Chapter 21: Chapter 21: Spirit Beast

At the dead of night, the sentry fortress was alive with activity. The special sentry carriages were formed up in a long convoy line. The 1,000 sentries were gathered in groups of 100 against each carriage. They were wearing thick leather harnesses and began to load up into the carriages. The first few hooked themselves onto the hooks inside the carriage, then the next followed. It all went by in a flash. The perfect unity and synchronization of the army helped Vulcan achieve this.

Then one by one, the carriages were lowered down the elevator shaft into the tunnel below. Sentries pulled on the carriages since using horses or any animal would be impossible with the immense weight of the cargo. In the lit tunnel were a form of train tracks that Vulcan laid out and led towards the village. The first carriage was placed on these tracks and then two hover bikes attached clamps and hooks to the front of the carriage, while two more attached to the back. Once everything was in place, they accelerated. The train tracks helped move the carriages faster than having a team of sentries pull it all the way through the underground tunnel.

The end of the tunnel soon approached. To slow down the high-speed carriage, the front hover bikes slowed down while the ones in the back slowed down too, but much more to take away the momentum. They stopped at the very end, and another team of sentries hooked on and pulled the carriage up the long ramp into the village warehouse and exited to the village. Over the period of an hour, the rest of the convoy was moved like this.

Vulcan placed entire companies of disguised sentries all over the village to check that none of the villagers peeked out of their homes and witnessed what was happening. In a window of a lodge was a little boy lifting the curtains of his window a little. He had woken up because he had a nightmare and was about to walk towards his parents' room to sleep with them, but was stopped in his tracks when a sound outside made him curious. He peeked a little and saw the strong village guards moving large carriages from the warehouse. It made him watch in awe as they pulled the carriages with ease. He had already set himself to become strong like them in the future. Just then, one of Vulcan's sentries startled him by cutting off his view. The sentry placed a finger where his lips would be, and the little boy went back to bed. He didn't want to be punished by his parents for peeping on the guards.

The last carriage made it out of the warehouse, and coming out of the tunnel was Vulcan in his new body. He decided to leave his other rank 3 body with the fortress in case of an emergency. Jess met up with him at the gate, along with Jason already wearing his Geppeto clothes.

"Alright, let's head out. I will be with you along the trip, Jason, so don't worry if you think you will be alone. You ready, Jess?" Vulcan said to the both of them.

"Yup, I'll see you in a couple of months, Jason. Good luck," she said to the man, and they hugged.

"Thanks, As long as Vulcan is there, I feel pretty good about it. Good luck to you too." Jason gave a firm nod.

With the goodbyes settled, Jess and Vulcan departed on hover bikes with a team of 10 steel sentries, while Jason departed with the sentry convoy to the capital. He had a whole squad of steel golems protecting him and the convoy.

Using the cover of the night, Vulcan and Jess made haste to the new kingdom that bordered the Rodden kingdom to its west. They only made a few stops when they spotted certain beasts wandering the night, but scared them off. They also spotted a campsite with an entire group of guards and merchants. This one they went around to avoid being seen. Like this, the entire night was spent traveling. In the morning they approached a village that they had seen in the distance. A large amount of black smoke was seen, and using his enhanced sight, Vulcan could see that there was a fight happening. He looked at Jess and already knew that she wanted to check it out. So they parked the bikes and ran the rest of the way.

"Cover the flanks! They are overwhelming the village guards!" yelled out a middle-aged adventurer as he directed the rest of the adventurers to help the village guards against the dire wolves who had surrounded the village. They had just arrived at the village yesterday to take on a dire wolf pack that had become too aggressive and started killing the village hunters. They thought a few bronze stage adventurer parties and him, a low iron stage veteran, would be enough, but they didn't expect the pack to be so large in numbers. They even had a few elemental dire wolves leading from the back and attacking them with ranged wind attacks.

"Mages, cast a mana shield on our front line!" The two mages they had in the back began to chant a spell. After they were done, a thin translucent shield blocked the incoming attacks on the fighters. The leader gave a small cheer; they were slowly culling the smaller dire wolves. Once the numbers dropped, they would counterattack and kill the rest with ease. He might even see his adventurer rank rise up for the increase in difficulty.

Just then, a large figure walked out of the forest tree line. His pupils shrank, and his voice was caught in his throat. "No, why is a spirit beast at peak iron stage here!" he said in desperation. The dire wolf beast that towered over the rest of the wolves by 3 meters in height watched them with disdain. Its eyes revealed an intelligent gleam. It howled, and the howl somehow made the rest of the pack far more aggressive. Some of the human fighters got dragged away from the frontline and torn up in the back of the wolf pack. Their screams for help were the last thing they the rest heard from them.

The spirit wolf pack leader slashed down with its paw, and the shield the mages kept up shattered with ease and kept going, slicing an adventurer in half. His death dropped the morale for the rest of the fighters. No one was able to percieve the attack at all. Was this the power of a spirit beast? "Evacuate the villagers! We will fend them off to save you time," the veteran adventurer leader said as he grabbed hold of the village chief's tunic. The old man didn't think twice and left running with a few villagers with pitchforks and other things that they could use to fend off the wolves.

Just as the situation was getting bleak and hope was thinning, the leader saw several other figures coming from outside the village. They were human fighters and from his small glance, he could see them with weapons drawn. This gave him a small amount of relief, but he knew if no one at peak iron stage was here to contest with the spirit wolf, then nobody would make it out alive.

Just then, Vulcan and Jess sped off ahead of the other sentries. The difference in strength between them and the other sentries apparent. The spirit wolf watched the new arrivals calmly. It didn't sense them being any more powerful than the fighters its pack was fighting. Just like it did earlier, it swiped its paw, and a thin wind slash was sent towards them. Vulcan was already close to the spirit wolf and jumped over the slash with ease. Jess, on the other hand, had more difficulty and barely slid on the ground to dodge it.

While in mid-air, Vulcan swiped down on the spirit wolf as he descended on it. The spirit wolf's eyes opened wide before its head was cut off from the rest of its body. Its body hadn't realized its untimely demise and soon followed the head rolling on the ground. The adventurers and village guards had their mouths wide open in awe. The spirit wolf was killed so easily? Who were these new fighters, and how strong were they? The elemental wolves directed their attacks at Jess and Vulcan, seeing their leader die by their hands. An elemental wolf with a fire element fired a large fireball towards Jess. She didn't step aside and cut the fireball in half. She sped off and reached the wolf, taking it by surprise with her speed. She stabbed the plasma sword deep into its head as it collapsed on the ground. Vulcan took care of the other wind one by appearing next to it and beheading it like its leader. The rest of the sentries attacked the main force of the pack. Cries and whelps were heard from the wolves as they cut them down one by one.

"Don't just stare, help our saviors. Let's not be outdone either!" yelled the leader. A resounding war cry was given by the adventurers, and they attacked with renewed vigor. The fight didn't last long, and a few wolves escaped to the forest with their tails tucked between their legs.

"I don't know how to thank you. I thought we were goners when the pack leader appeared. May I get the names of our saviors?" asked the adventurer leader as he shook Vulcan's hand.

"Names Vulcan, and she's Jess. We are the 'Dark Sentry' adventurer party."