Chapter 61: Frozen Corpses (1/2)
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Six silvery-white creatures ran across the snow-covered forest without any halt, they moved swiftly around the trees and bushes, avoided rocks and even the unseen roots that had been buried by the snow with amazing briskness and agility.
This display, showed their innate familiarity with their territory, even though it was now a lot smaller than it used to be. The wolves approached their pack with several dead killers in their maws when suddenly, a large and unnatural pit opened up in front of them.
The pit came, literally, out of nowhere. It wouldn't have been a surprise if all six of the wolves had fallen into that hole but, the wolves were nimble creatures and wouldn't go down so easily. However, in a group, there would always be one that was too slow to keep up with the others, or in this case, too slow to react.
A single silver wolf had fallen into the pit and was met with deadly sharp spikes at the bottom, killing it instantly. There was no time for them to take a breath though, as several arrows flew at them from their right. There were five arrows aimed at all five remaining wolves.
The arrows sliced through the air with great speed but the now aware silver wolves were just too fast. Their innate ability was Speed boost, which allowed them to drastically increase their speed for a short period of time.
Most of the monsters that lived in the eastern parts of the Darknar forest were agile and speed-based monsters, due to the difficulty in traversing the terrain.
The silver wolves scattered to the left of the last attack, but as it turned out, the enemy had predicted this as well. A barrage of wind blades came out suddenly from that direction and with most of them having already used Speed boost, the attack sliced up two sliver wolves on the spot.
Seeing two more of their kin die before their eyes, the remaining three silver wolves, dropped the beast in their mouths and went berserk. The skill °Rage Destruction° was used simultaneously and their fur stood on end as their eyes glowed brightly with a faintly red hue.
With their berserk skill, Rage Destruction, not only would their base strength and speed be multiplied. But, they would be able to use all their other skills indefinitely, although the berserk skill would rapidly drain their life force the longer it was activated.
Jarret already being aware of this immediately commanded his team to attack. They could not give the wolves time to pick them off one by one or worst, call for help.
Gail, who was stationed atop a large tree from about 120 meters away. Reloaded her purple crossbow and shot out multiple arrows at once. Of course, with the wolves increased physical abilities and their ability to use Speed boost countless times, they were able to easily dodge and avoid her arrows. However, her plan was never to hit them.
The wolves moved as predicted and Jarret, the only close-ranged fighter in this group, charged straight for the sliver wolf at the center. The others tried to intercept him but a furry of wind blades from Lora and Raz, including the well-timed and accurate shots by Gail, forcing the wolves to redirect their focus back to them.
Tarka cast support magic on Jarret that booster his strength and speed to keep up with the agile wolves. She was a Dragonwrought kobold with many useful abilities and trap magic was just one of them. She could use low-level healing spells as well as boost her allies with support magic.
Jin came from behind Jarret and drew the string of his composite longbow to its limits until its limbs began creaking. With a whoosh, the bowstring sliced through the air almost as far as Gail's arrow which had been fired from a crossbow.
Jarret threw a small blade at the sliver wolve that was left to him, his aim wasn't that accurate but it didn't matter. He had drawn the attention of that beast to himself. The Beast launched at him and threw two sliver claw strike in front of Jarret. Jarret immediately lunged out of the way and changed his target.
The claw strike hit the ground and the silver wolf couldn't help but turn its gaze to look at the prey that was running away, however, at that point in time. Jin's arrow hit its mark, with the effect of a skill, it went through the wolf's head and killed it on the spot.
Seeing another of their kin die in front of them, the remaining silver wolves instinctively knew they could not win. They also weren't given the chance to call for help due to the consistent ranged attacks that came their way.
Without a chance at winning, the two silver Wolves spammed their speed boost ability and took off running. With their boosted speed it would be impossible for the group to chase after them but that was not their objective in this fight.
Jarret knew the wolves would circle to their pack so he immediately ordered his party to retreat.
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After finally escaping the silver wolves' territory, the group could now finally take a short break before continuing on the rest of their mission.
They had already completed the first part of the mission and now had to head for the first safe zone closest to them.
However, due to their hasty retreat from the silver wolves' territory, their fragile formation had collapsed and they seemed to have stumbled into another monster's territory before they had to realize it. They had sat at the bottom of a large tree to catch their breath when blew passed them.
The monster gave off no aura, if it wasn't for the killing intent it radiated when it was about to strike, Jin would've lost his head. Jarret immediately drew his blade and deflected an attack to Kaz's neck before the others could react.
”What was that?” Jin said in a fluster instantly raising his alertness level. The monster moved so quickly it didn't even make a sound and none of the others could even see it.
Jarret's spirit vision had alerted him of something approaching rapidly and he had barely been able to block it. Yet, he did not see the monster himself. Gail rushed back sensing the danger and Tarka took flight, giving the group some air support while everyone else braced themselves for an onslaught.
As if on cue a barrage of attacks came raining down on them from all sides, it was like being beaten by over a dozen monsters but Jarret had confirmed there was only one. ”A Bandersnatch.” The words escaped his mouth without a second thought and the looks of dismay appeared on all their faces as they finally realized their current predicament.
”A-are you sure? Maybe it might just be something else.” Jin said in a worried tone. A Bandersnatch wasn't that much of a high-level monster, in fact, it was only at the Tier 3 standards yet, its name instilled fear in the group. This was because Bandersnatch was a purely speed-based magic beast with speeds that could rival that of one of the four kings, the ancient Rykir.
Such speeds weren't something fighters at Jarret's level could handle without help. The only positive was the fact that its strength was sorely lacking, as testament by the fact that they can withstand so many of its attacks.