"Wouldn't it be better to lure them to Border Town? There we will have the aid of the Lord of the town and the guards."
Although Shiba didn't feel that separate to reduce the number of Soul-eating Eagles was a bad idea, he still remembered what he was told before leaving.
"Impossible. While digesting souls, these birds wouldn't move too much from the area they are. Retreating will make that they stop following us. To save our lives, it is a good method, but then the people of the town would be finished."
Eini was far more knowledgeable than Shiba about beasts. Before being left on that planet, she had been forced to study a lot of books about beasts. It would be difficult that Eini found a beast that she didn't know on that planet.
"Then, let's follow your plan."
Shiba didn't plan to flee and abandon the people of the town. Although a lot of them died and most of the rest were heavily injured, it was still possible to save some.
Both flew in different directions a second after Shiba agreed.
However, the Soul-eating Eagles were on alert and enraged, so they weren't easy to kill.
Shiba was shooting arrows without stop while eating the recovery pills each time that he felt that he was about to get exhausted.
He knew that he couldn't last for a long time since the number of pills he had was limited.
Moreover, the injured people of the town needed to be treated as soon as possible.
He stored his bow and wielded two swords with Wind Blade.
Since he couldn't drag it for more time, he decided to clash with them directly.
Shiba's change of actions was enough to let him kill one, but the others started to attack him afterward.
He managed to kill some, but he also received several injuries in the process.
"I need to regroup with that girl first."
Shiba felt that the numbers had reduced enough to go back. Anyway, he wouldn't last long if he were to continue battling like that.
While Shiba was about to look where that girl had gone, fire arrows hit the Soul-eating Eagle that was nearest to him.
"I managed to finish mine, so I came to see how you were doing. You are still somewhat weak to face them."
No matter how powerful the weapons and skills of Shiba were, he was still a Level 6 Mortal.
From the beginning, Eini's intention was to kill all the Soul-eating Eagles following her and then go to help Shiba.
She only told about splitting because she couldn't deal with it all the same time, and to not make Shiba reject the plan in shame.
She didn't know too much about Shiba, but all the boys of Shiba's age that Eini met were too prideful, so she didn't dare to stay her intentions openly before having killed several of the Soul-eating Eagles.
If she needed to face them all simultaneously, she knew that she would need to flee, but with only the remaining ones following Shiba, she didn't fear them.
"You killed all of them?"
Shiba was shocked. He expected that girl to be powerful, but not so powerful.
Shiba didn't count the beasts, but it should have been about half that went to follow each of them, and Shiba knew how difficult it was dealing with them.
"I am at level 8, and my stats are maxed since I have been at this level for a long time, it is normal that I am a bit stronger than you."
While speaking, she shot several arrows to the Soul-eating Eagles following Shiba. Although she failed to kill them, Shiba managed to escape successfully.
"Sorry for underestimating you. If this is the case, I will let you be the main attacker, and I will support you."
Contrary to Eini's expectations, Shiba didn't have any kind of pride forbidding him to admit that a little girl like Eini was stronger than him.
After all, Shiba was perfectly conscious that it hadn't even been two months since he started to train, and he spent almost one month slept. Thus, he could accept that others were stronger than him. In fact, he had been wondering why he hadn't found people stronger than him of similar age as him before.
Moreover, he had a good impression of Eini since she helped him before and even rushed to help the people of the town, so he didn't mind being weaker.
"You... You are really honest. Shoot those arrows of yours coordinating with mine. When they avoid my arrows, yours should hit them."
Eini was surprised that Shiba admitted being weaker and let her be the main attacker, but she liked that point. Someone who overestimated himself wouldn't be someone she would want that helped her in battle.
Eini's strategy was simple, but both of them were already used to the patterns the Soul-eating Eagles used when avoiding hits, so predicting them wasn't too difficult.
It was difficult to shot a second arrow in time, but with both collaborating, the number of Soul-eating Eagles alive plummeted.
"Last one!"
At that moment, there was only one Soul-eating Eagle remaining.
However, they all needed to die, or after a bit of time, their power would make them a threat to too many people.
They repeated their attacks, but that time the Soul-eating Eagle stopped them.
"What?"
Eini couldn't believe what she was seeing. She knew very well that her attack couldn't be so easily rejected by a Level 9 Beast. It wasn't difficult to avoid it, but stopping it was out of the question.
"This beast has advanced to Rank 1. Be careful!"
She noticed that the only way that was possible was that the beast advanced to Rank 1.
"Rank 1? Just after advancing, its strength shouldn't have changed this much!"
Shiba at least knew that the difference after advancing to Rank 1 wasn't so big after having spoken with the Lord of the town. It was crucial because it opened the way to reach higher levels, but overall, the difference in strength just after advancing should be almost the same as before unless there was a powerful energy to boost the stats. Anyway, even with the boost, the difference shouldn't be enough to make such a great change in strength.
"It isn't just Rank 1. It should already be at level 12. Level 2 Novice Beast, and it seemed that its stats are maxed!"
Just by the difference in power, Eini could guess how much the beast had advanced.
In fact, it wasn't impossible for a Soul-eating Eagle to make an advancement in a desperate moment.
However, doing so would damage it a lot. Just that forced advancement was enough to doom it to never surpass Rank 8 even in adulthood, so it wouldn't be able to reach Rank 9 without a lucky encounter.
To the beast, that was something that couldn't be tolerated because it would be a shame for all his species. However, being the only one remaining alive, it decided to use its last resort.
Soul-eating Beasts were quite individualistic. They were only attacking together because they were forced to do it, so no one wanted to sacrifice for the rest. After all, that would mean that in the future, they would be weaker than the other, but since no one else was left, it wasn't a problem anymore.
"Level 12... If it has advanced this much, I can understand that it can reject your attacks. What can we do?"
At that level with its stats maxed, that beast had the double of strength that someone who had just advanced to Rank 1. The disparity was too big compared with Shiba and Eini.
"I have a skill that should be able to kill it, but I need a long time to prepare it. However, if I am disturbed midway, I will fail, so I need you to distract the beast for a while. If you aren't capable, we can only flee to Border Town, this beast won't follow us."
Although Eini didn't want to let die those in the town near them, it would be meaningless if they two were to die too.
Having killed all the other Soul-eating Eagles and forced that one to induce the last resort breakthrough limiting its future prowess was already a great help to everyone on the planet, so no one would blame them for fleeing at that moment.
"I will give my all."
Shiba didn't think that he could defeat it, but if he just needed to endure some time, he believed that it was still within his means.
Eini retreated a big and closed her eyes while concentrating on casting her strongest attack.
Shiba decided to use his bow to shoot arrows without stop. It didn't matter if they were blocked or avoided as long as the beast didn't have time to disturb Eini.
Of course, the Soul-eating Eagle wasn't that stupid, so it managed to reach Shiba several times and attack him, but Shiba managed to survive by sacrificing the bow he was using.
After several minutes, Shiba had already run out of arrows, and his last bow also broke soon after that. With a remaining bow, he could at least shoot Wind Arrows in their normal state, it was a bit weaker than combined with a real arrow, but still effective. Sadly, the number of bows he brought was too low.
However, Eini had yet to finish her preparations, so Shiba needed to continue fighting.