Chapter 672: The Bait

Moon’s plan was simple in nature.

The Arctic Fire-Prowler was a threat to every beast in this region. Its very existence, a fire predator built to hunt cold-element creatures, made it a natural enemy to the entire white spire horde.

All it had to do was run past them. The sight and scent of it would drag the beasts into a hunting frenzy by pure instinct, enough to turn them away from the spire to give chase.

There was only one problem.

Moon couldn’t be certain how many beasts the Prowler would bring back. He hoped for fewer than fifty. Any more than that made containing them a real danger, the numbers tipping from manageable into a swarm that could overwhelm even his prepared trap.

He gave the order through the Curse skill, and the Prowler obeyed without hesitation.

The team took cover once again. They had already scrubbed the area clean, hauling off the Arctic Grizzler corpses, covering the blood, letting the scent disperse, erasing every sign of the last slaughter so nothing would warn the incoming beasts. Moon activated Camouflage and settled in to watch.

The Prowler swept past the horde’s edge, and the first pack caught sight of it, heads snapping around, a handful of beasts peeling off to give chase.

Realizing that only a few decided to chase, Moon commanded his Prowler, ’Be more aggressive,’

He needed more to follow the Prowler for his plan to truly matter in the grand scheme of things.

The Prowler hurled a breath of fire at a separate group, flame washing over them.

The attack angered the group of beasts who immediately joined the chase too.

The Prowler wheeled and began running back toward Moon’s position, and behind it streamed a horde of more than twenty beasts of mixed races, Grizzlers and others, all of them fixed on the fire predator ahead.

Halfway across the snow, a few gave up. The Prowler was too fast, most of its pursuers bulky and slow, and the stragglers began to turn back, realizing they’d never catch it.

’Attack the ones leaving!’ Moon commanded, keeping it short and clear to avoid confusing his subordinate.

The Prowler gathered itself, turned, and flung a fireball into the retreating pack. The flame scattered them and reignited their fury, and they rejoined the chase, unwilling to let the creature that had just burned them escape.

Moon smiled at the result. Once a human lost control over their emotions, they became nothing but another beast that was easy to control and destroy.

Once the horde had chased the Prowler into the killing ground, Moon gave his team the signal.

And at the same moment, he summoned his Fire and Nature battle spirit that had just evolved earlier.

The spirit materialized beside him, half living flame and half green growth and curling leaves, and the sight of it shocked every one of his teammates who caught the summoning out of the corner of their eyes.

They recognised it as a battle spirit which impressed them. They weren’t exactly common after all, especially ones that looked as special as the one Moon commanded.

But the fight was already on them, and they forced their questions down, saving them for after the fight, focusing on the horde bearing down.

"Damn it, there’s nearly thirty-five of them here!" Kayn shouted, counting the mass of beasts pouring in. "This is almost double the last horde! You should have angered less!"

He got into his stance anyway, blades ready.

"Just deal with it!" Vela barked, swinging her hammer into the nearest beast as Marek moved to support her flank. "If we survive this, our chances of clearing this gate triple. No, quadruple. So plant your feet and fight!"

Moon’s battle spirit moved under his command, the green and the leaves burning away until it stood as a full fire spirit, its threat to the ice-affinity horde doubling in an instant.

Even as a Four Star beast, with Moon directing it and fighting alongside it, the spirit could hold its own against the Five Star creatures around it, its fire tearing into their frozen hides.

The trap closed, and the second slaughter began.

Moon’s presence in the battle was more than flashing spells and bursts of lightning.

His commands were calculated to the second. His positioning stayed near-perfect throughout, always a step ahead, always where he needed to be.

When two beasts ganged up on Nina, he was there to break them off her. When Kayn’s blade left a Grizzler one wound short of death, Moon’s sword finished it so Kayn could move to the next.

He read the whole battlefield at once, filling every gap the instant it opened, moving like a man playing several games at the same time and winning all of them.

And he wasn’t fighting alone.

The Arctic Fire-Prowler tore through the horde’s flank, flame boiling off its jaws. His battle spirit, now pure fire, burned through beasts on the opposite side, attacking the beasts at the right moments, never truly putting itself in danger.

His three Arctic Grizzlers hammered the pack, ice-armored bulk against ice-armored bulk, the horde unable to tell friend from enemy in the chaos.

Frost Pillar erupted from the snow in a scattered ring through the pack, ice spears firing autonomously into the beasts, pinning them, breaking their footing, slowing their charges. The battlefield became a maze of ice, and the horde bottlenecked between the pillars exactly where Moon wanted them.

He raised his hand, and purple lightning gathered.

"Focus fire when it lands. Capitalize the second it hits!"

The [Thunderclap Raiju] formed, the purple wolf coalescing with hungry eyes, and Moon let it free.

It dove through the air at insane speed and struck the strongest beast in the pack, the massive Grizzler that had been giving his team the most trouble, and the current chained off it into five others clustered nearby.

The main beast died instantly, its body dropping mid-roar. The five it chained into convulsed, stunned and injured, their muscles locked by the lightning coursing through them.

"Now!" Vela screamed.