The morning sand had not yet absorbed the scorching heat from the sun, and was cool on the wolves feet as the explored deeper into the desert. Around them they could see dew collecting on some of the sparse plant life, which Cyan had the Pack drink some of. It was a long process, but this was likely the only way they would be getting water any time soon.
The sun had risen partway through the sky when they encountered their first prey. A large buzzard was feasting on the carcass of some dead animal, it was too mangled to make out what kind of creature it had been. The pups behind me grew excited seeing the bird, but Cyan grew wary. The vulture was huge, its wingspan from wing to wing was at least a dozen feet, and that was just an estimate as it had its wings tucked in. It stood around 6 feet tall. It was a formidable bird.
Cyan knew they were in for a tough fight, the vulture undoubtedly only viewed them as snacks. He had the pups group together behind him as he charged the beast, the vulture did not bother moving as it sent flung its massive wing out at him, sending him flying back several feet. A growl escaped his mouth as he looked at the vulture that was ignoring his existence. How could his pride handle such treatment?
Mentally he sent a command to the pack as he once again charged the beast. The culture used the same move, but dodges the blow, rolling underneath the wing. Behind him the pups closed in on their prey, circling around the bird. The culture eyes the pups warily. Cyan took advantage of its distraction to lunge at the wing, biting into the soft flesh. He tore off a chunk of flesh, spitting out the feathers as he rolled away from the peck the vulture retaliated with.
Bloopers took advantage of opening Cyan had given them, and charged the beast, biting its other wing. Feathers flew as the vulture angrily beat its wings, trying to go airborne. Daisy and puglsy took action at that moment. Daisy charged the front of the beast. Ripping into its leg, blood gushing from the wound. Behind the buzzard pugsly charged, jumping onto the vultures back and tore into its neck. Blood filled his mouth as he penetrated the arteries. The buzzard began to take off into the air, carrying burglary with it.
Chica's eyes glimmered at the beast who was attempting to take off. She dashed forward, using Daisy as a springboard she reached the beasts neck, tearing of a massive chunk of flesh, before landing on the ground with a crash.
The buzzard continued to fly, blood pouring from it's mostly gone neck, taking Pugsly higher into the sky. He whimpered as he bit deeply into the vultures wing, holding on with all of his might. The weakened vulture could not stabilize himself as he began to spiral to the ground, the 20 it had managed to climb becoming its biggest threat as it crash landed to the ground, sending pugsly flying.
The wolves wasted no time as the rushed the dying bird, drippings its flesh to shreds. Cyan ignored the vulture as he walked over to Pugsly. He laid there whimpering, blood pouring from a wound on his leg. Cyan licked the blood from the would, pressing his head up against it to apply pressure. Mentally he sent out an order to pack for them to bring over some of the meat for him to eat. He then had chica hold his leg while he walked over to the vulture.
Using only his mouth and paws it was incredibly hard, but he managed to piece together a rough bandage using the feathers and blood from the dead vulture. It was not very sanitary, but fortunately Pugsly had a high constitution stat and should not get an infection.
Securing the unclean banged to pugsly's leg was much harder than making the bandage, but eventually he had succeeded. The moment he was done a series of notifications popped up.
Cyan swiped the notifications out of the way as he walked over to the vulture. Before he began his feast he dug out its core. The core was green, and the size of a fist, been when he absorbed it he did not receive any sort of notification. He sighed to himself it couldn't always be that easy.
He sniffed at the vulture, its flesh was stringy and did not taste at all like chicken. He could not be bothered with it, walking away, letting the other members of his pack feast to their hearts content. Sniffing around, he soon found the carcass the vulture had been tearing into. Based on the fur it was a mammal of some kind. The meat was already beginning to become rancid, but a shining ball covered in fore caught his eye. The beast core! It was still here!
So it worked this way as well, no wonder the young of the more prominent beast man families had higher stats than the rest, they simply absorbed cores that other people killed. It all made so much sense. If he had a humanoid body it would be a simple process to kill more beasts than he needed and sell the cores off. However this was not the case, so he would have to limit himself to the cores he could absorb.
They stayed there until the next morning, giving pugsly a chance to heal. With his high constitution the wound had already closed up, though moving it caused him some pain, and overall slowed down there progress. Cyan was fine with that, they had four months, and he was a member of the pact. No wolf left behind was his motto.