NBAA Vol. 4 Chapter 1 Part 4
“Wind Blast!!”
“Whaa!?”
“Grah!?”
“Haah!?”
“Wind Blast” was a skill Reito had previously learned from the commanding officer of the elf security envoy, Linda. He developed it by modeling her “Fa Jin” skill.
The enemies were blown away by the “Wind Blast.”
“Alright, that should be all of them,” the moment he muttered that, the man hit with the “Electric Shock” stumbled back up.
“Wh, what are you doing!? Who the hell do you think we are!?”
Reito was impressed before using the beginner grade magic “Fireball” on him. He was blown away in a gust of flames.
The man was blasted through the entrance to the outside.
“What!? What is all this!?”
“A man just came flying out here… He seems to be alive.”
Dain and Gonzo approached the man.
“What the hell monster was that!?”
“Oh, he’s conscious!? Go to sleep!!”
“Gah!?”
Dain smacked the man with a stick, knocking him out.
Meanwhile, a beast man came rushing down from the second floor of the hideout. He smelled of alcohol, and his body was worn away. He had chains wrapped around his right arms.
“Hey, what was that noise just now!? I told you before, if you’re going to fight, do it outside you dumb shits!!”
“So, you are Balgal.”
“Hah? Who are you…?”
Balgal tilted his head in confusion as he looked at Reito. He saw his underlings piled up on the floor in the hallway. Understanding the situation, he clicked his tongue and kicked the head of one of his underlings.
“Gufh!?”
“Tsk!! Was standing guard not enough for you!!” Reito shouted at the underling to throw Balgal off.
“Hey!! Cut that out, are you trying to kill me!!”
Balgal looked at the shouting Reito with caution.
“Shut up… I hate when people wake me up!!” Balgal kicked the underlings lying about the hallway as he approached Reito.
Reito put both his hands at the ready and was about to use magic before Balgal flicked his wrists and released the chains, trying to wrap them around Reito.
“Hey!!”
“Hungh!?”
Reito used “leap” to avoid the attack, but Balgal released more chains, scraping the walls and the floor as he launched more attacks.
“Stop moving!!”
“‘Wind Blade…’ Woah!?”
He tried to stop Balgal with magic, but found his feet bound up before he could do so.
Dain and Gonzo screamed.
Balgal began dragging Reito in by his legs.
“Hah!! Too easy…”
“You THOUGHT!!”
Reito had got himself bound up on purpose. He put his hands together and used “High-Speed Shape Change” to tighten the part of the chain wrapped around Balgal’s right arm.
“Ow!?”
Balgal did not expect his own chains to be used against him, and he shrieked in pain.
Reito took advantage of the gap to remove his chains, and he concentrated his power into his right arm. He released an electric tornado at him.
“Lightning Strike!!”
“Wheeeh!?” Balgal went crashing into the wall. He is a high-level fighter, so he wasn’t defeated, but he was knocked out.
“Ho ho!!”
“W, Wicked!?” Dain and Gonzo exclaimed.
Reito was able to defeat Balgal on his own. In part because Balgal was off guard and had been a bit inebriated, but also because Reito’s raw fighting abilities were greater than his. Even his manager in this world, Airis, didn’t expect him to have such great battle sense.
To make sure that Balgal and his underlings didn’t die, he used “Recovery Magic” on them. He called in his friends from outside and had them tied up and restrained.
Before long, the underlings, who had suffered relatively light damage, opened their eyes. They looked puzzled and afraid, and asked Reito, “Wh, what are you!?” “Do you know who we are!?”
“You have a bounty on your head, right? 120 gold coin Balgal and some underlings to go along with it” Reito said.
“Shit!!”
Dain went around checking the faces of each of the members before inquiring, “Hey Reito! The entire crew has a bounty on their heads. They should all be worth at least one gold coin!!”
If what Dain said was true and they were to turn them into the Guild, they would earn about 150 gold coins in total.
“Are you serious!! Easy money!!” Erina was excited.
“Reito gets 2 parts, I get 2 parts, and the rest of you get 1 part of the gold. A perfect distribution!”
Dain poked fun at the triumphant looking Kotomin, “What are you on about!! Also, why are you counting Suramin, Hitomin, and Ullr in the count!?”
Reito’s crew members were thrilled, but there were still two more empire leadership members in the city.
They were putting Balgal and crew on a carriage they had prepared beforehand while Reito had Airis tell him the whereabouts of the next target. As luck would have it, one of the targets, Magari, was a woman who was traveling on her own.
He finished communicating with Airis and got on Ullr’s back. He was feeling more confident now that he had defeated Balgal alone. He was hoping to do the same this time.
“I’m sorry but, could you take these guys back to the Adventurer’s Guild?”
“Huh? Why? What’s up?”
“Are you going somewhere, bro?”
Reito thought about it before deciding to make up an excuse.
“I forgot something at home, and I need to go get it. Do you mind going on without me?”
“That’s no problem, but…”
Dain was pretty suspicious but decided not to pursue it any further.
“Reito, I’m coming with you,” Kotomin said.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be back before you know it. Ah, but I would like to borrow Hitomin.
“Purupuru?”
Reito scooped up Hitomin from Kotomin’s head and put it on his shoulder. He figured Hitomin had exceptional perceptive powers and might come in handy.
“Ullr, run as quietly as you can. When I give the signal, stop.”
“Woof!!”
Ullr ran the cart as fast as he possibly could through the city.
Before he knew it, Reito had arrived at his destination. It was a large street with a decent crowd of people walking on it. It would be impossible to tell who Magari was in this group.
Reito got off Ullr and gave him an order, “Ullr, stay here.”
“Woof.”
Reito used his “Observing Eye” skill. It was a skill that heightened his observational abilities, but it was also capable of seeing through assassin’s skills like “Stealth” and “Seal Presence.” He spotted a person with a suspicious atmosphere about them.
She was an old lady wearing a black cloak. One of her legs was prosthetic, and she was walking slowly down the road. The people passing by her paid her no mind, as if she wasn’t there at all. If Reito wasn’t using his “Observing Eye,” she would have been able to pass through without being noticed.
He gave an order to Hitomin, who was riding on his shoulder.
“Hitomin, keep an eye on that old lady.”
“Purupuru.”
“Good girl!”
With Hitomin’s perceptive abilities, tracking the old lady would be easy.
Reito released his “Observing Eye” and would occasionally ask Hitomin the old lady’s location as they tailed her.
While they were following her, the voices of a mother and child talking could be heard.
“Mommy!! That man has a red slime on his shoulder!”
“Oh my! I wonder if it’s a pet! They get along so well.”
“Mommy!! I also want a slime!”
“Hmph… Fine, we’ll stop by the magic wares shop later. I don’t know if they have any slimes though.”
“Okay!!”
Red slimes are relatively rare, so it drew a lot of attention from the people passing by.
The old lady looked back and saw Reito before she immediately dashed into an alleyway.
“Don’t let her go, Hitomin!”
“Pururu.”
Reito grasped the Reflection Sword and maintained a stance that would be easy to draw his sword from as he chased the old lady down the alley.
A second later, he found the lady with her wand at the ready.
“Shadow Flame!!”
“!!”
A black flame came bursting out of the magic stone at the tip of the old lady’s wand. However, given that he couldn’t feel it approaching him, he ascertained that it was not a flame but a type of shadow like that which Dain used.
There’s no doubt this lady was Magari, Reito thought as he pulled his reflection sword out and cut into the flames.
“Helmet Smasher!!”
“Hah!?”
The Reflection Sword has magic deflecting properties. The flame that touched the blade would be divided cleanly in half, deflecting to the left and right.
Magari was shaken by the unexpected event.
Reito took advantage of the gap and used “Leap” to draw toward her.
“Aaahh!!”
“Chi??”
Magari guarded herself against Reito’s slash, but she wasn’t able to fully stop the attack and was blown back. If it were an ordinary wooden wand, she wouldn’t have been able to take the blow of the sword, but she was equipped with an extraordinarily strong wand made out of Yggdrasil. She was able to avoid her complete destruction.
“You little!!” Magari got back on her feet and was about to cast a spell when Reito came in with a follow-up attack.
“Wind Blast!!”
“Weh!!” Magari was sent flying back by the gust of wind.
Magari was in agony and was in a bad mood.
“Sh, Shit!!”
“You’re still conscious. You’re a magician, so I guess you’re more resistant to magic attacks.”
“Wha!?”
Reito zoomed toward Magari and jabbed her with the hilt of the sword.
She was knocked out, and Reito carried her on his shoulder.
“Two down in one day… Things are proceeding smoothly.”
Airis chimed in, 『Don’t let your guard down. There’s still one more heavyweight in the game. His name is Pherkad and right now he’s in a hiding spot.』
After hearing the location of the hiding spot from Airis, he whistled loudly.
Ullr, who had been waiting in a place a little removed from him, came running over.
Reito put Magari on Ullr’s back, and scribbled something on a piece of paper in his breast pocket before sandwiching it in Ullr’s collar. The note said that this old lady was Magari and she has a bounty on her head. Once she’s turned over to the Guild, he’d like a ‘certain something’ done to her.
“Hand this letter over to the people at the guild and have them read it. I’m going to go home for a minute, but I’m just going to get ready and then I’ll be right back.”
“Woof!!” Ullr barked happily. He ran off at breakneck speed toward the Adventurer Guild.
Reito used “Leap” and jumped onto the roof of the building before heading toward his own home.
『Why are you going back home? Did you forget something?』
『I thought of an interesting battle tactic just now. I’ve gotta go get a certain weapon to use it though.』
『Interesting?』Airis sounded puzzled.
Reito explained as he leaped toward his home. When he got home, he collected the weapon he was aiming for.
It was the weapon he used at the Hunting Festival to capture the monsters. He hadn’t had a chance to use it since then. There was no doubt that it would be a perfect match for his current abilities.
~