by John Nest
"Are you guys okay?" she asked while blocking the continuous onslaught of claws. Ideally, she would have liked to convert this werewolf, but considering its alphas were still alive she couldn't. She hardened her resolve and withstood the werewolf's attacks, as long as she could confirm that the two of them were safe.
With each attack of the werewolf, Sierra's blood splattered everywhere. Vrai and Ardu who stood behind her were covered in it.
"Oh, no. Did you get clawed?" asked a concern Sierra as she saw them covered with blood.
"No, we're fine. This is your blood..." Vrai stopped talking as the two of them unexpectedly fell to the ground. Both of them instantly started convulsing.
Sierra didn't understand what was happening. She used Double Slash on the werewolf and knocked the beast away from them.
"Vrai, Ardu, what's happening?" she asked worriedly.
The two Lioumereans' bodies and limbs twisted and contorted into painful positions. Sierra had to turn away from them as she noticed six more werewolves heading towards them.
"Laernea, Gandiva, we've got incoming!" she shouted to the two Pathfinders and asked for their help.
"Sorry, but we've got our hands full at the moment as well," replied Laernea as she fired her arrows at four werewolves heading towards them from the front. Due to their injured stag moose, the Pathfinders' attack power was almost halved.
Sierra glanced towards the front of the carriage and understood what Laernea meant.
'Six werewolves against one werebear. I still got the upper hand,' she thought and psyched herself up.
ROOAAAAAARRR
ROOOOOOAARRR
Suddenly, two distinct roars came from behind Sierra. She turned around and almost fell down as she saw a black werebear and a brown werebear.
'How did they sneak up on me?' she wondered to herself and instinctively curled up into a defensive stance.
She knew she had to push them away from the carriage where the children were kept. Yet, she also had to face six more werewolves about to pounce on her.
Shaking her head out of frustration, she was about to lunge an attack on the two werebears when they rushed past her and each took on two enemy werewolves.
Sierra was completely astonished at what was happening, but she didn't have the time to question it. She focused on the two remaining werewolves and grabbed each one of them by the neck and slammed them hard to the ground.
After she killed the two werewolves, she looked at the brown and black werebear in front of her and stared at their names and life bars; Vrai (394,250/400,000 HP) and Ardu (389,000/400,000 HP).
"Sierra, what happened?" asked a confused Vrai, looking at her cursed black werebear form.
"I don't know, but we'll figure this out," she answered sympathetically. She then heard Ardu's voice.
"Are you alright?" Ardu asked Vrai and placed his brown werebear claws on her shoulders. Vrai strongly shook her head in response.
"Vrai, Ardu, I know you're confused right now, but this isn't the time for that. Right now, it's time to survive." stated Sierra and helped them back into the carriages.
Instantly, the children backed away when they saw the two werebears that wasn't Sierra, but she quickly explained that the two of them were Ardu and Vrai.
The newly transformed werebears expected the children to be afraid of them. Yet, in spite of their cursed forms, the children rushed towards them and hugged them dearly.
Then, Laernea turned around and faced them. "Alright, time to go. Hold on..." she paused and looked at three werebears behind them. "Sierra? Those two are allies, right?"
"Yeah." replied Sierra flatly. "Well, let's go you two." she said and pointed forward.
It was all thanks to the efforts of Adder, Phen and Rear. They were not able to kill the two black werebears, but they did manage to critically wound them and drive them off.
Due to this, Sierra and the rest of the Vigilantez were able to escape out of the forest and sprinted across the plains.
She watched the enemy werewolves flee with their alphas. She smiled and let out a deep sigh of relief, but then her eyes went to Ardu and Vrai. Instantly, her smile faded and her eyes moistened with tears. She hoped Smoke would arrive in time to evacuate those three villages. No one else should fall to Horrabelle's curse.
* * * * * *
Smoke squinted his eyes as the wind speed was extremely strong when gliding at his top speed. He glanced over his shoulders at Igniz and Ledur and scowled as the two of them seem to be unaffected.
Smoke had a wide view of the landscape below him. He could clearly see the mountains, valleys, forests and plains of Wysteria. As they were still far from their destination, he ordered his group to descend and take a quick break. They needed to satisfy their primal need and fill up their satiety bars.
They landed safely on the outskirt of a forest patch. Ledur expertly created a table, chairs and a fire pit with his Earth Manipulation. Igniz then lit up the fire pit. They got a campfire up and running in no time at all.
While Smoke was cooking a grilled veal, his Cunning of the Dire Fox picked up the creatures from inside the trees. This was not new to him as his ability's range had greatly increased, but the notification window that came afterward was.
+ Ability Advanced: Cunning of the Dire Fox
(Passive)
Level: Master Level 1
Experience: (0/100,000,000)
You've reached the Master zone of this ability.
Effect: Detects enemy presence from 500 meters away.
+ Learned: Cunning of the Dire Fox II - Extra Sensory
(Active)
Effect: Detects things beyond the physical realm within half a meter of caster.
Notes:
> Consumes 100,000 MP per use and additional 10,000 MP per second after activation
> Range will increase as ability level increases
> MP consumption will decrease as ability level increases
"Whoa!" exclaimed Smoke. He was taken by surprise at the newly gained active ability.
"What's the matter?" asked a startled Ledur as he searched around their area for any potential danger. "Are we being attacked?"
Igniz hurriedly flew higher and orbited around their campfire, looking for their enemies.
"No, no. My ability just reached master level. Sorry, for worrying you guys," replied Smoke excitedly. He didn't think about anything else but trying out the new ability.
It took so long to increase this ability from Advance to Master that Smoke stopped paying attention to its experience bar.
Posthaste, Smoke stood up and used Extra Sensory. At the same time, Igniz returned and circled around him. At once, his eyes turned golden and became that of a dire fox's. For the first time, he could see the energy flowing out of Igniz and Ledur.
Igniz's dark purple flames left a trail of where he had flown through. He could also see the energy used on Ledur's
Earth Manipulated tables and chairs.
Smoke smiled. The visual effects of the ability were quite impressive, but he had a feeling that this ability had something else to offer.
However, he temporarily set the idea aside and checked on the other two hidden abilities that he first acquired in Zectas.
His smile grew even wider when he saw that his Agility of the Horned Rabbit was almost at Master Level 1 as well. He then checked his Armor Break of the Armored Armadillo. His smile faded as he found that it was still at Advance Level 3, but that didn't keep him down long.
His excitement to discover the Master Level of his Agility of the Horned Rabbit's was the only thing in his mind right now.
"Ledur, Igniz, I'll be right back." said Smoke eagerly and headed for the forest patch.
The winged Tikbalang stepped in front of him and asked. "Wait, where are you going? I thought there were no enemies?"
"Yup, I'm just gonna train a bit," answered Smoke with anticipation. "Don't worry, I'll be careful."
After he tried out his Extra Sen
sory ability, his MP was halved, but that didn't matter as he wasn't going to need it.
His Cunning of the Dire Fox picked multiple monsters hiding behind the trees. However, this forest patch only had low level creatures. Monsters such as stone deers, iron owls, rabid racoons and poisonous skunks.
Despite this, Smoke still wanted to train his Agility of the Horned Rabbit. He chose a nearby pack of rabid raccoons. There were ten of them altogether. Given these many opponents, he thought that it should result in some significant experience.
He grabbed two fallen branches from the ground and sneaked up on the rabid racoons. Dual wielding the two branches, he struck each one of the rabid racoons, but made sure not to kill them.
Aggravated, all of the rabid beasts came at him at once. Their claws came at him from all directions. He braved the pain as some of the attacks scratched his flesh. While dodging most of the monsters' attacks, he delivered eight swift strikes to one of the rabid racoons and accidentally killed it.
His mouth twinge after killing the monster. The experience bar of his target ability practically didn't move at all. He wished he had books to hold onto instead, but he had acquired the knowledge of all his books.
Ten minutes into his training session and the experience bar still did not budge at all. Smoke sighed and realized that this was pointless. He switched to his weighted chain and sickle and instantly killed the remaining nine rabid racoons.
He only wanted to gauge how much longer it would take him to raise the Agility of the Horned Rabbit to Master Level, but clearly the rabid raccoons were not the monsters capable of doing that.
"You should have said that you just wanted to practice dodging." Ledur's voice came out of nowhere.
Startled, Smoke looked up and searched for his friend. He found him standing on one of the tree branches behind him.
"You know, I know of a more efficient method to train your dodging ability." stated Ledur.
"Really? How?" asked an intrigued Smoke.
"Follow me," replied Ledur and flew out of the forest back to their encampment.
Igniz greeted Smoke warmly and orbited around him when he returned. "Calm down, bud. I wasn't gone that long." As his symbiote flew around him, he then realized that his dark ember sprite was only closing the claw marks of the rabid racoons.
Smoke patted his dark ember sprite. "Thanks, bud, but I've got some real training to do." He stared at Ledur who stood some distance away from them.
He walked over to the winged Tikbalang cautiously. After all, he had no idea what Ledur's efficient training method was.
Ledur stared intensely at Smoke. All of a sudden, the winged Tikbalang spoke out. "Due to our constant battles, I never got to properly thank you for saving my fellow Pferdians," he said gratefully. "Now, you even rescued the captured children."
"Think nothing of it. I was only doing what I know is right." replied Smoke sincerely.
Ledur's bat-like wings expanded to its full size and he then bent his body slightly, giving Smoke a bow. "Allow me to thank you now, by helping you out with some light training."
"Yeah, about that, what exactly do..." Smoke stopped talking as multiple earth spikes came at him from the ground. While he dodged six of them, four earth spikes grazed his back and damaged him for a total of 2,400 points.
In that one attack, Smoke received more damage than when he fought ten rabid raccoons. It took all of his focus to dodge more earth spikes coming his way.
Smoke was reminded of how large their gap was with the mastery of the earth. Ledur's attacks were swift, unpredictable, but calculated.
He bobbed, weaved, twisted his body body in all directions in order to avoid Ledur's powerful attacks. Sensing thirty spikes aimed at him, Smoke leapt up and glided farther away.
'My earth spikes are no where this fast. I wonder if Crucibelle could have dodged Ledur's earth spikes,' he wondered to himself as he tried to catch his breath.
Unexpectedly, an earth pillar rammed into his back and sent him flying back to where Ledur was.
"Time out!" Smoke cried out as he breathed heavily.
Ledur's attacks instantly ceased.
Smoke eagerly checked the experience bar for the Agility of the Horned Rabbit, and found that it increased by 0.1%, he smiled as he ultimately found some progress. Their fight lasted less than fifteen minutes, but he could already see the result.
"You're right. That was more effective. I finally got some experience points, but we don't have time for it now," explained Smoke as he did some rough calculations and realized it would take more than a day of such practice to fill the remaining 10% to Master level.
"Let's finish eating and head for those villages afterwards," said Smoke with conviction. "My ability can wait. Those people are far more important."
Ledur nodded and flew towards the campfire. Smoke winced as he watched his body covered in multiple cuts and bruises.
'And he didn't even use his full power,' he thought to himself as he praised how strong Ledur was.
While eating, his thoughts were disturbed by the one he was thinking of, Ledur abruptly spoke out. "Smoke, about the other three villages. I think it's best if lie low. We wouldn't want to scare them with my cursed appearance."
Smoke strongly shook his head in disagreement. "No way is that going to happen. They'll eventually meet you and other Tikbalangs in Verbrannt anyway. So, it's better for them to deal with it now than later."
"Very well." Ledur dropped the topic and continued eating.
In less than ten minutes later, Smoke, Igniz and Ledur were back in the skies. With their satiety bars filled, they were on a direct flight to the three villages.
* * * * * *
Airborne for more than an hour, Smoke was determined to reach the villages before the end of the day. Yet, his plans were foiled by nature itself as storm clouds gathered and poured heavy rain on Smoke, Igniz and Ledur.
"Igniz, inside," called out Smoke to his symbiote as he pointed to orb chamber on his chest. The dark ember sprite instantly disappeared and positioned himself comfortably within the metallic orb.
"Ledur, I can't continue in this weather. The rain’s too strong," stated Smoke flatly.
Without a word, the winged Tikbalang nodded and started to descend.
As their journey was stalled due to their tempestuous weather, Ledur created a small shelter with Earth Manipulation which protected them from the heavy downpour.
While waiting out the storm, Smoke finally received a call he had been waiting for almost a day now. In the middle of Espion's original mission to meet Incitant, Smoke sent him to investigate Braucht Hilfe village and confirm whether there was a trap waiting for them there. That was the last time he had spoken to the young Spy.
Smoke answered Espion's call.
"I've got some good news and some bad news," spoke the young Spy in a hushed voice.
He heard Espion take in a deep breath which assured him of a lengthy explanation. "I found Horrabelle in Braucht Hilfe village. She's gathered twenty Werebears and almost two thousand Werewolves. Now, she's just waiting for the remaining eight thousand Brandals of the supplier legion to reassemble and join her." Espion confirmed Smoke's suspicion of a trap. "But since you didn't continue to Braucht Hilfe. I heard that they were now headed to Pinagsama village. Once all of them are gathered, they should reach the village within two days."
Smoke sighed and allowed the troubling information to sink in. "Alright, what's the good news?"
"That was the good news," replied Espion. "The bad news is Incitant and his alliance aren't what we thought they were."
"What do you mean?" asked an alarmed Smoke.
"In my earlier report, I said that Incitant's alliance has over thirty-thousand Sonstwelters," stated Espion. "However, I was misinformed of their actual levels. As it turns out, the alliance has less than a thousand members who are above Level 100."
Smoke's eyebrows met. "And the rest of them?"
"All below Level 80. Ten thou
sand of them are above Level 50, while the rest of them are barely Level 30," responded Espion.
"Level 30? But's that a level you can gain in less than a week!" Smoke raised his voice out of frustration.
"Sierra ordered me to meet with Incitant, hoping that his alliance could launch a strike of their own." Espion described why he was originally sent to Centzo. "But I don't see that happening any time soon. Apparently, none of the Sonstwelters below level 50 ever came back."
"So how many men does Incitant actually have?" asked Smoke while shaking his head.