Ignoring the notifications, Akira looked to the northeast where Balue had been engaged in battle with the [💀 Vile Snow Toad].
But there was no sound of battle nor was the ground shaking from either the [💀 Vile Snow Toad] or the [💀 Gray Coiling constrictor].
Everything was strangely silent save for the cold wind that was blowing up from the icy south and the heavy breathing of Zundar and the elite soldiers who had just dragged the [💀 Gray Coiling constrictors] heavy body off of Akira.
“Man… even though I’m exhausted, I feel like my strength has shot up quite a bit,” said Zundar.
Akira looked at those gathered around him and saw that their strength had indeed risen at least ten levels. He was sure that the people in the south fort and the guards stationed on the outer city walls received a few levels for the support they provided.
“Get some people out here to guard this body and scare off any monsters or animals from damaging the material that we can gather from it,” said Akira as he stood up and pointed to the dead [💀 Gray Coiling constrictor].
The scales, leather, and bones could all be used as crafting material for various future projects or armor. He would have to get the dwarves to do the delicate work of dismantling everything from the body.
“I can keep an eye on it for you. What about the meat?” asked Zundar.
“We’ll just use it to feed it to the Garg. We won’t need to gather any extra meat for them for a while. Fluffball, let’s go see what’s going on in the city.”
“We’ll come with you,” said Dolph and Vilkas.
When Akira and his royal guards reached the battle site of the [💀 Vile Snow Toad], the first thing he noticed was the large craters everywhere. They were far deeper and wider than the ones created by the [💀 Gray Coiling constrictor].
There was large amounts of blood all around the messy battlefield. The next thing that caught his eye was the large dead [💀 Vile Snow Toad] which was lying on its back with its belly up in the air.
On the dead [💀 Gray Coiling constrictor’s] large belly was Balue who was sitting in silence while smoking a pipe, but strangely instead of smoke coming out of the pipe, frosty rings of mist escaped and froze creating various shaped rings of ice crystals.
“Ah! Have you finished your battle? I have been waiting for you for a while now since I did not want to interrupt your battle as I know some people hate to be helped or have their kill stolen by others,” said Balue, who looked more and more like a young man.
“I don’t mind help,” said Akira as he continued to look around the area. “This is going to be a pain to fill in the holes. If we don’t then there are bound to be people who will get hurt by falling into them when snow piles up and hides them.”
“This creature was a real nice treat to fight. It had a few nasty tricks up its sleeves… well it doesn’t have sleeves but you get my point. Any time we dealt damage to it, toxins from its skin and its poisoned blood spurted out causing even more trouble for us as the battle went on. But with my skill you don’t worry, no one died. Although there are some with serious wounds.”
Akira let out a sigh of relief.
DING!
-
The final culling battles have been completed!
Over 30 villages and forts have fallen!
Those who have lost are disqualified from the Main Event mission!
Their territory is now free for the taking!
Akira looked over to Klyn who was also surveying the land.
“In the last few days, has there been any news from those at Bent-gii or the small group we sent north?”
“I’ve been too busy to check up on the reports, but if something really did happen I think the grand elders would have been informed and we would have been called to a meeting. If you would like, we can go check and see how everyone is doing?”
“Let’s do that. We cannot rest now even though we have survived this ordeal. There is still the troublesome matter in the north to deal with,” said Akira as he followed Klyn to the temporary Shaman information post that was set up in the outer city.
“YAP!” said a happy Fluffball who was still full of energy after eating several candies from Akira.
***
North of the border. Begus Deekus capital city.
Three lifeless bodies lay on the ground with blood leaking out of the several wounds in their backs from cuts, arrows, and skill attacks.
“Awooo!” a pained howl came from a grizzled battle-hardened werewolf whose red fur was starting to show hints of gray.
The 3 dead on the ground were the shamen werewolves in charge of buffing and long-distance communication. They were part of the undercover advisory team that had been sent to help the potential ally.
“You vile snakes!” growled the red-furred werewolf as he slashed out at the attackers with his claws.
They had only reached the city the day before and had received a warm welcome.
Just moments ago they had been leisurely taking a tour around the city and gave their opinions to the guide on how to update everything to maximize their defense against an enemy attack. They were almost finished with the day’s tour when they had been attacked!
Now human soldiers were flooding in from everywhere trying to surround the 7 surviving werewolves who had all transformed and were fighting for their lives.
“Captain Rud this is really bad!” said a middle-aged werewolf.
“Mace, I know it’s bad! I have eyes just like you! Keep pushing forward! We can’t stay here any longer!” growled Rud. His graying red fur was now splattered with the blood of his attackers, it less noticeable as it blended in with his fur.
“But what about Brun and the other two?” asked Mace.
“If we don’t leave now we will be joining them!”
They felt bad leaving the shamen’s bodies behind, but now was not the time for such sentimentality as they had to leave now!
“Awwwwooooo!”
With the fierce howl echoing through the entire city, Rud led the charge down the main street that was only moments ago bustling with civilians going about their daily activities.
Now it was complete chaos!
The civilians were screaming in terror all trying to run away from the menacing werewolves while the city guards were flooding in from the side streets trying to halt the small group of werewolves.
The werewolves plowed through anyone that got in their way and cut down those that had a weapon or tried to attack them.
Thud!
A crossbolt flew only a few inches away from Rud’s face and slammed into a stall next to him. The attack had almost pierced the head of a cowering merchant who was hugging the wall of the nearby building.
Rud and the surviving werewolves did not slow down their charge as several more cross-bolts flew toward them.
“GRAAAAA!”
“UGGGH”
Several pained growls came from the group as several of the cross-bolts landed and pierced their armor.
“We’re almost at the wall!” growled Rud who had received a crossbolt in his shoulder.
With their path of escape to the stairs that led up the wall in sight, they all pushed forward gaining a second wind.
Bam!
A large body of a heavily armored knight fell from the sky and activated a skill as he landed right in front of the escaping werewolves.
Several other oddly armored fighters not like the local knights jumped out from their hiding places and joined the round knight.
“Hahaha! I knew you mutts would be coming this way! Allow me to play with you for a while! Begus Deekus you don’t mind right?” asked the large knight.
“Do what you want,” said King Begus Deekus, appearing from one of the nearby buildings.
“So you really did sell us out to the demigods!” growled Rud angrily as he saw the demigods and city guards all tighten the noose around them.
Rud and many of the other werewolves were all sporting various wounds, some were bad enough that if not treated soon, would lead to their deaths.
“It’s your own fault for coming here with such a small force when I asked for help. Don’t blame me!” said Begus Deekus looking away from Rud as he tried to wash his hands of this incident.
“What do we do Captain?” asked Pran, who was the youngest of the group. He had only recently been promoted to the scouting team position. Before the promotion, he had been a young message runner in several of Kodria’s battles including the Molten Onyx Siege.
“Awo! Awoo! Awooooo~!” Howled Captain Rud.
“Captain…” said Pran, with tears forming in his eyes.
“Don’t argue, just do it! I have the most experience fighting with demigods as I also fought in the last great war and every battle since!” growled captain rud.
“Hehehe. What are you guys talking about?” asked a demigod who was unable to decipher what their growls and grunts meant.
The furry faces of all of the werewolves hardened with determination and the next moment they all rushed forward right at the demigods that were blocking their path.
“You stupid mutts don’t know the difference between the heavens and earth. Go Die!” shouted one of the angry demigods. He along with the other demigods all activated skills and shot them at the charging werewolves.
The leading werewolves did not dodge the attacks and instead took them head-on and even took several attacks that were aimed at Pran. Two more werewolves fell to the ground dead from the barrage of attacks.
Only five were left when they reached the demigods. They plowed right into the demigods, tackling them to the ground, engaging them in a physical struggle to rip the weapons from their enemies’ hands, while also trying to tear their throats out and rip their limbs off.
In all the commotion a large gap opened allowing Pran to burst through and raced up the stone steps with tears in his eyes.
“Don’t let him escape!” shouted Begus Deekus.
“On it!” shouted a female demigod as she turned and aimed her staff toward Pran’s back.
A green flash shot out and slammed into Pran cutting through the armor on his back as he reached the top of the wall. The force from the attack along with the pain, caused him to stumble forward and fall off the wall outside of everyone’s vision.
“Go finish him off!”
“Like I would let you do that!” growled Rud, as he kicked away the person that was trying to block him and jumped forward tackling two of the demigods that were trying to chase after Pran.
Using his sharp claws as a knife he pierced their sides and back mortally wounding them.
“You damn mutt!” shouted the demigod that had just been kicked away. He rushed forward once again and pierced Rud through the back as well as his lung before pulling out his sword.
As Rud fell to the ground, he saw that only two other werewolves were still fighting to the death, blocking the demigods from chasing Pran.
Although the werewolves had killed a staggering number of city guards and demigods, it was not enough as they were in the enemy’s territory.
The last two werewolves were quickly overwhelmed and cut down with the various skills from the demigods who were chugging their potions to recover from the deadly blows they had received.
One of the demigods rushed up the steps to the top of the wall and looked over the edge.
“He’s gone!”
“What?” shouted Begus Deekus.
“There are blood stains where he fell, but I don’t see him anywhere!”
“Hahaha!” laughed Rud who had already reverted back to his human form. “You won’t be able to catch him! Cough! Cough!”
Rud was choking on his blood that was filling his throat and lungs making it hard to breathe, but he still continued to gurgle and laugh. Pran had been part of the message runners because of his innate skill that he had awakened which boosted his speed to something even faster than the dukes quadruped running!
“Are you happy?” asked Rud through pained breaths as bloody bubbles popped out from his mouth. “You have gained a permanent enemy of the entire demon race alliance! Hahaha…”
Shunk!
An angry Demigod who was standing over him slashed down with his sword and severed Rud’s head ending his laughter.
“You, you, and you go hunt him down! He is heavily wounded and can not last long in this winter weather with no supplies. The rest of you make sure they are all dead. Then we can hurry up and finish preparations for the next stage!” said the large knight as he pointed to the bodies of the other werewolves.
As one they launched several skills into the bodies of the werewolves, mincing, burning, and freezing them into an unrecognizable mass of meat.
***
“We have gotten news from the northern fort and Bent Gii. Everyone reported that they have all survived the waves of attacks,” said Klyn.
“Did they say anything about what and how many monsters attacked them?” asked Akira.
“They faced the same type of monsters but the attacks were far smaller than what we faced.”
“What about the support group who are staying in the Begus Deekus dukedom?”
“We haven’t been able to reach them but that is nothing unexpected as the distance is pretty far and it takes a lot of energy to receive and send information. They are probably too busy to chat with us.”
“For some reason, I feel all itchy when thinking about it. The faster we can leave and head north to join them the better it will be, then all my concerns will be put to rest.”
