Supreme Monarch

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Six silvery-white creatures ran across the snow-covered forest without any halt, they moved swiftly around the trees and bushes, avoided rocks and even the unseen roots that had been buried by the snow with amazing briskness and agility.

This display, showed their innate familiarity with their territory, even though it was now a lot smaller than it used to be. The wolves approached their pack with several dead killers in their maws when suddenly, a large and unnatural pit opened up in front of them.

The pit came, literally, out of nowhere. It wouldn't have been a surprise if all six of the wolves had fallen into that hole but, the wolves were nimble creatures and wouldn't go down so easily. However, in a group, there would always be one that was too slow to keep up with the others, or in this case, too slow to react.

A single silver wolf had fallen into the pit and was met with deadly sharp spikes at the bottom, killing it instantly. There was no time for them to take a breath though, as several arrows flew at them from their right. There were five arrows aimed at all five remaining wolves.

The arrows sliced through the air with great speed but the now aware silver wolves were just too fast. Their innate ability was Speed boost, which allowed them to drastically increase their speed for a short period of time. 

Most of the monsters that lived in the eastern parts of the Darknar forest were agile and speed-based monsters, due to the difficulty in traversing the terrain. 

The silver wolves scattered to the left of the last attack, but as it turned out, the enemy had predicted this as well. A barrage of wind blades came out suddenly from that direction and with most of them having already used Speed boost, the attack sliced up two sliver wolves on the spot.

Seeing two more of their kin die before their eyes, the remaining three silver wolves, dropped the beast in their mouths and went berserk. The skill °Rage Destruction° was used simultaneously and their fur stood on end as their eyes glowed brightly with a faintly red hue.

With their berserk skill, Rage Destruction, not only would their base strength and speed be multiplied. But, they would be able to use all their other skills indefinitely, although the berserk skill would rapidly drain their life force the longer it was activated.

Jarret already being aware of this immediately commanded his team to attack. They could not give the wolves time to pick them off one by one or worst, call for help. 

Gail, who was stationed atop a large tree from about 120 meters away. Reloaded her purple crossbow and shot out multiple arrows at once. Of course, with the wolves increased physical abilities and their ability to use Speed boost countless times, they were able to easily dodge and avoid her arrows. However, her plan was never to hit them.

The wolves moved as predicted and Jarret, the only close-ranged fighter in this group, charged straight for the sliver wolf at the center. The others tried to intercept him but a furry of wind blades from Lora and Raz, including the well-timed and accurate shots by Gail, forcing the wolves to redirect their focus back to them.

Tarka cast support magic on Jarret that booster his strength and speed to keep up with the agile wolves. She was a Dragonwrought kobold with many useful abilities and trap magic was just one of them. She could use low-level healing spells as well as boost her allies with support magic.

Jin came from behind Jarret and drew the string of his composite longbow to its limits until its limbs began creaking. With a whoosh, the bowstring sliced through the air almost as far as Gail's arrow which had been fired from a crossbow. 

Jarret threw a small blade at the sliver wolve that was left to him, his aim wasn't that accurate but it didn't matter. He had drawn the attention of that beast to himself. The Beast launched at him and threw two sliver claw strike in front of Jarret. Jarret immediately lunged out of the way and changed his target.

The claw strike hit the ground and the silver wolf couldn't help but turn its gaze to look at the prey that was running away, however, at that point in time. Jin's arrow hit its mark, with the effect of a skill, it went through the wolf's head and killed it on the spot.

Seeing another of their kin die in front of them, the remaining silver wolves instinctively knew they could not win. They also weren't given the chance to call for help due to the consistent ranged attacks that came their way.

Without a chance at winning, the two silver Wolves spammed their speed boost ability and took off running. With their boosted speed it would be impossible for the group to chase after them but that was not their objective in this fight.

Jarret knew the wolves would circle to their pack so he immediately ordered his party to retreat.

••••••••

••••••••

After finally escaping the silver wolves' territory, the group could now finally take a short break before continuing on the rest of their mission.

They had already completed the first part of the mission and now had to head for the first safe zone closest to them.

However, due to their hasty retreat from the silver wolves' territory, their fragile formation had collapsed and they seemed to have stumbled into another monster's territory before they had to realize it. They had sat at the bottom of a large tree to catch their breath when blew passed them.

The monster gave off no aura, if it wasn't for the killing intent it radiated when it was about to strike, Jin would've lost his head. Jarret immediately drew his blade and deflected an attack to Kaz's neck before the others could react.

"What was that?" Jin said in a fluster instantly raising his alertness level. The monster moved so quickly it didn't even make a sound and none of the others could even see it.

Jarret's spirit vision had alerted him of something approaching rapidly and he had barely been able to block it. Yet, he did not see the monster himself. Gail rushed back sensing the danger and Tarka took flight, giving the group some air support while everyone else braced themselves for an onslaught.

As if on cue a barrage of attacks came raining down on them from all sides, it was like being beaten by over a dozen monsters but Jarret had confirmed there was only one. "A Bandersnatch." The words escaped his mouth without a second thought and the looks of dismay appeared on all their faces as they finally realized their current predicament.

"A-are you sure? Maybe it might just be something else." Jin said in a worried tone. A Bandersnatch wasn't that much of a high-level monster, in fact, it was only at the Tier 3 standards yet, its name instilled fear in the group. This was because Bandersnatch was a purely speed-based magic beast with speeds that could rival that of one of the four kings, the ancient Rykir.

Such speeds weren't something fighters at Jarret's level could handle without help. The only positive was the fact that its strength was sorely lacking, as testament by the fact that they can withstand so many of its attacks.

"Hey, Jarret what do we do?"

"Should we use the scroll?"

Jarret was speechless as they took the attacks of the Bandersnatch, he didn't want to use the scroll and report utter failure to Lord Ty, requiring him to come save them. No, they needed to survive this fight on their own. There were a lot more dangerous monsters in this forest than this and if they couldn't handle this they would be better of dead.

Gritting his teeth Jarret braced himself and commanded. "No! Everyone focus, these attacks are nothing. All we need to do is distract the monster, then we'll use the camouflage, soundless and odorless scrolls.— Now Lora, on my mark cast shockwave straight ahead, Gail watch out for Lora's attacked and if you spot the monster shoot it, Tarka, cast pit ahead of us when Gail attacks. Raz and Jin stay close to me and attack when I give the order."

"Yes."

"Okay."

Alright."

"Nicely done."

"No problem."

They all responded positively to his determined spirit and followed his orders, staying on the defensive while Jarret focuses on his ability until he finally yelled "Now!" Lora unleased the third-tier spell shockwave and a figure was sent flying back in the air. Being an experienced ranger Gail didn't miss her chance and fired multiple arrows accompanied by her skills. °Penetrating Arrows°

Three arrows pierced through a flying figure and pinned it to a tree. No— the figure was somehow able to dodge two of the three arrows and had avoided a fatal blow. Without revealing itself the monster disappeared for a moment before a loud thud was heard as something fell into a hole that had suddenly appeared.

"Use it now," Jarret commanded and Lora brought out three scrolls from her bag and activated them with a thought. The scrolls burnt in a purple haze turning to dust.

The forest was quiet and only the sound of the wind ruffling the leaves on the trees could be heard as the group disappeared from view and made a hasty retreat. They were left with no choice but to head for a different safe zone in other to avoid the Bandersnatch's territory not even dating to know if it had survived that fall.

The group took several detours as they headed for the second safe zone with the camouflage spell still active. The trip took them longer than it should because they were extra aware of their surroundings. Normally there shouldn't be so many monsters territory so close to each other but they had spotted several Tier 3 and above monsters on their way, and these monsters claim a lot smaller territories than they should, it was like they were giving up on the rest of the deeper territories for the four kings(three now). 

It took them a while to make it past these territories and they had finally arrived some meters away from the safe zone according to Gail's report. The others took this time to finally rest and Jarret and Lora got to work activating more anti-divination scrolls until he was ready to spy on the scouts using his ability. "Huh?" Jarret let out before he had the chance to control himself. "What's wrong?" Lora asked, "Did they notice us?" 

Jarret shook his head with a confused expression on his face and said. Ah... No, there is... there is no one there."

"Huh..." Lora couldn't help but let out the same word Jarret had earlier. When the others heard this they couldn't help but approach the two to find out what was going on. 

"What do you mean no one there?" Gail said as she dropped off a tree in front of them and walked towards Jarret. "I'm not sure myself, but from what captain Cronoff said, there should be scouts in all the safe zones closest to the castle but I can't find anyone in this one."

"Do you think it's a trap?"

"We took a lot of precautions, they shouldn't know we're here."

"Maybe they are aware of our arrival in the castle and had gone to report it."

"There is no need for all of them to leave for just that."

"What if this has something to do with the drastic changes in the forest."

"Yeah, perhaps they ran into one of the four king's and both parties annihilated each other."

"Well that might be it"

"I don't think a bunch of scouts can kill one of the four king's Kaz, even if they had several artifacts and still sacrifice their lives, if it was that easy the Great Five would've already conquered this place."

"Alright, we ain't getting anywhere by just discussing this lets head in and investigate before we report this to Lord Ty," Jarret said while clapping his hands to get the other's attention and they got their things together and headed inside the safe zone.

The normally sandy safe zone was now covered in snow, and as you can imagine it wasn't easy to move around on it. Since this was a safe zone the group spit up to search for clues, if any. Using some detect scrolls they all had a limited version of magic sense and they began their search. They moved around the place for about 10 to 15 minutes before they heard Raz yell out. "Hey, guys! I found something."

The others quickly gathered around him and he started to dig out the thick layer of snow around the perimeter of the safe zone which soon revealed something they all couldn't believe. A body was buried under the snow and even though the corpse was frozen, the body was most likely not even more than a few days old. The weather for the past few weeks had been extremely cold even before the snow so the body looked like it had been well preserved.

They dug out the body and found a second one along the way. They searched for a few more minutes and didn't find any more. Jarret frowned slightly, this was a safe zone and yet two scouts had died here, what did this mean. Did a monster somehow enter here, this place wasn't protected by magic, it was just observed that monsters didn't come close and if a monster was forcefully brought here, they would do anything in their power to leave.

Jarret brought out one of the communication scrolls from his bag and immediately activated it. This was beyond his understanding and he would just report it.