Chapter 63: 34.1

Chapter 34-1: First Battle Against Magic Beasts (1)

Initially, it was planned that all four of them would go on the hunting trip, but if all four of them were to leave, there would most likely be some unrest in the legion in the absence of all four leaders. However, no one wanted to pass up this opportunity to hunt for magic beasts in the Terarody Mountain Ranges. Thus, Larwood, Kaiba, and Chase could only draw lots to decide who would stay behind. In the end, it was Chase who drew the short end of the stick, much to his dismay and chagrin.

According to the magic potions book, Falcon Beak Lizards were most prone to be attracted by the scent of things like garlic and onions. Thus, Erwin and his friends brought along all of the sacks of garlic and onions with them. The soup for the next few days was most likely going to be a little bland as a result, but sacrifices had to be made.

Larwood hand-picked 100 skilled and experienced martial artists, while Erwin picked out 20 powerful magicians, and the hunting party set off in the afternoon on horseback, skirting around the twin Reydnold Mountains to search for the entrance of the long and winding Terarody Mountain Ranges.

Only after traveling for close to 10 kilometers did they find an entrance to the mountain range, which was an area of relatively flat terrain. The landscape beyond the entrance was riddled with gnarly trees that gave off an eerie and sinister appearance, and as a result of all of the foliage, the light here had dimmed significantly. In addition to that, the occasional cries of crows could be heard, thereby further contributing to the oppressive and spine-chilling atmosphere.

Erwin instructed someone to unload the two cauldrons and place them near the mountain faces on either side of the entrance. After that, they began to heat up water and boil the onions and garlic. Meanwhile, Lanyon and a few of the magicians unleashed simple wind-attribute spells to blow the aroma of the boiled onions and garlic toward the mountain ranges. From a distance, the aroma was quite alluring, but up close, it was so strong and pungent that everyone had to cover their mouths, noses, and eyes.

Erwin instructed the magicians to take shifts in blowing the scent of the onions and garlic toward the mountain ranges. This wasn't a physically taxing task, but it was a stern test of one's patience.

As for all of the martial artists, they were instructed by Larwood to hide behind the rocks near the entrance to keep an eye on the situation in the mountain ranges.

An hour quickly passed by, and at this point, Lanyon could barely keep his own eyes open, having been exposed to the fumes of the boiling onions and garlic for so long. Erwin was beginning to grow rather impatient, and he was pacing back and forth at the entrance to the mountain ranges.

Right at this moment, a burst of slight tremors began to run through the ground, and something seemed to be approaching from deep within the forest.

Erwin made a hand signal to Lanyon, instructing him to retreat with the magicians for now. As for Erwin himself, he was quite confident in his own abilities, so he made his way forward by about 10 meters, then peered into the forest, upon which he discovered a pack of magic beasts rushing through the forest.

Those look like Falcon Beak Lizards, alright, but I didn't think we'd attract so many of them! Erwin thought to himself as he gulped nervously.

"Hurry up and get back! Do you have a death wish?" Larwood hissed in an urgent voice from behind him.

Only then did Erwin realize the danger that he was in, and he immediately turned around to retreat. However, he stepped onto a fallen branch and slipped over, falling flat onto the ground. He hurriedly tried to get up again in a blind panic, but there was a thick layer of fallen leaves and branches beneath him, causing him to slip over a few more times in a sorry display. 

To compound his woes even further, he was causing quite a commotion with his panicked scrambling, and all of the Falcon Beak Lizards in the forest immediately spotted him. They certainly weren't going to pass up such an inept-looking target, and they immediately rushed toward Erwin to hunt him down.

Erwin could hear the Falcon Beak Lizards rushing toward him from behind, and he twisted around to take a look, upon which he discovered that the closest Falcon Beak Lizards to him were already less than 20 meters away! Only then did it occur to him that he was a magician, and he slammed a palm down onto the ground, unleashing a levitation spell before flying away from the lizards.

The dozens of Falcon Beak Lizards had split up into several groups. Around half of them rushed over to the two cauldrons before greedily inhaling the rising fumes, while the rest of them quickly rushed off in pursuit of Erwin, who was about to get away.

These things can't do anything to me now that I'm hovering in the sky! Erwin thought to himself.

However, he was instantly made to regret his own condescending thoughts. The group of Falcon Beak Lizards that were charging along at the forefront dug their paws into the ground, then sprang up into the sky until they were situated even higher than Erwin.

Under the dim light of the dying sun, Erwin could only see a series of massive silhouettes pouncing toward him, and he hurriedly conjured up his light shield in a blind panic to save himself.

The Falcon Beak Lizards opened their cavernous mouths before chomping down upon Erwin, only to bite down onto the outer wall of the light shield instead. It was like biting down onto a rock with full force, and the lizards screeched with pain before falling back down onto the ground with furious expressions.

The fine hairs on the back of Erwin's neck were standing up on end as he stared at the rows of sharp fangs that had almost sunk themselves into his body just now.

Right at this moment, Larwood and Kaiba charged into the fray. Kaiba was charging at the forefront with several dozen martial artists behind him, all of whom were carrying long spears and huge shields. The group of martial artists engaged themselves in a direct clash with the Falcon Beak Lizards down below, while Larwood and the rest of the martial artists had pulled out bows and were firing relentlessly at the Falcon Beak Lizards near the pair of cauldrons.

Meanwhile, Lanyon and the 20 magicians were standing at the top of the mountain face on either side of the entrance, raining down attacks upon the Falcon Beak Lizards from above.

However, as soon as the two sides clashed, Erwin and the others discovered that the hides of these magic beasts were extremely tough. The spears and arrows were unable to pierce through them, and spells weren't having any effect, either. All of their attacks seemed to be completely useless against these formidable creatures.

In contrast, the retaliation from the Falcon Beak Lizards was extremely fierce. The martial artists who were adept in defense and were carrying huge shields were able to just barely withstand the attacks from the Falcon Beak Lizards' fangs and paws, but they were knocked back by a single sweep from these magic beasts' tails. Whenever one of the Falcon Beak Lizards unleashed a sweeping tail strike, a string of agonized howls would be sure to follow.

If things were to continue like this, heavy losses would surely be suffered. Furthermore, Erwin's objective was only to kill one or two of these creatures and take their internal organs, so there was no need to battle so many of them at once.

Right at this moment, a thunderous roar erupted from the martial artists down below, following which someone unleashed a string of four spear strikes in rapid succession, causing one of the Falcon Beak Lizards to stumble back in retreat in a disoriented manner.

The spear strikes were becoming more and more powerful with each passing attack, and the next one scraped off a thick layer of dirt from the Falcon Beak Lizard's scales. This attack was immediately followed by another powerful sweep of the spear, and dark green blood was finally drawn from the lizard's body.

This sudden turnaround provided a significant boost in morale, and everyone's battle intent was ignited. Fuelled by adrenaline and excitement, everyone cast aside their fears and inhibitions as they engaged the Falcon Beak Lizards in battle with renewed vigor.

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With yet another formidable spear strike, the skull of the Falcon Beak Lizard was punctured, and it fell onto the ground with a dull thump, seemingly dead from the attack.

Morale was elevated even further as a result, and all of the martial artists entered a frenzied state as they unleashed their most powerful attacks upon the Falcon Beak Lizards.

All of the Falcon Beak Lizards began to howl with grief at the sight of their fallen brethren, and it was clear that this was a type of creature that formed strong bonds with one another.

All of a sudden, one of them sprang directly toward Kaiba's back, clearly intending to avenge its fallen brethren. Erwin was able to spot this from his vantage point high up in the sky, and he immediately yelled, "Kaiba, look out!"

At the same time, he raised his staff and let loose around a dozen instant-release spells in rapid succession. The purple balls of magic energy exploded upon the body of the rapidly charging Falcon Beak Lizard, but they weren't able to inflict much damage upon it.

After hearing Erwin's warning, Kaiba suddenly began to rush toward the mountain face. Erwin was quite perplexed to see this, wondering why Kaiba was running toward what was essentially a dead-end.

The Falcon Beak Lizard that was chasing Kaiba thought that its prey was fleeing for its life, so it immediately began to charge forward with renewed vigor. As it did so, it began to chomp down onto the air behind Kaiba as if it could bite Kaiba from afar.

What made the situation even more perilous was that the Falcon Beak Lizard was almost able to chomp down onto the back of Kaiba's neck on several occasions. Erwin immediately unleashed his space split technique, then unleashed a ferocious barrage of spells toward it, but he was only able to slow it down slightly.

Upon reaching the mountain face, Kaiba continued to run up the mountain, but the mountains in the Terarody Mountain Ranges were extremely steep, so he only made it two or three steps up the mountain face before he was completely parallel with the ground.

However, he wasn't flustered by this in the slightest, and it seemed that he had everything under control.

The Falcon Beak Lizard continued to pursue Kaiba up the mountain face, but in its haste to do so, it failed to control its own body properly, and it fell backward from the mountain face, crashing down onto the ground and ending up on its back.

Right at this moment, Kaiba performed a somersault in mid-air, then plunged the spear down with the force of his own bodyweight in free fall behind it.

At the same time, he let loose a thunderous roar, which attracted the attention of all of the magicians, martial artists, and Falcon Beak Lizards present. All of them were rooted to the spot as they turned to stare at Kaiba.

Erwin was not unfamiliar with this spear strike. This was the very same spear strike unleashed by Erwin's spear-wielding opponent from the Pillow Sword Tournament. It was a devastating attack, and Erwin couldn't help but wonder how Kaiba had learned it.

As opposed to Erwin's spear-wielding opponent, who had taken three steps back to prepare his attack, Kaiba was using the momentum of his own body in free fall to propel the spear downward, so this attack was even more powerful than the one unleashed by the spear-wielding martial artist during the Pillow Sword Tournament.

The essence of this attack was to become one with one's spear and attack with single-minded focus and unstoppable might.

Kaiba had perfectly captured the essence of the attack, and everyone could only look on in awe and wonder. He was so intently focused on his own spear that he had even forgotten the perilous situation that he was in.

The Falcon Lizard Beast didn't even get a chance to flip itself over before the tip of the spear pierced through its heart, and it was nailed firmly against the ground as a result.

All of the Falcon Beak Lizards immediately let loose anguished howls once again, and their collective sorrow could be heard echoing throughout the vast mountain ranges. It seemed that the deaths of two of their brethren in such a short time had struck panic into their hearts, and they were all looking at Kaiba with fearful eyes.

Prior to this, the two sides had been roughly evenly matched, but morale for the Falcon Beak Lizards had completely plummeted, and some of them were already considering retreat. In stark contrast, morale was at an all-time high for the Four Winds mercenary legion in the wake of Kaiba's heroic display.

"They're about to get away! Layon, instruct everyone to unleash spells to slow these things down!" Erwin yelled as he turned to the magicians standing at the top of the mountain faces on either side.

Larwood immediately understood what Erwin's intentions were. He was planning to decimate this entire pack of Falcon Beak Lizards, but that suited Larwood just fine as well, so he raised no objections.

"Follow me, my brothers! Don't let even a single one of them get away!" Larwood immediately ordered, and all of the bow-wielding martial artists drew the blades on their backs to engage the Falcon Beak Lizards in close-quarters combat.

The Falcon Beak Lizards were already shaken by the death of their brethren, and even more panic spread through their ranks at the sight of the fierce assault from the Four Winds mercenary legion. Some of them were already beginning to retreat, while others were still caught up in battle.

Erwin immediately unleashed a space split technique to arrive behind them, then chanted the incantation for an advanced spell. Howling wind that carried frosty snow and ice instantly began to sweep through the entrance to the forest, and Lanyon also quickly arrived on the scene with all of the other magicians.

"Hey, make sure you don't completely cut them off," Erwin yelled in a loud voice. "Always leave an opening that they can escape through."

"Why, Master Erwin? Aren't we going to hunt them all down at once? Morale is at an all-time high," Lanyon asked in a surprised voice.

"These Falcon Beak Lizards aren't easy to deal with. If we completely cut them off and give them no hope of escaping, then they'll turn around and fight us to the death. At the moment, they've only been intimidated by Kaiba's attacks, but if they're backed into a corner and begin to retaliate, it'll be very difficult for us to kill them all without suffering casualties of our own," Erwin explained as he continued to keep an eye on the unfolding battle.

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