He wanted to sit out of the fight, but the humans weren't playing fetch but actively trying to kill her.

On one hand, he didn't want to fight humans, he wanted to prove that he was different from the wild animals and monsters roaming the forest, and this wouldn't be a great start... on the other hand he wasn't willing to give up on his friend for any reason whatsoever.

The three humans were a standard party comprised of an archer, a mage and a warrior respectively. The warrior was keeping Edel busy while the archer was taking potshots at her and protecting the mage. The mage on the other hand was trying to cast a spell and failing. The female mage was obviously frustrated, but her inability to cast was the only reason his friend was still alive so he was thankful for it.

In the end he decided on the simplest plan he could reasonably execute without executing the trio. Break the archer's bow, disable the warrior and stop Edel from killing them in turn.

Now, as to how he would go about that, it was a funny question with a simple answer. He was going to run at them.

He considered using the ether inside of him, but given how it had thrown him off last time he tried, he didn't want to risk it in the middle of an actual fight.

He pushed his paws hard against the ground, stretching his legs to cover just a little more ground. The archer turned to his direction all too late. They were late in spotting him in the first place and he was fast. He was actually a bit faster than he'd been expecting, which put his speed at pace with a modern-day car.

Killing them would have been too easy.

The archer panicked and was late in taking out her knife which gave him all the opportunity he needed to destroy her bow. Frankly she almost did his job for him with how roughly she switched her weapons.

Both of the adventurers screamed when he got close enough to destroy the bow which distracted the melee fighter. He dodged past the mage, his claws passing through the wood of the bow like it wasn't even there, and running away before the archer could respond.

Unfortunately, this warrior was not as dumb as the goblins they fought against and although he flinched, he didn't take his attention away from Edel.

Which didn't matter too much because this suited him just fine. Running immediately towards him, he didn't need to cover much distance.

Closing the distance took no more than two seconds between having gotten used to his new body and his massively increased attributes.

A few moments before he reached him, his companions yelled something at him and he turned around, half an eye kept at the wolf. Half of his attention was not enough, however, as he slashed at the warrior's legs where there wasn't much armor to account for maneuverability.

The towering man grunted in pain but didn't fall. That happened when Edel bit into his armored arm and shook him with enough strength to momentarily lift him off the ground.

She was about to go for the kill when he cut her off.

Right about this time he would kill for the ability to understand and speak to her. He got in front of her and put his paw up in the air.

She didn't understand the meaning of it at first, tilting her head. When he didn't move until the man had gotten his bearings, she followed his example, letting the warrior get back on his feet and regroup with the rest of his group.

Taking another glance at the grunting man clutching his bleeding arm even through the armor, she didn't pursue, though by her wagging tail he knew she wanted to.

As for the adventurers, from how badly the fight went for them once Kiel joined in, they didn't seem too excited to continue.

----------------------------------------

Loris, the warrior of the party, hesitated to make any moves. The cat had appeared out of nowhere and within seconds it put them at a disadvantage.

It also didn't help that their mage couldn't cast anything in this area, "Why aren't they attacking, Loris?" Cassandra, their archer, asked.

He thought the name was ironic considering her role, but apparently the rest of his party didn't agree. "Do I look like I know? They're monsters. Melissa, did you figure out why your magic isn't working?" he asked their mage in turn.

Her panicked look didn't give him high hopes, "I did, but you're not going to like the answer. It's like we are inside an ether storm; any fine manipulation gets thrown out the window the moment ether leaves your body." She was right, he didn't. He wanted to scream at both of them but that wouldn't solve anything.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

It took that damnable cat less than five seconds since its appearance to mess everything up. Cassandra's bow would need to be repaired which was not cheap, his vambraces would have to be sold for scrap metal, and he could barely walk and hold his sword.

He considered finding a new party after they survived this.

Cursing under his breath, he addressed his teammates, "We are not dead and they are not going for the kill. We are leaving." Unfortunately the way they came from was blocked by the two monsters. A hand stopped him in his tracks, before he could continue.

"I'm not perfect with my Ether Sense, but we shouldn't head this way, it feels weird." Melissa said, trying to keep the stubborn man from moving ahead.

"When you say weird, do you mean you ate something wrong, or does this have to do with why your skills weren't working?" he asked.

Her cheeks flushed. She hesitated to answer and after a while the warrior shook his head. He had been taught to not ignore a mage's warnings, but this was not school, and in real life he had to choose between a weird feeling and two monsters that could almost certainly finish what they started.

Rubbing his hands against his head, he chose to ignore her warning. As far as he was concerned, engaging with the two monsters again was far more dangerous than whatever was making his mage act up.

Of course that didn't mean he let his guard down, especially with two monsters watching their every move, which was why when he suddenly lost an arm, his heart froze. Activating a high stamina cost skill, he jumped two dozen meters away from whatever had attacked him, inadvertently landing further inside the quiet zone.

His response had been instinctive which was why he didn't think about the direction of his jump. The forest was the same everywhere he looked and he'd no idea where the attack came from, he just needed to get out of the attacker's range. He didn't have much longer to ponder on how he could turn this situation around, however, when another attack cut his neck in half. By the time his body fell to the ground another three such attacks cut his torso and arms.

The two adventurers screamed in response, barely noticing the black cat running towards them. When they did it was already too late and the cat was upon them. They were certain they would meet their end which was weird when the cat did nothing to them and instead did something to the space around them. Melissa could feel a presence imposing on the unstable space, keeping it from fragmenting, keeping it from tearing them into pieces.

When Melissa turned her head, she saw a crack in the space a few inches from her eyes shrinking and closing a second later. Her breath seized and her muscles refused to work. She fell to the ground, caught a second later by Cassandra. "What's going on, are you okay?" she asked, her voice trembling and refusing to look at the corpse of her companion.

With a quiet voice, Melissa replied, "We have to get out of h-here." In an even quieter tone she blamed herself.

She got up and with the help of her friend, she made her way closer to the cat. She was working on acting indifferent, as if nothing had happened, because she'd learned in her training, in a dangerous situation, things might get unpleasant, but if you lost control of your emotions there was always a way they could get worse. So she tried to stay dry-eyed and distracted until they left the unstable region, the cat following close behind them.

While she was concentrating on not crying at all costs, she grabbed her friend's arm weakly. "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry."

Cassandra held her hand on her own tightly, "This wasn't your fault. Loris is dead but we are alive and we will stay alive." Her mind tried to find a response to that but remained silent.

In quiet they walked the rest of the way out of the unstable space.

When they were finally out, she could feel the difference on her skin, there were no active ether currents here, she didn't feel like she was drowning in an ocean of water. She had her magic back, but if she tried casting now she was more likely to torch herself than anything she targeted.

Melissa looked at the cat. She was unable to form words, her sentences ending at the first syllable, but where words failed her, her body didn't. She knelt down and stroked its fur. "Thank you," she managed to say after a few silent minutes.

Cassandra nervously waited by her side, not saying anything.

----------------------------------------

Kiel was angry and annoyed at the party that had so brazenly attacked his friend. Still, he couldn't let the first humans he found die like that. For starters, he still wanted to find a city. His original goal demanded it of him, even if he felt like he still had so much to do inside the forest.

He could probably sneak inside the city, but he imagined a meter tall wolf would be less conspicuous.

He was torn between finding a nice sweet home in a city, and continuing to stay here with Edel. On the one hand, he didn't want to leave his wolf friend alone, and on the other his brain craved human interaction. Perhaps that had been why he hadn't even considered killing the adventurers.

Some of that annoyance melted when he saw the two girls hugging each other after he saved them.

He missed the one that died from the spatial cracks but if he was being honest, he didn't expect him to jump from danger into more danger so fast he was unable to react. But he did, and the world was an idiot less for it..

Thanks to the dead guy, the rest of his party was now in trouble. They were down a member and their archer's equipment was ruined. The only one who was relatively intact didn't seem fit to fight and they were still inside a deadly forest.

He didn't want to play dumb at this point, so he decided to follow them back and let them think whatever. Less of a burden on his conscience if they died right after he saved them and he would find out where the hidden city was.

Winning the mental battle to help the humans further, he went to sit next to Edel till the humans were ready to move. She looked at him quizzically, as if asking him what his plan was. She didn't seem ready to turn the humans to dinner, which was something he hadn't considered.

Trying to communicate to Edel was definitely the most difficult part. He mimed walking, then pointing at the adventurers, then at the forest, then mimed sleeping. He was fairly certain she didn't understand anything of what he was trying to say, heck he barely made sense of what he was trying to say.

His pantomime meowing skills were getting better, but still left something to be desired.

At least she likes it, he thought, looking at the wagging tail of Edel.

Both of the adventurers were too scared to approach the victim of their assault despite how cute she was acting. He was fairly certain she wouldn't bite, but if he were in their place he didn't think he would risk it either.

Well, since she had decided to follow him for today, she would also serve as a bodyguard for this endeavor.