Chapter 203: Set Em Up

The question Walker posed was a risky one for sure. The theory was that if they managed to set up a bit of defense and launch some big attacks then they could gain much more experience than they would have otherwise. Or they had the option of retreating, the problem with that though was if even one horned rabbit spotted them they would need to fight too many all at once without any preparation. 

Remey and Su had crawled up to them and heard the last bit. They shared a nice look with each other debating whether or not the two boys had lost their minds. However the more they thought about it the more dangerous it seemed to risk retreating. The worst case would be all of them crawling slowly away and being spotted while completely defenseless. Maria seemed frozen to the spot unable to crawl to meet them, Midnight was belly down on the ground next to her making sure she was safe. Maria was even snuggling in to Midnight which showed just how afraid she was to see the party members that seemed so powerful hiding.

"Leader, if we can not retreat what do you have in mind?" Su wanted to run through the plan to make sure not a single thing was rushed.

"Well first thing," Walker started to crawl backwards slowly. "We get back a bit more so I can raise some earth walls and give myself and Gil to stand on and also protect us." following his lead they start to move farther and farther back. Once they had returned to where Maria and Midnight waited Walker continued. "Gil can fire his wind arrows, those can probably pierce through a few of them in a row. I can try and condense some fire flower spells to send seeds all around. We might be able to get three or four send off before the horned rabbits charge. They rush towards us and the flowers bloom and explode. From there we get in to formation and hopefully take down any that didn't run away." 

"Leader, you should make earth spikes on the wall or around it, any of the rabbits running at us will be deterred from trying to get in." Su made a good point, adding a little extra defense was always good. 

"Well what are we going to do? Just sit and watch?" Remey was very unhappy with the lack of close combat in this plan.

"Well no, after the explosion you and Midnight get to be the first out to attack what horned rabbits are left." Walker's promise seemed to appease Remey just by a bit. 

"You won't leave me alone?" Maria's small voice spoke up, it was nice to see her more confident to ask them a question. No

"No of course not, Leader left me out of the plan right? That means I'm lucky enough to stay with you and Onyx to keep those mean horned rabbits away." Su gave Maria's cheek a playful poke, for someone without younger siblings Su was really taking on a big sister role. 

With a small nod Maria seemed to feel more at ease. Now that things were in line Walker began to imagine the tower-like shape he wanted to create. The four earth walls would have sharp spikes on each outer side of the wall. The walls would rise up a foot taller than him and be topped with an easy to stand on platform. Walker could feel this would consume a bit more mana if he did not imagine everything more carefully. He could not rush this. He fell deeper in to his thoughts, he imagined every bit of earth moving to change shape and alter their own shape using the natural earth elemental mana as a catalyst for push more to conform to the shape. The more he relied on the naturally existing mana the less of his own he seemed to need to put forward.

To Walker it had only been a minute at most, but for the party an entire twenty minutes had passed, they were worried to see that nothing had happened but after poking Walker a few times he did not respond. After a few more moments, they could all feel something vibrating. The earth under them began to rise up piece by piece. Four walls slowly climbed around them. Gil and Walker started to be raised up as earth became part of a roof leaving the others behind. Even a door formed in one of the walls which seemed like it could fall away with the proper amount of pressure from their side. 

The outside was much more intimidating, there were sharp dark brown earth spikes all over the walls as if someone had taken them from a giant porcupine. The walls seemed almost as tough as steel. Walker rapidly stood up as he had finished raising the structure. He completely ignored the system telling him of a new learned skill. The Horned rabbits were all standing on their hind legs staring at the strange new earth tower that was just a few hundred feet away. 

"Gil start on your wind arrows, I am going to make a few fire flower spells." Gil didn't need to be told and had a;ready started to make his first wind elemental arrow using the skill of his bow. He was aiming for the largest gathering of horned rabbits, he wanted to at least harm as many as possible.

Walker had already began creating and condensing flames. The first fire flower seed had easily been created. However as Gil released his first arrow the horned rabbits seemed to feel that danger was approaching. They all turned and started their sprint towards the party. The army of white fur and horns would have terrified many adventurers but the pair had already steeled their will.

Walker released his first fire flower spell which landed in the ground a bit far from the rabbits. The second was already starting to take shape, as was Gil's second arrow. While they focused on their next attacks the first arrow Gil had fired pierce one running rabbit, it went strait through and in to four more. The arrow embedded itself in to the ground tearing at the ground with win. The wind coming off it cause even nearby horned rabbits to gain scratches and cuts to their feet. Only three of the rabbits hit were defeated, the others that were hit were in no shape to continue attacking.

Walker let fly his second fire flower near the first. The first was not yet growing as it was still preparing to bloom. The horned rabbits had already covered a third of the distance to them. Walker forced himself to move faster, the only thing on his mind condensing fire for a flame flower seed. 

Gil had sent his second arrow in much the same way taking out eight rabbits this time. His third arrow was already being fired as Walker was only half way through making his third spell but Gil was already sending off his third elemental arrow. He was using his mana recklessly but the results were well worth the mana used. His third arrow was a bit unsteady from Gil's haste and slammed in to the ground too short, this however actually worked very well. The arrow had much more force landing short causing dirt and ice to fly in to the air. The wind pushed even more in to a swirl blinding a large number of horned rabbits. Gil had never considered using the elemental arrow to do such things. "Walker I am switching to regular arrows, I will save just enough mana for one more big elemental arrow." Walker barely acknowledged Gil.

Walker condensed much more fire than he had before. He was using his understanding of elemental manipulation to this highest capacity to force more mana in to the spell. The result was a flame flower seed almost double the size. After he released it to the same area as the previous two he fell to his knees, unable to breath. He had taxed his body too much these last moments. Desperately he gulped down air while trying to see how the first flame flower spell would bloom.

Gil was sending long shots at decent accuracy causing every horned rabbit struck to slow in to line with another. He was expertly firing his arrows in a way to not only guide more of the rabbits toward walkers spells but also slowing them to group them up. This was the absolute height of Gil's skills and practice. The term sniper seemed too small for him. These skills were above and beyond what one would expect of a ranger. Walker wished he could capture this moment, luckily his mental archive was doing that for him.

The majority of the horned rabbits had started to group up aiming for the tower, they were all only about a hundred feet from the tower, for the horned rabbits this was a very short distance, However they were just about to step in to area of Walkers fire flowers.