The Amber Sword

Quinn waved his hand and conjured a vine which grew from the ground. It quickly climbed around the rock pillars, and the Tree Elf jumped down and caught onto it, dodging the monster that awkwardly tried to swipe at him with its paw. The Warg eventually jumped down onto the ground and snarled at the Tree Elf, who was hanging on to the vine somewhere in the middle of the rock bridge’s height.

Brendel judged that he was close enough and leaped into the air, bringing Halran Gaia above his head and intending to chop the monster’s head, but it suddenly turned its head to bite at him. The youth was forced to change his attack into a defense, knocking his blade against the fangs. The sounds created sounded more like pieces of metal crashing against each other.

The huge force made Brendel retreat repeatedly and he could hardly feel his fingers from the feedback. The second time he blocked the Misthowler’s fangs after it pounced on him, made Halran Gaia bend nearly ninety degrees.

[Are you kidding me!?]

Halran Gaia proved to be a weapon that was made well. The weapon was flexible and robust, and it returned to its original form like a spring, but it also resulted in Brendel pushed far away from the Warg.

The huge wolf jumped a short distance away to assess the situation. The Tree Elf was slowly climbing back to the top of the rock bridge, while Brendel was fending off several black wolves that came after him.

It decided to attack the youth first. It started running in the fog, causing the three to lose track of the monster.

Brendel barely caught sight of the Misthowler charging at him at top speed. He subconsciously raised his right arm and felt a tremendous jolt of pain to his whole body, and found himself high up in the air. The Ironbark armor was ripped off along with the bonus armor provided by Bahamut’s grasp.

The youth soon crashed onto soft ground and rolled several times—

[Soft...... ground? Shit, my head’s bleeding. My sword knocked against my own head.]

He sat up and nearly found himself falling over and hurriedly steadied himself. At first, he thought he had been knocked dizzy, but he suddenly found himself looking at a pair of confused red eyes. A Dire Wolf the size of a large horse carriage turned its head, and it was blinking and looking at him.

Brendel screamed a little at the sudden surprise. The Dire Wolf reacted far better than the youth and bit at his shoulder without any hesitation.

There was a crunching sound.

“My lord!” Scarlett screamed as well. She was busy with dealing with the wolves around them, that she took a moment to realize the object that was knocked into the air was her lord. When she finally realized that fact, she turned around to see a wolf munching on him.

She felt that the world had become dark and became dizzy.

But Brendel wrenched off its jaws and pulled out his arm. He stood up and climbed over its head.

“Sit, doggy!” He yelled as he punched its head. The sounds of crushed bones could be heard audibly. The Dire Wolf sank down in a strange position. Brendel had an eye closed as blood was streaming over it. Even though he looked calm, he was screaming and cursing inside his mind.

[Fuck, it hurts like hell. This is really quite a bad situation. Unlucky, too.]

His HP had gone below zero. The Unyielding Talent activated fully, and he hurriedly took out a health potion and drank it immediately. A slight rumbling on the ground made him search for the Warg, only to discover that it was charging at him again.

But Quinn had positioned himself once again and used an invisibility spell to mask his presence. The distance was far away and the target was small and moving quickly. Even for an Elf, it was a difficult target. There was also the situation where the Warg reacted much too quickly even without seeing them. Two green lines went straight at the Misthowler’s forehead, perfectly calculated to meet it halfway.

But they missed, easily going through the Warg’s body as though it was mist, and the tail feathers still shaking on the ground.

Quinn was utterly shocked and stared in disbelief. The arrows were blessed by the Goddess Nia, and were divine objects that countered Element Powers from any monster—

But the Warg could use its Element Power on them without issues?

[Nice one, Quinn! You forced it to use its trump card!]

It was a technique called Mist Projection. It was a magic that protected against all physical or magical attacks, as the body was projected away to another plane by casting on it. Even Divine spells or magic derived from Laws could not affect it. Fortunately, this magic could only be cast a single time per day.

Brendel wanted to get the Misthowler into a berserk state, and one of the ways was to get it to use this magic.

Startling blood-red runes lit up all over the Warg’s body. Mana Rampage was an ability that all higher-ranked corrupted monsters had, which was similar to a Berserker’s Rampage ability, but it had almost no side effects other than expending all the mana in the body.

It was one of the trump cards a corrupted monster had, and would not be used unless they were in danger.

Their levels would go up by 5 and their stats by 10%.

Brendel guessed that the Warg was now close to level 70, and this powerful burst of strength caused Quinn and Scarlett to tremble.

The Tree Elf saw the Misthowler return to physical form. It opened its jaws, with a red light gathering in its throat. Quinn wanted to flee to another area, but he discovered that mist had gathered all around him and the air was almost solid, making it impossible to move.

A red beam fired from the Warg and struck directly at him. His bow fell to the ground and he started to scream.

Curse-type magic, Life Vaporization.

It was one of the most frightening spells that a gamer could face in the Calamity of Wolves. It was a magic spell classified under witchcraft, a true Instant Death magic spell, and it vaporizes all the liquid in a person’s body. This was an instant kill for most creatures.

“Hahahahaha!” Brendel was apologetic in his mind when it happened. However, he laughed maniacally, almost as though he was enjoying Quinn’s screams, but it was also true that he was waiting for this moment. His left hand was already up in mid-air with a card even before the attack landed on Quinn.

– Magic Control card activated

– Sensing......

– The following spells have been detected, “Life Vaporization, Aura of Lightning, Protection of Life”

[Aura of Lightning is probably Scarlett’s ability, but Protection of life is probably from Quinn. I don’t remember him casting this spell, so it’s probably from an equipment that got triggered from the Life Vaporization. He really has quite a good set of equipment. Target Life Vaporization.]

– Target acquired

The Misthowler suddenly roared in confusion, realizing that it was unable to control its magic. Brendel pointed at it, and the beam of light suddenly jerked in multiple angles and shot back at the Misthowler’s body.

There was a sharp bestial scream that caused everyone to flinch. Red mist constantly poured out from the Warg’s body, and it quivered under the tremendous pain before falling to the ground.

“Hold your breaths and run away!” Brendel yelled out as the red mist extended its range to over ten meters.

The Warg had fallen unconscious and canceled the spell, however, that did not mean that it was over. The Mana in its body was out of control and was destroying the body from within.

An immense explosion happened. The innards of the Warg exploded everywhere, leaving behind a pile of white rotten meat. Because of the remaining Mana in its flesh, a series of explosions continued on it like water was thrown on heated oil.

Brendel finally felt relieved at seeing this ghastly scene. He sat on the ground and sighed, glancing at the corpse. He took a double take and gasped when he saw a black rock with tapered ends.

[No way, a Warg’s heart?]