Chapter 647: Dark Flame Wolves

Maya began to step through the opening in the wall, but Elion suddenly reached out and caught her delicate shoulder.

"Wait," he said. "There are monsters hiding inside."

Everyone stopped, the wonder vanishing from their expressions as hands moved toward weapons.

Maya followed his gaze, then stepped back beside Nora while Cole and Mayumi moved to cover their sides.

"How many?" she asked quietly.

"Several. Behind the pillars, and near the tower." Elion drew Kurogoroshi as he noticed a dark shape moving beneath one of the arches. "They already know we’re here."

A rumbling growl rolled through the courtyard, so deep that it seemed as though it came from the stones themselves.

A pair of amber eyes opened in the shadow of a fallen pillar, followed by another pair farther to the left.

The first wolf stepped into the sunlight, revealing a muscular body covered in coarse, black fur.

Menacing, dark flames crawled along its shoulders and gathered between its bared teeth, shedding drifting sparks that burned tiny holes through the leaves beneath its paws.

More emerged around it, spreading between the columns with their heads lowered until all nineteen were surrounding them, their eyes fixed on the group.

Their movements were disturbingly quiet for creatures of their size, and Elion felt his blood pumping as his appraisal revealed what rank they were.

"Dark Flame Wolves," he warned, raising his sword slightly. "Fifteen are A-Rank, four are S-Rank, and..."

Something much larger moved near the base of the tower.

The pack leader emerged from beneath a broken arch, its monstrous body easily three times the size of the other man-sized wolves.

Thick scars crossed its muzzle, and the flames pouring from its mane burned with such brilliant intensity that the vines hanging above it curled and blackened.

Each one of its steps sent a faint tremor through the ground, and scalding hot flames escaped from its snarling, sharp teeth.

Elion’s eyes narrowed as he checked its rank.

"SSS," he said. "The big guy is SSS-rank."

Maya drew in a sharp breath. It wasn’t hard to guess that it also had a powerful fire affinity just from how its flames affected its surroundings, on top of being an SSS-rank monster, but she didn’t dawdle.

"Stay together! Nora, strengthen the front line. Uta, watch our flanks!"

"On it!"

A soothing light spread across Elion’s body, the faint glow coating him as Nora’s magic reached him, and he adjusted his stance just as the pack leader lifted its head.

Hooooowl!

Its howl struck the courtyard like a thunderclap.

Black fire burst through the ground beneath the opening in the wall, erupting in a roaring pillar that sent chunks of concrete spinning into the air.

The surroundings immediately became hotter, and the dark shadows around them grew more prominent as the pillar of roaring flames charged toward the group.

"Excuse me!"

Elion warned as he caught Maya by the arm and pulled her aside while Mayumi shoved Nora clear.

Swiftly, he raised a pillar of water to defend against the approaching pillar.

Shhhhhh!

The collision between the two spells induced the result he had desired. It created a carpet of billowing steam that blocked the wolves’ sight, while he could still see clearly with his eyes.

The heat of the steam washed across them.

"Let’s move!" Elion shouted, but the wolves were already coming.

Two charged through the drifting cloud of smoke while the rest spread around the broken walls, seeking their flanks.

Elion stepped toward the nearest one, kept his wrist aligned with his blade, and cut as it sprang for his throat.

Shing!

Kurogoroshi easily sliced through the open jaws and tore out through the side of its neck, splattering hot, crimson blood across the pale floor.

The wolf crashed beside him with its head hanging at an unnatural angle, but he was already turning as a second set of teeth snapped toward his arm.

Yaana’s scythe caught that one beneath the jaw.

"Haha! Take that, you bastard!"

She pulled with great strength, twisting her whole body as the curved blade ripped through flesh and dragged the beast off course.

Its claws scraped across Elion’s sleeve before it struck the ground, where she brought the scythe down again and severed its spine.

Elion raised a brow, a bit unsettled by Yaana’s excessive, never-ending excitement, but he didn’t have the time to linger.

A burst of heat slammed into them from the side.

Elion threw up an earth wall, but the flaming pillar that followed was too tall. It struck with enough force to shatter its upper edge, sending burning fragments over their heads.

"Hot! Hot! Hot!"

Yaana cried out as fire swept across her forearm, her sleeve blackening before she hurriedly beat the flames against her side.

"Get away from the entrance!" Maya called, sending a broad sweep of water across the ground between them and the advancing pack. "Use the pillars! Don’t let them surround us!"

They pushed deeper into the courtyard, taking shelter among the columns as another torrent of black flame erupted behind them.

The air was quickly filled with cracking stone, flying embers, and the foul smell of burning fur.

Mayumi intercepted a wolf trying to slip past the right flank, her curved blade cutting a deep line across its face.

It recoiled with a savage snarl, but another leapt over its back before she could finish it, forcing her to twist aside as burning claws raked across her ribs.

Her breath broke in a pained gasp.

Cole struck the airborne beast from the side, driving his dagger into its chest and throwing it against a pillar.

He had barely pulled his weapon free when the wounded wolf lunged at him, its jaws closing around his upper arm.

Bone met teeth with a sickening crunch.

"Cole!" Mayumi shouted, stepping forward despite the blood spreading beneath her torn clothing.

Her sword plunged into the wolf’s neck, and she dragged the edge through until its grip loosened enough for Cole to wrench himself free.

He staggered backward, blood running down his forearm, while the creature collapsed between them.

Across the courtyard, the pack leader lowered its head and charged.

Elion saw it coming through the haze, its colossal shape wreathed in black fire. He barely had time to brace himself before it struck.

His sword met one descending claw with a violent clang, the impact driving him backward and carving two deep furrows through the moss beneath his boots.

His sword did manage to cut through some of the sharp claws, snapping the menacing nails in half, but the beast didn’t seem to care, sending its other paw sweeping toward his head.

’Damn! These things are so fast!’ He looked around to see how his team was doing. ’Not so good, eh!’

The initiative was always important in any battle, but the pack of wolves had all converged on them before they could charge first.

And now, they were surrounded from all sides.

He ducked, feeling the claws tear through the air above him, and drove his sword upward into the creature’s shoulder.

Schick!

The blade sank through the thick fur and muscle, but the beast twisted with frightening speed, wrenching its body away before he could deepen the wound.

Its jaws snapped shut beside his face.

Elion kicked against its chest and threw himself backward, a strip of his cloak’s sleeve catching fire as the heat brushed his arm.

He smothered it with a hurried surge of water, his skin already reddening beneath the scorched fabric.

’Quick bastard!’

The leader reared back, blood sliding down its foreleg, and howled into the air again.

This time, several pillars of flame erupted across the courtyard in rapid succession.

The first tore through an empty patch of ground. The second struck the column beside Maya and Nora, blasting away its lower section and sending the entire upper half tilting toward them.

Uta’s unnatural limbs shot forward and struck the falling stone, shoving it aside and allowing the two women to escape unharmed.

Boom!

It crashed against the floor with a deafening impact, showering them in flaming fragments, while another wolf leapt through the dust toward his exposed side.

One of its claws tore across his shoulder before he could turn.

"Argh!" Uta snarled and drove a twisting limb into its chest, forcing it backward as blood splashed down his arm.

The wolf used its speed to twist, turn, and dash around the partially incorporeal dark limb before Maya’s water blade struck its neck.

It stumbled, choking through a mouthful of blood, and Uta slammed it against the broken pillar, finishing it off.

"Keep them off, Nora!" Maya shouted, her own hands trembling as she gathered another spell around her staff. "Mayumi, Cole, fall back toward us."