A loud, menacing shriek reverberated from the sky, coming from the inferno eagle as it charged up a fireball from its mouth. The inferno eagle and Black Drifter were locked in a really intense aerial battle not too far from the battlefield.
Two massive fireballs burst from the inferno eagle's mouth, charging toward Black Drifter.
Black Drifter activated one of its skills, granting it extraordinary aerial control. This boost in flight agility and precision enabled it to evade the two fireballs with ease.
The massive fireballs crashed into a random part of the forest and exploded.
After evading the fireballs, Black Drifter launched a full-on attack—this was the beginning of its assault, as it had been trying to drive the inferno eagle away from the battlefield since the fight began. Now that they were far from the soldiers, it could attack without fear of injuring Rowan and his people.
Black Drifter spread its wings and tilted its head. A sharp gust of wind swirled around its body. With a sudden move, it focused the wind into a thin, slicing edge that extended from its talons. The blade of wind shot forward like a razor, cutting through the air. The gust was so powerful that it split the sky with its force.
The slicing wind struck the inferno eagle, which was too focused on tearing down Black Drifter. The impact caused a major injury that affected its balance, sending it crashing down to the ground.
Black Drifter did not hold back.
It activated AERIAL DOMINANCE once again and darted toward the crashing inferno eagle before activating WIND STRIKE, a powerful wind magic attack.
The magic attack exploded upon the body of the inferno eagle, sending it crashing with a fatal force to the ground.
The force was overwhelming; the inferno eagle's body was fractured beyond repair, and it died immediately without even releasing a final cry.
Black Drifter observed the corpse of the inferno eagle for a few seconds to confirm its death before flying back toward the battlefield.
[ Your pet BLACK DRIFTER, slayed X1 INFERNO EAGLE ]
Rowan received this notification amidst numerous others.
"Good job, Black Drifter," Rowan complimented his new pet telepathically.
"Fly forward and see if there are any other flying monsters. Take care of them before they reach us," he then ordered.
Black Drifter responded telepathically and darted past the battlefield toward the direction from which the hordes were pouring out.
It quickly reported the number of bird-type monsters it could see flying toward the battlefield, as well as their race.
Rowan had already seen most of them when he flew on Black Drifter, but hearing the true number and the names of the other bird-type monsters he had missed made him rethink the whole situation.
"More than twenty powerful bird-type monsters from different dangerous races, including a dark Phoenix. What the hell have we done to Vishirk to deserve all this cruelty? What is his cause for doing all these?" Rowan muttered to himself while slashing at a group of red-eyed chimpanzees.
The chimpanzees were of usual height and size as natural ones, yet they possessed explosive strength and rock-hard defenses.
There were more than a hundred of them in the horde, all classified as E-rank monsters. They were currently the only E-rank monsters that had arrived; the others were still charging along with the rest of the hordes.
Rowan had to leave the F-rank tricky serpent monsters he was handling to face the red-eyed chimpanzees, as none of his soldiers—even in large groups—could hope to survive against any of them.
Two of the red-eyed chimpanzees in front of Rowan lifted their hands and smashed the ground near him while he took care of their colleagues.
Rowan felt the ground quake as though a powerful earthquake were taking place. Luckily, his balance had strengthened, and he was able to stand his ground without falling.
"Fucking monkey creatures!" Rowan cursed as he struck at the two red-eyed chimpanzees before they could use APE SMASH again.
Nevertheless, the others immediately attacked and used all sorts of attacks on him to aid their colleagues.
If Rowan were not as fast as he currently was, evading those attacks would have been impossible.
He opened his inventory speedily and summoned some throwable daggers when he was safely out of their attack range.
The red-eyed chimpanzees, vengeful and enraged, charged toward him.
"Die, you fucking monkeys!" Rowan cursed out loud once again.
He tossed the throwable daggers at them with incredible strength.
The daggers sliced through the air.
Three of the red-eyed chimpanzees died after receiving critical damage to vital areas, while the others sustained heavy wounds.
The wounds were sufficient to bring these chimpanzees to a critical state.
But strangely, they kept charging toward him.
"The force behind those daggers could have easily felled a normal E-rank monster, even if it hadn't hit a vital area. But these apes are just different!" Rowan thought.
Unfortunately, it wasn't a special skill powering their insane defense.
If it were, Rowan would have copied the skill for himself from the beginning.
The chimpanzees activated their various attacks on Rowan, but he easily evaded and slaughtered them with his sword.
It took Rowan a tiring and stressful hour to take down about forty of them.
Standing in the middle of numerous red-eyed chimpanzee corpses, Rowan heaved a loud sigh of exhaustion and relief.
"This is my first time going against such a large group of E-rank monsters at the same time. It is tiring, even though I have D-rank power."
Rowan observed his surroundings—the battlefield was still intense, with monsters pouring out continuously from the woods in large numbers, though they were only F and FF-rank monsters; there were no E-rank monsters in sight.
The soldiers still fought with all their might, even though exhaustion had made their attacks weaker and slower compared to the beginning.
More than two hours of nonstop combat had passed—it is the longest they have fought so far.
Unfortunately, they had only dealt with less than one-fifth of the total monster population.