TL Note: Alright. It took me about 33 chapters to come to this conclusion, but I"m planning on putting the fan-art stuff at the top of the page from now on… Hope no one minds.
Fan Art Alert GAAAHHH!! I knew making a coloured page with too much clutter as my first one was a bad idea…
…… Harpies.
Large flying type monsters, with a wingspan reaching almost 5 meters.
While their bodies are that of a carnivorous bird, their head is bizarrely shaped like a human.
In addition to its sharp beak of an eagle, it had large cat like eyes plastered to its face, and its rough feathers gives it a ghastly appearance.
Although it doesn"t seem very durable, it"s nails look like they could rip through leather, so that"s something we"ll have to look out for.
The knowledge I just listed were of course from the game.
The areas where these monsters are active at, were along the main highway, close to the mountainous areas. This information wasn"t really talked about back in Comnes.
However, the flock that are attacking the caravan group from the ‘Jaws of Garuha" are undoubtedly harpies.
– Adventurer Life Day 57 (Mon) – Noon – Main Road
From what I could tell, there should be at least 60 of these…
A loud noise of wood breaking from just earlier, must be the sound of one of the caravans being damaged.
From the front of the line, you could see a large bird shaped figure attacking within a crowd of harpies.
“… Huge…”
I wasn"t even aware I just leaked out my thoughts out loud…
That harpy had wings twice the size of all the others, and the caravan beside it dwarfed in comparison. As for the people being attacked…
“Aah! The people – !!”
My heart sank hearing Benedetta"s shout out as we watch the giant harpy taking a hold of people and dragging them into the sky one by one.
Large sprays of blood can be seen even at our position as the sharp claws bites into them, and from the distance they would"ve been dropped, there"s already no use saving them…
The ‘Elite", which was nothing more than an oversized harpy, would throw those bodies into the forest… and the smaller harpies would flock there…
The other harpies have also been dragging humans into the forest…
Those ones also seem like couldn"t be saved.
However, it doesn"t seem like we"re out of the danger either.
A flock of them can be seen flying towards us.
Watching their numbers, and large wingspan that seems to almost cover a portion of the sky, along with their ear piercing caw… feels quite oppressive.
Let"s not forget to mention about the threat of their talons.
If it were to attack an area un armored, it wouldn"t be an over exaggeration to say you would die from that alone.
I had Centurion and two of my skeletons hold up their shield, while the rider of the carriage we"ve been responsible for, was to hide under the caravan.
The cover of the carriage is only made of cloth, so it would hardly be safe hiding inside there from harpies.
"Harpies are not such monsters that could form into groups like these! For the most part, they"re act more like scavengers!"
"There"s a good chance they"ve been influenced by the "Elite"!"
As soon as I responded back to Cesar, he proceeded on getting ready to defend the carriage… speaking of which, those sh.e.l.led rabbits back then also had an insane number collaborating together when an ‘Elite" was involved… if that"s the case, then wouldn"t defeating the big harpy end all of this…?
Centurions team and two of my skeletons were placed on one side of the carriage.
This is to keep our long range attackers, Benedetta and Cesar, safe.
On the other side, we have Phillips" team and me.
Their spears have a longer reach, so adding any more skeletons would just get in the way.
I wanted to put some for safe measure but,
(My lord. This number is fine.)
Seems like he has a lot of confidence. There was not a hint of wavering when he said that.
At that time, the harpies that had been circling above us descended.
However, the harpies that were all coming here in a line makes them an easy target.
For the first strike, Benedetta"s arrow and my stone bullet had two of the harpies crash into the ground.
(Maybe this might go unexpectedly easy?)
I thought that, but looking up again had me took those words back.
Despite the two had been taken down, the rest of the harpies did not stop in rushing over, and they all began to spread out around us!
… this isn"t a number I can take down with stone bullets alone…
I hurried myself in putting up a shield to take on the harpies attacks, but…
(Lord, please stay where you are.)
At that transmission, Phillips suddenly thrust his spear at my direction!?
Stab!
His spear stabbed something way above my head.
And at that, a harpy pierced at its torso dropped onto the ground.
“While distracted from the ones in front, these things quieten their flying when approaching from behind… be careful my lord, they are crafty. However, so long as I am here, you will not be harmed in the slightest. I can a.s.sure you.”
“Much appreciated.”
Right when thanking him, I saw another approaching from behind him now.
I was about to shout out, but Phillips stopped me before I said anything.
(… Hold on! This isn"t the sort of place where we have any leeway for that!)
Is what I thought for a moment, right before Phillips lodged the spear right through the harpy"s head…
"This sort of situation is normal for me."
"……"
I really wondered what he did back in his time…
Fwoosh!
Once again, a skeleton under Phillips" command pierced another harpy with its spear.
Even so, having to attack flying enemies like this is difficult to deal with. It becomes even more so when you have to take in consideration of other enemies that would attack you at any angle at any time.
Even when one of them gets taken down, the surrounding others spread out away from there making it annoying to take down another one.
This is completely different from having to attack enemies from the ground… much more than I first thought at least.
(There are times when you have to be pa.s.sive in battle my lord… Let"s not be impatient.)
(… I know… but this is really tough…)
I am throwing my stone bullets at every chance I could get while blocking off harpy attacks, but since most of them had been concentrating onto me and Phillips" team, I could only really throw it in a small motion.
As expected, it"s not enough to take a harpy down in a single hit like this.
Looking over the situation on Phillips" team, they seem to fare much better, as the number of corpses begin to pile up around them.
I"ve got some around me too, but it"s much fewer in comparison.
(… The more you try moving around too much when attacking, the more tired you will be compared to us…)
Like I could help it… Right when I thought that, I hear a chuckle on his end, but not through telepathy this time.
"It"s about time now…"
About time for what? I wanted to ask back, but an arrow flew right above my head before I said anything.
Shunk!
Another harpy fell right before me!
"It"s Benedetta. Were you waiting for a chance from his diversion?"
Diversion!? Was I… was I a decoy?
Arrows had been flying beyond the carriage and shields…
Along with the help of Centurion"s team, there had been much fewer enemies from Benedetta"s side, enough for her to continuously use her bow.
Since I had been drawing lots of attention to myself, there was plenty of chances for Benedetta to strike.
… Noticing that, the flock of harpies began changing their targets to her instead!
On reflex, I took out some stone bullets and threw it there to hopes to reduce their numbers.
One fell, but it wasn"t enough to stop the entire group, and the flock had completely covered up Benedetta and Centurion"s team.
(This is bad!?)
… However, right just then. A spark of light flickered within the flock.
Kabaaam ! !
(Uoh!! Woah!)
Accompanied by a shockwave that shook my insides, a blast of red and black blew out the crowd of harpies in an instant!
(… So this is magic…)
It looks something more like a bomb used through magic.
I was stunned while watching the pillar of flame rise up.
This would be the first time, in any of "Nemo"s" memories, that he had witnessed magic like this first hand.
The harpies in range of the explosion flew like a ragdoll and crashed to the ground, unmoving.
Just like this, about 5 or 6 of these had been taken out in a single attack… that was almost half of the group.
(What a power……)
Even after several seconds, I still stay in a daze after witnessing magic happen for the first time…
"My lord, it is your turn now! The enemies movements have slowed down!"
Following my eyes to the sky, there was indeed a number of harpies unable to move out of confusion.
Phillips" team can"t reach them, while Benedetta still needs time to recover given how close she was to that explosion.
(Guess it really is my turn!)
Perhaps because they are beasts, their senses are much more sensitive than ours, making them more susceptible to shockwaves.
There were even some that crashed into the trees after a couple seconds of confused flying.
Not wanting to miss this chance, I threw as many stones I could with all my strength this time… Benedetta followed up later to catch the remaining few.
… Until now, had 15 minutes already pa.s.sed?
I couldn"t tell with all the constant waves of enemies coming at us.
Looking around, I think we managed to successfully take down the harpies that were aiming on our side… I looked at all the collapsed harpies on the ground, and there shouldn"t be any less than 20 here.
The caravan, we had to defend ourselves with, had its hood completely peeled away, and I can see all the cargo inside of that too.
Looking closely at the harpy corpses from below me, although their wings took up most of the attention, their bodies are also considerably large.
(With the size like that, they really shouldn"t be able to fly…)
However, it"s common knowledge in this world that almost all flying type monsters are using some sort of magic to keep themselves in the air.
A carnivorous bird at this size should be no exception, and perhaps uses some kind of wind magic to fly.
I looked around us, and it doesn"t seem like we took much damage from them, and as for the harpies, it seems like we at least got the ones around us defeated.
“… This group here manage to finish things rather quickly…”
Cesar muttured so as he pokes his head out through the gaps between Centurion team"s shield wall.
“It"s mainly thanks to you. Your magic saved us quite a bit.”
It wasn"t only the fact he managed to take out a number of them in a single attack, but it also made it much easier for us to counterattack right after. The situation of the battle changed to our favour drastically because of that.
However, Cesar made an unsatisfactory face.
“Not really, it was only because of that wall of shield that I was able to use my magic rather easily. It was that group there that defeated the most amount. And thanks to you and her counterattacking so quickly, I didn"t have to release my magic again.”
(He"s quite aware of what was going on…)
If it were me, I probably would"ve attacked right before they reached me, but Cesar had the better judgement in waiting until they completely surrounded them first.
When thinking of that, I noticed the shield wall Centurion was making a triumphant look behind Cesar.
… How I was able to notice a smile from a skeleton, I don"t know.
While you did protect him with shields, it"s not like that accomplishment was any different from all the other skeletons…
… Even now, I still seem to have some lingering fascination by Cesar"s magic attack.
As someone who is also stuck as a rear guard. I can understand the difficulty as a magician who has to keep a watchful eye on their mana supply. But with that amount of firepower, it seems to already make up for it.
(… Ah whoops, the battle is still going on…)
We"ve got our surroundings dealt with, but the remaining carriages are still fighting against the rest of the harpies.
"Would it be good if we give some a.s.sistance to the ones at front?"
"… No, that won"t be necessary… It seems like we got their boss" attention already."
Before I was able to take in what he just said, Centurion shouts out.
"MASTER! That BIG one is COMING right this WAY!"
High in the sky, I can see the "Elite" already flying in this direction……
—- Summoning Memo —-
Centurion Team:
Members: Centurion, Skeleton 1, 2, 3
Equipment: Hatchet, Shield, Armor and helmet
Phillips Team:
Members: Phillips, Skeletons 4, 5, 6
Equipment: Spear, Shield, Armor and helmet
Other Skeletons:
7 – 37: Club, Round shield, Armor and helmet
Metal Golem ‘Talos": 1
Wooden Horse: 1
#Golems can be divided to a maximum of three bodies.