501 This Is Just Training For Them

The maids responded to Mary's orders quickly, arranging themselves to form a wall in between us and the flying monsters.

Weapons and equipment suddenly materialised on them, the front maids holding spears and shields while the ones behind had equipped themselves with bows and arrows.

Where were they hiding those?

Mary gave a command and arrows were loosed, the projectiles shooting faster than what a normal arrow should have been able to move and struck against the horde of shadow monsters in the air.

All of the arrows found their marks, though I wonder if it was just because there were too many targets to miss or because of the archer's skills.

The other monsters let out a shriek and increased the speed of their dive, trying to get to us before all of them were shot down.

The next wave of arrows were fired and more monsters went down, most of them still screaming and screeching as they clawed at the arrow stuck to their body.

But that was not enough to hold the horde back as the monsters continued their advance towards us.

As the monsters got even closer, the maids standing in between the archers and spears lifted their hands and shot out various spells that struck against the shadow monsters, similarly decimating their numbers with impunity.

Combined with the archers behind them, the monsters were not able to advance past a certain point and constantly fell to our attacks.

It kind of made it look like the shield bearers at the front were a little unnecessary.

Just as that thought came to my mind, a few of the shadow monsters let out a shriek and crashed into each other midair.

At first I thought it was the effect of a spell cast by one of the maids. But when the monsters started to merge together to turn into an even bigger monster, I knew that was not the case.

Damnit, of course there's the trope of these monsters combining together to become stronger.

The newly formed monster shrugged off the arrows and magic, charging straight towards the shield wall protecting us.

I half expected the maids to be thrown back from the impact but surprisingly, the maid the monster crashed into held her ground.

The two maids beside her then thrust their spears at the monster, their weapons impaling through the monster like it was made of paper.

It let out a roar of pain before it disintegrated into nothingness.

More of those types of monsters started to descend upon us but the shield wall still held strong. Any monsters that the mages and archers failed to repel were stopped by the spears.

"Should I help, Mother?"

"Ara, ara~ Does my little one wish to take part as well?"

"Umm… I don't really feel good that I'm just standing at the back and not doing anything to help…"

"Ufufufu~ You don't need to be, my little one~ This is also a training camp for our maids. Their training has started ever since they gathered in the hall~"

Oh yeah, I almost forgot that this camp wasn't really made for me, I am the one that was joining them in their training.

There was a loud crash and the ground shook, causing me to turn around to see the island Sebastian had been pulling was now connected to ours.

"Exit," Felicia muttered, pointing at a stone on the new island that looked similar to the one we had used to get here.

"We're advancing backwards now. Everyone maintain formation," Mary instructed, not even looking slightly concerned at our current situation.

That was enough to tell me that we weren't really in any danger.

Then again… I suppose the fact that Mary was not taking the field directly already meant that everything was under control.

Mother once again took me by the hand and guided me towards our destination.

Now that I know we weren't exactly struggling against such an opponent, I could marvel at how well our servants were working together to face an enemy like this.

The butlers have also shifted themselves to start engaging the monsters as well using ranged weapons or magic, easily keeping the monsters away from us as we slowly made our way towards the stone.

Despite already killing so many of those monsters, the horde did not look like it was thinning at all. In fact, for every monster they killed, another seemed to take its place.

There just doesn't seem to be an end to them but at least it was still at a stalemate.

When we reached the stone, Felicia placed her hand on it and the surface of the stone started to glow just like the previous one.

But unlike the previous one that opened a portal immediately, a small tear appeared in the air before slowly getting bigger and bigger.

Felicia frowned at the sight, "This… Might take a while…"

Both Sebastian and Mary nodded, turning back to face the monsters that still continued their attempt at attacking us.

"All combat butlers, form a defensive perimeter, watch for any surprise attacks. I do not want to see any wasted shots! Make every shot count!" Sebastian instructed.

On the other side, Mary also gave her commands, "Combat maids, shift to full ranged assault tactics. Allow none of the monsters to get within melee range."

Both the butlers and servants obeyed their giving orders and shifted themselves accordingly.

The butlers formed a ring outside the former shield wall and started shooting magic at any monster that got within range.

The maids that had been part of the shield wall had dematerialised their shields in favour of joining the bow and magic group.

The magic they were using seemed to go up a level because the bigger monsters were no longer able to shrug off the attacks.

I realised that our Head Maid and Head Butler were basically setting challenges for each of their groups to fulfil.

I turned to Mother but she anticipated my question even before I asked her.

"Ufufufu~ Go ahead and join them, my littler one~"

I let out a yelp of glee and took out a weapon that I have been neglecting for a long time.

It took me a while to dig it out from my Pack of Folding but I eventually found my Tornado Bow, the very same one that I looted off that Off-Worlder.

I didn't need arrows since I would be using my [Shadow Forge] to make them so I just went ahead to join the archers at the back.

Pulling on the string, my magic summoned an arrow already nocked on my bow and ready to be shot.

I took aim at one of the shadow monsters, figuring that it was pretty hard to miss hitting one considering that there were so many of them.

Releasing my grip on the bowstring, I let my arrow fly towards the horde, its enchantment causing the arrow to fly even faster than all the other arrows shot from the maids.

I kept my eye on my arrow, only to see it fly though the horde without even hitting a single one of the shadow monsters.

It was then did I realise that one of the enchantments of the bow was to make use of winds to carry the arrow to its intended target.

So there was just one slight problem with that…

You see… The giant shadow thing at the back is pretty hard to ignore… So when aiming at the smaller monsters, I inadvertently thought about the giant shadow when I was aiming my bow.

So if I'm not wrong… The arrow is now flying straight towards the giant shadow's head… And there was nothing I could do to stop it.

Err… Surely something small like that arrow would not affect it at all right?

There was a loud boom as my arrow hit the head of the giant shadow, seemingly exploding against the monster's face.

It barely caused any damage to it but that wasn't the problem.

That giant eye on its face slowly but surely shifted downwards to look at our direction.

There was a slight pause and even the monsters stopped diving towards us to look up at the giant monster behind them.

Something lifted up beside the giant shadow and it took me a moment to realise that it was the monster's hand, especially since it was bigger than a mountain.

Before anyone could even shout out a warning, a black mass flew past in front of us, generating a wind that almost blew me off my feet.

I felt something pressing down on me and I realised the two maids closest to me had chosen to push me down on the ground and covered me with their bodies to protect me, both of them hugging me tightly.

Only when the wind passed did they release their hold on me and let me get up.

I quickly looked around, fearing the worst.

But surprisingly, everyone was still fine aside from a few of them who had actually been blown back by the wind to fall over on the ground.

The other thing I noticed was that those shadow monsters were nowhere to be found.

The giant shadow then slowly dropped its hands back to its side before looking back into the distance again, going back to ignoring us.

"Ufufufu~ As expected of my little one~ You managed to provoke that thing into helping us wipe out the shadow monsters so easily! Ahhh~ My little one is the greatest~" Mother giggled.

Err… What? That wasn't what I was… You know what? I guess I should just shut up and nod my head along.