Despite the fact that he had lost his carriage ride, Merrick had remained focused. All of the tangenting paths that he normally would have been derailed by were completely ignored. The miniature dungeons and roaming monsters could have rewarded Merrick with worthwhile loot, but he kept the warning that he had received in mind. Especially with the ambush that left him walking through the zone, Merrick wondered if he would actually have enough time to make it to his destination before needing to log out.
As he was nearing the edge of the Dark Forest zone, Merrick finally encountered the trouble that he knew had to be brewing ahead. There had been no wandering monsters that strolled over the path as he had been traveling and now Merrick knew why. The road was blocked by spiked barricades.
Even if he had been in the carriage, they would have been stopped here. While he was still approaching, Merrick scanned the trees but did not see anything lying in wait. It was another time that he wished for Yorin's scanning ability. None of his anti-ambush items went off, but all that meant was that no one was directly targeting him with a surprise attack. Those items had not helped at all when the driver and carriage had been targeted.
There was a sign posted in front of the barricades, but before Merrick could get close enough to read it, he heard the wind whipping from the air above. Three humanoid monsters swooped down and kicked up a dust storm between Merrick and the barricades. Before the dust storm could spread too far, Crudle cleared the air by absorbing it.
Without the dust, Merrick nearly gasped in awe of what now blocked his path. The three humanoid creatures were standing proud on the main road with bird-like wings outstretched instead of arms and their avian eyes tracked Merrick's slightest movements. Birdmen.
It was his first time encountering them directly but Merrick had read about their abilities and skills on the forums. Those wings could catapult them through the air at a ridiculous speed. They could also throw out dart-like quills that were capable of piercing steel armor with ease.
The road was mostly blocked. The enemies had not attacked him. Merrick saw a peaceful resolution but when he tried to move toward it, he was caught off guard.
"I've got a pack of supplies here." Merrick said as he unslung the duffel bag from his shoulder and held it out toward the three birdmen. "I am willing to just drop this off and move on if you want to avoid unnecessary bloodshed."
The birdmen looked quizzically at him. He was probably the first Adventurer in the history of Dungeons Below that did not immediately launch into combat when presented with three enemies in a zone like the Dark Forest. Their wings lowered a little and Merrick tossed the bag forward into the open space between them.
As soon as it left his hands, a coarse laugh resounded from the trees around him. The birdmen ahead of him flared their wings outward and something sped through the air. It was a blur of dark wings that grabbed the supply bag that Merrick had just thrown before it hit the ground.
Merrick instinctively jumped backward and ordered Crudle to create cover. The flared wings whipped forward and dozens of quills hurtled toward Merrick. A few slipped through the cracks in the cover before Crudle was able to properly form a wall. They scratched over Merrick's arm, tearing through the enchanted cloth of his robes.
Wind whipped up dust and the birdmen took to the air to circle around Merrick's cover. Crudle did his best to shift the cover like a wave of earth to block the second and third volley of quills. The birdmen used their wings to propel themselves into the air, so that their quills could come from any direction. It was a strange leapfrog style attack.
Merrick used quick bursts of arcane energy to block the quills that slipped through the cover. As easily as the quills had cut through his sleeve told him that a direct hit would be fatal for his build. Fortunately, the birdmen had to slow their assault. There were only four of them, it turned out. The three that blocked his path and the fourth that grabbed the bag.
After five volleys of quills, Merrick finally got a chance to counterattack. As soon as the volley ended, while the birdmen were getting ready to launch back into the air. Merrick let off a storm of low powered lightning bolts.
Rather than aiming or charging up the energy, he simply fired off lightning bolt after lightning bolt in an attempt to overwhelm his targets. Out of the twenty bolts that he fired off, enough hit their targets that they were forced to the ground where Crudle quickly buried them in the earth.
When the encounter came to a close, Merrick searched the surrounding trees for his supply bag that he had offered up as a token of peace. It was in one of the trees nearby. While Merrick climbed up to recover it, he ordered Crudle to destroy the barricades. The climbing took longer than the destruction so by the time that Merrick was back on the path, he was able to proceed easily.
As he walked off toward his destination, he could have sworn that someone was still watching. It was unlikely that it was another birdman bandit. If it had been, they would have jumped in before Merrick had killed the others. The only thing that made sense, instead of it being a random monster, was that it was the ambushers from earlier.
They had been lying in wait to see if Merrick was going to tire himself out with the birdmen. Then they would have leapt into action and cleaned up the field once Merrick was drained. Since he had dealt with the birdmen bandits easily, they must have rethought their attack. Either way, Merrick made it out of the Dark Forest zone with only those two encounters slowing him down.