"Hmm, capturing a few of them would be ideal" Gozuki muttered while holding his chin with a thoughtful expression.
"Oh, okay! I want to go~!" Poney raised her hand with a cheerful smile.
Instead of answering her, others looked at me.
"? What?" I asked with a confused expression.
"It's the strategy you came up with, you decide who will go." Akame said with a small smile.
"Is that really a good way how to do this? I don't really know your capabilities. I am not really suitable for capturing as I rather kill my targets but I am still confident in capturing a few of them." I replied.
"Then it's decided! I and Akashi will go~!" Poney said with a clenched fist and excited expression.
"Who said that you are going too?" I asked with a puzzled expression.
"Huh? You don't want to go alone or do you?" Poney asked with a tilted head to the side.
"That's not a problem here. You aren't exactly suitable for this job since you tend to kick off your enemies' heads off before even injuring them." Najasho explained what's the problem with her going.
"What about me?! I can control my strength and although my Shingu is slightly damaged, I am still confident to do a great job." Cornelia immediately suggested with a wide smile while looking at me.
Ugh, I would rather go alone then be left together with her alone. I guess they won't let me go alone. Maybe...
"Green, what about you? Your weapon should be suitable for this?" I just smiled at Cornelia with closed eyes before asking Green, completely ignoring Cornelia's suggestion.
"Huh?" Cornelia was dumbfounded by how I ignored her.
"Um...sure but I would rather go with someone from our unit. I don't mean to belittle you or anything but I have no idea what to expect from you..." Green said while glancing at Akame before redirecting his apologetic smile at me.
It looks like Akame has her personal admirer.
I thought with a small smile.
"No need, I understand what you mean. Maybe I should just leave it to-" I nodded in understanding but before I was able to finish my sentence I was interrupted.
"Come on! I want some real exercise, I promise that I won't kick off anyone's head right off the bat. Pleasee~" Poney interrupted me and asked me with pleading eyes.
I looked at Gozuki but he seemed to be ignoring our entire discussion who should go. Maybe he has confidence in all of them...
"Ugh, then who wants to go together with Poney?" I asked and Poney looked at her teammates with an excited smile, however...
Everyone immediately averted their gaze to evade our stares.
"Come on! That's over the top!" Poney immediately pouted with an upset expression when she saw that no one wanted to take care of her.
Should I call out Kurome's name?
I thought and looked at her and she was happily smiling while sitting near her sister.
Ugh, I guess I can't really do that to her, not to mention I would worry by teaming those two girls together.
"Alright, let's not make this discussion until early morning. I will go with Poney near to the tombs and try to draw them out." I said and stood up while looking at Gozuki.
"That sounds good." He nodded his head with closed eyes.
---
'With him going there together with Poney ensures her life and thankfully he will be able to capture a few of them. Still, we have to be careful even though we have support from Akashi, we will be venturing into unexplored tombs filled with many traps and strong enemies. Even I can't let my guard down. Hopefully, none will die during this mission or it won't be really worth. Although, if we just leave right now, they might try to take revenge on the Empire in the future so I guess it's better to strike while the iron is hot.' Gozuki thought and opened his dull eyes, looking at the ceiling.
---
"Huh? W-Wait, we are going right now? It's night, will they even come out of the tombs?" Poney instantly asked with a panicked expression.
...*sigh* This will be one painful night.
I thought while looking at her with a slightly horrified expression.
.
.
.
"Akashi, why were you participating in that test with everyone else inside that forest?" Poney asked me while we were walking down the street with her hands behind her head.
"...I participated for fun and to find a kids of my age I could befriend" I said with a straight face since that was my "reason" I told everyone else.
"Pfft, haha, how can you say something like that with a straight face?!" She laughed while holding her stomach with one hand and pointing at my face with her other hand.
A vein popped on my forehead while corner of my mouth started twitching.
"I actually saw you inside that forest during the test. I am glad you haven't changed at all" I said and when she heard me she stopped walking with a dumbfounded expression so I just went ahead while throwing her a look with a smirk across my face.
---
'Is that a good thing? What did he mean by that?' Poney thought while looking down at her petite body with a complicated expression.
---
"Hey! Wait up!" Poney shouted at me while running after me while swinging back and forth with her fist above her head.
.
.
.
"This should be enough" I muttered with a tired tone while looking at the tombs that were relatively close. They looked like typical pyramids except being much larger and they also led to the underground complex. At least that's what I discovered from looking at the map of the first level of the tombs. It also seems that they are much larger underground than what it seems like from outside.
"Are you sure? What if they won't come out?" Poney asked with a bit skeptical expression.
"Then I will simply invite myself inside their home. At that time they will be forced to welcome me-" I said while looking at Poney with stoic expression before I turned to the side with narrowed eyes and Poney also followed the direction of my glare.
"You are really courageous for the Empire's dogs." A guy wearing strange loose clothes with 4 skulls attached to his clothes said while approaching us together with the other 3 people, this time only with 2 skulls attached to their clothes.
4 Skulls, huh? Gozuki said something about how the number of skulls represent their strength and standing in their society. They also inherited strange types of magic arts or apparently they call it secret arts which allows them to turn parts of their body into beasts' parts, enhancing their strength, agility, flexibility, defense, and others.
"See? We won't need to go directly inside..." I muttered with half-open eyes to Poney who had an excited expression to finally have some real practice.
"Mm! How are we going to split them up? Each of us can have 2 of them but one of them is stronger than others..." Poney nodded with a cheerful smile before she had troubled expression while holding her chin, thinking hard about the problem in front of us.
"!!! Are you fucking with us, you Empire dogs?! I already registered both of your smell, after we kill both of you, your relatives will be next!" The guy gritted his teeth when he saw our demeanor and then ordered to other 3 people to attack us and they didn't hesitate for a bit to jump at us.
"Secret art!" All of them shouted and the guy with 4 skulls grew 2 wings from his back and his legs changed similarly to legs of harpy.
One of the girls also grew fangs and her pupils became slit as snake's, she wanted to extend her arms that looked more nimbly and flexible similar to whip but before she could attack us...
*Splash* Her head was blown far away as if it was a soccer ball.
"Huh? She was much more fragile than I thought..." Poney muttered with a thoughtful expression.
"Poney..." I said and glared at her, remembering her previous words: 'I promise that I won't kick off anyone's head right off the bat' Now I understand why no one wanted to go with her.
"Eek! Look out, Akashi!" She shouted while pointing behind me before jumping at her next target as if nothing happened.
Are you stupid or what? The enemy is still in front of us.
I thought with a dumbfounded expression but I wasn't the only one.
Anyway, so them killing relatives of those who venture here is the truth...
---
'That girl is strong, I need to take care of her first while she is occupied by others.' The harpy guy thought while flying a few meters above the ground and focusing his entire attention to Poney.
---
I noticed how their leader wasn't paying attention to me so I decided to make my own move, such a height isn't a problem for me.
I kicked off the ground.
"Where are you looking at?" I said when I appeared right behind him.
"What?!" He snapped his head to the side just to see my cold smile from the corner of his eye.
He tried to fly away from me but I was in advantage due to surprise element, I gripped his wings and then stretched my legs against his back, completely tearing off his wings from his back.
"AAAGH!!" *Bang* He screamed out in pain and his body has fallen down on the ground without his wings.
"?!" The next Poney's target was finally successfully captured alive and the last person of their group look at us with a horrified expression, turning around to escape with his leopard-like legs and arms.
This 4 skull guy should be enough and Poney also captured one so I guess this one can die.
"Sword" I thought and drawn my sword while muttering with closed eyes. The spikes immediately pierced through my hand and the blade of my sword started glowing.
[Health: 700/750]
"Do you think you can just escape like that?" I asked with a small smile and slashed my sword in a vertical arc, aiming at quickly escaping a leopard-like guy.
*Screech* The piercing sound resounded while the ground was getting torn in front of the slash of energy sent by my sword.
"?!" Hearing a disturbance behind him, the guy took a peek behind him just to widen his eyes before he was split into two halves by my slash.
[+ 2 XP for killing your enemy]
[+ 5 XP for using technique related to your current class]
Class: Blade Master (Lv. 5; +9 Str, +9 Agi, +4 Const) 77/160 XP
"Nice~! The job flawlessly completed!" Poney exclaimed with a satisfied smile while carrying an unconscious girl on her shoulder. She didn't even complain that I killed the last person but I doubt it was because she deemed that he was no longer necessary. Although I know her only a few days, I would have guessed that she simply treated it as she killed one so I got to kill one too...
And I wouldn't say exactly flawlessly...
"Mm. Wait a minute." I nodded at her and went to the harpy guy without his wings.
"Motherfuckers, we will be avenged. Stupid Empire dogs." He was cursing at me while lying down with pained expression and forehead full of sweat.
"You said something about killing my relatives just from venturing into your home. Don't you think that's going a bit overboard?" I crouched down in front of him and asked with a smile and closed eyes.
"Hah! Not at all, it's a suitable punishment for people of the Empire like you! *spit*" He shouted with me with a crazed look in his eyes and then spit aiming at my face but I easily dodged by tilting my head to the side.
"Since you think so, I can do this without any remorse..." I said with a bright smile.
"Wha-" His words were interrupted by a few flashes of my blade and soon enough...
"AGHHH!!!" He started screaming again as all of his limbs suddenly separated from his body.
"Akashi?" Poney called me out with a slightly worried expression.
"Don't worry, I won't let him die." I said and burned the parts where I cut off his limbs, stopping the bleeding but I didn't bother to adjust the temperature of flames to make it less painful, instead, I did it as clumsily as I could to make it more painful.
"AGGHH! HAHAHA! You are really stupid kids, I already know that I will be tortured, thankfully you got rid of my limbs before they could feel the torture itself, HAHA!" His screams turned into a crazy laugh.
"Hm? Are you sure about that? Aren't you curious how it feels to be slowly burned from inside? I don't need your stupid limbs." I said with a cold smile while putting my index finger in front of his eyes and a small flickering flame appeared on the tip of my finger.
His eyes widened in fear so I decided to stop for now and I knocked him out. He was quite strong-willed to endure so much pain without losing consciousness. Well, not to mention that the Empire also has drugs that can make someone speak the truth. They are really experienced in extracting information.
I wrapped his limbless body with ropes and then started carrying him over my shoulder.
"...Why did you cut off his limbs?" Poney looked slightly confused, it looks like she was already accustomed to even tortures.
"Because he would be needlessly heavier than without his limbs plus he doesn't need them anymore." I replied with a small smile and Poney just released a forced smile with closed eyes.
I also let him scream all he wanted because I wanted others to come out but I guess they didn't hear him.
"Anyway...Didn't you say that you won't kick off anyone's head right off the bat?" I asked with narrowed eyes while glaring at Poney's satisfied smile when we were walking back to our camp.
"Eh...Um...Sorry?" She didn't know what to say so she apologized in question with a forced smile and awkward expression.
"Sorry?" I muttered while my expression became darker.
"Eek! Please don't tell anyone! Everyone will only make fun out of me!" She immediately started begging while looking at me with pleading eyes.