Amber Sword

The knights were all stirred up, unable to hold back their resounding agreement. They each drew their longsword, quickly gathering together.

Now, everyone was exposed to the harpies’ view, their caws echoed above, but Brand’s Wind Bullet was powerful enough that these cautious creatures dared not attempt again for a moment.

Only then did Brand reach out to support the Princess. He remembered this strong-willed Princess would usually get up herself. But this time, Princess Griffine handed her hand to him, smiling politely as she used his strength to stand next to him.

"Thank you, Mr. Brand," she said softly.

Brand heard nothing but genuine trust in that statement.

The harpies launched their second round of attacks, descending like raindrops. Brand quickly led the knights to retreat, behind them lay a dense forest, the Black Pine Forest’s canopy naturally blocking the harpies’ assault.

But they would eventually cut through layer upon layer of branches to attack. Brand knew he had to figure out a way to get down the mountain and back to their horses. The harpies excelled in aerial combat, though agile, their speed and endurance weren’t extraordinary, he needed a way to shake them off.

At this time, several harpies had already descended from the treetops, Brand looked up, seeing the creatures’ claws sharp and deadly, they gripped tree trunks tightly, hopping forward, astonishingly as swift as flying, soon they were overhead.

This scene was reminiscent of his first encounter with these feathered beasts in the wetland forest near Gray Wind Harbor. Instinctively, he shouted: "Shoot them down, aim for their backs!"

The knights immediately grabbed their short bows or four-armed crossbows, aiming at the monsters. The harpies moved terrifyingly agile, swirling left and right between trunks, making the crossbow arrows almost futile.

But the knights quickly discovered the trick; they noticed the harpies liked to pull back a distance when dodging. With Brand’s prompt, the second round of shots saw knights calculating a lead behind them, this time more than half of the harpies were struck.

The knights instantly grew excited: "Lord, how did you know?"

"Knowledge is strength, the answers to life lie within the pages," Brand casually fibbed.

The remark seemingly came from a profound wizard, and the knights showed awe. But it equally reminded the Princess of wisdom Liwu had taught her, ’wisdom sharper than swords is hidden within books.’ It was an ancient Cruz proverb, supposedly championed by Mages.

Her hand was held tightly by Brand, running forward relentlessly, but her heart felt calm, thinking Sir Knight truly deserved to be Danier, esteeming the Highland Wizard’s knowledge so highly.

Brand at this moment noticed the experince points earned from knights killing harpies were counted under him, each worth 60 points. This evidently factored in group penalty and level penalty, although those he killed individually also earned merely 90 points or so.

These experience points to him were but a drizzle at present, but crucially more evidence of his previous guess regarding teaming. It appeared as long as they were allied, they formed a team, though the distance limit was unknown.

By now, the group had passed through half the forest, more harpies descended from trunks all around. They dared not pause for a moment, slowing even a bit would land them surrounded, previously two knights were taken out due to outer negligence, one could imagine their fate.

As the forest edge approached, out there lay an open space, over a hundred meters wide, crossing there the harpies evidently would launch their fiercest assault, indeed some harpies already circled in the sky waiting.

"Brand, what do we do next?" Clearly Earl Otin also noted the impending predicament. But Brand looked around, momentarily clueless. His cards almost weren’t applicable, even if they were, he’d lack elements; the Black Wolf had been summoned once already, he merely had King of Giants, Buni’s cloaked robes for escape.