We live at the foothills of Dragon Peak.
Let’s follow the example.
“It’s a magic beast.”
“It’s a wyvern!”
“It’s a monster!!”
“Um, there are spirits here too?”
“This is bad!”
And so, our simple trip to pick an undying, mysterious flower turned our surroundings into a world of screaming chaos.
“How did this happen?!”
“Um, I think it might be Elnea-kun’s fault?”
“No way, that’s ridiculous!”
Alicia, riding a magic beast, shouted something terrible at us as she sped past.
The stampede of magic beasts, commanded by Priscilla-chan and Alicia-chan, ran wild across the grasslands where monstrous carnivorous plants dwelled. They scattered the monsters, further deepening the chaos. The spirits that had caught up were not about to stay silent. They hurled mud balls and fireballs, turning the grasslands into a garden of explosions.
“Noisy pests!”
Just then, a flock of wyverns with scorched brown scales attacked! The wyverns flew in formation, spewing flames from low altitudes.
“Everyone, get inside the barrier with me and Madrine!” Ruiseine shouted. We hurriedly retreated into the magic barrier, and then multiple dragon art barriers were erected. Shortly after, flames approached, painting our vision crimson. The adventurers inside the barrier screamed.
The flames subsided, and our vision cleared. We saw the monstrous carnivorous plants burning from the wyverns’ flames!
“Oh dear, this is bad. If all those monsters burn up, we won’t be able to collect the flowers,” Elnea muttered.
“Leave that to Alicia-chan. Priscilla, let’s go,” Alicia replied.
“Um, I’ll do my best!” Priscilla-chan chimed in.
Responding to Priscilla-chan’s cry, the magic beasts, who had evaded the wyverns’ flames with their evasion techniques, emerged from the dragon veins. Alicia and Priscilla remounted their magic beasts and began to race around the grassland.
“Alright, everyone, fire spirits. Please weaken the flames. Otherwise, I’ll have to punish you,” Alicia said.
“Um, water spirits, please bring a lot of rain. Then, Elnea-older brother will surely give you a wonderful reward,” Priscilla pleaded.
“Eh? I have to provide the reward?!” Elnea exclaimed.
Alicia interfered with the fire spirits, while Priscilla commanded the water spirits. Additionally, the earth spirits crumbled the footing of the carnivorous plants, hindering their movement, and the wind spirits blew them around, disrupting the wyverns’ flight.
“Hmph, how dare you, humans and spirits!”
However, the wyverns were relentless. Perhaps angered by the resistance, the wyverns soared into the sky, their sharp claws and fangs glinting, and then dove down.
“Laira!”
“Yes!” Laira replied, her small fists clenching with joy at Elnea’s call. Her eyes sparkled blue as she stared at the wyverns descending from above.
“Wyverns, sit!” Laira commanded. Her “dominating eyes” activated.
“Grrr…”
“My body is moving on its own!?”
“D-damn you!”
The wyverns, which should have been diving, folded their wings in unison and assumed a dog-like sitting posture. But, it was in mid-air. They fell to the ground in their sitting positions! If this continued, they would crash into the ground ignominiously.
“Hahahaha! I made a mistake. Wyverns, you are free to fly. However, attacking us is forbidden!” With Laira’s new command, the wyverns regained their freedom. They hurriedly flapped their wings, regained buoyancy just above the ground, and flew back into the sky.
“Hmph, such a terrifying girl.”
“They obey against their will…?”
The wyverns, soaring in the sky, gazed down at Laira on the ground with expressions of surprise.
“Hey, what in the world is going on?!” For us, the spirits rampaging was a usual occurrence, and we could somehow handle the wyverns’ attacks. However, for the adventurers, this was all unprecedented and impossible. Doran-san wrung his hands, troubled by the situation.
“Doran-san, cheer up! The real show is about to begin,” Elnea said.
“Huh? It’s going to get worse?!” Doran-san asked.
“I misspoke. The main event for achieving our goal is about to begin. We need to pick flowers that are blooming on the tentacles of those monsters,” Elnea clarified.
“R-right…” Doran-san let out a dry laugh as he watched Priscilla-chan, followed by magic beasts, run around the surroundings.
Ah, he’s retreating into denial. It can’t be helped, I suppose. But if we return to the village leaving the top-class adventurers bewildered, I’m afraid they might spread strange rumors about us later. So, let’s implement a strategy to support the adventurers.
“Doran-san, please cooperate. We could handle things up to this point, but how do we safely collect the flowers from the tentacles of those rampaging plant monsters?” While it was easy for us to collect them by quickly approaching with spatial jumps and then escaping, it would be interesting to see how Doran-san and the others would collect the flowers.
Doran-san’s spirit began to return as Elnea pleaded with him.
“O-oh! Then, let’s show them what we’re made of!”
“Leave the magic beasts, spirits, and wyverns to us.”
Though their responsibilities seemed more challenging, Doran-san and his companions, flattered by Elnea, didn’t quite grasp that fact. Or rather, they couldn’t keep up with understanding this absurd situation and were only focusing on problems they felt they could handle.
With renewed spirit, Doran-san and his group emerged from the magic barrier and, with determination, formed an array.
“Alright, everyone, let’s go!” Doran-san took the lead and charged at the carnivorous plant monster. He advanced with powerful strides, holding a large shield in front of him. The carnivorous plant monster shrieked with joy as its prey approached, whipping its countless tentacles like whips.
*Thump!* The tentacles slammed violently against the great shield. However, Doran-san, clad in heavy armor, didn’t budge. Instead, while holding his shield, he wielded his spear freely, swatting away the countless approaching tentacles.
“Tontac, let’s go!”
“Roger!” Tontac jumped out from behind Doran-san. Dodging the tentacles, Tontac approached the monster. “There!” Swinging his long spear, he skillfully cut off only the tentacles on which the undying flowers bloomed.
On the tip of the fallen tentacle, Whipper inserted the blade of his medium sword into the stem of the undying flower. With a pop, the flower detached. Whipper quickly retrieved the fallen flower. At that moment, a monster attacked Whipper from another direction. Tontac fended it off with his spear.
“Alright, let’s pull back. The other flowers blooming on that one have already burned up.”
“Understood.”
“Roger that.”
At Doran-san’s signal, Whipper and Tontac retreated. However, the carnivorous plant monster, enraged at having its precious flowers stolen, fiercely attacked them. Just then, arrows flew from another direction. The consecutively flying arrows deeply pierced the monster’s trunk. The monster let out a scream from its grotesque mouth. Its tentacles’ movements began to slow.
It was Beneil-san’s curse! Supported by the rear guard, Whipper and Tontac safely retreated to Doran-san.
“Heh, so this is the skillful cooperation that top-class adventurers display,” Elnea muttered, impressed, as he threw back mud balls. The plan was quite simple. Doran-san would take the lead, drawing the monster’s attention and attacks. In that opening, Whipper would engage to pluck the flowers. Tontac’s role was to support Whipper so he could concentrate, and the rear guards Beneil-san and Batton-san would protect everyone during retreats and emergencies.
“That’s seamless cooperation. I need to learn from that,” Elnea said.
“Indeed. You tend to involve too many people and break too many things,” Mistral replied.
“Mistral, are you sure about that?”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes!”
“Fufufu, I’ll leave it at that.” Mistral smiled joyfully as she mercilessly crushed the monsters that had recklessly attacked them with her jet-black one-handed club.
“Well then, let’s see the results of your training immediately.”
“Leave it to me!” Since Mistral had requested it, Elnea couldn’t refuse. “Alright, now it’s my turn!” Gripping his white sword in his right hand and the Spirit Tree Wooden Sword in his left, he stepped onto the battlefield.
“Ares-chan, Spirit Tree-chan, here we go!”
“Let’s go, let’s go!”
“I’ll be a great success!” I have to make lots of fun memories here too! So, let me show you our cooperation.
As usual, I danced the Dragon Sword Dance. I wasn’t merged with Ares-chan, but a young girl kept pace beside me. Spirit Tree-chan, finally getting her chance to shine, unleashed her power energetically. As a result, influenced by Spirit Tree’s power, the spirits began to become active. Matching my Dragon Sword Dance, spirits of various attributes danced. The movements of the earth and fire spirits were particularly good!
The earth spirit, in the form of a child, jumped onto the back of a magic beast and cheered it on. The fire spirit embraced a carnivorous plant, causing it to burn fiercely.
“Now, now. Don’t burn up monsters that haven’t had their flowers collected yet,” Elnea warned.
“In other words, it’s okay to burn up the useless monsters, right?”
“Darn it, that’s how you interpreted it!” The burning monster writhed in agony, its flaming tentacles flailing wildly, attacking everything in sight, friend and foe alike. However, the monsters that Doran-san and his companions had not yet collected flowers from did not ignite.
“Ugh, I wonder if this is okay…” No, it was not okay!
“Hmph! To think that only my children would receive the blessings of the Spirit Tree! I can’t just stand by and watch!”
“We want to receive the Spirit Tree’s blessings too!”
“Gyaaa!”
The ground shook violently, and the wind became hot. Then, something big manifested. They were the Lord of Earth Spirits and the Lord of Fire Spirits, with bodies as colossal as a Giant Tribe!
“This is a region where earth and fire attributes have a strong influence, you see,” Alicia casually remarked as she passed by Elnea.
“Uooooooooh, give me vitality!”
“Nuooooooooh, give me passion!” The two spirit kings let out a shared war cry and raged. “Ah, ahhh!” Then, with explosive power, the Lord of Earth Spirits and the Lord of Fire Spirits awakened the slumbering land. With a rumbling seismic vibration from deep within, Mount Holm, which stood nearby, erupted violently, spewing a huge amount of flames and dust from its summit crater!
“W-w-what do we do, Mistral?!” Elnea frantically turned to Mistral.
“Elnea-kun, it’s alright. The eruption’s flames aren’t heading towards us.”
“Elnea-kun, it’s alright. The eruption’s smoke isn’t going towards the village.”
That’s strange. Elnea thought he was looking in Mistral’s direction, but he saw Yufilia and Nina. They looked at him with eyes that said, “We’re the same kind.”
“No! I am certainly not like you Ladies of Chaos!” Elnea denied. But reality did not permit him such a luxury.
“Whoa! This is powerful!”
“Fu fu.”
“Let’s make flowers bloom on withered leaves.”
“No, no, Spirit Tree-chan. The monsters whose flowers have been picked won’t bloom again even if you do this.” Rather, it was the spirits who were receiving nourishment from the Spirit Tree. especially the two spirit kings who were now rampaging around here!
The monsters screamed and fled, the monstrous carnivorous plants raged wildly, the magic beasts rampaged under the command of the young girl and her older sister, the spirits became lively and uncontrollable, and Mount Holm awoke from its deep slumber, erupting with vigor.
“Ah, this is the end for us…”
“I just ordered a new spear…”
“I finally became friends with a village girl…” Doran-san and his companions stood dumbfounded, lamenting their regrets.
“Elnea-kun, Mist-san just told you to be active but restrain yourself.”
“Sefina-san… Can you control the power of those who are rampaging and quell this situation?”
“Fufufu, that’s quite impossible.”
“Nooo…”
They had only come to pick flowers, but before they knew it, it had turned into a major disaster. Elnea looked up at the smoking Mount Holm and slumped his shoulders with a sigh.
