Chapter 432: First fight in the Prairie

It didn't take very long for the group to catch up with the herd of elk that were making their way through the prairie. They were still the largest group of beast nearby so it was easy to spot them out and keep pace with them since they stopped to eat grass whenever they got the chance. Joshua made sure to stay a reasonable distance away from the elks since he didn't know exactly how they would react if they got to close even if they had Lilly try to calm them down. At the moment interacting with any large groups in the prairie wasn't a good idea.

They planned to follow the elks for a while as they used the hills to map out the areas around them and see what kind of beast they could find throughout the prairie. The more they knew about the area the safer they would be once they ventured out on their own without having the elk around for protection. They all knew that following the elks was like being with a security blanket. Although there were predators that would go after the elks throughout the day these predators would always come in much smaller groups that were a size that Joshua was certain his party could handle without much trouble.

While moving through the prairie Joshua was able to spot out all sorts of creatures. There were some prairie dogs that Joshua had spotted, but they weren't like the mutated monstrosities on the other side of the canyon that seemed to rule the area. These prairie dogs were large at around two stories tall, but they still resembled the cute creatures that tended to pop out of their holes from time to time. It was easy to spot a territory owned by prairie dogs since there would always be a ton of holes in the ground nearby.

There were also ferret like creature that would run into the high grass to hide away from other creatures when spotted. Joshua also saw other groups of the prairie chickens, but the elks seemed wise enough to give the unassuming birds a wide birth as they skirted around their territory. Joshua was fairly certain that there were several more creatures in the high grass, but for the moment he'd have to wait to find out what they were. At one point Joshua could swear he heard the hissing of a snake in the distance so he wouldn't be surprised to find snakes hiding in the grass.

The calm trip through the prairie seemed to be going fairly well for a time, but Joshua knew that they couldn't be lucky forever. At some point a group of predators were going to get hungry enough to approach the elk and they would most likely be noticed in the process. If any group that seemed too large to handle approached them then Joshua would have Vince cover them all in an illusion to hide for a short while. It would be more than enough to keep the attention away from them and solidly placed on the elk for any predatory groups. Joshua didn't feel bad for the elk since it was more likely that those large elk would end up killing any ambushers than the other way around.

At one point they had gotten close enough to the elk to where Joshua was able to observe how powerful they were. The smaller younglings were only level fifty or so, but as they grew in age their levels began to sky rocket. The normal sized elk were all at least level eight-two with a few even reaching level eighty-three. The bigger large horned elk that seemed to be the guardians of the group were level eighty four, while the leader of the group who seemed slightly bigger than even the bulkier elk was level eighty five and it kept its eyes on every creature in its group. Observing the pack of elk gave Joshua a good idea of how evolution worked on the prairie, but he still needed to see other groups of animals to be certain.

It was while they were following the elk into another shorter grass area that Joshua took notice of a few small holes in the ground that were way too small to be caused by the prairie dogs. He told the group to stop before they crossed the area since he could sense something within the holes. That's when a large earthworm popped its head out of one of the holes. At first that didn't seem like much of a problem to anyone in the group, but then Henry started to shout at everyone.

"Get ready for combat guys. Those worms aren't what we need to worry about. It's what they'll attract hear that is more dangerous." Henry said before everyone heard a flutter of wings getting louder as they approached. Joshua turned and saw around half a dozen of those chickens flocking to the area in search of food. If it had been a larger group then Joshua would have gotten Vince to hide them with illusions, but the small amount seemed like the perfect opportunity for them to get used to fighting creatures in the prairie.

When the prairie chickens landed they immediately noticed Joshua's group and started puffing themselves up preparing to go on the attack. At this point it was impossible to avoid the confrontation so Joshua decided to take them head on. "Shields up!" Joshua shouted as any tanks that could form a shield wall took the front. Jayce, Ivan, and Abigail all jumped to the front preparing to block the incoming attack. They worked together to form a more sturdy and layered shield wall in front of the group.

They finished putting up the wall just in time as the six birds let out their screeches and sent waves of air crashing in their direction. Joshua could see cracks starting to form along the walls, but it wasn't enough to break through them with the amount of prairie chickens that were attacking them. This was a good sign that they could hold off a larger group of prairie chicken if it came down to it since they had far more barriers that they could use in an attempt to hold off such an onslaught. Even so Joshua didn't plan on leading them into groups of flocking chickens any time soon.

When the first barrage of attacks was stopped Joshua took notice of the fact that the orange puffs around the prairie chickens' necks started to turn red and they stopped screeching. Instead they charged over preparing to peck at them with their large beaks. Up close like this the chickens weren't nearly as scary. Joshua quickly observed them and noticed that four of them were level eighty-one while the other two were level eighty-two. Even with the level difference they all only had two stars by their names showing that they were technically some of the weaker creatures in the prairie, but their mass grouping tactics let them lord over their own territories.

Seeing as how the creatures weren't nearly as much of a threat when it came to close quarter's confrontation Joshua rushed forward and blocked the beak of one of the stronger prairie chickens before knocking it back and slashing across its neck. The muscles and feathers of the creature were surprisingly putting up more resistance than Joshua was expecting but he was able to cut off its neck and feel the surge of experience gained from the creature. The large amount of experience surprised Joshua and everyone else since they were all in the same party at the moment, but he didn't stop after killing off one of the birds and blocked another ones mad attempts to peck his head off his shoulders.

Dave, Dillon, and Devin each stepped up to block off some of the other chickens while the other tanks kept holding up the shield walls as the last two chickens crashed into them. The moment the chickens' momentum had been stopped they were left wide open for a counter attack that was far too much for them to handle with the amount of close range fighters that they had ran head first into. Amy was the first one to leap past the shield wall and slam her fist into the skull of one of the chickens. The loud crunching sound followed by the pained squawk of the bird told everyone how vulnerable the birds were.

Within seconds the two birds that had clashed with the shield wall were getting torn apart by all of the swordsman that dashed passed the shield wall to cut off their legs and wings before the chickens could wise up and flee. The ones that had been held off by the Carsen brothers were quickly taken down by a barrage of arrows, spells, and bullets that took them down before they could even make a sound. The only prairie chicken that was left standing was the one that Joshua had knocked back and Joshua held his hand up to signal everyone not to attack it.

The chicken stared at Joshua since he had gotten in its way, but it didn't back down as it started scratching its feet across the ground preparing to go on the attack again. That's when the redness around its neck faded back to orange and its neck began to puff up once more as it was about to let out another screech again, this time directed at Joshua. The moment the blast of air was sent towards Joshua he blocked it with his scale blade and was sent sliding back a bit by the force of the impact. It felt like he had blocked a car sized hammer that slammed into his scale blade, and the screeching sound irritated his ears far more than Joshua was expecting.

Now that he had gotten a good idea of how strong the attack was Joshua signaled that it was alright to kill the creature and the moment he did blades seemed to appear directly next to the chickens head and was soon followed by the body of Mulan as she came out of an illusion and sliced the unsuspecting chickens neck clean off. With that one last surge of experience flooded everyone as the combat had come to a close. The quick fight wasn't the toughest any of them had come across in all of their time as explorers, but it was the most rewarding for the effort. Those six chickens gave nearly as much experience as a sub-boss from previous dungeons so it was safe to say that although this side of the prairie might be deadly it had its rewards as well.