"Shut up," I said as I dropped her to the ground, "Isn't it obvious? They were sent here to kill you inside the dungeon."
I could see her tense up in shock. I glanced to the side and I noticed that the forest was on fire. The fireball that I dodged at the beginning fell on some trees and set the forest on fire.
"We didn't expect that there would be another member joining the team," the leader said, "Are you from the church?" he asked and I just narrowed my eyes, "Maybe not, I don't think the church would accept someone with [Dark] magic, I would know about you if that was the case." The man tilted his head and looked at me with pity, "We would have entered the dungeon alone with her if only you had shown up a few hours later. Just curse your bad luck that you came when you did."
'I curse it,' I thought in irritation, 'I curse my bad luck to hell.'
[The Heart of Darkness is laughing at your misfortune]
[The Heart of Darkness wonders what you plan to do now.]
'Of course, I'm going to kill all of them,' I thought. But it was easier said than done. From the small altercation that we just had, I could tell that these men were at least C rank in strength and that was only after they suffered a penalty from coming down to lower floors. That means that their real level is B or B+. Who would send monsters like these after one girl? And why?
"But I think that it's only fair that I give you a chance," the leader spoke up again, " I saw what you did to those wolves back there and I'm impressed. There aren't any D ranks that can fight as well as you. And [Dark] magic is a very rare class. You'll make a good addition to our ranks if you joined us," the man stretched out his hand as an invitation, "So what do you say? Give us that girl and we'll kill her then you can join us."
Terra immediately took a step towards me and grabbed onto my shirt from behind. I could feel her hand shaking, and when she spoke, there was a tremble in her voice, "There no way he'll agree to something like that," she said, "When we get out of here, I'm going to make sure my father kills all of you."
I took a step away from Terra and she almost buckled in fear as she stared at me miserably, "When I give the signal, run," I said and she immediately nodded.
"So, I'm guessing you refuse the offer," the leader said when he saw that I didn't give him an answer, "I expected you to be a little more rational than that since you're a [Dark] mage, but you're just a foolish child."
"Did you really think that I would agree to your offer?" I asked in confusion, "I would become your glorified slave for the rest of my life in exchange for her life. Do you know how much this girl is worth? Her underwear is probably more expensive than everything you own. Between the both of you, it's obvious who is more beneficial to me right now."
Terra turned red behind me and the leader frowned, "Foolish child," he said as he rose his hand as a signal for the other two to attack. The fire and earth mages dashed straight for me and I immediately activated the skill [Shadow Veil]. A blanket of black fog spread across the area, and the two men were engulfed in darkness.
I dashed into the dark cloud to attack the short dark fire mage, but he was able to see me at the last moment before I could stab him. He used his sword to parry the attack and kick me back. I blocked a slash from the earth mage and struggled to push him back before I activated [Shadow Web] and held his hand in place as I stabbed my sword into his forearm.
"Argh!" he shouted in pain. I wanted to draw the sword back to use it again, but he headbutted me and I felt my world spin in front of me.
The fire mage charged at me from the side and he was about to stab me, so I had to let go of my sword to dodge and he only managed to cut me a little on the side. I activated the [Pyroclasm] skill and sent five balls of black fire at him, but he easily slapped them away like they were nothing. All of this took less than five seconds and, in that time, the leader had managed to join the battle as well and I knew I had to retreat.
I couldn't fight three of them right now. I didn't have any weapons and the skills I had weren't strong enough to handle C rankers.
"Give it up!" the leader shouted, "You've got no weapon and a skill like this must've depleted your mana! There's nowhere to run!"
My mana was fine, but I didn't have the stamina or the skills for a fight like this. I turned around and ran out from the fog and the three men started to chase me. I grabbed Terra's hand and dragged her along as I activated the skill [Rain of Hellfire]. Black fire fell from the sky and made all of them scatter to avoid it.
The fire mage activated [Liquid Oxygen] and I felt the air around me heating up at an insane rate as all the fire around the area began to converge on me like I was a magnet! I activated [Aura of Desolation] ten times in one second and a sound like thunder clapped through the area as the aura came to life. The two large skills fought against each other for dominance and the Aura of Desolation barely won out as it canceled out the Liquid Oxygen. and extinguished the flames.
[Magic Power: 201(+184)]
My magic power already went down by a hundred points and the C rankers weren't even showing a single sign of fatigue. It would be useless t continue casting weak skills against them. I activated [Shadow Veil] once more to hide us from the men before I began casting [Rain of Hellfire] again and again behind me and I could hear all hear of them cursing as they had to constantly evade the balls of fire falling from the sky. I dragged Terra along and ran away in the confusion.
----------+----------
I grimaced in annoyance as I wrapped some bandages around my forearm. Terra and I stopped running after we got to a small cave hidden in the leaves. There were some bones in the cave and I deduced that it was a habitat for some wolves that went out to hunt. I could easily take care of the wolves if they came back, so I decided to just use the cave.
"Here," Tera said as she tried to collect the bandages from me, "Let me help."
"Unless you want me to smack you, you'll stay far away from me," I frowned at Terra and she immediately stopped reaching for the bandage and nodded while going to the other side of the cave. I was not in the best mood right now and she would only annoy me if she tried to help. I looked outside the dungeon and wondered if I could just abandon her right now.
"I didn't know," Terra said with a downcast look, "My father is the one that hired them. I didn't know they were mercenaries."
"They aren't mercenaries," I tightened the bandages and sighed, "They're cultists. Probably members of a dark cult that is trying to use you as collateral."
Terra was surprised by what I said and she immediately stepped closer again, "How can you be so sure?" she asked.
I was sure because of something that one of them said. This is the reason I came to this floor in the first place. There was a cult on this floor that would summon one of the others and cause a lot of damage in a D ranked dungeon. They would be discovered by a group of students from the Magus Academy which will lead to the death of all the students in the group save one. This was one of the first sightings of the Others, and for now, people will think that they are just a group of radicals that are seeking attention.
But why were they chasing after this girl? The only reason I could think of was because Terra was one of the daughters of the Gaiaclan. Are they trying to ransom her for money to fund their rituals and experiments?