Back to the City of Una.
“RELEASE!” Rodrigo shouted.
HOWL!
The wolf king noticed Rodrigo’s orders, but it didn’t see the Mages execute their skills, and it also saw the Archers line up just like the first time they hit the wolves with an arrow storm. The wolf king howled towards the wind wolves and multiple blasts of whirlwinds appeared on top of the charging army of wolves. But the current attack was not the same as the first one.
Shlaa!
The Archers released and arrows pierced through the air towards their chosen targets.
Sikk!
Rows of blood rose to the air as the arrows pierced through their intended targets, some arrows went through 2 to 3 wolves each, other wolves had excellent defense but were injured and trampled. This time, multiple High-Grade Wolves were slain by the Archers, this was one of the instructions given to them by Rodrigo, the first attack and the second attack was done to shear off large amounts of wolves at the beginning of the battle, but the second sequence of attack by the Archers was done to pick of stronger wolves by utilizing another skill of the Archer profession, [Piercing Arrows].
“SWITCH! SECOND ROW READY!” Rodrigo ordered.
“MARK!”
“AIM!”
Shwaa!
The archers picked their targets, the High-Grade Wolves weren’t hard to spot with their skills and the obvious differences like the color of the wolves fur.
“RELEASE!” Rodrigo ordered again.
Schlaa!
The Archers released, and the confused wolves were defenseless as they charged towards the rain of piercing arrows.
Sikk!
Flesh met arrows again as the bloody sight reemerged.
Howl!
The wolf king howled in rage, the magic beasts rushing forward started to activate their skills, different elemental attacks shot towards the top of the walls.
“Incoming Elemental attacks!” the Archers beside Rodrigo notified him.
“MAGES! BARRIER!” Rodrigo immediately ordered.
Sam together with the other Mages lined up behind the Archers and started channeling a mana barrier to protect the people on the wall. Blue runic shields appeared in front of the wall.
Boom! Boom!
The wolves attack clashed with the mana barrier, explosions resounded as the mana barriers held on, if not for the excess mana around the wall, then the barrier wouldn’t have held on. Even this was foreseen by Gerard and his people, otherwise, they would have had to use an enormous amount of mana stones to hold off the wolves offense.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The city wall shook as other spells hit the wall, the wall was also covered by a thinner version of mana barrier. A small contingent of Mages was sent to channel the mana barrier, this was so the Elemental attacks hit the barrier first before hitting the walls to reduce the damage, it was a good thing that the walls were thick enough to receive the attacks. Dust and small pieces of rocks blew up as the explosions continued.
“The barrier held off!” Jason exclaimed, the Mages only numbered 300, and the wolves attacking were probably in the thousands.
The dust started to settle as the wolves stopped the attack, but to everyone’s surprise, columns of earth walls were connected to the wall like ramparts. The wolves were also near so that the archers wouldn’t be safe to be in front.
“The wolf king is smarter than we expected,” Rodrigo spoke.
Although Gerard, Rodrigo, Sam, and Gerard’s other advisers predicted that the wolf king would become smarter after its evolution, they still expected for the wolf king to take time before finding a way to bypass the walls, or just straight up use the siege wolves to bash through the walls. But the wolf king had instead done an unexpected move.
“WARRIORS FORWARD!” Rodrigo quickly ordered.
The Archers would not be able to fight with the barrier in front, and the Mages would not be able to maintain the barrier, thus, the only other move available was the inevitable melee.
“BRING THE BOULDERS!!” Rodrigo shouted
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Huge boulders were brought towards the front of the wall, although they were meant to crush the wolves below, rolling them down the earth rampart would still be effective. These boulders were all rock essence that had grown far bigger than normal.
Howl!
The wolf king howled as the wolves ran up the earth rampart.
“DROP THE BOULDERS!” Rodrigo ordered.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The boulders were dropped and some earth ramparts cracked, some even collapsed, but the majority held on. The next scene painted the walls red as the huge boulders rolled down crushing Low-Grade and Mid-Grade Wolves, Wolves that were able to utilize aura were blown back but managed to survive, mostly undamaged.
“SHIELD WALL!” Rodrigo shouted.
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Thud! Thud!
The Warriors moved forward with their shields forming another wall.
“SPEARS!” Rodrigo ordered.
Spears were slipped through the small spaces beside and above the shield as another line of Warriors positioned themselves.
“This is it men! If we fall, then the city falls, if we lose, it will also count as humanity's defeat! FOR THE LORD! FOR THE CITY! FOR HUMANITY!” Rodrigo shouted.
“FOR THE LORD! FOR THE CITY! FOR HUMANITY!” the people shouted.
The first clash was through ranged attacks, but the real battle was just about to start.
“ENVELOP!” Rodrigo ordered.
Different colored aura glowed as every single person on the wall enveloped themselves with aura, this included the Mages. Now that the battle was about to become a melee, then even those who stood at the back might be killed instantly if they weren’t careful.
“MAGES! RELEASE THE BARRIER!” Rodrigo shouted as the wolves started to climb up the earth ramparts again after the boulders rolled to a stop.
GRrr!
The first wolf to climb up the wall lunged forward towards the shield of walls, it used its skill [Vicious Bite] but spears met its open jaws piercing through its head, but more wolves appeared. There was still a space between the wall’s edge and the line of Warriors, one might expect this to be a mistake, but as soon as the space was filled with wolves.
“DASH FORWARD!” Rodrigo ordered.
The Warriors infused their skill [Dash] as they dashed forwards with their shields, while the ones behind focused on their spears, wolves were skewered and pushed back. Even High-Grade Wolves were pushed back down the walls. At this point in time, the Earth Stage Wolves have yet to move forward, and the Sky Wolves were guarding the Wolf King’s safety.
“ARCHERS! FIRE ON WILL! WARRIORS BACK!” Rodrigo said.
This time Rodrigo let the Archers judge what type of attacks were more suitable as the battle became more chaotic. The Warriors retreated back again to their original position, and just when the space was filled, they would be ordered to rush forward.
“Now what will you do,” Gerard murmured.
He was waiting for the Wolf King’s reaction, if the battle continued as is, then it would sway towards the humans' side, but once the Earth Stage Wolves entered, then it would cause another imbalance as the City and Gerard only had fewer than 30 Earth Stage Professionals, and most of them were from Gerard’s group, as for Sky Stage Professionals, there was Roderick Ironbull, but being a Sky Stage Tamer did not mean that he automatically had Sky Stage Pets, beasts were very hard to cultivate, thus, Tamers couldn’t just raise Low-Grade Beasts into High-Grade Beasts to bypass the requirement of Tamers needing 3 High-Grade tamed beasts to have the potential of Transcendence, it was the same for Sky Stage Beasts, the speed of beasts to get to Sky Stage was far slower than humans did.
But Roderick Ironbull had already revealed that he had two Sky Stage Beasts, one of them was the one he sent west towards Aeron, and another he had yet to reveal. But there was another reason why Gerard chose to invite Roderick Ironbull, and that was because Roderick Ironbull’s other pets, were mostly at the Earth Stage, which was what the City needed.
In truth, Gerard’s worry about the Sky Stage Wolves weren’t as heavy as his worry of the Earth Stage ones, the reason being that, although humans didn’t know much about beast kings, they still knew some information about them. And that was that beast kings did not have the ability to bypass stages in subduing their subordinates, and from what he felt earlier, the Wolf King was still an Earth Stage Beast. The Sky Stage Wolves were in reality, the Wolf King’s father’s subordinates, and they were only tasked to protect the Wolf King.
HOWL!!
Back to Aeron and Lina
The iron wolf’s legs tensed and its muscles bulged as it lunged towards Lina, its jaws and claws shone with a metallic sheen as its speed drastically increased.
Boom!
The Iron Wolf’s attack blew dust into the air, it swung its tail to clear the dust but Lina was nowhere to be seen, its eyes narrowed as it swung its tail like a mace.
Boom!
Another explosion happened as a crater appeared on the ground where the wolf slammed its tail, from the smoke, Lina’s figure could be seen retreating, the Iron Wolf chased after her and attacked relentlessly, but just like a butterfly, Lina dodged the Iron Wolf’s attacks. She sometimes parried the Iron Wolf’s claws and used the force behind the blow to retreat.
If one were to spectate, then they would see an enraged Iron Wolf trying to attack a woman dancing with two swords, she would spin and leap as her swords slowly shone brighter. This was the effect of the [Dance of Swords], an enchantment towards the user’s sword, but the dance could also be utilized to dodge the enemy’s attacks, this was one of the reasons why the Sword Dancer Profession was hardly chosen by many Professionals, the talent with the sword wasn’t as hard to master, but being able to dance while in battle was not something one should play with. One wrong move and death was the result.
In truth, many Sword Dancers choose to do the [Dance of Swords] before the battle, this was because the [Dance of Swords] did not have attacking movements, its movements were smooth and graceful, but one could only dodge and parry, and every moment in the battlefield was life and death. But there were also people who could effectively pull these movements and dance with the beasts. Even Lina would do this before the battle, but the current situation did not give her any choice, to be able to damage the Iron Wolf who had an excellent defense, she had to use the [Dance of Swords].
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The battle continued on as the Iron Wolf chased and attacked, its strikes were also starting to get more ferocious as the Lina dodged around it.
Meanwhile, Arthur who was facing the fire and ice wolves, was also having a hard time, the two wolves kept launching fireballs and ice shards, and Arthur could only dodge and control his clone to also dodge, else, the wolves might realize that the other golden monkey was a fake and they might try to branch off towards Arthur’s master, or the disturb Lina with her fight.
This was the main reason why Aeron chose to let Arthur fight the two magic beasts, if Arthur could injure or better yet, kill one of the wolves, then the fight would become easier, but the best they could do for now was to be distractions.
Aeron who was being blown away by the Earth Wolf’s attacks was also enduring as much as he could, he didn’t notice yet, but as the battle continued, his control over his aura was getting smoother and smoother, the stress and pressure of dying were accelerating Aeron’s growth.
Boom!
Aeron tried to block one of the Earth Wolf’s attack but was sent tumbling down instead, although he tried to dodge as much as he could, the disparity in speed did not allow him to avoid every attack the Earth Wolf sent.
Although, Aeron was in fact improving as the battle persisted, the difference in strength and ability made it seem like he was on the verge of death every time the Earth Wolf attacked.
[Accelerated Strike]
Aeron activated his skill as the Earth Wolf sent rocks on his way, this time, he was able to infuse it with aura, he swung his glaive sideways as ran to his left, there was only a black flash left from Aeron’s weapon as he completely dodged the Earth Wolf’s skill.
The Earth Wolf’s eyes glowed brown as the earth beneath Aeron shook, Aeron tried to recall the Earth Wolf’s skills and remembered what the Earth Wolf was casting.
[Accelerated Strike]
Aeron forced activated his skill.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Just as Aeron moved forward, large earth spikes sprung up from the ground to where Aeron had been standing, but the attack had yet to end.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Aeron was forced to activate [Accelerated Strike] in succession as earth spike kept appearing below him.
Howl!
The Earth Wolf suddenly stopped attacking as a howl sounded from the forest.
‘Damn it!’ Aeron cussed as the worst-case scenario happened.
Another wolf pack appeared; the battlefield paused as the wolves stopped attacking. Two wolves led the new pack, another Earth Wolf, and what seemed to be a Mortal Stage Iron Wolf.
The Earth Stage Iron Wolf growled as the new Earth Wolf ran towards Aeron, while the new Iron Wolf ran towards Arthur. The Earth Stage Wolf returned to attacking Lina, as much as Lina wanted to help Aeron, she had her hands full, as her preparation was still underway.