Chapter 119: 119. Frost Salamanders (2/2)

”Kylyra, once Larut's give the signal, you're free to go wild.”

”Finally, something to do.”

Tyler watched from behind as the party swiftly and effortlessly went to work. He could not help but admire their flawless teamwork. Their movements showed their experience and trust in each other, understanding all their comrade's tendencies to their core. Even Dohel looked like a competent leader right now.

”Uh, Mr. Lix, do you need any support magic?” Anne spoke to Tyler in a soft voice that most people wouldn't have heard. However, Tyler had clearly heard her question so he simply smiled under his hood and shook his head.

”Ah, not for us. Please focus on supporting your comrades.”

”O-okay.”

”Alright then, Larut, we'll start once you're ready.”

Larut nodded and took to a knee as he aimed his crossbow at the lead salamander that was slowly approaching them.

*Whoosh! Boom!

An arrow flew through the air with a whoosh and pierced the stone wall of the cave entrance next to several of the blueish gray salamanders and before the salamanders could understand what was happening, a loud boom resounded in the hills as the cave entrance collapsed along with the four salamanders that had been perched up on the wall.

With the entrance to the cave shut, Larut smiled thinly.

He sent another arrow downrange when the enemy was about thirty meters away. The arrow traveled in a straight line and cleanly pierced a frost salamander's cranium and another explosion followed suit. The frost salamander at the end of the formation took a few wobbly steps before collapsing to the ground, where it died.

The other frost salamanders look on in confusion before shrieking and growling at the one that had fired the arrow. Driven to frenzy by their bloodlust, they finally charged at their enemies with staggering speed.

”Alright Now!”

The moment the words left his mouth, Kylyra's foot kicked off the earth as she lunged at the small horde of frost salamanders, charging straight at them. The party immediately went into action as well as Dohel held his great sword with both hands and charged after the reckless Kylyra.

Larut fired some more arrows as support although he could not use any more explosive arrows. His strikes should still be enough to slow down the monster's movement speed even if by just a little. However, frost salamanders were incredibly fast and nimble, especially in cold environments.

With quick and slithery movements, the frost salamanders all easily avoided Larut's barrage of arrows and the few of them at the lead opened their jaws wide as a dark blue ball of icy energy gathered in them for a few seconds before several large waves of freezing breaths were fired at the approaching Kylyra and Dohel, threatening to turn them into ice sculptures.

”Protection Blessings.”

”Magic Shield.”

As Kylyra raised her battle-ax in an attempt to block the freezing breaths. Aine and Anne cast two layers of protection on her. Although the magic barrier couldn't stop the freezing effects of a freezing breath, it could negate most of the physical damage attached to the attack while protection blessings would increase her elemental resistance to the attack.

Dohel shadowed Kylyra and stood behind her when she received the attack. Once she was done they both shot forth at the massive blue lizard-like creatures ahead of them. Frost salamanders may not be highly ranked monsters, however, they were very dangerous in areas like this at this time of the year.

It would be foolish for the party to underestimate them at all. So Naturally, they had to reduce their numbers as soon as possible. There were around eleven of these monsters before them and while they would not be able to stop them by themselves, they had full confidence in their team.

BOOM

Kylyra foot kicked off the ground the moment she got close enough to the monsters. Her body flew through the air as she raised her battle ax overhead and a burst of pinkish flames engulfed the blade. Her body came crashing back down to earth and she immediately swung her ax down.

°Frenzy Crash.°

Her massive battle-ax had created a small crater where she had landed and the monster that received her blade, died in an instant. The pink flame swept across the area around her like a wave up to a 10-meter radius and although the frost salamanders that were hit by flames alone did not receive much damage, their bloodlust was immediately redirected to Kylyra.

Seeing her skill work its magic so easily, a seductive smile crept across her face as she tightens her grip on the battle-ax and prepared to face them all head-on.

With Kylyra attracting more than half of the frost salamanders to her and Anne backing her up with several support and enhancement spells. Dohel only had three Frost salamanders to face with the help of Aine and Larut.

”Dark Vine Hostage.”

As Aine cast her spell, several thick black vines shot out of the snow-filled earth and wrapped rapidly around one of the salamanders. Larut also fired a barrage of arrows at another and Dohel was free to go head to head with the last remaining frost salamander.

It would be hard for him to face multiple frost salamanders at the same time as each of these salamanders had roughly the same amount of strength as a platinum-ranked Hunter. The only reason these monsters were not ranked higher or considered more dangerous was due to their staggering stupidity as they were fairly easy to track and were easily susceptible to crowd control spells.

However—

As Dohel charged at the frost salamander, his blade was met with a claw strike and the moment he tried to retract his weapon, a sudden beam of freezing breath came from the side and hit him point-blank.

The attack came from his blindspot and even Larut, a ranger with the best senses amongst the group had been unable to see the attack coming.

Several more frost salamanders came from underneath the earth all around them as the ones behind them nimbly charged at the unsuspecting Dohel, Aine, and Anne, while the others blaster their freezing breath at Dohel.

Tyler's eyes went wide the moment he saw this as even him— from the high vantage point of the carriage driver's seat— was unable to sense the cold-blooded monsters as they performed an increasingly well-timed and well-coordinated sneak attack.

”Huh, did I just watch monsters execute a trap to perfection? Interesting.”