Dream Life Vol II Chapter 8.2: “Karsh Pass”

　In response to the harpy’s attack, Guy did not raise his voice, “Master Zack, Lydia, Sharon. Prepare to intercept,” he instructed us in a calm tone.

　Seeing a dozen of monsters with huge wings over three meters long, I was about to panic, but Guy’s calm voice helped me regain my composure.

(Calm down. It should be difficult to attack in this narrow pass. They’re probably waiting for us to panic and get stuck…)

　I began chanting [Swallow Cutter].

“O Wentus, God of Wind, who commands all the winds in the world. Grant mine thy swallow-winged blade that dances in the heavens, I offer the power of mine life to thee as payment. Come forth! Swallow-winged blade, Swallow Cutter.” (Zack)

　Next to me, Sharon casts the same spell, and two transparent swallows take off into the sky.

　Guy was positioned in front of us to protect us and began shooting arrows from his horse.

　Liddy was not using [Swallow Cutter], but was releasing her favored spell, [Air Hammer].

　A dozen or so harpies were targeting the front coachman in the sky above one of the wagons. Liddy seemed to aim her [Air Hammer] at the harpies. As the large mass of air plunged into the flock, the harpies were thrown out of formation.

　Some of the harpies regained their bearings and tried to soar back into the sky. Two harpies, however, failed to recover and hit the ground hard.

　I looked at the harpies and thought I had made the wrong choice in my spell. But I still readied my consciousness and concentrated on controlling the magical swallow that had already been created.

　My swallow approach at high speed against a harpy, which is flapping its wings in a desperate attempt to keep afloat under Liddy’s [Air Hammer].

　The spell [Swallow Cutter], has blades on the swallow’s wings, slashes through something solid, like a body, and the spell disappears immediately. For this reason, I decided to aim for the harpy’s wings.

　Even if the wings lose only a few outer feathers, it will not be able to fly properly. I figured that even a harpy, a monster, would fall if it were in this state, flapping its wings frantically.

(It would be physically impossible for the harpy to lift its huge body with only its wings. But the fact that it flapped its wings so frantically suggests that it uses the wind spirit’s power only to reduce its weight or increase its buoyancy, and that its main weakness was it still needs to fly with its wings. Then, just like a bird, if you damage the feathers, it should stall on its own. …Now it’s just a matter of whether I can accurately aim my [Swallow Cutter] to that wing flapping violently…) (Zack)

　Carefully timing with as the harpy spreads its wings. Just as the target harpy spreads its wings fully to catch air, I slash off a few feathers on the right side.

　Large brown feathers float in the air, and the harpy, which was flapping its wings trying to fly, lost its balance and spinning like a drill as it falls to the ground. I muttered “OK!” in my mind and aimed at the second harpy.

　The second harpy stares at me with a startled expression on its face, as if it saw the first harpy plunging to the ground like a drill

　But the harpy, having lost altitude and speed, is unable to attack or escape, and simply flutters upward, desperately trying to escape my swallow.

　As mocking its efforts, the swift, magical swallow cuts off the feathers of the fleeing harpy. The harpy fell to the ground, despite the violent flapping sound of its wings.

(Alright, it’s going well. The flight feathers spread wide just before they take in air, so if I match their timing, it won’t be difficult to cut them…) (Zack)

　Two more harpies were struck down in the same manner, and the magical swallows finished their part and disappeared into the sky.

　Beside me, Sharon, with a pale face, was manipulating her magical swallow to slit the necks of the two harpies.

(I always think Sharon has finer control than I do. I’ll ask her how she does it later.) (Zack)

　The only reason I had time to think about that was because there were only about five left in the air. Guy had shot down two harpies and the other archers had shot down several harpies, so the battle was already decided.

　The harpies that Liddy and I had shot down were still alive, though wounded.

　However, the harpies that fell to the ground were no match for the mercenaries and were easily cut down and killed.

　Byron’s “Cease fire!” echoed, and the archers, though wary, stopped shooting their arrows.

　The remaining harpies in the sky above, having been reduced to one-third of their original number, returned toward the forest with a cry of frustration.

(It appears we were able to fight them off. This time, I regretted my poor choice on spells. Liddy is indeed a skilled fighter. Her choice of [Air Hammer], was the best choice this time. …As a result, I shot down a lot, but if it hadn’t been after Liddy’s attack, I wouldn’t have been able to fight as well as I did. …This is probably due to the difference in experience…) (Zack)

　The chaos of the battle subsided, and we arrived at our resting place.

　Under Byron’s direction to be on high alert, he came over to us.

　He stood in front of me with a serious expression on his face and got down on one knee right then and there.

“Master Zacharias. I apologize again for the inconvenience I caused you the day before yesterday and for endangering you.” (Byron)

　I shook my head, saying, “I’ve already received your apology, no need for more apologies.”

　Byron was about to continue saying, “But…”, so I said, “This will still be a dangerous place, right? And it doesn’t matter anymore.” Forcefully ending the topic.

　Byron nodded at that and handed me magic stones about one centimeter in diameter that he was holding in his hand.

“Master Zacharias fell four harpies, Master Lydiane fell three, and Master Jakes and Mistress Sharon fell two each.” (Byron)

“We didn’t finish them, so, aren’t we supposed to discuss the monsters we subjugated together?” (Zack)

　Byron broke into a wide grin and said, “I can’t take credit for felling the harpies to the ground.”

　In the end, we had defeated thirteen harpies, of which four of us had felled eleven, and I could see the respect in the eyes of the mercenaries.

　Incidentally, Liddy had shot down two of them with magic and one with a bow when I was not looking.

“By the way, this is the first time we have fought off nearly twenty harpies without a single person getting injured. It’s also the first time we’ve defeated more than five of them. …They’re a monster we are very incompatible with…” (Byron)

　In order to cope with a variety of situations, the merchant escorts are well-balanced and composed of swordsmen, spearmen, archers, etc., who can handle both close and long-range situations.

　However, because of this, they have few effective countermeasures against monsters that attack from the sky. A skilled archer or magician can inflict a certain amount of damage, but swordsmen and other melee attackers can only strike down monsters that come close to them.

　However, if the number of archers is increased, they will be at a disadvantage against tougher monsters that attack on the ground. It is rare for a merchant caravan to be wiped out by monsters attacking from the air, but in the case of monsters on the ground, if they cannot be repelled, they are at a high risk of getting wiped out. If they had more magicians, there would be less of a problem, but since the number of magicians themselves is small, they are rarely in small escort teams.

　When defending a large area, such as a merchant escort, increasing the number of archers will have little effect, so he says that balancing them and keeping them safe faraway with swords and spears is an effective countermeasure.

　After an hour’s rest, the merchant caravan departed.

　I was expecting them to speed up as it was downhill ahead.

　But in fact, the speed was about the same as we went uphill.

　This was because we were now passing through southbound merchant caravans and we had to share the road with them and because the wagons had to be cautious even on the downhill and could not be left to their own momentum.

(It is very dangerous for a wagon without brakes on such a bad road. If the wagon breaks loose, it will affect the wagon behind. …It is also more difficult to control one’s own horse. I should have trained a little more on horsemanship…) (Zack)

　At around 2:00 p.m., we finally passed through the Karsh Pass, with 15 km to go.

　The road was better from this point on, and there were no wagons coming from the front, so we were able to move faster.

　We continued north on the road with the forest looming on our right.

　The horses pulling the wagons seemed to be light on their feet, perhaps because the road was gently sloping downhill.

　It is 6:00 pm.

　We arrived safely at the city of Thornbrough, which is surrounded by magnificent city walls.

　Incidentally, I asked Sharon how she controls her magical swallow,

“Swallows fly in search of food, so I have to teach them to find their food near the enemy’s neck.” (Sharon)

　In other words, Sharon was using a “lock-on” and “auto-tracking” functions.

(I thought she was moving it just like a radio controller, but Sharon has a better sense of how to do it. Sharon is truly a genius after all…) (Zack)

　After that, Sharon taught me how to create the image, and the magic of my [Swallow Cutter] evolved into an autonomous tracking spell.