Chapter 32 - Surprise :-)

In the thick forest, the chirping from the birds was heard from far away, suddenly two creatures ran across and completely destroyed the calm environment.

Those creatures were none other than a pair of horned wolves.

One of the young wolves had a significant lead on the other, when it finally saw the river it seemed to get more motivated. The win was in sight and all that was left were about 1000 feet, she gave it one last push and sped up.

Suddenly from her right side the wolf that she had a lead on blurred past her. Not long after, she arrived at the river where the other wolf was waiting with a happy expression.

She shook her head and looked at him angrily "It's no fun if you don't go all the way at the beginning."

The wolf laughed and moved towards the water "You do realize that I had no idea where the river was right? If I sped past you at the beginning I would have probably gone the wrong way. You said straight, but in this forest it's easy to get lost."

The she-wolf sighed and moved towards the water and began drinking.

From above, unknown to the two wolves a dark grey creature climbed a nearby tree. Its orange eyes were locked onto the she-wolf that was drinking water. It smiled evilly and began walking on the branch until he was directly above the drinking wolf.

It jumped down with claws and jaws ready to kill. Slowly it's claws and sharp teeth went into the throat of the brown wolf.

The blueish wolf which was laying down and yawing saw the creature but it was too late, the dark grey monster had already reached the brown she-wolf that was drinking. He instinctively jumped up and let a growl out.

The brown she-wolf turned around in confusion "Viper Paw what's wrong?"

He quickly shook his head and sat down as he looked at the 2 ft goblin-like creature that had gone through the wolf. The creature shook his head and began walking towards him "Tch, Tch master that's another one that would have been dead. What is that, the 38th time?"

Ryan showed his fangs and swung his paw towards the darkling but it went through the body.

"Don't get angry master, you are the one who asked me to do this so that you could work on your awareness. I was scouting the forest and suddenly the invisible wall began pushing me back, I remembered you said that you might be leaving camp for the first time so I came here to check. Why is that annoying Mud Shade your mentor? I would have thought that the alpha would have wanted the honor of being Master's mentor."

Ryan shook his head and turned to the brown wolf that was walking towards him, "So where are we racing to now?"

Mudshade sighed and shook her head "Do you think I enjoy losing? Like I said earlier I'm hungry so let's go find something to eat."

He nodded, stood up, and began following the brown warrior, when he was a good distance from her he began answering the darkling. One of the flaws of the evil projection skill was that if he wasn't careful the other wolves would think he was crazy. "Mud Shade isn't my mentor, it's Sun Blaze but he was too tired to take me out of camp. While I was doing some of my daily jobs Mud Shade found me and asked if I wanted to go to the forest with her."

The dark grey creature nodded and with his eyes that glowed orange, he checked the brown she-wolf up and down. After a few seconds, he shook his head and looked at his master, "I don't think that she is the best qualified for you master. She is too confusing, sometimes she's nice to you, but suddenly she will turn rude. If you're trying to find a mate then I think that Night Pup, Cloud Pup, and Wood Pup are nicer. They might always be around Fang Pup but I'm sure that if it was for you, our master he would...."

Suddenly an invisible strand of lighting went through the darkling's head and hit the ground making a loud noise. The brown wolf quickly turned around and bared her fangs at the direction where she heard the hit. When she noticed the burn mark that she had seen many times before she turned around and tilted her head.

"What happened? Were you just trying to scare me?"

Ryan smiled and shook his head "Sorry I just thought that I saw some hideous creature out of the corner of my eyes."

The goblin-like creature sat down, pouted, and mumbled "Have you seen your reflection in the water lately? Saying I'm hideous, hmph you wish you were as good looking as me."

Ryan heard the darkling and turned his head to look at the sitting creature, "What was that?"

The dark grey monster quickly stood up and smiled "I said that compared to Master all the creatures are hideous. I wish that I was as good looking as you, but of course, that is just a wish that will never be able to be granted."

"Right, so Four have you heard anything from One, Two, or Three? I sent them to guard the surroundings of the camp but I haven't heard from them in a while."

Four nodded and pointed east, "I saw Two on one of the trees over there, according to him the surroundings are all clear and there aren't any enemies in the area that we are allowed to go."

Ryan sighed and nodded "Then that's good, by what you all mentioned the last time then you are only allowed to be within a 2 mile radius of me. That should be more than enough for an early warning."

"Yes, Master is right, but wouldn't it be better to summon Five as well? That way the chances that we let someone slip in will be lessened."

He shook his head at the dark grey monster and continued walking "At the moment I can only have 5 of you summoned at once, I need to have one of you in reserve for emergencies. You guys may not have physical bodies but you could still tell me where there is danger."

"Hey Viper Paw look there,"

He heard the whisper of the crouching wolf in front of him and slowly walked towards her while laying low. Once he was next to her he saw what looked like an armadillo, it's shell was brown and it blended well with the tree bark. It also had pitch-black spikes on the back of its shell that seemed to be about 3 inches long.

"I've heard of this creature but I've never seen it, I think its name was Flamed Wood Rat. My mentor said that those spikes on its back wrap themselves in fire. Though it might look a bit small when they roll up they can become difficult to deal with."

Ryan turned around and looked at Mud Shade 'Small?? That thing is nearly 2 ½ times bigger than the giant armadillo.'

The brown warrior pointed at the armadillo "This animal must be rare since I haven't seen any around here. It would be nice if we can let the pups try it, they were getting sick of goblins.

Ryan smiled and shivered 'Who wouldn't, though I've made myself get used to eating them just the thought gets me wanting to puke. Armadillo does sound like an improvement.'

"Alright Mud Shade, so what exactly is the plan? I'm warning you that I have actually never hunted anything so I suggest getting some help from the others."

The brown wolf quickly shook her head "If we do that then by the time we come back it might be gone."

Ryan smiled and stood proud "You know me, I have really good luck. I bet that I will be able to track it."

Behind him he heard the mumbling of Four "Great, how come he gets to take all the credit. You're lucky you're my master otherwise I would have given you a piece of my mind long ago"

Ryan pretended not to hear him and instead paid attention to Mud Shade who seemed to think about it for a bit, but after a few seconds she shook her head and sighed "Though that might be true, I'm sure that I'll be able to sneak on it and kill it before it curls into its shell."

Ryan looked at her and nodded "You know your own capabilities if you really think that you're able to do it then go for it."

She smiled at him and slowly melted into the ground becoming a shadow who quickly moved towards the armadillo's shadow. The shadow stopped right when she was beneath the armored rodent. Suddenly two sets of claws jumped out of the shadow.

The creature was pinned down with its underbelly exposed as the brown warrior who was quickly turning red kept on tearing it apart.

Ryan sighed and quickly ran towards the suffering creature

[Speared Tail]

He felt a large amount of pain as his tail began to elongate and become leaner. When it was done his tail it had become about 3 times it's size. At the end, it had a sharp needle-like bone spearhead. He flicked it and it quickly pierced through the armadillo's throat and exited it's eye socket, a second later the creature stopped moving.

Mud Shade stopped clawing and looked at his tail with interest "That ascension of yours is soo unfair. How did you get so many abilities?"

Ryan smiled and was about to answer but there was suddenly a screech from above. They both looked at the sky and froze when they saw the source of the screech. Swooping down towards them was a creature that he had only seen in the movie Warcraft.

Mud Shade quickly ran away from the armadillo's body and into the bushes. Ryan was about to chase right after her but when he tried running away he felt a pull come from his tail. When he turned around he found that the bone tip of his tail was stuck on the eye socket of the skull.

He quickly removed the skill and his tail began turning back to normal, however, it was too late. From above Ryan felt a large impact and the piercing pain on his sides. The impact made his body feel numb and slowly his vision began to blur. The last thing he saw before passing out was the shocked Mud Shade looking straight at him with a gaze full of fear. Four was frantically trying to punch, bite, and claw the monster but all his attacks were non-existent.

Then everything became cold and silent.

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Author's Note :

Sup amigos and amigas sorry for the long wait, I seriously misunderestimated the amount of work I was gonna receive from professors. I'll do my best to update chapters on time :-)

Oh and who here can guess what creature was the one who KO'd our MC.

Like many college students, I'm in a bit of need of money it'd be cool if anyone could donate anything to this poor author lol. If not you're totally fine haha, I'll have the link posted below and on the comments. Take care and cya all on wens.

PayPal.Me/Nice2meetya