The scorching heat of the afternoon sun bathed the darkwood forest where the crew could still be seen battling against the pack of horned wolves.
About an hour had passed, and the battle's chaos only intensified.
Corpses of both soldiers and wild beasts carpeted the chaotic battlefield. Cries of anguish and bestial cries of anger and frustration mixed with the constant clangor of sword against claws blasted across the place continuously.
The crew were still cornered, the horse and carriage remained in the middle of the chaotic gathering. The horse neighed continuously from fright. The carriage stood gallantly, surrounded by soldiers desperately fending off horned wolves.
The population of the crew had reduced drastically after the death of a couple of soldiers. The remaining few struggled with all their might, with a single aim to come out of the battle alive.
Only the captain and the hero stood out, charging forward without a hint of fear.
"There are just a few of them left, we can survive this."
Theobald announced to the crew while he stabbed the right eye of a horned wolf. The horned wolf let out a sharp cry of anguish and lashed out furiously, only to be met with the captain's cold blade stabbing into its other eye, provoking it to cry even louder with more anger and desperation in its sharp voice.
Its attack became erratic, it began swinging its claw desperately with so much power behind it while moving around, facing different directions with each swing as though it was chasing a fly.
The speed and strength of its quick attacks were naturally impossible to survive, but the captain was an expert in dealing with crazed wild beasts.
He even appeared to be playing with the blind horned wolf as he created enough distance to stand aside and watch it attack empty air for a few seconds. A proud and confident smile adorned the face of the captain who was clearly satisfied with the state of the horned wolf.
Not so far away from the crazed horned wolf and the captain, Alister could be seen fighting off a couple of horned wolves beside the royal carriage.
There were a total of four angry horned wolves who had targeted the royal carriage, slaying the few soldiers guarding it and attempting to scatter the structure and devour the humans dwelling in it.
Fortunately, before they could reach King Julian and Osborne, Alister was alerted by the appearance of an urgent quest requesting him to defend the carriage and slay the adversaries.
Not wasting even a minute, he blasted toward the carriage and drew the attention of the horned wolves by slaying one of them with a clean cut to its neck.
Their attacks were fueled by sheer revenge and bitter anger after witnessing their comrade die at the hero's hands.
Luckily, Alister had leveled up and reached level 4 a few minutes ago, hence his overall attack power obtained an impressive boost that aided his clash with the three horned wolves.
CLANG!
Alister met a wolf's razor-sharp claws with a swift parry.
Another wolf lunged in from his left side, fangs bared in a desperate attempt to directly bite off the hero's neck.
Reacting in time, Alister vaulted backward, causing the two charging beasts to collide, biting and scratching each other in the process.
Unfortunately, he wasn't given enough rest time as the third wolf hurled itself at him with terrifying speed and strength.
"Shit!"
Alister had barely enough time to react as the massive beast bore down on him.
He could only grit his teeth and brace his stance, preparing to use the little amount of time he had to inflict as much injury as he could on the horned beast.
KICK!!
Fortunately, Captain Theobald arrived on time, having just slain his crazed opponent. He darted forward with impressive speed and kicked the wild beast's massive body, disrupting its former trajectory and sending it crashing into the crowd with a loud thud.
GROWL!
The horned wolf cried out.
Alister breathed a sigh of relief, witnessing the rescue.
"Thank you. I've got this from here."
He gripped his sword and moved in the direction of the fallen wild beast before it could roll back up.
He located the neck of the huge wolf and sent a lethal slash at it.
[ You've slain X1 horned wolf, EXP +46 ]
GROWL! GROWL!!
The other two horned wolves who clashed against each other because of the hero charged at him furiously.
Alister's eyes shone with killing intent as he dragged his sword out of the dead horned wolf and sprinted fiercely towards his opponents.
The captain stood and watched with an impressed smile as the hero fearlessly clashed with two huge horned wolves.
About thirty seconds after the clash, the two horned wolves fell to the ground, dead.
The hero stood in the middle of the corpses and scanned the battlefield, noticing the remaining soldiers battling against the last horned wolf.
The last horned wolf, having realized that it was alone, fought with all the strength it could muster in a desperate bid to flee the battlefield.
It growled and howled with frustration as the soldiers refused to let it go, stabbing and slashing, inflicting even more severe pain.
Alister turned to the captain, both their eyes displayed a sharp glint of competition.
The next second, both powerhouses raced towards the last opponent.
Alister was two times faster than the captain, whose speed was also incredible compared to the other soldiers.
Alister arrived first and slew the wild beast a few seconds before the captain arrived.
The body fell on the ground, dead. Marking the victory of the crew once again.
Collective sighs of relief could be heard as the soldiers sat on the ground to catch their breath.
[ Urgent Quest Completed, +200 EXP ]
Alister sighed with disappointment, as he had been expecting to reach level 5 with the experience points reward.
King Julian and Osborne stepped out of the carriage and proceeded towards the soldiers. The king had a pained expression on his face, clearly shaken by the death of his people.
He stared at the corpses of his soldiers amid the horned wolves' corpses, deep sadness etched on his face.
He shook his head and muttered a low prayer before proceeding to meet Alister. He thanked him as usual for helping them.
Alister nodded his head even though he felt no shred of accomplishment. Seeing the soldiers gathering the corpses of their colleagues made him even more disappointed in himself.
Theobald, King Julian, and the other soldiers left the hero's side to lay their dead colleagues to rest.
This time, they didn't gather wood to cremate the corpses. Instead, they took the bodies into the forest.
Alister followed after the crew. He kept a small distance between them as he only planned to watch.
The crew went further into the woods, they found a perfect spot, placed the bodies down and began digging holes with shovels Osborne distributed from his storage artifact.
Alister just recently learned from Osborne that soldiers are buried differently depending on the time of their death — those who died by day were inhumated, while those who died at night were cremated.
Inhumation took less time to complete, in less than two hours the funeral was concluded and the crew continued on their journey. A solemn hush fell over them as they continued on their way.
* * *
A few hours later, they reached the exit of the darkwood forest and were greeted with the grim scenery of the feared Bridge of the South.
....
Deathsketcher corner —Welcome To a new week everyone. We would be holding a weekly power stone mission for bonus chapters release as it is the second week of the novel.
50 Powerstones — 2 Bonus Chapters
100 Powerstones — 5 Bonus Chapters
PROGRESS — 17/50
Bonus chapters would be released immediately.