Free Web NovelChapter 21: While You Fought on the Roof
The train slowed down slightly as it curved into the deep mouth of the Whispering Ravine.
Towering rock cliffs rose up on both sides, blocking out the morning sun and throwing the entire iron transport into deep shadows.
A strange, whistling wind rushed through the gaps in the stone walls, creating an eerie sound that gave the canyon its name.
Inside compartment seven, the casual chatter among the mercenaries died down instantly. Weapons were drawn, and the air became tense.
Suddenly, a loud, heavy thud echoed from the rocky cliffs above.
"They’re coming!" a mercenary in the forward compartment yelled.
Rhys looked out the reinforced glass window. High up on the jagged ledge, several grey figures emerged from the stone.
These were the Stone Monsters.
In the web novels Rhys had read back on Earth, stone elementals were always depicted as slow, sluggish, and clumsy piles of rock that could be easily outrun.
But these things completely shattered that stereotype.
They were fast. The monsters looked like humanoid gorillas made of jagged, interlocking grey boulders, and they moved with terrifying agility.
They leaped from ledge to ledge, their stone joints grinding together with a harsh, scraping sound.
Before the passengers could even react, the Stone Monsters began their assault.
They tore massive chunks of rock from the cliffside and hurled them directly at the moving transport.
Boom! Boom!
Several heavy boulders slammed into the side of the train, denting the iron plates and causing the entire carriage to shudder violently.
However, the train’s defensive runes flared with a faint purple light, absorbing the brunt of the kinetic impact.
Seeing that their ranged rocks weren’t doing any real damage to the metallic beast, the Stone Monsters altered their tactics.
They leaped off the high cliffs, landing directly onto the moving carriages with heavy, bone-rattling thuds.
"They’re climbing the carriages! Get to the roof!" Kai barked, her cold eyes flashing with battle intent.
She drew her long blade, the metal gleaming sharply in the dim light.
Kai didn’t waste another second. She kicked open the metal door leading to the outer ladder and climbed up to the roof of compartment seven, with Yuki and Selena following closely behind.
Rhys, true to his role as a useless placeholder, simply stayed in his seat by the window, watching the show through the glass.
Up on the roof, the battle commenced immediately. Three Stone Monsters had landed directly above their compartment, their rocky fists slamming down to punch through the iron roof.
"Back off!" Kai shouted. freёwebnovel.com
Her body suddenly flared with a bright, pulsing white light. As an Apprentice Enhancement Mage, she channeled her mana inward, forcefully multiplying her physical strength, speed, and durability.
She dashed forward, her boots leaving faint cracks on the iron roof. With a swift upward swing, her reinforced blade sliced clean through the stone arm of the leading monster.
Sparks flew into the air as rock met enchanted steel, and the severed stone limb tumbled off the moving train.
While Kai held the frontline, Selena went to work from the rear.
The dark robes around her forearms fluttered as she raised her hands, the glowing blue veins beneath her skin pulsing violently.
"Decay," Selena muttered, her voice eerie and hollow.
A burst of dark, misty purple smoke erupted from her palms, shooting across the roof and wrapping tightly around the remaining two Stone Monsters.
The effect was instantaneous. The thick, durable stone hides of the monsters began to crack and soften, turning into brittle, crumbly clay under the influence of her curse magic.
Their fast movements became sluggish as their structural integrity rotted away from the inside out.
"Yuki, finish them!" Kai ordered, dodging a clumsy swing from a weakened monster.
"On it!" Yuki chirped.
The silver-haired girl stepped forward, her purple eyes glowing with a freezing light.
She clapped her hands together, creating a massive magic circle in front of her. "Glacial Chain!"
A blast of absolute cold air erupted from the circle. Moisture in the atmosphere instantly froze into thick, jagged chains of solid ice.
The icy chains wrapped around the cursed, softened Stone Monsters, locking them to the roof. The extreme temperature contrast caused the brittle, cursed stone to crack violently.
With a final, crushing twist of the ice chains, the monsters shattered into dozens of harmless pebbles, which were instantly swept away by the rushing wind as the train roared forward.
It was a perfectly coordinated display of apprentice-level magic.
Kai provided the physical force, Selena melted the defense, and Yuki provided the absolute control.
They didn’t even need a fourth member.
Down inside the compartment, Rhys was completely relaxed.
He wasn’t doing anything to help them, and nobody expected him to. Instead, his focus was entirely directed elsewhere.
While the three women were busy fighting on the roof, Rhys had secretly sent out his remaining, intact Needle Beak Hummingbirds.
The small, invisible avian summons were currently flying at incredible speeds about half a mile ahead of the train, scouting the narrow twists and turns of the Whispering Ravine.
Through the shared visual perception of his birds, Rhys was studying the geography in real time.
The wind rushed through his mental connection as the hummingbirds soared past jagged cliffs and hidden caves.
[Host, your companions possess decent coordination for low-tier mortals,] the system commented in his mind.
[Though their mana efficiency is quite pathetic. If they continue casting at this rate, their cores will drain before the train exits the valley.]
’They’re doing fine for apprentices,’ Rhys thought back, completely unbothered. ’As long as they keep the roof clear, I can keep scouting.’
His hummingbirds pushed deeper into the ravine, navigating a sharp, blind curve in the tracks ahead.
The train would be reaching this specific bend in less than three minutes.
But as the leading hummingbird cleared the corner, Rhys’s virtual vision suddenly halted.
His eyes narrowed slightly as he focused on the mental image sent back by his bird.
There, right in the middle of the narrow tracks, sat a massive, artificial barricade.
A mountain of enormous boulders had been carefully stacked together, completely blocking the path of the train.
Even worse, Rhys could see dozens of dark shadows moving within the crevices of the cliffs surrounding the barricade.
Thousands of Iron-Claw Baboons and larger Stone Monsters were lying in wait, holding heavy stones and crude weapons.
They were setting a coordinated ambush.
It would be a lie to say he wasn’t unbothered now.
’Shooo.’
A sound of throwing stone was his hummingbird’s last message as its connection completely broke.
’Ugh. This might be a bit dangerous,’ he thought, fully preparing for a fight.
