"Shit! A rare elite already?" Jack looked at the lead werewolf with disquiet.
This rare elite was one level below him. He remembered in Jagara Region he had beaten a rare elite, but that was with the help of his Therras Beast and when his Archmage's spells were available to him. This time, he could only rely on skills that originated from Fighter's branch or those that were classless. Not only that, but Peniel was also not available since she was considered as part of an Archmage's spell.
But he remembered when he was going against the rare elite in Jagara Region, he had managed to contend against it at first even without his pet, there was just more risk. So he only needed to be more careful. Considering he had also leveled up his equipment when he returned to Heavenly Citadel, he should be stronger now to better deal with one?
Anyway, Jack didn't plan to just give up. He only needed to fight more carefully than usual.
The rare elite howled, the elites and the special elites came swarming at Jack while the rare elite stayed back. Jack didn't dare to slack, he activated Life Burning Art to increase his overall stats and Adrenaline Rush to increase his hand speed.
The werewolves came at him one after another, from every direction. Their coordination was very good. This was just like his wolf pack, he thought. The individual wolf in his pack was nothing to write home about, but the pack became more efficient when all of them were going up against the same opponent. They covered each other's weaknesses while targeting their opponent's weak spots. This werewolf pack behaved the same.
Luckily, Jack's Formless Flowing Sword Style was perfectly good against large numbers, combined with his Hundred Synchronous Thoughts, Eight Diagram Illusory Steps, and almost perfect mana sense. He could perceive all the assaults coming his way and either parried or dodged them.
But the werewolves' number was indeed too many and their coordination too good, Jack was having trouble coping with them.
'Is my bloodline getting nullified here?' Jack wondered and used his thought to try activating the skill.
Golden scales covered his skin.
'Yes! In this case, that other inherent skill should be available as well!'
With the gold scale armor protecting him, Jack had less trouble dealing with the pack. But suddenly, one thought that he left to monitor the rare elite found that the alpha werewolf had vanished from its initial position.
Fully alert, Jack focused his mana senses to search for it. Only to find it was dangerously close at his back.
Jack immediately activated Dragon Eye's active ability. Turning everything to slow-motion. He unleashed forty-eight burst slashes at the same time. Repelling all the werewolves surrounding him with the largest portion of the slashes directed at the rare elite who was trying to sneak attack him.
After that, he immediately used Shooting Dash to break out of the encirclement. The whole pack was grouped in close quarters at the place where he originally was. Jack had been waiting for the rare elite to come as well before making his move. His Storm Breaker activated its Overlimit ability as he used Lightning God Barrage. Twenty large lightning balls shot towards the clustered werewolves.
Explosions after explosions detonated amid the pack. By the time the lightning energy dissipated, only the rare elite and the nine special elite werewolves were left. All the elite ones were already turned to dust.
Half of the special elite ones were inflicted by Paralyze status. Jack didn't let the chance go to waste, these special elite werewolves had one of their feet in the grave already. Jack swung his sword, two streaks of wind energy shot out, cutting four immobile werewolves that were paralyzed, claiming their lives.
He made another swing and a crescent light shot out, hitting another werewolf amid its running. This werewolf also fell.
Seeing his pack getting decimated, the rare elite lunged at Jack, preventing him from claiming more of his underlings. The remaining four special elite werewolves spread out. Jack saw green numbers appeared regularly above their head, meaning they were recovering even during combat albeit at a slow rate, similar to beastmaster's HP recovery effect during beast form.
Jack was not going to give them the time to recover. If he was to have a chance against this rare elite, he needed to remove all the other werewolves first. He used Charge, evading the rare elite and approaching the nearest special elite. The special elite was startled by Jack's sudden approach, it tried to flee in another direction but Jack was faster. One slash at its legs caused it to stumble and another slash finished it.
Only three critically wounded werewolves were left and one rare elite with two-thirds of its life.
Jack tried to chase one of the near-death special elites but they were not foolish. They ran away evading Jack while the rare elite came at Jack again.
With the three classes' attributes, Jack was faster than these werewolves, but they were not exactly slow as well. With the interference of the rare elite, Jack saw no chance of him finishing those three fleeing werewolves, so he redirected his attention to the rare elite.
The objective was to have a one-on-one with the rare elite. If those three did not dare to approach, then it's fine as well. It's a good thing they had no ranged capability. Those three might have recovery ability, but the recovery was very slow. It would take them probably almost an hour to fully recover their lives. Jack's battle with the rare elite would be long over by then.
So, Jack clashed with the rare elite while having a part of his attention monitoring the three wounded special elite werewolves. He would deal with them if they approached. If they didn't, that's completely fine as well.
The rare elite werewolf's assaults were all melees. Its movement was fast. Its assault was mostly using claws and bites. Every swing of its claws created a streak of light. Its ferocious attacks seemed non-stop.
Jack didn't back down. His Formless Flowing Sword Style was also superb in non-stop assault. His off-hand was back to using Whirlwind Falchion since Magic Weapon spell was unavailable. His two swords swiveled around, meeting the werewolf's claws strike by strike.
After several rounds of contests, Jack was actually in advantage. Mostly it was due to the profoundness of Jack's sword art, where the werewolf's assaults were mostly just mindless savageness. On several occasions, Jack deflected the claws using his swords and at the same time continued his slash to hit his opponent with one smooth motion. This allowed Jack to chip the werewolf's HP while preventing his opponent's attacks from landing on him. But still, some attacks still landed from time to time, the rare elite was not exactly weak, after all.
The rare elite werewolf whose life had been reduced by Lightning God Barrage continued to go down. Its life was now below half already. Seeing their alpha losing the confrontation, the three special elites could not afford to continue staying by the sideline anymore. They ran circling to Jack's back before coming at him at high speed.
Jack, who never had his attention leaving those three with the help from his Hundred Synchronous Thoughts, was already aware of their actions. He waited until they were almost upon him before he used Flame Strike to force the alpha back. He then used his super jump just as the three werewolves were about to hit him.
The three special elites passed by from below him. When he landed, the three were in front already. The three stopped abruptly since their prey had jumped away. Jack utilized this pause and used Devouring Cross which had high damage and also covered a large area to his front. The three were devoured by the dark energy. The HP they had recovered all this time went down by a large chunk again, at the same time replenishing Jack's HP which was down to almost half after a long contest with the alpha.
Jack chained the skill with Swing and Whirlwind Slash, cutting those three special elites to their demise.
The alpha lunged forward trying to work together with his remaining three underlings, but when it arrived, those three had fallen already.
Jack never paused his assault. As soon as the Whirlwind Slash ended. He used Blitz Slash on the rare elite that had just arrived. Blitzing past it while delivering slashes to its body. Once he was behind him, he turned around and used Penta Slash. Following his previous trick, he combined the last slash with his race skill again, Slash of Determination, scoring a very high-damaging last hit.
The rare elite howled in fury. Some clouds of red swirled around its body after the howl, enhancing its speed and strength. Yet, those increases were not too drastic. Jack could still contend with it. Jack had a feeling that howl could affect the whole pack, making all the werewolves in the pack more dangerous. But the beast had used the skill too late. There was no more pack.
Jack fought more reservedly when the alpha was covered by the clouds of red. He knew that skill had a duration. Once he saw the red clouds disappear, he went on offense.
Not long after, the rare elite fell.
😉