My Brother Is The Hero Of Earth

Yue waved an arm and the crane lifted a wing, sending out the feathers in a stream. They pierced through the bodies of three werewolves that were nearing one of the openings. Terri fired off arrow after arrow, never running out thanks to a set of teleportation runes linked to her quiver, yet another gift from Sophia and Lesedi. There was twenty arrows in total and she could average shooting ten arrows in a minute. Each one of her arrows carried a trace of lightning mana which would cause a little more damage thanks to the minor purification effect of lightning against undead creatures, so she was able to kill nearly every one with a single shot. The pack would let out a howl for each of its members that fell, but there numbers only continued to grow.

"Melissa, we"ll leave it up to you to direct us towards any that make it through the perimeter," Gustavo said as he drew he sword.

"Understood," Melissa agreed.

"Holy s.h.i.t! Lesedi, I swear you need to learn to keep your mouth shut," Terri cursed.

"How bad is it this time?" Lesedi asked with a chuckle as she rested her great-hammer on her shoulder.

"Thirty-eight had already reached the detection boundary of my formation and its growing," Yue replied.

"How can there be that many monsters over here?" Gustavo asked.

"Simple, the saturation of mana in the "Rift" allows for much greater populations of creatures that can use mana as fuel and the Vukodlaks are top-tier predators since they work in packs. There are limited records from that time, but the compendium mentioned the "Great Pack" could reach into the tens of thousands," Yue explained which caused both Gustavo and Lesedi to swear repeatedly. She chuckled and said, "Relax, this pack isn"t that large. If we were anywhere near the "Great Pack", Alice would have warned us before hand. Something that large isn"t something that she could miss."

The two on the ground gave a sigh of relief as the first of the wolves reached Terri"s traps. At the entrance to the maze in the west, five werewolves crossed the line of the wall and the ground under them flashed with a cyan glow. Ice spikes erupted from the ground which sprouted out more thorns at odd angles, further increasing the damage, as blood splattered the ground.

"West gate needs a clean up," Melissa said since she wanted the creatures to have a clean death.

Gustavo and Lesedi took off running through the maze, heading left. None of Terri"s traps would activate with any of their companions in range so they no fear of anything being set off. The pair moved in and killed the injured werewolves as the ice spikes retreated at their presence. The north entrance was the next to be activated as the entire area was engulfed in a sea of emerald flames. Yue focused on the south entrance and was able to keep the wolves back while Terri thinned out the numbers coming from the north and west. As long as the emerald flames burned, nothing would cross through the north entrance and Gustavo and Lesedi held the west gate.

The werewolves were drawn to the pair and Yue was forced to start helping thin the numbers flocking towards the west, but that allowed a few to slip through, setting off the emerald flame trap in the south entrance.

"Pull back, the Ice Thorns will have recharged by now," Terri said.

Gustavo and Lesedi retreated back to the second layer and watched as twelve wolves were skewered by ice. The fire in the north entrance finally ran out of energy after three minutes but, until the Ice Thorn trap which could activate three times, the Emerald Flame trap crystals crumbled as the flames died away. Seven Vukodlaks charged in through the charred north gate and followed the hall to the right.

"Seven approaching from the north," Melissa instructed.

"Stay where you guys are. The area is covered in a large Swamp trap," Terri said with an evil chuckle.

"Got it," Gustavo said.

Gustavo saw the werewolves charging straight for him as he lowered his shield. Most of them ran on four feet, but the one in the front was on its hind legs. Just as they reached within ten meters of the pair, the ground flashed with a green glow and they all stumbled, two falling to the ground, as they sank into the ground. Terri"s Swamp trap was special since it wouldn"t effect the others, allowing them to walk on solid earth while the monsters were slowly sinking into the mushy ground. Gustavo ran out, brandishing his sword, and killed four while Lesedi crushed the bodies of the remaining three with her hammer.

"Incoming from the left, eight this time," Melissa chimed in the pair"s ear.

The Vukodlaks. .h.i.t the same patch of swampy area in mirror of the right. Gustavo banged his shield down against the ground then dashed forward as his body erupted in a golden light. He slammed into the lead wolf and sent it flying as the werewolf was ripped out of the ground. A golden streak of light shot out from his sword as he swung sideways, slicing through two werewolves. The wolves didn"t stop their mad charge even though their movements were slowed.

Lesedi threw her hammer with unnatural strength, uprooting a werewolf in a similar manner as Gustavo had, then waved her hand back and her hammer returned to her hand. Before she could run forward, Melissa alerted them of more coming through the north entrance. She turned back to the right with her hammer resting on her shoulder as she formed a ball of dark red flames over her left hand. She tighten her fist, causing the ball to compact and turn an even darker shade of red until the five wolves rounded the corner and she threw it out. Before they reached the Swamp trap, the ball of flames. .h.i.t the chest of the second Vukodlak. An explosion of fire erupted in a boom and, when the flames died away, there was a pool of molten earth at that end of the corridor.

"Show off!" Terri complained.

Lesedi laughed as she breathed noticeably heavier. The spell had taken a bit out of her all at once, but she could easily replenish it while she fought with her hammer. When the Swamp trap ran out of energy ten minutes later, the pair followed Terri"s direction to the next one.

Yue directed the Moonlight Crane"s feathers to sweep through the corridors where the pair wasn"t, pa.s.sing through the bodies of the Vukodlaks with no resistance, but it all came at a price as beads of sweat began to form on her forehead despite the chilling air. She could only practice so much at the manor, but only in a setting like this could she really test herself. Formation control was very taxing on mental strength, but it also built it up at an amazing rate when pushed to the extremes. She pushed herself to the point that Terri could disregard the whole battlefield and focus solely on supporting Gustavo and Lesedi.

Melissa noticed this behavior and could only shake her head as she sighed. She chanted lightly, causing her hands to glow in a pale white light, then she placed her hands on Yue"s shoulders. She was using a powerful holy spell to replenish Yue"s mana and ease her mental strain. Yue smiled, but didn"t take off her focus off the battlefield for a second.

By the hour mark, Gustavo and Lesedi had fallen back to the center of the maze which Terri had turned into a large Swamp trap with Bolt traps scattered like landmines for the unlucky werewolf, but the Vukodlaks finally stopped coming. The pair on the ground collapsed the moment Melissa gave the all clear and Yue dismissed the silver feather, but not the crane itself. Terri put away her bow as she plopped down on the edge of the tower and rubbed her arms. Melissa helped Yue sit as well then put her hands together and chanted, channeling a recovery spell.

"That went well," Lesedi breathed as she gasped for air on the ground.

The others nodded as, aside from being tired, no one had taken an injury other than a few sc.r.a.ps by the front-liners. With Melissa"s spell blanketing them, the other four pulled themselves into a meditative position to recover their energy, but things rarely work out the way you want them to as the ground suddenly began to shake a few minutes later. Everyone was snapped out of their trance and stood up, looking to the east.

A column of snow was thrown into the air and large chucks of ice rained down. Water splashed, freezing upon touching the ground, as a set of gnarled, yellowish horns rose out of the water, that alone were the size of their bodies. The head was covered in a gray-brown, leathery hide and had similar gray-brown, reptilian eyes. One large, clawed foot stepped out followed by another and another until all six were standing on the ground.

"That explains why the Vukodlaks avoided the east," Yue said with a sigh.

"What the h.e.l.l is that?" Terri exclaimed.

"A Bukavac, I believe. They are demons that like to hide in lakes and rivers and ambush unsuspecting boats. Normally, they would be sleeping this time of year, but our fighting must have awoken it," Yue explained.

"How do we kill it?" Gustavo asked.

Yue raised her hands as she crane flapped its wings, recreating the silver feathers, and said, "By going all out!"

The giant monster gave a deafening roar then charged for the small group of five. Gustavo pulled out an elixir and down it with a single gulp as he jumped onto the wall. He ran forward, across the bridges, as his body released a red glow. When he jumped off the outside wall, his body doubled in size, causing his armor to break in a golden light before reforming on his larger form. His sword and shield also doubled in size, but even at three meters tall, he was still dwarfed by the ten meter creature.

"Jump on, Lesedi!" Yue said as she order the crane to lower itself near her.

Lesedi leapt up onto the back of the crane, but Terri surprised them both by jumping on as well.

"My mana is too low for me to do any real damage with my bow, so that leaves clutter bombs," Terri said, answering their unvoiced question.

"I"ll get you in throwing range then," Yue said with a nod.

Lesedi and Terri both chugged a mana potion as they rode Yue"s crane towards the monster. Although the crane was thirty meters tall, it was more for show since it wouldn"t be able to within the force of using its own body to attack. For now, only the feathers of the crane were able to be used to attack, but each were the size of a long sword and incredibly sharp.

Gustavo gave a loud shout and an invisible wave of energy could be seen striking the Bukavac as it locked onto him, snarling. It lowered its head and rammed its horns into his shield. In an absolute defiance of physics, Gustavo didn"t budge as a feedback loop of gold and red energies rippled over his body. With his shield arm raised, his sword arm was pulled back and shaking lightly as the rippling energy collected on his sword. As he transferred the energy of the impact into his sword, the Bukavac came to a sudden, hard stop and its whole body dropped which ended up saving its life when Gustavo thrusted out his sword. A beam of red and glow exploded out of the tip of his sword leaving a meter deep gash across the creature"s back that would have chopped off some legs if it hadn"t fallen.

The Bukavac gave a pained and angry roar as it stumbled back. Gustavo wobbled at the sudden loss of a large amount of mana, but he maintained his transformation showing that he was still able to fight. The crane crossed in just after his attack, allowing Lesedi to pelt the creature with fire b.a.l.l.s and Terri to hurl cl.u.s.ters of crystal shards that exploded in emerald flames or yellow lightning. It could only cry out in fury and pain as it was unable to escape the barrage. The crane"s feathers were also on the move, yet their target was not the monster, but Gustavo. He raised his shield above his head as the feathers rained down onto his shield at a high velocity and bounced off. The same gold and red, rippling energy spread out from his shield and converged onto his sword.

"Ready!" Gustavo shouted.

The crane dashed back to Yue as Gustavo thrusted his sword, sending another beam of gold and red, this time, in its head right between its horns. The Bukavac went silent as it slowly collapsed with an earth-shaking thud. Gustavo flashed with a red light as his body began to shrink. His armor adjusted itself to fit his normal size as did his sword and shield which he stored away as he also collapsed on the ground. All of his spells put a ma.s.sive strain on his body and he ached all over. The crane appeared overhead a few minutes later, carrying all four girls. He could only give them a tired grin as they rushed over to tended to his battered body.