Heimarian Odyssey

Chapter 68: Ice Cave

Locked roared at the moonlight wolf who was charging up its mana and charged towards it. The luminescent glow in its mouth continued to grow larger. In no time, it had ballooned from the size of a grain to a fist, and it still looked like it was growing larger by the minute. The one-eyed moonlight wolf ferociously stared at the insect it was about to destroy with bloodshot eyes.

Charging towards the moonlight wolf's body, he rammed into it. Despite that, the white light in its mouth was still aimed at him. Locke instinctively sensed the danger and without thinking twice, immediately leapt towards the wolf's head in order to stop it from unleashing the spell. He wasn't sure how that was to be accomplished, but hebet that by closing the moonlight wolf's jaws, the spell in its mouth would be interrupted.

The shield on his left hand was beyond recognition. It was a decent quality shield that he requested to be custom built, but it already looked like scrap metal less than a month since Locke began to use it.

Locke violently slammed the shield towards the wolf's head and purposely targeted the wound. Blood splattered all over, but the wolf remained unfazed, still determined to take Locke's life. He could even see a contemptuous glare through the moonlight wolf's lone eye.

"Scrap!" He quickly threw away the shield on his left hand and charged towards the lone eye of the moonlight wolf with a short dagger in his right. As he burned through the only impetus left in his body and gathered it in both his legs, he jumped on top of the monster and thrust the dagger down, aided by gravity, to pierce the wolf's lone eye.

At this time, Photon Beam had charged up to its final stage; spells at this point were bound to be unleashed. Nevertheless, even though major monsters were stronger in physique and were not as weak and fragile as casters, they would experience a short convulsion in the final moment of the spell's execution. It was at this moment that Locke jumped on the wolf. Due to the spell in his mouth, it was unable to avoid the attack.

The moonlight wolf howled pitifully. Its only eye was stabbed by Locke's short dagger. He held the dagger with his both hands tightly and pushed it even deeper, hanging off the giant wolf using it.

A large amount of blood gushed out of the eye. The wolf despaired at its loss of vision. Not only that, it missed the critical moment to shoot off the spell. With the spell mostly finished, the light elemental essence used could not be converted back to soothe his pain.

The moonlight wolf tightened and locked its jaw as a reaction to the searing pain. Instead of being fired off, the beam exploded directly inside its mouth.

Although the fur of the moonlight wolf was resistant towards magic to a point, and completely immune to low-level light spells, the flesh and blood in the wolf's mouth did not share the same property. Photon Bomb was still a low-level spell after all. Normally, a low-level spell directed towards ordinary humans could easily take out four to five people. This was also the terrifying aspect of spells. Compared to impetus, they had a much larger lethal area of effect, and even boasted faster speed and more range.

Light poured out of the seams between the wolf's teeth. Locke, who was still on the wolf's head, could even smell the stench of charred meat. The power of Photon Beam lied in its speed and corrosiveness, and the wolf suffered the full extent of its damaging effects.

The old wolf had just undergone evolution and did not have much mana left to recuperate its wounds. Then, it was severely injured by Locke, and it was exacerbated when its spell detonated in his mouth. The once-striking moonlight wolf now looked like a ragdoll that had been thrown around the jungle.

Locke, with his impetus exhausted, could only hold on to the short dagger tightly as he hung off the moonlight wolf's head. Without impetus circulating in his body to heal his injuries, the massive pain surged throughout his nerves. It took all he could to persist through it. He was not in a hurry at this moment. The moonlight wolf no longer posed any danger. The harder the wolf thrusted around with its damaged body, the deeper and more serious the dagger wound would be.

The old wolf could feel its prey still hanging off its head. The huge blood loss and injury sustained from the spell reminded it of the familiar aura of death. However, this time, there was no moonlight it could use to recover, and there was certainly no longer a sliver of chance for it to break through again.

After experiencing a breakthrough last night, it had gained insight into the meaning of life. Perhaps, it just wasn't its fate to become leader of his pack and bring them towards prosperity again. The old wolf howled deeply, aggrieved by its fate, but unwilling to bow down to it. Regardless, it would not let the prey who injured it get away with this.

The old wolf utilised its last bit of energy and charged forward with Locke hanging on its body. It too knew that he too was about to reach his limit, and had planned to bring him down together.

The wolf and human zoomed through the jungle. The now-blind moonlight wolf did not notice the giant tree standing in its way and slammed straight towards it. Locke, who was on the wolf's head, coughed out a mouthful of blood with chunks of his internal organs. He essentially used his body to absorb most of the impact of the wolf's last stand, which not only caused numerous bones to break in his body, but also resulted in varying degrees of fracturing within his internal organs.

After the final impact, the wolf rested its head against the tree and stood still, as if it had lost all energy, having drawn its last breath. Moments before death, the scenes that flashed through its blinded eye was not its desire for life, but memories of its past.

Born as a small wolf cub, it hunted with its mother in the pack and played with other cubs.

When it became slightly older, its mother was attacked by another minor-monster brown bear. The palm strike broke its mother's spine, but even with death staring down on it, it guarded its cub tightly beneath her.

In time, the wolf grew bloodthirsty. It didn't only kill its prey, but also punished wolves in its own pack. Finally, at the peak of its life, it awakened its inherent potential and became a fire wolf.

After that, it led its pack to attack the bear who killed its mother and tore the bear to pieces. But that came with a price of being seriously injured by the bear's final attack, but it never regretted what it did.

Subsequently, as the leader of the wolf pack, it ruled the southwest of Morphey Forest and no wild beasts or minor monsters dared to cross him.

Later, it would be defeated by the new leader, ending its reign as the leader of the pack and being blinded in one eye. It left the pack in dejection, and settled down in the area between the Bering Mountains and Morphey Forest.

As a wolf, it had lived a relatively long life.

The battle went on for a long time. Thanks to the howl of the moonlight wolf and the mana disturbance from spells being cast, all nearby beasts and minor monsters did not dare to approach. In the Bering Mountains during the winter, even minor monsters could dominate.

After a long period of time, Angelina slowly regained consciousness. Although she had been protected by Locke before this, she was still knocked out by the moonlight wolf.

Judging from the look of the sky, it was already afternoon. Her surrounding was a mess, with stumps of branches and blood trails around her. She crouched her body and looked around for Locke. She suffered from injuries too. Fortunately, she did not sustain any major wounds.

Finally, after walking into the depths of the woods, she saw Locke lying beside the moonlight wolf with a face as pale as death.

Although there were no wild animals around now, it was always impossible to tell when danger would arrive. Angelina had learnt much about survival in the jungle from Locke in the past few days.

Without checking if he was still alive, Angelina went up and dragged him by one arm and placed him on her back, leaving the place with considerable effort. Angelina, with strength she didn't know her petite body had, hauled Locke away on her back, leaving a long trail of blood in her wake.

Thankfully, luck was on Angelina's side. After carrying Locke for a short distance, she managed to find a cave that could accommodate both of them. It reeked of foul odour and animal faeces. The pitiful animal that made the cave its home must have been scared away by the moonlight wolf and spells.

Only after placing Locke steadily against the wall, did she check his breathing and pulse. The pulse was weak, but he was still alive, much to her relief. However, after taking a look at the wound at Locke's shoulder, she felt a chill down her heart. It would be impossible for Locke to survive barring a miracle.

Angelina anxiously contemplated a solution. Unfortunately, the spells in her arsenal could not heal wounds. Even if there was, beginner-ranked spells that had healing and regenerative capabilities were limited to the water spell, Moisturise, and light spell, Lesser Healing. These two spells might be enough to treat normal injuries, but Locke's were far worse. Only a mid-rank Lehrling or above could save his life.

Light element... light element? Angelina suddenly thought of the dead moonlight wolf, a light major monster. Major monsters of beginner rank and above could condense mana into a crystal core. Each core had its own function and was of great value. This was especially true for light elemental crystal cores, which had a property no other cores had: regeneration.

As Locke's breathing began to fade, Angelina did not dare to hesitate any further and rushed back to dig out the core of the moonlight wolf. Before leaving, she took the short dagger in Locke's hand. Although Locke was unconscious, his hands were still wrapped tightly around the dagger, requiring her much effort to pry it from Locke's hand.

Locke felt like he had entered a hell of endless pain, surrounded by darkness everywhere. Why was this so familiar? It felt like he was here before, but however hard he tried, he could not remember anything. The darkness began to swallow him. Just when he was about to drown, he could feel a warm sensation on his chest, as if energy was transmitted to him continuously. His consciousness was spared from falling into eternal darkness by this energy.

Half a month later, the winter turned Bering Mountains into a world of ice and snow, making for quite a spectacular view. In the snow-white forest, a black spot moved slowly.

A savage in tattered clothes and worn-out shoes dragged a frozen rabbit through the snowscape with great difficulty.

At noon, the savage stopped near a hill and put down the ropes used to drag the wild rabbit. With a push, snow parted to reveal a hole large enough to fit one person through. The savage pulled the hunting prize into the cave.

The interior of the cave was very simple and almost empty. The only thing to be seen was the quilt deep inside of the cave. On top of it laid a haggard, motionless person, who, if not for the slight movement on his chest, would be taken for a corpse.

The one who had just returned placed the prize on one side and collapsed in exhaustion on the quilt right next to the motionless body.

Before laying down, she used the snow at the entrance of the cave to wipe her face. After washing up with cold water, a delicate face was revealed. It was difficult to imagine that Angelina could ever look so haggard.

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