Lord: Starting from a Goblin Nest

”Why are you so stubborn, you demon?” Quest said, flicking his tail in displeasure. ”Gold Coins are useless here. Why don’t you go use them in the Hells or the Abyss?”

The Pollution Worm Demon ignored him, staring hopefully at Ron instead. For some reason, being watched by a demon with such an expression felt indescribably strange to Ron.

If he was reading the look correctly, it seemed to say, ’I’m in trouble. Can you help me?’

”We don’t have any spare items on us at the moment, so we can’t barter,” Ron said tentatively. ”But if you need some help around here, we’d be willing to offer our labor—”

A bright light instantly flared within the hundreds, even thousands, of lenses that made up the Pollution Worm Demon’s compound eyes. She had been waiting for Ron to say exactly that!

”Ahem, you are the new Lord of Delusional Land and a business partner of my master’s. Since you’ve put it that way, how could I possibly refuse?” the demon said, putting on a show to hide her ecstasy. ”You’ve come at a bad time... or perhaps, the perfect time. These past few days, a group of Gargoyles have been causing trouble. I don’t know if a Teleportation Gate to an Elemental Plane opened on the other side of the mountain or what, but they drove away the giant eagles and took their nests. Recently, they’ve set their sights on my... the villagers of the Farama Kingdom. They come down and attack from time to time.”

”I’m too weak now. It’s difficult to even flap my wings, so I can’t stop their raids. Could you and your friends help me solve this problem?”

The Pollution Worm Demon sighed. ”Although I have already thrown myself into the arms of the Nine Floors of Hell, to be completely reborn, I must first ’descend into Hell.’ Until then, I remain a weakened demon.”

”We just wanted to get some food, and now we have to wipe out a flock of Gargoyles? You sure know how to order people around,” Aive huffed. ”This is just—”

Before the Half-Elf could finish, chaos erupted in the village. The Pollution Worm Demon’s expression changed as she shot to her feet. ”They’re here! The Gargoyles are here again!”

This was no longer the time to haggle. Ron and the others immediately rushed out of the house with the Pollution Worm Demon. The moment they were outside, Ron heard the sound of flapping wings drawing closer overhead.

Evil Creatures that looked like winged demons cast sprawling shadows from the sky. Any villager who fell under one was terrified, scrambling desperately to get inside buildings and escape the stone monsters’ attacks.

In any scramble, however, there are always winners and losers. Those who made it inside first frantically locked the doors and windows. The slower ones could only lean against the sealed entrances under the expanding shadows, sinking into desperate madness.

WHIZZ!

An arrow shot through the air, piercing the Gargoyle’s leg just as it snatched a little girl. With a shower of stony fragments, the creature cried out in pain, dropping the girl and turning to dive at Delaford, who held the bow.

”Ha, come and get me, you flying piece of rubble!” Delaford rolled away from the Gargoyle’s deadly swipe, taunting the enemy loudly. He failed to notice another Gargoyle taking the opportunity to fly in from behind, its massive maw—filled with what could be either sharp teeth or jagged stones—snapping down toward the goblin’s head.

If that bite had landed, the Ranger would have surely met the fate of a Headless Knight. But a blazing Fireball exploded behind the goblin, sending a spray of stone shrapnel everywhere. Silvia lowered her Walking Stick as Victoria immediately raised her shield to stand before the Vampire Descendant, locking into combat with a Gargoyle whose wing had been shattered by the blast.

”Save your taunts for corpses, not living things,” the Priest of Heim said, helping Delaford up with her warhammer. ”See that one up there Casting Magic?”

”Shoot it down!”

”On it!” An Enchanted arrow soared into the sky. Three Gargoyles, hidden amongst their kin and stealthily Casting spells, were caught completely unaware. Guided by the arrow, three rays trailing brilliant, fiery tails precisely shattered their skulls. Deprived of their Magic Power, the stone bodies plummeted from the sky, crashing to the ground and turning to powder.

However, among the Gargoyles—most of which fought with tooth and claw, with a few that could cast Magic—Ron spotted one that was clearly different from its kin.

The smaller Gargoyle used the large, heavy bodies of its brethren to rapidly weave and dodge, evading the party’s ranged attacks. When it finally ran out of cover, the creature suddenly struck. Its arms morphed into twin blades from the shoulders down. Aided by its momentum and wings, the Gargoyle began to spin rapidly in midair, transforming into a flying meat grinder as it plummeted toward Yelena, who had just finished strangling another Gargoyle with her Thorn Chain!

”Watch out!” The Martial Monk tapped her toes lightly on a nearby wall, her fiery-red figure vanishing into the shadows. The iron-shod tip of her staff struck out from the darkness like a viper, landing a precise blow on the smaller Gargoyle’s torso.

Everyone heard the sound of cracking stone, but the Gargoyle didn’t shatter to pieces like its brethren. Instead, it stumbled, using the blow’s momentum to carve an arc through the air. It bypassed Victoria’s Kite Shield and shot straight for Silvia!

”Mirror Image—” Silvia hastily threw up her defenses. The Gargoyle, however, had clearly come prepared. The sudden appearance of the illusions didn’t affect its trajectory in the slightest. Blood sprayed from the Vampire Descendant’s back. Silvia felt as if she’d been run over by a horse-drawn carriage. ’This weight, this impact... this Gargoyle is definitely not the size it appears to be!’

”The impact was wrong! It’s too heavy!” Quest’s warning came out, but it was already too late. Revealing its true form, a massive Gargoyle unfurled its sky-blotting wings. Its talons tore through the cloth on Silvia’s shoulders and lifted the Mage clean into the air. It seemed to have no intention of sticking around to fight; it was preparing to fly away immediately!

”Silvia! Dammit! Command Magic! Immobilization! Molded Stone!” Seeing the companion she was supposed to be protecting snatched away right before her eyes, Victoria was, without a doubt, the most frantic of them all. But alas, her Deities had not yet granted her Magic powerful enough to affect the abductor, which was a full two sizes larger than a normal Gargoyle. ’If only I could cast Flame Strike Magic like that Minotaur Demon from the labyrinth,’ she thought, ’Silvia would never have been caught so easily!’

Ron’s arrow and a bolt from his Magic Crossbow skimmed past the Gargoyle’s talons, both at the very end of their flight. In just that brief moment, the creature had already flown beyond their maximum range. It was about to get away!

At the last possible moment, Ron drew the Hand Crossbow from his waist—the one that didn’t require physical ammunition—and fired it in a random direction.

”Cover your ears!” Ron yelled himself hoarse, just before a piercing Magic Scream engulfed everyone—allies, villagers, demons, and Gargoyles—within a forty-meter radius. At the same time, a bronze Heron Sculpture dropped into his other hand, and blood-red lines instantly spread across its surface.

”Go! Knock that thing out of the sky for me! I’ll take you to the estate!”