Chitter, chitter, chitter...
They were flying monsters that looked rather like macaques.
Only forty or fifty centimeters tall, they had twisted, grotesque bodies. Their faces were covered in pale bone armor, while the rest of their bodies were sheathed in wrinkled, tough skin. They were battling a force of nearly a hundred low-level scholars.
The monsters invading from the Grand Duchy's Dubit Province were mainly Bone Abyss Flying Scorpions, Evil Eyes, and Fallen Bone Demons, but small tribes like these strange monkeys were mixed in as well.
"Re-form your ranks!"
A Transcendental female scholar, transformed into a gigantic mermaid, bellowed down at the scholars around her.
On this vast battlefield, she had to closely unite the other scholars to improve her chances of survival.
However...
After a full day and night of continuous slaughter, it was clear that some unqualified low-level scholars had already lost their nerve.
"Ah..."
Overwhelmed by fear and pressure, the low-level scholar turned and ran.
"Looking to die!"
The mermaid, whose true form stood seven or eight meters tall, spotted the fleeing scholar. A frigid glint flashed in her eyes. She murmured an incantation, gave her staff a slight wave, and flicked a drop of water from her tail.
With a bang, the little scholar—his mind utterly shattered as he fled in panic—was instantly frozen into an ice sculpture and fell from the sky.
Most of the other scholars watched with cold indifference.
Needless to say, this was another young master who had joined the ranks of scholars just to add a bit of prestige to his name.
After casually killing this insignificant nobody, the mermaid paid him no further attention. Her scales were like the toughest metal as she gazed into the distance, where monsters flickered in and out of view across the battlefield, appearing