“Sometimes, it takes specialized knowledge and skills to deal with a pest.” - Bahran Death-Giver, Death mage and pest exterminator specialist from the Elmaiya Empire.

Aideen, Celia, and the young dwarven mage looked at the ongoing battle for a brief moment to assess the situation. Behind and to their sides, the group of riders that brought them there fought off any of the Lesser Cragmites that tried to assault the three. Ahead of them was an inhuman clash between the greater Cragmite and the guard leader’s Deathbird mount.

Both monsters moved faster than a person could – barring some blood mages, perhaps – and their clash involved force that would have pulverized a person’s entire body with ease. The guard leader’s Deathbird was taller, but it was also less than half of its opponent’s mass, so it had to tread with care. It didn’t help that the greater Cragmite was adept at blocking its death-mist using shields conjured out of the rocky terrain either.

The terrain as a whole favored the Cragmite, which had a lot of earth and stones to wield with its magic. As such, the three of them waited for a chance to intervene. The guard leader saw their arrival and immediately changed his tactics. He kept his mount attacking the Cragmite from the side, which in turn gave a clear field of fire for the dwarven mage.

From the close distance, Aideen could feel the mana concentrating within the dwarven mage. The young mage was clearly a skilled one, and what she did was to attempt hiding her mana buildup so as not to alert the Cragmite before it was too late. For the most part, her attempt worked, as the Cragmite was kept occupied by the guard leader and hadn’t noticed – or cared – about their presence.

That changed when the dwarven mage focused their mana and conjured a lance of flame.

Almost as if warned about it, the greater Cragmite turned to look at them and immediately erected a stone shield against which the flame lance exploded. At the same time, Aideen crudely tackled the dwarven mage to get her out of the way of a stone spike that went through the spot she occupied just a mere moment ago.

The guard leader naturally took the chance to strike at the brief opening, and his Deathbird’s talons scored some wounds on the side of the greater Cragmite. The injury was clearly nowhere near enough to take the monster out of the fight, however, and they had to withdraw when a pair of vicious mandibles snapped at the bird’s legs.

“Well, shit. That didn’t work,” grumbled the dwarven mage. “The bloody thing reacted too fast, and I can’t shoot while someone was distracting it either. They’d get caught in the blast as well.”

“How many more blasts could you manage?” Aideen asked. The beast’s rapid reaction and counterattack was within her expectations. At the moment, only the four of them could take on the greater Cragmite. The other guards couldn’t even approach it as their mounts refused to get closer, and their mounts were the majority of their combat power.

“I’ve recuperated a little bit in the time we had, but I can’t do more than another three like that. I was hoping to keep it stunned for a moment with the blast so I could go all-in on a larger one to really hurt it, but that wasn’t meant to be,” replied the dwarven mage with a frown that was visible even through her well-groomed, braided beard. “You got any ideas?”

“We’ll be the bait and keep it occupied. You and the guard leader hit it while it’s busy with us,” replied Aideen firmly. By then she had stood up and brought her staff out, her thumb flicking the hidden switch that caused the blades on one end of the staff to set themselves in place. Celia saw Aideen’s action and similarly brought her weapon out of storage.

“Are you crazy!? You’d get caught in the blast and die!” protested the dwarven mage at her words. Aideen could tell that the young dwarf was sincerely worried about her and Celia from the tone of her voice. Then again, while the members of the caravan she traveled with knew about her being Unliving, she had not had the time to explain to the young mage.

“We’re unliving,” said Aideen nonchalantly. “We won’t die either way, so just wait for us to keep it occupied and let loose with the best you got.”

Together with Celia, Aideen walked towards the ongoing fight between the guard leader and the greater Cragmite. The monster mostly ignored them, probably thinking they were too small to do harm to it. As such, they made the approach mostly unmolested. The harder part was attempting to halt the beast – even if only for a moment – with what they had in hand.

Celia struck first and landed a blow with her swordstaff at the greater Cragmite’s rear leg. Although her blade struck the leg at a perfect angle, it couldn’t cut through the solid and extremely hard chitin that plated the leg, leaving only a slight notch at the creature’s natural armor. All it earned her was the monster’s contempt and a kick that sent her rolling until she struck a raised part of the ground and came to a halt.

Aideen had slightly better results, as she used the dagger-axe blade of her halberd like a pickaxe and struck the side of the beast’s thorax. The blade of her weapon lodged itself inside the beast’s flesh, but due to the short length of the blade, the wound was nothing that would have truly hurt the creature. Even so, Aideen opted to make as big a nuisance of herself as she could, as she twisted her weapon to and fro to enlarge the wound and annoy the beast.

When Celia returned – none the worse for wear – she quickly gestured to the younger woman to exploit the wound she made while she pulled her weapon out. Aideen quickly struck the bottom of the beast’s belly once more with her weapon, making sure to firmly entrench the blade of her weapon in the beast’s flesh.

Celia took the chance to leap and thrust at the wound Aideen left for her with the tip of her weapon. The massive swordstaff’s blade sunk halfway into the greater Cragmite’s side, and for the first time, the beast gave a screeching bellow of pain as it turned to face them, its large mandibles opened wide and ready to tear their flesh.

That was when the young dwarven mage made her move and a lance of fire – one thrice as large as the previous one – slammed into the greater Cragmite’s face.