Apostle of the Gods

36 – Assault

Suddenly, from the right side of Rosetta who was walking at the front, a human figure donning black clothes rushed in at high speed.
The face was hidden with a mask, and held a black-bladed dagger in their hand.
The mask was the same as the ones I fought when I first met Tina.
It was the Tenebris Cult.

「Eh?」
She must have dropped her guard since we were already halfway towards the Royal Capital.
Rosetta’ reaction was delayed.
But Arti who was behind Rosetta, leapt forward in a single jump, and slashed her sword at the human figure.
If it was a regular person, that slash was too fast to dodge. However, the human figure dodged it by breaking their posture.
As Arti tried to follow-up with a second attack towards the human figure that had broken their posture, throwing knives flew towards Arti from her side.
Arti easily deflected those knives with her sword, but by that time the human figure who lost their posture was already running away.
It was wonderful teamwork.

「Eh, what just happened?」
Tina was surprised and halted her movement; at that time another human figure jumped over at her.
The weapons and appearance were the exact same as the one that attacked Rosetta.

I forced my way in between the human figure and Tina, and kicked the hand that was holding the dagger.

As I tried to pursue the human figure who flinched from the attack,
—-GOOOOOOH
A huge fireball appeared right behind us.
The colour of the fire was white and its diameter was about three meters.
I abandoned the pursuit and set up a barrier to protect my allies.
The barrier completely prevented the heat from the fireball from radiating inside.
Outside the barrier, the soil was melted by the heat and looked like magma.
It just speaks to the incredible power of the fireball. We wouldn’t have escaped unscathed without the barrier.

I looked around the surrounding, but couldn’t locate the mage who fired the magic.
The fireball was likely fired while simultaneously using presence hiding magic.
I concluded that it was a fairly high-ranking mage.

「It was quite a powerful fireball, but leave the defence against offensive magic to me.」 I said in a loud voice to Arti and the rest.

Those who attacked with the dagger earlier were just decoys. The fireball was the real attack. They were quite well prepared.
There is no doubt that they gathered and prepared all these people after confirming that we left the academy.

In this case, it would be best to defeat the enemy mage first.
The tactic of the masked warriors seems to be to attack and withdraw; skilfully cooperating with each other and toying with the enemy.
They have amazing dexterity. Even Arti was having a hard time to cut them down.
Rosetta, who said she wasn’t suited to fighting, was now displaying good movements.
She pulled out her dagger to defend against the enemy’s slash, and nimbly hopped up and dodged another slash.
If she can increase the distance wide enough, she can shoot with her bow. It was a skilful movement.

However, the situation gets worse and worse.
The number of enemy masked warriors which was two in the beginning, have now increased to eight.

Even when I tried to help, I get attacked by the masked men.
When I try to kick them, they nimbly jump backwards and create distance.
As I tried to pursue them, another masked man aimed at Tina from behind.

Tina used a variety of offensive magic to attack the masked men, but none of it has dealt a fatal wound thus far.
They were pretty troublesome opponents who are specialised in assassination by groups.

「This is bad!」
「Calm down, this is no problem」

The moment, I shouted a response to Rosetta’s screaming voice.
A tempest magic was shot.
It is the kind of storm where you can’t stand again properly if you took it head on.
Inside that storm, magic blades were dancing boisterously. If we get caught in that, we would be sliced into fine pieces.

Although it can be prevented with a barrier, it was very large and requires a barrier in all directions.
It’s very troublesome.

I shook my right hand vigorously and shot out a tempest that was more powerful than the enemy’s.
My tempest countered the enemy’s storm, and then it entrapped the enemies inside it and minced them up.

「Gaaa」
The mage who had hidden their presence was no exception either.
They got caught in my tempest, became bloodied, and their presence was exposed.

Since I have begun counterattack with magic, I have to kill every single one of the enemies quickly.
It will be troublesome if some of them escape and bring back this information back to their base.

I used magic to find the people who were hiding nearby.
A further ten people were staying concealed. I will not let a single one escape.
I shot magic bullets at them.

「Gyaaah」
All the enemies in the vicinity, including the ones who were concealing themselves, were killed.
The moment I thought that, the fallen mage charged at me.
The mage seemed to have been playing dead.

「PIGIIII!」
Fluffy jumped off my shoulder and hit the feet of the mage.
The mage, whose legs were entangled by Fluffy, tumbled down to the front.
And the baby goat rushed there.
「MEEEEEEE!」

The mage was in a state where his feet were tied up. Thus, the baby goat served a powerful head-butt to his belly.
He could not reduce the shock by jumping back.
The rumbling sound of bones breaking can be heard and the mage fell on his back.
The mage started spouting blood from his mouth.
「Thank you, Fluffy and baby goat」
「Pigi」「Mee」

Both Fluffy and the baby goat looked happy.
I approached the mage. It is certain that he was dead.
However, he might still have some kind of clues hidden.
Just to make sure, I investigated the surroundings with magic one more time. There were no enemy survivors.
I should have left one or two of them alive to be able to interrogate them.
「I’m sorry to ask this, but please place everyone else besides this mage in one place」
「Understood!」「Yes」「Alright」

Rosetta, Arti and Tina, promptly started moving.
The baby goat and Fluffy curiously followed me.

I removed the mask off of the mage. His face was covered in the vomited blood before.
I already knew he was dead when I checked with magic, but due to habit, I checked for a pulse in the neck.
There was no pulse at all; the heartbeat and breathing were completely stopped.
So, I investigated inside the pocket for weapons and belongings.

「There is nothing useful…」
The weapon was likely doused in poison at an ordinary store. Even the poison which was used is a common rat poison that was sold in normal stores.
There was nothing special about any of his other belongings either.
Even the mask is manufactured with a black cloth which can be bought at any store. They were thorough in not leaving behind any clues.

「Arti, in such cases, what do you do with the corpses?」
Such cases mean cases after which they fight with the Tenebris Cult.

「If there doesn’t seem to be anything that can serve as a clue, you can just burn it」

As I gave up and tried to burn the corpses, the mage’s corpse began to bounce and enlarge.