Culminating Tactics (3)

"Nick?" I turn around and see Shinobu and the kids walk out into the clearing.

"Boy, am I glad to see you all." I smile and walk up to my party.

"Where have you been?" Shinobu asks. I can see a streak of concern on her face.

[I knew this was a mistake.]

"I offered to help them because they looked like they needed some money while I was at the guild due to helping a different party for a much stupider reason." I try to condense the whole day into a single sentence which just sounds like gibberish.

"Okay, I understand. I just wish you would have told us, so we didn't worry about you." Josh nods with a serious expression on his face as Shinobu is speaking.

"Yeah, my bad. Wait, you understood that?"

"Hey!" Kerry Interrupts our conversation with a shout.

"Do you see what I've been dealing with all day?" I smile wryly as I complain. Shinobu narrows her eyes and walks up to Kerry.

"What do you want?" Kerry asks as she looks down at the small girl.

"What's your problem?"

"What?"

"Are you deaf? I asked you what's your problem? Why are you shouting in the middle of the forest while interrupting people? That's rude and stupid."

"What?"

Shinobu covers her face with her hand as she turns to me.

"I don't know why you're trying to help these idiots. You're just wasting your time–"

"Don't talk to my sister like that!" Terry draws his sword and jumps at Shinobu. The blond girl calmly pushes his sword to the side and gathers electricity at her fingertips. She retracts her pinky and ring finger to form a gun with her hand and points it at his head. Bright yellow bolts of electricity race up and down her fingers.

"Are you done yet?" Having completely taken control of the situation, Shinobu lays down the law. "Because if not, we can keep fighting, but it's not going to end well for you."

"..." Terry and Kerry silently retreat from her onslaught.

"Now, you all listen to Nick. We all have much better things to do today than teaching a group of idiots like yourselves." Shinobu turns to me with a mischievous smile. "How's that?"

"I think I love you."

"What?!" Her eyes open, and her face glows bright red.

"Nothing, thanks." I walk past her to the group of lowly adventurers standing at the edge of the clearing.

"Alright, I hope that cleared things up. Why don't you all watch how my team takes down a Punctastar, and then I'll help you do the same." I don't hear any complaints, so I take that as a yes. "Great. Let's get to it."

I return to my party to go over the plan.

"Alright, we're going to take down a Punctastar quickly to show them how it's done, and then I'll help them do the same. Feel free to hunt a few more while I'm busy. If we kill a total of four, then we can each take one back to the guild. Since this is Shinobu's first time carrying a Punctastar all the way back to town, I think she should have the magic bag. What do you all think?"

"That sounds fine." Sakura seems a little annoyed that I'm helping another party for no reason, but she keeps it to herself. Josh just nods as I expected.

"…" Shinobu is looking away with her face flushed red.

[Kids can't take a joke.]

"Shinobu!"

"Yes!" She shouts.

"Did you hear me?"

"Yes. Of course, I heard." It's clear from the fact that she can't meet my eyes that she has no idea what I'm talking about.

"I was thinking you should take the magic bag. We're each going to carry one Punctastar back to the guild. Okay?"

"Fine!" She snatches the bag out of my hand and walks over to the nearest Punctastar. "Are you coming?!"

[I guess she did hear me.]

I move to the opposite side of the monster and jab it hard with my spear. One tentacle flies out and cuts through the empty air to my left.

"The side you attack is normally the one that retaliates, so it's best not to attack the leg closest to you. Also, it's important to keep your attack angle low to get through the scales." Josh and I wear it down until it stops moving. Since Josh was the last one to get the kill the previous time we went hunting, it's now Sakura's turn, then Shinobu's, and then mine. Without a word, the flower girl moves over to the starfish monster that's almost twice her size. She tilts it up with one arm to expose its belly and delivers the finishing blow. The scene takes less than five minutes, and no one on my team is even breathing heavily. It's gotten to the point that Shinobu and Sakura mostly keep an eye out for any approaching danger while Josh and I whittle the Punctastars down. Using this strategy, we're able to preserve the integrity of the hides. Once the monster is dead, I instruct my team to kill three more while I help Blackfoot score one themselves.

""Okay."" The kids reply as they walk over to the next Punctastar and begin their systematic attack.

"Any questions?" Blackfoot just stares at me, slack-jawed. "Well, what'd you expect? We've increased the flow of Punctastar corpses by at least tenfold. We do this a lot."

"Have they not spent their bonus points either?"

"Not on their physical stats, no. They all have magic, so I don't know if they're spending any points on that, but they haven't used any on strength, stamina, or anything." I notice a light in Susan and Mikey's eyes after hearing my words. I'd guess they're motivated by the thought of working on getting stronger. Terry and Kerry, on the other hand, just look depressed.

[What a mismatched team. Susan and Mikey are stuck taking care of these losers. I'm assuming the siblings are disappointed by their current position on the social hierarchy. Being experienced adventurers, they likely thought very highly of themselves, so it must be upsetting to be shown up by a group of people half their age.]

"Alright, why don't you all take a crack at it?"

"Okay." Susan is the first to respond. She has the fierce expression of a leader with a plan. Susan rallies her team, and they approach a lone Punctastar. I can feel their hesitation. At a glance, the Punctastar is a pretty terrifying-looking creature. The main body has a couple of foot wide radius. Each of the five legs is a few feet long and ends with a sharp edge. While the legs can't extend very far, they're lightning fast and incredibly strong. One swipe is enough to down most adventurers. If you were to fight one head-on, it could potentially turn into a life-or-death battle. I'd never thought much about it, but seeing a group of children each lug in a giant starfish monster from a deadly forest must be a bit odd.

[I guess we've been standing out from the beginning. For someone that tries to always put themselves in other people's shoes, I sure seem to suck at it.]