Chapter 601 (2/2)

「Woof!」

I was so proud of our win, but it was entirely thanks to Urushi.

『All right, we’ve defeated most of the Modoki, I’ll leave finding that guy to you, Urushi!』

Once we were sure that there were no more Modoki in the fleet’s vicinity, we made our move without a moment’s delay. We didn’t want to let them get away.

『Let’s get to the owner of that gaze before they escape!』

(Woof!)

Our strategy this time is quite simple.

Urushi would use his shadow transfer to surprise the hiding opponent, and then we would follow Urushi’s signal and teleport there. That was it.

The only problem was if the opponent is too far away to be reached by our teleportation――

「Woooof!」

It apparently wasn’t a problem. Urushi then dove into the shadows on the spot.

And in the next moment, Urushi’s presence appeared a few dozen meters behind the fleet.

『How should I put it, aren’t they quite close!?』

「Nn」

This meant that they must have been highly skilled in their stealth abilities, and the fact that they could deceive Fran and I when we were only 200 meters away was quite impressive.

『Don’t let your guard down!』

「Nn!」

I teleported with Fran, who was ready for battle, to where Urushi was. Of course, we’d made sure to leave no trace of our presence. It would be pointless for us to take them by surprise if they discovered us right after we teleported.

We teleported slightly above Urushi, and below us, Urushi and a man were facing each other.

Black tentacle-like things were wriggling around Urushi and the man standing on the water’s surface. It was probably a binding spell that Urushi had unleashed. But it seemed to be blocked by the barrier that the man had set up.

『Zelyse!』

The blond-haired, blue-eyed man looked familiar. He was the psycho handsome guy, Zelyse. I had a hunch, but as I thought, it was this guy who was watching over us before.

「Master!」

『Okay!』

Fran quickly readied me. In response to her words, I transformed myself into my katana form. It had been a while since I’d felt this way. It may have been the first time in a long time that we’d been able to communicate so well as a team.

A sword and its wielder. I was Fran’s guardian, but I was also her sword. Therefore, it was inevitable that the place where we could understand each other best was in battle.

「Nn」

『Yeah』

I understood. I understood what Fran was telling me.

She readied her Sheaths of Wind and aimed it to slash at Zelyse. Without using teleport, she added the power of falling to her slash. The reason why she used the Wind Attribute was to hide our presence. And of course, she also activated a variety of other skills at the same time in this attack.

Fran narrowed her eyes in satisfaction and smiled slightly as she saw that I had activated the skill just as she had wanted.

『Here we go, Fran!』

「Nn!」