*Crack!*
"Shush! Do you want to get us into trouble?"
"Hehee... Sorry for that, Juliet."
"Tsk..."
"Hey! What was that?
"Nothing."
"Hmph..."
Isabelle and Juliet were sitting onto a thick branch of an extremely tall tree. The snowflakes poured down from the sky peacefully. The moon was illuminating the scene below, which was covered in white snow. Although it seemed tranquil below, both of them knew that dangerous beasts were wandering around with bloodlust.
During the day, they had hunted down many beasts all around the terrain. They thought it would be a good idea to spend the night on a tree to avoid any unnecessary confrontation with beasts during the night. They were in a dungeon named snowy forest.
"If you keep making sounds, we will get noticed by some beast and get into trouble. Did you forget how much effort it took us to convince our fathers to let us enter into a dungeon alone?"
Seeing how serious Juliet was, Isabelle decided to comply with her request.
"Okay, Okay. I understand."
All of a sudden, the howling of wolves interrupted the silence of the night. It was obvious that, due to the loud sound, there was a huge pack of wolves nearby.
Worried that someone was in serious danger, Isabelle asked.
"Do you think someone just got caught by those wolves? Should we go and take a look?"
"No, we are not sure if the prey of the pack is actually a human or another beast. We should mind our own business."
"I see..."
Although what Juliet had said was right, Isabelle still felt uneasy. After a while, The duo went to resting, taking turns looking around for any danger.
However, during Juliet's turn, the silence was once more interrupted, but this time by a human's scream of agony.
Upon hearing the scream, Isabelle immediately woke up from her slumber. Looking at Juliet, she could see signs of discomfort in Juliet's gray eyes.
"What was that?"
"I am not sure..."
Isabelle stood up and prepared to scout the area to find out what was going on. But Juliet stopped her in her tracks.
"Stop. We don't even know for sure that we can be of help, even if we went there."
"But... You heard it too. It was a human's scream."
After pondering for a while, Juliet spoke one again.
"Okay. I will make a quick visit to the direction the scream came from. You wait here for me."
"Why is that so?"
"Because I am much more agile than you, and we need someone to look out for our bags. Are you confident in your skills that you can run away in case of emergency."
"Fine... that makes sense, I guess."
"Good. I will come back in about 15 minutes. Don't leave this tree."
Juliet departed for the place where the scream came from. By the looks of it, the scream wasn't that far away. She jumped across the branches of trees as the cold air froze her little face, making it redden a little. As time passed, she got closer and started to hear growls of wolves. She hided her presence and stood on a branch, observing what was happening down on the open field covered with snow.
Juliet's eyes widened in shock as she saw the countless corpses of wolves all scattered around the field. Because of the blood that had gushed out of the wolf corpses, the white snow had turned into crimson red. The air reeked of disgusting beast blood.
Almost every wolf was killed with precise strike on the vitals and weak spots. Although most of the wolves were (G)-rank and below, it was still an incredible achievement for Juliet. She didn't even dare to fathom about her chances against 20 wolf beasts all at once without undergoing a major accident.
The question was;
"Where is the one responsible for this slaughter? Was this person the one that had screamed?"
Juliet observed the field once again. Surprisingly, she could now see a person in the middle of the field, who she wasn't able to see a moment ago. She rubbed her eyes unconsciously. She was having difficulties focusing her attention on the man.
The person was a man in a black coat, covered in beast blood. She couldn't recognize him as his hood was hiding his face.
"What? Since when was he there on the field?"
He was walking towards 4 wolves that had created a circle for defensive measure against this man. Although the wolves were growling non-stop, their eyes said the opposite. They were filled with horror.
Juliet remained silent and motionless in order to avoid getting noticed. She wasn't planning to help the man, as she had no way of knowing whether he was trustworthy or not. She decided she would only spy on the battle for the time being. She wanted to know how this man managed to deal with this massive pack of wolves.
---------------------------------------------------
I closed the distance between the wolves with slow but silent steps. I tried to sneak behind them but since they had covered up all directions, creating a circle, I was unsuccessful. Realizing I had no other chance than going all out, I depleted my mana completely.
A sinister and dark energy gradually spread over both of my daggers. It was flickering uncontrollably. However, I wasn't done yet. More mana drained out of me towards the daggers. My heart was beating loudly at an incredible rate, while my head had started throbbing.
I kept pouring my mana into the blades. Little by little, what was first a thin layer of pitch-black shadow essence became thicker. Finally, the flickering thin layer turned into a fierce black-flame. Dark flames were rising out of the blades high up into the air.
It was like a fire, but instead of emitting light, it was devouring it. The blades left traces of shadow essence as they passed through air.
Sensing the intense power coming out of the daggers, the wolves became more worrying. I didn't have any more time to waste, since I couldn't keep this up for a long time. I reverse gripped both of my daggers, I was planning to use raw power to crush them.
I pressed against the ground and launched myself directly onto the wolves. One of them was quick to react, blocking my strike to its neck by biting down the blade to stop it. Yet it was a mistake. The shadow essence was too strong for it to bear. Thus, the wolf was forced to let it go, letting me pierce its upper plate of its mouth.
*Thud*
Not giving me a break, the other wolves leapt on me with their mouths wide open, exhibiting their sharp fangs. I was ready to dodge it, but something I hadn't expected happened. The excess use of mana had taken a toll on my body, and I wasn't able to move even a single muscle.
"AAARGH!"
The air was drained out of my lungs as the pain struck my brain. I watched the wolves digging their fangs into my skin, tearing every piece of meat apart. The overwhelming pain had given back the control over my body. I kicked one of the wolves away and stabbed one in the stomach.
I hardly retreated a few steps, holding my shoulder. I couldn't move my should even a little. I assumed it was broken. This meant I had only one dagger for the rest of the battle.
I regained a bit of clarity and pulled myself together. I had to focus if I wanted to survive. There was no guarantee that I wouldn't undergo another paralyses.
I observed the wolves and noticed that the wolf I just stabbed in the stomach had died. I glanced at the shadow essence which was dancing upon my blade.
'It really is terrifying how dreadful this thing is...'
The last two wolves dashed towards my direction. They were faster and more reckless, seeing my not-so perfect state.
"Do I look that miserable?"
Soon they appeared in front of me. My perception was intensified to such a degree that their moves looked slow in my eyes. I analyzed the situation and came up with a rough plan. It was quite a careless plan, though.
I let the wolf bit me on the same should I couldn't move in order to distract it while I was dealing with the other wolf. I gritted my teeth as my shoulder was once again torn apart.
"Fuck!"
However, I couldn't give up. I ignored the awful experience of my shoulder getting destroyed and concentrated on the other wolf. I waited for the perfect moment. The other wolf swung its claws, thinking I had already given up since I wasn't moving at all. But this was a deadly mistake. I dodged the flying claw and then counterattacked. The dagger chopped off its head without any resistance.
*Thud...*
Just as the skull of the wolf hit the ground, I turned around to finish off the last wolf, which was still clinging onto my shoulder. I was extremely exasperated. I thrust my blade down, deep into its skull. Following this, the shadow essence engulfed the wolf entirely. The wolf turned into a ball of black flames. The wolf's body slowly vanished out of existence and after a few seconds, there was not a single evidence that the wolf even existed.
I threw myself onto the ground covered in cold snow. And quickly pulled out a low-level healing potion.
*Huff...*
I knew it wouldn't heal these serious wounds but I figured it would reduce the pain. I opened my hood as the first light rays of the sun hit my face. It was a warm and comforting feeling. A smile crept up on my face.
"I need to leave this field as soon as possible after searching for cores. I don't want to come across another beast."
But for now, the only thing I could do was laying on the ground, waiting for the immense pain to cease.