Red decided to stay on the tree. He said he would sleep here, but there was no way he could sleep in such a condition and place. He stayed awake all night.
The wolf's howl filled the night. It was a similar howl that he heard from the wolf he met inside the house. Thanks to the howl, he didn't feel sleepy at all. He was on alert all night, keeping tabs around him even though he could not really see that far.
He spent the night under high tension and pressure. Even though the wolf didn't find him, or even get close to the tree where he was.
This was even worse than his first hunting experience. Even though the wolf never got closer to him even once, he felt like death was close to him.
Red was busy observing the surroundings, and he didn't realize that the sun started to rise. He only noticed when the gentle warmth of the morning sun reached his skin. He didn't even realize it was no longer dark.
The Dire Wolf truly gave him a fright for not noticing something obvious. He no longer heard the howl for quite some time, and it was no longer dark, yet he decided to stay in the tree longer.
After ensuring that he could no longer hear the howl, he climbed down. Even when he stepped on the ground, he made sure not to make any sounds, keeping his steps as quiet as possible.
He was running in a hurry last night and didn't keep track of how deep he was into the jungle. However, he knew where he came from; he just needed to track back to the dirt path.
Red slowly and carefully made his way back to the dirt path. That was the only way for him to go back to the tribe. As he tracked back to the dirt path, he wondered what happened to the four young goblins.
He was thinking whether he should kill them if they were alive, in case they tattled on him to the tribe. He recalled what he did yesterday, and he remembered that it didn't look like he was purposely using them as bait.
'I should be fine even if they somehow made it back to the tribe.'
Red realized that he was deep in the jungle. It seemed like he ran like crazy yesterday, that he was deeper than he expected. It took a while for him to reach the dirt path, and he was relieved that he didn't encounter the Dire Wolf. However, the weird thing was that he didn't find any other beasts either.
'Did the dire wolves drive the beast in this area away?'
Those Dire Wolves looked like the top predator. It made sense for other beasts to avoid them. The Dire Wolves had been howling all night. Maybe the beast in the area went hiding because of that.
He finally reached the path, finding the direction to go home. The plan was not to take the main path; he just needed to find a direction. After finding the right direction, he would go back through the jungle.
Even though there was the danger of the unknown beast, it was better than encountering the pack of dire wolves. He turned around, then he heard the growl, and then he met with a pair of red eyes, glaring at him.
A dire wolf was standing two trees away from him, standing on the giant root, observing him as if he were prey, its mouth gaped open, revealing rows of gray, pointy teeth. The saliva dripped to the side as it breathed in a flurry.
Red's heart skipped a beat at the sight of the dire wolf. When he thought it would howl and call its pack, it just stared at him. A thought occurred in his head, the pack was not around, or maybe this one was not in a pack.
He guessed this one was not in a pack because it looked so thin and smaller than the dire wolf he saw yesterday.
No one attacked as if they had a staring contest.
Red expected it to call for the pack by now if it was part of the pack. The fact that it didn't call the pack meant it was alone. He was eighty percent confident this one was a lone wolf.
'I have to lure it into the jungle first…'
He wanted to try to fight it, but he felt like this was not the right place to fight it. He was still afraid of the pack from the tribe.
"Red!"
As he was about to turn around and lure the wolf into the jungle, he heard a voice coming from the opposite direction of the tribe. He turned toward the voice and found a young goblin running toward him.
It was one of the young hunters whose name he didn't remember. As he turned toward the voice, the wolf also turned toward the voice. The oblivious young hunter was not aware that Red was confronting a dire wolf.
At that moment, Red had an idea. He ran toward the young hunter, and the wolf also moved, chasing after him.
The wolf had its eyes on Red, and when it reached the dirt road, it only saw a short goblin that was looking toward the tree. It was confused because this one was different from its prey.
However, the dire wolf didn't bother to look at the big one as it quickly rushed toward the confused small prey.
That was when the young hunter spotted the dire wolf and panicked. However, when he tried to run to follow Red, the wolf was already close to him. In fact, the wolf was already in the air, pouncing at him. Its dark claw popped out from its paw and was ready to catch him.
At that moment, a shadow rushed over from the side. Red rushed out from the jungle and pounced toward the dire wolf with the dagger in his right hand.
He slammed toward the wolf and stabbed the wolf's right eye, pinning it to the ground. He was holding his dagger tight while pinning it down, sending his knee four times toward the wolf's lower belly.
It growled in pain, but it didn't stop struggling. In fact, it was getting more desperate as it fought back harder. It managed to free its foreleg and swung it at Red.
Red reacted quickly, pulling his dagger out of its eye and jumping backward. Its claw grazed his arm, leaving a three-line mark as blood oozed out. The wound was shallow, but it managed to break free.
Red created a distance from the wolf, keeping a safe distance. It was quick, so he didn't want to get as close as when he hunted dire lupus or marget.
The thin dire wolf got back on its four, and blood flowed from its right eye. It lost an eye, and its ribs might be broken from the knee strike, yet it didn't plan to flee.
Red knew he had an advantage, but he didn't let it get into his head and took it carefully. That was when he noticed the wolf opened its mouth wider, and he sensed something from that.
It was not a hunch; he sensed something, felt familiar, but also foreign at the same time. It was weird, and he didn't have a clue what it was until he noticed a spark of fire lit up inside the dire wolf's mouth. It started with a spark, then a fire gathered in its mouth.
Red's eyes widened in shock, not expecting to see this. He was distracted by the fire; his mind was trying to figure out how it was possible. Before he could come up with a guess, the wolf shot the fire at him.
The fire was so fast, and he barely dodged it. It grazed his cheek, leaving a singed mark. Then he heard a blast from behind as he felt the heat on his back.