A New Life In Another World

Chapter 93: One Step Behind

"It seems that we've gotten ourselves into a bit of trouble," Van stated at Sullivan and he returned.

Van was dressed in his attire from when he was working with the human King, hunting the Champion of Darkness. As for Sullivan, he shifted to his human form to join Van in the town.

"What do you mean, Van?" Sarron asked.

"It seems that Orcs almost tried to invade the town," Sullivan answered.

"Really now?" Anamath marveled.

"But, did you get anything on Zerris's Champion?" Ozath urged, ignoring about the town's certain destruction.

Ozath didn't really care about the Orcs. He just wanted to find the Champion and fight him.

He could care less about anything else.

"I can't be sure. But, I can tell you that these Orcs seem to be after the Champion as well."

Everyone's eyes widened by the sudden turn of events. Van and Sullivan then explained what they learned in the town.

After they were done telling them the story, everyone had a lot of questions.

"But why?" Sarron asked. "What would benefit the Orcs in finding the Champion?"

"Maybe they thought they could make him join them." Ozath offered. "Knowing the Champion of Darkness, destruction is all he cares about."

"Then doesn't that make you a Champion of Darkness as well, Ozath?" Sarron teased.

"Shut it!" Ozath seethed.

The two demon generals were about to throw down until Van interrupted.

"Anyway!" He shouted, getting their attention. "About the Orcs. It seems that we've encountered them before."

"We have?" Anamath said, puzzled.

"Well, Reiko and I, at least have encountered them." Van looked over to Reiko to get confirmation.

"Are you talking about when a group of Orcs attacked us when we were escorting the Champion of Darkness?" Reiko tried to remember.

"One and the same. Same armor and weapons. All of them A-Rank."

"A-Rank?!" Ozath blurted out. "That's not possible! The strongest a regular Orc can get is B-Rank!"

Ozath has fought many Orcs, and all of the strongest ones he's encountered were all B-Rank. To hear that there's an A-Rank Orc was unbelievable, much less an army of them.

"Unfortunately, that's the truth. I've fought them, and although I was weakened at the time, they were overwhelmingly powerful."

Just remembering that day turned Van's blood cold. He felt so weak, like when he was a child.

It was so long ago that he thought he completely forgot his past, but those Orcs somehow made him remember his troublesome childhood.

To keep himself from remembering any further, Van continued with his report.

"Yes, it seems that the Orcs were about to raid another town. They've been doing this to catch the eye of Allen. They believed that he was holding the Champion."

"Well, that was true until he escaped. I guess they didn't get word of that yet," Ozath muttered.

"You also said something about adventurers, correct? They defeated the Orcs?" Gwen asked.

"That's right. In fact, it seems that they hardly struggled against the Orcs. The green beasts were all defeated with rather ease."

Gwen and the rest of the group were baffled by this. Orcs were rather difficult as B-Rank, and having a group of them as A-Rank would only make things worse.

It's hard to believe that a group of unknown adventurers could kill a pack of these monsters so easily. Yet, that's how it happened

"Who were these adventurers?" Sarron asked.

"We don't know. The town seems to know, but they won't tell us anything." Sullivan answered with a scoff.

"If that's the case, then I say we go into town and demand some answers!" Ozath cracked his knuckles, raring to go.

Sarron sighed after hearing Ozath's statement.

"Did you forget why we're here?" She asked, not looking forward to his answer.

"To hunt down the Champion! That's why I say we see what these townspeople saw with full force!"

Sarron merely groaned in frustration by her fellow demon's idiocy. It was bound to turn into a brawl, so Van stepped in to prevent that.

"Ozath, our King did tell us to hunt down the Champion, but we were not supposed to harm any of the humans."

"...Oh yeah, he did say that." Ozath mumbled.

Seeing how his idea failed, Ozath kept quiet. Sarron was relieved by this.

"So, why did the town not tell you who the adventurers were?" Gwen asked.

"I can't be sure, but it might be because these adventurers told them not to. Kind of like payment for saving them."

"But why? Killing A-Ranked Orcs would make them famous. Especially if they're as skilled as claimed."

Gwen had a point about that. Since these Orcs were A-Ranked, they were practically new to everyone.

Killing them would cause a huge commotion. And that's probably why the adventurers tried to keep the town from telling the tale how it exactly happened.

"My guess is that these adventurers don't want to be found. Not only that, but they seemed to be reluctant to help the town in the first place."

"Huh? They didn't want to save the town? Then why did they?" Anamath asked in confusion.

"That's the interesting part," Van smiled. "The leader of the adventurers was talking to the leader of the Orcs. The adventurer leader tried to peacefully walk away from the Orcs raid, saying they had no part in this, but the Orc leader disagreed. The Orc leader also stated that he was after the Child of Zerris, which is when the Adventurers changed their minds about fighting them."

"Hmm. That does sound interesting. What do you think it means?" Gwen asked.

"Well, if I had to guess, I would say that this group of adventurers might have been the Champion and his comrades."

It wasn't possible, but it also wasn't impossible. The Champion was on the run, and he'd likely try to disguise himself.

Van thought of this because of how the leader of the adventurers suddenly shifted gears into helping the town after hearing about the Child of Zerris. It couldn't be a coincidence.

"So, what should we do? Go after the mystery adventurers?" Sarron asked.

"It could be a wild goose chase," Sullivan reminded.

"Yes, but it's our only lead. It's a stretch, but I think we should take it."

Van and the others have been trying to track the Champion's movements, but came up with nothing. This is not a solid lead, but it's all they have to go on.

"Okay, if this adventurer is the Champion, where is he heading to?" Anamath asked.

That was the question, wasn't it?

"For now, we should work on that. We'll have to hurry, though. Since he's left the town already, he's on the move."

Everyone nodded as they went to work. Now that they have a clue, they might be able to find the Champion.

Although, finding him will be easy. It's the defeating him part that's going to be hard.

Author's Note:

They're getting close, guys. It won't be long until the big showdown!

I'll see you guys in the next chapter.

See Ya!