Chapter 105: Plateau Hamle (1/2)
Putting aside the Canine Special Forces Brigade issue for now, they were in the end, just wolves, it’s just that they were smarter than your average wolf.
Seeing her first fireball miss, Ancarin continued chanting a second, unfazed by her failure. Even so, the fireball’s sudden appearance had the effect of scaring the wolves even if it missed, especially that wolf who almost got roasted. It immediately fled behind a nearby rock, its tail hiding just in time to avoid the second fireball.
The fireball exploded harmlessly on the rock, clearly not powerful enough to shatter the rock or harm the wolf hiding behind it.
Not one to take this failure lying down, she began chanting a third mini fireball. However, her mana had almost been expended by now and her spell was forcefully cancelled mid-chant. Thankfully, her mana pool was relatively small and the mini fireball was the lowest grade of spells. The backlash from the spell failure merely caused her chest to tighten slightly.
It’s worth mentioning at this point not to underestimate these wolves. While their individual strength wasn’t much, they were extremely coordinated and more than a match for anyone stronger than them thanks to their superior numbers. If I had to face these wolves alone, I might even suffer some losses.
By now, the wolf pack had noticed the lack of fireballs on the part of Ancarin and had begun to stir once more. Under the assumption that she was out of mana, the wolves left their hiding spots and started closing in on us, their aim, to cut off our escape routes.
It was at this moment that her lips cracked into a roguish grin. Her plan had worked! A clenched fist punched into the air, aimed directly at one of the wolves. Flames condensed around the ring in an instant, and shot off a fireball a split second later…that was the fire ring Duran had on!
The wolf barely had time to react to the sudden attack before scorching flames consumed it within a fiery explosion. Its fur instantly caught fire while the sheer impact of the explosion tore through the wolf’s hide and flesh, killing it as it stood there…
Not bad…its destructiveness was passable for a fireball, the damage wasn’t bad either. Basically a one-star warrior would get burned to death if he ate that head on. Against a life form that’s weak against fire, it could probably cripple it.
Without waiting for the flames to die she punched out with her right fist which still clasped her staff firmly and fired an ice spike.
The translucent cone soared towards its target, covering the same distance in a fraction of the time it took for the fireball to do so. In the blink of an eye, the ice spike pierced through a wolf with energy to spare, landing a few meters away freezing the patch of earth around it.
With that, Ancarin was well and truly out of mana.
Even so, the wolves seemed to have learnt their lesson as they gave a few silly howls before turning tail and running.
Wait…it’s over?
It wasn’t just me who was left speechless either, even Ancarin who had just popped the cork on a recovery potion was equally surprised.
In the past, I had pestered Roscar to bring me along on one of his hunting trips; during which we encountered a wolf pack as well. Back then, those wolves were ruthless to say the least. Even in the face of the vastly superior Roscar, they didn’t back down one bit and instead focused their attacks on me who was still a human kid back then.
Wolves hunted by first scouting out their prey, after which they would attack if and only if they were sure of their superiority in terms of numbers and strength.
And yet the wolf pack we encountered surprised me. They actually fled after merely losing two of their members. I still clearly remembered those wolves I met while hunting with Roscar. They fled after losing half of their numbers, only because they had determined there was nothing to be gained…..How should I say this, the wolves we met today are a bunch of wusses.
With the imminent threat gone, it was time to divvy up the loot. Due to the abundance of actual food in the Western Human Realms, I actually had the chance to eat proper food for once, thus I didn’t need to feed on souls.
The two wolf souls were handed over to the grimoire, who by now was hopping around in my pocket. Having gotten what it wanted, the book quietened down as expected.
As the last of the wolves left my sight, I turned around to face a masked Regine staring at me.
“There’s something suspicious going on here.” said Regine in a bland tone.
“I know.” I nodded in assent without elaborating, their behavior was strange, but I couldn’t say how or why. After all, their reaction was normal by any definition of the word. With the roles of hunter and prey switched, it would be stranger if they chose to stay after discovering we were stronger than them.
I hadn’t encountered any wolves on Earth before but if the other animals in this world were anything to go by, these wolves should be a lot smarter than their Earthborn counterparts. That’s why I could sort of accept the fact that they retreated so decisively…
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“It’s time to leave, the scent of blood is starting spread out, it might attract other beasts to our location. Besides, their retreat still seems a little fishy to me, continuing to stay here is too risky.”
The wilderness was a totally different beast in the night compared to the day, who knows what might show up after being attracted by the smell of burnt wolf meat and blood. Plus, there was no guarantee that those wolves won’t just circle back and ambush us, which made staying here an even worse idea.
“I’ll go pack up the tents.” said Ancarin, tacitly approving of my idea as she ran off to take down the half pitched tent.