Spending My Retirement In A Game

Not to mention, the kids were here as well, and while their skillsets were unique, they were all incredibly useful and powerful.

The group continued on through the snow, until Melissa\'s body let out a shiver. As though she was surprised by something. Eisen looked at her worried expression and frowned, "Is everything okay?"

Melissa, with slight tears forming in the corners of her eyes, pointed forward into the direction that they were walking. Using her sleeves, she wiped the tears from her eyes, "There. They\'re attacking."

Eisen clicked his tongue. That meant that the people they were looking for had encountered the bees and probably struck them down without hesitation. They weren\'t native to this place after all, something that obviously wouldn\'t escape them either.

"Everyone get ready just in case, but don\'t take out any weapons, alright?" the old man warned, starting to lead the group forward instead of Melissa. It didn\'t take long until Eisen was able to spot some people through their mana, hiding inbetween the thicket and snow.

"You youngins can come out now, we\'re not here to fight," Eisen said in a clear voice so that he could make sure all the people surrounding them would be able to hear it. The old man wanted to make sure that they knew they just wanted to talk. Though, the group around them chose not to respond in kind. A heavy metal ball, practically a cannonball, shot at them from the darkness.

With a wave of his arm, Sal shot a web of empowered threads into the air, catching the cannonball. He continued manipulating the thread to keep it mid-air, and the heavy projectile just stuck in the web like a fly ready to be devoured by its prey.

"Didn\'t I just say we\'re not here to fight?" Eisen asked, sighing disappointedly. He walked over toward the web and pulled the metal ball off it. A wave of golden flames flowed over his arm as he looked into the direction it was shot from, and with a deep glare into the darkness, Eisen threw it back with as much strength as he could muster.

Of course, not necessarily with the intent of doing any damage; just with enough force to scare them.

Through the silent, freezing night air, the cannonball shot forward and impacted with the ground. An explosion of snow and mud shot outward, showering not only the one who shot it in the first place, but plenty of their companions as well. As though this were the signal they were all waiting for, the whole group started to attack.

Eisen pulled out his ego-sword, watching as a wave of arrows approached them. Magical threads shot out from Sal as he continued stopping the projectiles, and Melissa released some of her combat-specialized bees. Caria as well was excitedly waiting for her own opportunity to defend everyone, which came quicker than she thought as the first wave of attackers ran toward the group.

With an excited smile, Caria took a deep breath, and then blew it all against a pair of swordsmen. A cloud of spores soon engulfed them, not only blocking their sight but making it hard for them to breathe. Before they could even do anything about it, a number of small, but strong, mushrooms sprouted from wherever they could. On their skin or clothes, it didn\'t matter.

The attackers soon were unable to move as the mushrooms seemed to focus their growth on their joints initially. And together with Melissa\'s bees, they quickly fell to the ground.

Though, Sal didn\'t let his sisters get the better of him either. At the same time as he stopped as many incoming projectiles as he could, leaving the rest to be cut up, deflected, or blocked by Kiron, he started creating magic circle with his mana threads, preparing to initiate some spell attacks against them too.

As soon as the wave of arrows was done, as their own men were now too close to their targets, Sal was able to shoot out a number of magic missiles back at the people hiding out, who were targeted not only by him but also by Melissa\'s bees. The ones that were coming closer were being taken care of by the others, after all.

The mushrooms that were sprouting on those two attackers soon popped off their unconscious bodies, having fed off of their energy until they were too weak to do anything, and turned into small Myconids on their own. Their small but steel-like bodies soon burrowed through the snow, setting traps for the attackers from below and attacking their legs the moment they stopped moving.

Something they were forced to do, since before they could even come close, the range of Kiron\'s massive Greatsword blocked any chance they had at ever coming close. Not to mention, Eisen was also there, moving through the bodies to attack everyone in tandem with Kiron. Though, he was taking a step back in that regard, since he had to focus on everyone\'s defense as well.

Eisen was able to see mana gathering in lumps in the shadows of the trees, pulling together his own magic so that he could quickly create defensive walls. Magic was the best way to defend against magic, after all. And though it was non-combat magic, meaning that it was more easily destroyed by combat magic, Eisen\'s magical element was perfect for something like this.

As a craftsman, it was important to create things that stood solidly and could outlast their creator. Something that was deeply engrained into his magic as well.

The strength of the dense rock that he formed defended well against especially the more malleable magics, such as flames or mist, while the ones that had stronger penetration, such as earth or ice magics, were immensely slowed down, weakened, or simply deflected by just turning some sections of his deployed magic from stone to flames.

And since Eisen could see what magic was being cast, or at least the element judging from the colour of the mana the spellcasters used, he could prepare whatever he needed well in advance.

As such, even though the attackers were ridiculously well-organized and plentiful considering the extreme short notice they had to get themselves ready for the fight, the outcome of the battle was to be expected. Within a matter of minutes, the other side was nearly completely taken down and restrained. Obviously, nobody was killed.

The ones that were more seriously wounded, something that couldn\'t necessarily be avoided, were even healed with some of Eisen\'s healing potions or salves, though still restrained and unarmed so that they wouldn\'t be able to do anything.

It was a total of 12 attackers, and quite well-balanced too. They had a number of mages and rangers, as well as vanguards, tanks, and even a supporter in the back. And judging from said supporter\'s behaviour throughout the battle, and the worried glances of the attackers toward him once they had been defeated, this supporter was at least this squad\'s leader.

Eisen squatted down in front of him. He was almost completely trapped in a coccoon made from Sal\'s threads, and Eisen was holding his sword in his hand, "Is this the way that you always treat guests?" the old man asked, and the supporter was taken aback.

"Aren\'t guests usually invited?" He asked, and Eisen just smiled back, "Fair enough. Then let\'s just say \'visitors\' instead. We\'re not here to fight."

"Considering you didn\'t wanna fight, you sure released a ton of monsters around here."

Eisen raised his brow, "You mean those bees? They were scouts. They\'re at a surprisingly high rank, but they\'re as weak as low-leveled Rank 1 Monsters, if even that. They were clearly not a threat."

The supporter sighed, "After the scouts come the troops, don\'t they? And not like we were wrong. For some people claiming to not be here to fight, you lot sure were happy to get into it."

"You attacked us first."

"And we have every right to do-"

Eisen held forward his sword, "Every right? You guys are terrorists. A cult. Or gang. Or whatever you want to call yourselves. But fact is, you are dangerous.

You have no right to do anything anymore at this point. Not to mention, did you even think about this? A group of five people, including an old man and three kids, without any sort of luggage or equipment, approach your camp, a place known for you dangerous lot to be waiting. And your first instinct was \'let\'s attack them\'? Guess you were just maniacs after all."

The supporter scoffed and shook his head, "That made us even more cautious. The weirder people look, the more of a danger they are. But whatever, if you say you\'re not here to attack, why are you here?"

Eisen stood up and pulled up the supporter by the coccoon he was trapped in, quickly throwing him over his shoulder before confidently starting to walk into the direction of the camp that Melissa\'s bees had found earlier, "What else? We\'re here to talk. I\'ve got some questions for you all."