Chapter 141 – Rock Bridge
Austin’s sword ran through a Mist Wolf that pounced onto him from the air, and threw the corpse far away, momentarily wondering if the wolves corrupted by Mana would cannibalize their own.
Dolant tapped his shoulder and spoke aloud: “Look over there, are they crazy!?”
Austin heard Brendel yell out something, but he did not pay attention to the latter. When he looked at the youth in confusion, he saw this scene—
The youths were the first to move; Carglise and the squadrons’ leaders raised their hands parallel to the ground, and they moved accordingly.
The Centaur Elder held up his lance and reared up to make himself taller, giving out the loudest roar he had:
“Formation, divide!”
It was as though an explosion had rung out. The Centaurs stiffened for less than a second, and the crescent formation immediately divided into two in an instant.
“Thorsar!” Quinn shouted as well, echoed by the Tree Elves. Their magic over their conjured dark green vines made it move to the sides.
It did not take very long for the Warg to command the wolves to rush in. Even though it was strange for the enemies to divide their forces, doing so allowed them to surround them easily.
The wolves charged through the Wall of Wind like flood water rushing through a broken dam. The earth rumbled loudly.
[Why? Isn’t this a death sentence? Dividing our forces will only work if they have a limited number to surround us, but these wolves have an endless supply of reinforcements. No matter how many we kill, the numbers will only increase.]
Austin stared at the scene with wide eyes.
“Mad! They have gone utterly mad!” Dolant was jerking Austin’s arm and shouting: “Even if they want to meet their deaths here, do they have to drag us down?”
Austin did not reply and suddenly narrowed his eyes. Brendel was moving to the center where the armies divided alone.
Another howl came from the Warg, and the horde of wolves rushed towards the youth. It was certain that the youth was their highest commander, and it wanted to finish him off as soon as possible.
But Brendel also had the same idea.
“Are you ready?” He asked, looking back.
“Yes, my lord,” Scarlett said.
Quinn had gotten off Wydall and nodded as well.
Ten meters.
Brendel gripped Halran Gaia tightly with both hands and rotated his body to his limits.
Five meters.
The front row of black wolves lowered their bodies and readied themselves to pounce at the youth. They bared their fangs and uttered loud guttural noises from their throats.
Brendel could almost feel their eyes that were full of crazed bloodl.u.s.t staring at him. He expelled all the air in his lungs.
[Power Break and Frontal a.s.sault into White Rave Sword Arte—]
A violent maelstrom far stronger than the Wall of Wind formed from Halran Gaia and reached the sky. Invisible blades cut across the ground around the youth, forcing Quinn and Scarlett to back away from him.
The Warg felt its fur stand on ends when it saw the hurricane from afar, and it started moving away from the battlefield. The sense of danger only grew stronger over time and it saw the most shocking scene in its lifetime.
The Black Wolves that pounced with terminal velocity slowed as they got nearer to the youth, and were eventually flung back from the violent wind.
Brendel lowered the blade vertically, inch by inch. Light burst forth as energy fed into Halran Gaia, and the hurricane that reached the sky was gradually turned towards the ground. The invisible blades were spinning so fast that there was a whining pitch that grated in everyone’s ears. When they finally came into contact with the wolves, the beasts were knocked backward with countless cuts that eventually separated skin, flesh, and bones.
A frightening, b.l.o.o.d.y rain was created.
The wind of blades was finally projected at an angle that was parallel to the ground. It was strong to cut all the wolves within a hundred meters, and the shockwave beyond that range blasted the wolves away and rendered them unconscious. Even half the battlefield was upheaved with countless scars.
Brendel felt his stamina drop till it registered red fonts in his retina.
– Fatigued State.
– Unyielding Talent activated. Strength and Agility unaffected by Fatigued State.
[A normal person in Fatigued State would see at least a 50% drop in terms of Strength and Agility stats.]
Brendel stumbled onto the ground with Halran Gaia stabbing into it while gasping. While the Unyielding Talent still allowed him to use his full strength, it did not help with the pain and exhaustion. He felt pins and needles stabbing in his hands and could not help but tremble.
But using his full strength allowed him to clear a path that thinned the area between him and the Warg. The only problem was that the path was starting to fill up with even more wolves. The beasts clearly did not care how many of its kind died under his sword, and they were starting to fill up the void.
“We need to hurry,” Brendel said to the two behind him.
Austin finally understood what the youth was doing, but the plan did not appear like a success in his eyes. In just a few seconds, the wolves had started to create a barrier around the Warg.
[There’s just no time to exploit the opening!]
He could not help but sigh.
But Brendel’s attack was not yet over. He started moving towards the Warg as he shouted: “Mother Earth, grant me blades!”
The ground in front of the Warg started to collapse, while the earth next to it suddenly jerked in the opposite directions as though springs were loaded into it, causing the wolves to be dumped into the center of the collapsed hole. Even though they tried to jump out of it, the earth continued to sink further and the earth from the sides buried them.
Brendel put in more MP into the sword as he formed his hand into a fist. The earth beneath his feet suddenly rose up vertically over twenty meters, raising Scarlett and Quinn along with him. The second mount of flat earth spiked up, followed by a third, and countless more that eventually merged at the top.
An artificial bridge was suddenly formed in just a few seconds, and it extended all the way towards the Warg.
The Warg stared at the unnatural event in confusion before it realized what the human had done. It looked at the bridge for a few more seconds before it thought of fleeing. But it lost its opportunity to do so.
“Move closer to me, now!” Brendel shouted.
Scarlett and Quinn did not waste any time and move to his side, even though they did not know what the youth was planning. Their combined weight was not a problem for Brendel, and he grabbed both of them like they were potato sacks and activated the Charge ability.
900 OZ worth of agility blasted across the bridge. A black line sped across hundreds of meters in the blink of an eye and jumped off—
Right across the Misthowler’s head.
The Warg looked up at the tiny humans with its blood-red eyes. The trio also saw the Warg clearly for the first time. It was a ma.s.sive wolf that was the size of the Five-headed Hydra with a thick coat of grey far.
[A single eye. The lore in the game states that this Warg lost its other eye against another Warg. Amazing, I can feel the heat from this beast.]
But Brendel did not have much time to marvel at the terrifying creature’s grand appearance. There was less than a minute before the hastily made rock bridge collapsed, and they would not want to get surrounded by the black wolves after killing the Warg.
“Scarlett, limit its movements. Mister Quinn, please cover me!” Brendel yelled as he released them on the bridge and descended like a comet to the Warg.
Misthowler growled at the youth. It did not like to fight personally, but if there was anything that challenged its authority, it would shred them into pieces.
It tried to slap Brendel away with its paw.
Brendel knew that he must appear to be as slow as a snail in front of the monster’s eyes. It was a level 60 Boss after all, let alone that it was a creature that was known for its Agility. But he was ready for it as soon as he saw the Warg’s muscles move.
“Oss!” He roared, and a Wind Bullet shot out at the paw. Even though it was more like a breeze to the Warg, the resistance from the air propelled him backward and avoided its attack.
Even though the swipe failed, the Warg immediately moved forward and bit at Brendel, its figure in a white blur from the incredible speed.
“No!” Scarlett gave a short cry; she knew that the magic ring was unable to be used consecutively.
The youth was still suspended in mid-air and he looked like he was going to be crushed.