Chapter 360: Fire Rain
"Bastards..." Robert growled, driving his sword into the neck of a razor-toothed hyena, its whimper fading as it died. Theon slid up beside him, thrusting his spear into another one leaping from the mountainside. They were in a narrow gap between mountains, a natural path, but the low cliffs on one side made it a hotspot for monsters, with a shallow ravine cutting through.
The tight space meant no one dared use their mana guns—a single misfire could take out their own. So, they stuck to swords and spears, except for the few trained in ranged weapons who could handle mana guns without screwing it up.
"Why’d they have to show up now?" a guy from Kalso’s team grumbled. Cassian recognized him, reminded of Robert—both quick to get pissed and loud about it. "Ten more minutes, and I was off duty for the day, and these bastards..." he growled, jamming his ripper into a hyena’s throat, "couldn’t wait for the next shift. Die, you shits!" He stabbed again, making sure the thing stayed dead.
They had a right to be frustrated. They’d been battling monsters all day, finally about to get a break, when this pack of hungry, long-toothed hyenas showed up. Not strong enough to be real monsters, but their numbers and the narrow mountain gap made it tough for the group.
But there was also the threat of mutated hyenas, stronger and faster than the regular ones. Robert and the others could handle the normal beasts, but these true monsters were the job of circle warriors and mages. Cassian, being a circle warrior, made a long leap onto a nearby tree to get a better view. Spotting a couple of soldiers struggling with a bigger, quicker hyena, he flashed toward it, intercepting its claw before it could slash one of them. "I got this. Get back to your position," he said.
In the center of the group, mages stood with the horses. The lower-level ones shielded themselves and tried to keep the horses from bolting, while Carlo, the Pyraxis-ranked mage, prepared a big spell. Mana gathered above his staff, forming a red mana circle in the sky as he chanted and traced shapes with his staff.
"How much longer, Carlo?" Shera shouted, slamming her bone hammer into a hyena’s head, nearly turning it to mush. Another one leaped at her from above, and she swung upward, sending it crashing into the canyon wall, leaving a bloody streak as it slid down.
"One minute! When I cast, everyone hit the dirt, or don’t cry to me about a hole in your skull!" Carlo yelled back. The group flinched, uneasy about what spell he was cooking up. So far, they’d only seen him toss out the occasional oversized fireball—bigger and faster than usual—or a fire shield. Nothing major.
But nobody doubted his power, and they took his warning dead seriously. Cassian included, as he cleaved a one-star hyena cleanly in two, from head to tail, guts sliced evenly like it was nothing.
Before the hyena’s corpse hit the ground, Cassian was already on another group of mutated ones, moving fast. Nearby, a circle warrior wielded a bow and arrow—a rare choice for warriors, since mages were typically the go-to for ranged combat. But those few warriors who broke through with ranged weapons could become legends if they climbed enough circles.
"Need a hand?" Cassian called out to a female warrior, catching her off guard. She hadn’t sensed him closing in, nor seen him move to block a hyena lunging for her leg. He jammed his sword between its teeth, holding it in place. She fired an arrow straight through its open mouth, the shot tearing clean through to the other side. "Not anymore," she said, cool as ice.
She loosed three more arrows in quick succession, each flying in a different direction, nailing other mutated hyenas mid-attack with deadly precision.