"Lure the target out and finish it? Heh." Gael let out a cold laugh. "For the candidates' safety, we did make sure no Velocidrome wandered into this mountain forest.
"But to maintain the proper difficulty of the assessment, we also wouldn't set a target of hunting five Velociprey and then really only put five Velociprey in here.
"Add the leftovers from previous assessments, and the total Velociprey in this forest should be between ten and fifteen. Twenty wouldn't be surprising either.
"Without a Velocidrome present, the Velociprey won't form large packs. They'll act alone, or roam and hunt in small groups of two or three.
"If she had entered the forest, searched for tracks, and tracked her targets, the assessment would actually have gone more smoothly. After all, with her ability, if she ran into two or three Velociprey, she could handle them with some effort.
"But she chose to take a shortcut, using noise to draw the Velociprey pack toward her. Heh heh heh.
"Does she realize that after round after round of assessments, the animals in this forest were eaten clean long ago? That these Velociprey are already so hungry they've started cannibalizing each other?
"In a moment, when over ten Velociprey with eyes reddened by starvation charge out and swarm her, I'll be interested to see just how she dies."
Gael's words were harsh, but her hands were not idle. She removed the Normal Ammo magazine already loaded in her weapon and replaced it with Pierce Ammo, which had stronger killing power, longer range, and a flatter trajectory.
At the same time, she used the hillside as cover and moved closer.
With her High Rank Gunner skills, as long as she was within the Pierce Ammo's effective range, even if a dozen Velociprey rushed up together, they wouldn't pose much of a threat.
However, as the Instructor, the moment she fired and intervened, it would mean the assessment was over.
And according to their previous agreement, Gael would not give Lambert a second chance. If that happened, Lambert would have to spend at least another six months at the training camp.
Altaïr eagerly raised his binoculars, observing Lambert, who had lowered her Hunting Horn and stopped playing.
Though he had only seen her twice, he felt she probably had a quicker sort of mind. If she dared to do this, she must have made preparations.
"Gya-ow!"
Before long, the piercing shriek characteristic of Bird Wyvern-type Monsters came from the forest.
Altaïr cocked his ear and listened. Judging by the sound, the first to be drawn in should be a small pack of Velociprey, numbering two or three.
If Lambert could eliminate these few quickly, there would still be a chance in the fight to come.
But if she got tangled up with these few Velociprey, within just a few minutes, more and more Velociprey drawn by the noise would arrive.
Using his own skill at sixteen or seventeen, back when he took the official Hunter promotion exam, as his reference point:
A single Prey could be killed swiftly. Being surrounded by two or three Prey would be a bit troublesome, but with nimble positioning and a little risk, there was still a chance to finish the fight in a short time.
However, once the number of Prey in the encirclement exceeded five, the danger would spike sharply. An accident could happen at any moment, and at that point Lady Gael would definitely intervene.
So the key to this battle was whether Lambert could quickly kill her targets and prevent the Velociprey numbers from building up.
If she could swiftly take out two waves, the mission objective could be achieved. She would just need to withdraw before the third wave of Velociprey arrived.
If I'm not mistaken, that's their battle plan.
"To be honest, it's still a bit reckless. There's no margin for error," Altaïr muttered to himself as he assessed the situation.
At the same moment, two Velociprey burst out of the forest one after the other. They looked around briefly and quickly spotted the Hunter girl standing motionless.
Food!
Already starving, the Velociprey shrieked and lunged at her with wild excitement.
"Come on, let's see what you've got!" Altaïr fixed his eyes on the view through the binoculars.
Faced with the two Velociprey charging straight at her with their sharp fangs and claws, Lambert trembled all over.
But it wasn't from fear. It was from exhilaration!
Her originally pale face flushed with color, turning faintly rosy, and she muttered under her breath at a volume only she could hear, "That's it! Bite me to death and you'll fill your bellies. If you can't manage that, then I'll kill you!"
When the two Velociprey were less than ten meters away, Lambert suddenly raised her Hunting Horn and played a low, muffled melody.
"Playing now?!"
Altaïr hadn't interacted with many Hunting Horn users, but he knew that their general combat approach was to find gaps in the fight, weave melodies and perform them, strengthening themselves and their teammates in different ways, and then attack Monsters with the weapon as a kind of "long-handled hammer."
Right now, Lambert had no frontliner companion to block the Monsters for her, yet here she was playing...
Before that thought could fully run through Altaïr's mind, the leading Velociprey leaped into the air, pouncing toward the melody-playing Hunter girl with a bite.
Just as it looked like she was about to be tackled by the Monster, Lambert suddenly swung her Hunting Horn forward with great force.
A sonic blast that stirred the air into a fan-shaped spread of blurred ripples surged ahead. There were clearly still several meters between Lambert's Hunting Horn and the leaping Velociprey, yet the Velociprey was struck as if hit directly, sent flying backward through the air and tumbling onto the ground.
No visible wounds could be seen on its body, but a great gush of blood spurted from its mouth and nose. After a couple of twitches, it went motionless.
It wasn't the only one struck by the sonic attack. The other Velociprey following right behind was also engulfed by the wave of sound.
Though it wasn't shaken to death on the spot like its companion, it reared back sharply, blood dripping from its mouth and nose, its steps staggering and unsteady.
Lambert sprinted forward a few steps, swung the Hunting Horn again to release another vibration, and the invisible sonic wave shattered the second Velociprey's brain.
Both Velociprey collapsed to the ground almost in the blink of an eye, and the Hunter girl's weapon didn't even have a bloodstain on it.
"Was that... Echo Wave?" Altaïr lowered his binoculars uncertainly. "Is Echo Wave a move that can be released quickly, or even chained?"
"That wasn't Echo Wave. That was Sonic Strike," Ferdie explained with a smile from the side. "A high-level technique woven into the performance process, blasting out the resonant sonic waves inside the Hunting Horn.
"You know the best part? No one taught her this. The vast majority of training camp students are still practicing the Sword and Shield.
"Even though she chose the Hunting Horn early on, the Instructors wouldn't have taught her such a high-difficulty technique so soon.
"Aside from physical hammer blows no different from swinging a Hammer, at most they'd teach her 'Melodic Slap' and other basic sonic techniques.
"She figured out how to use Sonic Strike on her own, building on the foundation of Performance and Melodic Slap.
"When I first met her, she was still at the exploratory stage with this move. I just casually gave her a few pointers, and she practically used Sonic Strike on the spot. Now she has mastered it completely."
Hearing the excitement in Ferdie's voice, Altaïr understood why this highly renowned Hunting Horn user would set aside his pride and go out of his way to invite Lambert to become his disciple.
This girl's talent with the Hunting Horn could only be described as astonishing. It was like a new Long Sword user who had yet to graduate, independently grasping a technique akin to the Iai Slash without anyone teaching them.
There was no way any powerful Blademaster hoping to pass on a lifetime of training wouldn't be moved by that.
Altaïr was about to express his admiration when another sound came from the distant woods.
Two more Velociprey burst out of the forest and came charging straight at the Hunter girl.
Lambert swung her weapon twice in succession, then slammed the Iron Horn onto the ground, striking it with a dull thud. The pipe-shaped resonance chamber at the head of the Hunting Horn vibrated intensely.
Ferdie tossed aside his telescope, closed his eyes, and sighed as if savoring music: "Thump, thump, tap! Weave the melody inside the Horn's resonance chamber, then release it all at once at the crucial moment.
"Watch closely. This time, it's Echo Wave!"
Facing the two Velociprey closing in from left and right, Lambert raised her Hunting Horn high and forcefully yanked its sonic string.
With a sharp "Clang!" the high-frequency shockwave reverberating within the steel resonance chamber erupted violently, blasting the two Velociprey that had reached the Hunter backward through the air.
P.S. The Hunting Horn changes a lot with each game, and I'm not exactly a Hunting Horn player myself, so the moves here are a mix from multiple generations.
(Translated by yourtl.app)