Hours into their third day of hunting in Alpine Woodpecker Forest, Vicente's group would hunt the first pentagram of the day, and another of his men would successfully absorb such essence.
After that, they would continue their journey until Vice noticed a relatively powerful being on their path who exuded a level 4 Acolyte aura!
Sensing that someone dangerous to his group was nearby, he alerted his men and brought them into formation, weapons aimed at their surroundings while circulating mana through their eyes and hands.
For these armed men, the most important thing was not to use their magical abilities related to their pentagrams but to use them in their weapons. That was what gave them the most power and the best chance of survival!
So, as they cautiously approached Vicente's target, the 10 men didn't even consider using their unique abilities as they felt the strain of approaching a level 4 Acolyte.
When one of these men, an Orange-talented one, saw the being they had just sensed at the top of one of the trees there, he gulped down his saliva at the sight and the sensation emanating from that being.
Gulp!
'This essence...' He thought to himself as he looked at this being with the body of a bird, the head of a maiden, the face pale with hunger, and long claws on its hands.
'A Harpy!' Rory's eyes widened as he identified the creature at the top of the tree they were approaching.
A Harpy was a type of magical creature that formed pentagrams. Not only that, but this creature was compatible with the gem of one of the nine men who had room for new pentagrams in their beings.
Vicente saw this creature, looked at one of his level 2 men, and saw that it was perfectly compatible with this one's magical form, which was based on the wind element.
The man with orange talent also noticed this and immediately felt a connection with the creature, knowing that the pentagram it would give to whoever killed it would be very good for him.
'This is an orange pentagram!' He clenched his fists as he saw the fourth capable of producing such a thing that he and the group had passed by since they arrived in this area.
They had seen many magical beings over the past few days, ignoring most of the 1st stage ones and focusing on the 2nd stage ones, which normally had a 100% chance of having a pentagram on them.
But most of the 2nd stage magical beings had only red pentagrams on them. Finding one with an orange pentagram was as rare as finding a magician with a green talent.
With this in mind, such a man tightened his fingers around his weapon, eager to kill that creature.
But just as he was about to take the first step, he felt his weapon's trigger stiffen so that he couldn't shoot the creature.
Looking at Vicente, he understood that his leader had acted against him.
But Vicente didn't look at the man. Aware that his weapons wouldn't kill this Harpy, he slowly moved a metal bar towards the creature's body.
This was a beast, not the ordinary magician he and his men were used to dealing with in Millfall. A beast's body was very resilient, and its powers were primarily focused on physical strength. In other words, the bullets from those weapons wouldn't be able to injure seriously that Harpy's skin even in large quantities!
The men nearby realized the problem when they noticed what Vice was doing.
Rory looked at the piece of metal being manipulated by Vice and watched as it turned into something resembling a snake and crawled up a tree toward the beast.
Meanwhile, another piece of metal hovered before Vicente as he prepared his next move.
'50... 48... 46...' Vicente ignored his men and measured the distance between the steel 'snake' and the creature.
When such a thing was 20 meters away from the Harpy, it suddenly took its eyes off the prey it was watching at the top of the tree, feeling a magical fluctuation approaching it.
But just as it was about to look at Vicente's metallic 'snake,' it suddenly heard the sound of air being cut and looked over to where a young human had just shot a metallic arrow at it at high speed.
The Harpy's eyes narrowed, and it clearly saw the human who had attacked it and almost immediately felt that it would be in danger if it stayed there.
But even with this feeling that it should flee, it had to defend itself from the attack quickly coming towards its chest, or it would be in trouble!
It put its wings in front of its body, forming a hard-to-penetrate shield filled with mana that transformed its wings, making them thicker and bigger.
But as it prepared to receive Vicente's attack, this young man smiled and used his hands to manipulate the metallic 'snake,' causing it to strike at one of the creature's feet.
'Gotcha!'
As it felt a blow to its wings, enough to express pain, the Harpy didn't care how much damage the human had done to it with that blow. It looked down at one of its feet and saw what looked like a thick, heavy handcuff attached to it.
As it jumped into the air to try to fly away, the arrow that had hit it fused with this metal object in its feet, and it felt an indescribable weight pulling it down.
If it could think rationally, it would ask itself, "What is this?"
It had never dealt with a situation like this before!
But as it tried to flap its wings, the force pulling it down became stronger and stronger, and suddenly, it found itself falling faster and faster toward the ground.
All it could do was scream before it hit the ground between Vicente's men.
Boom!
Rocks exploded, and a crater formed where this creature with a wingspan of about 3 meters and a weight of 150 kilos fell.
At that moment, Vicente shouted to all his men. "Fire!"
Bang!
All 11 people in the vicinity pulled the triggers on their weapons and fired mana-loaded bullets at various points on the body.
Knowing that they wouldn't kill her with this burst of fire, no one held back for the sake of the companion who would absorb the pentagram that was about to emerge from this creature.
Wounded, confused, and unprepared for this barrage of attacks, the Harpy felt pain throughout her body as several bullets penetrated deep into her wings and skin.
