Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 289: Leading

Chapter 289: Leading

"Fire Finger."

Crawling through the mini-sized door was plain uncomfortable. What Kazi was entering was the temporary dwelling of the foreigners, a gift from the Yumboes. To create an impression, to truly make this his own, Kazi had to make some adjustments. He had to make this their own.

The newfound door was created. Everyone stared after him. A fire lay in the middle with the players in their designated spots. He approached, casting a shadow. Pauline stood beside him like a loyal assistant. Kibiwott was cleaning his sword. Jackson was outside the camp fire and sat against the wall to the side. Akihiko and Kenzo were scrolling through their inventory. Sarah and Emma were cracking jokes; all until Kazi’s entrance.

"What is this all about?" Kibiwott asked while focusing on wiping his blade. The Fire Finger and new door almost launched him to battle.

"Bring Sylvia," Kazi ordered, pointing at the woman with the black wizard robes, Emma.

"She’s drunk off her ass," Emma stated while chewing gum.

"She’ll listen to you."

"You think so?"

"I know so."

Emma shrugged and got up. "Alright."

After her exit, Kibiwott stopped cleaning the metal. He looked up, eyes narrowed. "Second time asking: what is all this about?"

"A battle strategy. A real battle strategy so that no one can complain."

"What is the strategy?"

"Pauline mentioned it before. It’s an obvious one; we set-up traps."

"Traps? How? Does anyone here know how to?"

"I do." Jackson lifted a cool hand. "Nothin’ crazy but I’ve done my sharing of hunting."

"Hunting deers and birds is not the same as this," Kibiwott retorted. "These are monsters that will rip stone and wood to shreds like paper."

"Correct," Kazi said. "But you’re thinking too deeply. You think the trap has to have back-up after back-up. You think a trap should mean automatic defeat. But sometimes, the simplest solution is often the best."

"What are you trying to say?"

"I’m saying the basic principles are what matter. We’ve been fighting these creatures for a couple nights. We have a sufficient grasp on their behaviours. Even if we are surprised by the arrival of a new monster, we can still ensure safety."

"How?"

"We ambush them."

The large door brought in the highly anticipated arrival. Emma who was hoisting Sylvia up by the arm and dragging her inside. The drunk was red in the face and swinging her left arm willy-nilly.

"Come on, Sylvia." Emma chewed her gum faster, irritated.

Sylvia mumbled something unintelligible, her bleary eyes struggling to focus as she stumbled forward. Jackson watched from his spot by the fire, shaking his head at Sylvia’s state.

"Want some gum?" Emma asked.

"H-hell to the no," Syliva replied, words slurred together.

At this point, Emma’a green eyes became eerily sharp as if summoning her last resort. "Sarah?"

Like an all-star teammate, Sarah took out a bottle of water from her inventory, popped it open, and splashed the water on Sylvia.

The drunk woman sputtered and coughed, jolting back to semi-consciousness with a start. Her bleary eyes widened and she blinked rapidly, trying to clear the haze of alcohol-induced fog from her mind.

"Hey, what the fuck—" Sylvia began, her words slurred and disjointed as Sarah splashed her again, suppressing her laughter. Eyes slowly closing, she wiped the water from her face with the back of her hand. "Again—what the fuck!?"

"Sorry, I always wanted to do that," said Sarah before splashing her with the last remains of the water.

That certainly woke and angered Sylvia to the max.

"I swear to god, you...!"

But before she could finish her sentence, Sylvia’s eyes met Kazi’s stern gaze and was told politely, "Sit down." Whatever insults she wanted to hurl at Sarah died in her throat. The intensity of his stare bore into her. Sylvia swallowed her rage and fell silent, sitting with discreet glares at Sarah.

With a single clap, all attention returned to Kazi. "We’re all here now. I’m going to explain our plan. It’s simple, really, we’ll be ambushing the monsters."

"It’s pointless," Kibiwott argued.

"That’s why we’ll be prepping this in advance and while the light is out," Kazi replied. "The monsters are attracted to our magic. It’s why even when we moved from the cardinal directions to the edges, their approach did not change. It means they possess a type of Mana Sensitivity based on their animalistic instincts. We have two courses of action; either have all of us together in one spot; or two, have everyone set-up their own ambushes."

"Being together might be our best option," Remmy said. "I’ve seen Kazi in action and I’ve seen the monsters too. They definitely pursue higher levels of magical energy over anything else. We got them all together, we can kill them in one fell swoop."

"But what about the village?" Emma asked while casually chewing gum. "We can’t be too far away or else we’d risk one or two monsters getting through."

"Agreed," said Akihiko. "It’s best that we pair up like we did before. Mistakes might happen but it’s better than keeping everyone in one place where we could be wiped while also failing the objective."

"Akihiko is correct," Kazi said. "Our highest priority is the village. We can’t be too far away in case of an emergency. That leaves with only one option: one player out of the duo sets up a crushing ambush that whittles down their numbers."

"The stone shells of the partridges are numerous in number and the speed of the Booas poses an issue. Tell me, how will be deal with that?"

"You have good eyes, Kibiwott," Kazi praised. "That’s exactly why you should be the one to pick them off. The partridges and their stone skin are harder for spells to break through. Metal, however, is naturally super effective regardless of quality as are attacks to their beaks. Regarding the Booas, their trouble comes from them coming in range. So here’s what we will do..."