Lambert glared at Vari, whose expression was completely innocent, momentarily unable to tell whether he was serious or making a snide remark about her failure to do her "own job" properly.
You already brought the target down with a Flash Pod. Once it was on the ground, it was practically a sitting duck. Senior Altaïr even deliberately stopped his advance to leave you a clear shot.
So why did you turn back to keep watch?
At a time like that, shouldn't you have switched to the attacker role while I filled in on watch? Did you think I lacked even that basic level of teamwork?
Are you looking down on me?
Altaïr walked over just then and pressed down on Lambert's head as she wore an expression that screamed, "I'm speechless." "This time, you go carve the proof of the kills."
After saying that, he turned to Vari, who looked a little anxious, as though he was worried he had done something wrong. "For the next batch of targets, you'll be in charge of bringing them down, and Lambert will keep watch.
You two will take turns bringing the targets down and build up some experience."
Vari hesitated slightly, then seemed to muster his courage before asking, "Senior Altaïr, is it better to knock them down with Flash Pods or shoot them down with Bowgun Ammo?"
"Judge for yourself. You could even pick up a small stone and knock them out of the air with it, for all I care. I only want results."
Noticing the hesitation still on Vari's face, Altaïr paused, then added, "Don't worry so much about making a mistake. Even if you mess up, Lambert will step in, just as you did when she made a mistake a moment ago.
And if both of you fail, I'll be your safety net.
That's what team combat is about. It isn't a rigid division of responsibility where each person focuses solely on completing their own assigned task.
Everyone's areas of responsibility overlap. That's the only way to minimize the risk of failure and keep the operation running smoothly."
"I understand, Senior Altaïr." Vari nodded obediently.
Altaïr acknowledged him but said nothing more, then took Sajji with him to start up the Sandship.
He now understood Boss Joda's assessment of the young man's personality. Put kindly, he was obedient; put harshly, he lacked initiative.
It wasn't a major issue, though. In a way, his lack of initiative could simply reflect a lack of confidence. As Vari experienced more battles and gained enough experience and self-assurance, he would naturally overcome that shortcoming.
The Flash Pod he had thrown in the nick of time earlier was proof of that.
Still, why had Boss Joda said this was an advantage for him? Altaïr couldn't tell yet. He would keep observing. At the very least, the kid had been quite easy to work with so far.
Soon enough, they found another pair of Egyurasu.
Altaïr was a little curious to see what type of Bowgun Ammo Vari would choose. His choice could also reflect a Gunner's preferences to some degree.
For example, a Gunner skilled at long-range sniping might fire Pierce Ammo at a target's wings from afar, while a more offensively inclined Gunner might close the distance and use Spread Ammo for a more aggressive assault.
Of course, this wasn't an absolute rule; an experienced Gunner would switch ammo types on the fly depending on the situation. If Nymera were here, she'd have more than ten different ways to knock those two targets out of the sky.
Then he watched as Vari loaded a magazine of Normal Ammo. Perhaps worried that it lacked sufficient power, he had chosen Lv. 3 Normal Ammo.
But Lv. 3 Normal Ammo was still Normal Ammo, and the Cross Bowgun itself had fairly average power. Although his first shot struck the target's wing accurately, it merely punched a fist-sized hole in the wing membrane and failed to bring it down.
The injured Egyurasu was about to climb higher, while the other Egyurasu screeched sharply and charged toward them.
Vari fired in rapid succession. His second shot struck the injured Egyurasu at the base of its wing. That worked far better than hitting the wing membrane, and the Egyurasu struggling to climb immediately lurched downward.
He swiftly adjusted his aim and fired at the other Egyurasu's wing joint just as it was about to dive at them, disrupting its flight.
He kept adjusting the Bowgun's aim and pulling the trigger shot by shot. Nearly every round struck one of the two Egyurasu at the base of a wing or in a wing joint.
This rate of fire quickly emptied a magazine. He removed the quick-change magazine from the side of the gun, swiftly replaced it, cocked the mechanism, and completed the reload. His movements were crisp and textbook-perfect, like something straight out of a manual.
Nearby, Altaïr and Lambert watched as the two Egyurasu went from flying nimbly at first to staggering as they tried to flee, then finally lost their ability to fly altogether and crashed headfirst into the sand.
Altaïr grinned, stepped forward, and finished them off.
Lambert, holding her Hunting Horn on guard, looked Vari up and down as though he were a lunatic. His Bowgun stance was so rigidly textbook-perfect that it made her eyes hurt.
In the end, she couldn't hold it in. "...Seriously? You can hit their wing joints with every shot and completely cripple their ability to fly.
Couldn't you just be more direct and hit vital spots like the head or chest? You could kill them, but you don't. You just had to watch those two Egyurasu crash to the ground, struggling and shrieking. Are you some kind of sicko?"
"N-no." Vari lowered his weapon a little uneasily. "I just thought it'd be safer to disable their flight completely, then have Senior Altaïr finish them off."
"..."
After finishing off the two Egyurasu and cutting off their tail tips as proof of the kills, Altaïr tilted his head toward the other two.
"Let's move. Time to find new targets."
The three kept repeating the same process, finding targets, shooting them down, and quickly killing them, culling the Egyurasu in their assigned area with solid efficiency.
By evening, when the sky had turned faintly red, the number of Egyurasu they had hunted had far exceeded their original target and reached seventeen.
Most of those kills had come during the morning. After all, only so many Egyurasu roamed their assigned area. By afternoon, they spent most of their time searching rather than fighting.
They took the small Sandship back to the city, returning later than the other groups.
—--
Isis and her team had returned first. With Asa, the "professional," at the helm and their familiarity with the terrain, they had searched efficiently and finished with a tally of twelve.
Nymera's group had even fewer, exactly ten.
This wasn't a matter of combat capability. The areas assigned to those two teams simply held no more Egyurasu. Once the Monsters had been wiped out, new ones weren't going to sprout from the ground.
From that perspective, Altaïr's team had ended up with the best "luck." They had been assigned a zone where the Monsters were relatively concentrated.
The three squads had hunted nearly forty Egyurasu between them. That pace was already astonishing. With roughly thirty hunting parties in the field, did that mean they could take down around four hundred?
In reality, it didn't work that way.
According to Joda, the areas assigned to the thirty-odd squads hadn't been chosen at random. The Royal Paleontology Scriveners' observation hot air balloons had first determined the rough distribution of the Egyurasu packs, and the assignments had been arranged accordingly.
The sectors with the highest concentrations of Egyurasu had naturally been assigned to squads led by elite Hunters like them.
As for the teams composed of 2-3★ Hunters, they were mainly tasked with sweeping the fringe areas. Their hauls wouldn't be as large.
Based on the scholars' predictions, all teams would cull between one hundred fifty and two hundred Egyurasu during the first day's blitz. The total population scattered around the city was likely no more than three hundred.
This was the result of leaving them unchecked over the past few days and allowing them to gather gradually. It was a genuinely chilling figure.
Though the day's Hunt had seemed rather effortless, that was partly because elite Hunters had led the charge.
The other, more critical reason was the scarcity of resources in the Dead Sand Sea. The Egyurasu had been forced to disperse in search of food, making it difficult for them to gather in large numbers.
Otherwise, hundreds of small Flying Wyverns gathered in one swarm would pose a lethal threat to any party of Hunters and to the entire city.
"So, are we continuing tomorrow?" Isis seemed full of enthusiasm. "Assign us a zone with more monsters tomorrow! We'll prepare even more Flash Pods!"
After losing to Altaïr today, she refused to let it stand and intended to beat him tomorrow.
Altaïr, however, didn't share her optimism. A heavy unease lingered in his heart.
Joda, who served as the Hunters' direct liaison, also shook his head. "No. By order of the Guild Master, starting tomorrow, we will seal off the city and consolidate our defenses.
If those Egyurasu truly came to Loc Lac under the direction of that so-called Guanzorumu, then after seeing its underlings slaughtered in droves... it shouldn't just sit idly by."
At that, as though wary of being overheard, Joda lowered his voice. "Today's sudden purge was meant to thin their numbers and reduce the immediate threat, yes, but it was also designed to force that thing into the open.
Only when a threat comes into plain view can we deal with it properly."
(Translated by yourtl.app)