The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary

Proofreader: Xemul

"Don't come out!"

The first one who acted was not the Dark Elf called Noel, who was trying to get out of the coffin. It was also not Magna, who was watching the scene very leisurely. Nor was it Klaus, who was looking with expecting eyes because the hands gripping the coffin's rim were of a girl, and was kicked away by Leila and Laure because of that. It was not Gula, who was staring at Magna with a steely, angry gaze, nor Loren, who was holding his greatsword at the ready. And it was not Lapis, who was staring intently at Magna's equipment, hoping to see even a glimpse of their capabilities.

No, the one who acted before anyone else was Ange, who was standing very close to the coffin, and she kicked the lid of the open coffin back closed.

If the lid had been completely opened, it would not have closed even if Ange had kicked it, since it looked quite solid. But the lid was still being opened, and it returned to its original position quite easily after a forceful kick.

However, there was one thing different from before it was opened, and it was the hand gripping the edge of the coffin. Of course, once the lid was closed, the hand was caught between it and the body of the coffin.

"Th-that looks bad…"

It was natural that Loren would unthinkingly blurt out such words. After all, a hand that seemed to belong to a woman was crushed between the sturdy-looking coffin and its heavy-looking lid. There was the sound of something solid being crushed, and blood splattered outside the coffin.

At the same time, a scream was heard from inside the coffin, but Ange didn't seem to care about it. She jumped on top of the lid, making it impossible for whoever inside to come out.

"If you think you can come out leisurely, you are mistaken!"

"Well done, Ange!"

Raising her voice in praise, Leila rushed Laure to also get on the top of the lid.

Something inside tried to lift the lid, shaking it, but it was not so easy to lift the lid with two people's weight on it.

"I guess I'll get on too."

The fact that the lid was still being shaken suggested that the arm strength of whatever was inside was considerable. Perhaps that was why Lapis, who had been staring at Magna from behind Loren's back, gave him a word of warning before running over to the coffin and getting onto the lid.

The lid, which had been loaded with additional weight, was almost motionless, although the person that tried to open it from the inside was probably still intact.

"Klaus! Get rid of that black thing while we still can hold this!"

"Give me a minute, will you? Leila's kick is really something…"

While Loren was still stunned by what they were doing, Gula had already leapt at Magna. Loren tried to call her back, thinking that it would be difficult to coordinate the story later if she ended up doing hand-to-hand combat after being introduced as a magician. But even after just a fleeting glance, he was so overwhelmed by Gula's menacing aura that he swallowed the words that were about to come out of his mouth.

"You son of a bitch!"

Gula had no weapons. The only way for her to attack was to use her body or her Evil God power, but she seemed to have gotten a bit too hot in the head and slammed her fist into Magna's shield with force.

The attack normally would have made her fist shattered, but not only did it fail to do so, it also pushed Magna, who was defending himself, back.

This result was not a surprise as Gula was an Evil God. However, Loren racked his brain about how to explain it to Klaus' party, who did not know the situation.

Gula did not stop attacking though. She kicked at Magna's shield again, pushing him back further. And then, without closing the gap between them, she thrust her fingers at Magna.

"Red stones, shoot at my enemy. >."

The ball of flame from her fingertips violently slammed into the shield Magna was hiding behind, scattering sparks of fire on impact.

However, Magna's expression, which could be seen from the shadow of his shield, showed no sign of being cornered.

"Well, looks like you can really use magic."

"Digging these up and using them again, don't think you can get away with this for free!"

"Again? Well… I don't know what you don't like about it, but what's wrong with using something you can use?"

"Those words… I'll make you regret them!"

Magna emerged from the shield he had been hiding behind as Gura clenched her fist and lunged forward. In order to intercept her, Magna thrust out the weapon in his right hand, but instead of the long sword he originally held, it somehow turned out to be a one-handed spear.

"What?!"

For Gula, who had been expecting a sword, the spear tip was unexpected, and she was slow to react to the attack from a different angle than she had thought. If she had rushed in like that, she would have been skewered, but Loren, who caught up with her just in time, grabbed the belt at Gula's waist and threw her behind him with force. And in place of Gula, he repeled the spear tip with the flat of his greatsword.

Loren had hoped that by repelling his weapon, he would make Magna lose his stance. However, Magna did not pull back the repelled spear but let go of it instead, then turned the aim of the crossbow that he had suddenly taken out of the air toward Loren.

"Where the hell did you get that from?"

Without time to be surprised, Loren caught the crossbow's arrows with the flat of his sword. The arrows, turning out to be special, exploded upon impact and drove Loren's body backward.

Magna, who had shot at Loren in rapid succession, tossed the crossbow away as if it had run out of arrows. The crossbow was enveloped in light and vanished before it hit the floor.

At the same time, Loren, who was hit by the impact of the explosion through his sword, fell to his knees.

"Sturdy. As expected of a barbarian."

Magna raised his voice as if in admiration and blocked the slash coming from Klaus, who followed up after Loren, with the shield in his left hand, then charged at Klaus with his shield. Klaus wasn't able to dodge it and was sent flying as the shield slammed into his body, but Leila caught him.

"It'll be easier to clean up if all the trash gathers in one place."

Magna muttered. What he now held in his hand was neither a crossbow nor a one-handed spear, but a long spear designed to be thrown.

The spear thrown out with a simple stance, was hurled at Leila, who was holding Klaus in her arms, at the speed of a flash of light.

"O God who honors knowledge, protect us from harmful forces. >."

Lapis, who was keeping watch on the top of the coffin, cast a protective spell, but the spear flew straight through it.

"I won't let you!"

Loren struck the spear down with his great sword from the side. Despite having been cut with great force, the spear fell down without bending before springing up and disappeared in a flash of light.

"What kind of magic trick is that?"

Loren was bewildered by the phenomenon of the weapon in Magna's hand changing from one to the other. The longsword he was holding from the beginning seems to have been put back in its scabbard hanging from his waist, but Magna didn't look like he was carrying the spear and crossbow he had used anywhere on his body. It looked as if they were taken out of nowhere.

"Do you even have time to be surprised? Shall I use this next?"

A metal ring with sharply polished edges appeared on the index finger of Magna's right hand. Everyone could tell that it was a weapon, but no one could figure out how it was to be used. As Magna began to spin the metal ring, Loren called out its name.

"A chakram! You even have this?!"

"It's a weapon that not many people use, but you seem to know a thing or two about it huh?"

Magna said as he aimed the war ring at Loren and released it with a somewhat erratic trajectory.

Loren, who was about to intercept it with his greatsword, held up his greatsword, but just as it was about to reach him, the ring of war suddenly split into two and attacked Loren with different trajectories.

Loren sharply clicked his tongue. Even if he had been able to knock down one of them, he would not have been able to get to the other one. Prepared to be injured, Loren swung his greatsword down to block at least one of the rings, but the other ring was closing in.

"I won't let you!"

A fireball shot out from Gula's palm. Without missing its target, it hit the ring that was about to bite into Loren's shoulder, stopping its momentum and sending it flying into the wall, where it disappeared in a flash of light.

"Good grief. You may be worthless opponents, but troublesome nonetheless."

Magna grumbled as three small knives suddenly appeared in his hand. The moment his gaze turned to Lapis and the girls who were still on top of the coffin, holding the lid to prevent the presence inside from coming out, the knives were released from his hand.

"Let's go that way this time!"

"Think we'll let you?!"

Loren cursed. Klaus, who remained calm, stood ready in front of the girls at the same time. Loren blocked one knife with his greatsword while Klaus quickly swung his longsword and knocked two knives to the floor.

Magna, apparently attempting to either finish off the girls on the lid or make them move to avoid the attack so that the coffin would open, saw that his attack had failed and gave a small click of his tongue.

"Really, this is too much work."

What appeared in Magna's hand was a lance. It was originally used during a cavalry charge, but Magna held it up lightly and pointed its tip at Loren's group, even though it was supposed to be quite heavy.

"You're kidding me."

With its weight and length, the lance was not something that can be easily handled by an individual. However, Magna handled it as easily as if he was handling a twig. Loren was secretly impressed by how superior Magna's current arm strength was compared to his own, even if he could not tell to what extent this was due to the effects of his equipment.

"The > just now should be faster than a horseman's charge though."

The weapon was not something that a person could hold and run with, but with Magna's strength, its power would be no different from that of a rider's charge. In fact, it may even be more powerful.

If he dodged it, Lapis and the others behind him would be in danger, but if he told them to dodge as well, Noel, who was apparently trying to get out of the coffin, would be set free. They were losing even now. should there be more reinforcement, it was inevitable that they would be out of their depth.

"Do you want to be stab to death, barbarian?"

"Shut up. I'm going to cut you open, so just come here."

Loren gripped his greatsword tightly with both hands and held it at the ready.

Magna, on the other hand, hunched down as if to gather strength and pointed the tip of his lance at Loren. He stared at him for a moment, and as soon as he saw Loren get into his stance, he kicked at the floor and began a furious charge forward.