Howl!

Aeron was alarmed when he heard the howls, it seemed far, yet the frequency of the howls suggested that it was getting nearer. All of the wolves inside the Endless Forest responded to the howls, and from Aeron’s calculations, a bunch of powerful wolves were near their area. Lina also opened her eyes at this moment, fortunately, there had been enough time for her to heal and recover, they both looked into each other’s eyes.

“Let’s leave,” Aeron said and Lina replied with a nod.

‘Arthur, I’ll have to unsummon you and the monkeys first,’ Aeron sent a message through his soul.

Aeron and Lina traveled down the base, Claude had 2 huge baskets strapped on his back, one to carry Terra and the other turtles, even the notification bird was stuffed inside it, and the other were for Aeron’s things like weapons, and hides.

Lina was actually surprised by the number of weapons Aeron had, he even had shields which wasn’t easy to create, specially if you were alone. Even so, Lina did not ask anything about it as it was not her concern, her only concern as of the moment was escaping the Endless Forest and going back to the City. She just thought that Aeron liked to forge and was studying to be a blacksmith, which was one of the most popular jobs in Gaia.

Another thing that surprised Lina were the turtles, they were from her judgement, normal level 0 turtles, keeping useless pets was not normal in Gaia, and here was Aeron, keeping 10 turtles. Again, she just thought it was a unique hobby that Aeron had, after all, even she thought that the turtles were cute, specially the curious one who kept staring at her with big round eyes.

“Are you okay with riding Akila, the silver wolf?” Aeron asked.

Akila moved in front of Lina, he stared at her for a bit before crouching down, Lina smiled at Akila’s action of offering his back. In truth, Earth Stage Professionals could run faster than Mid-Grade Beasts if they tried, but they also needed to expend more energy. Beasts had far better speed and stamina compared to humans, thus, mounts were an important aspect to humans in Gaia as the terrain in Gaia was far larger and wider than that of Earth.

“It would be my pleasure,” Lina said as she brushed Akila’s smooth silver fur, it even seemed like Akila liked it.

‘What’s up with that?’ Aeron thought, he had been with the silver wolves for a long time, they did treat him like a master, but it took him a while before they truly trusted him like a true pet. But Lina hadn’t even spent a day with Akila but Akila was already offering her a ride.

Aeron looked back to his base, he had lived in it for a month or so, it had been an unexpected find within the Endless Forest, and without it, it would have made his stay far more uncomfortable, and his mental state might have been affected. But it had always been a temporary base.

“Alright, let’s go,” Aeron said as he rode Claude, Richie also hopped on Claude, although, Claude seemed to dislike having someone other than Aeron ride him, but Claude still listened to Aeron’s orders.

A cloud leopard and a silver wolf zoomed through the Endless Forest, with their speed, it wasn’t long before they exited the confines of the Endless Forest. The current problem that Aeron and Lina faced was the return trip back to Una.

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In the City of Una.

Howl! Howl! Howl!

Multiple howls disturbed the peace of the City, many stiffened for the howls represented the start of the battle they had been expecting, yet, when the time truly came, many of them started to doubt. The howls seemed to be endless as a chorus of even more powerful howls sent shivers to the people’s back.

“EVERYONE! ITS TIME!” a booming voice came from the City’s center.

Thud thud thud thud

A multitude of heavy footsteps and armors clanking sounded from the city as an army of 6 thousand Professionals marched towards their intended positions, 3 thousand people marched in unison, as another more disorganized army followed behind them, their destination was the southern wall facing the Endless Forest.

Although Gerard couldn’t provide the best armor to his people, he was still able to provide them with iron essence forged armors. Most weapons could be created by Professionals themselves, armors and shields were a different case, doing so alone needed someone to be a powerful Professional to train ore essence into armor, the easiest way was to hire mages to help in melting ore essence and fusing them into one, which needed a constant supply of heat and mana. Which in turn made armors and shield more expensive than weapons.

In Aeron’s case, he was able to create a simple shield and good quality weapons because he had Arthur with him. With Arthur’s skill [Metal Domination] it was far easier to train ore essence to desired forms, what Aeron lacked was ore essence source, enough to arm his army of monkeys.

Everyone with the exception of Archers and Assassins wore armor, even Mages wore armor, although Mages were more prominent in ranged combat, Gerard still had them train in melee combat. Although the chances of Mages resorting to melee combat was small, it was still better to prepare, this was the standard for Gerard’s people, there were even Mages who could defeat Warriors in melee combat, of course, this was with the help of their spells, still, Mages who were adept in melee combat had far higher survival rate in Gaia.

Gerard was currently in a command tower erected beside the southern wall facing the Endless Forest, he looked upon the wall, 3 thousand people were lined up in formation, his expenditure in this war actually sucked him dry. As to why he spent so many resources in this war, all these were part of his plans, one which would bear fruit when they succeeded in defending the City.

“Everything is in place Young Master,” Rodrigo spoke.

Rodrigo was of a rare Warrior Profession variation, the Knight Profession, although, Knights differed slightly from Warriors, this was because they only had one skill that was different from a Warriors, and that was the [Warrior’s Might], Knights instead had [Knight’s Might] which would allow them to borrow strength from their mounts, and also allows them to bond with beasts in different ways that Tamers tamed their pets.

Knights didn’t prosper as much as other Professions when humans first arrived in Gaia, just like Tamers, as it was deemed an impractical and difficult Profession. Knights couldn’t use their [Knight’s Might] if they did not touch their bonded beast, and unlike Tamers, the bonded beast of knights did not revive, just like contract beasts, but it had to be said that to bond with beasts was far easier than taming one as a Tamer. But just like Tamers, many people tried and succeeded. Still, a Knight with a powerful mount was a force to be reckoned with.

“That’s good then, the only thing we can do now is wait,” Gerard said.

If Aeron was here, then he would have noticed that there was one person missing from Gerard’s guards that he met for the first time, Sam, Brock, Rodrigo, and Alexis was all present, that person has been sent by Gerard to a City in the east, which was in preparation for one of Gerard’s plans. Another man was standing behind Gerard, a man that Aeron would definitely recognize.

“Are you sure my nephew is safe?” the man asked.

“To be honest, I currently have no idea of his specific whereabouts, Mr. Roderick, I only know he is somewhere inside the Endless Forest, I have sent him a message through a notification bird 9 days ago, since the notification bird flew away and didn’t return, then he should still be alive, that I can assure you,” Gerard replied with respect.

The person who asked was Roderick Ironbull, the brother of Raynold Ironbull, another rising star within the Ironbull Family but unlike the obscure Raynold Ironbull, Aeron’s father, he was far more famous and was only one step away from Transcendence. Aeron’s father and mother were only known by people who specifically investigated them, otherwise, the most they would know about were the famous Tamers in the Ironbull Family.

Another thing that Gerard mentioned was the notification bird, this was actually one of the methods used by people to know whether someone was dead or alive, the special skill of the notification bird allows it to locate the person it marked, but that was only when the target was alive, once the person marked by the notification bird dies, the bird would refuse to fly, and if they were in mid-flight as the target died, then they would fly back to where they came from, and refuse to eat until they died of starvation.

This was also a natural behavior of the notification bird in the wild, once they found their partners, they would mark each other, and when the other died, the one left behind soon followed, but before they used their marking skill, they lived just like normal birds.

Before Roderick could reply, a terrifying howl came from the Endless Forest.

“They have come,” Gerard said as he looked at the Endless Forest.

Massive amounts of wolves started to walk outside of the Endless Forest, it was like seeing a grey sea surging out of the Endless Forest. After a while, the sea of wolves stopped, and from behind, massive wolves with different colors appeared, there were even wolves that looked like they were 10 meters tall.

“Siege Wolves!” someone exclaimed.

Just like Dire Wolves of the Mortal Stage, Dire Wolves of the Earth Stage Wolves focused on brute strength. But they were rarely found outside of huge forests where their food was abundant. They were notorious for charging through city walls with only their sheer strength which earned them the name, Siege Wolves. Many other big wolves lead throngs of other wolves, demon beast wolves were usually bigger than Magic Beasts, but Magic Beasts were also far bigger than their normal counterpart.

Tension filled the air as the people in the walls saw the terrifying sight, if they had to estimate, there would probably be 30 thousand wolves coming out of the Endless Forest, and they were still increasing by the second.

“Can we really win against that?” a person suddenly asked as his will wavered.

This question shook the will of everyone who heard and saw the enemy, no one said anything, the 3 thousand reserved groups were placed behind the southern wall did not see the enemy, yet they still heard the wolf howls which made them tremble. Even so, no one tried to escape, this was it, either they win or die, escaping was already out of the question, living as someone who deserted a battle in Gaia, was far worse than someone who just chose to retreat before the battle, as it would be an insult to everyone who fought and died for humanity. Of course, surviving after the defeat wasn’t as shameful, still, your reputation would not be the same, and chances of leading another army would dwindle for every defeat one survived.

Everyone quieted down as a Siege Wolf almost as tall as the walls appeared from the forest edge, and standing on its back was the wolf king.

“A werewolf? How much hatred did it take for it to actually evolve into a werewolf?” Gerard murmured.

A beast’s evolution was affected by its recognition of the strong, the evolution of the wolf king meant that the people Gerard’s uncle met were at least stronger than the wolf king’s father who should at least be a peak Sky Stage Wolf.

‘If so, then there should be more to it than just my brother’s meddling,’ Gerard thought.

The wolves stopped for a moment after the wolf king appeared, the wolves were already about 60 thousand in number, more than ten times the number of the remaining people in the City of Una, even Gerard thought 60 thousand wasn’t the maximum number that the wolf king could gather, if the wolf king waited more, then it could definitely gather more wolves, but its hatred didn’t allow for more time.

Howl!

The wolf king suddenly howled; this was followed by 60 thousand wolves from Mortal to Sky Stage.

HOWL!!

The deafening and dreadful howl almost crushed everyone’s will, but before it did.

“RAAAAHHHHH!!” Gerard let out a roar!

This was a Warrior’s skill, the [Warrior’s Roar], Gerard’s roar woke everyone up, their blood boiled as they roared back at the wolves with defiance, every Warrior activated their [Warrior’s Roar].

“RAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!”

The wolves didn’t stop their howls, but their dominance diminished, Gerard’s roar was also noticeably more effective than the other Warrior’s, but only a few people noticed. The howling stopped as well as the roaring, the humans had their morale soar through the sky as their blood boiled with battle fervor, this was the effect of [Warrior’s Roar]. The wolves were also in a state of excitement, one step away from going berserk, as the more powerful wolves made use of skill similar to the Hyena skill that activated berserk.

“Truly a young lion,” Roderick said.

“Still, Raynold will surely blame me if I don’t try to find his son,” Roderick said as he waved his hand and a ball of light came out of his body. A massive beast with a head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion appeared. Everyone near him was alarmed but they also knew he was a Tamer, still, a powerful beast appearing out of nowhere made them vigilant, Roderick looked towards Gerard.

“1,200 kilometers west of here, you should be able to find the base we built for him,” Gerard said as he understood what Roderick was asking him for.

Roderick then sent orders to his Gryphon as it took to the sky, west of the City. At first, the wolves were alarmed as they felt that the flying beast was powerful, but after seeing that it was flying away instead, their attention returned to the city.

Howl!

The wolf king howled again, but this time, the wolves started to charge. The massive tide of wolves surged towards the city, as the war between wolves of the Endless Forest and humans of the City of Una begun.

Meanwhile, after Aeron and Lina exited the Endless Forest. A massive wolf appeared near the edge of the endless forest, it took a massive sniff in the air, its eyes suddenly narrowed as it raised its head and howled.