Barbarian’s Dark Fantasy Strategy Guide

Chapter 14: Mage （3）

The barbarian’s oppressive presence was truly overwhelming.

It felt like standing naked in front of a house-sized tiger as it prowled around. I even forgot that there was gold at stake in this mission.

Khalid walked leisurely and picked up the hand axe he had thrown. Then, he replaced the missing axe with one from a dead mercenary.

“It’s more comfortable to have two after all.”

The mercenaries only came to their senses after hearing Khalid’s voice.

“Wh-what are you all doing! There’s only one of him!”

The mercenaries charged at Khalid all at once.

But those who challenged the tiger inevitably got claw marks on their heads. Every time Khalid’s axe flashed, one of them fell. In an instant, ten bodies were strewn across the ground, and the mercenaries were too terrified to step forward.

Khalid blocked the mercenaries’ path and said,

“The requests you received. Abandon one of them here.”

The official request from the Mercenary Guild and Dominic’s request to assassinate the lord. He meant to choose only one of them. In other words, it was a question of whether to make the barbarian warrior an enemy or the mage an enemy.

Nearby, they could see the results of each choice beforehand. The knight who had fainted after blocking the explosion stone with his shield and the corpses with their heads split open by Khalid’s axe.

“……”

A brief hesitation and silence fell among the mercenaries. The difference between humans and monsters is that humans don’t throw their lives away recklessly. When weighing money and life, it usually tilted towards the latter.

“This damn barbarian……! He’s gotten arrogant just because he caught an ogre once. Do you think you can take on all of us alone?!”

The loud voice of a mercenary who hadn’t given up on the gold yet. Occasionally, there are those who are blinded by money and risk death. His bold action was also intended to prevent other mercenaries from having second thoughts.

But the mercenaries’ thoughts were already divided. After exchanging glances, some of them lined up in front of Khalid and pointed their swords in the opposite direction. They were faces I’d seen somewhere before.

“We refuse to make this brother our enemy. If you don’t want your heads cracked open, you’d better join this side.”

『Hey, these guys. Aren’t they the ones who tried to extort you in the back alley before?』

They were just inexperienced rookies, but with eight of them turning around at once, the atmosphere began to stir.

“The bounty is already gone. Are you going to make the ogre hunter an enemy while struggling to deal with the bandits? It’s not like we’re splitting the reward anyway.”

“Th-these traitors!”

“You’re the traitors. Who do you think started the rebellion?”

The rookies acted as if they were on Khalid’s side. Victor and his group joined in as well.

“That’s right. If the rebellion fails, we’re all doomed. It’s better to take the expedition reward and return safely.”

Persuaded by Victor’s words, more and more mercenaries switched to Khalid’s side. Now, there were more people who had given up on the rebellion.

In this situation, aiming for the bounty was like trying to pick stars from the sky. It was virtually impossible to get through the bandits on the hill, the opposing faction, Khalid, and the knights to take the lord’s head.

Taking advantage of the standoff, Victor approached Khalid.

“You’re quite something. The rear will be fine with this. Now all that’s left is Dominic, are you alright with that?”

Khalid nodded and turned around.

Kwaang!

Unaware of the situation in the rear, Dominic was throwing explosion stones at the carriage one after another. Every time a loud noise rang out, knights and soldiers fell like autumn leaves.

Even the mercenaries Dominic had bribed were caught in the crossfire. Because of this, the mercenaries at the front slowed their advance.

“What are you doing! Why aren’t you attacking the carriage!”

“B-but, my lord……”

Dominic, who treated the mercenaries’ lives like insects. He was more obsessed with killing Hojae than the mercenaries. It seemed like he couldn’t see anything else.

『That, that crazy bastard. Does he not care about allies or anything?』

Becky shuddered.

“If you don’t attack right now, I’ll show you what I’m made of!”

Dominic threatened the mercenaries while swinging his sling. The frightened mercenaries reluctantly crept forward.

Woong.

At that moment, a gust of wind swept past the mercenaries’ heads. An axe that had cut through the wind flew towards Dominic. Dominic was startled and pulled the reins.

Kakagagak!

The axe Khalid had thrown collided with an invisible wall in midair. A magical barrier had blocked the axe. But the barrier soon cracked with light, shattering like shards of glass.

“That barbarian bastard! What are the guys I placed in the rear doing……!”

Even as Khalid walked steadily towards Dominic, no one stopped him.

“Wh-what are they doing?!”

The mercenaries in the rear, instead of aiming for the lord, were actually fighting amongst themselves.

『As expected, there was a barrier. We don’t know what tricks he has left, so don’t throw the remaining axe and……』

Woong!

Before Becky could finish her sentence, a second axe fiercely cut through the wind.

“Ugh!”

Dominic hurriedly ducked on his horse and narrowly dodged the axe.

『Hey! What are you doing throwing all the axes! What are you going to fight with now!』

Becky was flustered by Khalid’s sudden action and yelled at him.

『I told you to check for the barrier and approach under cover……!』

‘Shut up. Stop whining about trivial things.’

Runeslinger, a battle mage who throws runestones.

Their fighting style has clear advantages and disadvantages. The biggest advantage is that they don’t need casting time and can fire magic as much as they have runestones prepared.

On the other hand, the disadvantage is that the range of magic use is limited. Moreover, the cost of the consumed runestones is enormous. Disposable runestone fragments can be purchased with silver coins, but it’s still something that the poor can only dream of.

Anyway, the key to fighting a runeslinger is to quickly approach within the sling’s range. It was something I had explained to Khalid sufficiently last night.

‘But what was it called, impact-activated?’

『What are you talking about out of the blue?』

‘The explosion stones.’

『Oh, uh-huh. It’s a method where magic is activated by the impact on the runestone. But why are you asking that all of a sudden?』

‘How hard does it have to be hit to activate?’

Becky couldn’t understand what Khalid was thinking. Still, she answered his question obediently.

『Well…… since runestones are also stored in pouches like money, they wouldn’t react to the small impacts that can occur in everyday life. So, an intentional impact…… for example, I think it would activate with the impact of striking flint.』

‘I see.’

Ziiiiiip.

As soon as Khalid heard that, he ripped the awning of a nearby cart. Even as the merchants hiding inside were startled, he silently went about his business.

『What are you doing?』

Khalid folded the torn cloth in half to adjust the length. Holding the end of the cloth folded to about shoulder-width, he approached Dominic again.

Seeing Khalid walking towards him defenselessly without an axe, Dominic scoffed.

“You stupid barbarian must be crazy to want to die. I still have plenty of explosion stones left. I’ll make sure to finish you off first.”

Dominic spun the sling above his head. With his large build and slow walk from a distance, there was no easier target to hit.

The mage, certain of his victory, smirked.

“Die!”

Whew!

The explosion stone flew straight towards Khalid.

Even at the speed of an arrow, Khalid didn’t even flinch. He stopped in place and swung the cloth with all his might towards the incoming stone.

And the next moment.

Becky had a strange experience.

（Slo…… motion?）

Perhaps due to Khalid’s dynamic vision, the incoming stone was clearly visible. It was as if the surrounding time had slowed down, to the point where even the rotation of the stone was captured in her eyes.

Flutter.

The awning Khalid was holding caught the wind and unfolded like a small parachute, gently embracing the stone. It was sucked into the cloth as naturally as a fish surrendering to the current.

“Hup!”

Khalid, who had absorbed the impact by spinning the cloth in a large circle, threw the explosion stone back to its original owner, just as Dominic had done. And at a speed several times faster.

Swoosh!

“What……!”

Dominic couldn’t react in time.

It happened before he could even regain his balance after throwing the sling. He had a puzzled look on his face, wondering why the runestone he had just thrown was right in front of his eyes.

Kwaaang!

A huge explosion occurred.

And the impact caused the runestone pouch in Dominic’s arms to react in a chain reaction.

Kwaang!

Bang, bang, bang, bang……!

The incessant explosions of the explosion stones forced everyone on the battlefield to stop fighting. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on one spot, and they were all lost in thought.

A moment later, body parts that once made up Dominic began to fall to the ground one by one.

『Cr, crazy……』

Becky almost mistook the location for a moment due to the explosion sounds reminiscent of modern warfare.

After the long explosion ended, nothing remained where Dominic had been. Only the blood and flesh splattered everywhere announced the end of this incident.

Khalid wiped Dominic’s blood off his face and said,

“That was a messy explosion.”

Dominic’s rebellion came to an abrupt end.

The mercenaries who had participated in the rebellion dropped their weapons and surrendered on the spot. Now that the client who would pay the bounty was dead, there was no reason to risk their lives fighting anymore.

The band of bandits Victor had hired vanished from the battlefield during the explosion.

As the situation was brought under control, Hojae, who had been hiding inside the carriage, came out. After hearing the full story from his guard knight, Hojae ran to where Dominic had died and witnessed the gruesome scene.

“Dominic…… why did you do this……!”

He seemed quite shocked to have been betrayed by a trusted vassal. But the dead don’t speak.

Khalid said to Hojae,

“This mage was aiming for Melissa’s life as well as yours.”

“What! Melissa?!”

Hojae’s eyes widened.

Those words were no different from saying that Dominic knew Melissa was Hojae’s illegitimate child.

“Ho-how did you know that?! Is something wrong with her?”

“I’ve taken care of that too, so don’t worry.”

Hojae breathed a sigh of relief at Khalid’s words.

“Khalid, I’m indebted to you so many times. I’ll definitely repay this kindness.”

After expressing his gratitude, Hojae ordered the company to return. It was impossible to continue the expedition like this. For now, there were more urgent matters to deal with internally.

『Hey, aren’t you going to say anything about the baroness?』

Becky wanted to reveal the truth about Dominic and Mila’s affair at this point, but unfortunately, there was no evidence. Now that Dominic was dead, there was no way to prove the truth if she denied it.

‘Hmm? This is……’

At that moment, something that had fallen on the ground caught Khalid’s eye. Khalid wrapped the object with the cloth he was holding. Then, he handed it to Hojae, who was getting into the carriage, and whispered quietly.

“……”

“Wh-what! I-I understand. I’ll do as you say when we get back.”

After hearing Khalid’s words, Hojae got into the carriage with a serious look on his face.

『You…… you’re really cruel, aren’t you? To come up with a method like this.』

‘If the baroness gets away with it here, Melissa will continue to be in danger. We have to finish it cleanly.’

Becky was inwardly impressed by the scheme Khalid had devised. Although she couldn’t guarantee it, there were elements that could lure Mila in herself.

（He’s definitely not stupid. Just like when he hit back the sling earlier. His way of thinking is just different, maybe his brain works faster than mine.）

Afterwards, the Arik Trading Company prepared to return with the injured and the confiscated weapons. Since it hadn’t been long since they left for the expedition, it seemed they would arrive in Windfall before daybreak.

Now, all that was left was to go back and reveal the baroness’s true nature.