Choices

 Ivan was completely transformed into his lycan form, standing nearly 2.4 meters tall, and his fur was as black as night. Despite being much taller now than in his human form, he was crouched on all fours, almost like a cheetah ready to pounce as he hid in the tall grass of the area where they were. Positioned near him were several other wolves in similar positions, forming a fan around a prey that they had spent 3 nights tracking.

The Night Deer had a smooth black coat that helped it blend in perfectly at night, its size was enormous, with long double antlers in a dark purple tone. The creature was chewing on the same grass that its predators hid in, as they moved slowly against the wind. When the wind changed and the Night Deer smelled the lycans, it was already too late. The Alpha, who had black fur similar to Ivan's and was over 3 meters tall in his transformed form, accompanied by Dmitri, who was almost the same height and had gray fur, were the main attackers.

The two were strong, experienced and fast, and it should only have taken a few seconds to reach the Night Deer, but the creature was not difficult to hunt if it could be killed like that. With a single leap, it left behind the two strongest lycans in the pack and began to run, gaining speed in the opposite direction of the two. But that was exactly what the pack wanted. Three lycans jumped from the direction the deer ran and surprised it, making it change direction quickly, this time following a narrower path. At that moment, a huge tree collapsed, cutting off the Deer's path of retreat once again, but now it didn't have many choices of where to run. On the right side was the Deadly Swamp that not even he dared to enter at night, in the back where he fled were the Alpha and several other lycans close to reaching him, in front a tree blocked his path, and on the left there was a tall grass where Ivan and several others waited. The creature was not only majestic and powerful, but showed a high level of intelligence. In a matter of seconds it realized that the tall grass was dangerous and went forward taking a huge leap to cross the tree that blocked its path.

That was also its end, on the other side of the tree several wolves were waiting, and several flying claws were thrown at the creature while it was in the middle of the jump without being able to dodge. The Claw Throw was the only long-range attack a lycan had, but it had the weakness of a long cooldown, where the claws would regenerate, in addition, losing your claws for a few minutes in the middle of a fight would leave you with few options other than biting or punching the opponent. Most of the claws hit the deer's belly, causing a loud bellow to come out of its mouth. When it landed on the other side of the tree, one of the wolves that hadn't used Claw Throw made a short-range cut, catching its left hind thigh.

With a wound on one of its paws and several bleedings on its abdomen, it was time for Ivan and the other youngsters to shine. They began to chase the creature that was now slowly approaching it, giving it several more cuts while avoiding possible attacks. Seeing that running was no longer an option, the creature still tried to fight back, using its powerful horns, but the fight was already lost. When it fell to the ground, taking its last breath, several lycans acted quickly, one of them being Alpha Borys. He went to the corpse and broke off the creature's two giant horns using only the strength of his fists and threw both to Ivan.

"Take them, this is your share!"

"The horns?" Ivan asked, looking at the purple horns that shone faintly with a strange light in the dark night.

"Yes, they are the most valuable parts of the Night Deer, the priestesses said that this part has some kind of magical power. Since you are out here with us today without having been nourished yet, I will let you eat this part to catch up."

After finishing his part, the Alpha continued to help the men cut the animal into several smaller pieces, all the blood of the animal was extracted and consumed by everyone present, as well as the entrails of the animal. In the end, several wolves tied the legs and huge pieces of meat on their backs and were ready to leave. Ivan, who was still eating, made "CRUNCH" and "CROCS" sounds as he chewed and swallowed the horns of the powerful animal. It was incredible how his teeth could consume such extremely hard material. But that was how lycans were, Ivan was also enjoying the entire meal, not only did the horns have a wonderful taste that he had never experienced before, but he felt the power filling his body with each bite…

When Ivan was about to finish, a sound of flapping wings followed by a buzzing sound was heard by the many lycans who were attentive. The Alpha and Dmitri, who heard the noise a little before the others, were the first to shout two phrases to everyone:

"Corpse Eaters and Bats!"

"SPREAD OUT!"

All the wolves ran in different directions, Ivan reacted a little slowly, but in the end he did the same, he felt his body full of energy and launched a speed so fast that he almost tripped over his own legs with the difference between before and after eating the antlers of the Night Deer. He also knew what those two names meant. Corpse Eaters were a giant, disgusting and poisonous insect that sometimes came out of the Deadly Swamp area to devour the remains of corpses. They were dangerous, had long-range attacks, their venom could paralyze a lycan in seconds, they flew, and lastly, they walked in huge groups. As for the bats, they were attracted to blood, flew in flocks and were similar in size to human children with wings. If it had been just the second one, no one would have run and they would even be a welcome prey for the group. But the first one was too problematic…

After running a lot, Ivan stopped and waited for a while as he was instructed by the others. Soon two transformed Lycans found him. One of them was a lycan who seemed even older than Dmitri and the other was none other than his "rival" Derek. They formed a group led by the oldest and were discussing where they should spend the day in case they couldn't find the rest of the pack… When a pleasant surprise happened, from the dark sky they saw 6 bats coming towards them.

Neither of them would let the opportunity pass, and they quickly defeated the creatures, Ivan knocked one of them down with the Claw Throw he had learned during the day and then bit the creature's neck when it fell to the ground. At the same time Derek quickly dealt with two others, and the "old man" killed 3. Ivan quickly devoured the entire bat, leaving no trace of it behind, and the old man gave him another one. This time he didn't eat it all, and after the cleaning procedures, he only ate part of it, using the leather and rope he had with him to take it back home. After eating the bat, he also felt a slight increase in power again, and wanted to take most of the second animal to Natasha. Little did they know that the death of these bats had once again attracted the Corpse Eaters, and this time the buzzing they heard was already very close to them…

"ZZZZZZ"

"Puff"

"Thud"

When Ivan turned around, he saw that not only had the insects arrived, but they were close enough to throw their poisonous spines at them. The two noises they heard after the buzzing were the Old Lycan being hit by one of the spines and then trying to run before falling paralyzed to the ground. Ivan tried to run to the old man to help him, but was grabbed by the arm by a strong hand full of claws that lifted him off the ground as if he were a bag and started pulling him at high speed in a direction away from the monsters. As Ivan was dragged from the place he saw the creatures that looked like giant beetles with horns land in a swarm on top of the old lycan and quickly devour his body...