I'm a Immortal Tavernkeeper, But My S-Rank Daughter Doesn't Know That!

When Victor cut all those thorns in mid-air, even the Blights were shocked. They had no emotional awareness, so they weren’t literally paralyzed with fear, but their limited intelligence meant that they didn’t have much choice about what to do next.

However, Victor had an almost limitless range of possibilities at this point. He swung his steel sword without a second thought and cut one Blight in half, then another and in the blink of an eye the three fallen thorny Blights were on the ground.

The Pyaxu warrior was stunned to witness Victor’s skill with the sword, but was soon reminded by a thorn hitting his armor that he was on a battlefield. Luckily, he had powerful armor, so the wooden thorn bounced off and flew away.

It was then that Pyaxu looked ahead and saw a Blight with his arms stretched forward quickly forming more thorns to release from his fingertips

In this situation, a squire would pull out a shield, but what could an ordinary warrior like Pyaxu do? Not much other than put his sword in front of his chest and try to advance in time to stop the enemy.

Luckily, Pyaxu had good support, so before any more thorns flew in his direction, a chanting cry echoed across the clearing:

"Light’s wrath, divine and pure. Banish shadows, hearts reassure."

Instantly, a stake of light appeared under the Blight’s head in front of the Pyaxu, illuminating both of their faces, and the stake fell through the thorny Blight’s chest. The creature, which looked very much like a tree trunk, stopped moving at the same moment and then began to catch fire like wood.

Pyaxu breathed a sigh of relief, looked back and nodded in thanks to the cleric Riggilo.

"Don’t get distracted, idiot! We’ve got to get to the oak, that’s where these things nest!"

At that moment, Pyaxu was once again protected from another Blight by an arrow that flew from the other side of the clearing.

Victor noticed all this out of the corner of his eye, sliced a Blight made of vines and said:

"Focus on the fight, warrior!"

Pyaxu then gritted his teeth with determination, tightened the grip on his sword and returned to the fight.

At first, the fight in the clearing proved to be very close, even with the surprise attack, because there were just over fifteen Blights against only four hunters.

However, the skills of those hunters surprised Victor, especially the archer, because Victor was a little skeptical about Orie’s abilities, after all the boy seemed a little nervous since the Association building, but when the battle began Orie proved that Victor was worried for nothing.

Orie was an archer with impressive accuracy for his age. He fired arrows that sought to eliminate the Blights from a distance and protect his companions. His skill with the bow was remarkable, hitting vital points on his enemies with impressive accuracy, which stunned the Blights and slowed down their regeneration long enough for Riggilo to continue burning them.

The coordination between the four hunters was crucial and proved to be practically flawless.

The Blights, despite their stamina and ability to regenerate, were being neutralized by the combined efforts of the hunters, who were covering each other’s backs. The floor of the clearing quickly became littered with fallen thorns and fragments of the creatures.

The air was also impregnated with the smell of burning dry wood, the result of the light spells cast by Riggilo that consumed the defeated Blights.

And unlike at the beginning, Pyaxu seemed determined to prove that he was a good warrior. However, like everyone else, he was briefly surprised when he cut a meter-long Blight in half and it split in two instead of remaining motionless.

"What?" Pyaxu asked himself, confused.

"That’s a Duplicate Blight, Pyaxu!" Victor warned him as he held up a wine tentacle from another Blight. "Their regeneration is almost instantaneous, you can’t keep attacking them like the others, because they’ll keep splitting!"

"So, what do I..." Pyaxu stepped back and dodged the attempt by one of the smaller Blights to grab him. "... Do I?"

"When I say ’switch’, you switch enemies with me, OK?" Victor asked.

Pyaxu dodged another grab attempt and agreed with a nod.

Victor, who was a bit busy, looked at the green tentacle in his hand, thought for a second and then drove his sword into the middle of that tentacle, pinning it to the ground as well.

"Switch!"

The Blight made of vines remained stuck for a moment, then Victor and Pyaxu switched places on the battlefield.

Now looking to the opposite side of the clearing, Pyaxu saw that Victor’s sword was pinning the enemy. He raised his head, looked at the Blight in question, smiled and moved forward in the same second with an expression of delight. This was easy prey for him compared to the other Blights he had faced so far.

However, although the hunters seemed to be getting on well, not everything was wonderful.

As the battle raged on, the archer Orie noticed with his enhanced hearing an unusual vibration in the air. Something was coming from the east fast, something bigger, capable of causing tremors in the air and on the ground, and it was approaching fast. He raised his bow and took aim, but this vibration that had started out subtle soon became audible to everyone and the tremors turned into rumbles that destabilized his entire aim.

"What’s that?" Riggilo asked himself, keeping himself upright with the help of his staff.

"Something big is coming from the east side of the clearing!" Orie warned with a loud shout.

Victor, with his experience in battle, quickly assessed the situation. He knew they needed to deal with the Blight nest first, but they couldn’t ignore an additional threat, so he took care of the Duplicate Blight as quickly as possible.

With his bare hands, Victor grabbed the two Duplicate Blights by the head, slammed them against the ground simultaneously and used Den of Creation to create a small spark of fire in his palms. One spark was more than enough to set these fragile creatures on fire, and they were quickly consumed.

Victor then lifted his head, looked to the east, where the loud sounds that sounded like footsteps were coming from, and then looked at Pyaxu, who literally had his sword stuck in the vine blight.

"Pyaxu, help Riggilo get through to the oak anyway. He must use a blessing of his own to destroy the nest." Victor commanded and his voice rang out with much more authority than before.

Even though Victor wasn’t the leader of the group, Pyaxu didn’t hesitate to follow his orders for some reason.

"Right!" Pyaxu nodded and turned his sword on the skull of the vine blights to finish the job.

"But what about the creature that’s coming, Victor?" Riggilo asked.

"Don’t worry about it, I’ll buy you some time." Victor said, walking towards his sword. "Focus on destroying the oak!"

Just then, a gigantic shadow emerged from the trees. It was an imposing creature that looked more like a troll made of wood, as big as the oak tree itself in the center of the clearing. The name of this monster was the Aberrant Blight, an evolved and even more dangerous version of the common Blights.

Riggilo almost froze at the sight of this being. "It’s-it’s an Aberrant Blight!"

"I said, focus on destroying the oak!" Victor ordered and picked up his sword, which was stuck in the ground, as the Blight’s vines he had attached had dried out. "Don’t worry, I can take care of this great friend of ours!"