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Chapter 28: Frozen Heat - Attack

Chapter 28: Frozen Heat - Attack

Frozen Heat - Attack

I managed to crawl my way into the ventilation shafts.

It was a tight fit, barely enough room for me to crawl through. Honestly, if a monster came and attacked me at this instant, regardless of level, I would probably die. Plus, to add to that, the heat was already killing me. My back was already drenched in sweat as the heat and humidity amplified through this cramped metallic tunnel.

Damn summer.

I moved painstakingly along the heated surface. It took a great big deal of effort; exaggerated wriggling, and hopeless crawling were among the several things I did, but eventually, I reached a small opening within the ducts.

It was a mesh like opening, held in place by four corner screws that, overlooked a room down below.

Cool air flowed from the bottom, and as I moved closer to look down below, I saw the familiar scene of sleeping Werewolf scouts.

The crisp breeze, which cut through the thick summertime humidity, teased my enflared cheeks as I brought my face closer to the edges of the opening. I was so close, yet so far from escaping this oven like compartment that was currently roasting me from the outside in.

Nevertheless, I held back my rising complaints, and quietly looked down, peering at the scene though the gaps of the wirey mesh.

As expected, the room below was dark, void from any light. The curtains had successfully fulfilled their intended jobs as almost all forms of light were blocked from illuminating the room. In the end, this greatly impaired my vision, as I struggled to make out the finer details of the darkened silhouettes that I saw.

Luckily, humans are surprisingly adept.

In a little less than 2 minutes, my eyes adjusted and as I adapted to the darkened surroundings.

I looked at the room with renewed purpose.

The primary reason why I had decided to make my way here in the first place, was to observe, after all, I wanted to see and confirm with my own eyes, the instant the wolves die. It was a measure of reassurance, in a sense. I didn’t want any lingering survivors to jump out and attack our group the instant we let down our guard.

Although a secondary reason did exist, on that I kept close attention to in the back of my mind.

In short, I was concerned. I was worried that the plan may boil down to failure, and If it was from up here, through the ventilation ducts where I currently looked down from, I could react fast enough to any… unexpected complications that may arise.

If inevitably, the plan were to fail, I needed to be at the right time, and at the right place to ensure our survivability rate remains high.

I gripped the half empty water bottle I had brought along with me. I felt its heated plastic surface with the palm of my hand, as i struggled to refrain from shaking the clear container. The contents of the bottle, which ranged from an odd medley of bolts, magnets, and screws,  held the risk of making noise.

I want to keep the room quiet. Although I said that, a faint, sort of hissing sound was produced from the growing amount of dry ice in the room below. Luckily, it was a rather soft, and it didn’t seem like even the wolve’s sensitive ears could pick up on the baily audible noise.

But in regards to the bottle’s contents, the situation would be different. I knew well enough that shaking a bottle full of metal scraps in a place like the ventilation ducts was akin to playing death metal in a nursing home.

A bad idea.

At this point, I don’t really know why I brought this bottle along with me. It was nothing more than a placeholder for a failed dream. Something easily likened to a charm. It had no purpose save for a few flimsy sentimental reasons.

From my vantage point, I observed Cielle’s slow process of moving the dry ice into the quiet ice. She maneuvered the tiny, broken up bits and pieces of solidified carbon dioxide through the small gap created by the slightly opened door.

Pieces of [Dark Gemini] kept the ice elevated during this process, until Cielle gently released her skill, placing the ice softly and inaudibly on the carpeted floor. She scattered the ice around the pack of wolves, just like I instructed, and in no time, almost half of the original dry ice was now scattered across the room. This process was currently ongoing for 10 minutes, and at this point, things were barely halfway done.

I wondered whether Cielle had a large enough mana capacity to follow through with this, but I brushed aside such a worry.

Surprisingly, [Gemini Blue] was a unique magic skill which wasn’t too demanding mana wise. In addition with Cielle’s [Healer] title, the mana consumption was reduced to a great enough extent where my worries turned ceaseless.

Although in hindsight, Cielle’s magic control was pretty amazing. Observing, I marveled at her fluid control, as she maneuvered, mainly through intuition and feeling. Since most of her vision, was blocked out by the room’s wall, and it was pretty much impossible to see through the gap that the door created, Cielle had to rely mainly on her prior knowledge of the room’s layout as well as my previous assessment of the werewolves’ positions.

Naturally, this was an extremely difficult task to manage, but somehow or another, she remedied these problems with her precision control.

It was a dangerous game of guess and prediction, but Cielle’s fore knowledge more than made up for that risk.

This left me some bit of comfort. Seeing Cielle’s control, I wasn’t as worried as before. My previous anxiety concerning this topic quickly dissipated as I repositioned myself to look back down at the monsters below.

At first, I seriously did start to believe that a quiet victory was well within our grasps. The wolves were still quietly sleeping, and the ice was slowly accumulating, as well as the subsequent white mist and carbon dioxide.

But that sort of hopeful thinking was quickly questioned, as from what I observed, I quickly came to the conclusion that such a conveniently easy victory will happen.

In the computer lab below, I could see… slight movement among the pack of wolves.

It wasn’t anything major or anything, in fact, I doubted what I saw was real or not in the first place, but after a bit of squinting and glaring, I confirmed what that the “slight movement” wasn’t some form of visual illusion, but was indeed reality.

The wolves were… moving. Small, almost imperceptible motion, like a slight twitch in their leg, or a shake of their hides.

I don’t know whether such gestures were common symptoms to carbon monoxide poisoning or that thing Hina had said - Hypercapnia- but I seriously doubted they’d… react so soon.

Wasn’t it a bit too early?

The room wasn’t even filled all the way yet, and not to mention the door wasn’t sealed. And while the carbon dioxide did start to build up, I had some serious doubts as to whether or not it was enough to arouse such symptoms.

As I continued to monitor the scene below with an ever growing frown, my eyes were instantly drawn towards an even greater source of motion.

A rough shaking, and a slight turn of the head brought my full attention. This leap in movement came none other from the back of the room.

There, the Alpha Wolf, nestled alongside well placed broken computers, and ravaged office chairs, moved its head with more than a slight twitch. It’s mouth almost unconsciously snarled as its face contorted in discomfort. Its eyes were still closed, but unsurprisingly, its nose wriggled annoyingly.

Rather, the noses of several wolves were currently moving about frantically.

I broke out into a cold sweat.

The annoying heat from earlier instantly forgotten, as a shiver of anxiety buzzed through my system, bringing my senses into full alert.

This anxiety was only made worse by my foggy understanding of the situation.

All I knew was that the monsters were reacting to the dry ice earlier than expected and this concerned me. I didn’t exactly know why though. The ice was supposedly odorless and Cielle had cautioned herself to not make any excessive noise during the transfer.

What exactly where the wolves reacting to?!

I unscrewed the mesh like opening of the ventilation duct with the tip of Efhermet’s blade. Once it came loose, I quickly caught it before it fell to the floor below, and moved it aside as I poked my head out from the confines of the shafts.

Instantly, a wave of cool air greeted my sweat streaked face, as I silently gasped out in joy.

I squinted through the darkness, and from my new vantage point, strained to get a better grasp on the situation.

I sniffed the air cautiously, only to leave me even more perturbed. The room smelled the same as when I first cracked the door open; a mix of dried blood and wet dog. It wasn’t a pleasant stench, but still, I thoroughly inhaled the room.

I was looking for something… out of the ordinary.

Something more artificial. Chemically. Anything that indicated that dry ice was emitting some sort of odor. As I did so, stray conjecture floated across my mind; maybe the ice wasn’t as pure as I first thought. Maybe some other chemical or substance was emitting a stench as the ice slowly melted.

But this conclusion was quickly refuted.

There wasn’t anything that my average-sensitivity nose could pick up. To me, it was just a mess of wet dog and rotting blood.

….

[But that didn’t mean these wolves smelled the same thing I did..]

Such a thought was the first thing that jolted my attention back towards the Alpha Wolf.

My eyes instantly darted towards the blackened snout of the alpha wolf. Through the haze of darkness and quickly gathering white mist, I could make out the ever growing frantic wriggling of that black bulb that adorned its ferocious face.

[... it can’t be…]

After hard gazed scrutinizing, I came to a rather terrible conclusion, one I would have much rather refuted.

Somehow or another, these dog like creatures could sniff out the odorless stench of solidified carbon dioxide.

It wasn’t really all that surprising, canines in particular had pretty well developed sense of smell. That’s why dogs were often utilized by police to sniff out drugs and such.

It was an obvious thing, but...

I… I hadn’t considered that.

[Damn it.]

I grounded my teeth as I lamented.

I wasn’t even sure whether solidified Carbon Dioxide emitted an odor. I wasn’t even sure that regular dogs or wolves could sniff out Dry ice. But none of that mattered.

I was too grounded in reality.

I was too grounded in reality, that I completely forgot that these creatures were anything but. They weren’t restricted to the rules of my reality. These fanciful creatures may have been capable of sniffing out what was normally considered odorless. Their noses may have been several times more sensitive than what I was normally accustomed to. For all  I knew, these monsters were something capable of other worldly things with enough ease and comfortability that it would even shock the most deranged of fanatics.

My current world was one of both fantasy and reality. Unless I fully grasped this concept, I’d truly be in a disadvantage.

I lamented over this misfortunate miscalculation, as the Alpha Wolf, and some of the other Werewolf Scouts, began to visibly rustle in their sleep.

Their noses continually twitched with ever increasing severity.

At this point, for all I knew, apart from the "odorless" odor of dry ice, they were probably  now sniffing me out as well. After all, I had accumulated quite the perspiration and stench in this dingy metal coffin.

I gulped down, willing myself to bury the piling anxiety. I glared at them with intensity, almost hoping that they would stay asleep, but alas, this reality isn’t so agreeable.

In a little less than 30 seconds, the Alpha wolf’s eyes were now half open, still sleepy, yet unmistakably alert by now.

I hesitated for a moment, before I moved into action.

The original plan was now an utter failure.

The wolves would all wake up in no time, and would instantly take action. We had already lost the luxury of a quiet victory.

I gripped the edge of the opening, and slowly dangled my body into the room. My feet pointed downwards, directly below the middle of the pile of groggy Werewolves.

As I pushed my body out from the opening, the empty bottle of water fell harmlessly downwards. Despite the subsequent noise it made upon impact, it rolled harmlessly away from the congregated pack.

I held in bated breath, while I waited. After a while, I let loose an almost audible sigh of relief upon realizing that the clanging of metal scraps hadn’t woken up the wolves.

[Although, not like it matters at this point…]

If these creatures were going to wake up soon anyways, I might as well throw in a surprise attack while I’m at it.

I glared at the Alpha that rested further ways back, and inwardly, I decided that the creature would serve as my personal way point.

Slowly but with deliberate motion, a rocked my lower body forward. Starting with my feet, my body swung towards the Alpha. Like that, my body continued rocking back and forth; forward, backward, forward, backward.

I repeated this set of actions until I deemed it sufficient, where, at this point, I finally let loose my grip. I used my body’s generated momentum to move me across the room, aiming directly towards the half groggy Alpha wolf, who, luckily, still hadn’t noticed me.

With a determined glare, I looked down at the massive wolf, as my body quickly  gained speed due to the effects of gravity. At my current rate, I would land directly on top of the beast. I’d have exactly one opportunity to land a surprise blow.

I gritted my teeth as, in the briefest instant of time, I deliberated my options.

[Should I use dissect?

Where do I aim? Its foreleg? Do I aim to reduce its speed with an early amputation? Maybe it would be best to go for the head? Can I penetrate through its skull?

Damn it which one should I do?]

Caught in a brief spite of indecision, my overthinking left me no room for a rational hit.

[Screw it! Just hit wherever!]

With such a thought, I gripped Efhermet with both of my sweat laden hands as I aimed randomly at the Wolf’s main body. In the end, I drove the end of my sharpened blade deep into the monster’s side, directly below its right armpit.

As the blade sunk deeper and deeper due to the added force of my inertia, the Alpha male let out a blood curdling screech of pain.

I quickly yanked the blade out from the new wound and leapt back away from the wolf.

[Laceration] in effect.

My downward slash was embedded with [Dissection], and while [Amputate] didn’t activate, the secondary effect of [Lacerate] did.

Such a blow instantly depleted 20% of the monster’s health.

This was a lucky outcome for me, but as if the cruel gods above despised my luck, misfortune  quickly blanketed my situation.

The Alpha Wolf’s screech had unfortunately jolted the rather sensitive wolf pack into alertness.

Through the fog of guttural screaming, I contented with my own, as I shouted, “The plan failed!”

I yelled out into the room, almost wishing it was loud enough to cut through the wolf’s yelp.

My true recipients of my shout were none other than Cielle and Hina, who currently waited outside of the room. I hoped that the girls were close enough to hear my desperate scream, but I couldn’t dwell too far into that concern.

After all, I had my own set of worries to deal with.

Right now, I was face to face with a seriously angry Level 37 Alpha Werewolf.

White mist drifted through the floor, giving the already tense atmosphere a rather mysterious and worrisome ambience. I took a quick cautionary step back as I fashioned Efhermet in front of me. The Alpha growled menacingly at me as his subordinates slowly began encircling me.

I stood there quietly, one hand holding Efhermet loosely, while the other reached back and grabbed a spare dagger from behind.

I silently glared back at the Alpha as its eyes darted from me and back towards the entrance.

With a guttural yip, about 40 of the wolves left the room and flooded the hallway upon the Alpha's urging.

The sudden stream of bodies caused the door to fly shut as the last willing werewolf left the computer lab.

This left me alone with about 15 Werewolf scouts as well as in the company of the more menacing Alpha. While this was, by no means, a pleasant situation, unfortunately, this also left Cielle and Hina to face forty wolves who ran outside.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Although luckily, this was where the contingency plan showed its prowess.

My voice cut through the thick miasma of silence, as I yelled furiously, “Activate plan B now! Sea of Fire!”

My sudden shout caused a few wolves to jerk back in reflex, as I hoped that my desperate shouts were loud enough for the girls to hear. Luckily, almost immediately, I felt a huge rush of heat, that emanated quickly from the hallway. Even through the closed door, I could feel every bit of its intensity.

I smiled helplessly.

The expected fire that I had just prompted into life was way more potent than I expected. Even from this distance, I could already feel the resonating heatwaves trickle along the cold sweat my back had accumulated.

Satisfied, I turned back my attention towards the Alpha, who eyed the sea of fire with a furious glare. Its nose sniffed cautiously in the air, before its face once again contorted into a fierce mask of fury.

I returned the glare with one of my own, as I prepared myself.

My grip on Efhermet tightened almost immediately as I bolted forward.

There was no need for hesitation when I was already in such a screwed up situation. Besides, recklessness may yield unexpected results.

The rising mist swirled around me as my body rocketed forward. Unfortunately, the mist, covered with the dark ambience of the room made it difficult to make out the wolves.

In actuality, the dry ice that we had hoped to use against the wolves acted against me, as the white mist it created impeded my already impaired vision.

This only affected me negatively, as from my prior fight, I knew full well the wolves weren’t quite adept at using their eye sight in the first place. Instead, they relied on heightened smell and hearing to “see”.

In this case, I was in a serious disadvantage.

Due to the many blind spots this situation created, a stray wolf scout managed to slip past me as it attacked, impacting me square on my side, and shaving of 10% of my total hp as well as shoving me forward towards a pair of waiting scouts.

The two in front of me jumped forward, fangs bared in anger and resentment.

I reacted immediately, turning my body sideways while my toros almost hugged the carpeted floor. In a this short interval of time, my right hand reached back and gripped one of the spare daggers I conveniently kept with me.

With a silent grunt, my body continued turning sideways as I threw the blade directly towards the leftern most wolf. The blade left my hand as it pierced a shallow wound on the creature’s front hind. Due to the terrible launching position I was in, the throw held almost no power, as a result the werewolf was left virtually harmless, save for a small flesh wound.

Not losing hope, I followed through.

I continued my vertical twirl mid air, as I slashed out with my left hand.

This time, Efhermet sunk deep into the right wolf’s front leg. [Dissect] took effect and shortly after, its leg came cleanly off with a quick spurt of blood.

I continued to roll past the two wolves I recently attacked, until I met resistance from the an adjacent wall.

My head pivoted towards the waiting pack and Alpha just in time for me to see the right Werewolf scout tumble forwards due to its lack of balance.

I crouched down, Efhermet held aloft in front of me, as I watched the scene cautiously.

This position was rather favorable for me, considering the wall blocked off any surprise attacks aimed at my back, but I really couldn’t escape the gravity of the situation with just that sort of advantage. While I was spared from surprise attacks, that just left me to face off against 15 + 1 Werewolves head on.

I glared silently at the pack, while they slowly encircled me, the quickly rising white mist impaired my already terrible range of vision, while the slowly increasing CO2 in the air made it that much harder to breathe.

The Alpha wolf stepped back in response, displaying a rather annoying haughty attitude, despite the damage I just incurred towards its subordinates.

It did nothing, while the rest of the wolves stepped forward, fully intent on surrounding me and closing off any sort of escape I may have had.

As I watched, I pulled out another goblin short sword from behind me, and readied myself.

Through the gravity of this situation, the only thought that idled through my mind was,

[We seriously messed up...]

****

Cielle and Hina moved back 15 meters away from the Computer lab’s entrance.

Their face visibly paled, as they each frantically wiped away the increasing sweat that dampened their foreheads.

Currently, the hallway was, in all sense of things; A sea of fire.

After they heard Hide’s frantic shout and interpreted his message, they immediately moved towards Hide’s “contingency plan”.

It was a simple plan really; set the hallway on fire.

This was effectively done with a single [Basic Fire] spell from Hina’s arsenal of elemental attacks.

Since before hand, the three had endeavored to spread the floor, and the surrounding walls with a mix of highly flammable chemicals such as rubbing alcohol and acetaldehyde. Of course, this was done with the help of Hina’s basic understanding of chemistry.

The chemicals were mixed in such a way that no subsequent negative repercussion occurred.

In short, they set the hall on fire with the help of magic and science.

While, the fire was originally purely intended for defense, as a way to ward of the Werewolves, it did a surprising amount of damage.

Some unlucky scouts were caught in the original fire, and thus were left deep in the trenches of this new fiery hell. In fact, almost every single wolf was entrapped within the flames, mainly due to the lucky timing which Hina lit up the hallway. She had set the place on fire just as the last of the wolves left the room, leaving almost everyone of them vulnerable and positioned perfectly.

As a result, they could do nothing, as they lay entrapped within the hellfire. Some of the wolves, which were currently burning alive, frantically rolled around the ground, only to further mix the chemicals and flames into their fur.

Their existence disrupted the already perturbed pack of 40 or so wolves. The flaming wolves ran frantically around, setting fire to some of their comrades in the process.

The ones left alive, were suffering from numerous second to third degree burns,as well as various levels of chemical poisoning. They could do nothing in the face of the wall of flame, but sit idly around, entrapped.

All in all, a good 7 or so promptly died due to the initial activation of the plan.

It would be accurate to say that the two girls were in a much more favorable situation than Hide.

Hina and Cielle exchanged glance as they prepared their own set of skills.

“I’m guessing the plan failed huh…” Hina stated the obvious while she readied a volley of spells.

Cielle responded simply, with a solitary nod of her head, while saying something along the lines of, “Mnnn…”

As the two sisters exchanged brief conversation, Cielle promptly healed a 2nd degree burn that Hina had unwillingly received after she got caught up in the initial flames. Hina audibly thank her, before the two of them fell silent, now fully concentrated on the still energetic wolf pack.

With the resulting [Dark Gemini] from her healing, Cielle used the black glop to strike out at the closest wolf.

This scout, one ladden in singed fur, and numerous burn marks, was weakly limping across the fire towards their position. It had given up on screaming, seemingly as the flames had damaged its vocal chords to a great extent.

It was half delirious, and almost all dead, it jerked forward with a mechanical lurch. Cielle only assisted in its death, with a strike towards its 3rd degree burn located on its  abdomen.

The wolf howled painfully as it slumped forward and died, more from Gemini Blue’s pain than the actual injuries.

Not ending her assault there, she continued to flaunt her skill all over the heated battle field, as the globs of dark blue weaved in and out between flames, striking out at whatever wolf had unluckily gotten in her way.

Through out all this, Cielle efficiently killed off about 10 werewolves, while depleting her maximum mana pool to about a third of its total.

She also learned a substantial fact about her skill in the process. [Dark Gemini] was seemingly unaffected by the flames. It merely passed through, unperturbed, as it entered and left the wolves’ pain filled bodies.

In fact, Dark Gemini caused so much pain and damage that she unwillingly had to use the healing portion of her skill in order to accumulate more of that dark luminous blob. Luckily, the current situation was a bit favorable for her, as every time she healed, the flames would seep away at the health of the wolves, making such healing next to obsolete.

Cielle breathed heavily as she felt a growing throbbing pain in the back of her head.

At this point, the matted haired girl would not associate her depleting mana with such pain, but mentally, she felt great fatigue from her constant use of her skills. Despite this though, she was trapped in a rather terrible situation, and was forced nonetheless to continually use her powers, despite its side effects.

On the other hand, Hina also  did her part in battle.

The blonde haired, buxom female avoided using wind, earth, or water spells, in fear of putting out the flames she had painstakingly helped to create.

In the end, she relied strictly on her fire power.

Actually, with the help of Hide’s almost instinctive appraisal, Hina was able to discover that fire was the most destructive of her elemental skills, well at least at her current level.

In fact, going by skill level alone, Fire was currently ahead, mostly since its what she had used during her battle with the minotaurs.

This time was no exception.

At first, she only mainly sent out balls of flame towards the wolves, in particular, those ones which had managed to avoid the fiery hell; the ones huddled in corners or non inflamed spots on the floor.

She facilitated their pain with an almost impassive face as she drove her own, self generated flames towards their already singed bodies.

At first, this was her main tactic.

But in the end, she found an even more effective means of damage.

She ended up using the already generated flames surrounding the wolves. In the beginning, this was a hard going task. She didn’t exactly have quite an appropriate grasp on the concept of controlling other flames asides from her own, so she struggled a bit.

But once she applied the same basic principle she had used when manipulating her [Basic Fire] skill, she quickly adjusted.

She bent the surroundings flames to her own will, slowly at first, but then with more practiced accuracy and efficiency. She drove the enraged fire over to her enemies, effectively blocking off the once safe spots.

She also extended the range of the flames to cover more ground in order to stop the retreating wolves who held the idiotic idea of escape.

Through this continuous process of fire, her mp depleted towards less than half of its original amount, while she helped facilitate the death of approximately 15 wolves.

Her kill count was much higher than her sisters primarily due to the advantage she received from the pre made battlefield. Additionally, her mana depleted much slower as well, mostly since her class title, [Grand Magus], decreased the necessary amount of mana needed for each subsequent fire attack. Plus, she wasn’t burdened with the task of moving the dry ice pellets into the computer lab, unlike Cielle.

Nevertheless, she also began to suffer from a growing migraine.

She rubbed flicked some of the sweat dampened hair away from her forehead, as she prepared for another round of fire attacks.

At this time, an unexpected window popped up in front of her. Her eyes widened, as she quickly scanned through the contents before dismissing the screen with a single thought.

New Skill Earned!

Lesser Pyrokinesis(Active)

Through the constant manipulation of prior existing fire, you have gained an increased ability to control fire..

Skill Type: Rare

Skill Rank: Beginner

Skill Level: 1

Skill Experience: 0%

Effects:

-Increased manipulation of fire, and heat. Prior knowledge to the inner workings of fire may help facilitate the control.

-Cannot create fire, but may control prior existing flames.

-Augmented fire damage.

Use consumes varying amount of either mana or stamina. Consumption rate depends on time the skill is active and the quantity of fire currently manipulated. No cooldown time.

Synchronicity - Due to the affinity with the prior existing skill, [Basic Fire Spell], the effects of [Lesser Pyrokinesis] have been increased. Additionally, mana and stamina consumption for the skill has also been reduced.

Similar effects have been applied to [Basic Fire Spell].

Hina’s eyes widened excessively for a moment as she both simultaneously digested the information on her new skill as well as assessed the condition of the battle field.

From her prior experience with Hide, a moment’s lapse in concentration could lead to death, so she endeavored to maintain focus despite the skill’s sudden appearance.

In the end, with little hesitation, she switched her attack method. Instead of spamming half effective [Basic Fire Spells], she switched to [Lesser Pyrokinesis].

Hina thrusted her arms open, fingers outstretched, as she grasped for the fire.

With the skill’s activation, it was an almost instinctive feeling in the pit of her stomach was suddenly switched on, as she wielded the flames almost like a third arm.

With lesser pyrokinesis, manipulating and controlling the fire was much easier.The flames bent to her wills more effectively as her control emanated fluidity and precision.

She used the surrounding flames, to encircle and “devour” the rather helpless wolves.

In addition to lesser pyrokinesis’ increased fire damage, as well as the werewolves’ 15% stat reduction during daytime, the creatures were mere fodder.

“I’ll manage for now, sis! You rest a little.” Hina ardently yelled back, as she observed with her peripheral vision, her sister’s worsening condition.

Truth be told, Cielle wasn’t well suited for such a drawn out match with an increased amount of mobs. It was merely a matter of incompatibility. Despite this, she continually pushed herself, up to the point where she now only had about 10% of her original mana left.

Cielle now held a constant grimace as she fought through the increasing migraine.

As the rather determined girl was about to feebly shake her head in protest, Hina quickly continued on, as if to push her sister into stopping.

“I said rest! Besides, it’s not as if you’re the only one benefitting from such an action. We need you to conserve some of your mana incase either Hide or I get injured… I’m especially concerned about Hide….”

Hina’s face maintained her stoicness, as her thoughts darkened. She fully realized that, despite the fact that the two had to face more enemies comparatively, that Hide was in a worser situation than the two of them.

For one, he was alone, and two, he was faced not only with 10 or more non-impeded werewolves, but also had the misfortune of being in the company of the Alpha Wolf.

“....” Cielle’s face contorted in a mixture of fear and anxiety as she was quickly reminded of Hide’s currently worsening situation.

She unwillingly let her hands drop to her sides, as she heeded her younger sister’s worries, and ceased her continuing attacks. She took a couple steps back, as if to hid behind Hina as she knelt down and exhaled a built up sigh.

She watched the fire capped battlefield with a sweat laden face and beady eyes as she inwardly thought out one single name with a hint of depressed desperation.

[Hide…]

*****

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