Sam and Lupie waited, not immediately engaging the charging beasts. This was the first wave, after all; they may as well let the archers, mages, and lower-level warriors have a chance at some experience. From what Sam could tell when she identified several of the salamanders in the oncoming wave, their levels ranged from the lower to mid-twenties, with the largest being no bigger than a Komodo dragon back on Earth. There were no raptors that Sam could see, which disappointed her greatly. “Who does a girl have to screw to get the chance to fight a freaking raptor around here?” she thought morosely as arrows and spells started streaking across the sky from behind her.
"Watch your energy levels," Chad's voice rang in her mind, "this is only the first wave. Remember, there will be nine more past this one. Conserve and endure."
Chad had no more than finished his sentence when the rain of death from above landed on the charging monsters just as they reached the river. Every one of the scaled amphibians in the front line died in the first volley from the ranged defenders, along with at least half of the attackers behind them as well. The hisses and roars of pain filled the mostly silent battlefield, and the river quickly turned red with the blood of the fallen. Sam even noticed tentacles snaking up and snagging salamanders in several places. She frowned, "Damn, deep hunters are stealing our kills!" Still, she didn't move to attack, figuring she could take care of them later. Sam also hoped a raptor or twenty would try to sneak up on her from the trees to her right. As it turned out, she didn't have to wait long.
***
Sam had woven three mana threads through the trees to her right as an early warning against any creatures sneaking up on the defenders. Sam felt the slightest tug on one of her threads just before the seventy or so surviving salamanders reached the front line of tanks. Instantly, a red outline appeared on her map where the creature had touched her thread. Excitedly zooming in on the red outline, Sam almost shouted for joy. It was a raptor!
Sam sent a quick mental warning to everyone, "Raptors on our flanks! I'm engaging! Lupie, check the tree line on your side!"
Sam wasted no more time. She infused her legs and body with mana. She exploded into the trees, directly toward the raptor she had snagged with her mana threads.
Nara yelled through their private chat, "Remember, for every individual raptor you see, there are at least two sneaking up behind you!" Sam remembered, in fact, it was what she was hoping for. She intended to make herself a prime target and draw them to her.
Sam arrived at her trapped raptor and let out a long, frustrated breath when she saw the tiny creature no bigger than a large dog writhing on the ground, trying to free itself from her thread. "Oh, come on!" she shouted at the sky. With a flick of her wrist, a spinning magical disk removed the small raptor's head. Sam didn't even turn around as the other seven small reptiles attacked her from behind. Taking a page out of Lupie's book, Sam formed void-coated arcane blades at the end of her threads and sliced all but one of the lunging monsters in half. She let the single surviving raptor latch its mouth on her shoulder and dig its ten-centimeter hooked claws into her exposed back to see what kind of damage the small creature could inflict.
Nothing, not even a notification about poison or anything. Sam sighed again, “I don’t guess I’ll be raising my resistance with these little guys,” she thought as she grabbed the little head latched onto her shoulder and squeezed. There was a muted crunch and a kill notification when she crushed the creature’s skull.
Tossing the small body to the side, Sam closed the shallow wounds its claws and teeth had left in her body, thankful she could now repair her leather armor with her mana repair skill. Walking back out of the forest slowly, Sam sent arcane bolts in every direction, striking over twenty more raptors trying to sneak past her toward the defenders on the cliff.
Joining the front line again, Sam sent a mental message warning the people on the cliff of possible raptor ambushes. She watched absently as the warriors and tanks finished off the last of the salamanders. A quick check showed the defenders had little trouble with the first wave. Only a couple even had scratches on them. Since the two with scratches were Brenda and another of the female warriors with her, Sam figured it had been intentional, like she had done to gauge the enemy's strength. The whole wave lasted less than six minutes.
"We need to clear the early waves faster." Parish's voice came through their comm channel. She explained her reasoning, "each wave is on a nine-minute timer. If we clear a wave faster, it will activate the next wave early, giving us more time to complete the final few waves." She paused when a notification popped up in everyone's vision.
‘Bing’ Wave 1 complete. Beginning wave 2. Good luck.
Parish asked through chat, "Sam, would you and Lupie mind—”
"On it!" Sam said they already knew what the woman was going to ask. She and Lupie bolted across the short fifty meters to the river, ensuring to stay on the path Marin had left for each of them strictly for this purpose. They jumped over dead salamanders and the short walls Marin had erected, coming to the river in seconds without slowing. Both leaped over the body of bloody water, landing on the other side without missing a stride.
The wave of green-skinned salamanders broke from the tree line just as Lupie and Sam landed on their side of the river. Sam cast a quick identify, which showed the highest level she could see was only thirty-two. Sam was at least happy the salamanders were a bit larger now, making them easier to spot against the forest's lush green. “Which I’m about to paint red,” Sam thought with a predatory grin.
Sam and Lupie engaged the wave of monsters, causing chaos and devastation in their ranks. Sam infused her body with magical energy and summoned her shield construct. With a meaty thwack, she backhanded the first salamander she came to, completely destroying its head as it lunged to bite at her. Firing bladed disks and mana spikes from all six of her mana threads to her left and right, Sam used a sword construct and her shield to fight her way forward through the press of bodies. Her mana was dropping precipitously, but she was also taking down dozens of enemies as she ducked, dodged, and jumped the rain of claws, teeth, and tails coming at her from all directions.
Sam had not engaged with the center of the wave and stayed on the edge of the main body of the attacking monsters. A slight movement to her left told her it was the right decision. Instantly breaking off her attack on the salamander herd, Sam moved to her left and engaged the thirty raptors slinking low through the trees. "Oh no, you don't!" She snapped as the still too-small monsters tried to dart past her toward the other defenders.
“Lupie! Go after the raptors.” Sam sent to the summon.
"I have finished with mine. You are too slow," Lupie responded in her soft, feminine voice.
"Oh, now that's a challenge!" Sam sent back gleefully and went into "meat grinder mode," as she called it. Bladed discs, spikes, arcane bolts, and energy whips blasted out from Sam, targeting anything that moved. Within seconds, there wasn't a leaf on a tree below ten meters or a single raptor left in one piece.
Running back into the clearing, Sam saw Lupie mopping up the last salamanders. Not a single enemy had made it across the river. Sam checked the time; it had taken her and Lupie less than four minutes to annihilate over a hundred enemies around their levels.
‘Bing’ Wave 2 complete. Beginning wave 3. Good luck.
Sam drank a mana potion and meditated. At her current level in the skill, she could maintain a whole barrage of arcane bolts while meditating, allowing her to keep up the spell almost indefinitely. So, she stood at the river's edge, far enough away the Deep Hunters wouldn't bother her, and blasted the forest before her. Each of her mana threads was like a Gatling gun of arcane bolts as she strafed the battlefield with little energized bullets of magic. To top it all off, every fifth bolt she cast was a void bolt. Her preemptive attack caused the salamanders to falter and split to the left and right, trying to avoid the peppering attacks. This pushed the raptors to the edge of the system-enforced zone, which was quite narrow, finally forcing them to jump over the stampeding salamanders or be crushed by them against the shield wall the System had erected.
Unable to sneak up on the defenders, the Raptors abandoned that tactic. Instead, they charged forward with the salamanders, out-pacing them quickly. Sam noted these raptors were almost big enough to be considered cool by her standards and figured that by wave six, they would stand as tall as her.
Sam's tactic worked well and was much less mana-intensive than going all out. Although it took nearly five minutes to defeat the wave like this, Sam decided to stick with the tactic as it was more sustainable. It also gave the rest of the raid party some targets to take down. “No sense in hogging all the experience. I doubt Parish expected me and Lupie to be able to wipe out whole waves on our own.”
‘Bing’ Wave 3 complete. Beginning wave 4. Good luck.
Sam stood in one place, casting spells at the oncoming monsters. The salamanders' stampede broke. The harried raptors charged—
‘Bing’ Wave 4 complete. Beginning wave 5. Good luck.
Sam cast her spells. Lupie bit, clawed, stomped, stabbed, and crushed—
‘Bing’ Wave 5 complete. Beginning wave 6. Good luck.
Sam yawned and cast her spells. Lupie did her thing. Some arrows and spells fell on the charging monsters—
‘Bing’ Wave 6 complete. Beginning wave 7. Good luck.
Sam suddenly realized she was bored. Still, she cast her spells, diverting the herd. “Maybe the raptors will be a challenge on this wave—” She thought but sighed a moment later when the same-sized raptors came running out of the trees, dodging the salamanders. She blasted one in the head with a void bolt, and it went limp, collapsing to the ground and sliding a meter or so before coming to a halt, never to move again. Especially after a panicked salamander stepped on it as it ran past, its claws tearing a hole in the raptor's corpse.
Sam was about to start picking off the stragglers with Lupie when a scream came from behind her. Instantly whipping around, she tried to locate the origin of the cry that had sounded female. Checking for Nara first, Sam was suddenly afraid when she couldn't find her. She soon realized why when she saw Naris tumble over the side of the cliff, gripping the neck of the largest raptor Sam had seen yet. He was stabbing it repeatedly in its throat as they fell thirty meters to the ground, landing with a thud. Two of the warriors ran toward the pair even as they fell. Sam couldn't see where they landed, and she feared the worst.
Before Naris even struck the ground, Sam was already heading back to the group. She called to Lupie as she ran, "Keep one alive so the next wave doesn't start! I'm going to see how bad it is!" Lupie sent her a mental confirmation as she ran.
By the time Sam arrived back at the defensive line, the excitement was over. Naris stood proudly over the three-meter-long raptor as it lay still on the ground. Seeing Naris was a little bloodied, but okay, Sam relaxed a little. She settled even more when a white light covered him briefly, leaving him healed when it faded. Looking over, Sam saw Parish lowering her staff.
“Who screamed?” Sam asked the group even while she was thinking, “Aww, Naris got the first big one! No fair!”
"The ice mage, Sarah," Naris pointed to the top of the cliff. She's hurt bad. Just then, a wind mage came floating down the cliff face.
"Damn, that makes me jealous," Sam thought as she watched the man seemingly defy gravity as he floated on a layer of wind magic, carrying the wounded mage in his arms. When he landed, Sam realized Naris may have been understating the severity of the young mage's wounds a little. The poor woman's chest was torn open, and she had been disemboweled by the raptor's vicious claws. One of her hands was missing as well.
Parish wasted no time casting healing spells on Sarah back to back, and one of the warriors uncorked and poured a healing potion into her chest cavity. Sam was amazed the woman was still alive. She attached a couple of threads to Sarah and activated her repair skill, more to assess the extent of the damage than to actually heal the mage. Thanks to Parish's spells, Sarah's wounds closed quickly.
Sam spoke up when her skill told her Sarah was out of danger. "She's going to be fine. Her recovery can take it from here," She looked at Parish, who was eying her curiously, "It's one of my skills. I can assess the general health of anything I am in contact with.
"But…um, Miss Samantha," one of the male warriors spoke from her left. When she looked at him, he flinched back like she would hurt him.
"Yes…Brian, was it? How can I help you?" Sam asked.
"Well, I cannot help but notice you aren't in contact with Miss Sarah," Brian told Sam in a hushed voice in an attempt to not offend her.
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"Oh, I can assure you I am in full contact with her," Sam said coyly and brushed a mana thread across Brian's cheek, causing him to yelp and jump back, slapping at his cheek and the air in front of him.
"Brian, surely you've noticed that everything within ten meters of Sam tends to be…dissected?" Parish rolled her eyes at the man, "She's a mage, Brian. Use your imagination."
Sam figured Parish could probably see her mana threads, and sure enough, the battle healer reached out to touch one still attached to Sarah. Sam released the construct with a smile only to reform it wrapped around the healer's wrist. "Oh, how interesting," Parish purred, making no attempt to remove the thread.
"What kind of a mage can shatter a level thirty-two monster's head with a backhand slap when she is only level thirty-three?" Brian asked with a tinge of fear in his voice.
Sam smiled sweetly at the man, "Why, my kind, of course." Looking around, Sam noticed most people there were looking at her funny. Even Brenda looked a little nervous. Sam didn't like where this was going, so she tried to lighten the mood a little, "Come on, everyone, we're all on the same side here. I'm sorry if I've been hogging all the experience. I promise Lupie and I will start sharing." She smiled her best smile, but everyone still looked at her like she was one of the monsters. "Now I know what Nara must have felt like for most of her life. This sucks.”
Brenda came to Sam's rescue, though. She snorted and slapped her thigh, walking over to stand right in front of Sam. She then looked directly into Sam's upturned face, saying, "Once this is over, you and I are going to wrestle. The loser buys the first beer!"
She looked back at everyone, and one of the tanks who had just walked up said, "Five gold says she kicks your arse, Brenda!" that broke the somber mood, and Sam sighed as Brenda and the man started bickering.
A few moments later, everyone's attention shifted when Lupie walked up with one of the smaller raptors wriggling in her jaws.
Parish turned back to business and, speaking to the wind mage, she told him to put Sarah in the cave with Arron, saying the ice mage would likely be out of the fight for the remaining duration of the event. Then she spoke to everyone on their comms. "Okay, everyone, we have," she paused, "fifty-three minutes to complete three more waves. Thanks to Sam and Lupie's contribution, we have nearly doubled the time per wave. Let us not squander this time. Sir Chadwick, you're our tactician; what do you recommend we do for the final three waves?"
Chad must have already been thinking about this because he answered immediately, "We stay as we are, except for moving one tank and two warriors to the cliff to help defend the ranged attackers. We must tighten our ranks, but that may benefit our formation." At his words, Brenda nodded to two of her squad, and they immediately turned and started scrambling up the sheer face of the rock faster than most people on Earth could run. Sam was impressed but figured she could probably do the same by using her magic. Chad caught her attention when he spoke directly to her and Lupie, "Sam, Lupie, please hang back on this side of the river and watch our flanks for more of those big raptors. That one wasn't an alpha, but we might see one soon. I want you to focus on anything you deem too great a threat for two warriors to handle."
Lupie responded through the mental communication in her soft voice, surprising everyone, "I will protect the flank as you wish if Sam approves."
"Yeah, I'm good with it, but if one of those betas you were talking about shows up, Lupie and I are going after it. If they are anything like an evolved beast, we should keep it from the main group until you guys can deal with the weaker enemies." Sam said.
"They are strong but not that strong. Beta's are more cunning than alphas but not necessarily stronger, although most are slightly stronger. Their main strength is their ability to buff the beasts around them." Chad explained. Then he said, "I don't think the level progression in these waves is even. The monsters aren't growing stronger fast enough to justify the rewards." Parish was nodding along with Chad as he spoke. Obviously, she had come to the same conclusion. Seeing her nodding, Chad sighed, "You noticed it too, then?"
Parish took over the conversation with, "We should prepare for either a mighty boss monster in the last wave or alphas in the three waves," she thought for a moment, then continued, "Maybe even both."
With that revelation, the mood in the clearing became somber.
With a cough, Chad asked, "Is everyone ready?" Everyone gave their mental confirmation, and he looked to Lupie, who crunched down on the raptor, still struggling in her mouth.
‘Bing’ Wave 7 complete. Beginning wave 8. Good luck.
***
The wave started like the previous seven, with the salamanders running straight for the defenders and no raptors to be seen. Sam and Lupie both, seeing the levels of the salamanders were still only in the mid-forties even though their sizes had grown quite large, slipped into the trees on either side of the clearing, preparing for the sneaky raptors.
Sam laced the ground, the trees, and everything in between with threads. With her improvements in mana crafting, she had complete control of all six threads and could make them up to thirty meters long. The threads of pure mana were much stronger, too, not entirely on par with Lupie's blood tentacles but enough to snatch one of the smaller raptors to the ground if she caught it just right. Sam could make and control up to ten threads now but stuck with six because the more she added, the weaker they became. She kept hoping to get a spell or skill from her constant use of the mana threads, but nothing had come of it so far.
Within seconds, Sam felt multiple contacts with her constructs, each contact flashing out of stealth and onto her map. She grinned, “Yes! A big one! Oh, double yes! Two big ones!” Then her smile faltered a little, "Three big ones…four big—shit, here goes nothing!"
Sam used her threads and began casting arcane bolts at the multiple large raptors falling into her trap. Instantly, her map lit up with several more creatures as they left stealth and started hunting for her. Sam knew the ones she could see weren't what she needed to worry about; the hidden ones were probably using the distraction to sneak past. The image of the eviscerated Sarah plagued her mind, so she crouched down behind a bush and kept scanning the forest even as she attacked the raptors she could detect. “I’m so glad my mana is so hard to see. Maybe I could call myself a stealth mage,” she thought with a goofy grin despite the circumstances. The faintest movement caught the corner of her vision, "No, not my vision, my mana sight." It was only the faintest flicker, almost like there had been a ripple in the air for a fraction of a heartbeat.
Sam didn't hesitate. She blasted herself toward where she had sensed the disturbance in the surrounding mana. She sent a light pulse of magic out in front of her and was glad she did because as soon as her force wave reached them, two raptors were forced out of stealth right in front of her, both crouched to strike. She didn't give them time.
A three-meter whip composed of pure void appeared in Sam's hand, and she swung it horizontally in front of her body as she ran forward. As with the brood mother, the raptors sensed the danger in the energy and tried to dodge to the side, but they were too late. The void whip hit the first raptor in the neck with an audible popping sound like someone pouring a cup of cold water into a pan full of hot grease. As the void energy came in contact with the skin of the creature's neck, it…negated it, causing an instant localized implosion as the void sucked in all the physical matter within a centimeter of itself. The whip sliced clean through the neck of the first raptor. It cut into the second that turned to run, striking it in the middle of its back, severing its spine and digging almost halfway into its body, killing it instantly when the void touched its heart.
The whip fizzled out, and Sam looked at the two raptors in surprise. Then she looked at her hand. The bone was showing in her palm where she had gripped the void. “Damn, I’m glad my pain resistance is so high.” She looked back to her kills, "No wonder the System is only giving me such a small pool of void mana. That shit should be illegal!" Sam's blacked-out section of her mana bar had disappeared quickly when the whip bit into the raptor's body, much faster than when she cut the first one's head off. This told her the more energy it took, the denser the material she was trying to cut through. Which made sense to Sam. "I will have to be sparing with it because of my low void energy reserves, but damn, that's a strong attack."
On a whim, Sam reached to loot her kills, but a system message she didn't expect popped up.
‘Bing’ Loot ability has been disabled during the event. Kills will be auto-looted upon mission completion.
"Huh, well, that's new," Sam said as she shrugged. She didn't care and only did it because she was curious about what the creatures gave for loot. She had never stopped firing her arcane bolts even as she killed the two raptors and cast a few mana spikes as finishing blows when she managed to down one of the stealthy creatures from her barrage of attacks.
Sam's presence in the forest had the same effect on the raptors as when the charging salamanders were diverted, forcing them out and into the open. Only this time, when the reptiles exited the forest, they were met with Brenda and a few other warriors.
Sam had to hand it to Chad; he may be a little boy to her, but his strategy was working well. The tanks managed the charging salamanders well, although it seemed difficult. At the same time, the ranged attackers wreaked devastation on the slowed creatures from above. As the raptors attacked the flanks of the formation, strong and fast warriors were there waiting for them, preventing them from breaking the lines and getting behind the tanks.
Sam ducked under a tail swipe from a raptor as she ran back to the line near Brenda. The Berserker was covered in cuts and gouges, and she had a manic grin on her face as she cut and bashed monster after monster, seemingly oblivious to the wounds piling up on her body. In fact, the more she was damaged, the stronger Brenda became; in less than a minute, she went from only slapping the raptors to the side with her shield to breaking their bones and slinging them away with every impact. A faint red glow outlined her body in Sam's mana sight, and she remembered, "Oh yeah, she's a berserker. Man, she sure charges up fast! It makes sense, I guess; even as big as she is, her body can only take so much punishment, so she would need to ramp up quickly."
Keeping clear of Brenda and her counterpart, Sam looked around the battlefield to see where she would be most needed but didn't see anyone struggling, so she ran over to the press of salamanders, threatening to push the tanks back from sheer weight alone. She started cutting into their ranks with a couple of sword constructs, trying to take some of the focus off the tanks and the more vulnerable warriors behind them.
Less than three minutes later, the chime came.
‘Bing’ Wave 8 complete. Beginning wave 9. Good luck.
“Everyone, we need to keep one alive on this wave to give everyone time to recover before the final wave!” Parish’s voice rang through their comms.
A series of affirmations floated in from all around. Sam checked her energy levels and agreed. She was down to less than fifty percent in her mana and stamina; her health was still at one hundred percent, which was very unusual for her. It was so unusual that Sam checked it twice to ensure she hadn't imagined it. Nope, there it was, a full health bar. “I could get used to fighting in a group if this is the result,” She thought, happy that, for once, her health wasn't in the single digits during a fight. Then she frowned, "There are still two more waves, though." With that thought, she sent a quick message to Nara and Lupie, asking if they were okay. They told her they were still good on energy, so Sam turned to the trees and waited for the next wave.
Sam tensed the instant the monsters exited the trees, heading for their position. They weren't running forward in a stampede. "Are they marching?" Sam thought as the salamanders all walked in orderly rows toward them. Then she cursed under her breath when she saw raptors interspersed in the rows of salamanders.
Chad must have seen them, too, because he called out, "Alphas are controlling the packs! Sam, Lupie, wait until we engage the main body, then try to find the alphas. This is going to be tough. Ranged attackers hold your fire until they cross the river; you must make every shot count, so let them get close. Tanks, warriors, tighten up the formation!"
All the tanks started to back up slowly, never lowering their shields. The warriors stepped closer to the tanks to protect them on either side. The seven warriors and five tanks formed almost into a single line, with the warriors only slightly behind the large shield bearers.
Parish and Marin stood in the middle of the half circle of warriors, ready to cast healing or terra spells as needed. Sam had been impressed with Marin; she figured he couldn't be older than sixteen or seventeen, but he hadn't faltered once during the fighting. Sam noticed more than a few salamanders’ limp bodies impaled on stone spikes scattered around the battlefield. She hadn't seen much of Parish, but from how fast she healed Naris and Sarah's wounds, Sam didn't think anyone would have to be afraid of dying as long as the woman had enough mana and the injury they received didn't kill them instantly.
Sam resumed her position outside the defensive formation and scanned the approaching monsters, hoping to find the alphas.
Adult Sigea Grassland Salamander [Level 51]; Hostile; Affinity: Tera; This salamander species is not native to Hallista. Additional experience will be granted for assisting in eradicating this species.
Juvenile Sigea Grassland Raptor [Level 37]; Hostile; Affinity: illusion; This reptilian species is not native to Hallista. Additional experience will be granted for assisting in eradicating this species.
Adult Sigea Grassland Salamander [Level 59]; Hostile; Affinity: Tera; This salamander species is not native to Hallista. Additional experience will be granted for assisting in eradicating this species.
Adult Sigea Grassland Salamander [Level 45]; Hostile; Affinity: Tera; This salamander species is not native to Hallista. Additional experience will be granted for assisting in eradicating this species.
Adult Sigea Grassland Raptor [Level 53]; Hostile; Affinity: illusion; This reptilian species is not native to Hallista. Additional experience will be granted for assisting in eradicating this species.
Sam was getting nervous. The monsters had made it to the river and stopped. Then, four of the largest raptors ran up and dove into the water, slipping under the surface with the grace of a professional high diver. Less than a minute later, blood started bubbling to float along the top of the slow-moving river. Three of four raptors surfaced; one still had a Deep Hunter tentacle wrapped around its neck. Once out of the river, the lead salamanders stepped to its edge and touched their noses to the sandy soil. A bridge formed in front of them, extending slowly across the water.
"Ranged attackers fire!" Chad shouted, and instantly, Sam saw a dozen arrows arcing across the sky, which was impressive considering there were only three archers. Condensed wind spears followed the arrows from the wind mage. Sam smiled at the three void arrows as they traveled past, "Nara's breaking out the big guns, I see."
It was a good thing Nara used the void arrows, too, because as soon as the projectiles passed close to the horde, thin earthen shields sprang up over the front-line monsters, deflecting the standard arrows. Only the wind blades and void arrows penetrated the shield. The wind blades barely left a scratch on the monsters, but the void arrows went straight through the thin shield to penetrate deep into two of the salamanders. Three popping sounds were heard, and two creatures slumped to the ground dead. The part of the land bridge they were building began to crumble and sink into the water.
Looking up, Sam saw six more void arrows in the air. Seeing their plan wasn't working, the monsters charged as one, splashing through the river's water. Nara's arrows were joined by others as the monsters charged, and the fight was on.
Not satisfied, the enemy monsters were aggravated enough. Chad let out a battle cry that buffed Sam's endurance and vitality by ten percent. At the same time, it enraged several of the charging salamanders.
“He must be drawing the monster to him to take some of the stress off the others,” Sam thought, “if he keeps this up, I might just have to stop calling him a wuss…maybe.” Sam didn't want to be outdone by the boy, so she peppered the approaching wall of amphibians and reptiles with arcane bolts, making sure to conserve her mana for the alphas. She was worried one or both of them may have already slipped past her, but she hadn't felt anything with her threads, so she had no reason to break from the formation yet. Still, she worried about Nara and Naris being up on the cliff too far away for her to get to in a reasonable time. "I guess that's a mark against these kinds of events for me. If I cannot keep my team close, it makes me nervous…well, other than Lupie. I guess it's just Nara and Naris, then. I wouldn't be so worried if I actually knew what we were up against."
Sam's thoughts were pushed away when a raptor that had broken from the pack lunged at her. It was the level fifty-three she had identified earlier. Sam erected a wall with her kinetic dampener spell and flinched at the mana loss when the lunging beast slammed into it with its claws first. Sam dismissed the spell, and the raptor fell to the ground, confused. Sam didn't give the creature time to collect itself. Dashing forward, she sliced the raptor's throat open with a sword construct, causing blood to gush all over her hands. Seeing the creature wasn't dead, Sam formed a spiked gauntlet on her right hand to smash into the animal's skull—.
Lupie interrupted Sam's assault, "There are two alphas, one raptor, and one salamander, just inside the trees to the back," Sam looked toward the tree line but couldn't detect anything. Lupie continued, "I want the salamander."
"It's yours," Sam said. Leaving the mostly dead raptor for the tanks to finish off, she took off toward the far end of the battlefield, trusting Chad, Nara, and Parish to hold off the high-level assault.