Mage And Wolf
Chapter 111

Chapter 111: Chapter 111

The first few monsters don’t even notice my presence, cloaked as it is by Shadow Meld. But their comrades notice them falling and start turning our way.

I draw my sword, extending the blade an extra 2 meters, like I am wielding a polearm. The incredible amounts of Death Energy flowing into me are overflowing my spirit ocean, even with every kick, jump and sing of the sword burning off as much as I can.

I hear the gun go silent and worry the last barrel died early, but then I feel Hui’Jin breaking through. As it peaks, I send her a mental message to take the 2 pills I gave her for this occasion. A Core Forming Pill and a Soul Forging Pill. The combination extends the breakthrough, taking her to the third rank of Fortification.

I won’t be far behind her, I’m pouring as much as I can into her, and into my attacks, but a breakthrough is inevitable around this many dying category 3 beasts. I hope my cultivation is properly stabilized after the late opening of my Spirit Ocean.

I chop the legs out from under a pair of giant hippos, bringing them crashing down and temporarily blocking the beasts headed to the hill to escape. Arrows rain from the sky in a constant stream, but I’m not sure how long they can keep that up.

There is shouting from the other hill, but I can’t see what’s happening.

’Kel’Mira I need to know what’s happening in the other side’ I send to her through the weak link Priestesses share. I dislike communicating this way, something is always lost in translation, coming through more as an image than the desired words.

I should really invest in some short range radios tomorrow. The Ramirez Brothers use them all the time, but I never thought to pack them.

I get an image back of 2 wounded being dragged back and the archers focusing fire on the front lines while withdrawing.

Crap, we’re losing our allies.

I focus on maiming as many as possible, drawing the herd back towards me and giving the other team a breather. Hopefully they stay, as I’m forced back towards the ridge furthest from the hills.

Wounding them was more effective than I thought, everything is coming this way. Even the big gun and the lightning arrows no longer draw their attention.

I duck between the legs of a giant humanoid, removing his leg below the knee, then plunge my sword into the chest of a previously fallen giant ape.

A fist comes for my head from the giant and I’m out of position to parry, so I throw a hard punch in the Divine Fist Style at it, shattering the giant’s hand but throwing me back towards another group of giant humanoids.

Clubs the size of Oak trees crash down and I reactivate Shadow Meld, trying to confuse them so I can dodge. I have to deactivate my Flame Sword to do it though.

I dig my claws into the flank of an oxen like beast and launch myself for the back of a giant’s neck, activating my sword and returning to clear visibility at the last second.

His head falls with a thud and I take advantage of the confusion to fell another giant and run away under cover of Shadow Meld.

I’m back along the oxen type beasts and I can see the other team fighting at the bottom of the hill now, giving their wounded and archers some breathing room.

Their strategy is to team up on a target, hitting it from the blind spots while it engages one member. It’s going much better than whatever they were trying earlier.

The ground is slowly touring into red mud now, and becoming slippery. A hazard not just for me, but for the monsters as well. A giant moves to crush me with a huge fist, but loses traction and falls to his knees in the mud, an easy target for my blade.

It feels like I’ve been at this forever. The gun has long since fallen silent, the black flames of Hui’Jin’s flying blades taking its place. Arrows still rain down in waves, and I can see the guys drawing energy from cores to keep up their Qi.

We can’t keep this up much longer though. No matter how many stamina Pills I have, our bodies will collapse within the hour most likely. But the battle has moved to the far side of the valley, leaving the portal deserted.

I send Hui’Jin and Kel’Mira a mental image of the portal and hope they understand to close it asap.

The last of the giant humanoids is down now, and almost everything is wounded. My armor has taken thousands of hits and every bit of my body aches, to the point I can barely swing my sword, but it’s still holding strong.

I fall back, desperately needing a break and see the number of enemies is down to under a hundred, none of which seem to be in good shape.

That’s the moment the portal flickers closed, giving us all renewed hope for an end to this self inflicted nightmare.

An hour of grueling labor later, nothing bigger than a human moves in this valley and the two groups have come together for a much needed meal.

"Hui’Jin I chopped up a tree right there earlier, do you have the energy to set it on fire?"

She nods and does it without a word, exhausted.

"Camping isn’t complete without a campfire." I laugh, bringing smiles all around.

Kel’Mira is in the best shape, despite all the healing needed over the later portion of the day, so she takes first watch while we either collapse where we sit or fall into meditation.

I’m up in 3 hours, the meditating and absorbed Death Energy enough to get me mobile, so I bring the truck into the valley and start setting up breakfast. One thing we can always count on is the emergency stash of breakfast packs in the Toyota. Thanks Karl.

I take watch until morning, waking everyone with the sun to the smell of fresh coffee and hot food.

"What are these hot meals?" One of the archers asks? "They’re amazing, and hot inside as soon as you open them"

"Those, sir, are an Arcana specialty. Breakfast rations for the Arcana defense forces and base staff. Made with magic in town"

"That city of yours sounds more amazing every time I hear something new about it. Next day off we will have to go visit."

"Well, once we collect and split these cores you should be able to afford to." I say with a weary look at the valley full of corpses. So densely packed in some areas that they’re stacked on top of each other.

By the time we finish the bus they brought is packed too full of valuable looking objects to put more than a driver in it, and it can barely move under its own power. Hui’Jin used the summoning circle to create a trailer for the Toyota, and it’s packed full.

The decision was to split the cores evenly between the teams, given the much higher per person killing power of our team. There’s over 1600 cores per group, almost every target had a viable one. Minus a few we smashed while killing them of course. In reality, we could live in luxury for decades off this, but in practice, most all of the cores will go to increasing cultivation, as we all struggle towards Immortality.

"You would all make excellent followers of the Death God. I am proud of you. Now, pull these vehicles up to the road and lets get to walking home."

We don’t make it far, as the sun goes down just after we get to the road and the decision is made to camp instead of attracting attention with the noise of the vehicles. Tomorrow is a good day for walking anyhow.

And all day is what it takes. We’re attacked three times by groups of category 2 beasts, adding to the giant pile of sacks containing proof of kills in the back of the Toyota. Hui’Jin is driving, in 4 wheel drive low range, with the rest of us holding ropes to the front tow points to get it up hills without overheating or dying.

The bus has done the same, but with harnesses tied to a single large knotted tow rope. Thankfully, even mystic cultivators are much stronger than regular humans.

Late afternoon we pull into the Guild compound in high spirits. No longer will this be our problem.