章 12: Daylight Ambush

The next day.

Only Elio came to the guild. Kiryo seems to have stayed on her city for now.

She have told him that she will be informing the higher ups from the city about this new development so he thinks she might be busy.

Currently, only Elio came to the guild and is going outside to hunt for monsters once again.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Of course. I can just go to another shop to sell my loot." Elio answered.

"What if something happens to you?"

William's concern is understandable. He just learned that there are guilds here who throws their weight against everyone here. He don't know if they'll come back and do something bad to her.

"There is no need to worry. I am one of the chosen heroes. I can do this!"

William stared at her for awhile, trying to think of any excuse to stop her but seeing her like that, he relented.

"Okay. Just be careful okay?"

"Of course!"

With that, Elio left the place to go on a hunt. Now only him and the witch are left here.

He felt something is strange so he glances at the witch and see her just looking at him in amusement.

"What?" Merzalfit asked.

"You seem strangely quiet today. What happened?"

She smirks. "Nothing. I am just having fun watching you being concerned like that. Where's the confidence?"

"Oh... so nothing still changes." He clicks his tongue. "Whatever."

He goes on the laptop to guide Elio on her hunt. He have experienced now so he is confident that he can help her, even for a bit.

"So...." He glances at the witch before turning his attention back to the laptop. "Your not going to ask for my help?" The witch asked.

"Nope. I know that's a bad idea."

"Oya? That hurts? You really didn't trust me?"

"Stop with the act! I know that you'll just screw me over!"

The witch giggles at his irate answer. "How cute. You seem to have lose your cool."

"No shit, Sherlock!"

Merzalfit tilted at the unfamiliar words but she just shrugs, thinking that it must be another form of retort that she didn't know.

"Regardless. I think you know how strong I am? You seem to have a general idea of my identity?"

"So why are you still not asking for my aid? Didn't you know, the Witches of Graia makes sure to complete their end of the bargain?"

He snorted. "Yeah right. You're just messing with me."

"Fine. I'll wait for the time that you beg for my help." The witch giggles once more as she stares at his side.

He decided to ignore her and focus on the screen of the laptop.

He knows that the witches, when they agreed to work for someone, will do it until the job is done. Though he also knows that they will do it in their own way.

Every Witches on Graia, even the fairly chaotic neutral Merzalfit, likes to cause chaos even when she is doing the job that she have agreed to do. So long as it didn't derail her goal, she'll make sure to have fun along the way.

'Still, this is surprising. If she is prompting me for her help, then she might have taken a liking to me. How did that happen?'

He knows her personality, thanks to the game Sin Factor. Seeing her initiating it, it can be surmised that she likes him.

Which is confusing because he haven't shown any politeness to her since she came here. He kept ignoring or being harsh to her just to kick her out of this place. So why would she take a liking to him?

'Nah... let's focus on this for now!'

He decided to shelved that thought for later.

~~o~~

Elio have come to the Green Forest alone. The only companion that she have is the surveillance drone that William is controlling.

Currently, she is just looking for any monsters that she can exterminate. She is not thinking that much about the profits for it.

For her, it is fine even if she is asked to kill the monsters. These monsters are part of the evil forces in her mind, so killing them reduces their numbers even for a bit, which makes her satisfied.

This is how they do it in their world. So she thinks doing it here repeatedly will affect the forces of evil or something.

Their trip to the forest has been peaceful for a few minutes now. Though it took awhile when she was suddenly stopped by William's announcement.

["There are many people approaching your location. Please be careful Elio!"]

She narrowed her eyes and tenses up. She makes sure to sharpen her senses of her surroundings.

Behind the bushes and the trees, she heard the sound of rustling before multiple person reveals themselves.

"Oh... so you again!" Her bored looking eyes glared sharply at the familiar guy leading these people. He is the guy from the last night who tries to recruit them.

She can see them wearing a red uniform and a badge on their chest or their arms. Engraved on the badge is the image of a wolf's head roaring with some flames being spewed out of it's snout.

The guy smirks at her. "We meet again, miss. I've come here to ask for you reconsideration to join us?"

"How many times do I have to tell you? I am not interested!"

The guy sighs and shakes his head like he is truly pitying her. "What a pity. We could have done this the easy way." He gestured for the others to move.

Her eyes narrowed before immediately jumping out of the way. In her former location, darts passes through from different direction.

She landed on another place which seems to have been predicted as two others are already there with their swords raised. As they slam the sword to her with the blunt side of the sword, their downward smash has been halted by a barrier of water that suddenly formed behind her.

The barrier of water moves and pushes them out of the way with a burst, causing them to fly on the air and fall on the distance just near the trees and the bushes.

More drops of water formed on her surroundings before quickly turning into sharp icicles made of clear water. She raises her hands before pointing it at them.

Seeing that the people are not even scared and are still moving to capture her, she unleashes a barrage of high pressure water at them.

"Shielders! Block her attacks!"

Two large people carrying a shield that is more than two meters in height got in front of their allies and kneeled on the ground. They planted the shield on the ground, causing it to shake for a bit before the water hits the shield.

The strength of her water shots are enough to destroy stones, but despite that strength it seems like their defenders can handle her shots just fine.

This doesn't mean that she is out of options. She kept shooting them which turns it into a stalemate. The defenders can only stand there to protect their allies and if someone tries the luck, they will be pelted by stone crushing water shots.

Behind her, there are two hooded people. They also have a badge on their chest indicating that they are a part of her assailants.

["Behind you!"]

Elio is surprised but quickly managed to create a barrier of water behind her. The two sneaky members strikes her back and failed due to the barrier blocking them. Then they were thrown by the water barrier bursting and all of the force focused on them.

The guy leading them narrowed his eyes at the drone. He clicked his tongue before pointing at the drone.

"That flying construct is helping her. Destroy it!"

Behind him, there are other hooded people. These ones, unlike those who can sneak around, have an elaborate robe and a staff on their hands.

They casted their spells and unleashes balls of fire from the tip of their staff. Then they pointed it at the drone flying besides the water user.

The girl have seen through their target as she quickly created a wall of water that blocks those fireballs. At the same time, she is still unrelenting with her water shots at the frontlines.

"As expected. Having the Water Spirit's Physique makes her proficient at using Water Magic!" The guy leading this group exclaims. Then he grinned. "But she is not using her full potential. It seems like she is not trying to go for the kill!"

Just like he predicted, Elio is not trying to kill them. For her, they are still a part of humanity, which is the one she vowed to protect with her life.

So she is only trying to incapacitate them without using any fatal attacks. She is not trying to kill these people. Even if her strikes can crush rocks, she is making sure that she only targets their protection and not the people themselves.

She have full control of water so even if the high pressure water somehow reaches their body, she can change the strength of her water shot so it became debilitating but not fatal enough to kill.

"It seems like we have to use that." The guy leading them mutters to himself.

He made a hand gesture for his companions, which they seem to have understood. It seems like they have other plans to do when she proves to be very persistent.

As all of this is happening, William is looking at the events behind the screen in trepidation. His fist clenched as he felt helpless just looking at it.

'How can I help her?' He thought in wonder.

Merzalfit is just staring at him with a smirk on her face, anticipation is in her eyes.