Seeker 117

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Chapter 117. Assault

Kazane-san and I emerged from the shadow of a tree and began our operation. 

As Kazane-san rushed toward the two hostages, I shouted at the top of my lungs.

"Yuzuki, it's your turn!"

"Roger!"

"What!?"

From behind, I heard Yuzuki's voice, followed almost immediately by the astonished voice of the boss. 

I ran towards the boss with a spear in hand.

The boss dropped the piece of meat in his hand and picked up a large sword beside him. 

We completely caught him off guard.

Even though I expected them to react quickly, there was still a slight delay in their actions. 

I sprinted toward the boss, infused power into my right hand with skill, and activated it.

"──[Three Strikes]!"

The boss's evasive movements were no match. With a metallic sound, the triple strike hit the boss's torso.

The boss was wearing chainmail armor, similar to what we have in our world. 

If it's the same as ours, then the defense power should be quite high.

"Guh...! What...!?"

The boss let out a surprised voice, but he didn't lose consciousness or fall. 

He staggered slightly but held his ground.

Even with the [Three Strikes], it seems it wasn't enough to defeat him in one hit.

Immediately after, I quickly took a backstep and distanced myself from him. 

The boss had canceled the skill activation in his hand as he saw me retreat.

I heard a click of the boss's tongue.

Phew, that was close. I

f I had continued the close-range fight, I would have been hit by that attack.

I don't know what kind of skill it is, but being an active skill for weapon attacks, it's probably quite dangerous. 

I think it's something like [Two Slash], which means it has about two-thirds the power of [Three Strikes].

It's not an attack I can't underestimate.

Instead of executing the attack skill, the boss began preparing to cast magic. The brown phosphorescence enveloped him.

He's also a user of earth attribute magic, just like me.

I'm preparing to cast magic from a medium distance too.

My objective is to keep the boss fixated on me and not force myself to defeat him. 

I should fight carefully and keep my distance.

When I glanced at Kazane-san, she had already retrieved the hostages and was leaving the camp with the two elf girls in her arms. 

The thugs were at a loss and couldn't do anything.

Well, that's to be expected. 

Even if there were a few more thugs, ordinary people wouldn't keep up with Kazane-san's speed.

"What the hell are you guys doing? Chase them and kill them already!"

"But, boss! They're adventurers! It's impossible for us!"

"Damn it, you're all useless! ──[Ground Heal]!"

The boss chose to use healing magic to restore his own HP. 

The radiance of healing covered his whole body, somewhat healing the damage caused by my [Three Strikes].

That's when I added attack.

"──[Rock Bullet]!"

"Guu...!"

The rock projectile hit the boss, inflicting some damage, but it shouldn't be significant.

In a clash between [Ground Heal] and [Rock Bullet],  I'm at a disadvantage.

The amount of damage I inflict is far smaller than the amount he can recover, and he'll eventually heal completely.

But that's not a problem.

If the battle drags on, it will work in our favor.

"──Senpai, sorry for the wait! That's the boss!"

"Ah, good timing, Yuzuki."

And finally, the awaited Yuzuki arrived on the battlefield.

With her here, our victory is almost guaranteed.

"Damn it, a third adventurer!? ── We better run!"

The boss made a quick judgment. He immediately turned his back to us and began to retreat.

I thought about launching a magic attack to pursue him, but the boss escaped behind the cover of the forest trees, making it difficult to do so.

"Aah, they're getting away! Senpai, should we chase them?"

"No, it's fine to let them go. If we blindly pursue them, there's no guarantee we won't fall into a counterattack. Besides, our objective is not to defeat them."

"Oh, right, I forgot about that."

After a while, the group of kidnappers disappeared from our sight.

In the quiet surroundings, the crackling sound of a campfire echoed.

"It seems like it's over."

Wind also returned.

The two rescued elf girls and Riviera were with her.

At that moment, a message board opened up.

───────────────────────

Special Mission: Rescue the captured elves from the kidnappers!

All party members gained 5,000 points of experience!

Current experience:

Musou Daichi... 96,466/105,188 (Next level: 8,722)

Kodachi Kazane... 96,536/105,188 (Next level: 8,652)

Yuzuki Hotaru... 96,729/105,188 (Next level: 8,459)

───────────────────────

Alright, it's all settled.

The three elves, including Riviera, expressed their gratitude to us.

"Thank you so much!"

"If you hadn't helped us, we don't know what would have happened to us."

"The three of you are our benefactors. We are truly grateful."

Honestly, I can't tell which is which among the elves. 

They're all beautiful, but it's hard to distinguish them since they have similar attributes.

Nevertheless, I don't mind being thanked. Above all, I'm glad they're safe.

"I'm happy too. I'm glad you all are safe."

It's a little embarrassing, but I conveyed my feelings just like that.

They might be people I'll never meet again.

It wouldn't hurt to part ways on good terms.

That's what I thought, but...

"Hey, Kazane-san, don't you think Senpai's character has more rizz since we came here? It's hard to believe these lines came from the introverted Senpai."

"Yeah, what happened? He used to be more awkward with words."

"Hey, you two. You don't have to keep dissing me so much."

I interjected and responded to the two girls whispering behind me.

Even though I said something nice, they're being so mean.

If something about me has changed, it's probably because I gained confidence from being in a relationship or from feeling a sense of responsibility after coming to this different world. 

I don't know for sure, though.

Now, leaving that aside...

I asked the three elf girls. 

"By the way, what are you going to do from here? Where were you living before being kidnapped? Can the three of you go back?"

"Well, about that..."

Riviera fidgeted and hesitantly began to speak as if saying it was something difficult to say.

Ah, I have a bad feeling about this.

"It's selfish of us, but we have one more request. Could you take us to the elf village?"

Yes, here comes the third "request".