'Why aren't they making any noise?' Rastel was perplexed.
The wolves although behaving violently made no sound as they attacked and were attacked in return. They only made small yelps when a finishing blow was made against them and they were about to die.
This phenomenon was strange to Rastel and he couldn't understand it.
'Now that I think about it, that panther looking beast was like that too.'
He remembered the beast that was chasing Roxanne when they first met.
The beast was also berserk and was silent throughout!
The only time the beast made a sound was when it suddenly fell down from the tree while pursuing him and was twitching uncontrollably.
After that, it seemed to have regained some form of clarity and reacted to pain normally.
'Is this perhaps some side effect of going berserk from the blood moon?' he didn't know for sure but his curiosity was certainly aroused.
As the battle went on, he used the chance to refine his ability to control the golems.
Considering the path he would be possibly going on with this particular unique class, he realized he would be doing a lot of staying in the back and conducting fights like these.
This golem sculpting was similar to necromancy in many ways in which you would have to create 'puppets' that would fight for you in the front lines while you sit in safety at the back.
The only difference apart from those of ethics or materials used was that necromancy focused on durable low performance 'puppets' with swarm tactics while golem sculpting focused on high performance 'puppets' with more precise controls.
Left hit, right turn, swing around and smash down.
He controlled the two golems to break the mass of the wolf pack so that the rest could effectively pick them out in the rain.
BAM! SMASH! YELP!
The pack was slowly thinning out and soon, there was only a few tens of them left. That would have been good news but, trouble also cropped out on their side.
"I am out of arrows!" Var's yelled out as he fired his last two arrows into the fray.
The explosion from the first one killed a charging wolf and injured one right behind it while the second one sent three wolves that were about to charge a hammer golem flying.
"Right behind you little viper, my sling stones are out too." Baluu grimaced as he fired off his last few sling stones.
Roxanne's grey eyes also narrowed considerably as she picked up her gun and stood up. She didn't say anything but the rest of them understood.
She had run out of bullets.
Rastel was also hiding it for a while now but he was actually running low on mana. He had hoped the fight would finish before that happened but since the rest were out of projectiles to throw, that hope was thrown out the window.
Gritting his teeth, he put more effort into the golems to hold back the wolves.
With Rastel keeping the wolves busy, they considered their options.
"Your mana must be running low already" Roxanne pulled out a light blue mana potion and handed it over to him.
He collected it from her pale cold hands with a smile and quickly took it down in a gulp. He recovered 250 points of mana which was more than half of his total.
He instantly felt his mental state get better and it was like a headache he never knew he had was instantly cured.
Looking at his surprised expression and the relief flooding his face, Roxanne laughed.
"Mana is affected by mentality and vice versa. If your mana is low, your mentality also takes a hit and you would be mentally drained which would cause your battle capabilities to drop."
She quickly explained while handing a mana potion to Vars and taking one herself. Baluu who didn't use any mana didn't really need one so he took out his club and rubbed it lovingly.
"Well there is only one way to do this now my dears" he said as he rubbed the club and flexed his arms.
Vars held his bow with two hands like a club while Roxanne sighed as she pulled out her hand gun and a long silver blade from her inventory.
"I really hate close ranged fights" she sighed regretfully.
Rastel scrunched up his brows as he concentrated on the fight using his two golems.
"Then sit back down girl, I'll go up and handle it."
"You want to fight close ranged?" she asked incredulously.
"Exactly, I feel very stressed right now and wouldn't mind blowing off steam with a good fight."
With a wave of his hand, Rastel called back his two hammer golems. They retracted into small figurines and flew into his hand with a flash.
Losing their initial target, the wolves instantly turned their attention to them. Incessant pattering of paws on wet mud followed as the few number of wolves numbering about 20 charged them.
Flexing his huge arms holding the club, Baluu chuckled grimly.
"It has really been a while I dove into danger like this, feels a bit nostalgic." Saying this, he rushed into the oncoming pack, club held high and his eyes flashing with a vengeance.
"HARRRR!!!"
SWOOSH!!!
The front rank of the wolves was instantly scattered by his huge figure as he sent three wolves soaring into the air with brutish strength. This was the strength of a bear beastman!
He dove into their ranks with no hesitation as he swung left and right.
Looking worriedly at Baluu, Vars followed behind as he wielded his bow like a club also and swung at the wolves that were trying to flank the rampaging Baluu.
Rastel stared at their attack with a bit of admiration before plunging in himself. He had already taken out the immortal's blade and aiming low, swung at the wolves that ran towards him.
The immortal's blade cut through a wolf's side and he slapped hard with his free hand at the face of a wolf that had leaped at him with lightning blast activated.
BLZZT!
Deftly turning around, he held the blade in a reverse grip and fended off two wolves that were snapping at his waist, agilely side stepping them and slashing at their throats.
He had been observing Roxanne for a while since he met her and he had to be honest, he was jealous of her abilities!
'I studied jujutsu and this martial art relies on flexible movements with quick and agile dexterity. If I am to be honest, a rouge class would have suited me better but I ultimately chose mage because I thought it would be more fun.'
He had chosen a mage class because he was attracted to the idea of throwing dazzling and explosive AOE spells around like a mad man. It was a bit embarrassing to say out loud but that was the truth.
'But now my hope of getting to do that with this immortal sculptor subclass is almost zero and I am not even in a class that can fully utilize my strength. This is such a hateful situation!'
He felt he had gambled had ended up loosing both his money and his clothes. He had lost 2-0.
SPLURT!
With a deft slash, he sliced the throat of a wolf while tripping one that was running behind him which made the wolf stumble into another.
He chuckled as he turned to finish it off only to suddenly hear a loud sound.
BANG!
YELP!
He turned to see Roxanne rushing in with her elegant hand gun and a long silver blade in tow. A wolf was struggling in its death throes just behind him.
"I decided I couldn't let you guys hog all the glory later on."
BANG!
The wolf that he had previously tripped had gotten up and was lunging for another attack only to be shot down by Roxanne's accurate aim.
Rastel chuckled nervously when he saw that as Roxanne ran up to his side.
"I have saved your life so many times now, are you sure you still won't call me 'Super expert miss'?"
She teased as she looked around warily at the approaching wolves.
"And I'm still asking, what does that even mean?" Rastel laughed as he launched an earth pillar forward.
Back to back, the two of them fought with a weird rhythm as they stabbed, dodged, fired and fended off the dwindling numbers of the originally large wolf pack.
Rastel was thrilled as he fought. He remembered when he just started out and had a problem fighting a level 6 Alpha wolf that old man Oron had told him to fight.
That was before he got the immortal's subclass and the whole incident at Laron happened.
Now as he looked at this wolf pack, a lot of the wolves were level 8 and some were even level 9! But he was able to keep up with his superior skills and weaponry.
It was just like Oron said, this was a game and also another form of reality. You can execute far more meticulous movements on full dive VR than on the less superior games out there.
You can also have a varied amount of powers and depending on how you use them, take down people stronger than you. He himself was a very good example, taking down opponents at least ten levels above him
If you are skilled enough, levels don't mean anything!
Rastel and Roxanne on one end, Baluu and Vars on the other.
The two groups wreaked havoc on the remaining members of the pack as they slowly but easily took them down.
"Bahaha! This was refreshing!" Baluu barked happily as he swung his club at the last wolf in front of him.
He had a few bite wounds where the wolves had gotten through due to his reckless fighting style but he didn't seem to care.
Vars was standing just behind him as he whacked the head of a wolf a few more times to be sure it was dead.
Rastel and Roxanne were also done on their end.
Looking at the carnage in front of him, Rastel finally realized the extent at which their assault had gone. They had exterminated nearly a hundred wolves!
He suddenly though of something and turned to ask Roxanne about it. She was going around observing the state of the wolves they had killed.
If they could retrieve some of the not so damaged fur, they could sell them for a decent amount of kryts.
"Hey Roxy, aren't wolves hierarchical? Like they have alphas and betas and the like." he asked her with a thoughtful expression.
"Hah! There seems to be one that escaped here, it's lurking in the bushes!" Baluu's loud voice echoed out.
"Well take care of it then, why announce it so loud?" Vars's voice could be heard chastising him.
Rastel and Roxanne glanced at them for a moment before continuing their conversation.
"Of course they are" she adjusted her hood as it seemed the rain was about to increase in intensity again.
"You are wondering why we didn't encounter any wolf that looks like an alpha?" she asked and Rastel nodded.
"Well I thought that too but maybe it died previously or something, or we might have killed it without noticing. Not all alphas look much different the rest of the pack you know, especially when they are all berserk"
She told him casually.
Rastel thought about it and nodded, she might be right.
Just as he bent forward to help her inspect the wolf furs, he heard a loud howl of pain followed by Vars yelling.
"ARGHHHHH!!!!!"
"BALUU!"
Rastel and Roxanne quickly turned in alarm and saw a gruesome scene.
Baluu was half kneeling on the floor grabbing at a bloodied neck with both hands as he weakly looked at the wolf in front of him.
The wolf was slightly larger than the ones they had been fighting but was different as it had deep blue eyes and there seemed to be a film of wind lightly swirling around it.
Vars was standing just behind them dazed, with eyes wide in shock as his face slowly scrunched up in indescribable rage.
"BALUUU!!!!!"