Dark elves were one of the non-human races that enslaved humanity until the distant ancient times when the Prea god-folk descended.
Among them, dark elves, characterized by their purple-black skin and silver hair, specialized in necromancy – the art of controlling death spirits that emerge from the bodies of dead wizards or Masu.
As expected, greenish light erupted from the hands of the two dark elves.
[■□■□■□-]
Along with an eerie growl that echoed through the silent forest, five or six death spirits appeared and surrounded the red horse and its master.
Wolf, lynx, buffalo...
Though the red horse roared fiercely and rolled on the ground to threaten the enemy, it was clearly outnumbered.
Turan, hiding beside a tree, fell into contemplation.
'Should I help?'
Following Keorn's teachings, he should naturally help the human side, but he was slightly concerned about not knowing how this fight started.
If that fallen man had attacked the dark elves first, helping him might actually be the wrong thing to do.
Books described dark elves and other non-human races as monsters who all enjoyed enslaving and eating humans, but at least until he confirmed clear evidence that they were evil—
"Whose hand is that? Give me one too."
"Eat your own. You must have gotten some yourself."
The male dark elf gnawing on fingers that were clearly human.
The moment he saw this, the information about dark elves enjoying cannibalism was confirmed to be fact, not prejudice.
Turan switched his concealment from mere visual hiding to complete concealment, approached about twenty paces, and while wielding an almond-shaped stone, chanted a familiar spell.
"Harden, accelerate, pierce – target the head."
Though such spell chanting wasn't particularly helpful anymore due to his increased magical proficiency, it was still slightly better than not doing it.
As the stone was released from the spinning sling, Turan exerted force to split the 'air' blocking the front, making the stone's speed even faster.
"All the ones I killed were men, so they had too much hair—"
While the female dark elf was speaking jokingly, with a sharp cracking sound, her companion's head opposite her disappeared.
As if an invisible hand had swept away everything above the neck in an instant.
Half of the death spirits targeting the red horse, which the male dark elf had been controlling, collapsed on the spot.
"Huh? Kel?"
The female dark elf wore a blank expression as if she couldn't understand the situation for a moment, but she called the death spirits around herself much faster than Turan had anticipated.
Thanks to this, the second stone aimed at her was deflected by the mountain goat death spirit surrounding her body.
"Tch."
"What bastard is it! Come out!"
The dark elf screamed, immediately sending the buffalo death spirit to tear up the ground where the stone had come from, but naturally, Turan had already left that position.
Perhaps finally realizing her opponent was in concealment, she summoned another death spirit.
"Let's see if you can still hide with this!"
The death spirit that appeared this time was a small fox about the same size as its kin.
As soon as it appeared, it began emitting bright light in all directions, instantly making the forest, which had been somewhat dim due to the leaves, brighter than an open field at midday.
"Tsk."
Just as it's difficult to light a fire underwater, concealment's efficiency drastically decreases in bright places.
He had no choice but to either maintain concealment while enduring massive mana consumption or release it.
Or he could run away, but then the red horse and its master would be in danger again.
As Turan clicked his tongue and released his concealment, the dark elf growled at him.
"You! Devil! How dare you kill Kel!"
She immediately ordered the wolf and buffalo death spirits to attack without giving him time to respond.
In response, Turan rubbed his hands together strongly like striking flint to make fire.
Friction creates heat, and heat is the cause of ignition.
Just vaguely recognizing this principle and inducing it made the flame appearing above his hands much more intense than before.
The sphere of flames quickly spun through the air gaining centrifugal force, then struck the approaching wolf's head precisely.
[■■■■-!]
The wolf death spirit collapsed with a scream when hit by the fireball that came at a speed almost impossible to perceive.
The problem was the giant buffalo charging from the opposite direction.
The distance was too short to attempt another flame throw, and lacking confidence in taking down something that size in one hit, Turan immediately rolled to avoid its charging trajectory.
Though somewhat ungraceful, he managed to dodge successfully.
"This...!"
Perhaps disliking this sight, the female dark elf made another gesture, summoning a deer death spirit and making it charge at Turan.
It seemed her limit was controlling four at once.
'Good thing I took one out beforehand.'
If he had to face eight or more at once, running away would have been the only option.
While avoiding another charging attack from the buffalo and raising a second fireball to scorch the deer, suddenly a burning pain surged through his leg.
"Ugh!?"
Looking down, the fox that had been emitting bright light earlier had somehow turned off its light and was silently biting into his leg.
He had thought it was only brought out for illumination to prevent concealment, but who knew it could perform attacks too.
Though he managed to quickly kick off the fox's neck with his other foot, it was impossible to also dodge the buffalo's charge that took advantage of that opening.
Turan was rammed and flew dozens of meters through the air before crashing into a nearby tree.
"Kuk..."
The impact was enough to briefly knock him unconscious.
Unable to breathe as if his internal organs had been pushed up, Turan could only gag without even being able to scream as he lay sprawled out.
Seeing this, the dark elf laughed with satisfaction.
"Serves you right! How dare you kill my Kel, I'll make you beg for death—kyaa!"
[Neeeigh!]
What suddenly attacked the dark elf who was gloating after landing a hit was none other than the red horse.
It had been quietly observing their fight and finally recognized Turan as an ally and joined in.
Thanks to wearing the mountain goat death spirit, she didn't die from one hit, but the dark elf's appearance quickly became a mess as she was mercilessly trampled under hooves.
"Keh-hek, ugh, help, quickly!"
Following their master's order, the buffalo and fox that had been trying to finish off Turan, along with the mountain goat that had been protecting her body, all pounced on the red horse, starting a three-against-one brawl.
The female dark elf, who barely got away, panted while fixing her disheveled appearance.
"How dare... such humiliation to me, I'll kill..."
After this brief anger, the dark elf realized that Turan, who had been sent flying by the buffalo earlier, was nowhere to be seen.
Did he run away? Or concealment?
'I need to get the mountain goat back quickly... no, but then the balance of that fight would break?'
In this dilemma, her judgment clouded for a moment, and with a slightly smaller cracking sound than before, her consciousness faded.
Dark elves, like humans, could not think when the part above their eyebrows disappeared.
"Whew..."
The final stone throw, wringing out both magical power and physical strength to their limits.
After confirming it had crushed the opponent's head, Turan collapsed on the spot.
He couldn't even think of getting up as the ground seemed to shake and sway violently.
'I'm really going to die.'
Had he ever pushed his body and mind this hard in his life?
While looking up at the pale yellow sky, suddenly a red shadow heavily covered it.
[Neigh.]
The red horse that approached Turan nuzzled its muzzle against his chest.
Though he wasn't sure, it felt like it was saying "well done" in encouragement.
Smiling weakly while stroking its nose bridge, Turan rested for about thirty minutes to recover some strength before getting up.
No matter how close to death he felt, having won the fight meant he had to collect the spoils.
The three death spirits controlled by the male dark elf, and the five controlled by the female dark elf.
==
"Ugh..."
In the dim forest, Asiz Berk groaned with a headache as he opened his eyes.
Perhaps due to being knocked unconscious after getting hit on the head, his memories were all jumbled and confused.
The sudden dark elf attack, the fight, the escape, his retainers sacrificing themselves one by one for him...
"Damik!"
Calling the name of the butler who had served him until the end, Asiz hurriedly raised his upper body.
The first thing that caught his eye was a campfire burning over neatly arranged firewood.
Across from it sat a person wearing a reddish-brown cloak.
He was a handsome man with gray hair tied in a ponytail, looking two or three years younger than him by commoner standards.
"You're awake."
"Who are you?"
"I saw you being attacked by dark elves and saved you."
Hearing this and looking around, Asiz realized this wasn't the forest he last remembered.
While he was briefly confused about what had happened, he felt a familiar presence enveloping him.
Tilly, his beloved horse since childhood, carefully rested its leg on his shoulder.
"Tilly..."
"It's a good horse. Smart enough to protect its master and understand that we needed to move locations for safety."
Having confirmed Tilly was safe, Asiz finally became certain that the other person had saved him.
If he had been suspicious, his beloved horse wouldn't have allowed such close approach.
"Thank you for saving me. I am Asiz of House Berk."
"I am Turan."
Though he didn't reveal his house, Asiz had no doubt the other was a noble.
The dark elf necromancers who had been chasing him weren't beings that mere knights could handle.
That terrifying sight of them controlling numerous death spirits...
"Was there a particular reason for your conflict with the dark elves?"
"Reason... no, there wasn't. I was just on a pilgrimage with my retainers when we were suddenly ambushed. I'd heard non-humans were fierce, but I never imagined to this extent."
After answering this way, Asiz gritted his teeth as his chest tightened from a suddenly remembered fact.
The six knights and ten servants who had followed him, and among them butler Damik who had practically raised him – all dead.
Though he tried to hold back in front of a stranger, he couldn't stop his vision from becoming blurry.
While Asiz sobbed, forgetting noble dignity, Turan considerately closed his eyes and looked at the campfire.
In truth, he was too exhausted to offer comfort.
His body, which had been rammed by the buffalo death spirit, was aching and creaking all over.
The only consolation was the massive amount of magical power he felt inside his body.
Power gained from consuming eight death spirits, at least double what he had before the fight...
Considering how he hadn't grown much since catching the monkey Masu, only catching small ones along the road, this was truly great fortune.
Although he had nearly died in the process.
A moment later, Asiz seemed to have gathered his emotions somewhat as he apologized while rubbing his reddened eyes.
"I apologize for my rudeness. The people I lost this time, they were too precious to me..."
"Were they family?"
"They were knights and servants who came on pilgrimage with me. They practically raised me since I was young."
Hearing this, Turan inwardly gave Asiz high marks.
How noble his attitude compared to the nobles of House Baltas who treated knights like doormats.
But that aside, there was information he needed to collect first.
"By the way, how many dark elves attacked you? I killed two."
"That should be all of them."
Even after getting this confirmation, Turan cast another detection spell around the area just in case.
Fortunately, there were no dark elves within several kilometers, so he could breathe a sigh of relief for now.
Then, Asiz deeply bowed his head to Turan and said.
"Sir Turan, do you have any urgent business at the moment?"
"I too am on pilgrimage."
Hearing Turan's words, Asiz's eyes widened in surprise.
"On pilgrimage with such power... are you perhaps from a great house? But why alone?"
"I'd rather not say."
It seemed Asiz was greatly exaggerating Turan's power.
In reality, he had only managed to take out one through surprise and struggled with the other before winning thanks to the red horse's help, but Asiz seemed to think he had overwhelmed both of them alone.
Turan released his aura toward the other to correct this misunderstanding.
Asiz flinched but responded by releasing his own aura, and his power was actually stronger than Turan's before fighting the necromancers.
About two-thirds compared to his current level.
'...surprisingly strong?'
Thinking that he might have been able to fight together with that red horse at this level, Turan then remembered that magical power doesn't determine everything in a fight.
Especially since he seemed quite timid, clearly not suited for combat.
While Turan was making such assessments, Asiz was also internally shocked while guessing at the other's identity.
Though his magical power was quite strong, it was definitely not enough to face those two necromancers.
This meant he had either extraordinary magical skill and combat sense compared to others, or was born with a powerful bloodline.
Moreover, saying he was still on pilgrimage meant he hadn't reached his growth limit, which would make him a welcome talent in any great house.
Though he didn't understand why such a person would wander around here without even a single subordinate...
"If you don't have a set destination, would you accept an invitation to our House Berk? We will pay you properly for saving my life and accompanying me safely back to our house."
"Pay?"
He didn't know of any House Berk among the houses he knew.
Judging by how they raised such a Masu and even brought it on travel, they seemed quite wealthy, but...
"Our House Berk is a vassal of the great northern House Arabion, with a bloodline of artificers who have created magical devices for generations."
With that, Asiz proudly declared that they could certainly repay the life debt owed to Turan.