About three hours had passed since the chaos began.
The streets were a chaotic theater of cat-and-mouse between the city’s defenders and the attackers. Ryoma, navigating the pitch-black lanes in a small boat propelled by magic, suddenly sensed something and glanced back. He immediately turned his focus forward and surged ahead.
"What is it?" Yudum asked.
"The slimes I stationed at the laundry shop and the waste processing plant have reacted. It looks like they’re under attack."
"At a time like this? Do you need to head back?"
"There are too many other places that need help right now. It seems the enemies who were lying in wait have finally begun to move in earnest."
Ryoma pulled a test-tube-like container from his jacket, downed the mana recovery potion in a single gulp, and poured mana into the slimes that had assimilated with the muddy torrent carrying the boat. The craft lunged forward with renewed speed.
"Fei and the others are at the shop, and we’ve already made preparations to protect the non-combatants. If we’re late responding to the fires elsewhere, we’ll be playing right into the enemy's hands. More importantly, are you ready for a fight?"
"Always."
"Then we’re charging straight in!"
Immediately after Ryoma’s declaration, the small boat skidded into the fire scene ahead like a car spinning out on a frozen road. It slammed into several members of a group that appeared to be adventurers attacking the volunteer firefighters.
"Whoa! Even in an emergency, I wish you’d give me a slightly more graceful exit!" Yudum complained.
Leaping from the boat a split second before impact, Yudum landed and immediately floored a nearby attacker with a heavy punch.
The city’s turmoil showed no sign of receding; this skirmish was merely the tip of the iceberg.
At the same time, on the street facing the Bamboo Forest laundry shop, the security head, Ox, stood facing about twenty adventurers. A heavy, ominous silence hung between the two groups.
"Look, we just came to help guard the place. A kid named Ryoma requested it," one of the adventurers claimed.
"I have received no such report," Ox replied calmly. "You should leave."
"The city is a mess; the messages must be delayed. Just check with your superiors."
"There is nothing to check. The shop owner himself informed me that the defense of this building is entrusted solely to me. He made it clear that no reinforcements would be sent, and that he would not be returning tonight."
"Look, orders can chan—"
"Enough of this."
From the back of the group, an adventurer drew his sword.
"H-hey!" another hissed.
"Shut up. We were going to end up doing this anyway. It would’ve been easier if he’d just opened the door, but since he won't, we’ll just have to kill him."
"Y-yeah... we don't have time to argue. It’ll be a mess if the guards show up."
At the man's signal, the others readied their weapons. The light spilling from the shop windows reflected off their blades with a cold, predatory glint.
Ox watched them, his expression unreadable. "I believe I heard the word 'kill.' Do you truly believe you can kill me?"
"Hah! You might be some Former Arena Champion, but what can you do with only one arm? You can’t even use those twin swords of yours properly anymore. Surrounded by these numbers, you’re an easy mark! Get him!"
The men swarmed Ox all at once. The first to strike was the man who had given the order. He raised his sword high and swung it toward Ox's right shoulder.
The blade never reached its target. With a sharp, metallic ring, it shattered.
Ox stood there, having drawn his sword in the blink of an eye. He held the blade high in a reverse grip, blocking the blow with effortless precision.
"What...?"
"Your training is insufficient," Ox remarked.
"Gah!?"
Ox shifted his sword back to a standard grip mid-air. He swung the machete-like blade down onto the man’s shoulder. It was a strike with the back of the blade—a blow of pure mass and gravity. The simple pauldron the attacker wore stood no chance. His collarbone shattered instantly, and the shockwave rattled his lungs.
The man let out a strangled groan and collapsed, crawling away with only his left hand.
Ox didn't spare him a second glance. Parrying a spear thrust from his side, he slid into the spearman's guard and snapped the man's wrist with a single motion. When a knife-wielder lunged at his back, Ox stepped forward, rotated his body, and smashed the man’s arm aside before driving the pommel of his sword into the man’s jaw.
The impact sent the attacker flying as if he’d been hit by a runaway carriage.
In a matter of seconds, three men were down. The sight made the remaining attackers freeze.
"What is the matter? Are you not coming?" Ox asked. "I have lost my left arm, but I can still wield a sword with my right. Surely you came here prepared for at least that much?"
"Tch! All at once! Surround him! He can't defend against all of us with one hand!"
"How laughable."
The men surged forward again, but their charge was cut short by a second blade.
Flying from its scabbard as if possessed, the sword swept in a wide, fan-like arc across the street before curving back to hover near Ox’s empty left side.
"The sword... it’s floating!"
"Dammit! Magic!?"
"He's a beastman! He shouldn't have that much mana! He’ll run dry in no time!"
"In that case," Ox said, "I shall simply end this quickly."
Ox took the initiative for the first time. He sent his left-side sword flying into the center of the mob to disrupt them while he charged the man on the far right. He parried a desperate strike with his right hand as the returning left blade slammed into the man's temple.
Ox had never been able to let go of his obsession with the sword, even after losing his limb. This technique was a desperate invention, but after meeting Ryoma and receiving a steady supply of mana recovery potions, he had overcome the limitations of his mana capacity. His endurance and technical mastery had reached levels he had never dreamed possible.
"H-help me!"
"You monster—whoa!"
"Agh!"
Controlled by mana, the floating sword had a far greater reach than any hand-held weapon. Ox used this advantage to keep the mob at bay, methodically picking off anyone who became isolated.
"I won't... let you...!" one man roared, launching a suicidal charge. Ox parried the blow with delicate grace before repelling it with the sheer power of his right arm.
An offensive left and a defensive right—the two swords danced around him like a whirlwind, drawing the enemies into a meat grinder.
By the time half of them were incapacitated, unable to even get close, one man standing at the rear began to gather mana in his palm.
"Fire Bo—!?"
The spell never fired.
"What is... a needle? Ugh..." The man clutched his shoulder, his mana dispersing. He stared at the thin, needle-like object embedded in his skin. Within seconds, intense pain and numbness surged through his arm.
"What happened? What’s with this smoke!?" another shouted.
Before they knew it, thick smoke had billowed up behind them, shrouding the street in a blinding haze. In a city currently plagued by fires, the smell of smoke wasn't unusual, but the attackers suddenly realized that they were trapped within a specific pocket of it.
It was clearly artificial, but the realization came too late.
"Crap—"
"Gwah!"
"Who’s there!? Show yourself!"
Needles hissed out of the gloom, piercing limbs and dropping men where they stood. The attackers tried to trace the trajectory of the needles, but then two figures lunged out of the haze.
Dolce and Fei, the shop's other security guards, had entered the fray.
Dolce slammed his spear into a man's head before vanishing back into the smoke. Fei appeared silently behind another, restrained him, and dragged him into the darkness. While the survivors were distracted by the sudden disappearances, another volley of poison needles struck home.
All the while, Ox continued his relentless assault, neutralizing the attackers one by one. Soon, only three remained standing.
"To hell with this!" one man screamed, bolting toward the wall of smoke.
"Hey! Don't run!"
"We’re going to die here!"
"I don't care! I’m getting out of here!"
The man plunged into the smoke, only for a blood-curdling scream to echo back a moment later.
"It seems escape is not an option," one of the remaining pair muttered, his spirit broken.
"Dammit, what is wrong with you people!?" the last man screamed, hysterical. "Why are guys like you working as bodyguards for a tiny shop!? We were supposed to avoid becoming slaves, but this was a trap! We were set up! We were set up from the start!!"
One surrendered; the other collapsed into a fit of madness. The fight was over.
"I checked the perimeter. No other enemies for now," Fei reported, emerging from the haze.
"I see. Li Ling, your support was invaluable. Fei, Dolce, you as well."
"I think you would have won even without us," Dolce said.
"Ranged attacks are a nuisance," Ox admitted. "And I have little experience catching those who flee. Alone, I would have won, but I likely would have let that first runner get away."
"You don't get much practice chasing people in an arena," Fei said with a light chuckle. "We are better at that sort of thing anyway. And with the slimes the boss lent us, it was quite easy."
Fei looked down at a bamboo tube tied to his belt. The smoke drifting through the air began to spin like thread, drawn back into the small holes in the bamboo.
It was a Smoke Slime, an evolution of the Ash Slime. Though it normally looked like a pile of gray powder, its particles were light enough to float in the air. Much like an Ash Slime or Sand Slime, it could disperse or congregate its body on command. Using this, Fei had created a controllable smokescreen.
"It’s great for me, too. My poison needles are replenished whenever I need them," Li Ling said, showing off the slime wrapped around her wrist like a bracelet. It was a Sting Slime, evolved from a Poison Slime. "Adjusting the dosage is a bit tricky, but that’s a small thing."
"And it’s perfect for binding," Dolce added. A Spider Slime perched on his shoulder, having produced the silk now binding the prisoners. "I never thought I’d be a tamer..."
Dolce hadn't known magic when he was first hired. Growing up in the slums, he’d lacked both mana and opportunity. But steady work at Bamboo Forest had given him the stability and free time to train. With experts like Maria, Ryoma, Fei, and Li Ling around to teach him, he had successfully mastered the basics of Taming Magic and contracted with the Spider Slime.
"The Vice Manager and the others are safe in the 'Special Room' the boss prepared," Ox said. "Our only job is to intercept any further attacks. Though these men were surprisingly mediocre."
"They probably aren't top-tier adventurers," Dolce noted. "They look like people who couldn't make ends meet and borrowed from the wrong moneylenders."
"The ones trying to sneak into the dorms were shouting about debt, too," Li Ling added.
Dolce looked at the bound, unconscious attackers. "When I was a kid in the slums, I heard that the worst moneylenders are tied to illegal slave traders. There’s no law or dignity in those places. They’ll hunt your family down if you can't pay. There’s nowhere to run."
"I see... While it is their own fault for borrowing from such people, as someone who became a slave due to debt, I cannot help but feel a flicker of sympathy."
Their conversation was brief; they quickly settled into a rotation to maintain the shop's defense.
Ox stood alone at the front of the shop, waiting for the Guard Force to arrive and take the prisoners.
(To be sold to a proper trader and find a life like this... I was truly fortunate.)
He savored his luck in silence, swearing once again to give his all to protect the shop and the people within it.
Against Ox’s refined strength, the former assassins’ cunning, and Dolce’s steady growth, the defense of Bamboo Forest was an impenetrable wall—even with Ryoma away.