CHAPTER 61: CHAPTER 61 - THE LITTLE BATTLE OF THE HALL

"Huh? Were you waiting for me?"

"For three long years, brat."

Those guys look fierce and well-trained. If I had fought them before all the leveling up and the training with Lovelace, I would’ve been cooked.

Even now, the fact that they stopped my lightning bolt means that I’ll have to fight seriously.

I make a gesture with my hand, a sign for Yaci to retreat a bit so she won’t be caught in it. We had agreed on it beforehand, as she might get seriously hurt in a fight like this.

I walk into the hall nonchalantly.

"Don’t get too cocky!"

One of the guys, a bald, two-meter-tall mass of brute force, shouts angrily. He is holding a two-handed sword that is bigger than me.

He jumps forward, getting outside of the protective barrier, swinging the sword at me.

Which is exactly what I wanted.

I’m not as small as I was three years ago, but I’m pretty agile. I’ve been training a lot, after all. Plus all the buffs.

I sprint towards him before he can finish the swing of his sword, then I land a punch right where it hurts the most.

And I release the taser spell at the exact moment the punch makes contact, breaking his eggs even more.

With a wail, he falls down to the side.

That one won’t get up so soon.

The other ones are looking at me, wide-eyed. They didn’t hear me chanting any aria, so in their eyes what they saw was a ten-year-old girl break their strongest fighter with just one punch.

"You little shit!"

Their caster is casting a huge ball of flame to throw at me. But doing so, he dropped the barrier.

His companions notice what he’s doing and step back. Oh, it’s the explosive sort.

You will hit your fallen comrade with that, you know? He’s not dead.

Well, not my problem.

I wait for him to finish the aria and stabilize the ball of fire. It’s pretty impressive, but the guy took ages to conjure it.

I had my own aria already cast and just waiting for the release when he finished his.

I conjured a ball of electric power inside the ball of fire, making it burst, splitting the fire, and spreading it towards his companions.

Those colors were beautiful. It isn’t every day that I can make an experiment of the interaction between flames and electricity.

The puny caster is swearing at me, half burnt by the explosion. The other three guys are better off but were also badly hurt.

"How disappointing. I expected more from fierce-looking guys like y’all. Is that everything you’ve got?"

The taunting obviously had an effect, as one with a sword and shield rushes at me while another starts shooting arrows my way.

I cast an aria making an immobile clone of me, then immediately cast an invisibility spell and run out of the way.

The face of the guy when he noticed that he cut through air was simply awesome. But I have more concerning matters.

Some of the furniture is burning from the fires that came from the explosion. That’s bad. If this building catches fire, it will be harder to take the people out.

I quickly cast a water spell over the fire to try to dampen it. And, in the process, my invisibility is dispelled.

"She’s over there!"

The puny mage is already chanting the aria of a fireball. She chose a less powerful one this time, as it was a lot quicker to cast.

I divert some of the water I’ve been conjuring to pour over him, then I cast the ice aria, freezing him before he can cast the spell.

The swordsman is already catching up to me again. How annoying.

"You won’t escape this time, brat!!!"

He comes with a horizontal swing, armed to catch me even if I’m dodging to any side. So I just jump over him.

I’m so light right now that a mere jump is enough to get me over his head before his sword strikes me.

I cast a taser aria mid-air and release it on his head as I fall.

One more down.

If this was a traditional adventuring party, I would say that the last two are the ranger with bow proficiency and the priest.

The priest is actually desperately casting some spell on the mage guy, probably healing.

Now that I think about it, he does indeed have a book in his hand, and he’s chanting from it, something that doesn’t look like a spell aria. I would like to take a look at that book later.

The ranger keeps shooting arrows at me. His precision is good, so I have to keep an eye on him and always be dodging.

I launch a lightning bolt on him and turn to the last man standing, the priest.

He’s so focused on the healing that he doesn’t notice me approaching him. I take the book from his hands, breaking his concentration and interrupting the spell.

"I’m sorry, but I’ll keep this for me. You can heal your companions later."

"Huh? No!! This was a gift from..."

"Whatever, I don’t wanna know. Don’t try anything funny, because dead men can’t heal. Yaci! You may come in!"

I ignore the man and turn to the door, where Yaci quickly enters the hall. She looks at the men, wide-eyed.

"Don’t ignore me! Give me back my..."

"I. Told. You."

I look at the man with my angriest face.

"Address me or try anything with me one more time, and you’re dead."

The man gulps, finally understanding the reality of his situation.

"Yaci, the room is downstairs from here."

"Right. Let’s go."

We walk down the stairs, passing the kitchen and going to the lowest floor where the familiar hall is, along with some familiar faces.

This is the hall where the overseers gather. There aren’t any guards here, probably because they intended to stop me in the hall above to avoid damaging their merchandise.

"So, who has the keys?"

I ask them. They are all in one corner of the room, trembling from fright.

They probably heard the battle above, after all.