“The Pulse of the Earth. The Flow of the Wind.” A peaceful smile was on Linley’s face as he began to drift off into sleep. Linley had total confidence that any tremors on the ground caused by something approaching, or any disturbances in the wind caused by something moving rapidly toward him, would immediately awaken him.
These were the abilities possessed by earth magi and wind magi.
The night slowly grew deeper. Curled in front of Linley, the little Shadowmouse ‘Bebe’ also began to emit extremely light, quiet snoring sounds. The night wind grew cool as well, but right now, it was summer in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts. Only at night would it feel cool and refreshing. In the day, it felt stiflingly hot.
Late at night. All was dark.
“Rustle, rustle.” The soft sounds of something rustling against the grass could be heard.
A pair of powerfully-built Windwolves with gleaming blue fur were pacing about within the forest. Their green-tinted eyes were carefully inspecting their surroundings as their powerful limbs silently stalked through the area.
Their cruel white fangs gleamed with a cold light in the night.
36
Wolf Pack
Still seated cross-legged, Linley’s eyes suddenly snapped open, and he immediately stared southwards. But there was nothing to the south aside from a mass of vines and rattan growth. This was one of the reasons why Linley had selected this location to rest. With so much forest growth, even if a magical beast neared Linley, they might not notice him.
“Two magical beasts are nearing me, and right now they are around forty meters or so away.” Based on the vibrations from the disturbances in the local air elemental essences, Linley was certain that there were two beasts.
Linley silently walked to the edge of the mass of vines. Peering through the vines, he saw that thirty meters away, a pair of powerfully-built Windwolves were slowly pawing towards him. Based on their route, they would come very close to him. Suddenly, Linley felt a weight settle on his shoulders, and he knew that Bebe had already arrived on his shoulders.
“Boss, it’s just a pair of Windwolves. We’ve seen them several times at the Ernst Institute.” Not worried in the slightest, Bebe chatted casually with Linley.
Linley’s gaze was fixed on the two Windwolves. “Yes, they are Windwolves. Among the wolf packs, there are three major types: Fangwolves, Windwolves, and Frostwolves. Frostwolf packs are the strongest type, while Fangwolves are the weakest. Windwolves are squarely in the middle. In a pack of Windwolves, even the weakest will be a magical beast of the fourth rank, while elites might be of the fifth or sixth rank. Supposedly, the strongest a Windwolf can be is a magical beast of the eighth rank.”
Even an ordinary Windwolf was of the fourth rank. A Unicorn Boar simply wasn’t on the same level.
My power as a warrior is just of the fourth rank. Based on physical skills alone, I can’t overcome these two Windwolves.” Linley was feeling a bit excited. “But this will make it a challenge.”
Watching the two Windwolves draw nearer, Linley’s lips began to mumble the words to a magic spell as his eyes grew cold.
“Shrrrk! Shrrk! Shrrrrk! Shrrrk!”
A deep roar could be heard as within the dark night, ten or so large rocks, each at least one meter long and earthen-colored, suddenly flew towards the Windwolves, smashing at them. But the Windwolves quickly raised their heads. Seeing the danger, they immediately began to flee at high speed.
The low thud of an impact.
In the short period of time before the rocks struck, the Windwolves were able to respond with uncanny swiftness. Of the two Windwolves, one had a back leg smashed, while the other managed to adroitly dodge every single rock.
“They live up to the name of ‘Windwolves’. They are so fast!”
Linley thought to himself, even as he began mumbling the words to another spell, the wind-style ‘Supersonic’ spell. Simultaneously, he pulled out his straight chisel blade, then charged directly forward at the injured, retreating Windwolf at high speed.
A warrior of the fourth rank, aided by the Supersonic spell, had roughly the same level of speed as the uninjured Windwolf. Naturally, the injured one was much slower than Linley. The injured wolf frantically fled in terror while baring its fangs.
“Swish! Swish! Swish!”
A string of knives of air appeared out of nowhere and hacked at Linley.
“Hrmph, all wolves have heads as hard as copper and tails as hard as steel, but their waists are as soft as tofu.”
Linley was extremely agile. With three simple motions, he dodged the wind knives and drew even closer to the injured Windwolf. Like a tornado, Linley kicked out with his left leg, snapping forward viciously like a whip onto the Windwolf’s waist.
“Woooo!” The Windwolf was sent flying by the kick, and he let out an agonized howl.
With another step, Linley once again drew close to the injured Windwolf. The straight chisel in his hand flashing with a beautiful, cold, pitiless light, he chopped at the Windwolf’s chest. Linley felt as though the straight chisel in his hand had struck a tough, resilient cloth. He was only able to just barely cut through, causing blood to spurt out.
“The Windwolf’s waist is fairly weak, but its fur is quite tough. Or perhaps a better way to put it is my straight chisel isn’t sharp enough. It can cut through simple stone, but the fur and skin of a magical beast of the fourth rank is a tougher matter,” Linley thought to himself as he carefully kept his gaze on the other Windwolf.
The other Windwolf didn’t actually move. It was just standing there, staring at Linley. Within its cold green eyes was a murderous aura, and low growls were constantly coming from its maw.
“If the Windwolf isn’t injured, then just based on my prowess as a warrior of the fourth rank, there’s no way I can kill him. That’s just a dream.” Linley knew quite well that Windwolves specialized in speed. If he hadn’t been assisted by a wind magic spell, he wouldn’t be able to match it in speed.
Linley immediately began to mumble the words to another spell, but halfway through, his face suddenly changed.
“Not good!”
The low howl of the Windwolf echoed in all directions, and it was matched by howls from all directions as well. Linley swept his gaze across the area, and as he did, it was met by one pair of cold green eyes after another, hidden in the darkness.
“It isn’t just one Windwolf… it’s a pack!”
Linley’s heart immediately tightened. Even Bebe, who up ‘til now had just been sitting off to the side and feigning boredom, sat up, all his fur straightening as well as he carefully looked in all directions.
“Boss, looks like it’s getting dangerous.”
“Grandpa Doehring, your prediction was way too prescient…” A bitter expression was on Linley’s face.
In the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, running into a pack of Windwolves was just as lethal as running into an extremely powerful magical beast.
“Prescient my ass. I was talking about encountering a pack of tens of thousands of Windwolves. In a situation like that, unless you can fly, there’s no way you’ll be able to survive. The current situation is a bit better. At most, there’s twenty or thirty of them.” Doehring Cowart’s voice was casual, but his face was solemn. “But Linley, you must understand, I’m just a spirit without any mageforce. I can’t help you. It’s all up to you.”
Linley felt miserable.
“Twenty or thirty Windwolves, all at least of the fourth rank. Windwolves are very fast, and they can use magical attacks. I’m just a magus of the fifth rank.” Linley felt enormous pressure. Right at this moment, the howls of the surrounding Windwolves ceased.
From within the pack of Windwolves, two exceedingly powerfully-built Windwolves strode out. In terms of size, they were at least one size larger than the previous Windwolves Linley had seen. The one which had been lucky enough to survive was respectfully walking beside these two, and even whining in a low voice, as if it were saying
something to them.
Their bodies and even their eyes were a full category larger than the others. This made Linley feel even more nervous as he began to consider what to do next.
“These are definitely elites among Windwolves. At the very least, they are of the fifth rank. I hope they aren’t of the sixth rank!” Linley’s heart was tight, and he quickly began to contemplate how to deal with these opponents.
Even if they were just of the fifth rank, a pair of Windwolves of the fifth rank, with the assistance of a pack of magical beasts of the fourth rank, all attacking Linley… Linley didn’t feel too confident. Even a Windwolf of the fourth rank had the same speed as Linley’s absolute maximum. Most likely, even using the Supersonic spell, Linley would not be able to match a Windwolf of the fifth rank in speed.
The two leading Windwolves stared at Linley with their cold eyes, a murderous intent emanating from them.
“Looks like I’ll have to go all out this time.” Surrounded by a pack of wolves, Linley’s forehead and back were all drenched with cold sweat. His heart tight in his chest, he began to chant a magical spell with even greater speed.
“Hoooooowl!”
Of the two clear leaders of the pack, one of them suddenly let out a low howl. Immediately, the twenty or thirty powerful Windwolves charged forward, as fast as the wind. Their white fangs bared, they snarled at Linley as they ran. At the same time, over a hundred deep green blades of wind appeared out of nowhere, each carrying great power within them.
Linley was currently surrounded by around twenty Windwolves, and over a hundred deep green blades of air virtually locked Linley in, preventing him from fleeing.
There was no way to flee!
Linley suddenly moved. At high speed, he launched off the ground and, like an arrow, shot up in the air, aiming to land on a sturdy tree branch. But because there were simply too many wind blades, over ten of them still landed on Linley’s body.
“Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!”
The wind blades slashed at Linley’s sturdy leather armor, knocking him off course midair. Linley frantically grasped at a thick tree branch, and with a somersault, flipped onto the tree and began to climb up. Only after hurriedly climbing up twenty or thirty meters did he come to a halt and look downwards.
“That was really dangerous.”
Linley let out a breath. Right now, Linley’s body was suffused with a layer of stone-like armor which was in turn covered by a layer of earth elemental essence emanating a faint rocky glow.
Earth-style magic – Earthguard!
The Earthguard spell required its user to at least be a magus of the fifth rank. When magi of the fifth and sixth ranks used this spell, they used a large amount of earth elemental essence to form a rocky armor which had fairly strong defensive abilities. It could defend against multiple attacks from an opponent of the same level.
These wind knife spells only possessed the strength of the third or fourth ranks.
“Roaaar!” A fierce howl split the air.
Linley stared downwards, and saw that the wind was beginning to gather beneath the feet of those twenty Windwolves. All of them suddenly leapt up into the air, with the two leaders managing to leap up ten meters, landing on a large branch. Their powerful talons dug into the branch, giving them a very stable footing.
Windwolves possessed a tremendous sense of balance, so climbing trees was actually not too hard for them.
“I’m not afraid of you guys climbing trees. I’m only afraid that you wouldn’t climb up.” Linley felt the blood in his veins begin to boil. The more dangerous the situation was, the more potentially lethal it became, the more excited Linley got.
In terms of climbing ability, Windwolves were somewhat inferior to humans. Linley agilely clambered from one tree to another, while the pack of Windwolves howled with fury as they gave chase.
In the outer regions of the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, a pack of Windwolves was definitely the most powerful organization around. Even most warriors of the sixth rank, when faced with a pack of Windwolves, would elect to retreat. After all, no matter how tough they were physically, even the body of a warrior of the sixth rank could not stand a direct blow from a Windwolf’s claws.
Linley and the twenty or so Windwolves thus began a game of hide and seek on the trees. The two Windwolf leaders were faster than Linley, and so Linley had no choice but to constantly change directions to dodge. Suddenly, the leading Windwolves shot out numerous wind blades, and Linley was immediately forced to change direction to dodge.
“Crack!” A tree trunk was severed by the wind knives, and the tree began to topple.
“Crash!”
The claws of one of the leading Windwolves reached Linley, raking at his back. The Earthguard armor trembled a few times, and its elemental essence flashed and flickered.
“Crash! Crash! Crash!”
The Windwolf leaders were simply too fast, and they were also extremely agile. Their fierce claws reached Linley’s back several times, as well as his head and other extremities, but fortunately, because the Earthguard armor was formed from elemental essence, it could be manipulated in terms of shape. Linley was currently using it to form a helmet as well. But under the repeated assault from the Windwolf leaders, the elemental essence on top of the armor was starting to flicker.
“These Windwolf leaders are simply too fast. The Earthguard armor won’t hold much longer.”
Grinding his teeth, Linley climbed higher and higher up. By weight, he was much lighter than the Windwolves, and his climbing abilities were also superior. By the time Linley reached a height of around eighty meters, the Windwolves could no longer climb any higher. All they could do was spit out one wind knife after another at Linley. Linley dodged the best he could; only if he absolutely couldn’t dodge did he allow his Earthguard to take the blow.
“If you fell from such a height, wouldn’t you die?” Linley was murmuring the words to a magic spell. To be able to maintain his calm under such a dangerous situation was something Linley accomplished thanks to constantly training his mental fortitude.
“Crash!”
A wind knife smashed against the Earthguard armor. Previously teetering at the edge of destruction, the Earthguard armor finally broke apart into countless specks of elemental essence, sparkling in the air. This knife was immediately followed by another one, which Linley detected right away.
“Most wind knife spells from these wolves are equivalent to a third level magus’ spell. They won’t be able to kill me, given that I’m a warrior of the fourth rank.” Linley continued to chant the words to his spell, allowing the wind knife to slash his body. “Swish, swish.” Blood erupted from the slash as a terrifying wound appeared on Linley’s chest, leaking fresh blood.
Linley only frowned slightly, continuing to chant the words to his spell.
“Whoosh!” “Whoosh!” “Whoosh!” “Whoosh!”
Over a hundred sharp rocks coalesced, gleaming with earth elemental essence. The densely packed stones shot out at the twenty Windwolves, with thirty stones centered on the heads of the two leading Windwolves. Both of the Windwolf leaders were knocked to the ground. The stones were simply too densely packed. With one crashing sound after another, the Windwolves were knocked to the ground, one after another. Even the tree branches were smashed through as they fell.
After using this technique, the vast majority of the Windwolves were smashed to the ground. But these Windwolves were very agile, and their fur was very thick. Although they were smashed downwards, many of them managed to get a clawhold on a tree branch, while others just suffered some superficial injuries. None of them died.
“This injury looks bad, but it’s actually just a flesh wound. Still, I can’t let it keep on bleeding like this.” Linley’s left hand suddenly blazed with flame, and then he pressed it against his wounds. A crackling sound could be heard, and Linley couldn’t help but wince and suck in a deep breath. The smell of cooking flesh wafted out from Linley’s chest. Just
like that, Linley had ‘sealed’ the wound with flame, leaving behind a very ugly scar.
While doing the above, Linley also took the opportunity to quickly flee, jumping from one tree branch to another. In the blink of an eye, he fled very far, and then directly threw himself towards the ground. Linley directly fell around eighty or so meters, but as his body was surrounded by a flow of air, his speed of descent was not too fast. By the time he reached the ground, Linley had already finished mumbling the words to yet another spell.
That pack of Windwolves had also chased towards him, and quite soon, they drew close.
The two Windwolf leaders were the first to draw near. Howling, they stared at Linley, a look of suspicion in their ice cold eyes. Why had Linley stopped fleeing? These highly intelligent magical beasts were now suspecting that Linley had prepared some trap.
“Growl…” One of the two Windwolf leaders let out a low growl. Immediately, as though responding to an order, a Windwolf of the fourth rank leapt directly towards Linley.
Linley suddenly leapt up and pointed at the distant group of Windwolves. In a low voice, Linley said, “Supergravity Field!”
Earth-style magic – Supergravity Field!
This was an extremely terrifying earth-style spell. Through controlling and utilizing a large amount of earth elemental essence, this spell allowed the user to manipulate the strength of gravity in a localized area, causing opponents to suffer dramatically from the increased gravity. Only a magus of the fifth rank was capable of utilizing the Supergravity Field spell.
And the more powerful an earth-style magus was, the more powerful the effect his Supergravity Field would have.
“Rumble…”
The very air trembled. With Linley at the epicenter, a circular area with a diameter of 100 meters suddenly began to glow with earth elemental essence. All of the Windwolves within this diameter suddenly felt an astonishingly powerful pull of gravity. The Windwolf which was charging Linley was also affected by it, causing him to collapse to the ground in mid-leap. All the other Windwolves felt rather shocked as well. The two Windwolf leaders let out furious howls, and ignoring everything else, charged directly towards Linley. But these two Windwolves now clearly possessed less than half of their original strength.
Coiling Dragon_Book 1 of the Coiling Dragon Saga Page 32
