Merchant Of Yliaster

Erne was a simple guy; if not knowing something could make him safer, he would gladly ignore it without feeling a single shred of curiosity. This Merchant character, though, was really testing his limits.

He let loose another arrow, blocking an attempt from the alpha to release a point-blank breath against Ellie. The battle was not looking very bad as they could hold the wolf back pretty well with Neivor's buffs, but he could see that they would lose the stamina race if nothing changed.

A level thirty-two beast simply had too much stamina. Erne glanced thoughtfully at the battlefield. On one side, a group of wolves was tearing apart another wolf, creating a surreal speed among everything. Erne could see the Merchant's pet flying out of the dying animal, entering a different one immediately. That bird really creeped him out.

On the other side, the Merchant stood, but a white streak of light apparently created by the guy was moving around the air, piercing through every wolf that crossed its path. Even before the system, Erne was proud of his eyesight, but he could barely see the thing as it whizzed erratically. He really didn't know how Merchant could follow it himself.

He shot an arrow, hitting the alpha in its claw as it tried to attack Ellie, making it miss. In the periphery of his vision, he could see a wolf toppling to the ground. Somehow, Erne had a feeling that they would be okay.

Maxwell felt exhilarated as he was more and more absorbed by the experience of controlling his projectile. At the start, it felt like he was controlling a new appendage, and he was a bit clumsy. After killing about a dozen wolves, though, things started to change.

He felt like the projectile was a part of himself. He was connected to the projectile with Soul's Voice, and he could even feel the air rushing by the bolt as it twisted and turned in the air.

More and more died, and soon, only the group occupied by Blueberry's shenanigans was left. The alpha, occupied with the party, couldn't help the pack at all. While it was stronger than the party, he could still take serious damage if it rushed blindly towards Maxwell. Even if it did, though, everything was over too quickly for it to do anything.

Maxwell made the bolt return and made it float beside him. The projectile was dimmer compared to before, losing some of its stability from all the work it had done. Maxwell, though, was surprised to see something else. Around the construct, a scarlet haze of a different type of energy floated, trying and failing to enter the projectile.

Maxwell momentarily activated the compendium to see which type of mana this was, and he could immediately feel his efficiency with the metal mana drop. It was not a good feeling by any means. He quickly observed the energy before closing the book in his soul.

Slaughter Energy - Ready For Absorption

Maxwell was surprised to see the notification. The only energy he saw before was the soul energy, and that was almost completely intractable. This energy, though, he felt he could manipulate. The soul energy felt like it didn't want to move when he tried, this, though, easily followed his commands.

He guided the metal mana inside the bolt for it to allow the new energy inside. His previous command of keeping it pure apparently blocked this energy, too. He watched as the energy entered the bolt, making it turn a little redder.

Maxwell could feel the changes in the bolt as he was connected to it, and he was surprised to sense the bolt becoming sharper without him adding any more metal mana. It was like it became more catered towards slaughter.

He added some more metal mana into the construct, making it even more mana-dense compared to before. This time, his opponent would be a lot stronger. He glanced at the alpha and was not surprised to find it angrily attacking the party.

Now that its pack was gone, it was probably furious beyond belief. He watched as the animal ignored one of Erne's shots, just to be able to attack Ellie.

The wolf was hit on its leg, an arrow leaving a red streak in its fur, but Ellie was launched back, leaving a trail of blood behind her from a big gash on her chest. She fell on a heap near Neivor.

There goes my dramatic entrance. Maxwell thought. Who didn't want to save the day at the last second? Unfortunately, the real world was a lot more unforgiving than heroic tales.

He still sent the bolt forward, aiming for the ice head of the wolf. They still didn't see what the other head did, but he would first deal with the one they knew about.

The wolf turned toward it, apparently feeling the incoming danger. It also knew that it didn't have any time to dodge, so it stomped on the ground, creating spikes of ice toward Maxwell, blocking the bolts' way.

Maxwell didn't try to pierce the wall of ice like an idiot as that would only waste the bolt's energy, but this meant that the wolf was successful in blocking his attack.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Maxwell was really envious of people's way of creating things from nothing. Sure, their skills were system-assisted, but they still looked a lot cooler than pure mana.

Maxwell kept controlling the bolt, as it turned unnaturally in the air, once more attacking the wolf. This time, the wolf had to manually dodge, but it was not fast enough to escape completely unscathed.

The bolt managed to hit the animal's side, piercing it, but it stopped after it progressed a couple of inches into its fur. On closer look, Maxwell could see that the fur looked frozen, covered with ice. Maxwell summoned the bolt back, as there was no reason to waste energy.

Suddenly, a stream of energy hit the wolf's side as it was focused on Maxwell. The wolf was pushed a couple of meters to the side, leaving a gash on the ground as its feet dug into the frozen ground.

Wolf turned to Erne with renewed hatred in its eyes. The man was still holding his bow in the attack position, panting with exertion.

This was the first flashy move Maxwell saw from the man, and it was definitely satisfying, as an arrow could be seen sticking out from the wolf's body.

The wolf, though, was not satisfied at all. It opened its left jaw and sent a breath toward the man with a visible fury.

Looking at the breath, Erne was first confused. There was nothing visible coming towards him, so he couldn't understand what the attack was supposed to do.

His question was answered immediately as everything between him and the wolf suddenly started to rot and decompose.

The grass died, wolf bodies between them started to rot, and air became stale immediately as the breath passed.

Erne had a shocked expression as he tried to dodge, but it was already too late. Maxwell was calm, though, as he could see something else.

Neivor, chanting in a very deep voice in an unknown tongue, stepped between the man and the attack. The man was glowing similar to the time he used the shield, but this time he did something different.

He thrust his palm, and the light around him flowed, following the movement. It focused on his hand before exploding in a cone.

The rotting breath was immediately met with an equal as the alpha's breath was once more stopped by the same man. Maxwell could even see some grass growing back slowly from the rotten ground. Aldo Ellie, who was beside the guy started to heal at a visible rate.

Maxwell, meanwhile, was not wasting time as these happened. Floating beside him, the bolt was spinning slowly as he infused more and more mana into it. This time, though, he was not infusing metal mana.

He infused fire mana into the bolt to counter the fur of the animal. He could maybe do the expansion and fire combo again, but he doubted that others would be unscathed if he used the rune. Soon, the bolt gained an orange luster as its fire mana level slowly caught up to the metal mana.

Maxwell was surprised to see that two mana types were really suitable when they were used together. He hardly had to direct the mana as they fused seamlessly, coexisting in the construct.

He slowly gave more and more spin to the bolt, remembering his weird experience back when he was trying to unscrew a bolt, using a similar technique. This time, though, the problem was far bigger.

The alpha was not an idiot, though. Seeing that Maxwell was preparing something, it started running toward Maxwell, once more ignoring the attacks from Erne. The guy was clearly out of juice anyway, as his attacks were bouncing off of the wolf's hardened fur.

Maxwell watched in slow motion as the wolf's hatred-filled eyes got closer. It knew Maxwell would be able to dodge a breath, so it was trying to come closer. Maxwell was momentarily surprised as the wolf suddenly used an ability.

Its body swelled as its speed suddenly increased. Just because it mainly used ice abilities, they almost forgot that wolves were primarily physical beasts.

Now, Maxwell was in a race. He continued to give a spin to the bolt, also injecting more and more mana into it. As it was, he was not confident in killing the wolf with this attack, and if he couldn't kill it, he didn't think that he would have enough mana to kill it later.

What he needed arrived in the form of Ellie, as she crushed at the side of the wolf. The wolf, not expecting this, was toppled to the ground as it lost its balance due to the unexpected attack.

Ellie looked like she had stayed awake for a week straight. Her chest was still bleeding, but the wound looked smaller than before. Probably Neivor's doing. Maxwell thought, remembering the cone of energy. He felt a bit skeptical of the guy due to the nature of his abilities, but their effects were unquestionable.

The bolt was now spinning with a mind-bending speed, looking like a blur in the air. It was making a tearing sound, as it was too material to not face any air resistance. Maxwell could feel that he was reaching the limit of the spinning rate the bolt could reach, and he was starting to get low on mana.

He completely focused on the wolf as it struggled with Ellie on the ground. The woman was trying to hold the wolf straight, but the size disparity was too much. After a moment of struggle, the woman was flung away like a ragdoll, as the alpha caught her with its teeth around her neck. Maxwell winced seeing the scene. That should have hurt.

The wolf turned toward Maxwell once again, but it was already too late. As he tried to spot him, its eyes could only see a blinding light, as the bolt was just near his nose. Even the noise coming from the bolt was deafening.

It let out a growl of defiance as it tried to release a breath in desperation, but this only made things worse. The bolt was completely unaffected by the breath, as it immediately pierced through it. Unfortunately for the wolf, the available path led directly toward its mouth.

Maxwell smiled at the wolf's stupidity. If he tried to dodge and managed to survive somehow, it could maybe kill them as they were all low on resources. Panic was truly the greatest weakness.

The bolt didn't make a sound as it pierced the wolf's throat, as it was way too sharp, fast, and hot to face any resistance from the vulnerable tissue inside its throat.

Maxwell waited for a short while, still feeling the bolt, and his eyes shone with a green light. He gave a simple command using all his willpower when he felt the bolt reach the point inside the beast where its two necks connected to its body.

Explode