"Do you wish to battle it alone?" Alto asked, squinting his old eyes. The crimson sky wolf was no ordinary foe, and even Alto was wary of it.
She nodded, but her eyes never left the wolf, not even for a second. Her grip on her sword tightened as she pointed it at the resting wolf's frame. She then closed her eyes and whispered, "Flaming sword first form: Red."
Before she finished talking, Dagon positioned himself in front of Kody, but that didn't stop the intense wave of heat from hitting both of them.
Kody grimaced as he leapt backwards, trying to escape the burning heat.
Aphena's hair was now red and her body emitted a completely crimson glow. The wolf that had previously been unbothered was now standing on all fours after sensing danger.
Its sanguine fur bristled in alarm, but it didn't back away.
Aphena raised her sword into the air and it shone an intense crimson that blanketed the valley. For a moment, Kody thought he was back on Earth, under the red sun; this made him shiver.
The stones under her feet burned as she walked slowly to the monster. Her hair fluttered in the wind, giving her an almost divine look that Kody could only admire from afar, lest he get burned.
The valley was silent and hot, with only the cackling of dry wood and heated stones to fill the background.
The others had made sure to stay a distance away, so as not to get burned by friendly fire. It was a spectacle, but the glow of the sword made it hard for Kody to keep staring.
The monster, who now looked ready for battle, leaped into the air and spread out its wings, blocking the glow of the sun as the giant shadow covered the crew.
It let out a howl so powerful that Kody had to cover his ears, but they still bled.
Kody's mind was fuzzy; it was clear that just being near a battle of this level was nearly fatal for him. If he had been closer he would have lost his ears.
Are we really the same age, he thought while watching Aphena continue her slow advance, unperturbed by the monster's actions.
It let out a low growl when it saw its attack had no effect.
The wolf wasn't having it. With a flap of its wings, it darted towards her at an immense speed.
A fear sprouted in Kody's mind, but he relaxed seeing how calm Aphena was.
She raised her sword and slashed downward, sending a wave of red flames at the wolf.
Not willing to take the strike head-on, the wolf halted its advance and maneuvered its large body to the side, narrowly escaping the attack.
But Aphena wasn't done just yet. Her thighs contracted as she pushed upwards, hauling herself into the air.
The wolf, seeing its prey coming straight to it, swiped its claws at her, sending out a wave of blood energy. But that was not nearly enough to stop her advance.
With a single slash, she cleaved straight through the attack with the sun in her hand.
Her momentum didn't stop; her body kept cutting into the sky. Her sword didn't stop moving as she poked out with it, sending a beam of concentrated fire to the wolf's chest.
Utilizing its aerial expertise, it tried to get away from the attack. But sadly for it, it underestimated the speed of the laser-like attack.
It was able to get its body out of the attack's range, but the size of its wings became a problem as one of them was hit squarely creating a massive sizzling hole in the flesh wing.
The wolf was immediately disoriented, as it cried out in howls that made Kody cover his ears again.
The wolf streaked downwards and, with a loud boom, slammed into the valley, creating a cloud of smoke. It had been successfully deprived of its aerial advantage.
Another loud thud came as Aphena landed on the floor.
The smoke soon cleared up and the onlookers could see Aphena standing tall in front of the cowering wolf.
The one who had been all high and mighty a moment ago was reduced to nothing but an animal by the princess.
"And here I was thinking that she might need our help," Dagon said, placing his sword back in its sheath.
"The lady is more powerful than any of you think," Alto added, smiling as he watched Aphena and the wolf exchange blows.
"That much is clear." Dagon sat on the floor.
"It's crazy that she's not even going all out. If she does then we'd also be in danger." Thorin shook his head.
His words piqued Kody's interest. If she wasn't even going all out, then how powerful was she, really?
The tales of evolved humans played in his mind. It was something he heard every day back at the underground facility: humans who had braved the apocalypse. They had gained the power to level mountains and dry out seas.
Those were myths, or so he had thought. He had never expected to truly witness such a thing but this fight was close enough. It once again reminded him that he could have that power, the power spoken of in legends. Just the thought alone was exhilarating
I'm going to become more powerful than her, he proclaimed to himself. One day.
Aphena sent out another slash to the wolf now on its last leg. But it still managed to evade the life-threatening strike with only minor injuries.
The injuries were piling up, but the monster refused to die. In fact, the hole in its wing was almost healed at this point.
Aphena, however, had no plans of letting it catch its breath. She kept attacking, as if containing endless stamina. Her attacks were getting weaker, but the wolf's demise would come first.
Just when the wolf finally accepted its loss and tried to run, Aphena poked out with her sword, firing another beam of laser-like flame.
The wolf, sensing its imminent death, covered its body with the pair of wings in a last-ditch effort at survival.
A loud explosion rang as its body was flung into the air. The others were silent as they watched the battle end, unsure if it was dead or alive as it landed unmoving on the floor.
"Is it…"
"It's still alive, but harmless now. Rufus, come help me with something," Aphena said as she placed her sword back in its sheath. Immediately she did that, the crimson aura around her disappeared and her hair went back to being silver.
Her face was pale and she walked with a certain weakness in her bones.
Rufus didn't delay and soon stood by her side, following her to inspect the corpse.
They both stood in front of it and stared into its open eyes, but it couldn't move. It just gazed back with a deep hatred concealed within the pupils.
"Can you tame it?" Aphena asked.
Rufus, who was inspecting the corpse, turned to her with a confused expression.
"Why would you want to tame it?" He retorted. "Even if I can do that, I won't be able to get it to attack its kind. And if a level 4 arrives it would easily be able to break my control."
"I don't need its attack power. I need something else."
"What's that?" Rufus raised a brow.
"How do I explain this?" Aphena placed a hand on her chin. "You know how unlike humans whose blood aura is genetically contained, monsters' aren't."
"Yeah, that's common knowledge. It's the reason monsters can't use stealth as easily as humans." Rufus still didn't see why they needed to tame the beast.
"Yes, that's why it's easy for monsters with blood detection to differentiate the aura of humans from monsters, ours is naturally smaller.
"However, if a much bigger aura is within range, the detection would not notice the smaller ones."
A look of enlightenment appeared on Rufus' face. "Ohh, I get it now. You wanna use the wolf to hide our aura."
"Yeah, that's it."
"That won't be hard, I just need a minute or so." Rufus then moved forward and placed his hand on the motionless monster's head.
In a second, it went limp with a low growl.
The others came over and to satiate their curiosity, Aphena explained what she wanted to do to them.
"You're a genius, I would never have thought of that," Rein said in a low cracked voice.
The valley was wide open and they would rather not stay there for long. The others stood guard as they waited for Rufus to finish the taming process.
Nothing happened and Rufus soon finished the taming process. His pupils returned to his eyes, and he removed his hand from the wolf's forehead.
The wolf, with great difficulty, stood on all fours and, with lifeless eyes, moved to his side.
Just when the crew was about to continue their journey, Kody, who was inwardly complaining about the heat caused by the battle, saw something strange.
Quite a distance from them, on the floor, was a patch of darkness similar to a shadow.
But there was nothing to cast the shadow. Not far from it was another shadow without an owner.
As his eyes roamed, he found more than ten of them.
His breath dragged as he felt his heart start racing.
"Guys, guys," he muttered with a shaky voice.
Everyone's attention was caught and they all looked at him
"I don't think we're alone." He pointed in the direction of the shadow.
Just then, more than ten crimson sky wolves, bigger than what Aphena had fought, glitched into existence.
Their majestic presence filled the entire valley as they stared at the crew with blood red eyes. Their lips were curved into a smile—they were clearly thirsty for blood.
"It seems we might have underestimated the intelligence of these wolves," Aphena said, squinting her heavy eyelids.
[Author's note: Ten power stones and I'll post an extra chapter today.]