With a loud thump, the large tree collapses to the ground with its broken branches. As the tree lies flat on the ground, smoke rises slowly from the base as if it had been burnt down by strong fire magic.
Due to the noise, the nearby Wilderbeasts who'd been resting in their nests scattered away, feeling frightened.
Then suddenly, from within the bushes, three goblins almost the size of a sheep run out with playful laughter. Seeing the huge tree blocking their way, they use their small green legs to propel themselves up in the air and leap into the nearby tree.
After landing on the branch, they hop away from the tree to the tree-like monkeys who had just been released from the zoo.
Feeling quite offended by the turnout of events their hunters chased after them on the ground relentlessly with their heavy boots.
"Those stupid goblins, no one told me they can jump like that," Kazu complains as he chases after those three goblins alongside his team members: Fanny and Fyo.
"Fanny give me my staff back!" exclaims Fyo as she runs behind the 2 guys desperately trying to retrieve her augmented staff back before it causes any more collateral damage. "Fanny!" Fyo screams again.
Rather than paying heed to Fyo, Fanny adjusts the staff in the direction of the goblins jumping away.
Being the most impulsive out of the three, Fanny prepares to release another point-blank shot without considering the fact he can't aim well.
"[Howitzer, Pyro blast]" Fanny commands the staff again.
From the jaw of the dragon staff, a whirl of flame spews out and slowly condenses to form a massive ball of fire.
Because of the higher energy concentration this time, Fanny struggles to adjust the staff properly. With another loud noise, another fireball shoots out from the staff, but this time it ends up exploding in the sky.
Feeling quite disappointed, Fanny stops running and then starts shaking the staff up and down. "I think your staff is broken, Fyo" Fanny complains.
With an anxious face, Fyo walks over to Fanny, hand extended. Then mutters "yes, now hand me, my staff, back"
Fanny stares at the mouth of the staff and inspects it as if it was broken or "Wait, I think it ran out of fuel, maybe I should-".
"No!" Fyo immediately tries to halt her idiotic friend before he pulls up another mischievous strategy.
"Don't you realize it already, Fanny? What's wrong here is not the staff but you." As usual, Kazu always mocks Fanny when he fails at something.
"Huh, what did you just say Kuzu?" Fanny exclaims in indignation, but Kazu shrugs it off to play it cool.
"Nah, what I'm trying to say is that, give it to me and let me show you how to use it properly."
"Ah, forget it, you'll only make it worse." Fanny pulls the staff and embraces it.
"I said give it to me!" Kazu then grabs the base of the staff and tries to pull it out from Fanny.
"No!" Fanny says as he holds the head of the staff and protects it from Kazu.
Fyo watches with a disgusted look at how the two boys were playing tug of war over her possession.
Having enough, she burst out "[Howitzer, transform into a Fish.]" Immediately the staff flashes into a gigantic tuna and crashes over Kazu and Fanny.
"Why can't you morons understand that we don't have any food left for our dinner?" Fyo sits down and breaks down in tears.
Fanny, despite being crushed by the weight of the tuna, turns towards Kazu who was in the same position as him, and asked, "Ah, really? I thought we saved some corn from today's lunch?".
"Nah I had the remains, before we set out for our mission, and do you honestly think that three of us could survive on one tiny corn?" Kazu replies.
"Eh, that's a problem. I don't think I can survive on only water tonight like last time." Fanny sighs.
" Yeah, me too. In the worst-case scenario, maybe... we should sell Fyo…" Kazu lets out a grin as he gives that option.
"Yes!" Fanny chuckles.
"She has an erotic body anyway. she will be brought off fast" Kazu replies.
"Her big boobs will be enough to seduce those old geezers in our village."
In unison both let out a weird laugh "kekekeke"
Fyo silently stands up. With a single tear running down her face, she glares at the two boys with murderous intent. [Howitzer, transform into a wooden club]
Just as her staff finishes transforming, she picks up the wooden club and smashes their heads. "I won't repeat again, get your shit together," Fyo speaks out in a threatening tone. "I'm. sorry…" says Fanny in a feeble voice.
"All hail dark Fyo…" whispers Kazu.
Kazu folds his legs and using his left-hand, rubs at the huge lump popping out from his head. "So, what we should do now?".
"That is what I wanted you guys to think about rather than talking nonsense" Fyo exclaims angrily.
Fanny spread his body freely on the ground and closes his eyes in a state of meditation.
After a few seconds, He blinks his eyes open as an idea crosses his mind. "I think I got an idea" with excitement, Fanny tries to share his plan with his friend.
"Forget it" Kazu denies it. "How much mana does your staff have Fyo," Fanny asks, ignoring Kazu's remark.
"What is it this time Fanny? I hope it is not one of your stupid ideas." Fyo answers back in dishearten tone. "And I don't think my staff has much mana left either"
"Well, if it fails this time, let us sell Fanny's precious knife. he doesn't use it anyway." Kazu says.
"I agree." Fyo nods her head.
"Nah, this time it'll be perfect. I'm 100% sure it will work." With confidence, Fanny shares his plans with his friends.
Feeling confident that they have ditched them, the three goblins laugh out as they hop from one tree to another.
Then suddenly, a kunai fused with lightning comes flying from behind with a tremendous speed. The kunai went over the shoulder of one of the goblins and left a wound on its shoulder.
All the goblins turn back from the sudden attack out of nowhere and to their surprise see that the three mages are coming towards them also by hopping from tree to tree.
Using her staff Fyo had enchanted them to make their bodies light and able to jump higher and faster. It was their last chance to catch the goblins before Fyo's staff run out of mana.
After gaining some distance, Kazu pulls out multiple kunai from his back pocket.
Gripping them in between his fingers, he throws all the charged kunai towards the orcs.
The goblins seeing the incoming attacks, pressed their legs against the branch to jump higher but the kunai came in faster than they expected.
The kunai's passed near their legs and hands, opening wounds at those locations and because of it, the goblins' movement had been staggered just like Kazu wanted.
Fyo looks at her staff and notices that the light in the dragon's eye is diminishing. "Guys, the Howitzer enchantment is about to expire in around 4 seconds!" Fyo shouts out to her team members.
"More than enough", Kazu exclaims proudly. "Fanny now!".
"Aye," Fanny extends his hand and pushes it against the tree. From the magic circle, branches of trees rapidly grow out in a uniform direction tangling and twisting with one another.
Kazu, without wasting any time, runs across the branch and observes that the goblins are almost within his grasp.
"You little rascals, you are mine." When he is just about to get to them, the branches suddenly stop growing and Kazu immediately falls.
As he falls, Kazu let out a scream "Fanny you useless bitch!"
"I'm sorry, I lost concentration for a second, teehee"
From behind, Fyo immediately leaps up in the air and spins while activating a magic circle in her right hand. [Art of enchantment: Nest of swallows]
From the magic circle, four translucent swallows come out and quickly chase after the goblins. The goblins try to outrun the group, but this time it was too late. the magic swallows catch up to one of the goblins and surround it.
They quickly wrap the orc up in a magical bind and it crashes to the ground. "Kazu!" Fyo screams.
"I know" Kazu replies from the ground while still rubbing his head. "I... I have had enough of this."
Lightning sparks out from his body as he aims himself toward the goblins. "Thunder burst!" Kazu yells, with lightning engulfing his body as he shoots out to the goblins.
With lightning speed, he quickly catches up with the two goblins helplessly running away from him. Kazu quickly closes the gap between them and then lashes at one of the goblins.
He strangles the orc, still with lightning erupting from his body. From the shock, the goblin screams "eeeeeeeekkkkk" then knocks itself off.
Kazu quickly extends his left hand and tries to manipulate his lightning to catch the last orc who was just jumping off from him. "Lightning str-"
But the lightning engulfing his body slowly subsides… "God damn it! Seriously? At this moment of all times??" Kazu yells out in agony.
The goblin who was jumping around in laughter and running away from Kazu looked different in Fyo's eyes.
To her, it was just a bag of gold coins with wings slowly flying away from her grasp.
Feeling desperate, Fyo starts to scream at the top of her lungs "Oh lord help me, I'm done being broke!".
But Fanny who was beside her was preparing an incantation to activate a magic spell that he never used before.
It was more from the feeling of excitement to use his new spell than feeling bad from Fyo's scream that allowed him to concentrate.
Fanny claps his hand, then with great difficulty, he sticks four of the half-closed fingers alternately then slowly adjusts his both pinkies to stick out at the bottom with their tips touching each other. [Art of invocation style number 4: Memento of Zephyr hazard]
Suddenly, a strong gust of wind spirals upwards from the ground where Fanny is casting the spell. The wind takes the form of a strong hurricane and continues spiraling high up in the air.
Fyo watches in awe as Fanny conjures up one of the invocation spells. "Fanny, when did you learn an invocation spell?"