Her battle was still dragging on. Most of the time, Rurika was trying her best to keep Iftra at a distance. We both knew he was toying with us, that is the part that frustrated me the most. Once he noticed that I had killed his remaining men, a sick, twisted, smile emerged on his face.

What is wrong with this guy. There had to be a limit to how crazy one person can be, but I guess he was not a person in the first place. Still as an intelligent humanoid, there had to be a limit.

“Now this is truly unexpected. I never expected you to come out on top, kid.” said Iftra in a creepy giggling voice. It sounded like something from a horror movie. “Those useless fools, I told them I would be fine alone. They just had to follow my orders, what a drag.”

His words pissed me off for some reason. Besides the fact that his opinion of me seemed to be no better than a cockroach, his comments about his men was too cruel. I’m no saint by any means, but those ordinary goblins were prepared to fight and die for this scum. Yet here he was calling them useless fools.

“Rurika, how high is this guys bounty?” I said in a low voice. What was I even saying, am I insane? I controlled my emotions as I tried to put together a plan.

“Two million dollars.”

Oh wow two million yen, that is a ton of paper. Wait a second, dollars?

With a quivering voice I asked for confirmation, “as in US dollars?”

“Yes.” responded Rurika in an annoyed voice. It was understandable, here we are in a deadly crisis and I am here worried about money.

Holy shit! This guy was super bad news if he was worth so much.

I gulped down some saliva as I remembered my original intention. “Rurika, I’ve decided. Today we are taking this guy down. Want to split the bounty fifty-fifty?”

As I was talking, I shuffled my feet over by her side.

Rurika let out a sigh. "Well, it's not like he'd just let us walk away. You better pull your own weight if you want half!" It was brief, but I could swear she smiled.

“Oh ho, you seem very confident. Let me warn you, my head won’t be so easy to take!” interrupted Iftra in an infuriated manner.

I guess I would be less than happy if a lowly bug believed it could best me in a fight. From where I was standing, I could see red threads forming in Iftra’s eyes. It was safe to say that he was completely pissed by my words. Good.

As scary as it was, I did my best to keep focused. My words were more than random provocation. This freak of nature already viewed me as a lesser being, I wanted to use this to my advantage. Every shonen had villains that underestimated the main character which resulted in their untimely demise. I was applying this concept here and now.

“Drunkard’s Breath.”

The moment I saw the image of Iftra flitting in my direction I immediately used most of my remaining mana to create a dense haze. This made a perfect smokescreen. I was not hoping that it would deter this guy though. After all, even regular goblins were able to recognize the flaws of the spell.

Grabbing Rurika’s arm, I ran towards the tunnel that she pointed out earlier. “Do you have a spell that can block the exit?” I whispered as quietly as possible, in order to keep the plan a secret.

“Leave it to me. But that won’t be enough, once Iftra notices where we are headed, he will gather more men to guard all the exits.” said Rurika in a grave tone.

Her words were very true, no matter how you looked at it. We had to ensure that Iftra had no knowledge of where we were going, otherwise we will surely run into an ambush in the future.

Scratching my head in frustration, I tried my best to come up with a solution. The best way was to kill Iftra; which just so happened to be the idea with the lowest success rate. Just as I was in the middle of my brain storming, a loud bang sounded behind me. It kind of reminded me of a gunshot.

Turning back, I saw Iftra standing in place with his fist raised in the air. Above him was a swirling mass of purple mist. My pupils constricted tightly. He had used the force of his uppercut to create a vacuum, and forced all the haze to fly upwards.

What a cheater! I thought I was a person who had a massive cheat, but what the hell is he? This mother fucker punched once and my spell got destroyed. And what is with that overconfident pose. Hey Mr. Book I thought my wish made me a main character, why can’t I be more like him?!

“Yuta, listen, I have an idea. There is no time to really explain, but I need you to trust me.” said Rurika as she broke free from my grasp.

At this point we stopped running. Even if we tried to outrun Iftra to the tunnel, he would definitely be able to chase us down. It seemed like Rurika and I both came to the silent consensus that we’d rather fight him in a relatively open area than in a cramped space.

“Okay, what do you want me to do?” I asked with bated breath. I was both physically and mentally drained, and that was on top of not having much mana left.

“I’ll need you to stay relaxed and use Confusion Palm when the opportunity arises.”

Hm? Confusion Palm? Not my ranged spell? Close combat with Iftra?

Sweat poured down my back like it was monsoon season. I swear I felt my balls fall off my body. There is no way I can do something like fight a homicidal maniac head on! Was she trying to get me killed? That has to be it! While I distract him, this bitch will just run away!

“Fire Birds!”

Rurika’s roar like voice snapped me out of my panic attack. Unlike the last time I saw her activate the spell, where there were only three birds, a giant flock of around forty birds flew around the cavern in a spectacular light show. The temperature in the cavern became sweltering, yet I was still cold. How much mana does this girl have? To think she had this much juice.

“Go!” commanded Rurika as she pointed at Iftra.

Following their caster’s command, all of the birds made of flames stopped randomly flying. They all stopped flapping their wings for an instant and total silence eclipsed the room.

SHRREEIIIIII!

In the passing of a mere second, the sound of the air being sliced countless times reverberated in my ear drums. All of a sudden, every bird became an after image as they swarmed Iftra from all sides. I could even see a bead of nervous sweat roll down his cheek right before the bastard was covered in flames.

It was nice to see that unbalanced prick get scared for once, but before I got a chance to enjoy it I felt something grab my leg.

Did one of the goblins survive? I was certain I killed the ones I fought. Maybe it was a goblin that Rurika torched with Fire Lotus?

Glancing down, I saw fair skin that was white as snow, a far cry from the repulsive green skin that I was expecting. What was Rurika doing? She did not stop at grabbing one leg. Soon both of my legs were in her hands.

“Hey Rurika wha---!”

Before I could finish my sentence, Rurika pulled my off my feet and began to spin me in the air. One rotation, two rotation… five rotation. After the seventh rotation I lost count from nausea and my spear was sent spinning out of my hands. These were not kiddy spins that you would experience if you were riding a tea cup in an amusement park. No, this was akin to a raging tornado.

Suddenly I felt weighless. It was as if I was suspended in midair. Wait…. I totally was. Rurika had let go of my feet and I shot out like a cannonball. Was this her grand master plan? Toss me like some torpedo into Iftra? I’d be surprised if he was still in one piece from that bitch’s last attack. Wait wasn’t I forgetting something? Oh right-

“Confusion Palm…” I wheezed as quickly as possible; while taking up a flying superman like pose. The only difference was that my hand was open. It kind of reminded me of a certain sports manga.

I instantly regretted my decision. Maybe it was my fault for not paying enough attention in my physics and human anatomy classes. Maybe it was my fault for lacking common sense. Or maybe it was that damn Rurika’s fault!

Anyways, one can imagine the pain one would feel when their outstretched arm comes into contact with something hard at an incredible speed. Familiar with the term ‘when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?’ Well keep the immovable object part, but substitute the unstoppable force with a lone Yuta.

CRACK!

A frightening cracking sound echoed throughout the cavern as my body flopped to the ground. Massive waves of pain surged up my arm to my brain the instant I collided with Iftra. Tears began to form in my eyes when I discerned what that cracking sound was. How nice would it have been if I pierced a gaping hole into him? How nice would it be if I wasn't being burned by my own ally's flames? How nice would it have been if my arm didn’t look so bent out out of shape.

Seriously! What is this freak’s body made out of? Concrete? I mean sure he is wearing armor and all, but I have seen rusty cans in garbage dumps that looked more polished than this dude’s poorly maintained gear. I swear if this guy has a glistening six pack, I will quit. Maybe this sadistic goblin was really the main character?

All bitching aside, my spell was actually surprisingly effective. Iftra had a blank look on his face, and a little drool began to seep out from the corner of his mouth. I might be a low level scrub facing off against an infamous veteran pay to win player, but I had Mr. Book’s wish granting abilities on my side. You can keep your shitty armor, I have the best armor of all!

On a serious note, I am certain both timing and luck were the reasons behind this successful attack. As a magician, Iftra defentitly had a spell to defend against Rurika’s attack. This theory was proven from the lack of scorch marks on Iftra’s body. In other words, the giant flock of Fire Birds that Rurika created at the expense of a large amount of her mana if not all of it, was a diversion. Once the birds landed on their target, then came the real attack, me. Rurika might have known she would have lacked enough mana for a follow up attack. Meaning that she would need me to help seal the deal. Yet I had no spells for direct attacking that can kill an opponent. So, she threw me in hopes that her attack broke Iftra’s defense. The force created from our bodies hitting each other kept him from being able to cast another spell, and my Confusion Palm activated. Creating a literal one-two punch. I conveniently didn’t think about the possibility of ramming straight into a magical barrier, or maybe I just didn’t want to.

Wait a second, that’s right, Iftra is still alive. Forcing my head to look up, I could see the effects of Confusion Palm beginning to fade. Clarity began to return to those annoying/perfectly green eyes. You have got to be kidding me! After all that, and I can’t even stun him for more than a couple of seconds. At least give me a minute! No, I will take even half a minute! How about fifteen seconds? Please! Just keep this low end god under my spell!

SWOOSH!

A gust of wind brushed over the top of my head as a shadowy figure sailed over me. Polkadots?

Needless to say the figure was Rurika. Using her herculean strength, she connected the heel of her shoe to Iftra’s nose in a spectacular flying side kick. This time, the greater goblin was sent flying through the air. The force was so great that he sailed all the way down the same tunnel he came from.

Without wasting any time, Rurika regained her footing and readied herself in a position that a track athlete would do for shot put.

“Fire Bomb,” She said weakly.

A small ember suddenly came to life at the center of her palm. Yet it did not stay as an ember for long. If I had to compare it to anything, it was like Rurika was holding onto a miniature sun.

Extending her arm forward as she rotated her hips, she tossed the ball sized sun into the air. It arched beautifully until it made contact with the top of the tunnel entrance that Iftra was sent down.

BOOM!

A blinding light soon followed by a deafening explosion hurt my ears. In fact it did more than just hurt. With my one good arm I felt a wetness spilling from my ear. It seemed I was destined to be beaten black and blue from both friend and enemy. Yet it seemed that Rurika caused me more pain than Iftra did. After all, if she warned me ahead of time, I might have been able to keep my arm from shattering.

A familiar soft hand wrapped itself around my waist. Like a trauma victim I began to shake like a little kitten. Was this crazy chick going to throw me again?

"Please.. Not again."

“HUFF HUFF, Come on we need to go. Now!” gasped Rurika in a monotone voice. It reminded me of those robotic answering machine recordings.

She half carried, half dragged, my worn out body to the tunnel leading to the second floor. Seems like we were sticking to our original plan. We had bought ourselves a little time with our near suicidal strategy.

Drip.

A drop of liquid fell onto my forehead. I thought it might have been from the tunnel or Rurika’s sweat, but when a second drop fell on my parched mouth I tasted like metal. From my recent experiences I knew that only one thing had this flavor, blood.

I immediately rotated my neck to get a view of Rurika. She had stopped walking and had turned her body round to face the cavern once again. There was blood dripping from her supple lips. It was not blood from an internal injury, rather it was her perfectly white teeth biting down that caused a steady flow of blood to flow out.

“Rurika! What are you doing?” I wheezed labourosly. It was painful for me to even breathe, let alone talk. I must have gotten injured when the force of striking Iftra vibrated throughout my entire body.

“Please be silent, I need to hurry up and cover our tracks.”

Cover our tracks? This girl has to be joking. We were both running on fumes. Heck I was positive that I had more mana left than she did. Just what was she planning to do.

Setting me down gently, she once again set herself up in a shot put stance.

“Wait! Don’t! You should not have any mana lef---”

“Fire Bomb.” Whimpered Rurika in a small, quivering, voice. However, her stance was unwavering and I could she her bulging veins as she threw her spell with the last of her strength. “RAHHH!” She cried as tears of blood fell from her eyes.

The ball shaped flame landed in the opening of another tunnel that was facing opposite of us. Another violent explosion resounded as a second tunnel was destroyed by Rurika. With her objective obtained, she dropped to her knees and lost consciousness.

To go this far. Don't tell me Iftra is still alive!?

Her actions actions made a lot of sense. At first it might seem like she grossly overshot her mark. Why did she not collapse the entrance of the tunnel that we were going to travel down, the answer is simple really. If Iftra is as strong as I think he is, there is a chance that Rurika’s last attack didn't take him down. In fact, it wouldn;t be strange for him ti have some way to protect his life. Since Rurika decided to blast the second tunnel.

She would rather ensure our escape than risk confirming the kill. If he is still alive he should be injured at the very least. Still, he was strong enough that breaking through the rubble will be short work for him. Meaning that he will soon see another collapsed tunnel. This is a diversion to buy us time. Rurika even shot her Fire Bomb deeper into that tunnel to make a bigger cave in. After all, Iftra was probably the tracker in his group. So when he finished digging he would know he was tricked. Yet he would have to decide which path we took. This also means Rurika has one final task for me.