Seraph tripped over a branch, He raised his arm preparing himself for the fall when a strong force suddenly pulled him upright.
"Be careful, watch your step and don't make noise. I think I heard some wolves." John whispered this into seraph's ear and pulled him behind him.
John crouched down, his spear in hand poked out of the shrubs. Seraph followed his example and brandished his dagger. He looked around the forest, he heard shuffling of leaves and the sounds of the birds in the forest slowly dissipated.
John pulled seraph to a tree, where he stayed put. His eyes were darting across the forest, John's face slowly grew more serious the more he listened to the silent forest. A bush shuffled dangerously close to the two but John barely reacted to it.
Seraph faced the bush and pointed his knife at it, his hand was shaking. He then felt John place a hand on top of seraph's hand "You're alright kid, You're with me."
John then suddenly dashed behind Seraph, 'Did he just ditch me?!' Seraph immediately began to panic.
A roar suddenly came from behind seraph, Which descended into whimpering. He turned back to see John holding a wolf on a spear, he quickly pivoted his hips and slammed the wolf on the tree. The wolf thoughtlessly clawed out in pain, its fur hide was broken and blood flooded down the wound and then splattered across the tree.
John pivoted once more and dragged the wolves body down to the floor, his spear dipping out of the wolf and once again being raised to the sky. A roar suddenly came from seraph's left he saw a wolf pounce toward him, he immediately raised his arms instead of pointing his knife at it.
"Seraph! Focus! Get your ass off the ground and point your knife at them!" John quickly moved in front of Seraph and swept his spear across the wolves body, knocking it to the side. The wolf whimpered, then immediately got off the ground and started to growl.
Seraph felt fear go throughout his body but then a ding rung in his ear, paired with a familiar message.
[ Dark Wolf Killed 1 Exp Gained ]
[Extreme Emotions detected]
[Extreme Emotions nullified]
He immediately felt a rush of coolness enter his body, feeling calm he immediately got off the ground and pointed his dagger at the wolf.
"These idiots are smart! Don't only trust your sight!" Seraph heard a roar from his side and saw another wolf coming from the foliage to attack seraph while he was distracted. John quickly moved again smacking the wolves head with his spear, he wasn't accurate enough causing only the wood of the spear to let out a harsh thud against the wolves head.
The wolf immediately got off the ground and went back into the forest, Seraph saw another wolf which was growling a second ago quickly retreat back. He heard roars and growls echo from all around him. He immediately felt fear seep back into his body, but was quickly combated by the slick coolness.
[Extreme Emotions detected]
[Extreme Emotions nullified]
"Widen your stance idiot and keep looking around! Listen to me, these wolves are smart. They aren't gonna throw away their lives against a strong prey. They're gonna give up after this attack." The growls continued in number, the wolves began appearing and reappearing from the shrubbery.
Counting, Seraph could see the wolves probably numbered in the twenties 'What?!' He felt fear crawl up through his spine again but the system once again kept his emotions in check.
"That's it kid, Keep calm." Seraph saw the wolves reappear and disappear for a few minutes, The growlings and roars suddenly died down and they heard them leave.
Seraph was relaxing, when he heard John "Keep your guard up, They may have feinted a retreat." to seraph's surprise he heard after a few more minutes the wolves leave again.
He sighed and slumped on the tree, his heart beating even though the system kept him calm the constant ups and down for his emotions were rapid causing him to feel exhausted.
"Why didn't they attack us." Seraph said through a sigh.
"What do you mean?" John replied nonchalantly, he was knelt over the dead dark wolves body.
"There were at least twenty wolves out there! They could've killed us all!" Seraph was panicked he really did feel like he was going to die, even with the protection of john, he didn't think that john could protect him against the swarm of twenty wolves.
"There weren't twenty wolves, There were probably three or four wolves that is including this one here." John picked up the dark wolf and placed it in the lap of Seraph.
"Oof! John, this is heavy!"He didn't even have time to register what John had said before he was being crushed under the weight of the dead wolf. With his three in strength he could barely lift such a massive wolf.
"Don't be a baby, That wolf is the weakest i've encountered so far. It's also the lightest wolf I've seen." John sat down beside Seraph and took out a piece of cloth, he wiped the cloth up his bloodied spear, cleaning it diligently.
Seraph wrapped his arms around the wolf and struggled to lift it up. 'The fuck! This wolf is the smallest? It's half my size!' Seraph let out grunts, then finally heaved the wolf up and onto his shoulder. His knees were shaking under the weight.
"There you go." John had finished cleaning his spear and was already in front of seraph. He waved seraph along to follow.
"How- How is this training?" Seraph let out a gigantic heave. The wolf really was heavy to him, then the thought that he had to carry it all the way back to the camp made him unwilling.
"Oh, I'm supposed to train you aren't i?" John hummed, then continued "What did you learn today?"
"I- I don't know!" Seraph whined. "The Wolves are strong? Wolves…"
" Are smart, very smart, I know I've been saying this over and over already but I need to emphasize this... Ever thought up a reason why those wolves make noises whenever they leave? They snuck up to us pretty easily, so they can leave pretty easily too."
"I don't know!" Seraph whined again.
"If other students were to see that retreat, they might chase after them. When you chase after them, they're smart bastards. They'll whine and make noises to make you think they're severely wounded, they'll slow down a bit and slow down their healing so you can always chase them. Then… Wham!" He slammed his fist against each other, "Your entire group is getting ambushed and the only thing you can do is pray for your life."
Seraph flinched, then realized something: "Wait you said that they can slow down their healing?"
John nodded, "The wolves have great endurance and great control over their bodies. Didn't you see that wolf that shrugged off the strike from my spear? Although it was dull, it should've broken some bones, made him dazed or something, but nothing of the sort happened right? That's because of their high endurance and their healing factor."
"I know the saying one should know your enemy and all but how is this supposed to help me fight? You saw me in the-" Seraph stumbled slightly then regained himself, "You saw what i was doing in the fight. I couldn't help at all."
"Kid, I ain't exactly a teacher… The best teacher is experience. At least.. .. that's what my teacher told me." John remarked, he then looked at seraph's dejected expression and sighed "I'll teach you some footwork back at camp, We're gonna forgo all weapon training until you… build up some meat on your bones."
"Thanks!" Seraph almost jumped up in excitement, but then was quickly reminded about the wolf on his back and fell flat on the forest floor.