The description we got before accepting the [Quest] didn’t really make it clear if they were aggressive or not, but by how they flapped their purple wings at us I would say that they’re probably territorial and prone to hostility. Now, did they think that flaunting their tiny wings at us was meant to appear threatening? Because they were the size of normal turkeys back on Earth, so it was hard to take them seriously-

One of them suddenly spat a condensed sphere of incandescent air at us, and Sheeno intercepted it with her axe, and the projectile released a small flaming explosion on contact. Thankfully I had already summoned a [Shamanic Totem], so she didn’t get hurt whatsoever, but damn where those things surprisingly mean.

“They like to make things explode: Don’t leave the [Totem]’s aoe!” I shouted, before starting to get more serious.

“At least not without one of Twid’s [Cloud Barriers] as a backup!” Cherry added in another shout.

And it was then that I was surprised by the triplets having very different builds: Twad was practically a mobile turret array, supported by Twid and his defenses, while Twud was some sort of coordinator that controlled the more subtle mechanisms of the system they had created among themselves. Together they were practically a better version of how me, or at least of my old self before Rubicon’s interference, because they had three brains guiding their actions, while I was on my lonesome most of the time.

Pity party over, [Kenny] started harassing the overfed chickens with differently attuned beams, without giving them time to adapt to any of them, while the [Aurumon] on my shoulder jumped off and started multiplying in relative safety. The reason why I didn’t immediately summon a horde of them was that this way was more [MP]-efficient, and it allowed me to keep one more ace in my sleeve in case Cherry turned out to be more trouble than she was worth.

Obviously, we in the back weren’t the only ones that started moving: Sheeno, as soon as she intercepted the first blow had started sprinting toward the offending avian while throwing [Ice Spears] its way, one of which managed to nick it in the wing, slightly reducing its mobility for a second, and that was enough for Cherry to prime her massive weapon and shoot the thing with multiple needle-thin rounds in its center of mass, and if that wasn’t yet enough Undine made use of the temporary stagger from getting shot to spin two streams of water in opposite direction, which came back to converge on the beech’s head, twisting its neck and breaking it with a light popping noise.

One down and only with remarkably little wounds, meaning that its meat could definitely be salvaged for the mission.

If before the [Regal Beeches] were just trying to appear imposing and intimidating, now they were veritably furious. With newfound fervor, and a birthing hatred in their eyes, all seven remaining targets screeched in rage while also trying to encircle us. One remained in front, the one that, for some reason, seemed the angriest among them, while its six brethren tried to start to run around us.

Emphasis on how I said that they tried in both cases, because a bizarre combination of stalagmites (or stalactites) emerging under their feet, fluid streams that slowed them down whenever they came into contact with them, and suddenly invisible walls that barred their passage, were making their situation seem almost cruel; and that was without including the conventional [Bolts], [Beams] and [Shots] that were trying to actually kill them.

Once tens of [Evolved Aurumons] were added to the mix the fight was as good as over; worthy of note were three new forms that had appeared, which were a bulky knight with sword and shield, a slim hooded assassin with two daggers, and a tunic-wearing mage with a staff. Of course, every weapon or apparel listed was actually part of their body, but it was interesting how they sported things that served no functional benefit besides making it more evident what their role was.

They could technically do the same things even if they had remained in their original form.

Still, individually they were too weak to shine, so they yet worked as a horde, but with an actual frontline, ambusher, and long-range attackers, their little army was way more efficient than any of my previous attempts.

The fight must have lasted less than five minutes, and the only one that needed any assistance was Sheeno, who had some light burn marks marring her arms, but the passive healing effect of my [Totem] was already working toward their elimination, so I switched back to tracking our surroundings, and mentally calculating how the after-effect of their attacks, the heat, somehow managed to get through some of my shielding.

“That actually went quite well. We only damaged one of the [Beasts] enough to still barely count for [Quest]’s completion, but better yet nobody was harmed… Still, what are those things?” Cherry was clearly impressed, but she couldn’t help herself from warily pointing out the tiny golden elephant stampede in the room.

“No need to worry. They’re a [Swarm] type [familiar] of mine. They replicate and adapt on the spot, but their greatest strength is actually how sturdy they are.”

She shot an inquisitive look my way after hearing my response, looked in suspicion to both [Kenny] and the [Aurumons], but just shook her head and accepted things as they were.

“That’s actually a pretty nice step forward coming from her.”

Niceties were passed around, along with a round of compliments on our different builds. I especially exchanged pointers with the [Gnomes] and we even showed each other the various [construct] we didn’t end up using in the fight, which started a debate on the balance between design, functionality, and efficiency, that soon attracted the attention of the remaining team-mates who decided to throw in their own opinions; even Cherry helped, although it appeared to be begrudgingly when it was for my sake, but that was still good enough in my book.

Of course, we weren’t just standing around walking: As I already said I had [Unavoidable Detection] up and running, but everyone else was also doing their part, with Sheeno and Cherry dismantling the carcasses while talking, with Undine washing them out of fluid as soon as they were done, and the triplets were setting up a perimeter with tiny cloud-columns that would repel wandering creatures.

But there was a big difference between a random [Beast] passing by and an aggressive [Monster] that was already honing in on you, unfortunately.

“Seems like our fight attracted the attention of those [Leaf Avatars]…” I muttered, loudly enough that the others could hear.

“Well, shit!” Cherry was the first one to make her opinion known.

“Language!” I immediately responded, to which Sheeno just shook her head.

Instead, a certain Elf looked at me with both surprise and open hostility.

“N-never mind!” I raised my hand in surrender and decided to drop the bit.

“We have not yet reached that point, it seems.”

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

[Unavoidable Detection] pinged our new enemies coming from my left, so we all reoriented to present a unified front, and both I and the Gnomes summoned more tools in the face of the harsher fight that was about to come.

Four [Diskus Launchers], together with an equal amount of [Flying Trappers], spawned around our formation; meanwhile a dense windy mist coalesced around us, without hampering our vision, but I had it on good authority that it made our forms mostly invisible from the other side; Cherry made her gatling cannon sprout roots that… well, rooted her weapon into the ground, from which it seemed to extract nutrients to grow bigger and more menacing, transforming her oversized armament into something that wouldn’t look out of place on a battleship; Sheeno conjured a bunch of icy palisades in front of us and Undine finally cast the most appropriate [Buffs] on all of us, which for me meant a refreshingly minty sensation spreading through my [Mind] while a gentle thum made the [Soul] right under my skin vibrate with newfound vigor.

The [Royal Beeches] were just the first attempt at coordination, and during the fight everyone was mostly testing the waters, holding back their punches, so to speak; but against these guys, we had to go full-out from the get-go, if we didn’t want to be immediately pushed off kilter.

The [Avatars] weren’t here yet, but a cacophonous rustle of wind made it clear that they were coming: Cold-emanating trees started growing icicles among their foliage, those that sparked with either embers or electricity got their respective element amplified within their canopy, and so on and so forth various elemental effects started growing in magnitude around us; the most different of [Affinities] worked in a cacophonous rhythm to turn the ambient hostile, transforming something as innocuous as a random leaf on the ground into something as dangerous as a land-mine.

Thankfully we were standing in a clearing that had gotten further ‘cleared’ from our previous fight, so we didn’t have to worry about that right now, especially since the invisible barrier passively scattered away small things like leaves.

It was then that my [Demiurgic Sight] catches something trying to jump unseen from frond to frond. The bastards thought that they were sneaky enough to come at us from the back.

“Note to self: They do not use sight to locate entities.”

After all, we were supposed to be invisible from the outside of our bubble of mist, but obfuscating traces of our [Mana] was apparently a little beyond the [Sky Gnomes].

“They’re in the threes! They’re trying to come from behind!”

There were no comments, no doubt, everyone heard what I said and simply rearranged our position toward where I had indicated.

I didn’t know how to feel about them trusting in my capabilities so much, but that was something that I could clarify later: Now I had some persistent leaves to compost.

The Elementals took the initiative and shot the leaves from various threes at us, and it would have looked relatively harmless, if every single leaf wasn’t supercharged with Mana to the point that it exploded before even coming into contact with our many barriers. As expected, multiple [Affinities] fought for supremacy for who would crack our defenses first, but while the misty one ended up faring poorly to the onslaught, my [Totems] had [Adaptability] to rely on, and it ended up being unbelievably effective.

Turns out that my [Barriers] are much better suited to hold off against a multitude of relatively strong attacks from different elements, while instead I had already observed that very strong singular attacks, with only one or two [Affinities], could manage to overwhelm it.

I really was the bane of anything that went for quantity over quality.

The [Leaf Avatars] seemed undeterred from their attacks being repelled, and only increased the intensity and number of said attacks as a response.

I easily concluded that as far as Elementals go, they weren’t on the smarter side of the spectrum for the [Monster], but the fact that they could so easily hide inside of the concept they incarnated still made them really annoying to fight.

Would a [Nature Avatar] have been more troublesome, or would the larger pool from which it could draw have overwhelmed it? That was something with which I could probably get to experiment with later on, because [Luck] indubitably couldn’t let such an interesting notion pass right by me.

“We won’t get anywhere if we remain on the defensive!” Sheeno finally broke the silence, warily looking at the part of the shield she was closest to, only slightly mollified that it still didn’t show any cracks.

“I can detect them, but pointing them out would give them the chance to dodge…” I explained, while still trying to figure out a way to pin them dow- “Follow the trajectory of my [constructs]! Attack around where they shoot!” I interrupted myself when I realized that I was complicating something that could be easily solvable by simply taking the initiative.

I got a round of nods all around, so I was already commanding my army to provide some more obvious targets.

[Launchers] threw out their discuses, mostly using [Divine Affinity] since there was none around that the [Avatars] could absorb and gain a resistance to, [Trapprs] threw out nets reeking of [Death] and [Decay], which where what I thought could better contrast their [Nature Affinity], and even my ranged [Auromons] gave it their all with their tiny ammunitions and [Spells].

Seeing the sea of projectiles suddenly flying out of my summons I, once again, had that realization that struck home, every once in a while: “Man, I would hate fighting myself”.

As if in response to our escalation the surrounding trees grew more agitated, increasing their own number of projectiles, which had the unfortunate consequence of littering the ambient with even more [Mana], making it harder to locate the main presence from the [Leaf Avatars].

Finally one of the [Trappers] caught something, and a vibrant green leaf was singled out when it began trashing against the deadly net. Apparently, the [Leaf Avatars] had such a name because it was indeed made of only one leaf that then conjured an avatar as a fake body. Pretty self-explanatory in retrospect.

I obviously caught the occasion to [Identify] the thing.

Name:

Leaf Avatar

Affinity:

Nature

Danger:

Low (High)

Behavior:

Territorial; Aggressive;

Info:

Elemental creature of the lowest caliber. Often mocked for the fragility of its core body, it had now found itself in a biome where it can terrorize most creatures by tapping into the surrounding object resonating with its core, meaning other leaves.

Normally an ambush predator, it now revels in its new-found power unleashing devastating AOE attacks, while still lacking anything particularly penetrative.

The weakness of its core body is still there, but it's now reinforced by a multi-attuned barrier.

Now, that last point was interesting, and it got me thinking… that maybe [Kenny] could just punch through it with its [Adaptability Beam], also known as the [Affinity]-switching light it could shoot out.

A simple mental command and my lantern reacted, shooting a rainbow beam at the leaf that had just broken free of its prison; unfortunately for it, it wasn’t fast enough.

Light collided with foliage, and light won: An unnatural screech echoed out while the leaf broke apart as if hit by a splash of heat-less lava, disintegrating into colorful cinders.

Before we could rejoice in having felled one of our enemies, primordial rage rolled out in a wave out of the remaining [Leaf Avatar]. Suddenly every single leaf in sight detached itself from their tree, joining a maelstrom that was starting to form in the sky.

We tried sending some attacks in it, but you have to understand that we were in a thick forest, so our ranged [Spells] were pretty much a drop in the ocean. An ocean of leaves.

Soon the tornado took a more familiar shape: A fifty fucking meter spear was aimed right at us, like a twisted version of Damocles’ eternal punishment.

“ ‘Lacking anything particularly penetrative’ my ASS!!!”