Aites realized something was off, remembering that the mountain path was filled with numerous pitfalls, explosive traps, and tripwires.
During downtime, these would certainly be active, so why hadn't any of the traps been triggered by this large group of beasts running through?
Could it be that the weight wasn't enough to trigger the traps? Impossible, those two giant crabs alone should be sufficient; they couldn't possibly be inflatable?
Or could it be Illusion Magic?
In the dust clouds obscuring his vision, the beasts obediently formed two columns as they ascended the mountain, following behind the River Crabs.
A faint mist spread from the River Crab's antennae, putting all the traps within its sight.
As they detoured, the beasts behind them followed suit, and the entire troop reached the mid-mountain without stepping on a single trap.
Of course, there were those determined to step on traps—the Void Engraved Golems trailing the main force from a considerable distance.
The two behemoths, with their thick skins, ignored any notion of taking a detour, leaving loud footprints as they advanced.
The tripwires were simply kicked apart by them without even a wobble in their bodies.
The pitfalls made them sway slightly but were trampled down, breaking even the bamboo spikes standing at the bottom.
The explosive traps were similarly trodden upon, leaving them unscathed through the flames and smoke.
The two Magic Swamp Frogs and the two Void Marked Tree Monsters distanced themselves reluctantly from the Void Engraved Golems, waiting for the smoke to clear a bit before proceeding.
Rhode observed the scene on the mountain from afar: "Seems like they're not ordinary bandits."
"With this kind of power, wouldn't a regular person stepping on it be in mortal danger?" Mira estimated intuitively, "Even fully armed soldiers might lose their combat capability."
Rhode replied, "Not necessarily, maybe the current military has stronger defensive equipment."
"Will Xiaolan be alright?"
"Absolutely okay, they are sturdier now than before. Even if you were to go over, without being serious, you might not be able to shatter their bodies."
"…" Mira felt the urge to train seriously after hearing that.
She glanced at Rhode and chuckled; now it was Rhode's turn to be her sparring partner.
Rhode felt the lineup might be too strong and quietly retreated a red and a blue piece.
...
On the slope, Aites finally heard the explosion he had been waiting for and saw the flames, but things were not as he expected.
He noticed that not only was the main force ahead unaffected, but there seemed to be formidable creatures following them.
"This won't do!" Aites hurriedly ran into the stronghold.
Inside, four people were gambling around a table, and the atmosphere was quite tense.
Selude excitedly announced, "A pair of Aces!"
Frus complained, "Damn it, Selude, are you cheating?"
"Hahaha, I'm just lucky! I'm going to win back everything I lost!"
Aites shouted loudly, "Stop playing, we're under attack!"
As the big brother, Foster calmly tossed his cards into the deck and asked steadily, "Don't panic, what happened?"
Sekend nonchalantly slipped his cards into the deck too: "Come to think of it, I think I heard explosions just now, how many enemies are there?"
The fourth, Frus, paused for a moment; after noticing the actions of the first and second, he realized there was another way! The first and second weren't really good people.
With a sense of reproach, he mixed his cards in and ran straight to the door.
Selude was dumbfounded: "Hey, you guys, I've already lost three games in a row, and I'm just about to win!"
Sekend glanced at him sideways and said confidently, "Who says you were going to win? I've got even better cards, just you wait until we deal with the enemy, and I'll show you."
Selude: "..."
No need to show, the cards are all mixed up!
He slapped his cards on the table and stood up angrily: "Aites! Who's the jerk who's being so inconsiderate, picking a fight right when I'm about to win!"
"..." Aites, having just put on his Combat Boots, hesitated, "It's a group of Magical Beasts, they seem to be rampaging and charging straight at us."
"Magical Beasts?" Selude said dismissively, "What's there to be so alarmed about with Magical Beasts?"
"Don't underestimate them," Aites continued to strap on his breastplate, finding it a bit cumbersome, and urged, "Come and help me, there's a lot of them, and they look pretty strong, the traps are useless against them."
"I told you to learn Requip Magic a long time ago, Selude, go help him, Sekend, gather the others!"
As Foster's body began to manifest breastplates, shoulder guards, arm armor, combat boots, helmets, and all sorts of parts, a Round Shield appeared in his left hand and a single-handed sword in his right.
The entire Requip ensemble took about ten seconds to complete.
This speed could result in getting killed during combat, but it was much faster than manually donning armor before a fight.
Besides Aites, all of them were adept at Requip Magic, and their speeds were on par with each other.
Foster, having given instructions, stepped out the door himself.
Frus, who had already run outside, saw the enemy clearly and witnessed a few explosions: "Boss, there are quite a lot of Magical Beasts, has something happened at the foot of the mountain?"
Foster frowned: "Even the explosions didn't scare them off; they might be controlled by someone."
Frus expressed disbelief: "Even though there are rumors of tools that control Magical Beasts, how could someone possibly control so many at once?"
Foster speculated: "Maybe there's more than one enemy. This quantity…could it be the Kingdom's special forces?"
At this speculation, Frus became excited: "Is our reputation already big enough to warrant the Kingdom's special forces to eradicate us?"
Foster remained noncommittal: "They're already coming, Requip quickly!"
Rhode, from the opposite mountain, saw a muscular man enter and a regular sturdy man come out, followed by someone fully clad in black armor and wielding a black sword and shield, matching the description of the Black Knight given by the town mayor.
Soon, that robust fellow sluggishly started the Requip process—Rhode's first sighting of someone who could use Requip Magic slower than he could.
"The intel referred to them as new-type Mages, yet they still know some Magic…maybe Requip Magic is the Magic that suits them best?"
Thinking along these lines, Rhode realized he could have been considered a new-type Mage six years ago.
Though back then he could only carry a few Magic Books and Bursting Magic Crystals, it was essentially the same thing.
Distracted, Rhode noticed a sword rapidly magnifying in view…it was in the River Crab's perspective.
The purple pincer clamped onto the black Longsword, but the black Round Shield struck the River Crab on the head.
The River Crab released the pincer, and Foster stepped back two strides, remarking to his companion, "It's indeed no ordinary Magical Beast."
Rhode was quite relieved; the River Crab was finally no longer a minion to be killed in a single blow.