Sheer determination

Seeing Dara only served to remind me how weak I am. If she got thrown into that state just by one skill it could mean danger for me.

"That mutt inflicted me 800 points of damage," she said angry and trying to stand up.

"Heal yourself," I said. I placed myself between her and the wolf.

"It is a low-level healing potion. It will only restore 150" she managed to get up "It will be a waste of resources if will still manage to dispatch me in one more hit"

And here I thought we had every chance at winning against this thing. Now we were caught in the thick of it, and Dara was close to getting killed.

The other wolves started to howl at us and growl. I forgot they were still around, the ones that managed to survive her [Nova] spell were observing and keeping their distance. Only very few were left. But now that the main cause of damage was on the ground and feeling pain, just inches from death.

The siblings! I remembered them at that moment and turned to look for them. They were dangerous too if they tried to attack us now.

They were nowhere to be found.

"Did they flee?" I asked.

"Don't bother yourself with those brats!" Dara answered.

The smaller started approaching, slowly walking towards us, growling with a terrifying presence.

I did not want to turn into wolf's food. I needed to escape and make sure Maple was okay. We had the resources required for the antidote, we just needed to return.

Why did I promise that to Reynard? That I would come back and save his sister. That she would be okay.

I barely knew them. I just saved them the last day and somehow I wanted to make sure they were okay.

"Nova!" Dara yelled.

The spell expanded from her once more, but this time it reached less space. Only a couple of wolves were reached while the others managed to jump back before they got killed.

"I am running out of MP," Dara said.

Then that was bad. If she ran out of it, we could get overwhelmed by the number of enemies. And we don't know if the siblings ran away or if they are stalking around waiting for us.

One of the smaller wolves attacks. I quickly attack with my sword, and manage to hit it, cancelling its attack.

[-58]

It was not enough to kill it, but I could see it having issues staying on its four legs. I can kill them easily on 2 hits, but I needed to hit them.

I was going in for the kill, but another couple of wolves jumped in front of me and started to try to bite my feet. I step back, trying to avoid getting hurt by their attacks.

One of them then used a skill. I saw a red maw appear around its mouth and go for me.

It hits me in the arm. I received 40 points of damage.

[HP: 50/110]

That hurt! And it was causing more damage than the rest of their bites.

This was getting bad.

Dara, by her side, was managing to cast enough spells to force them to keep their distance, but from time to time one managed to take a bite on her. She received way less damage than me, but I could see she was slowly having problems staying on her feet.

We needed to do something. Anything! We were about to die by getting overwhelmed.

That is when I remembered I just got something.

One of the wolves tried to use the same skill against Dara. I was not sure how much HP she had left, but I needed to try something.

Instinctively, I yelled.

"Fang!" I raised my sword and cut downwards against the wolf that was about to land a hit on Dara.

What seemed to be a white fang surrounded by a red aura appeared following my sword, and I caused 125 points of damage to the wolf, killing it instantly.

[MP: 95/110]

Another tried to attack me, taking advantage of my position, but Dara cast a fireball against it, killing it instantly too.

[Fang] was causing at least double the damage. I could kill them with ease.

But then, the [Scry] spell on the big wolf disappeared.

"No more MP!" she said.

"You recover that, don't you?"

"Yes! But slowly"

That was not good. We had lost the last piece of intel on the big enemy in front of us. Maybe we could still beat it or make it escape, but it was going to be dangerous.

I took a step closer to another wolf and used the [Fang] skill. It died instantly and the rest of the wolves started to walk backwards.

[MP: 70/110]

[Level UP!]

[Level 2->3]

[HP: 110->120]

[MP: 110 ->120]

[STR: 11->12 DEX: 11->12 INT: 11->12]

[AIM: 11->12 DEF: 11->12 RES: 11->12]

[+1 Skill tree point!]

[Short Sword +1 Level!]

[LV 2->3]

[STR 30->40]

[DEF 18->24]

Great! Another level. Sadly that did not heal my HP or restore my MP.

The big wolf barked and growled at the smaller ones. Its pack whimpered with their ears down but started to walk again towards us.

"I will need a drink," I said, preparing myself again for the next attack.

"We ran out of alcohol the other day"

"Can you give me good news at least once?!" I demanded.

"I know how to make some" Dara answered.

Then you better make me some when we are done here.

One of the wolves jumped towards me. I decided to block this time, remembering that I just increased my DEF stat.

[STR VS DEF Check!]

[13 vs 11 +24!]

[Success!]

I managed to block it. When the wolf jumped against me, I raised my weapon and got it to hit the hilt causing it to deflect the attack. I countered at that moment with a swift swing of my sword. Somehow, it felt easier to use my weapon after my level-up. Although just a tiny bit.

I caused 72 points of damage, killing it with just a normal attack. The XP reward went down to 43 points instead of 50.

Dara starts to cast her fireballs with more calm, giving it more time between each attack. That was her attempt to allow for her MP to recover while still casting a few spells.

The big wolf started to growl at us, getting in position to attack us, but it stood there, observing how we were running through the last of its pack. It started to bark with aggression.

Then it howled as loud as it seemed to be capable. Dara and I covered our ears because of the powerful noise. That monster had incredible lung power.

What was left of its pack started to walk backward, threatening to attack us if we did try to attack them. Dara kept her hand aimed at some, not casting any spell. I kept my sword up, in case we needed to counter.

After a few moments, the whole pack turned around and started to run into the woods. The big wolf stood there, growling at us. For a moment I thought that maybe was going to fight us alone, but it bolted all the same and ran into the forest, not before barking at us with frustration.

How we managed to survive that was a mystery for me. I dropped to the ground as I was starting to feel tired.

"I don't… want to do this ever again," I said.

Dara dropped to her knees, tired from the amount of exercise she just did.

"Shit! Are you okay?!" I asked and moved close to her to check on her.

Dara nodded and then looked at me.

"I am with 50 HP left," she said. Was she really that low?! That was dangerous.

"Quickly! Take your healing potion!"

Dara's eyes went wide and then looked at me. Then she looked for the potion on herself and pulled it out. At least she was going to be further from danger that way.

She uncorked the small bottle and placed the border of its mouth against her lip. She raised it to drink it.

And then a crossbow bolt went through it, missing her hand but hitting the bottle. The red liquid drenched her clothes and floor.

"No!" I yelled and looked to the direction the bolt came from.

"Seems we got lucky, bro," said Mae, who was sitting on a branch of a tree.

I completely forgot about them. Her brother, Jett, was standing close to her.

"Yes, who knows how much XP that vulpin is worth for us"

"And from what I could hear, it was their last healing potion" Mae started to laugh.

I stood up, there was no way I was allowing them to kill us like that, not after all of that. Somehow, I was going to find a way to survive this and this damn new world.