The afternoon dragged on slowly. The seagull horde maintained their siege over the beach. Some flocks flew away to rest while new flocks flew in from faraway nests, replenishing their numbers. Although individual seagulls were not very intelligent, they were quite organized as a whole.
The republic marines also brought in reinforcements. The wounded were sent back to the ship while fresh summoners arrived to join the battle. The Republic brought a fully crewed ship of war, a formidable invasion force representing the might of humanity.
As for the prisoners, they had to rely on themselves. No help was coming. There was nothing they could do even if they were exhausted. If they slacked off, then they would not be able enter the top sixteen. They would not be able to return to the Old World.
“Mary! Are you okay?” Heather shouted worriedly as she rushed to her giant python.
Zachary’s group had just dispatched another adept rank seagull. However, the giant python had suffered several deep cuts and puncture wounds from the seagull’s sharp beak and talons. It was weary after several battles and had gotten careless.
Heather patted the snake and recalled it into its soul orb. She stared hatefully at the dead seagull for a long time before pulling out another orb.
“Jen, come out.”
With a flash, a golden butterfly appeared. It wasn’t very big, with wings the size of dinner plates. It fluttered around Heather’s head, showering her with faint golden dust. This butterfly was a little special. It was unlike all the other colored butterflies and had two useful abilities. This was why she had raised it to the adept rank.
“Incoming!” Nellie shouted.
A trio of seagulls dived at them to avenge their fallen brethren.
“Jen, dumbing dust!” Heather ordered.
“Brrr!” The butterfly flapped its wings and produced a much thicker cloud of golden dust.
The three seagulls breathed in the golden dust and were struck dumb. Their ferociousness disappeared in an instant and they all looked around in confusion, trying to figure out what they had been doing and why they had landed on the ground.
“Jen! Sleepy eyes!”
The golden butterfly’s oversized eyes glowed brightly at a rapid, steady interval, creating a dizzying effect. One of the seagulls couldn’t help but be mesmerized by those eyes. It stared straight at the light for a while before its eyelids drooped and finally closed. The beast sat down, tucked its beak into its feathers, and started to snore.
“Porcini, you turn,” Shuhua commanded.
A giant red mushroom with stumpy legs waddled forward. Its mushroom body was wide and flat like a table. There was no head, eyes, or any sensory organs. It was a strange creature, one that lived up to the demonic type. Just looking at it made Zachary shudder.
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“Porcini, spore bombs!”
A small hole at the center of the mushroom opened. Its whole body trembled and squeezed inward slightly. Small red spores the size of grains of sand shot out, forming an arc in the air. The red granules landed amidst the three seagulls. With eerie speed, they grew roots all over and sprouted into small red mushrooms. Then, after reaching the limit, each new mushroom let out a pulse of Eternum as it exploded with great force as well as a flash of heat.
“Keew!”
“Keeeeaaa!”
The seagulls cried in pain and anger. Blood and feathers splattered everywhere. The dust quickly cleared, revealing burned and mangled holes all over their bodies. They were all heavily wounded but they still had a bit of fight left in them.
“Keeee!”
One of the larger seagulls saw the strange mushroom standing by the trees and charged over. Even if it could only limp along on one leg and flap its broken wings, its speed was still astonishing. It crashed into Porcini, stabbing wildly with its long beak.
“Fuu…” The mushroom demon let out a sad sound, unable to fight back.
It was an ungainly, fragile creature. It had no hope in a physical brawl.
“No!” Shuhua cried out and quickly attempted a long-range recall.
“Onkie! Save Porcini!” Zachary shouted.
“Onk! Onk!”
Onkie dashed over and crashed into the side of the seagull, successfully forcing it away from the mushroom, and allowing Shuhua to recall it safely. However, in the process, Onkie suffered from the seagull’s retaliatory claws. Although her thick fur protected her from most of the damage, fresh blood still dripped her sides.
Onkie circled and collided with the seagull once again. She barely avoided the sword-like beak that was aimed at her head. After rolling away, she got up and panted heavily, glaring at her opponent. Her condition right now compared to the morning was like night and day. She was exhausted. She still wanted to fight but it was getting more and more dangerous with each passing moment.
Around Zachary, the summons of his companions were in similar states. Some were too wounded to be called out again. Others were too tired to continue. But they were still holding on. One more seagull meant a better chance of entering the top sixteen. Everyone was thinking the same thing, just one more!
Zachary thought about the challenge and the scoring rules devised by the captain. They could earn double the points by capturing instead of killing. Using cards or orbs shouldn’t matter as long as they were captured.
“Guys! Hold on! We can’t go on like this.” Zachary shouted.
“What do you mean?” Carlos retorted, “Aren’t we doing pretty well?”
They were just about to beat the three seagulls to death and gain some more points.
“Does anyone have any spare summoning cards left?” He asked.
“No!” Nellie replied impatiently, “We already ran out early in the morning. Stop shouting nonsense, we don’t have time for this. Hunter, kill that seagull.”
“Hold on! Wait!” Zachary insisted, shouting over the noise of battle, “We don’t have spare summoning cards. But we still have summoning cards, right?”
He held up the ones he had taken from the dead Dark Star Gang member, “Look, these Ensouled are just novices, they are useless to us. I don’t want them, does anybody want them?”
Without waiting for a reply, he injected his soul force into one of the cards, forcefully breaking the bond between the anima crystal and the card and taking out the crystal. This was a much easier process than trying to assume the soul bond of the original summoner and only took a few breaths. He then held up an empty card, one that was ready to use again.
“Well?”
“Fuck the saints!” Carlos blurted, his eyes widening, “We can do that?”
“We can do that!” Shuhua said, full of surprise.
“Damn it! I can’t believe I didn’t think of that,” Heather said angrily.
Zachary grinned and pointed to the weakest seagull of the three, which was a novice, “Capture that one first. Even if novice rank seagulls are worth one point, with a card, they are worth double. Remember, a weaker adept rank seagull is only worth six points. That means three novice cards are equal to one dead adept. This is huge. It might be the difference between getting sixteenth place or seventeenth place!”