It was pointless trying to analyze monster behavior from a rational standpoint. This shoal of fish had carried out the equivalent of a suicide bombing. The ones that had fallen into the gorge might have survived, but even that was unlikely.
“Well, as adventurers, we should slay as many as possible and take what we can from them,” I said.
“Yeah, I agree,” said Touya. “But one of us has to volunteer to do that.”
It sounded like Touya had chosen his words carefully, but Haruka showed him no mercy.
“And who do you think is the best suited for that job, Touya?”
“Me, duh. Yeah, I knew that would be the conclusion!” Touya raised his voice, but then he seemed to resign himself to his fate and looked down the cliff with a grimace. “Man, they’re scattered all over. Do you think more of them will come and attack me when I climb back down there, Haruka?”
“They might. If they do...”
“If they do?”
Haruka tilted her head cutely. “I suppose I’d be happy to have more fish for broth.”
“I wouldn’t be happy about it!”
Natsuki smiled. “Flying fish broth is quite gourmet, Touya-kun.”
“That doesn’t make me any happier!”
“Would you prefer grilled needlefish?” asked Haruka. “That’s on the menu as well.”
“No! What I’m trying to get at is that it hurts like hell when those things stab you!”
Believe us, dude, we can tell.
“Don’t worry, we’ll take some precautions this time,” I said.
“...Be more specific.”
Now that we knew how the flying needlefish attacked, we could devise some countermeasures. Touya seemed skeptical, so I tried my best to explain what I had in mind. My idea was to use the Isolation Field spell in order to create a zone that the needlefish couldn’t easily fly through.
There were a few reasons that I hadn’t been able to deploy that spell earlier: It had a substantial mana cost, and although it could cover the area that the shoal had flown through, it couldn’t extend all the way to the ledge below; I would have had to climb down myself and cast it around me.
We had learned that Fire Magic wasn’t a good option given the fish’s mass, so my plan was to use spells like Concussion and Stone Missile that could hopefully knock them away on impact. Then there wouldn’t be any need to incinerate them.
“The only problem with that is it’ll be impossible to retrieve their bodies,” I said. “We already missed out on the birds earlier...”
“Come on, just this once, let’s not worry about that!” Touya exclaimed.
“But you wouldn’t want to miss out on good food, right, Touya?” I asked.
“I mean, yeah. But I care more about safety than food right now.”
It would be ideal if I could simply attack the fish that looked likeliest to hit Touya, but that would be fiddly. It was easy to target monsters flying directly at me, but when looking down on them from overhead, it would be hard to judge the distance.
“Oh, by the way, the birds that came after us earlier were arrowhead eagles,” said Yuki. “Their feathers are good for fletching arrows, and their drumsticks are supposed to be delicious too. Raptors grab stuff with their talons, so maybe that makes the leg meat nice and firm?”
“Eagles, huh? I couldn’t really make them out.” Touya glared at her. “But also, come on, Yuki, I don’t care about potential new food right now!”
Yuki just smiled and shook her head, unbothered by his reaction. “Nah, it’s good for us to know! They can improve our lives in more ways than one. ’Sides, you’re the one who loves meat, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, of course, but it’s not like we need the money!”
“What’s the big deal? It’s not like you’re going to die or anything,” I said. “You’re a pretty sturdy guy.”
“I mean, sure, but would you want to get stabbed by one of those?”
The odds of Touya actually dying here were very low. One of the fish had nailed him in the shoulder, but his vital organs were protected by a breastplate imbued with Light-elemental magic. Based on my inspection of the needlefish’s snout, I didn’t think it could punch a hole in that. The rest of our party was far more fragile than Touya, so another fish attack would have been more dangerous for any of us.
“Look, let’s just prioritize safety over retrieving monsters!” said Touya. “With the needlefish, I’ll do what I can, within reason, but don’t make me go out of my way!”
“Fine, fine—and I’ll make sure I’ve got you covered,” I said. “Good luck!”
I did feel bad about always forcing Touya to handle stuff like this. After carefully checking his lifeline, I cast Isolation Field.
“Honestly, hearing ‘Good luck’ from you right now is kind of killing my motivation.”
Touya let out a “Hrmph!” and then hopped onto the rope ladder again. He was the kind of guy who groused a lot to let off steam, but he never made it anyone else’s problem. I honestly respected that about him.
“All right. Here goes.”
“Be careful, Touya-san,” said Mary.
“Good luck, big bro Touya! I hope you can bring a lot of fish back with you!”
I wondered if the sisters were just encouraging Touya because they’d heard him complain that his motivation was flagging. Or actually, could Metea be completely sincere? She probably just wants new food, but I guess she’s sincere about that...
“There you go, Touya-kun,” said Natsuki with a giggle. “You received some words of encouragement from a couple of young girls. Don’t you feel a bit more motivated now?” She handed him a leather bag.
“Sure, I guess,” said Touya, though in truth, he still sounded unenthused. “Here I go.”
Since I’d gotten caught off guard earlier, I focused really hard on scanning with my Scout skill, but I didn’t detect anything. Touya was also watching his back as he yanked the needlefish out of the walls. He just grabbed their still-squirming bodies and snapped them off, leaving the heads in the wall, and then dangled them over the void to drain their blood. After they’d stopped leaking blood, he tossed them into the leather bag.
The sight was so surreal that we all fell silent. His method was pretty efficient, since it allowed him to kill them and drain their blood at the same time, but it wasn’t really the kind of thing you would generally want kids watching. One of the kids in our care, however, looked indescribably happy and was shouting, “Fish!”
“Fourteen, fifteen, and I think that’s it,” said Touya. “Pretty good haul.”
Including the one we’d pulled out of his shoulder, we had sixteen needlefish. Touya looked around to make sure he hadn’t missed any, then ascended the rope ladder again. I canceled the Isolation Field and breathed a sigh of relief, letting my body relax now that Touya was back.
“Good work, Touya,” said Haruka. She took the leather bag from him and extended it toward Yuki with the mouth open. “Are you done with that snout, Yuki?”
Yuki was still inspecting the snout of the first flying needlefish, but she apologized and then put it in the bag.
“You seemed very engrossed,” said Natsuki. “Was there something of particular interest to you?”
“Yeah, kinda,” said Yuki. “What do we think is the hardest thing it can pierce through?”
“Not white iron, I’m pretty sure,” I said.
“Mm, although a thin layer of softer iron likely wouldn’t withstand them considering they pierced solid rock,” said Natsuki.
Of course, it wasn’t purely a question of the armor’s hardness; there were some sections that could deflect the needlefish. Regardless, thanks to Touya’s hard work, we’d gotten a bunch of needlefish snouts, so now we could experiment with them and use them to stress test shields and armor.
Haruka must have been thinking along the same lines I was. “Are you thinking of making Touya wear something like plate mail, Yuki?” she asked.
Yuki quickly shook her head. “Nah, I was just thinking that if Touya climbed down with something like a wooden door panel on his back, reinforced with metal plates, he could gather as many fish as we wanted.”
✦ ✦ ✦
