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Seeing Ellie stand up reflexively seemed to have provoked the Vultures, they suddenly swooped down toward us.

Of course, once the distance closed, they would be easy targets for Michelle.

But if Michelle took all of them down before they approached us, this opportunity would just be wasted. I wanted to see how Ellie could fight.

“Michelle, just take one down for now. Cloud, you and I will be in charge of another one while we protect the horses. Finia and Ellie, can you handle the one yourselves?”

“Okaay!”
“Leave it to me.”
“I suppose we can handle one.”
“I will do my best!”

They all responded to my instructions.

Cloud set up his shield above his horse, while Finia stopped the carriage and transformed her dagger into a spear while chanting the activation keywords in a low voice.

The Vultures kept closing in as we prepared.

The moment one of them pushed their claws down in preparation for an attack, Michelle instantly released two consecutive arrows.

They stayed true to their aim and pierced the joint of the Vulture’s each wing, robbing it of its ability to fly.

“There, I’m done.”
“Uh, one normally can’t land such a pinpoint attack on a swooping Vulture, you know?”
“Ehh, I’m sure you can do it too if you try, Nicole.”
“Nooope, no chance!”

I swear, all geniuses were like this.

The speed of a nosediving Vulture exceeded 100 km/h. Though it was a gigantic bird of over three meters when it spread its wings, it was far too abnormal to be able to hit the joints of its wings with pinpoint accuracy.

Needless to say, I couldn’t possibly imitate that.

“A-Amazing. As expected of the Bow Saint…”
“Well, Michelle’s actions fall outside of common sense.”
“You’re going too far, Nicole!”
“Pay attention, the rest are here too!”

I decided to refrain from using the threads just in case, and drew out my katana instead.

Princess Eligore was still royalty, so she should know far more information about the Six Heroes compared to an average person.

It would be a pain if I use threads and she connects the dots to realize I was Reid.

“Take… this!”

That said, without threads, my attack range wasn’t much different from Cloud.

Thus, I flicked up a pebble with the tip of my sword, aiming for the vulture’s head. Of course, my throw was incomparable to Michelle’s, so it didn’t land and was easily avoided.

But that was within my calculations. By avoiding it, one of them strayed off from the attack angle, so I succeeded in dividing the two Vultures.

“Okay, Cloud, you focus on this bird, while Finia’s group will focus on that one!”
“Alright!”

Finia, having been in my party for years, quickly realized my intentions and was already facing her spear toward it.

However, her thrust that aimed for the Vulture’s body was avoided at the last second, only resulting in a graze wound.

Ellie also started chanting to not fall behind, and didn’t show any signs of being seized by fear of battle. It seemed that she would be dependable if the situation requires it.

At the same time, there was a heavy sound, which resulted from Cloud having engaged with another Vulture in close combat.

He had blocked its claws with his shield and had grabbed its feet in retaliation, attempting to slam it to the ground. Why aren’t you using your sword?

“Cloud, what about your sword?”
“It’d be pointless to use it unless I drop the to the ground. More importantly, attack it already! I feel like I’m about to float up.”

Cloud had grown, so the Vulture wouldn’t be able to lift him up so easily. That said, it was still desperately flapping its wings and trying to get away from him.

And because of that, Cloud’s feet floated up and left the stirrups every now and then, but he clung to his horse, Elizabeth, and somehow managed to stay in place.

“Okay, okay. But still, you really have to learn to defeat something like that alone.”
“If I try to, I can do it. I just have to drop my shield and take out my sword.”
“But if you do that, you’d just get meaninglessly injured.”
“Yeah. And I don’t want to get hurt.”

If he let go of the shield that fended off its claws and stabbed it with his sword while expecting a mutual blow, Cloud would most likely come out as a winner.

But that would just get him pointlessly injured, and we’d have to heal him, which would just expend our magic power.

So instead he chose an attrition battle and waited for my intervention.

He acted while being aware of our capabilities, so I guess this was something to praise him for.

“But I still won’t praise you. It quickly gets to your head.”
“That’s so mean!”

I ran toward him as I spoke and took a leap.

I landed on Elizabeth’s butt with the first leap, and then jumped into the air using Cloud’s shoulder as a scaffold.

The Vulture widened its eyes, not expecting this action, but it immediately thrust its beak.

But that only resulted in exposing its weakness, which was its head, to me.

I thrust my katana toward its eyeball. As it had thrust its head my way, it had no way of dodging it.

The blade pierced the soft flesh and even destroyed the hard bone deeper in.

Then I dropped to the ground with the Vulture under me.

“This position again?”

I felt like I landed like this even back during my trip to Raum.

Then I looked toward Finia.

She was doing short, repeated thrusts at the Vulture to block it from drawing near.

Back then, she had been on defensive-only, but after obtaining a spear, and the training that followed it, she could easily deal with something like a Vulture.

As she was gaining time, Eligore’s spell finally finished.

“Finia, get back!”
“Alright!”

Since she hadn’t communicated with us, princess Eligore spoke up to let her know of the timing.

Finia had been expecting her to do so, so she quickly jumped back.

Given her thoughtful consideration, she was good at sensing other people’s feelings.

Even in this first tag battle with Eligore, she was able to use that skill and match her actions with hers.

Once princess Eligore confirmed that Finia had moved back, she cast her spell.

“—Blaze Sphere.”
“Wha?!”

I couldn’t help but yelp weirdly when I saw the spell she used.

Blaze Sphere was a guiding-type high-power flame attribute spell that Maxwell used too before.

Its power was enough to scorch the trees around even with the radiant heat alone.

If you used such a spell inside a forest, and set it on a Vulture on top, it would…

“Did you see? This is my power!”
“Are you an idioooooooot?!”

I forgot the social status difference and smacked her head from behind.

Meanwhile, the Blaze Sphere chased the Vulture around above the forest.

And the resulting fire naturally kept spreading and spreading.