'It's probably been more than a day since I have had some decent rest.' Nathaniel thought as he hid behind a thick tree observing the crevice ahead that lead into the den of the wolves, several corpses of gray wolves had been fed upon by the denizens of the forest. Courtesy of Nathaniel.
His ambushes had been effective and by attacking the wolves in pairs of two or one, he had quickly reduced their numerical advantage.
He ran whenever reinforcements arrived using poison to cover his trail. The whistling wind relaxed the tense atmosphere, he had not yet met the alpha of the pack. No matter how they howled or roared in the pain the alpha did not attack. The eerie silence of the wind tussling into the cavern was disturbing.
Something dangerous was about to happen, the thick scent of death was something he knew far too well. Nathaniel stood at the opening of the cave, shadows cast their presence onto the walls. It was wide enough to fit 4 adult men walking side by side.
'Illuminate.' The small orb released light into the crevice lighting up the path ahead.
Nathaniel's POV
The cave had a stench of iron, the air was slurpy with metallic flavor. Taking a step forward I entered deep into the cave, on high alert frequently turning my head for any sneak attacks. The light only shone about 2 meters ahead.
I paused in my steps as I saw a gray wolf hide about a meter before me, it lay close to the walls of the crevice.
The hide was smeared in red blood, only the hind limbs and the abdomen were intact. Upon coming closer, the bottom of the wall had claw marks, sheathing the blade, I traced my hand on them. Fine dust still lingered so, they are fresh I thought. Something is the cave.
Taking a look at the hide, it had a hideous wound that tore through, probably exposing the intestines. I have seen the injury before, on that juvenile wolf.
I took up the blade following the whispering sounds. Sounds of flesh being ripped apart came from further in the cave. My grip on the sword felt loose, my hands slippery. My legs so slow I barely felt moving.
The light finally illuminated the ravenous creature, from behind I could see the posterior end its tail swaying, back fully raised however its head was buried in the guts of the creature it was feasting upon.
I stood still blood splattering onto the walls. The creature had dark gray fur, flashes of mana continuously flickered.
I took up a stance, its ears perked up further at my movements. It turned its head at me, however I did not see myself reflected in gray eyes rather red eyes reflected my face.
" GRrr-Roar!" It sprung attacking me, its jaws, I could feel the brush of its breath against the nape of my neck. 'Its fast!' Its crushing weight falling onto me from above, I twisted my upper body, ducking forward aiming at its unearthed paws.
"Clank!" The rebound force swung me back as I avoided the swinging tail, I drew the sword closer to my body as it semi-circled back and forth glaring at me. I took notice of the prey whose guts had been devoured, it was another gray wolf, smaller than the juvenile.
It was probably a baby wolf, gears turned in my head. Something was amiss, I loosed the grip of the sword, I charged forward. It arched its back backward, " ROOOAR!" A sonic roar hit me at point blank. " BOOOM." I found myself buried in the back wall of the cave. " Cou-cough!" I spat out blood.
I rapidly untucked myself from the wall, dodging the claws slashing at me. Without pause I hacked at the tail, the sword dug into the gray fur, its unkempt fur clashed with the sword. 'Shit! Its was stronger than regular gray wolf fur' My thoughts were a mess.
"Mana flow!" Tiny bits of mana rapidly flowed through the blade, the sword covered in ice severed the tail. It attacked with the back leg, I jumped back though its claws scraped my armor.
The alpha wolf turned its head, it madness had gone deeper, as it ran at me. I flicked the sword, spraying blood onto the rocky ground. My back ached and flexibility was gonna be rough.
A pity that I could not form an aura blade, the average person could only choose between becoming a mage or warrior. Mana circuits once formed were permanent, only those who knew how to merge a warrior's and a magician's mana circuits would have the option of becoming a magic archer, magic swordsman or a magic spearman etc.
" Haah, huu." calming my strained lungs I focused on the alpha wolf. The man and beast stared at one another each unyielding. Like crescent waves colliding with a cliff, each eating at the other's strength.
A few minutes later.
I stood on the corpse of the alpha gray wolf. Its decapitated head over in the distance. It was a difficult but clean kill. I had wanted to amidst the battle throw some poisons or take a healing potion or two. I stared down at my remaining arm as I though of how far I had come and yet further to reach.
" That wolf was probably possessed or something how can a no rank monster be that strong." My armor was to be scraped, I needed a new one.
....
Nathaniel stood in the churning darkness with a small orb illuminating nothing but himself. He turned to the walls he had crashed onto, it blocked the way forward. The sprouts of his hypothesis ended here.
He had won, grown stronger but he was not glad. Rose though he knew was using him presented an opportunity to reduce 2 decades or more's worth of hardship to a decade or less.
I stood a step forward as I put my hand on the wall, it had fractures spread out on its grey surface. Bang! I punched the wall. I punched the wall till the bones of my fist marred the wall without flesh.
I crunched down my back to the wall as I stared into the darkness. I had tried. I closed my eyes to the wind that ruffled my hair. " No point moping about it, lets go."
I tugged forward yet I could not move, something was holding me firmly to the wall. "Aargh!" I stood up from the ground forcefully, now facing wall. I traced my hand once more to the section that had held me firmly in lace.
" Wooosh." Wind was being sucked into the wall and whatever lay behind it. At that moment mad laughter escaped the crevice that was the gray wolves' den.