Chapter 12: Woodland dash

[Species name: Blood-red dire wolf

Species grade: E

Attributes: None

Height: 1-1.5 metres

Evolution history: The blood-red dire wolf is a wolf type monster that is part of the 'Indutus Lupus' genus, they are an evolutionary deviation from the Dire Wolf species template, the reasoning behind their slight deviation is due to a strange factor, the red-blooded dire wolf will immediately form a symbiotic bond with any ambush predator that resides in the area they settle down in and lure prey toward the ambush predator, to aid them with this, the blood-red dire wolf developed its distinctive coat to alert prey of their presence and act as a way to make the prey panic, they have also traded some of the dire wolves evolutionary templates speed and strength for enhanced endurance, making them endurance predators. The blood-red dire wolves evolutionary paths are some of the most varied of all the wolf type monsters, but at the same time, all blood-red dire wolves from the same area will have similar evolutions, this is due to the fact that the most common evolutions of the blood-red dire wolves involve fusing with the creature they have formed a symbiotic bond with.

Defining features: The blood-red dire wolf is not at all distinct from any other wolf type monster, their size is average and with no extra limbs or magic power emanating from their body, they are quite plain, the only real notable thing about them is their blood red coat, from which they derive their name.

Hunting behaviors: The blood-red dire wolf will hunt in packs of up to twenty or as little as three, once they know where prey is, they will make themselves as know to their prey as possible and pretend to circle their prey, while leaving obvious gaps, if the prey does not take these gaps, or fails to break through the encirclement, the blood-red dire wolves will simply devour their prey and leave none for the other species, but if the prey does escape, they will chase them down in an elongated chase to tire out their prey and lead them to an advantages position for the ambush predator they are working with so the prey will fall for the ambush.

Mating behaviours: When a blood-red dire wolf mates with another, they will remain partners till one of them dies, they may mate around five times in the time they are partnered, but there have been recorded cases of pairs producing up to twenty litters, each litter will contain four to six cubs, though only an average of two make it to childhood. When one partners dies while their partner is past the age of fertility, the surviving partner will seemingly fall into a depression and refuse to eat or hunt until they die of starvation.

Symbolism: The blood-red dire wolf usually represents cowardice and cowardly loyalty that crumbles once one side can no longer provides the other with what they want]

When one knows that a single slip up could spell disaster for them, people tend to get nervous and stressed, and when people get stressed and nervous in such conditions, their adrenaline kicks in. Currently, Alex's adrenaline was so high, his blood would be classified as a performance enhancer.

His thought where running at a hundred miles an hour, he wasn't even able to concentrate on what he needed to, He turned desperately to Nicolas, trying to find some answer to the problem.

Nicolas was not in much of a position to help, he was barely able to keep up, but in a moment of desperation, he pointed in a seemingly random direction, having no time to argue, Alex grabbed Nicolas and Blanc as a familiar pinkish-purple light swirled around his boots.

[Spatial warp]

The group fell out of an open portal thirty feet away.

"This the right way?" Alex uttered in a desperate tone.

Nicolas nodded, "Just up ahead, about fifty metres that way"

"What are we heading to anyway?"

"I do not know, there is just a secret marked on the map"

"So in short, it's a coin toss what we find"

"Pretty much"

"Shit"

Alex ran in silence for the rest of the way, the sound foliage being destroyed rang out loud and clear behind them, slowly drawing near.

The red wolves now burst fully into view, frothing at the mouth, jaws wide open like horrific bear traps, foliage clinging desperately to their blood red fur.

"Just a little further" Nicolas called.

Alex's stress was rising, from the way things were going, they would be caught before they made it to the secret, while he had many ways to get ahead of the wolves, but most would involve leaving Nicolas behind; he couldn't use spatial leap as it was on cool-down, venomous dash would leave Nicolas behind, he didn't have enough of a head-start to use venomous dopant, spatial cammo only affected the chain, and even if it did cover him, it didn't make him intangible, spatial lock would only slow one wolf and would require him to turn around, and the rest of his skills were offensive skills, so using them would require him to commit to a fight.

However, Alex didn't need to think about it anymore, as the wolves suddenly stopped in their tracks, whimpering.

"Shit" Alex thought out-loud , "out of the frying pan, into the fire, whatever the wolves were scarred of, it probably wasn't friendly"

"Well, can't we just stay here, we never said anything about going near it" Nicolas asked through heavy breathing.

"No" Alex responded flatly, turning to move deeper into the forest "even if we are safe from whatever is further in, if we stay in view of the wolves and don't die, that'll signal to them that it's safe to enter, and we might get pushed further in, we need to go a little deeper, till we know we can't be seen"

Nicolas gave a hesitant nod of understanding, before turning around and running after Alex.

"For now, we find a base camp and figure the rest out from there"

"Well at least we know what our enemy is like, and that means we could come up with something better than running from one side of the forest to another"

After about five minutes of silent walking later, they came up to a clear patch of grass surrounded by foliage on all side, but a bit too small to be called a clearing.

The pair sat down with sighs of relief, Blanc however, being completely oblivious to the gravity of their situation, jauntily flew up to a sturdy branch and began to settle down for a quick nap.

"How is the mana situation on your end" Nicolas asked in a tired manner, slumping against a tree trunk, "Can't be that good after firing of two of that teleportation you did and that stat boost"

"Nah" Alex said in a dazed tone, "It doesn't cost that much, besides, ego weapons have their own mana pool"

"Nice" Nicolas replied, only half concentration.

"Honestly, I'm more worried about the food situation"

"What do you mean" Nicolas asked in an exasperated tone, "we have been here for ten days, we have enough rations for twenty"

"Well my race takes to rations a day to function properly"

"So in short, we have three days worth of food left?"

"Yep"

"Ah well, it should not be too bad, we are already about a third of the way there"

"Really?"

"Yeah, the forest is only a few miles across, that made dash may have only lasted for about ten minutes, but at the speeds we where going, we cleared at least two miles at least"

"Speaking of distance, how far away are we from this secret any way?"

"Do not know, the map only shows the area where the secret is, not its precise location, though I guess it would be in the center, though it wouldn't take long, seeing as the circle has about a two hundred meter radius"

"Well I certainly don't want to run into it, who knows what shit we'll find"

"Could not be much worse than what we are going through right now"

"Oh trust me, I could think of many worse scenarios to be in"

"Let me be hyperbolic"

A silence permeated the area for a few minutes, before Nicolas tried to start the conversation again.

"So, thought of anyway to beat them, or at least evade them till we make it out of the forest"

"About that, I was thinking about employing the use of hit and run tactics, it doesn't seem like we'll be able to make it out of the forest without them noticing before we reached near enough to the city to outrun them, so let's try and whittle down their numbers, may give us a better chance of escaping"

"But won't that alert them and make them hunt us more actively?"

"Or it could make them think we are more trouble than their worth and hopefully they'll leave us alone"

"Fat chance, Monsters level up just like humans, that will just make the boss more anxious to get us as they will think we are a higher level, they also will not think we are strong enough that they are not a threat to us as we have already displayed weakness"

"Well we can't just make a mad dash for the exit, we don't have enough stamina to make it all the way there, and who knows if we will be lucky with the next secret"

Stephen had been watching the debate from the sidelines in amusement, by now he finally snuk his way into the discussion.

"Why not just kill the boss?" Stephen offered.

"Huh" Alex responded, dumbstruck at the stupidity of the suggestion.

"What are yo 'huh'-ing at" Nicolas aksed, slightly confused.

"Sorry" Alex responded, "my summon just presented an idiotic suggestion"

"What do you mean 'idiotic', it's a perfectly feasible suggestion" Stephen butted in.

"I mean, what is the suggestion," Nicolas piped up "who knows, could be decent"

"It was just that he wanted us to go and defeat the boss of the wolf pack, stupid I know" Alex replied.

"No, that could work" Nicolas said after a minute of pondering.

"See" Stephen said smugly, "someone gets it"

"What do you mean 'it could work'" Alex exclaimed in disbelief.

"Well, if the boss is dead, we have nothing to worry about for the rest of the journey as the monsters will most likely see us as the dominant predator, and as such, avoid us" Nicolas reasoned.

"But we don't even know where the boss is" Alex pointed out.

"Their nest is probably classed as a dungeon, so it would be marked as a secret on the map" Stephen offered.

"But that's at least five secrets we would have to go over" Alex pointed out, patience slowly waning.

"What did they say" Nicolas politely asked.

"He, du, ugh, I can't deal with a conversation where I have to be a mouthpiece right now" Alex exclaimed, patients breaking, but never letting his voice get to a volume where it would carry far, "Stephen, please only talk when it is needed, please"

"Fine"

"Thanks" Alex sighed, "well anyway, he said the boss would be in their base, which is most likely a dungeon, and as such is most likely a secret on the map"

"Well that helps out" Nicolas said, "there are only three secrets, and we are in one, so that only leaves two more to check"

"But that still doesn't mean it's still a good idea" Alex explained, "We don't know enough about the boss, we would be willing walking into an unknown threat"

"Beats holling up in the lair of a potentially bigger unknown threat" Nicolas pointed out.

"Can't argue with that" Alex said in a defeated tone, "but I still think it's a bad idea"

"Really, it's our only option, we can not wait the wolves out in here, we would run out of food before we managed to escape, fighting the wolf patrols would require us to divert too many resources, and I only have so many potions, and we can not run as we would be caught before we made it to safety, besides, it would be fun"

"Fun?"

"Yes, risking our lives in a desperate final gambit, beats waiting till we run out of rations to make a pointless dash to safety"

"Guess it's worth a shot, so where are these secrets anyway"

"Well, one is at the other end of the trail, so if that is their lair, we are screwed, but the other one is about a mile north, north-east of here"

"So we've traded one mad dash for another"

"Yep"

"We are so going to die"

"Yep"

"Let's just head over there now, no point waiting around"

"Right now, but we have no plans to deal with the potrols"

"Just run, worked out last time"

"Hey, you know, it just struck me, why did we not use your door to hide instead of running?"

Alex froze, still for a minute, mentally kicking himself for not remembering such an important detail, but the more he thought about it, the worse of an idea it was.

"The door, doesn't disappear, if we are unlucky, they'll just turn it into an endurance match"

"True, though it may be a good fail safe if we have to hide quickly"

"I guess, though lets hope it doesn't come to that, we wouldn't want to starve to death now, would we"

With that, they both rose from the forest floor, Nicolas knocked on the tree Blanc was snoozing on, causing the little fluff ball to jolt awake.

The party left the safety of their temporary camp, hoping whatever faced them on the other side would not turn them into a jam stain on the forest floor.