"Drink up, Matty," Lux said as he helped the Dwarf boy drink the potion in his hand. After the bottle was emptied, the Half-Elf took out a different bottle and sprinkled it on Matty's body to help him recover faster.
The Dwarf boy's face was still a little pale, but it was far better than its previous state.
"Thank you, Big Brother," Matty replied as soon as he recovered enough of his strength to talk. He was overcome with emotions of gratitude, he ended up voicing out the thought inside his head that he had been trying to hold back.
"Um? Big Brother?" Lux flashed a mischievous smile towards the Dwarf boy before patting his head. "Good! Don't worry, Little Bro, I got your back. Your Big Bro is going to teach these bullies not to pick on you guys."
Matty's face became beet red, instantly regretting calling Lux Big Brother. The Half-Elf's smug expression was so irritating, he was very tempted to dig a hole and bury himself inside it with the mentality of out of sight, out of mind.
However, before Matty could wallow in his embarrassment, Lux took out several Health Potions and Mana Potions from his storage ring and passed all of them to him.
"Take care of Colette and the others," Lux said as he glanced at the battle that was unfolding around them. "I'll deal with these guys first."
Matty nodded and hurried towards his friends' side. Right now, Diablo and Pazuzu were dealing with the Rank 3 Alpha Monster, while Ishtar and Orion, alongside the skeleton army, were dealing with its lackeys.
The robed Dwarfs were also about to join the battle when several Skeletons and Slimes attacked them from behind.
"Doppelganger," Lux declared and two clones appeared beside him.
Eiko had hidden herself in one of the trees, observing the battle from a safe distance. And just like Lux, she had also summoned her own Doppelgangers and tasked them to assist the battle.
Lux had given the baby Slime a role, which disallowed her from showing herself in the battlefield. The same rule applied to her clones, so they had no choice but to hide in the treetops and simply summon minions to fight in their stead.
With Lux's and Eiko's combined abilities, the number of Skeletons that were currently engaged in battle were over 300.
But that was not all. Aside from the Skeletons and Slimes, there were also seven Rock Golems on the battlefield, including Orion. If in the beginning, the Lycans and the robed Dwarves outnumbered Colette's party five to one, now, the summoned creatures outnumbered the other party fourteen to one.
The leader of the Dwarves and her subordinates couldn't believe what was happening around them. They initially thought that the Skeletons were just ordinary Skeletons, but against their expectations, the Undead they were fighting against were quite tough and worked well together as a team.
"It's still not enough," Lux muttered. "These bastards need to suffer more. Guys, come out and bite them silly!"
Lux summoned the Wargs that he had acquired during the Quest of Dominion. All of them were battle mounts, so they had the ability to fight, just like Diablo's mount, Airon.
These twenty Wargs were led by Jed, who had now mutated into a Thunder Warg King after he ingested the Mutated Blood of the Thunder Wolf King that Lux gave him.
Jed was now a Rank 4 Monster, while the other Wargs remained as Rank 2 Monsters.
Back then, Jed just looked like any other ordinary Warg that could be seen in the wild. Aside from the scar on his right eye, he had no other distinctive features.
But, now, it was different.
With the help of Randolph, Lux's Battle Mount was adorned with cool looking armor that made him look like a Blade Liger from the anime series Zoydz.
Jed roared and lightning bolts snaked around his body. He then electrocuted the five lesser Lycans with his lightning bolts until all of them were paralyzed.
Lux overheard the Dwarf leader's words about turning Colette and the others into Lycans. If his hunch was right, the lesser Lycans were also dwarves that had been mutated due to the effect of the serum. If possible, Lux wanted to find a way to revert them to their previous forms.
Although he wasn't sure if it was possible, he still wanted to do his best to help them regain the things that they had lost.
The robed Dwarves could still resist the Skeletons to a certain extent since most of them were Grade B and Grade A Apostles. However, after the lesser Lycans were dealt with, Ishtar, Orion, and Jed, as well as the Wargs under it, joined the Skeletons in attacking the villains who had targeted their Master's friends.
'Not good!' By now, the leader of the Dwarves had realized that staying to fight Lux and his minions was a futile endeavor.
Using her subordinates as shields, she hurriedly escaped the scene and ran through the forest, leaving everyone behind.
The other Dwarves, who saw this scene, ran after their leader. They had the same rank as her, so it was easy for them to break free from the Skeletons that were trying to pin them down.
Lux watched them go with a sneer. He had ordered his Skeletons to subtly open a path that would allow the Dwarf leader and some of her subordinates to escape.
'Eiko, it's all up to you.'
'Pa!'
Six dwarves, including their leader, had fled the scene and hurried towards their headquarters. They were unaware that above their heads, three baby slimes were flying over the trees in hot pursuit.
Ishtar, as well as Eiko, had used the Hunter's Mark skill to put a tracker on the Dwarves that had escaped.
Lux's plan was to allow them to return to their base, so that he could clear the quest that had appeared the moment he had engaged them in battle.
—--
< Lycan Mutation Project >
– Emergency Quest
– Difficulty Rating: B
– An unknown organization is conducting an experiment within the territory of Oakwood Town. Their goal is to create an army of mutated monsters in order to further their goals of overturning the peace in the Dwarven Kingdom of Gweliven.
< Quest Objective >
– Find their headquarters and look for documents about the experiments.
– Report this discovery to the Adventurer's Guild, so they can dispatch adventurers to weed out the remaining members of the unknown organization that are lurking within Oakwood Town.
< Optional Quest Objective >
– Find a cure for the mutated Lycans
—--
< Rewards >
– Quest Rewards will be calculated depending on how the quest is going to be cleared.
—---
With a frustrated howl, the Rank 3 Alpha Lycan collapsed on the ground after receiving Airon's powerful kick to its chest.
Lux could have killed it, but he was unsure if the Lycan was also a victim of the unknown organization's experiment. Since that was the case, he decided to spare its life and only make it so it was incapable of fighting back.
While Lux was in the middle of tying up the Dwarves that he had crippled, a loud shout reached his ear.
"Big Brother!"
The Half-Elf smiled as he opened his arms to hug back the crying Dwarf girl in his embrace.
"Colette, we still have things to do," Lux said as he lightly patted Colette's head. "The organization that tried to capture you is still at large. So I need to ask you to do something for me."
Colette pulled back and wiped the tears in her eyes before looking at Lux with a serious expression on her face.
Seeing that the little Dwarf girl had finally regained her composure, the Half-Elf told her to take Helen back to the Adventurer's Guild and report the current situation.
Lux thought that letting the Adventurer's Guild handle the bad guys that he had captured would be the optimal solution while he dealt with the leader of the organization that was on her way to their headquarters.
Matty, Andy, Axel, Ishtar, Pazuzu, and Orion were tasked to look after the Dwarves that they had captured and to wait for Colette's and Helen's return.
"Don't worry, Big Brother," Colette said as soon as she mounted her Warg. "I'll bring help as fast as I can!"
Lux nodded. "I'm counting on it."
Colette didn't waste any more time and urged her Warg to run as fast as it could.
Helen was right behind her, also hurrying towards Oakwood Town to ask for reinforcements.
When the two Dwarves and their mounts disappeared from his sight, Lux looked in the direction where the leader of the robed Dwarves had gone.
'Pa!'
'Good job, Eiko. I'm on my way.'
Now that the Dwarf leader had finally reached their base, it was now time for him to make his move. He was going to make sure that the leader and her remaining subordinates would not have an easy time after what they tried to do to his friends.
Originally, he wanted all of them dead. But after receiving the quest, he deemed that they were better off alive and left to pay for their sins in prison.
Lux didn't want to act too violently in front of the children, but since they were left to guard the captured Dwarves, he could now go all out and make them regret their decision of turning the innocents into pawns that they could use for their vile schemes.
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