After what could have been anywhere from five minutes to three or four hours, it did not sound like the wolves were faring well against the Hollow.
Chase was tired and quietly waiting patiently for the wolf's makeshift treatment to end. His body ached and creaked as the flames incarnated the burn marks on the tattered skin of his leg.
Chase suddenly looked closer at his leg and noticed that the skin was starting to repair itself under the intense torment of the flame.
Somehow, amidst the intense pain, a twisted smirk crawled onto his face. It was a new feeling that the boy did not know he had.
A newfound confidence came with it, as well as the promise to himself that he was going to survive this—and more...
Chase was young and had always questioned his purpose for living. He rarely saw his father and had never met his mother. Every day passed quickly and uneventfully, leaving the boy lying awake in his bed until the early hours of the morning most nights.
The boy did not ever really hang out much with his friends either, outside of walking to school and the occasional meet-ups every once in a while.
However, during this newfound chaos and near-death experience, the young teenager had found courage and motivation to strive in these dire times.
Perhaps it was knowing that he was probably going to die in the forest that broke his shell, or maybe it was a thought that he had pondered along with revenge.
'What if I did survive this...'
What would that make him? A child who had survived one of the most perilous places on the continent...
He would enter one of the most prestigious academies on the continent, only arguably second to the capital city's academy (which only high nobles and children of paladins and royalty could attend).
It would make him a true prodigy, as well as give him a slight chance at getting strong enough to possibly enact his revenge against the murderers who had taken any chance at even a little bit of childhood from him.
They had taken his home, his friends, and most likely his only family...
As Chase thought, the wolf let out a low growl, raised its head to the boy, and stepped back.
His leg felt incomplete, but it was no longer completely ruined...
He stood slowly, letting most of his weight shift to his uninjured leg. A much more joyful smile took hold of his arrogant thoughts as his leg painfully held his weight.
It was by no means considered "healed"; however, it was now reduced to a mere time-inducing injury that he could recover from in maybe a month or two at most.
It was still going to have a terrible scar across his skin, but he was not mad at the outcome at all. In fact, when he survived this, he was going to wear the scar like a medal and a reminder that he had survived The Dark Forest...
As the young crimson wolf stepped back, it yawned tiredly and lowered its head to the ground in front of the boy.
"What are you doing?"
Chase asked, barely audible in the chaos of the cavern.
Of course, the young elemental canine did not answer. Instead, it stood and walked over to the boy's left side, pushing gently into him—forcing him to put his body weight against the wolf, relieving him of the strain from standing on his injured leg.
Chase paid it no mind at this point and turned to watch the fight between the pack of Hell Hounds and the harrowing Hollow.
The wolves were not holding well against the Hollow; it looked as if they were struggling heavily against the Hollow's many limbs—limbs that Chase had found could form themselves into sharp, spear-like weapons.
He could not spot two of the eleven wolves in the fight. He assumed they had been killed, but he could not find their bodies anywhere inside the cavern, sending a terrible chill down the boy's spine.
The largest wolf of the pack (which Chase had assumed was the head of the pack) was doing the most damage to the Hollow, leaving terrible burns on the monstrous creature.
The Hollow let out a screeching noise as one of the wolves pounced on top of its towering back, ripping into it with claws, fangs, and anything else that could injure the beast.
Chase's eyes seemed to sparkle amidst the scene, as if he had found a true passion, as the beautiful crimson flames incarnated the skin of the terrifying beast that had caused him to fear it since the first time he had spotted the creature on his first night.
Suddenly, the Hollow ripped the wolf off of its back and did something that made Chase want to vomit from the impure sight.
The beast had used one of its many limbs to grab the Hell Hound and held it out in front of its "face," ignoring the attacks and howls from the other wolves.
The Hollow's face seemed to open around its long and twisted tongue, leaving a gaping black hole in place of its empty face.
It then threw the frantically attempting-to-escape wolf inside of its gaping maw, closing its face around one of the smaller wolves of the pack—swallowing it whole...