Howl!

‘Shit!’ Aeron cussed mentally.

“Claude! Akila! Faster!” Aeron ordered with urgency.

Lina was silent, she held on to Akila as thoughts ran through her mind, things weren’t optimistic as they have only traveled for about an hour and already, a powerful pack was chasing them. In truth, she could escape by herself, envelop herself with aura and maybe even reach Una before she ran out of energy, but she could not fathom why she was reluctant to do so. Maybe it was because the man beside her helped her enormously, but she couldn’t abandon him so easily.

Aeron too had a multitude of thoughts within his head, but none of them were positive, he knew with this speed they’d be able to arrive in Una in about 5-6 hours, but that was it, the howl he heard gave him shivers. Not just that, it might still be fine if the wolves who were chasing them were only at the Mortal Stage, Lina could easily dispatch of them with speed, but the thing was if the one that was chasing them was an Earth Stage, he didn’t know if Lina would be willing to fight when the time came. It wasn’t that he was thinking of her as lowly, but they were not so close enough for her to actually risk her life for him.

‘Even if I try to fly with Agila, we’ll be too slow by then, and wolves with ranged skills could easily strike us down,’ Aeron grit his teeth as he drove his mind to the limit.

Aeron started to doubt his past choices, he could have leveled up at a safer pace, he could have gone slower and steadier, but the thing he had experienced made his doubts vanish, the nightmares that haunted his sleep made his will even firmer.

‘There’s no reason to doubt the past, what has been done has gone by, now there’s only the future,’ Aeron thought as he secretly looked towards Lina.

Thoughts of another passed through his mind as a decision planted firmly deep within him.

‘If worse came to worse, then I will fight with everything I have,’ Aeron thought.

Lina noticed Aeron’s gaze but let it pass, but the gentle look and the firm resolve made her shake inside.

‘Why? What is he thinking?’ Lina thought in bewilderment.

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On the walls of the City of Una.

“Men! The time has come! The time we have been training for! This is a small war compared to what our ancestors experienced, but this is still a war for humanity! FOR THE LORD! FOR THE CITY! FOR HUMANITY!” Rodrigo said in a booming voice.

This was another application of the [Warrior’s Roar] skill, although Rodrigo was a Knight, his skills were identical in nature with the exception of the [Knight’s Might].

“FOR THE LORD! FOR THE CITY! FOR HUMANITY!” the people shouted.

“ARCHERS!” Rodrigo shouted.

Thud! Thud!

Three rows of Archers lined up, with each line containing 400 Archers on the wall moved forward.

Rumble!

The rushing sea of wolves made loud and scary noises as they charged forward towards the City’s walls without any concern. These wolves had been buffed by the higher-grade wolves, their speed and strength were several times stronger than their normal state. But such a rush had a weakness, the wolves would have less defense and become more vulnerable to attacks.

An Archer beside Rodrigo had his eyes change into that of a hawk, this was one of the basic skills Archers had at level 4 [Hawk’s Eye].

“In range Commander,” the Archer said.

“FIRING SEQUENCE ONE! INFUSE!” Rodrigo shouted.

The archers closed their eyes as they infuse aura towards their chosen skill. Individual Archers could do it faster than others, so they did some tests and found an average time for Archers to infuse. Just when all the Archers opened their eyes, another order came.

“FIRST ROW AIM! SECOND ROW READY!” Rodrigo’s voice boomed as he ordered.

Shwaa!

The first row raised their bows and aimed. Bows lifted, strings tout, the Archers waited.

“RELEASE!” Rodrigo shouted.

Shlaa!

The Archers released as hundreds of glowing arrows flew into the sky. The glowing arrows alarmed the wolves, still, they kept on charging forward. The arrows exploded in the air as each glowing arrow transformed into hundreds of smaller arrows, this was the Archer’s skill [Arrow Rain]. The arrow storm blotted the sky as they whistled towards the wolves.

A lane of bloody mist exploded as the arrows landed, thousands of wolves fell with that single attack, but the wolves still kept on running without pause, some mildly injured wolves were trampled as they slowed down from injury.

Whimpers abounded but the growls and rumbling of the ground drowned the victims of death.

Mana filled the bodies of the Archers as their kills numbered in hundreds, some of them who killed High-Grade Wolves suddenly started ejecting the excess mana towards their surroundings, as more wolves died, more mana was ejected, this was instructed of them beforehand, if any of them leveled up on the spot, then it might cause inconvenience and inability to fight, so each of the Archers were instructed to expel the excess mana instead. This would also help others in recovering their lost mana.

“SWITCH!” Rodrigo ordered.

Thud! Thud!

The first row stepped aside and moved back as the second row moved forward to replace them.

“AIM! SECOND ROW READY!” Rodrigo shouted.

Shwaa!

The same as the first row, the second row aimed their bows and readied their arrows.

“RELEASE!” Rodrigo ordered.

Shlaa!

Another rain of arrows was released, and another bloody mist formed.

“SWITCH!” Rodrigo ordered.

The archers switched position as the once the third-row arrived in the front. Another batch of arrows found their way towards the sea of wolves making blood splash and killing thousands of wolves each time.

AWOOOO!

The wolf king howled in anger as wolves with green patches strips of fur each at least 4 meters tall rushed forward positioning themselves in the sea of wolves.

“RELEASE!” Rodrigo shouted.

This was the sixth time Rodrigo shouted ‘RELEASE’, and at least 15 thousand wolves became victim to their attacks, although, there were only a small number of High-Grade Wolves that died, the death of 15 thousand Low-Grade Wolves and Mid-Grade Wolves was still a big achievement.

The arrows exploded into hundreds of smaller arrows and fell towards the charging wolves.

Howl! Boom!

An air blast suddenly exploded towards the arrow storm. The air blast swept the arrows and weakened their descent negating further damage. Although most of the rain of arrows was negated, there were still some who struck their targets. Where the arrows fell, killed and injured wolves, still, the number of wolves killed was drastically lessened.

“Tsk, the wolf king was able to find a way to negate the arrow rain so quickly,” Jason said in annoyance, but Gerard, Rodrigo, and the others weren’t as surprised, in fact, they were glad enough to have fired five rain of arrows and shave away almost a fourth of the enemies number.

“The beast king is one of the smartest beasts of its kind, and now that it has followed a humanoid evolution path, it is only natural that it found a solution this quickly, that’s not even mentioning that normal wolves already had excellent instincts and cunning,” Sam commented.

“ARCHERS RETREAT! MAGES FORWARD!” Rodrigo ordered.

One hundred groups with 3 mages each moved forward as the Archers retreated to also rest and recover the energy they used up.

“It’s your turn Sam,” Rodrigo said as Sam nodded back in acknowledgment.

Sam went forward, each group of mage nodded towards him as they closed their eyes, the skill Infuse had far more effect on a Mage’s spells, as one would expect that a Warrior got more advantage with Envelop.

Sam felt the air around him, this was the most optimal state a Mage could be, surrounded with mana that has almost saturated from all the kills the Archers gathered. The other Mages also felt more comfortable as mana abounded, this would further make their spells more effective.

I call upon the element of fire

Burn and Blaze, Fire Ball

I call upon the element of water

Ebb and Flow, Water Ball

I call upon the element of earth

Form and Protect, Earth Ball

Fire and Water

Fuse Together

Earth shelter thy power

Heed thy desire

Sam chanted as a fire ball and a water ball formed on each of his hand, an earth ball formed below the center, the two elemental balls suddenly started to spin together, steam started to form but before the steam could escape, the earth ball separated into two domes of earth covering the spinning fire and water balls. Sam clenched his hands as the ball of earth grew spikes and started to spin in front of him, the result was a brown spinning ball as big as a regular basketball.

What Sam did was called Free Aria, there were no fixed chants when it came to spells, some Mages even drew runes on the air for casting. But the results were the same. The spell he casted was the [Tri-Element Bomb] this was a skill that required a person to have a good affinity with Fire, Water, and Earth to cast, otherwise, the imbalance would make the spell backfire and explode, it might even kill the caster with no adequate protection.

Every human had different affinities regarding the elements, but there was one similarity within mages, and that was each Mage was powerful in their own right. More affinities didn’t mean they were stronger than those with fewer affinities, each great Mage in society left a mark in history, some specialized in one element, some in more, but all of them were powerful and held destructive powers.

Each group were made with their casting styles in mind, at some groups, you would see red, blue, and brown runes forming each of the three spells needed to cast [Tri-Element Bomb], some were murmuring in small tones, some in louder tones, but all the same, the spells needed were there.

This was a very hard thing to do but Sam was a genius known for his skills in fusion magic, of course, many Higher Stage Mages could do what he did, but not many would go out of their way to teach another, this was so that the Mages of the younger generation discovered their own path, as following the path of another might end up harming their future instead, hence runes and arias were usually a matter mages did not copy but made on their own. Wordings were important, but the most important part was the intent, arias, and rune drawing was only a means to produce a spell through a person’s understanding.

Sam worked hard to understand the other Mages and make the groups balanced in terms of elemental affinity, and his hard work was paid off, each group had a brown ball spinning in front of them.

“RELEASE!” Rodrigo ordered.

Sam and the groups pushed their hands forward as one hundred spinning balls of earth flew towards the sea of wolves. The wolves were ignorant about the brown spinning balls flying towards them, but the high-grade wolves felt differently as the brown spinning balls got nearer.

Howl!

The Wolf King suddenly howled, the wolves heard the call, and projectiles from different elements were fired towards the already near spinning earth balls. Fire balls, Icicle spears, lightning bolts, and wind blades flew towards the air and struck the brown spinning balls.

BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOM!

Loud explosions reverberated across the whole battlefield, the explosion killed thousands of wolves, leaving many with mangled limbs or holes on their body, the scene of carnage enraged the wolf king and all the other wolves. There were almost 10 thousand wolves who died from the explosion and the sharp spikes that came from the Tri-Element Bomb, unfortunately, Sam and the other Mages won’t be able to use it again as the wolves would probably attack it as they fired the spell, the explosion would then damage them instead.

Gerard, Sam, and Rodrigo planned these attacks ahead of time, the first wave of attack was an Arrow Storm, but since it was an attack an Area of Effect skill from an Archer, its damage individually was not as big, of course, Low-Grade and Mid-Grade Wolves were very vulnerable with this skill. But the enemy was smart and the three already took into consideration the time it would take for the wolves to device a counter to their attack, and as they fired the sixth Arrow Storm, the Wolf King figured out an effective counter. The second wave of attack was called Blanket Bombing, this attack took advantage of the wolves ignorance, if not for the wolves instincts and the Wolf Kings decisiveness, then the damage would have been more severe and at least 20 thousand wolves could have been killed, still, 10 thousand was already a good result, the downside with the second attack was that it was easily countered when used.

HOWL!!

The Wolf King howled in rage as the wolves charged faster.

“MAGES BACK! ARCHERS FORWARD!” Rodrigo ordered.

The Archers moved to the front again as the Mages retreated behind the Archers.

“FIRING SEQUENCE TWO! INFUSE” Rodrigo shouted.

Again, the Archers started to infuse their skills with aura. At the same time as all the Archers opened their eyes, Rodrigo barked another order.

“MARK!”

The Archers chose their targets, this time their eyes change into that of a hawk, picking their targets from the sea of enemies

“AIM!” Rodrigo ordered.

The Archers pulled their bows as they aimed at their marked targets.

“RELEASE!”