The First Hunt (4)

Meanwhile, in an area about 100 meters away from the fierce battle that forced three of the five members of the fanged wolves to unleash attacks full of might, hoping to topple this behemoth of a wolf, Finn and Evan began fighting the weaker beasts.

Although Finn is definitely above rank 1, his role was to ensure that none of the weaker prey end up disturbing the other group in their mad fight against a terrifying monster.

Rushing into the fray, Evan recalled all the teachings that were imparted to him by his family.

'Rule number one in the wilds. Always remain calm, no matter the situation. Rule two, do not allow my emotions to affect my judgement. Rule three, remember that at the core of being a warrior and fighting against the monsters is being a living murder machine.'

Right now he has entered his first life and death battle where one mistake can lead to his eternal damnation, where the monsters feed on his flesh just to survive another day.

It was imperative for Evan to realise this wasn't something that which could be taken lightly.

One mistake and he would be knocking on death's door.

In essence, this life and death battle was a dance of murder where the one who couldn't hold out the longest lost their life.

Gripping the hilt of his sword tightly, the first wolf from the weaker pack appeared in his vision as a pair of dark red pupils stared back at him.

These wolves had a similar appearance to the alpha of the group with the only difference being they were smaller, standing at around a height of 1.8 meters and the colour of their fur was a shade of light brown instead of the murky brown of the alpha.

Channelling his mana inside his body to increase his speed, Evan slashed his sword toward the wolf's neck, who raised its claws, preparing to block the strike.

However, under the combination of the Demon reaper art and the Whispering Retribution art, his speed rose to another level compared to those in the same rank.

This small increase in speed, although little, provided him a crucial second to attack.

In a life and death battle, many things were achieved in the span of a second, so when Evan gained that extra increment of speed, it was game over for the wolf as his dark blade sliced effortlessly through its neck, decapitating it.

Thud!

The headless corpse of the brown wolf fell to the ground with a thud as the remaining wolves grew enraged seeing one of their members being killed in front of them.

Smirking at the wolves' reaction, Evan readjusted himself quickly after seeing that 3 wolves were heading straight for him as the others focused on his partner, Finn.

On the other end, Finn, who was holding a short sword in one hand, raised his empty hand as a fireball slowly started to materialize in his palm.

Once the fireball finished materializing, another one took its place and soon there were 4 fireballs the size of a football, slowly rotating around his figure.

Extending his hand outwards as he faced the remaining eight wolves, Finn pointed his finger in their direction as he taunted them.

"Go to hell, you sons of bitches!"

Immediately after that, the four fireballs shout out at high speed toward the remaining members of the pack.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Although wolves had naturally high agility, the fireballs proved to be too much for them to handle as half of them were instantly obliterated on the spot with their ashes scattering onto the ground.

The other half managed to successfully evade.

However, two of them were in dire condition after only barely dodging at the last second, with black marks showing their charred brown fur.

GROWL!

The remaining wolves growled in fear after seeing half of their brethren killed, just like that.

Their bodies trembled as they saw the despicable human who had a wicked smile on his face like that of a demon approaching them, signifying that their demise was near.

Walking closer to the wolves, Finn conjured four small fire bullets in a couple of seconds as he flicked them towards each wolf.

Puchi! Puchi! Puchi! Puchi!

Each of the four bullets hit its mark as they embedded themselves in the wolves' brains, draining the life of these monsters instantly.

"Man, I wish every monster would be like these wolves and just wait in line to get slaughtered easily."

Finn sighed as he prepared to head back and keep an eye on Evan, just in case he needed to intervene if the situation became too tricky.

At the same time, on the opposite side of the cluster of buildings, new craters were being constantly formed from the intensity of the battle that was currently raging on.

Kang's figure blurred as he increased his speed with the help of mana, evading the claws of the wolf by a hair's breadth.

Otto, who clashed with the gigantic wolf, had a grim look on his face, realizing that the battle had no hopes of ending quickly as their every clash sent tremors running through the ground with the strength of both parties around about equal.

"Astrid, how much longer?" Otto shouted as he panted heavily.

"5 seconds."

"Alright."

Renewed with more vigour knowing that the killing blow would soon be ready, Otto became determined to create an opening for Astrid to murder this damn monster!

Rushing towards the wolf, he used a quarter of his remaining mana to increase his strength as his muscles swelled and bulged, threatening to tear his clothes.

Swinging his weapon towards the monster's head, preparing to hammer it mercilessly, Otto released a battle cry that came from the depths of his throat.

Clash!

Colliding with his silver hammer were the wolf's long claws as they met halfway, causing another shock wave to resound out.

Using his upper body strength, he raised the hammer once again overhead as he cleaved downwards, trying to strike the unintelligent monster.

Responding in kind, the wolf increased its speed slightly as it slashed with its claws toward Otto. However, just as it was about to clash again with Otto, Kang made his move.

Gripping his daggers' tightly, he released numerous green wind slashes towards the wolf's unprotected side, keeping his distance for fear of the monster's retaliation.

Raising its tail, the wolf decided to sacrifice it to tank the wind slashes arriving at its unprotected side, as its claws continued on their way to collide with Otto's hammer.

Bang!

After the tail tanked all the wind slashes, it erupted in a shower of blood as the claws of the monster smashed into Otto's hammer, sending him sliding back a few meters.

ROAR!

The wolf roared out loud in pain, as its red eyes became a darker shade of red.

"The spell is ready!" shouted Astrid as she moved into position to launch the offensive spell.

As she moved, a crushing pressure erupted from her body as a torrent of mana rushed out from her body, forming a tempest of fire and wind.

This tempest of fire and wind grew in size until it became large enough to rival the wolf.

Stretching her hands forward, Astrid swiped them in the direction of the monster as the tempest careened forward, locking onto the enemy behemoth.

The grey ash on the floor flew up in the air as a blistering heat appeared in the wake of the fiery tempest, bringing destruction and devastation in its path.

Desperately trying to move out of the way, the wolf realised, to its horror, that it received substantial damage to its body which, although wouldn't kill it, achieved the effect of turning it sluggish enough to be unable to dodge.

ROAR!

Giving one last roar of defiance, the wolf watched itself become engulfed by the raging tempest and lose the spark of life it so desperately protected every day trying to survive in this dog-eat-dog world.

After travelling for a few more meters, the blazing tempest died down and sizzled out, leaving the charred remains of the wolf on full display.