"A beast horde is coming, the rhythm of the bell suggests there might be plenty."
The village chief explained the meaning behind the bell sound and said calmly, "But the walls of our village are very sturdy, there's no need to worry."
"No, it's our duty to protect the village from the beasts; if the enemy attacks, we should not pretend not to know."
Natsu stood up, clashing his fists together, "I'm fired up, Hapi!"
"Aye!"
Hapi understood, wings sprouted from his back, grabbing Natsu and flying outside.
In the air, Natsu tossed a line: "We'll leave first, if you're late, there's none for you, Rhode!"
Rhode couldn't be bothered to respond; I'd rather have none for me, you know, it's exhausting to provide mounts and clean up after you all the way.
"Mr. Rhode, the beast horde is dangerous, your companion..."
"Don't worry, Natsu is strong." Rhode said, "I'm off too."
"Excuse me!" Concerned he might suddenly fly off too, the village chief hurriedly interrupted, "Is there anything we can help with?"
"...Now that you mention it, there is something." Rhode thought it imprudent to need the village chief's reminder to remember, almost misled by Natsu.
"Please go ahead."
"Could you organize the villagers to prepare more water and sand, things useful for putting out fires?"
"What?"
Rhode said, "Natsu uses Fire Magic, while powerful, it can easily cause accidents.
So please notify the villagers in advance, ideally each household is prepared."
"I see." The village chief nodded; though he didn't understand much about Magic, Fire Magic to deal with beasts must be strong.
"Answer the call, Deep Red Beaked Bird!"
Rhode summoned a Deep Red Beaked Bird, mounted it, and flew towards the village entrance.
...
Flying in the sky gives a different perspective, especially while riding such an unusual bird.
Although flying not too high... luckily, not too high, Rhode knew if he fell from this height, he wouldn't die, otherwise he'd carry a parachute.
The villagers had already been alerted by the bell sound, some armed with weapons or farming tools ran towards the village entrance, others ran to the village chief's house.
Rhode surpassed the running villagers in the air, catching quite a few eyes.
I've heard the village chief invited a mage, is that him?
But quickly, their attention was drawn elsewhere.
From the direction of the village entrance, a red fire meteor descended from the sky, crashing into the beast horde's center.
Rhode saw Natsu's figure clearly and inwardly criticized; it's too dangerous to jump directly from such a height.
He himself jumped off the Beaked Bird onto the arrow tower, letting the Beaked Bird fly out to attack.
"Mage sir!" The guard of this arrow tower was Bit Bar, one of the two who welcomed Rhode and the others into the village earlier.
The unlucky kid hadn't changed shifts and was forced to work overtime.
"Thank you, the one on fire is my companion, you've seen him, please tell everyone not to shoot arrows recklessly."
"Yes!" Bit agreed, then worriedly asked, "But your companion is rushing into the middle of the beast horde alone, is that okay?"
In the dim light, Rhode could barely make out the beast horde exceeded fifty, but couldn't tell specific beast types.
Thanks to Natsu's firelight, he clearly saw a few wolves and leopards surrounding Natsu.
The one hit by that falling fire meteor from the sky was a tiger.
"Don't worry about him, if you want to help, bring more torches... and prepare some water while you're at it."
Rhode arbitrarily assigned the villagers some minor tasks.
However, this clearly couldn't ease them; still, quite a few carried bows and arrows, either climbing onto arrow towers or setting up ladders on the walls.
"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"
"Fire Dragon's Claw!"
Natsu indulged outside the walls, punching a wolf flying, kicking a leopard flying.
Seemingly feeling unsatisfied, Natsu spread his arms, flames extending from his wrists into the air, forming flame wings, sweeping down like a Fire Dragon:
"Fire Dragon's Wing Strike!"
Five wolves were swept away by this move, fur ignited, howling as they landed, rolling non-stop.
"So strong, so strong!"
"That is magic, that is the power of a mage!"
"With this power, we need not fear!"
Natsu's lively display amazed the villagers, boosting their confidence.
Meanwhile, after completing his task of deploying Natsu, Hapi flew to the arrow tower to find Rhode: "Rhode, aren't you going to fight?"
Rhode said, "I am fighting."
"Liar, you're clearly standing here."
Rhode shook his head and sighed, "Who said only those standing in the light are heroes."
"I don't understand."
Rhode pointed to the slightly dark area; actually, his group of Beaked Birds and a group of Shadow Wolves were already fighting.
The Deep Red Beaked Bird's 'Flying Feathers' attack, with feathers like throwing knives, shot a brown bear into a dartboard.
Regrettably, the same attack against a rhino, the feathers only embedded halfway in, couldn't inflict much damage.
However, the Deep Red Beaked Bird lives up to the 'Beaked' name, after a sprint with wings, it could pierce through the rhino's belly.
The small Beaked Birds performed worse, but were adequate against wolves.
As for the Shadow Wolves, they were now biting a struggling giant python, its blood dripping, only capable of a dying struggle.
"I'm a Summoner, charging in frontline battles isn't my task, got it?"
Hapi realized Rhode's battle style at night was far less conspicuous than Natsu's, and his creatures might be mistakenly seen as attacking beasts by the villagers.
"But since you don't want to fight yourself, why learn combat from everyone?"
"To give the enemy a surprise when they think bypassing the creatures makes me easy prey."
"So sly."
Rhode tugged Hapi's face: "How can you describe your own people as sly, it's smart, it's prudent!"
"Aye~"
Rhode released Hapi: "Besides them, I also sent two River Crabs patrolling around the village walls, I'm very busy."
After all, no one said beasts can only attack the front gate, other directions deserve attention too.
Hapi silently watched for a while, then asked: "Why not send those Stone Beetles too?"
"You ask many questions." Rhode said,
"Sending too many creatures into battle, my Magic Power won't sustain for long, and I'm very tired today."
Unleashing all creatures at once only gains a surge, like that day ambushing two Ghost mages.
Holding enough Magic Power for self-preservation, that day's continuous combo attacks was Rhode's strongest burst combo.
For a prolonged battle, sending two to three groups is optimal.
Thanks to the efforts of Natsu and the creatures, the invading beasts quickly dwindled, the villagers experienced such an easy defense battle for the first time — just watching was enough.