I take to the skies and confront the Grafant in the air.
I hover myself directly above it and shot four〖Wind Slash〗 below.

I aim for its hind legs and butt.
If we incapacitate its hind legs, then we won’t risk Alo and the others getting kicked from behind.
And if we weaken its buttock by shaving off its thick skin, their attacks are sure to deal more damage.

The first two shots I fired cut through the thick skin around the Grafant’s hind legs.
The scraped skin falls off the body and blood gushes out of the wound.
The Grafant loses its balance and tries to make up for it with just its front legs.

“――――!”

Before it even got a chance to react to its leg injury, the last two〖Wind Slash〗shaved off the skin of the Grafant’s butt.
It got even angrier and looked at me with brimming hatred in its eyes.

“Bu~umo~o~oooo~o~o~oo!!”

The Grafants begins to rage.
At the same time it screeched, I descended and landed on the ground.
Dust flew in the air on impact.

I guess this is fine.
I wanted to cut all four of its legs so it wouldn’t put up a resistance, but winning that way won’t offer much experience.

I learned from when I used to have Ball Rabbit help me with poisoning the Red Ants using dumplings before.
Unless it’s from a battle, only few or no experience points will be given at all.
That’s why we’re going to barely weaken it to enter that particular line.

Its mobility is reduced.
We also offered some sweet weak points and blind spots too.
If it ever gets dangerous, I can always step in.
This is it. This is the safe line where even rank E to D monsters like Alo and co. can fight against a rank C, Grafant.

“Bu~umo! Bu~umoooo!”

The Grafant rushes towards me while dragging its hind legs on the soil.
As expected, its power and speed have dropped significantly.
Alo, Lesser Treant, and the baby spiders are already positioning themselves behind the Grafant.

“Ea-, th, ma-, ic……〖Clay〗” [T.N: Earth Magic,〖Clay〗]

In response to Alo’s stuttered chant, the ground under the Grafant hardened to spikes.
The spikes extend upward, stabbing the Grafant’s underbelly.

The Grafant got annoyed by that, and while still dragging its hinds, it changed direction.
Charging towards Alo, it looks down, positioning its horns at her.
It aligns its horns, ready to thrust Alo in the gut.

I thought about stepping in, but I retracted back my wings when I saw the earth under Alo shift and deform.

“Bumo~o!”

Almost as soon as the Grafant mooed, Alo swiftly jumped backward.
Alo converted the soil under her with〖Clay〗to make use of the impact and avoid the attack.
She must’ve already prepared it when she first saw the Grafant change direction.

Alo seems to be better at magic than speed.
For Alo, using magic to evade is certainly much faster than normally dodging an attack with her current speed.

Alo rides on Lesser Treant’s branch.
As for the baby spiders, they scattered away when the Grafant charged in Alo’s direction.
…… The baby spiders aren’t monsters I created, so of course they won’t listen to me, but since they’re rank E, I figured leveling them up was easier…… maybe I should’ve pitted them against an even weaker opponent.

Grafant’s attack missed Alo, and just like that, it crashed on Alo’s clay, and its horns got stuck on the ground.
Attempting to break free, it starts accumulating muscle strength on its legs making it look buff.

Alo raises a hand, pointing at the Grafant’s horns.
She manipulates her〖Clay〗and solidifies it so the Grafant’s horns get even more stuck.

“Bu~u?!”

She continues hardening all the way to its mouth.
Is she planning to suffocate it?
That’s brutal.

The Grafant lifts up its forelegs.
Lesser Treant must’ve sensed something because he immediately stepped back, though still being mindful of Alo who’s hanging onto his branch.
Alo stops suffocating the Grafant and holds on tightly to Treant.

“…… -ind, ma -gic,〖Gale〗”

A gust of wind blows around the Grafant’s eyeballs.
Swoosh!
The Grafant’s eyes become redder.
It’s like it can’t even feel all the dust swirling in its eye as it turns to look at Alo.

The Grafant heavily kicks the ground with its forelegs.
The ground shakes and the Grafant jumps up high in the air.
It got out with〖High Jump〗.
So even with its injured hind legs, it can still use it, huh.

Lesser Treant moves its roots (legs) and runs away from the Grafant.
He runs backward, not taking away his eye, or what looks to be eyes, from the Grafant.

“P-…… erce,〖Clay〗” [T.N: Pierce,〖Clay〗]

When Alo chanted, her body starts to lose life force.
The skin texture gets rougher, containing qualities closer to dead soil found in deserts.
She’s pouring lots of her magic into〖Clay〗.

Pushing all the weed aside, a long spike made of earth emerges up from the ground.
Extending nearly two meters, it’s pointed directly under the Grafant.
She plans on dealing heavy damage when the Grafant falls on it.

This’ll work…… or so I thought, but the Grafant bends its body, falling on Alo’s direction instead.
I felt Alo’s expression stagger and decided that it was time I crashed in the party.

The Grafant’s body glowed faintly and it stopped moving for an instant in mid-air.
Then, the Grafant suddenly got engulfed in flames and falls down at blazing speed.

That setup…… it combined〖High Jump〗with〖Meteor Dive〗.
It seems to be a skill that involves burning the body and dropping on the opponent at intense speed.

I fire two shots of〖Wind Slash〗.
The blades of wind pass through the flame armor, hitting the Grafant’s face and belly.
The first shot squished its face and it lost its balance, so now it’s burning body is just swaying in the air.
The second one cut out its guts.

“Bumo~o~ooooo!”

The Grafant was unable to fully change its course and fell right down on the giant clay spike.
But, the spike made of clay wasn’t strong enough to withstand the impact and turned to dust.
The Grafant’s fall greatly shook the whole area.

Uwaah~…… that had more power than I thought.
If I was still a Plague Dragon, I’d be fighting that thing in a deathmatch.
But, since it landed on the giant clay spike at full force, it should be inflicted with a ton of damage.

“Bu……”

The Grafant was lying on its belly, with its front legs standing.
Stuck in its bowel is the spike from Alo’s〖Clay〗.
Huge amounts of blood is pouring out.

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Species: Grafant
Status: Enraged (large), Bleeding
Lv: 27/55
HP: 208/361
MP: 95/153
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

…… What the-, it still has over half of its HP remaining.
Well, these types of monsters excel in physical strength and defense, so I should’ve known.

Alo couldn’t hold onto Lesser Treant any longer and fell off.
Treant picked her up and ran away again.
Alo’s MP must’ve reached its limit.
The last〖Clay〗she used wasted so much of her magic power.

Should I wrap this up then…… huh?
The baby spiders suddenly started crawling towards the graze on the Grafant’s butt where my〖Wind Slash〗cut.

“Bumo! Bumo~o!”

The spiders stick to the wound and spit web on the injury.
The Grafant does its best to resist but its legs were all beat up from the fall that it couldn’t move much.
And even if it could move, it wouldn’t be able to hit them since they’re stuck behind its butt.

I shot another dose of〖Wind Slash〗to cut the Grafant’s front legs.
The Grafant, refusing to give up, resorted to crawling.
Meanwhile, the baby spiders began biting at the Grafant.

“Bumo~o! Bumo~oooo!”

…… I guess I’ll just wait around for the Grafant to run out of strength.
Looking at it squirm like that, I feel kinda bad for it.