Me, the Weakest Member of the Hero’s Party? I’m the Villain Though? - Chapter 74

He looked straight at me as he said that, which made it a little embarrassing. I turned my head away awkwardly and answered.

“Don’t worry about me. Worry about yourself.”

Kyle smiled at my words and turned his body. He drew his sword and started charging toward the lich.

“Gerard, cover me!”

Gerard lifted his staff and cast an attack spell. A glowing magic circle spread at the tip of the staff, and blue fireballs began pouring out.

“How dare you!”

The lich swung its staff as well, blocking Gerard’s magic. But in that opening, Kyle slipped through.

Just as a fierce clash was about to erupt, Derek wrapped an arm around my waist and yanked me backward.

“Get out of the way!”

He was shorter than me, but absurdly strong, and I staggered back two or three steps.

BOOOM!

A black fireball slammed down and exploded right where I had been standing. I almost got roasted alive.

I wiped away cold sweat in shock when Derek stepped in front of me, blocking my view.

“I’ll protect you, so stay behind me.”

He’d said before that I looked like a hero, but now it seemed like he meant to protect me instead. I let out a short sigh as I looked down at the top of his head.

No matter how much I’d been pretending to be weak, I never thought I’d end up being protected by a kid like this… It was a moment that gave me a lot to think about.

“Monsters are coming. I’ll handle them!”

Just as Derek shouted and drew his sword, another huge monster suddenly charged straight at us. But Elonen urgently grabbed the arm Derek was swinging his sword with.

“That’s Kakaros transformed. Don’t attack!”

Just as Elonen said, the bear that had barged in front of us wasn’t attacking us, but was attacking monsters that looked just like itself.

So he could transform not just into beasts, but into monsters too. It was a pretty useful ability.

“Don’t worry. For now, Derek and Lysian, step back a little. You’re in the way.”

“I can fight too!”

Derek snapped back, raising his sword as he shouted. As if to prove his ability, he began gathering aura.

“A swordmaster?”

I asked in shock as sword aura surged and rippled around his blade. He looked young, but had he already reached the realm of a swordmaster?

“Not quite that far yet. I told you, I can at least protect one person.”

Watching Derek, Elonen grabbed my arm and pulled me to his side.

“Leave the fighting to us, and for now, please focus on protecting Lysian.”

When I turned around, even more monsters were swarming in, crawling all over the place. It was a truly horrifying sight, one I’d never seen in my life.

The monsters seemed to be held back somehow by Kakaros, but the problem was Kyle. Back in the Caindel Barony, he’d dealt with monsters with ease, but for some reason, he seemed to be getting pushed back now.

Bam— BAAAM! The continuous explosive booms made my ears ring.

“Over there, let’s go somewhere with a narrow entrance!”

Elonen led Derek toward the nearest mine entrance. When there were this many enemies, it was wiser to fight while taking cover in a narrow space than to be surrounded in an open area.

But the moment we stepped into the mine, an ominous chill crept over me. Green smoke slowly started spreading, torches lit along the walls. It was a sight that felt strangely familiar.

This was the lich’s dungeon. Which meant…

“Elonen, the smoke is poisonous!”

“What?”

Elonen turned around in alarm and spotted the green smoke. He hurriedly raised both hands and spread a blessing.

“You need to stay within the range of my blessing! Otherwise, you’ll be poisoned!”

I urgently grabbed Derek’s shoulder and moved close beside Elonen. Thick green smoke closed in around Elonen’s blessing, making it hard to see.

“When did something like this appear here?”

Derek muttered with a puzzled expression, as if he’d never imagined there would be a dungeon in a place like this.

“It looks like the lich fortified this place after settling in…”

Elonen muttered as he looked around at the hazy smoke. He wanted to examine the interior more closely, but the smoke made it impossible.

Even if it had multiple souls, it seemed to have only one sense of aesthetics. Judging by how unchanged the interior was. If we followed the corridor, an altar would probably appear.

Thinking that, something suddenly occurred to me. If an immortal mage like a lich had a single weakness, then that would be…

“Could the life vessel be in here?”

If we destroyed the life vessel, the lich would die immediately, so there’d be no need to struggle against it directly.

“That’s very likely. Liches usually hide their life vessels inside their altars.”

If that was the case, then while Gerard and Kyle were dealing with the lich outside, all we had to do was find that life vessel and destroy it.