Chapter 2022: Alterrans, Keep Training! (Part 2)

This area was guarded by Luis’ team, but since there were many ’good things’, he went to call on a few friends nearby who had been hungry for a good battle.

There was Mao, whose team was stationed on the other side (and just assigned his deputy to continue guarding), and then there was Loki, who had just arrived from a data-gathering mission in Ferrol.

He found this set-up to be good training for him. Flying monsters were quite rare, after all, especially at town-level, but they existed. If they didn’t prepare for them, then they could get in trouble.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Loki’s control of the wind had been exemplary among the wind users of Alterra, but now he had to calculate the enemy’s speed, their effect on the wind, and so on as well.

The craws were also in their level 20s, and fighting them would usually take a few people of the same level. However, elementalists like Loki had their pride, and he knew what was a good ’exercise’ when he saw one.

Craw! Craw!

Loki’s eyes narrowed as he saw one of the birds gesture to dive down again. This happened very quickly, but Loki’s observation skills and sight were very good. He found the pattern quickly.

WHOOSH! 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Whoosh!

A small tornado suddenly hit the diving bird, messing with its flight, causing imbalance. The sentry then managed to hit its body, reducing its defenses.

Loki did not delay and redirected the same small tornado to ruin its flight again. He used the same wind energy to continuously slap it down, causing it to struggle flying up again. The period of wobbling flight was enough for the nearest sentry to finish its cooldown and attack again.

Loki then created wind blades, finishing it off and gaining the long-awaited experience points.

Meanwhile, Luis was standing a hundred meters away on the battlement, also throwing his fireballs upwards. Shooting up required a bit more energy, but Luis took it as a good exercise.

The main challenge was that the Craws’ speed was neither low nor weak. Loki could handle it because he could control the surrounding winds, which was akin to taking away the ground under land dwellers, but other elements were not like that.

If one were to ask which among the original soldiers were struggling with this kind of monster, then it was undoubtedly Mao. He was an earth user after all, and his home ground was, well, the ground. Even sending projectiles above three meters was taxing to him.

There was a time when he used his entire body to push up a sharp earth spike from below, but it only flew up two meters, a few meters short from his target.

"HAAHHAHAHAHAH!!"

Luis, who had successfully hit a monster with a sharp, fiery projectile and caused it to lose one of its wings and fall down, laughed at Mao’s pitiful efforts.

Mao got distracted and glared at Luis, not seeing that another crow saw him and dived down.

Loki shook his head and intervened, throwing a wall of wind to redirect it. Even the slightest redirection could cause it to land meters away. The Craw’s beak embedded into the soil, and Mao reflexively created several earth spikes then, finally killing it.

Mao and Luis then began a round of competition, challenging each other about who would get more kills.

Loki just learned to ignore them. These two were supervisors of their own departments. When would they mature?

...

At this time, Ryan and Gwen were fighting together some kilometers away from the walls. They were fighting against a mob of Reapers, mostly level 15, which was just around the nice level for Gwen to be able to kill multiple of them efficiently and on her own.

Of course, Ryan was there to hold back the rest, allowing her to focus on her battles.

Ryan watched as she skillfully waved her spear, using it to lift herself, increase momentum, and watched as she stabbed them accurately through their mouths.

The woman was very fierce, as she had been in the past month or so. Her eyes were always reddish, and while she was outwardly calm and normal in Alterra, when it came to beasts (as well as troublesome guests), she practically exploded, becoming belligerent.

One time, there was an aborigine guest verbally harassing a few girls. She was the one making rounds at the time and she pummeled him.

If the man wasn’t already in his level 20s, he might’ve been seriously injured. He was sent to prison as soon as he tried to punch back, of course, which was according to the rules, but he certainly went and complained ’to the manager’ about the abuse of power.

After all, he was just ’talking’ with a few girls. Such a show of force was not proportional to the transgression (though the man vehemently argued that there was no transgression at all).

The fortunate part was that the man had been harassing women several times. He was just doing it to different women, so the Anti-harassment rule (which recorded person to person interaction) was bypassed.

Hey, if people wanted to do bad, they would really find a way.

They also added another rule because of this, and it was also why Gwen was reprimanded but not really punished.

Not that Gwen actually learned her lesson. Whenever an asshole entered her line of sight, it was pretty much guaranteed she’d fight them.

She had been like that since the accident.

Which mother would not be bitter when losing the child they had been waiting for?

Some pragmatic people would even say it wasn’t like she became infertile. Why not try again?

But was it that easy? Certainly not for Gwen, who had already chosen names, bought clothes, and decorated a room for her child.

Further, even if Gwen adopted this style of thinking, it still wasn’t easy. The new fertility pill worked well and had minimal side effects, but it still needed the body to regenerate. Even if Gwen took it for a year or two, she might not necessarily get pregnant.

At that point, it was just a massive cost without gains, only emotional distress.

And now, taken outside the walls to vent, she acted like she wanted to smash and torture all her enemies. The monsters she was fighting were killed brutally, too.

It was all very bloody.

It was like she was trying to vent all the hatred, but it wasn’t getting any better.

Everyone knew that this was not healthy for her heart, mind, and body. It was great that she was getting stronger, but not at the expense of her health.

But what could they do for a grieving mother?