There group left together early the next morning with all that they needed. Lucas returned Arthur’s sword that he had dropped in the woods and carried the left of the supplies he thought that they might need. As they had before Lucas went ahead of the group and scouted for them while Aria and Arthur used their spells to look for creatures as well.

“Since you did so well yesterday we thought that it would be nice to change up the beast for today and hunt worgs,” said Kendra. “They roam in packs and usually have goblins with them as well. They are very fast and moderately tough. Today we will show you formations for battle as we walk and go over call-outs I need you to listen for. I don’t expect any of us to get injured, but I don’t know how many we will face. Reports said twenty but we won’t know until we get there.”

Arthur went back through his memories and pulled up what he remembered from the beast encyclopedia. Worgs generally liked forest or grassland areas and looked similar to wolves. Though worgs had sharper ears and a nastier-looking face and snout.

“Shouldn’t we be hunting mana beasts?” asked Arthur.

“Not every mana beast is hard to fight and not every regular beast is easy to fight. Though it depends on what tools and weapons you have to fight with. Over time as you learn new spells and incorporate them into your fighting your ability to kill the beasts and undead quicker.”

“When will I be able to fight undead?”

“Depends on you. Do you feel ready to fight a horde of the undead?” Lucas chimed in.

“I’m not sure which means a no.”

“The gnomes at the gnome capital and outposts closer to the human border have set up most of the preparations. They are ready to fight the undead until we can deploy you. As a part of the agreement, we must ship you out to kill the dragon in the dwarf homeland. Though there is no need to worry because we will prepare you as much as we can, and we will join you in the fight. Ethan will stay here and will help keep this forest safe.”

Arthur continued chatting with them about different things for a bit longer until Kendra stopped them. She started to start explaining battle formations. She first gave him a small book that had illustrations and diagrams which he memorized. It made things much easier as she didn’t have to go into much more detail and instead she only explained what they would do during the fight and what to expect. After a while, Aria finally spoke.

“We are coming up on the worgs.”

Arthur looked over to where she was looking and extended his magic sense to the area.

“Twenty-two.”

“Stay quiet while I strike first. Then everyone else jumps in and I will back off,” said Aria.

With her illusions, she turned mostly invisible and approached the worg group. The pack bunched together traveling towards where Arthur knew the river must be. He took out his sword and got ready to jump out with the others when she struck.

Once Aria was in position she attacked. She sent out a mind attack that stunned some of the worgs and confused others. When Arthur saw the attack go off he leaped towards the pack along with the others. Lucas released an arrow that he had pulled pack and struck one. Kendra summoned a wall of fire boxing the worgs in one side.

The worgs split and charged towards their nearest targets. Some that were confused charged and hit other worgs trampling them. Arthur released his prepared spell at the nearest worg that was charging him. The [Ice Block] hit the worgs body and it slid and fell as the ice formed around its body. He avoided using area of effect spells because of the others around him. After reflecting on his previous battles, he realized he relied on them a lot to finish off battles.

Lucas continued to fire off shots at the dazed worgs from the back line undisturbed. Some of the stronger worg’s dizziness and confusion started to wear off. Aria sent out another mind spell but this one was less effective than the last. This was because the worgs held their focus on fighting and not much would do anything to change that.

Arthur slashed his sword into the body of the half-frozen worg and hacked into its body with some resistance. Other worgs moved to attack him so he had to stop. By the time he had done so the worg was almost finished. It gave him a good idea of how tough their fur was without him applying spells. Three worgs grouped up on him and attacked. Arthur activated his main two spells for his sword. [Blur] and [Sharpness] activated as he swung downwards at the nearest worg.

His sword blurred and cut deep into the worgs head. Arthur used all his strength and with the [Sharpness] spell it carried him through landing him a killing blow. He quickly removed the sword from the dead body and swung at the second worg. The third decided to tackle him as well which caused him to raise his arms and block his face with his arms. The worg’s teeth bared into his arm and he was knocked down. Arthur prepared a [Plasma Bolt] with his other hand now that his sword was out of his hands and fired it point-blank range into the worg’s head.

The worg was blown away and Arthur’s senses were momentarily disrupted as he adjusted to the flash of light that had occurred. Arthur moved to get up and saw the second worg shaking its blindness off as well.

“Arthur. Get in formation one,” said Kendra.

She moved to get beside him as she finished off another worg with a well-placed fireball. Aria cast another spell and teleported over to the two of them while Lucas moved over to them as well. Arthur picked up his sword and recast his two sword spells. Aria and Kendra stood to either side of Arthur while Lucas perched himself in the tree behind them. Arthur also started re-mending his body from the small cuts, but they would take a while to heal.

Now that they had grouped together, and Aria was no longer causing distractions to the worg group, the remaining fifteen worgs charged at their group. Arthur immediately cast [Vine Trap] at the center of the charging worgs because they were tightly grouped. He focused on adjusting its radius, so it didn’t catch his teammates in the spell.

The vine trap spell hit most of the worgs and slowed them down as the others launched their own attacks. Lucas started to pick off the most injured worgs while Aria cast more mind-altering spells. A fog left her hands and covered the area in front of Arthur in the spell. Because Arthur was not a living being he was unaffected by it and cut through the worgs without a problem. The spell she had cast was [Frenzy] and caused the worgs to attack each other erratically. Arthur occasionally sent more spells at the worgs. He stuck to single-target spells once more while focusing on his sword movements.

Soon the rest of the worgs were all systematically cut down by their group. On occasion, Arthur had to use his body more to block attacks, but the rest of his group stepped in when he slipped up. Kendra held them all together while they all fought. Everyone else had enough firepower that she only used the occasional spell. She was more in tune with what Aria did as she fought but learned to watch for what Lucas and Arthur needed as well over time.

As Arthur fought with the others he got used to dealing with fighting multiple enemies at once with his sword. Something he was currently lacking back at the outpost. He also improved his movements as he adjusted to fighting side by side with the others.

Once the worgs were all killed Kendra called for them to put away their weapons. Lucas jumped down from the tree and joined them. Next, they began going through the worg’s bodies. Together they cleaned up the bodies and took what they found valuable on the worgs before destroying them.

As they were finishing up Arthur heard cries in the distance. Looking up he turned to the location the sounds were coming from. The distinct voices came closer, but he didn’t recognize them or know how far they were coming from. Soon he could pick out multiple green heads poking out of the trees getting closer. They held stone and wooden weapons and bared nasty yellow teeth.

“Golems have arrived,” shouted Lucas to the others.