Eva was standing in front of Thomas and his escorts after having defeated the rest of the enemies in the blink of an eye.
With a bright smile and cheerful tone but with a menacing look that didn't match at all, Eva said:
"People like you who use and harm others for personal gain are the worst. Look at yourself now with your dumbfound expression, you never thought that it would be your turn to be in the position of a victim?"
Eva, remembering Jessica's pale face, was filled with fury that clouded her judgment.
"I should kill you all in this place!" Eva said pointing the index of her right hand at Thomas and his escorts.
At that moment, a hand grabbed Eva's hand.
"That's enough Eva. I know you're angry but you have to calm down, we need to extract information from this guy, you know?."
"Franz… Because of these guys, Jessica is feeling quite bad now."
"Yeah, I know. Angelica just explained it to me while I was healing myself. If I'm not mistaken, Jessica had a negative reaction to her ability because of the chimera's presence. Even I can feel a horrible presence coming from that thing, Jessica must be even more sensitive due to her unique ability."
Franz looked to where the chimera's tentacles were sticking out of the rubble of the collapsed cave.
"Killing them will not improve Jessica's condition. We have to kill the chimera so that she can recover. Also, we must gather as much information as possible to accomplish our mission in the South."
I let out a sigh.
"Do you understand Eva?"
Eva looked directly into my tired eyes. My eyes conveyed a lot of different emotions that resulted in Eva simmering down and resigning herself to her revenge.
In this way, we both turned our eyes to Thomas and his escorts.
Thomas's eyes held clear contempt.
They did not look like the eyes of a man willing to surrender at all, much less deliver information.
"How are you now Franz?" Eva asked.
"Hmm, I'm about eighty percent physically recovered I think. Unfortunately, on the other hand, my mana is still pretty empty."
"It's a pity you don't have an Elixir to fully recover," Eva said.
She was right.
I'd previously used an Elixir when fighting another group of black-robed men in the capital before. Unfortunately for me, not only did it have no effect at that time but it was also the last Elixir in my possession.
Elixirs, unlike conventional healing potions, have the characteristic of healing you completely and almost instantly when you drink them, in addition, they can even heal wounds that would be impossible to heal by other means, such as amputated body parts.
In short, they are capable of leaving someone who was on the verge of death just a few moments ago in perfect condition.
Sadly, I didn't have any.
Therefore, I could only resort to a high-level healing potion instead.
Of course, the potion has a great healing capacity but it's considerably slower and for that reason, I wasn't physically fully recovered.
"Franz, could you capture these guys yourself? With my ability, it'll be hard not to end up killing them by mistake," Eva said with an ominous smile.
"No problem. I just have to immobilize them first, nothing that broken legs couldn't accomplish!" I also said with an ominous smile.
From the point of view of Thomas and his escorts, the appearance of Eva and Franz looked like a pair of psychopaths.
At that point even if someone told them that in front of them was the Herssian's Hero and the Army Major, well, they would not have believed it.
"Mr. Thomas, please escape while we hold them here," one of the escorts said.
The escorts knew full well that they would have no chance of winning in a head-on battle, so the best they could do was give Thomas enough time to escape.
"I'll remember your sacrifice for the rest of my life," Thomas responded.
Thomas, of course, felt great humiliation when fleeing but without having any other option, he easily accepted the suggestion of his escorts.
'No matter how much I want to kill these bastards, my life is more important.'
Thomas, who was behind his escorts took a couple of steps back and from his pocket, he took out some kind of device with a scroll attached to it.
It didn't go unnoticed by Franz.
"Eva, he has a teleportation device!"
To be honest, I hadn't come up with the idea that they would try to flee by teleportation.
Although previously certain higher-ranking people in his organization had gone away using this very method, I didn't find this situation strange because one of them clearly was a high-level mage due to the enormous residual mana that his body gave off.
However, the men in front of me this time did not look like magicians with the ability to use teleportation magic at all. Also, magical devices were incredibly rare and expensive to get because they must be attached to a scroll capable of replicating a spell by simply inserting mana into it. Usually, it's already hard to find devices with mid-level magic, so a device that had high-level magic like teleportation magic was unheard of.
So, in short, I couldn't have foreseen it.
Thomas smiled as he saw my panicked expression.
Soon, he began to circulate his mana through the device.
It's over.
Or that should have been the case.
But unexpectedly, somehow, the magical device fell out of Thomas's hand and he tried to catch it again in the air in an embarrassing manner.
To his and the rest's surprise, the device was floating suspended in the air, a moment later it moved in the opposite direction of him and was caught in someone's hand.
"What an interesting object you have here."
The person who caught the magical device was none other than Angelica.
"Nice catch Angelica," Eva said evidently happy that the escape attempt failed miserably.
The escorts gritted their teeth upon seeing that scene in disbelief and jumped toward Angelica to snatch the stolen device from her.
But the moment they did that.
"Wooaahhhhhhhh-!"
A scream echoed from behind them.
The escorts turned their gazes back and what they could see was quite unexpected.
Their boss Thomas was lifted into the air by a giant tentacle.
With their mouths agape in surprise, they turned in unison and went to where the tentacle was located to free Thomas.
Unfortunately, as soon as they got closer, other tentacles appeared from the ground and attacked them mercilessly. One of them died instantly with his body exploding from the impact of the blow. The others were mainly hit by debris and were thrown with great force rolling on the ground.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH SAVE ME-!"
Thomas screamed desperately as the tentacle that held him in the air began to retract into the depths of the earth.
While all these events happened in the blink of an eye, I prevented the girls from intervening any further.
Previously, I had directly received one of the attacks, so I knew perfectly well how dangerous the chimera's tentacles were.
If even I who had enormous physical resistance obtained by default from being a Hero took enormous damage from a single hit, it would be impossible for the girls to survive being hit.
On top of that, the danger was not only due to the force of the impact but also to the speed of movement.
Even I'd been unable to react previously
.
I couldn't help but worry.
So, I spoke to my colleagues in a completely serious tone while watching Thomas being carried into the depths of the earth by the chimera's tentacle.
"From now on, the most important and dangerous part of the operation begins. That creature is a chimera artificially created by the organization of men in black robes. They were kidnapping the men from the village to combine them with the chimera... I assume they did that to give some intelligence to that thing. To make matters worse, the Quimera has in its body an enormous number of animals and even monsters as you can see."
I looked at the faces of the girls who were surprised by the information I had just shared with them.
"To be honest, it's a dangerous enemy, even for me. Not only does it seem to have the ability to transform its body, but it can also release a kind of green smoke capable of killing anything life it comes into contact with... To be honest, I suspect it's a stronger version of what mysteriously killed the men we found on the outskirts of the village previously."
I pointed to my right arm, which was now mostly recovered.
"This monster was also the culprit for leaving me severely injured previously."
The girls widened their eyes.
"It does make sense. I thought it was strange that only these people would leave you so badly hurt," Angelica said.
I continued speaking in a solemn voice.
"Currently I'm far from my best condition, my magic is useless and my mana is almost depleted right now. On top of that, my physical state is not even fully recovered."
I let out a sigh.
"What I'm really trying to say is that officially as a senior rank in the military, I should order you to fight alongside me to eliminate the chimera because the threat it poses to national security is so high. However, having said that I want to give you guys the opportunity to opt-out because honestly, the chances of dying here are not low..."
To be honest, I was genuinely concerned for Angelica and Eva's safety.
Normally, I wouldn't think so because I have a wide variety of ways to help out during combat. However, now that would not be possible due to my weakened state.
While I was filled with worried thoughts.
- Pat.
I received firm pats on my back.
"Franz, you always try to carry everything by yourself. Did you think that just because you care about our safety I wouldn't participate in this fight? This is not the first or last time I put my life in danger to do my duty," Angelica firmly said.
"Franz, do you think I'm going to stand by while Jessica suffers the brunt of all this? I'm going to destroy this thing not only for the sake of the mission but to help my friends!" Eva seemed more excited than scared.
After hearing their answers, I closed my eyes and smiled slightly.