The first time Hugo attempted to fabricate a crossbow, he hadn’t taken into account the insane material strength of mythril. He had made the whole thing way too thick, and the crossbow wouldn’t bend. If he made it thin enough to bend, he ran the risk of overstressing the material and having it snap on him.

The solution, he hoped, was to do both. He fabricated two thin crossbow arms, then two more, and two more. He layered each arm on top of another and attached it to his old stock. Then he strung his woven bowstring and drew it back. It worked. The sandwich of metal allowed it to bend, while still providing support so there wasn’t as much risk of a catastrophic failure. Hopefully.

Hugo walked out to the school’s archery range, and fitted a crossbow bolt into his newest creation. He also created a few layers of barrer shields between himself and the bow, in case he was wrong and it shattered.

The draw weight on the crossbow was heavier than he expected. It wasn’t difficult for him to use, but it was still unexpectedly strong. When he pulled the trigger, the bolt shot out of the crossbow with a whistling sound. He walked up to the archery target to inspect the damage. It was interesting. He was expecting the bolt to penetrate a few inches in. But it went in all the way to the fletchings. This crossbow was much stronger than planned.

Cautiously optimistic, Hugo test fired his crossbow for a few hours, checking to see if there were any stress fractures. There were none. The next test was to make an exploding arrow like he had done before. Not that he needed to with the penetrating power of the bolts now, but Hugo didn’t see any reason not to go all out.

Sadly, the exploding arrows didn’t work as well as he had hoped. The loose mithril in the arrowhead still exploded when a fire rune was activated. But the reaction was energetic and fast, not creating as much damage as his old aluminum bolts. Still, it was an explosion, and he was sure it would kill monsters.

After a few more days of testing, Hugo felt reasonably prepared for their first culling trip. He had leather armor with thin mithril inserts. He planned on telling everyone he had bought an aluminum crossbow. Only the formation students made their own weaponry, so no one would question him. He wouldn’t be able to create quarrels on the fly like he did last time, but he didn’t plan on shooting too much anyway. As a barrier student, they would probably be putting him up front with the defenders anyway.

Between testing his crossbow and assembling his armor, he spent some time practicing making a barrier sword. At this point he was entirely confident in his shields, but his swords could use work. It was the edges that kept tripping him up. Sometimes he could slice an apple in half, but then his concentration would slip and he would have applesauce. Still, he was looking forward to the trip.

The only fly in the ointment was the fact that Elise had been assigned to his culling team. She hadn’t been quite as annoying recently, but it was still frustrating to be on the same team as someone that hated him. If he was honest with himself, the real reason he hated being around her was that the tall blond was attractive. Conflicting emotions were annoying.

Another source of conflict was their culling chaperone. It was Rasmus Jr. The same guy that had convinced Hugo to pretend that Mihai hadn’t beaten him up. He hated Rasmus Jr, and wished that he could get a different chaperone. At the same time, Hugo knew from the azad tournament last year that Rasmus Jr. was competent and powerful. Hugo decided to let it slide. He didn’t have to be friends with the third year chaperone, he just had to accept his protection.

“Now, before we go out there, I want you to sort out squad positions. Decide amongst yourselves who should be up front, who is in the back, how you want to attack, all that,” the Rasmus Jr. said.

The ten of them just looked at each other and milled about. They talked to each other about their domains, but no one seemed to want to take the lead.

Hugo frowned, no one had made them do this the previous two times he had been culling. This was going to take them forever to make up their minds. He was regretting his decision to let Rasmus Jr chaperone already. As with many things these days, Hugo just didn’t have the patience to pretend to flounder about.

“Alright. Here is what we are going to do,” Hugo said, “The two barrier students and the two formation students will be up front. Our job will be defenders, using our shields to stop the charge of any monsters. Directly behind us will be the three people holding spears. You will strike in between the four of us. The two people with bows will be in the back. Our friendly life student will be in the middle.”

He motioned everyone to get into formation, which they all did. No one else wanted to be the leader, so they just followed his lead. Hugo almost hoped that someone would disagree with him, so he could put them in charge instead. No one did, so he was stuck being the leader for now.

“Well, alright. I guess at least one of you understands proper engagement protocols,” said Rasmus Jr. He waved them forward and they took off towards their assigned hunting grounds. Hugo guessed that their chaperone was trying to make Hugo look good. That just brought up bad memories from the fight with his alchemist friend. He shook his head, trying to focus on the now.

Hugo glanced back at the culling group with him. For the first time he noticed that the life student had put in the middle was holding a shortsword. She wasn’t going to kill anything with a shortsword from the middle of a formation.

He sighed and took his quiver off his hips and handed it over to the life student. He said, “Take my crossbow. Since you will be in the middle or the back, you won’t be able to use your sword. It isn’t too hard to use, just point and shoot. Just don’t ever point it near any people.”

Hugo was a little nervous about handing a crossbow over to someone untrained, but they were already out here to fight monsters. There was a base level of danger already inherent in culling. This wouldn’t increase their danger too much.

On second thought, he decided to give her a few more safety lectures. The rest of the group had to listen in as they walked, but he figured this was important enough. The culling group might be slightly irritated with him, but at least no one would get accidentally shot with an exploding crossbow bolt.

He glanced around the forest. It was so green. Muted greens, vibrant greens, mottled greens, it was everywhere. He was used to city life, and this was an adjustment. A light breeze went through the forest, making the leaves rattle. It was strangely peaceful.

The last time he was in this part of Puumets forest, it was a subjective year ago. Hugo didn’t remember what type of monsters were out here. He didn’t see any green fog, so he knew that they weren’t hunting ankheg. He wasn’t sure if he was happy about that or not. He hated the horrifying insect things, but at least he knew how to fight them.

When he found out what type of monster they had been assigned to hunt, he wished he could have the ankheg back. These monsters were going to be much harder to kill than the insects from the first time around.

A black monster swooped out of the sky, raking its claws at the party below. It was strix.

The monster looked like a large bat with extra claws and a long tail. The tail was as long as the wings were wide, and had a single claw on the end. The strix swooped down, raking the students with their wicked rear claws. If their feet missed though, they would curl their tail up at the last moment, giving it a second chance to inflict damage.

The monster was quick and light. It couldn’t inflict serious damage because of its light weight, but within moments most of the students were bleeding lightly. They tried to counter attack, but the strix were too quick on their attack runs.

The life mage touched a few of his squad mates, healing the worst injured. Hugo nodded to himself. The mage was rationing his mana and health carefully, keeping them in fighting shape but not wasting efforts on injuries that weren’t a hindrance.

After the strix made their third pass where the squad failed to hit even one of the swarming monsters, Hugo realized they needed to change strategy. He looked over to Rasmus Jr. for advice, but he was hiding behind a tree. No help there. He would have to figure this out on his own.

He yelled out, “Close ranks! Barriers, extend your shields!”

The squad huddled closer as Hugo and Elise remade their blue shields larger. The shields would be weaker since they were bigger, but the strix weren’t strong enough to break through the larger shields.

The swarm of strix swooped up and came at the squad in a tighter group this time. The closer monsters were more vulnerable to the thrusts of spears and two strix impaled themselves. The bowmen that had missed each previous shot still missed on this pass. But they hit the monsters behind them taking three more strix down.

That still left dozens in the sky though. Hugo settled in for a long slog of a fight.

During the next pass, the life student used Hugo’s crossbow for the first time. The specially made crossbow bolt shot up into the middle of the swarm, and detonated. The titanium-mithril charge created an explosion of fire and force that took out ten strix all at once. The rest of the swarm aborted their attack and scattered in terror.

Hugo looked back to see the life mage looking at his crossbow and laughing.

“That did it. One shot, ten kills,” he said as he kept laughing. He was showing the crossbow much more respect now though, pointing it into the sky as he handed it back to Hugo.

Hugo re-cocked the weapon and held it back behind himself. He kept his eyes on the sky, seeing that the strix were already reforming into a swarm again.

The life mage refused the crossbow though, saying, “I don’t need any more kills, I already have enough for rank eight. Thanks for letting me use it though. I owe you one.”

Hugo was pretty surprised. One shot had got the life mage all the points he needed for two rank ups, that was pretty impressive. These strix must be worth a lot. Maybe this wouldn’t take too long. This was particularly important for him as a barrier mage. He didn’t have a direct way to attack the strix with his shield, so he was glad he thought to bring the crossbow.

One more pass swept by, with a runist getting all of her points with a volley of ice crystals. On the next pass, Hugo was getting ready to take his own shot when he heard a small voice behind himself.

“Can I have a turn with that?” Elise said. Whatever her plan had been for attacking monsters must not have included flying monsters. She needed help to get the points they were all out here for.

He could see how this would go. She would use his crossbow, and then the next person and then the next. Pretty soon, everyone would feel entitled for a turn with the crossbow he had spent days making. He wanted to make them pay for the privilege of using his hard work.

Pushing down his first instinct, Hugo said, “You want to use my crossbow?” He glanced at the sky to keep an eye on the strix then continued, “I will let you use it, but you gotta be careful, alright?”

She nodded seriously, having already seen its power.

While keeping his shield up and an eye on the sky, he walked her through the process to shoot down some strix. Teaching someone to use such a dangerous weapon on the fly was a bit nerve wracking, but then again, he was already out here fighting monsters. It didn’t really add too much to the danger. It took her two shots, but soon Elise had her rank eight. As Hugo predicted, another person stepped up to ask for a turn.

With a wry smile, Hugo gave another student the run down and safety lecture. Most of his fellow students were effusive with their thanks, and promised Hugo they would make it up to him.

Hugo made a point of not asking for payment. He had learned his lesson from the last time around. Getting friends, for their connections or for actual friendship was worth way more than whatever he could have charged. Plus, money wasn't everything. He was coming around to the idea of doing something nice just for the sake of being nice.

He was less glad when he got the crossbow back and it was out of ammo. He had brought along twenty bolts, more than enough for everyone to rank up. Only six people had the chance before they were out. Several shots were missed by firing too soon or too late. A few trees were blasted too. That was a lot of fire runes wasted. Hugo had enough mana to make another exploding bolt, but he couldn’t let anyone know he had two domains.

So he borrowed a spear from the person that had wasted his last shot and tried to take down strix as they harried the group. It didn't work. He had no practice with the weapon and didn't have the timing or attack distance down. He kept trying until he was the last one without their eight rank.

Getting increasingly frustrated with the strix, Hugo decided to do something different. He dismissed his shield and recycled half of the mana. He was getting better at that. He pointed his hand in the sky and created three long thin barriers, arranged like claws and anchored onto his forearm. When the swarm attacked next, Hugo jumped and swung his arm. The three claw/barriers whistled through the air and struck down several strix all at once. Hugo still didn’t get the edges sharp, but the momentum of their flight combined with the swing of his arm was enough to destroy the strix. Several got bisected, and a few spiraled to the ground and crashed. The spray of blood quickly dissolved into puffs of raw mana, since the monsters were dead.

A quick check showed that that final swipe gained him enough points to rank up to eight. That was everyone’s goal for this culling trip and he was happy to stop. Their culling team started walking back to the meeting point.

Finally done, Hugo thought to himself. That had taken way too long. Next time he was using the crossbow first, then passing it off to others if they wanted it.

Their group of ten was one of the first teams to return. Sage Hanna and two of the other staff were lounging around the mana carts, making sure that they weren’t damaged by roving monsters. Hugo hopped up onto one of the carts to wait. He knew from experience that it would be a while for everyone to kill enough monsters to rank up to eight.

About an hour into their wait, Hugo saw something strange in the direction of Puumets forest. It was a thin shaft of light, flickering in a strange pattern. As he looked at it longer he realized it was actually a thick column of light, just rather far away.

“What’s that all about?” Hugo said, not having seen that kind of light show before.

Immediately after seeing the light, Sage Hanna took off running towards it. She was so fast that she left a small cloud of dust after herself and was over the rise in less that two seconds. The other two staff quickly followed her. One was a barrier mage that gave himself long legs of mana, and the other was a runic mage that literally flew towards the forest.