The Shepherd Alone on the Hill is a Genius Wizard

A moment later, they arrived at the clearing Rowena had mentioned.

The surrounding area was quite a dense forest, making it a good battleground where they didn't have to worry about other people's eyes.

Turan handed Bize, who was hanging at his side, to Meisa and lightly stretched his hands.

"I alone should be enough as a representative, right? The two behind me are stronger than me anyway."

At Turan's words, Meisa and Solif looked at each other and simultaneously smiled wryly.

In fact, the three of them each had different strengths and weaknesses.

Turan was the most excellent in combat sense and magical technique, but his bloodline magic was non-combat oriented and his magical power was the weakest.

Solif had abundant combat experience and powerful fusion magic but was the least sensitive in terms of perception.

Meisa had excellent magical power, magical sensitivity, and bloodline, but was relatively less physically trained and lacked combat sense.

Considering that magical power is generally the most important aspect of a wizard's skill, his statement wasn't wrong, but in reality, it would be difficult to confidently say who would win in a proper fight.

Of course, if Turan eventually awakened Arabion's lightning bloodline, there would be no question who would be the strongest among them.

"Good, just in case I should mention that you need to be able to subdue someone like me easily. If you barely win, you'll be nothing in front of the giant sea serpent."

"That's obvious."

"You certainly have confidence. I hope your skills match it."

The mermaid princess took a deep breath and her body began to change immediately.

Just like when Arma had transformed into a baby shark before, the change was instantaneous.

Her body outline blurred and suddenly her surface was covered in a carapace with a creaking sound.

Facing a giant crab over three meters tall, Turan let out a laugh.

"I see... I wondered what merfolk relied on to come on land."

Unlike sharks or fish, crabs are creatures that can breathe and move quite well on land.

He just never imagined they could transform into something like this.

At that moment, Rowena, opening her crab-like mouth horizontally, said.

"You're not scared, are you?"

"Of course n-"

Before he could finish answering, Rowena extended her huge pincer forward and attacked.

Her speed was surprisingly fast for such a massive body.

Turan immediately dodged backward and lightly stomped on the ground, causing several sharp pillars to shoot up from the earth.

"Ugh!"

The spike pillars that dug into the crab's belly shell were all crushed with a cracking sound, but her flinching showed that the impact wasn't completely ineffective.

He then sent out a small amount of fire spirit and caused it to explode, making the crab's shell sizzle and burn with a loud noise.

"Is she dead already?"

"Nonsense!"

Rowena, staggering from the impact of the explosion, shouted that and immediately used her many legs nimbly to rush toward Turan, who had moved into the forest.

Due to her large size she got caught on nearby trees, but her thick crustacean legs easily crushed the trees, creating a path.

'Strength, speed, durability... she's much stronger than a noble of the same level. Similar to those specialized in physical combat? She's stronger than I thought.'

While inwardly measuring his opponent's skill, Turan immediately used wind magic to lift himself and create distance.

Rowena immediately turned her head to the sky, opened her mouth wide, and shot a blue beam.

"Oh."

Since when did crabs have a structure that could look up at the sky?

And what was that beam?

Even as he was surprised, the beam approached Turan almost instantly.

If it hadn't been for his accelerated thinking, he would have been hit without being able to prepare.

He immediately activated the defensive magic tool he had, and a green shield emerged from his pocket to block it.

He could gauge its power through the magical power being consumed.

'Not only is her physical ability on par with an upper noble specialized in physical combat, but she also has ranged attack capabilities... ordinary nobles would hardly be able to win. She's stronger than I thought.'

Anyway, now that he had roughly gauged her abilities, it was enough to stop playing around.

Turan touched the sling in his pocket for a moment, then put it back and turned his gaze to the sky.

If she got hit by his expertise in projectile attacks, her carapace might be crushed, resulting in instant death, which would make things awkward.

Instead, Turan decided to draw power from the sky.

Perhaps due to the giant sea serpent that had merged with the storm spirit, the sky here was full of clouds, making it good for lightning spells.

"Let me know in advance if you think you might die."

After giving that warning, Turan drew lightning from the sky and struck it down toward Rowena.

His lightning spell, without fully awakening the storm bloodline, was not particularly accurate, but it wasn't difficult to hit a giant crab with a body height of over three meters.

One strike, two strikes, three strikes.

Rowena, who had been holding up quite firmly, finally fell to her knees after being hit by the seventh lightning bolt.

"Kugh..."

"S-stop! Stop! Please stop, kind demon! The match is already decided!"

While Arma hurriedly covered his fallen sister with his body, Rowena's body shrank back into the form of a mermaid.

Turan landed on the ground and looked at Arma with an incredulous expression.

"I don't understand why you're acting like I was bullying her. This was a mutually agreed-upon duel."

"That's true, but-"

"Enough, Arma. Don't be disgraceful. The more you act like that, the more you embarrass me."

"S-sorry, sister..."

Pushing Arma away, Rowena stood up again and took labored breaths.

The lightning spells she had been hit with in succession must have been quite a blow, but she was recovering quickly, which showed that her race was definitely tougher than humans.

"I've seen enough of your skills. With you and your two companions who are stronger than you, plus our help, hunting the giant sea serpent doesn't seem impossible."

"Is that enough?"

"I think so. We once worshipped them as lords of disaster and great gods, but the current giant sea serpent is just a shell of its former self."

She said that while she would need her father's approval, she herself was willing to cooperate.

==

After a simple agreement, the mermaid siblings said they would speak with their father, the king, and then disappeared.

They returned exactly one week later in the evening.

"My father has agreed."

"Really?"

"The conditions are simple. Since the giant sea serpent's magical power is a force we can't control anyway, we'll give that to you, but the body is ours. In exchange, we'll fully cooperate in luring it to the battlefield and joining forces."

"Can you make something from the processed body?"

As he recalled, in the past, the horns or scales of the giant sea serpent didn't have particularly mystical power, but as an undead or spirit, things might be different.

However, the answer he received, whether true or not, was rather dull.

"It was once a being we worshipped as a god. We plan to use it as decoration for the palace."

Why anyone would use a being they once worshipped as a god for decoration was incomprehensible, but it seemed foolish to try to understand the culture of a non-human race.

"Good, so where is the giant sea serpent?"

"At the center of the storm circling this northern sea."

This meant that the giant sea serpent was not far away when Turan's group was recently caught in the storm.

Of course, given that it wasn't detected by the relic's senses, it was actually at least a kilometer away.

Rowena said that in about ten days, the giant sea serpent would move to near an island about a thousand kilometers north of here.

There would be land nearby, so Turan's group could also rest on solid ground.

The core of the plan was to hunt together with the merfolk there.

Working with the merfolk was certainly convenient.

Everything from the hunting ground to the schedule was resolved in an instant.

"By the way, do you have any other collaborators besides you merfolk? For example, human wizards like us."

Turan was subtly trying to check the situation regarding House Kamain.

After all, he knew about the collusion between their god and the merfolk.

It was suspicious, almost suspicious, that they weren't showing their presence when coastal cities being destroyed by storms would be most troublesome for them.

To Turan's question, Rowena answered as if it were unimportant.

"Well, to be honest, there are several human houses we collaborate with secretly, so I was hoping... but for some reason, we received negative answers from those we expected to help."

"What kind?"

"Only my father knows that. He's the only one who contacts them."

Anyway, the conclusion was that they couldn't expect help from other human wizards besides Turan's group.

It seemed that to learn more about this, he would have to directly meet and ask the merman king.