Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 262 - 28: Goblin Birdcatcher_1

Chapter 262: Chapter 28: Goblin Birdcatcher_1

"Whoa, here it goes." The midsection of the burrower worm protruding from the ground suddenly ballooned out like an inflated balloon, but just as quickly, the swollen part shrunk down with its body straightening. Great clouds of hot, blood-tasting gas spewed forth from its mouth, accompanied by countless chunks of flesh and fluid. Lina looked up at the carcass of the worm, muttering under her breath before the four of them quickly tumbled away, each scrambling under a random vehicle for cover. At the same time, the dank fluid and meat rained down like a storm, thoroughly drenching the city guards who had no idea what was happening.

"Watch out, the second one will come in three minutes." Once the bathing crisis had passed, the four adventurers crawled out from under the cars, stifling their laughter as they ignored the resentful stares of the inadvertently affected city guards around them. "The plan works, we might as well keep going at this pace to kill the next worm."

"No need." Freya’s soothing voice appeared timely, acting like a hymn in their ears: "The modification is complete. It’s an enhanced portable sonar insect repellent device, powerful and absolutely reliable."

"Enough chatter; get it started if it’s ready." Vivian pinched her nose, bearing the smell of the worm, and said listlessly, "I hope it works. I don’t want to bomb a second one. The smell of one is already enough."

"She’s already turned it on." Pannis stood up, dusting himself off, and announced in a somewhat relaxed tone: "The remaining two worms paused momentarily and then quickly slithered away."

"Phew, at least the immediate crisis has been averted." Catherine sighed in relief, but immediately turned her attention skyward: "The next one is him. Damn it, you made us so nervous, we won’t let you off the hook."

"Sis, it’s so noisy." A small head peeked out from Catherine’s chest, followed by half of a body. Little banshee Annie, rubbing her sleepy eyes, appeared hazily and protested, "What’s all this noise? I can’t sleep."

"Noise?" Catherine looked around in confusion. "There’s no noise, Annie. You must’ve misheard."

"No, I haven’t." Annie pointed discontentedly at the luxury car: "The noise came from there."

"Oh, this is intriguing!" Freya seemed to find Annie’s presence very fascinating and seemed to be already squatting by the window. "So she’s a ghost? It’s my first time seeing a ghost. Moreover, it’s a cognizant ghost. That’s really interesting. Sis, lend her to me to play with until we get to the City of Freedom."

"I don’t want to. I’m Annie, not a ghost." Annie swung her fist at the car, retracted back into the crystal pendant fearfully, peeking out with only half of her face and vigilantly watching for any activity from Freya’s direction.

"Watch what you say, she’s Annie. She may be Undead, but she’s our little sister, not a toy." Catherine rebuked, "Don’t say things like that in the future. You will make Annie feel sad."

"Alright, I apologize." Although Freya didn’t quite understand what was going on, she conscientiously apologized: "I’m sorry, Annie. I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that."

"It’s okay." Annie, acting very maturely, popped back out and waved her hand, "But sis, can you stop making such a noisy sound? It’s quite irritating if I hear it for too long."

"Oh, so that’s how it is." Freya epiphanized with an explanation, "This device creates a sound that is inaudible to humans but can scare certain specific creatures to scare off insects. I didn’t expect that the Undead could hear this sound. However, sorry Annie, I can’t turn it off just yet. There’s something underground that wants to come up and eat us. We need this to frighten them off."

"Okay then, I’ll just close the window and go back to sleep." Annie didn’t mind much, nodding seriously like an adult, "Goodnight sis and bro, I’m going to continue sleeping."

"Close the window?" Catherine muttered inexplicably, "What’s that?"

"Haha, it’s the window at home. You can’t see it, sis." Annie covered her mouth and giggled, pointing at the pendant on Catherine’s chest. She then dove man back in and no longer made a sound.

"Big sis, it looks like there’s another thing you need to explain to me." Freya said pensively, "You seem to be hiding a lot from me. Aren’t we the best of friends? Why are you keeping secrets? It looks like trust between people is so fragile, even between close friends, should there be a little..."

"Bang." Vivian decisively ’treated’ Freya, "The blockhead who quietly ran off for two years has no right to say that."

"Oh, I see." Once the discussion and debate of professional knowledge were excluded, Freya returned to her usual mistreated demeanor in front of Vivian, and said with grievance, "I was just asking."

"Don’t worry, Freya." Catherine reassured, "First, let’s deal with the one above, then we can talk."

"Okay, big sister." Freya regained her spirits and said, "Linda, help me carry this bird catcher down for everyone, sorry to bother you."

The car door creaks open again. Linda leans out to take down a machine, then quickly retracts back into the car while holding her nose, complaining quietly, "My God, the smell of that worm is absolutely foul."

What Linda brought down was a square metal box, about seventy centimeters long on each side. The box’s top contained a round slot that seemed to be able to open. Other than that, the box was sealed tightly. It offered no clue about its internal structure. On one side of the box, a protruding structure functioned as a kind of handle, which was actually a telescope. By peering through it, one could see the sky. The viewable range corresponded to the bird catcher’s range of attack. By adjusting the box’s orientation and placement, one could change this range.

Vivian and Pannis came together, showing great interest in the machine. After studying it for a while, they moved it to the top of the luxury carriage and adjusted its attack range. As explained by Freya, the birdcatcher could cover a circular space with a diameter of one hundred meters, making it very useful against sky-borne enemies.

Vivian had a vengeful grin stuck to her face. When the timing was right, she fiercely pressed the start switch. The gap on the box’s top contracted outward, revealing a circular hole. In the meantime, a spindle-shaped object as thick as a wrist and around fifty centimeters long abruptly flew out from the box. The back of the spindle sprayed sparks of energy, which propelled it to tear through the air resistance and ascend swiftly.

The spindle traveled at an extraordinary speed. Within the blink of an eye it had covered a kilometer distance. By the time the man and his eagle in the sky detected something heading towards them, it was too late. The spindle was already several hundred meters below them. The airborne enemy just started to maneuver his mount to evade the attack when the spindle exploded mid-air into a one-hundred-meter-radius circular giant net. It enveloped the enemy from all directions. Giving him virtually no chance to retaliate, the net wrapped him up and sent him plummeting earthward, like a stone falling straight down.

"A perfect hit." Vivian clenched her fist in joy, "I am indeed a genius. Managed to hit the target accurately in my first operation. But, he won’t crash to death, would he?"

"No, he won’t." Freya inside the carriage said, "There’s a built-in decelerating device. At most, he’d have broken legs."

When the net was halfway to the ground, a large piece of unidentified leather popped out from the top end of the net. The leather was very thin and light, but its texture was extremely dense, so wind couldn’t pass through. Under the air resistance, the fall speed of the net was reduced by more than half. Just as the tightly wrapped giant eagle was about to hit the ground at less than a hundred meters, the malicious smiles could be seen on the people’s faces below. A blade’s glint flickered in the sky. The passenger on the eagle came to his senses at last. He used his sharp blade to split the net open and let the giant eagle barely manage to halt its plunging momentum in the nick of time. The eagle unsteadily rose back to the sky.

With a "whistle," Pannis fired a discreet arrow. Unfortunately, it was a bit late. The giant eagle performed a side glide in the sky and dodged the arrow attack.

"What a pity. We didn’t have enough time to use the metal net, otherwise he wouldn’t have escaped." Freya unwillingly hammered the carriage and inquired, "Did you see who they are?"

"I saw them, but I couldn’t make out who they were." Catherine said, "He wore a mask."

"A mask?" Freya asked puzzledly, "What kind of mask?"

"An owl mask, a very ridiculous owl mask." Catherine had a peculiar expression, "It’s the kind of animal mask that they sell to kids for play. Two for a silver coin."

"It’s truly ridiculous." Freya imagined the appearance of the mask and felt that it was an embarrassment for them to seriously deal with the opponent’s attack.

In the sky, the passenger on the eagle clearly understood that he was not safe. Furthermore, all his attack methods had been cracked by the people below, so there was no point in staying any longer. Regrettably, after circling in the sky a few times, he hastily flew away. Catherine and Pannis exchanged a knowing glance when they realized that the direction the opponent flew away in was towards the City of Freedom. They didn’t break the silent understanding and refrained from saying anything.

Shortly after the mastermind took off, the animals besieging the caravan on the ground seemed to have lost their zeal. They were no longer as courageous as before and vast numbers fled. Very quickly, the fleeing beasts grew in number. Within half an hour, there was not a single beast alive around the caravan, leaving behind countless corpses of lower-rank magical beasts to prove that everything that had just happened was not a dream. Having fought for more than an hour, the guards felt physically drained once the pressure lifted. They leaned on each other, sat down on the ground and moaned painfully.

"Alright, send a signal to call the horse team back." Ayrland had not participated in the fight, but keeping himself alert throughout the battle had exhausted him a lot. After issuing the last command, he didn’t bother about anything else. He walked over to pat Pannis’s shoulder, then bowed to thank the ladies. Subsequently, he sat aside to rest, leaving the job of cleaning the carriage to his fatigued subordinates. (To be continued. If you like this novel, please come to qidian.com to vote and support it. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)