Chapter 45
Lydon couldn’t be dealt with in a rational and reasonable way. Even if they managed to secure Van in a fierce fight, there would be countless obstacles on their way out of the forest.
So they would have to match Lydon's level of thinking.
“Yah, Lydon.”
Cadel recalled the electric current he'd gathered to draw attention to himself and moved the imprisoned Aiden in front of him.
As Lydon's gaze settled on the imprisoned Aiden, Cadel stroked the wind that held him captive and smiled meaningfully.
“Let’s play a game.”
“Game?”
“I'm going to let your friend go now.”
Lydon tilted his head. There was no need or reason to do so.
“In exchange, your friend must fly hard on one severed wing and seek help from your kind. A strong intruder has harmed me, so kill him, please.”
“……Um?”
‘It's not a game, it's just giving up your life, isn't it?’, Lydon's quizzical face seemed to ask.
Of course, he didn't.
Cadel turned to face Lydon, his head jerked upright.
“That's the game's time limit. Until the time your friend safely asks for help and the reinforcements arrive. When the time limit is over…… Well, the odds are high, I'll die.”
“What will you do during that time?”
“I’ll run away. Taking my two cute little subordinates with me back there.”
Interest flickered in Lydon's eyes, and he turned fully toward Cadel.
“Hoo. Who's chasing you? Me, of course?”
“Of course it’s you. Instead, there are rules. You mustn't kill us while chasing us. Neither do we. I will never touch Aiden who is running away.”
“I can't kill you?”
“We're all going to die when the time limit is up and the reinforcements come anyway, and you can either hold us until it's over, or keep us from getting out of the forest. And for us, we just need to avoid you and get out of the forest until the time limit is up. Ah, and no illusion magic, either. Let's be honest and only use attack magic, shall we? Should be fun, right?”
Minimal damage, maximum survival chance.
To wring that kind of efficiency out of this crazy fairy, Cadel had to take a crazy gamble. An offer that capitalized on his maniacal obsession with fun and his innate whims. If Lydon didn't accept, there would be no avoiding a head-on collision.
Cadel stared at Lydon, his nervousness evident. Lydon rolled his eyes for a moment as if thinking about the rules of the game, and then grinned broadly.
“Sounds like fun!”
“Right? Then―”
“Instead, I'll add a rule of my own.”
“……What?”
Lydon's long finger pointed to Van, who was still bound to the tree.
“That human will remain asleep while you run away. Wouldn't that make you more desperate?”
Perverted bastard. Cadel gritted his teeth and subtly reduced the range of [Wind Prison], then lifted Aiden, who screamed under the pressure, into the air.
“All right, I accept. It starts in 10 seconds. You start the chase in 1 minute.”
“All right!”
No sooner had Lydon answered than Lumen cut the vines that bound Van. Quickly taking him, Lumen moved to Cadel's side.
“Leader. Are you okay?”
It was a subtle look. A look that said he thought Cadel's offer was outrageous, but that he had no intention of not going along with it.
Cadel took Lumen's arm and backed away from Lydon a little.
“It doesn't matter, because if I don't, I die.”
The penalty for failure was the same. The tutorial from when he first possessed and the fight with the witch were all the same.
Do it or die. If you didn't want to die, you had to do it.
Cadel's eyes softened.
“Let's take a run.”
The odds were 50 to 50. No one could guarantee the future.
‘If Lumen and I, with one carrying Van, move separately, the target will be dispersed, so one might be able to escape safely. Judging from what I'm doing, Lydon will be aiming for me, so I might be able to guarantee safety for Van and Lumen.’
But Lydon's personality was unpredictable. Even when Cadel was hallucinating, Lydon killed Van because he wanted to see him suffer rather than fight, so it was possible that he'd attack Lumen and Van again to see Cadel suffer.
‘Besides, we're in the Forest of Enchantment, and as that guy said, as long as he’s here, the magic of the fairies is chantless and instant cast. We don't know what range of attack he might have, and he might have set a trap. If we scatter hastily, we may be torn apart.’
For a brief moment, Cadel's head spun. After a moment's consideration, he turned to Lumen, who was running alongside him.
“Until the inevitable happens, we'd better move together. Don't fall off.”
Lumen was still carrying the unconscious Van. His body stirred with their rapid pacing, but he still showed no sign of waking up. Some sort of sleep spell must have been cast on him.
“Even if the inevitable happens, we must move together. If either of us gets stuck in this forest, we won't make it out alive.”
“But if…….”
“Don't be ridiculous, Leader. Don't even think about sacrificing yourself. Don't even have the ridiculous expectation that I'll choose this annoying bastard over Leader and run away with him.”
Lumen's answer was firm. His eyes were as determined as his voice, and Cadel could only nod meekly. If the roles had been reversed, Cadel would not have wanted Lumen's sacrifice either. He would not have accepted it.
‘For now, we must aim for the whole party to survive.’
A minute must have passed in which Lydon's actions were restricted. This was his territory. If he fumbled, he’d die like a prey in a swamp without a single plausible defiance.
“You're better at detecting presence, so even if it's hard, keep being alert to the surroundings. I'm sorry, but I don't have enough mana left, so I don't have the strength to set up a barrier while running away.”
“I can dodge anything that fly throws at me. Save your barrier for youself.”
Well, he was a jerk, but he was reliable.
Cadel examined the branches of the lush trees on either side. Through the passing trees, he could see black clothes tied at intervals. Those were the marks Cadel had left one by one, tearing his robe apart, when he entered the forest again to find Van. It was not hard to find an exit if he followed that sign.
‘With illusion magic banned, there's no risk of getting stuck in the same place over and over again. With proper defense, it's not impossible to get out of here.’
It was when he thought so and gathered his mana so that he could defend himself at any time.
Rumble—
In front of them, a huge ‘ice wall’ rose up, completely blocking the road on the other side.
‘He’s here!’
Cadel fired a fireball straight at the wall. Despite the powerful attack, the ice wall only dented and showed no signs of collapsing. Their bodies tilted as they slowed to a halt. Cadel clicked his tongue at the blocked path and quickly turned around.
And there.
“Found ya!”
Flapping two pairs of wings as long and colorful as his massive body, Lydon flew toward them at terrifying speed. His red eyes glowed, leaving a red afterimage following the movement. Cadel shuddered slightly as he spotted him.
“Creepy *sshole.”
They were found quicker than expected. With both hands outstretched toward Lydon, Cadel cast a new attribute, Lightning Magic.
Dozens of strands of electric currents flowed from his fingertips, spreading forward. The thin currents quickly became entangled, turning into a net. An annoying skill that restricted an enemy's movement and inflicted debuffs such as paralysis and burns. [Electric Shock Net].
Lydon rose to avoid the attack, and Cadel followed him, increasing the area of the net, calling out.
“There's no time for the side road. Break the wall!”
It was impenetrable, even by fireballs. He couldn't afford to waste his last bit of mana trying to break down the wall.
At Cadel's command, Lumen threw Van away and put his hand on the handle of the sword. What he was preparing was [Moonlight Swift Sword]. He hadn't reached a high enough level yet, so he couldn't even kill the presence perfectly. However.
‘You don't have to hide your presence to break down walls.’
Power alone was enough. With his back to Cadel, Lumen began to perform his sword drawing technique.
“The fact that you're a multi-attribute magician, it's really fun!”
Cadel added the power of the wind to the [Electric Shock Net] to chase Lydon's movements. Impressed by the speed of the air, which matched his own flight speed, Lydon laughed merrily and sent a huge ice sphere flying toward the net.
It was just a huge and heavy block of ice with no explosive or destructive power. However, it was perfect for crashing a net woven with electricity.
Unable to withstand the weight of the ice sphere, the net dropped to the floor. With a grimace, Cadel dismissed the spell.
“It's grossly annoying, S grade!”
Of all things, it was more troublesome because he was a magician.
‘I need to buy time, at least until Lumen breaks the wall.’
He didn't think that Lumen couldn’t break it. Cadel trusted Lumen and prepared a second spell, this one aimed at Lydon as he descended toward them again.
‘I’ll go with my most confident attack. I'm most confident…… with my original skill.’
This skill was the most significant harvest of his lessons with Mamil in 15 days. He was so pleased when he learned it that he spent days and days thinking of a new name for it. Mamil, of course, criticized the name as pretentious and unnecessary, but what could he expect from a mercenary corps whose name was also Scarlet Scales.
“This is the first time I use it aside from practice……. So nervous.”
The corner of Cadel's mouth twitched upward as he swallowed dryly, and in response to his coy smile, Lydon with a maniacal grin flew into close range.
And just when his big grip was violently reaching out as if to devour Cadel's face.
“……Um? What the hell is this?”
Dozens of fireballs in the shape of butterflies surrounded Lydon. A tiny butterfly, less than half a centimeter across. After a moment of confusion, Lydon absentmindedly touched one of the fluttering butterflies, and Cadel laughed at him, the happiest he'd been since entering the forest.
“Let's blow off some steam!”
The name of the skill was [Fire Butterfly Dream].
That was the name to be called in public, and in private, Cadel called the skill ‘a chain explosive device that had been made pretty for now’.
This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦