After Ian killed the wolf, Kevin and Emmett walked up to him. They were amazed at how well he managed to fight a low-tier silver-rank creature.
"Well done Ian. I had no idea you had a skill like that. How did you learn such a skill," Kevin asked Ian.
Ian turned to face Kevin and said, "It's difficult to explain, but basically, I learned how to camouflage myself while also learning how to disperse my presence. Camouflage is easy to do, but learning to disperse your presence is extremely difficult. You have to be able to control your emotions, breathing, and a bunch of other things."
Emmett looked puzzled and asked, "How long did it take you to do that?"
"It took me three years to learn how to do that. But it doesn't work well against stronger opponents. I'm sure you guys could still feel my blood lust which means I still need to perfect it."
Kevin and Emmett were surprised that Ian knew about that. They thought that was a part of the skill. But now they knew that what they felt was the imperfections of the skill.
The three of them took a small break after that. They drank some water and relaxed so they could get some of their strength back. Mainly Kevin and Emmett.
As they sat and talked for a bit, they all suddenly got an extreme sense of danger. The three of them jumped from where they were sitting as a blast of fire landed there.
They all turned in the direction the blast had come from and saw a large black wolf emerging from behind some trees. The three of them knew this wolf was gold rank. It matched the description given to them by Erik.
Knowing how dangerous it was, the three of them decided to run as fast as they could. As they ran, Kevin and Emmett launched numerous attacks at it. But the wolf was unaffected by them. It was able to tank them with minimal damage taken.
Seeing as their attacks weren't working, they started to use their powers to create barriers to slow it down. The combination of a wind shield and a stone wall made the barriers strong enough to handle a couple of the wolf's attacks, slowing it down. However, the wolf would always catch back up with them.
They would not last long in this situation so Kevin yelled, "Ian, call for help while Emmett and I slow it down!"
Ian was the slowest of the three and was barely able to keep up with them. But after hearing Kevin, he pulled out his communication crystal and immediately started yelling into it.
"Hello! Hello! This is Ian! We need some assistance! We are being chased by a gold-rank wolf and are unable to fight it, please someone come and help us!" Ian yelled into the crystal.
Not long after, a voice spoke back from the crystal. "I hear you, Ian. Where are you guys?"
"Dad! I have no idea, we're just trying to outrun the wolf while slowing it down! I don't think Kevin and Emmett can handle it much longer!" Ian frantically said into the crystal.
From the other side of the crystal, Erik said, "Tell Emmett to shoot a rock blast into the air so I can locate you. I know you guys went further east from where I went, but I need to know exactly where."
Ian didn't have to tell Emmet anything, he heard the entire conversation. After hearing Erik's command, Emmett created a ball made out of small rocks and launched it into the air. Once it reached the peak of its travel, the rock exploded.
After that, the three of them continued running from the wolf, waiting for help to show up. But help would show up faster than they expected. Within seconds of the rock exploding, something came crashing from the sky, landing on the wolf with a massive explosion. Creating a dust cloud.
The three of them stopped running and turned to see what had happened. When the dust started to clear, the three of them would begin to see the silhouette of someone where the wolf stood. In their hand, they held a sword.
After a moment, the dust fully cleared, revealing Erik. The wolf lay on the ground, split in two. The two halves of the wolf were on opposite sides of Erik.
"Are you kids okay?" Erik asked the group as if he hadn't just one shot a gold rank wolf.
Ian, Emmett, and Kevin were stunned. They didn't expect Erik to show up for a few minutes. But now he was standing in front of them seconds after being called.
"Hello. Did you guys hear me? Are. You. Okay?" Erik asked them slowly, hoping to get a response.
Eventually, Kevin snapped out of it and said, "Yeah, we're fine. The wolf wasn't able to get to us."
Erik gave a sigh of relief and said, "That's good to hear. You guys should take a break. We still have under an hour until we have to head back."
The group fell to the ground. They were all tired from running at top speed. They took out a few snacks and began to eat them.
Erik chose to stay with them for a few minutes before continuing his hunt. As he sat and relaxed, he asked, "So, how many wolves have you guys hunted?"
Ian, who was lying on the ground said, "We've killed 36 wolves. I killed 10 of them, Emmett killed 14, and Kevin killed 12. Most of mine were copper rank though."
Erik was impressed. He didn't think they would kill that many at their level. He was going to complement them, but then Kevin interrupted him and asked, "How many have you killed?"
Ian and Emmett want to know the same thing. They thought killing 36 wolves was extremely good, especially at their level.
Erik took a moment to think before saying, "I lost track after 800. Out of that only 11 of them were gold rank, plus this one I just killed. Sadly, I haven't encountered any crystal-rank wolves."
Ian, Emmett, and Kevin were astonished. They knew Erik would be able to kill a few hundred wolves with his speed and power but not over 800. It had only been over an hour and he had managed to kill that many.
However, after thinking about it a little long, they understood what Erik said. He may have killed an extremely large number of wolves but only a handful were of a slightly higher rank.
That meant they would have a small chance of encountering anything dangerous. If that were true, then they were extremely unlucky to have come across the gold-rank wolf. The thought made the group depressed at their situation.
Erik saw the disheartening looks on their faces and said, "Don't overthink it. You guys have made it this far with only one major hiccup. You've surpassed my expectations."
The group sat in silence for a few seconds before Kevin stood up and said, "You know what, you're right. We have made it this far on our own. And we'll keep pushing forward until we can't anymore." Kevin gave the biggest and stupidest smile when he finished.
Both Ian and Emmett were giving Kevin a look of complete confusion and disgust. Almost as if they smelt a fart. They knew Kevin was trying to improve the mood but they both couldn't help but say, "Kevin, shut the hell up!"
Even Erik said, "Kevin, you need to work on speeches."
Kevin did not react to their comments and continued to smile towards nothingness.
After another brief moment, Erik stood up and said, "Okay, it's about time I continue my hunt. We still have more than half an hour before we have to return to camp, so good luck with your hunt, and stay safe." Afterwards, he jumped into the air, towards no specific direction.
The three of them watched Erik jump away. Waiting for him to be out of view before continuing their hunt. The three of them collected their belongings and slowly continued their travel through the forest once more.
For the next few minutes, the group didn't come across any more wolves. They thought all of the wolves had been killed by now and that they would be able to kill anymore. Even the sounds of wolves dying had died down. Only the occasional wolf cry could be heard.
After a few more minutes of traveling though, the group came across a cave. It was hidden behind many bushes, shrubs, and vines. They thought it might have been a hiding spot for the wolves and ventured in.
The inside of the cave was extremely dark. They could only see a few steps inside. It didn't help that the sun was setting behind the cave so no light got in.
Emmett unclipped a small lantern he had on his waist and began to light up the cave. With something lighting up the cave, the group was able to tell that the cave went deeper than they thought.
The three of them slowly traversed deeper into the cave, hoping to find some wolves. But after walking a few meters, they began to find the skeletal remains of creatures. None of them belong to wolves though.
They all started to get freaked out. The further they traveled, the more bones they'd find. They thought they had entered a powerful creature's home due to how many bones they'd found.
They were about to turn back until Kevin spotted something deeper in the cave. He took the lantern from Emmett and made his way towards it.
When he got closer, he noticed a large amount of grass and weeds scattered across the floor. The further he traveled into the cave the more he found.
After taking a few more steps, Kevin and the gang hear a quiet high-pitched growl. It seemed to be coming from a bit further in the cave. This put all three of them on high alert.
They traveled at a slower pace with their guard up. In their minds, they were happy to find some more wolves to add to their collection, but they were also worried. If they were lucky they may find a low rank wolf. However, there could always be a chance of finding a high-level wolf. Regardless, they pressed on.
After a few more steps, the group came across a large pile of grass and weeds. It looked more like a giant nest.
The growling sounded like it was coming from the nest so the group did not advance. They were only a few meters away from the nest but were afraid to approach it.
Eventually, the group decided to put Emmett in the front before approaching the nest. Emmett, now leading the group, put on a small amount of stone armor. It covered his chest, head, and thighs. Alongside that, he also put on his giant stone gauntlets. With that, the group slowly advanced towards the nest.
The closer they got to the nest the louder the growling became. Once they were only a couple of meters away from the nest, the group was able to see into it. Upon inspection, they did not find what they were expecting. But they did see something more surprising.
Within the grassy nest, the group found four wolf pups. But what surprised them the most was that they were all different colors.
The wolf pups were around the size of a pug. There were three of them huddled together at the opposite side of the nest. The fourth one was lying down off to the side. It had black fur and seemed to be badly injured.
The other three were all different colors. The one in the front, which was the one that was growling, had light blue fur. The other two were cowardly hiding behind the blue fur pup. One had green fur while the other had white fur.
This was new to Ian, Emmett, and Kevin. They hadn't heard anything about different colored wolves, let alone wolf pups. The groups didn't know what to do. Due to how young the pups are, the three of them believed they had to be null rank. But at the same time, the pups had different colored fur.
Since the wolf pups don't seem capable of fighting, Ian and the gang decided to take a moment and think. They knew they had to kill them, but they felt bad having to do so.
After a few seconds of thought, the group decided to call Erik for some advice. Ian pulled out his communication crystal and was about to speak into it when they suddenly heard a loud growl. The growling was approaching them from the entrance of the cave.
All three of them turned to see what was walking towards them. When they turned around, their faces went pale.
Approaching them was a fairly large black wolf. It was smaller than the previous one they encountered, but they knew it was gold rank.
The three of them wanted to run but they had nowhere to go. If they stayed and fought, they would mostly lose. But it seemed like they had no choice.
Even with fear filling their hearts, they readied themselves for a fight. But before anything happened, Kevin said, "Ian, call for help. We'll hold it off."
Ian didn't complain. He turned back to his communication crystal and began speaking. "Hello? This is Ian. we're in trouble. Please send hel-'' Before Ian could finish talking, a small blast of fire destroyed his crystal.
Ian turned to the others with a face of fear. The black wolf destroyed his crystal to stop him from calling for help. The other two had communication crystals but they were afraid they would get destroyed by the wolf as well.
With nowhere to go and no way to communicate with someone without risking the destruction of another crystal, the group had no other choice but to fight.