By the time Aurora finished eating the Gray Shadow Wolf, it had already turned nighttime. I mean, even before it was already getting late, so it's not really surprising that the night already came by.
'Calm and silent. It's a bit too quiet around here...' At this moment, Aurora's wariness had already shot up through the roof.
Not only was she in a new and unfamiliar territory, it was also nighttime and strangely quiet. It was as if there were no living beings around, something that she very much doubted.
'I need to be careful and stay vigilant.' She constantly reminded herself. Right now, there wasn't a single trace of the usual, playful Aurora.
She even made sure to concentrate her aura around her as much as she could in a way to prevent monsters and magical beasts from noticing her.
Still, she never stayed still for even a moment, constantly on the move. She didn't really have any goals, nor was she looking for anything; she just felt that it wasn't a good idea to stay in one spot for a long time.
Suddenly, Aurora's ears twitched as she picked up a low sound imperceivable by the human ear. Though she had no idea what the source of that sound was, she didn't wait around to figure it out.
Without any hesitation, she quickly jumped back and focused all her senses to the maximum she could. Thanks to her Night Vision, which was probably very close to reaching level 9 by this point, it wasn't hard for her to spot the source of the sound.
'Another one?' Right before her stood a wolf almost identical to the Gray Shadow Wolf she killed before. It wasn't hard to guess that it was of the same species as the other one.
'I can't afford to waste time on this guy.' Aurora took her battle stance without waiting around at all. She didn't want to be around fighting this wolf for too long, so she decided to rush a bit.
'I'll quickly finish thi-' However, before she could even make her move, another Gray Shadow Wolf came out from the direction where the other one came from.
No more than a moment later, and before Aurora could even process what's happening, three more wolves emerged from the darkness.
'Shit! This isn't good! Even one of them could easily wound me if I'm too reckless, but five at once!?' Right now, it wouldn't be wrong to say that Aurora began to panic.
Just one Gray Shadow Wolf was able to put up at least a bit of a fight against her. One could only imagine how difficult it would be for her to fight against five of such wolves at once.
Before, when she was fighting against the Gray Shadow Wolf, she was even forced to use some mana, something that she usually doesn't dare to waste. Thankfully, she didn't spend much of it, and since some of it regenerated already, she was only missing about ten points of MP.
Unfortunately, it seemed that fate had one more surprise for her, as after all the five wolves emerged, Aurora could soon make out the silhouette of another approaching wolf.
Once said wolf came into full view, she realized that the situation is even more grim than what she had originally thought it would be.
The last wolf was substantially different from the others. He was quite a bit bigger, and his fur was a lot darker, basically black. However, the biggest difference was undoubtedly the wolf's aura.
Ever since the second wolf appeared, Aurora quickly stopped concentrating her aura, and rather, she spread it out. This allowed her to clearly feel the fierce aurs of that black wolf.
Its aura was wild, violent, and, above all, incredibly powerful. So much so that comparing its aura to that of a normal Gray Shadow Wolf would be an insult.
The black wolf's aura was even more powerful than that of the Iron Wood Berserker after it received that huge power-up.
'That wolf alone would force me to go all out just to have a shot at winning, but five weaker ones on top of that?' Aurora was actually getting nervous by now.
No matter how much of a battle junkie she turned out to be, this was too much, even for her. And unfortunately, the wolves definitely seemed locked on her very intensively.
'The wolf I killed was probably a part of this pack. If that's the case, these guys are probably really mad.' In the end, she just gritted her teeth and prepared herself for battle.
She knew that the only way out of this is to fight, and that's exactly what she's planning to do. Fight and survive! If possible, of course.
'Come at me, bastards! I won't give up till I breathe my last!' No longer waiting around, Aurora growled and immediately opened up with an Ice Bolt. She would hold nothing back; she needed to survive.
"Au!"
But, much to her surprise, the black wolf suddenly let out a sound similar to a dog's bark, and all the wolves went high on guard. Just at that moment, Aurora finished her casting and shot out the chunk of ice.
But it seems like the black wolf's warning was enough for the wolf she aimed at to dodge her attack easily. What's more is that right after, one of the Gray Shadow Wolves charged right towards her.
'Holy!' Barely dodging in time, Aurora jumped back and avoided the attack, only to have another wolf already charging at her from the side.
Knowing that the wolves are physically stronger than her, she quickly cast another Ice Bolt, hoping to catch the approaching wolf on guard.
"Au!"
But just like before, the black wolf barked once again, which caused the wolf approaching her to halt his steps and jump back.
'I knew it! That guy can sense the movement of mana!' Aurora quickly cancelled her casting. Unfortunately, even if she cancelled it, she didn't get the mana she spent on it back.
'That black wolf is definitely special in some way. He can even sense the flow of mana, meaning that he knows when I'm about to use a spell.' Realizing this, Aurora quickly jumped back a few times to put some distance between her and the wolves.
'If he can sense the mana, it is not out of question that he might be able to even use it, which means he might be able to use spells.' She quickly began to think of a way to counter the black wolf's warnings.
If it continued on this way, she would soon run out of mana without being able to land a single spell, so she needed to think of a way to somehow get around the wolf's mana sense.
'Six targets. Ability to dodge spells. Hmm... This calls for just one thing!' It only took her a few seconds to figure out a solution, so she immediately put it to a test.
By this time, two of the five Gray Shadow Wolves were already charging at her, ready to strike once again.
"Au!"
Hearing the sudden call of their leader, both the wolves quickly backed away. But unlike what the two wolves expected, that strange, floating chunk of ice didn't appear again, just like last time.
Was their opponent baiting them? If so, why didn't that little white creature attack when it had the chance?
Before the wolves could even figure out their opponent's strategy, Aurora gave them the answer on a silver platter. No more than two seconds after the black wolf's warning, the surrounding winds chirmed and small, crystaline snowflakes began to suddenly fall from the sky.
'Snowstorm!' These snowflakes were precisely the only spell Aurora never used up until now: Snowstorm.
Since she never really had to deal with multiple targets at once, she had no reason to use Snowstorm. After all, despite being a powerful spell, it definitely wasn't worth the cost in one-on-one battles.
But a situation like this is just perfect for it. Not only does it deal damage to everything in range, it also slows down the targets, and if they stay in long enough, they even get debuffed.
But probably the most important part in Aurora's current situation isn't the damage or the slow-down effect. No, the main reason she cast Snowstorm is because it should technically make the black wolf unable to sense any spells she might cast.
Why? Well, it's simple, really. To keep the Snowstorm going, Aurora needs to constantly supply it with mana, which means that the surrounding mana will be moving constantly.
This means that unless the black wolf is really sensitive to mana, he won't be able to feel her casting spells since she is constantly using and moving her mana.
In a way to test this little theory out, she immediately cast one more Ice Bolt. And, just like she expected, there's no barking coming out of the black wolf's mouth.
By now, the two wolves had already resumed their charge and were just a few meters away from Aurora. But, much to their surprise, suddenly, a sharp chunk of ice appeared right in front of their opponent and shot out towards one of them.
The Gray Shadow Wolf had no time to even process what's happening when its head exploded in a mess of flesh and bone fragments.
[You have defeated the Gray Shadow Wolf level 15.]
[You have reached level 13.]
As a sudden surge of energy entered her body, Aurora felt all of her SP and MP filling back up. However, she didn't linger on the feeling as she immediately charged towards the second Gray Shadow Wolf that was near her.
"Au!"
The wolf, which was still frozen due to the sudden death of its pack member, suddenly heard the hurried call of its leader. Unfortunately, by the time he realized what's going on, crimson blood had already started to spray out of his neck.
Since he wasn't far in the first place, it took Aurora just a moment to close the distance between them and slit the wolf's neck with a Scratch. Soon, the wolf bled out and died.
[You have defeated the Gray Shadow Wolf level 14.]
'Good, it wasn't enough to level up.' Aurora sighed internally in relief as she noticed that just this one wolf wasn't enough for her to level up.
Normally, she would be happy for every level-up she could get, but not this time. Right now, in a way to use her mana as efficiently as possible, it would be better for her to level up only after a while.
This way, she could mostly negate the high cost of Snowstorm while also being able to still cast other spells.
Just like before, Aurora wasted no time, and after killing the second wolf, she quickly moved towards the rest that still remained alive.
Unfortunately, due to the distance, the remaining three Gray Shadow Wolves had enough time to recover from their shock of losing two members of their pack.
Now, filled with fury, all three prepared to kill that impudent little creature that dared to already kill three of them (counting the wolf from the last chapter).
One of them was so furious that he charged ahead, ready to meet their opponent head-on. This, however, was a mistake on his part. But by the time he realized it, it was far too late.
Once the wolf began to charge, he could clearly feel that he wasn't nearly as agile and fast as he was normally. This completely threw him off, causing him to lose focus.
Such a thing as losing focus is something that you absolutely cannot afford to do during a battle, and the wolf paid the price for doing so.
Just as he resumed his charge, his pupils contracted to the size of needles as a large, blue chunk of ice was just a few centimeters away from his head.
By the time he could do anything... well, let's say he ended up even worse than his friend that got killed by Aurora's Ice Bolt previously.
[You have defeated the Gray Shadow Wolf level 15.]
[You have reached level 14.]
'Three down, two more to go!' Aurora exclaimed internally, finally regaining the confidence she innevitably lost at the beginning of the battle.
It was undeniable that this sudden turn of tides served as a great moral boost for her. Still, she didn't let herself get overconfident and kept her feet firmly on the ground.
'The worst is yet to come.' She thought as she looked in the direction of the black wolf.
Ever since the battle began, the black wolf did nothing except warn the other wolves. But judging by how angry he looked right now, Aurora doubted that he would stay idle any longer.
"Auuuu!"
And just as she thought, the black wolf howled in anger and jumped forward with great force, landing in front of the two remaining Gray Shadow Wolves.
He looked at Aurora with eyes filled with fury after losing four of his pact members in just a single day. Right now, he wanted nothing more than to tear the little white creature apart.
'Time for round two!'