Not everything can go according to plan no matter how much you wish it to be; it's a universal truth that is once again about to remind the reincarnated prince from Earth that even if he tries to avoid something, that doesn't mean that the something he's avoiding won't just find its way to him one way or another.
It's like the universe's way of keeping everything in a perfect equilibrium with the law of causality and all that...
In the sunny afternoon after Zarba and his group have entered the forest, Zarba could see that the dirt road that leads through the Kroll Forest is quite narrow, barely wide enough for two carriages to run in parallel with each other, as ancient trees block out some of the sunlight overhead; their branches are so vast and expansive that they plunge the road into a solemn landscape of shadow and rays of light as some of the forest animals warily watch the carriage and its entourage of knights marching on the road from a distance in their hidden places.
Unbeknownst to Zarba, the harmless critters of the forest are not the only things that are watching him and his entourage as well…
While the carriage is moving along the road, Zarba, who is sitting on the driver's seat, scans the treeline with vigilant eyes, his hunter senses tingling by the subtle atmosphere of the forest. Something definitely feels off, as it is too quiet. There was no birdsong or rustling of the bushes to be heard in the forest, just the rhythmic thud of his knights' boots and the creak of carriage wheels and the soft giggles of a certain half-elf lying on her stomach in the carriage, who was reading her smutty novel like a teenage girl with her legs kicking in the air.
"Tsk, are you for real…?" Zarba muttered with some irritation, as he had a feeling that he might have to do that quest of the SSS after all...
And like the world eagerly wanted to prove him right, the forest's unnatural stillness shattered instantly with a drake's unique roar catching Zarba and Xin's attention to the right flank of the carriage.
From the dense overgrowth of bushes and tall grasses around fifty meters away from their carriage, they see a drake burst forth, powerful muscles coiled beneath dark scales, jaws wide enough to swallow a man whole as it roaringly announced its existence to the group while it ran straight for the carriage with a rumbling growl that vibrated the air around it, seemingly confident that it could solo a platoon of black knights without dying.
"Son of a bitch…!" Seeing the monster charging at them like an angry bull made Zarba curse, as he was not expecting any monster to actually be brave enough to attack a platoon of knights. He quickly stood up from the driver's seat while he picked up his white bow "Alright" from the seat beside him, ready to teach the LESSER dragon a lesson about humanity's power of friendship.
'Right flank, form up! Surpassing fire!' Zarba mentally commands as twenty of his ranger knights on the right flank of the carriage immediately move to form a single line facing the drake with their own bows out while they pull out the arrows from their quivers in unison.
Normally just with the bows and arrows, this is not going to do anything to the charging drake, but from what Zarba had discovered while they were traveling, all of his equipment when he updated his template actually got duplicated along just like he guessed, so his summoned units actually can have not only his physical abilities and skills but also magic-enchanted weapons and armor as well!
Just imagine the endless army with every soldier being an elite soldier and equipped with magic enchanted weapons and armor!
It's going to be a nightmare facing such a thing for anyone in this world for sure.
So with the white magic bows in his summoned units' hands that are capable of empowering normal iron arrows into something like 20 mm caliber rounds, Zarba is sure that the drake was going to straight up not have a great time in the next few seconds of its life.
The charging drake, oblivious to the danger, galloped like an alligator towards the line of the black knights as they drew their bowstrings taut in unison, twenty arrows glinting with faint light as the enchantments embedded in the bows empowered the arrows with magic energy while the air hummed softly with condensed power.
Zarba didn't bother nocking his own arrow as he watched with anticipation, eager to see the magic bow's power against the mid-game monster while the drake's powerful charge bulldozes through all the flora in its way, its serpentine eyes fixed on the line of knights with primal fury.
When the drake finally crossed the thirty-meter distance, which was close enough for Zarba to see some dried blood on its scales, Zarba just jerked his chin at the monster as a firing signal, and without a dramatic flair, his knights immediately released their bowstrings simultaneously.
The sound wasn't a twang but a sharp crack like ice breaking underfoot. Twenty arrows streaked forward, leaving faint trails of displaced air in their path, while the drake just ignored the arrows coming towards it, thinking that its hard scales should shrug off those little flying sticks easily like usual and that those arrows weren't even aimed at its weak points on its scaleless spots, so it doesn't really care!
But the unthinkable happened for the lesser land dragon as the charging drake's loud roar choked mid-bellow because the empowered arrows struck its armored head, scaled chest, and shoulders harder than anything it had ever felt before. The drake felt the arrow's tip punch through its thick muscles and the dense bone beneath the pierced scales with a loud crack while the chunks of scale and blood erupted from its body.
The impact wasn't just piercing; it was a powerful kinetic energy ramming into its body from multiple spots. The drake's forward momentum halted violently, its hindquarters lifting off the ground by its momentum as its front body slammed down, plowing a furrow in the forest floor like it was just crashing into an invisible wall. Dust and shredded vegetation bloomed around it.
"Holy shit...!" Zarba can't help but clap while he exclaims with excitement, watching the drake skid to a halt in a cloud of dirt and leaves.
"The Alright's enchantment power is really something else!" Zarba gleefully watched as the wounded drake thrashed, its agonized roars shaking the trees' leaves while dark red blood pumped from its dozen wounds, steaming out on its body and dripping on the ground. There are several arrows protruding from its head, chest, shoulders, and neck, buried very deep in its flesh. One even went inside one of its nostrils but unfortunately not through its walnut-sized brain and ended its suffering.
Xin watched the commotion as she leaned out the carriage window, her nose wrinkling as the stench of the drake blood reached the carriage.
"So unpleasant," she murmured as she added another magic rune to the carriage to filter out the smell from outside. "And so loud, please silence that pitiful worm, my husband."
"Sure, but I guess we'll be hunting drakes a little bit after this." Zarba heard his slave's complaint and decided to grant her wish as he looked indifferently at the wounded drake while mentally commanding the summoned unit to finish it off.
His knights obey as they draw another arrow before another twenty arrows fly again, silencing the thrashing monster almost instantly as its skull bursts open like a watermelon under the concentrated barrage.
Then, not even a minute later, suddenly another roar echoed from another direction of the carriage's left flank, deeper and more mature than the dead drake. Then a second roar, followed by a third roar from a different direction.
The drake pack has been alert to the intruder who killed one of them!
"Well, it seems like we will not have to go searching for them." Zarba smirks as he mentally commands his ranger knight platoon to surround the carriage as they move as one, surrounding the carriage in a circle with their bows and arrows pointing towards the forest around them.
After some minutes of tense silence, the treeline seemed to ripple as three drakes suddenly burst forth from three different directions, their dark-scaled forms weaving between ancient tree trunks with agile speed. These weren't the same as the first drake that charged recklessly; they were circling around the circle of knights, trying to find a weak point to attack the platoon formation from multiple directions, their posture low, eyes fixed on the knights with predatory intelligence.
Then, two more drakes appeared as they emerged from the front of the road ahead, their claws tearing furrows in the earth as they charged at the knights in front while the other three waited. They seem to be coordinating their assault, Zarba notices with a mischievous grin on his lips. 'Two can play this game…!'
"All units engage!!" Zarba yelled his command as he readied his bow and arrow, while his knights reacted instantly without hesitation as they split up into five-man teams, charging at the five drakes in five directions, surprising them and making them falter for a moment before they seemingly provoked and decided to charge at the knights' team as well!
Meanwhile, while the clash was about to begin between knights and monsters, the witch in the carriage just went back to read her smut book like nothing was happening outside…