Slayers - Volume 16 - Chapter 3

3: Unleashed, the Hunting Dogs Bare Their Fangs

Smoke hung thick in the air.

That was the first thing we saw when we burst out of the room, ran down the hallway to the closest terrace, and looked out over the city of Atessa. Of course, plumes of smoke weren’t exactly an unfamiliar sight in a town of blacksmiths. But two particular plumes were remarkably duskier than the others.

And then... Fwoom! There was a third explosion, and a new plume appeared.

“It’s Tessius!” Zel shouted.

“I’ll bet!” Amelia said, glaring toward the smoke.

Hang on a minute here! Zel had pointed out the possibility that Tessius’s Forest Hounds could attack any minute now, but even so, this seemed a little too sudden. Just how short-tempered are these guys?!

One way or another, though, the city was under attack! Meaning we had to defend it!

“Amelia, you and the soldiers handle evacuations! Be careful! Some of the Hounds might have infiltrated the city in the chaos!”

Amelia looked briefly upset by my order, yet she responded firmly, “Very well!”

I knew she would have preferred to take part in the evil-vanquishing directly. But I also knew that if a princess insisted on going to the front lines, the soldiers and local security would insist on going with her instead of getting the civilians to safety. Amelia knew that too, which was why she hadn’t rushed out first thing.

You’ve grown, Amelia. In the old days, she’d have climbed up on the roof of the guesthouse the instant I took my eyes off her to make a dramatic declaration to our opponent.

“Soldiers of Zephilia and Saillune!” she called now, turning to the crowd of armed men. “Though our nations and ranks may differ, we have a mutual desire to protect the people and keep the peace! With servants of evil upon us, it is our duty to repel them and safeguard this city! Will you lend me your aid?!”

“Aye!” the soldiers cried out as one.

Meanwhile... “Zel! Grab Gourry and follow me! I’m gonna go on ahead!” I said, even as I began reciting an incantation. “Lei Wing!”

The spell lifted me off the terrace. I’d have preferred Gourry and Zel at my side, but my only two options for flight magic were a slow, floaty one and the high-speed one I’d just invoked. The high-speed version was handy when you were in a hurry, but the wind barrier it created made it hard to control. Its max carrying capacity, speed, and altitude were all dependent on the caster’s ability too. It would’ve been a piece of cake with my old magic-enhancing talismans, but trying to carry Gourry without them would limit us to skimming along the ground at a not-so-speedy pace. We probably wouldn’t have even been able to clear the city walls.

Now, Levitation—the floaty flight spell—would let me carry someone with ease, but it had the drawback of being far slower. Hovering around at those speeds was like asking someone to hurl projectiles at you. That was why I’d decided to lead the charge, draw the enemy’s attention, and buy time for Zel to bring Gourry along!

I flew over houses, stores, and workshops before crossing the wall that encircled Atessa. Given the location of the explosions in town, it was easy to guess where the Hounds were. I flew some distance from that area, dismissed my flight spell, and landed in the middle of the forest. Then I began my chant!

Thou who art darker than twilight

Thou who art redder than lifeblood

I swear in thy exalted name

Obscured, deep in the flow of time

And make this pledge to darkness here:

So all those in equal measure—

Fools that they are to block our path—

Shall face destruction unconstrained

Grant me power, and unleash thine!

“Dragon Slave!”

The crimson light I produced concentrated itself in a point in the distance and then—Fa-bwoom!—burst outward as sheer destructive power!

My target was the heart of the forest. The timber at ground zero was completely atomized by the blast, while trees around it were bent, broken, or ripped from their roots and sent flying!

Dragon Slave was a spell that, as its dragon-slaying name suggested, packed enough punch to obliterate a small castle. It created a depression—well, more like a crater—the size of a city block, surrounded by destruction. Indifferent to the savagery I’d wrought, I immediately chanted a new spell.

“Fireball!”

The light I unleashed this time smashed into the mowed-down trees and—Bwoosh!—exploded, scattering crimson flames everywhere. I followed up with a second round, then a third! It was hard for fire to spread among healthy trees, but if you turned up the heat enough from all sides, you could make it happen. Pitchy smoke rose up as the surrounding trees began to burn.

I don’t think they can ignore this, but... I scanned the surrounding forest with my eyes. Something’s...

I thought I saw it. A strange chill ran up my spine. Heeding my anxious gut feeling, I whipped around immediately. Just then—Krrrshoom!—a flash of white cut through where I’d just been standing! I looked over to see who’d come to greet me, but all I saw was white mist rolling toward me. I couldn’t make out its conjurer.

The mist just kept expanding, billowing out my way. It soon reached the trees being licked by rising tongues of flame and doused them, immediately reducing the force of the blaze. Aha... As Alaina had said, it was a great spell for putting out wildfires. I would have loved to study it, but unfortunately, I didn’t have time to sit around and marvel at spellcraft.

“What do you think you’re doing?” asked someone hatefully from beyond the mist that now encompassed the area—Tessius.

“Oh, come on,” I replied with an intentionally mocking tone. “It’s okay for you to shoot attack spells at a human city, but unforgivable for humans to torch the woods? Don’t be stupid. Next time you attack the city, I’ll set even more of the forest ablaze.”

If the Hounds’ goal was to take the forest back for the elves, I’d figured that setting a nice swath of the place on fire would get their attention PDQ. And it seemed I was right on the money.

“You will pay for this,” Tessius hissed. “This was our forest to begin with.”

“I dunno about your personal take on the matter, but I hear humans and elves hashed this all out a long time ago.”

I could hear Tessius’s voice get closer. A figure gradually began to take shape in the fog.

A new shiver raced up my back.

The gray figure that appeared through the mist was larger than Tessius—larger than any ordinary human or elf, in fact. It was the size of a lesser demon. Maybe even bigger.

“A small group of elves made that accord. We’re under no obligation to respect it.”

A giant all in gray, its color too cloudy to be called white... As it drew near and I could make out more detail, I realized that its features were somewhat familiar.

This is... gonna be tricky.

I suppressed my inner nervousness as I made the decision to keep provoking him to buy time. “And why should everyone else—elves and humans alike—just listen to whatever you say instead?”

“You stupid humans don’t understand the facts. All you do is bray.” The gray giant’s footsteps came to a halt.

I wouldn’t have known it was Tessius if not for his voice. Pale gray armor covered his entire body. Two protrusions stuck out from the helmet, resembling antlers or animal ears. Where eyeholes should have been were two sleek crystal stones resembling onyx, and several tentacle-like protrusions sprouted all over the plating here and there.

“I just took what you said and switched the parties around. I’m trying to prove that your logic is inherently faulty.”

“Heh. You’ve got guts to keep rambling after seeing me like this,” Tessius proclaimed confidently.

I waved my hands. “Little old me? Naaah. I’m scared out of my wits here. Knees knocking, the whole deal,” I said as flippantly as I could.

“You underestimate me. You might think this is just heavy armor, but—”

“Nope, I know it’s not.” Then I said it. “That’s the Zenafa Armor. Or... the Zanaffar?”

My offhand declaration stunned Tessius into silence. Understandably, of course. Who in the world, knowing full well what it was, would speak its name so brazenly?

There was an oft-told legend about the magical beast Zanaffar that destroyed the city of Sairaag 120 years ago. The beast’s true form was a living weapon-slash-armor created from knowledge obtained from the mythical magical tome, the Claire Bible.

In the more recent past, a human had created an incomplete replica of the living, magic-resistant Zanaffar. It was worn like armor, but it had a mind of its own. It quickly went out of control and destroyed a city. Gourry and I had had the pleasure of putting that down a few years ago.

But even more recently than that, elves and dragons had used the same basic knowledge to develop the Zenafa Armor as a counter-demon measure. I’d slain an especially high-ranked demon with the help of an elf wearing it.

In terms of appearance, the armor Tessius was wearing looked less like the berserk bestial Zanaffar and more like the magical Zenafa Armor that transformed into a white giant. But a key thing both versions had in common? Attack spells didn’t work on them.

So, yeah. This was a very bad matchup for a sorcerer like me. After all, even the Dragon Slave I’d unleashed minutes earlier hadn’t made a dent on the thing. We were down the Sword of Light, which had slain the Zanaffar of legend, and I didn’t even have access to the spell I’d used to defeat its rampaging cousin from a few years back.

It was all the more reason to keep bluffing. Showing confidence despite knowing how powerful Tessius was might make him think I had an actual countermeasure in mind. And, as expected...

“How do you know about the Zanaffar?! And... what’s a Zenafa Armor?” Tessius asked cautiously.

Aha... So he had to be wearing something based on the incomplete version.

“Good question! Oh, just to warn you, if that’s the Zanaffar I know, it’s gonna be eating you pretty soon.” I decided to hit him with a dose of the facts. The Zanaffar we’d fought before consumed its host to facilitate its growth into a ruthless, intelligent beast. But...

“Ahh,” Tessius said casually. “When it gains its own will and starts to corrupt the wearer, you mean? We have a talented scholar among us who detected that issue and resolved it in the production stage. Of course, I’m sure mere human techniques can’t compare to our elven magic.”

That explained a lot. If they’d realized the problem before making their version and their point of reference was a technique used by humans, they’d most likely gotten their hands on the janky version that bizarro cult had made for human use. I’d wondered if the Forest Hounds had learned from their Zanaffar, but they’d actually analyzed it, improved on it, and created this upgraded model. That would certainly explain the sudden burst of activity from the all-but-dead extremist group.

I doubted Zel knew about this. If he had, he would have realized immediately that he was barking up the wrong tree. He also would’ve let us know.

Still, fighting this guy is gonna be kind of annoying...

But I kept those thoughts to myself for now. “Ah, so you worked out all the kinks, huh?” I replied with continuing confidence as I racked my brain for potential solutions. Just then...

“What are you doing, Tessius?” asked a new voice from behind the elf.

Erk! As it spoke, something surfaced in the mist—a second gray giant. You kiddin’ me here? I desperately tried to keep my face neutral.

This giant seemed a little smoother than the horned Zanaffar that Tessius was wearing. There were no noticeable protrusions on its head, and it had only a single large onyx-like eye. Its silhouette was rotund, as if wearing a full-body mantle or robe of some kind. Basically, it was a different type of Zanaffar.

Okay, hang on a minute! They didn’t just improve it—they iterated on it?! Guess Tessius wasn’t kidding when he said they had a talented scholar among them!

“Sagan! This human knows about the Zanaffar!”

The new arrival didn’t seem fazed. “Is that a problem?”

Hearing him talk again, I was able to place his voice. It was the archer who’d attacked me on our way back from town after meeting up with Amelia and Zel.

The archer—rather, the cyclopic Zanaffar wearer named Sagan—raised a hand toward me. “We’d have to kill her sooner or later regardle—”

Vwoosh! Just then, a powerful wind blew and took Sagan’s next words with it. The mist danced in swirls, whipping around my hair and cape. I came close to losing my balance and took five or six steps into the wind to steady myself.

When it all died down... Gourry, Zel, and Alaina were by my side!

They made it already?! That sure was fast... Aha, of course! It would’ve taken a while to get here with magic cast by a human. But cast by an elf? No wonder they were here in no time! Thanks, Alaina!

I had to admit I was grateful. Buying time with Tessius was easy enough, but Sagan didn’t seem so easily goaded. Still, our numbers didn’t change the fact that we were at a disadvantage.

“What are those?” Zelgadis whispered, glaring at the two giants. Meanwhile...

“Zelgadis... and an elf?!” Our opponents seemed as surprised as we were. Sagan let out a cry of shock and lowered his right hand when he spotted Alaina.

“Why is there an elf on their side?!” Tessius’s voice was shaking as well.

But then...

“Why do you think?” Alaina proclaimed unexpectedly. She was shouting in her own voice, without the amplification of the Regulus Discs. Her words echoed through the woods as she glared at the two giants. “Why don’t you ask yourselves why I might be here?! Why don’t you self-centered, self-declared ‘defenders of the forest’ go back to hiding in the leaves like the social outcasts you are? You dog-foolish hooligans decided to get all riled up and attack humans with your new little toy armors while the rest of the decent elves have to pay the price, which is why I have no choice but to debase myself trying to stop you before you escalate things any further! And after giving me the runaround while I was trying to deal with this quietly, you go and attack the city! It’s shocking to me that you find this so shocking! If you don’t like being rebuked by a fellow elf, drop those silly toys right now and go back under whatever rock you crawled out from in the first place to suck water out from moss!”

A pointed silence fell. Nothing moved but the billowing mist for a time.

Whoa... So Alaina can talk confidently to other elves! And kind of rudely, at that!

Tessius and Sagan, bowled over by her forcefulness, just stood there silently until...

“Tessius.”

“Yeah?”

“Let’s kill her.”

“Agreed.”

At this, both giants raised their hands and fired beams of light that tore through the mist! It was the Zanaffars’ special laser breath!

“Whaaat?!”

Gourry, Zel, Alaina, and I all cried out at once and dashed to the side, heading for the densest grouping of tree cover possible.

I pulled up alongside the blonde elf and called out to her. “Hey! Alaina!”

She activated the Regulus Discs on her collar to reply, “It doesn’t seem like I can convince them!”

“You were trying to convince them?! It sounded like you were trying to provoke them to me!”

“That’s what you were doing before we arrived, isn’t it? I heard you!”

“I was trying to buy time! Also, that was mighty big talk from someone so shy!”

“Once I know they’re enemies, I don’t care what they think of me anymore!”

I knew social anxiety generally stemmed from fear of the judgment of others—but I’d had no idea hers was so selective!

Another beam of light, then another and another, tore through the fog behind us as we ran.

“What are those, Lina?!” Zelgadis asked, keeping up the pace.

I replied, likewise booking it, “Magical Beast Zanaffar! A powered-up version!”

“What?!” he cried back in shock.

Gourry, running just as fast, threw in, “You know about it, Zel?!”

“Of course I do! Same as you! It was that white beast we fought with all the tentacles and laser breath and everything!”

“The white... Oh, hey, I remember that!” Gourry recalled with a careless nod.

Zel had been with us when we fought Zanaffar, which had taken the form of a giant white quadruped. It would’ve been hard to say at a glance that these two giants were related to it in any way. I only recognized them because I’d seen the perfected Zanaffar, the Zenafa Armor, and the resemblance there was much stronger.

“Zanaffar?!” Alaina cried, overhearing our conversation. “From that human legend?!”

“Yep! Most attack spells do zilch against it!” I warned her.

“Why didn’t you tell me that before I provoked them?!”

“So you were trying to provoke them!” I turned to Zel, who was running beside me. “That’s probably why they started acting up out of the blue! Did they ever drop a hint about it when you were around?”

“No! They must have been keeping it from me!” he replied.

Aha... Just as I thought.

“Doesn’t armor of Zanaffar consume its wearer’s will?!” he then asked.

“I told you this was a powered-up version!” I reminded him.

We were running the whole time we were talking, naturally. The laser breath had stopped coming—perhaps because we were amidst tree cover now—but we had every reason to think the two giants were still pursuing us. We couldn’t afford to stop.

It was a full-on yellow-bellied retreat, but I wasn’t about to complain! It would’ve been bad news if Zel or Alaina had tried to tangle with these opponents without knowing about their magic immunity. I’d needed time to fill them in.

“The fact that the elves were able to improve on the Zanaffar probably means they can make it do whatever they want it to! Even though we can’t use spells on them, I’m sure they can on us!”

“That’s even worse!”

“I agree!”

The hide of the Zanaffar we’d fought previously kept its body cut off from the astral side, meaning most black magic had no effect on the beast. The trade-off was that it couldn’t use magic either. I knew that wasn’t the case for the elves, however, for a visible reason—the white mist. One of them had to have cast the spell to put out the fire I’d set to lure them. So it stood to reason that their improved Zanaffars, much like the Zenafa Armor, allowed them to regulate connection to the astral side at will.

“What do we do?!” Gourry asked.

I was glad we were drawing the Hounds’ attention away from the city, but we couldn’t keep this game of tag up forever. We needed to find some place to strike back and take them down, one at a time if necessary.

“We’ll draw them into the forest and—”

Before I could finish my sentence, there was a rustling. The forest came alive around us. From the underbrush, from behind the trunks... figures emerged to surround us.

Plant golems? A little fire magic would make a clean sweep of those! “Alaina! Can you dispel the mist?!”

“Temporarily, yes. But there’s a good chance they’ll cast it again immediately.”

“Good enough for me! On my signal!” Before I could see whether she nodded or not, I began my incantation. The plant golems continued to bear down on us all the while. I finished my spell, gave Alaina the signal, and then...

“Disenchant!” she whispered.

The mist around us disappeared like a wave receding from the shore. With my vision cleared, I could see the plant golems closing in on us in great detail. And in addition...

There was something crouching in the tree branches. Four long, thin legs grew from a rotund torso that resembled a large cocoon. Threads—no, tentacles—sprouted from its body here and there, clinging to branches and tree trunks around it, holding the giant in the air. It almost resembled a giant arachnid. Part of the “cocoon” portion was open, almost like its chelicerae, revealing a human face. It looked like a human had been devoured by a massive spider, but it was really...

A third Zanaffar?!

The face belonged to the armor’s wearer. He had the trademark attractive elven features, although he looked closer to thirty or forty—in human terms, of course. In actuality, he could have easily been over a hundred years old.

He’d exposed his face to cast a spell for sure. These guys couldn’t use magic while completely encased in their Zanaffars, so he’d cracked it open to summon the plant golems. I suspected he’d probably been the one to call them up in the fight where we’d reunited with Amelia and Zel too.

Just as the fog lifted and I could see around me, his mouth moved. “Olglous.”

That spell again?!

Instantly, vines sprouted from the plant golems, lashing toward us! Left with no other recourse...

“Flare Arrow!” I released the spell I’d chanted to kill the plant golems on the vines. We couldn’t afford to get tangled up in them right now!

The vines streaked at my flaming arrows, and when viridian met vermilion, the green was blasted away while the red was sent flying. In the end, the last of the vines overpowered the fire. But then...

“Flare Arrow!” Zel unleashed his own spell! He burned through almost all of the remaining vines, right into the golems beyond!

Kracka-pop! Any plant golems that took a direct hit were fried. Gourry then cleaned up the last of the vines with his blade. And...

“Zeifrit.” The arachnid Zanaffar— Oh, forget it. “Spider” used an incantation, conjuring a gigantic ball of flame that appeared in the space between him and us. The thing took up half my field of vision!

Not good! Was his plan to distract us with the plant golems while he whipped up this little number?!

“Tch!” Gourry chucked a stone at the ball of flame. This strategy was effective at triggering human-cast Fireball spells while en route to their targets, but...

This particular burning ball of flame devoured the stone undeterred, continuing on its course!

Not sparing a second, Alaina tried a spell of her own. “Airplosion.”

Pow! There was an audible burst of air just beneath the approaching fireball. The torrent of air detonated it, and we were left stumbling around in a daze as the blazing tornado washed over us. Through the raging torrent around us, we could hear a voiceless scream ring out.

The air had blown the fireball back, so while we were treated to a blazing-hot wind, Spider had taken the full wrath of the fiery blast—and if his armor was still open at the time, he’d have taken it straight to the face!

Once the flames cleared, we could see Spider in a rage. A sound like a scream whistled around us as his armor’s legs and tentacles tore fruitlessly through the air. He’d lost his balance and hit the ground, where he continued to writhe. Dude was clearly in serious pain.

Gourry wasn’t about to miss this chance! Even if a Zanaffar could block attack magic, that didn’t mean it was immune to physical attacks. And Spider couldn’t so much as see at the moment! Gourry dove skillfully through the wildly swinging tentacles and raised his sword, but before he could bring it down... he turned and sliced through empty air instead!

What in the—

“Impossible!” Sagan shouted from a good distance away.

“It can’t be!” I heard Alaina shout in surprise from right beside me.

I wasn’t sure what had just happened, but I assumed it had to have been an attack from Tessius and Sagan. I turned to see two figures coming toward us. From afar, I could recognize Sagan’s Cyclops armor, partially opened. I was sure he was going to use some kind of spell, but then...

“Lukoria?!” Tessius, whose armor I’ll call “Horns,” shouted when he saw his writhing friend. (Lukoria was presumably Spider guy.) Horns then fired off a shot of laser breath to drive us away from Spider, keeping us from finishing the job!

Okay! Time to make the most of the situation! I’ll make it look like I’m gonna try to finish off Spider and attack another of these guys instead! If all goes well, I could end the whole—

As I was mid-thought, a set of wings blocked out the blue sky visible through the canopy. Vabwabwabwabwoosh! When it did, streaks of light rained down all around us!

Was that... laser breath?! Thankfully, none of it had hit us, but was that winged thing a fourth Zanaffar?! How many of them are there?!

This was the best shot we’d have at finishing off Spider, but if our foe had aerial units in their ranks, we couldn’t chance it. We could end up dead for our troubles.

“Retreat!” I shouted.

“Right!” Gourry responded.

“Foggul.” Alaina produced a new wave of white mist. I had no doubt it would both quench the remnants of Lukoria’s fiery blast and help shield us from the enemy’s sight.

“Alaina! Is there anywhere for us to hide out other than the city?” I asked her.

“This way!” She turned and we followed, fleeing into the mist.

Our magical lights illuminated earthen walls covered in moss. The air around us was cool and crisp, and the earth below us was largely odorless.

“I don’t think they’ll find us here,” Alaina said as we arrived in a slightly more open space.

“This place...” I looked all around, although nothing was especially surprising. There were just a few mossy pillars supporting a roof and walls. “Is this an old mine shaft?”

“Yes. I found it when I was searching for their base,” she said with a nod.

After we’d fled the scene, the Hounds hadn’t given chase. Perhaps they’d prioritized saving Lukoria, the Spider wearer, or perhaps they’d just lost sight of us in the mist. Either way, Alaina had gotten us to safety here.

The abandoned shaft looked quite old. The entrance was half buried and hidden by underbrush, and if Alaina hadn’t pointed it out, I never would have realized it was there. In fact, if you’d asked me to find it again on my own a day and a half later, I doubt I could have.

Alaina took in a small breath. “Lina.” She fixed her eyes on mine and walked straight at me.

Well, here we go... I met her gaze and gritted my teeth. Alaina then suddenly averted her eyes, spun on her heel, and walked right back the way she’d come.

“Wait a minute.” I grabbed her shoulder from behind.

“Wh-What is it, Lina?”

“C’mon! You were radiating ‘Destroying the forest just to distract Tessius is unforgivable! I’m going to give you an earful!’ energy! Why’d you chicken out?!”

“Your eyes were scary.”

“I didn’t do any of that for fun, okay? I figured I’d deserve a good slap after the fact!”

“Oh... I could never slap you, Lina. What if I broke my hand?”

“You wouldn’t, damn it! What do you think my head’s made of? Er, anyhoo... I knew you wouldn’t like it, but it was the only way I could think of to get the Hounds away from the city. I apologize. I really am sorry,” I said genuinely.

“I’m glad you’re repentant... Ah. Of course, that doesn’t excuse you from burning any more of the forest in the future!”

“I won’t, I won’t!” I said, frantically waving my hands. The forest was an important resource to more than just the elves. The city of smiths also depended on it for its livelihood. I’d done what I’d had to do in the moment, but it’s not like I get off on committing arson, y’know?

“Speaking of fire... that Spider guy conjured those plant golems to get us to dispel the mist, then used the opportunity to cast that big ball o’ flame. Are elves okay with that kind of thing?”

“I’m sure he intended to put the fire out right after he finished us off, but... Well, everyone has their own moral compass. There are elves who can’t stand the idea of snapping a single twig, and there are those who can turn a blind eye to all manner of things if they serve the greater good. I’m personally rather opposed to the idea of fire in the forest.”

“Yeah, I don’t want to harm the forest either, but if it’s the only way to put a check on the Forest Hounds... I said I’d torch more of it if they attacked the city again, so I think they’ll prioritize me over Atessa for now.”

“But that also means we can’t return to the city,” Zelgadis put in. “If they realize we’re there...”

“They’ll blow us away with the city. Nice and efficient, from their point of view,” I said, scratching my head.

If Tessius and his group had wanted to, they could have started with Zanaffar laser breath a-go-go and reduced Atessa to rubble. There were likely two reasons they hadn’t done that in their earlier attack. One was that their goal wasn’t destruction; it was to frighten the humans into abandoning the city. The other was that razing the city outright would likely turn all of humankind against them. But now that I’d threatened their precious forest, there was a real danger that they’d level the place—and us right along with it.

“So we’ll have to squat here for a while and sneak back to town from time to time to restock... or something like that. Obviously there’s a chance they’ll find us here after a few days, and they’re bound to be scouring the forest in the meantime. Staying too long could be trouble.”

“Couldn’t we just leave the area?” Alaina asked. “If they won’t attack the city until they find you, we could keep them in check indefinitely by simply going somewhere they’ll never find us.”

“I thought of that too... But if they find out we’ve scarpered, they’ll attack the city on the spot. Which means fleeing’s not an option.”

“You think we stand a chance here?” Zelgadis asked.

I nodded. “The reason Team Tessius started causing trouble after so long on the down-low is because they got their Zanaffars. So if we defeat those Zanaffars, destroy them, or otherwise prove they’re not the insta-win button they think they are, the Hounds should back down. Zanaffars are scary, but they’re not invincible. Attack spells won’t work on them when they’re all sealed up, but they’ll have to open up if they want to use attack spells of their own. Plus, any physical attacks that’ll overpower the armor entity itself should still get through. That rules out normal swords, of course... but Gourry’s just might do the trick.”

“Me?” Gourry, who’d been spacing out, suddenly looked my way when he heard his name.

“Yeah. That guy we fought before... Could you bust his armor without killing him?”

I knew that asking if he could kill the armor sounded ridiculous on its face, but for a man of his skill with a sword like that? It wasn’t impossible.

“Well... I wouldn’t know until I tried, but it does look pretty tough.”

“Speaking of which...” Alaina spoke. Hiding behind me, she peeked over at Gourry. “Master... Gourry, was it? How did you cut through that earlier attack from the astral side?”

...

“What?!” Zel and I cried out simultaneously.

Gourry cut through an astral attack?! If you didn’t already know, the astral side of reality—the astral plane—is like the flip side of the material world we inhabit. When we talk about casting spells, we’re actually talking about drawing upon that plane’s magical power to manifest various effects. It was a realm humans couldn’t normally perceive, but...

“You cut through it?!” I found myself asking.

Gourry just looked at me in confusion. “Asral Sai? Who’s that?”

“It’s not a person, dude. It’s—”

“Remember when you were about to slay the spider-like giant?” Alaina asked, still hiding behind me. “The cyclops one targeted you from behind, but you sliced through the attack with your sword.”

I recalled the way Gourry had whipped around to slash at nothing instead of sealing the deal with Spider guy.

“Oh, that?” Gourry said casually. “I just had this instinct, like, ‘I’d better cut through here.’ Did I cut something?”

How am I supposed to answer that, man?

“You did,” Alaina insisted.

He did?!

It was true that Cyclops armor had been open at the time. I remembered seeing Sagan’s face. I’d assumed he was preparing to cast a spell, but perhaps it was the opposite—he’d just finished mounting an astral assault.

“Think of it like slicing through an invisible arrow. But I thought humans couldn’t perceive astral phenomena... so how did you do it?”

“Well, it’s like...” Gourry pantomimed holding his sword. “I drew my sword to finish off that spidery guy, but then I felt like it was being tugged in that direction... so I thought, ‘Oh, I bet there’s something I need to cut there.’”

I wasn’t sure if that was the explanation of a master or a dunce. But hey, Gourry was both.

“Asking for a friend here,” I piped up. “What happens if a human gets hit by one of those astral attacks?”

Alaina responded casually, “In the best-case scenario, you’d be rendered unconscious. But more commonly, it would annihilate your spirit.”

“Freaky! Is it possible to avoid that?”

“Yes, if you dodge it.”

“Dodge it? But... if humans can’t see it...” Obviously, there was virtually no way for a human to perceive the goings-on on the astral plane. I couldn’t say there was no way at all, but certainly nothing you could do mid-combat.

“Ah... I suppose that’s true.”

“Is there any way to let us see it?”

“Elves can see it innately, so I’m afraid I wouldn’t know... Ah, I know. It does take quite a while to prepare an attack from the astral side. If you’re constantly on the move, it’d be quite difficult to land a hit from a distance.”

Constantly on the move? It sounded like the grand strategy amounted to “scramble like mad and hope like hell it misses.”

“I... I see.” Yet as absurd as astral attacks were, Gourry had cut through one. How had he done that?

Ah... He said it felt like something tugging at his sword. I wonder...

“Alaina!” I exclaimed as something suddenly dawned on me. “Gourry’s sword has a bit of a history. He actually had a dragon cast a spell on the blade to blunt it. As an elf, it should be possible for you to remove that seal... Could you try?”

“There’s a seal... to blunt the sword?” Alaina asked in confusion.

Yeah, I guess that sounds pretty weird out of context...

“Apparently the cutting power of its edge increases in response to magic in its surroundings. So—this is just a theory—but I’m wondering if that fundamental property of the sword reacted to the powerful magic of the astral attack, which made Gourry feel like it was being pulled in that direction.”

Alaina turned thoughtful at my explanation. “That... might be possible? I couldn’t confirm or deny it at this stage... but he did cut through the attack, so...”

“Theorizing aside, the sharpness of the sword gives it a bad habit of cutting through sheaths, which is why we asked a dragon to blunt it. But if we restore its full power... I don’t know if that would help it detect astral attacks or not, but it should at least let it cut through Zanaffar armor. So...”

“I should be able to remove such a seal, but not without tools. And I left all my things at the inn in town...”

“Understood. Then come nightfall, we’ll sneak back into town to get our stuff while Tessius’s gang is none the wiser, right? We also need to fill the others in on what’s happened, and we’d probably better check in on the damage as well.”

Everyone agreed to my suggestion.

I had the feeling I’d be going without a fluffy bed and a warm meal for a while, but hey, it was all the more reason to beat down those jerks as fast as we could! I was burning with a newfound will to defeat the Forest Hounds. I wanted my creature comforts back ASAP!

I looked up and saw the starry sky through the branches. I looked back down and saw the night-cloaked forest as an unblemished curtain of darkness.

No, not unblemished—there was a single tiny light among the trees. It proceeded through the pathless woods, swaying slowly. Three faces of the lantern were covered, leaving but a single point of flickering orange light that barely lit the way but still stood out in the pitch black of night.

Perhaps because my vision was limited, everything around me felt louder. The leaves of trees rustled in the wind. Unknown birds and insects sang.

I didn’t know how far from town the lantern’s bearer had come, but when the faint light finally stopped, it had reached an evenly spaced row of trees about the height of children. Probably the most recent replanting after a harvest.

More time passed. Before long...

“What happened?” came a woman’s whispering voice a short distance away from the light.

“The city... was attacked,” replied a man’s hushed voice from closer to the lantern. The light slowly approached the source of the woman’s voice. “There were casualties.”

At last, the lantern illuminated a humanoid figure—a woman wearing curiously shaped armor. Her face in the night was astonishingly beautiful, and a reflection of the lamplight danced in her eyes.

“I heard... elves did it,” the man with the lantern continued. “It can’t be true, right? You said you’d help us.”

“We elves aren’t a monolith. I am helping you, but the elves targeting the city are different. Still, I knew that if I told you who they were, you’d stop trusting me. That’s why I didn’t say anything.”

“Then... you really are on my side?” The man’s voice became plaintive.

“Yes. Believe in me. I’ll help you any way I can.”

“Okay. I trust you.”

“Thank you. Now, in order for me to be of assistance, could you give me more detailed information? When the city was attacked, there were people who looked like mercenaries who fought the elves. Who are they?”

“Oh, they’re just traveling—”

Interrupting the man’s response—“Don’t trust her, stupid! Freeze Arrow!”—I let fly my spell, unable to abide any more of what I was seeing.

A dozen arrows of cold streaked toward the woman!

“?!” Realizing she couldn’t dodge them, she swept out her right hand. When she did, part of the armor she was wearing transformed. It became a massive shield to block my icy bolts.

“What?! Ah? Er?”

As the man with the lantern yelped in surprise, Gourry ran at the woman. Yet before he could get into sword range, she jumped. No... she flew! When she leaped up, her armor unfolded and transformed. The shield transformed into wings, and she took off into the night sky!

The “Wings” Zanaffar?!

We readied ourselves for battle, but our opponent didn’t seem to be in the mood. She just continued flying off. Gourry sheathed his sword, walked up to the man she’d left behind, took his lantern, and turned it on him. Illuminated by the flickering orange light was...

“It’s you...” Here, I fell silent.

It’s not that I was shocked by his identity—I just couldn’t remember his name right away. It was the guy from the local security task force. You know. Uhhh... Randa, I think?

We’d been on our way back to Atessa, navigating by the light of the moon and stars, to grab our gear and touch base with our people. But just before hitting the city, we’d spotted someone sneaking out by lantern light. We’d followed them, which is how we happened upon the scene just described.

“What in the world are you doing?” I asked.

“Huh... You guys? What’s going on?” He looked around in confusion, unable to comprehend the situation.

We didn’t have a choice. “We can’t talk here. Let’s get your story back at the inn,” I sighed.

We could hear the distant commotion of Atessa’s nightlife.

After returning to the Silver Leaf Inn, we’d checked in with MacLyle and gathered in Gourry’s room on the third floor. It was a fairly big room, but it was still meant for one, and now it had to hold me, Gourry, Zel, Alaina, MacLyle, and Randa. Six whole people. Yeah, you could say it was a little cramped.

It would’ve been easier to talk in the first-floor eatery, but there were other customers around. No guarantee that we could go without prying ears.

I began by giving a brief rundown of what we’d been up to. I told them we’d headed out to lure away the Hounds attacking the city, but they’d pulled out the big guns, forcing us to hide out for a while. Then, on our way back, we’d caught Randa meeting up with that elf woman... Naturally, I didn’t mention the legendary name Zanaffar. Nevertheless, by the time I’d finished my quick and dirty recounting of events, Randa seemed to fully grasp the gravity of the situation. He’d turned noticeably paler in the lamplight.

“So,” I said, looking at him, “how’d you meet her and what were you doing together?”

“I had no idea until you brought it up today,” Randa said hoarsely, his eyes studiously averted. “I never thought... the people attacking the town would be elves...”

According to his fumbling explanation, back when everyone thought the raiders attacking the city were plain old bandits, he’d gotten injured falling into a trap while he was patrolling the forest for clues. Apparently, an elf who called herself Lucida had come to his rescue there.

“I come to the forest from time to time myself, but lately bandits have been appearing nearby... I suspect they’re the ones who set that trap. I’d like to drive them out of this place,” she’d said, and Randa had believed her. She’d then proposed that they work together. “We’ll share information periodically and use it to outflank the bandits. But if rumor about me gets out in town, the bandits might come after me, so you can’t tell a soul about this.”

It was a pretty fishy story in hindsight, and there was a good chance the trap Randa had fallen into had really been set by Tessius’s gang.

“I just never thought elves would do such a thing,” Randa whispered tearfully.

The conflict between humans and elves over the forest was long over by the time he was born, and humans generally thought of elves as the intellectual, non-aggressive sort. It would’ve been asking too much for him to catch on to Lucida’s shiftiness immediately.

There was a possibility that Alaina, another elf, had also been sent into the city for reconnaissance—but I personally didn’t buy it. The reason was simple: external shyness and internal braggadocio were a bad combination for any spy. If the enemy was stupid enough to send someone like her to infiltrate the town, this whole ordeal would’ve been over and done with before Gourry and I ever arrived in Atessa.

“Hey.” Randa looked up, pleadingly, at Zel. “Is she... Lucida... Is she really with them? It’s not just some mistake?”

“No mistake,” Zel declared firmly. “She’s part of Tessius’s gang. Probably using you to gather intel on the city. We caught sight of her armor in a fight, and Tessius would only give that armor to people he trusts. I know because he didn’t trust me, and he didn’t even tell me that he had it.”

We’d only caught a glimpse of Wings in the forest fight, and hadn’t seen the wearer’s face, but it was safe to assume she was with the Hounds.

“Then...” Randa began with a grim expression, “I was completely taken in... and I leaked information about the city to the very people trying to destroy it! That’s why they were always one step ahead of us...”

His despair was understandable. I recalled how shaken he’d been when he’d learned we were up against elves. He was having trouble processing the fact that he’d been deceived. But even so...

“What... What am I supposed to—”

“No one cares!” I delivered a chop to his head as I yelled. Crack!

“Whaaaaaaaat?!” Everyone else shouted in surprise for some reason.

I ignored their baffling reaction and continued on. “We don’t have time to listen to your whining! You can worry about making amends after this is all over! What we have to think about right now is what to do next!”

“What? Um... well, I guess, but...?” Randa muttered, clearly confused.

“If you really want to take responsibility, get it together and help us put an end to this! Your punishment will be up to MacLyle! The end! Now...” I took a look around the room. “I told the Hounds I’d torch the forest if they attacked the city again, so if we stay here, they’re bound to attack for sure. So we’re gonna grab what we need, get outside of town, and stay on the move. Master MacLyle, please let Amelia know.”

“Could you tell us where you’re going?” MacLyle asked.

I shook my head. “If we tell anyone, there’s a chance the enemy will hear of it and send someone after us, so mum’s the word. We’ll initiate any communication from here on out. Do you think you could stock us up on rations?”

“Of course... Oh, and I have news as well,” MacLyle said. “After learning of our enemy’s identity and the attack on the city, the mayor put in an official request to Zephilia for aid. But even if they dispatch troops right away, they’ll take over ten days to arrive.”

“Ten days?” I frowned. “Seems a little fast.” That was about how long it took just to get to the capital from here. “Wouldn’t sending a messenger to the capital and then dispatching soldiers would take way longer?”

“It would. But apparently our local sorcerers’ council has a room where they can contact the sorcerers’ council in the capital, so they used that to explain the situation. Though we’re still awaiting an official reply.”

“Okay, got it,” I said. That made sense. Even a town without an official guard had to have some preparations in place to call for aid when needed. “Oh, and tomorrow, send a follow-up message about the powerful armor they’ve got. Specifically, that they can fire laser beam attacks and our attack spells don’t work on them.”

“Bffffft!” My unvarnished infodump caused MacLyle to spit out his tea. “Are you serious?”

“Why would I joke about that?”

“Can we really fight them?!”

“Do we have another choice?”

“V-Very well... I’ll let the capital know. Is there anything we can do? I can rally the local security force if you need.”

“Not right now,” I responded. “I don’t think force of numbers is going to convince Tessius’s gang to back off.” On the contrary, sending waves of men after the Zanaffars was a good way to end up with a lot of dead men and no fewer Zanaffars. “But I might still ask for your aid depending on how things unfold, so please be on standby.”

“Of course. I’ll do anything I can,” MacLyle agreed firmly.

I was glad to have reinforcements from Zephilia on the way. If possible, I would’ve loved to leave the whole affair in their hands... but the soldiers had never fought a Zanaffar before, and I had my doubts about how much resistance they could mount. Now, if someone like my sister decided to drop in, she’d have it all wrapped up by lunchtime the next day. Still, the bigger problem was whether, even with my threat to check them, Tessius and his gang would really give us those ten days.

I could only imagine they were expecting the eventual arrival of backup on the city’s behalf. And that being the case... there was a chance they’d attack sooner rather than later.

We heard the blade slide out of its sheath, and then a faint purple light appeared in the darkness. It wasn’t a reflection of the magic lights on the walls; the sword itself was faintly glowing.

“Is this...” Was it just my imagination, or was Alaina’s whisper even more hushed than usual? “What...?”

“I told you. The sword responds to magic power by getting sharper,” I responded.

After we’d finished our conversation with MacLyle and the others in town, we’d gathered our things, departed Atessa, and returned to the abandoned mine we’d made our base camp. Obviously, we’d been careful to make sure we weren’t followed.

Inside the chilly, damp shaft, our lamps illuminated carpets and tapestries of moss. We’d shared a meal of jerky and bread, then after a breather, I’d asked Alaina to remove the seal on Gourry’s sword.

She set down the bag she’d brought from the inn and got to work. Gourry, Zel, and I kept watch around us.

Alaina silently removed Gourry’s sword from its sheath, and the blade drew our gazes instinctively. “I understand the principle... but what is this spell-writing?”

“Spell-writing?”

“It’s right there on the blade... Oh, right, humans can’t read it.”

Which suggests the writing is associated with the astral side somehow...

“Does it look like words to elf eyes? All I see is a faint purple glow...”

“I’m not sure how to describe it. It’s like there are several layers of words, thinner and finer than threads of hair, written upon it... I understand that magic power makes its blade sharper, but it’s so very intricate... It truly is a remarkable weapon.”

You’re telling me...

I was intentionally avoiding saying it, but Gourry just put in casually, “I think he said it was called the Blast Sword?”

“What?!” Alaina looked up and stared at Gourry. “The legendary blade? But... this is...” She then looked back down at the sword. “Yes... It very well may be...”

“My last sword was the Sword of Light, though.”

“You must be joking... or lying,” Alaina said without a glance back at him. I suppose her skepticism was reasonable, though.

“So?” I asked. “Can you remove the seal on its edge?”

“I believe I can. Whoever placed the seal intended for it to be removed,” she said as she took a few things from her bag and lined them up around her.

A spool of thread. A bottle of some kind of medicine. Small crystals... judging from the color, probably celestite. Some kind of bone fragments. Dried herbs. Even someone like me, who knew a whole lot about magic, didn’t recognize a lot of what she was using.

I was about to witness an elven magical technique. I didn’t even know if humans could do what she did, but my sorcerer’s curiosity was through the roof. I wanted to draw in closer to watch, but I didn’t want to make Alaina so nervous she messed up. So I just watched silently in the penumbra of the lamplight.

She removed the lid from the small bottle and placed a pinch of its contents on her left index finger. It looked like powder. I’d have liked to ask about it, but I stayed quiet lest I interrupt her work.

She took the spool of thread in her right hand, then brought her left index finger and thumb together to apply the powder to it. The powder-covered thread ran between her fingers... Normally it would have dipped down on the other side, but instead, wreathed in a pale purple glow—the same glow that wreathed the Blast Sword—it traveled through the air without support, touched the blade, and...

“The thread disappeared?” Gourry asked.

Alaina responded, her eyes fixed on the thread and the blade. “It didn’t disappear. The thread is weaving itself into the words of the spell.”

“I see...” Gourry nodded along, even though he clearly didn’t understand at all.

“I’m just using a mediator to fuse the thread to the words of the spell so that I can extract them.”

“Just,” huh? It sounded like she was saying she was stitching the writing so it would disappear when she removed the thread... but the very idea seemed like total nonsense to me.

Alaina added more powder to her finger and sent more thread into the spell. I don’t know how many times she repeated that mundane-looking ritual until...

At last, she stopped and let out a tiny sigh. She used her right hand to take the cap off of another bottle and tilted it over the thread in her hand. A thick, red liquid oozed from the container, slowly cresting the lip and spilling a single drop onto the thread.

Vermilion light raced through it instantly. The liquid must have reacted with the powder in the thread. The thread, now aglow with red light, instantly elongated, tracing across the glowing blade, causing the delicate patterns—or maybe words—glowing in crimson to rise up.

Alaina whispered something. It was probably a spell, but it didn’t use any of the chaos words I knew, so I didn’t understand it. Then, instantly...

Plink.

With the tiniest of sounds, the vermilion pattern burst away from the blade. The light in the air grew stronger for a short moment before vanishing into the dark of the cave, leaving only an afterimage burned into our eyes. At the same time, the faint purple shine of the blade became clearly, if subtly, brighter.

“That should do it.” Alaina looked at me and nodded. “Try it.”

“Take it away, Gourry.”

“Sure!” Gourry stepped forward, took the sword by the hilt, looked around, and walked over to a rock the size of my fist sitting in a corner of the cave. He touched the blade to the rock to get a sense for the feel of it, and... “Hmm...” He unceremoniously moved his arm.

Kwip. With a sound like a knife through an apple, the rock split in two.

Jeez... That thing really is too dang sharp.

Gourry gazed intently at the blade. “This’ll cut through the sheath if I sheathe it, won’t it?”

Alaina, watching the spectacle, said, “Was the person who made that sword rather stupid, perchance?”

“I’ve been wondering that myself.”

You saw that sometimes with artisans. They’d master their crafts to such a degree that, in an attempt to truly test their limits, they’d make things utterly unusable in the day-to-day. There was nothing left even in legend to tell us who’d made the Blast Sword, but I had a feeling they were that kind of person. The sword was so sharp it actually made it harder to wield, which was probably why it had been hidden inside the blade of another sword when we’d first found it. Kind of defeating the point, one could say...

“I think this will be able to cut through Zanaffar armor, but I wish he didn’t have to hold it unsheathed the whole time,” I said.

Alaina thought a while. “What if I were to place spell-writing on the sheath to blunt its contents? Then it would stop slicing the sheath while inside.”

“Great idea! Can you do that, Alaina?!”

“Shall I do it right now?”

“Thank you! Please! Gourry, hand me the sheath! Then hold the sword until it’s done!”

Alaina changed the lineup of her rocks, then returned the leaves and bones to their bags and replaced them with a different set of leaves and twigs.

...

“By the way, Alaina, a question. Do the rocks and leaves and stuff do anything? You didn’t use them.”

“Pardon?” A shocked expression flashed across her face. She then said, “Oh... yes, I place them to create a ritual magic circle.”

“You do what?!” She’d said something so incredible so casually that I found myself shouting in response.

See, we humans had ritual magic circles too, but they required a variety of special materials and magic concoctions mixed into an ink then painted in a circle of specified size. You also had to have various magical objects placed around it. But she was saying that she could—pardon the expression—throw some random crap together to do the same thing? Really, to do it even better?

“And once the circle is complete, elves can ‘see’ it, right?”

“Yes, of course. Though until it’s complete, it’s just rocks and grass.”

I thought a minute, then made a proposal I felt sure would be impossible. “Here’s another question... Could you use a magic circle like that to significantly enhance someone’s magic power?”

“I could with the proper space and the necessary tools,” she responded easily.

“You could?!”

“Yes. But even if I enhance your magical power, Lina, if you leave the circle, the effect will naturally extinguish. It would only boost the power of attack spells you cast while inside the circle.”

“Yeah, I get that. To tell you the truth, I used to have talismans that enhanced my magical power, but stuff happened and I lost ’em. So I’ve got a whole lotta spells I can’t use now. If I could whip those out, even under such limited circumstances, I think they’d come in mighty handy. Now, there are a few other things I wanna ask you...”

There was still no guarantee I could use the spells I was thinking of, but if I could, it’d be a huge boon.

For a while after that, I talked Alaina’s ear off with questions about elf magic...