A crack of thunder rolled across the clouds. The warning from heaven came with the first few raindrops. It didn't take them five steps, that the sky roared again, and the drizzle turned into a torrential downpour. The pitter-patter not only hindered their vision, but their hearing too. Santiago, who had been content staring at Evelyn's backside, halted his stride. He was still tired; everyone was. At least his wound had healed, but the confident smile he flaunted after killing that Wolfkin was gone.
"A-Are we sure we should go on?" Santiago pursed his lips inward, looking up at the sky, "The enemies have the territorial advantage. We don't even know their numbers, or their exact strength, do we? Jered said it so himself. We're probably being used as cannon fodder here. God, did you see how many they were before? We could have died! And now, with this rain... we're at an absolute disadvantage. It's risky going any deeper than this. I suggest we abort the mission."
Evelyn stopped to stare at him, "You can't be serious..."
"I am. And you should consider it too. This is getting too dangerous for us..."
"Too dangerous, hah," she tilted her head in a condescending way, "You mean for you."
"..."
"Look. I know where you're coming from, but we can't give up right now. Furthermore, we have the teleport talisman. We'll be fine as long as we're careful. I'm serious when I say that if we can accomplish this mission successfully, it'll be a huge boon for all of us!" Jered knew she said that out of some well-prepared ambitious plan. Someone else would probably take up that task if they were to retreat.
Of course, no one knew whether it was really going to be worth it.
"Yes, for me. And for Eun-Kyung too. You know, we talked about it during our break. If we deemed it too risky, we would quit. Heh, we almost died there... " Santiago elaborated calmly, "Clearly, this is beyond us."
Unsurprisingly, Eun-Kyung sided with Santiago.
"Eun-Kyung, you too, huh?"
"..." the girl in question looked down. Any sane person would understand how dangerous it would be to continue. It was not in a Magician's nature to risk so much, unless they really wanted something out of it.
"You're really abandoning me now?" it was the first time they had seen something that wasn't a sweet smile on Evelyn's face, "You guys have no idea how important this is!"
"..."
Santiago and Eun-Kyung were embarrassed, but didn't budge from their decision.
"I can't believe this!"
Just as she was about to go ballistic, Jered stepped up, "I'm with Evelyn," he said slowly, deliberately, "I know that our recent fight with the Wolfkins was rather complicated. But let's calm down for a minute, and think over what went wrong. The Wolfkins were not particularly powerful, and I believe everyone here can agree with that. Right? It didn't really take much to get rid of them. The only difficulty was their numbers, but even that could have been easily taken care of if you two didn't freak out."
"..."
"Santiago. You're older than me, I'm in no position to chide you or even give you advice. Actually, you're the one who was supposed to be the example here. But what was that? Your control over your mana pool was disastrous. The spells you used were barely useful in a group fight, and from the way you were panting, I could bet they were taxing to cast too. Oh, and should we talk about your spatial awareness, or lack thereof?"
The way he arched one eyebrow up, as if daring him to retort, to disagree with him... it irked Santiago, it made him ball his hands into fists, "We're different, Jered," he said coldly.
"You're goddamn right, we are," Jered nodded with a chuckle, "And you, Eun-Kyung? I know there is a... communication problem between us. But what part of 'Keep the motherfucking defense spell up' didn't you get?"
"..."
"You had one job, seriously. Those mutts would have struggled to get past your circles, giving us enough time to kill them all, without getting into sticky situations," Jered sighed, "So let me ask you something. Was it really a hard fight?"
"..."
"It was you two who made it hard. Needless to say, you are totally unreliable during a fight. So, will our mission be more dangerous from now on? Hell yes, it will. Undoubtedly, we'll meet more Wolfkins as we go further in the forest. But hey! I'm willing to take this leap of faith and bet all of my chips on Evelyn. Unlike you, she proved to be an incredible ally to fight alongside with. Can't say the same about you two."
Evelyn couldn't help the wide smile that lit up her face. She was cheering him on in her mind, 'Go, Jered. Show 'em!'
"Whatever!" Santiago snorted, "Do you know how many offers I got from other organizations? I don't need Ashy Petals. I'm outta here!" he waved his hand, turned around, and headed out of the forest. Eun-Kyung hesitated, but eventually made up her mind. She stared at them, muttered a low 'Sorry', and hurried behind Santiago.
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Frankly, Jered thought she was going to stay. Santiago was hot-headed, and after being verbally abused by Jered, no one doubted he wasn't going to stick around. Eun-Kyung, however, should have been smarter than that.
"Good riddance!" Evelyn breathed out, her smile still bright, "You said exactly what I wanted to tell them. Due to my position, I have to avoid fueling internal conflict between new entries."
"Can they really just leave like that?"
"Hmm," she chewed on her bottom lip, "Usually... no. But, since we don't really need them. Why just not let them go?"
Jered shrugged, "Well, you're the boss here."
She rolled her eyes, feeling tempted to give his nose a nasty flick, "Come on, let's go. It would be great if we could wrap things up here before sunset."
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[Giza's Gaze has become Lv.6]
[Experience: 10%]
Hills of corpses were spread out, making it slightly hard to navigate around without stepping on them.
"This is ridiculous..." Jered let himself go, and dropped to the ground, "...where are they even coming from?"
Evelyn was a sweaty mess herself, "Probably the Other Side. Which means there is a portal in this forest, and someone or something that controls it."
"This... is still ridiculous. They're exhausting us on purpose."
"Yes," she agreed, "It would be easier for the Alpha to take us out if we're mana-drained."
He stared at her, "Alpha?"
"The leader, Jered. They look human-like, but don't forget that their true nature is that of a wolf."
"Wait… I thought it was a Lycanthrope…"
She shook her head, "No. Lycanthropes are loners. They aren't leaders like Alphas. It would make no sense for the Wolfkins to listen to anyone that isn't their Alpha."
"And how strong is this Alpha supposed to be..." he loosened out a sigh.
Any creature that could lord over so many Adept-Tier Wolfkins couldn't have been anything less than an Elder-Tier.
Evelyn closed her eyes, cleaning her face with the pouring rainwater, "Alphas are Elder-Tier Wolfkins. Above them are Ultimas, but they're about as rare as an Arch-Magus..."
"How so?"
"An Ultima can only be conceived during a Mana Solstice, from an Alpha male and an Alpha female. And that is so rare you probably wouldn't see one even in the Other Side."
"Sounds like a boogie man," he chuckled.
"As far as I know, it would take a party of Arch-Maguses to kill an Ultima. Yeeaah, scary stuff."
He climbed back to his feet, "This brings us back to Santiago's point. Do we have any chances against an Alpha?"
A rumble thundered out of the raging clouds.
"Of course not, you silly. But we're Magicians, aren't we?" she whipped her wet hair around, "We have our ways. Aaand... we have the talisman. Besides, it's not like we have to defeat the Alpha—that would be crazy. We just have to ensure that it is the one behind the ongoings here, and then we can nope the fuck out of here," Evelyn said with a pretty smile.
"Oh yes, sounds like a cakewalk..." he deadpanned.
"We'll be fine!" she insisted, crossing her arms, "Okay, the break is over. Stay close to me in case we need to teleport away."
And so, a little exhausted now, Jered and Evelyn resumed their investigation. The rain made the terrain muddy and a hassle to move through. If he were a Royal Magician, he could have just flown straight to the Alpha. Then again, if he were a Royal Magician, he could have razed the whole fucking forest to the ground. But as far as he knew, it would take quite a long time for him to get to that level, talent notwithstanding.
"I think a new wave of Wolfkins is coming..." Evelyn notified, conjuring an elastic to bundle her hair with, "We're almost at the center though, so this should be the last one."
"I'm almost mana-drained," Jered sighed, getting battle-ready, "Seriously, we can't drag this any longer."
She nodded, electricity zapping between her fingers.
The sound of a branch snapping sounded out, and Evelyn promptly flung herself to the ground.
A shadow had flown out of its hiding, fangs flared, and claws stretched.
Jered didn't miss the opportunity. With a finger pointing up at the imposing figure, his 'Giza's Gaze' accurately blew its head up.
However, another shadow didn't miss the opportunity either.
"Behind you!" Evelyn cast a spell.
A whip of lightning whizzed a few inches past Jered's head, like a lightsaber, and tore the Wolfkin apart. He quickly regrouped with Evelyn, offering her a nod of gratitude. They stood back to back, watching the surrounding pack of Wolfkins advancing towards them. Without Eun-Kyung's protection, they couldn't be careless like before. Jered knew that.
Therefore, he began by casting 'Fire Wall'. Mana itself would ensure the element would stay alive even under the deluge.
The tongues of fire burst out around them, briefly slowing down their momentum. The Wolfkins growled, and jumped high up in the air and over the circle of fire. If Jered wanted to prevent that, he would have to feed an incredible amount of mana to his spell, something that he couldn't afford to do.
Evelyn intervened with a different spell. 'Fireball'. Three spheres of fire spawned behind her, and swiftly shot forward at the airborne Wolfkins. Unfortunately, she couldn't conjure many of them. Still, it proved to be effective. The fireballs hit true, exploding on impact. The targeted Wolfkins couldn't twist out of the trajectory and were successfully taken down.
Of course, the remaining Wolfkins were unscathed and thus landed in front of them. There was no pause. As soon they touched the ground, they bolted at them. Evelyn quickly erected a dome of mana around them. Unfortunately, she was not fast enough. The claws easily tore through the forming shield and swiped at them. Jered overworked his Mana Circuit and an eruption of mana went off, sending the physically imposing Wolfkins reeling back.
A line of blood trickled down Jered's mouth. He dropped to his knees, a hand clutching his chest.
"Jered!"
"The... Manaport... quickly!"
Evelyn was snapped out of her daze and quickly drew out her talisman. However...
A howl so loud it snuffed out Jered's flames reverberated through the forest. The Wolfkins on the verge to finish their job stiffened. For a sweet, brief moment Jered and Evelyn were safe, "The Alpha!" she exclaimed, her heart thumping in her ears. With no hesitation, she pumped what little mana she had left into the Manaport. She heaved a sigh of relief when it glowed a beautiful green color—a clear sign that it was working.
"Huh..."
Evelyn blinked, her expression slowly breaking down.
"What's... going... on?" Jered wheezed through gritted teeth.
Another howl went off, this time they could feel the ground beneath quaking. Something was approaching them at an incredible speed.
The green glow faded, yet they were still there.
A crack appeared on the talisman, before it slowly shattered in Evelyn's hands, "No way..."