The beast that was towering over all of us had the same colors as the other wolves. White fur with white lines. But this one seemed to be longer. And its whole frame was bigger. How did a thing like that become so big was beyond me.
It was growling, its eyes glued on the siblings.
"This seems quite the conundrum," Dara said while standing up. She somehow recovered her composure, even after getting shot with a crossbow.
"Don't you say!" I answered.
The siblings looked back at it, making sure not to make sudden movements.
"M-maybe is a good puppy?" Mae said.
The wolf then howls. It was a thunderous sound, showcasing the creature's lung power. I felt the earth shake and my soul tremble.
"I don't think so!" answered Jett.
He took another of his daggers and threw it at the wolf. It bounced off its fur, and I suppose it did not cause any damage. However, that only made it angrier, and it assumed an attack position.
I grabbed Dara's hand and turned for an escape. I started to run and pulled her with me.
"Ah! Marcel! What are you doing?!" she asked
"What do you think? Getting away from that thing!"
I could hear the wolf jump and try to attack the siblings, who screamed. I looked back and they started to run toward us. They got lucky, as the giant monster failed to get them.
I heard more howls around us. All from different directions and distances. It did not take long to see more wolves of more normal sizes appear between the trees and bushes. That initial howl by the big one must have attracted its pack.
The big wolf runs with great speed towards us and then jumps over. Falls in front of us and quickly turns around. All of us stopped, including the siblings, as the big wolf was cutting out our path and we found each other surrounded by the wolves.
All of them were growling with malicious intent.
"This is bad…" I commented while taking a step back.
Dara then looked back at the siblings. I swear an evil smirk formed on her face for a split second when I looked at her. The siblings noticed and took a step back.
"Nova!" Dara stretched her arm and I felt the magical energy coming from her.
A Disk of fire appeared around her and started expanding quickly. I got scared for a moment but it went through me like nothing. For everyone else, however? The wolves that did not manage to avoid the expanding fire disk received over 200 points of damage each, killing them instantly. Several pieces of resources were left on the floor.
"Not worth the XP," she said while fixing her glasses.
I did not receive a single point…
"Can you please stop holding my hand? I am an adult" Dara said to me. I looked down and as she said, I was still firmly holding it.
"Ah! Sorry!" I answered while letting her go, my face was too red.
"Y-you crazy old hag, you almost killed us!" I heard Mae's voice.
I looked up to a tree. She was holding herself from a tree branch. Her brother, Jett, was trying to climb into the same tree.
"She keeps calling me old… damn brat" Dara complained.
The big wolf started to growl once more. The amount of damage it received was not enough to kill it. Dara said that it can be a problem even for her level, so is not surprising to me. I am still afraid of what is going to do next.
My HP bar still showed 21/110. The low HP warning was flashing, reminding me that I was about to die if I did not do something.
The wolf started to circle us. Its eyes were locked on Dara, who was causing the biggest amount of damage so far. In fact, she was the only one who managed to cause something to her.
Dara pulled out another healing potion and gave it to me. She paid attention only to it, her eyes glued back at the monster, following its movements.
I took it quickly and drank it.
[HP: 110/110]
"We will elaborate some equipment for you when we return to the castle," Dara said.
"No, you won't!" I heard Mae's voice.
When I looked at her, she had already jumped from her branch towards Dara. A dagger was in her hand.
"Watch out!" I warned Dara.
She did not turn around and allowed Mae to approach through her jump. When the Sacred Army woman got close enough to her, trying to hit her with her weapon, a weird energy came out of her, causing the air to move.
With the force of the energy, Mae was thrown through the air, dropped her weapon, and rolled through the floor, receiving 50 points of damage.
"Keep it quiet now. We don't have time to be fooling around," Dara said. She was still looking towards the monster.
Note to self. REALLY don't make her angry.
Both siblings looked surprised at her. I did remember that they seemed more focused on me than her, and they seemed to have more intel about me… probably they did not know that the people in the castle were much more powerful than me. But someone around her level should not be so rare.
They either were so overconfident in their abilities or believed that they would have heard about someone over level 10 before being sent to whatever they were doing in the woods.
"What's the plan, Dara?" I decided to ask. We did not have time to be fooling around anyway. Maple was suffering waiting for us.
"Scry" Dara casts. I remember that spell. The HP and the MP of the monster appeared for us. What surprised me was a small blue shine behind it.
[White wolf Pack Leader]
[HP: 2332/2500]
[MP: 500/500]
"Help me defeat it. Focus on the blue light. It will allow you to cause more damage if you hit there" she explained.
So, that is a weak spot? I remember seeing that when I hit the soldier in the village with my sword. I probably managed to hit one.
If I wanted to hit this one, I needed to climb and get up on its back.
"Alright, let's get this done," I said.
I started to circle the monster like he was doing with Dara. My body felt a bit heavier, but I could move. It noticed my movement and growled at me, but Dara moved her feet a couple of centimeters and returned its attention to her. It did not consider me a danger as he believed she was.
I gunned for it and ran to circle it. I was intending to get up on it. It turned towards me and tried to hit me. I moved out of the way in time and the wolf hit a tree, crushing its trunk and causing it to fall.
"Dara!" I yelled at her.
The wolf started to attempt to stomp me with its feet. I managed to run out of the way on each stomp. One of them managed to hit a rock and break it apart.
Dara then casts her fireball spell twice, the same one she was using against Mae, and hits the wolf.
[-150]
[-143]
[HP: 2039/2500]
It whimpered when it got hit and then turned towards her.
I took the chance and turned around and jumped towards its body. I managed to grab myself with its fur.
The wolf immediately started to jump in different directions, trying to get me to fall. I started to hold my grip as hard as I could. Its attempt was relentless, whimpering and screaming while it struggled to get me off of it.
[STR vs DEX Check!]
[11 VS 22]
That eleven must be mine, and because I am not using an item to help myself, I cannot add its stats.
Dara casts another fireball and hits it for 141.
[HP: 1898/2500]
[STR vs DEX Check!]
[11 vs 11 (22) [Staggered]]
[Success!]
I managed to stay on it and start to climb through the fur. It seems Dara managed to mess up with its attempt to shove me away and give me a hand.
Instead of trying to shove me off. It jumped towards Dara. I saw the signal it was using a skill. This thing can use skills.
It tried to bite her and I could see a red hue appear in front of it from my perspective as I was managing to get on its back. I heard it hit something, but from my point of view was impossible to see what was happening.
[New skill found: Fang!]
What? Did I learn a new skill?
"Dara!" I yelled.
"I'm fine, focus on damaging it!"
I cursed but decided to continue. If she answered means she was not hit brutally by the attack.
Then I saw the blue hue right in front of me. The wolf made another attempt at shoving me off it by trashing around while, at the same time, I tried to hit its weak spot with my sword.
[DEX vs DEX Check!]
[11 vs 22]
[Tie!]
My sword went squarely into the weak spot.
[-628 Weak Spot!]
That was too much damage!
[HP: 1202/2500]
But it still managed to shove me off and throw me. I fell to the ground and got hit by 20 points of damage from the fall. The wolf jumped back and locked it's eyes on me from the distance, growling.
[HP: 90/110]
"This is going to be easier than I thought," I said, feeling a sudden rush of confidence.
Then I looked at Dara that was a couple of meters from me.
She was on her knees, blood bathing her face, and looking at the wolf with an expression of anger and pain. The attack that she received was too much for her.