Chapter 32: Erna’s fist

When we arrived at the guild, I found some familiar faces.

“Dhal”

When I called out, the three people looking at the bulletin board turned around.

“Oh! If it isn’t Shinichi! Pero is also full of spirit!”

Dhal walks up to us and he strokes Pero’s head and then we exchanged handshake. Upon seeing it, Erna began to complain.

“Wait a minute, you’ve forgotten about me! Erna, the Great Mage!”

“Haaa? Great mage? The flawed mage who had been carrying luggage cannot be a great mage you know.”

“You got some nerve! I’ll turn you to ash right here!”

Sparks fly between Erna and Dhal. As always, I don’t know if they’re on good terms or not. Looking at such a situation, Roy and Mina approached us.

“Hello Shinichi-san. Looking for some request today?”

“Yeah, I thought I would carry out the last request here because we’re going back to Mana City tomorrow. Is the Earth Fang still working?”

I don’t think there’s much point in continuing a dangerous job as they already got such treasure. Roy replied with a bitter smile (don’t know if he’s aware of it).

“We are adventurers, after all. Even if we had money, we didn’t know how to use it so we ended up in the guild as usual.”

“I see… that might be better. You should think on how to use it from now on though.”

“Yes, we’re going to do that.”

It will take a while for Dhal and Erna who are arguing to separate from each other, so for the time being, the three of us decided to move away and look for a request.

Erna, who is still angry suddenly complains next to me.

“That dwarf… I’ll let him taste my magic right now…”

“Oi, don’t say such threatening thing. It will really be scary if you execute that.”

“Waauuu…”

Pero is also a little frightened by Erna’s appearance. Well, I think they are just like lion’s playing with each other, but I need to keep an eye on her so as to avoid overdoing it. I don’t want her to destroy the guild.

When I was looking for a request, I found something interesting. The request says, “I want you to change the March bull’s movement”. I was interested in something like the March bull. Then ask Erna a question.

“What kind of monster is a March bull?”

“In a nutshell, it’s a cow-like magical beast. Speaking of its characteristics, I can only think of its collective actions, but anyway, the movement of their group is really troublesome. Whether it’s a house or a field, they will be destroyed once they go through.”

“You mean even if there are obstacles, they will just charge right through it?”

“That’s right. According to the rumors, there’s nothing left after those march bulls pass through.”

When a large herd of cows comes to a village or town, the livelihood of the people who live there are ruined. It’s too unreasonable. So I decided to accept this request. There may be something that I can do with my current level.

“Those Homeless came here!? Where are they!?”

I heard a voice. It’s a familiar one. Me and the others leave the bulletin board and move towards the source of the voice.

“Bu-Bulletin board, I think they went there…”

“That better be the truth! If it’s a lie, you’ll not be left unscathed!”

In front of the guild’s counter, Arvish is grabbing a man’s chest while shouting. The people around who saw the situation showed their disgust but they avoided him so as not to get involved.Translated by Yume Neiji (yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com)

“Oi, leave it to that extent. That person is already troubled you see.”

Arvish turned around in a surprised manner, when he saw me, his handsome face grimaced. It’s as if he found his parent’s enemy.

“You are still alive…”

As soon as he released the man, he pulled out his sword. From the first time I met him, he doesn’t seem to have grown even a millimetre.

“Hey, this is the guild, right? The mage over there, why don’t you warn this guy?”

The man speaks to the mage named Feria, but she keeps her eyes on Erna and does not reply. Erna, on the other hand, stared back at her while holding her cane. There’s a tense atmosphere inside the guild. With the sudden tense situation, the adventurers stopped in their tracks. It looks like the guild staffs are just keeping an eye on the situation but they don’t have a plan to make a move.

“Return the Gloris’ seal right away! I know you stole it!”

“Seal? Well, I do not have any idea on what it is though?”

“Don’t pretend! You have entered my mansion, stole the seal, and sent me a lot of merchandise! Thanks to that, I’m about to be disowned by my father!”

“I see… that must be tough. Then, I’ll look for it together with you.”

I beamed at him, maybe because Arvish’s anger had reached its peak, he slashed at me. His sword speed is the same as before but I wonder if it’s because I’m training properly as it appears to be slow. It’s so easy to evade even without using my skills.

“Why don’t you beg for your life and act like a real homeless!? You commoner!”

“Just when and where did Homeless gets outdone and run away?”

“Don’t say that! I’ll kill you immediately!”

I keep on avoiding his one-sided attacks. At this point, skilled people should have noticed the difference in our ability. Given that, it can be said that Arvish is still green. Being called a prodigy, and because he grew up while being pampered, he is adept at looking down instead of looking up to someone.

Really stupid.

At Erna’s side, they keep on glaring at each other and didn’t move.

“You lived, Erna.”

“Isn’t that obvious!? I’m not going to die in such a cowardly attack you see.”

“As always, there is a flower garden in your head.”

Feria starts running and thrusts her cane towards Erna. Erna also countered it with her cane, and a heavy sound was heard inside the guild. It’s a fierce close fight using cane against cane.

“I got stronger! The current me won’t lose to you!”

“Like the dolt and slowpoke Erna can do such thing? Hah! Against me, who graduated at the top seat at the Mage Academy.”

“I’m neither a slowpoke nor a dolt! For the written test, I was also at the top in the whole school year!”

“Yes, you were a mage who could only use beginner magic.”

The two separated, and their cane once again struck at close range.

Erna parries Feria’s dexterous cane handling with her trained physical ability. Perhaps her indomitable spirit was active, Erna’s heart is so firm that she was not swayed by Feria’s words.This is translated by Yume Neiji (yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com)

“What are you looking away for? Fight me!”

I was still avoiding Arvish’s attacks. To put it bluntly, I judged that his swordsmanship (special grade) is not that effective. Skills guarantee a certain level of ability, but training is required to master them. Experience does not supplement skills. Realizing that, I have been training without fail every day.

“Try to hit me with your attacks first.”

“Now you said it! Then I won’t hold back anymore!”

It’s possible that he used body strengthening skill as his movements became sharp. I used my super-sensation and continue to avoid it.

It’s time to settle this.

“Die!!!”

The moment he tried to slash down his sword, I activated the bracelet. Craaaack!, we heard the sound of something breaking. It was the sound of something hard being trampled under his feet.

“W-What?”

Arvish stops moving and looks under his feet. The Gloris’ family’s seal was there – shattered.

“Uwaaaaaaaaaa!!!”

Scream echoed out in the guild. Everyone appeared to be confused as they don’t know what had happened. Well that was as expected, as long as the area is within my bracelet’s 10m radius, I can put objects by specifying the location. With my bracelet, it’s so easy to put the seal under his feet.

“Aaaahhh… t-this is a lie…”

With quivering hands, Arvish picked up the shattered seal. I feel a little pity, but his crime of attempted murder is not light. He was so shocked that he couldn’t move while sitting on the floor.This is translated by Yume Neiji (yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com)

“Arvish-sama!?”

Feria runs up to him and Arvish wept as he mumbles. After seeing such a situation, Feria looks at me this time.

“To steal the seal from the mansion and then have Arvish-sama step on it!”

“Where is the proof for that? It just happened to fall under his feet you know?”

“Nonsense!”

Feria holds her cane and she emits a transparent aura from her entire body. Then that aura converged on the cane.

“Air cutter!”

The wind rolled up and causes blades of air to be ejected from the tip of the cane.

“Flame wall!”

However, with Erna’s prompt magic, the attack was prevented.

“It’s insane for you to use air cutter inside the guild!”

“What’s wrong with that? I and Arvish-sama are the only precious people in this world. It’s not worth worrying about how commoners die.”

“That’s not true! Take that back!”

The battle between Erna and Feria resumed. It’s an offensive and defensive battle in which the canes hit each other many times and are pushed and pulled. They are striking each other with their canes with a killing intent. Their actions look like that.

“Not bad for a failure!”

“I’m not a failure anymore! I’m now a senior mage!”

Erna’s cane is thrown away by the blow as Feria found an opening. Everyone thought that the match was decided there.

―But Erna’s movement doesn’t end there. She lunge kicks and punches one after another and her movement accelerates each time.

“Kuu… to use bare hands…”

She’s desperately using the cane to prevent the repeated strikes but Erna’s fast and heavy attack surely corners Feria.

“Take my angeeer!!”

Erna crouches down and she made a leap to release an uppercut. Her fist broke the cane that was used for defence and it directly hits Feria’s jaw. It was such a spectacular blow. Feria falls to the floor showing the white of her eyes.

One by one, the people inside the guild began to applaud Erna’s blow. I approached Erna, put my hand on her shoulder and praised her.

“You’re a magic fighter from today on.”

“You should praise me properly! Magic fighter? What is that?”

Oops, I spoke of the real motive… Well, it’s true that Erna is good as a fighter.

―However, there was a situation that broke such victorious mood.

“It’s bad! Quick! Everyone run away quickly!”

A man rushed inside the guild. Blood bleeds from his head and the left arm is also injured. The guild staff runs up quickly, he asks the man about the situation.

“What do you mean by that!?”

“A horde of March bulls is approaching the royal capital! My party tried to change the direction of their movements but we were unsuccessful! They will surge into the royal capital within an hour!”

Then a lot of fuss echoed inside the guild. There are those who decide to fight and those who want to escape. It’s a storm of such adventurers asking questions to the guild staff.

“Please calm down! We will issue an urgent request, so please wait a moment!”

The corresponding guild staff left the guild after saying that. We then approach the man who reported this news.

“Hey, are you okay?”

“Y-Yeah… Instead of worrying about me, just run away quickly! They are not ordinary march bulls.”

“Not normal? Tell me more about it.”

I gave him a cure mushroom and as his thanks, I asked him for more information.

“Thank you so much. Well, when I said that they’re not normal, I saw a huge one amongst those march bulls.”

“It’s that remarkably huge? But, is it still a march bull?”

“No, it’s a different one. The march bulls has brown hair, but that one was black in color. In addition, it’s about twice as big as a normal one. It might be a variant you see.”

It’s also a variant huh…

Base from my experience, it’s evident that it is much stronger than usual ones. However, the degree of its power is unknown. It is not strange for a strong individual to appear as a different species.Translated by Yume Neiji (yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com)

“Hey, what are you guys going to do?”

I looked back as I heard a voice behind me, the Earth Fang guys were talking to Erna.

“Hmm, Shinichi wants to fight…”

“Is that so? Then we’ll also help. With Homeless’ cooperation, there’s a better chance of success you see.”

Apparently, the Earth Fang will cooperate with us. If so, there is no choice but to manage this situation with six people.

“Dhal, we’re going out of the royal capital right away! There’s more to do before those March Bulls arrives here you see.”

“Okay, tell me anything! I’ll definitely protect this city!”

Upon leaving the guild, we arrived north of the royal capital. According to the man who witnessed them, March bulls will come from the north. Fortunately, the north side of the royal capital is a grassland. The view is good and there are no obstacles. It was the perfect environment for the measures I thought of.

“Can anyone here use earth magic?”

“I can use it.”

Roy stepped forward. I have never seen his status, but I am grateful that he can use the earth attribute. As expected of a person who introduces himself as an Earth Fang member.

“Then, can you make a big rock over here?”

“Rock? I can do it with metal too you know?”

“That would be better! Please make one with metal then!”

Roy holds his cane and aims at the place I specified. His magic gush out and waves ran across the ground.

“Metal wall!”

A steel-colored metal wall grows where I wanted to. The height is about 10m and the width is about 5m. A thick wall with a thickness of 30 cm appeared.

I ask a question to Erna beside me,

“What is a metal wall?”

“It’s a high level earth magic. It’s for physical defence, it’s an outstanding magic.”

If that’s the case, it will be convenient for the current situation. Roy creates a second metal wall, I then coiled up some thread from wall to wall.

“What is that? A thread wall?”

“This is the final line of defence. We will fight further front of that.”

I made the final trap where the March bulls would pass and waited for the enemy to come. Then eventually, other adventurers also gather around and similarly begin waiting for the march bulls.Translated by Yume Neiji (yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com)

And then, the time has come.

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