Frostfire Legacy

On their second night, luckily, no "accidents" happened. Aster could rest the entire night peacefully, without being bothered by any of the girls—especially Tina.

After having their meal and morning preparation, everyone quickly began discussing their to-be formation while traveling through the 51st floor.

"We will, without a doubt, get attacked by those birdbrains later," Kali exclaimed with a frown. "But among us, only Leader has a proper long-range attack skill available."

She pulled out her revolver right after speaking, emphasizing that she wasn't completely unreliable for the occasion. "Though we still have some methods of launching attacks, this is far from enough."

"Should we change drivers?" Liz asked, pondering seriously. "I have some experience driving manual vehicles, some antiques from my father's collection... but he never let me touch them again after I totaled the first ten."

Hearing her suggestion, everyone felt a shiver run up their spines. If they let Liz drive, they couldn't imagine anything but her letting the van shoot straight toward the ground, perfectly destroying it!

"No, it's fine. I'll drive," Aster quickly commented, allowing everyone to heave a sigh of relief. "For defenses, let's first let Argus handle it and see. If he couldn't cover the van completely, then we'll land and think of other measures."

*Arf~!*

Fortunately, the little husky didn't object to the idea.

With Argus assigned to security details, and the girls set as markers to warn Argus where the enemies would come from, their formation was set up. Of course, Cassy, who's blind and whose ears couldn't hear anything but the sound of wind through the airtight body of the van, couldn't do anything but cheer everyone on.

After all of them were strapped in, Aster began their ascent. They moved in a large circle, slowly rising up into the air until they reached their optimal altitude—roughly a hundred meters up in the sky.

"...!"

But without even moving too far from their camp, they were already under attack. The Daft Eagles were quick to move after noticing a foreign entity invading their territory—the entire sky of the 51st floor.

"They're coming from our 8 and 4 o'clock positions!" Kali, sitting at the rear of the van, notified them verbally. "They're coming in fast!"

Aster frowned lightly before roaring his order. "Argus! Shoot them down!"

*ARF!*

Without a moment's delay, Argus shot out powerful lightning, covering a wide area and ensuring that the targets couldn't dodge. However, the Daft Eagles were as smart as they were advertised. Seeing the falling lightning, they quickly moved to use their allies as lightning rods, limiting the damage to about 10% of their numbers!

"Keep firing!"

But of course, the attack wasn't limited to once. What if they could limit the damage? The chain of attacks wasn't over yet!n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

More and more lightning fell, slowly thinning their numbers until they all dropped like dried leaves falling from the tree.

Liz smiled, seeing that the group of enemies targeted were cleared out. "Nice! Now, on the 4 o'clock—! Oh no!" But quickly frowned.

The remaining Daft Eagles, seeing that their sacrificial lightning rod plan didn't work, quickly devised another plan. They stopped grouping up and spread out, wide enough that if Argus tried to attack with the same method, only one of them would get caught at a time!

Aster gritted his teeth upon hearing this "countermeasure" that the monster eagles devised. If Argus continued attacking, he would most likely get sapped after clearing half of the enemies!

"But if they want to attack us, they would eventually clump up. Keep an eye for that and attack!" he added.

The Daft Eagles were smart, but they were too territorial to stomach some intruder in their airspace. As such, as Aster predicted, they moved in batches and approached the flying van, planning to peck holes through the exterior and bring it down.

"Now!"

But then, Argus' attack came. Since they were a lot closer now compared to before, he could also use a different attack than earlier. A powerful pillar of lightning—ignoring whether they have some "lightning rods" or not—fell on top of them, roasting all the Daft Eagles within the AOE in one shot.

Furthermore, the girls' bodies glowed, signifying that they leveled up after Argus killed that batch! They barely hunted 100 eagles, and they already leveled up once!

"Damn! Those birds got some juicy EXP!" Aster exclaimed, surprised.

However, thinking normally, it wasn't that weird. Daft Eagles were territorial, but that's only for within their airspace. Adventurers traveling on the ground would only encounter them if they were targeted as prey by the eagles. As such, most of the Daft Eagles lived a lot longer compared to other monsters, allowing them to gain more experience through a series of successful hunts.

This not only increased their strength, further enhancing their survivability, but it also padded the EXP they gave when they got hunted down!

"Change of plans! We can't miss harvesting these leeks!"

Aster licked his lips and smiled. Without delay, he moved his hands and legs fast, maneuvering the van to spin 180° mid-air while moving in reverse! After a brief slow-down, they charged forward, planning to meet the other group of eagles instead of running away.

To the eagles, they saw this as the lightning-shooting intruder changing from running away to chasing them down. Their territorial instincts kicked in, causing them to all raise a loud screech, meeting the van without fear.

*SCREEECH!*

*SPLAT!*

But of course, even though the eagles had about a three-meter-wide wingspan, with their body being roughly a meter long, they still weren't a match for the van's large body. Those foolish enough to meet the van head-on turned into red blots on the windshield, which didn't even crack after getting hit directly with its sharp beak.

"Sturdy as advertised."

Aster grinned as he activated the wipers, along with a short spray of water, clearing the blood and grime off the windshield.

After that, the roles of "hunter" and "hunted" changed.