“They will escape.” Asaru tells me.
“Probably.” I agree. “Any volunteers to try to encircle them?“
“I will do it.” Eonet steps forward.
“How confident are you in moving behind them without them noticing?” Eonet probably volunteered, hoping to get a core for his faction. It’s not something I can denounce. It’s a high-risk, high-reward opportunity, and he is brave in taking it. I’m just interested if this is bravado.
“Not very,” he admits, and my opinion of him rises. I need to be more wary of him. “It’s probably don’t matter, anyway. I just need to stop them from fleeing. Maybe I could lure them into attacking my group.”
That’s an option. “Asaru, can you shroud them with fake mana?”
“Maybe, but not for long. I don’t understand how vision and looking work, so the cost will be very high.”
“So we have a plan. Asaru, go with Eonet, and shroud them when you are close. Greenek will lead our main force, and when they try to escape, your group will attack. If they attack you instead, hold on and keep their mages occupied until we can reinforce you.”
Orders received, Eonet leaves with Asaru. The rest of us keep marching forward for the next five minutes, until we hear sounds of clashing metal. “Charge!” Greenek roars, and most of the tribe rushes forward. I stay behind, obviously. Anastasia stays near me, seeking a target to shoot down. Axi went ahead. I take a look at the Eonet group and find them missing a few members. A few kobolts are wounded, but it is obvious kobolts' group is formed out of elites.
Axi’s ax changes things. The first kobolt dies easily, forcing kobolt chieftain to change targets. Given that the numerical superiority just flipped, kobolts are losing miserably. Their chieftain shouts something, and they regroup into a formation. A mistake. A volley of arrows hit them hard, killing three of them. Their chieftain shouts something again, and their air mage creates a small twister above them. I expect an attack, but it doesn’t come.
That should have emptied that guy's reserves. A signal? Do they expect reinforcements? Unless their allies are close, it’s over. That small group won’t survive next minute. Another volley of arrows hits kobolts, which attempt to run. Eonet and Axi are quite fast, so two bodies fall to the ground with wounds on their backs. Chieftain and three remaining kobolts turn around, knowing they won’t be able to escape. Their chieftain tries to bunker up via earth control, but Axi’s will hits him hard, rendering magic useless outside his body.
Cree! Something pushes me forward. I fall and roll for a second. Looking back, a bunch of our archers are dead. The fucking bird then descends and swipes with his claws, killing several more before using his air magic to toss around another batch of archers.
Well, it seems we will have to kill it. Does the bird have some sort of agreement with kobolts? Maybe they just banked on it detecting the surge in air mana. Monsters come to fight for the treasure because it radiates a lot of mana. A core in the body of a monster isn’t like that. Actually, it produces less mana, plus it’s usually contained in the body. Even I don’t have a sure means to check if someone has a core without them using magic first.
“Behind the trees! Watch out and shoot when it comes again!”
Archers move around, and when the monster comes back, I buff Anastasia as much as I can. She draws her bow completely and shoots alongside most of the remaining archers. The bird uses its air magic to push hobs from behind the trees, but before it can kill them with its claws, the volley hits it. Most of the arrows are pushed to the side by wind, while others only poke the monster, failing to pierce through its Endurance.
Only Anastasia’s arrow enters the monster's wing. The bird screeches and stops its attack, flapping its wings once and helping itself with its magic. In the air, it bites into the arrow and pulls it out. The wounds slowly close, showing it still have a lot of vitality remaining.
“I should have aimed for the heart.” Anastasia self blames herself, but I’m not blaming her. I would do the same. If we could bring the bird down and force it to fight on the ground, we could easily win.
The bird descends again, this time aiming straight for Anastasia. The monster flies fast horizontally, but is probably hoping to fly up just after the attack. It makes sense. It probably has a lot of Dexterity. Coupled with the air core and its flying nature, the bird seems to prefer the hit-and-run tactic.
Anastasia draws her bow and waits until the bird comes closer. The rest of the archers prepare as well, though I doubt they will amount to anything more than draining a bit of the bird’s mana. I send vitality into a few bodies of kobolts lying around and animate them. I’m not going to be fast enough to save Anastasia this time, but maybe those zombies will be useful if the bird targets me.
Anastasia releases her arrow, but the wind blows her to the side, causing her to lose balance and the arrow to miss. Just as I think I will have to resurrect her, a stream of water erupts from a puddle on the ground before the hawk. The end of it changes into a sword and slashes at the bird’s wing. This time, its speed works against the hawk, causing the sword to cut around thirty centimeters into the wing.
The bird loses its balance in the air as well, but it's too close to Anastasia. Its claws dig into Anastasia’s arm, before the bird crashes into the ground. I send my zombies, while nearby hobs run at the monster. How brave of them! I move back while checking on Anastasia. Her arm has been ripped off, but she will live, assuming I can treat her soon. Given my vastly bigger mana pool, this injury is within my abilities to heal.
The bird doesn’t wait and directly ignores the attacks. It turns up, and then uses a ridiculous amount of air mana to lift itself up before my zombies can reach it, while most hobs are blown back by the wind. The hawk manages to escape. It rips out the sword, but the wound is no longer healing as fast as before. It even continues to bleed a bit.
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I run to Anastasia and grab her ripped off arm. Then, I manually reattach vitality flows and give her enough vitality that she starts regenerating with speed visible to a naked eye.
“Fuck! Where’s it is?” Anastasia mumbles, while looking around frantically.
“In the air. We exhausted a lot of its HP. It’s no longer regenerating, so it’s probably at least below 70%.” The exact amount is hard to tell, given differences between species and even individuals having different traits. “I doubt it will attack again anytime soon.”
The monster gathers mana and sends an air blade at us. Damn! I thought it’s out of mana! I prepare to dodge, but the blade dissolves.
“Got it!” Axi is back, her ax still dripping blood.
“Kobolts?” I ask.
“Most dead. Greenek still fights two last ones, but all mages are dead.”
The bird sends another attack using air magic, but Axi dissolves it again, only leaving a breeze. Her Will stat should be around the bird. If it’s lower, then not much. We are relatively safe.
“How do we kill the birdy?” Axi eyes it and licks her lips.
“I doubt we will have a chance.” I reply. “It’s wounded and probably doesn’t have much mana left. I won't be surprised if it’s going to leave soon.”
I continue to reattach Anastasia’s arm, but the bird continues to fly above us. “I can maybe shoot a fireball, but it will likely dodge. I won’t be able to maneuver it that far away.” Axi seems to be dissatisfied that she missed the fight with the 4th tier. “Asaru, can you make my fireball invisible?”
“Sure.”
They start cooking an attack. Anastasia sits up, and eyes the bird as well. “Why did it attack me? It seems focused on archers,” she complains.
“Kobolts don’t have any archers. Maybe the bird just hates them.” Axi says offhandedly, but it seems quite probably.
“That makes sense, actually. Archers should be one of the bird’s worst enemies, able to shoot it down from the sky. It makes sense it hates them.” Kobolts may have decided it’s better to just give up on raising archers altogether, than fight the hawk. “We are too strong, though. How it’s going to take on the whole tribe?” I ask aloud. It doesn't make sense. Either the hawk has some hidden trump cart, or it’s just suicidally stubborn.
Axi finishes her magic. The construct that they cooked up still uses some fire and ambient mana, so it’s visible to my Mana Sense. There’s a lot of air mana there, probably as the result of Asaru faking the fireball being a ball of air. Axi concentrates for a second, and then her fireball shoots at the hawk.
Looking up, I look for the result. The bird flaps its healthy wing once, and then the fireball explodes. It’s healthy wing’s feathers are now somehow burned, but damage is not great. “I aimed for its body. It must have defended with air magic.” Following that, the bird flies even higher.
“There’s no way it can do anything against us from such a distance. It’s going to be stalemate.” I shake my head. “Let’s just collect our things, and we can slowly march back to the village.”
Before others can reply, the monster flies down far away from us. Did it give up? We stay vigilant for not. A few seconds later, the bird flies up again, this time holding a log in its claws, probably left after a tree fell down.
“It’s going to drop it on us, isn’t it?” Anastasia guesses.
We all observe it, ready to dodge. A few moments later, log is dropping, straight at Anastasia. Still buffed, she easily jumps back in time. The bird tried to speed up the log using air magic, but the log is still nowhere near as fast as previous air attacks. We have a few seconds to dodge, making it easy.
I shrug. “Anastasia, you have an eye trait, so keep watching it for now. We can go back now.”
“We can’t.” I look at the source of the voice. It’s Eunet, quite wounded. I send him some vitality so I don't come across as an asshole.
“Why not?” Greenek and my faction hobs come back as well, having killed the remaining kobolts.
“I have seen it’s attack. We are mostly fine, but regular goblins in the camp will die from broken bones and bruises. They won’t be able to resist the wind. Human females will die too.”
“No! I will protect the females!” Greenek shouts, but I don’t care. Eunet is right. Leading a 4th-tier monster to the village will be a mistake. If we start marching, it may even scout ahead and kill everyone there when we are still here. The bird is obviously faster than us.
“Asaru. I have a task for you.”
[Asaru’s POV]
I ran back to the village, camouflaging myself from the bird. The task of protecting everyone inside is a heavy one, but manageable, assuming Foary’s formations are working as intended. After two hours, I’m back and tired. I go to Smag’s house and enter the cellar. Here, he keeps his fake mana core, which acts as the heart of the formation. I sit down, allowing my legs to rest. Instead, I familiarize myself with the formation.
Smag wasn’t able to create a self-working formation for fake mana as he only had basic runes for it. Instead, the formation works as an amplifier for my abilities. There are few more features as well, though none are as powerful for me.
Formation can transfer vitality and vitality mana from several monsters contained in cells to goblins, though it’s not a feature that will be useful in fighting the bird, as there's not many who can fight the hawk here. I suppose I can use it to heal regular goblins. Assuming it will attack the village in the first place, I'm still not convinced about that.
Other than that, most of the runes fortify walls. There isn’t much against flying enemies. Actually, given that the most vulnerable point is underground, Smag made more preparations against burrowing monsters. There are parts of the formation that scan everything underground and can potentially slow down such enemies. Without earth core, the effect isn’t very strong, though.
I keep waiting, hoping there won’t be a fight. There are many regular goblins and children in the village. I may not be able to protect them all. Two hours later, I notice the bird in one of the cellar's windows. I sigh.
Not far from here, there’s a small lake where we drink water. I grab half of the water with my magic and bring it closer. Then, I use fake mana to create fake blades out of water. Smag would probably allow the hawk to kill a dozen goblins first before attacking, hoping it would lower the enemy's guard. I don’t fault him for thinking like that, since the whole tribe is obviously more important than individual goblins. Still, even if it’s not possible, I want to preserve everyone's lives.
Goblins above me noticed the monster as well, and there’s chaos in the village. The hawk glides down and moves its claws forward, but before it can kill anyone, I attack. Several blades move toward it, and I use fake magic to fake them being faster. All of them strike the bird, though they don’t pierce as deep as they seemingly should. The speed was, after all, fake.
Monster knee-jerk reaction is to lift up. I let the blades become water again and then make water into fake birds. I have convinced Smag to teach me anatomy for a while, so these are pretty good. I pour more fake mana into them, using the formation in full. I then fake the water inside the birds being hotter than enough for it to boil. Given that this clashes with the images of birds, the drain on mana is significant, but it’s still something that formation can deliver.
The birds rush after the monster, which isn’t using as much mana as before, even though its wounds are more serious now. I once again fake the birds being faster, this time draining fake mana from the core I keep with me as well. Channeling that much fake mana without the trait is painful even for me, so I power up another formation, which starts sending vitality and vitality mana to me. I can sense this directly, but my condition improves.
My birds are not very damaging, but they are irritating. Just as I predicted, the hawk pecks one of them, then swallows. This realizes boiling water in its stomach. The bird tries to vomit, but another bird uses the chance to fly into its open beak.
The rest of the birds crash into the bird, similarly releasing the heat. Smag once told me he sees my magic as an illusion made real. Regardless, the boiling water is still fake, so it’s not as hot and damaging as the real deal. Still, the bird panics and loses attitude. I use the chance to create another set of fake blades and attack again. This time, I cripple one of its wings. The monster cushions its fall with air magic, but on the ground, it’s not that strong.
The rest is boring; I just use fake mana to constantly create projectiles and attack the bird. It tries to run away on the ground, but one of its legs falls in a pit trap. There are many of those around the village.
You have killed 4th tier monster. You have earned 68000 Experience Points!
Should I cook it?