Freeday, 3rd of Febrinna, 5662 AE, 468th Year of the 5th Era

The battle had quickly resumed as Malcanis had caught up to us by climbing from the caverns up to the courtyard of the fort itself through the large hole left in the wake of the pillar of energy which had earlier blasted from the now-empty bloodpool. Ivan and I wasted little time engaging with the bloodhound. Ivan had immediately took a defensive position as he tanked Malcanis’s initial attacks before returning the favour with his own brutal attacks, with shards of ice forming around his axe with each strike.

I provided Ivan with support as I rushed in and gave a flurry of wind slashes and damage from afar towards the dreaded beast. Though we had seemed to be pushing Malcanis to the backfoot, he was relentless in his onslaught as he managed to tackle and bring Ivan down a few times but Ivan kept on pushing back as he even smacked the wolf a few times with the butt of his axe. It was in that situation where I quickly ran up to the beastwolf’s fiery back side and planted several solid stabs of my Galesword and Windwyrm into its back. His hide was tough as nails as even with my full strength I had to give it a couple of heaves before I truly stabbed the monster, though I couldn’t let the injuries simmer any much longer as in response to my presence on his rear, the flames upon Malcanis’s back blazed ever more viciously to the point I had felt the metal parts of my armor heating up. I immediately summoned my winds as I placed a little bit more distance between the monster and myself.

Malcanis’ attention was now fixated towards me as he realised I was capable of concentrating a concerning amount of damage towards him as I had even managed to deal such a blow as I did earlier. As the beastwolf attempted to take several swipes at me, I managed to dodge a great majority of them and even managed to land a couple of strikes to the beast but due to the aforementioned thickness of his hide, I barely managed to scathe him. I tried my best to concentrate attacks towards the glaring ‘weakpoint’ of the beast which was the pulsating red-crystalised heart on his chest but despite looking like he had many openings in his defense, Malcanis was quite adept at shielding the ‘heart’ of his current corrupted state. As I was busy trying to find openings to launch a strike at the wolfbeast, I had failed to keep up my own defense as Malcanis pulled a fast one on landed a sucker punch to my stomach as I was hurled with such a force I had crashed into the gates of the fort, breaking them from their bolts from the inside.

I was gasping for air as I felt like all the oxygen had left my body. My chest felt sunken as I could feel my unstable heartbeat. I didn’t know how long I lasted in such a state but when I was beginning to come to, I saw from afar that Ivan was still trading blows with Malcanis but once more, Ivan had missed a bit in the fight and the beastwolf managed to land another blow on the man’s side as he fell to the ground. This time, however, the beastwolf didn’t intend to just get up close and personal with his jaws, instead huffing and puffing as I saw particles of flames appearing from his mouth. He was about to do to Ivan what the Russians usually do to their own villages during a winter invasion.

I was struggling to get up and help Ivan once more but I was still groggy from the earlier damage I had received. That was until I saw a speeding arrow whisk over my head and implanted itself within the wolfbeast’s right eye. I quickly turned my head to see what was going on before I saw Percy already readying his bow again as he took another arrow from his quiver to strike the beast. Beside him I saw Hunt, Jenny, Mother Margaret, Sir Churchward, and even Harry accompanied by some other knights. The cavalry had arrived so to speak as almost two dozen people had arrived through the gates.

I honestly couldn’t be more relieved as I saw Hunt approach me as he gave me a hand to help me stand back up. As the beast was still furious as an arrow was lodged in its eye, Ivan took this opportunity to once more land a devastating blow towards the wolfbeast’s red crystal heart. The strike was definitely effective as small fine cracks started to appear on it, causing Malcanis to take a few steps back in response as its flames grew even harsher as if to protect its body and prevent anyone from coming near.

“Thank the Lord for his providence!” I said heartily as I saw that the tides were turning in our favour. “Honestly if you had arrived any later, neither Ivan nor I would be breathing like we are now…”

“What the hell is that thing?” Hunt asked me as he pointed to the large beast of a wolfman that we had been fighting for the past few hours.

“...Malcanis…”

“The dread wolf himself?!” Hunt had a shocked expression on his face as he heard my answer.

“It’s a long story and I’d be glad to give you the full report, but we have to deal with this first or we’re done for!”

Hunt nodded as he refocused himself and began coordinating an attack to subjugate the beast. Percy had command of several archer militiamen as they were putting a concerted effort into suppressing the beast. Though most of the arrows shot out by the militiamen either missed or barely made a graze towards Malcanis’ hide, each of Percy’s shots seemed to do a noticeable amount of damage. Harry and Sir Churchward were leading the heavy knights to support Ivan as they circumvented the large hole to the cavern. Mother Margaret had noticed that since most of her attacks were flame-based, they wouldn’t really do much of anything towards the literal flaming wolf. She instead focused her efforts on strengthening our men, granting them ferocious auras as they moved to subjugate the monster. Jenny on the other hand used other elements instead of her go-to fire spells to engage with the beast, lodging several large rocks and pieces of debris from the crumbling buildings at Malcanis.

With the situation now turning definitively in our favor, I wasted no effort in once more launching myself towards Malcanis like a bullet. As Ivan was busy taking the brunt of the wolfbeast’s attacks, I had once more planted several strikes towards the beast’s tough hide as it did its best to shield its weak point from my advances. However, this time - due to being buffed by Mother Margaret’s blessings - my attacks packed much more of a punch as the beast was wincing. Eventually the beast was cornered enough as it struck me and Ivan aside, jumping over the incoming knights and descended back into the hole to the cavern. It was a good sign to us as we saw the wolfbeast retreating. Figuring that we should push our advantage, I looked at Ivan and we gave each other a nod as we jumped into the hole as well with Ivan striking the ground and summoning a slab of Ice which acted like a sled down the slope.

As we were pursuing him, Malcanis at regular intervals stopped at slopes and cracks in the cavern walls before turning towards us as he opened his jaws and once more shot pillars of flames from his mouth like he was a bloody flamethrower! I had made a flurry of strikes to summon gusts of wind as I managed to dissipate the incoming flame strikes but the damage was still significant as the ice slope we were on had melted and now Ivan and I were plunging to the ground which we were still many meters in the air from. I did my best to reorient myself and cast a couple of whirlwinds to soften the fall, but when we crashed to the ground, it still hurt like a bitch when we landed on our feet. If not for my inherent strength as an awakened as well as the buffs I had, I would’ve most definitely cracked some of my bones there.

But not putting any more thought into any of that, I had once more refocused my attention to Malcanis who was now standing at the ready in the middle of the crater that was once the blood pool at the center of the cavern. Though he might have put up a terrifying and menacing stance, if you looked closely at his ragged breathing and the wounds that were now apparent upon his body, Malcanis had taken on some serious damage. But alas, his bloodshot eyes remained in their crazed state and I had fully accepted that we might not be able to get the more reasonable sentient version of him we had met earlier back.

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From above the cavern hole, I could see that the rest of the men were deliberating in their mind on how to best drop down to our level.

“Circumvent the hole and go to the main praetorian headquarters building, there’s a passage there with stairways that lead down here!!” I shouted with my voice strengthened by my wind powers to make sure all the men could hear my directions. Immediately I made a mental note in my mind calculating the amount of time it would take for the rest of the men to get down here. I then laughed as I thought of something which caught Ivan’s eye beside me.

“What the hell are you laughing about?” Ivan said with a smile as he readied his axe once more to attack the beastwolf.

“It’s probably gonna take about five minutes for the men to get here…” I said as I spat on the ground and held up my two blades “What say you we end this mutt in that time? I think we can do it if we go all out. No holds barred.”

“Brother…” Ivan looked at me with a surprised expression before he flashed a dirty smile. “Three minute’s enough.”

“Pfft… Fine. But whatever happens. Keep calm and don’t panic, aye? I’ll take the first hit.”

Without even saying anything else, I immediately launched myself at the wolf and only focused myself at attacking the red crystal on his chest. He tried his best to try and shake me off but I was latched in there like a nasty flea on a mangy mutt. He was scratching, swiping, struggling and biting away at me, but I didn’t give a damn as I kept striking over and over at his chest regardless of the pain and the fact that my health points were dropping at an alarming rate.

I could feel the heat beginning to gather on top of my head as I knew the beast was getting ready to blast my body with that unholy ray of fire once more, but I didn’t care. As I was bracing for impact, Ivan had appeared from dark smokes as he struck the beast’s head in with his axe, impacting it with such a ferocity this time that the Ice spikes that appeared on the wolf’s body even doused the flames on Malcanis’ back. I gave a quick glance at Ivan as I saw his face was paler than usual and I could see nothing but the whites of his eyes as he really gave his all in that last attack before he let go of his axe and collapsed to the side, leaving Malcanis trapped in a massive wall of ice that almost reached the hole that lead to the courtyard. As the beast was struggling to try and break free, I still kept on cleaving away at the beast's heart.

It was only after thirty seconds did the beast look like it could move its eyes again under the ice as cracks started to appear on the ice wall that was trapping him and not long after that as I almost landed the deciding blow that would probably break the red crystal heart, the beast broke free of his icy encasing as the flames upon his body returned and roared out in a blaze of glory that shot out around him, melting the ice and turning it straight into steam. The heat was so hot that it even affected me and not long after, I felt such an immense pain from the heat as it was melting me alive and I couldn’t even breathe the oxygen anymore, suffocating more from the carbon dioxide of the beast’s flames. It was then my failing HP from my previous blood loss also caught up with me and my healthbar reached 0 and my vision was blurring before it darkened. I could even make out the shouts coming from above which sounded like Hunt was calling for me.

*Your HP has dropped to 0! You will die shortly!*

*Skill Plus Ultra has Activated! You will recover 25% of your lost HP! You gain Invincibility from all physical and magical damage for ten minutes!*

And just with that, I had felt the strength just coming back to me as I noticed some of my more grievous wounds had been healed up and my profuse bleeding had stopped. My melted and blistered skin was also healing up quickly as I noticed the shock on the wolfbeast’s face as a strong aura of wind was starting to gather around me which made the nearby rocks and pebbles tremble as well. As I had come to, I looked at the wolfbeast and stared it dead in its eyes before smiling and saying, “You’re fucked.”

As I said that, I engaged in a merciless melee duel with the monster, repeatedly stabbing and striking his heart as all his attempts at counterattacking and doing damage towards me proved to be for naught as not a single ounce of damage, wear, nor tear appeared upon my body as if all of it bounced back off of me. I merely laughed as I pulled back a little and gathered all the strength I could muster into this one last shot at the beast.

In a fleeting moment, I had taken in a very deep breath as the wind gathered upon the souls of my feet and the palms of my head as a green-coloured aura of energy gathered upon my blades. As I prepared to send in my final attack, I did what I always wanted to do in real life as I unleashed with the loudest voice I could muster and shouted,

“PLUSSS……..!!!!!!” And as I launched my blades with my full force along with pinpoint accuracy towards the red target piece that was Malcanis’s crystalised heart “ULTRAAAAA…..!!!!”

And as the force of my weapons laid forth the full brunt of its power towards its target, Malcanis’ heart finally shattered into pieces like a glass chalice that had fallen onto the cold hard floor did it break apart and as the most important centerpiece of the beast had fallen apart, the beastwolf once more looked as if it would go on a wild rampage but instead it merely stood still as I saw innumerous amounts of veins and bulges appeared upon the body of Malcanis. As this was happening, I noticed from the entrance to the staircase, Hunt, Sir Churchward, along with the rest of the knights were about to approach me, but as I noticed the odd things that were happening to Malcanis, I knew something was up.

“STAND BACK, MEN!!” I bellowed out the order in a loud and serious tone “Something’s happening and please steer clear!”

As I said all that, I immediately grabbed the unconscious Ivan who was still on the ground along with his Berdiche Axe as I took a couple of steps back from the unstable Malcanis. And soon enough, the ground began to shake as it was as if an earthquake was happening and I could hear sounds of cracks and rocks falling. I was afraid of being caved in but seeing as how there was already a massive hole in the ceiling, that shouldn’t really be too much of a concern.

The shaking of the cavern grounds was followed by the red symbolic markings on the wall once again glowing, but it was only for a moment as the markings then dimmed and even started to fade until little of it could be seen anymore. Focusing back on Malcanis who had stumbled towards the middle of the crater that was formerly the blood pool, I saw that the markings on his body to were starting to move as it looked like they were all turning into smudges of red and started to crawl towards the remnants of the crystalised red heart I had shattered and the red markings turned into blood as it leaked out of the shattered heart.

Malcanis himself stood and gave off another howl which wasn’t as strong as the earlier howls. As he was howling with his arms spread, the flames that were raging upon his body soon dissipated and vanished as in the next second I saw the dread wolf was now vomiting blood from his mouth as he fell onto his knees and continued to shrink in size. All of this happened while a notification rang within my ears.

*You have defeated the Corrupted Malcanis!*

*You have gained 20000XP!*

As the notifications rang, I was starting to feel drowsy as I had sat the still unconscious Ivan down on the ground before I too slumped.

*The Effects of Plus Ultra will dissipate! Your Health is at a Critical Level!*

As the notifications kept on pouring in, I couldn’t even be bothered to stay focused on what was happening as I felt the strength start to dissipate from my body as my stance became wobbly and I thought I was about to fall down. The last thing I saw clearly were the concerned faces of the men of the expedition as they saw me and Ivan collapsing. I caught a glimpse of the crater to see what had happened to Malcanis, but it was all back to blank darkness for me after that as my eyes and ears gave out.

To the embrace of the cold hard ground. Gosh I was getting tired of this.