Chapter 25: 25. White Wolf Pack
Eloise from the snow house looks outside as the snowstorm rages around. He frowns at how their time is being wasted. He thought of his elder brother when he left because his brother was injured. Four days pass, and his injuries should have already healed.
He prays to the great god of magic that the tribes do not attack their camp. If the weather is normal they should today start their return journey. It takes three days from their camp to reach the Gate City.
But now is the fifth day morning, " It should be some hours before noon." With the snowstorm, he cannot give an accurate reading of the day's time.
After leaving their camp, they endured 5 snowstorms because of that the journey which took 3 days elongated to the fifth day, and still they did not reach the journey's end Gate City.
Eloise turns his head to see what his companions are doing. Reed is meditating, five guards are huddled together in warm coats, they are ordinary people they do not have magic energy to protect their bodies from the shivering cold.
He finds Lin reading his note on the illusion spell. When he left the camp, he also brought Lin with him. For him and Lin to advance to 2nd rank mage they have to learn another two 0-rank spells.
He learned the Illusion spell and Lin the Magic missile spell to advance to 1st rank mage. So, they can help each other. He already spent around a month learning the Magic missile spell but Lin started to learn the illusion spell a few days ago when they left the camp.
During the snowfall, inside the snow house with nothing to do, they start to help each other. After getting Lin's help, he feels that in a few days, he will learn the magic missile spell and be one step closer to advancing to a second-rank mage.
Lin says, " Lord Eloise, Can you explain to me this page?" Hearing this, Eloise starts explaining and helps Lin learn the Illusion spell.
The time passes, and as the sky darkens the snowstorms also stop.
Eloise notices the snowstorm and turns to Reed. Reed is in charge of the team.
Reed picks up the firestone from the ground, their source of light. He says," Let's go, the snowstorm stopped, we do not know again when it will start again."
Everyone then packs their luggage and starts their journey to GateCity.
After hours of walking on the snow, Reed who is leading the team, suddenly stops. Everyone behind also stopped but they all kept quiet because it happened multiple times during the journey.
Reed is a 4th-rank knight, Knights are a physical profession with stronger bodies and heightened senses, and instead of magic energy the energy of their body is called fighting spirit energy.
But this time instead of starting the journey again, Reed commands," Get ready to fight a pack of wolves is coming in our direction."
He continues, " You five, guard the young lord and the mage."
The five soldiers surround them in a circle formation and start checking their magic gun. Magic guns are rarely affected by the cold but sometimes it happens. But with the mages in their team, they can repair the magic guns even if they do not work.
Eloise inside the circle starts to control his magic energy ready to perform his spell. He still now did not hear the sound of the wolf pack coming toward them.
But he did not doubt Reed, He has a concern because in this region four types of wolf species are found- The white wolf, the highest strength they reach is bronze rank, The Ice wolf, the highest strength they reach is Silver rank so are the Silver Wolf, and lastly the most dangerous WinterMoon Wolf the highest strength is Golden rank and some them even advance to Legendary Magic Beast realm.
If the wolf pack coming toward them is a white wolf pack, then there are no worries for them. Even a Bronze Rank White Wolf is coming toward them because when leaving his elder brother handed him a 2nd rank spell- Great Fireball.
But if the wolf pack is of Ice wolf or Silver wolf, then the situation will become a death situation for them.
And If it is a WinterMoon Wolf pack, then they should surrender and bow toward them. So, the wolf pack can feel pity toward them and not kill them.
The 2nd rank spell- Great Fireball will guarantee to kill or seriously injure a Bronze Rank White wolf, and Seriously injure or slightly injure a Bronze Rank Ice Wolf or Silver Wolf.
But he cannot even guess the spell can even injure a WinterMoon wolf. When a WinterMoon wolf walks behind them a snowstorm follows and at night they can borrow energy from the moon.
A magic realm WinterMoon wolf with the power of the moon can raise their strength to the bronze realm and they're innately stronger than another average magic beast because of their blood power.
Eloise asks," Reed, can you tell what type of wolves are coming and their number?"
Reed answers," I cannot see them but from the sound of their howls. It must be a small pack and a White wolf pack."
Eloise nods, the sound of the four species of wolves are also different- White wolf similar to normal wolves, If one hears an Ice Wolf howl they will feel their blood being frozen into ice, Silver wolf howl makes them want to fall sleep, and the WinterMoon howl is like the coming of winter.
And after sometime he also heard the howls coming near them, his tense shoulders ease because Reed was right it is a small white wolf pack. And in a small white wolf pack their is rarely a Bronze Rank White wolf leading the pack.
Eloise stares in the direction of the howl, first the outline of the white wolf pack appears. Then slowly clear image of the pack. From the aura there is no bronze rank among the 13 white wolf but 5 of them are magic wolf.
Seeing them coming near, the five soldiers form a line to face the white wolf pack.
Reed," Do not shoot the magic wolves instead shoot common wolves to reduce their number."
And when the white wolf pack enters the range of magic guns. Shots are heard and among the common white wolves, three fall dead. The White wolf pack start run faster toward as the soldier reload the gun a magic missile shot out from Lin's hand.
Another common wolf fell dead because Lin's magic missile destroyed its head.
Reed also charged the wolf pack with fighting energy to protect his body. Eloise spots the strongest a late magic realm white wolf. He did not use his illusion spell on the strongest wolf but a magic wolf near the strongest wolf.
He with the illusion spell changes the appearance of the strongest white wolf to Reed in the vision of the magic wolf. And when the strongest wolf leaped toward Reed, the magic wolf influenced by him attacked the strongest wolf's hind leg.
The magic wolf influenced by him comes out of his influence when he bites on the strongest wolf's hind leg. Noticing he is biting his alpha, but gives Reed a chance to seriously injure another magic wolf.
Then sound of a gunshot rung kills the rest of the common wolves and brings the pack number to five magic wolves and among them, one is seriously injured.
No, the seriously injured magic wolf is dead from two consecutive magic missiles from Lin and there are four magic wolves now. The Alpha noticing his pack's dire state, with the other three wolves tries to distance himself from Reed.
But Eloise's target is one of the magic wolves to stumble and fall on the snow. And before the wolf can awake from his influence, He watches Reed drove his sword in the head of the White Wolf.
The Alpha and the two white magic wolves let out a howl and a huge spear formed above their head. Reed dodges which could be dodged and with his sword destroys one of the Ice Spears.
After some of the combined effort of the team, the whole pack perished. And rest for some time to recover their energy.
Time passes and after a day he can see the lights ahead. Seeing the large number of light fathers together in a place.
Eloise thought," They have arrived at the headquarters, GateCity."