As the clash between monsters and knights was about to happen in the Kroll Forest, half of all the fifty black knights charged forward to meet the drakes head-on while the other half slowed down, staying around ten meters behind the first half, bows drawn taut in a cunning tactical maneuver that will render the monsters' charge ineffective in the upcoming fight.
Normally, the drakes' charge is pretty terrifying, as it will drive most soldiers to break their formation to escape the heavy mass of muscles and scales in fear or panic, but Zarba's summons don't have any emotion or morals in the first place, so they could follow his command without hesitation, making them ideal soldiers that he can manipulate in any complicated tactical maneuver that is impossible for normal soldiers to follow with 100% efficiency on the battlefield.
Zarba watched everything from the carriage driver's seat with a calm expression as he pulled his own bowstring, aiming at one of the two drakes that were charging from the front of the road while also keeping his awareness of the surrounding area as he aimed his arrow precisely at his target's eye, with the arrow nocking on his bow that was glowing faintly as the white bow empowered it with mana, ready to release it at any moment.
As the twenty-five ranger knights moved with fearlessness, closing the distance to the coming drakes in eerie silence, and when there were only three meters left before they made contact, each five-man team in front of the drakes suddenly split up in a risky evasion maneuver under Zarba's mental command.
They dodged the charging drakes with sidesteps and rolls that were dangerously close as Zarba's summons avoided the quick swipe of the drakes' claws and the bite of their jaws; some units even got their cloaks torn up like a piece of rag, which left the teams of knights behind them fully exposed for the drakes' annoyed, fury-filled serpentine eyes.
And with the momentum the drakes had built up until now, they could only continue to charge with a frustrated roar towards the teams of knights in the back while ignoring the first teams of knights, as the charging drakes were already too agitated with adrenaline and bloodlust to notice anything suspicious or even care about those knights' movement.
Wild instinct took over them completely as they only focused on the knights standing in front of them. They didn't even notice that by ignoring the knights behind them, they had put themselves in between the groups of enemies…
As the drakes are about to lunge at the line of black knights before them, the knights who slipped past them earlier quickly stop and turn towards the drakes, raising their bows to aim their magic-enchanted arrows at the monsters' flanks together with the knights that were the decoy, who are also aiming at the charging drakes, and then simultaneously, the fifty ranger knights release their powerful magic-enchanted arrows at once upon their target drakes' scaleless sides, throats, chests, and any place with visible weak points exposed, which are ruthlessly targeted by the ranger knights.
Just like the first one that died, the five drakes got overconfident and fell into the trap that Zarba laid out for them as the empowered arrows flew with loud whistle noises, cutting through the air from multiple directions towards the lesser dragons, which they of course chose to ignore just like the first one too, but they will soon come to regret their decision later when the five drakes first feel the heavy impact on their soft spots, and then their pride scales shatter and pierce through with sharp pain as arrows go deep into their muscles, bones, and internal organs, causing their bodies to involuntarily flinch and freeze up from shock.
One drake took an arrow from Zarba through its open serpentine eye socket; the shaft punched clean through its skull, lodging firmly in its small brain as the monster shut down mid-lunge, falling heavily on the road before sliding towards the line of his summons, who gave it an extra arrow to the forehead just to be sure.
Another drake choked on its blood as five arrows pierced its throat, severing arteries in fountains of crimson, with a couple of arrows deep inside its soft flanks piercing one of its lungs. It gurgled and slipped, falling on the ground with a shocking expression.
The third drake stumbled and fell on its side, arrows peppering its weak, scaly belly and flanks as its entrails spilled out onto the forest floor in steaming coils. It cried in agony and flailed around as the black knights continued to release arrows on its body, enhancing it's suffering.
The fourth one is also not doing any better, as three arrows pierced both of its eyeballs, causing it to go blind while its body was getting bombarded from all sides. It pitifully balled up its body in the ground like a turtle as the summoned units mercilessly turned it into a big scaly pincushion.
Zarba watches his summons put down the drakes one by one with satisfaction as he wants to pat himself on the back for taking "Alright" from the treasure vault with him. With this magic bow and his summons, he can pretty much steamroll many enemies below the late-game level without any problem.
Zarba then glanced around to see the drakes that had already died and turned into a pincushion of blood and gore with indifference. It's quite a brutal sight, seeing the drakes die in agony, but they are monsters that were born unnaturally from a heavy concentration of mana, so Zarba doesn't really think of them as true living creatures. 'The monsters in this world are just like bacteria that reproduce too fast...'
There's also one last drake still stubbornly standing and chasing around the summoned units with many arrows protruding from its body. This one is noticeably larger than the others, and because of that, the arrow is not doing serious enough damage like the others.
Then it suddenly stopped with a painful roar after taking an arrow to the eye from Zarba, who took a pot shot at it. It then immediately clutched the arrow that pierced its right eye with its front paw, and then with an angry growl, it pulled the arrow out roughly before it turned to look around with its remaining eye.
The drake's eye darted between its fallen packmates and the unnervingly silent knights, who started reforming their lines and were about to surround it in a circle. With a dumbfounded expression, it realized that it's alone and vulnerable.
Then, with a low, panicked growl vibrating in its chest, the drake knew that it was in deep shit, and with a somewhat pathetic roar, it did the sensible thing and bolted, tail tucked between its hind legs, claws tearing earth as it ran away from the knights before it got surrounded, scrambling toward the dense bushes and grasses between the trees to escape with survival instinct screaming louder than territorial instinct.
Zarba let the lesser dragon leave with a smirk, hoping for it to lead his summons to its nest. 'Good thing this one is tougher than the rest. It'll help me save some hunting time.'
"We got a runner. Four teams follow it to wherever its nest is, kill every drake you find, and come back with their corpses," Zarba commanded as he sat down on the carriage driver's seat before he picked four groups of ranger knights before they broke out from the formation, moving after the fleeing drake in a sprint.
"The rest of you pile up the dead monsters over there," Zarba commanded the rest of his summoned units, gesturing toward a spacious enough clearing off the road.
The ranger knights immediately moved to the dead drakes after Zarba ordered, as they began dragging the drake carcasses to the clearing. The metallic stench of blood thickened in the air, mixing with the earthly smell of the forest.
"My, my, how thoughtful of you, my husband." Xin suddenly pops out from the carriage window again as she looks at the summons, busy dragging the monster's corpse along the ground with a small curl on the corner of her pink lips, as her lavender-colored lipstick and eyeshadow are absent because of laziness today.
"A fine sacrificial material for the Corpse Tribute ritual indeed." She took a dramatic sip of wine from a wineglass, watching black knights start to pile up the carcasses.
What Xin is talking about, the Corpse Tribute ritual, is a magical sacrifice ritual in which you offer the corpse to magic itself, and you can get a small additional mana boost and extra mana to your own manapool that you can use whenever you want without having to use your own mana before the extra mana runs out. If you are confused, then just think of it in game terms like this: before the ritual, MP 100/100 to MP 120/101 after the ritual. Easy to understand, right?
This ritual might sound great, but not many current-era magicians actually practice this ritual, though, as the benefits are pretty negligible and not really worth the trouble of preparing the ritual itself since the original ritual manual was believed to be lost or destroyed ages ago, and what the current-era magicians have is just a joke compared to the original ritual, so no one really cares about this ritual.
But…!
Even if no one has it, it doesn't mean the magic grimoire of the Zigma dynasty will not have the original Corpse Tribute ritual recorded in it!
That's right, the grimoire of Zigma had the original ritual record in it, but since no magician ever came out of the Zigma dynasty, no one ever discovered the original Corpse Tribute ritual still existed for centuries until Xin found the record of the supposedly lost ritual in the grimoire of Zigma one day when she was searching for a contraceptive spell...
And with this ritual, Xin had gone from just an extraordinary magician to a mythical-level being in terms of manapool in just a decade!
Seeing how amazing the ritual was, even Zarba was tempted to use it as well, but after thinking for a bit, he realized that he doesn't really need it since he was basically connecting his soul with Xin's; that means he could actually, technically, use magic with her as a proxy, so there's really no reason for him to try to be a magician as well, not with how much he has already been in training to be a ranger knight in the past decade.
"With this many lesser dragons, you should have quite a significant boost, right?" Zarba said to the half-elf in the carriage with a wishful smile.
"Indeed, my husband, this is going to increase my mana quite significantly." Xin replied as she opened the carriage door and walked down the carriage steps with a mysterious short golden staff in her hand…