Act 2-42 - Marty's Trap

Chapter 42 : Marty’s Trap

「… I’m ill suited for frontal battle since my fighting spirit is low dammit. I’m just a fu*cking scout for god sake, not an all-rounder fighter.」

Heidar turned around to face the other adventurers as he told those jokes which seemingly aimed for himself.

Though he seems to be fighting a hard fight too, Heidar could foresee his opponent’s move with the power of his 《Prognostication Short Sword; Gjallarhorn》.

Heidar wouldn’t miss even the slightest chance to finish off his opponent during the peak of the battle.

Almost at the same time as Heidar and co’s fight had ended, Edda’s sword pierced through Dig’s abdomen.

Dig tried to stand up again with a dagger in his hand while vomiting blood from his mouth but… it seems his body has finally reached its limit, and he dropped down to his knees.

「E—Eh? W-why is my body… feels so weak?」

It seems that’s the end of him.

The moment I thought that the fight had already ended… the only remaining member of the grey cult suddenly abandoned his battle and ran toward another direction into the demon labyrinth.

The adventurers who were fighting him were also stunned for a moment upon seeing their opponent runnin with his tail between his legs.

As long as the one who just escaped isn’t an environmentalist, there should be no reason to go after him.

I mean, it was pretty much impossible for him to leave this floor by himself, and in a wounded state on top of that.

And here I thought that those lunatics would rather die in a fight than die while running away from their opponent and yet…

The first one to move was Heidar.

Even though his body was covered with wounds, he was chasing after the last grey cult member as fast as he could.

「YOU FOOLS! THAT GUY IS GOING TO KILL THE HOSTAGES! GO AFTER HIM QUICKLY!」

The adventurers with least wound were running at once upon hearing Heidar’s reminder.

Edda stayed where she stood, propping up her body with her enchanted sword as she tried to adjust her ragged breath.

It seems Dig managed to land a few hits on her, preventing her from moving right after the battle.

「Aiming… for the hostage?」

Where was the logic in that?

I didn’t think it was for retaliation, it didn’t seem like he did it because he couldn’t beat his opponent or simply just to save his own life.

「I-It should be alright, that man is wounded too… he won’t be able to move in a while! Moreover, the fact that he went to kill the hostages as soon as he saw that they failed means that there’s no one watching over the hostages right now!」

The other adventurers said to me.

Sure enough… that was one of the possibilities.

Moreover, someone amongst the adventurers seems to grasp the full situation.

「This will be… the end of those lunatics from the grey cult. Now we just need to go back. Well, we might be glared at by the army for a while after this thought…」

It would be fine if things were that simple but… just when I looked away from the one who spoke before while pondering, it happened.

「Uhm… I guess this is the time huh.」

Standing a little bit away from us, the real mediator of this commission, Childick spoke while seemingly pondering about something.

After that, he grabbed his enchanted sword, and walked toward us.

A magic circle deployed in front of Childick.

「C-Childick-san, wha—」

「EVERYONE GET AWAY!」

Mani tackled me while warning everyone.

Red aura was visibly rising from her body.

She used 《Ogre Fighting Spirit》.

Since she tackled me from point-blank range, I was sent flying behind.

「《Needle Storm》!」

Childick shouted.

Five-huge stone needle was fired toward our direction.

Flesh and blood was dancing in the air as I saw two adventurers get their flank and thigh ripped by the stone needles.

That stone needle also grazed Mani who tried to protect me on her back. She was bleeding heavily as the needle tore her clothes and skin.

「M-MANI…!」

「H-HIII! W-WHAT ARE YOU DO—!」

The other environmentalist who we brought along, the youth called Ciel who stood beside Childick raised a scream upon seeing this situation.

Childick slashed Ciel without even hestitated for a second with his enchanted sword.

Blood sprayed from the deep gash in Ciel’s chest, painting the ground with red color.

I opened my eyes in surprise.

There was no need to confirm his condition, Ciel had already died.

Childick was licking his lips, then he turned around and escaped immediately.

At that moment, I still couldn’t comprehend what had just happened.

But, I knew that what we feared the most had happened.

Childick, he was the spy of the army.

Heidar had told me before that a few adventurers had been going in and out of the army’s hq.

They might be looking for adventurers that could be put under their control.

At that moment, the army might’ve already predicted that the adventurers would be working together to subjugate the grey cult.

No… by the time Childick became the negotiator for this mission, we, Gamdon’s Suicide Squad had already been dancing on top of their palm.

Their goal was to make the adventurers do their job to subjugate the grey cult which they couldn’t do due to the existence of the hostage.

In addition… In case the adventurers managed to rescue the hostages, which would put Magus assistant Marty’s standing in jeopardy since the one who moved when the city was facing a crisis was the adventurers, they planned to fish in the cloudy water.

And then, they might have said something along the lines of, “The adventurers who want to raise achievement went on for their own convenience which resulted in the hostages being killed along with the adventurers by the grey cult during their fight.” to the citizens.

Though nothing would happen if the army didn’t make their move, they intended to shirk their duty to the adventurers that they’re looking down to when the worst comes to worst.

In the first place, the adventurers were no match against the army when it came to information warfare.

The same goes for the company who was involved with them.

As a result, from the very beginning, the army had no need to subjugate, nor did they need to make their move or respond to the negotiation’s offer from the grey cult, they could just dump the blame on the adventurers.

Mani was back on her knees after confirming that I was safe, she sent a cold piercing glare at Childick and threw the 《Evil Spirit’s Battle Hammer; Gadras》 toward him.

Thanks to the increased physical strength from 《Ogre Fighting Spirit》, 《Evil Spirit’s Battle Hammer; Gadras》 was flying in the straight line and grazed Childick’s hip.

Mani let out a bitter smile, and then sat down on the ground.

「GUH…! YOU BI*TCH!」

Though Childick was glaring at Mani with an anguished look on his face, in the end, he turned around and continued to run.

Mani was looking up at me while placing both of her hands to the ground.

「Dean… you mustn’t kill that guy. He just killed Ciel-san… which makes him the only environmentalist left! Even though we’ve managed to come this far, now everyone is going to die slowly due to miasma in this place!」

Yes… the only one who could purify miasma in the demon labyrinth was Ciel and Childick.

It wouldn’t be a problem if our location was at the shallow part of the 4th floor but, we’re currently in the deep part of the 4th floor.

Returning from this location to the 3rd floor without an environmentalist was pretty much impossible.

「A, yeah, I understand! I’ll drag him back even if I’ve to tear his limbs!」

I unsheathed 《Demon Eater Sword; Beelzera》 and went after Childick immediately.

Though I wasn’t in perfect condition… I was the only one who could move properly amongst the rest of us.

「Tch! it seems things getting troublesome again!」

Edda adjusted her stance and pulled out the enchanted sword that she used to prop her body, and ran toward my direction.

Even though she has a lot of wounds on her body, Edda’s top speed could catch up with higher-level opponents for a while.

The situation might not be so bad if I fought alongside Edda but… Dig, who should’ve already died, suddenly stood on his feet again, blocking Edda’s path.

「Where are you going… white-haired woman, I’m still alive you know? Hehehehehehe! Ye ave’ yet to kill me! Seeing the internal discord between ye people is so much fun. Now, dance with me again…」

Dig let out an unpleasant smile on his face.

This bastard… a mad dog even when he was on the verge of dying.

But, it seems he is just mustering the last bit of his strength to stand after seeing Childick’s betrayal.

He really was a nasty guy through and through.

I guess… I had no choice but to go after Childick on my own.

Childick was a skilled adventurer, he mastered close combat and support skills as rear guard aside from his main job as an environmentalist.

To make matters worse… I was on the verge of exhaustion and couldn’t use magic that used too much mana such as 《Petit Dimordi》.

On top of that, Childick was barely fighting since he had to do his job as an environmentalist, and I had to catch him alive under such severe conditions.

It was the worst situation but… I couldn’t afford to give up.