Chapter 19: Their First Real Battle
Finally, we found a good spot for camping before the sun goes down. But at the moment, there are two monsters occupying the place. They"re a bull-like monsters. Their size is bigger than boars. And because of its friendly nature, they are not considered for subjugation mission by the guild. That"s only if you don"t provoke them.
Once they were provoked, they will charge at you. Their power is much stronger than boars. Usually, a party of C rank hunters are needed to subjugate them once they are angry. So it might be a good opportunity for the girls to have fighting experience against stronger monster.
"Angela! Kayla! It"s your turn now! Both of you will take the one on the right, while the other will be mine! It"s a good chance to have experience against stronger monster so I will not give you any advice nor help at all. I will only help you if you"re in danger of dying. As long as you"re not dying, even if you"re injured badly, I won"t help."
"Wait! We don"t need to fight them don"t we? They"re famous for being a friendly monsters. We can set up our tent and they will not bother with us at all."
"Kayla is right. We don"t need to fight them at all!"
I can guess what they"re thinking. When I said I won"t help them, they get scared. Usually, when we"re doing quest from the guild to subjugate monsters, they can freely fight because they know that I will help. As a result, they have never once got hurt at all. Each time the monsters about to attack them, I would distract them.
In the end, I"m the one who got hurt the most while the girls are unscathed. All those healing magic Kayla used, are pretty much only ever be used on me. She never used healing magic on neither Angela nor herself. At least until Victoria told her how to improve her magic. Now she would use healing magic on herself during our journey.
"You have a lot to ask me, right? I will answer your questions if you can defeat one of them."
Then I pick up a stone and throw it at one of the bull.
"Now they"re angry. We have no choice but to defeat them. I will lure one of them away and you"ll fight the other one. Good luck!"
I left them behind as I lured one of the bulls. They haven"t got a chance to complain when the bulls charged to them.
I also ran toward the bulls. The bulls run in line with one of them is at the front and the other is behind it. I will aim at the one behind.
As our distance got closer, I jumped over their heads. I ignored the one in front and scratch the back of the one behind with my spear. Now the one in front can"t suddenly change direction so it directed its attack to the two humans that it see. While the one behind is stopped on its track and aimed its anger toward me.
I spread my presence detection combined with air magic to the girls so I can feel when they"re in danger while I fought this bull. Seems like for today"s dinner it will be beef. But for that, I need to finish this one first.
Using spear alone to defeat the bull is difficult. Even when I scratched the back of the bull, it barely left any wound. Although I haven"t used my Aura yet, it"s still too weak. Then my target right now is to defeat the bull without Aura. Only by relying my physical strength and spearmanship. That"s the challenge.
I have practiced while fighting monsters on the way so I already know that spear"s greatest strength is in its power to pierce. Its reach is also a spear"s advantage. Although spear can be used for swinging and slashing, its true power is in its thrust attack. That"s what I learned as I used the spear in my hand.
Its advantage is obvious? Of course it is. But now I have experience it myself, my body will remember what type of attack is best when I used a spear. If I don"t experiment it, I might ended up always using a thrust attack like an idiot. Combination between thrusting and slashing is important especially when fighting against smart opponent. Even more, if I used Blobby. I can use more variant of attack while Blobby keep transforming.
With that in my mind, I put up my stance and prepared to pierce the bull right between its eyes. And this time, I will try to add spin in my thrust. Then my spear would pierce the bull deeper than if I didn"t add a spin. Well, that"s the theory anyway. I haven"t tried it yet so this is my first time adding a spin.
I thrust my spear as strong as I can with adding a spin by turning my wrist. The result is not bad. I defeated the bull in one shot. But the trajectory of my attack is shifted a bit.
"So if I add a spin it will change trajectory. I need to practice this move until I can hit my target more accurately."
I said that to myself as the place I pierced the bull is a little above the bull"s right eye. It is way off than the target I intended. Although I still defeated the bull I still feel bitter when I thought that I still have a lot to learn.
Victoria said that it was common for mage to learn martial arts as well even though they can"t awaken their Aura. I think my current strength is still weaker than regular mage in the past. Although I don"t have anyone to compare other than what Victoria taught me.
Then I looked at the other battle. If I must say, they look like I see two girls fighting for the first time ever. Did I spoil them too much?
"Fireball!"
"Blinding Light!"
Angela started attacking the bull with a fireball. That"s pretty much normal. But the girls" teamwork is terrible. Kayla used Blinding Light and ended up blinding Angela as well. They should have planned it beforehand when to use blinding magic. Or at least they should decide on a sign when to use blinding magic. That"s a magic that will hurt your allies more than your enemy if you timed it wrongly after all.
Usually, I just need to yell for when they need to attack and what type of magic they need to use. This time I just let them fight on their own and the result is as I expected.
Oh? The two of them ended up fighting. I should have taught them about leadership skill together with their magic. Then they would have known their own weakness and know their roles. I want them to be able to think for themselves instead of following me around forever.
Individually, I think that each of them can handle a bull. Although it will take some time to defeat the bull, they can do it alone. But now they have to move as a team, without anyone taking charge, they fight like amateurs who have just awakened their magic. Not like how a D rank hunter should fight.
Hmm? Now the bull has its vision cleared, it started to charge on them again. It hit Kayla on her side. Her ribs should be broken. But she choose to stand up? Pretty strong ain"t she?
Angela looked a bit panicked when the bull attacked Kayla but when she saw Kayla stood up, she began to calm down.
Now they have calmed down, it was Angela again who attacked first with fireball. She also run to another direction to lure it from the injured Kayla while Kayla is healing herself.
After the bull was lured away, Angela return in a short while and discussed something with Kayla. They both nodded and soon the bull returns.
Now what will they do?
Hmm? They just waited for the bull to charge at them?
When the bull is at certain distance, both Angela and Kayla put their hands down on the ground.
A pitfall appeared in front of the charging bull! Their plan is to trap the bull! Then the two attacked the trapped bull with barrage of magic attacks.
That"s not how I want the future Elemental Master to fight! That"s more like if the Elemental Master go corrupted by me. Wait! That"s what happened!
But a win is a win so I will congratulate them.
"Congratulations both of you! It"s your real first battle! Now you have experience the feel of danger, you will undoubtedly become stronger and stronger!"
"Yeah, but I broke my ribs. It hurts!"
"Go heal yourself. You"re the healer here! And you two can take a rest for a while. I"ll prepare the tent. You can ask me any question after you rest. I"ll wake you up when dinner is ready."
The two of them dropped to the ground as if they are fainting. I let them take their nap while I prepare the camp.
After they woke up, they will ask me questions. Should I tell them everything? Maybe I will.