Chapter 15: Plains
Ethan looked at the group, which was standing right in front of him; they were also glancing at the den.
"Ethan, come together with me. We both will enter through the den and clear the entrance so that our healer and mage can freely walk inside."
"Max, you should stay with them to protect them from any sudden attacks because the dire wolves aren’t idiotic fools like the rest of the wolf species."
No one disagreed with her, just a spree of polite nods which were to acknowledge her decision as the leader of the party.
Sara finally walked towards the den’s entrance. Ethan glanced at the group one last time before following behind her. His gaze constantly swept across the surroundings. He didn’t want to die the moment he stepped inside, so he made sure to keep an eye on everything around him.
They reached the mouth of the den; Sara’s steps came to a halt as she said. "You don’t have to indulge in unnecessary fights; try to assist me as much as you can because your level isn’t on the dire wolves’ level for now. One wrong move will result in you being their next meal." Her tone was blunt, but there wasn’t anything wrong in her words.
A bead of sweat appeared on Ethan’s temple, but he still gave a slight nod. Even though he had taken a sliver amount of damage to his ego, he also knew where he was right now.
Both of them didn’t waste any more time and walked through the mouth. Their sight became useless because of the darkness. But still Sara was able to move freely because she had coated her eyes with mana.
"Use your mana, and spread it across your eyes just like I taught you in the last two days. It will help you see what’s around you."
The moment her words reached Ethan, he instinctively remembered what she had taught him before.
’Let your mana flow through your core first. From there, guide it towards the part of your body you want to strengthen. Once it reaches that point, don’t force it. Let the mana flow naturally through your body and coat it. The better the flow, the better your control.’
Ethan followed her instructions. He circulated the mana through his core before directing it towards his eyes. A faint crimson glow spread across his vision, and suddenly, the darkness was no longer so difficult to see through. Crimson strands of mana became clearly visible, flowing through the darkness around him.
In his vision, multiple creatures shaped like wolves came into view. Their bodies were covered in a faint greenish glow, while their eyes and the edges of their bodies stood out brightly against the darkness. Some of them were bigger, and some were smaller than the others. But one thing was common in each: they were salivating a lot, which indicated that they were seeing both of them as prey.
But little did they know, Sara had already moved towards them. She had unsheathed her sword and trailed it to her left as she swung it in a clean arc, which resulted in beheading four dire wolves.
Their heads fell to the ground with a low THUD. Blood splashed across the ground, appearing as a bright, glowing shade of pitch black.
Now only a dozen of them remained, but they weren’t dumb enough to come at her one by one. They formed a position; four were at the front, and the rest lined up in four lines containing two dire wolves in each.
But Sara didn’t waver; she lunged forward, slicing the heads of the wolves standing at the front in a single swing, but unexpectedly, her sword’s edge had started to get sturdier.
Ethan, still standing behind them, recalled the techniques of the Aetherblade Ascension Art. His mind returned to the first sword technique, which was Crescent Seer.
He took a deep breath and lowered his stance before unsheathing his sword. His gaze remained locked onto the dire wolves. Then he swiftly swung his sword just as he remembered.
A crescent-shaped slash of pure crimson mana tore through the air and struck two of the wolves head-on. Their bodies were cut open, blood spilling from the fresh wounds as they howled loudly into the darkness.
His unexpected contribution helped Sara indirectly because if she had continued fighting all of them, her sword’s blade would have become even sturdier.
Ethan also lunged forward, advancing alongside Sara. Both of them at the same time slashed through the remaining dire wolves.
Although Ethan’s cuts were shallow and only resulted in making the wolves bleed, it was enough for him to take a head start and injure them to the extent where they couldn’t continue fighting.
Sara had wiped out another four of them; now the only ones that were left were fighting Ethan.
Ethan didn’t have enough space to swing this time around because the dire wolf had already covered the distance between them. But a random thought appeared in his mind. ’Stab!!’
He instinctively drove the head of the sword through the wolf’s heart, piercing it whole. The blood splashed all over Ethan’s face, which travelled down to his chest, making his entire shirt fill up with blood.
They had successfully killed every single dire wolf in this den. Ethan grabbed his knees as he leant over, taking a sigh of relief. "It’s finally over... I thought I would have died." He muttered, but it was loud enough for Sara to hear.
"Don’t drop your guard yet," she said, gaze fixed at the front.
Ethan looked at her with a confused expression; he didn’t know what she was talking about, but when he looked at where she was.
He spotted a wolf with a massive frame, standing nearly eight feet tall. Its broad, thick body was covered in dense fur, while saliva dripped from its tongue as it hung out of its mouth.
Suddenly, the wolf raised its head and released a powerful howl that echoed through the den. But this howl wasn’t filled with rage but with sadness because it had just slaughtered every other member of its pack, leaving the enormous wolf completely alone.