LIGHTNOVELONLINE 31. Pack Hunt
Chapter 31 – Pack Hunt
It was almost night as Aenon hid in the shadows at the very edge of the treant’s area of control. Him and the wolves had surrounded the circular clearing and taken position at the eight cardinal directions, with him at the North and Bane at the South end. Aenon had sent Venge back to the village before coming here. Even if they all died here, at least the pack would survive. They had systematically cleared the surrounding area of any threat since they could not afford any distractions in the upcoming battle.
“We are all in position, Alpha,” Aenon heard Bane’s voice through their soul link.
“Very well then. Remember the plan and do not enter the circle before me,” Aenon said while channeling mana to his palms. He had gone through step-by-step instructions with the entire pack yesterday. Even though the other 6 wolves could not reply yet, they understood him just fine. For this to work, he had to make sure to deal a massive amount of damage in the first volley and then continue to pepper the treant.
It was sure to retaliate using some unknown spells or abilities, but Aenon had gone through multiple contingencies for varying scenarios. The main issue would be for the other wolves to deal damage. They were melee fighters, and the tree had impressive defense. Not to mention counter attacks using vines and spores. Luckily, he had found an alternative for that.
Aenon stood with his palms together like he was praying and concentrated half his resource pool worth of mana in between. As he slowly spread them apart, a concentrated ball of mana was created. When that was a foot in diameter, he started mixing in gravity aspect to it. It was the conceptual aspect with his second highest proficiency after all. Just as the aspect mixed in thoroughly, he started breaking off a few smaller spheres and sending them into the circle around the treant, making sure to maintain a mana thread connecting him to the orbs. He made sure to keep the smaller spheres far enough that the creature wouldn’t feel the change in gravity.
In the end he was left with a dozen gravity wells scattered over the area of control, and a half foot gravity ball in his hands. The smaller gravity spells would last as long as he supplied them mana. He then swung his arm back and tossed the largest orb straight at the tree’s center mass. Just when the orb was within 2 feet of impact, using the mana thread, he pulled every single random wisp close to the orb towards it. As the mana orb contacted the wooden surface, it became unstable and started glowing bright due to all the random wisps being mashed together.
BOOOM
“SCREEEEEEE,” the treant bellowed in pain and anger. The explosion emitted a dense cloud of smoke that radiated outwards and cast random effects onto the treant’s branches. Some were frozen, some were burnt, while others were cut up like they had gone through a blender. A spiderweb pattern of cracks spread outwards from the impact point, leaving a small crater at its center. Before the treant could react, Aenon threw his dagger, Goblin’s Woe, right into the gaping wound. Its mana bleed passive would not trigger, but that was not why he threw it. He needed the wound to stay open.
He immediately started making spears from water, ground, and heat mana aspects and throwing them like javelins from his location. Since his spear proficiency wasn’t that high, they didn’t hit dead center like the dagger. But since the creature was humongous, most of them at least managed to hit or scrape by. The treant furiously started looking around and finally managed to pinpoint his location.
It roared and pointed one of its gnarly claws towards him, shooting its claws like bullets. Yet, Aenon didn’t even flinch as he continued peppering it with his spears. Each spear shattered harmlessly on impact and sprayed the surroundings with a dense mist. The treant’s bullets on the other hand whizzed by Aenon’s head.
The treant looked at its claws in confusion, not understanding why its projectile missed. The wooden missiles were deadly fast and on target, but somehow curved ever so slightly in midair. It tried a few more times without success. And so, the battle was at an impasse. The treant’s ranged attacks could not land, while all Aenon’s projectiles did was create small puddles of water and mud wherever they landed.
As the treant began moving in his direction, Aenon stopped casting spells and sat down to meditate. This infuriated his enemy further, who broke into a sprint towards him. Just as it was within 10 feet of Aenon, it found itself back at the center of the circle. It bellowed in rage and charged again with the same results. After the fifth attempt, it stopped and looked around in confusion.
“Catching on, are you?” Aenon said as he opened his eyes. His mana was back to three quarters full. “Attaching space wisps onto your spores and controlling the surrounding is an excellent idea. You are a tree after all.”
Aenon raised his hands and moved the gravity wells around, which had scooped up the spores like a vacuum. He did not have enough proficiency with space aspect to control space. But why attempt to make his own space spell, when he could hijack his opponents. He had used his mana vision to closely study how the treant cast its spell. It was basically attaching space aspects to its spores that it could freely control and move them around to create the trap. All Aenon needed to do was take control of the spores. Something even a weak gravity spell could do.
Aenon stood up and stepped forward till he was a hair’s width away from the supposed circle the treant controlled. And then stepped in with a smile. The gravity wells he spread out had two purposes. To take over the space trap, and to divert any projectiles.
“SCREEEEE,”, the treant screeched loudly and tried shooting vines at him instead, only to have them deflect and return to it. Aenon saw the treant gathering a lot of nature wisps at its wounds, no doubt as an attempt to heal its wound.
“Bane,” Aenon said in a low voice. As one, 7 shadowy figures shout out from all over and went straight for the treant. In low light, they were like shadow wraiths seeking to claim the souls of their victims.
The treant saw the new enemies and braced for impact, but it never came. The shadows harmlessly zipped past it. The creature looked around in confusion, noticing too late that its nature wisps were missing. It shouted in frustration and tried summoning more, but each time a shadow would zoom by devour it.
Aenon had realized the special properties of his Abyssal wolves. Their mouth, with thousands of razor-sharp teeth, could devour mana wisps. True to their name, they completely erased the wisps from existence. As though they were dispelled out to the abyss. They had minimal damage on physical objects though, no more than what their jaws could do before their transformation. And so, Aenon had assigned them a new role.
While the treant was busy, Aenon quickly erected a thin air barrier around the clearing like a dome. Simultaneously he also created a thin but very dense layer of earth underground. It essentially sealed off the entire clearing in two domes of air and dense earth. And like his earth shoes, he added vibration damping to the two layers.
“SCREEEEE,” the treant screamed, trying to call for help. But the sound didn’t cross the barrier at all. To any outside observer, it would be like the clearing was put on mute. Neither could its roots or vines penetrate the thin layer of hardened earth underneath. It was for all intents and purposes trapped in here. And this time, it wasn’t the predator.
Aenon flicked his wrists and sent the gravity wells outward towards the edge of the clearing. He needed more room to navigate in, for the true battle would start now. His opponent, sensing the field expanding, turned towards his main enemy. And saw nothing.
Aenon had slipped into the shadows cast by the various planets in the night sky. And thus, there were eight shadows hounding the distraught treant. It started getting minor cuts and scrapes from its blind spots over and over. Try as it might, it could not pin down its quarry. It even tried creating more spores, but they were all sucked away instantly by new gravity wells. For the first time in its life, it felt the terror its prey experienced while in its killing field.
In desperation, it tried approaching the barrier but failed each time. It even tried pulling back its spores that were trapped in the gravity wells, but the force was always just enough to prevent that. But it still had hope, for it was confident about its defenses. Whoever or whatever its enemy was, they would soon run out of mana. And then it would prevail, like it always did. All it needed was one tiny crack in this trap, and it could turn the entire forest against its enemies.
But the lucky break never came. For hours, it was hounded from all sides. It started losing pieces of itself to the relentless assault, one branch after another. And eventually its iron will started collapsing. And that was the beginning of the end.
Aenon had held back his greatest weapon of them all, waiting for this exact moment. For a being that was possibly centuries old, its soul and will would no doubt have been strong. And Aenon felt that using his soul sense. Not once during this entire assault, did he feel any chinks in the creature’s armor around its soul. But now for the first time he felt it. True desperation. And that was what he was waiting for. But he needed to make sure it would not gain back its courage.
“Its time,” he sent a mental message over his soul link. All the wolves backed up and made a circle around their prey and howled as one. True darkness descended on the clearing as the wolves unleashed their ability. It was like his cloak’s active ability, dark domain. But it was much more powerful, and did not require mana wisps to be present, since the wolves emitted their own.
All the light was sapped away and the treant felt like it was trapped in an endless vacuum. It turned every which way, and all it saw were pairs of cold grey eyes staring at it. It tried moving its battered body away from the creatures, but its body suddenly froze up.
Aenon had frozen the treant in ice, using the earlier mud and water he had scattered all around using his spears. And now for the final blow, Aenon unleashed his soul presence. The earlier exhaustion, along with his psychological tactics, finally broke the creature’s will to live. It just stood there as Aenon gathered the largest spell he had made so far and released it towards it.
As the spell hit, and the treant was in its death throes, it finally realized the difference. The difference between a predator and an apex predator. Only prey feared the former. But even predators feared the latter.
Aenon and the wolves emerged from the shadows as the barriers and darkness fell. He collapsed on the ground, drenched in sweat. He was exhausted beyond measure, having completely drained his mana. It was a close call after all, if the treant had hung on for a few more minutes, he probably would not have made it. Even the smoke around the abyss wolves had thinned considerably, revealing some of their horrifying features. Bane trotted up to him and sat down on his haunches.
“Good job, Bane. And you all too,” Aenon said while looking at each of his wolves with pride. And they felt it through their connection. A series of notifications started pinging in his head, demanding his attention. But Aenon ignored them for now. Too exhausted and spent to care about any of it. He lay down on the ground and looked up at the sky, admiring its alien beauty for the nth time. The wolves all made a circle around him and Bane and curled up into balls, instantly falling asleep.
“It was a good fight, Alpha,” bane said in a low tone as he sat down while gazing at the sky too.
“You know, I can never tire of this view.”
“Hmmm. It is beautiful, I guess. Although I don’t have anything to compare it to.”
“You are right. You don’t, do you?” Aenon said in realization. He reached out for the shard in his soul space and linked it to Bane and himself. He started accessing videos of Earth using it, specifically those of forests and the wildlife in it.
Bane’s ears perked up as he started seeing all the foreign images for the first time. Aenon felt curiosity radiating off him when he saw the wolves of Earth, and extreme joy when he saw videos of humans playing with their dog companions. And so, they stayed like that for almost an hour. Just enjoying the brief respite in their tumultuous lives.
No creatures dared to intrude, for Aenon had kept his presence unleashed. And after an hour, the other wolves started waking up, curious why their Beta was barking so excitedly. Aenon extended the connection to the entire pack, and they all went wild. Barking at the imaginary squirrel.
Aenon smiled at their antics and decided to do one better. He stopped the video stream and used some light wisps to create seven illusions of Earth squirrels and made them run around the area. All seven wolves dashed around the field, no longer looking like machines of death and destruction to Aenon’s eyes. They were his family, his pack.
While the wolves were busy unwinding, Aenon sat up deciding to peruse his notifications and stats. He decided to start with his aspect proficiencies first, since they had the most gains.
Mana Aspects Proficiency
Physical
Conceptual
Earth (71%)
Heat (51%)
Air (32%)
Gravity (62%)
Fire (43%)
Space (9%)
Water (45%)
Mechanical (15%)
Light (39%)
-
Dark (93%)
-
Life (7%)
-
-
-
He had gained at least some proficiency in all aspect types, except life, but had not discovered any new types. He was pretty sure the last physical aspect was death, and the other concepts must be some kind of energies, although no idea what or how to get them. He wasn’t even sure why life and death were considered physical aspects, and not conceptual. But such was his path, minimal to no guidance, which meant he had to discover it on his own. Next, he went to his title notifications, saving his stats for last.
Title achieved: Ancient Killer (1)
Title achieved: Untouchable (1)
Title achieved: Prodigious Mage
Ancient Killer (1): Treants are considered one of the ancient races, along with Elves and Dragons. You somehow managed to slay one, even if it was just a juvenile. This is despite the fact that one should not have been present on your planet. Need I say more?
+20 all stats
Untouchable (1): Take down a difficult opponent without incurring a single hit point damage to yourself or your party. And yes, your pack counts as a party. No solo achievements for you.
+30 all stats
Prodigious Mage: Use unknown mixes of mana aspects in a grueling battle, without blowing yourself up. Good job. Seriously though, watch what you are mixing together.
+10% gains from Titles
Aenon blinked a few times at the snarky title description. It was confirmed now. Someone related to the System or the System itself was messing with him. He was skeptical that these were the actual title descriptions.
The worrying part though was what it said about treants. They weren’t supposed to be here on this planet. What was that supposed to mean? As for the warning about mixing unknown mana aspect types, he was already aware of the dangers. He had blown up a tree during practice and had managed to knock himself back a dozen feet from the resulting explosion.
He sighed in frustration, as this was yet again beyond his control. He decided to put it in the back of his mind for now, along with the growing list of possible things he could not survive against. Yet. He finally moved to his stats.
Name
Aenon Fenrast (13 yrs)
Race
Ascended Human (F)
Level
18
Class
Void Stalker
Level
14
Subclass
Abyssal Warden
Level
23
HP
16535
MP
18975
HP/min
331
MP/min
406
Stats
Strength
1654 (1376+278)
Intelligence
1898 (1380+278+56+184)
Constitution
1655 (1377+278)
Willpower
2032 (1384+278+140+230)
Dexterity
1657 (1379+278)
Perception
1716 (1382+278+56)
Titles (!)
Rebirth (0)
+1344 all stats
Skills/Effects:
Detect and resist the effects of soul attacks and spells.
Double the available Skill slots per evolution level
Ability to fake Titles, stats, and levels. This effect cannot be bypassed even by Overseers.
Can bypass certain System restrictions.
Unfettered: ???
Stat Point multiplier: 2
Alpha (1)
+50 all stats, +30% stats in presence of your pack
Soul Forge (1)
+80 all stats
Bulwark (1)
+5 all stats
Speed Runner (1)
+10 all stats
Hoarder (1)
+5 all stats
Landlord (1)
+20 all stats
Planetary Forerunner (1)
+30 all stats
Ancient Killer (1)
+20 all stats
Untouchable (1)
+30 all stats
(Really) Late Bloomer
+1% stats from Titles
Prodigious Mage
+10% stats from Titles
Skills
Slot 1
Stealth (Woods, Urban) – Savant
Slot 2
Weapons (Dagger, Unarmed, Traps) - Savant
Slot 3
Tracking (Woods) – Expert
Slot 4
Mana Manipulation - Expert
At least his stats were coming along nicely. He had gained 4 levels in Void Stalker and 6 levels in his other class. Again, he had relied heavily on magic rather than physical damage, so this was expected. He closed his notifications and headed for the treant’s corpse. The wolves were not interested in it, since they could not eat wood after all. But there was something of value that attracted Aenon.
It was a 1-foot-wide gemstone. And it gave him the same oily feeling that he got from the corruption he witnessed in the dungeon.