Reincarnated as a bamboo rat, it begins its extreme survival struggle.

The hunter, whose whole body was shaking and who was also affected by the passionate rhythm, murmured this sentence with a trembling voice.

He glanced behind him and looked at Edu, who was standing in front of a pile of pots and pans. The speed of his arm pounding increased, and the rhythm became more and more intense.

The hunter looked away, and in a spot he hadn't been able to see clearly, Bell's body had already spun like a top.

In order to maintain the rhythm of the music and continue the performance.

Bell needs to unleash a large amount of magic and strike more points to coordinate with Edu's accelerated pace.

His hands twitched from shaking, and his head, still holding the stick, shook so much that it left afterimages.

Bell jumped up and down, spinning several times in mid-air to keep up with the rhythm of the music.

"That's fucking true, rock and roll is all about shaking and rolling! Spinning, jumping, I close my eyes—"

He cursed in his mind, feeling the pressure mounting.

There was a slight problem with the rhythm he had arranged in his mind; Bell had originally calculated that the performance should last for fifteen minutes.

However, judging from the current performance, Edu underestimated the magic required for the performance.

Or rather, to maintain the effect of the performance, the amount of magic required increases with each minute the performance continues.

"The current situation is that if I continue playing, based on the plan of playing for fifteen minutes, both Edu's and my magic and life force will be burned out."

In the midst of his busy schedule, Bale spared a moment to glance at Edu.

In the [Information Insight], Edu's two points of magic power have been reduced to zero, which means that his magic power is almost completely depleted.

"This kid is already out of his mind. The fact that he can still use magic to beat the drum is a testament to his strong will. I estimate that the performance will be forcibly interrupted in another two minutes."

Bell has used as much magic as possible to alleviate the pressure of playing music.

However, the magical power within Edu could no longer withstand such depletion.

It was at this moment that the fire-chewing hyena, which had spat out two waves of fireballs in the bamboo forest, revealed its true form and clashed with the advancing adventurers.

There are six Fire-Chewing Hyenas in total, each of them reaching level eight. As magical beasts, their physical attributes are close to three digits.

Based on the average level of adventurers in the camp, they can easily suppress three to five adventurers.

Without the aid of musical performances, adventurers caught in the chaos of the monster horde would be no match for them.

But now, the adventurers, their morale soaring, are actually fighting head-on against the fire-chewing hyenas that have appeared, and they show no signs of being easily defeated.

This baffled the fire-chewing hyenas; they are very intelligent animals, and the situation was not right.

After two more tentative exchanges with the adventurers, one of the fire-chewing hyenas let out a commanding howl.

"Woo——"

It was at this moment that Edu, who had been continuously striking the drumbeats, suddenly looked up.

His silent eyes struggled to focus, yet with his nearly scattered mental energy, he still managed to shout a roar towards the front of the camp:

"These guys want to retreat and use magic attacks to wear us down!"

Chapter 48 Magic Ballista

Unlike Bell, who was completely focused on controlling the rhythm of the music, Edu's mind was entirely carried by the passionate and high-pitched music. In a daze, he seemed to be able to see everything happening in the ground covered by passionate percussion.

From the clash between an adventurer and a monster on the battlefield to the reverberation that spread throughout the entire battlefield, Edu seemed to hear all the sounds, but in a daze, Edu's consciousness quickly slipped away from these sounds.

Edu had no idea what was going on; he had never heard any bards describe such a situation.

His ability to understand animal language was put to its fullest potential at this moment. His consciousness flowed along the edge of the battlefield, and Edu clearly heard the communication between the fire-chewing hyenas.

They are intelligent, possessing a unique sense of combat and a rhythm of attack.

Fire-chewing hyenas dislike direct combat with equally matched opponents; no creature wants to be injured. They enter the battlefield with the intention of reaping the spoils.

According to their calculations, the human adventurers should have been severely injured and unable to withstand their attack by this time.

But when the fire-chewing hyenas actually charged into the mining camp, they were dumbfounded. Something was wrong with the situation. Why had the humans here suddenly become so ferocious?

Seeing that the situation was not good, the six fire-chewing hyenas quickly communicated and prepared to retreat immediately.

As the dominant magical beasts in the bamboo forest, the entire bamboo forest is their stronghold.

Having already decided to retreat, the Fire-Chewing Hyena intended to maintain a deterrent posture before quietly withdrawing.

But at that moment, Edu shouted, and his voice, carried by magic, entered the ears of all the adventurers.

"Charge! Hold them off!"

The hunter in charge reacted quickly; he knew he couldn't just let the fire-chewing hyena return to the forest.

If the fire-chewing hyenas develop the impression that they are easily defeated, these guys will not stop attacking the camp.

"Throw off the flail!"

The soldier at the front roared and, along with his comrades, threw out a bunch of flails.

These heavy weapons were aimed at the fire-chewing hyenas' rear, blocking their retreat.

A group of adventurers then unleashed all the professional skills they had honed over the years, putting immense pressure on the six fire-chewing hyenas.

Amidst the rousing percussion, the human adventurers' counterattack was so powerful that the already scattered monster horde around them was completely unable to act as a barrier for the fire-chewing hyenas.

For a moment, the fire-chewing hyena was caught in a dilemma.

Their retreat was delayed by more than ten seconds, and those few seconds were enough for the adventurers to launch their strongest and most uncounterable attack.

"Om-"

A loud buzzing sound forcefully interrupted the musical rhythm created by Bell.

An arrow, about a meter and a half long, flashed across the camp like a streak of light, instantly piercing the neck of a fire-chewing hyena and carrying its body straight into the tranquil night.

These enormous arrows, shimmering with magical light, are powerful weapons left behind by the Long River Adventurers in the camp; they are controlled defensive siege equipment.

This magical ballista is a dangerous weapon that is explicitly prohibited from circulation in major cities, but hearing the word "explicitly prohibited" too often will only make it seem like a...

That's utter nonsense.

No matter how sophisticated a management system is, it will become a huge vulnerability because of the people who are one of the conditions for its operation.

Not to mention, in a world where management science is not yet systematic and clearly defined.

Armaments can be 'aged' or 'scrapped' and thus end up in the hands of certain forces.

The magical ballista in the mining camp reflects the Long River Adventurer Group's prestige and its emphasis on the profits from mining.

This weapon requires two skilled workers to operate, and although it is slow to start, each arrow is expensive and cannot be recovered.

But its power is guaranteed; the arrows are extremely accurate. After piercing the fire-chewing hyena, it carried the hyena's hundreds of kilograms of weight backward for more than ten meters without slowing down.

"The battle... was won."

Upon seeing the magic ballista appear on the battlefield, the hunter in command murmured something to himself.

At that moment, two more magical arrows shot out from a high platform erected deep within the camp.

"Ouch——"

The arrow pierced the fire-chewing hyena's body, and with a mournful cry, the hyenas retreated.

Three arrows were fired accurately, killing three fire-chewing hyenas. As the fire-chewing hyenas retreated in panic, the adventurers, their morale greatly boosted, also took the opportunity to surround and kill another fire-chewing hyena.

The deaths of the four fire-chewing hyenas marked the end of the battle to defend the camp.

Bell and Edu's performance ended after the magic ballista's arrows hit their mark.

Edu's body stiffened, his eyes staring blankly at the battle line ahead. He couldn't speak, his hands trembling at his sides, unable to grip the wooden stick that had hardly any weight in them.

Edu stood there dumbfounded, watching the fire-chewing hyenas die one after another, his mind blank.

At his feet, Bell lay convulsing, vomiting violently, every muscle in his body aching.

As the leader of this performance, Bell's condition was even worse than Edu's, and he was already close to death.

"Hey! You brat!"

At that moment, the hunter in command leaped to Edu's side and called out to him loudly.

Now that the battle is over, the originally extremely complex and chaotic situation has suddenly become extremely clear and simple.

No one involved in the battle could ignore the powerful music that resounded across the battlefield, and they would never forget this insignificant little guy in their eyes.

"You little brat, why aren't you saying anything?!"

"Hey, this kid can't get hurt!"

Two exclamations attracted the attention of nearby adventurers. The battle was over, and they couldn't let anything happen to their hero.

A group of adventurers surrounded Edu. A few people with medical knowledge stepped forward and, after a quick check of Edu's condition, breathed a sigh of relief.

"However, my magic power is depleted, and my body has reached its limit."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief upon learning that Edu's life was not in danger.

Several men in slightly better condition used their hands to loosen the stiff muscles on Edu's body, allowing him to pass out smoothly and easily.

The task of cleaning up the battlefield had not yet begun, but now that it was confirmed that Edu was unharmed, the adventurers settled him on the spot and dispersed to do their own things.

When the adventurers surrounded him earlier, Bell forcibly moved his body and rolled to the side of the wooden barrel lying on the ground to avoid being trampled by the adventurers.