chapter 21- The roaming lupines part 2

[Roaming lupines POV]

Five minutes ago.

"Are you sure we're going in the right direction?" A tired looking lupine mage asked as he looked at the scout with a dubious expression.

He had grey fur with black eyes and his physique was on the scrawny side. He even used a long wooden staff as a walking stick.

"Yes, I'm sure. Oura city should be about an hour's walk away at most." A female lupine with black fur and blue eyes replied with an annoyed expression.

It was already her fourth time answering his question in less than twenty minutes.

She had a curvy figure with a short bow strapped to her back and was wearing cloth armour designed for mobility.

"We've been walking all day, when can we take a rest? I'm hungry." The mage whined.

"We're all tired and hungry, but you were the one that lost our supplies." A lupine knight barked in annoyance.

His brown fur and black eyes contrasted with his white full plated armour. His two-handed sword and plated armour made clanking sounds with every step.

"Calm down, Tristan. You too, Meryl. It wasn't Vic's fault." A tall lupine woman with black fur and eyes said with a sigh.

It felt as though she was babysitting everyone as they started complaining to one another.

Light leather armour covered her, and she had a broadsword strapped to her waist.

She scanned the area for any threats as nobody else looked to be paying attention.

Despite looking unguarded, the knight and warrior had already formed their second stage aura core.

Meanwhile the mage and scout had already formed their first stage mana core and aura core respectively.

"You don't understand Ellie, if he had been paying more attention-" Tristan cut his own words short when his senses alerted him to nearby enemies.

He quickly signalled everyone to get into position and drew his two-handed sword from its sheath.

Everyone else readied their weapons and got into formation.

"You dogs have better senses that we thought." A human warrior stepped out from behind a tree.

Three more warriors, one archer and two mages stepped out shortly after.

"Tsk, humans. What are you doing here?" Tristan clicked his tongue as his brows furrowed in annoyance.

Instead of replying, the leader of the human group readied a thin sword reminiscent of a fencing sword.

As he did, his companions followed suit and prepared to fight.

The warriors split into two teams of two and charged at the lupine warriors.

"Is that all you've got?" Ellie said while blocking both of the human warriors.

She managed to deflect the attack of the first attacker but had to block the attack of the second.

The group attacking Tristan fared no better. Despite using a two-handed sword, he activated a martial arts technique to increase his strength.

However, before he could deal a finishing strike, the archer would fire long range attacks at him.

Meryl was doing her best to cover them both, but she was dealing with the mages.

As for Vic, he was struggling to keep up with healing and casting defensive spells.

The Lupines were stronger, but the humans had greater numbers and good teamwork to close the gap.

"Urgh. Vic, I could use some healing right about now." Ellie had been stabbed by the leader of the human group.

"Me too." Tristan activated another martial arts technique to temporarily increase his defence.

One human warrior attacked with his fencing sword then retreated back as the other one stepped forth.

Slowly but surely, he was being worn down. He also had to deal with the occasional spell heading his way.

"On it. Meryl, cover me." Vic prepared to cast a healing spell but as he did, a frozen arrow shot forth and pierced the head of a human mage from behind.

Time stood still as the human mage fell to his death.

Did they have reinforcements? No, it can't be, those dogs look just as surprised. The leader of the human group cursed his luck.

This was supposed to be an easy mission, kill beastmen and demon adventurers and leave the bodies for the nearby goblins to scavenge.

In doing so, they could weaken the southern side of the Hozia empire, arm the monsters and hide their involvement.

[Lucious POV]

Did Liara just cast frozen arrow? She's only had the spell book three days. Lucious had already forgotten she had learnt small heal in less time.

He didn't know how long it usually took, but he recalled the protagonist from the novel taking several weeks to learn magic from spellbooks.

Even Lucious managed to learn Lightning step within a few hours. But, due to his system, he didn't think it was a fair comparison.

"Don't just stand there Lucious, kill them quickly." Liara said with mild irritation as she prepared another frozen arrow.

Her words snapped him out of his daze as he charged towards the backline of the human group.

"Quick, kill him!" the archer said to the other mage as he drew his bow.

Lightning step. Lucious almost instantly appeared in front if the archer and swung his sword.

"Wha-" before he could react, Lucious's sword came towards his neck. However, the archer was shoved back as a fencing sword met the blade.

Surprisingly, the thin blade didn't snap under the weight and strength of Lucious's enchanted blade.

Not bad, this guy's pretty good. The human leader glared at Lucious who was grinning.

"First the mutts, now a fox and elf joining the fray? This cursed empire should just quietly burn." As he spoke, the human activated a martial arts technique to double his speed.

He quickly jumped back to put some distance between them then appeared in front of him again while aiming to finish the fight quickly.

Time to get reacquainted with my martial arts. Lucious held his sword in his right hand and circulated his elemental aura three times faster than usual.

In doing so, the elemental aura caused his skin to glow with violet coloured aura. He then quickly redirected it to his sword as he swung it in a diagonal slash.

[Ding]

[New martial arts technique has been created]

[Serpents razor has been added to Host's list of skills]