Danmachi: Unalloyed Blade Works

I Can Hear the Bells Ringing (Pt. 3)

"You sure you left the note properly?" Mord grumbled.

"I'm telling you, I did!" Scott replied. "I left it near the tent after Little Rookie and his friend left. It would be impossible to miss it!"

A simple note that revealed that Lili was captured and to show up to the largest crystal in the East alone should have been enough to get their message across. A simple challenege to get revenge for what she did to him at that tavern. Yet, despite Mord and his friends waiting for nearly an hour for Artoria to show up, she never did.

"Mmmmrf! Mmmmmmmmrf!"

"Considering we kidnapped her Pallum friend, you'd think she'd come running over in a heartbeat..." Guile noted.

The three members of the Ogma Familia turned towards their captive, who was gagged and tied around a tree in the middle of the forest. Lili thrashed and screamed wildly, hoping to create enough commotion for her party members to find her. She eventually stopped when Mord quickly drew his sword and pointed its tip at Lili's throat, causing her to freeze up in fear.

"You shut your mouth if you wanna keep breathing!" Mord hissed. 

"Mord, what if it's taking her this long because she's gathering her friends?" Guile asked.

"She may be a brat, but even a brat with half a brain should be able to understand what would happen to her friend if she doesn't listen to our terms. Besides..."

Mord grinned as the small army of ragtag adventurers slowly revealed themselves from the shadows, all armed to the teeth and grinning maliciously, eagerly waiting for a one-sided beatdown.

"I checked her Familia, and both her and all of the other members besides Little Rookie are Level One. They won't be able to do anything when we got this many people on our side!" Mord cackled.

He wouldn't be caught off guard like last time when that puny girl launched him away that time. Now, he was fully prepared. With this, he could now release all of his pent-up anger and frustrations for being disrespected by a Level One!

*Clink!*

"Hm?" Scott perked up upon hearing the soft noise and glanced down on the ground to see that a small, metallic capsule had rolled up to his feet.

*Clink! Clink! Clink!*

More and more of the capsules slowly rolled around Mord and his friends, with the majority of them being concentrated around Mord's other lackeys. The other men too were confused at what the strange objects were and why there were so many of them around their feet.

"What's this?" Curious, Mord slowly reached down and picked up the tiny object, studying it. The metal casing had no distinct markings on it and felt incredibly light in his hand. He shook it, listening for any sort of rattling in the container but heard nothing.

"Some kinda toy?" Guile guessed.

What none of the men realized was that there was a wide berth around Lili, who stopped shaking when she noticed what was surrounding her. Recognizing the objects, Lili gasped and quickly shut her eyes and braced herself.

"I dunno. Probably some stupid prank-"

In an instant, all of the bombs detonated one after another in rapid succession. Mord and all of his men were quickly swallowed up by explosion after explosion. Blue flames and fireballs covered the entire forest and burned anyone unlucky enough to be near a bomb. The shockwaves and subsequent fireballs launched several adventurers away and broke up their previous confidence and formations. What they were now a part of wasn't a one-on-one duel like Mord had planned, but a planned yet chaotic ambush by an unknown force.