388 388 With A Little Help
Wolfe enchanted the bows with [Lightning Arrow] and [Wind Blades] while the witches all tried on their new invisible armour amulets. Wolfe had set them to just layer over top of whatever the caster was already wearing so that they would have maximum utility without standing out in a crowd.
It felt a bit strange to the Witches, who were used to the obvious change when the spell was active, but you could feel the mana against your skin and the lack of actual contact when you held something.
“Oh, are those our new bows? They look pretty fancy. Is that an inscription to create the arrows with magic?” One of the witches finally asked.
“Yeah, it’s easier that way if you are all capable witches. But you can have the weapon activated and then use regular arrows. It takes a fair bit of mana to do it that way, but the [Lightning Arrow] spell is persistent and will enchant any regular arrow that is fired for about an hour after casting. These [Wind Blades] are also incredibly powerful, but I set them for a smaller radius so that you can still hunt with them to keep your supplies up.
ραndαsnοvεl.cοm That’s why I didn’t use Unholy Fire or a stronger Lightning spell. Both would ruin the meat if you were hunting, but the Wind Arrows just cut through the target.” Wolfe explained.
The sound of growling in the distance told them that they were likely to get to test that theory sooner rather than later. There was something big in the woods, and it was angry. Worse, the growls were getting louder as the beast came their way.
What they didn’t expect was that the growls were from Headmistress Peach’s Werewolf Familiar, who was carrying a very battered Peach in his arms, with the Nymph following them.
“Wolfe. I didn’t expect to see you here. Get ready to be attacked. We went out after getting reports of strong monsters, but we lost the fight.” The big man called out as soon as he saw the group standing on the road.
That explained why the Dire Wolves hadn’t attacked. They had been intercepted by Headmistress Peach and her Familiars, but even they weren’t a match for a group of monsters that powerful.
This time, Wolfe had prepared. His blade was much improved, his backup had better weapons, and they had twice the number of witches as last time, all in better condition.
“Hand me your blade and put the Headmistress down by the fire. Mine’s got a better enchantment, and you’re faster than I am.” Wolfe called back to the werewolf.
In a flash, the group was past him, and the sound of angry growling was joined by the snap of broken branches as the Dire Wolves charged toward the checkpoint.
“Time to test that new gear, ladies. Buy me a second to enchant a new sword, and I think that we can deal with this group well enough.” Wolfe called out loud enough for all the nearby Witches to hear him.
The Dire Wolf Alpha wasn’t going to make that easy on him, though. It recognized Wolfe as the greatest threat in the area, and it was nearly on him before anyone could intervene.
Wolfe brought up an [Unholy Flame] barrier to stop its first strike, and then the front line of Witches from the checkpoint surged forward to keep it busy while arrows began to fly at the pack members in the distance.
The enchantments on the bows were every bit as good as Wolfe had hoped they would be against strong monsters, and the arrows were cutting deep into the flesh, dropping multiple wolves in the first few seconds of the fight, where it had taken Grok minutes per kill last time.
The Goblin Paladin was in position and on guard in front of the camp where Ella and Christa were working together with Headmistress Peach on some sort of spell, and he looked much happier than he had last time.
He knew he could take these things out now and that the Armour spell he was using would hold for a while, so he wasn’t too worried about the fight as long as his allies didn’t run away.
The Dire Wolf Alpha snarled at Wolfe when it realized that the Witches were trying to encircle it and bring it down, but it didn’t change its focus to stop them. In the beast’s mind, it was too dangerous to take its eyes off of the Demon, and the guards had given Wolfe a new blade to enchant.
Keeping the barrier up while the Witches harried the enemy, forcing it to keep turning to block their blades, wasn’t as hard as the first fight. A simple blade enchantment with [Unholy Fire] and [Lightning Bolt] both inscribed as powerfully as Wolfe could manage, only took a few seconds on the familiar shape of the standard-issue blade, and then Wolfe was back in the fight.
The sense of power and danger from the blade was overwhelming, as the first attempt at making a similar weapon had been, but the pack leader had nowhere to go. Wolfe swung up at the creature’s face, but the strike was dodged, and the Dire Wolf lept backward over the Witches to try to find a better way to attack.
Just keeping up with the creature if it fled was going to be an issue, but the anguish of seeing so many of its pack members die was driving it into a frenzy, and it was obvious to everyone present that it wouldn’t be long before the leader snapped and went berserk.
The final straw for its questionable sanity came when the spell that Ella and the Headmistress were working on came to life. The forest seemed to close in around it, and the pack members were trapped in the crushing embrace of ropes made of air magic.
The spell lifted them off their feet, leaving them dangling in the air, easy targets for the enchanted arrows.
The Alpha managed to mostly shrug off the spell, but it was still bound and slowly moving. Too slowly, though, and it couldn’t dodge the next strike that Wolfe sent into its side, leaving a deep, bloody gash and smouldering fur.
The cunning left its eyes, replaced by a deep red glow as it frothed at the mouth and snapped in a futile attempt to get to Wolfe. But a single, well-placed arrow ended its struggle. The shaft passed through its eye and into the brain of the monster, killing it instantly.
In the aftermath of the Alpha’s death, the sound of clanking blades and metal armour plates as the witches collapsed to the ground or leaned up against a tree to catch their breath was all that could be heard. In moments, the advantage of multiple magical weapons had crushed the seemingly overwhelming power of the Dire Wolf pack.