“Fire Arrow!”
When the remaining birds flew inside our range, Yuki and I both attacked with magic. Our Fire Arrows pierced them, and they, too, fell out of the air.
Touya breathed a sigh of relief after he saw that all of the birds had been defeated. “I almost panicked for a sec.”
It was clear that the birds had been aiming for Touya, so it would have been difficult for him to dodge while descending the rope ladder.
“Sorry, it’s kind of my fault,” I said. “Those birds came out of nowhere—from beyond the range of my Scout skill.”
“Nah, it’s all good. I’m surprised their eyesight is good enough that they can attack from that distance, though. I didn’t hear any flapping either...”
“The birds were gliding, so they were completely silent,” said Haruka. “And they resembled hawks, so their eyesight isn’t surprising.”
“Did my Hawk’s Eye skill lose to the real thing? Ugh,” I said.
I had no idea how far away the birds had been when they detected Touya, but they had clearly glided toward him in a straight line, so they unquestionably had excellent vision.
“I think the birds might have waited for Touya-san to start climbing down before they came after him,” said Mary. “I don’t have any way of attacking if more show up later.”
“Yeah, me either.” Metea crouched down. “Should I look for some rocks...?”
She’d picked one up by the time I intervened. “Nah, Metea, don’t. It could be dangerous.”
A properly aimed rock could be an effective weapon, but Metea had never practiced throwing, so the risk of friendly fire was too high.
Natsuki smiled gently and took the rock from Metea. “I have a skill called Throw, but I doubt that even I could have hit one of those birds in flight.”
Metea stared at her empty right hand and pouted, then quickly clenched her fists and peeked over the edge at Touya.
“Oh well, I guess I’ll give up on that. Be careful, big bro Touya!”
“Roger. Nao and the rest of you guys, I’m counting on you!”
“Yeah, just don’t let your guard down, and— Oh, more monsters are coming, a lot of them!”
My Scout skill had picked up multiple signals to my left, over the waterfall. Now they were approaching us rapidly in a straight line. When I squinted, I made out a cluster of small dots.
Haruka had her bow at the ready, but she said, “Ugh, the targets are too small!”
“What are these things, Nao?!” Yuki asked.
“Fish, I think!”
They were flying right at us, but I couldn’t yet make them out clearly even with Hawk’s Eye. I could discern their silhouettes against the darkness, and they looked somewhat like flying fish. Their bodies, however, resembled those of needlefish, with long, sharp snouts.
As the massive cluster of dots descended on us at an angle, Haruka let off some arrows. However, even she was only able to graze a few of the monsters, which wasn’t enough to down them, and when she realized that, she discarded her bow and extended her hands.
“Fire Arrow!” Haruka exclaimed in unison with Yuki.
I paused in thought for a moment, then decided to risk using a spell I hadn’t fully mastered yet. “Jet Fire!”
My reasoning was that Jet Fire would be more effective in this situation due to the sheer number of enemies. As it turned out, I was grossly mistaken. Yuki and Haruka’s response wasn’t perfect either, but they still succeeded in blowing away a few fish, whereas the shoal was easily able to fly around the flames I’d cast; I didn’t kill a single one. Part of the problem was that I wasn’t comfortable with the spell, but another was that it was a Fire Magic spell.
Fire Magic spells were all very powerful and capable of dealing severe damage, so they were convenient, but they also had some drawbacks. One was the fact that they didn’t have any weight or stopping power as such. You could blast off the head of a charging orc, for example, but momentum would carry its body forward. Fire Arrows had a little explosive power, but they were better at piercing a target and couldn’t send a monster flying backward.
I had been aware of this issue for a while, but given how easy it was to dodge a dead body carried forward by momentum, I hadn’t treated it as a serious problem. Spells that could incapacitate a target were more useful in situations where dodging wasn’t an option, and Jet Fire was even more limited than Fire Arrow in that respect. It had a wide area of effect, but at least in my hands, it wasn’t powerful enough to incinerate them instantly. Thus, the fish were able to fly around my flames. Their combined physical mass would have been dangerous even if I’d succeeded in frying some.
One of the flying fish that had dodged my Jet Fire flew directly at Touya. “Watch out, Touya!”
“Raaarrgh!”
Touya kicked off of the wall, counting on his lifeline, and the flying fish whizzed past him and struck the rock. Nearby, Natsuki had crouched down to swing her naginata at the fish, but at least ten had gotten past her. Their long snouts sank about twenty centimeters into the rock, but they were still wriggling around.
The lifeline pulled Touya back, and as he slammed into the wall, he let out a pained groan.
“Big bro Touya!” Metea exclaimed.
“A-Are you okay, Touya-san?” Mary called.
“No, not really,” Touya replied with a grimace. “It really hurts...”
As he’d leaped sideways off of the rope ladder to dodge the fish, one of them had lodged itself in his shoulder. It was wriggling around in an apparent attempt to make the wound larger, and blood was gushing down Touya’s arm. He was barely able to hold on with his right hand clasping the rock wall and his left hand around the lifeline.
“Actually, I’m in a world of trouble here. This rope is looking pretty iffy, for one thing...”
“I was somehow able to prevent them from hitting the rope, but it certainly doesn’t look good,” said Natsuki.
Apparently her objective had been to keep the fish away from the rope with her naginata, and she’d succeeded, but the rope was frayed from glancing blows.
“Quickly, Nao, get a new rope!” Haruka ordered me.
“Roger! Mary, Metea, wrap some rope around yourselves and go sit by the wall over there.”
“Okay!” the sisters replied in unison.
All of us secured ourselves before dangling a line down to Touya. He attached it to the carabiner on his own harness, and only then did all of us breathe a sigh of relief. I’m really glad we have carabiners with us. Otherwise, it’d be impossible for him to tie a new rope to himself.
“Can you climb back up on your own, Touya?” Haruka asked.
“Sorry, but probably not. My right arm doesn’t have much strength left in it...”
“I see. In that case...”
Haruka was looking back and forth, clearly troubled, between the rope ladder and our own situation here on the plank trail. Meanwhile, Yuki and I were working to dig a hollow in the ground so we could brace our feet and pull Touya up without sliding over the edge ourselves. Considering his weight, this would be a precarious task even for five of us.
“What should we do, Haruka?” I asked. “Should we just try to pull him up?”
“...I’m beginning to believe we aren’t actually adequately prepared for the twenty-first level. We should have designed something like a pulley for situations like this.”
Although Touya’s weight was a significant problem, Haruka seemed more concerned about something else: She was looking at the rope itself where it passed over the edge of the cliff. Even if we succeeded in hauling Touya up, there was a chance that it would fray and snap due to the friction.
“We can’t just keep wasting time like this,” I said. “Is there anything else that we can use?”