The Adventurer Who Lacks Magic Power

“Do you know where the coachman is?”

“He’s over there, deceased.”

I pointed toward the thicket, nodded, and pushed through the underbrush to drag the body out and lay it on the roadside.

“Orlan, are you alright?”

“I couldn’t protect the young lady. I’m sorry.”

The knight knelt and responded. Knights who knelt were quite impressive, I thought foolishly as I turned around. There stood a beautiful lady, the figure of a nobleman’s daughter, even with her hair disheveled.

“Rude person! Why are you staring so intently? Kneel! This is Lady Fieen, daughter of Viscount Sharda Hamawaru!”

I reluctantly knelt. It could turn into a bad situation if I didn’t handle this carefully.

“Stop. It’s a shame for the Hamawaru family to scold someone who helped without even saying thank you. Thank you for your assistance. Please stand.”

“Well, it’s okay. If I stand, I’ll be scolded again when you see my face. Can I just go back like this?”

“Oh, there’s only Egudora’s town nearby.”

“Yes, I’m a resident of Egudora. I apologize for my rudeness; I didn’t know you were the lord’s daughter.”

“Kid, sorry to ask, but can you stay here until the escort arrives? I’m not comfortable with this few guards. And if we’re attacked by a pack of Black Wolves again, I don’t have the confidence to protect the young lady.”

“It seems a little too late.”

I stood up and looked in the direction where I sensed movement. There were more wolves than the ones that had fled earlier. This was probably the main pack.

This many guards wouldn’t be enough. I didn’t want to die either.

“Orlan, gather everyone by the side of the carriage quickly!”

Gathering everyone by the side of the carriage, I used earth magic to create stakes. Each stake was 3 centimeters thick with 10 centimeters in between. Using the fallen carriage, I made a cage-like structure, like half of a birdcage.

“Orlan, I don’t have much magic left. I’ll strengthen this with all I have. Please take care of the rest.”

I conveyed this and poured the remaining magic into the cage I had created. Everything in front of me wavered, and then it all went black.

*****************************************************************

“Hey, kid, wake up.”

“Can… Can I hold this?”

“At the moment, it’s all we have to rely on. Pray that it holds.”

*Clang*

Someone pounded a sword against the bars, but the blade only chipped.

“Surprisingly sturdy. With this, we might be able to hold out until the reinforcements from the town arrive.”

The pack of Black Wolves approached leisurely and suddenly rammed into the bars, but the bars held.

“Pierce through it!”

Like predators swarming around their prey, the Black Wolves bit and attacked the cage. There was no room to swing a sword.

I could only thrust my sword through the gaps in the bars. After a while, the wolves seemed to understand that the cage was sturdy, and they surrounded the fallen carriage, seemingly relaxed, unable to escape.

“The boss leading this large pack seems intelligent.”

“They probably know we can’t escape.”

“Will the reinforcements arrive before sundown?”

“It’s unlikely. There might be a few riders with potions, but we have no way to warn them of the danger. Let’s hope they won’t be attacked.”

“Even with 10 or 20 riders, they won’t be able to repel this pack. There are more than 30 wolves within visible range. If we include the ones we can’t see behind the carriage…”

“Orlan, can’t this boy do something once he wakes up?”

“I’m not sure. When I arrived, I saw about 7 to 8 wolves had fallen. Seeing him create this cage and then pass out, it seems his magic is quite low.”

“But to create something like this, it’s a pity his magic is low.”

“We haven’t seen any companions, and he’s likely around the age of adulthood. I think he was probably gathering herbs alone. He managed to defeat 7 or 8 Black Wolves and create this structure. If he can do this, he might be able to handle it alone. Besides, he noticed the approach of this pack much earlier than we did.”

******************************************************************

The pack of Black Wolves surrounding the group occasionally had 1 or 2 wolves approach the cage, but they would only intimidate and then retreat, lying down leisurely.

As the sun began to set, we had almost given up on today’s rescue. That’s when Kaito woke up.

Smelling something good, he sniffed and opened his eyes, finding the young lady sitting next to him, peering in.

“Ah… So, I’m still alive. I guess the cage held up.”

“Yes, you saved me twice thanks to this cage.”

“But it doesn’t seem like we’re safe yet.”

“Kid, do you have any ideas?”

“Is there a boss among the pack?”

“There is. Slightly to the left in front, there’s one with a white throat. I think that one is the boss of this pack.”

“It’s a bit far away, isn’t it?”

The distance was somewhere between 40 meters and 50 meters. There were no markers around, so I couldn’t accurately measure the distance.

Dealing with one or two wolves individually might be possible, but it would be futile against a pack. Moreover, revealing my abilities would not be wise.

As I contemplated the situation, two wolves approached, followed by another.

“They are underestimating us,” I remarked.

“Yes, they occasionally approach like that and provoke us. Pathetic, isn’t it?” Orlan responded.

I shot the chests of the two approaching wolves with my Stone Lance, and the third one following them. 

“Ooh!” “Amazing!” “Haha!” The others cheered, but I observed the one that seemed to be the boss.

“He seems clever,” I noted.

There are always curious individuals everywhere, even among the foolish. I remembered reading or hearing about it on TV or YouTube once. Wolves weren’t an exception; they were known for their curiosity.

Another wolf came out and sniffed its fallen comrades. I watched without doing anything, and then another wolf approached.

“Why aren’t you shooting?” Orlan asked.

“Quietly. Please don’t look at me. Also, I’ll move down so I’m not visible from there. Please take over slowly. It seems like someone is watching who is shooting. Orlan, I haven’t shot more than ten times before. It uses about half my magic, so I’m saving the remaining magic to protect myself. I can probably take down up to twenty this time, but I’m relying on you after that.”

“Pray that you can hold out until the kid wakes up,” Orlan said.

Occasionally, the escort knights would stand up and change their positions. They found positions from where they could shoot between the knights.

I aimed for the three wolves sniffing around and the two nearby ones. I shot the three wolves consecutively, then quickly changed my position and shot the remaining two. One managed to escape.

The boss stood up and began to howl. The pack started running around, ramming into the cage and the carriage. The cage should be fine, but the problem was the carriage. I heard sounds like “Bang” and “Crunch,” and it didn’t seem like it would hold up for long.

I entered the carriage from the roof, but it was too narrow to launch an attack. The wolves seemed to be scratching the floor of the carriage.

I needed peepholes to know the enemy’s positions. I confirmed the sounds of “Scratch, scratch, scratch” and shot my Stone Lance where I thought they were scratching.

I heard a “Yelp” and the sounds of struggling. When I peeked, two wolves were entangled in the spikes. They couldn’t escape due to the barbs on the spikes.

“What did you do?” Orlan asked when I offered him the spot at the peephole.

“I thought about it. Ideally, I’d create a cage, but I can’t see well enough to do it. So, for now, as long as they don’t ram into me, it should be fine. I don’t have much magic left, so I’ll rest for a bit.”

I sat down and closed my eyes, drifting off to sleep.

When I woke up again, it was already dusk, and it seemed that help hadn’t arrived yet.

I asked about the situation while lying down, and I was told that they were still stuck in a deadlock.

When I peeked out from the knights’ position by the cage, I could see the silhouettes of the wolves gathering around.

My stomach growled, but I couldn’t take out a loaf of bread from my storage. I managed my hunger with a bit of Water magic.

The long summer sun had set, and darkness shrouded the area. At that time, I felt an unusual atmosphere, but no one seemed to notice.

Slowly, almost like in a slow-motion video, I crept up and looked out from the knights’ position. No one raised their voice about my peculiar behavior; they seemed to understand that something was happening and looked at me.

The source of the strange feeling was a significantly larger wolf standing beside the nine wolves we had shot down during the day.

I knelt down silently, aiming carefully at the wolf that seemed like the boss.