"Thank you very much for guiding me here. Have my thanks." after being guided near the battle scene, the man spoke with a polite demeanor rarely seen by Farah and hands over 5 Dollars, enough for the guide to treat himself to a good meal.
"Good skies above, that is a lot of them." the man said so with an agitated look. There are more than twenty exotic beasts around the Aodh house, surrounding a group of ten tired people.
Seeing that the people are clearly outnumbered, the magician quickly ran towards the group.
"Hey! Need some help?"
"You're the fire mage, right? My daughter always talks about you." David, who is using his daughter's pants as a makeshift sling asks as he retreats to the middle and let a man with short brown hair who is holding a longsword replace him.
"Yeah, I get it. You don't want me to burn your crops, do you? I'll just cast some small fire balls to support you guys. Some rock for your, uh, slingshot too. By the way, name's Carter. Nice to meet you." Carter replies knowingly. And after seeing David reply with a nod and go back to the frontline, he starts manifesting stone balls and fire balls.
"Everyone! A mage has joined us! Let's push to kill them all! We're going to be going five at a time! Me, Barbara, Steve, Bill, and Jason will be the first group and the rest will be second group, got it?!" David shouts to inform and command everyone participating in the fight. Having experience in fighting in groups, he takes command and has successfully subdued ten of the vicious beasts without a human casualty. Of course, this is only possible because the people participating are sufficiently skilled.
"Aye!" everybody replied.
'Damn! I really don't miss this. Thank the Creator there's a mage here or else I might have had to burn the fields and run. Barb would give me hell for it if that ever happens.' David quietly thinks and chuckles to himself while holding off the beasts with one hand holding an ax and opportunistically flinging rock bullets with his "slingshot" in the other.
'Heh, good thing my little girl left them here or I wouldn't be doing this well. Those throwing practices REALLY paid off, hahaha. Oh, a left.' he hacks to his left, hitting a beast that has four monkey arms for legs with the body and head of an ostrich.
However, not completely dead, it pecks at him. Seeing this coming, David holds his ax up to its neck, letting the ostrich beast do the work itself. 'One more down, baby.', he thought to himself while moving to handle a different beast.
Barbara, aiming with her bow, notices fire at the tip of her arrow. "Heh." she made a sneer to herself. 'I was just telling Farah not to meet him half an hour ago. Now he's helping me deal with these bastards. What irony.' She then shoots at a beast with the wool of a sheep, igniting it on fire. She then turns around to look for another pray while pulling an arrow from her quiver.
However, the beast didn't die. Though it is burnt, it is only the wool and the torso, it can still somewhat fight. It starts to run into Barbara, trying to hug and bite into her.
"Archer! Your right!" Carter shouted, warning Barbara.
"I know!" she answered, stabbing an arrow into one of the beast's eyes, piercing through its brain, killing it instantly.
"See? How's that?!"
"That was very cool, ma'am." Carter replied to Barbara in a teasing tone, contrasting the situation they have at hand.
'What an impolite guy! Heh, well, maybe he's not that bad. I think I'll let Farah meet him once a week as a reward after all this is over. What am I doing, thinking as if I've already gotten through this? I have to be careful since I can't move like a young girl anymore.' Barbara thinks to herself in a condescending manner.
Steve, a tall veteran with scars on his arms and legs, stuns a beast that looks like a hairless boar but with eight legs and a large spider bottom with his two-handed metal pole. "Mage man, this one's stunned!" right after he said the sentence, a fireball came his way, hitting the beast, making its spider bottom burst open. Thankfully, Steve has dealt with spiders before and had already run to a different beast when he shouted.
"Thanks, man!" Steve replies energetically, even though he is still very tired, sore, and panting. Knowing there's less work to do, a wave of energy surges up within him.
"Hah!" He rushes in, engaging in a fight with another beast with seemingly endless energy.
Bill, the silent bald man is fighting with a sword and a shield. 'I shouldn't have come.', he thought. 'These beasts look disgusting! They stink too!', he thought. 'Thank the Creator they aren't intelligent and just charge in. That makes the work much easier.', he also thought.
On the outside however, he is seriously fighting a wolf-like beast, however, it has a monkey head and stands on two legs. Seeing the beast trying to claw and bite him, he blocks its attempts with his shield and strikes back with his sword. This repeats until William hears a sound.
"Fireballs coming right up!" the sound was Carter preparing to support him.
'Finally, some damn help finishing this thing off. I'll be able to go home and eat.' thinking this, he nods lightly and goes on defensive, letting the mage do the work.
Then, he turns to deal with the other beast near him. 'Ugh, this one is even more hideous. It's even slimy! Ew!' this beast he's facing is a bull with the tail and scales of a fish.
Jason, a short but wide muscular man, is using two butcher's knives to slash at a beast that looks like a human-sized snake with legs like a centipede while dodging its attacks agilely.
It tried to bite him, whip him, and sometimes even trip him. However, all the attempts failed, and with every attempt failed came more slash marks on its back.
"Magic man!"
"Yeah?"
"I'll lure it to face towards you can you shoot a fireball into its mouth?"
"Easy as pie, give me a shout when you're ready!"
After exchanging a conversation with Carter, Jason struck his cleavers together, attracting the beast's attention. As for the other beasts, they are preoccupied by Carter's spells and the others' ranged weapons.
"Come here, boy!" he said while running towards the mage. Seeing the beast turning and starting to open its mouth to run and bite him, he shouts.
"Shoot now!"
He said so, then when he sees Carter turn around to look at him, or rather, the beast behind him, he rolls to the side, letting the snake beast enjoy the fiery feast presented to it. Being roasted thoroughly from the inside, it collapses on the ground and reveals smoke coming out of its orifices, emitting a savory smell.
"Nice work."
"Thanks, butcher. Give me a discount next time."
Hearing this, Jason did not give a reaction other than a cold stare. However, in his heart, he thought to himself, 'No way in hell.'
"Switch! Let's get this done so we can go home!" with there being fifteen beasts remaining, David decides to retreat and rest until the final part of the fight. Besides that, he also needs to discuss strategies with his team members.
The second team, consisting of Francis, Frederick, Benjamin, Peter, and Uriah, began to move after they hear David's signal.
"Alright, guys. Let's get more kills than they did!" Francis cheerfully encouraged everyone in a loud and energetic voice, having had time to recover.
"Pipe it down, you moron. They're focused on you now."
"Us, you mean." Francis replies after hearing his brother Frederick's retort. He then moves over to Frederick's side to get into position and cracked his whip, grabbing the attention of three of the beasts engaged with the first team, allowing them to retreat.
"Ready when you are, brother."
"You and your eagerness, what if I wasn't ready?" Frederick grumbles while pulling out his rapier and replied, "I'm ready. Keep them coming."
"I saw the ready in your eyes, man! Don't be so angry! One on your left!"
Crack!
After Francis replied, he threw out his whip and grabbed the front leg of the fishy beast from earlier. Seeing the beast immobilized, Frederick immediately runs in, and stabs forward his rapier, aiming for the beast's left eye. However, the beast was not entirely stupid, or perhaps it was a coincidence. It moved its head down in order to attempt to gore the human approaching it!
Thankfully however, the brothers have a fast reaction time and an innate understanding. Francis, the little brother, kicked the beast's hind legs, forcing it to kneel down.
The older brother, Frederick, purposely trips himself and comes down to the beast's level. While falling, he aims the rapier to stab it in the eyes, piercing through to reach its neck, killing it immediately. 'That's one down.' he thought to himself before speaking.
"That's one down."
"That's right! Good teamwork sure does wonder for efficiency, isn't it, brother?" Francis replies while also thinking to himself, 'Being in a team is great! I won't die alone... I meant it increases our power by more than twice fi the team works really well together! Yes! Be positive, Frank! You won't find friends with such gloomy thoughts! I'll just look for a beast, actually.'
"Bro, the one on your six looks tough! Let's go for it!" he says, giddy as ever.
'That boy is always so noisy. Well, I suppose it is uplifting to hear someone having fun.' was Benjamin's first thought when he went back to the frontlines. But now, he has to focus on guarding against the nimble beast with eight sharp spider legs and an upper body of a monkey.
'This is a horrible matchup. I use claws, claws! How in the world do I even get close to its body? I guess I'll have to break its legs one by one. This is going to be a real pain in the backside. Well, at least I have a goal now.' Sighing to himself, the middle-aged man with clawed gauntlets grabbed at one of the legs and broke it at the base.
'Surprisingly brittle! Well, I suppose they are spider legs.' Benjamin thought to himself and started plucking them off while dodging the monkey upper body's attacks, eventually immobilizing it. Seeing this, he leaves it to bleed to death and look for other beasts to fight, ones he can fight more easily.
However, things don't go as planned, as the monkey beast ran at him with its arms to bite him. Carter, seeing this, casted a fireball at the legless beast, finally killing it. "Thanks, man." Benjamin thanked Carter without looking back for he has found his next prey.
Peter, the young man with short brown hair who replaced David earlier, is now fighting against a praying mantis that is about as tall as his waist. Its movements are quick, and its claws are sharp. However, as Peter is still young, and his reach is far, he is able to handle it to an extent. Right now, he is thinking of a way to defeat it out loud. "How do I do this? It's got sharp claws and it moves real fast like a normal mantis."
"Have you tried slicing at its joints? It's still a bug." Steve shouted from the backline, answering Peter's question.
"I was just talking to myself but thanks! I'll need a way to reach its joints, though. Mister... Carter, was it? Can you help me distract it?" Peter quickly came up with a solution and proposed it to Carter, hoping for magic to be able to solve his problem.
"Yeah, sure. Give me a minute.... No, make it ten seconds. I've got an idea. Everyone, while I prepare magic for Peter, no support." Carter first was going to use an ice spell to fix it in place. But since he's not very good at it, he looked for another solution and remembered a different type of magic, and now, he'll use it.
"Whatever! Doesn't matter!" Francis shouted from afar while hunting a big beast.
'This damn brat....' Carter thought to himself and continues preparation.
'Alright, I've got the mage's support. Now, I just need to stall for time and look for the opportunity he's creating.' Peter thought so while parrying the buggy beast's scythe-like claws. If he wasn't careful, his sword might even break. In fact, it is already close to its limits with chips all over.
'This won't do, I don't think I can handle this thing for that long. I'll need to ask him to hurry even though it's rude.'
"Mister Carter! My sword is about to break! Can you hurry it up?" Peter shouted with a nervous appearance and a sword one good hit away from breaking.
"It took you so long to speak that I'm now ready! move to the side!" Carter answers, bringing delight to Peter's face.
However, Peter's excitement only lasted for an instant, for the mantis beast broke his sword the moment he let down his guard from joy.