Volume 1, Chapter 9: 2 vs 5

*****

With Master's permission, Araia and I went to where the elves are to see if we were dealing with a friend...or a foe...

"..."

"Tsuyosa?"

"You feel it too, don't you?"

"I thought I was the only one who noticed it"

"Who do you take me for? Anyways, you know what to do"

"I know, I know"

After we arrived from the scene, the elves that was caught on to the trap were gone

"Eh? And here I thought I've made the trap pretty deep..."

"Looks like your trap failed then"

"How dare you! My traps never fail!"

Suddenly, an arrow was heading behind me, a fire arrow at that

"That was close, wasn't it?"

"I already saw it coming from far away"

"You really don't show much emotion huh?"

"Less talking and more on paying attention, they're about to attack"

"I know. That's what we've been sensing earlier"

Before we entered the scene, Araia and I already knew that the elves aren't in the trap. Their auras were scattered around the forest, as if they were circling us 

Lots of fire arrows rushed in towards us. With an ease we dodged them all, until some vines showed up beneath our feet, making our whole body unable to move

The next thing happened to us was the elves casted a spell that makes our bodies heavier than usual. It was no doubt a dark elemental magic of some sort

"Araia, are they, by any chance...?"

"High Elves. No doubt"

High Elves...strong and rare race among races...not only they possess high intelligence, but they also have all elemental magic at their disposal. They're said to be veterans at targeting their prey from long distances

This kind of spell that they stacked upon us was well thought out and they're definitely not underestimating us, but...

"Looks like our plan worked, Eris"

"It seems so, they should be unable to move at that rate"

"But still, was it necessary to do two binding spells? I feel like one is enough..."

"You don't underestimate the enemy, Casty. We don't know how powerful they are after all"

"Always so uptight!"

The long haired ponytail girl looks like the one in charge. Her name's Eris, wasn't it?

"Are you done talking?"

"Hm? Yes. You two seem to be calm despite the fact that you can't move at all"

"We're not the type to panic in these kinds of situations sadly, sorry to burst your bubble"

"That's fine, you'll be dead anyways"

"Oh?"

Araia and I looked up as we saw combined spells of thunder, wind, fire, water, earth, light and dark magic that was targeted at us

"That's rather a big spell they did huh, Tsuyosa?"

"Its just big, I bet Master can do a better, powerful one than that"

"If that so called Master of yours is that strong, then why isn't that person in here?"

Who's this pigtailed hairstyle girl? Does she want to die along with those words?

"Us two are enough to beat you. As a matter of fact, I alone can beat you"

"Hey! I can beat them alone too you know!"

"You talk big for someone who's binded right now! Arisa, Blaire, do it!"

The combined spell rained down on us, giving us no time to react...

...

"Did we get them?"

"There's no way we'd miss, Eris"

"I know that, but..."

...

The dust cleared up, showing the result of the battle

"They're gone..."

"Haha! Completely vaporized!"

"..."

"Is something wrong, Dalia?"

"They might be gone...but I can still feel their aura..."

"Eh?! What?! That's impossible! They couldn't move at all!"

"I know, we've seen it with our own eyes...but-"

"That was rather quite a powerful spell, but I doubt that'll hurt us to be honest"

"!"

"H-how are you-"

"Alive? Is that what you wanted to ask?"

"..."

In the first place, neither Araia nor I were fighting them. We weren't the ones who went to the scene first, and weren't the ones who got caught in their trap. The one that they caught was-

"Illusion skill. You've been fighting with our illusion this whole time"

"W-what?! Hey, Dalia, why weren't you able to detect it?!"

"I simply couldn't...their auras were hidden enough for me not being able to detect the real ones. Moreover..."

"Moreover...?"

"This is the same aura that I felt when we fought them earlier!"

"H-Huh?! What's the meaning of this?!"

"God Tier Illusion Skill...it's said to be the most advanced illusion skill, can also fool even the most powerful races..."

"If they have that Eris, then does that mean-"

"Yes, she's a Shadow Weaver Arachne"

"B-But aren't Shadow Weaver Arachnes already ceased to exist?! Why is there one here?!"

"They should've been...but the only thing I could think of is..."

The girl named Eris looked at me as she questioned something

"Hey, who's your Master?"

"..."

"Won't even going to answer that, huh?"

If that girl named Casty didn't badmouthed my Master, I would've answered. I wanted to kill that girl in an instant, but I don't want Master to get angry at me. That's why I'm doing this instead

"I'll tell you, but before that, I got a little challenge for you..."

"Challenge...?"

I then activated my Arch Dragon Aura, dominating the area within me. It was enough to bring fear to the High Elves infront of me to drop to their knees

"That aura! S-shes...an Arch Dragon?!"

"No wonder they're powerful!"

"I can't even move...wait...I'm shaking?!"

Poor Eris, she doesn't even know herself that she's having fear right now

"If you can defeat me, I'll tell you the name of my Master. How about it?"

"Ridiculous! We don't even care-"

"Just to let you know, I don't stand for mockery against my Master"

*Gulp!* *Pant* *pant*

Hm? That girl Casty looks like she's about to faint at any moment now...not that I care at all...

...try to make a mess and make a mockery of my Master, and I'll kill you!

My Arch Dragon Aura starts to get heavier and heavier as I unintentionally leaked out my anger towards them

"Tsuyosa, he'll get mad at you if I told him about this you know"

"*Ahck!*"

I quickly deactivated my aura after Araia's statement

"This is just between us, okay?"

"*Sigh* I get it"

Suddenly, a fireball was launched towards us. We dodged it with an ease

"Were those two really expecting us to not notice that?"

"That was likely a distraction to buy some time"

"Buy some time...?"

After the dust cleared up, the elves were gone, hiding between the trees to strike again

"They never learn, huh?"

"Don't let your guard down, Araia"

"I know, I got it"

A barrage of fire arrows in all directions attacked us at the same time. Making it difficult for anyone to dodge them...but...

"That should got them..."

"Not quite"

"?!"

Using my hidden needles skill, I created a barrier for us to deflect the arrows

"If you can't dodge it, then confront it they say"

"I felt like you got lazy just dodging them and went with the laziest option..."

"Shouldn't had included you in my barrier in the first place then"

"Not like I wanted to be in one!"

"If that doesn't work, Arisa, Blaire, the binding spell!"

And once again, they binded us with vines and dark magic making us unable to move 

"Oh, we got caught up again"

"You think?!"

The three elves showed up to us once again

"Dalia, this isn't an illusion we've caught, right?"

"I believe so, illusion spell especially god tier one costs a lot of essence to cast. The Arachne doesn't have that much essence anymore, I can tell"

"High Elves really are intelligent, huh Tsuyosa?"

"Of course they are, they're also that excellent at elemental magic"

The girl Eris walked towards us as they prepared to cast another combined spell on us

"I'm surprised that you're still calm. But I'm sorry, you made Casty broke down over there, so I'll have you pay the price"

So that girl really broke down? Well, she deserved it...

"You two may be an Arch Dragon and a Shadow Weaver Arachne, but I doubt even you guys can withstand this spell"

"That's nothing to us, right, Tsuyosa?"

"..."

"...Tsuyosa?"

"...yes...maybe..."

"D-don't tell me!-"

"Hope you've prepared for the worst!"

"H-hey w-wait!"

The combined spell rained down upon us once again as we took the blow from it...

*****

End of Volume 1, Chapter 9