The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary

Amidst Gula's flowing chanting, Loren leapt forward into the crater.

Once he started running, he could do nothing else but continue to speed up across the sloping ground. With his greatsword at the ready, Loren kept moving his feet to avoid falling. Then in front of him, numerous flames flared up.

"Isn't there only one?"

He had heard that his opponent would be an Efreet, and was surprised to see there were more than one flame. The flames then transformed into the shapes of lizards on four legs.

"Loren! They're Salamanders!"

"What the hell is that?"

Loren retorted as the lizard-shape flames spat fire at him. The columns of fire shot straight at him, and he swung his sword without thinking of dodging or defense. The moment the blade's trajectory met the fire lines, the fire dispersed.

Loren ran through the flying sparks without slowing down, and before the next columns of fire could be spat out, he closed in on the Salamanders. In one swooping lash, he cut one of the nearby Salamanders in half, returning it to mere fire.

"It even summons lesser spirits. So upright."

Gula said, and started to run down towards Loren. Lapis, who was running beside her, nodded.

"It's an introduction. This close to a fire, the Efreet can use its power to summon as many Salamanders as it wants."

"The terrain is too favorable for the Efreet."

While Gula was complaining, the Salamanders opened their mouths at them and Loren. When they tried to spit out fire, they were cut down by Loren, who had already closed in. A normal weapon wouldn't work against spirits, but Loren's sword did work very well. The Salamanders, despite having the forms of lizards, were actually just fire, and all vanished before even withstanding a blow.

"Spirits just can't fight, can they?"

Loren muttered to himself as he looked at the dispersed bodies of the Salamanders. He didn't even know how many he had cut.

Were they demons, they would leave corpses, and you could strip it for materials and such. But Salamanders disappeared when they were cut, so there was nothing left behind. In other words, no matter how many Salamanders he cut, there was nothing left to gain.

Loren wanted to get some compensation for his labor, but he couldn't stop cutting them just because there was no profit. He had no choice but to swing his greatsword, and one after another, the Salamanders disappeared.

"Lesser spirits are powerful enemies in their own way."

"That's true. They're the spirits that control fire, after all. At least they can be snuffed out like candles."

As Gula said this, the surrounding Salamanders kept appearing and going out like candles. Of course, it was the yet-to-be-seen Efreet that summoned them, and it was Gula's power that extinguished them. The power of the dragon's <<Breath>> had once burned out Gula's power, but it seemed to have recovered over time and was now regaining its original strength. Moreover, compared to Dragons' <<Breath>>, the Salamanders' fire was not that powerful, and they were devoured one after another.

Lapis, on the other hand, did not make any moves of her own and just occasionally leapt away to avoid the Salamander fire. She had a reason for this.

"If we can use ice magic, we may have a way to fight it."

As their opponent was a fire spirit, naturally fire magic would be less effective against it. If they used magic with the opposite attribute, they would be able to deal damage efficiently. However, if they used a spell powerful enough to work against the Efreet and kill the Salamanders at the same time, the temperature of the crater would drop. In that case, even if they successfully defeated the Efreet, they might not be able to deal with the black helmet.

"Since it originates from fire, we can't defeat it with normal attacks."

Seeing an opening, Lapis picked up a stone from under her feet and threw it at a Salamander. The stone hit and tore a hole in its body, but the hole closed up the next moment. Spirits couldn't be defeated so easily by mere physical attacks.

"What about beating them with extraordinary attacks?"

"What do you mean by 'extraordinary attacks'?"

Not knowing the answer, Lapis shook her head, and Gula blew black smoke out of her mouth. Loren began to worry that she was swallowing too much Salamander fire, but he was soon distracted by a nearby pillar of flame that had a different intensity.

"So it's finally here!"

From Loren's party's point of view, no matter how many Salamanders they defeated, they couldn't move forward until they defeated the source of the problem, the Efreet. And from the Efreet's point of view, no matter how many Salamanders it sent forth, they didn't seem able to take care of Loren's party. It was meaningless to dispatch more Salamanders now.

"The one who strikes first will win!"

The pillar of fire was still rising, and the Efreet had yet to take on any form like the Salamanders. But Loren thought that the white sword of the Demon King would still be able to do some damage even with the Efreet in that state, and he immediately slashed at the pillar of fire.

However, before the tip of the sword could touch the pillar, the pillar dispersed as if burst from within, and crimson flames attacked Loren. He hurriedly stopped his attack and moved to dodge them, but a fist of flame tore through the air and came straight at him.

"Is this an Efreet?!"

As a mercenary, Loren had never seen a Salamander before, let alone an Efreet. It took the form of a naked giant whose entire body was composed of bright red flames, and was much larger than Loren in stature.

As the Efreet's flaming crimson hair fluttered in the air, it struck Loren with both fists. The newly summoned Salamanders, as if to support it, spat flames at Loren one after the other.

['Just a bit of Energy Drain.']

As soon as he thought he heard Shayna's voice, all the fire that was about to be launched at Loren was extinguished. At the same time, he felt his breathing, which had been a bit erratic during the previous attacks, calmed down.

Focusing only on the Efreet in front of him, Loren swung his sword. The blade met the flaming fist and tore it apart, but as the Efreet's body was made entirely of flames, it didn't lose its stance. Instead, it dealt with Loren's blow in the most unusual way: immediately vanished its arm and re-grew it.

"A human fighting an Efreet is just too strange."

Gula said as she watched Loren and the Efreet attacking and defending, neither able to deal a decisive blow.

The number of Salamanders summoned by the Efreet had stopped increasing when it began to engage Loren in direct combat. This was a sign that the Efreet could no longer afford to call lesser spirits. Feeling that she had less and less to do, Gula looked at Loren.

"Aren't you being a little late?"

"Can we give up on that question?"

Both Lapis and Gula did not forget to use magic and spells to support Loren, whose burden had increased as their own had decreased.

"It's a Demon King's weapon, so using <<Enchantment>> on it is useless. Should I use a self-boost technique on him? Something like <<Overspeed>> and <<Accelerator>>?"

"I'll give him <<Protection From Fire>> and <<Fire Resistance>>."

"Eh? Lapis-chan, you can use more spells now?"

"Hehehe, I am growing every day. I won't stay a novice priest who can only use two spells a day forever."

Lapis stood with hands on her hips, looking rather proud, and Gula gave her a round of applause. Loren thought that they were being a bit too carefree, but their support magic did strengthen him properly, and he slashed at the Efreet with even more speed and precision.

"I'm sorry about this, but we have our own reason too. If you're going to interfere, I have no choice but to cut you down."

There was no way that Loren knew how to calm down an angry spirit. He hadn't met any spirits when he was a mercenary, and naturally didn't have any knowledge of such beings. He didn't know how to stop them aside from cutting them down.

However, it was not impossible to understand why an angry spirit would attack them. It would be easy to blame everything on Demon King Judie, but Loren had no idea whether a spirit would understand such a story. Still, he spoke to the Efreet, which is gradually weakening with each cut:

"If I can help it, I don't want to attack you until you disappear. We just have a task to do, and we'll leave immediately after. Could you ignore us until we leave?"

Loren asked the Efreet regardless of whether spirits could understand human language, since killing a spirit that only meant to protect the fire crater from being harmed would leave him with a bad aftertaste. However, what they would do was no different from Demon King Judie's mischief, and Loren began to think that it would be difficult to obtain the Efreet's approval.

But the spirit stopped its attacks and moved away from Loren. Thinking that it would attack from a distance, Loren immediately readied himself for an assault. Seeing that, the Efreet somehow looked frustrated, then abruptly discarded its form and dispersed into countless sparks of fire.

"I didn't kill it, did I?"

Seeing the Efreet scattered itself into fire sparks, Loren muttered as if to confirm, even though he could still sense its power and aura.

"Seems like it decided that it can't stop us and pulled back."

Lapis concluded while watching, the Efreet disappeared entirely.

After making sure that no Salamander would show up, Loren put his greatsword back on his back and exhaled deeply.

"You've worked hard, Loren."

"Really. I have to complain to the Demon King."

"Complain to the Demon King… Can someone even do that?"

Gula folded her arms and tilted her head, finding it difficult to ascertain whether Loren's remark came from ignorance or foolhardiness or an understanding of the Demon King's character.