Chương 33: Not Anymore

A week passed by just like that. Kayzen focused on his research and made a total of fifteen shards. By selling what he made he brought a decent sum of contribution points and helped Vasser in buying the Ether organ two days ago. She too had been just as busy, and as a result, she had acquired two new abilities. The duo went out daily in their spare time and collected as much information as they could about the mines. The situation here was more dangerous than Baron Huiyan had told them.

It was necessary to maintain due vigilance if they didn't want to be among those who had gone missing. Today though, it looked like they could no longer afford to lay low and accumulate their strength.

"Kayzen! There's an emergency. Hurry up." Vasser spoke while catching her breath. Kayzen was just done with the last ability stone as well, so he stuffed everything in his backpack and asked, "What happened? Weren't you at the shrine?"

"I was. The military has called for a wartime meeting. They're evacuating from this region." That was a bombshell announcement. It was apparent that the military wouldn't just pack up and leave. There must be a reason behind this sudden retreat. Sure enough, what Vasser spoke next explained why they were doing so.

"An alien Ravager class Archwolf has come through the rift, and it has gathered all the Fiend class and even other Ravager classes across the forest. Now, it's marching towards the campsite. This wouldn't be that big of an issue except that the Ravager class Archwolf is strong enough to contend with some low-level Ruin class. There's no one in the entire campsite who could face it.

"Just this morning, three teams were wiped out before they managed to send the rescue signal. Most of the people are evacuating as we speak."

"I see. Let's face them."

"What?" Vasser almost doubted what she was hearing. The Kayzen she knew wouldn't be taking such risks. He would focus on retreating or perhaps going behind the enemy lines to scout their real target: The mines. Kayzen shrugged in response and spoke, "I don't see a reason why not. We are strong enough to face someone on the verge of becoming a Ruin class. Besides, I also need its materials to make my next ability shard. I've had some good results in the past few days, and now I know what records I need.

"And even if things go sideways, it's not as if we couldn't just run away. There's no harm in fighting them. I have Phantom Shift, and your speed should be higher than anyone else's. We'll also be helping out the army in evacuating if we hold them off." Vasser grinned in excitement at the prospect of facing an entire horde of aliens. This was exactly the kind of thing that would earn her glory. The two made a run for the forest and discussed the finer details of the plan.

There was no need to join whatever emergency meeting there was. This would be their last moment in the campsite as they had finished whatever they needed. The bug corpses were also delivered yesterday, so Kayzen didn't care what happened to the camp either way. Now their next objective was to clear out the alien wave and reach the mines. As the two ran towards the gate, they realized that they weren't the only ones who had decided to fight the Archwolves.

Quite a few mercenaries were charging towards them, and among them, they found a familiar face.

"Hey Torim, you going to fight as well?" Kayzen waved at the mercenary whom they had met a week ago. Now the burly man had significantly changed his appearance. Gone were the dirty rags he had been wearing. Now equipped in a tight-fitting dark green leather armor, he looked completely different from before.

"It's you two! Are you guys coming along as well?" Torim ran towards the duo in excitement.

"Coming along?" Vasser asked.

"Oh, you don't know about the mobilization of Zephyr? They are leading all those who are willing to fight to make a last stand. They're not after the army's reward, but rather, the archwolves. They want the materials dropped by the multiple Ravager class aliens. This is after all the best opportunity to earn some gold." Kayzen and Vasser shared a glance and realized that things would be a little bit complicated. With someone like Zephyr leading the charge, it would be difficult for them to fish out some benefits.

After all, it was hard to tell who attacked whom in a group battle like that. The humans weren't dumb enough to attack their allies for some little loot. Still, it would be difficult to be precise when engaging in a chaotic melee. An even bigger issue would be collecting the remains. If they focused on looting the dead, then they would miss the chance of hunting more.

"Are you guys not coming?" Torim asked again. From the looks of the duo, he realized that they had no plan in joining the raid.

"No, we will be going our separate ways. Best of luck to you." Kayzen tapped the man on the shoulder and left with Vasser. Now they had even less time to move out.

"So what's the plan?" Vasser asked as they arrived into the forest. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Let's kill the Ravager classes as soon as possible. There's not much point in dealing with the Fiend classes, so we will leave them to the Zephyr. Once they are done, we will see how to deal with the alien leader. If all goes as planned then they'll have no choice but to cooperate with us."

"Good enough. I'll be going ahead then." Vasser bumped her fist with Kayzen and jumped into the trees. Now she was even faster than before. Each leap of hers left behind a faint afterimage. This was the latest ability she had acquired. Her instantaneous burst speed was so quick that it was hard to catch with the naked eye. Forget about Fiends, even Ravagers wouldn't be able to react in time. Kayzen didn't lag behind either. While his speed was nothing to be proud of, his perception was another case.

He had already found the alien horde before anyone else, and what he saw made his hair stand on end. One after another the Archwolves walked out from the torn space. At the center of it all lay a gigantic creature that shrouded the forest below. Its size was even bigger than the gorilla that had destroyed Greenford. This wasn't just an alien wave, rather, it was a full-blown army numbering in the hundreds. Those at the camp had underestimated the threat posed by the Archwolves.

Kayzen didn't care much about that either way. He tailed Vasser and stretched out his roots of perception towards the Ravager class Archwolf she was targeting. With the collected fang as a medium, he used his Hex to either paralyze their nervous system or hinder their movement by using Phantom Shift on their legs. The latter was surprisingly effective on the Archwolves who relied on their webs to travel. One round of Phantom Shift and they would be left stuck on their own webs.

There was a great synergy between Kayzen and Vasser when it came to this. As he hindered the Archwolves' movement, she used her fist to blow apart anything that stood in their way. Another ability she had gained was similar to an impact strike. The sheer force behind her fist was enough to decimate an Archwolf once they were immobilized. In less than a minute, the two had taken out a total of three Ravager class monsters. This much commotion had caught the eye of the leading alien.

However, it didn't bother changing its strategy. Its eyes were still focused on the camp and the mercenaries who were about to clash head-on with the monster horde. Compared to hundreds of Archwolves, what Kayzen and Vasser had done was nothing. Unfortunately for the aliens, though, this was just the start. Kayzen asked Vasser to keep an eye around while he extracted materials from the dead Ravager classes. Soon enough, in his hand were three more fangs and the same number of bloodline blobs.

He stored the bloodline since it was going to be of great use when dealing with the strongest Archwolf. As for the fangs, he would be using them to hunt down even more Ravager classes. The two once again snuck away into the forest and kited the enemies. With Kayzen's roots of perception stretching over the distance of half a kilometer, there was nowhere they couldn't hide in this forest. No matter how much the Archwolves had spread their webs around, there were bound to be some empty gaps.

If there weren't, then Vasser's fists were more than enough to make a path wherever she desired. With their perfect teamwork the duo took out another ten Ravager level Archwolves in the next five minutes. It was a feat worthy to be proud of. By Kayzen's estimate there were at least thirty to forty Ravager class Archwolves. They had taken down a quarter of them; however, the ones dealing the greatest damage to the army were none other than the smaller Fiend class.

They numbered in the hundreds, and sometimes that's all that mattered. Except for those from Zephyr the rest of the mercenaries were helpless against the horde It was at this moment where Kayzen stopped Vasser.

"Are you confident in dealing with them alone?" he asked.

"That'll be a piece of cake for me. Don't worry, if there's something dangerous, then I'll retreat immediately. What do you plan on doing?" Vasser asked while giving him a reassuring nod.

"I'm going to deal with the Fiend class. Do you remember the cannibalism trait they had? If the big guy over there has the same ability, then this will be troublesome. No matter how much damage we deal there'd be no way to kill it without exhausting ourselves. So, I'm going to whittle down the numbers." Without wasting any more time, the two once again parted ways. Kayzen used Phantom Shift and snuck towards the center of the battlefield. This time, he didn't plan on revealing himself whatsoever.

Without caring about the cost he used the fang of the Ravager class Archwolf as the medium and used his Hex on the horde of Fiend classes. To make things certain he went a step further and used his authority as the Warden of Records as well, imprisoning their ability to make webs. It was a luxurious treatment for sure, and the results gained from them were just as spectacular. The records of Phototoxin manifested via Ether.

There was no way the Archwolves could escape when Kayzen's roots of perception had already locked onto them. One after another they fell like puppets whose strings had been cut off. This was a pure and utter one-sided suppression. For a moment, even the leading Archwolf stopped its charge and glared in Kayzen's direction. After all, he had single-handedly reduced the enemy's number by ten percent. Fifty Fiend class Archwolves were dead around Kayzen. A number even he hadn't expected.

A wave of Ether rushed over from the surroundings and merged with the sigil on his chest. He had imprisoned the Archwolf's records, and that had resulted in him walking further on his path. He once again snuck away into the forest and decided to lay low for a few more minutes. Sure enough, the gigantic Archwolf didn't decide to come after him and instead marched at the mercenary groups. He could do one more attack.

Kayzen took this chance and ran towards the frontlines where Vasser and the Zephyr mercenaries were fighting. Just as he reached the midway section, he once again targeted a dense horde of Archwolves.

'Time to go all out.' Kayzen clenched fangs in each of his hands and prepared his hex. This was going to be the greatest AoE attack he had ever used. One hex to manifest his pain resistance shard while other to cast debuff on the designated area. With how packed the Archwolves were there was no way he was going to miss. This time, the results were even more effective. Pain resistance made the Archwolves forget about survival instincts. They rushed and rushed without a care for their lives.

Trees, mercenaries, and even one another; they were crushed and stabbed by all things around them. Even the webs they had spread all over were falling apart. SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE There was no way the colossal archwolf wouldn't be pissed off by this. An ear-piercing shriek echoed across the forest as the largest Archwolf jumped towards Kayzen.

"Balls of Foudre, it looks like the sky itself is falling down," Kayzen muttered a curse and immediately ran towards Vasser. She had already sensed the danger and was well on her way towards him. The scene reminded Kayzen of the day Greenford was destroyed. Back then he could do nothing but watch as the town he called home was wrecked by the monsters. Not anymore. Standing besides Vasser he took out the Archwolf bloodline he had collected. It was time for the real hunt to begin.