Chapter 7 Meeting adventurers

As the fight between my panda and the bison began, I positioned myself behind my panda so that he was between me and the bison. It might not be the best location, as if Frenzied Panda dodges a charge from the bison, I might get in trouble, but I believe my panda could stop a full charge from a bison. The first charge from the bison is coming. Frenzied Panda is ready to receive it with a bamboo stick held in the bison's way. As the bison gets close, it quickly moves its head to the left and right, using its horns to parry the bamboo stick to the right. Frenzied Panda responds by shoving the bison with the bamboo stick and redirecting the charge to the left. I also move to the right, so that Frenzied Panda stays between me and the bison. As I do that, I search my collection menu for a good monster to back up my panda. I’m pretty sure Frenzied Panda could deal with this on its own, but better safe than sorry. I found a decent choice that I pulled from the Magic Ruler. I grab the card with my left hand and prepare to summon backup for my panda at a good time. “Frenzied Panda, try to stop its next charge. I’ll summon a monster to finish it, if you can hold it down for a few seconds.” My panda takes my orders and drops his bamboo stick. This time it doesn’t return to the card but just falls on the ground with a thud. Then he taunts the bison into a test of strength. It falls hard for the taunt (or maybe just thinks that now is a good opportunity to attack since my panda has no weapon) and charges right at Frenzied Panda. My panda braces itself to receive the charge, and I get in position to summon my other monster. The bison's charge is caught by a panda getting hold of its horns. Frenzied Panda still got pushed back about half a meter before they came to a standstill and are now struggling to find out which is the stronger one. But I’m ready with a surprise attack. “I summon Spear Cretin.” This time, the card from which my monster is summoned doesn’t appear on the ground, but in the air, the bison. From it, a small creature falls towards the bison's back, holding a spear in a striking pose, like he is ready to go straight through the bison. As his attack lands, the bison lets out a scream. Can’y blame him. It looks like that spear severed his spine. With the scream continuing, the bison falls to its side, with a little help from a panda, and it seems to have died. “Is it dead?” I ask that of nobody. I don’t think either panda or my little cretin can answer. Thankfully, someone can. (Its lifesigns are fading quickly. It is dying.)This system answers me like always. She is so helpful. Fighting strength isn’t everything. “Good. Now what to do with it?” Spear Cretin comes to me looking down. What is wrong with it? “Is something wrong?” I ask it. It doesn’t answer with words but instead beckons me over to the bison. It points to the place where its spear pierced the bison. It was a great hit straight through the spine. I fail to see what the problem is. The cretin doesn’t like that I don’t get its problem and shows me instead. It puts its hands on the spear and tries to pull it out, but the spear seems to be stuck in the bison. I get the problem now, I mean he is called Spear Cretin. He might just feel lost without his spear. Sadly, my hands are holding pandas and his cards, so I can’t use my full strength to pull the spear. Also since cretin can’t pull it out himself I’m not sure that I could. I’m not sure I have more strength than a 500 attack monster. I also don’t have any tools to dig it out. As I’m thinking of ways to get the spear out, I hear running from the direction that we were heading. This system also warns me. (Master, four humans approaching.) I quickly check that we are not doing anything suspicious that would lead to the group attacking on sight. Frenzied Panda is still holding the bison to the ground. Cretin and I are standing next to it looking at the wound on its back so I think we are fine. As the group of four noticed us, they looked surprised and slowed down to a walk. I think they might be scared as well, but it’s difficult to get a read on people you don’t know from this far. They do kinda look like typical adventurers. All have some kinda leather armor. One carries a sword and shield, he also has some plate armor attached to his leather armor, one has a spear, one has a bow, and the last one carries a staff. So they even have a magic user. The spearman and knight (or is he just a swordsman?n) have helmets as well. The bowman has a beanie or something similar. The magician has a hood covering their head. I don’t think that a hood is great protection from anything but sunlight. As they approached us, they split into two. The bowman and magician stay behind, while the knight and spearman approach me. Oh, so you are approaching me? I guess talking from a long distance would be difficult. Not like they are gonna beat the shit out of me, right? “So, did you take that bison down?” So the spearman speaks to me, and the knight is keeping guard. I kinda expected that the knight was the team leader, I mean, he looks like “the big man” in the team. He just has a leader aura. It might be from his armor, though. “Didn’t you hear me? Did you do this?”The speaker stated, a little more agitated than the first time. “Yeah. Me, the panda and my little cretin here.” I respond to him. God, you don’t have to get mad as soon as someone doesn’t give you the answer you want the second you ask. I mean, this is not a high-stress situation. The bison is dead already. At least if you had arrived mid-battle, I would understand you wanting to help immediately, but you are late. “So, these are your familiars. Are you a tamer?” (spearman) “No, I summoned them,” I answered. “So a summoner then. That’s rare.” (spearman) “If summoning monsters makes me a summoner, then I guess I am a summoner.” “What else would it make you?” (Spearman) “Good point. You can also tell your team to relax. I’m not going to attack you or anything.” “And are these monsters safe to be around?” The speaker asked. “They are fine.(Most likely anyway)” “I heard that. So they might not be safe. You little…” (spearman) “They definitely won’t be safe if you try to attack me, I can tell you that.” His team got a little tense as he raised his voice talking to me, but after my retort, he seemed to think about things for a second. After his thinking break, he raised his hand to signal to the archer and the mage that we are all good. At least I hope that’s what it was, and it wasn’t a signal to attack instead. Okay, the duo is walking this way. We seem to be good. Thank god. I didn’t want to have to fight some humans next. Killing monsters is one thing, but I don’t think I could easily order my monsters to kill them. I also don’t have any potions or stuff to heal them with. The time when you actually would want to have some Red Medicine. I’m not even sure that Frenzied Panda and Spear Cretin, with no spear, could take on these four. I might have had to trade them for the strongest monsters I have to have any hope of winning. But I don’t even have Trade-In. As the group of four gathered, they all had slightly different reactions to hearing I’m a summoner from Mr. Spearman. The knight and archers simply nodded and went back to keeping watch of our surroundings and the mage looked between me, panda and cretin on a loop like he was trying to see something between us. Is he using a skill like mana sight and trying to see a string that connects us? I’m not even sure there is something like that. The thing that connects us is the cards in my hands. “We are the adventuring party ‘Prime Rib’.” Their spokesperson introduced their team name. I do wonder what the story behind it is. “And you are?” “Hi, I’m Brian…” (System, should I give them my last name as well?) (I do not recommend it, Master.)