Useless. Absolutely useless. Zane repeatedly rebuked the elven in his mind. Zane’s group were resting for less than a minute before they received the system message. He struggled to believe that the elven actually failed to protect their inn. Even if they were going to fail, Zane expected them to last more than half an hour.

“Useless,” Lana mentally stated the thoughts that were going through Zane and the others mind.

“No way,” Jason said. “I can’t believe the elven lost so quickly. Shouldn’t we have received a message or something.”

“The elves are useless,” Britney said. “If we weren’t here, I’m sure this inn would have been destroyed as well.”

“I didn’t receive any additional calls for help,” Sophie said. “If the elven were close to being destroyed nobody shared that information with me.”

“So, what do we do now?” Whitney asked. “Should we go help them?”

“The inn they were protecting was destroyed, so I don’t think they need help anymore. I think we should wait here until we have more information.”

Before everyone received the system message, they were sitting near the corpse of the wind dire snake inside the protection of Sophie’s barrier. They were watching the mana creatures charge toward the wall protecting the inn while they took a few minutes to rest. As they were talking about the uselessness of the elven and deciding what they would do next, Zane started paying more attention to the mana creatures.

The first thing Zane noticed was the increase in the mana creatures’ speed. As they charged past the barrier Zane could see that the mana creatures were moving much faster than before. Also, he noticed the amount of mana creatures charging toward the wall increased. Zane guessed that the elven were struggling to deal with the increase in attack and defense.

Looking toward the wall, Zane saw mana creatures trying to jump and climb on top of the wall. Zane found this alarming because the mana creatures would usually attack the wall, and none attempted to climb it. However, what Zane found even more alarming, was that the mana creatures were making decent headway.

Repeatedly, the mana creatures would charge up the wall and fall down. Each time the mana creatures were able to get further up the wall by using the path that the mana creatures before them created. Every mana creature would add a few more scratches into the wall and create craters that other mana creatures could use to jump further.

“Take a look at the wall,” Zane told the group.

“Woah,” Brad said. “When did they start doing that.”

“It’s the ten percent increase. It does a lot more than boost attack and defense.”

“Looks like our break is over,”

Everyone quickly got ready and started moving toward the wall after Sophie dispersed her barrier. The moment they left the barrier the group was assaulted by multiple mana creatures. They expected the assault, but they weren’t prepared for how difficult it would be.

In front of Zane, stood four dire bears. There levels were in the sixties they had grey fur and were taller than Zane. Looking at the bears in front of him, Zane started to feel a little alarmed.

The feeling of alarm appeared when Zane looked at their eyes. The dark eyes of the bears emitted less blood thirst than Zane expected and showed more intelligence. Also, Zane was surprised that four mana creatures didn’t immediately attack him. Instead, they were cautiously sizing him up as they gathered their strength.

Zane decided to take the initiative instead of waiting for the bears to attack. He attacked the bear furthest to the right in front of him first. Weapon Steps. Sever. Zane instantly crossed the distance between the bear and himself before bringing his axe down on its head.

Leaning to its left, the bear avoided having its head cut off and lost a leg instead. Zane’s momentum caused him to take another step forward and the bear to the left attacked him as he was regaining his balance. Raising his shield Zane, used Weapon Durability to defend against the bear’s paw.

The strength behind the blow didn’t injure Zane, but it forced him to take a few steps back and left him open to attack from the first bear Zane injured. Zane grunted as the bear head butted his back and sent him stumbling forward. As he stumbled forward Zane saw another bear charging forward to attack him. Zane didn’t want to be tossed around by the bears, so he quickly regained his balance and used Charge.

Zane’s charge skill was still at tier zero, so its damage was lacking. However, the skill allowed Zane to apply his strength and speed in a way that would force the bear charging at him back. When Zane and the bear ran into each other, the bear was forced to the ground as Zane ran past it.

Once he stopped, Zane turned around, activated Sever and brought his axe down on the bear’s neck. Unfortunately, another bear quickly arrived at Zane’s side, and he was forced to change the target of his attack. Zane twisted his axe so it would take off the head of the bear trying to attack him, but the bear took a step back at the last minute. The bear ended up with a wound on its arm and the bear that Zane knocked down was given the time it needed to stand back up.

Looking at the four mana creatures, Zane couldn’t stop himself from frowning. It was hard to accept the increase in difficulty that came from the ten percent boost. Zane set his mind to protect the other inns from being destroyed. He didn’t want to see how much more the mana creatures could improve once they received a second boost.

After some time passed, Zane used more energy than he expected to use, but he was able to successfully kill the four bears. The moment he killed the last bear Zane heard a powerful bird cry from the distance. The mana creatures that were planning to attack Zane and the others entered an excited state. They completely ignored Zane and the others before they started charging toward the wall.

By now the elven killed a large amount of the flying mana creatures and Zane could see the sky again. Looking up, Zane could see a large yellow eagle, emitting lightning as it flew toward the inn followed by several other flying mana creatures. It was another tier two mana creature. The good news was that the tier two mana creature was injured. The bad news was that the mana creature was still capable of unleashing tier two attacks.

“Fuck me!” Britney exclaimed.

“There’s no time to waste,” Sophie said to the group. “We need to get to the wall as fast as possible so we can help the elven.”

Everyone agreed and immediately began charging toward the wall. They didn’t worry about killing any of the mana creatures. Similar to the first attack, Jason and the others used magic to clear a path while the rest focused on beating any mana creatures that tried to attack from behind and the sides.

It took some time and a lot of effort, but the group managed to make it to the wall at the same time as the eagle. Zane, Lana, Jason, Whitney and Frank focused on attacking the tier two eagle in the sky, while the rest of the group kept the tier one mana creatures on the ground away from them. Zane used Analyze on the eagle as he switched for his bow and arrows.

Lightning Dire Eagle Lvl 70

Zane was happy when he heard an elven shout about killing the eagle. Flying mana creatures were harder to deal with than those on the ground. With the help of the elven Zane and the others could eliminate the threat as quickly as possible. Zane even saw Sophie cast a few buffs on some of the elven before she turned her attention back to the mana creatures on the ground.

Spells and arrows shot into the sky. Most of them hit the normal tier one flying mana creatures with only a few hitting the eagle. The eagles speed and lightning allowed it to dodge or block most of the attacks that came its way. Another portion of the attacks were received by the tier one flying mana creatures trying to protect the lightning dire eagle. The few attacks that hit the eagle left injuries. However, the eagle gave as good as it got.

Lightning rained down on the elven’s green barrier. Occasionally some lightning would make it through and strike the elven inside. Zane attacked from the ground happy that the eagle and the other flying mana creatures didn’t turn their attention toward them.

Within a few minutes, the eagle was covered in blood and its ability to fly had decreased significantly. Zane was happy to see the eagle wasn’t capable of healing as fast as the snake they fought. Right when Zane thought the eagle was about to fall out of the sky, he saw its body surge with lightning. A sphere of lightning covered its body as it sped toward the barrier and shattered it.

Zane was stunned as he watched the eagle fly behind the walls. When the barrier shattered, he saw that many elven on the wall were affected. Some of them collapsed on the wall while others fell to the ground on both sides of the wall. When Zane saw the tier one flying mana creatures fly toward the inn, he snapped out of his stunned state and immediately spoke to the rest of the group.

“We’ve got to get in there,” Zane said.

“No, we should leave,” Old Saber said. “We can’t stop all the mana creatures before the inn is destroyed. We should focus on moving away from the mana creatures while they are still focused on the inn.”

“I don’t think we should abandon the elven,” Brad said. “A lot of them will die if we do nothing.”

“Not our problem.”

What Old Saber said made sense to the rest of the group. However, many of them still hesitated. They didn’t want to watch another inn get destroyed, especially an inn that they were supposed to help protect. Also, while they didn’t like the elven, they didn’t think it was right to abandon them.

“Old Saber is right,” Sophie said. “We need to look after ourselves first. I don’t want any of us to die because we failed or succeeded at protecting the inn. Although things will become more difficult when the inn is destroyed, I’m sure the people protecting the other inns will be able to manage.”

After hesitating for a little longer everyone agreed to leave. However, before they could begin charging back the way they came a system message resounded through everyone’s mind.

The second inn has been destroyed. The rewards for the upheaval defense quest will be reduced. Do your best to protect the remaining inns.

All mana creatures will receive a twenty five percent boost in all areas for the duration of the upheaval.