Ray paired a flurry of strikes as their assailants swiftly surrounded him and Erith. He let out a volley of mana bolts from his short sword, creating some distance between him and the enemy on his right. Using the brief opening, he struck the bandit directly in front of him with his metal fist, sending the man flying. The sudden burst of power dumbfounded him for a few moments. The shield on his armor activated and snapped him out of it. He used the brief moment granted by the shield to construct a complex spell array. However, he still did not have access to the incantation system, so his spells were not as quick or effective as they could be. He had spent hours learning how to properly construct an array without help, leading him to have confidence in using it in combat. Crackling blue energy built in his hands before he slammed them down, causing a wave of crackling lightning to travel forth, engulfing the two remaining bandits. They dropped to the ground, unconscious as it passed. Ray turned to see if Erith needed any help, but was happy to see that she had already handled the three assaulting her.
“So you're not just some pushovers after all, what a pain,” Vick said.
“It’s over, so just put your weapons down, and we won't have to hurt you,” Ray said
“Listen, kid, you're the one that needs to put their weapons down. Just hand over everything you got, and we can both walk out of this alive.”
“Hard way it is, then,” Erith said, getting into a ready stance.
Vick sighed before responding, “I didn’t want to do this to a couple of kids, but you leave me no choice.” he raised a small cylindrical tube to his lips and blew into it.
A shrieking cry resounded from the whistle. Ray stood confused when nothing happened. He expected to be placed in a similar situation to when the shriekers used their sound attack, but there was no such effect. A responding cry from not far away left a cold sweat trickling down his neck, and the sound of two large leathery wings echoed through the night, moving towards them at high speed. The two jumped back as a massive form fell to the ground between them and Vick. It stood on two mechanically enhanced back legs and had steel-reinforced claws at the tip of each wing. Its sharpened beak-like head gave Ray a bad feeling as two glowing red eyes peered back at him.
Artificial Wyvern: A wyvern -ERROR- by a master flesh artist
Grade: Artifact
Durability: 100/100
ERROR
Level: 15
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Ascension: 0
The beast let out a screech as it flapped its large wings, creating a powerful gust of wind that almost knocked Ray off his feet. He dug his heels into the dirt and pulled out Storm Piercer carefully, aiming the weapon as the high-speed wind rushed past. He watched for any gaps in the creature's assault, noticing that it had to pause every 3-4 seconds for half a second before continuing. Ray waited for the next pause and fired the small crossbow. A bolt of crackling electricity slammed into the creature, causing it to shriek in pain and stop its assault as sparks jumped around its body. Erith shot forward without hesitation, her blade already coated in fire. The best was still stunned when she reached it. Her blade flowed like a hot knife through butter, severing the beast's left wing in less than a second. A burst of flames shot past the creature as the strike came down, igniting the nearby grass. Vick panicked as the surrounding grass caught fire and frantically began trying to stomp it out, but the blaze only grew. It soon ignited his cloak and began engulfing his body. As his screams started, Erith quickly finished the injured wyvern with one final slash. It slumped over as its head was removed from its body. Ray could only stare wide-eyed at the screen.
I guess I was wrong to worry about that thing.
He still wondered why Draconic insight gave him such a weird result when he inspected the creature, but he was sure he would get all the answers that he wanted as soon as Erith extinguished her flames and grabbed Vick off the ground, holding her sword to his neck.
“Now, you're going to answer some questions for us,” Erith said
Vick gulped as he felt the hot steel against his throat. “S- Sure, what do you want to know?”
“Well, let's start with who gave you that wyvern, as I know a rogue sure as hell did not make it,” Ray said, walking over.
“I can’t tell you.”
Erith pressed her sword harder into his neck.
“Wait, wait, I mean, I literally can’t tell you. It just showed up at our camp a few weeks ago with a note telling us we were free to use it however we wanted,” Vick said in a panic.
“Alright, next, do you mind telling us if you are involved with the merchants that brought us here?” Ray asked.
“Y-Yes, the amount of traffic on this road has slowed down since word of the wyvern spread, and every caravan is now traveling with an experienced monster hunter, so we ended up making a deal with them to only bring new or weaker hunters on their caravan then we would rob them in there sleep,” Vick said.
“Hmm, that's all the questions I had. What about you?” Ray asked Erith.
She thought for a moment before striking the man in the back of the head with her pommel, knocking him unconscious.
“I don’t have any at the moment, so let's get all these bandits tied up, and we can turn them in back at Promises Echo,” she said.
Ray nodded and began rounding up the rest of the unconscious bandits. The next morning, they began traveling back to the capital with the captured merchants and bandits. It had taken Ray a while to learn how to drive the horse-drawn carts, but he was able to get a merchant to help him learn how to do it with the promise that he would put in a good word for him when they turned them all in.