Chapter 21: Make peace, not war, garms…

Chapter 21: Make peace, not war, garms...

The early bird catches the worm. Petal Flame. Earth Crash!

I do admit I have no idea about any real combat tactics and all the tactics or strategies Ive learned from fighting and living in the world is purely guesswork without proper testing, and I dont think any of my limited video game knowledge will help me here. All I know is that taking out the leader sounds like a sure way to win a battle.

The "petals" from my spell [Petal Flame] began to shoot towards the wolf monsters, giving me an opening to materialize a massive boulder that I intend to squash the garm with.

Kraaaaah!

Like a rocket, I cast [Wind Blast] behind myself to close in the distance between me and the garm and slammed the giant rock.

Grrr! Graouh?!

Urgh, I missed

With a big squish sound, my boulder seems to have squashed something so technically, I didnt miss.

I only miss the hit on the garm butall this blood and viscera lying on the ground and under the boulder

Did that warg just sacrifice its life to save the garm's? I heard wolves would try to protect the alphas in a pack to safeguard the entire pack's future, but losing their life for them?

Flame Spear. Flame Spear. Flame Spear.

Tsk, that doesnt mean I will stop trying to kill this bastard.

Grrrrr. Graouh!

While howling, a circle began forming under me, with magical runes slowly forming until it was finished. This magical circle is something that I should know just by feeling the flow of mana; the garm is casting a spell!

With the activation of the spell, multiple thick, black tendrils erupted from my shadow, slithered towards me, and began entangling me in their shadowy grasp.

Argh! Owwww!

Kraaaargh!

Verdammt, it hurts like heeeeeeeeeell!

T-This has to be a [Dark Magic Spell]! Due to the time I tried to get [Water Resistance], I knew my titles were making dark and water elemental attacks extremely effective on me.

This pain, however, is dreadful! Despite simply touching me, having the tendrils ensnare me feels like wrapping metal rods, still glowing red hot from being put under fire, around me. It burns. Unholy fire would be a good way to describe it, as it simply feels like the mana is searing through my scales, then my skin and damaging my flesh.

Looking at my Health, it looks like the pain isnt an illusion with how much damage Im taking.

Gritting my teeth, I took advantage of [Battle Mind] calming my senses and shot out three [Flame Spears] towards this spells owner.

And all three were dodged. No matter how fast I cast, if I cant aim under this pressure then I cant hit something as agile as this garm.

While I was complaining about my inability to hit the garm, it managed to prepare another dark-colored magical circle for its next spell, which I was only able to recognize in this creeping darkness with [Night Vision]. [Petal Flames]s fire was completely extinguished, and the lack of light was troubling.

I cast [Terra Wall] to block a dark projectile-like spell that was shot at me. However, it seems the garm wasnt done with the assault, as it started to move around the wall, continuously shooting spells.

With my mana supply, I could afford to counter each attack with a new wall, but this predicament will be a burden on my parallel minds, due to arcane corruptionbut I think the warg pincer coming from behind should also be addressed soon.

For fucks sake, [Dark Magic] is really pissing me off! Minor Heal. Shine!

Groouu

Surrounding my body in incandescent light, the shackles dispersed into thin air. Having the pain removed by the healing spell, I could finally think clearly again. I cast a [Terra Wall] in the form of a lesser Great Wall of China to separate the garm from the wargs.

With that done, I began my attack on them.

With a giant boom, my [Flame Explosion] sent ripples of heat and flame around itself, interrupting the advances of all remaining wargs so they could avoid my spell. However, two wargs were still caught in the shockwave of the explosion so I swiftly took them out with [Wind Slash] while their guard was down.

Afterward, I dashed towards the spells flames and coated my body in it using [Pyrokinesis]s control over fire. I would have preferred fabric, but clothing made from my own flames seems to fit this setting so much better.

Warm-ups over. The show starts now! Spark Flame!

I unleashed my dragon ability onto these wargs with an extra oomph. All I needed from this ability was a ground-sundering explosion to split up the wargs into smaller groups. Together they may be annoying but alone or in a pair? Easy enough.

Oh, you should stay put Mr. Garm. Have a taste of your own medicine. Earthen Shackles.

Bursting through the ground, a group of roots made from earth started to chase after the garm.

That should give me enough time to take these wargs down.

The garm is a tricky foe to kill if all these wargs are willing to lay down their lives for him. Taking out fodder is my specialty anyway.

It really doesnt matter which warg I target but the closest and the least surrounded one should be the least tedious.

Running towards one of the wargs that matched my requirements; I manipulate and tore off tiny fire fragments off my, otherwise, grandiose flame dress and shot them towards the wargs. As you might expect, this warg didnt last long under my tremendous firepower.

With its life ended, I marked the two closest wargs and made my way towards them,

This is close enough, and now brarck!

[rIwaREc lE EWuCaSe rOn; Bo oFoneTe tIP To siMoMiD mI TerEElAr rEtE dINa HeRa]

[Mental Attack (Minor)] inflicted on [Young Crimson Spark Dragon *]

Ahhhh, too much information. Too much information!

These damn wargs are attacking us with [Telepathy]. Its a mental attack!

[rIwaREc lE EWuCaSe rOn; Bo oFoneTe tIP To siMoMiD mI TerEElAr rEtE dINa HeRa]

Argh scheie, another batch. Who deactivated [Mental Stability], [Mental Warfare] or [Battle Mind]?!

None of them are deactivated, you idiot. Stop complaining and help #4 and #5 block them.

Kuck, Ill let you guys handle that. Im still able to cast some magic.

As I could feel my mind being cleared up a bit, the wargs began to whimper in pain like innocent, little dogs.

How do you like the taste of your own medicine, dogs?

These wargs are really testing my limits with this information dump. They were either overflowing my head with incomprehensible information, or they were shouting at a ridiculously loud volume that my own thoughts was being drowned out.

In any case, my head was splitting apart and the fog of information began affecting my judgment and thinking.

Luckily, my parallel minds have begun to launch the counterattack with my own [Telepathy]. In a clash between five wargs and my comrades in arms, my side seems to be winning the mental warfare.

While those wargs are in pain, I, the sixth mind and original mind, will be the one to end this quagmire.

Flame Spea

[STOP RIGHT THERE!]

Multiple proficiency requirements fulfilled. [Mental Stability Lv. 3] [Battle Mind Lv. 4] [Mental Warfare Lv. 4] gained

STOP SCREAMING IN MY HEAD!

I recoiled from the powerful mental attack. Loudly shrieking and yelping in anguish, I desperately rotated my head to each side, until I saw the garm smirking, still dodging every single root from [Earthern Shackles]!

I wanted to take the garm out now, but understanding that it was simply distracting me, I calmed down. The garm wants me to take my attention away from the wargs. I cant do what it wants. I want to, at least, complain about that attack but I dont have the time nor concentration to do that correctly.

I need to kill these wargs before the garm is freed. Flame Spear

["DO NOT IGNORE ME, CHILD!"]

[STOP DOING THIS!SCHEIE, it hurts!]

The pain inside my head grew and grew. I never felt this amount of head pains before, that it caused me to yelp excessively, having finally completely abandoned any grace, elegance or pompousness I had before this fight.

Seeing me whine and complain like a child, he continued to taunt me, chuckling.

[It seems taunting you is far easier than I thought.]

[ARGH, what youre doing is unfair as hel]

By instinct alone, I stopped my thoughts and lowered my body, avoiding what would have caused more than an aching head.

Woah, where did that dark magic spell come from?!

[Hmph, you dodged itConcerning your statement, this is how wargs hunt stronger prey and I am well acquainted with it. To survive, you must use all that is at your disposal without consideration of what is fair or not. No monster survives on goodwill alone.] With a dismissive tone, he explained to me the hunting style of a warg.

Why did the description not tell me this? HEY, System Voice, this is important information that you should be putting into the description of these monsters.

Verflucht nochmal!

If you want to tell me that monsters need to forget about being considerate, then I will just do that then! For only a moment, I will extinguish all of you!

Come, my flames!

All the surrounding fire began swarming around me, burning anything flammable into cinders to fuel its growth. I began beating my wings, hoping that the updraft caused by my flame will be enough to bring me to the sky.

Kriaorrrrrrhhhhhh!

Gather my flames. Burn this forest into ashes. Burn brighter than anyone who dares to steal my spotlight!

Custom magic gained: [Imperial Hellfire]Witness the debut of this chapter, unveiled through Ñôv€l--B1n.

Imperial Hellfire!

Roaring the name of this spell in my head, I flew up into the sky and gathered all the fire that is in this area into a huge cloud of inferno above me.

With the wargs and garm still attacking me mentally; my mind, parallel mind included, has fully descended into anger and chaos from all this pain. All moral decisions were cut off as I fully embraced my draconic wrath.

With my mana being released and used to activate this spell, I turned my body and began diving towards the ground.

On impact, the inferno cloud crashed and started to spread across the ground similar to the shockwave caused by a meteor crashing on a planet. A sea of fire was all that I can see. The grassland that we are fighting in, the trees of the forest, and all life were consumed by this unnatural disaster created by those taunting words of an arrogant, piece of shit garm.

He speaks so noble but behaves like a common street thug!

Experience has reached multiple breaking points. [Young Crimson Spark Dragon *] has risen from [Level 10] to [Level 11]

Attributes have increased due to level up

Acquired 400 skill points

Something diedand my mind seems to be free from inference now.

The experience I gained is too little for it to be the garm. How did he dodge that? He couldn't possibly have tanked this attack if a mere glancing hit from my [Inferno Blast] was enough to shave off over half of his health. He probably had the chance to heal himself a bit, through [Health Recovery], but there is still zero chance that he can survive a hit.

With the ashes and embers starting to settle down and dispersing itself from my view, I could only watch in horror how black everything now looks. My eyes widened up enough to call myself an anime character, I swallowed my dry spit, now realizing that my actions have caused something terrible.

This green and lush piece of the Belzac Forest was eradicated by my spell. The damage was widespread, but I managed to contain my flames from spreading any further. My efforts still werent able to prevent this place from becoming a fleeting memory of a, once, beautiful woodland.

[Youhow could you?] A voice filled with horror entered my mind.

I flinched upon hearing those words, but my guilt was quickly overshadowed by the remnants of my anger. I defiantly rebuked his words with an emotion-filled answer.

[To survive, you must use all that is at your disposal without consideration of what is fair or not. That is what you told me.]

[Our ancestral homeThere is a limit to what you can and cannot do!]

[Dont lecture me on this. I know what I did is rather cruel, but the forest will grow back after a few years, while my life will not. To survive, I will do what I must. Dont be a hypocrite, old man.]

[It seems I have done another mistake. I shouldnt have provoked a dragon, no matter how young. Maybe it was also a mistake to not make peace with you, considering your titles]

My titles? What does he mean with that?

[If I had taken your offer to leave in peace, maybe my young wouldnt have perished. The pride of my bloodline compelled me to repel youbut it seems this will be our undoing]

[Blame your stubbornness. Its too late to stop this now, so raise your head and come!]

[As you wish]

With that said, the garm lunged towards me. While it might seem like a simple frontal attack, it was actually a feint for his true intentions. A magical circle began forming under my feet, in my shadows.

He probably expected me to not notice it while in my anger, but the same trick wont work on me twice. It was his fault for not having [Silent Casting], a skill that blocks any sound and trace of mana from the spell. It was essentially [Stealth] and [Presence Killer] in one skill for magicians. Do you seriously think a real mage, like me, would not see through itok, now Im rambling.

Oh, the spell is nearly finished. That was some quick thinking there.

Skill acquisition requirement fulfilled. [Thought Acceleration Lv. 1] acquired

Ah! Awesome~

Stop getting distracted, original mind!

Oh.

And then the garm swiped his claw towards my face.

Everything went black.

Hmmm. WellUhhh. I guess I shouldnt have been so deliberately distracted by my own thoughts there. His speed accelerated in the last few moments when I had that Oh thought come into my head.

Hmm. That is what you called messing up by being overconfident in your abilities, and everybody is mad at me again. Ah, my parallel minds will get even madder, if I say that any louder.

Pack Leader Garm's Status Board Health: 1498/6998 Mana: 403/3609 Strength: 3461 Intelligence: 1903 Vitality: 2102 Wisdom: 2269 Agility: 4901 Stamina: 431/4590 Effects: [Exhaustion (Major)] [Bleeding (Moderate)] [Stress (Major)] [Depression (Moderate)] [Rage (Minor)] [Adrenaline (Moderate)] Skill: Physical Skills and anything related Senses and Movement SkillsResistance Skills Stat Growth and related Skills

[Enhanced Health Capacity Lv. 3]

[Enhanced Mana Growth Lv. 5]

[Enhanced Mana Capacity Lv. 3]

[Enhanced Strength Growth Lv. 5]

[Enhanced Strength Enforcement Lv. 4]

[Enhanced Intelligence Growth Lv. 5]

[Enhanced Intelligence Enforcement Lv. 3]

[Enhanced Vitality Growth Lv. 4]

[Enhanced Vitality Enforcement Lv. 2]

[Enhanced Wisdom Growth Lv. 4]

[Enhanced Wisdom Enforcement Lv. 2]

[Enhanced Agility Growth Lv. 8]

[Enhanced Agility Enforcement Lv. 5]

[Enhanced Stamina Growth Lv. 7]

[Enhanced Stamina Capacity Lv. 4]

Others

[Identity Blocker Lv. 8]

[Identify Lv. 6]

[Terror Aura Lv. 6]

[Leadership Lv. 5]

[Kin Controller Lv. 3]

[Dismantle Lv. 3]

[Pregnancy Lv. 5]

[Starvation Lv. 9]

[Telepathy]

Spell List:

[Dark Bolt] [Dark Tendrils] [Shadow Dash] [Dark Slash]

[Wind Bullet] [Wind Cutter] [Air Shield] [Wind Slash] [Swift Winds]

Titles: [Pack Leader] [Belzacs Successor] [Protective Mother]

Gulp, no way. Nein, nein, nein, nein.

Belzac's Successor

A title given to a descendant of Belzac that is destined to be the next Belzac. Boosts experience gain and skill proficiency gain. Increases Dark Elemental resistance and proficiency, while also improving the effectiveness of Dark Elemental spells. As a descendant of the mystical three-eyed Fenrir, Belzac, the possessor gains heightened parameters, when fighting with other of its pack

Protective Mother

A title given to a mother that will defend its family to the bitter death. Heightens parameters when fighting with its kin

Impossible. Just impossible.

[I-I am sorry. I didnt want to fight them.]

Gulp, her aura is becoming even fiercer. Come on, I don't want to fight against you. Please, you're even wounded, so, please!

This place is suffocating. Not only is it super creepy due to skeletons laying around but this garm has her [Terror Aura] active. This pressure is daunting.

[Ill get out of this forest. I have enough food in my Storage magic. I can give you all of it if we can end this peacefully.]

[Uhhh, hello?]

[Can you please speak? I know you have [Telepathy].]

Uhh, maybe it wasnt a good idea to mention that I used [Identify] on her. I still think that this skill is an extremely intrusive skill that ignores the very concept of personal privacy. It would have been a sin if [Identity Blocker] hadnt existed.

This situation is still very awkward. I'm trying to communicate with her, but she isnt responding to anything I say. I still think my decision to come was idiotic. She does have [Exhaustion (Major)] so she wouldn't have been able to pursue me even if she wanted to.

Im also curious about what shes guarding behind her. Shes been standing in front of that nest, this whole time without moving an inch. Guess a look cant hurt

[Do not come any closer to the nest.]

[J-Ja, maam!]

Scary.

[Fight me.]

Uhh, no thank you. Im tired.

[Thank you for the offer but I have to decline.]

[I did not suggest, I ordered you to fight me.]

This one is also very stubborn. If we can communicate with each other, then why must we fight against each other. I just want somebody to talk with that isnt obsessed with killing me.

[If this is about revenge, then I am really sorry. I said it already, but I offered your partner and children peace. Your pack wanted to kill me, so I was forced to do it. It wasnt my fault. I also dont want to fight you.]

It's kinda a half-truth? Revenge was tempting, but I really was offering them peace to stop any bloodshed between us. In the end, I only acted on self-defense.

[You will fight me.]

These stubborn wolves. Ok, ok. This seems to be the only way out of this situation. She is heavily handicapped with low health, mana and stamina while having both [Exhaustion (Major)] and [Bleeding (Moderate)]. Her other stats are still ridiculously high and there are also the effects of her titles. If my [Detection Sensor] is correct, then something is behind her and I bet it is one of her children.

However, I personally know how detrimental [Exhaustion] is for the body. It should even out the playing field. I just need to be careful of her attacks, both magical and physical. I should be able to dodge themprobably. I ought to keep an eye on my own stamina. The last thing I need is being inflicted by [Exhaustion] myself.

[Ok, I am ready]

[Good. Let us begin.]

A note from AbyssRaven

Maybe this was bad timing to release a chapter about burning down a forest? Seriously, I hope the Australiens among my readers are doing alright.

So, it seems like I'm really bad at keeping the length of battle chapters to a minimum. Considering how many of these *sound effects* things I used in the fight between the orc, I've decided to not use any in this chapter. Pure describing. I think using too many *sound effects* would cripple an author's growth, so I hope I was able to show some growth in my writing style here. It got super long that way.

One question though, did I do too much tell and not enough showing?

'If you guys like the chapter, then come on and follow us! Rate or favorite and you will help our story grow!'

'Thanks for reading!'

Edit: Did some stuff to make certain things a bit clearer.

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About the author

1 Fictions 7 Posts 1 Threads

Friday, January 24, 2020 11:00:00 PM Germany [Member of Zard Skwad]

Bio: Hey there, AbyssRaven here. I'm just an avid Light Novel and Fantasy story reader who randomly thought of a story and began writing about it.

I eventually found out that I've been spending a bit too much time with building, planning, and researching for the story, that I've decided to just share it with others.

Writing is mostly a hobby for me, but I would still love any kind of criticism to improve on it.

I'm also german, so please excuse anything that sounds a bit weird...I wouldn't mind you pointing it out though.

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