Chương 369: Shock and Awe

The next raid took another month to come. During that time, Anise and I continued to train, while Sallia and Felix prepared for their own debuts as heroes. Felix said that he was working on a 'special surprise,' and refused to elaborate on it. Sallia, meanwhile, continued polishing he weapon skills and her midair maneuverability. She had already trained swordsmanship and archery up to advanced grade, so I felt that she was ready for her first fight in this world.

I was a bit more worried about Felix, but, if he was planning to make an appearance, he was probably prepared. Still, my worry spiked when I heard the next bell signalling a raid. This time it was a four bell raid - right at the edge of being a serious threat. In some ways, a four bell raid was one of the worst types of raid.

The city pulled out is more essence-heavy weaponry at five bell raids and above, meaning that civilian casualties were typically on the lower side because the city was pulling out all the stops to kill the enemy. Four bell raids were just weak enough that the city would let the civilians handle a lot of the fight, while prioritizing economical spells and weapon usage.

"Do you think Felix will be all right?" I whispered to Anise, as the sound of the bell echoed through our room.

"He should be fine." Anise paused.

"But let's move a bit closer to where he is. Just in case." I nodded. I finished getting my bow and sword adjusted - not that I ever used either - and then stepped into the hall, where I saw my parents holding their own weapons. My father grimaced when he saw me.

"Let's go. We aren't going into the streets this time - too dangerous. Old Lady Ollynde has a well-reinforced house, so we're going to meet up with her. Most other people on the street should already be making their way over," He said. I hesitated. I had wanted to move closer to Felix, so that I could run to my friend's aid if necessary. However, I didn't want my parents at risk either. In addition, I wasn't actually sure if being near Felix would help much.

Realistically, on a battlefield, it would only take a few seconds for Felix to die if he really messed up - and Anise and I would probably need several minutes to rush over to him even if we moved closer. That was the problem with trying to help someone who lived on the upper branches of the tree - the vertical distance between us posed a huge challenge.

<We could at least have Felix and Sallia open a line of communication with us, > said Anise, and our parents grabbed us and started heading towards Ollynde's house. <That way we will know if something happens to him. It's not really that much effort to keep communication open. > <Good idea, > I said, before I used the communication bracelet to mentally shout a message at Felix and Sallia. <Can you two make sure to show us what you're doing in real time?

That way we know what's happening around the city, and so that we know if something happens to you, > I said. I felt a trace of amusement from Felix's mental voice. <All right, I can do that. Are you that worried about me? > <I am, > I said. <Well, I promise I'll be fine. Let me show you my secret project, and maybe after you see it you'll see why I'm so confident this time, > said Felix. His mental voice sounded a bit exhausted, but I could also detect a trace of excitement in his tone. I smiled.

Whatever he had been working on, I hoped it worked out for him. <I can send a copy of my vision through the bracelet as well. I intend to mostly take potshots at the enemy though, > said Sallia. <I'm not going to do anything too crazy unless an emergency happens. I just want to prove that I'm a hero and have a good way to link up with you officially, and keep my family safe. > <All right, keep me updated, > I said. A few moments later, two new fields of view popped into my head. One of them was sent by Sallia.

She was holding onto a bow, which took me by surprise. Even though I knew she had been training with it, I was still unused to Sallia using ranged weapons. She had always been much better with melee weapons, and so part of me had just assumed that she would find a way to stab the invaders, regardless of what they were or how much it made sense. Felix's view, on the other hand, was quite a bit more interesting.

He was now wearing a full-on suit of metal armor, and I could feel the faint crackle of binding essence emitting from the shiny steel. <Metal armor? > said Sallia. <Ah, is that what you used all of the metal you've been collecting for? > <It's exactly what I've been using my metal for! > said Felix.

<Since the {Dimensional Factory} lets me work metal in ways the natives here can't, I have a huge advantage when it comes to extracting and manipulating metals, since the natives here are mostly reliant on weird rocks instead of metal. The weird rocks are good and all… but they're inferior to better metals, such as iron or steel. If I had to guess, the better rocks here are more equal to bronze, although their properties are sometimes a bit different.

Anyway, it would be a shame to let my ability to manipulate metal go to waste. > I felt a glimmer of happiness in his mental voice. <Honestly, {Dimensional Factory} is about ten times better than I thought it would be. It's amazing. > The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. <What does it do? > Sallia asked, as her mental voice perked up. <If it's amazing, can you make me one? > <I'll show you in a second. Does anyone know what's attacking the city yet, though?

> <No visuals yet, > I said. Our parents had gotten us moving pretty fast, but even though we were on the street right now, I couldn't see the enemy yet. Sallia started shifting around, and a moment later, she snuck out the back window in her room, right as her family started calling for her. <I see them! > She said. A moment later, a few monsters drifted into Sallia's field of view. This time, it looked almost like giant banks of fleshy fog were heading towards the city.

Their flesh looked very solid, but they didn't move very quickly at all - they were basically drifting along. No wonder Anise and I hadn't seen them yet - they were very slow. However, while the cloud-shaped balls of flesh might have been slow, they were dangerous. As they moved forward, I could see little ink-colored shapes constantly dropping out of them. My stomach churned as Sallia turned her gaze towards some of the ink-colored shapes, and I realized that they were moving.

The fleshy clouds were literally airdropping insect-sized swarms of enemies on the farms outside of the city. Worse, the number of fleshy clouds was far higher than most raids. That was probably why it was classified as a four-bell raid, despite the slow movement of the fleshy clouds.

The only upside was that the clouds weren't constantly dumping swarms of insects into the dirt - it looked like each one cost essence to create, since I could feel their essence pools constantly dropping and then growing whenever the clouds stopped to rest. A moment later, Anise and I entered the house our parents had been moving us towards. I glanced at the old lady who was sitting near the entrance. She gave us both warm smiles.

"Heroes," she said. I nodded at her.

"I managed to get a rough glimpse of the enemy," I said, before I described what I had seen. It would seem a little bit of a stretch for my explanation to make sense, but saving lives came first. The old lady nodded the moment I finished speaking, and immediately started ushering people upstairs. At the same time, she started rummaging through a closet, before she pulled out several jars of… acid?

If this were in any other world, I would have questioned why a sweet-looking old lady had jars of acid laying around in her house. In this world, it made a bit more sense… but only a bit. <An old lady over here pulled out a few jars of acid, > I said. <Makes sense. I'll try shooting one of the clouds, > said Sallia, before she pulled up her bow and fired an arrow. The arrow struck the fleshy cloud, and then… nothing happened. <Damn it! I think I hurt it a bit, but barely.

Acid really would fare better against these things. > Sallia cursed, before she started to back up. The cloud she had shot started drifting towards her, while Sallia backed away from her family's house and kept shooting the flesh cloud. The tide of dark creepy-crawlies on the ground started advancing towards Sallia, resembling a giant patch of sentient tar, but their movement speed was also on the slower side. A few moments later, I relaxed.

Sallia should have no problem outpacing these things, even if she wasn't doing much damage. I shifted my attention to Felix, To my surprise, through Felix's viewpoint, things were different. Felix stepped out of his house, completely ignoring the surprised expressions of the servants and family members, before he stepped into the air. My heart leapt into my throat, as I wondered if Felix had somehow been influenced by a mental attack that I hadn't noticed. Had he been influenced to leap to his death?

A moment later, I relaxed. When Felix stepped into the air, he didn't plummet to his death. Instead, his feet found solid purchase, as if he were walking on regular land. <What do you think? The boots were the hardest to get right, > he said, excitement buzzing through the communication bracelet. <I call them the sky-treaders. Anyone who is wearing them can take a stroll through the air. > <Well done! > I said, resisting the urge to clap. <Do they take essence to keep going? > <The regular walking ability is free.

I can spend essence to amp up the enchantment and speed up my movement, though, > said Felix. <At that point, instead of walking in midair, I'm basically flying. The ability is very expensive though, so I don't see a reason to use it outside of emergencies. > <That's a pretty neat ability, > said Sallia. <Really helps with your mobility. Combined with your teleportation, catching you on a battlefield will be a pain.

> I noticed that Sallia's mental voice had already started to lose its irritation, as she kept raining arrows down on the fleshy cloud. The cloud itself was starting to slow down - clearly, Sallia's arrows were doing work, just at a glacial pace. <I'm thinking that in the future, I could try supplying these boots to the city. I can only make them using the alchemy magic system, so I can't mass produce them. Still, the city seems to have a critical shortage of flying defenders.

This could help alleviate that, > said Felix. <Sallia, hang on. I'll start heading towards you, although it should take me a few minutes to arrive. I think the weapon I made for myself will work pretty well against these things. > I felt relieved. While Sallia might not be doing well against this particular enemy, she was at least holding her own as she dragged out enemies and whittled them down. She couldn't hurt them very much, but they couldn't catch up to her either.

Felix looked like he was in full equipment-testing mode, which wasn't a bad state to be in. Neither of my friends was in danger. Meanwhile, the city wasn't sitting idle, either. I could see a few distant fireballs blasting down some of the little black dots in the distance. Even though I could barely see it, the city was joining the fight. Fireballs were rather lackluster in overall power, but under the Hylian system, fireballs were very cheap, making them a great way to deal with low-level but numerous threats.

With Felix also making his way towards the battlefield, and the enemy gradually drifting towards us, I suppressed a shiver of anxiety and nervousness. Felix was ostentatiously flying directly towards the flight, and while Sallia currently wasn't using anything but her physical boosts and raw physical talent, I didn't doubt that she would start using her real abilities the moment an emergency happened. Before the fight was over, the other defenders would definitely be aware of the other two heroes in the city.