Chapter 17 – vs Full Moon Dryad (1)

As the sun rose, we saw the aftermath of the last night battle. There were hundreds of plants monsters defeated.

The corps where tired from the fighting, therefore the captain gave some hours for them to rest, since it wasn’t uncertain if they could find the dryad in the day, if they couldn’t, when the night came they would be in a sorry state, which Windser wanted to avoid at any cost.

The corps rested up till noon, then they started moving, when I asked about the dead bodies, Cecil butted in.

“We’re leaving them here!”

“But wouldn’t those serve as food to the other monsters?”

“That’s right♪”

Why would she do that? Looking at the captain he just shrugged his shoulders, as if saying me to let Cecil have her way.

Lately I’ve been feeling that the boss is really this free girl.

It’s not like I don’t understand, I mean, such troublesome monster like that giant flytrap needed two strong parties to take down, not mentioning the hard work of the captain that’s clearly strong, at least the strongest person I have seen.

Of course, if you ignore the free girl who took that thing down within seconds.

Lately I feel that my definition of monster has been changing, that girl is certainly abnormal.

I mean, by the story the girl from Izlad Town told me, Vartre was strong to held the attack, but I feel that if she was there, there wouldn’t be any damage to the town.

Suddenly a hand chop assaults my head.

“Ouch! What are you doing?!”

“Are you going to stay spacing out here? I mean, the capt guys were already moving. I’ve come here just to warn you, but you can stay here if you want.”

Said Cecil with her trademark smug, clearly not any feeling guilty of hitting me.

“I’m thankful, but please don’t hit me, it hurts, seriously. My hand is still red from that pinch from earlier…”

“What pinch?”

When I blinked she already disappeared from my view, what a carefree person.

But seriously, how does she do that?

Our group was marching for a few hours, not surprisingly we barely encountered any monster, only some plants monsters here and there that didn’t have much mobility to begin with.

After reaching a river with a waterfall, Captain decided to let the man rest here and prepare for the battle over the night.

“It seems we won’t find the Moon Dryad today too.”

“Yeah, at least not in the day”

“What do you mean?”

“Look here” – Windser took out a map of the forest and pointed towards the middle of the forest – “We are here, right in the middle, as we can see by the river and the waterfall, considering the place where the fog was first found near Muno and the border we found entering from the opposite side” – He then pointed a space a few kilometers north of the waterfall.

“This is probably the middle of the mana fog area, therefore the place where the mana runs the strongest. Therefore, since it’s just a few kilometers away, we could easily reach it tomorrow. Do you guys really think the Moon Dryad would just sit quiet waiting while we raid her base at the point she’s the weakest? I know I wouldn’t.”

While the captain was briefing his man, I was watching from the sidelines and Cecil was painting her nails, as if that didn’t involve her.

“Are you okay not paying attention, Cecil?”

“What?” – As she heard my voice she saw Captain et al talking about the enemy – “Yeah, isn’t what he saying the obvious? I mean, she’s already quite smart, if she wants to fight, she has to get us tonight or even if I don’t move, capt can deal with her.

If I was her, I would run though♪”

How confident are you?!

Night felt and the same scene from last night repeated.

A horde of monster appeared, this time there where only plant monsters, they were bigger than the normal ones before by at least one size, also, looking closely, there was moon marks on each of them.

“Like I thought”

“What do you mean Cecil?” – Asked Windser, he was surprised seeing the unusual tone from Cecil.

“Did you remember the monstrous tall flytraps from yesterday? Those guys were just the beginning, look, each of those has mutated with the power of mana and the moon.”

“This time isn’t just a dryad, but a whole army of aberrations…” – Cecil stopped and pointed towards the top of the waterfall, there it was a pale woman with silver eyes, but she was dressed in green leaves and had vines wrapping her arms – “Not to mention her.”

When the captain looked towards the woman, she started clapping while having a smiling mien.

“That’s right human girl! You guys gave me trouble destroying a lot of my pawns, but getting your strong bodies to nurture more plants will be worth.”

Said laughing while she pointed towards a group of people appearing behind her, all of them wearing armor or robes, like the soldier from the corp themselves. The distinguishing features were that the heads had flowers blooming on the top and they showed blank eyes and had droll rolling from their mouths.

“Disgusting” – muttered Cecil, who was clearly irritated this time. She tapped Windser shoulder and gave him a serious stare – “Buy enough time for me.”

“فالكيري من لهيب، أقرضني قوتك ليضرب اعداءك [Blessing]

فالكيري الأرض، أقرضني قوتك لحماية المؤمنين [Protection]”

Without any words, Windser trusted her words and used his protections on Cecil, in the next instant she vanished.

“Men, enter formation, we will hold them here!”

Windser led his men and a wall was formed, he casted his blessings again on the soldiers and each one could see hundreds of aberration monsters coming at them.

That was the beginning of the night that changed Lucca’s life.