem like they were going on back off.

“This is strange. Were they supposed to be this brave?”

Lapis tilted her head in confusion as she snapped off the head of another wolf that tried to attack her.

Forest wolves weren’t that brave as individuals, which was why they moved in packs, but they weren’t cowards either.

But they also had the intelligence to know that they should back off after seeing a few of them being killed so easily.

But the wolves that surrounded them didn’t run, but instead kept attacking even though they could see others being mowed down and twisted apart.

“What are these guys?”

“No idea. Maybe they want us for dinner very badly?”

As she joked, Lapis’ right hand stabbed another wolf that was aiming for her throat right in its jaw.

Feuille’s face stiffened as he watched her slam the wolf onto the ground and crushing its head with her heel.

“This isn’t something I want to show a child, but it can’t be helped, right?”

“You can just put him inside the tent!”

The blade of the great sword swung with just his right hand turned a few wolves that were jumping towards Loren into lumps of flesh in midair.

One that was caught in his left hand by its throat thrashed around to escape, but its limbs went limp as it’s respiratory tract and spine was crushed.

“Wouldn’t it be more worrisome if he’s somewhere we can’t see him?”

“I can relate…I guess.”

Dropping the wolf which he crushed the neck of, he gripped his great sword with both hands again and acknowledged Lapis’ excuse.

“I wouldn’t mind them coming at us if we could eat them, but it’s a pity we can’t.”

When he had asked Lapis about it some time ago, she had said their meat wasn’t that good to eat.

The number of bodies increased every time he swung his great sword left and right with blood flying all around, but if they couldn’t make use of them, they were nothing more than trash.

“Looks like we might have to relocate the camp.”

With all the bodies lying there, the stench of blood started flowing throughout the area.

On top of that, from the bodies that Loren had cut open with his sword, came the stench of their intestines as well.

As Loren said so, thinking that even if they managed to drive the wolves away, it wouldn’t be a place he would want to sleep in, Lapis said in an annoyed voice.

“Moving again? I don’t really want to.”

“So, you say. But do you really want to sleep with all this?”

That would keep her from arguing.

That’s what Loren thought, but Lapis seemed to have thought of something, as she caught Feuille, who was holding onto her from behind, by the base of his neck, and threw him into the tent and closed it.

As Loren watched her as he continued cutting down wolves, wondering what she was about to do, Lapis raised her left arm.

“Whoa whoa. Don’t tell me that you…”

“Swirl before my eyes, rage about, O crimson flames <<Fire Storm>>”

Before Loren could even try to stop her, the spell created a strong vortex of flames.

But it wasn’t just one.

Four storms made of fire appeared around the camp and engulfed the wolves surrounding them, burning high up into the night sky.

“Hehehe, what do you think about this mastery of magic. It’s more powerful than before because of the amount of mana that I don’t need to use for left arm anymore!”

Lapis said proudly, but Loren silently raised his fist and dropped it into her head quite strongly.

As Lapis crouched with her hands covering the top of her head with a moan, the four vortexes of flames disappeared as they were released from her control.

“What are you doing…?”

“You know…What were you going to do if someone saw you!?”

“A mysterious sage appeared from the forest to save us!”

“You want another one?”

When Loren waved his fist in front of Lapis’ eyes, she put her palm against it as she shook her head with a slightly pale face.

“Please don’t. It’ll sink right in.”

“Geez…Well at least that should’ve made them run off…”

Before he could finish, Loren raised his right hand as if to protect his neck.

The next moment, a forest wolf that suddenly jumped towards him bit him on the arm.

“Loren!?”

“These guys…”

Listening to Lapis’ cry of surprise, Loren couldn’t believe what was going on before his eyes.

Many of the forest wolves that surrounded the camp were turned to ashes by Lapis’ magic, and the rest should have retreated.

But the wolves didn’t run away, and instead, waited for the fire to die down, and attacked Loren when he let his guard down.

The wolf growled and tried to sink its fangs deeper into Loren’s arm, but its upper and lower jaws were grabbed by Lapis.

By the next second, disregarding its jaw strength completely, Lapis peeled the wolf from Loren’s arm and tore it in half.

“Are you okay Loren!?”

“It’s nothing. But what the hell is wrong with them?”

Not fearing the fire and continuing to attack their prey despite seeing so many of their comrades die, could only be described as insanity.

From the actions of the forest wolves, which seemed to ignore their survival instincts, Loren could even feel something bloodcurdling from them.

“Do we look that delicious?”

“You look hard and not that delicious so it’s probably either me or Feuille.”

An awkward look appeared on Loren’s face when he heard that.

There was nothing happy about being told that he looked good to eat, but hearing that he wasn’t, right in his face, wasn’t a good feeling either.

“I don’t think my guts are as bitter as a demon’s, though.”

“Are you trying to say that mine are!?”

“By elimination, Feuille is the one who looks good.”

“I would look delicious too, right!? I’m just as good as Feuille! My skin and flesh are youthful and look so ripe for the picking!”

Lapis said things that could be misunderstood by others if they were listening in a loud voice, but Loren looked towards the forest wolves, which were still surrounding the camp, even though their numbers decreased drastically.

They treaded the burnt ground, with the leftover heat burning their paws, but they didn’t look like they gave up on attacking them.

“We’re going to have to kill them all, huh…”

Loren haven’t heard of animals that continued fighting until the whole herd was wiped out.

But he could imagine the pack of forest wolves in front of him attacking them until the last one died, and a shiver ran down his spine.

This definitely wasn’t something normal.

“If you get pressured, your legs could get swept from under you, you know?”

Lapis warned Loren in a callous voice, as if she had sensed something from his words.

“I won’t stop you if you want to become their food, though.”

“Screw that.”

One of the forest wolves sank to the ground before it even reached them, killed by the heat from the ground.

Although they saw their comrade wasn’t moving anymore, they others didn’t stop coming forward.

With the stench of burning skin, fur, and flesh reaching his nose, Loren gripped his great sword again, but confusion could be seen on his face.

“We’ll think about the cause later. We have to get through this first.”

“I know that. I know, but…”

Two of the wolves jumped towards them.

Loren swept his great sword through their stomachs, and the bodies dropped to the ground.

One of them died instantly, but the other didn’t, and even with its insides spilling out of its wound, it crawled towards Loren and tried to bite his foot, but Loren crushed its head.

“This is disgusting.”

“Yes, this is quite…unnatural.”

In the end, the forest wolves that attacked them didn’t retreat until the last one of them died.