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Chapter 45: Assault

 

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A little while after we beat the roc birds, Lydia’s enhancement magic ended, and a little while after that, Claude’s did as well. The enhancement time was about 2 minutes and the magic consumption was about 300. Looks like it only lasts as long as a single battle.

「The magic usage is pretty big and the length of the effect is short, it looks like it isn’t usable very often」

「Ehhh~ Even though it was so much fun~」

「My sword…….it broke…..again……」

Both of them are disappointed.

Though the cause of this is completely different for both of them.

Looking around while meditating, I see things moving around here and there.

It seems like these meadows have quite a few roc birds living here.

「Looks like it wouldn’t be good to advance carelessly」

「Because we have a good view point a surprise attack shouldn’t be a problem, but the roc birds are really fast」

It’d be bad if they surround us.

There’s no need to be overly cautious though.

「I will move to the front. I have great confidence in my eyesight」

Lydia thumps her chest and we leave the vanguard to her as we slowly advance.

We completely ignore the stone gels at our feet.

Suddenly Lydia stops in front and puts up two fingers in a peace sign.

There are two roc birds, I think she means.

「Let’s do it」

I murmur, and they nod.

In the distance, far enough that you’d strain your eyes, there are 2 roc birds relaxing under a tree.

It’s really well done that she managed to see them at such a distance.

There aren’t even any roc birds in our surroundings.

We carefully approach, and once we enter the right range I cast Time Square.

In the time manipulation I cast Black Sphere and Green Sphere at the same time.

「Gravity Sphere」

The magic activates and I aim for the roc birds’ coordinates, and murmur.

「Lock」

As I let out my voice, I target them with my index finger. With this my aim improves, if you designate a target by aiming like this, the accuracy can be raised. When I was a beginner and I couldn’t aim very well, my master taught me this to improve my accuracy.

「…..Crash」

I flick my finger up and the magic activates (like a finger pistol), and right before the two roc birds a pitch black magic sphere appears. The roc birds realize the situation and immediately split up to dodge, but one of them was being drawn into the magic.

It braced its legs, but soon enough it was engulfed by the magic. With a billowing sound it was destroyed and crushed.

Smaller and smaller the magic sphere shrunk until…….

Along with the disappearance of the magic, one roc bird was completely erased.

Even though there was quite a distance between us, I somehow managed to hit it straight……as I breathed out a sigh of relief, the remaining roc bird charged us at incredible speed.

「Blue Gale!」

It broke through the whirlwind that Milly created and attacked with its sharp claws……

*DING!*

Claude stood in its way and received the blow on her shield.

Lydia swung her axe at full power at the off-balance roc bird’s head.

The roc bird fell dizzy at my feet with its head all confused.

It’s a chance.

I aim my open palm at the body of the roc bird and chant my magic within a second.

「Green Crash」

The earth cracked and split where the roc bird was lying.

Green Crash can only really be used when close to an enemy, but the power of the other Crash type magic can’t be compared to it. If the hand to hand combat skill of the mage isn’t high enough, it makes it very difficult to use on stronger monsters, chances like this are rare, so when I can use it I will.

Also, when I use such powerful magic and unleash such destruction, I look pretty cool.

——Oops, as I was being silly the roc bird counterattacked.

As soon as I got away, Milly attacked the roc bird with Blue Gale, it was ripped apart and destroyed. After the tornado subsided, there was something left glittering there.

「It looks like a roc bird’s claw, huh」

Lydia hoisted up the claw and tossed it to me.

I couldn’t catch it too well and I bobbled it around a bit before grasping it.

「Is it okay for me to be carrying this?」

「Well, in all honesty, my bag is pretty full at the moment. Don’t worry, I’ll properly buy it from you later.」

At some point she had picked up enough that her bag was almost full, isn’t that a bit too fast?

As expected of a merchant.

Roger that, I put the roc bird claw inside my own bag.

It’s considerably hard, if you cut down its size would it turn into a knife blade or a spear tip?

「Ohh~ My level went up~」

「Congrats~ ♪」

At the honest praise from Milly, Lydia blushed.

Then Claude moved close to me and whispered into my ear.

「……..Zeph-kun, you can see levels with Scout Scope right? Is it possible that Lydia-san’s level is really low?」

「There are some things it’s better you don’t know」

「…….I suppose so」

Lydia’s level is lower than Claude’s by about 20, but it’s better to keep that a secret I think.

If you’re hunting with Lydia, it might be better to forget about levels altogether, though it’s a little late to say this.

We continue to hunt roc birds while advancing carefully and searching for enemies.

When there are two of them, we just fight as we always do. If there are three of them, I use Gravity Sphere from a distance and as long as I hit at least one of them we begin to fight.

If I miss, then Milly teleports us away.

For now, it looks like my accuracy is at about 50% or so…….

As I’m thinking while I walk, Lydia’s movements stop.

I wonder what’s wrong.

As we become cautious behind Lydia, she looks carefully from left to right, then slowly looks up into the sky.

——Shit!!!

「Everyone! Above us! Get outta the way!」

I say and grab at Claude’s hand, as she is the closest to me, and cast teleport.

「Milly-chan!」

At the moment we teleport, Lydia dives towards Milly.

Immediately after that a 巨 shaped shadow dives down from the sky causing a cloud of dust.

——-*Flap* and the giant wings shake and cause a great wind to blast making the tall grass tremble and dance wildly.

As the dust settles, a clear 巨 shaped red silhouette appears.

This huge shape has 4 long wings growing from it, a long beak, with a red, white and yellow crest that looked beautiful. It seemed somehow divine.

The Sunray Mountains’ top boss. It was the Sunny Raven! It spread its wings across the sky and let out a piercing cry.

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