Chapter 27 : Wolves

"Ray!" Roth shouted as three wolves started to surround his friend.

"Gotcha!" He got the signal, and he waited the three wolves to pounce.

The wolves circled for a bit, then jumped at Raymond.

He stepped back and arrows suddenly rained on the wolves. They were whimpering and Raymond finished them with a slash on the neck each.

"Nice both of you, very clean!" Roth applauded his friends.

"And Roth, what did you do?" Lilian went close constantly poked him.

"Hey, I buffed you and provided you tactical support." He had his arms up.

"This just feels weird." Lilian said pouting.

"Haha! Yeah Lilian's right." Raymond laughed.

"Hey guys, I'm a support, please understand." He bowed.

"Ew. Stop that. Go and get our proof then... move your muscles." Lilian ordered.

"Yes, Milady." Roth bowed again.

"Stop it!" She tried to kick Roth but he evaded.

"Ahaha!" Raymond was laughing at this scene.

They went back to the adventures guild and submitted their quest and handed over their licenses.

Stella took them with a smile and checked the quest item thoroughly.

"Dusk party, it's been at least over a month and here it its." She handed their license plates shining in gold.

"Finally!" Raymond exclaimed.

"Thankfully, I was getting bored of those pesky wolves." Lilian was rejoicing.

"Nice. So, do we do it now or tom-"Roth saw his friend's expressions, and knew the answer immediately.

"Miss Stella, Can we do the party promotion now?" He asked.

"Yes of course, here is the available subjection list for the rank promotion to E." She handed Roth the choice list.

He looked at the list and furrowed his brows.

"Miss Stella, there is only one choice." He was confused.

"Yes, that is the current available promotion quest in this area." She said.

Roth turned to his team bearing bad news.

"Guys, the only promotion quest for the party subjugation is to kill… an Alpha wolf." He broke their morale.

"Wolf… again?" Lilian was about to vomit at the thought.

"Well, it's the last one right?" Raymond said with skepticism.

"No, since we are also going to do our solo, we are going to hunt… one more each." He continued.

Lilian's face was drained of color while Raymond was looking like a zombie.

"Shall we go and get this over with?" He chuckled as he tried to boost the morale.

"Let's go." The two said with no life.

They went back to the outer part of Vonnear Forest and searched for the Alpha wolf.

"Any locations to go first, Roth?" Raymond asked.

"Yeah, they are territorial and would fight against each other, so there should be wolf packs at any place. But, the lake is one of the best sources of water, and surely we would find more surrounding that area." He said his mind.

"Okay, then how do we fight it?" Lilian asked, curious to know the difference of it from different wolf.

"Well of course its abilities are better, from what I know… it usually is at the strength of 3 normal wolves combined, and travels as a pack. So, there would be 4-5 other normal wolves accompanying it." He answered.

"That's better!" Lilian was getting bored with the battles they had.

"Yeah, and strategy?" Raymond asked.

"What do you think leader?" Roth gave the question back.

"Hmm… Shall I take on the Alpha wolf alone, while you both take to its minions?" He laid out his best plan.

"That will work!" Lilian was excited.

They arrived at the lake and it was scenic as usual. They all split up and surveyed around the lake to find wolf tracks to follow.

Roth was looking around when he suddenly felt a very sharp feeling coming towards his back. He immediately summoned his sword and turned back to block the incoming threat. But, nothing was there. He glanced around the surrounding area, but there were no movements or traces from where that feeling came from.

'That was centralized killing intent thrown at me… who?' He decided to be extra wary.

"Raymond, Roth!" Lilian was shouting while waving at a distance.

Both men went to her and saw the tracks she found.

"Good job Lilian!" Raymond said.

"Good job! By the way did you felt an uncomfortable feeling just a while ago?" Roth asked them.

"No." They both answered.

"Oh, must be imagining things." He dispelled the matter.

"So please lead us then, Miss Tracker." Roth teased Lilian.

"Stop with the use of Miss, Mister Roth!" She stomped away following the racks.

The men laughed as the followed her.

After a few minutes, Lilian held her hand up, as a signal to stop.

"Now we need to lay low... I think they're close." She whispered.

They both nodded.

The silently followed the tracks for a couple of minutes and the arrived at the scene. There were 5 wolves eating deer. One was eating a deer by itself, presumably the Alpha Wolf since its body is much larger, while the other wolves shared one.

"So, just as planned?" Raymond asked.

"Yeah, I'll place the buffs first before we engage."

'Offensive Blessing.' 'Defensive Blessing.' 'Speed Blessing.' 'Vitality.' Roth placed the usual buffs on his team.

"Ready?" Raymond asked again.

"Lilian, position. We'll join after you shoot." Roth looked at Lilian.

Lilian nodded as she quickly and stealthily jumped up a tree and perched on a branch.

Now, the two were lying in wait until Lilian shoots.

*Swoosh* *Swoosh… As soon as the arrows were heard and Raymond immediately lunged at the Alpha Wolf and attacked the feeding beast. The wolves were surprised at this sudden attack and were too late to react.

Raymond decapitated the Alpha Wolf in one strike.

Roth was standing, looking at the four other wolves with arrows on their head.

"Well, good job guys. A hard fought battle!" He congratulated his team accompanied by sarcastic claps.

"Why is it so weak?!" Raymond was disappointed.

"Sneak attacks are… really deadly." Lilian stared at the wolves, extremely dissatisfied.

"I guess that's it. Tomorrow we just need to do this individually, maybe that will be a challenge." He proceeded to gather the proof of subjugation while still being attentive to his surroundings.

They went back as soon as possible and headed back to the guild for the second time this day.

"Finished?" Stella was waiting for them.

They just had a big grin and handed their license to her with the proof.

"The invigilator said that your ambush tactic was flawless. Good job!" She commended them.

Stella gave back their licenses.

"Congratulations, The Dusk party is now E ranked! Thank you for working hard." She bowed.

The three thanked her back.

As they were about to leave, Roth and Stella's eyes met and stared at each other for a while.

"Sir Roth, anything else I could do for you?" She asked curiously as his gaze was starting to get intense.

"Please, don't scare me next time." He turned and walked away.

"Sorry, it was just a little test of mine." She confessed.

Roth replied with just waving his hand.

"Mia, cover for me again." Stella troubled her co-worker.

"Come on, why do you go to the toilet quite often recently?" Mia started to complain.

"I'll give you an extra gold coin every month." She looked at her colleague.

"Do you want me to warm the toilet seat for you ma'am?" Her attitude instantly changed.

The Dusk party was now headed towards the Dawnsteel training grounds.

They all sat down a tree next to the training ground and started to eat sandwiches.

"So, what are the plans for tomorrow?" Roth asked while munching away.

"I'll finish mine quickly… don't want to bother with them wolves again." Lilian clearly doesn't want to hunt those beasts again.

"Hmm… I'll just confront them directly, I'll try my best not to get hurt though." Raymond plainly said as his fighting style is straightforward.

The two looked at Roth.

"Now how do you plan to do it Mister Healer?" Lilian tried to annoy him.

"Same thing I guess. The invigilator they will send should be decent enough for me to just buff that and constantly heal until the eventual death of the beast." He said nonchalantly.

"Boring." Lilian flatly said as she reached for more sandwiches.

"What can I do, I'm a support." Roth replied to her criticism.

"Try to fight, you're still training combat anyway."

"Maybe, but I'll try to apply Miss Sapphine told me to only fight when needed."

Lilian looked at Roth.

"Do you think we can watch while you do it?" Lilian asked as she started to take a bite on her food.

"Probably not…" Roth reached out to get the last sandwich.

"Oh yeah, we didn't see any one that observed us." Raymond said.

"They are hidden, of course not to intrude in our quest." Lilian replied.

"Fair enough… What do you think is in the inner part of the forest?" He asked the opinion of his friends as he was sure they would rank up the next day.

"Stronger beasts or monsters as we go deeper, but I'm sure we're only allowed on the edges of it." Roth replied.

"Better than wolves." Lilian simply stated.

"What if the beasts are just stronger wolves? Like a subjugation quests to eliminate Stronger Alpha Wolves or Very Strong Alpha wolves." Roth annoyed Lilian again.

Lilian stared at him in a disgusted manner while Raymond started to laugh at Roth's exaggeration.

These kinds of talks are a norm for them, and they spent the rest of their day theorizing things.