“Nothing.” Lillie said.

“Me too.” Aleena said. There were no monsters in the surroundings, with an exception of low level rodents.

“We need to go deeper.” Aleena added. Jack was reluctant.

“She is right. We can’t wait, when other teams are taking risks and leveling up.” Stanley said.

“Fine.” Jack agreed reluctantly.

They walked slowly. Lillie, Aleena and Stanley were using their detection spells regularly, searching for a prey, and looking out for a danger. The further from the frontier, the greater risk of encountering high tier monsters. Jack didn’t want to risk too much, but monsters were really wiped out thoroughly either by wolves, or hunters. They found something after another five kilometers.

“There is a bird in that direction. I think it’s a hallola bird.” Aleena said.

“Which means a possible high tier.” Stanley replied.

“Hallola birds are herbivorous, there isn’t much danger, even if the bird is 3rd tier, though 4th one could be dangerous.” Aleena said.

Hallola birds were one of the relatively rare species which ate trees. They had an acid gland, which they used to damage trees’ bark.

“We could get some money for its acid sack.” Jack said. He wanted money for equipment, like an armor.

“How do we kill it?” Lillie asked.

“We need a fast attack that will damage one of its wings.” Aleena said. The fastest attacks in the team capable of damaging bird’s wing were Jack’s drill spell, and Patrick’s spear throw.

“Patrick, you should try. I don’t have a good aim with my spell.” Jack said. The drill spell had strong penetrative power, but lacked accuracy from the distance.

They sneaked closer to the bird. The monster had an average size for its tier, it was around 40 centimeters long, from the head to the rump. The rest of the team stopped about 100 meters from the prey, while Patrick went a bit closer. He took a stance, waited a bit, probably casting his spell, and threw the spear. It flew fast, but the bird still managed to spot it. It jumped off the tree and tried to fly away, but the spear was faster, and hit the bird. The monster fell down.

The team rushed forward, prepared to finish off their prey. The bird run on the snow, flapping its wings. It flew. ‘No!’ Jack thought the bird would manage to escape, but it fell down quickly. Jack fired his drill, but he missed. The bird had damaged wing, but it still was able to fly for a short distance. Lillie was the fastest of the team and was closing on the bird. She thrust her spear, but the bird dodged to the side.

The rest of the team was left behind. Jack was breathing hard, while running after the bird and Lillie. She was slowing the bird down with wind magic and her spear, but the chase continued. They ran for a kilometer, before Lillie managed to hurt the bird enough. She wasn’t able to kill it on her own, but she further damaged its wings. The rest of the team helped out, with Patrick dealing the finishing blow.

Ding… You have participated in killing of lv. 48 Grand Hallola

Jack didn’t get the level, but he was close.

“We need to butcher it. The acid sack is valuable.” Aleena said, still panting a bit. Stanley sharply turned his head. Jack was startled and followed his gaze.

They didn’t cast a detection spell. Until now.

There was a wolf. Huge wolf, with only one eye, and a few burn scars. Jack was surprised, like he saw a ghost. The wolf wasn’t attacking. It was looking at them, with hatred, and pain in its eye. Jack could tell. It looked the same as his brother’s eyes, after he had lost team members. Jack even felt pity for the wolf, it was lone, without the pack. They were most likely killed.

The hatred was directed against them. When Jack noticed this, he felt creeps on his back. He knew this wolf. They barely escaped the last time, and now, they are without a bunker. Without any preparations.

“RUN!” Aleena shouted, and dashed away from the wolf. Everyone ran, they split up. This was the same tactic as before, but the wolf had already healed it injures. He went after Aleena. Before the wolf could get her, her clothes lighted up, and she burned. Her speed raised up, and she was leaving only vapor in her trail. ‘She really had a method to speed up.’

Jack was running in the opposite direction. Lillie also went this way, Jack knew they were close. The wolf ran after someone else. Jack didn’t stop. He was channeling the minor strength spell, to run faster.

“Lillie!” He found her. She was looking for him too.

“We need to run to the frontier.” She said. He just nodded. They ran for a half of a minute.

“It’s coming!” Lillie shouted. Jack gritted his teeth.

“The wolf must be tracking us with the smell.” He said.

“We need to spit up. I will bait the wolf, like before.” She said, and ran to the side. He agreed, but he wasn’t planning to just leave her. When Lillie and Patrick escaped, the wolf went after Patrick. Jack knew the monster would probably go after him. Jack ran in the opposite direction to Lillie. He cast his drill spell. ‘It wouldn’t do much, but…’ Jack didn’t want to see Lillie hurt. He would rather endanger himself.

The wolf ran through the snow. It stopped in the place Lillie and Jack split. Fresh blood was dripping from its jaw. Jack fired his drill. It hit the wolf, which glanced at Jack. ‘Come.’ Jack thought, but the wolf ran after Lillie. Jack was not thinking for long, he rushed after them. He was too slow, though. Jack would never be able to reach them normally, but he ran. He wasn’t going to give up.

There was a movement before him. He cast light detection spell over it. Jack suddenly stopped, as he saw what was going on. There was the wolf, and Lillie. She climbed up a tree, the wolf wasn’t able to reach her. Jack thought quickly. The wolf would go after him now. He dug out snow, and started to roll in the soil, hoping to kill his smell. Jack run, trying to circle around the wolf. He looked back, and groaned. ‘I’m leaving marks in the snow. It doesn’t even need the smell to track me.’ He wasn’t about to give up, though. He was thinking he may be able to climb up a tree, like Lillie.

Jack paled. He could see through his light detection spell, that the wolf jumped up the tree, and started climbing up. Lillie jumped to another tree. The monster was forced to drop back, though it was persistent, the wolf jumped up again. Jack would be no longer be safe on a tree. He couldn’t jump from a tree to a tree like Lillie. He thought about retreating. Lillie seemed fine on her own.

The wolf jumped once again, this time, it immediately jumped from the tree’s trunk in a seemingly suicidal attack on a branch Lillie was sitting on. Lillie wasn’t expecting that, but she still managed to jump to another branch. The wolf fell on his back. A snow layer was on the ground, the monster was fine. Jack suspected the wolf would be fine without snow too, as it had a strong body constitution of 4th tier being.

The wolf continued. He repeated his maneuver, but this time, Lillie immediately jumped to another tree. The monster didn’t continue his attack, but jumped back to the ground, and ran to the tree Lillie had jumped to before. It was faster than her. It jumped up, and caught Lillie landing on a branch, slashing her skin with its claws. She fell from the tree, and started running to the next one. The wolf stood up from his fallen position on the ground, and dashed after her.

She jumped up again, but the wolf followed after. She escaped unscathed this time, but it was close. Jack knew he had to help, but he didn’t know how. The chase continued for a minute, and Lillie was losing. The wolf had been injured the last time Jack encountered it. Now, it was not. Its leg no longer limped.

At some point, she jumped down on her own, and dashed to a big fallen tree. Jack was bewildered, but he quickly understood, and started screaming in his mind. ‘It’s a bad decision. Don’t do it.’ Lillie lightly stepped on the fallen tree. The wolf didn’t approach, it retreated for a 50 meters. Fungi were on the fallen tree. Everyone with at least a bit of instinct knew to avoid such places. Most fungi attacked everyone stupid enough to damage them with deadly spores.

There were no visible spores, though. Lillie must have been light enough. The wolf was reluctant to approach, but was not giving up. Obviously, Lillie had to leave at some point.

Jack had to create a plan. He didn’t have an attack capable of stopping the wolf. It was a 4th tier being, while his best spells were at 3rd tier. He thought about the lightning wand, but he wouldn’t be able to kill the wolf, maybe lightly injure, but it was not enough. He searched through all his skills, and only one was capable of changing the situation – trapping skill. He wasn’t able to cast 4th tier spells with his mind, but it wasn’t a problem to create a trap with a 4th tier spell inscribed on the ground. It would take some time, though.

Jack crumbled his light detection spell. He wouldn’t be able to observe the situation, but he needed all his attention for the trap. Fortunately, he didn’t spend much clarity, most for the detection spell. In his chase after the hallola, he had been using stamina.

Jack planned a lightning trap, since the wolf was resistant to fire mana. Lightning mana was only charging a material. The true offensive force was a lightning, which was physical, not magical. Jack had to move the snow, as he needed clear ground for the spell. Snow wasn’t a good conduit of electricity. Jack worked as fast as he could, but the whole trap took him over five minutes. The trap was pretty obvious, but Jack hoped the wolf hadn’t had experience with traps. The monster could be intelligent, but without knowledge and experiences, intelligence wasn’t worth that much.

Jack cast light detection spell. He had to know the current situation for luring the wolf into the trap. He gritted his teeth. Lillie was in the center of green spores cloud, wounded. Some blood dripped down from her chin. The wolf was throwing rocks, twigs and snowballs with its legs at the fungi. Lillie wasn’t idle, she used her air magic to blow the cloud at the wolf. The monster circled around her, avoiding spores, sometimes increasing the distance. She tried to blow herself some fresh air, but the wolf was constantly attacking the fungi, which triggered more releases of spores. Jack deduced she had tried to escape the spores cloud, but the wolf had made it impossible.

Jack ran to her. The wolf was conveniently on the other side of the cloud. When he was one hundred meters from her, she spotted him. There was a doubt on her face. He understood. There wasn’t much he could do normally. He gave her confident look. ‘Come. I have a plan. You can trust me,’ he tried to say it with his eyes. She saw that and trusted him. She ran to him. The wolf rushed after her, but it tried to avoid the spores cloud.

Jack ran. He didn’t wait for her, as she was faster than him. They both needed to reach the trap. The monster was fast, too fast. Jack cast the drill spell. The trap was only ten meters before Jack, and Lillie was ten meters behind him, when the monster caught up. Jack fired his spell, and wolf tightened his jaws around Lillie’s arm. It wanted to pin her down, but the spell aimed for its eye startled the wolf, and it tightened his jaws too strongly. Lillie’s arm was bitten off. She did not stop, and ran. Jack caught her and jumped over the trap.

Ding… Your Trapping skill has reached lv. 14

Ding… Your Trapping skill has reached lv. 15

Ding… Your Trapping skill has reached lv. 16

They landed in the snow. Jack could hear crackling sounds of lightning. Jack looked back. The wolf was shivering under power of electricity, and giving a smell of burned flesh and fur. Jack didn’t wait for its death, he grabbed Lillie and ran away. She was light, unnaturally so. She must have filled her body with air mana. Her arm was bleeding, Jack started casting minor recovery to tame blood…

“No. No life mana. I have inhaled some spores. If you use life mana…”

‘I will help spores replicate,’ he ended in his mind. It was bad. The lost arm was recoverable, Lillie would get it back during her next evolution. Jack could also run back for her severed arm, but it wasn’t the priority. The spores in her body were the worst problem.

Jack pushed his arm under Lillie clothes, and took out her amulet. He switched it on and placed on her stump. There was a smell of burned flesh. She wriggled in his arm in pain. He didn’t want to bring pain to her, but they both knew it was necessary. Jack ran for some more distance, and placed Lillie against a tree.

“We need to do something about the spores.” Spores got into her body through the lungs. They moved to the blood, using it to replicate and produce toxins.

“Blood transfusion. I need to share blood with you. There is not enough… No, you are smaller than me, and you have lost an arm. Half of my blood should be enough for you. I will use life spell on my marrow to speed up blood production, and I should survive at least a few minutes with only half of my blood.” Jack was rambling, looking for a solution.

“It won’t help.” She said with a feeble voice. “I would still have spores I my lungs, and you would be dying.” Jack gritted his teeth. It was the best he could do.

“I’m filling my body with air mana to inhibit spores, I would have died otherwise. I wasn’t slacking on lectures, you know? I know a typical warrior would be already dead.” He had learned there were two good methods to deal with spores. You can either use an expensive potion, or use a spell with high affinity. Aleena could raise her body temperature and kill all spores, unless they were elemental fire spores.

Jack took her up, and ran to the frontier. “Just hang a bit longer. I’m sure they have a potion in the headquarters.” He cast his light detection spell to scout ahead. He wasn’t going to repeat his previous mistake. Light detection was not ideal, but it was something.

“You, know…” Lillie started. Jack only half-listened. He was tired. His stamina was lacking. He had been running for a good part of the day, and he was getting tired, even with his Economy of Movement skill. It was a situation he hadn’t experienced in a while, it was always his clarity that got depleted first.

“You are really strong, Jack.” Lillie continued. “I knew I wouldn’t be able to fight all those monsters on my own from the beginning. So, I have used you. You helped me with sparring and magic, this was what I wanted.” She said. Jack felt like someone punched him very hard. He nearly stopped running. He thought about it and refused.

“No. You also helped me a lot.” He held her tighter to his chest. “I love you.” He said, and looked at her. Her eyes and veins were getting black because of spores, and she was crying.

“I love you too, but why can’t you understand?!” She tried to shout, but she was too weak. “I’m already dead! You can’t help me! I’m dead!” He continued to run. There was still a chance.

“Leave me.” She said. He was not listening.

“It’s coming.” She said with a dread in her voice.

“What?”

“The wolf. It’s chasing us. It’s not much faster than you, but it is.” He held her even tighter. Another trap? He could try… ‘No. If Lillie can detect the wolf, and it’s faster than me, I won’t manage to complete it in time.’

“Leave me. I will stop it.” She said feebly. “I don’t have more than a dozen of minutes, anyway. I’m dead. Let me be useful for the last time.”

He was crying. “I can’t. I can’t just let you go. I can’t leave you here, in cold snow, and escape myself!”

“Please. We will both die. I don’t want you to die,” she pleaded. “If you truly love me, do as I like. Please. I beg you. Do not take this, my last pleasure.”

He had to listen. How could he not? He placed her against a tree. He didn’t want to. He knew he couldn’t do anything. He was scared of the wolf, and he was scared of death. He told himself in his mind, that he was prepared to sacrifice himself, but it was a lie. He was scared of death, and she wanted to stay. He felt terrible.

“Go. I will stop it. Make sure you will be far enough. I don’t want to hurt you.” She said. He nodded with a face full of tears, and ran.

She sat there. The wolf was coming, but she had some time. She crumbled all spells inside her mind, she would need all her intelligence. She created the sacrifice spell. She wouldn’t need her essence much longer. She grabbed the air in four meters around her, and squeezed with a spell. Three meters… two… one… it was harder and harder. She was using all her mind capabilities, but she wouldn’t be able to do something like this, if she wasn’t fuelling the spell with all her essence.

The spores were no longer inhibited, her skin was turning black. She felt intense pain all over her body, both from the spores and the sacrifice, and she was tired. So tired, but when would be a better moment to give everything, than now?

She wasn’t able to squeeze the air any more. She was losing levels, her intelligence was lowering. She crumbled part of her spell, she just wanted to maintain her air bomb now.

‘Jack is truly lucky. If he didn’t give me pointers, I wouldn’t be able to modify the spell like this. I hope he will be alright.’

She waited for the wolf. It was hard. She wanted to just fall asleep, but she knew it was not the time.

‘I always wanted to do something like this. An air bomb. What a waste I won’t be able to see the results.’

The wolf came. She was barely able to see it. She will save Jack. Lillie always knew she would die at some point.

‘This death is not bad.’

The monster walked closer, but she was happy. Her body stopped hurting, it was just numb. She was tired, just so tired, and it was finally the time.

‘You won’t get him,’ she thought, and she fell asleep happy.