Mage And Wolf
Chapter 121

Chapter 121: Chapter 121

"So do we wait for them to come back, or go clear some monsters ourselves?" Karl asks with a grin. How is that even a question?

"Might as well go help them out. The category 3 areas are still under staffed."

Our drive towards the city is slow, many groups are in the area, plus some in the category 1 areas are still using regular rifles and Karl doesn’t want his precious truck damaged.

The crowd rapidly thins out as we enter the category 2 areas though, and I’m putting down monsters a couple times a minute just to keep the road clear. Shoot, hop out and gather the core, hop back in. Rinse and repeat.

Craters from intense battles dot the countryside and we decide it’s best to leave the truck somewhere safe and proceed on foot. A mostly destroyed and abandoned barn does the job, putting the truck out of sight and making it easy to find later.

It’s got the Arcana City logo on it and the mark of the Death God on the hood, it’s unlikely someone would try to steal it, but we pack the mounted gun and ammo cars into the back seat anyhow. Don’t need a semi intelligent monster getting ahold of that.

We’ve just entered the area said to include category 3 monsters when huge monsters come into sight. Some sort of Dark Skinned Stone Giants, seven of them by my initial count.

"Good thing we ditched the truck, explosions barely phase those things" Karl whispers.

"Who is taking center and who takes flank?" It’s been a while since I fought beside Karl, and I’m not certain on his current level of abilities.

"I’ll take center, a dozen Arcane whips will keep them busy. You flank left and drive them to me. I believe there’s a Portal in those ruined buildings, the way they’re all hanging around."

Karl strides in with the confidence of a man afraid of nothing, or blissfully unaware what he’s getting into. But confident either way. Twenty meters away from the giants he lights up the area with the glow of purple Arcane tentacles, grabbing clubs, smacking into limbs and wreaking havoc among the giants.

I activate Shadow Meld and run to attack the furthest left, bringing out my claws at the last second for a clean decapitation. I feel Karl’s enchantments flow into me as the first head falls, doubling my strength and tripling my speed. Oh, how I’ve missed fighting alongside an Arcane mage.

My dragon armor settles onto my body as I launch from the shoulders of my first target to drive a hard kick into the back of the nearest giant. The collision sounds more like crushing stones with a hammer than hitting a living being, but the energy directed through my kick rushes out on contact, shattering the giant’s spine and leaving a huge section of the skin on its back covered in cracks, reminding me of a broken windshield.

A club rushes towards me, heedless of the fate of the giant I just hit. A hard punch shatters the wood, leaving the enraged giant with nothing but a stump.

Karl trips the disarmed, granite skinned warrior and I quickly sever its neck before it can recover.

All that’s left is the leader. Half again as large as the others, standing well over 14 meters tall, this one carries a huge two handed sword with great dexterity. It can parry the energy whips Karl is sending its way, the few blows that get through barely registering through its armor.

"This guy is tough. He’s got good magic resistance, the whips won’t stun him, and it’s hard to get a strike through the armor." Karl says in a low voice.

"I’ll try under the arms first, his legs look pretty well armored".

Plan set, I activate Shadow Meld and try to get behind it. I think it can still sense me though, as it steps to the side, keeping both of us in front of it for a moment.

With a spinning parry it knocks the whips side and dissipates some, rushing at Karl with a fast overhand chop he has to use a whip to pull himself clear of, grabbing a tree in the distance.

I go for the under arm, driving my saber up through the light armor, rewarded with a steady stream of blood as it turns to level the same rapidly spinning sword attack at me. That monstrosity of a weapon likely weighs more than our truck, no way can I parry that.

I’m on the retreat, circling the giant trying to find an opening in his defense to land a solid hit when Karl rejoins the fray. A whip around the neck pulls the armored behemoth off balance and I drive my sword up into the exposed gap between armor and helmet.

It’s bleeding heavily enough now that it’s running over the armor of its pants and only a matter of time remains between us and victory. But what we didn’t count on was reinforcement.

Karl is nearly skewered by a giant thrown spear and two huge figures appear through the mostly hidden portal in the rubble.

"You get those, I’ll deal with the heavy" I call to Karl, who is better at area control.

His whips are now joined by barrages of flying energy spears, trying to take down the ranged giants before they hit him with something he can’t dodge. Their light armor proves no match, as I can see small wounds punching holes through it and fresh blood appearing.

The armored leader is visibly slowing now. The defensive swirl of his sword has stopped, replaced by sudden rapid strikes and blocks. I switch from swords to claws, driving them deep into the side of a knee, collapsing him to a seated position and limiting his ability to swing the huge sword.

He switches to fists, doing his best to crush me, but I’ve landed a few good gouges into his wrists and he’s getting woozy from blood loss, collapsing a few seconds later and getting my sword through his skull just to be sure.

Karl has finished with the reinforcements, peppering them with attacks and crushing bones with whip strikes.

"I’ve got the whip spell enchanted for energy penetration, it should crush bones with every strike, but those things just shrugged it off" Karl mutters annoyed.

"Tanky opponents are definitely our weakness" I concur. "I can put a lot into a strike, especially for my level, but that armor was brutal to get through. Heavy steel with soft padding underneath."

"How did that portal look? Hopefully it’s not one of the dungeons?"

"It’s not, but it’s pretty stable, I’ll take a few minutes to collapse it." Karl replies, looking it over. "Keep anything that comes off of me while I cast. They might be sensitive to mana and Qi usage".

He was right, as soon as he starts casting, a spear wielding giant rushes towards the portal, down the huge hallway in the other side. I grab and pull, trying to drag it out of the portal to fight on my side, but get only the huge weapon.

I follows with a piecing strike of a sword that was hung at its hip, stepping all the way out as I dodge back. Karl takes the opportunity to hurl a discarded sword using Arcane Magic, piercing the giant back to front, falling backwards through the portal just before it closes.

"I guess we miss out on that proof of kill" he laughs "But it’s better than finding out who else lives in that huge castle."

No truer words have been spoken. The ten we met were enough, and that looked like a castle built for beings standing up to 15 meters tall. Very unlikely that those were all the inhabitants.

We gather cores as quickly as we can, wanting to get to the next target, but that proves unnecessary. The giants were guarding the portal because they had a patrol out. A patrol that has now returned.

They’re not as huge as the leader, being more average for these giants at 9 meters tall. Two stand shirtless with swords in hand, staring at the carnage in outrage. The third is more heavily armored, wearing a chest plate and greaves, carrying a massive axe.

"The axe is magical, be careful until we know the effect" Karl calls "The tank is yours, I’ve got the swordsmen."

Great, thanks Karl. But I am the tank of our duo, being a well armored physical cultivator while he is a Mage. But that gives me an idea. Giants are intelligent beings, which might have souls. If they had souls they can be brought back as undead.

I focus deep in my spirit ocean and find lingering hints of the giants. Not as clear and ready as humans, but I should be able to bring them back as meat shields.

With a surge of Death Energy the sky goes black, the ground trembles and with a deep roar, all but the beheaded giants we felled earlier rise. Unfortunately that means no leader, his head was too damaged, but I’ve got 6 huge bodyguards now.

The patrol is irate, yelling something even the language barrier can’t stop me from knowing is an insult. But the undead are on them, clubbing, crushing and ripping them apart. The battle is over in seconds.

"That’s odd, these ones take a lot of energy to keep upright, humans took almost nothing." I let them collapse and raise just the one from the patrol that still has all its limbs, plus it’s Monster Core. That takes very little effort.

"Without the core, it’s hard to keep them as undead. Hop on a shoulder, I’ve found us a ride for the day."