Leon left the open forests and fields behind as he was consumed by the massive walls of rocks on either side of him. He hadn't seen anyone around and wasn't too surprised as a lot of people would rather spend extra time going around the canyon instead of going through it, since it was hard to escape from a monster attack while within the deep walls of the canyon. However, Leon was a young man who wanted adventure and quickness, so he didn't mind taking the risk.
Even though the idea of being the size of a speck of dust inside the canyon was scary, Leon was still in awe of the sheer size of the rocks and gave a shout which echoed throughout a small part of the canyon.
"Wow… wow…..wow....wo"
Hearing his voice disappear into the giant canyon was new and fun to Leon, so he let out a long laugh with a smile which also echoed throughout the canyon. Although he stopped after a while as doing it near the entrance was fine, however, the monsters which lived deeper into the canyon would pounce on Leon if he continued.
The clanging of horse hooves on the rock floor barely echoed as they continued to trot along the main path through the canyon. This silence didn't lift even after two hours of riding, at the pace Leon was traveling he would clear the canyon by late afternoon and wouldn't have to worry about sleeping or traveling in the canyon at night.
With two hours of traveling under his belt, Leon had made it a third of the way through the canyon and was nearing the more active and crazy parts of the canyon which included the monsters as well as the shape of the road, as the road started to turn as it couldn't go in a straight line due to giant rocks that stood in the way.
As Leon got nearer to the halfway point and center of the canyon, Leon heard a subtle sound. Although Leon couldn't hear that much further compared to an average soldier, he picked up a series of small sounds that seemed to be echoing throughout the canyon.
*clang*
"Keep!....and….or"
The sounds were very distorted as the echoing had shaved the sounds to the point where it took a lot of concentration to make out what the echoes were saying, but he still couldn't make out what was going on ahead.
However, from the clanging noise and shout, Leon would place his life savings and belongings on some sort of fight going on ahead. What really concerned Leon was the fact that the voices meant that it wasn't two monsters fighting, but at least another person was fighting and they didn't sound composed and in control at all.
The clanging noises didn't stop, which made Leon excited so he turn to his horse to give him a nice stroke on his neck.
"Are you ready?"
Although the horse didn't understand what his rider had said, it felt the excitement that its rider was exuding and gave a neigh like it was agreeing. The horse had been bored the entire time as Leon wasn't riding with it at full speed to conserve its stamina over the long trip, but with the potential opportunity to gallop at full speed it didn't dare hold back its opinion.
Hearing his horse seemingly agreeing with him, Leon gave his horse a tap on its side and it started to canter down the path and steer through the turns. After almost a minute of twists and turns, the twisting path ran into a semi-small clearing and in the middle of it a fierce battle was going on.
A small wooden cart carrying an elderly man and child was stranded in the middle of the clearing, as the horse pulling it had run away to the outer parts of the clearing. Meanwhile surrounding the cart, a group of men varying from Leon's age to middle-aged men had a variety of weapons ranging from a farming scythe to spears.
They stood in a circle and could barely make a defensive formation around the cart, but they were already all heavily panting and some had a few scratches that dripped blood onto the rocky floor.
Meanwhile, their aggressors stood around them greatly outnumbered at only five. However, they weren't any enemy, but gray wolves.
Gray wolves were a species of wolves who often lived in shaded areas as they enjoyed being away from the sun and lazing around. However, when they did need to eat, they hunted in packs. They weren't too strong either as most gray wolves would individually be between the combat prowess of a goblin and a hobgoblin.
This made it so most adventurers had a relatively easy time with them, as long as they had a decent amount of numbers. However, from what Leon could tell, the men with old cotton and burlap clothes with worn-out weapons didn't look like mercenaries or adventurers, which most likely meant they were regular people fighting. This explained why none of the wolves had been injured and why the defenders were on the back foot.
Leon estimated that they most likely would try their best to stand up to the wolves, however from what he could tell they would eventually most likely perish to their attackers.
However, with Leon here, their original fates had completely turned around.
Suddenly one of the wolves lunged at one of the men defending the cart, the attack startled the defender who fell back onto his behind, which left an opening for the attackers who could easily reach the defenseless people inside the carts if they rushed the opening.
Seeing this, Leon tapped his horse into a full gallop and screamed to distract the wolves from capitalizing on the fatal mistake.
"DON'T IGNORE ME!"
The loud scream echoed off the rock walls in the clearing and fortunately caught the attention of the wolves who were about to pounce on the vulnerable point of the formation. The voice caught them off guard and the decently large horse galloping at full sprint made them wary and cautious toward the newcomer