Lexi P.O.V.

Hunting through the dungeon like this was a totally new experience for me. Despite having been on a delve before, that was one that was arranged by my father where he sent most of the people around my level with a few higher leveled people to watch out for us. Like most groups that brave the dungeon, that group was heavy on physical fighters with a few mages and made up of fifteen people.

“Watch your steps, we are getting close to the deer and you might give away your position.” Ajax said as he led the way through the trees.

As we had already downed a bear we decided to go for the deer. A big reason for that was that we wanted to have some freshly cooked meat for dinner tonight and while we couldn’t take the meat outside the dungeon it could still be cooked and eaten inside.

Ajax stopped and hid behind a tree, I found it hard to keep him in focus despite looking right at him, some sneaking skill most likely [Stealth]. Looking through the trees we could see a large clearing where a herd of six deer and four stags were eating.

“I’ll go around the side,” Ben started formulating the plan. Out of all of us he was the most suited to lead besides maybe Ajax, who was just here as a last resort observer, so none of us had a problem with him taking the position. “The four of you will prepare a strong initial blast and I’ll draw their attention right before you finish casting.”

Anna and I nodded to each other, with a group twice the size of our own and only one physical fighter we would be in real trouble if they got to charge towards the casters with nobody to protect us so we were going to use our combo attack. One of my grandfather's discoveries was how air affinity mana could boost the power of fire affinity mana when mixed.

With a short nod to Ben he dashed from the size hitting his shield with his sword to draw attention to himself as I launched a compressed fire orb in the center of the herd. Anna quickly followed that up by using a wind bolt that detonated my orb. We had done numerous tests and the resulting explosion was almost half again as strong as just both of us using a normal explosive fireball.

Rick used a spell that turned the entire clearing from an open grassy arena into a muddy swap. He had been fascinated by the application of using water and earth like this ever since Ben had told him how Ajax had used it in their spar and how it was a strong defensive option for when a physical fighter got in close.

As for Rupert he went with his tried and true shadow blots. They weren’t all that spectacular but were quick to cast and very mana efficient. I wasn’t sure what Rupert’s problem was with Ajax but he had been trying to goad him into a fight since the start and it had only gotten more pronounced as he questioned everything Ajax said for the last hour we spent tracking. That Ajax seemed to have a logical explanation and reasoning only seemed to infuriate him further.

The ambush was a big success and we advanced towards the two remaining deer that were still standing while Ben was finishing off the last wounded stag. Out initial barrage of spells killed everything else and we wanted to make sure not to spoil the meat of at least these last few so we used wind slices to decapitate them.

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“Leave this one to me.” Ben said as he enjoyed battling with the stag. A quick [Inspect] confirmed that this stag was slightly stronger at level twenty-eight.

Despite all the stoic persona and brilliant strategic mind Ben was deep down a battle junky who loved pushing himself like this. While Ben was finishing off the last of the herd I looked around to see what Ajax was doing. It was surprisingly easy to find him, his expression was serious however, unlike the easygoing smile he had while he tracked down the deer. He brought his hand up level with his face and lifted his index finger.

It took me a moment to realize that he was pointing up and by the time I lifted my eyes a screech resounded in the forest. I had failed to account what being in a clearing meant, yes we didn’t have trees everywhere making hard to fire spells but we also lost the cover above our heads. A griffin the size of a large horse was diving towards us.

I instantly called out “Above” as I dived towards Anna and pulled both of us down and to the side out of the path of the griffin. Rick and Rupert weren’t so lucky. Rick was flung to the side as one of the large wings hit him right in the chest as he turned towards the screech. Rupert however was the worst off as the claws looked to be going straight for his shoulders in an attempt to pick him off and carry him away.

A quick surge of mana came from Rupert's necklace as a quick mana shield sprung up around him and quickly shattered to the griffin’s claws. It was however enough to bring the griffin to a stop as it landed two feet from him.

Ben was the quickest to react to the situation as he disengaged the stag and raised his shield while charging towards the griffin. “Finish off the stag.” he called out to Anna who was already getting back up and muttering the start of a spell.

I had no doubt Anna would handle the stag without issues so I focused on the griffin. I quickly chanted the cast for a wide wind burst, my whole plan was to use the widely spread wings against it and give Ben time to get in a good position. The plan worked as the griffin stumbled awkwardly as the gust pushed it down into the mud.

The biggest problem we had now was that the griffin was in the middle of our formation following its initial dive. This poor position means that not only would we need to be careful not to hit Ben without spells but also not to hit each other should the griffin dodge.

Even with Ben moving to engage the griffin in close quarters the beast still seemed focused on Rupert, I wasn’t sure if it saw him as the biggest threat because of the mana shield that came from the necklace or if was just his bad luck but it charged towards him.

Ben was no pushover however and a quick glance saw his enchanted blade light up as he brought it down and severed one of the griffins wings as it charged past him. Rupert was quick to tumble out of the way and the griffin missed due to the unbalanced weight that came with missing a wing.

The griffin stood back up ready to engage us but it was too late for it. Anna, Rick and I had all finished our casts and with the griffin no longer being in the center of our formation we launched an Ice lance, earth spike and fireball respectively quickly bringing the fight to an end.

“AAAHHH” I didn’t even get a chance to catch my breath as two wolves jumped from into the clearing and bit down on Rupert's arm and leg. In our battle with the surprise griffin we had stopped looking around in the forest and Rupert was the closest to the edge of the clearing after dodging the griffin’s charge. I could see three more wolves running towards us and a forth that leaped going for Ruptert’s neck.

None of us were in any position to do anything about it when I felt a large amount of mana off to the side before an arrow embedded itself into the head of the wolf mid-leap. The next moment Ajax was a blur as he charged the wolves. Mana was gushing all around him just like it did when he spared with Dave brandishing his axe and sword. With my increased mental stats, my eyes could keep up with Ajax as he quickly killed the two wolves attached to Rupert before turning on the other three and making short work of them as well

His blades were covered in a quick sheath of wind mana and sliced through the wolves with no difficulty. I could see the ground itself change in order to both give him better footholds and also trip up the wolves. He had to be casting three spells at once, maybe four as I was unsure how his physical mana enhancement worked. Despite the spells being highly inefficient in terms of mana his fighting style had clear strong points.

With the wolves dealt with we all converged on Rupert's position, though I did catch Ajax’s posture slump as he also approached. “Seriously?” he muttered, “Guess I’ll need to be more careful about this in the future.” I didn’t know what he was talking about but it didn’t seem like it was the wolf situation.