28

I looked out into the forest using my infrared to track the beasts that were rushing their way through the woods towards us. Some of the centaur things had managed to survive along with a few lizards. The harpies that managed to come through the portal before I closed it were flying around. They started avoiding me completely. Which was fine by me since that meant they were avoiding the wolves as well.

I checked on the number of wolves that were still living. System quest progress.

236/303 wolves remaining

3/10 dragon crystals found

I didn't need both of them, but that's fine. I shrugged off the tension for a moment as I slowly used my breathing to recover my mana. I stayed atop the wall for a few hours. Launching breath attacks whenever an enemy got daring. My wings extended slowly as my mana reserve slowly filled back up.

I just needed to get it up to half to pull off closing the rift down. Something still didn't feel right. Part of me was convinced that something was going to go wrong. I didn't really want to think about it, but that feeling just wasn't going away. I needed to be ready to kill when this threat showed up.

I didn't know how long I would have to wait until the threat showed up, but I couldn't deny the feeling in my guts. Every instinct was telling me that I shouldn't relax. I didn't know how long I would have to wait, but whatever it was terrified me. I jumped down from the wall into the town. I called Ethan, Savannah, and Jax to me.

"What's going on?" Jax grumbled.

"Something bad is coming," I snorted to myself, "We need to seal up the portal before it gets through."

"What if it's already through?" Jax asked.

"Then we need to kill it," I growled slightly.

My muscles tensed as I thought about the fight to come. I didn't know what would happen when whatever this thing was came through the rift. If it was already through the rift then I would have to deal with that. I invited them up on my back.

"Samson," I roared, "Bring the wolves back into the walls. I'm going to close the final rift."

Samson used the trees to jump back up on the wall with me.

"Why are you calling us back?" Samson frowned at me.

"There's something coming that's worse than the rats," I warned him, "I'm going to close the rift. Hopefully that stops it, but if it doesn't we're going to be in one hell of a lot of a trouble."

"How sure are you?" Samson asked with his arms almost completely covered in hair as well as most of his chest.

"If I'm wrong then you pulled your people back for nothing," I tried looking or a heat signature that gave me a vibe of something even more dangerous than what we've been facing so far, "If I'm right then pulling back your people might be the only thing that saves them."

Samson looked at Ethan with a frown. Ethan agreed with my statement, and nodded. He looked at me again before nodding, and howling for his people to pull back. My wings twitched as I got ready to fly out of here. I needed to fly over to the portal, and close it up.

Savannah, and Ethan both climbed up willingly. Jax needed more convincing. I picked Jax up with my mouth, and shoved him in his spot. Then I jumped off the wall, and used my wings to fly over to the rift. There were more lizards that had come through the rift by now.

"These guys are poisonous," I snorted, "So I'm going to make sure the air flows away from us."

I turned the mana in my lungs into wind elemental magic, and fired off breath after breath. The poison laced wind wouldn't make its way up to them if I kept pushing the wind back down. I inhaled again, and turned the elemental energy to fire before launching the flames at the lizards. The amount of poison I had wasn't unlimited. Personally I thought it was better if I didn't end up using all the poison I had available.

The sudden change to flames surprised the lizards. They freaked out at the sudden introduction of a new attack pattern as I started alternating between keeping their poison low to the ground, and attacking.

{Just keep the lizards close to the portal.} I inhaled again. {When the portal closes I'll kill them all right quick. You just have to stand back, and try not to get poisoned.}

{If it's that simple than why do we need to fall back?} Ethan asked.

{I don't think it's that simple.} I breathed lightning down onto them, {I think something is going to go horribly wrong. I don't want you here for that part.}

{I can't just leave you alone.} Ethan complained mentally.

{If it's poisonous like the lizard then you'll die.} I breathed air elemental mana down on the lizards, {Do you know what happens to me if you die?}

{Fine} Ethan grumbled mentally, {But if I see an opportunity to help then I will.}

I figured he would whether I wanted him to or not. I snorted then inhaled again. My muscles tensed. I didn't want him in the line of fire, but I couldn't force him. Sure my bond allowed me to read their emotions, prevented us from acting out our aggression, and communicate, but it didn't let me actually control them.

Ethan would be able to do whatever he wanted, whether I wanted him to or not. I pushed the air back down on him again. Jax started pitching in on the combat as well. Driving earth spikes up through the beasts on the ground.

System senses users desire to amplify bonded magic. Would user like system to amplify bonded magic?

(Yes) (No)

I can do that?

Yes user can amplify all bonded spells with his own mana by up to 100% as long as their within range of users amplification ability.