Wolf

A large screen appears in front of me as soon as my feet touch the ground.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Your challenge will begin in ten seconds.

The default challenge consists of four waves, and each wave has twice the number of monsters of the previous wave.

Good luck, and may the moon guide your way.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I blink in confusion at that last line before shaking my head.

Not the time to think about that.

I raise my claws into a ready position without shifting out of my hunter form whilst carefully looking around the arena grounds. At the same time, my shadow grows in size before Sapphire jumps out in her true form.

My attention immediately focuses on a particular jackyl as it begins floating into the center of the arena.

So, it will be against members of the audience after all…

At least this will be interesting.

As soon as the jackyl makes it to the ground, the guardian slams the butt of its staff into the ground and backs up. The jackyl then glances from me to the guardian, and back to me again before growling and charging straight at me.

Well, that mutt isn’t wasting any time…

_-| Unnamed – Jackyl – Level 441 |-_

It’s not very strong.

I lower my claws before waving one of my paws, sending a wave of ice element at the jackyl.

“The hell?” I mutter with a frown as I notice the obvious difference in how much ice my ice element is making. Not to mention the slower speed at which it is traveling.

Thanks to this, the jackyl manages to go around my ice element before jumping straight at me with its snout wide open in its attempt to take a bite out of me.

Sapphire suddenly appears in front of me in my moment of distraction and skewers the jackyl on her leg as I focus on my ice element. I manipulate it to create several balls of ice that I begin to float around in circles.

It’s only after a few seconds pass, right before the next wave begins, that I realize the problem.

Ice element works by decreasing the temperature of everything it touches by a large amount. But if the temperature of what’s around it is already extremely hot – take this desert for example – then…

“Well, fuck,” I mutter, my frown deepening even further.

My ice isn’t going to be as useful on this floor as it has been on the previous floors. Not if it takes two entire seconds just to make a simple ball of ice. And especially not with this annoying delay to my ice element’s speed of movement.

I hear two sounds from behind me, so I turn around to find another jackyl, along with a desert warrior having just landed in the sand several meters away from me. Both with obvious bloodlust in their eyes.

Sapphire suddenly lets out a confused screech, likely wondering what I’m doing.

I glance at her before shrugging.

“If I can’t freeze them as easily at this low a level,” I mutter, turning back to the monsters, “then I might as well just tear them to shreds instead.”

Sapphire screeches again right as I break off into a sprint straight towards the monsters, clearing the distance in a single second before I swing my claws straight towards the jackyl’s unprotected head. The jackyl lets out a loud yelp of surprise while backing up, only for my claws to go straight into its head, tearing out a large chunk of its face including one of its eyes and a large chunk of its flesh.

The yelp quickly turns into a mournful howl mixed with loud whimpers of pain that quickly vanish as I reach forwards with my other clawed hand to grab its throat and toss it head-first into the desert warrior that was trying – and failing – to sneak up behind me.

Not even a second passes before the whimpers come back, albeit a lot quieter before, only for them to be silenced once more as Sapphire reaches them and pierces the jackyl’s already malformed head with her clawed leg. At the same time, she swipes another leg at the desert warrior that is currently trying to get out from under the jackyl’s dead corpse, cutting right through its armor and separating its head from its body.

My eyes widen in surprise as I see the desert warrior’s jaw still moving despite not being attached to its body, opening and shutting in a silent manner.

Interesting…

I approach the skull before pausing for a few seconds in front of it and stepping on it, crushing it completely and ending any fight the headless desert warrior’s corpse was trying to give towards Sapphire.

Both of the monster corpses disappear – just like the first one did whilst I wasn’t looking – before another five second countdown appears in front of my vision.

It’s a good thing that none of these monsters seem to be all that strong.

My eyes move over towards the closest desert scorpion within the bleachers, completely ignoring the four monsters – two desert warriors and two jackyls – as they slowly float down to the ground near me as soon as the timer runs out.

Okay, that thing might be strong, but I will have to see whenever I fight it.

I turn back towards the four monsters right as they touch the ground.

If I’m being honest, this floor theme could actually end up being even shorter than the last one. Even if it’s just because of the extreme ease of which I can find monsters to kill within these arenas.

Meaning a lot more EXP for me.

Although that’s also assuming I avoid those enormous monsters within the sands outside of the arenas of course. Because it would suck to be eaten by one before I could even fight back.

Aegis – Safe Zone 52 Council Chambers

“So you think it will take at least half a year for the anthrovespids to reach us?” Blake asks the leader of Safe Zone 53, whose is being shown on the large screen located at the center of the room, floating above a large, circular pad. The pad is an item bought from the System Store that allows someone to project their System Call to allow for a larger group to have a call at one time.

Liam Hawkins turns to face Blake through the screen and nods his head, “Yes, that is the estimation we have come up with.”

“It’s not just us who have reached this conclusion either,” Frank Hawkins, the father of Safe Zone 53’s leader, adds as an aside, “Luke has agreed with our estimate as well, in case you had any doubts.”

Everyone within the council chamber turns to look at Luke, only to stiffen up a little bit as soon as they see him nod his head.

“And when do you actually think they will arrive here?” Manfred asks with his arms crossed, and a frown on his face.

Luke turns to look at him as he answers, “They will likely make it through the other safe zones in about a year’s time, assuming none of the other ones can deal with them.”

“What do you think the chances of that happening are?” Aidan suddenly asks, his brows furrowed in interest.

“Not very high,” Luke answers turning to face him, “the safe zones between us and the anthrovespids aren’t very powerful in terms of strength. At least not when compared to us.”

“Right,” Jessica joins in, “and the only faction in between us and them is The Ascendency, which is – from what I have been told – normally a neutral faction in fights like these.”

“What do you think the chances are that the anthrovespids will attack The Ascendency?” Oscar – the Council’s head of economy – asks, messing with his mustache.

Eric – the Council’s head of infrastructure – answers in a gruff tone without even looking at the small man, “Just because the anthrovespids are beasts, does not mean they are stupid. Even those creatures wouldn’t attack a powerful faction unless they were strong enough to do so.”

The head of economy turns a glare towards Erik before snorting and focusing on the center screen as the others ignore their remarks as usual.

“Regardless, this gives us just one year to prepare for the anthrovespids’ coming attack,” Manfred says with his elbows resting on his knees and his chin resting on his hands.

Liam nods with a frown, “Indeed, which, while that is not ideal, it will have to do.”

Almost an entire minute passes by in utter silence before Manfred finally stands up and says, “This meeting is over.”

The screen in the center of the room vanishes after the Safe Zone 53 leaders say their goodbyes, while at the same time, the council members all begin to get up from their chairs to leave the room.

‘I get the feeling that the Werewolf Empress would try to help us if push came to shove,’ Luke thinks to himself, not getting up from his chair, ‘but I would rather avoid telling the others about that so as to not give them a crutch to rely on, and to not further complicate Wolf’s situation.’

Lucia sits next to him for a few seconds before getting up and patting him on the shoulder to draw his attention.

Luke nods to her before finally getting up from his seat and walking out with her, not saying a single word to the council members they pass by on the way.