Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, Vol. 6 (13 page)

A lot of them are Level 2…but!

Bell hit a group of archers with Firebolt before they had a chance to release their arrows. Taking advantage of their surprise and injuries, Bell dashed in close and took out all three in the blink of an eye.

Bell could hold his own against Level 2 adventurers. He was confident he could take them one-on-one, and that he had the Agility advantage.

He could deal with them as long as he wasn’t pinned down from too many angles at once. A vague plan forming in his head, Bell found the angle where the enemy net was weakest and charged through. At last, there was hope.

“B-Bell, they can’t defend against your Magic. Isn’t that our best option? You can take them down one after the other!”

“No…well, I don’t want to use that if I can help it…”

Bell wanted to keep collateral damage to a minimum, especially since his Magic involved fire. The Western block of Orario was mostly a residential area. If he turned it into a sea of flames, there was no doubt in his mind he would be exiled from Orario no matter how things turned out. Of course, it was always an option in a pinch, but he couldn’t overdo it.

His Swift-Strike Magic gave him the ability to turn the tables at a moment’s notice, but he couldn’t count on it in the middle of the city.

“…?”

The hunters running on the rooftops had individual roles. Some doubled as lookouts and roadblocks to set up advantageous situations for the higher-level attackers.

The sea of enemies around him making Bell slightly dizzy, his ruby-red eyes noticed an emblem on one particular adventurer.

A crescent moon and a wineglass…?

It was not the emblem of the sun worn by members of
Apollo Familia
. This was another group entirely.

The small flicker of hope that had appeared was suddenly snuffed out. There was more than one enemy
Familia
?

Another flashback: the garden last night.

What he had seen from the balcony on the night of the Celebration…

Bell could see the two figures clearly in his mind. A moment later—

Thud!
Something landed right behind him.

“—”

A menacing aura more powerful than anything he felt overtook him.

Ba-dam, ba-dam, ba-dam.
His pulse echoed through his body.

Bell’s instincts instantly screamed,
Don’t show your back to this one!

The boy’s head whipped around. The cold smile of a handsome man was waiting for him.

His battle cloth was mainly white. A longsword and a shortsword hung from his waist, their hilts sticking out of the white cape draped around his shoulders.

Apollo Familia
’s field general, Hyacinthus, bent his knees into an aggressive stance.

“?!”

The man charged at the same time that Bell shoved Hestia into the opening of another side street.

His advance was too fast to follow. All Bell could see was a long rouge blade shining with flaming providence—a flamberge.

The boy managed to draw the Hestia Knife in time to intercept the blade, but the sheer force of impact knocked him off his feet.

“Bell?!”

Hyacinthus denied his opponent a chance to recover and charged forward.

Bell managed to catch a glimpse of the incoming weapon and rolled out of the way, barely dodging the tip of the blade as it hit the stone-paved street beneath him. Jumping back to his feet, Bell withdrew his other knife, Ushiwakamaru, from its sheath and rushed to counterattack.

Hestia’s screams echoed through the back alley as she watched the battle unfold. The two locked blades after only a few seconds of combat.

“I commend you for making it this far, Bell Cranell. I bestow you the honor of facing me—rejoice!”

“Dahh?!”

Hyacinthus spun out of the lock and went back on the offensive. Two knives and one longsword clashed over and over at high speed, sparks flying.

Hestia had fallen silent, her eyes trembling as her ears were overwhelmed by constant metallic echoes. Bell knew there was no escape from this enemy; he had no choice but to engage him head-to-head.

This particular backstreet was very long and narrow. Bell was continuously pressed deeper and deeper down the street in an effort to dodge the oncoming attacks. The true onslaught had begun.

“—”

Bell’s right arm was flung out of the way by the rouge blade’s vicious sweep. By instinct, the boy used that momentum to bring his left arm forward.

The two locked eyes, never blinking. Attacker and defender traded places back and forth instantaneously. Hyacinthus took an aggressive step forward, thrusting his blade directly toward Bell’s chest. The white-haired boy sidestepped just in time and knocked the sword away with one of his own weapons.

Or at least he thought he had. The tip of the sword suddenly connected with his still-outstretched arm. Blood spewed from the wound instantaneously.

“So that’s how it is. You win with speed.”

Hyacinthus’s grin made Bell’s eyes shake with fright.

Bell was wielding two knives, while his enemy had only one longsword. He should have had the advantage. But somehow every one of his strikes was either deflected or blocked outright. Hyacinthus moved as if he knew what was coming. None of Bell’s attacks were getting through.

He wasn’t fast enough to win this contest of Agility.

“?!”

Hyacinthus’s white cape suddenly flashed in front of the boy’s face. Bell’s reaction to the next attack was delayed by just enough to create an opening for attack.

The rouge blade arced through the air and came down hard from above. Bell crossed the blades of the Hestia Knife and Ushiwakamaru to stop the weapon just above his head.

The two knives pressed against the flamberge, and the combatants stared each other down through the cross they formed.

Click, click, click.
The blades shook as their masters tried to press forward. However, the longsword was gaining ground despite Hyacinthus using only one hand.

“You can’t hold it against me for hating you, stealing Lord Apollo’s love as you have…but if that is his will, then I will personally force you into our glorious
Familia
.”

His Strength was overwhelming.

Bell saw his own fear reflected in the eyes of his smiling foe.

—Level 3.

Bell’s thoughts turned to the moment that they first met. The “fight” at the bar where he was unable to defend himself.

Bell pushed off the ground, focusing all of his strength into his arms and neck, and managed to force the rouge blade upward. Bell glared at his assailant.

“UHH
^____
AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH?!”

Bell roared with all of his might as he knocked Hyacinthus’s weapon to the side.

The handsome man took a quick step back to gain some distance. Now was Bell’s chance and he wasn’t going to waste it.

Tensing up every muscle like a bowstring, he launched his body forward—an arrow yearning to hit its target.

“HAAAA!!”

Top speed.

The stone pavement shattered beneath his feet as Bell kicked off the ground. He poured everything he had into this one attack.

This Rabbit Rush, a double-bladed onslaught of high-speed slashes.

He engaged Hyacinthus with a merciless avalanche of strikes. A storm of sparks erupted around them.

“—Slow.”

However.

Hyacinthus didn’t flinch, still grinning.

“—”

Arcs of violet and crimson light continuously pummeled the handsome man.

Every single one of the countless strikes was blocked, just like before. Nothing got through his defense.

The Hestia Knife cut nothing but air, and Ushiwakamaru was stopped in its tracks. Neither one of the blades could make it past the heavily decorated flamberge. Its blade glowed with the intensity of the sun with each swipe. Each impact hit with the veracity of flame. The metal sang out with a high-pitched screech and was accompanied by a shower of sparks every time it hit the Hestia Knife and Ushiwakamaru with incredible force.

It was a special blade, the Solar Flamberge, that only the leader of
Apollo Familia
was allowed to carry.

It moved so fast that Bell’s eyes couldn’t follow, only track the afterimages in its wake.

“Civilized rabbits do not howl.”

Bell saw Hyacinthus smirk just before the man’s entire body became a blur as he picked up speed.

He felt the impacts before he saw them.

The crimson light of Ushiwakamaru’s blade was redirected out to the side at the same moment that the violet Hestia Knife was knocked backward. The blur in front of Bell’s eyes seemed to flow, a truly beautiful technique—both of Bell’s arms looped around his body as if swimming through the air. He couldn’t breathe, and time seemed frozen in place.

Before his eyes could blink, the flamberge slashed from below.

His body’s reflexive retreat wasn’t fast enough this time. Bell’s breastplate was sliced clean in half. The tip of the longsword met flesh, carving its way through skin, muscle, and bone alike in one long, graceful slice. Extreme pain shot through Bell like a wildfire.

—He was hit.

His eyes managed to catch a glimpse of the rouge blade on its top swing.

Suspended in midair and bleeding profusely, Bell didn’t have time to dwell on what had just transpired. Hyacinthus was on top of him once again.

“Gah?!”

The hilt of the man’s weapon connected with Bell’s cheek in a sideways swipe. Jumping forward, Hyacinthus raised his right elbow and brought it down hard.

The elbow hit Bell square in the throat, making his body flinch. He couldn’t even yell out in pain before the man’s fist buried itself in his gut—and was followed up with a spinning kick. Momentarily blinded by his opponent’s boot, the next thing Bell saw was the sky as his back hit the stone pavement.

Hyacinthus came out of his spin, keeping close behind. The man’s golden earrings jiggled as he landed.

“B-Bel…?!”

Hestia’s scream became an inaudible sound before she could finish his name.

Bell’s body didn’t move. He looked like little more than a bloody corpse lying in the street. His chest wound was deep, the still-flowing blood forming a small puddle around his body. Even his face was stained red. At long last, one shaking hand grabbed ahold of the top of the stone. His body lurched to the side as Bell tried his best to sit up.

Hestia was stunned speechless at the sight of her bloodied and broken follower in defeat.

“Ah, gahhh, uwh…?!”

“Still conscious, I see.”

Bell’s vision was blurry as he willed his upper body off the ground. Tears welling up in his ruby-red eyes, he looked up at Hyacinthus.

This was—a second-tier adventurer.

Hyacinthus was an authentic Level 3 adventurer. He didn’t depend solely on his superior Status; his technique and strategy were top notch. This was completely different from facing a monster in combat—there was no time to plan or even use Magic. Trying to charge his Argonaut Skill would be downright suicidal. There was no way Bell could win.

He was outmatched, plain and simple.

As an adventurer, Hyacinthus was in a completely different league.

The feeling of being slammed into the mud in defeat overtook him. Rivers of tears flowed out of his eyes.

Bell had no words as the physical pain and mental anguish raging within him expressed themselves on his face.

“Such a horrendous face, so unlovely…Just what does Lord Apollo see in you?”

“Whuh?!”

Hyacinthus stood over Bell, taunting him before mercilessly kicking him in the ribs.

Unable to defend himself, Bell’s body rolled farther down the street before sliding to a stop in an open intersection.

“Stop this at once!”

Hyacinthus did not respond to or even look at Hestia as he approached Bell.

“I have sworn my body and soul to him. Only I am worthy of his affection…The rabbit shall be captured.”

The man’s words were laced with jealousy as he crouched down in front of the boy.

“…Can’t have you causing a fuss. You’ll be healed no matter what I do to you, so a few severed tendons won’t make much difference.”

Smiling like a man possessed, Hyacinthus rotated the flamberge in his left hand and pointed the tip at Bell’s face. Fear flashed through the boy’s eyes.

Hestia was running to his aid, but she wouldn’t make it in time.

The rouge blade flicked upward and was about to swing down onto Bell’s shoulder when suddenly—

Several arrows pierced the stone pavement where Hyacinthus had been standing just a moment ago.

“What?”

He had dodged the sneak attack by the skin of his teeth. Bell and Hestia were just as surprised by the sudden turn of events.

All three of them looked to find where they came from. In the distance, a little ways off of West Main, was an old, run-down bell tower. It was very faint, but there was the shadow of an archer holding a longbow on top of the roof.

An extremely long-range attack executed with pinpoint accuracy—“A sniper?” Hyacinthus muttered to himself. “Chienthrope…”

Hyacinthus narrowed his eyes just as the next round of arrows was released.