Leon

"Just how many waves are there!" Rose shouts in frustration as she shoots an arrow into one of the bipedal wolves' shoulders.

I wish I knew.

Another wolf rushes at me from the side, but I kick it straight into a pool of lava before it can reach me.

"Maybe the next wave will be the last?" Pallus suggests with a grunt as he parries a bipedal wolf's sword.

A loud clang sounds out as another bipedal wolf's sword bounces off of Charles' shield.

"Didn't you say that two waves ago?" Charles says with some amusement.

He has a point.

"Yeah, but the next wave will be the tenth wave, so it just sounds right for it to be the last!" Pallus defends himself.

I can't tell if he is just grasping at straws with that reasoning or if he truly believes it...

Either way, we will find out soon if he is right or not as I strike down the last wolf of the wave.

"Get ready just in case Pallus is actually right!" I shout as the monsters of the ninth wave disappear.

A few seconds pass in silence as we all cautiously look around the room with our weapons at the ready.

Suddenly, loud noises can be heard from around the room as all of the entrances open up.

The entrance in the center of the room also opens, quickly revealing a large wolf – only slightly smaller than the one we had ran away from on the previous floor – as it proudly stands on a rising platform before it reaches the arena floor with us.

This wolf is nearly three meters tall and has fur as sharp as blades all over its body.

The fur itself is black with red streaks running throughout it, making it stand out even more as it stands in the middle of three of the large gray furred wolves.

Unfortunately, the creature has that same black mist running through its fur that the last one had.

I guess this one must be immune to magic as well...

That could be a problem, but not one that we didn't already expect.

"Huh, so Pallus was actually right this time..." Kat mutters.

"You say that as if I am never right," Pallus whines as the monster begins slowly walking towards us.

I fire a lightning bolt at one of the three wolves surrounding the mana-infused monster.

It's best to get rid of its help before we deal with it.

Rose fires a molten arrow off at another one of the wolves right as my lightning bolt strikes and kills one of the large wolves.

That makes two of them down.

The third wolf leaps towards us with a snarl as it tries to take a chunk out of Pallus.

Charles steps in front of Pallus before the wolf can reach him, knocking it away with his shield as Pallus strikes his sword straight through its head.

And that makes three.

This angers the mana-infused monster as it suddenly howls before charging at us.

"I don't think it liked us killing its subordinates," Kat mutters from besides me.

That's pretty obvious.

I look at the bipedal wolves surrounding the arena who had entered through various other entrances before focusing on the mana-infused wolf in front of us.

"Kat," I whisper to her, "Are there any more of those traps left in the room?"

Kat looks surprised for a second before she says, "Yes. There are two traps left."

She points at a thin bridge surrounded on both sides by lava.

"Hmm, that could work..." I mutter as I watch several of the bipedal wolves run towards that very bridge.

"Can you throw another rock to activate the trap on the bridge when the wolves try to cross?" I ask her as the mana-infused monster reaches Charles and headbutts his shield.

Charles grunts as he holds his ground.

Pallus jumps around him and tries to thrust his blade into the creature's paw before it can back away but ends up getting cut by its fur in the process as well.

That fur might actually be an even bigger problem than the anti-magic mist...

I turn back to Kat as she stares at the bridge while waiting for the bipedal wolves to begin crossing.

Okay, so those things should be dealt with soon.

I rush in to join the others in fighting the mana-infused wolf as I quickly parry a claw strike that was going to hit Pallus in the shoulder.

"Thanks," he says as we both step back to avoid another hit.

I grunt in response before hearing a few whines from the direction of the bridge.

I send a quick glance at the bridge to find half of the bipedal wolves missing parts of their bodies.

Okay, that plan didn't work as well as I intended it to, but at least it dealt with half of them.

"Kat-" I begin but am interrupted as she throws another rock, activating another trap that was also on that same bridge, getting the rest of the wolves in the process as they either get caught in the trap or fall off of the bridge when they try to avoid it.

Wait, both of those traps were on the same bridge?

"Good job," I tell her before turning back to the fight at hand.

I immediately find the monster rushing straight at me in an attempt to take advantage of my brief distraction.

Shit! I shouldn't have gotten distracted!

I try to jump out of the way, but I know I won't be able to move quickly enough.

Before the wolf can reach me, an arrow strikes directly into its front shoulder, making it stumble as one of its paws slips into the lava.

The wolf rips its paw back out of the lava with a pained howl before turning to Rose in anger.

"Thanks!" I shout as I rush forwards with my sword to take advantage of its pain and anger.

Maybe this lava isn't all that bad after all.

I stab my sword into the wolf's shoulder to avoid getting cut by its fur.

This only seems to enrage the monster even more as small sparks of black flame begin to leak out of its mouth.

Oh, shit.

I jump backwards the moment it turns towards me with black flames spilling from its mouth.

The flames scorch my forearm as they fly past me, only barely managing to miss incinerating my entire arm.

I grunt in pain as I jump further backwards to create some distance between us.

This thing is annoying.

"Leon! I have a plan!" Pallus shouts from the other side of the wolf.

Oh?

The wolf switches its gaze back and forth between me and Rose.

I shout back at him while the wolf is distracted, "Let's hear it!"