Not this time

I talked it over with Ari and Sophie and we decided that we came here to make money, not to go on vacation. Besides, the guild was informed of the mission we did and they would expect us to come back at a certain time. If our vacation makes us late, they’ll send in a rescue squad when it was not at all necessary. We did walk around the town around the capital entrance and saw some interesting goods they were selling. All of them fine craftsmanship but also too expensive for us. We did find us a tavern and try out some dwarven cuisine. It was indeed heavy on the meat and other animal products, like eggs, but I felt so stuffed that I could skip diner.

Eventually though, we find a trader who is about to travel back to Riledo. At first, the merchant felt he was doing us a favor and we should feel lucky that he is letting us join him for free. But a few words from Kiara made him realize we could always join a different merchant and protect his goods. I guess, a merchant trying to trick you into protecting his goods for free is something you don’t learn about in training. New adventurers like myself might end up let themselves be caught and end up protecting a merchant for free. Not Kiara though.

The journey back home starts just as boring as the one that brought us here. But on the 2nd day, things quickly went different.

It was noon, so the wagons had stopped for a break. We were about to finish eating when one of the dwarven drivers noticed something in the sky. At first, we thought it were some birds, but it turned out it were harpies instead. About 10 of them. My guildmates and I quickly grab our weapons and prepare for battle. This merchant didn’t seem to have equipped his drivers with rifles, so we couldn’t rely on backup this time.

We put up our defenses and were ready for the harpies to come down and fight us, however they kept circling overhead instead. Two of them were mages and they kept throwing magic spells including fireballs at us. This is not good. It’s never good when your enemy can attack you without you attacking back. Ari is a melee fighter. She can’t reach them. Well, she can throw her kunai, but the harpies are flying way too high for them to reach. Sophie has trained mostly in healing and defense, not in fighting, so she doesn’t have any ranged fighting skills either. The only ones that can reach them are me and Kiara.

The first thing I do is summon my water elemental. She is not capable of getting up there with the harpies, but she can fire some water spells at them and use her body to extinguish the fire balls thrown at us. I can at least cast the [Water Ball] spell at them a few times, but I can’t do it too much. My mana would run out. My [Water Spear] might be able easily take one out, but it takes a lot of mana and they are fast. It would be so easy for me to miss them and then that mana has gone to waste. Kiara shoots her [Dark Blast] spell a few times just like me, and when one of their melee fighters comes too close, Kiara lashes out at her with her [Shadow Manipulation]. Her other spells are meant for closer range, unfortunately. Dammit, we can’t properly reach them. How do we fight an opponent like this?

Perhaps we can simply wait this out until the harpies become too tired of flying and fighting? I’m sure it can’t be easy for them to fight gravity while equipped with armor and weapons. They may easily tire before we do.

I noticed that since these harpies have their feathers on their arms so they need to use their arms for flight. It is probably for that reason they are holding spears and swords with their feet. Or talons more specifically.

Suddenly I hear one of the harpies call out, “[Paralysis]!” And Sophie momentarily stops moving.

That is then when a large fireball flew towards us. Ari pushes Sophie to safety and Kiara and I dodge the fireball ourselves. With the fire being thrown at our center, we each ended up moved in a different direction and got separated.

Then I heard one of the harpies yell, “Get the male!”

Male? I thought I was the only guy in our … Oh, shit!

I look up and see one of the harpies dive towards me. She had her wings behind her and her legs were aiming for me. I was able to dodge her and as she came down next to me her talons grabbed thin air, but she quickly flapped her feathered arms and she was off again.

I turn to face the harpy that just attacked me but she was already gone. Then another harpy came from behind me. This one I didn’t see coming. Her feet land on both my upper arms, and her talons close around them. She then immediately takes flight again and drags me up with her.

“I got him!” The harpy yells proudly.

But as soon as she announces that, she nearly gets pierced by a sharp shadowy spike. I look at where it comes from and I see Kiara with her arm stretched out. She retracts her shadow weapon and then fires it again. A huge spike extends from her arm all the way towards the harpy flying off with me. But soon a second harpy holding a shield in her left foot flies in front of us and blocks Kiara’s attacks.

I am not yet too far from the ground. If I struggle enough, maybe she will loosen her grip and I can fall. But then a third harpy flies in front of me. She places her foot on my forehead and says, “[Sleep].”

Suddenly I feel my eyelids get heavy. My eyes close and everything goes dark.