Chapter 37
As he watched the herd of mannitors stampeding at them, the mixture of the beasts’ stomps and people’s screams ringing in his ears, Zeth shouted back at Erza, “Got any magic items that can handle this many of them?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know, Blood Mage?” he replied as he glanced back and dug through his pile of equipment. “Why don’t you go and draw out a ritual circle to deal with the things?”
Zeth groaned. The monsters were drawing close, and he had no idea why they were even attacking. If Erza was to be believed, they were apparently docile creatures—certainly not the type that would come crashing into a populated town and start stomping people to death. But then, perhaps believing Erza’s words wasn’t a particularly good idea to begin with.
Whatever was going on, he knew he wanted to avoid causing a disaster. Not only was needless carnage something he’d want to avoid to begin with, but if things got bad enough, the Blood Mage would be able to leverage the disaster to their advantage—all those bodies, all that blood, they’d be able to use it all for their own purposes and cause even more death and destruction.
But Zeth wouldn’t be able to solve anything as he was. He needed to get away from here.
While Erza was still digging through the shed in search of whatever item he was looking for, Zeth used the most natural excuse he had. “Yeah, this isn’t my fight. I’m out of here.”
And with that, he turned tail and ran.
Erza shouted something after him, calling him a coward and telling him to fight like a proper mage, but Zeth ignored his words.
He fled down a road, away from people’s sight, and then straight into the woods opposite the direction the mannitors came from. It’d take too long to go all the way to his base and back, so he stopped once the wall of foliage was thick enough to block the sight of anyone watching.