"I'm feeling about eight more monsters on each side, and I think that'll be about it," Mia said absently, a larger part of her mind burning Multitasking on full throttle as she cycled through ideas and plans to somehow kill all the wolves rushing at them without anyone getting grievously injured.

"Lieutenant!" Brent shouted after a quick nod. "We will handle the big one on the front. Can your men keep the ones in the buildings off our backs?"

"Yes," the man said confidently, but without the previous offended snort he had. He was now firmly in no-nonsense combat mode. "We will come and provide covering fire once those are gone."

Lina was practically out of the fight if they didn't want to expose themselves to the opportunistic birds in the sky. That left Mia, Camie and Helene as the ones who'd have to provide the main portion of the firepower.

"Tell her to focus on supporting us," Brent said, motioning towards Nikki. "Slow them, freeze them, I don't care. Just generally make their lives miserable. We need that more than a fourth heavy hitter."

Mia translated, and the ice mage nodded subtly, her armour of ice thinning into a more lithe form around her body. Mia had noticed it before, but the woman really had a pretty balanced repertoire of spells available to her. By the looks of it, she had assembled it in a way that it would allow her to fight alone and without any support from others.

Mia liked that mindset and decided she'd get some advice on her own set of spells from her … once they had solved her runic-model issue.

"Thin them out," Brent ordered grimly, but no one fired off any spells for another ten seconds as they waited for the enemy to get into range.

Mia's piercing Bolts and Camie's Blood Lances could have reached them, but the former wouldn't have done much, and the latter would have been a waste of life force just for thinning out the weaker monsters. Or at least that's what Mia guessed the reason was for the vampire's lack of action.

"Let's see," Helene murmured to the side, and Mia felt goosebumps on her skin as her mother's mana surged and flashed out from her fingertips in a trio of thick arcs of lightning.

Yellow and blue arcs twisted to hit the three wolves at the front, making their dodges useless as they all locked up from the electricity. Lightning webbed around the three wolves, then smaller arcs jumped over to the nearest five wolves, sending those too to the ground as their muscles locked up.

I suppose metallic fur is still conductive as hell. Mia mused with a slight grin. That was just natural selection in action.

The following wolves jumped over their seizing kin, and a few more found small arcs jumping over them. Sadly, the lightning weakened quickly, and each arc was much more diminished than the one before it. In just three seconds, even the second set of five started getting back to their feet, leaving only the first three as steaming carcasses. None of the riders got up, though — they had been cooked inside their armours a bit too thoroughly for that — and the now riderless, slightly cooked wolves got back to their feet and rejoined the charge quickly enough.

Mia swallowed, her heart rate spiking as she beheld the mass of fangs and claws bounding towards them like a dull grey tsunami of death. She could hear their snarls and snapping jaws, their metallic claws scraping against the asphalt, and the heavy thuds of their footsteps all mixing together into a large cacophony.

She went through the spells in her Spell Tome twice before she once again verified she had nothing better than her trusty old Arcane Blasts for this fight either. Spectral Blade would break against their fur, piercing Bolt wouldn't pierce it, and the other variants were even less likely to be of use.

All her other spells were either utility or protective in nature … aside from Arcane Shackles. That was a crowd-control spell, if she went by gamey classifications. That could help. However, Nikki's spells would doubtlessly work better.

Letting out a slow breath, Mia slowly circulated her mana. It didn't help much, but it was calming, snapping her into a meditative state of mind.

She could think about getting her hands on a fancy new offensive spell after this set of monsters was dead and she had her runic-model upgraded. Before that, she couldn't even think about adding any new runes. Worse, none of her currently owned Runic Lexicons had any spells of the like in them.

"Did I understand correctly that you want me to disrupt their charge's momentum?" Nikki asked, an uncharacteristic frown of worry creasing her features as she glanced over at Mia.

"Yes," Mia said. "And spread them out a bit, if you can. I don't know … maybe make half of them slower so we only have half of them to deal with at a time?"

"It won't work on the Guardian," Nikki warned.

"We can worry about that one once the small ones are dead," Mia said, feeling a bit silly calling wolves that could eat her in about three bites 'small'.

"Alright," Nikki said, and Mia felt a chilly coldness seep into the air around her. At the same time, a spell circle the size of a larger kitchen plate manifested. Icy blue runes formed across it, fitting into little crevices left between geometric shapes stacked atop each other. "When do you want me to hit them?"

Her voice was strained, and Mia could see her fingers trembling ever so slightly from the effort of holding all the mana used to fuel the spell under her control while she also had to keep the spell in that active, but not quite released limbo state of spell casting. Mia was sure she'd be having a nosebleed from trying that stunt, or just the worst migraine imaginable.

"Whenever you feel like it," Mia said. "As long as it keeps the half you slow down behind long enough to matter."

"This will leave me at a fifth of my reserves," Nikki said with a gasp, then gritted her teeth. "Get out of the way!"

"Get out of her way!" Mia repeated, but was happy to see everyone besides Clive having jumped out of the way already. The shieldbearer startled and hopped away, too, having been fixated on the charging tide of monsters.

As soon as Nikki had a clear line of sight, a flash of icy blue magic flashed forward like a wound-up spring finally releasing. A few dozen metres out, the mass of ice mana separated into a score of serpentine spells that raced across the sky and smashed into random wolves in the distance.

There didn't seem to be any effect at first, but it only took a few seconds for the struck monsters to grow sluggish and start to stumble. Their heads drooped, then snapped back up as if they were fighting extreme drowsiness but were losing ground quickly.

"What did that do to them?" Mia asked curiously as the first set of wolves finally stumbled to a halt before falling over to their side. A few seconds later, the charging horde of wolves was twenty members short. Some of the riders ran after the wolves on their stubby little legs, but they were left behind in short order.

"It's the same as the Freeze spell I'd used before," Nikki said, letting out a deep breath as she swallowed a mouthful of mana potion and placed the empty vial back onto her belt. "Just a modified, 'mass' version of it. They should stay asleep for a few minutes … I think."

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

"Thanks," Mia said, then patted the woman on the shoulder a bit awkwardly. Nikki just shook her head a little and took deep breaths with her eyes closed before heaving herself back into combat readiness.

Another thick bolt of lightning snapped out of Helene's hand, this one visibly thinner than the previous one as it needed to cover a much shorter distance. It split into four, each fork snapping at a wolf, with the last one even trying its luck at the large Guardian, languidly following after its lesser kin.

Mia watched the yellow and blue arcs run along its dull grey skin without visibly doing anything. It didn't stumble and nor did it look any worse for wear. It did give a haunting howl, though, which swept over everyone gathered and had them take a few worried steps back.

Not the soldiers, though; they only stopped firing to correct their aim and to reload, and they collectively killed four more wolves in the meantime.

Mia grimaced, thinking back to how dismissive of them she had been just minutes prior to this. She might have the fancy magic, but she was still just a skittish software dev while these people were soldiers. Hardening her heart, she straightened her spine and pushed the rising dread back down as she tried to ignore the haunting howl.

It sounded like metal tearing mixed together with a deep, metallic echo. If she wanted to be more poetic, she would have described it as the screams of a thousand vengeful spirits mixed into one dreadful sound.

The howl seemed to lift the monsters' spirits just as it sapped at the defenders', and their charge took up pace. In just a few seconds, they would be crossing the absolute limit of Mia's Arcane Blast range. The spell was safe to use up to about 90 metres, and had a tendency to explode beyond that whenever it felt like it, but Mia had managed to make it go as far as 110 metres … sometimes.

She was guessing it was due to her Arcane Manipulation Skill helping out, but even with its assistance, doing so still sapped at her willpower more than she found worth the expenditure.

So she waited and watched as her mother fried two more wolves, only to have the Guardian block another three from getting hit too. Metallic spikes shot out of its shoulders and drew in the lightning bolts like grounding rods before sinking back into the monster's body.

"It can likely eject those spikes," Nikki said from the side, still looking mildly drained after her latest spell.

Before Mia could translate for the others, the monster did exactly that. A pair of iron spikes shot out of its shoulders and arced up into the sky before curving downwards right towards the group.

Mia panicked a little, the mental image of herself impaled on one of those spikes flashing before her eyes, before she quickly launched into trying to predict where they would land and where she should dodge to avoid just that scenario.

Camie grabbed her arm and pulled her a few metres away. Mia followed along, but kept her eyes trained on the descending spikes as she considered dropping her Arcane Blast spell circle just to put up an Arcane Shield. She knew she wouldn't make it in time, but having another layer of protection would have helped her nerves, if nothing else.

Lina was quick enough, though. Her shield of air magic grew thicker before a pair of thick globs of mana shot out to intercept the incoming spikes. Mia had hoped for something drastic, but the Guardian's projectiles barely budged.

"Dodge!" Lina shouted in panic, jumping up into the air and kicking off a foothold made of thick, misty air.

Camie grabbed Mia across the waist and easily carried her another few metres away in a fraction of a second. It made Mia's mouth open in a yelp, which proved to be a mistake. As one of the spikes crashed into the ground with a deafening sound just a few metres away from her, the kicked up dust and debris rushed to fill her open mouth, but she was just fast enough to snap it and her eyes shut before they could.

"EVERYONE'S GOOD?" Brent shouted, coughing afterwards. His form was revealed a moment later as a gust of wind Lina conjured up swept away the dust cloud.

Mia checked her mother, Mark, and then Lina in that order and sighed in relief when she found them all just fine. Clive seemed to be the worst off as he was down on one knee, heaving for air, but that had probably more to do with the smashed bird monster next to him than the Guardian's attack.

The opportunistic vulture must have tried its luck with their shieldbearer and found its prey much more deadly than it ever could have predicted.

"Good," Brent said, having likely done a quick tally. "Face the front! They are still coming at us. Spread out a bit and form groups around me, Mark and Clive."

Camie and Mia ended up standing behind the shieldbearer who was closest to them, with Nikki and Helene taking up positions behind Mark's bulky golem form, leaving Brent with only Lina to guard.

A second after they were done, the monsters entered Mia's Spirit Sense range and then her Arcane Blast range a half second later. Which she promptly rewarded them for by Blasting a hole the size of a basketball into the nearest, slightly scorched monster's forehead.

Using her wand to make sure she didn't cripple herself in the rush of the battle, she sent off Blasts one after the other as quickly as her mana channels allowed.

There were only a dozen charging Iron Wolves remaining by now, not counting the Guardian. At the rate Mia and Helene were killing them, it seemed likely the Guardian would be alone by the time it reached them. Even the soldiers started peppering them with bullets, and while those didn't kill them instantly, Camie used the smaller wounds to send one of her Blood Bolts in through them, which did finish the job more often than not.

Then the Guardian struck again, a pair of spears forming and shooting at them. Mia panicked again, justifiably so this time because one of those spears was coming right at them. Thankfully, Clive didn't.

Mia might have taken it for nihilistic acceptance of his own death had she the mental capacity to analyse the man's demeanour, but it proved to be simple confidence in his own competence.

Shield held firmly, feet set, and teeth gritted, Clive stood between the two girls and the projectile. A Skill was activated, and a runic inscription shone on his shield a moment later.

He skidded back a few steps, grunting as a metallic crash made Mia's ears ring, but that was it.

The spike clattered to the ground, bent out of shape, and already dissolving into nothing, with the trio left unharmed.

"Nice," Clive murmured, and Mia saw a slight grin on his face. Great, he lost his marbles.

I should have run over to Mark instead. Mia lamented, but got back to firing off Blasts until only the Guardian remained after checking to make sure the other spike didn't injure anyone either. Unfortunately, the monster was barely thirty metres away by that point, and while the soldiers bathed it in a healthy amount of enchanted lead, it had little to no effect.

"STOP IT!" Brent yelled, and Mia felt most of her team jump to fulfil the order.

A misty bolt of ice smacked into the monster's right foreleg, quickly followed by a blast of air magic trying to kick its feet out from under it. Clive readied his shield to stop the charge or die trying, but what finally had the greatest effect was when the asphalt gave way under the Guardian's paw and its whole leg disappeared into a deep hole.

It smashed snout-first into the ground with a heavy thud, its momentum firmly broken. Mia took the opportunity to send a Blast at its head. It worked … somewhat. It bore out a chunk of metal, revealing even more metal underneath that just flowed back into place a moment later to heal the damage.

That wasn't good. Mia had thought it would at least have a brain inside its skull, but apparently it didn't need even that. It was really just an animated mass of iron in the shape of a wolf.

"Keep blasting it," Camie said reassuringly, likely feeling Mia's rising doubt and dread as the monster scrambled out of the earthly trap without any visible injuries remaining. "It's smaller. Its mass is shrinking with every chunk you destroy."

Even if Camie was right, the decrease was so small that Mia hadn't even noticed it. Still, she trusted the vampire's senses more than her own, so she felt a bit of her hope being rekindled. She had been considering suggesting a retreat just moments before, but maybe they could actually kill it after all.

It was by far the most powerful monster Mia had ever felt, beyond even the final Guardian of the goblin Rift by a level or two.

"Call reinforcements!" Brent shouted at the soldiers ineffectually firing at the monster, and while Mia heard gritted teeth, she also caught the static of a radio before the Lieutenant started barking a quick plea for reinforcements into it.

Helene tried to attack the monster with lightning again, but by the looks of it, the electricity passed harmlessly through its body and went right into the ground under its feet.

The gigantic metallic wolf growled and broke into a run, though much slower than before, with Lina continually harassing it with blasts of air aimed at its ankles. It didn't quite make it trip, but its steps faltered as it stumbled every other step.

When it got close enough, Mark greeted it with an enlarged spiked mace to the side of its head while Brent dashed forward and slashed at its flank with his Force-empowered blade.

Neither did much damage, but Mark's strike snapped its head to the side just before it could snap its jaws out at him.

Mia kept blasting at the monster from behind Clive, with Camie throwing in some Blood Bolts and even a Blood Lance when one of Mia's Blasts made an especially deep crevice in the monster.

Nikki was throwing spells at it periodically, and Mia guessed there had to be some invisible effect to the spells with how determined the blue-haired woman looked while doing so. It wasn't making it easy to convince herself, though, those spells looked like snowballs that splattered across the monster's skin.

Mia hoped Camie was right and the monster was truly shrinking, because everyone in the group was now a single missed dodge away from ending up ground to paste between those massive, teeth-filled metallic jaws.

Things were looking only a tone better than bleak.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.