[A few days later]
*clank!*
The sound of an iron shield clashing against the steel like claws of a monster reverberated throughout the forest and the man Tank was pushed back by the sheer force of the attack.
"Dammit!"
He exclaimed as he stood his ground and charged against the monster once again, his shield meeting the creature's claws; however, this time the attack from the monster forced an opening and had him staggering back.
With an opportunity having presented itself, the dire wolf launched itself at his torso, its mouth wide open, and its teeth were sharp daggers that threatened to pierce through his armor with ease.
"Water arts: flowing wave slash"
Just as the beast was about to bite down on its prey, its head was sliced clean off with the precision of an expert swordsman.
"Thanks"
The tank expressed his gratitude towards his colleague, the swordsman simply gave a nod as the both of them backed away, doing their best to retreat from the pack of dire wolves that had surrounded them.
"Exploding flame arrow!"
A fire spell was cast by their mage colleague, and it flew over their head and struck the creatures that had seemingly reversed the tables on them.
The arrow exploded as soon as it touched a solid object and engulfed a significant number of the dire wolves in flames, scorching them and reducing their bodies to flames.
"Come on you guys, move it!! We need to get out of this forest!"
The mage commanded her tone, sounding frustrated and concerned; she threw another fire spell at the creatures, causing them to cautiously halt their pursuit.
"Fucking Damnit, why are there so many, and why wasn't the guild warned of such a large pack of dire wolves?"
The tank asked his friends, the quest had been to just get a few dire wolf bodies as such the party set out to hunt at least 6 dire wolves which is usually the number of dire wolves in a pack, unfortunately, the number they found was well beyond 6, and the pack consisted of over twenty dire wolves.
From behind the trees, a dire wolf sprung into action, bolting towards the tank at speeds surpassing a horse, and it launched itself at the Tank, claws extended, ready to be pierced through the armor. However, The man was ready.
He brought his large shield forward, stood his ground, and let the beast crash against his shield before slamming the shield against its snout and throwing it back.
However unexpectedly, another Wolf sprung into action, using the other wolf as a stepping stool, it jumped over the tank and the Swordsman, bypassing their defensive line and aiming to rip the mage behind them to shreds
"hmph! stupid beast"
She scoffed at the creature's obvious plan and quickly cast another fire spell; unfortunately, before she could fire it, another wolf suddenly appeared from the trees behind her, creating a sudden pincer attack on the mage.
"Shit, they surrounded us!"
Luckily for the mage, her Swordsman friend was quick on his feet. He sprung into action and quickly turned towards the wolf that had jumped over him and threw his sword at its stomach piercing straight through.
He quickly ran towards her to assist her; however, he wasn't able to arrive as the wolf was already on her neck, its jaw wide open, ready to chomp down on her jugular.
This wasn't the only issue; since the swordsman turned his back, three wolves from different sides took the opportunity to attack the Tank simultaneously, and unfortunately, the tank was unable to defend itself from three sides.
Luckily for the Trio of adventurers, someone who could assist them was nearby; with a burst of impeccable speed, the man moved through the trees with quickness; he arrived before the mage and split the wolf that was behind her into multiple pieces of meat.
He then sped past the swordsman grabbing his sword as he did so before arriving next to the tank and dissecting the dire wolves into meat chunks and blood spatter.
He then turned towards the wolves still hidden behind the tree, flexed a small bit of his aura, and scared the creature, causing them to retreat.
All that happened in under 3 seconds and seconds, and he still wasn't moving at his fastest.
The trio of adventurers found themselves shocked at such a display of speed and strength. They stared at the man in appreciative shock.
"This is where you guys, thank and glaze/praise me for saving your lives"
Eon expressed with a cocky self-assured smile on his face. He threw the sword at the swordsman, who caught it, sheathed it, and bowed.
"Thank you for the assist, we would have died without your assistance"
His fellow adventurers gave a bow, too, and offered their thanks.
"Yeah you would have been wolf food without me"
Eon voiced, the confident smirk never leaving his face.
"Careful Io, arrogance is the fall of great men"
Reniris warned as she descended down from the skies and landed right beside him. Eon rolled her eyes at her statement.
"Io?"
Eon questioned in amused curiosity.
"What I can't give you a nickname?"
Eon hummed contemplating the nickname she just gave him before nodding to her question.
"I'll allow it"
"That's from Dragon Rider, right?"
Someone suddenly interjected, grabbing their attention or rather returning their attention to the trio of adventurers before them.
"huh?"
"The line you just quoted is from the second book of Dragon Rider, Dragon Rider: Ascent of the King"
The mage reiterated and Reniris smiled brightly
"Of course, I just recently started reading the second book, because a friend of mine seemed to like it, it's actually very interesting"
"I know, I read the first five books in under a month. It's incredibly engaging and fun"
"Ehem! Sorry to interrupt, but does anyone have any idea why there were so many Dire wolves?"
The tank quickly interrupted the conversation between the two women, realizing it would be pointless and that there were far more pressing matters at hand.
"Yeah that was a bit odd, Dire wolves tend to limit their own numbers as it is unfeasible to get enough prey for a group that large"
The mage informed them. Her words were correct; under normal circumstances, a wolf pack is usually composed of family members, with the parents being the heads of the pack.
Dire wolves aren't particularly fertile as much as other wolf species and thus have low birth rates; because of this, a pack is usually composed of unrelated members; essentially, it's more like a friendship group that hunts together.
"I don't know, but this isn't the first time something like this happened, another party reported irregular numbers of goblins in the for–"
The tank was cut short as Eon grabbed a small arrow that was aimed towards Reniris's back.
This was followed up by the swordsman quickly deflecting another arrow that was aimed at the mage's back.
"What the hell! This many monsters aren't supposed to appear so frequently"
The tank exclaimed in surprise, of course, he was right to be surprised, this was quite the abnormal occurrence especially considering monsters are regularly kept in low numbers to prevent a monster stampede
Everyone quickly turned their heads and saw a group of goblins armed with makeshift weapons and bows.
"You guys go report this to the guild, I'll handle this"
"Wait tha–"
"Don't argue with him, just go, it will be fine"
Reniris quickly shut down any attempt to argue and the trio could only not at her words and quickly ran back to the city.
"Another round of goblin chase?"
"That's fine, but are you sure this is the time?"
"Yeah you're right, so let's settle it with whoever kills the most wins"
She suggested, and Eon nodded and sprung into action, giving her little time to prepare.
"Hey!"
"You snooze, you lose!"
He expressed as he moved his head to the side, dodging an arrow from a goblin before easily taking its head off and moving toward the next.
Unfortunately for Eon, his opponent was a mage; with a flick of a wrist, fire flashed past him and separated into multiple javelins that aimed at each visible goblin.
The javelins struck their target straight in the head and exploded and engulfed their entire bodies and scorched them, easily winning the game for Reniris.
"I win!"
She expressed triumphantly and with a confident smile on her face.
"Aw, Dammit!"
Eon exclaimed as he threw the goblin's head on his hand on the ground.
"I mean what did you expect, I told you before, mages are better"
"Oh please, I'm closer to A rank than you, if you were better you would be a higher rank than me"
"That's not a metric of measuring what we're talking about."
She denied and the both of them turned and decided to make their way back to the guild and report what just happened.
"Yes it is, rank up or shut up, I'm better"
He said light heartedly and Reniris could only groan at his words.