kscans

Chapter 464 - A Familiar Name and a Raid Battle

"Today, we will be photographing the cat said to be on Balitoa Mountain."

When Parfait made this declaration in the base's cafe, Orion from the "Cats are God" clan, her clan members, and the members of the "Mont Blanc" clan all applauded.

During the event, cats could sometimes be found in special locations, and sometimes they were even guarded by monsters. According to information Orion had gathered, a cat was at the summit of a mountain called Balitoa. What's more, it was a group of five kitten-types huddled together, and if they could capture them all in one picture, they would get a bonus and a considerable number of points.

However, the problem was the monster guarding them. It couldn't be defeated by a small number of people, it would be a raid battle requiring dozens of players to fight together.

Orion took over from Parfait to explain the monster.

"The monster is a named Elder Griffon. I think it's pretty strong."

Orion paused there, looked around at everyone, and continued her explanation.

"Its name is Lancelot. It's an even higher-tier version of the Elder Griffon species. It seems you can summon it by offering a Dragon Steak at the altar on the summit. We can't meet the kittens unless we defeat it, so we're going to crush it with all we've got!"

A roar went up from the members. For the sake of a cat picture. That alone was enough to get the members of "Cats are God" fired up. Parfait was too, but her other clan members were not quite as enthusiastic.

That said, the only raid battle experience they had was the Hyakki Yakou during the weekly Stampede, and even then, the players present just fought haphazardly, so this was their first time fighting alongside another clan. The other members besides Parfait were also interested in a raid battle, so their spirits were higher than usual.

That aside, the members of "Mont Blanc" felt a sense of unease at the name Lancelot. It was the same name as the monster Maris had as a pet in AFO.

Thinking it must be a coincidence, Parfait and the others headed for Balitoa Mountain.

They had to pass through a swamp that would cause the food in their item bags to rot, then defeat a dragon they found, make a Dragon Steak, and finally place it on the altar at the summit.

This was the official route, but as expected of a major tamer-type clan, they had another way.

"Griffons are carrying a gondola?"

"Yep, yep. If you have four or more tamed griffons and prepare reins and a gondola, you can use a flying mode of transport that can carry a lot of people."

It was a method where four griffons would lift a box-shaped gondola to move it, but by increasing the number of tamed griffons or preparing a larger gondola, they could transport up to a hundred people.

Naturally, "Cats are God," being a major tamer clan, had it set up to transport the maximum of one hundred people, and this time they were going to be carried to the summit of Balitoa Mountain along with Parfait and her friends.

Most tamers had tamed flying monsters, so they didn't need to use this griffon courier service for themselves, but this time they were letting Parfait and her friends ride along.

So Parfait and her friends were enjoying a graceful journey through the sky, but this time, nearly fifty members of "Cats are God" were also flying alongside them on their individually tamed flying monsters, forming a considerable large formation. From classic monsters like dragons, pegasi, and griffons, to phoenixes, yokai foxes, and pteranodons, the variety was diverse, and as they flew in formation through the sky, even players on the ground were looking up, wondering what was going on.

"Our opponent this time is an Elder Griffon, so we have to counter with flying monsters too!"

When Orion, who was riding in the gondola with them, said this, Parfait's expression became a little complicated.

"If the opponent is a griffon, we might not be of much help."

To defeat a griffon flying through the sky, one either had to fly as well or use long-range attacks. After dealing a certain amount of damage, it would become a ground battle, but if its HP was that low, it would only need a finishing blow, so Parfait was concerned about not being useful in the raid battle.

They could perform long-range attacks. Parfait's Belzebuth replica could transform into a rifle, and Natsu had long-range magic. However, the other members, even if they had long-range attacks, couldn't deal much damage.

But Orion laughed and said that wasn't the case.

"Griffons are tougher on the ground. We'll handle it while it's in the air, so once it's on the ground, we're counting on you."

If that was the case, Parfait nodded forcefully. The members of the "Mont Blanc" clan were quite strong in close combat. They didn't have a healer, but they had enough combat power to make up for it.

Taking these things into consideration, Parfait and Orion roughly decided on the flow of the raid battle.

Fifteen minutes later, they arrived at the summit of Balitoa Mountain. Although it was a summit, it was a flat area with some jagged rocks, probably to make it easier to fight.

According to Orion, the rocks were a gimmick to block the Elder Griffon's attacks. After it spread its wings wide, it would launch a wide-area all-target attack by firing its feathers, and if you didn't hide behind a rock, you would almost certainly be defeated, so they had to run there immediately after seeing the movement.

They were given a pre-briefing on such game-like strategies. At first, Parfait and her friends felt bad for getting useful information, but Orion told them that most players knew about it, so there was no need to feel bad. In fact, she even said that their beginner-like qualities were refreshing.

With that out of the way, everyone finished their battle preparations. Then they all hid behind rocks, and Orion, as their representative, offered the Dragon Steak at the altar. Then Orion also quickly hid behind a rock.

There was no particular change, but then someone shouted, "Approaching from the northeast!"

When Parfait looked in that direction, she saw a small dot in the blue sky to the northeast. As it gradually grew larger, she could make out the form of a griffon.

However, the Elder Griffon, Lancelot, didn't come straight at them, but flew in a circle around the summit.

"In the real world, that would be about half the speed of sound."

"Even if it's not the speed of sound, if it charged at us like that, we'd probably die in one hit."

Parfait replied in agreement to the words spoken by Wilnel, who was right next to her.

"We're going according to plan! Alright, Nacchan, if you please!"

Orion's voice chat to the entire clan came through. Then Natsu laughed with a "Fuhahaha!"

"Born from the darkness—"

"Nacchan, hurry!"

"...Create Undead. Let me just say that the preamble is important!"

Parfait interrupted Natsu's dark-side-esque words, but Natsu followed her command and used Create Undead. A skeleton was then generated near the altar.

To put it simply, this skeleton was a decoy. Lancelot always charged on its first attack, so the plan was to have the skeleton take that hit.

Whether Lancelot fell for it or it was the sad programming of an AI, as planned, it made a one-hit-kill charge at the skeleton. And the skeleton was shattered to pieces.

"Your sacrifice will not be in vain!"

Natsu's words weren't the signal to start, but at that moment, everyone jumped out from behind the rocks and unleashed their long-range attacks. Bows, guns, magic, they showered it with a baptism of concentrated fire.

Of course, Parfait also attacked with Belzebuth in its gun form. Lancelot, the Elder Griffon, was fluffy. It was definitely classified as a fluffy animal, but she couldn't say she couldn't fight it. Parfait bent her policy and attacked while shedding tears of blood in her heart.

"Watch out for Feather Shot! Hide behind the rocks!"

As Orion said, Lancelot spread its wings wide on the spot. It was a tell for an attack. Everyone immediately stopped their attacks and hid behind the rocks.

Immediately after, the wide-area all-target attack, Feather Shot, was deployed. High-damage feathers flew and stuck into the rocks. It seemed no players were too slow to escape, so no one had been defeated so far.

When the attack ended, Lancelot flapped its wings and flew into the sky.

"Pursuit! After it!"

When Orion shouted that, the players who could fly chased after Lancelot with their respective pets. And a fierce aerial battle began.