An arrow traveled through the air, missed one of the two wolves running at them, and lodged itself into the fresh soil.
"How did you miss it?!" The girl with the sword shouted, readying herself to fight as she, too, rushed to attack the wolf.
"I don't perform well under stress, shut up!" She replied angrily, firing another arrow, and hitting a wolf in the shoulder.
By then, the two wolves and the two melee warriors had already met. The girl with the sword, Mara, slashed sideways with poor technique and slow speed, allowing the wolf to dodge it without issue. As for the one with spiked gloves, she clashed with the wolf in a contest of strength. "Strong Arms!" She shouted internally, her arm muscles bulging with power, allowing her to overthrow the wolf and land a punch at its chest, puncturing it with two of her metal spikes.
"Take this!" The swordsman yelled, swinging her sword from side to side. The wolf, not being an idiot, dodged all the attacks and suddenly attacked the moment he saw an opening, biting the standard red and black uniform given by the elders. She yelled in pain as the teeth pierced both the cloth and her skin as the wolf gnawed at her, pulling her downwards using his own body weight. She tried counterattacking, but the wolf was munching on her right hand, the only one she knew how to use a sword with.
Desperate, she grabbed the sword with her other hand but the wolf simply spun around her as her flesh kept tearing. "Agh!" The pain was unbearable, and both her hands opened as if to ease the pain but it just put her in an even worse situation. Without a weapon, she was bound to be eaten by the wolf! A few meters to her right, a bloody wolf raised his head to look at Anna, the woman with the gloves, with fear. His lower jaw had been completely severed and was lying on the ground half a meter from Anna's feet. His body was full of holes caused by the spikes and only a few scratches were visible on his enemy's body. In one last desperate attempt, he tried attacking the archer in the back, but just as he was passing Anna, one of her powerful fists hit his head and one of the spikes impaled his eye and hit part of the brain, killing him on the spot.
After one wolf was down, she rushed to her friend, Mara, and punched that wolf as well, perforating one of his forelegs. It howled in pain and attacked back, but since his body was covered in arrows, it was slow. Eventually, he was punched straight in his head and killed by a metal spike.
"Huff, huff…" Anna took deep breaths, her enemies now dead. She squatted next to her friend, Mara, and tried to wake her up, "Mara! Mara! Wake up, it's me! Please, wake up!" But she received no answer, only silence. She immediately put a hand on the side of her neck, but there was no pulse. "Mara!"
She angrily looked at the Mutated Wolf not too far from them, and shouted, "Come here! I will kill you with my own hands!" The beast roared and charged at her with impressive speed, but she stood still as she renewed the strength boost to her arms and used a skill for increased defense. "Strong Arms! Copper Skin!" All of a sudden, her pink skin turned reddish brown like copper. "Shoot at that thing while I keep it still!" She said, stomping the ground hard and preparing to take on the monster, but just as he approached, he suddenly leaped into the air and landed multiple meters behind her. "What!?" The wolf maintained his speed as he quickly reached the archer, who fired an arrow and hit its right eye, blinding him out of pure luck, he jumped one more time as blood dyed his face. This time, the archer was unable to do anything as the wolf ripped away most of the flesh in her neck thanks to his strong jaw muscles and his large mouth. The youngest of the three, Diana, was left unable to breathe and her most important veins and arteries had been torn apart. She died in only a few moments.
Just as he chewed the bones, he heard Anna approaching from behind and immediately turned, roaring in anger. He pushed himself half in the air using his forelegs, standing almost as if he were on two feet and smacked down with destructive force. The woman, confident of her power, threw her two fists in the air, colliding with his paws, in order to stop him, but she had been too confident. In less than a second, she was pinned down to the ground with her arms broken, piercing out of her skin, and her shoulders dislocated.
"No! No! I'm too young to die! No, don't kill me! No.." She shouted, her voice suddenly disappearing as her vocal cords were brutally removed by the large teeth of the Mutated Wolf.
Seeing the bloodshed from afar, Zell and Lira consulted each other.
"It was a good idea not to go there immediately," Lira said.
"We were just lucky," Zel replied.
"Do you think we could have won if we were in their place?"
Zel reviewed the fight in his mind and replied, "Most likely, yes. That trio was unprepared, uncoordinated, and inexperienced. It was no surprise to see them get devoured to death."
"Indeed… There was also a chance some of them were still drunk from that party. No wonder they died so miserably, their lives were pitiful themselves."
"Say what you want about them, I don't care. Let's kill that Mutated Wolf before it gets any rest." He coldly said.
Lira shared the same thought and went along with him. Despite their hurry to attack as soon as possible, the two walked and didn't run. If they were to go any faster, they would risk alerting the enemy and thus lose their chances to land a sneak attack on the monster.
"Wind is favorable. You first." Zel told Lira, not through voice but hand gestures.
Lira easily understood and replied with a firm nod, activating her Feather Step and approaching what was most likely the Mutated Wolf's den. She calmly walked for the remaining thirty meters and eventually reached the entrance. She took a peek inside, and just as she thought, it was empty. Seeing that, she returned to Zel's field of view and signaled him to come forth.
Once the two reunited, she pointed a little to the East from behind a rock.
"Still there chewing on the bodies?" Zel noticed. "He must be very hungry… Very good."
"Do we attack now from behind, or do we wait?"
"Mh…" He pondered for a moment before answering, "Since he's that hungry, we can be sure he will eat a lot of meat. If we let him do that, he will inevitably become heavier and lose some speed and agility. The body takes time to absorb the nutrients, so as long as he doesn't take more than half an hour to finish his meal, his body will stay malnourished."
"If we are waiting, it's better to go somewhere else, otherwise he might sniff us out."
"No. We will stay here. If we distance ourselves and he returns here, he will be able to sense our odor and raise his guard. If we stay here, we can attack the moment he discovers our presence. This will give him less time to react and prepare for the fight."
"That's… True. I didn't think of that." She honestly admitted.
While waiting, the two did not stay still idly doing nothing, but instead explored the surrounding area to get somewhat familiar before the fight. It might seem like nothing, but even something as simple as tripping on a stone or stepping in a hole and losing your balance can alter the course of a battle. One wrong move and one's life could be taken.
Roughly twenty minutes into their long wait, there was a sudden shift in the wind's direction. All of a sudden, their scent was being brought towards the Mutated Wolf.
"The wind changed direction…" Lira sighed in acceptance.
"Quick, we must reach him before our smell does. If we don't, we'll lose our momentum."
Lira didn't debate and quickly got to run alongside Zel. They didn't bother being quiet, if they didn't run, the smell would reach first anyway, so they could at least build up some speed before the fight.
As the only monster alive was eating his dead prey and his deceased friends, he suddenly heard a thump behind him and two new odors entered his nose. The beast howled as it turned, fiercely looking at the white-haired human wielding a sword charging at him with killing intent. His bloody mouth drooled at seeing new prey, but his brain quickly found a problem. Two odors, one living being. Recalling the stomp from before, he looked up and saw Zel holding his Bone Dagger landing on his back. The large wolf tried shaking him off, but the parasite would just stab over and over again both to deal damage and also to hold on to something.
The beast took a drastic measure and decided to roll on the ground to crush the insect on his back, but Zel had anticipated a move like this and let go of his Bone Dagger while kicking himself away from the Mutated Wolf.
In the process of rolling, the dagger lodged on the right side of his body was pushed further inside, passing through the layer of fat, and muscles, and reaching a few organs.
"I've targeted his right side!" Zel informed, "Since he can't see from his right eye, I'll leave that area to you, I'll act as bait on the left!" He shouted. The blade of his weapon wasn't long enough to cause any significant damage. The only exception was if it hit the head, but the sheer size of the beast made it close to impossible to achieve such a thing. It was much more reasonable to weaken his turning ability and abuse his blind spot by fighting on two sides.
Zel moved to the left and was tracked by the Mutated Wolf, who moved accordingly and pounced at him. Zel skillfully dodged thanks to his Strong Legs and Enhanced Reflexes skills and landed on his feet without losing balance despite being in an unknown field. "It's been a while since the last time I had an actually interesting fight…" He whispered to the wind, his will to fight reaching its peak.
Perhaps, this Mutated Beast wasn't the only monster.