The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary

"Damn it! I screwed up!"

Loren was the first one to curse.

He thought he had swung out his greatsword with all his power, but the blade didn't send the black helmet flying as far as he had expected. Both the sword and the helmet were not originally designed to be used in a batting, and he might have missed the center of the helmet because he was in a bit of a hurry… Anyway, the black helmet did fall into the lava pool, but not very far from the edge.

That didn't mean Loren could afford to give it another hit to push it down deeper, because Magna had abandoned their fight to run after the helmet. All he could do now was praying that Lapis would tell Gula to run, and that the helmet would break down despite falling near the edge of the lava pool.

"Damn you! You mongrel!"

The next one to curse was Magna.

He thought about chasing after Loren and dealing with him, but after weighing the merits of securing the black helmet against dealing with the person who attempted to destroy it, he decided that securing the helmet was of the higher priority. He spared a moment to shoot an angry glance at the back of the escaping Loren, but quickly turned his gaze to the helmet that was slowly sinking into lava and ran towards it. The thing was turning red, either because of the lava's reflection or it was heating up.

"I see! Since that helmet is part of a set, striking with it won't be blocked by other items of the same set, even if those items are infused with some sort of defensive techniques!"

Lapis, who was running next to Loren, clapped her hands as she continued running, as if she was now convinced of her theory.

Loren hadn't really thought about it that much, but that seemed to be the reason why the blow was able to strike Magna so cleanly. It was a good decision to not attack Magna when he was struck by the helmet then.

But the question now was how to get out of this situation as quickly as possible.

"Just run! I can't deal with that bastard if he's angry!"

"That's so true!"

It was not clear what effect it would have on the whole armor set if only one item was destroyed. But since Magna had been fighting without the helmet, it was reasonable to assume that he would still have the same strength as before. As Loren thought about this, he looked back over his shoulder and saw Magna stepping into the lava. The sight made his face twitch.

But the full-body plate armor that Magna was wearing also protected his legs, and it seemed to have prevented the lava from affecting him. He pushed through the lava as if he were wading through water and grabbed the sinking helmet with his hand.

"No way…"

"Even though it's mostly thanks to the equipment, he doesn't seem to be human anymore."

"Evil Gods don't do such things."

As the three of them uttered with a mix of dismay, fear and amazement, Magna brought the helmet before his eyes. Even though it was only for a short while, the helmet had almost sunk into lava, and heat had deformed it. There were even holes in some places. Regardless of its magical properties, it would be difficult to use it as a helmet.

Manga seemed to have the same conclusion. He shot an angry glance at the running party.

"Damn! He looks at us!"

"He won't be able to catch up if he pursues us now, so…"

As Lapis was speaking, she felt something few past her ear. It flew straight forward, then quivered and stabbed the ground ahead of them.

It was an arrow.

If they looked, they could see Magna giving instructions as he stepped out of the lava pool. Noel was holding her bow horizontally in a kneeling position, aiming at Loren's party's backs.

Another arrow was fired. Grazed the side of Loren's jacket this time. Another hit Loren's shoulder, but was repelled with a solid sound.

"It hit Nigg!"

"It did, but its ability to repel it was amazing."

Whether the arrow did hit its target or not, elves' bows were very powerful, and it should be the same for dark elves' bows. But Nigg was able to successfully repel a direct hit from such a distance. It was commendable.

Nig, which was still perching on Loren's shoulder, seemed to be quite startled. Although he didn't fall off the shoulder, he expressed his surprise by restlessly moving his legs.

"Don't tickle me!"

"You look like you're having fun…"

Gula said to Loren, who was patting Nig's back to calm him down while running. It really was not a pleasant event for Nig, who had been shot with an arrow, nor for Loren, who was being roughed up by Nig at his shoulder.

"Stop talking nonsense and run!"

A flash of light came for them as Loren shouted a warning. Magna had activated the sword called Caliburnus, but the flash of light unleashed hit the ground quite a distance away from Loren's party. It might be because of the distance, or because Magna had lost control in anger.

"We can't afford to take a hit like that."

"Yeah. It seems to be more powerful because the guy is angry."

After running up the slope of the crater in a single bound, Loren's party quickly found themselves on the downward slope of the mountain.

It wasn't as if all they had to do was run down the slope, because there was only one path they could take, and if they looked up, they could see that the thick black clouds were beginning to cover the sky again.

Loren wondered who would suffer more if the lightning rained down on the mountain, them or Magna, and soon came to the conclusion that it would probably be them. If there was a numerical value for luck in this world, it was certain that Magna's value was higher than his own.

"Do we still have to run down?!"

"Would be nice if we can use the same path we came in on…"

Lapis looked around quickly, but it was difficult to tell from the unchanging scenery whether the place where they left the crater was the same place where they entered. If it was the same place, they didn't have to go very far to find the entrance to the shortcut that led to Emery's nest. Otherwise, the dragon's nest would not necessarily be nearby.

"I can't tell when we're looking down like this!"

"There were no landmarks to be seen."

Lapis strained her eyes, but all she could see was the uneven rocky surface of the mountain. She had no idea whether the hole they had passed through was there or not.

Next to Lapis, Gula also squinted at the mountain surface, but without finding any clues, she just let her gaze wander around aimlessly.

"Should we just give up and run?!"

Half-resigned, Loren asked. He didn't think a human like him could find something that even a demon and an Evil God couldn't spot. Just then, an arrow from Noel pierce the ground under his feet with considerable force. And when Loren saw another flash of light come from the crater and penetrate the mountain face a short distance further away, he decided that there was no choice but to run down the slope of this mountain. The mountain face was too high and too steep to climb in a day or so, but he thought that if they could run down from the top, they might be able to save some time.

However, this was based on the condition that they were able to run down the mountain.

Loren was about to step forward, thinking that it would be less difficult than fighting Magna and Noel again, when a small sound reached his ears and stopped his feet.

"Pii! Pii! Pii!"

It sounded like a small bird, but as far as Loren could tell, there were no birds living in this mountain. It could be said that it was inevitable since there was no food or trees to perch on, but as he listened more carefully, he saw something moving on the rocky surface.

Looking more closely, he could see a creature poking its head out of the mountain face and making a beeping sound. It looked like a lizard, but had a much more angular silhouette.

"Is that Emery's child?"

"Eh? Where?"

He took Lapis hand, who could hear the cries but couldn't find the source of the cries, and Gula's hand, who had given up looking for the source, and ran in the direction of the baby dragon, which had poked its head out of the ground and was still crying.

After running down a short distance without caring about the arrows and flashing lights that were still flying behind them, they saw the direct passage to Emery's nest that they had used to get to the top of the mountain on the ground, where the baby dragon was peeking out. He immediately pushed Lapis and Gula inside.

"Loren, aren't you being too rough?!"

"Ah, where are you touching? If you touch me like that, I'll…"

Gula squirmed by his side with a red face, while on Loren's forehead, a vein popped.

"Shut up! Get in, quick!"

After shoving Lapis into the opening and kicking Gula's butt for talking about unnecessary things, Loren glanced at the top of the mountain to confirm that Magna's party had not yet come out. He went in himself, carrying the baby dragon that had told him of this path on his back.

If they had been seen entering, Magna's group would have come after them immediately. But they hadn't, and without some kind of guide like the baby dragon's cry, Loren believed that it would take a long time to discover the opening to this path.

Even if Magna was able to find him, his group would have to go straight to the nest of Emery, the Ancient Dragon, through this path. If Loren's party might have a chance, it was unlikely that Manga's party would be safe from a run-in with Emery.

Loren had considered collapsing the entrance to the path to seal it up, but that would look more unnatural and make it easier to find. Even if Manga managed to find the entrance, it would have been too late, and they would be able to reach Emery's place. He hoped that when she found out about current situation, she could lend her wisdom to them or help him with various ideas.

With that in mind, Loren left the entrance as it was and followed the other two while still carrying the baby dragon.