Chapter 18: A Crack

Up in the cloudless sky, the sun shone with brilliance, showering the forest with its light. Yet, the torrid heat, enclosed and hammered down by the forest’s environment, scorched the beings inside it.

In the forest, surrounded by the lofty trees and bushes, appeared a pack of wolves forming a semi-circle. They were trying to surround their prey, a group of humans. Unfortunately for them, the humans had noticed their prowl and counterattacked.

Arthur marched forward, at his back Franswift and Erica. He held his great shield in front of him steady as a rock as two wolves rammed into it. Planting his feet firmly in the ground, he pushed his shield forward, forcing the two wolves backward.

He subsequently raised his shield above one of the fallen wolves and slammed his shield’s edge on its neck, breaking it. At the same time, the other wolf had gotten up and tried to bite him, but Arthur used his front foot as an axis and rotated as he delivered a hard punch right at its jaw, sending it tumbling on the ground.

Three more wolves rapidly came from the left side to aid the wolf, and before Arthur could respond, he heard Erica say, “I got those. You get the two more coming from the right.”

Without saying a word, Arthur turned to the right and saw two more wolves coming. He raised his shield to cover his body and prepared for the upcoming wolves. As for the one that had been punched earlier, Franswift had moved to take care of it.

Franswift bolted away from Arthur’s back the moment the beast tried to get up. When he got close enough, he jumped with his arm wielding spear stretched backward. Descending, he brought the spear forward and placed all his weight on it, causing the spear to skewer the wolf and protrude from the other side.

As he pulled out the spear, his eyebrows furrowed. They are tough. Just now, he felt the spear stick into the body. He had to get a bit forceful to pull it out. Looking at Arthur’s and Erica’s deal with the other beasts drove how there were still differences in strength between him and them. They had trained their bodies for years. It wasn’t something he could make up for in just a month, even with the resources he was delivered. But still, thanks to that, he could at least stand with them shoulder-to-shoulder without holding them back.

Meanwhile, Crnobog, hidden in the trees, observed the leader of the wolves. He and Arlin needed to injure it to the point where they could instantly kill it, the moment the alpha was done for. He needed to appear only when it was time to deliver a finishing blow. Arlin had already moved from his former place and stood on a tall rock as he shot out arrows. He had already shot two arrows and injured the ones beside the leader, and started to target the leader, but it was very slippery using the trees and other wolves as shields.

Perceiving danger from Arlin, the leader howled for the wolves to assault him. 10 wolves moved out and dashed towards Arlin. The formation came into play. As the ten wolves moved into action, Rina and Bylun rushed to intercept them. Using the momentum of his rush, Bylun crashed into a wolf with his shoulder causing it to fly off the ground and taking with it two more in its path. Before they could rush back, he leaped towards the nearest wolf and kicked its legs off the ground. Followed by the wolf fall, he attacked with a barrage of punches on its head, which then ended by piercing its head with his hand.

Another two wolves had advanced past Bylun, but Arlin was able to shoot them down before they could approach him. If things had continued like this, they would have probably fended off the wolves easily, but, Rina who was supposed to be guarding Arlin, was now becoming a burden. She had rushed with Bylun and intercepted another two wolves, the problem was she only defended, and when one more wolf was pitted against her defense, it began to crumble down, and she started to receive some injuries. Noticing her plight, Arlin had stopped shooting arrows at the leader and other wolves and began to support her.

However, they were dealing with intelligent beasts. The leader had noticed the glaring hole in their formation and howled. The wolves moved again towards Arlin, but this time when Bylun moved to intercept, they would back off. They were ordered to only attack Rina, who was now covered in scratches and wounds.

Not wanting the situation to deteriorate to an unsavable situation, Bylun dashed to Arlin and guarded him closely. He did not intercept the wolves coming anymore, he then shouted to Rina, “Stop moving away to avoid being singled out. We will only guard Arlin while he shoots the leader,” He didn’t rebuke her, knowing it would only make the situation worse.