Aeron was surrounded by two Earth Wolves, one in front, and one from behind. His senses were dialed to its maximum capacity as he dodged and weaved, suffering multiple minor injuries while he did.

[Accelerated Strike]

Bang! Bang!

Aeron’s figure flashed as he dodged six rocks thrown by the two wolves, he could feel his control over his body, skills, and aura getting better and smoother as the fight went on, but the improvement wasn’t enough.

Boom!

A huge earth spike scraped his left shoulder, tearing through his aura as blood flowed out, at first the pain did not register as he kept on dodging, but he could feel the numbness seep in.

Bang!

Another rock was thrown by the wolf in front and Aeron dodged to the best of his ability, but the other wolf lunged at him from the back, Aeron could feel its presence and he swung his glaive behind him as he activated [Accelerated Strike] to escape from the Earth Wolves attack.

Ha ha ha ha

Aeron gulped in the air with labored breathing as he looked around, the wolves were now beside each other walking towards him, the battle which annoyed the first wolf had now become a battle of amusement with the help of the second wolf.

Aeron dodged around the best that he could, he didn’t have any thoughts of attacking, but his other skill was now on standby for him to escape tight situations. His thoughts were now focused only on buying more time, and hoping that Lina killed the Earth Stage Iron Wolf faster, as that was the only way Aeron could survive. It was actually a weird thing for Aeron, he had decided to sacrifice himself so that Lina could survive, although there was another emotion in play, it was still the most practical decision anyone could take in such a situation. But now that they were fighting for their lives, Aeron couldn’t place his thoughts on just dying, and surviving was now his utmost priority.

But as Aeron dodged around, he did not notice the wolves reason for throwing only rocks at him, but just as he activated his [Accelerated Strike], Aeron smashed into a wall and stumbled back, it was only now that he discovered that the wolves had created an earth wall around him, he couldn’t jump up to escape because he would then become an easy target for the earth wolves, but the only way out was blocked by the wolves themselves. Aeron could probably break through the wall, but he would be giving his back to the wolves. The wolves inched closer as a ferocious and cunning expression appeared on their faces, Aeron, of course, did not forget that High-Grade Beast became smarter than Low-Grade ones, but he never expected that they would be able to think about boxing him in.

But, to no avail, Aeron could only think of one way to breakthrough. He infused his skill with his aura as he activated [Lightning Strike].

Lightning suddenly surged from Aeron as they struck everything around him.

BANG!

The Earth Wall was blasted to smithereens and the two wolves blocking his way were blasted away, Aeron now felt the difference between a normal [Lightning Strike], and one infused with aura. He felt that he could control the skill to a higher degree, and he might even change some properties if he wanted to, but at the same time, the amount of energy consumption made him know that it wouldn’t be possible for him to just spam this skill around, as the person got stronger, the skills also grew stronger, which also increased the consumption of mana or aura with it. Of course, the degree of growth also meant that the individual would be able to have more capacity.

Aeron felt inside him and he knew, if he repeated the attack again, he would probably be unable to move afterwards, he wouldn’t fall to complete depletion, but he would still be vulnerable in battle.

Grrr! Grrrr!

The two Earth Wolves, was surprised by the attack, especially the first one, Aeron had not infused his aura when he attacked the first time, but this time he did, and both wolves took damage, but the distance and their natural resistance to lightning element attacks saved them further harm. Still, the pain they felt made it apparent that the creature in front was not a plaything for them, but was instead a threat. The wolves looked at each other as they decided to take the fight more seriously.

Bang! Boom!

Arthur swung his golden spear at the charging iron wolf, the iron wolf was blown a small distance away proving its resilience, while elemental attacks landed from where Arthur stood, but Arthur had launched himself back when he attacked the iron wolf dodging the attacks of the two wolves, his clone had long been ripped apart from the three wolves attack. Arthur was also starting to take damage as he tried to receive attacks through his armor and aura, this was a necessary sacrifice to dodge more damaging attacks. Arthur had long felt Aeron’s distress, but his situation was not at all optimistic, but he did his best to engage the three wolves to prevent them from going near his master.

Xing! Kiii!

A golden blade flashed by and the ice wolf who was inching away dodged back, every time any of the wolves tried to separate, Arthur would throw them his golden blades and taunt them to stay. The iron wolf saw an opportunity as he bit Arthur’s spear and the fire wolf launched a fireball forcing Arthur to drop his spear, but staff appeared in Arthur’s hands and got covered in golden coating, this enraged the iron wolf as it lunged unceasingly towards Arthur. Even though Arthur was holding his own much better than his master, the damages were piling up, and more and more energy was being consumed.

Arthur who was struggling felt Aeron’s distress increase through their soul connection, he and the other wolves also heard the explosion from the battle beside them. Arthur felt his master became relieved for a moment, but he also knew that his master was no match for two magic beasts.

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Eight golden blades suddenly spun around Arthur, four blades flew towards the fire and ice wolves, while Arthur himself rushed towards the iron wolf, the soul energy it took to control the eight golden blades while simultaneously fighting an iron wolf was taking everything Arthur had. Four golden blades chased the fire and ice wolves while blocking every elemental attack they threw at Arthur. But the iron wolf in front had it harsher, Arthur swung his golden staff while the iron wolf tried to counter, each strike was laced with aura infused [Empowered Strike] which blew away the iron wolf. But the iron wolf’s defense was far durable than normal demon beasts, its iron hide absorbed most of the damage, but Arthur swung relentlessly, the ice and fire wolves tried to help but the golden blades prevented them from going nearer.

BOOM!

The Earth Stage Iron Wolf swung its tail as Lina danced around it, her swords now had a soft white glow. Lina’s eyes focused on her enemy as she activated her skill.

[Dance of Death]

Bang!

The iron wolf’s paws stomped on Lina’s position but Lina had already disappeared, she suddenly appeared on the iron wolf’s lower back.

Xing!

A white flash appeared, the attack penetrated through the iron wolf’s hide, but it only resulted in a shallow cut on the iron wolf’s thigh, but the iron wolf was enraged by the cut as it attacked crazily to try and keep off the small creature annoying it to no end.

Xing!

Another shallow cut appeared near the iron wolf’s neck, the iron wolf tried its best to attack and defend, but Lina ran around it cutting here and there. The iron wolf’s body was covered with small shallow cuts, at first, the iron wolf thought that the wounds around its body would heal up in a short amount of time, but Lina’s skill was not called [Dance of Death] for nothing, one would experience a quick death or one would experience a slow one, but one of the most important factors of the skill was its ability to not allow the enemies wounds to heal as long as the skill was still in effect. This meant that as long as Lina used the skill, the enemy’s wounds would not heal through normal regeneration.

Xing! Xing!

More and more cuts appeared on the iron wolf’s body and some wounds became deeper as Lina struck the same areas. The iron wolf was becoming more and more enraged but it was helpless as none of its skills countered Lina’s speed. Although Sword Dancers was a branch of the Warrior Profession, the Sword Dancer’s build was closer to that of an Assassin, the higher their level was, the more their speed and agility increased, and this is further enhanced by their [Warrior’s Might] skill equivalent, [Sword Dancer’s Grace] which boosted their speed and agility, but their strength was far less than that of a Warrior, and their stamina could only be considered average.

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The City of Una.

Howl!

As more and more wolves appeared on top of the walls, the fight became harsher and harsher, wolves that had the ability to manipulate aura became strongholds within the walls forcing a halt within the cogs of the human’s strategy.

“HOLD YOUR GROUND!” Rodrigo ordered.

The Warriors held their shields and thrusted their spears, the stench of blood permeated the air as the corpse piled up, this mess would have disappeared if not for the density of the mana on the walls, the excess mana the humans expelled from killing too many wolves made for this bloody scene to stay as it was. Many of the warriors in front became pale just from the smell and the carnage they were seeing, but still, they fought, some Warriors were even dragged away from the formation.

“Nooo!! HELP!!” the Warrior screamed as a massive wolf bit his arms and dragged him back towards the crowd of wolves. His screams were drowned by the noise of battle, but not long after he was dragged away, another Warrior took his place.

The people fighting in front saw the horrible sight of their ally being ripped apart by the wolves, there were some who broke formation and charged forward, this was the Warrior’s friends, it was a noble attempt, but a foolish one in Rodrigo’s eyes. When he was assigned as the commander, he knew that these people were not soldiers trained from young, emotions ran deep, so these scenarios were common within an untrained army, this was also the reason why he was assigned as commander, he was from a family raised to command, and Gerard was the Lord he chose to serve.

War was not a foreign affair for humanity, they had fought many wars just to secure their place in Gaia, one which developed their way of life. Of course, as time passed by, and peace settled in, humans became more relaxed save for the outer regions. Two were beset by beast tides from the Boundless Mountains, one fought with the harsh weather and skirmishes with another race, and the last fought with another race to secure the border. This was the reason why the City of Una was slow to grow, it was a City that prodded the tolerance of the beasts from the Endless Forest, a war of this scale wasn’t much in the eyes of the powerful, thus, the Governor left early so the City would not provoke a full-on war against the beasts of the Endless Forest, even if the City was destroyed by the Wolf King, that would just be it. Even a beast king would not threaten another race who had God Stage Professional, thus, the war in Una, was a war of balance.

The Mages were also doing their best, they launched off earth element attacks from under the wall to break the earth ramparts and kill the wolves in the midst of their climb, but the wolves far outnumbered the Mages, when an earth rampart falls, the wolves would easily cast another. It was a good thing that the wolves were not crazed enough to attack humans while killing their own.

“Brock, you stay on the walls, Rodrigo is there, but you know that his fighting prowess is severely lessened without his mount, but the walls is not a place for mounted combat,” Gerard said as he and a hundred people went down the wall.

Brock stood in place as he looked around the walls, the line was holding well, but the enemy’s numbers made things unpredictable. Brock was also an Earth Stage Professional, but Rodrigo had yet to order them to act, they were still waiting for the wolves to initiate as they had the advantage when it comes to the battle of the Mortal Stage.

“Are you and the young master sure that the Sky Stage Wolves wouldn’t fight without us giving them the reason to?” Brock asked.

He had been surprised when Gerard, Sam, and Rodrigo concluded that the participation of the Sky Stage Wolves would only happen if they attacked the Wolf King or sent their own Sky Stage Professionals. Although information about beast kings was scant, they were also beasts known for their pride, there had been cases when beast kings were protected by their own, just like how the wolf king’s father protected its offspring. But never had there been a king who made use of their parent’s strength to fight, this was because they were the king of their species. Even the most cowardly beast king would have enough pride to not borrow strength from those not under their control. Of course, Arthur was a different case, beast kings still held their parents or siblings close, even the wolves who would kill the wolf king when it was born from a weaker wolf wouldn’t do so if it was their offspring and would actively protect it instead.

Howl!!

The wolf king had seen enough, it howled its rage as the Earth Stage Wolves charged towards the City.