"How where you able to tell that there was danger?" Rastel asked Vars as he ran alongside him.
"A hunting skill, most decent hunters in Eadon can learn it from the masters there" Vars answered him as he turned to release an arrow behind him which left his bowstring with a loud boom!
Exploding shot!
The four of them were running through the rain which had suddenly started again albeit not as intense as before. The blood moon had receded into the dark clouds and only little filters of light passed through.
From a distance behind them, the sound of countless paws slapping the wet earth and the rustling of bushes could be heard.
With the slow speed of the cart and the impending danger, they couldn't retreat safely without causing casualties to the settlers who they would be hard pressed to defend should the wolf pack attack.
As soon as they realized the problem, they fell into a dilemma. It wasn't until Rastel suggested they divert the attention of the pack and deal with them elsewhere did they start to move.
Being the fastest of them, Roxanne went to warn the cart about the danger and Vars who was capable of detecting the incoming wolf pack went to pull their aggro with his bow and arrow.
After Roxanne returned, they quickly left towards the direction Vars was to lead the pack too, cutting away from the forest path at a tangent.
Their goal was to reach near Eadon from a different direction of the cart's. According to Baluu, the outskirts of Eadon was surrounded by large grain farms which fed the town and was used to generate revenue.
Although the trees around this part were not as plenty as usual, fighting a wolf pack under the heavy rain with low visibility would be tantamount to suicide no matter how strong they were.
Defending from sneak attacks would be nearly impossible.
Rastel turned his gaze back to his front. Roxanne was in front of them by a small distance, her agility as a rouge class was simply amazing and it seemed like she was actually holding back and struggling not to break away from them.
Rastel and Vars ran side by side and were just about matched in speed. While Baluu with his huge body and large tummy was doing rather poorly at the back.
His speed was actually impressive compared to an average person's running speed and considering he was a bearman, he should have been faster.
But his huge tummy showed he wasn't really living healthy and Rastel and Vars were just much better in agility.
He held his club close by and bashed the skull of any wolf that got dangerously close, Vars also helped by firing exploding arrows to scatter the pack anytime they got visibly closer.
Rastel stared back worriedly, there was too much of them.
It seemed like the wolves were endless but after a quick evaluation, they probably numbered in the tens. If they reached a hundred? Of that he had no idea.
He wasn't too worried though as they had Roxanne with them, she was high leveled and would contribute greatly to the fight.
Although he always left Amba with Myra nowadays to protect her, he also wasn't weak with his assortment of golems.
Although he wouldn't be as powerful as when he was with Amba who could handle a level 30 enemy, he was still strong enough to stand his ground against a level 20 probably.
Such ridiculous level jumping was truly enviable.
"It shouldn't be long now, the grain fields are just ahead!" Baluu called out to them.
"You should save your breath for running, you fat fool!" Vars grumbled loudly.
Rastel laughed as he swiped at his inventory taking out the figures of two of his hammer golems to join with the traditional golem he had taken out before.
Since this was what people knew him with, there was no need to expose any more of his abilities.
He could only control a maximum of three golems for now anyway.
"I can see the edge of the forest. I will go ahead first and create a point for us to hold on, you guys should focus on running fully for now." Roxanne left this message before going on at full speed.
She was out of sight before they realized.
"Better keep that club aside and run faster Baluu, you oversized gut is weight enough" Vars remarked snidely as he let out a rare smile at his own jab.
"So you say little viper. But I'm sure they won't drag me down as much as your thick brows, I can swear it." Baluu laughed sarcastically as he pushed his large club into his buckle.
"Wait what?" Rastel turned to look at Vars's frowning face and that was when he realized.
He couldn't see it earlier since Vars's wet hair had covered the top of his face but now that he had flung it back to run properly, his overly thick brows were visible
"GYAHAHAHAHA!!!" Rastel nearly stumbled as he burst out laughing.
Baluu's joke was far much funnier when he saw the brows.
"He really does have thick brows!" he choked midway.
"I know right? Little viper has more hair on his brows than I have on my ass!"
"Bwahahaha! You think he can spread them and fly?"
"It wouldn't pass him, I have seen him wield two hammers with those things"
Vars's face scrunched up into a scary frown and some form of intent was boiling within him.
Laughing and blowing taunts at the poor Vars even while under attack, the trio burst out of the trees and the sight of vast plains of well cultivated grains entered their view.
There were alternating heights of tall and short fields of grains with different colors and shapes showing the varied assortment of food being cultivated.
In the distance, the tall walls of Eadon could be seen weathering the storm.
This sight which was rare for Rastel to see in the real world only caught his attention for a moment before he noticed Roxanne's prone figure in the middle of some short growing grains just in front of them.
The rain pattered down on her leather armor and her eyes sheltered under her hood stared down the long metal barrel of her gun.
'So this was what she meant by creating a point?'
BANG!
The sound of a gun shot echoed out as a wolf that just broke through the trees behind them was gunned down.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Shot after shot went by the trio as they accurately hit their pursuers.
They immediately stopped joking around and ran vigorously towards her position. Roxanne never stopped shooting as she kept firing endlessly at the pack behind them.
Without hesitation, Rastel threw out the two hammer golems as soon as he reached her, with a rumble, they splashed onto the muddy floor as they came out in all their glory!
The hammer golems were finally out after such a long time!
With quick shambling movements, they rushed towards the oncoming pack which had just broken through the trees and wreaked havoc with their large hammer hands.
The last normal traditional sized golem was dropped beside Roxanne as it became the last defense, protecting her from any wolf that managed to break through.
Var's and Baluu showed a bit of shock seeing the three golems but realizing this wasn't the time to be inquisitive, they ignored it.
Taking the left and right, Vars and Baluu launched projectile after projectile at the incoming swarm from bow and sling respectively.
Vars pulled arrow after arrow from his quiver and each of them made devastating damage as they were all exploding shots.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Baluu on the other hand had a pouch full of large round stones which he launched from his sling one after the other.
With his terrifying strength, every time he hurled a stone out of the string, a wolf would either get knocked out at best or have its head blown out at worst.
Standing at Roxanne's side, Rastel did nothing more than control the two hammer golems to act as tanks and hold back the majority of the pack.
As he wasn't using Amba this time, he had to focus fully on controlling the golems to attack efficiently. And even though he had relatively higher INT and MEN stats which gave him a much higher mana count, golems were heavy drainers and his MP was draining at a visible rate!
Because of this, he didn't activate the golem beside Roxanne and just left it standing there, ready to be used.
He could have just had it join the fight but this was a battle of attrition. With so many enemies, the battle was bound to take a long time and having his mana finishing so quickly would render him mostly useless in the battle.
The berserk wolf pack went full savage as they bit, clawed and leaped on the two golems which were swinging their large hammer shaped arms furiously and smashing countless under them to a pulp.
Consecutive bangs sounded out from Roxanne's gun as she fired one shot after another only taking pause to reload from time to time.
Another sound that echoed out loudly was the resounding booms from the explosions caused by Vars's arrows as they hit wherever the wolves dared to gather.
Baluu was also hurling stones with extreme efficiency as he took down any single wolf that dared to step out and charge towards them.
The battle raged under the storm as the rain fell down and beat their bodies, but under the threat of danger, no one cared of such a trivial thing.
As the battle reached a balance and everything was proceeding smoothly, Rastel was able to relax his mind and observe the battle more.
'So this is how it feels to hunt in a party huh.' he was moved.
Since he started, he had never really hunted together with people in a proper party.
Now that they were here fighting against this berserk wolf pack, he could fully appreciate the joys of working in a team.
With everyone doing their own part, the battle proceeded smoothly and was easy on everyone.
But it was as he was noticing the battle and admiring everything that he noticed a very strange thing.
The wolf pack that were attacking them were berserk under the influence of the blood moon that showed itself temporarily before the rain started again.
They attacked viciously with teeth and claw showing basically no regard to their own life and wellbeing. But even though berserk, they were still wild animals and some things shouldn't change but.
'Why are they not making any noise?'