Originally, there were twelve members in Alicia Violet's party, including her. They had accepted a mission to eradicate a pack of Rank E monsters in the vicinity.
They didn't expect to run into Rank D monsters. The Rank E monsters had been a trap, distracting them long enough before they were ambushed by the more powerful Rank D monsters, who proceeded to tear them apart.
Right now, hardly four of them were left. The others were lying on the ground, most likely dead. A good number of them were in pieces, mauled beyond recognition, so I somehow counted more than eight corpses. The sight of such gruesome deaths made me gag.
In the center of them all, Alicia was rallying the surviving members of her party, and they were somehow stemming the tide. Alicia was wielding a bow and firing a volley of arrows at dark shapes who were prowling along the edge of the clearing. They jumped back, but a good number of them were speared. Howling, they limped away, but Alicia's bombardment left at least two of them dead, their skulls pierced through by her volley.
"Black Roses! Rally to me!" Alicia shouted, determined to prolong the lives of her party for as long as possible. "Reinforcements should be arriving soon! We just need to hold out until then!"
"P…President! They are coming back!" one of her subordinates exclaimed in panic, the other three hiding behind her back. Alicia bit her lip, but raised her bow. Violet energy condensed in the fingers of her right hand and she took aim with those magical arrows.
"Keep fighting!" she ordered.
"There's too many of them!"
High above, I watched helplessly as the monsters reemerged from the forest and into the clearing again, growling. Their long, lupine bodies loped gracefully from behind the trees, their spiky black fur bristling in an intimidating manner. They advanced on two legs each, their canine scouts seeming to sniff the air.
"Lycanthropes," I whispered, recognizing the Rank D monsters.
"Lycanthropes?" Adrian repeated anxiously. I could detect the terror in his quivering voice, so I smiled reassuringly.
"Stay here. I'll take care of them."
"Eh? Big Brother, what are you…?"
I didn't answer him. Instead, I jumped off Cygnus's back and plummeted feet first toward the clearing.
Boom!
Landing heavily, I actually crushed a single Lycanthrope underneath my feet, its skull and upper body flattened into a bloody pulp from the impact. I didn't even glance down at the carcass, already moving the moment the creature hit the ground.
"R…Richard?!" Alicia cried out when she recognized me. "How did you…?"
I didn't answer, and instead focused my attention on the approaching Lycanthropes.
"Gemini!"
The moment Castor and Pollux materialized in my hands, I threw the both of them into the air. Spinning rapidly, the black and white swords flew in a wide arc, cutting through any unfortunate Lycanthrope that stood in their paths.
The remaining Lycanthropes pounced on me, thinking that I was vulnerable without any weapons.
"Richard!" Alicia cried, also believing the same thing. She immediately unleashed a second volley of arrows, cutting down the first row of lunging Lycanthropes. "Watch out!"
"Don't worry about me," I assured her. "Stand back."
"Eh?"
Raising my hand, I summoned Aquarius. A blue broadsword materialized in my hand instantly and I swung it, cutting several approaching Lycanthropes in half. Grinding my right foot against the ground, I swung the Water Bearer in a broad arc, releasing a giant tidal wave of water that washed the remaining werewolves away from my location.
"…eh?" Alicia repeated dumbly as she watched the Lycanthropes get swept away by the little tsunami. Her surviving subordinates also drew closer, staring at me in disbelief.
"Is that really that Richard? The summoner guy?"
"I didn't know he could do that! I've never seen him summon those weapons before!"
"Well, now you have," I told them dryly before glancing at the wet and sprawled Lycanthropes. At this rate I could finish them up before the reinforcements arrived.
This was weird. If they were this weak, how were Alicia and her party unable to take care of them by themselves? Surely I wasn't stronger than a party of twelve. Not to mention, these guys didn't feel that much stronger than Ravagers. They were different from what I had read about.
"We're supposed to exterminate these Lycanthropes, right?" I asked Alicia. To my surprise, she shook her head.
"We can't." she glanced nervously in the direction of the forest. "Let's get out of here before it comes back! Otherwise we'll all die!"
"Huh?" I gaped at her, bewildered. "Before what comes back?"
As if in reply, the clearing began to shake as if there was an earthquake. As I tried to balance myself despite the tremors beneath my feet, cold dread gripped my spine.
"You've got to be kidding me," I muttered under my breath.
"What on earth…?" Adrian muttered ironically, because he was still high in the sky and riding on Cygnus. But he had also observed the trembling of the earth as something massive and incredibly heavy stomped toward us. Trees were shaking with each step, and a flock of birds burst out from the canopy in panic.
An enormous Lycanthrope burst into the clearing, shaking the earth with its violent landing. Easily about four to five times the size of the other Lycanthropes, the newcomer towered over the entire pack. It snarled and growled at the fallen Lycanthropes who had been blasted by my little tsunami earlier. As expected, the surviving Lycanthropes cowered before their newly arrived leader and obediently retreated.
"That's the Alpha of the pack," Alicia explained, the color draining from her face.
"Damn it," I hissed through gritted teeth. Now I understood why Lycanthrope packs were ranked D. It wasn't because of the smaller wolf-like monsters. It was because of their Alpha.
"…what happened to Tao Zhou?" one of the other Black Roses stammered timidly. He stared at the red blood dripping from the Lycanthrope Alpha's claws, and turned even paler. "Don't tell me she has…?"
"Tao Zhou?" I asked, not recognizing the name.
"One of our party members," Alicia explained, her voice tense. "She…broke down and ran away earlier. The Alpha pursued her."
"She deserved what she got, that coward," another Black Rose growled. "Leaving us to fight the Lycanthropes by ourselves. Serves her right!"
"Hey!" the last Black Rose chided him. "It wasn't her fault! And if she didn't lure the Alpha away, we wouldn't have survived against it!"
"Well, does it look like we're going to survive now?" the third Black Rose snorted. "And you know as well as I did that she never intended to lure the Alpha away. She ran away screaming with her tail tucked between her legs!"
"Enough!" Alicia silenced them. "Let's focus on the issue at hand! Elliot, you're our tank. Use your shield and serve as the vanguard. Nicholas, your job is to take care of surrounding Lycanthropes. Jin Hao and I will provide fire support."
"President Alicia…" the guy named Elliot was shaking from fear. "Please…I won't be able to withstand a single blow from that thing!"
"If you don't, all of us will die!" Jin Hao bellowed.
"Then why don't you be the vanguard?!"
"I'm not the one with the shield!"
"Guys!" Alicia called out desperately, but none of them was listening to her. While they squabbled, the Alpha was advancing closer.
"All of you, stay back," I ordered. They all shut up and gazed at me in astonishment. I ignored them and took a step forward, conjuring a new wave of tsunami. The tidal wave washed over the Alpha, causing it to stagger, but other than being drenched, it didn't seem to hurt it.
That was fine. I never expected a burst of water to injure the Lycanthrope. Taking a deep breath, I charged at the Lycanthrope and swung Aquarius.
If Allison saw me, she would have scolded me. After all, I had literally ignored her instructions and had recklessly plunged into the fray. However, I never had any intention of abandoning my schoolmates from the start, especially when I had learned that Alicia was one of them.
"Run!" I ordered them. "I'll hold them off for as long as I can!"
The blue broadsword bit deeply into the Alpha's flanks, and it threw its head back and howled in enraged pain. It dislodged my blade with a shake of its leg and tried to stomp me into oblivion, but I dove out of the way of the descending, giant clawed foot.
However, before I could get back to my feet, the Alpha's other foot struck me. I took the full brunt of the kick before being thrown several meters away.
"Richard!" Alicia screamed, but even before her usually gentle voice left her throat, she unleashed several volleys of arrows at the Alpha. The massive monster grunted as the energy projectiles embedded themselves deeply within its fur before vanishing, but was little more than irritated.
"OOF!"
I let out a muffled cry of pain as I slammed into solid ground. Rolling to reduce the impact, I used the momentum to spring back to my feet.
Even though the Alpha was partially distracted by Alicia's arrows, when it saw me stand back up, it turned its feral gaze toward me, its eyes blazing red-hot with murderous intent. I felt a chill run down my spine, but I refused to back down.
"Big brother!" I heard Adrian holler from above. I shook my head and held up a hand to reassure him, but inwardly I knew I had just taken a ton of damage. That single kick had probably broken several of my ribs and caused internal hemorrhaging. Clutching Aquarius with both hands, I managed to fend off the Alpha's next attempt to slash me by parrying its claws. Unfortunately, the sheer strength of its strike, coupled with the incredible weight of the Water Bearer, was enough to force the broadsword from my grip. I could only watch helplessly as Aquarius spun away and disappeared.
"Richard!" Alicia yelled, peppering the Lycanthrope Alpha's face with her arrows, but the enormous beast would not be stopped.
"I'm all right!" I called back, and was about to summon an alternative weapon. Unfortunately, before I could finish casting my spell, the massive Alpha caught me in its grasp, its giant claws digging into my side and drawing blood.
"Oh, shit…"
The Lycanthrope pulled its gnarled lips back into a wicked grin before moving its head forward to presumably take a huge bite out of me.
I grinned back. "Just kidding."
Castor and Pollux spun back like boomerangs, slashing the Alpha's flanks. The Alpha roared in pain and staggered from shock. The Gemini twin swords spun back toward my hands as if I was a homing beacon. Grabbing hold of them, I then slashed the wrist of the claws that were holding me, ignoring the geysers of blood that splattered me as I worked to free myself.
However, the Alpha's grip tightened further, squeezing the breath out of me.
"What…?"
Now this was beyond my calculations. Unable to escape, my consciousness slowly blacked out as my lungs were being crushed under the contracting claws…