“Hey there Ed, you excited for your last day?” asked Tech.

“Are you getting teary eyed from your last brief?” asked Boar.

Tech was tall standing at 5’11 and had a dark complexion that seemed to either be mexican or philpeno. Boar was shorter at 5’6 but seemed to have almost the same amount of muscle as Captain which serves to match his code name.

Ed: Shut up Boar. I still don’t understand why you choose such a codename when you could’ve picked anything. Is it because you see a boar in the mirror every morning?

The mercenaries in Dire Wolves were very casual and members did not have to provide their full names. Each member only had a codename and unless he/she wanted to let others know of their full name, they would use their code names indefienitly.

Boar: Very funny Ed, don’t you dare forget about us after you leave

Tech: C'mon guys, let's get ready for the mission. We can finish this at the party later tonight

The Dire Wolves were able to arrive quickly in the guild vehicle and set up a small camp by the entrance of the forest to prepare for battle.

Looking through binoculars, Captain did a deep exhale. “Sorry boys, it seems like we have some bad news. One of the mannies evolved into the second C-Class in the pack. But this also means we get a higher paycheck tonight!

Group: YEAH!!!

Captain: “Quiet down you assholes. I’ll handle the bear as planned. Ed and Boar will handle the new C-Class snake. I know you two can handle your own C-Class Manifestation, but lets keep this safe. You two can help the rest after you finish it off. Tech will support Ed and Boar and coordinate the other 4 to keep the other mannies off us while we take the bosses down. Now let's engage!

After setting up the formation, Captain charged into the pack and singled out the 9 feet tall bear. He brought out his giant spiked club which was nearly taller then he was at a length of 2 yards and focused on the Bear. He smashed into the bear like a raging river and sent the bear a sizable distance away from its pack. Before the pack could reinforce their boss, the rest of the Dire Wolves jumped into action as well. Boar and Ed rushed the snake and the other members surrounded them to allow them to have an uninterrupted fight.

Boar brought out his dual scimitars which resembled the tucks of a boar, which made his code name even more apt. Ed wasn’t any slower and pulled his own weapon out. He had a hand cannon which is basically an oversized pistol. This can be seen by the large bolts it shoots that can be modified to explode among other tricks he has perfected.

Ed’s artifact enables him to create the bolts out of his own aura which is quite costly in comparison to close combatants who only need to reinforce their weapons. The tradeoffs are pretty straightforward though, Ed doesn’t need to reinforce his weapon or body since he is so far away from the fight. Not that aura is an issue for him since he is already at C2.

Even with two C-Class hunters it might take more than 5 minutes to handle the snake. Manifestations tend to be stronger than the equivalent rank in hunters. They had higher physical stats but that didn’t necessarily make them more dangerous, just harder to kill. After all, they were mindless creatures. It was the humanoid versions that posed more danger.

Boar was on the frontlines distracting the snake while Ed shot at the snake. Every bolt was 9 inches long and each shot embedded the bolts 4-6 inches inside the snake which caused the snake immense pain. Whenever the snake turned around to target Ed, Boar would get a chance to attack the snake’s blindspot which got its attention back. This was an intense balancing act they were maintaining. The snake can easily leave both Boar and Ed a severe injury with a swipe of its tail. Boar was in more danger since he had to tank the snake’s tackles, swipes, and even bites. As a result, Boar mainly focused his aura for defense.

Aura is an acquired ability from training and a good bit of talent which can be awakened during a person’s adolescence. Every year past childhood would make aura harder to awaken and more difficult to manipulate or grow. Aura is thought to be a cumulation of mind, body, and soul. Body would simply be the fitness of the person, mind would be the person’s ability to focus for long durations like solving a puzzle, and the soul is a bit more abstract but can be seen as willpower. A way to vaguely judge someone’s willpower would be to see how long one can withstand pain. However, this is just the current theory for aura as it has only appeared with the emergence twenty years ago.

Every time the snake was about to land a consecutive hit on Boar before he could reestablish his aura for defense, Ed would fire some quick attacks even if they did less damage then his full spike shots. One could say Ed had the harder role with the timing and accuracy required for his role.

After an intense four minutes of back and forth between offense and defense, Ed signaled Boar to leave. His preparations were complete. A split second later, Ed triggered his 10ish bolts that were embedded across the snake to explode which decimated the already seriously injured snake.

Boar immediately jumped back in and decapitated the snake. Mannies after reaching the C-Class might develop special abilities and it became common practice to deal a final blow to decrease the chances of any healing based ability reviving the creature.

The snake they fought had dangerous venom but was not strong enough to utilize the poison in long distance combat which allowed Ed to dominate the fight. In the end they finished the fight faster than they expected and turned around to get rid of the lower rank mannies.

The snake was by no means weak. A C-Class manny would require 500+ normal, well equipped people to take it down or about 100+ elite pre-emergence soldiers with a full set of modern weaponry. This would also cost a multitude of lives with more than half of the party being wiped out. It was the combination of Boar’s close combat and Ed’s long distance capability that made short work of it.

Shortly after, the rest of the pack was annihilated. Captain joined them a few minutes after Boar and Ed finished their part of the mission. Despite the extra C-Class Manifestation, they were able to finish the mission in record time which showed how cohesive they were. Even though Ed had the shortest history with the group, he was still with them for 2 years.

“Let's head out boys” Captain shouted. “It's time for Ed’s farewell party”.