Elson completed his transformation into a full-fledged werewolf. He glanced at Lily in surprise. "Little girl, you're a high-order werewolf too?"
Lily almost choked on her mouthful of Spicy Sticks as she nodded frantically. After charging up, she now had enough strength—of course, we could always call it "the power of Spicy Sticks", if you don't mind.
A gust of violent wind blew at them, preventing them from opening their eyes. But then, they heard howling nearby.
*Awoooooo*
Amid the howling of wolves, the world had become quiet, well sort of. Everyone began to imagine the silver moon, open land and wolves howling at the moon...
But their imagination stopped when they heard an anticlimatic "arf arf".
The wind subsided and five large werewolves appeared before them. Their eyes were red and mean; their fur was stained with blood and they were scary in the eyes of those around them. They definitely looked like imposing mountains with high fighting spirits. Standing among them however, was a husky.
At almost five-metres tall, Lily looked around and realised that she was just as big as the others. She nodded in satisfaction. "Arf arf."
The alpha was standing in front. He first looked at his pack, then at Lily before he said thoughtfully. "I feel like something's off." It was Elson's voice.
The other warrior werewolves were also looking at each other, and Lily's fur pattern. Shortly after, someone was heard saying, "Probably her mom ran out of ink when she gave birth to her. Or maybe, she's from the hermit family in the land of snow. I don't see anything wrong."
Lily tilted her head, wondering why the others could still speak after shapeshifting. "Arf arf?"
Elson continued muttering to others, "...I really feel like something's not right..."
"Forget it. Nothing's wrong..."
Ophra stomped on Elson's paw and chided, "Are you done yet? Do I need to remind you again that you have to remain alert after transformation? We're at war now!"
Looks can be deceiving; if you thought Elson was old, check Ophra out—she was a lot older. When Ophra chided her old partner, she acted like she was lecturing her grandson. Elson and his pack immediately got their act together, leaving the odd "white wolf" alone. One of them, a one-eyed wolf, gazed in the direction of the Gnarled Grove. "We'll divert the monsters' attention while you guys take on those who manage to slip through!"
Then under Elson's leadership, the pack ran into the forest. These tall beasts were surrounded by a stone-crushing wind pressure. They left a trail of total devastation behind them as they travelled forward. But as an alpha, Elson had an additional strength; as he ran, he left behind a trail of scorching flames, which even burned on bare rocks. It did not appear to be an earthly fire.
Following the five imposing beasts was the plus-size, white husky who was running excitedly on all fours. Although she did not think of it as a problem, it was a weird constrast should one put the husky among the werewolves. Hao Ren could vaguely hear someone arguing in the distance. "I still feel that something's not right..."
"You're being overly sensitive. I didn't feel a thing!"
"Arf?"
It was supposed to be a serious and tense situation, but Hao Ren was almost blown away by what he heard. After a long moment of astonishment, Hao Ren poked Vivian on her arm and said, "Should we call her back?"
In a rare support of Lily, Vivian said, "Let her be. It's not every day that she can be with her fellow brethren, especially in their shapeshifted form."
The five plus one giant wolves were making a grand entrance to the forest, and duely got the attention of many dinobeasts. Those dark, gnarled monsters were of low intelligence. As the remnants of the Third Born of ten thousand years ago, they were driven only by the Gnarled Grove to attack humans, and obviously lacking organisation and strategy. As long as they sensed the presence of the Second Born, their attention would be easily diverted. That gave Hao Ren and his company some slack.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Y'zaks had charged up enough energy. He strode into the wilderness and grinned at those dinobeasts which had slipped through.
Flame was lighting up the night while ground under Y'zaks' feet began to melt under. A wall of greenish evil fire began to rush forward, melting rocks and vaporising trees and vegetation as it ravaged everything in its path. Even the corrosive blood of the dinobeasts was vaporised long before it could do anything.
Watching everything that transpired before her eyes, Ophra's jaw dropped to the ground. "...are you sure you're just a mecernary?"
"We're experts!" Hao Ren just gave an overly simple reply before he wielded his alloy spear and charged at the last group of dinobeasts.
Everything went smoothly here. But things might not be as optimistic in other places.
The earth had never stopped trembling since the beginning as there were more tentacles breaking out from the earth. The shallow consciousness of the First Born had already awakened and sensed that the mortals were trying to get away from its control. It intensified the activity of the tentacles in shallow earth, and more mutated tentacles with psyhic assault or magic abilities had emerged as a result. Each evacuation team had been intercepted by these subterrainean creatures, it was hard to tell how many of those civilians and soldiers who had only basic military training could survive the attack. But there was only so much the kingdom and church knights could do: they were trained to deal with humans and simple monsters, when facing with the never-seen-before ancient life form, the brightest military expert would just as lost as the ordinary soldiers.
All evacuation teams had met ferocious attack. Casualty was inevitable and it wasn't going to be minor.
The mass evacuation operation had gone on for one day and one night. The divine arrays in Leyton and other places had also held up for just as long. But the strength of man was finite after all. When the first ray of the morning sun shone over the back of the mountain, the divine arrays in the line of defense outside Leyton began to show exhaustion and ceased. The subterrainean tentacles finally got the upper hand and villages and sentry posts were levelled one after another.
Leyton with the largest divine array was still holding up, barely, giving the knights some slack and a safe haven, a place where the drained soldiers could catch a breath. Under the shield of the thinning purple light, there wouldn't be any runaway tentacles in the town for the moment. But every road outside of the town had almost been occupied by the tentacles and dinobeasts.
Ophra and Hao Ren had retreated to the town. Everyone hadn't rested for a day and a night, the high-intensity combats had brought even the most legendary hero on his knees. The body armour of Ophra was stained with blood, her windcoat was damaged by the corrosive blood of the dinobeasts. She stood on a watchtower, looking down at the land which had been defaced completely before letting out a sigh of relief. "It's fortunate that everyone had got out..."
All civilians and eight-tenth of the soldiers had been successfully evacuated. Those stayed back in town were the elites to hold the last defense, and the higher monastics who were responsible for the divine array.
Hao Ren and his company didn't leave. They wanted to see the real face of the First Born, and to know if it could ever be killed.
The five-plus-one giant wolves were guarding the entrance of the town. They remained in their formshifted beast form since yesterday. These super 'warriors' were the source of morale and inspiration of the last defending elites. As long as they stayed visible at the entrance, the knights wouldn't lose their morale.
The giant wolves had become a symbol of the last line of defense, and it doesn't matter whether you agree or not, a husky was one of them.
Lily squatted on the city wall sticking her chest out like a hero. Gosh, she wasn't tired of asking Hao Ren taking her photographs...
"Ophra, we must fight and break the deadlock." Elson raised his head. Squatting on the ground, his eyes were level with Ophra who was standing on the watchtower. "All roads had been blocked. There's only one way out and we've got to move fast or we wouldn't be able to make it later."
"The kingdom's knights were at the foot of Dragonspine ridge. But they couldn't come to us, we have to go to them."
Ophra exhaled, looking down at her soldiers who had just assembled in the hole-laden town square. They needed rest as the short moment of the dawn wasn't really suffice. But then there had already no time to rest.
"Get ready to evac." Ophra ordered finally. "Elson, inform Bishop Gelton to get ready to evac... No, forget it, you probably couldn't get in. I'll send somebody else."
At that moment, a sudden loud boom was heard coming from the Gnarled Grove!
Hair stood on end, Hao Ren looked over to that direction and witnessed the most unforgettable moment in his life.
Vivian quickly flew up into the air and screamed in fear.
"The Gnarled Grove... the Gnarled Grove is rising!"