14. Heart

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Brandon and Claus started preparing to leave as the sun started to go down. Tina just sat elegantly on top of a wood trunk, looking at them quietly.

And so did I with my knees crossed as I looked at them sharpening their weapons.

Brandon was sharpening his sword, while Claus was inspecting if his arrows were in good shape.

Disrupting the calm quiet, I asked, “So, where are we going to be waiting for these monsters to come.”

This time instead of Brandon or Claus. Tina answered my question.

“Here, We are going to set the bait with fire and place traps around us, killing as many as possible. As for the rest we will have to kill them ourselves.”

She looked at me as she spoke calmly and slowly. Brandon looked at her quite surprised.

I nodded.

“I suppose you are yet to place these traps, seeing that the sun is slowly coming down, shouldn’t we hurry?”

“Indeed” She responded and looked at Brandon, which took the clue and stood up, taking Claus by his shirt and dragging him away.

“W-Whaat?”

Claus yelled surprisingly when he was getting dragged.

“Just follow me dumbass” That’s all it took for Brandon to shut him up.

“Quite the party you are.” I looked at Tina.

She didn’t say anything and just nodded, seemingly in thoughts about things I have no idea of.

An hour passed. The sun was completely down, Brandon and Claus came back.

“All traps are ready.” He said like a soldier while Claus just sat down leaning on a tree while he breathed heavily as if he came back from running a marathon.

Tina instead looked at me and asked, “What’s your weapon of choice?”

I blinked at the sudden question, which I didn’t know how to answer. Until now, I have only used my claws to do damage. And if I didn’t use my claws, I would probably use my other skills. So I answered her.

“I don’t use weapons, at least not yet, my claws allow me to do plenty of damage.”

She nodded, and seemed to think about something, finishing her thoughts she looked at me and said, “If you use your claws, that means you have experience fighting in close combat, If you can, I hope you can fight along side Brandon, while Claus and I will support the two of you in long range attacks.”

I nodded, but still didn’t have any idea what are we fighting.

Following my doubts, howls started to come from all around.

*Howl*

From what I could hear there were at least ten different howls.

Nope! Make that thirteen.

Tina, Brandon and Claus immediately were on guard while I was still sitting. They weren’t that close anyway. But to not cause doubt, I also stood up, more calmly, as I turned my head towards the incoming enemies.

More sound was coming towards us as the poundings of the ground grew.

Something was running toward us.

On all fours, Is what I assumed.

I turned my head towards Tina and told her.

“If we are supposed to be facing monsters that have four legs, they are already here.”

“What” Brandon seemed shocked.

“How could they have already passed our traps?”

Claus pulled an arrow, while Brandon unsheathed his sword, both of them had serious expressions on their face, while Tina had her staff near her.

I took the liberty of going a step forward as I sensed something.

From the darkness and shadows of the trees, red light could be seen, pairs of them, to be accurate.

They soon stepped out and the dark no longer hid them.

[ Fanged Wolf - Lv. 17 ]

Soon ten wolves could be seen before our eyes.

They were huge wolves and as a characteristic, all of them had huge fangs, huge enough to not be able to close their mouths. Making saliva consistently drop on the ground.

Almost all of them were around the same level. Some of them were around Level 17 and the rest 18. I looked at my three companions and saw that they were slightly scared.

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To ease their fear, I said to them.

“I’ll deal with five of them, you can take care of the rest, right?”

Brandon looked at me shocked, “Are you sure you can handle five?”

I didn’t say anything and just nodded. If I wanted I could have dealt with all of them, but I am not going to give them everything in a single plater, all they have to do is guide me to the city, while I have to ‘risk’ my life.

“I’ll take the ones at the end, you can take the ones at the front.” As soon as I said those words, I sped my way towards the wolves on the back.

They looked at me, shocked at my speed, even the wolves at the front didn’t have an idea that I just passed them.

I quickly made my way towards my targets and coated my claws with mana.

I reached my claws at one of the wolves’ neck and cut off his head, detaching it from his body. After I did so, I just stood before the dead wolf, looking at the other four in a provocative manner.

Brandon, Claus and Tina, had no time to be shocked at my antics and focused on their battle. Brandon was going against two [ Fanged Wolves ] while Claus shot arrows towards the other wolves and sometimes helped Brandon when he was stuck.

Tina with the staff in her hand started chanting “Mana Blast”.

A ball of mana appeared before her and its form started to waver, making it look like a wave and shot towards a [Fanged Wolf], making it shoot backwards, but with no wound on his body, only just a good punch on his nose as blood dripped from it.

I made a quick note to create a spell like Tina’s. Although It’s power on her hands was higher then that of [ Mana Shot ]. It was no where near [ Magic Missile ].

I stopped looking at their battle and instead focused on my own.

The wolves send me glares and two of them pounced at me as they also stretched their beastly claws, trying to disembowel me.

I dodged both of their attempts and coated my claws with my mana, I slashed at one of them, although it didn’t die, it still whined though.

Not giving opportunity to my other dear attacker, I ran at him and used [ Mana Claw ], shaping my mana in a form of a claw, making a light blue extension of my real ones.

The Wolf’s reaction speed was not very fast and ended up getting stabbed from my [Mana Claw].

Poor wolfy.

All that was left on my part was three wolves, with one of them being heavily injured. While I was perfectly fine and was even breathing as good as I was before .

The three of them had their guard focused toward me, but didn’t move as they probably feared they would immediately die, no! That’s probably not it…they should be waiting for someone..

Now that I think about it, I heard thirteen howls. But there are only ten [Fanged Wolves] here. These wolves seem a little intelligent, which are shown by their actions. But what could three more cannon fodders do in front of me?

I started walking towards three wolves. But Before I got to them, I instinctively jumped backwards.

A fireball exploded on the spot I jumped from.

I look at the direction where the fireball came from. A huge wolf with lava patterns on his body was staring at me ferociously with its white eyes. But that wasn’t the weirdest part. Instead of having a single head, it had three.

“That explains it.” I look at its status.

[ Three headed Hound - Lv. 32 ]

That’s why I heard thirteen howls. But since when did wolves score so low, that they made a dog their leader..

“I guess power is power, no matter how ugly it is.” I mumbled

This [ Three Headed Hound ] also seems to have a stealth skill, since I didn’t even notice him, if not for my [ Mana Sense ] being active, I might not have been able to dodge the fireball.

“Shit”

I heard Brandon curse behind me as he saw the huge hound. He had already finished the one [Fanged Wolf] and was currently fighting the other one, he had massive advantage so he was easily pushing back the other one

Claus was also still fighting and arrows could be seen on the wolf he was fighting making it injured and bleeding.

Tina was still struggling to kill the second wolf, but she managed to kill the first one with a fire spell.

I looked at Brandon and say, “Don’t worry, I will deal with the hound and the remaining [Fanged Wolves], you help Claus and Tina.

He nodded at me and landed a finishing strike toward the wolf he was fighting and headed to help the other two.

Now, I had all of my attention at the Hound, who had yet to make a move after that fireball arrival. Because I didn’t know the extent of the its power, I started moving away from it and I ran at my fastest speed as to not let the [ Three Headed Hound ] be able to react. And the direction I am going was still towards the remaining wolves.

I applied more mana on my [Mana Claw] and made it a bit longer, not much though, as that will quickly drain away my mana. But I added enough mana to make it long enough to kill all the three wolves in a single strike.

Everything worked just as planned, I waved my [Mana Claw] toward the three wolves with my maximal speed. I killed them instantly.

They died with no pain, aren’t I magnanimous!

After I was done with all of the wolves, I turned toward the hound, and without stopping for a breath, I launched towards him.

I went in a zigzag movement, but unlike the wolves the hound could probably see me, although probably not clearly, it’s fast enough to defend my attacks.

Still using [ Mana Claw ], I slashed toward it, but that didn’t reach his as he dodged backwards and shot another fireball at me from of of its mouths.

This routine went for a couple of minutes as we fought. But my plan was successful, I managed to draw him over somewhere where the others can’t see us. Here I will be able to use my skills freely.

This time instead of using [ Mana Claws ], I tried my new skill, [ Ice Crow Magic ].

I still haven’t tested it, neither the others. But this can be a good time to test Ice Crow Magic.

I didn’t know what it could exactly do, but because it was a skill, I could instinctively that it’s an overall skill.

With this I can create or cast Ice spells. Or more like special Ice spells.

I visualized an Ice Spear and used [ Instant Ice Mana] as fuel to cast the spell.

The result was surprising, my experiment worked and a black ice spear hovered before me, I could feel that I have control over it, but it was only limited to forward and backward control.

This will probably change as I level up [ Ice Crow Magic ] in the future.

Back to the fight. I sent the black ice spear forward toward to one of the heads of the hound. The way it retaliated was with another fireball of its own.

As if…!

The spear easily cut through the fireball, making it dissipate and continued to stab through one head.

“Two more to go”

I used [ Instant Ice Mana ] and [ Ice Crow Magic ] again, but this time I made three Ice spears instead of just one.

I sent all three ice spears toward the hound. Two in the remaining heads, one on its body.

The hound, knowing that it can’t beat the Ice with its fire, dodged them.

“Tsk”

I got annoyed, it was already time I ended this.

I slowly went closer to the hound without it realizing it. I tried to do something I failed before.

[ Magic Missile ] with ice mana. But at that time I didn’t have the [ Instant Ice Mana ] skill, making me fail ..terribly.

So I gathered direct Ice mana in my hand and used [ Magic Missile ].

White mana appeared on my palm and compressed until it was just a little tennis ball.

I released the mana towards the hound and it shot towards it like a beam.

Although [ Magic Missile ] was to fast for it to dodge in this range. It still moved its body, but not without loosing another head.

After it had lost its second head, the hound was dazed and blood was spilling.

After I shot the [ Magic Missile ] I accelerated towards it and stabbed it with an ice spear at its heart.

“You may have three heads, but you only have one heart….sucker!”