Legacy of the Dark Sage

[There are three wolverns to the right and two mantises up ahead, the mantises will probably try to prey on the wolverns. Observe for now and avoid getting caught up in their fight— no, on the second thought, get them all. I'll need their parts.]

'Understood,' Neo complied without the slightest complaint from his master's seemingly unreasonable request.

A huge light brown magic array appeared behind him, which produced three six-inches golden brown orbs. He lifted his right hand and manipulated two of the orbs toward the mantis's direction while running toward the wolverns.

The remaining golden brown orb circled him as he took out a short blade. Rune writings appeared on the dark bluish surface of the blade, which glowed with a golden light.

A few seconds later, Neo saw the wolverns his master mentioned.

One of the wolverns appeared far more considerable in size than the two.

Wolverns possessed the same feature as a regular dark gray wolf but had a bulkier frame, claws, and fangs that were sharper as blades. Most wolverns were categorized as medium-sized beasts. However, there were cases where they grew larger and eventually became the pack leaders. Those wolverns were then called crowned wolverns. The name originated from the crown-shaped crystal that formed on the wolverns foreheads. It was unknown how the crystal formed on their foreheads, but it was discovered that specific requirements were involved in wolverns to grow these crystals.

As soon as Neo neared them, the crowned wolvern lifted its head, its ears perked up having heard Neo's approach and its nose twitched upon smelling a foreign scent.

Soft growling sounds escaped its throat, and immediately after, the other two wolverns growled as well. All three crouched down and looked in the direction Neo was approaching.

Neo's indifferent expression did not falter upon having his presence detected by the wolverns. In the first place, his programming did not include an emotion called 'fear.' He could show an expression that could be interpreted as fear if certain conditions were met and his current situation did not meet them.

<Activating Stealth Array>

Neo's dark brown eyes glowed, and in the blink of an eye, he vanished from the wolverns line of sight.

The two medium-sized wolverns were instantly confused. However, the crowned wolvern stomped its front paws on the ground and howled.

"OWOOOO!"

The dark blue crystal on its forehead glowed, and an almost palpable sonar wave spread out in every direction.

<Incoming anti-stealth sonar attack…. Stealth Array mode two triggered… calculating the anti-stealth sonar attack's level. Anti-stealth sonar attack level unable to penetrate Stealth Array's module. Anti-stealth sonar attack failed. Stealth Array mode two canceled… reverting to mode one.>

Neo's Stealth Array had three modes. The first mode consisted of standard Stealth calculation that enabled a target to conceal its presence.

The second mode activated the second layer of Stealth calculation, which consisted of saint-tier formulas. In this mode, the target's composition would be converted into magic energy allowing it to blend into the surroundings thoroughly.

Last, the third mode would activate the third layer of calculation, which consisted of transcendence-tier formulas. This mode had a large area of effect where after the target's composition was changed into magic energy; it could penetrate any object within its area of effect and attack it from within.

The crowned wolvern scanned its surrounding with a perplexed expression.

SLASH! SLASH!

The heads of the two wolverns behind the crowned wolvern flew in the air, and blood splurted upward as their bodies fell on the ground, spasming.

The crown wolvern growled in anger as it turned.

Whish! Whish!

A golden brown orb appeared overhead, and two brown shards, made from earth magic, shot down from it. One shard hit the crowned wolvern's muzzle while the other pierced the center of its head.

The crowned wolvern made a pitiful yelp before it fell to the ground.

Yet, it was still alive. It was fatally wounded, but it survived.

<Stealth Array deactivate… returning to regular operation.>

Neo's figure slowly reappeared before the crowned wolvern's field of sight. He approached the wolvern with unhurried steps, the blade on his hand dripping with blood from the two wolverns after slicing off their heads.

Neo looked at the crowned wolvern with emotionless glowing dark brown eyes.

The crowned wolvern growled at Neo's approaching figure. Ignoring the piercing pain it felt from the wounds on its head and muzzle, it got up on its feet— albeit with great difficulty, and protracted its claws.

"It is futile," Neo told it. Whether he believed the crowned wolvern could understand his words or not did not matter. He swung his blade downward, dashing the blood off it before pointing it toward the crowned wolvern. "Accept your fate and offer your parts to my master."

[Oi, Neo. What the hell are you even saying?]

'Oh, master. You're still there.'

[…]

Before Neo could reply, the crowned wolvern roared and leaped, its thick angry claws slashed toward him.

Neo sidestepped, avoiding its attack. He lifted his arm, blade on hand, and slashed toward the crowned wolvern's neck.

A beautiful light brown arc streamed out from the blade and cleanly sliced down through the crowned wolvern's neck.

The crowned wolvern froze in midair, and in a split second, its head slid off its body as blood splattered out.

"Oh!" Neo let out a surprised yelp and jumped back just in time to avoid the wolvern's blood spilling on his coat. He wiped the non-existent sweat off his forehead, saying, "That was close. I almost got soaked in its blood. Not good, not good."

[…]

The crowned wolvern's body was the first to fall on the ground, spasming while blood gushed out of its neck. A second later, its head rolled on the ground with its eyes frozen in what appeared to be a mixture of disbelief and fear.

[Oi, don't waste its blood. We can still use it.]

Neo raised his brows in realization and said, "Oh, you are absolutely right, master."

He waved his hand, and a ten-meter radius light brown magic array appeared on the ground. The blood which had seeped into the ground from the three wolverns suddenly converged in the middle of the magic array. It rose in midair that looked like mercurial-like blood.

Neo raised his right hand, palm facing toward the gathered blood. The golden ring, space storage, he was wearing on his middle finger glowed, and the blood was sucked into it.

After that, he turned toward the corpses of the three wolverns and willed them into the space storage ring.

[The two mantis up ahead are also finished. Go collect their bodies and get ready. There are a group of bigfoots coming your way. They likely smelled the wolvern's blood and got drawn to it.]

'Roger that, master.'

Neo sprinted toward the location of the two mantises.

There, he found the two dead mantises, which had been riddled with brown shards of different sizes.

The mantis was huge, with dark green coloring and two massive blade-like arms.

Currently, both of their arms were sliced off.

The two golden brown orbs that took care of the two mantises flew toward Neo and joined the one hovering around him.

After collecting the mantises corpses, Neo activated his Stealth Array and approached the bigfoots.

[You don't have to finish them off. Lure them back to Styx. They have already completed creating the site for the ambush. After that, go east and assist Archel in luring the horde of beetle bears and giant ants chasing him.]

"Oh. Archel managed to lure that many? Impressive."

[There is nothing impressive about that. If you take your time, he will end up getting squashed to death.]

"Alas, humans sure are brittle."

[…]

Meanwhile, Styx had used his magic to change the terrain fifty meters from the dock. He created a small canyon where Neo and Archel would lure the beasts. There, Mitchel would bind the beast while Addie unleashes a large-scale wind magic attack to finish them.

If there were beasts who managed to survive Addie's attack, Styx would take care of them.

Standing on top of a makeshift watchtower, Mitchel scanned the surroundings below. He used a sight enhancement spell to improve his eyes sight.

On the other hand, Styx and Addie stood behind him while conserving their magic energies.

Soon, Mitchel saw Neo's silhouette followed by a group of medium to large-size bigfoots.

"Neo's coming with a group of bigfoots. Contact in three minutes."

"Hm."

"Alright."

Styx and Addie responded.

"Err… make that two… err... a minute… How the hell can he run that fast?" Mitchel corrected himself twice after seeing Neo's speed.

"Ready!" He said after a few seconds and raised his hand.

Neo entered the canyon with the bigfoots trailing behind him.

The moment all bigfoots entered the canyon, a large light green magic array appeared on the ground, and green streams of light shot out from it, wrapping around the bigfoots' arms, legs, and torsos.

Afterward, an enormous light yellow magic array appeared above, and a gale of blade-like wind swept through the bigfoots, slicing their torsos in half or cutting off their heads and limbs.

Wails of death echoed through the canyon, and the air was instantly filled with the metallic smell of blood and the pungent smell of internal organs and flesh.

Amidst the carnage, Neo slipped out while shouting, "We have an incoming horde of two types of beasts! Please make sure to clean up the mess as soon as possible!"

His reminder was reasonable. If they did not remove the mess and the smell of death lingered in the air, the beasts they were luring might end up retreating out of fear.

"Just do your job well," Styx growled at him.

"Roger that, Leader!"

Addie lowered her hand and took a deep breath. Summoning a large-scale attack was draining her magic reserves at an astonishing speed. Good thing they brought several high-grade magic energy replenishing potions. If not, she could only summon two more of those, and she would become useless.

Their group cleared three more rounds of the beast horde for the next half hour.

Surprisingly, the beast horde was pretty close to their ambush site, and Archel did not have to venture deep into the island to lure more beasts.

Unbeknownst to most, the only reason the beasts near their ambush site were still alive was that Neo ignored these beasts and went after the ones deep into the island.

Proof of this was that the horde Neo lured were four-legged beasts occupying the island's inner part, while Archel mostly lured insect-type beasts that preferred to stay near the island's coast.

The only one who noticed this was Styx, and he was looking at Neo with profound eyes.

Two hours later, the number of beasts that Archel could lure significantly dropped. However, that was not the case with Neo. The number of beasts he lured in numbered around fifteen to twenties, and at times, Addie could not keep up with how fast he returned to the site.

"Oi, Neo! Slow down will you? I can't even take a breather!" She complained after finishing the beasts Neo had just lured.

Neo stopped in his tracks and looked up at the makeshift watch tower with a puzzled look.

"We are trying to clear the island as fast as we can. I can't afford to slack."

"You…" Addie let out an exasperated groan. "Mitchel and I are exhausted! Aren't you?"

"Er… no?"

Addie gave him a dull look, "Are you even human?"

Neo returned her gaze. Her remark rendered him speechless.

She had no idea how close her words were to the truth.

"How many beasts are still left over on your end?" Styx asked, changing the subject.

Neo tilted his head to one side, "Three more hordes left… I think."

He added the last bit after realizing Styx's questions sounded strange. His answer to him also sounded too 'specific.'

"Right," Styx replied and gestured for Neo to go.

As Neo left, Mitchel looked at Styx with mixed emotions, "Styx."

"What?"

"Don't you find it strange? Archel has only lured insect-type beasts but Neo..."

A smile tugged at the corner of Styx's lips, but it was concealed by the oversized black scarf he wore around his neck. Still, Mitchel noticed how the aide of his eyes wrinkled as if in a smile.

"F*cking hell it is."

Addie, hearing their exchange furrowed her brows. This topic had been going around now, except the subject was not Neo but Aki and Len.

"He is a representative from the Conclave. I don't know if you've noticed but he and the other two from the Conclave have abilities above the rest."

"Yes, and they have to appear now of all times," Styx agreed, his eyes glinting with a strange light.

His implication did not go unnoticed by the two. They exchanged glances thinking the same things.

As far as they knew, the people the Conclave sent in this joint exercise were reserves. However, if they compared their abilities to the main talents of the Conclave, all three could easily outshine them.

While they were lost in their own thoughts, a sudden shrill cry shook the whole island.

"What was that?" Addie and Mitchel exclaimed in surprise.

But their words were drowned out by an enormous magic fluctuation swept throughout the island.

Styx, Addie, and Mitchel tensed up from the frightening aura behind the magic fluctuation. They turned toward where it came from and gasped after realizing where it was.

"T-That's where the Royal Army went to!" Addie exclaimed.

Styx's eyes narrowed.

There was no mistaking. Styx had not encountered an Echidna before, but that shrill cry and frightening aura definitely came from the baby Echidna the Royal Army targeted!