Beyond the Mission

Sanna stepped out and quickly scanned the area to look for a higher ground where she can effectively use her energy arrows.

She spotted a place that suits her requirement - an abandoned trailer truck, high enough to give her some space from the enemies.

While Ranger rampaged and unleashing his attacks to the enemies, Sanna headed discreetly to the abandoned truck. She thanked Ranger for the distraction.

The aswang were very much distracted, avoiding and saving their necks from Ranger.

When Sanna was about a few meters away from the truck, two shadow figures spotted her approaching form.

These two figures hurriedly ran to their new target, but another surge of electrical attacks from above were launched at them.

The aswang stretched their bodies in mid-air and avoided the attack. Unfortunately for their companions behind them, they were hit by the attack and burnt to a crisp.

Sanna noticed the incoming figures and paused midway.

Thinking that the prey gave up on running, the aswang eagerly bared their fangs at the girl. Both of them excited to rip her into pieces.

But then the girl smiled proudly at the two incoming aswang.

"Materialize!"

The bow transformed into a majestic white stag, covering the small form of his master.

Paying no heed to the stag, the aswang charged ahead to their prey.

Then the stag quickly lowered its head, pointing its long and sharp horns at the attackers. The creature flared his nostrils and galloped forward.

The stag charged head on to the incoming aswang.

Three bodies clashed, but the two aswang whined in pain as their bodies were pierced deeply by the horns. Red blood started to flow from the wounds where it trickled down to the horns.

Irritated by it, the stag shook his head from left to right and two lifeless bodies flew to the ground.

The body of the stag glowed brightly and returned to its previous form as a bow in Sanna's hand.

After making sure that there were no longer immediate threats or incoming attacks, Sanna immediately headed to the truck and climbed it to take her position.

*****

When Sanna left Yule to look for higher ground, he tried to look for easy opponents.

He wanted to try on small fry first since this was his first time dealing with wolf-like aswang.

Yule scanned around the area, but every time his eyes landed, all he saw was mayhem and death.

He could see from afar that Ranger was slashing his enemies with his swords. Ranger was like a whirlwind with his weapons.

He was spinning around, hacking the heads of the aswang. There were some aswang who tried to attack him from behind, unfortunately, a surge of electrical attack from above hit them, covering Ranger.

Around him, bodies started to pile up, but he was not bothered by the sight. He was deeply in the zone slaying them.

After seeing Ranger in full battle mode, this inspired Yule a little.

The team badly needed his help right now. Sanna and Ranger could not defeat the hordes with just the two of them.

Mustering all his strength, Yule spotted a lone aswang and headed forward.

The aswang noticed Yule and started growling at him.

Carried by his momentum, Yule thrust forward his spear at the aswang. But the monster leaped in the air and stepped on Yule's head.

With a growl, the aswang landed behind him, avoiding his attack.

Gritting his teeth, Yule twisted his body, planning to sweep the aswang from the ground, but the creature dodged the attack again by leaping in the air.

Yule expected its next move and gripped his spear tightly.

"First Form! Crescent Light!"

A crescent-shaped light was unleashed from his spear and hit the body of the aswang in mid-air.

The creature's body split in half.

Yule moved away quickly to avoid being drenched by the internal parts of the aswang.

Looking at the torn body on the ground, Yule heaved a sigh of relief after defeating it. It may be a small win, but it gave him enough confidence for this battle.

When he was about to move to another area, he heard another growl behind him.

Yule changed to his attacking stance to face another aswang when -

Another aswang popped its head from a nearby wreckage. Then another head rushed forward, from his right this time. And another one until he was completely surrounded by eight aswang.

All of them were growling at him.

"Oh boy," he muttered.

The monsters started approaching him, but with a careful step. It was like they were assessing his next move after he defeated their fallen comrade.

"Do you need back up?" Yule jolted after hearing Sanna's voice from the earpiece. He forgot that he had this device attached to his right ear.

Yule shook his head, but he realized that Sanna couldn't see his reply. "No. I can handle this."

There was a pause, then Sanna's voice buzzed again.

"Okay, but please be careful, Yule."

Then the communication went off.

He assessed his situation again and looked around him. There was no room for escape. The aswang made sure of that. The only next move was to slay them all.

"Let's go then," he said to no one in particular.

Realizing that the boy was about to launch his attack, the aswang from behind launched at him.

Reading this movement, Yule greeted the aswang with a thrust of his spear and successfully pierced its head.

Two more aswang leaped from their feet. Yule quickly pulled his spear and swung it to his incoming attackers.

A crescent light was released. Both were hit by a single attack.

The remaining aswang simultaneously ran forward to Yule. They were planning to kill him via a pincer attack. Two opposing groups rushed at him.

Inspired by Ranger's attack earlier, Yule spun his body releasing two consecutive Crescent Light attacks.

It was like a ring of blade, slashing the remaining aswang in one sweep.

While panting heavily, Yule moved forward to the next area where more aswang greeted him.

*****

Sanna was firing her energy arrows consecutively ever since she stepped foot on top of the trailer truck.

No matter how many times, she killed one aswang, two more popped out. This reminded her of a certain creature like hydra.

She was waiting for Ranger's go signal, so she could release her large area of effect spell.

But to no avail, Ranger remained silent in their communication line. Though she could see him from afar cornered by packs of aswang.

Fortunately for him, Ranger was supported by his yellow swords hovering above him, unleashing surge of electricity around him.

Then her earpiece buzzed.

"Sanna!" Ranger shouted. She could definitely hear that he was heavily panting.

"What's our next move? These aswang are just depleting our magic reserves. We need to do one clean sweep before they overrun us."

"I agree. You have my blessing to use it."

"Then you better find a cover."

"Sorry, what does 'it' mean?" Yule interrupted them in the line.

"Just find cover, Yule!" Sanna ordered him.

She turned off the earpiece and examined the whole area overrun by the aswang.

Raising her bow in the air, the air started to shift.

All of the monsters in the area noticed the abrupt change of the atmosphere. They were scanning the area, hunting the source of it.

Then a large magic circle appeared on the sky covering a 1 km radius.

Some of aswang who were near Sanna's location headed toward her. They could feel that the source of the sudden shift in the air and the surprise appearance of a magic circle above was because of her.

They ran forward to stop her.

Noticing that the aswang were on her, she nocked her energy arrow and release it upward. The arrow released a huge wave of air, knocking the aswang within the area.

"Dance of Starlights!" Sanna shouted.

She already used this spell when she fought alongside with Yule against a Level 2 aswang. But that spell was released through minimal magic reserves. In this attack, Sanna poured all her reserves into this shot, hoping to decimate all the numbers of aswang.

The energy arrow passed through the middle of the magic circle. The circle glowed in the air and started spinning.

"Die! All of you!" She shouted.

Thousands of energy arrows rained down from the magic circle. The area of the attack covered the 1 km radius hitting all the aswang within the area.

All of the aswang tried to run away from the rain of attacks. Unfortunately, the circle poured down more arrows. Their bodies were hit multiple times by the energy arrows.

The attack lasted for more than 20 seconds until the magic circle lose its light and vanished into thin air.

"Wow! Sanna, that was cool!" Yule cheered in their line.

"Good one, Sanna!" Ranger added.

But -

Something happened.