This Hero is Sleeping!

"In the name of Goddess Fortuna, you must die here."

Claude couldn't believe his ears, so he strengthened his hearing using mana. It was a trick that he had picked up from the Lord of the Shadows himself. Now that he could hear it better.

He still couldn't believe his ears.

[Hey ratwag! What are you doing?! The elf girl seems to be in danger.]

"Since when do you care?"

Wondering what a Ratwag was, Claude tried to climb back out of the hole in the ground but it was futile.

But before he could place his palm on the edges of the hole, his ears perked up once more.

Outside, whoever was threatening Tiana had stopped in their tracks and behind them more people had turned up.

"Lord Leres…?"

"Elves?"

"Puuun! Puuuuuun!"

Elves? Leres? Leres, Claude recognized the name, he definitely had tied that bastard when he had been followed from Soleda.

The young boy jumped on the opportunity and climbed out. He didn't know how many people he would have to take on to save Tiana, but he was ready.

"It is you," a thorny yet regal voice called out. "The enemy of our kind! How dare you show your face here again and point your sword at an elf? What is this place?"

As Claude finally reached the edge of the hole, he could see the events going down. On one side, a man with twin swords had his back turned toward him and Tiana, with him were two strange men in long coats and hats along with a third bagpipe player.

And standing with their weapons against that group was a unit of elves, and behind them was the man named Leres who even had a statue of himself being build all the way in Soleda.

These many people…

"Can I take them on…?" He whispered. His being hidden was his biggest trump card for now.

[Don't think about it.]

"I've faced these numbers before."

The Lord of the Shadows did not reply. Instead, the twin swords man who had a strangely familiar figure clasped his head.

"Look, believe it or not, I am trying to help you guys here."

"Help?" The elf answered. "You think burning our village and wrecking havoc all over is called helping?"

Gasps resounded as the three people on the twinsword's team reeled back.

"No way, Hyden you!"

"So you were using us?"

"Puuuun Puuun!"

What the heck was the bagpipe guy doing?

The people with the twinsword seemed ready to abandon him.

"This guy was using us to harm another elf and changed tunes when you came along."

"The person all you elves serve, that man behind you, Lord Leres, we are his faithful followers too."

The elf frowned.

"Serve?"

"Puuuun!"

"I will believe you, come over here and we won't kill you."

Marcus, Tomas and Bagpipe gazed at the twinsword man, Hyden, uncertainty clouding their eyes. Hyden sighed and urged them to move.

"You guys get lost or I'll kill you myself."

"Eek!"

"I always knew he was a bad guy."

"PPuuuuun!"

Sometimes things annoyed one so much that people were ready to take on personal loss. It was the same prinicipal that the three idiots had the power to invoke.

Hyden lowered his gaze at the elfs once more.

"Look, you guys were looking for a lost girl too, weren't you?"

"And we have found her being threatened by you. Don't forget that you have killed even more of our men, this is revenge that was waiting to be have your taste."

"Fools. Even when I say I do this to help you. For the greater good, I have no choice but to take you on."

Hyden swung his sword and the elves got into formation in the blink of an eye.

The single swing of the twin sword cut through the air in a large crescent that was pushed back the elves with their shields. From within the cover of the giant wooden shields, three people jumped out at once.

On elf with a sword rushed straight at Hyden while two spear wielders flanked around him.

Hyden intercepted the sword with a swing of his own. He pivoted to his left and kicked the spearwielder at once. With his other sword, the third man was also locked down.

It was then.

"[Fire Shot]"

An arrow shot into the air and twisted its trajectory to aim straight for Hyden. The man chuckled.

"Not bad."

He flexed his muscles and swung his hands once more. A twister of wind shot around as the people surrounding him were all pushed away at once. The sharp miniature tornade was so powerful that it sent evertyhing around flying, including the debris of the hut and the arrow that made its way toward him.

It was an attack that could leave Claude fairly injured, but it did not hurt the elves at all. They stood without a scratch, grins on their faces.

Claude gulped.

He was sure he wouldn't lose to the elves, not that easy. But the other party was a bigger problem.

The twinswords man who he still couldn't recognize was someone that he didn't think himself ready to face. It was natural that he couldn't recognize him with the sharp change in Hyden's image from a gentle man who could be thrashed by kobolds to a person that could swing a sword and talk about killing without batting an eye.

The sight he had seen below the hole did not help at all.

Who to trust, who not, he couldn't tell.

What he could tell was simple.

He had to meet Elric and Erika and leave this place with Tiana as soon as he could. Involving himself in this fight was only going to hurt him.

"I'll attack this time," Hyden muttered.

"Try your worst," the elf leader replied.

In a flash, Hyden had charged ahead at the elf unit.

Taking the chance, Claude jumped out of the hole and wrapped his hand around Tiana. The people fighting turned behind in surprise.

"Claude!" Tiana yelped.

"We're running!"

Mist emerged from the amulet on his neck. Before anyone could see his figure, the dark, dense mist that resembled a veil had covered everything around them.

If that wasn't enough, the spirits that had helped them down also added their own fog to keep any pursuers away.

And soon, Claude jumped into the forest once more.