At the same time as Ann’s shout, something hit Sara’s barrier, and a flame burst and tumbled to the ground. As if that was a signal, monster-made fireworks erupted around Sara. Some bats hit her and fell, while some just clipped her with their wings and flew back up into the air.
“Flame bats emit fire from their bodies like that when they hit something. They don’t burn themselves, and once they’ve used up their fuel, they’re just big bats, but studies have shown that they’re able to emit fire again after a few days.”
“Umm...”
“The trick to hunting them is...”
“Uhh, Sara’s, uhh, all covered in fire. Do we not need to save her?”
Ann interrupted Elm’s lecture, looking like she wasn’t sure if she should run in herself or not.
Elm sighed. Why did he have to shrug his shoulders like she was being ridiculous?
“Sara’s barrier gives her perfect defense. She can even repel a wyvern. There’s no need to worry about mere flame bats. So, the trick to hunting them is...”
“Umm, right...”
She didn’t have to keep giving Sara those worried looks. Sara smiled and waved to assure her that she was okay, but she didn’t want to keep hurting the flame bats for no reason, so she went back into the field of the protection cases. Several bats followed her, but they eventually returned to the sky when they realized attacking her was pointless.
“Let’s have you observe some hunting next. Kuntz, you’ll represent casters. Allen, you’re physical strengthening, and Haruto, you’re the Invited.”
“Are the Invited a separate type of Hunter or something?” Haruto quipped, but Elm ignored him and continued.
“Show her the different ways you fight.”
“Okay. I’ll start, then. First, I’ll use my slingshot magic. It’s a type of earth magic. Then, I’ll use the shield magic I came up with based on Sara’s barrier,” Kuntz announced. The moment he stepped away from the group and stood on his own, the flame bats’ movements changed so obviously that even Sara could tell.
“So that’s what I looked like a minute ago.”
But unlike with Sara, the flame bats were bursting into flame and falling to the ground at some distance from Kuntz after something shot from his hands.
“What’s important here is to pay close attention. You need to take them down before they can attack you. I’ll use my shield next.”
He moved his hands in the same way that he did when he used his slingshot magic, but this time a shield appeared in front of his hands as the flame bats attacked him and were repelled.
“It’s beautiful.”
Maybe it was because Kuntz was standing still and taking the flame bats down at a slight distance from himself. It was like he was standing in the middle of fireworks. The scene was stunning.
“Okay, switch. You’re up, Allen.”
“Yep.”
Allen put his fists up and lowered his center of gravity, punching away the flame bats that attacked him one by one. The large impacts of his hits made the flames dancing around him bigger and showier.
“Because I’ve got physical strengthening on, the heat doesn’t really affect me. I won’t get burned if I punch them directly, but if I extend my physical strengthening like this...”
Wait, wait! Sara wanted to shout. She’d never heard that physical strengthening made you heat-resistant. And how was she supposed to understand “extending physical strengthening” with just words?
“You can defeat flame bats at a distance, which is safer. Next, Haruto.”
“Right!”
Haruto enthusiastically traded places with Allen. Sara felt like the flame bats should be starting to figure out that they couldn’t win, but more and more of them were gathering, to her confusion.
“I tend to freestyle, so I’ll start with magic. Stardust!”
Sara almost let an “ah” escape her lips. She felt like that was the dangerous magic he’d used back in Rosa, the one that had almost incinerated the eastern meadow. But instead, something like fireworks shot up from Haruto’s extended hands, bursting in the air above him and downing several flame bats in the process. It was beautiful, but not wasteful, and didn’t create an excess of flame. On top of that, the incantation was short.
“They’re skyrocket fireworks with a homing functionality. Sara! I’ve improved, haven’t I?”
“That was amazing!” Sara clapped, duly impressed.
“Heh heh! That’ll show them to mess with me. Anyway, this spell’s effective when there are a bunch of monsters around. I’ll show you my physical strengthening next—taking a few extra notes from Sara’s barrier.”
Sara’s barrier was not just some add-on; she wanted to protest, but before she could, Haruto started racing along the grass, almost like he was dancing.
“I call this one the ‘human weapon that takes down any flame bat who touches me just by wrapping myself in a barrier.’”
“Way too long!”
Sara couldn’t help but comment on that one.
“I guess that just leaves me.”
“Switch!”
Elm took Haruto’s place, fluidly drawing his sword.
“Most knights use swords to fight, like this.”
Flame bats fell to the grass all around Elm, impaled or sliced by his sword. Sara felt bad for them, but it was their fault for attacking humans in the first place.
“The benefit of a weapon is that you can defeat monsters at a distance from your body. That’s all.”
When they all finally crammed themselves into the protection field and quieted down, the flame bats eventually flew off somewhere else. What a lavish lesson that was.
“What did you think?” Sara asked Ann.
“I don’t know what to say. Even if they’re monsters, we’re still taking lives. But it’s so beautiful...”
Sara had wanted to show her the fantastical sight of those flames dancing in the sky, but it seemed Ann had taken even more from the experience.
“The fire’s beautiful, but...” Sara stopped, and Ann picked up where she left off.
“The hunting techniques are beautiful too. Magic, physical strengthening, and swordplay.”
“And freestyle, right?”
As always, Haruto’s comment lightened the mood.
“Watching everyone, I got the sense that I’m probably more suited to physical strengthening and swordplay.”
It was good that she had an understanding of where her strengths lay.
“Flame bats aren’t a good first adversary. We’ll look for horned rabbits as we go tomorrow.”
“Huh? Horned rabbits? Those are a good first adversary?”
Sara’s shocked question was, of course, ignored. It seemed Ann’s training would be continuing for a while yet.
The capital was in the center of the west side of Trilgaia, where there weren’t too many monsters. There were more monsters the closer you got to the eastern mountains. Of course, there still weren’t as many there as there were in the meadow between Rosa and the Dark Mountain, and if you kept to the roads, it was safe to travel the area.
“However, there are those travelers who don’t take the safe roads. And that’s us.”
It was still just the beginning of spring, so the grass wasn’t long yet, and it was easy to walk through. But with no farmland around, it was also easy for the horned rabbits to hunt their prey, so they’d been spotting little grey beasts here and there for a while now. Ann had never seen a horned rabbit, however, so she hadn’t noticed them yet.
Sara watched the faraway rabbits, wondering if she should say something or whether Elm was staying quiet because he had something in mind, when there was a crash behind her.
“Whoops.”
She’d been focused on the rabbits in front of them, but it seemed there were plenty behind them as well.
Most of the horned rabbits that crashed into Sara’s barrier didn’t make it, but this one stood back up shakily. It was a sturdy little fellow, it seemed.
“Ah! What a big bunny!”
Ann ran over, crying out loudly enough for even the unsteady horned rabbit to jump in response.
“Oh my gosh, it’s huge! And so fluffy!”
Before Sara could stop her, she’d lifted the horned rabbit up from behind and was showing it to her excitedly. The sight brought back an old memory of Sara’s. Haruto must have remembered the same thing, because he was crouching down and holding his head, much to Sara’s amusement.
Back to its senses, the horned rabbit struggled desperately in Ann’s arms, trying to kick her, but, well, she was one of the Invited.
“Oh, wow! It’s so strooong!” she said in a singsong voice. “You’ve got a lot of energy, don’t you? Good boy, good boy.”
Everyone was frozen, watching her, as Ann’s excited voice alone rang out across the meadow.
“Cheee!”
But the horned rabbit finally slipped free from Ann’s grasp and bolted off.
“So that’s what horned rabbits sound like,” Sara commented.
“Uhh, I don’t think that’s important right now,” Haruto responded weakly. He must have been thinking about his past self.
Ann was just standing there blankly, not aware what the problem was at all.