This Heroine's Friend Has the Power of Botany

Chapter 85

Ambush

“Let’s go. We still need to find more demonic beasts. Who knows how many of them are around here,” Steven said after the Setters had finished collecting the remains of the demonic beast.

Although he gave this order, everyone in the Setter family knew there were no more demonic beasts around here. It was they who had driven the other demonic beasts in different directions. Ahead of them, at most, they might encounter only normal beasts.

In comparison, the beasts around here were just low-level creatures that weren’t scary at all. Given the skills of the Setter family, they didn’t see this as a major problem.

Steven looked at Ellie as she put her rake away into her spirit dimension. If it weren’t for the presence of the Femon family’s member, he might have approached Ellie and begged her to refrain from assisting in any more attacks. It was too risky. Even though Ellie’s help was indeed necessary, they couldn’t afford to take such a risk.

Ellie’s status within the Setter family was exceedingly high, especially with his son. Owen had firmly insisted that this girl must be protected at all costs. If she were to be harmed even slightly, his troublesome son would come here himself next time.

“My lord, it appears the Hart family has sent their combat signal. They are currently engaging with the demonic beasts.”

“Mmm, what about the other 2 families?”

“There have been no signals from them. They may not have encountered any demonic beasts yet.” Although the Setter family scout said this, everyone knew that finding demonic beasts wasn’t difficult at all. They had already driven the demonic beasts in different directions. Just walking a short distance would lead them to the beasts. Especially for the Cherine and Fernal families, were their tracking skills really that poor? That was impossible...

In other words... it meant that those people had encountered the demonic beasts but were too cowardly to fight them!

For the great Setter family, if asked to sacrifice for the family, they would do so even without the weapons Owen had made for them. They were always ready to lay down their lives. There would be no shirking of duties like in other families. After all...their previous family head had bravely sacrificed himself for everyone. How could their fighting spirit not be stirred!?

“Alright, let’s continue our duty. We must eliminate all the demonic beasts around here!” Steven commanded boldly, leading the Setter family forward with determination.

Meanwhile, an outsider like Wint, unaware of the internal matters, felt genuine admiration for the Setter family’s strength and fearlessness.

Wint followed them quietly, accompanied by Koross and Aman. The 3 of them worked together to protect Ellie alone. The young woman tried to use her abilities to keep up with the scouting unit. From now on, those tasked with surveying the area wouldn’t need to return to relay information to the main group themselves. That would be Ellie’s job instead. As a result, their operations were swift and efficient.

Ellie’s abilities were cleverly adapted to greatly assist everyone. The Setter family benefitted from this once again. Perhaps in the future...when they collaborate with the young girl again, sending a scouting unit would allow them to cover more ground. At the very least, those performing this duty wouldn’t have to go out and return to report, saving a lot of time.

“About 400 meters ahead to the right, there are 4 beasts similar to the wolf-like one we encountered earlier. 2 are adults and 2 are juveniles,” Ellie informed everyone.

The Setter family’s hunting group halted briefly upon hearing this report, waiting for the family head’s instructions on how to proceed.

“Send 2 people to lure out the adult beasts, then ambush and kill them. Store their bodies in the dimensional rings. As for the juvenile beasts, try to capture them alive; we might be able to raise them and hand them over to beast trainers.”

“Yes, sir!” Upon hearing the family head’s orders, the unit leader immediately assigned tasks. Their operations were swift and professional. However, as the 7 members moved forward, the young girl’s brows suddenly furrowed.

Aman was the first to notice Ellie’s abnormality. The petite girl became more cautious, while others remained oblivious, Ellie had already summoned her rake from her spirit dimension.

She didn’t warn anyone because it would have seemed too suspicious. If she claimed her power was being used to follow the two scouts, then how could she know the position of the group of beasts slowly surrounding the Setter family?

The scouting unit’s duty was to search for demonic beasts, so they only explored the front. If they encountered areas with toxin distribution, they would then survey the surroundings with interest. Of course, the toxin distribution was fake; it was all an act by the scouting unit.

With this confidence, everyone became quite complacent. This wasn’t the Tower of Eternity, where high-level beasts could appear. Their self-assuredness led them to lower their guard.

Aman remained silent, understanding that Ellie harbored more secrets than anyone knew. Since the last time the girl warned them of the approaching demonic beasts, even though no one had asked, they had guessed that Ellie’s detection ability was not as weak as she pretended.

The young man didn’t alert the others either. His only duty was to guard Ellie. Besides, it would be better to let the Setter family’s hunting group gain some experience after daring to be so careless.

“We’ve found the Silver Beard Wolves!” The person sent to lure them shouted, banging his sword against his arm guard to draw the attention of the large Silver Beard Wolves.

"Raaah!!"

"Awoo!!"

"Whimper, whimper." The 4 beasts, who had been resting as a family, suddenly saw an enemy appear. The ones acting as parents stood up and growled, positioning themselves in front of the young Silver Beard Wolves as if to say, don’t hurt the children.

Although the scene was a bit sad, that was the nature of this world. The Setter family didn’t even care about the beasts’ behavior. As long as they could use them for strength in the future, these young beasts were necessary.

“Juvenile beasts are not easy to find. Be careful not to kill them.”

“Lure the big ones away quickly. We’ll handle the young ones!”

Clang, clang.

“Come on! Face me if you can!!” They did their jobs well, with one person luring the large beasts away while the others slowly surrounded the young ones, hoping to capture and train them for future strength.

Rustle, rustle.

While the Setter family believed they had everything under control, a strange noise suddenly came from the bushes behind them.

The senses of everyone in the family were sharp, so even a slight disturbance alerted someone. Many quickly drew their weapons, but unfortunately, it was too late.

"Roar!!" The roar from behind startled those fighting the Silver Beard Wolves. What they saw were over 10 large beasts emerging from the bushes. This area was a vast forest with large trees and thick bushes. These newly appearing beasts used camouflage to approach their prey, a tactic of higher-level beasts, definitely beyond level 1.

"Level 2 Sword-Tailed Squirrels! Be careful, they have a habit of swarming a single enemy!" Seeing these familiar beasts brought back memories of their battles on the 3rd and 4th floors, where Sword-Tailed Squirrels often caused trouble for them.

Despite being only level 2 beasts, their ability to live on the 3rd and 4th floors proved that rank wasn’t everything for beasts. Their true strength lay in their combat techniques. Like the beasts that were on the same level as Fernandina Beast, which, despite being level 3, could survive on the 6th floor of the Tower of Eternity due to their unique fighting abilities. Their hard shells protected them from all dangers. Their level 3 ranking might have been due to their peaceful nature.

Similarly, this group of Sword-Tailed Squirrels could comfortably live on the 3rd and 4th floors not because of their physical strength but because their combat skills could destroy enemies!

Their intelligence was evident, like right now. They wouldn’t attack prey unless confident of victory and had a habit of swarming and killing 1 opponent before moving on to the next. In other words...even if they died, their enemy would suffer losses too!

Despite the warning, the Setter family couldn’t position themselves well for the fight. To handle these squirrels, they needed to group together and fight as a unit, preventing the squirrels from swarming any one person. However, due to their earlier carelessness, the Setter family members were spread out, waiting quietly for the front lines to deal with the Silver Beard Wolves first.

Now, someone in the Setter family became an easy target, positioned right behind Ellie.

The Setter family valued Ellie greatly, so they surrounded her with their members. Behind her was a Setter family member on guard, who unfortunately became the victim of this attack!

The Sword-Tailed Squirrel, as its name implied, wielded a sword as its weapon. They were faster than ordinary beasts but significantly slower than regular squirrels. The swords on their tails make them move awkwardly on trees, so they resort to ground-based pursuit and encirclement, which inevitably reveals their position to Ellie.

The young woman was not careless after learning of the dangers around her. There was only one time she didn’t expect a demonic beast to lurk near her tent. Since then, Ellie has continuously used her detection abilities, and she was already aware of the presence of these squirrels.

Because the Sword-Tailed Squirrels’ target was not far from where Ellie stood, she didn’t waste any time. She had summoned her rake long ago, and so she immediately swung her extendable and retractable rake at the beasts.

Of course, a rake’s original purpose was not for attacking, making Ellie’s strikes less effective compared to others. Nevertheless, the sharp points of her rake inflicted minor wounds on the squirrels, hindering some of them from fully attacking the members of the Setter family, thus giving them multiple opportunities to counterattack.

Aman, who had also drawn his weapon, wasted no time either. He used his sword to fend off a Sword-Tailed Squirrel that was about to aid its comrades in attacking their prey, disrupting the encirclement that aimed to devour them to the bone. This commotion from behind caused the front line to lose focus in their fight.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the Silver Beard Wolves launched a counterattack. Their fighting style involved long-range attacks. Ignoring the decoys, they unleashed their power on the group of Setter family members at the rear instead.

This chaos created an ideal opportunity for Wint to truly join the fray. He leaped forward with a shield and sword in hands. His shield successfully blocked numerous attacks from the Silver Beard Wolves, and his movements truly aided the Setter family members.But in just 5 seconds, the hunting group from the Setter family finally regained their optimal fighting form. They took their stances and drew weapons suited to the situation. In no time, they managed to surround and deal with the Sword-Tailed Squirrels successfully. Even so, the injuries some had sustained looked truly severe.

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