Meanwhile, the unfinished one ran at Lo Dong, trying to kill him, but he used Fire Fist, and immediately after, using earth waves, retreated backward. The one who came to help turned his attention to Yan Dei and headed towards him, for which he received a Fire Fist to the face, causing him to flinch slightly but not lose his desire to attack. A light barrier that appeared in time saved Yan Dei. Meanwhile, the growling from the cave grew closer, and Se Lei had already prepared a new Lightning Demon strike. The other mages were hastily retreating; they had nothing more to do here. In the battle between the leaders and mid-level mages, they had already fulfilled their role by killing the bothersome small fry.
"Jiaxing Yun, hurry up!" Xu Zhao Ting shouted to me, running last. The crowd was led by Siao Hou, and somewhere in the middle was He Yu. "You'll just be in the way here too!"
"Run without me; I'm a mid-level mage and can't disgrace myself," I said, watching a three-eyed wolf run out of the cave, immediately receiving lightning strikes to the head and paws, while Se Lei was preparing the next one. However, the wolf didn't take enough damage to stop, and, to Se Lei's surprise, it continued to run at him. The mage clearly didn't have time to use shadow disappearance. A madman's smile lit up my face; perhaps I was one, because seeing this situation, I became terribly interested in bursting into their fight and gouging out a couple of the wolf's eyes!
Wind Step was ready, daggers in my hands, a powerful push, and I flew at the stunned wolf's face, which clearly didn't expect some human to jump at it. Thanks to the element of surprise and the wind step's force, which had increased two and a half times, I, crashing into the wolf, made it recoil, and with one dagger, I pierced its upper eye. I immediately stuck the second into the right one, and cut the left one first, simultaneously pushing off and using a new wind step. At the same moment, five lightning bolts hit the wolf again, one in the head and two in the front and rear right paws. With a slight delay, another lightning bolt from the mound flew past me and hit the monster's pierced eye; this was Xu Zhao Ting's lightning wrath. If there had been a metal rod in the eye, it could have been considered finished, but we didn't have that rod.
"Thank you, now get out of here; you won't be much help!" Se Lei said in the same serious voice. He was a completely different person; his mocking and arrogant demeanor was gone.
"I won't leave until Jiaxing Yun leaves!" Zhao Ting declared proudly. Instead of answering, I pushed off the mound and flew at the wolf again, this time aiming for its neck. Of course, my daggers couldn't inflict a more serious wound than gouged-out eyes, but I could scratch it, irritate it, and distract it. Of course, if I were alone, with wind blade, I think I could have cut off its neck or inflicted significant damage with a lucky turn of events, but now I could only jump and run with daggers.
"Idiots!" Se Lei roared, completing the star map of second-stage lightning, while Zhao Ting was preparing the third lightning wrath to strike the wolf. I, making a rather deep cut on its neck, only slightly missed hitting the carotid artery, pushed off from the other side of its neck, and flew behind it.
The wolf clearly didn't understand who to react to first: the annoying flea that had deprived it of its sight, or the mage who was stinging it with weak lightning, or the one who was hitting it with powerful charges that burned its muscles and skin, and caused cramps. Five more lightning bolts from the lightning demon strike hit it, three of them in the wolf's eyes, making holes almost to its brain, and two more in the scratch I left; Xu Zhao Ting's lightning wrath also hit there. In the wolf's prolonged confusion, of course, the complete loss of sight also played a role. What a pity, otherwise Se Lei might have even died fighting such a strong opponent.
The wolf was almost dead from such attacks, but it was still clinging to life, trying to stand on its four paws, but it wasn't doing very well. After a couple more seconds, two lightning raths and one lightning demon strike finally destroyed its head and incinerated its brain. Meanwhile, I assessed the situation with the other two wolves. Lo Dong was successfully dodging and slowly burning the already scorched wolf with initial-level magic; how tenacious it was! Yan Dei and Zhou Suiyin, with their last strength, were defending and dodging the wolf, which was only slightly singed.
"Leave quickly; we'll handle it from here," Se Lei said, finishing off his wolf and turning towards the others. Siao Hou and the other initial-level mages, except for Xu Zhao Ting, had already gone quite far. He stood with his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath and rest. It wasn't easy for him; first, he was exterminating one-eyed wolves, releasing magic with short breaks, and then six spells in a row without a hint of rest, and he was still at the initial level!
"No, sorry, but we are hunters who decided to help the army and do not obey your orders; we act at our own discretion," I said, creating wind step and heading towards Yan Dei's wolf, planning to repeat the previous trick.
"Damn, how this guy rushes into battle! If you can still cast magic, hurry and help Lo Dong deal with the wounded wolf; I'll help Yan Dei," Se Lei cursed irritably behind my back, disappearing into the nearest shadow.
"Ha-a, damn..." Zhao Ting cursed and ran towards Lo Dong.
The wolf once again hit Zhou Suiyin's light barrier, which protected Yan Dei, who had previously left another burn on the wolf's belly with Fire Fist. But despite numerous burns, it was quite fresh and not battered; the first stage of mid-level magic could only slightly wound it, and it would take a lot of time to take it down like this. I was already almost there, taking advantage of the wolf's confusion after its collision, I pushed off and flew directly at its muzzle. The dagger in my left hand plunged directly into its left eye. I was about to pierce its upper one, but then the wolf swung its head sideways, trying to throw me off. Since I had nothing to hold onto except the dagger, I was thrown from side to side, dislocating my left arm, as I released my hand too late and flew about thirty meters away.
I barely managed to land without rolling on the ground. The dagger remained in the wolf's eye, and my left arm hung limp, burning with pain. Cold sweat broke out all over my body, and my vision darkened from the sudden sharp pain. Until now, my most serious injury had been burns all over my body, but then it was more or less tolerable. Now, the sharp pain from my dislocated and partially broken arm pulsed, spreading throughout my body. It was simply impossible for someone who had never received such injuries before to endure it and immediately get up and return to battle. Yes, battles with monsters are fun, but damn it, if a monster hits you, it's damn painful!
"Jiaxing Yun, are you okay! Are you alive!" Zhao Ting's voice was heard from the side, bringing me back to my senses. I managed to overcome the pain somehow and looked in the direction from which it came. Zhao Ting was running towards the greatly distanced Lo Dong and his scorched wolf. He was covered in sweat from head to toe, but he had somewhat recovered.
Then I looked at my wolf. Yan Dei hit it in the face with Fire Fist again, drawing its attention back to himself. Immediately behind the wolf appeared Se Lei, who directed a Lightning Demon strike at its paw, scorching it and causing a muscle spasm, making it almost tumble to the ground as it tried to stand on its immobilized paw. Zhou Suiyin ran towards me, creating a healing star map along the way. A white glow enveloped my left arm, and a small white butterfly flew from Zhou Suiyin towards me, starting to flutter over my arm. The pain began to subside, and my arm, though with a slight sharp pain, returned to its place, and I gradually began to feel it again as before. Giving Xu Zhao Ting a thumbs-up, I began to get up to return to battle.
"Is everything okay? Your arm should have returned to its place, and the bone fractures should have healed. But I don't recommend using it too much," Zhou Suiyin said in a slightly worried voice, running up to me.
"Yes, everything is fine, thank you," I replied quickly, creating a wind star path and heading towards the leader, who was darting from side to side, attacked by either Fire Fist or Lightning Demon.
This wolf was already quite battered; there was practically no uninjured spot left on it, but it was the pack leader, and not the weakest of them! It's easy to kill such creatures only by scorching their brains or tearing apart half their bodies. Se Lei tried to hit its eyes and perform the same trick as with the previous one, but he couldn't do it, as the wolf dodged; it could still see the lightning bolts approaching it.
Ultimately, the wolf got tired of being shot at with impunity and chose a target: Se Lei, who immediately disappeared into the shadows. But the monster somehow sensed its enemy and ran after its shadow, dodging the fire fists flying from behind, which only slightly grazed it. At the moment the leader almost caught up with Se Lei, who was hiding in the shadows, I pushed off the ground and flew into its muzzle again, piercing its right eye and slightly pushing its head. The wolf wanted to throw me off again by swinging its head, but I, pulling out the dagger and creating a new wind star path, pushed it even harder to the side.
Because its paws were scorched, the wolf couldn't maintain its balance and almost fell to the ground. At this moment, Se Lei emerged from the shadows, composing a lightning star map. When I landed on the ground, I saw five lightning bolts from the lightning demon strike hit the three-eyed wolf's eyes. This time, it couldn't dodge and maintain its balance simultaneously. From behind, a fire fist hit the wolf, finally knocking it off its feet and burning half of its right side.
My help was no longer needed here; after a couple of seconds, the wolf was finished off by another joint attack from Se Lei and Yan De, finally burning its head. I turned to look at the last surviving wolf, which, coincidentally, was the very first one. Zhou Suiyin was already heading towards Luo Dong and Xu Zhao Tin, who had come to his aid.
The wolf wanted to attack our captain again, but was distracted by the wrath of lightning, which bought the necessary couple of seconds for him to complete a mid-level fire magic of the second stage. Fire flared up under the paws of the hesitant wolf and soared upwards, burning the wolf's already badly scorched belly. After a couple of seconds, it too fell dead with a burnt belly and chest. After that, everyone sighed with relief and finally caught their breath.
"And now tell me, for what reason, you hunters, while on a mission to help the military, do not obey us?!" Se Lei shouted at me, half a minute later, heading my way. "You signed a contract, damn it, where you undertook to carry out all military orders until the expiration of the agreement! How long does it last for you? The standard minimum is two weeks! So why the hell didn't you listen to my order to run!" Se Lei yelled almost in my face. "What would have happened if, while protecting you, who are incapable of casting mid-level magic, one of us had died?"
"Firstly, I have the right to disobey such an order, just like any soldier, if I have enough strength to continue the fight," I said calmly, looking at him slightly from above, as he had lifted me off the ground. "Could you have killed that first wolf if you had fought alone and I hadn't poked out all three of its eyes?"
"Uh, it would have been difficult, most likely, but I am a junior lieutenant, my task is to kill pack leaders on the battlefield!" Se Lei replied, slightly embarrassed.
"Let him go, Se Lei, he's telling the truth. I saw how he helped you," Zhou Suiyin supported me, approaching us. "He also helped with the second wolf, although a little unsuccessfully, but his second jump allowed you to finish it off. And his friend Xu Zhao Tin successfully helped Lieutenant Luo Dong finish off the last wolf, we all saw that perfectly well."
"Yes! Eh... Alright, you're right," Se Lei said, letting me go and stepping aside.
"Thank you for disobeying," Luo Dong said, approaching us with Xu Zhao Tin. "If they hadn't stayed, not only you, Se Lei, but possibly all of us would have died. Where have you ever seen four mages of mid-level, at most second stage, cope with three pack leaders?" he asked with a smile.
"Nowhere, but they can't even cast mid-level magic, and you say we're alive because of them?" Se Lei asked with doubt.
"Yes, you don't necessarily need to wield powerful magic to help someone who does," Luo Dong replied calmly. "Could you yourself jump onto the muzzle of a three-eyed wolf and poke out its eyes?"