Chapter 548: The Strength of the Newcomer Team
The sixth day ended with Silver Twin Magehaving clearly demonstrated their strength—perhaps as a show of rivalry against Tauro’s Black-Gold Wings. That night, they camped in the mountains and spent the night without being attacked by monsters.
“I’m surprised. The Antas Mountain region is full of powerful monsters, and many of them aren’t intimidated by ordinary barrier magic—they often push right through it. But last night, there was nothing at all. Your barrier specialist is exceptionally skilled.”
Jack, leader of the A-rank team Blue Thunder Beasts and the one who had hired them for this mission, spoke to Tauro while giving high praise to Aeris.
“Aeris excels at magic, healing, and barriers. She’s the linchpin to our rearguard.,” Tauro replied, honestly delighted that a companion he was proud of had been praised.
From Ragune and the others’ perspective, though, it just looked like he was bragging about her.
“ahhh! Looks like the leader’s started bragging about his girl,” Ankh teased from behind Tauro, letting out a whistle.
“Hey, Ankh! Tauro was just responding with a fair assessment!” Aeris protested, slightly annoyed at Ankh’s teasing.
It was clearly an attempt to hide her embarrassment. Ragune and Zion noticed immediately, but chose not to point it out.
“In any case, starting with Aeris, everyone on our team is incredibly reliable,” Tauro said with a wry smile, reacting to Ankh’s teasing and Aeris’s flustered response.
“Hahaha, I get it! Good teammates are worth bragging about. That goes for me as well,” Jack replied.
Jack found himself impressed by the pleasant atmosphere of Tauro’s group.
Then he continued,
“All right, let’s pack up and head toward our destination again today. From here on out, the road will get even harsher. It’s a remote area that normal adventurers don’t go near. There are plenty of B-rank monsters to subjugate, and depending on circumstances, we might even encounter A-rank ones. We’ve only run into something like that once ourselves, but stay sharp.”
Jack issued the warning to keep everyone alert.
The members of Silver Twin Mage stopped packing their belongings and swallowed nervously as they listened.
Tauro and his party had plenty of experience dealing with powerful monsters, so they didn’t seem particularly nervous. Instead, they carried the distinctive air of battle-hardened adventurers, which the members of the Blue Thunder Beasts were secretly impressed by.
They have the air of confidence that suggests they’ve already experienced this level of experience.
The leader, Jack, also thought to himself.
After checking everyone’s state, he said,
“Let’s get going.”
And so, the day’s journey began.
“Jack-san, there’s a monster ahead—in the forest at the top of the climb. It’s downwind, so it seems to have already noticed us.”
Using the combination of “True Eye” and “Presence Detection”, Tauro noticed it before anyone else and reported to Jack.
“!? …Really? —Good catch… My Search skill hasn’t picked up anything yet…”
Jack was surprised by Tauro’s report, and then he turned his attention to Budar, the ranger of Silver Twin Magi, who also possessed scouting abilities.
The two teams had completed many quests together and were well familiar of each other’s skills.
Booder shook his head at Jack, indicating that nothing had shown up in his own detection either.
“What should we do? Technically, Gemma of said the next prey would be ours—but may we take it down?” Tauro asked calmly, unfazed by their doubtful reactions.
People won’t believe something like this unless they see it for themselves. Guess we’ll just have to handle it ourselves.
“…All right. I understand. I’ll leave it to you then,” Jack agreed, reasoning that they had only just entered a danger zone and that entrusting it to the B-rank Black-Gold Wings should be fine.
“Ankh, Ragune—please take charge of the front. Judging from the silhouette, it’s probably a manticore. It seems to be using Presence Concealment too, so be careful when approaching,” Tauro instructed.
He had deduced this from the fact that it hadn’t been caught by Jack’s or the others’ scouting abilities.
“A m-manticore!?” Jack exclaimed in shock and asked again.
A manticore was a powerful monster recommended to be hunted by multiple teams of B+ rank or higher. It had the face and ears of a human man, but its skin was red, with three rows of comb-like teeth, red eyes, the body of a lion, and the tail of a scorpion.
In other words, even the A-rank team Blue Thunder Beasts would struggle to face it alone.
“It’s coming this way! Everyone, let’s move!” Tauro shouted, no longer having time to respond to Jack’s surprise.
Calling out to Aeris and the others, he pulled Artemis’s Bow from his magic storage.
“Holy Dark Arrow,” he murmured.
A single arrow wrapped in black light appeared in Tauro’s right hand. He nocked it and immediately shot it into the forest ahead.
The arrow streaked forward like a black beam of light, vanishing into the woods in an instant.
Tauro fired three such Holy Dark Arrows in rapid succession into the depths of the forest.
“Gyaaa!”
A scream—sounding like that of a human man—echoed from within the forest, startling birds from the trees in the area causing them to take flight.
“Ragune, incoming magic!” Tauro warned.
Without a word, Ragune drew her prized Mirrored Magic Turtle Rectangular Shield from magic storage and braced it in front of her.
Pouring mana into it, she deployed her usual Area Defense and Magic Reflection.
From the forest, countless spikes of earth magic—Rock Lances—came flying.
As Ragune deflected them with her shield’s abilities, Ankh and Zion, who had been waiting behind her, dashed forward, weaving their way through in-between waves of spells.
Aeris had already cast physical enhancement spells and earth-magic resistance on everyone in rapid succession.
When Ankh and Zion plunged into the forest, they found a manticore with injuries to its right eye, foreleg, and scorpion tail.
Confirming this, the two split left and right.
The manticore shifted its gaze, keeping Ankh in front of it and turning its scorpion tail toward Zion, then unleashed a barrage of earth magic—Stone Pellets— in Ankh’s direction, likely as a feint.
Ankh moved with wind-like speed, vanishing from where he was in an instant, constantly moving to keep the manticore’s attention focused on him.
In that moment, Zion slipped through the defensive range of the scorpion tail and dove into the manticore’s guard, unleashing an attack with her signature Twin Magic Gauntlets.
The manticore barely avoided it by leaping back at the last second.
But at that very moment—just as if someone had been waiting for the opening—a sharp arrow emitting a cold light caught the manticore mid-air.
This is Tauro’s new technique, “Aurora Arrow.”
The arrow, infused with the bare minimum of mana, pierced deeply into the manticore’s tough hide, stopping just centimeters short of its heart.
At the same instant, Aeris’s lightning spell—lightening Needle Strike—was released, drawn precisely into the arrow.
With a flash of light, the manticore froze in midair, then lost all strength and crashed to the ground.
Ankh and Zion cautiously closed the distance, but the manticore was already dead.