Chapter 57: The Battle Begins
The mangled body of the Snow Shadow Headed Wolf resembled a blood-soaked rag. Its cold, piercing eyes emitted a low growl, and despite its grievous wounds, its gaze at Irving was still full of defiance and anger.
"This is your last chance! Otherwise... die!" Irving said coldly.
At that moment, the ground began to tremble again. Outside the shelter, a horde of monstrous beasts was surging towards them like a tidal wave.
Seeing the Snow Shadow Headed Wolf still refusing to submit, the coldness in Irving's eyes intensified. He slowly raised his [Evil Source Wand].
As his mental power concentrated, a brilliant fireball grew larger and larger. Just as he was about to lose his patience, the icy gaze of the Snow Shadow Headed Wolf suddenly became complex.
The Snow Shadow Headed Wolf stared intently at the gem inlaid at the top of the wand. The next moment, the ferocity in its eyes gradually faded...
[Enslaving Snow Shadow Headed Wolf...]
[Enslavement Complete!]
[Player's Enslaved Beast Count: Stone Giant Beast *13, Snow Shadow Headed Wolf *1...]
Irving was slightly taken aback. He had almost given up hope of taming such a ferocious and untamable beast as the Snow Shadow Headed Wolf, but at the critical moment, it chose to submit.
The Snow Shadow Wolf is renowned for its incredible speed and unique mental attacks, which are key reasons why they rank among the mid-tier beasts.
Irving had already made up his mind to assemble a formidable team in the doomsday, unlike other guilds.His team's core would be composed of a massive army of beasts...
In the harsh environment of the apocalypse, enslaving beasts to build an army was more reliable than recruiting other players. As human nature is fickle, while enslaved beasts would never betray their master.
Of course, building a beast army wasn't as easy as it seemed, but the addition of the Snow Shadow Headed Wolf brought him one step closer to his goal.
"Irving, we're running out of time!" Vicky could clearly feel the increasing tremors in the ground and urged him.
Sophia walked over to the remaining Snow Shadow Wolves, preparing to unleash a skill to kill them all. "We can't let these beasts live, or they might ambush us when we're dealing with the monsters outside!"
The confusing skills of the Snow Shadow Wolves were indeed troublesome, and she would not allow such a hidden threat to exist.
"Stop!" Irving halted her.
"Irving, you..." Vicky and Sophia were both stunned. They had no idea that the Snow Shadow Headed Wolf had been enslaved. Sophia said with a complex expression, "You can't be going soft. Even if they're badly injured, we can't leave them alive, or we'll be the ones to suffer."
She had been filled with suspicion when she saw Irving standing in front of the Snow Shadow Headed Wolf, and now she was even more displeased.
Irving did not want to explain too much. He looked directly at Vicky and said, "Quickly use [Healing Art]. Heal any Snow Shadow Wolf that is still alive."
"What did you say?" Sophia could no longer contain her anger. Her face looked as if it were covered with a layer of frost. "You must be out of your mind! Not killing these beasts is one thing, but you want to heal them?"
She felt that Irving must have lost his mind!
Vicky, who was standing nearby, seemed to understand something. She was the first to follow Irving and knew his identity as a necromancer very well. She smiled and said, "Sophia, don't worry. You'll understand soon. Irving is not just a powerful wizard..."
As she spoke, she immediately cast the[Healing Art]on the severely injured Snow Shadow Wolves. As strands of green light fell, their injuries were visibly healing at an astonishing rate.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
At this moment, there were pounding sounds from outside the walls. It seemed that something enormous was trying to break in. The thorn wall was the last barrier of the shelter.
Thankfully, the arrow tower had already activated its defense mode, and countless arrows were raining down, significantly slowing down the attacking monsters.
Howl!
A wolf howl echoed through the air. Within a few minutes, the injuries on the Snow Shadow Headed Wolf had mostly healed, and the other Snow Shadow Wolves had also gotten up.
Witnessing this scene, Sophia's face turned extremely grim. She gripped her staff tightly, bracing herself for a potential ambush by the Snow Shadow Wolves.
But instead, the Snow Shadow Headed Wolf walked straight to the other wolves and began howling. It didn't look like it was giving orders, but rather passing on information.
Only a moment later...
"Watch out!" Sophia shouted as she saw the Snow Shadow Headed Wolf leading the other wolves towards them again. "I told you we should have killed them!"
Anger filled her voice.
But the next moment, she saw the pack of Snow Shadow Wolves slowly approaching Irving. Instead of launching another attack as she had imagined, the leading wolf kneeled in front of him.
"What..." Sophia was stunned. The anger that had just surged within her seemed to have been doused by a bucket of cold water.
Not just her, if other players saw this situation, they would probably be even more shocked.
The entire Other World Game was currently undergoing the second wave of disaster, and all players were desperately fighting against the invading monsters, yet Irving had tamed them.
Sophia had seen Irving taming the Stone Golem Giants before, but she thought he had used some special scroll. But now, when the same scene happened again, she could no longer keep her calm.
"You're not a mage?" Sophia asked, her face filled with shock. But then she shook her head immediately, muttering to herself, "That's not right. If you're not a mage, then why can you use fire-based skills? Or do you have some special talent?"
Her mind was in turmoil. Not every player awakened a talent when they entered the Other World, with the rate being about one in ten thousand. To both have a talent and also be a powerful wizard was even rarer...
The more Sophia delved into this, the more incredible it seemed to her.
"Sophia, the truth is, Irving can control these alien beasts with his spiritual power. His profession is also a mage, but he's somewhat special." Vicky explained.
Just like how she was also a mage, but one that specialized in healing and support.
"Spiritual control?" Sophia echoed, struggling to find words. A thought nagged at the back of her mind that something didn't seem quite right, but she couldn't pinpoint what it was.
In general, regardless of their specific discipline, mages can typically only specialize in their respective set of skills.
For instance, as an ice mage, Sophia could only cast ice magic spells, and likewise, Vicky could only perform support and healing spells like the amplifying[Healing Art]or the debilitating[Mental Chaos], without any means for active offense.
Listening to their discussion, Irving simply smiled inwardly.
Whether it was Sophia or Vicky, they were both mistaken. Irving was a necromancer, and the reason he could cast Fireball was thanks to the skill embedded in the legendary equipment, the[Evil Source Wand].
Moreover, ever since he obtained the[Heart of Plague]gem from the Altar Serpent Woman, his class skill "Soul Plunder" had significantly improved.
All of this was attributable to his talent skill[Tenfold Drop Rate]. Even if other players had the same experiences, they wouldn't be able to acquire the same items.
The drop rate in the game did not only increase for equipment dropped after killing beasts. The altar was actually an instance, and the items triggered within varied greatly.
[Player's controlled alien beasts: Stone Golem Giants*13, Snow Shadow Headed Wolf*1, Snow Shadow Wolves*14...]
Irving glanced at the system interface again and nodded contentedly, "Alright, now's not the time for discussions. The alien beasts are about to breach the walls, prepare for battle!"
At his words, Sophia didn't dwell on it further. They were still in the midst of the second calamity. The pressing issue was to handle the trouble outside.
The temperature remained at minus thirty degrees. After awakening their professions, all three of them had enhanced physiques. However, without heaters nearby during the fight, their body temperatures were dropping rapidly.
"I'll take the main battlefield!" Irving declared. He instructed Vicky and Sophia to return to the arrow tower and turbine generator, respectively. Both locations were equipped with heaters and were of crucial importance.
From the arrow tower, Vicky could not only cast[Healing Art]on Irving but also control the arrow tower to retaliate. The turbine generator was the core!
The incessant collisions had pushed the thorny walls to their limits.
Another resounding collision echoed as the walls finally collapsed, sending a flurry of wood chips into the air.
An uncountable number of alien beasts were charging towards the shelter. Standing still, Irving could only feel wave after wave of pressure rolling towards him...