Ch.77Desperados

As Titania, who had been twinkling in the night sky, returned to the moon palace and Oberon’s excursion was about to begin on April 1st.

After recovering our physical and mental condition through camping by the lake, we woke up a little earlier than usual and began moving toward Riverside.

Needless to say, nothing happened last night.

Before all that talk about Titania’s twinkling, I don’t have the guts to try anything when Mina and Phyllis’s personal tents are less than ten steps away.

Anyway, we’ll reach Riverside by tomorrow noon, so there will be plenty of time to enjoy ourselves with the two of them after that.

Shortly after we departed, there was a mishap with rain falling, but with Jessica’s Airy Curtain, the element of rain couldn’t negatively affect our march at all.

Experiencing the strange sensation of raindrops bouncing off the layer of air surrounding our bodies, we advanced for about three hours until just before lunchtime when—

‘Bang! Bang! Bang!’

“Don’t let a single one escape! Kill the female mage first!”

“Weren’t we supposed to kill only the men and capture the rest, boss?”

“You idiot! Do you want to be wiped out by area-of-effect magic?!”

We found ourselves in a gunfight with a group of outlaws near a large shack built deep in the forest.

“They sure talk big. How did things end up like this…”

“To think there was a Desperado hideout in this forest. If I’d known, we should have gone around it.”

“Nothing we can do now. Since it’s come to this, let’s just hope they have bounties on their heads.”

Even among outlaws living outside the law, there are degrees of severity.

Criminals who engage in smuggling, kidnapping, or theft generally refrain from killing law-abiding citizens. Bounties placed on such outlaws are mostly “Only Alive,” with “Dead or Alive” designations reserved for more serious offenders.

However, once someone kills a law-abiding citizen, they’re classified as a “Desperado,” the worst kind of criminal, with at least a “Dead or Alive” bounty, or even an “Only Dead” bounty if their infamy grows.

In other words, those outlaws in the shack shooting at us without hesitation are Desperados who have gone too far—criminals beyond redemption who have reached the end of the line.

‘Ratatang!’

“Argh!”

After taking down an enemy who was approaching while firing dual pistols with three shots from my revolver, I quickly hid behind a tree as several rifle and pistol rounds flew around my hiding spot.

“Waaah~ I don’t even have time to aim at the enemy with my skills~”

“Mina and Seti, don’t push yourselves and stay behind cover. There are at least four enemies left, so we’re still at a disadvantage.”

Since the gunfight broke out, we’ve taken down three enemies.

Aside from Mina getting grazed by a magic bullet on her right side, we’ve suffered almost no casualties.

After their initial attack failed, the outlaws in the shack adopted a defensive posture, and the gunfight has reached a stalemate.

While we have to rely on trees for cover, they have two men positioned at windows on either side of the front door, and one each hiding behind a handcart and stacked barrels.

Whether we want to eliminate the Desperado group or escape, we can’t act rashly without reducing their numbers.

As I hide behind a tree waiting for the right moment to return fire, my danger detection skill suddenly activates with a chilling sensation.

The direction and trajectory of that killing intent indicates that something has been thrown from the man hiding behind the barrels.

It’s not hard to guess what kind of “hand-thrown object” could threaten me behind my tree cover.

‘It’s a bomb!’

Prepared to expose myself to enemy sight, I leap out from behind cover and turn my head to identify the incoming bomb.

Whether it’s dynamite, a grenade, or some otherworldly explosive, it would be too late once it passes the tree and lands in front of me.

‘That’s it…!’

A red cylinder that left the man’s hand and began spinning through the air.

The most iconic image that comes to mind when thinking of dynamite appeared before my eyes.

Confident I could still avoid the blast effects, I shot the dynamite with my single-action revolver, and—

‘BOOM!!’

The man caught in the explosion at close range, less than two meters away, was thrown backward without time to scream, hit the back of his head on a railing edge, and stopped moving.

‘The dynamite in these parts is dangerous. Or maybe that guy was just unlucky.’

Normally, dynamite doesn’t explode unless the detonator receives an impact.

The fact that it exploded instantly means either my magic bullet unluckily hit the detonator directly, or Grantis dynamite isn’t designed as safely as Earth’s version.

Thanks to this, the other guys who were startled by the explosion missed their chance to shoot at me while I was exposed outside cover.

After safely returning behind the tree, Phyllis, who had been suppressing the enemy behind the cart with her rifle, asked while reloading:

“Will, the enemy hideout is a wooden building. Couldn’t we end this quickly by shooting a fireball through the window?”

“That’s a good idea, but what if there are survivors being held captive inside who might get caught in it? Jessica, could you heal someone who’s been hit directly by a fireball?”

Jessica, who had been designated as the enemies’ priority target after they saw her healing Mina’s wound, couldn’t even find an opportunity to use attack magic and had no choice but to hide behind cover.

Except for using Airy Curtain every hour to block the rain, she should still have plenty of magical power left, so perhaps she could heal someone even if Phyllis blasted everything away with a fireball.

“The power of a fireball doesn’t compare to my Flame Lance. It’s not magic that a person can survive if hit directly.”

“What about someone trapped under furniture or debris from the fireball explosion?”

“That might be possible… but are you really going to do it?”

“Well, I’m not suggesting we thoughtlessly blast everything at once. If those guys have any sense, they wouldn’t leave survivors near their fighting position.”

If there are survivors in that shack, they would be valuable hostages to the outlaws, and simultaneously individuals who harbor resentment toward them.

Even if they tied up their arms and legs, keeping them nearby during combat would be too risky.

If they interfered with their actions in a crisis, it could cost them their lives.

“If Phyllis blasts the entrance area with a fireball, it will also affect the guy hiding behind the cart in front. If any outlaws remain inside, Jessica and I will handle them. Seti, take down the guy hiding behind the cart, and Mina, keep him from shooting at Seti.”

“Got it.”

“OK, is everyone ready? Fire away, Phyllis.”

“Fire Ball {Incendiary Grenade}!!”

The fireball fired from Phyllis’s rifle flew toward the wooden building’s entrance, and an explosion more powerful than the earlier dynamite blast shattered the front wall of the wooden structure.

The old cart only five meters away and the outlaw behind it were thrown and tumbled across the ground like garbage by the shockwave that hit them from behind.

There was no need for Seti or Mina to deliver a finishing blow to the outlaw who was flung forward by the explosion.

Meeting the worst misfortune of landing face-first onto a pitchfork lying on the ground, he ended his life in the most gruesome manner of this battle.

“Ugh… bleeegh!!”

Mina, who witnessed the scene head-on, covered her mouth and ran behind a tree to vomit.

Even Seti, who was accustomed to close combat, covered her mouth with one hand and turned away, indicating the psychological impact was quite severe.

Despite the unexpected accident, caring for their mental state would have to wait until after the fight was finished.

Entering the house through the shattered front wall, the first things I noticed were the bodies of the two outlaws who had been standing by the windows.

I couldn’t tell if they were corpses or critically injured unconscious people, but judging by the wooden fragments deeply embedded in their abdomens, neither had much chance of survival.

After putting out the flames around the entrance and leaving Phyllis and Seti to guard outside, I thoroughly searched the house but found no hiding outlaws or survivors.

“This place looks more like an ordinary country house than a criminal hideout.”

“Maybe they took over a woodcutter’s or herb gatherer’s house? Outlaws who can’t stay in one place for long wouldn’t build such a large house.”

The single bed and the lone set of tableware in the house suggested that only one person lived here.

Apart from the minimal living space, the rest of the area was filled with boxes and display cases for storing dried herbs, supporting Jessica’s theory that this was an herb gatherer’s house.

“Looks like there’s no one hiding or any basement. Let’s dispose of the Desperados’ bodies, collect their guns, and take them to the Riverside sheriff’s office.”

“Speaking of which, if these Desperados had bounties, how do we collect them? The bodies will disappear before we can transport them to the city.”

“Proving you’ve killed a wanted criminal is quite difficult. Bounty hunters inject basilisk venom to petrify the bodies and submit the heads, but without such means, we’ll have to be satisfied with the basic reward for submitting their weapons.”

I thought we should have captured at least one to bring to the city, but what’s done is done.

After collecting valuables from the Desperados’ bodies, we dug a pit behind the shack and buried all the bodies together.

Retrieving the body with the pitchfork deeply embedded through the eye into the head was particularly unsettling, but I didn’t want to leave it and risk seeing a zombie with a pitchfork in its face rise up later.

Mina, who had vomited heavily after witnessing the splatter scene, was the most active in collecting the belongings and weapons from the bodies.

It seemed to be her way of apologizing for retiring from combat due to nausea.

The total valuables recovered from the pockets of seven Desperados amounted to about 40 gold.

It was a pitifully meager result for the financial situation of those who had crossed the final line of humanity.