The Villainess Will Not Bring Dishonor To Her Family

100 - Into The Skies - Part 3

In an instant shelters of stone rise from underneath the snow, and all of the knights gather in well ordered units in safety as the icicles rain down from above. The only one that sticks out is Peony, that appears to be attempting to use the smaller... flying... fin whale fish-like reptile creatures to climb up towards the big one.

I have two major concerns regarding this... first of all... it's size. It's massive. Landing hits on this thing will likely have... little effect...

Secondly, it's children... or rather, their numbers.

"Peony! Get back here!"

Vitis is screaming at Peony, but Peony has found another way out of the icy hell. It's radius. It is quite obvious how far the radius of the icicles are, for the whale calfs don't get into the area at all.

"Leave him!" I yell back at Vitis to keep him from doing something reckless.

These things were lured by the scent of blood. I can't think of anything else that could have cause the odd tension in the air the instant the feline died. I managed to somewhat rushedly wash my wounds, and Asher is struggling to find bandages... but it won't be long until I need to use healing... and not for my sake... for the sake of these guys.

Should we retreat?

It doesn't appear to be cursed, and nor is it our enemy... but it came for the scent of blood and went all out on us without warning. It doesn't seem like it'll let us pull back.

I glance back to the feline corpse as the icicle rain slows down, and note the fang filled jaws of these flying beasts, as some of the whale calves fly down and start ripping the corpse apart...

I remember vaguely how Lumere told me it got power from the decomposing corpses of magical beasts. The feline wasn't magical though... so they didn't seem to go for that energy... but there couldn't be enough beasts up here to feed this massive a whale cluster with just meat... perhaps omnivores of a sort? Either way, it was clear we were next on their list of things to eat... but even if we deal with the big one, we will still be in quite a lot of trouble with the horde of smaller ones.

I need to work fast.

"Can some of you create stone spears long enough to spear right over the big one?! I'll cast rain so you have two minutes to get your armor on, now!" I don't waste time and cast the spell while keeping an eye on the big whale. It appears to be looking over the area, and the tension in the air is already building again. I start strapping the armor on, and thank my dedication to training for knowing how to get this on quickly.

"A few of us can do it, but we won't be able to cast magic after!" I hear reported back from the knights.

Good, now for dealing with the small ones... I glance back to the knights. Then to Spence who looks cautiously up at the monster.

"Can you redirect the ice shards?"

Spence stares as me as if I said something unreal.

"Ice is a rare mixture of wind and water magic," he responds as another wave of ice shards begins to rain down on the earth walls over us.

...

"Haaaah?! You guys are so bad at dealing with elements! Water is ice affected by fire if anything!" I end up growingly as I strap on the chest plate for my armor.

I shake my head and focus back on the small ones while strapping on my sabatons properly.

"We can freeze the watery snow to make a surface!" One of the knights yell at me from another 'bunker'.