Zho, Gino, and everyone else in the small group immediately rushed to kill the shadow wolves when they were feeding on the hornets.
Valtar was also ready, in full-on battle mode. Zho threw a spear at one of the wolves' eyes, but the perception of the wolves was extremely high, so it sensed the danger and avoided it by a small margin.
The wolf glared at the invaders with wrath and fury as its eyes narrowed to slits. It made the decision in its mind that it would definitely tear these monkeys apart as pure killing intent burst out from it. This wolf was naturally the pack leader. The pack leader, smarter than the normal wolves, howled loudly to alert everyone, and the howl was also a signal for them to fight as one unit. After all, wolves were grouped creatures; it lived alongside a large number of its own species, maintaining a strict hierarchy.
On the other hand, Zho also expected this result, as he was naturally an experienced leader without doubt. The moment the pack leader's howl sounded, the group used that exact time to surround the wolves in a circular format. Because they were all shadow wolves, all creatures of the shadow had the natural ability to slip away in the darkness very smoothly, or sometimes simply be positioned in a shadow-covered area yet would be very hard to detect them despite them being right there.
To counter this, a circular surrounding formation is something that always worked the best.
After seeing that they were surrounded in all directions, the pack leader ordered the wolves to attack all of them simultaneously. Thus, the real battle ensued.
One of the normal wolves came right at Valtar, and it was probably smart enough to notice that he was weaker than the rest. Valtar used his battle techniques taught by Gino and attacked the wolf's mouth as it came forward and opened its mouth largely to bite him.
The wolves were a lot faster than Valtar physically, so he was unable to hit the perfect spot that would make it a critical injury for the wolf, but he didn't give up and continued to attack.
Valtar himself also got scratched and cut by the wolf's claws in quite a few places. It was apparent that he was at a big disadvantage. While some of the other warriors had already managed to kill their opponents, they went forward to join the fight against the pack leader.
The pack leader was extremely strong; in fact, one warrior was already killed by it, so no one had the luxury to pay him any attention. That was actually for the better. He commanded the system internally, "Activate high-perception and Survival instinct."
[Skills have been activated] intoned the system loyally.
The moment the skills activated, Valtar immediately felt the fast wolf's movement become slightly slower, and he himself could make his movements faster and easier. Though it wasn't too noticeable, as he did not become significantly faster or the wolf did not become a lot slower, despite that, it was enough for the tempo of the fight to change in a battle of life and death like this.
That's exactly what happened. After that, Valtar started taking fewer hits from the wolf, and the wolf was accumulating more injuries faster and faster.
Unfortunately, a wolf was just a wolf in the end. Injuries like that weren't enough to stop it or slow it down. Valtar understood that even if he did win this fight, it would take too long, and the battle against the pack leader was not going too well for Zho either.
Valtar could really end up dead here. So he used something else to break the balance in his fight. While fighting, he had noticed another detail a few minutes back, which is that for some reason, Valtar's blood seemed to be extremely alluring to the wolf. A few times, it literally wanted to lick the blood that dropped on the floor. He found it interesting and immediately prompted the system to analyze if this wolf is the only one allured by his blood or if, in general, all the wolves are hungry for human blood.
[The other shadows do not seem to be attracted to human blood from analyzing their fights; however, the host's blood does seem to be very attractive to the wolf he is fighting for reasons unknown] said the system.
So, back to the present, now he chose to use this method and kill the wolf faster. He made a deep cut on a part of his hand, and a large amount of blood was about to come out of the wound. So he flung his hand in a way that some drops of his blood would be thrown at the wolf, and it immediately forgot about its main target and opened its mouth to devour the drop of blood first.
He immediately used this opportunity and thrust the spear inside the wolf's mouth with all its might when it opened its mouth in greed of devouring the drop of blood.
The spear pierced the beast's brain, and it died without being able to howl even one last time, even though there are four beautiful moons in the sky, amongst them three were full moons, but one was in a half-moon state. But they were all shining extremely brightly in the sky.
Valtar took a deep breath to calm his nerves and immediately looked at the fight with the pack leader. Unfortunately, it was a result he didn't like.
All the warriors except for Zho were killed, and even the strong and responsible Gino.
Zho himself was all bloody; his entire body was covered in cuts, and the pack leader was in much better shape compared to Zho, though he was injured as well.
But at this crucial moment, Valtar made one big mistake. The big cut he made on his body was still slightly dripping blood, so quite a good amount of his blood was actually on the ground and on his body, the reason being the numerous cuts made by the wolf.
As such, right at that moment, the sweet scent of blood went into the nostrils of the pack leader, and its focus instantly turned to Valtar as it literally forgot about Zho's existence.
The pack leader slowly turned its head around from Zho and started walking towards Valtar. Zho, not understanding the situation, still grasped the fact that he must use this opportunity to immediately run away. So, he did indeed run away with all his might.
After the wolf turned its attention to Valtar, he could not help but curse inwardly, "Fuck, you've got to be kidding me?" He could do only one thing: run away in another direction as far as possible, and that he did. He ran, ran, and ran, but the wolf did not let go of its prey. It continued to chase with the determination that it must taste that heavenly blood of that thing; it never scented a blood that was so alluring to it in its entire life.
Just when the wolf almost caught up to its prey, a powerful and silent arrow shot into its head, killing it in such a swift and short moment that was hard to describe. Even Valtar, who turned around at the last moment to face the beast with the last of his abilities, was extremely perplexed, and an even greater sense of danger arose in him. Because something that could kill a powerful beast like this with just an arrow from such a far distance is as good as a death sentence to him. But he also immediately figured out who the ones were who most likely fired the arrow.
It was obviously the elves, most likely the group that appeared suddenly in front of them. After all, it was quite weird, to be honest. Why would those elves appear in front of them suddenly without any reason at all? They could've just kept observing the warriors' group from the trees' shadows. Valtar doubted that the warrior group could actually discover them.
'So, why did they appear?', 'The only possibility is,' 'They're after me, the outsider?', 'But why would they be after me?'
'Just what is up with this damn jungle? First, Zhao tells me I can't leave, then there's the wolves who are attracted by my scent of blood. Is it because of my last name? Titanblood? And now the dark elves are after me as well, I think.'
Despite thinking so much internally, he was alert of the outside as much as he could be.
It only passed a few seconds outside while he was figuring the situation out.
Right at that moment, a cold but soft and smooth dark jade-like hand grabbed at his neck from behind in a swift motion that was almost seductive for some reason.
A soft voice said from behind with an alluring giggle, "Hehe, so, I didn't see wrong indeed. It's a new outsider that came in after that trash Zhao."
The moment Valtar heard that voice, he instantly recognized it as the female leader of the elven group.
He immediately commanded the system to activate mental protection on him.
[Basic mental protection mechanism has been activated]