There approached two men, draped head to toe in the most common travelerâs clothes . Even as she faced them, they made no attempt to hide their desire, their chiseled and sharpened edge of âhostilityâ .
This might seem to be a normal thing to do at a glance, but because of her buffs, low level spells would have little effect on her . It was a very useful skill to have .
To hell with that, Night Python just freaking came up to me themselves! Itâs like a duck just walked up to me, pot and spices and all, just begging to be eaten! What the hell kind of suckers are these!?
Once they were done bothering with their threats, both men pulled out their swords .
Perhaps they wanted to teach her a lesson by hurting her . Or perhaps they would use her as a warning, kill her here and send her head back to the others?
Letâs see⊠For now, I shouldnât do anything that outs me as Not Iris . So all I can do as Iris is⊠Push them back using magic and run away .
They canât get out of these back alleys, thatâll attract attention . Will they run straight back to their hideout? No way .
ââOne of the biggest problems Iâve got is Benedictâs nose . Heck I might not even have to get blood on me⊠I get the feeling all I need to do is just be around blood for him to take a look at me and go, âI can smell someone elseâs blood on you . â or something . Cutting them up in any way is a big No Go too⊠What the hell is this, hellmode? I ainât no masochist, damnit .
Umm⊠Well, the thing is, thereâs also a spell called âȘDeodorantâ«, and itâs exactly that, but it might make everyone double-down on me . Anyway, Iâve got very limited options . I need to settle this without getting caught by Benedictâs nose .
I have to make do with what Iris is currently capable of . That means I canât use any magic Iris isnât capable of using . Even with that, thereâs a chance one of them might start puking blood or something . Thatâs bad . Fire-based magicâs gonna leave a burnt smell so thatâs definitely outta the question too . So Iâve gotta⊠Not leave a mark on myself, not leave any smells, not leave any blood . Hmm .
However, she quickly caught on how the feel of her magic output had changed, so she lowered her output to a level befitting âIrisâ .
ââȘIce Lockâ«!â
Finally, the talismans had run out of fuel and were no longer protecting the two men from her magic . Frostbite began running up their fingers .
And then .
âGeh-!â
In seconds, their arms were covered with ice .
Moreover, their arms were drawn to each other like magnets, linking together in an icy cage, as if they became bound with chains .
âȘIce Lockâ« . A low grade ice elemental magic that latched itself to their target, creating frozen shackles that bound and prevented their movement .
It was, at its core, magic that aimed to bind the target without doing any damage, but if one left people restrained like that, frostbite would take away their fingers and hands . That by itself made this spell quite the scary thing to deal with .
With their hands bound, the two stopped before Iris .
Perhaps to ponder on what their next move would be, having fallen into a situation outside of their thinking .
ââGood! You guys go on and think that your talismans were defective!!
With this, while they may find it odd, at the very least they wouldnât think that inside Iris is the worldâs strongest undead monster .
ââNow now, they wonât just go, âOur arms got taken out . Letâs just switch to Capoeira[1]Â now . â, right?
Or perhaps, they could smash their frozen shackles off, at the expense of their hands . However, these two did not seem to be so keen to fight to the death like that, so they turned heel and fled .
They rushed through even small roads, ducking around corners to disappear . It seemed chasing after them by foot would prove to be quite difficult . However, with the power of an Abyss Spirit to read thoughts and emotions, pursuing them was an easy matter .
Likely because they failed in their attack, their raw malice was gone, leaving only a slight tinge of confusion, mixed with teaspoons of terror and hesitation . Even bits and pieces of their pain came through, likely caused by their hands being encased in shackles of ice .
She felt them stop, only for their feeling of pain to disappear .
The thugs didnât seem like they could use magic, but they must have kept potions for recovery on them . It seemed that after they put considerable distance between them and Iris, they used the potions .
ââThink you got away, eh? Well, you get an A for effort . Now, whereâd you guys really run off toâŠ
Just as there was a branch of the Adventurerâs Guild present in town to orient the adventurers, there must also be a Night Python base of operations here .
Once Adan and Jonas were back in their temporary hideout, they leaned against the wall and slid down to the ground .
A shrill silence of only laboured breathing echoed in the empty halls . Adan was the first to open his mouth .
âWe⊠failedâŠâ
Jonas remained silent . Adan didnât need to say what they both already knew .
Adan took out a piece of metal from his breast pocket and flung it to the floor .
The object that ought to shine as brilliantly as gold, was as dark as charcoal, fuming out white smoke as if it were only brought out of the maws of a furnace .
That was a talisman . A disposable item that temporarily blocked the influence of magic .
Their opponent was a Guard-rank Wizard . Even if it were a bit of a chore, their job was simple . Buy time to get close with the talisman and capture the target .
However, the talisman got fried within a fourth of its expected uptime .
A bratâs a brat, Guard or whatever . Canât have that much magic in âem . So that leavesâŠ
âThose Night Python bastards gave us 2nd hand goods, goddamnit . â Adan spat out .
âYeah I thought so, those pieces of shits . â Jonas nodded .
They both thought that the talismans they were supplied with had already been used previously, so they gave out much faster than expected .
The two were only taking up dirty work for money .
What they were really worried about was the reward they lost and the penalty for failing . If their reason for failing lay within Night Python, they could negotiate their way out of their mess . They could get further leeway because of how their lives were at risk (or perhaps at risk of being arrested as well) .
If their circumstances were so, they were in the clear . The two gave not a shit about how this failure affected Night Python .
âWeâre supposed to get in touch tonight, right?â
âYeah, at the usual place . â
âAlright . Letâs take turns on keeping watch and sleeping until then . â
The two nodded to one another, blissfully unaware of the web they had become so entangled in .