Another world, Celeste

Thirty Four

"I'm here!"

Mint announces her arrival in a lively manner. I almost let out a chuckle at her usual behaviour.

"Please tell me more people are coming," Erissa knocks three consecutive mana arrows as she speaks.

"Not to worry. I called for help," says Mint as she dangles a short wooden flute.

Suddenly, Erissa lowers her bow and stare at the trees to our left. I also detect two dozen presences that don't belong to monsters. Arrows rain down from the trees and precisely hit the surrounding monsters. Rangers appear out of the shadows of the trees and wordlessly cut down more monsters. Mint slides under an Armoured Ant and sever one side of its leg with a short sword then I hit its exposed weak spot.

"Mint, let's move," says Erissa.

Erissa and Mint charge ahead while I stay close to the barrier and watch the rangers leave a trail of ant corpses. My arms shiver at the sight of it. The good news is that the number of Armoured Ants are dwindling the more time passes.

Mint suddenly comes up to me and says, "Put a trace on me."

"What?"

"The wolves are problematic, right? I'll run a lap around the wolves, use that as an indicator then confine them with a barrier," Mint explain her plan.

"There are also Raging Bulls, you know," I remind her.

"That's already taken care of," Mint casually says with a big smile.

"But you still need to be in the middle of all that for a few seconds before the barrier is cast," I share my concern.

"I can handle it. Then, I'll be back!"

Without giving me a second to reconsider, Mint brazenly dash towards the swarm of monsters.

"Please cover for me," I talk to the closest ranger who also heard of Mint's plan.

Three rangers instantly position themselves around me in a triangular formation. I dispel the earth blocks on my fists and retrieve my bow from storage. Luckily for Mint, I've been keeping Presence Detection at its optimum stage this entire time so I easily put a trace on her as she told me to. I readily pull the string of the bow with a barrier spell instructed to be released once the mana arrow hits the target. Some minutes later, Mint successfully pull off her part and I release the mana arrow at full speed. My eyes follow the trajectory through Presence Detection in suspense until it hits the target. I also confirm Mint has withdrawn a second before the barrier closed off the wolves' area. Then, we hear a howl.

The rangers turn in the direction where the howl is coming from.

"Woof! Woof!"

Red the Marroon Hound arrives with a party of three female adventurers. I express my surprise when Serafina slides down from Red.

"Serafina? What are you doing here?"

The rangers loosen their alertness upon seeing how I interact with the group of strangers.

"That's what I wanted to say to you. Why did you run off like that?!" Serafina counters.

"Now, now. The two of you can talk later." One of the female adventurers carrying a sword cuts in and sweep the area with a glance. "More importantly, this is a complete carnage, right?"

The two other female adventurers repeat her word in total agreement.

"Carnage."

Serafina finally notices the ground in front of her is covered with piles of ants corpses and gawk.

I hurriedly divert their attention to the barrier. "There are wounded soldiers inside the barrier. Also..."

After I brief Serafina and the adventurers about the situation, Serafina makes a troubled look and ponders. "The only explanation I can think of is that the blast must've scattered a monster attraction scent."

"Yes, yes, we already know. If you can do something about it, that will be a great help."

I tell her so as I open one side of the barrier where the soldiers are and urge Serafina and company to hurry inside before closing it again.

"I wish to burn every ant's nest down to the ground."

I flinch at the sound of a grim voice coming from behind me.

"Erissa!" I shout her name when I turn around and see that her pristine blonde hair is now covered in green liquid.

"As long as these ants are not tainted then this much is manageable."

Whereas Mint remains optimistic when she's covered all over in slimy green liquid.

"I'm not even gonna ask how the two of you get to be like that," I say, keeping my distance.

"We confirmed all the wolves are contained inside the barrier," Erissa reports.

"Thanks for your hard work," I say to them then throw two bottles of restorative potions to the two elves.