Chapter 118：A Wolf Among Sheep

Due to how far he had run ahead, there was still quite a distance between him and Jaguars. He was the only one who stood in front of the wave of Aliens, back-up seconds behind. Instead of flinching back after seeing their brother-in-arms die, the surrounding Aliens instead burst forward. In front of him, numerous, red claws attacked from every direction.

"Blueshot spitfire," he said under his breath, the blood coursing through his veins, his eyes wide and bulging.

Instantly, a volley of small, blue bullets shot out from his body. They hit the Aliens harder than hammers, and yet, despite the force behind each shot, all it did was push the Aliens back with bruises instead of cuts.

In response to the space opened up around him, Stanis swung his sword widely, the blade chipping at some of the Aliens. However, before they could try again, he linked himself to one of the further Aliens. Its single eye bent and its face scrunched up, confused about the novel sensation.

But before it figured out the link's double-edged function, he released a wave of mana from his body. In response to this, the linked Alien found its body flying towards him, knocking over several of its brothers on the way. When it finally got to the end of its trip, it discovered that it truly was the end of the road, its head plopping onto the ground.

Blade still wet with blood, Stanis rushed toward the felled Aliens. They tried to get up but it was already too late as he sliced and shot Ice crystals through them. But despite his valiant effort, the fact still remained that he was a single man chopping at the sea. No matter how many he killed, he still wouldn't make an effect on the outcome of the war, after all, Aliens were coming down faster than he could ever kill.

But this was fine; he wasn't a butcher of the weak, he had plenty of men to do that for him. No, he was the Champion, and the only one worth his duel would be another Champion, another as strong as him. Not that the Aliens in front of him cared about his standing though, instead all they saw was an enemy that needed to be killed. But before they could start another attack on him, a roaring Jaguar leapt into their ranks.

"Flaming armour!" Serb shouted, a thick set of armour burning to life around him, scorching several of the Aliens. His bronze fur shined through the flames, almost as if his body was melting. To Stanis's other side, Niss caught up and leapt similarly into the waves of Aliens. Following that, before he could even react, more and more Jaguars ran forward, formally making a frontline against the Aliens.

Stanis stepped back and grinned at the violence in front of him; this was where he thrived, this was where he lived. He scanned the Aliens for his target: an actual Zelaro. It was obvious from the Aliens in front of him that they had some relationship with the Zelaro, whatever it may be. This meant that the lofty Zelaro would also be in this battle, and while he had nothing explicitly against them, he certainly didn't have any goodwill for them either.

The scene in front of him was truly alike to standing on a beach and watching the furious sea. Heads bobbed up and down like waves, the ones further back higher up and set on larger shoulders. It was while he was calmly watching the battlefield that the Yora village forces finally made contact, taking a more defensive strategy than the Jaguars had done. Finally, just as Stanis was about to give up his search and resign to massacring the lackeys, he suddenly heard a resonating cry come from the Alien's whole army.

Looking at the Aliens, he noticed that they were moving faster and with greater bloodlust than before, their whole sentient personality being morphed into something far more beast-like. Knowing that something suspicious was up, he looked towards the transparent cylinder that had now stopped widening. Before, the cylinder had been crowded with Aliens eager to come down, but now, coming down was a single figure.

The figure was smaller than the monsters that had arrived just before it, and it also had a far more streamlined body. Interestingly enough, as Stanis used Scout and Search to see clearer, he noticed the figure was holding a staff emanating strong currents of mana. And holding onto that staff was an arm that might as well have been a carbon-copy of the one he had used to have.

Baring his teeth, Stanis dove into the lines of Aliens, quickly cutting through them as he moved towards the descending Zelaro mage. Around him, the Aliens attacked harder than before but found themselves dead quicker than before as well, Stanis already drunk on his bloodlust. It had already stained through his bones and he made no attempt to stop it, instead occasionally letting loose a wild laugh as he cut through flesh and bone.

Despite all the attention he had already taken firm hold of, including the descending mage's, Stanis was, in fact, fighting quite conservatively. He knew that this battle would last for hours and would only grow in difficulty, and this was why his lightning and one-shot abilities stayed inside of him. Not that using them would change much though: with his ice crystals and equipment, he was already dominating the battlefield.

The mage, finally in range, cast a spell. The ground under Stanis grew wet and murky. It darkened and instantly caught his foot, crimson liquid leaking into the darkness. The water splashed and spat as bodies fell into it, the attack indiscriminate and hurting the Aliens far more than they hurt Stanis. In fact, all this did was refocus Stanis's attention onto the mage. He cast Light healing across his foot and forcibly broke the muddy grip around his ankle.

Not one to wait for results, the mage sent a volley of dark shots the second it landed. Laughing, Stanis moved forward and shot out large Ice crystals towards the Aliens in front of him. They struck with so much power that the Aliens flew backwards under their force, their bodies shielding Stanis from each of the dark shots.

Before the mage could take another free shot, Stanis sprinted forward, rising with each step and eventually running across the waves of Aliens, much to their annoyance and pain. One of the larger ones saw Stanis overhead and reached out, grabbing his ankle from mid-air. Immediately, it felt an Electrical charge thunder through its body, causing it to let go and topple over, putrid smoke leaking out of its mouth.

Seeing that he was now close enough, Stanis linked himself to the mage and increased the output towards it, causing an attractive force to pull him forwards. But unlike the simple Aliens, the Zelaro mage was far more trained and reacted instinctively, frontloading its pathway to Stanis with flowing mana.

Stanis cringed but carried running forward nevertheless. The way the links worked was that he could create a link to anything he wanted. If it was a living being, however, it had a chance to attack back the same way he could attack it. The only difference was that based on who made the link, so him in every case, their pathway to the enemy would be wider and more efficient.

While this sounded amazing, the truth was that if he fought foolishly, then he would quickly find himself unable to think, and soon after, dead. This was because if a few enemies focused their whole mana-pools on him, he would find his own mana-pool insufficient and suffer a severe injury. This was why consecutive links with strong enemies was one of the best things he could do if he wanted to kill himself in battle.

Before the mage could even fight back, Stanis was already a metre away from it. But that wasn't good enough, and the mage proved it as it bit its tongue. Stanis sensed an explosive force coming from the mage and looked wide-eyed at the mad beast, only to notice the mage was disappearing into the air. Only the mage's arm was visible as the force finally exploded, throwing Stanis off his feet and into the air.

He crashed into the ground and found himself spluttering blood. While his armour could protect him from all types of strikes, what it couldn't do was protect him from attacks that worked through force instead of physical attacks. Luckily, he had landed in a largely empty plot of land, the enemies around him sparse. They instantly moved in to kill him, but not before Stanis released bolts of lightning out of his hand in a fit of anger.

He ignored the smoking bodies reeking up the air and moved to pick up his sword. He looked at the battlefield and slanted his eyes as he saw the mage a distance away, just a few metres away from the other humans. The humans near it had immediately backed away but not even that could protect them from the mage's wrath, it using what fuel it had left to send shot after shot into the crowd.

Gritting his teeth and dousing himself in his anger, Stanis set himself alight as he streaked across the battlefield with a speed which made his previous run seem like a walk. He quickly closed onto the mage, which in turn whipped its head towards the sky and began chanting harsh sounds. Underneath the humans closest to it grew a wide, dark puddle that quickly began swallowing away at the free meals on top.

Stanis merely spared a glance towards the puddle before chasing down the mage who had begun retreating. He could have easily cleared up the puddle with a bit of mana but at the same time, he had more important things to do. No longer able to escape, the mage feinted another explosion, creating a shockwave stronger than the last one. In response, Stanis wholly ignored the danger and stepped up to the challenge, standing a metre away in one second, standing with his blade pierced through its heart in the next.

As the mage struggled, and inevitably crumpled down, Stanis looked at it and smiled, his lips curving cruelly. The mage had been a tyro Mosyte, the highest in the rank, and yet he had beaten it with no effort…