บท 13: Ch 12 - The Last Stand
The battlefield was stained red with blood and guts all over the place. The incomplete corpses of dead wolves laid all around the riverbank. The air smelled so repugnant that I could just vomit any second.
The stream water running down from the waterfall now was turned red. It was contaminated by all the dead grey wolf's flesh meat and organs.
Now the battle has taken its final form.
It's either the Crimson Velvet party or the Dire wolf, only one of the two could walk away.
The trio, Artecia, and Bel facing left and right guarding against the other remaining grey wolves.
Meanwhile, Razor standing in the front glaring straight ahead at the colossal beast, the ruler class Dire wolf.
I looked around and I didn't find Perry anywhere.
He might already be-
"Artecia, go back on the tree. Be on the lookout for Perry while also providing cover fire." Razor commanded without turning his head, maintaining his gaze at the Dire Wolf.
Artecia quickly turned around swiftly climb the tree she was hiding in before.
He continued,
"Bel, you stand your ground and defend Artecia."
Bel nodded in response and stood below Artecia's tree.
Two flames appeared in his hands, ready to deploy his spells.
"Stand your ground until Halberd and Metrina return.", Razor started walking towards the Dire wolf, "Meanwhile I shall try to tame this bib pup here."
The Dire wolf barked and the remaining other wolves hearing it started attacking Bel and Artecia. The two mages also replied with their fire spells and ice arrows and the battle fell in a stalemate.
Razor also sprinted towards the Dire wolf and slashed his sword left and right killing nearby grey wolves. He had a sneer on his face while mocking the Dire wolf.
The Dire Wolf stayed his guard and smashed his giant claw towards Razor.
The claw size bigger than a grown-up man which could easily uproot a tree fell on Razor like a meteor.
Razor didn't mind and easily parried the claw-like as if it weighed nothing. The big claw smashed the rocky ground and forming large cracks like cobwebs. He didn't stop and closed in and sliced towards the Dire wolf's neck with full force. Razor was directly trying to put an end to this battle with one deadly strike.
Although, Dire wolf sensed this deadly strike shouldn't be trifled with and quickly moved his neck protecting its vital area. Razor's strike missed wounded it beside its neck and in the front limbs.
The big Dire wolf leaped backward, trying to create distance between him and Razor. He now knew that Razor wasn't some easy foe.
Nearby troops uprooted as the Dire wolf jumped around the woods. He was limping while he ran around, Razor's strike didn't kill him but surely wounded it. The Dire wolf glared even more ferociously snarling and growling at Razor releasing its bloodlust.
Razor just walked towards the wolf and flicked his sword, the blood on the sword splashed on the ground.
Meanwhile, Bel and Artecia worked together hunting the rest of the grey wolves. Bel and Artecia's Fire spells and Ice arrows constantly barraged on the wolves. The spell combo of fire and ice created steam, sometimes the air would be hot and sometimes cold. The two mages looked exhausted and may run out of mana anytime soon.
Razor and the Dire wolf battled tooth and nail. The big claws followed by its fierce jaws attacked Razor with his full might. He evaded Wolf's jaws and parried the claw attacks and counter-attacking with his own sword skills paired with the wind mana skills injuring the dire wolf slowly and steadily. Razor also couldn't come out unscathed when he parried the claw attacks and had a lot of wounds despite wearing armor.
Both Razor and Wolf were inflicted with wounds all over their body.
Especially the Dire wolf who was severely wounded and his mobility was reduced a lot. While Razor's attacks got more fierce and deadly.
Everything was going well but then suddenly something changed.
The Dire wolf backed away from Razor and then opened his jaws. The mana started gathering in front of his jaws. A ball of mana appeared then turned into a dark blue ball of lightning which started to grow in size.
Razor was a little startled but he regained his calm demeanor.
"Oh, you are going all out? Then I should as well put everything in the line."
He suddenly held his sword in his front and closed his eyes chanting some incantation.
The man and beast both simultaneously prepared to attack each other with their final attack. Both of them had the confidence to take the other down with this one last move.
The dire wolf possessed the lightning element attribute which is a very rare element attribute. This element was more deadly and difficult to master than any other element. There are mages who mastered lightning attributes too but such mages are very rare on the other hand mages with this attribute have a lot of deadly offensive skills.
The blue ball of lightning grew a size of a small house it was unstable. Some stray lightning from the ball would sometimes strike nearby trees.
It gave a strong feeling of despair and destruction.
Meanwhile, Razor who was standing idle had now enveloped himself with a powerful gust of wind. The wind mana around the environment was channeling and getting absorbed into his body.
Razor suddenly opened his eyes which were glowing,
"Aremis Celestial Spirit Possession."
Suddenly a glowing translucent afterimage appeared hovering above Razor's head.
It was an ethereal afterimage of an ancient knight covered in metallic full-plated armor with a beautiful sword in its hand. The ancient knight gave a powerful aura as it floated over Razor's head.
Although the afterimage of the knight had an incomplete body.
The knight was missing one arm as well as his lower body. Even some parts of his head were missing. It was an incomplete Celestial spirit.
"That must be his contracted Celestial spirit's ethereal body," I muttered to myself.
I read it in the books of magic and mana manipulation.
Mages after reaching the Intermediate class are eligible to summon and make a contract with a celestial spirit. Once the contract has been established the celestial spirit will merge with the respective mage's mana core. The intermediate mage who successfully created a contract will then advances to a High-class mage.
This celestial spirit can come in any form, as a former warrior, powerful mana beast, and even mythical plants. The contracted spirit then gives their respected mages powerful skills and techniques once used by those spirits.
After the contract was formed the mage has to then work hard to grow and develop its mana core as well as its celestial spirit's ethereal body.
At first, the contracted mage only possesses a fragment of the celestial spirit.
Most mages usually start with having a finger or toe of their contracted celestial spirit. As the mage grows the celestial spirit's ethereal body also grows side by side, the finger will transform into a hand and then into an arm, and so on.
As the ethereal body of celestial spirit grows, the more techniques and skills the mage unlocks.
Razor's celestial spirit already had a full-grown arm and torso and an almost complete head. He must be a very high-tier mage.
The incomplete ethereal afterimage of the ancient knight floated over Razor for a few seconds and then turned into a flowing light rushed inside his body.
Razor's body was enveloped in a glowing light giving off a powerful aura.
The dire wolf held the lightning ball in its jaws facing Razor.
Soon a deadly stream of lightning poured from the ball aiming at Razor. There was a loud explosion and a big pit hole appeared.
Although Razor had already moved away and appeared behind the Dire wolf and slashed his sword in reply. A strong arc-shaped wind blade slicing the ground and the air slammed behind the colossal beast. With one strike Razor cut off the Dire wolf's tail.
The big furry tail fell on the ground with a loud thud.
Meanwhile, the severed part of the dire wolf's tail spurted blood like a faucet.
The Dire wolf was furious and turned around its head to attack Razor with the lightning ball. Once again a stream of lightning struck towards Razor and then there was a loud explosion. But Razor once again disappeared and reappeared beside the dire wolf slashed its sword.
He once again cut off one of its paws on the front legs. Blood once again spurted from the wound tainting all around. The Dire wolf could only back away fearing Razor.
Razor was totally playing with the Dire wolf now.
The Celestial spirit possession skill of Razor was too powerful, overwhelming the Dire wolf. Instead of directly killing the Dire wolf he was just taunting and messing around.
The Dire wolf was wounded with injuries all over its body. It kept on creating lightning balls to attack but couldn't even scratch Razor. The wounds around the dire wolf's neck had greatly reduced its mobility to aim at Razor. It also noticed that it was on the end of its rope.
"Well, you should just obediently give up and let me strap a leash on your neck. Become my pet, it's better than dying, right?" Razor said with a mocking sneer.
The dire wolf was agitated but once again created the lightning ball to attack.
"Pointless struggle. You should just-" just when Razor's words stuck in his throat, "You wouldn't dare!"
The dire wolf this time aimed the lightning at where Bel and Articia were making their stand.
What a bloody villain.
This dire wolf's intellect was pretty good, not like other its companions, the brainless grey wolves.
The lightning-charged attack was fiercely aimed at Bel and Articia.
The two mages were still engaged in defending the assault of the grey wolves who had encircled them. They didn't even realize that the Dire wolf was targeting them.
Razor engulfed him and his blade with a gust of wind rushed to where Bel and Artecia were. Like a lightning cutting all the grey wolves breaking the encirclement, he came in front of his two comrades in a matter of seconds.
The Dire wolf had already released the lightning strike.
Razor without stopping used his blade, slashing the lightning charge attack with all his might in a point-blank range. There was a loud collision between the lightning attack and his wind-slashed attack resulting in a blast.
The ground and dirt along with the nearby grey wolves have blasted away.
Razor flew back like a rag sack crashing into the tree where Artecia was standing. The big tree fell with a loud thud, Artecia and Bel also had to back away from the strong blast waves. They don't even know what just happened.
Soon the smoke and dirt subsided and they saw Razor lying on his back in the stump of the fallen tree,
"Ah darn it. You conniving little shit. Trying to target my juniors."
"You okay Razor?" asked Bel who rushed at the scene, followed by Artecia.
"I think I just broke a couple of ribs, nothing much to worry about. I just need a little help getting up," replied Razor leisurely.
"Hello, I don't wanna startle but that Dire wolf readying another charge blast," said Artecia as she fired a couple of ice arrows at the Dire wolf.
The ice arrows hit their mark but the dire wolf didn't even flinch and just shot the lightning blast at the trio.
The strong charge blast was more powerful, unlike its other attacks. Bel created a firewall to protect but it was very thin, he was also running out of mana reserves. The situation was very grim.
Just when huge dozen slabs of earth walls stood in front of the trio.
The charge blasted through destroying half of the walls and vanished. The strong blast had to destroy almost half of the dozen earth walls before disappearing.
"Big guy! It's about time you show up." welcomed Razor.
Halberd and Metrina had finally arrived. Even Perry was walking with the support of Metrina. He looked injured but still not very serious. Metrina must have patched him.
Halberd lent a hand helping Razor to get on his feet,
"Haha, so it seemed a little stray pup whooped your ass pretty bad. Do you need a hand?"
"Huh. I just sprained my back, nothing to worry about. You just protect the kids. Leave that Dire pup to me."
Now the entire party was assembled and there will be no match against it. This battle is over.
The dire wolf also senses the arrival of reinforcements and notices it was in knee-deep shit. It was already badly wounded and escaping Razor and his party was not an option. It's not like they will even allow the Dire wolf to escape.
Just then a sudden anomaly occurred. The Dire wolf looked at the sky and howled out loudly. The roar was loud and deafening. It was the howl of a trapped beast standing at the death's door who had nothing to lose.
The other grey wolves hearing the howl suddenly went crazy and started attacking each other. The grey wolves bit and clawed on their fellow canine brothers and sisters, tearing flesh and limbs. Every and each wolf was now killing their own for no reason.
All the grey wolves started dying like flies.
Soon I noticed something.
The blood of the dead wolves started gathering under the dire wolf's feet. All the blood from the corpses was pulled at the same location and a mysterious glow appeared in that place. The glowing dot rose from the blood that looked like a blood orb pulling, absorbing the blood all around.
"This… This is blood sacrifice!" Razor exclaimed, "We must not let him intake that orb."
Metrina raised her staff and suddenly a glowing light showered over its party members,
"Reinforcement magic."
Without waiting, Halberd went ahead and smashed his hammer in the ground.
Suddenly a big spike-shaped rock appeared underneath the dire wolf and pierced its guts, almost uplifting him from the ground. Blood and guts rolled down and made a bloody mess.
Despite the deadly strike, the dire wolf snarled at the adventuring party. The dire wolf's eyes had rolled and only white was visible as if it had become a zombie. It then turned and looked towards the blood orb and opened its jaws to swallow it.
"Stop ignoring us," Bel exclaimed and took out a fan-like artifact from his jacket. Then using some incantation he swung the fan towards the wolf, "Raging inferno"
Suddenly a tall fire tornado engulfed the wolf burning its fur and flesh to crisp.
Artecia used hand signs and incantation and created a long ice lance the size of a tree. Skewering the wolf through its chest.
Perry took out a small cylinder and held it in his mouth and shot a poison liquid, melting the dire wolf's half of its face that only the skull was visible.
Despite being injured so severely the grey wolf didn't stop and lowered his head slowly opened its wide jaw to gnaw the red orb.
Razor, who I don't know when he had appeared in front of the dire wolf. Holding his sword muttering serious incantation and then glared at the wolf.
The wolf ignored Razor as if he didn't even exist there.
Suddenly the sword's blade in Razor's hand shriveled and took the shape of a spring. He bent on his knees and arched his arm like a bowstring. The ground under his feet plowed into the ground.
"Aremis Retroshnizer," Razor exclaimed.
In an instant Razor's whole body turned into a white glowing light shot towards the dire wolf's head. There was a loud explosion and the dire wolf's head exploded into bits. There was yet another explosion near the cliff beside the waterfall.
I looked there and saw a big meteor shaped on the cliff wall. Between the impact crater, there was Razor sitting with his sword. His sword was stuck in the cliff wall and only his handle was out. Meanwhile, Razor himself seemed to have passed out.
I turned my head towards the Dire wolf.
Now there was only a headless corpse of the dire wolf which fell to the ground with a loud thud.
The red orb was still there floating around absorbing the blood from the battlefield like a vacuum. Metrina and the others gathered around the orb and then took the orb with them into a bag.
Halberd moved the crater along with Razor downwards with his earth magic skills.
It was about time I should get moving as well.
I quickly retraced my steps heading back to my village.
"Oh, we have an audience here." just when a voice echoed behind me.
I turned my head and saw a man hanging upside down looking at me. He was wearing a purple bandana and purple shirt and pants. His face was all gloomy and he had dark circles under his eyes.
It was none other than Perry who I don't know when he noticed me.
"Hello there. I am just passing by. Hehe." I replied meekly.
He grabbed me by the collar and dragged me to his party.
Later there was a big lecture by the guild members telling me how dangerous it was following them around. They later sent me back to my village with Halberd and Metrina.
Halberd removed the long wall of barricades and bid farewell.
My mom woke up after three days of rest.
There was yet another lecture once she got to know of my little adventure.
ความคิดของผู้สร้าง 
HellerFeed
HellerFeed This will conclude Benjamin's childhood arc.
Incoming another time skip-
Finally starting Benjamin's journey as he starts to become a mage from the next chapter onwards.
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