6

"What do I do now?" Leo consulted with the 4 newborns in front of him crying for their mother they never knew.

All I could do for the moment was keep them close to their mother as her body was still warm and it would warm them up.

"How troublesome." I said and walked out of the tree trunk preparing to call Hannibal to help me with this problem but just then my newly acquired instincts to supply sent out alerts and almost instantly I drew my sword and skimmed upward.

Clank!

A loud clatter of clashing metal was heard as a wolf's claws slammed into my sword and pushed me back a little way back to the entrance to the tree.

"This is bad." I muttered and analyzed my new enemies, it was a pack of 6 wolves with each one being over four feet in length and the largest being nearly six feet and full of scars.

Probably the leader, but what made me tense was that in the mouths of 2 of them were members of giant rats, and they all had blood in their mouths which made me think the worst.

"Is it possible that they killed Hannibal? It's not impossible I didn't hear any noise or anything like that..." My thoughts got out of control and I started to get nervous about the possibility that they had killed my partner.

The wolves present themselves taking small steps in front of me as they growled and stared at me with their red eyes, the sword in my hand trembled a little and my heart pounded.

It was at that moment when I felt an opening, one of the wolves jumped towards my neck with their mouth open but I could even raise my sword to counterattack. A fist appeared from the shadows and hit the wolf's face causing him to cry and sending him to the ground .

"Hannibal!" I yelled there to see my general back but there was something weird about him, he was covered in blood and several claw marks were all around his body and he was without his greatsword at the moment.

"My lord stay focused." Hannibal caught my attention when he saw me losing focus on his injuries and soon raised my guard again.

----------------------------

10 minutes before.

Hannibal was collecting branches and dry leaves without any problem, he moved a little away from the stream to take a look at the terrain while collecting the branches but they deviated something strange in the surroundings.

Several red eyes emerged from the darkness and developed to stare at him as they growled, Hannibal of course didn't lose his composure and dropped the branches and leaves into his hands before calmly drawing his sword.

He could feel a movement around him, his new enemies were available and looking for gaps in his defenses that didn't belong.

Seeing that they would come to an impasse he saw one of the wolves come out of the bushes and run towards him before jumping into the air to bite him but with a quick flick of Hannibal's sword or decapitated making the body fall hard to the ground.

By that time he could already feel the wolves' eyes getting sharper and staring at him hungry for battle, it didn't seem like they strong enemies in the forest constantly making them the kings of the place.

But now seeing one of his companions are almost effortlessly slain of a species they usually hunt filled them not only with rage but with thirst for battle and struggle.

"About 30 of them huh, this is going to be tricky." Hannibal proposed but luckily his lord wasn't with him so he didn't need to protect him.

He knew that although complicated he could handle the current situation but at that moment he heard a scream and soon several small cries coming from a tree near the stream making his eyes widen.

Of course the wolves noticed this too and he saw what appeared to be the leader of the pack and other wolves leaving the group and heading towards the stream.

"That's bad, if they're there I'm not sure my lord will be able to fend for himself!" Aníbal introduced and had to do something he would never do in an outnumbered situation.

Attack first.