Slayers - Volume 9 - Chapter 3

3: Move Fast! Early Bird Catches the Magic Sword!

“Whaaat?!” Sherra shouted in surprise as the demidemon goon squad appeared out of thin air. Yeah, guess anyone would be thrown for a loop by those brutes bursting onto the scene... Can’t say I wasn’t kinda shocked myself.

But maybe her scream ticked them off or something, because the demons all locked eyes on her. I heard Sherra gasp, even as I began a quiet spell recitation. But before I could pull it off...

“Hraaah!” The demons let out a collective howl. Countless flaming projectiles appeared in the air in front of the group, and then—Brabababooshooshoosh!—they rained down on us all at once!

Luke took the opportunity to slide forward, his blade now glowing faintly. Was that puppy magical?! He held it aloft and...

“Magic Wind Strike!”

Vwoosh! As his sword flashed through the air, the night wind howled into a Diem Wind-force gale! It easily blew back the deadly volley of fire.

“Heh,” Luke scoffed, turning back to us with his smug aura dialed up to ten. “You see that, Mileena? I just—”

“Could you save the boasting for later?” Mileena was quick with the brushoff, instantly deflating him.

While they went through their routine, I couldn’t help feeling a little awestruck. I hadn’t detected any sign of Luke chanting a spell just now. With nothing more than a swing of his sword and willpower, he’d gotten an effect on par with a Diem Wind spell...

Not bad for a magic sword! It might be a one-trick windy pony, sure, but any enchantment at all would allow a weapon to wound pure demons and other creatures resistant to physical attacks. Betcha I could buy it off him cheap!

But negotiations would have to wait until we took out the trash!

Mileena made the next move. “Astral Break!” she incanted, and the nearby lesser demon she smacked with it poofed into mist.

Meanwhile, Luke and Gourry readied their swords and charged enemies on either side of the alleyway. And it was right about then that I finished my spell!

“Zellas Bullid!” The ray of light it produced pierced through two demons at once. Then, abiding my will, it changed course midair and slew one more before breaking apart in flight.

Gourry and Luke also managed to finish of their target demons in that time, leaving only—

“Above us!” Mileena suddenly cried out.

Not a second later, I sensed the presence overhead and leaped back. Krnch! I felt a rumble through the ground as something big landed nearby—another lesser demon! I hadn’t realized there were more baddies on the rooftops!

But more importantly, this one had jumped down smack in front of... Sherra! Not good! Neither Mileena nor I had a spell ready to go! The big demon swiped its right hand at Sherra, and...

Girl instantly sprang into action—but not to retreat! Instead, she stepped right into the demon’s personal space and slammed her right palm into its chest. Thwack! It didn’t look like an especially powerful strike, but a shudder ran through the lesser demon’s body, and—Whump!—it toppled backward lifeless.

Uh, wowzers.

“Say, Sherra, you’re not bad...” I whispered.

“Did I give you a reason to assume that I was?” she responded indignantly, flicking her dangling braid back over her shoulder.

When I stopped to think about it, she had been able to dodge the men in black’s attacks pretty lithely... But hey, knowing she could handle herself in a fight meant I could keep my focus on the battle at hand!

Let’s see, how many are left?

I cast a glance back at Gourry and called out, “Hey, how many more you got over there?!”

I was expecting him to say something like “two or three,” yet...

“I don’t know! There are two or three here, but...”

I hadn’t anticipated that last part. “Here”? Does that mean...

“Ditto!” Luke shouted, overhearing our exchange. “We ain’t the only ones with this problem... I think the whole town’s just swarmin’ with the bastards!”

The... The whole town? I wasn’t sure how he knew that, but this meant it was imperative to get the situation under control.

I began reciting a spell under my breath. “Lei Wing!” I incanted, rising straight into the air. Once I was high enough up, I took a look around and... “What?!” I found myself shouting. For a moment, I lost my concentration, causing my wind barrier to lurch to the side.

There were patches of flame all across the city. I couldn’t get the whole story from here, but if all of this was the handiwork of demons... then there must’ve been close to a hundred of them in the city limits. Given their sudden appearance in our vicinity, I’d assumed the men in black had summoned them, but it now seemed that wasn’t the case.

It varied based on the caster’s capacity, see, but two was usually the upper limit for how many demons a single sorcerer could summon and control at one time. In other words, coordinating a demon horde of this size would require forty to fifty casters, minimum. But if there were that many men in black around, why would they bother with the demons? They could just swarm us themselves.

By the same token, the demons’ appearance had been far too abrupt for this to be some wild pack running rampant. If this was an invasion from the outside, someone would’ve noticed the horde coming and panic would’ve swept the city like a wave, with a clear point of origin. But from my bird’s-eye view, the flames seemed to be evenly dispersed across the town.

What in the world...? As I was chewing all this over, I caught a glimpse of a small flicker out of the corner of my eye. I turned to look, half on reflex, and spotted a dark figure silhouetted by the light. Dang, another one of the guys in black?! That meant the light was...

Yup, dude chucked a Fireball right at me. Not a moment too soon, I used my spell to descend rapidly. And yet...

Bwoosh!

I wasn’t sure if it had clipped my barrier or if something else set it off, but the Fireball burst over my head and scattered red flames everywhere. The explosive force slammed me into the nearest wall and then into the ground! It probably would’ve killed me if not for the protection of my barrier. The whole thing naturally left me a bit dizzy, but I dispelled my wreathing wind and managed to right myself.

“Careful, guys! We’re not done with the men in black yet! They’re trying to take advantage of the chaos to finish us off!” I shouted in warning to my comrades. The enemy’s plan was a smart one. Under these circumstances, the wannabe assassins could wreak all the havoc they wanted and blame any collateral damage on the demons.

“They’re on the roofs as well?” Mileena asked.

“Yeah. I just saw one,” I responded.

“Then they take priority. What if I fly while you shoot?” she proposed.

“You got it!” I agreed, and we both began our respective chants.

She finished hers first and put a hand on my shoulder, then released the words of power: “Levitation!” She must have added some personal touches to her incantation, because we rose into the air much faster than a normal Levitation would take us—just shy of Lei Wing speeds.

We were up above the rooftops in the blink of an eye. I glanced all around and... There! Between the silver moonbeams and crimson light of the fires, a dark figure on a roof stood out from the black of night. We headed straight for it, and I let my spell fly!

“Dam Blas!”

Kerkrash! The man in black leaped to the side just before I blew a patch of roof out from under him. Except—Pwop!—the roof where he landed gave out under his weight!

I’d used the power of my talismans to enhance that Dam Blas, see, which increased its destructive power. If you tried to dodge one of those puppies like you would a normal Dam Blas, you were in for a rude awakening.

“Ngh!” The man stumbled forward in an attempt to regain his balance, but it didn’t work. Off the roof he went, and though he managed to land on his feet...

Kraboboboboom! A lesser demon standing nearby showered him in flaming arrows!

“Urgh!” Nobody could dodge a volley like that at such close range immediately after landing, and so the man was swallowed by flame. But that wasn’t the end... Fwoom! He must have been carrying hidden explosives or something, because he blew into smithereens, catching the nearby demon in the blast.

Still, if the demidemons were attacking the men in black too, that confirmed that they weren’t under their summoned control. I could only guess there were more guys in black out there, but I couldn’t sense any in the immediate area at the moment. Thus Mileena and I touched back down at a leisurely speed.

“We finished off most of ’em over here!” Luke shouted, as if he’d been waiting for us.

“Same here!” Gourry seemed to have done his part as well.

But this wasn’t the only alleyway teeming with demons. “Okay!” I rallied. “Then let’s get a move on and show the rest of these suckers who’s boss!”

“Yeah!” Everyone heartily agreed to my plan. All except one, that is...

“Huh?!” exclaimed Sherra.

“Hahh... Morning, guys,” I yawned, rubbing at my sleepy eyes as I came downstairs.

“It’s past noon,” Mileena replied in her usual monotone voice. She, Gourry, Sherra, and Luke were all sitting around the table already.

“Gimme a break. I didn’t get to sleep until first light. Excuse me, sir... I’ll have a chicken steak set and a simmered fish combo. And a noodle soup too, pretty please!” With charm to the nines, I put in a light breakfast order with the tavern owner and took a seat next to Gourry.

We’d spent last night—or more precisely, earlier this morning—cleaning out demons until dawn broke in the eastern sky. Obviously, we hadn’t taken care of ’em all ourselves. Following the incident in Bezeld and the ensuing rash of attacks on nearby villages, large towns like this one had started posting soldiers and casters from the sorcerers’ council for protection.

Between them and us, we’d managed to put a stop to the demonic rampage. There was substantial damage to the city, but fortunately, the inn where we were staying was untouched. Unfortunately, however...

“Those jerks in black still got away,” Luke muttered bitterly as he poked at his cream-sautéed flounder with a fork.

“Yeah, true... About the only thing we accomplished was saving Sherra,” I agreed with a nod.

“Saving me?” Sherra glared at me. “You mean pushing me off a roof and pitting me against demons?”

Aha! Someone’s holding a teensy bit of a grudge, I see! “Well, that was just... Oh, yeah! Because I knew you could handle it!”

“Did you?” She glared at me even harder.

“Well, all that aside...” Gourry interrupted. He then looked Sherra in the eyes and asked, “Could you tell us what’s going on already?”

“Urgh...” Sherra let out a soft groan, averting her eyes slightly.

But Gourry continued to stare straight at her and said, “I’m sure Lina explained everything to me earlier, but I wasn’t listening, so...”

Splat! The words coming out of his mouth were so outrageous that I face-planted straight on the table. “Y-You weren’t listening to me?!”

“Nope! Hahaha...” Gourry rubbed the back of his head bashfully. “I guess I might have been listening at the time, but if I was, I’ve forgotten... So six of one, you know?”

“Quit grinning like that! Are you saying you never actually think about anything and just follow my lead all the time?!”

“Pretty much!”

“I told you to quit grinning!”

Crack! My fury-driven elbow ground its way deep into Gourry’s temple.

“Ngh!”

“Okay, big guy, here’s the quick and dirty! We’re trying to find you a new magical sword, so we’re trying to get Sherra, who probably has one, in our debt! If things go well, we might even get it from her for free!”

“That is quick and dirty,” Sherra chimed in, and... was it just my imagination that her gaze was turning even more hostile? Meh, details.

“Now, all joking aside,” I said, turning my gaze back to Sherra.

“Oh? So you were just joking?” she harped.

But I ignored her and continued: “I can imagine you’ve got your reasons, and that they’re complicated. I’m sure there are things you want to keep private too. But you have to see... your personal preferences aren’t the most important thing at stake anymore.”

Sherra said nothing, and just turned up her nose.

I pressed her, “Come on, Sherra. Isn’t it possible they’re connected? I mean the thing you don’t want to talk about and... Look, I’m just gonna say it outright. I’m talking about the sword in Bezeld and the appearance of the demons.”

“What?!” Luke barked out, and Mileena raised an eyebrow. Of course Gourry, who didn’t understand any part of the situation, had no reaction whatsoever. As for Sherra...

“Hahh...” She let out a deep sigh.

Silence then fell over the table for a time. As if waiting for that lull in our conversation, the owner brought me my order, but rather than reaching for it, I kept my eyes locked on Sherra.

“‘That sword,’” she began at last after a long spell, “‘shouldn’t exist.’ That’s what my father always said whenever he got drunk...”

So there is a sword! I just barely restrained myself from grabbing Sherra by the collar and shaking her while demanding to know where it was, and instead kept all quiet and listen-y.

“He said that it creates demons, and that it must never be unleashed upon the world.”

“A sword that creates... demons?” The rest of us exchanged a glance at those words.

“Yes. He never told me the whole story, but if what my father said means the sword is connected to the outbreak of demons... then perhaps something is activating the sword’s power and causing all of this. And if that’s the case, I have to do something about it,” she said, that last line a whisper that sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than she was us.

“I see... So you’re headed to Bezeld to try to stop things yourself,” I observed.

She nodded firmly in response.

“But do you actually know how to do that?” Mileena asked quietly.

“W-Well...” Sherra pursed her lips and looked down. Normally this would’ve led to another awkward silence, but...

“Okay, Sherra honey, you just leave this to us! We’ll totally find a way!” Luke proclaimed confidently, thumping his chest.

“Do you have any basis for saying that?” Mileena asked practically.

“None!” Luke replied firmly and immediately. “But I’m gonna make it happen! ’Cause that’s how real men roll!”

“Poppycock,” she said, then smiled slightly. “Utter poppycock... but I like your style,” she admitted.

“You do?!” Luke asked, eyes shining. “Does this mean... our feelings are finally mutual?!”

“Stop joking around and let’s get back to the matter at hand.”

“J-Joking? You...” Her chilly reception made Luke tear up for a moment, but soon enough... “Fine! Even if you don’t return my love now, you will someday! And I ain’t gonna give up till it happens!” he bellowed loud enough for the whole restaurant to hear.

Would you knock it off, dude? I got a major case of secondhand embarrassment... Everyone’s staring now too...

“A-Anyway, if the ‘making demons’ part is literal and that sword really is the cause of the demon attacks...” I couldn’t take any more of Luke’s awkward antics, so I quickly changed the subject. “I’m not surprised some king or local lord is sending those spec ops guys after it.”

“How come?” Gourry asked.

“How come? For military purposes, of course! It’s perfect.”

“Military purposes? But doesn’t holding the sword make demons appear? Seems like a dangerous thing to take back to your homeland to me...”

“Well, duh. That’s why you do the opposite. First, you smuggle the sword into enemy territory and flood ’em with demons. Next, you kick back while the buggers wreak havoc on your foe’s military and political structures. Then you wait for the right time to send in your army, or annex the territory in the name of ‘offering aid,’ or whatever you want. Way cheaper than a straight-up war.”

“I... I get it! Man, you’re the best at coming up with evil schemes, Lina. I mean... Er, never mind,” Gourry said, trailing off after noticing my angry glare.

“Just what I’d expect from mega-villain Lina Inverse, always leavin’ chaos in her wake,” Luke chimed in immediately.

“Who’re you callin’ a mega-villain?!”

“I think I made myself pretty clear.”

“You—”

“But enough messin’ around,” he said, moving on before I could finish objecting. “Of course, this is all assumin’ the sword is real. I ain’t lettin’ those guys in black have it if it is.”

“Er, well... I suppose we’re of the same mind there.” I didn’t like rolling over, but I couldn’t pick a fight now that the guy had put on a sincere facade. So with no other recourse, I nodded in agreement.

“So, far as that goes, I got a proposal to make.”

“A proposal?”

“Yeah. First, Sherra, I gotta ask. I figure if we manage to find the sword and stop the demons, you don’t much care what happens to it afterward, yeah? So long as it ain’t used for evil. Like, you’re cool if one of us takes it?”

“Well, I suppose... I can’t pay you in exchange for your help, so I suppose you’d find that better than nothing,” Sherra replied, agreeing readily enough to Luke’s suggestion.

Does she even realize what kind of coin magical swords fetch? Maybe she thinks no one’ll put up the cash for a sword that summons demons...

“Okay, that’s one down,” Luke said, snapping his fingers and turning back to me. “Now here’s a question for you guys. Say there really is a magic sword and we manage to find it... There’s no way you’re gonna split the loot with us fair and square, right?”

“Probably not,” I admitted with a firm nod. We wanted the sword to use it, after all. There wasn’t really a way to split it, even if we wanted to. I mean, we could hypothetically pay them half the sword’s market value to “buy” their share of it—I just wasn’t a big fan of that plan.

“Right, so here’s my offer. The five of us work together to fight off the black cloaks,” he continued.

“I thought you weren’t here to make nice?” I asked.

“Just hear me out, okay? We’ll work together to fight off the men in black. Then, when it comes to the sword... Well, I figure we can work together to stop the demon hordes too. Then once the danger’s all wrapped up, if the sword is still there for the taking, we race to see who gets it first. Finders keepers, no hard feelings. How about it?”

Hmm... so that was his game. I thought it over for a while before saying, “Okay, there’s one thing I want to make sure of first. It’s possible we may have to break the sword to stop the demons. Would you be willing to do it?”

Kkkrk! For a brief but very obvious moment, I saw a wince cross Luke’s face. Understandable, of course. He clearly wanted to sell the sword off. You couldn’t exactly offload a demidemon-summoning sword on the open market, but there were plenty of channels you could go through to get top coin for such things. Meanwhile, Gourry and I were after a magical sword we could actually use—and one that constantly summoned demons wasn’t exactly our first choice. In other words, what I was suggesting would be far less of a loss to us than to them.

“W-Well...” As predicted, Luke hesitated to respond. But he quickly changed his tune when he saw Sherra glaring at him. “O-Of course I’d break it! Puttin’ an end to all this is goal number one, right? Ah... hahaha!” he laughed desperately.

“Okay, then I agree to your terms,” I said. “What about you, Sherra? Are you in?”

“Of course. Stopping the demons is all I care about. You’ll find the sword in the abandoned mine in the mountain north of Bezeld. I’ll tell you more when we arrive.”

“All righty! Then it’s truce time until we reach Bezeld! And no trying to get the jump on the other team. Now, Luke, if you don’t mind me asking... that sword you have is magical too, right?”

“Hmm? Yeah. Ain’t got a name or a history, though.”

Aha, thought so! Time to start negotiations! With a little luck, I could land it cheap! “Then have I got a deal for you! I’m diggin’ deep for this, but I’ll take it off your hands for, let’s say... five-thirty!”

Blarghsplat! For some strange reason, my rather generous offer had both Luke and Mileena falling out of their chairs.

“What kind of price is that?!” he shouted.

“Heh. It’s more than what I’d usually offer,” I replied with a sweet smile.

“And what’s that?! Nothing?!” he continued, his displeasure on full display.

Despite Luke’s accusation, I’d once offered Gourry five-fifty for the Sword of Light. He hadn’t taken it, of course... But if the Sword of Light was worth five-fifty, then I sure as heck wasn’t gonna offer one coin more for some measly magic sword of unknown providence! That’s mercantile common sense 101. Well, okay, some might call it dirty dealing, but still!

“FYI, I don’t have it anymore, but I did get my last magical sword for free—with Gourry thrown in to boot.”

“Hey...” Gourry gave me a dirty look. Apparently not even he could let that one slide.

“Well... I ain’t sellin’ it for that...” Luke struggled his way back to a seated position. “But for fifty-three billion, maybe.”

Ker-thud! It was my turn to pitch over.

“B-Billion...?” I whispered as I managed to right myself. I’d met one brave soul in the past who’d dared to up my bid by a factor of ten thousand, but a hundred freakin’ million? That was something else. “S-So you’re saying... no sale, huh?”

“Not for a joke price, nah,” he sniffed.

Urgh... If you insist, then... I’d just have to set my sights on the magic sword in Bezeld! I could always buy it off them if they beat us to it, but it’d be free if we could nab it ourselves! The difference between those two outcomes was night and day given the going rate for magical swords, which just left one question: who was gonna get their hands on the goods first?

No, there was actually a more pressing issue at hand... Was there even really a sword to begin with? Thinking things through rationally, that was a pretty big assumption. The only evidence we had to back up its existence were the words of Sherra’s drunk father, meaning it was entirely possible that this whole thing was a wild goose chase and the demons had nothing to do with it.

But, hey, stewing over the possibilities wasn’t gonna get us anywhere, so that was that as far as I was concerned. With all kinds of unanswered questions, we moved forward with our fair-weather alliance.

An air of hardship hung over Bezeld. Natural, given its status as the epicenter of the demon attacks. Maybe the city was on high alert for another raid, because there were no stalls set up along the avenue and a great number of houses and shops were boarded up, their owners perhaps long evacuated. The important spots around town were tightly guarded by stern-faced soldiers. Even though it was the middle of the day, few people were walking the streets, and those that were remained eerily quiet. It was like the entire city was huddled up in fear...

That was the atmosphere I’d been expecting, but in fact... Bezeld was the very image of tranquility. I was floored to see stalls lining the thoroughfare, carriages coming and going, shops bustling with noise, kids playing in the streets. Okay, so maybe there were a few more posted soldiers and sorcerers than you’d normally see... but that was about the only sign something was up.

According to the innkeep where we were staying, the threat of a second demon attack had indeed shuttered the city for a while... but the stories of raids on surrounding settlements suggested that danger was just as prevalent anywhere they might try to flee. If anything, the concentration of soldiers in Bezeld made it seem safer than most, and I suspected the majority of folks didn’t have anyplace else to go even if they did skip town. The result was only a minor exodus, and though I could understand the logic at play...

The city just seems way too relaxed. That’s what I couldn’t help thinking as I gazed out my window that night.

The magical glow of the street lamps pierced the darkness here and there, and I could hear the clamoring din of nearby bars. It wasn’t quite the middle of the night yet, but it was certainly past dinnertime. If the citizenry caught any whiff of danger, they’d be locked up tight in their houses... yet from what I could see, people were still walking the roads without a care. The inn where we were staying had quite a few folks coming and going too, and...

“Hmm?” I scowled and leaned forward as I spied a small figure leaving the inn. I only saw her from behind, but I was sure it was Sherra.

There was a good chance the guys in black were camped out here in Bezeld. She had to know that too, so what was she doing sneaking out at this hour? As I pondered the answer, I recalled what the old innkeep back in Sherra’s old village had told me about her after we first met.

Maybe she really was born here in Bezeld...

My mind began to churn with questions. Sherra seemed to have a complicated past, so I hadn’t done much prying into her early life. But now that I thought about it, I didn’t know anything about her mother, much less her hometown. There was a lot I didn’t know about her, actually...

......

After a moment’s hesitation, I threw on my cape, left my room, ran downstairs, and departed the inn. What was I doing, you ask? Is that even a question? I was going after Sherra, of course!

And so you don’t get the wrong idea about my motivations, let me make this clear: I wasn’t following her out of idle curiosity or anything. My only goal was to protect her from the men in black. What’s that, you say? “Why tail her in secret, then?” Okay, so maybe I was a little curious to find out where she was going... A maiden’s heart has many facets, y’know?

I stepped outside and scanned the area... Aha! Even from the door, I could spy Sherra passing quietly through the faint light of the street lamps. I slipped into the night after her.

She darted down the main thoroughfare for a good ways before eventually ducking onto a side street. I couldn’t see her face or anything, but she was sure moving like she was in a hurry. She immediately took the next corner and entered a dingy old alleyway. It’s hard to say if it was because she was hustling or because she was distracted, but for some reason, she didn’t look back even once.

She was gradually moving away from the city center and toward the slums. The light from the bars was now nowhere to be seen, and the darkness was growing thicker. Hmm... I’m not liking the looks of this, I thought, but continued to follow her anyway. Eventually, Sherra abruptly stopped in her tracks. Had she realized I was tailing her? Couldn’t be...

“Hey there, little missy. What’re you doing out at this hour?”

Ah, it seemed she’d hit a roadblock consisting of four ne’er-do-wells.

“It ain’t safe, a girl walkin’ around all by herself... How’s about we take you home, eh?” suggested the bearded one with a lecherous grin. His speech was a touch slurred like he’d been drinking.

“I’m in a hurry. Please let me through,” Sherra insisted.

“‘I’m in a huwwy. Pwease let me thwough,’ she says. Ain’t that cute!” the man laughed, although I didn’t see what was so funny. “Why not drop whatever yer plannin’ and spend a widdle time with us instead?”

“...I’m in a hurry. Please let me through,” Sherra said again, a slight edge to her voice this time.

Yikes. Putting the moves on Sherra, not knowing what she was capable of... Poor bastards, am I right?

“C’mon, baby. Be a sport.” The bearded man reached for Sherra...

Her right hand moved in a flash. She swatted his arm, then drove a backfist into his face. That’s what I’d anticipated, at least... but before she could land a hit, the guy disappeared!

Huh?!

“Ngh!” It wasn’t him, but Sherra who groaned and buckled. The bearded man caught her as she pitched forward limply.

Sherra had indeed thrown her fist out at the guy, but he’d ducked back and struck her right in the solar plexus. Of course, there was no way some drunken ne’er-do-well was capable of a move like that—which could mean only one thing.

I quickly charged out, a chant on my lips. And the second I did...

“Flare Arrow!” incanted two of the men who’d thus far been silent!

“Waaah!” I ducked into a nearby alley to dodge both attacks. They must have realized I was shadowing Sherra.

“You can fight these two, Lina Inverse, while we take the girl,” the bearded man said in a different voice—one I now recognized.

“Zain!”

Yup. The bearded man, who looked like your average good-for-nothing drunk at a glance, was really Zain the black cloak.

Stupid me! Who’d have thought these sneaksters would suddenly unmask themselves and present like common troublemakers? While I was kicking myself, Zain hoisted Sherra onto his shoulder, turned around, and took off down the alley with the fourth black cloak. The other two were staying behind to hold me off, I guess!

I quickly chanted a spell, placed a hand on a nearby wall, and let ’er rip! “Van Layl!”

From my hand, icy vines spiraled forth along the wall and the ground. Anyone who touched them would be caught in their frigid grip. If lucky, they’d only be stopped in place. If unlucky, they’d be frozen solid. And yet...

“Flare Arrow!” One of the men fired a spell that easily melted my approaching tendrils.

Of course! He’d chanted it in advance to either drive me back or negate whatever I was casting. These guys really were trying to hold me off! In that case, it was time for a new spell.

“Diem Wind!” I cried, releasing a robust gust of wind. It was normally only strong enough to buffet someone, but this one was amplified by my talismans—not to mention the fact that I was casting it in a narrow alleyway.

Whooooosh!

A much more powerful blast than they were expecting drowned out their screams and blew the two goons clean back.

Yes! I sprung out of the alley where I’d been hiding and ran off in the direction I’d seen Zain disappear, but the road soon forked ahead. Was I supposed to go left or right?! I was hesitating over just that when...

“Freeze Arrow!” I heard a voice call as a wave of hostility washed over me.

I jumped back instantly with a yelp of surprise. Not a second later, ten arrows of cold pierced the ground where I’d just been standing. I quickly looked up to see a man standing on the roof of an old house—the same one who’d run off with Zain before. So these guys were still trying to hold me off, huh?!

Zain was probably pretty far ahead of me by now, which meant I didn’t have a whole lot of time to waste on this guy. Still, it would be too dangerous to ignore him and just keep running. That being the case...

I began chanting a Lei Wing spell to create a barrier of wind that would protect me from most attack spells and allow me to bust outta here at top speed. But before I could even finish my incantation, the man on the roof turned his back on me and vanished.

Crap! That must mean Zain’s long gone...

“So what the hell are we s’pposed to do now?!” Luke shouted angrily, loudly striking the table.

After Zain had made off with Sherra, I’d used Levitation to scan the area from the air, but was unable to find them. The two guys I’d blown away with my Diem Wind had disappeared at some point too, leaving me bupkis in the way of leads. I knew searching on my lonesome would be a waste of time, so I’d since returned to the inn to explain the situation to everyone. The news sent Luke into a rage.

“And in case yer thinkin’ about tryin’ it, you ain’t apologizin’ yer way outta this one! Those guys wanna know what Sherra knows—and who knows what they might do to her to get that info! What’re you gonna do if somethin’ happens to her, huh?!”

“Hrk...” Of course, I had no comeback for that. I really should’ve alerted the others the minute Sherra’d slipped out of the inn, after all. At the very least, I should’ve kept my wits about me when Zain, pretending to be a drunkard, had first accosted her. If only I had, we wouldn’t be in this mess.

“Chasin’ her down ’cause you got curious like some common gossipmonger...” Luke continued to grumble.

“We can assign blame another time,” Mileena said quietly, interrupting him. “What’s imperative now is working together to find her.”

“Y-Yeah... Okay, fine, you’re right! I’ll save the tongue-lashin’ for later! Take us to where this all went down!”

“You got it!” Obviously, I wasn’t about to argue with that plan. It was the whole reason I’d come back in the first place...

And so the four of us flew out into the night-cloaked city to rescue the kidnapped Sherra.

“It was right here,” I said, stopping at the fork where I’d been showered with Freeze Arrows. “The guy who took Sherra definitely went this way. He was carrying her too, so—I don’t care how well-trained he is—he couldn’t have been moving too fast. They’ve gotta be hiding out nearby!”

“All right, then let’s split up! We’ll go right! You guys go left! You find anything, you send up a magical flare!” Luke ordered and, without waiting for a response from us, headed right with Mileena.

“Okay, Gourry, let’s get searching too!”

“Right!” he replied eagerly as we headed left. “But Lina, even if their hideout’s not far, finding it’s gonna be tough.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” I admitted. We were surrounded by decrepit houses, though it was hard to say if they were all abandoned or not. Some had basements, and some had attics too. There was a good chance Zain and his goons were set up somewhere around here though, so tracking them down was going to be like searching for a needle in a haystack...

“But even if it’s gonna be hard, we’ll leave no stone unturned! Let’s start with this place!” I pointed straight at the first empty house in front of me. I drew my shortsword, cast a light spell on the blade, and... “Dam Blas!”

Bwoom! I blasted the front door in, and we darted inside to begin our search!

......

Well, not like I was expecting to hit paydirt on the first strike.

“That one next!” I said, pointing to a second house.

“Say, Lina... why did Sherra go out on her own anyway?”

“Dunno. You’d have to ask her. Whatever the reason, it must’ve been pretty important for her to sneak out despite the danger. Or maybe she’s just overconfident in her ability to defend herself. It’s also possible there’s still more to all this than we know. But either way, we won’t learn the truth until we find her.”

The second house was a bust too, and so was the third. Bashing in the front door, running to see if there was a basement, and then searching the attic was a pain, so I’d just started blasting up through the ceiling. We went through that routine a couple of times, until...

“Okay, on to the next one,” I said, pointing to the next abandoned house, when all of a sudden... a bright light appeared in the sky nearby! “Huh?!” It was a Lighting spell! That had to be Luke’s and Mileena’s signal, meaning they’d found something! Aha! “Let’s go, Gourry!”

“Right!”

We gave each other a nod, then took off at the exact same time toward the origin of the light.

We saw a flash through a darkened window. By the time we arrived at the signal’s location, it appeared a fight was already underway.

We’d found ourselves at a housing complex of some kind, a three-story building made of brick. The sporadic flashes of light from attack spells were visible from the third-floor windows. I would’ve liked to fly up there with a Levitation or Lei Wing spell, but the windows were too small to fit through with a Lei Wing barrier, and Levitation was such a slow ascent that we’d be sitting ducks if we chose the wrong point of entry. We were just gonna have to kick down the front door like normal people or something.

Gourry and I ran toward the entrance to find it already smashed in—most likely the work of Team Luke. From here, I couldn’t detect any enemies in our immediate vicinity. We thus charged in as the fight continued to unfold floors above us. I found the stairs and rushed all the way up, when...

Vroosh!

“Wha?!” I’d just barely poked my head over the top of the staircase when a beam of light came streaking toward me. After passing right in front of my eyes, it smashed through the wall beyond. A Dam Blas? Whew, that was a close one!

“Took you long enough!” Luke called. “We beat two of ’em... but they’re tenacious bastards!”

Now that I was at the top of the stairs, I could see a hallway stretching out to my left. It was lined with doors on either side, and I could see Luke and Mileena hiding behind one just across the hall ahead. It seemed there were still a few men in black down the hall too.

“Any enemies on the other floors?!”

“Nope! Just here!”

Okay, so all we had to do was polish off the stragglers. “Then let’s finish ’em off already!” I shouted.

“Yeah, right! It’s as easy as that, huh?” Luke snapped back (like a wuss).

The enemy was casting intermittent attack spells, taking full advantage of the length of the hallway. Running straight at them would be suicide under the circumstances. The baddies likely had Sherra with them too, so I couldn’t just blow the whole place to bits with a big, flashy spell. But when Lina Inverse puts her brains and her magic to good use, anything’s possible!

I poked my head around the corner and was greeted by a Freeze Arrow. “Yikes!”

I quickly ducked back to let the spell fly past, but now I had an idea of the enemy’s general position. There were two guys at the end of the hallway, one in a room on each side.

Okay, got me a plan! Now let’s put it into action! With that, I turned around and ran back down the stairs!

“Hey! Get back here, cowards!” Luke called from behind us, but I ignored him. I didn’t have time to spell my brilliance out for his benefit.

“Hey, Lina, what’s the plan?” Gourry asked as he ran alongside me.

“Get your sword ready and take out any bad guys you see!” I shouted back simply.

“Huh? But there weren’t any enemies downstairs...”

“Just do it!” I said, and began chanting a spell.

Typical of housing complexes, the layout of the second floor was identical to the third—a long, straight hallway lined with doors. I ran down to the end, opened the last door, and unleashed my spell! “Dam Blas!” I was aiming at the ceiling, of course. Directly up at one of the guys on the floor above.

Crash!

“Bwah!” I could hear a scream over the explosion as a man in black fell to the floor nearby, covered in rubble.

“Oh, I get it now!” Gourry exclaimed, quickly followed by a flash of his sword.

Okay, one down! I began chanting another spell, and in short order... “Dam Blas!”

Crash!

I smashed through the ceiling like I had before. But this time, all I got was rubble... and a man in black staring down at me through the hole I’d created. “Fool! You thought that trick would work twice?” he mocked.

Ha! Who’s the fool here?

Shnk! Dude was met with a sword slash that took him down so fast that it was frankly anticlimactic. He’d moved over after seeing the floor collapse beneath his companion, thinking he’d be dodging an identical attack... But Luke was up on the third floor watching too. He knew the other man in black would move, momentarily distracting him from spellcasting. Luke had taken that opportunity to dash down the hall and cut the dude down while he was still looking down on me through the hole.

“How are things up there?” I asked.

Luke looked around and replied, “I think that’s the last of ’em. No sign of Sherra, though.”

“What?!” I whipped back around and darted up the stairs once more, reconnecting with Team Luke.

Rations and travel bags were scattered around the place. The black cloaks were clearly using this as a base of operations. But Luke was right—Sherra wasn’t here.

“You think they got another hideout somewhere?” he growled in frustration.

Hmm... I glanced over the things in the room once more and said, “I doubt it. I think Sherra was here until just recently.”

“What? She was?!” Luke shouted.

“Do you see some of her belongings?” Mileena asked me.

I shook my head. “No, this stuff clearly all belongs to the men in black. But the quantity suggests there are about ten guys, and we only took four out here. That begs the question—if half the men in black left their base with Sherra, where did they go? And the most likely answer is...”

“Ah!” Luke exclaimed.

“Of course!” Mileena likewise gasped in realization.

Now that they were both on the same page with me, Gourry was the only one still in the dark.

“Yup.” I nodded firmly. “They’re headed for the mountain to the north. To the sword sleeping in the mines of Bezeld.”