We should be walking around them, but the monsters are coming this way. It doesn’t look like it’s going to go the way we hoped.
A loud noise echoes throughout the forest, and it startles Mia.
“They’re coming this way, aren’t they?”
Asks Rurika while looking around.
Do we have enough room to swing our swords? Even if I attack with magic, the trees are still in the way.
If I use powerful magic, it should blow the trees away too, but that still might make it inefficient against the monsters.
But the same goes for them, right? That’s what I think at first, but then I see them breaking through the forest as they come towards us.
Depending on the monsters, we might be stuck defending until we are really ready to fight.
“It looks like they’re blood bears.”
Says Sera, and I feel relieved.
I figured we would be fine, but if these turned out to be minotaurs, that would be the worst.
“Should we keep going to the minotaurs’ territory while looking for an open space?”
“…I think we should fight them back. They look pretty fired up, and they might keep chasing us even if there are strong monsters nearby.”
It’s true. The way they’re destroying the forest doesn’t seem normal. I don’t know what happened, but it looks like we came here at the wrong time.
“…Sora, Chris and I will create a little space. Can you buy us some time?”
Says Sera. Are they going to take trees down?
We haven’t found a good spot so far, so that might be the right choice.
“All right. Hikari and Rurika, cover them. I’ll act as bait.”
I’m the best for this job because even if a tree comes flying and I can’t dodge it, I can block it with a barrier.
And since Hikari and Rurika are agile, they can use throwing weapons to cover for the others.
“Can we kill them?”
“If you can take them down that’s fine, just don’t chase them too far. And don’t force yourselves to fight them if they aren’t going where Sera and Chris are headed.”
I can’t help but smile awkwardly at what Hikari said. Even in this situation, she’s still thinking about taking them down.
Well, it’s difficult to fight them here, but if she can take them down, good.
Hikari and Rurika leave me. Ah, Hikari is climbing a tree. Her movements are so light.
I check Sera and Chris’ position on Map, and start moving too.
The blood bears are moving towards Sera and Chris, and then, like a magnet is pulling them back, they change direction. Is it because they feel my presence is the closest?
Sera and Chris are now standing still. Are they making a space for us?
I need to buy time for them, and I need to make sure I don’t get too far from the monsters, or they’ll go after Sera and Chris again.
And so, I’m going to move slowly and in a way that leads them away from Sera and Chris.
That said, that might not be very effective, because they don’t care about the trees in their way and always run the shortest possible distance to attack.
I hear the sound of trees being broken, and see what looks like a cloud of dust.
When I finally get a good look at the monsters, I’m surprised by what I see.
There are two of them, but the one leading the way is bleeding a lot from the front.
Did it get hurt in battle? Or is that from breaking through the trees?
I don’t know what happened, but what I do know is that this thing isn’t going to back down from a fight.
They notice me, growl, and speed up.
The monsters tackle the trees in their way and mow them down, not caring about anything blocking their charge.
This might end up attracting more monsters, but there’s nothing I can do about that.
I retreat while firing magic at the ground, but that doesn’t seem to have any effect.
If I wasn’t using Parallel Thinking, I’m sure I would’ve tripped on something by now.
Then I hear a different, lower sound. It’s a signal.
I turn around and speed up, not turning around to look at the roars behind me.
Eventually, I see an empty space with Sera in the middle, and Chris and Mia a little further back.
“You actually managed to make this.”
“It was mostly Chris.”
The trees are all tucked in a corner so they don’t get in the way, but we still need to watch out for the stumps.
“Rurika and Hikari, join us too.”
“Yes, we’ll strike from the back.”
There are two blood bears, and two of us standing here. We can each take one.
Sera goes on the right and I go on the left, each baiting a blood bear to attack us.
I dodge a claw that swings down at me, and swing my mithril sword down.
Even that tough fur shouldn’t be able to stop a mithril sword infused with magic energy.
The blood bear’s arm is cut, and it shrieks, but it shows no sign of backing down.
Doesn’t it feel pain? Well, the way it shrieked tells me it does.
Then why?
It attacks me with the other arm, and I dodge it, but just as I’m about to counterattack, Hikari comes flying from the air.
It really does look like she’s flying, as she swings her dagger down and stabs the monster’s neck from behind.
That dagger infused with magic energy is incredibly sharp, and that combined with the momentum and the weight she put in it, means it instantly ends the blood bear’s life.
The blood bear on this side is taken down pretty abruptly, thanks to Hikari, but just as we’re about to go help the others, they signal with their eyes and stop us.
I guess Rurika and Sera want to take that one down themselves.
And sure enough, five minutes later, the other blood bear is down.
Join my patreon to support me and read ahead.
Nice power to the people