“Faster Claude! Akila!” Aeron urged.
“They’re here,” Lina said, out on the horizon, numerous dots appeared.
A wolf pack with its weakest member being a Mid-Grade Wolf was chasing them. Lina looked back and tried to see how strong the pack chasing them was, a worried look appeared on her face as she saw 4 wolves rapidly gaining on them. Aeron also noticed her worry when he looked back and saw 4 particular wolves become bigger and bigger as they gained more speed.
“An Earth Stage Wolf is leading the pack, and the three wolves behind it are at least Level 6 Mortal Stage Wolves,” Lina explained.
Aeron listened to her with a complex look, he knew that it would only take a bit more time before the wolves reached them, and Lina as an Earth Stage Professional could have more chances of escape if she went by herself. To put it simply, he was burdening her at this moment. Aeron looked towards Lina, but her expression did not have any sign of leaving him behind, although he appreciated her thoughts, and even if they did try to defeat the wolves chasing them, then most probably, another pack would appear to take their place.
“Lina, why don’t you escape ahead, I’ll find another way to escape,” Aeron said, there was no politeness within his voice, this was a decision he made earlier. Although there was little to no chance of him escaping alive, him dragging Lina down was much worse in his opinion.
“Are you insulting me?” Lina replied angrily.
She did not know why, but the thought of this younger man, sacrificing himself for her made her angry. She had grown up with almost no one to match her, her talent with the sword made her stand out within her peers, but here she was, contemplating whether to go ahead of him. In fact, rationally speaking, this was the best choice for them to take, one level 6 Tamer compared to an Earth Stage Sword Dancer was a no brainer. But her pride and emotions did not allow her to do such actions.
“Then can you kill the Earth Stage Wolf fast enough?” Aeron answered calmly.
At first, he wanted to argue how it would be a futile effort to try and fight, they didn’t even know if another pack was following them. But seeing her angry face made Aeron reconsider, she was probably only older than him by a few years, and yet, she was already at the Earth Stage, someone of her caliber must have grown up with the people around her treating her as a genius or someone special. She was even confident enough to go deep inside the Endless Forest with no one to follow her. Young, powerful, and confident, even Aeron had a moment of confidence and arrogance after he trained for a year and achieved something at the level of a genius. How hard could it be to remove such arrogance when they’ve experienced it their whole lives. Thus, Aeron asked her a question instead, the reality was often the best way to deal with these sorts of situations.
Lina was surprised by Aeron’s question, she never expected such a reply. This actually helped her to calm down and think further, normally, a beast of the same level and stage would no doubt, defeat a human professional. But there were people who were special and skilled, that they were able to bridge the gap between a beast and a human through sheer ability. One example of this was the City of Isa’s Governor, Arius Azrhail’s ability to raise undead titans made him one of the strongest Necromancer alive, and normal logic did not apply to him. Lina was the same, she was beloved by swords, and her skill with swordsmanship was far better than others, her fight with an injured Sky Stage Assassin might not have been impressive, but if it were another, then death would have arrived for them on the first clash.
“I can try, but the other wolves are the problem,” Lina answered Aeron after some moment of thinking.
Aeron was the one who was surprised this time around, although he only wanted to ask her the question to make her realize how futile the situation was, he didn’t expect her to actually reply that she can, and her reply even implied that if the other wolves were taken care of, she can try to kill the Earth Stage Wolf. There were at least three High-Grade Wolves at the Mortal Stage, if he can take fight one of the wolves, then there would still be two left. Arthur could probably defeat one of them, but the problem was that there were two, even if Arthur was a beast king, he was still only in the Mortal Stage, and two High-Grade Wolves of the same stage would probably give him trouble, Ursa was also still evolving, Aeron could urge him to accelerate his evolution, but that would sublimate his soul and leave him vulnerable to the enemy. Aeron thought of the Golden Eyed Snake, but bringing in another unstable variable might just cause them their demise faster.
“I can try to stop the other wolves, but you have to promise to escape by yourself if the situation goes south,” Aeron said in a serious voice.
Lina thought for a bit before she nodded, in truth, her reply didn’t carry any implication of Aeron having the ability to stop three High-Grade Wolves at the Mortal Stage, it was Aeron who misunderstood her. She had already calmed down and already started to accept the reality of their situation, what she said was the result of her accepting their predicament, she did think she could handle the Earth Stage Wolf, and even try to kill it if she did her best, but the other wolves were the problem, even though they were only at the Mortal Stage, with the Earth Stage Wolf fighting her, she would never win and even result with her death instead. But from Aeron’s words, he had the ability to stop the other wolves for her to fight the Earth Stage Wolf. She didn’t know why, she didn’t necessarily know him enough for her to trust him with her life, but she knew he wouldn’t lie about their situation. She didn’t just draw such a conclusion with only her instincts alone, she knew he wasn’t lying because of Claude and Akila’s expressions.
“Also, promise me that you won’t tell anyone else about what you’ll see,” Aeron added.
Lina was surprised again, but the enemy was getting nearer by the second.
“I Lina Azrhail, swear, through my soul, through my being, to not tell anyone about your secrets, as long as you want me to,” Lina replied with conviction.
A promise through the soul and one’s existence was one of the heaviest promises there was, if one broke the promise, then their souls would die instantly, of course, this was only if they broke their promise willingly. If there was someone who had the ability to read someone’s mind or memory forcefully, then the promise would stay as is.
“Alright then, first, try to direct the Earth Stage Wolf’s attention and separate it from the pack, I’ll handle the other wolves afterward, if it works, then we’ll go from there,” Aeron instructed.
Lina nodded in agreement, she hopped off Akila before placing the grey cloak on the basket beside Claude, she would be able to fight better without it. She separated from Aeron as a white aura erupted from her body, the amount of aura emanating from Lina was far larger than what Aeron could currently use.
‘Such a huge gap,’ Aeron thought, this was a truly humbling experience for Aeron, at first he thought his leveling speed was already faster than those people dubbed as geniuses, but the person he was looking at right now proved him wrong.
The wolves got nearer and Aeron saw the Earth Stage Wolf in front, it was almost 5 meters tall, its fur was a darker shade of grey.
“An Iron Wolf!” Aeron murmured.
‘A highly defensive demon beast,’ Aeron thought as he looked towards Lina.
He didn’t know whether Lina would be able to kill it fast, beasts with the word Iron on their names usually meant that they were defensive in nature, or their abilities usually leaned to defense, the most prominent skill of the Iron Wolf was [Iron Hide], this was not an active skill but a passive one instead, which gives the Iron Wolf a huge boost in physical and elemental resistance. Lina didn’t seem as bothered so Aeron looked at the wolves behind the Iron Wolf.
‘Magic Beasts, fire, ice, and earth wolves,’ Aeron thought.
Magic Beasts were usually easy to spot, fire wolves would have strips of red fur, ice wolves had light blue strips of fur, while earth wolves had brown strips of fur, the higher their level, the more their fur changes into the corresponding color of their element. Still, though they were magic beasts, they were still far bigger than normal wolves, the smallest was the ice wolf who stood at 3 meters tall, while the biggest of the three, the fire wolf, stood at 3.5 meters tall.
Grrr!
When the Iron Wolf was near enough, it detected Lina who was emitting an aura of an Earth Stage Professional. It growled towards its subordinates as it charged towards Lina, its pack, on the other hand, charged towards Aeron’s direction, led by the three magic beasts.
Nine glowing lights came out of Aeron’s body as 4 silver wolves, 4 silver monkeys, and Arthur appeared around him. The sight surprised Lina, especially when she felt Arthur’s presence.
‘A High-Grade Beast!!’ she thought.
But the oncoming Iron Wolf did not let her think further about how’s and why’s, she ignored Aeron’s actions as she readied herself for the fight.
“Lancelot, Gwaine, Percival, and Elyan, go grab your weapons, ride the silver wolves, don’t go near the High-Grade Beasts, but do you best to keep the other wolves from interfering,” Aeron instructed.
Throughout this whole year, he had already made the Arthur and the silver monkeys train in mounted combat, although he did so with the purpose of future fights, he didn’t expect for it to come so quickly, still, the Mid-Grade Wolves might not even enter the fray, not all High-Grade Beasts were like the Bloody Hyena, so the silver monkeys were only ordered for precautionary measures.
“Arthur, do your best to get the attention of the fire and ice wolves, I’ll take care of the earth wolf,” Aeron added.
Aeron’s decision was not one without any thoughts into it, the fire and ice wolves were very offensive in nature, Aeron who had just become a level 6 Professional wouldn’t be their opponent, the earth wolf on the other hand was not as offensive and was rather defensive, although, as a wolf, it was still fond of offensive skills rather than defensive ones, Aeron just hoped that he could last long enough. Even ordering Arthur to stop two High-Grade Beasts was already a stretch, but what they needed to do was take the wolves’ attention off Lina to give her enough space for her fight.
Arthur nodded in reply, the silver wolves were already on standby, Arthur’s fur suddenly transformed into a golden suit of armor, the spear on his hands became a golden spear, but Arthur was not finished yet, another Arthur suddenly appeared, this was [Perfect Copy], although the copy was not able to utilize aura, it was still enough to distract the wolves into thinking another powerful beast appeared.
Aeron had the obsidian glaive on his hands as he waited for the wolves to engage. This was his first fight against a High-Grade Beast, his hands couldn’t help trembling, but the nervousness and excitement mixed themselves up to an unknown feeling within him.
KIIIII!
Arthur suddenly screamed towards the oncoming wolves, even the Iron Wolf noticed, 8 golden blades flew towards the wolves, the target was the fire and ice wolves, but the golden blades were met with fireballs and ice shards.
BOOOM!
The projectiles met in the air resulting in a small explosion, Arthur and his copy ran towards Aeron’s right, the fire and ice wolves were successfully angered as they separated from the group. The earth wolf stayed on track and ran towards Aeron who braced himself, his grey aura was already released to attract the earth wolf’s attention. The mounted silver monkeys had already distanced themselves from Aeron with their bows and quivers, they shot arrows towards the mid-grade wolves, the earth wolf ignored them as it charged towards Aeron.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three large rocks flew up from the ground and floated around the earth wolf. The large rocks flew towards Aeron in succession. Aeron had already Enveloped his aura as he saw the attack, he ran to his left to dodge the large rocks, he successfully dodged the first two rocks, but the third changed direction and met him on his path.
[Accelerated Strike]Aeron activated his skill as he swung his glaive towards the rock while lunging forward.
Bang!
The rock and Aeron’s weapon met, Aeron stumbled because of the force of the attack, but he had successfully dodged all the attacks, Aeron had even forgotten to infuse his skill with his aura due to his inexperience.
“Where?” Aeron suddenly noticed that the Earth Wolf disappeared, at first, he thought it dug a hole underground, but the shadow on the ground suggested otherwise. When Aeron looked up, the earth wolf was already too near, its claws outstretched as its jaws opened wide. He was only left with one option.
[Lightning Strike]Lightning exploded from Aeron’s body as the Earth Wolf got blown away, it landed on its feet and started growling menacingly towards Aeron. Although Aeron wasn’t exhausted by the attack, he estimated another 2 Lightning Strikes, and he would be left exhausted again. He wasn’t able to infuse the skill with his aura due to haste, but judging from the Earth Wolf’s quick recovery, it seemed to be resistant to lightning attacks.
Earth element was one of the most defensive elements, while lightning was one of the most offensive elements, but earth was also very resistant to lightning, Aeron knew this and he understood. But he had also briefly seen Arthur’s enemies throwing a barrage of attacks towards Arthur. The intensity of the attacks was a far cry from the Earth Wolf’s attacks, this was also the reason why he chose to fight the Earth Wolf even though his strongest skill to date was weak against it.
The iron wolf had already reached Lina before Aeron and Arthur fought their respective opponents.
[Dance of Swords]Lina had a sword raised a sword in front, and another on her back, she stood steadily as she waited for the Iron Wolf to strike.
