"You have a lot of explaining to do…" Artie said as she unslung her bow and strung an arrow on it.
Eliron nodded. "We'll talk later."
'I should have thought of a good lie by then,' he thought, smiling internally.
Still hiding in the safety of the forest, the elves took various positions just at the edge of the trees.
But it was pointless, since the mammoth had already sniffed them out ages ago.
The only reason it was ignoring them was because, to a beast such as itself, they might as well have been ants.
Now that the shock of Eliron's plan had subsided, the hunters were once again back to being afraid of the monster before them.
Some were offering prayers to some god Eliron had never heard of, while others were so afraid that their legs had frozen stiff.
'These elves need to grow a pair…' Eliron scoffed in his mind.
Although Ash was obviously afraid, he still stood with unwavering determination, and Yennefer, the laziest of the bunch, was actually raring to go.
"Ehehehe… a month's supply of premium meat," she mumbled, her eyes twinkling as she stared at the mammoth.
Well…
Maybe it wasn't for the right reasons… but she was still more confident than the rest!
Eliron raised his hand, and a dozen crossbows were lifted, each one pointed at the monster.
'We have to break one of its legs at least…'
If they succeeded in doing so, then escaping the quicksand would be far harder, and they could spend their time trying to kill the monster.
"Now!"
Bang!
The crossbows roared as multiple bolts tore through the air, cutting out of the forest and exploding on the monster's knees.
The elves did not stop. Shot after shot, they emptied every single bolt they had on the monster, unrelentingly.
As long as Eliron's hand was up, the barrage continued.
Artie was holding a special bow today, one that he had not seen her using up until this very moment.
She pulled back her bowstring, and just by watching it, Eliron could tell that it took a tremendous amount of force just to pull back the bow.
WHOOOSH!
Artie sent three arrows flying simultaneously. The air seemed to rattle for a second as the arrows tore through, a small gust of wind blowing her fiery red hair back as the arrows soared.
Bang!
They sped right past the bolts and crashed right into the monster's knee with a loud bang.
Eliron lowered his hand to let them inspect the damage, but when he stared at the knee, his jaw nearly dropped.
Its knee was as clean as the butt of a newborn.
The mammoth hadn't even bothered with their attack. As though it did not notice them, it continued trying to shake itself free from the quicksand.
"What the hell?" Eliron cursed.
"A full two minutes of bombardment and that was the result?"
Artie glanced at her bow and frowned, clearly disappointed by the result.
"One of the things that make them so impossible to defeat is their hide," she murmured.
Ash then continued. "The elders say it is impossible to cut through, so the mammoth can do as it likes without bothering about getting hurt."
"I see…" Eliron frowned.
The magister mammoth was indeed tough. But in the novel, there was one person who had managed to cut through its hide—
'The main character.'
That was the only reason he knew about the existence of such a monster in the first place.
He had encountered one of them when he visited a forest to gather allies for a mission.
Defeating the monster would go on to earn him recognition in a nearby village, and that was how he met one of the principal members of the cast.
'How did he defeat it back then?'
Eliron quickly recalled what he could remember from the fight.
According to the MC, physical attacks were completely useless against the monster. Only mana attacks had a chance at injuring it.
He had fought the monster for hours, and then just at the point of death…
The main character had acquired a cheat skill which allowed him to bypass any form of armour.
Plot armour at its finest.
Sadly, the skill was only SS Rank, meaning Eliron could not use it.
Which meant his only option was a mana-empowered attack…
Among the skills Eliron was used to, spatial manipulation didn't have a good enough range, tornado was not exactly for cutting damage, and primordial blaze wasn't even a long-ranged skill.
He would have to step on the quicksand, which was a surefire way to lose his life.
But there was one skill he had in his arsenal that wasn't even SSS Ranked.
This spell was the only one he had prior to him regaining his memories. After all, he was a noble.
[Wind Slash]
The skill indeed had enough range to reach the monster without them having to leave the safety of the forest.
Another plus was that the skill didn't take much mana to use, so he would still have enough mana to fight the mammoth.
The only problem was that it was far too weak to do any real damage.
'I need to boost it somehow…'
And Eliron had just the right spell for the job.
[SSS Ranked skill, Wind Spirit's Aura]
> Surrounds the caster with a veil of wind, reducing all incoming damage and boosting all wind-based spells by 100%.
==
And to make his attack even more effective, Eliron turned to Artie.
"Can I borrow your bow?"
Artie was clearly surprised, but she obliged and handed it over to him.
"What are you planning to do?" she asked as Eliron placed three arrows on the bowstring.
"I'm going to shoot it, of course," he said nonchalantly.
Artie just stared at him, but said nothing, deciding to see his plan for herself.
The bow was very large, which made it a little difficult to use, but after a few seconds of repositioning, Eliron finally got the hang of it… or at least he thought he did.
The red-haired elf next to him thought otherwise. She moved behind him and placed her arm underneath his own, adjusting his form.
"I don't know what your plan is…"
She shifted the bow a little higher. She held his hand to steady the shot.
"But you have a thing for pulling off upsets." Then she frowned. "Just don't get us killed."
"You know what… maybe you should do it," Eliron said thoughtfully, handing the bow over to her.
Artie took it and instead strung five arrows. "I'm guessing you have a plan?"
Eliron moved behind her and held both her hands.
His left hand was gently placed over hers, while his right hand was clasped around her fingers and the bowstring.
He was so close that he could smell a mild flowery scent from her hair, like wildflowers bathed in the warm morning sun.
And then, the next thing he did made her gasp…