“They’re coming,” Rodrigo said as he watched the massive wolves charge towards the city.

There were at least a hundred Earth Stage Wolves charging towards the City, if they fail to stop them now, then the walls would surely be broken, and everything would devolve into a chaotic melee. This was a scenario they did not want to see, Rodrigo looked towards the man behind him.

“Sir Roderick,” Rodrigo nodded towards Roderick Ironbull.

They already had an agreement as to what extent Roderick would be helping them, after all, Roderick was still a Sky Stage Professional, and his help would have been technically them utilizing a Sky Stage Professional. Thus, Roderick agreed to help them deal with the Earth Stage Wolves, but if a Sky Stage Wolf attacked, then it would depend on the situation whether Roderick would help them. It was not as though Roderick did not want to help, but that he was asked to come here mainly for three people, his nephew, the Governor’s daughter, and Gerard. If the war did not look optimistic, then he would prioritize saving the aforementioned people.

At first, Roderick wanted to go and save his nephew first, he also knew that there was a chance that Lina was with his nephew according to Gerard, but when he arrived, the wolves had already gathered, if he went searching the Endless Forest for them, then the wolves might just direct their attention to him, as well as make the wolf king think that he was attacking them. That’s why he decided to send his pet away while the Sky Stage Wolves were in view.

“Alright then,” Roderick replied, a glowing ball of light suddenly came out of him.

A massive green snake appeared, although it wasn’t as big as Aeron’s Golden Eyed Snake, it was at least 30 meters in length, its smooth green body was identical to a vine snakes’ body, and the reason was that it was a vine snake that evolved into an Earth Stage Beast, but the first thing one would notice about it was its three head which made most hesitate into thinking it was a vine snake.

“Mutated beast!” Rodrigo muttered in surprise.

The three-headed vine snake slithered around Roderick, brushing its heads on its master's hands.

“Alright Xena, Ivy, Emerald, go and use vine field, the targets are the Earth Stage Wolves, stop them if you can, else, just slow them down,” Roderick said as he patted each of the heads.

sssSSSss!

Three heads bobbed up and down as it slithered on top of the command tower, all six of its eyes started glowing green.

Bang! Bang!

Massive vines grew out of the ground and entangled the charging Earth Stage Wolves, some wolves were able to gnaw the vines off of them, while the others were helplessly held down.

“Peak Earth Stage!?” Sam exclaimed, the mana and aura he sensed was truly higher than normal, he didn’t know why, a Magic Beast even at the peak of Earth Stage shouldn’t have that much aura and mana.

There were at least 50 wolves halted on the ground, while the other wolves were continuously entangled by vines growing from the ground.

“Too powerful!” Rodrigo exclaimed, there was a reason why Roderick was famous among the Tamers, if one expected Tamers to have the same sort of strength, then they were far from right, some Tamers succeed in taming High-Grade Beasts, and they were usually celebrated as geniuses and prodigies, but even among these Tamers, only a small amount will be considered truly talented.

A single beast, stopping the charge of at least 100 wolves, pinning half of them to the ground, and slowing down the others, it was not something a normal beast could do. The Earth Grade Wolves tried to use their skills to burn, freeze, or cut the vines, and they did so successfully, but not long after, another batch of vines held them down to the ground.

“How!?” Alexis who saw the scene from a distance was bewildered, he was already considered a true prodigy among the Tamers, but the spectacle before him made him confused. Gerard who was wearing his armor also felt the change.

‘Talent is truly just a concept for Tamers,’ Gerard thought, he looked towards Alexis and hoped that this would not be a terrible blow towards Alexis, even among the Tamers on Alexis’s age and power group, he was considered exceptional, but the man before them proved them that another stage existed.

***Back to Aeron and Lina***

‘Faster! Faster!’ Lina thought.

She was unable to divert her attention to Aeron’s situation, but she knew that the addition of the earth and iron wolves made their situation less optimistic. Her figure blurred as she spun around dodging and slashing at the iron wolf’s body. The stench of blood thickened as more wounds appeared and deepened on the iron wolf’s body. The iron wolf had other skills it had yet to use, but none of those skills worked on its current enemy.

Warriors were known for their strength and close combat prowess, Assassins were known for their stealth and speed, but Sword Dancers were known for their speed and agility, they might not be able to cut through enemies as easily as Warriors could or assassinate enemies through stealth, but Sword Dancers were known to be one of the most difficult Profession to use.

‘This place!’ Lina thought as she swung her crystal sword.

Sikk!

A huge gash was left on the iron wolf’s right thigh, the iron wolf buckled as it raised its head and howled.

Howl!

The iron wolf’s body suddenly started to change, its fur stood straight like iron pins as its body glowed with an iron-like sheen.

‘Iron Will!’ Lina thought, this was the iron wolf’s best skill, but it was only activated when the iron wolf was injured seriously, its whole body would turn as sturdy as iron, the wounds, and other injuries would temporarily heal, and the iron wolf became faster and stronger.

Bang!

The iron wolf lunged at Lina which she barely dodged, a huge crater was left behind as the iron wolf chased Lina with renewed vigor.

[Dance of Swords]

Lina switched skills at this moment, although it meant that the other wounds she inflicted against the iron wolf would heal slowly, the more serious injuries would still stay. Right now, the most important thing she had to do was to dodge the iron wolf’s attacks completely, one hit and she would stand no chance of winning.

Like a butterfly fluttering through the meadows, Lina dodged the iron wolf’s attack at the last minute, using the force from the attacks to accelerate her retreat, there was actually a more efficient skill for dodging that Lina had, the [Dance of the Butterfly], which was the most effective skill for dodging, but the difference was that the [Dance of the Butterfly] had no buffs like the [Dance of Swords], and what Lina needed was to maintain the buffs on her sword to let her cut through the iron wolf’s defense, else, her swords wouldn’t be able to slash through the iron wolf’s fur.

Even though Lina looked like she was dodging the iron wolf’s offense with ease, it was far from reality, she was currently pushing herself to her limit, unlike earlier, the iron wolf was almost twice faster and stronger than its normal state, thus, Lina was barely dodging its attacks. And at this state, any damage she takes would mean a serious injury.

The iron wolf suddenly swung its tail and small iron needles launched from its tail, it had actually used this skill earlier on its fight with Lina, but the skill activation made it obvious and easy to avoid, this made the iron wolf realize that it was useless against Lina, but things were different now, with the [Iron Will] active, it allowed the iron wolf to use the attack without delay.

Clang! Clang!

Lina was able to parry some of the iron needles, but the attack was unexpected and there were a few iron needles that struck Lina. Luckily, Lina’s leather armor was able to offset most of the iron needles, but one iron needle brushed through her cheeks, ripping through her aura, the pain made her wince, but the iron wolf followed up with a ferocious bite, Lina spun around to dodge the attack, she kicked the iron wolf’s nose to launched herself back, the kick also stopped the iron wolf for a moment, although its defense was heightened, attacks to the nose and eyes were still painful to the iron wolf.

‘That was close,’ Lina thought as she felt cold sweat ran through her back.

The iron wolf growled at Lina and howled, the other wolves heard the Earth Stage Iron Wolf, it was ordering them to finish their fight quicker to help it, it knew that catching Lina was not easy, so the only choice was to let the other wolves help it kill the annoying creature in front of it.

*************************************************************************************

Arthur was fighting hard and furiously struck the iron wolf while he tried to keep the other wolves at bay using his golden blades.

Bang!

Arthur wildly swung before he thrusted his golden staff forward and hit the iron wolf’s front leg on the joint, the unexpected attack hit the iron wolf’s joint and made it bend in an unnatural way, but as Arthur went forward to finish the iron wolf, the iron wolf’s skill [Iron Will] was activated.

Clang!

The golden staff struck the iron wolf’s head and buried its head to the underground, but the [Iron Will]’s skill activation saved the iron wolf from a crushed skull. Still, the attack damaged the iron wolf as it whimpered in pain, its head stayed stuck on the ground as the strike made it unable to move, its limbs sprawled to the ground as its consciousness fought in an uphill battle. Arthur’s brute strength, along with the skill [Empowered Strike] and aura infusion almost broke the iron wolf’s [Iron Will].

But Arthur’s wild attack was not without cost.

Bang! Bang!

Arthur was unable to maintain the golden metal blades as he attacked the iron wolf, giving the fire and ice wolves the chance to attack his back. Half of the golden armor on Arthur’s back was scorched while the other half had a huge shard of ice embedded on it. Arthur was still level 6, if he was a level or two higher than he was now, then the battle would have gone differently.

Arthur was blown away by the attack, he tried to stand back up with the help of his golden staff and succeeded in doing so.

Bang!

The fire wolf snarled at Arthur before a fireball launched from its mouth, Arthur tried to dodge but he was too weak to do so.

Bang!

Arthur was blown a few meters back, he didn’t want to scream and alarm Aeron, but their soul connection made his efforts useless.

“Arthur!” Aeron shouted as he unsummoned Arthur to his pet space.

Boom! Boom!

The ice and fire wolves attacks landed on the ground, creating two craters, one burning and one covered in a layer of ice.

Aeron successfully saved Arthur from the attack, but an attack manifested in front of him instead, six huge rocks were flying towards him, Aeron’s momentary distraction became a window of opportunity for the two earth wolves.

Aeron tried to parry one of the rocks with his obsidian glaive.

Bang!Bang!

The rock pushed Aeron back while the second rock hit him on the chest, the aura covering Aeron’s body was able to protect Aeron before he was blown away, stumbling to the ground. Although Aeron was protected by his aura, he still took damage, blood flowed down from the corner of his mouth, the aura enveloping his body was barely holding on.

The two earth wolves were getting closer, and another bout of rocks flew towards Aeron. Aeron infused mana towards his skill, and this time he knew, this would be the last skill he would be able to cast before he was drained of his aura and mana.

[Lightning Strike]

Lightning surrounded Aeron’s body as it crackled towards the rocks.

Boom!

The rocks flying towards Aeron were ground to dust, while the earth wolves were blown away by Aeron’s attack. The damage one of the earth wolves took this time was more concentrated while the other was able to dodge Aeron’s attack in time, the part struck by [Lightning Strike] was blackened and the skin underneath was scorched, it was a gruesome sight, but the earth wolves were still alive, and the fire and ice wolves were also running towards Aeron’s location.

Aeron fell to his knees, he used his left arm to keep himself from falling, his shoulder bled while his chest felt tight, the earlier attacks had broken some of his ribs while his bleeding shoulder slowly weakened him. He had already seen the other wolves running towards him, and as of the moment, his demise seemed certain. But there was still another option, one final option, and whether this doesn’t kill him was a question left to be answered.

‘Listen to me

I know you hate me

I know you're angry

I feel your frustrations

And your emotions

But you gave me no choice

It was either that or death

We are connected

I know you can see

I know you can feel

Your fellows have evolved

The same as you did

Look into your past

And you shall see the difference

I feel your thirst for strength

I let you have your time

To think about your choice

I will not ask for your forgiveness

Nor will you to me

But this I swear to you

Through my soul

Through my being

I Aeron Ironbull

Will not treat you differently

Will treat you with respect

Decide now

Promise me

Listen to me

Fight with me

And I will give you strength

Asha shall be your name

Come! Asha!’

A pair of golden eyes opened in the darkness of the forest.