The Monsters were very smart animals, and they could probably sense how able Yang Tian's group of Warriors were. Most Monsters hid far away when they saw the group. Only a few of them attacked out of a sudden, and that was most likely because they stepped into their territories.
Up to that point, the Monsters they ran into were mostly pythons, Mutant Lizards, Silver Boars, Red-Clawed Cats, and some other lower-leveled Monsters.
Throughout their journey, Yang Tian and his companions only ran into three graded Monsters, but no Beast Cores were found after the kills.
It was as if Yang Tian had consumed their luck with his first attack.
However, Yang Tian realized that his teammates were all very positive. That was not their first time hunting in the wild as a team, so such situations were quite normal. They told him if every Monster bore a Beast Core, then they would not be so valuable.
By the time it was 5pm, the sun had not set behind the horizon, but the woods had dimmed down. Xiao Fei ordered his team to stop, and they looked for a place to set up camps.
Xiao Fei must have had many experiences training in the wild. He leaned his ear on a piece of rock and listened. With additional help from the Warriormate around his wrist, he led the team to walk for roughly one kilometer before they found a stream.
Normally, Monsters liked to gather in places close to water, because they, too, needed to drink.
Xiao Fei left his teammates a hundred meters from the stream and brought back eight flasks of water. He distributed them to each of them and said, "Let's get out of here, there're Black-backed Wolves around here. If they sniffed us out, we're in trouble."
Yang Tian and the rest turned gloomy on their faces when they heard about Black-backed Wolves.
A single Monster was not always scary, compared to those that were gregarious—best described by the saying, 'A multitude of ants could kill an elephant'.
However strong a Warrior may be, he would not be able to withstand a long siege by the Monsters.
After making a mile's retreat, Xiao Fei led his team to the top of a hill and set up their camps on a flat surface.
Before the sky turned dark, they took out their dry food and ate it with stream water. Such was their simple meal.
To avoid the attention of Monsters, they had to restrain from making fire at night and also not letting out any thick smell of blood.
By nightfall, they each took out a sleeping bag.
They had to take turns to sleep. For the first half of the night, Yang Tian, Xiao Fei, and the two ladies were to keep watch, and the rest of them would take over after that.
Slightly after eight o'clock at night, rustling noises came from the woods around them. There were also wolf howls that could be heard in a distance—it was quite terrifying to the ear.
It was Yang Tian's first time spending the night in the wild, so it was new and exciting to him. He hugged his saber close to him and leaned on a boulder behind him while watching the night sky. Since the YS outbreak and Monsters appeared, nature had turned for the better bit by bit as one could see from the brighter and brighter night sky.
It was autumn and the sky was covered with stars. It was an incredibly beautiful sight.
Nobody said a word during the watch.
At 1am, Xiao Fei woke Zhao Wu, Liu Jian, Wang Guang, and Li Xuan to take over the watch.
Yang Tian felt far from sleepy; he was still very energetic. However, he slipped himself into the sleeping bag and shut his eyes.
Inadvertently, he fell asleep.
Not knowing how much time had passed, somebody woke Yang Tian.
It was Xiao Fei.
"Get up now, we're in trouble!" Xiao Fei told Yang Tian.
"What trouble?" whispered Yang Tian.
Xiao Fei replied, "We're surrounded by wolves."
Right away, Yang Tian crawled out of his sleeping bag and looked around. Countless shining green dots were surrounding them down the hill.
Those were not fireflies, they were wolves' eyes.
Yang Tian quickly put on his night-vision goggles, threw on his backpack, unsheathed his saber, and went over to his teammates.
The eight of them stood back to back, each watching one direction, vigilantly staring at the wolves that were closing in on them.
"Dammit, how did these guys find us?" asked a teeth-gritting Wang Guang, who held up his Gatling, aiming at the big pack of wolves.
"Don't know! Wolves are incredibly cunning animals, they probably caught our scents much earlier on and followed us here!" said Xiao Fei nonchalantly.
Owoooo!
Right then, there came a wolf howl in the woods below.
Trat tat tat tat…
Wang Guang aimed at the howl and fired; his Gatling let out two-feet long rapid flames. Under the sky where stars were fading, Yang Tian saw the bullets flying through the woods, tearing open tree trunks as large as the size of a big bowl, as well as turning a few Black-backed Wolves into flying pieces of blood and flesh.
Upon finishing one magazine, Wang Guang lowered his weapon.
Apparently, Wang Guang's Gatling gun was the best weapon to deal with wolf packs. Even a Grade Three Cyan-fanged Wolf could not withstand the powerful kinetic energy of its bullets.
Owooooo!
Soon after Wang Guang stopped shooting, he heard a wolf howl from a farther distance.
The howl was obviously an order to attack from the pack leader. The round of shots that Wang Guang took did not hit the cunning beast, and it ran elsewhere to give the order.
A sudden rustle below the hill was accompanied by a large number of Black-backed Wolves pouncing at Yang Tian and the rest of the team.
Trat tat tat tat…
Wang Guang fired nonstop while Li Xuan, already holding the mechanical bow, shot at the wolves at the rate of one arrow per second. Within two minutes, he finished all his arrows in the quiver. He tossed away the bow and drew out the spike that he carried on the side. With a pull, the spike turned into a spear. He jerked the shaft at a charging wolf and sent it flying.
Even though Wang Guang's Gatling gun was superior in force, it could only cover one direction while the wolves attacked from all sides.
Yang Tian also joined in the defense by swinging his Tang dao, cutting an oncoming Black-backed Wolf in half.
…
Within three minutes, Wang Guang exhausted a chain of bullets. Without enough time to change cartridges, he dropped the heavy weapon to the ground and started attacking with an alloy machete.
Once the gun stopped, the Black-backed Wolves became more ferocious and charged toward the Warriors in a frenzy.
After ten minutes or so, Yang Tian estimated that he had made less than a hundred kills, and the wolves below kept coming up.
'Just how many wolves are in this pack?'
Yang Tian wondered in shock.
The wolves were simply attacking without consideration of injury and death, treating the Warriors like their nemesis.
"It can't go on like this! There are more than a thousand of them. If we keep fighting like this, we'd be exhausted!" shouted Xiao Fei loudly at that instance.
"Then, what do we do?" asked Zhou Feng.
Xiao Fei sent two wolves flying with his double-saber and shouted, "You guys stay here, I'll go find their leader! They'll only disperse if their leader is dead."
It was five o'clock in the morning. The stars had vanished, and only a crescent moon remained. It was dark all around.
"There are so many of them. How're you gonna find the leader?" said Liu Xiao loudly.
Frowning, Xiao Fei fell quiet.
"I'll go!" Yang Tian shouted as he raised his foot and kicked away Black-backed Wolf.
"Stop kidding!" said Xiao Fei after turning around and looked at Yang Tian.
"I'm not kidding. We're all gonna die if we keep this up. I can find the pack leader, please believe me," said Yang Tian with a smile on his face.
Through his night-vision goggles, Xiao Fei saw Yang Tian's strong confidence. He nodded.