It’s been several days since Buxley, Kura, and Lennox made for Lomin. The scenery had returned to the dense forest trees and bushes they had been in for two weeks now. Currently there were five feet high wildflowers dense enough to hide their prone silhouettes. There were blossoms with hues of blue, red, and yellow that grew alongside great oaken trees. Two hundred meters away a wisp with a dim, greenish hue sat atop a leaf fifteen feet from the ground. Below were a pack of thirteen ironhide wolves feasting on a pair of sika deers atop the ridge.

“Well, this may take a while,” Buxley said.

“Are we really going to wait here until they leave?” asked Lennox.

“There’s too many hills between here and the bridge,” Kura posited, “And I’d rather not walk along the valley with a pack of wolves within sight of us. This doesn’t seem to be their den so they should leave after their meal.”

“How long does it even take for thirteen wolves to finish two sikas? We’ve been waiting for a while now,” Lennox asked again.

It has been more than half an hour since they found the pack and they’ve been laying down ever since. The wolves were in-between their hill and the next where the saddle was the shortest and blocked their path. With two valleys wrapping around the hills, it was either wait or go down the valley but Kura didn’t have a spell that conceals them visually and so their only choice is to wait. As Kura thought about their next course Buxley slowly shifted to the right of them a couple feet.

“What is it, cousin? Did you notice something?”

Buxley did not answer, instead he appeared to be munching on something.

“Wait, are you chewing on flowers?”

“What, these are edible and they’re sweet.”

“Don’t have to do it right now, do you?”

“Not like there’s anything else to do right now, right?”

Lennox followed Buxley’s action and started gathering the flowers closest to him with a small knife.

“You too?”

“I didn’t notice it before but these flowers Buxley’s been eating has high medicinal value after being processed. And plus he’s got a point, I’m about to fall asleep from waiting, might as well do something useful.”

“Ugh, just, please don’t make too many movements, I’d like to avoid fighting that pack if at all possible.”

Kura quieted down as the other two kept up their gathering frenzy. He wasn’t particularly worried about being detected from this distance as long as there isn’t too much movement. His “Hidden” spell is currently working to keep the wolves from smelling or hearing them. The only visual-based spell he currently know is “Misdirect” which he uses in his camp barriers. Anything trying to enter would end up walking around it rather than in a line. However the spell requires a large enough area so that they’re not in visual distance of the camp when they enter. The intruders generally need to be unaware of the spell’s effect or it could be countered with “Dispel”.

They could use it in visual distance but the wolves would still see them and try to get close, they’d just end up running in circles. At that point it’d be a war of attrition on whether they get tired or bored and leave or will he use up all the available mana in the surroundings and his own pool. Not the best option with their circumstances.

As Kura and the other two stayed prone underneath the bushes, through Kura’s wisp still sitting on the leaf above the pack, a wolf’s ear suddenly flicked. Something had caught its attention and it grunted to a nearby wolf, chaining its way to the alpha. Kura tapped the ground to get their attention. Whatever it was, they’ve finally have their window of opportunity.

The first wolf that detected something bolted off, the alpha leapt after it with the rest of the pack trailing close behind. In seconds they left the vision of the wisp leaving the half eaten remnants of the two deer behind. Only the sounds of their growls and woofing could be heard in the distance. Kura sent his wisp to chase after them as far as it could go but lost sight of them after a minute.

“Finally, and they still haven’t finished with those sikas.” Lennox said.

“Let’s make this crossing quickly before they decide to come back,” said Buxley, “We good, Kura?”

“It’s fine, they moved southeast from here so if we go the other way we can put some distance behind us.”

“Good thing too, we are close to the bridge, we’ll be in Leveren territory by then, plenty of patrols, and then it’ll be another four days from there to get to Lomin proper.”

“For going solo, you sure travelled quite the distance,” said Buxley, “Let’s run as much as we can, we’ve got a bit of an open path here.”

“Give me a moment to cast a spell.”

Holding his staff, Kura spun it in a circle and stamped it in sequence with a pair of taps three times. A violet glow emanated from Kura and floated to Buxley and Lennox. With the release of the wisp by mental command, Kura frees up some of his mana for later in case of any issues they come across as they try to outmaneuver the pack.

“I toned it down a bit but it should last about ten minutes, by your leave, cousin.”

Climbing out from their hiding spot Kura and Buxley stopped to check their surroundings again. It wouldn’t do to spend so much effort to look at a distance and find something else crawling right behind them. However, before they could set off, something stopped them. It was a low bellow followed by a second one with a higher pitch from a warhorn, it was the standard instrument of communication for a Leveren scout party. A warning call to let any nearby patrols know they are under attack.

“They must have been what caught the attention of those wolves!” exclaimed Lennox, he furrowed his brows, Leveren patrols rarely go outside the territory.

“They’re near too,” Buxley said as he changed direction and led them towards the sound.

-----

Eight Leveren in a mix of thin metal plates and leather armor stood in a horseshoe, their backs toward the trunk of a large tree. With six of them in a shield wall with their enmaks out like lances, the other two in the back nimbly climbed up the tree to its first larger branch and drew their bows. Ten wolves surrounded them, slowly closing the group off from any escape route. One wolf was lying in a pool of blood with a steel-tipped arrow on its neck a distance away while the last two stood back directing the rest of the pack and watching the eight prey they’re surrounding.

“Keep the formation tight, we’ll try to take out the leader in the back,” the female Leveren leader said from up on the branch.

“What the hell are ironhide wolves doing this close?” said one of the members. He was one of the inexperienced ones in the group, he gripped his shield tightly as he asked.

“It’s uncommon but it does happen. Stay focused,” one of veterans on the ground replied.

Ironhide wolves were named for their uniquely tough fur and hide. Amongst the kinds of wolves in Merinia, they are one of the largest. Just standing, their heads were at five feet and with their long coat of fur, they looked more like bears than wolves. Snarling and drooling from their bloody maws they waited for an opportunity, they were within ten meters from the party now. With a snap and a whoosh, a blur flew from overhead and towards the back of the encirclement. The wolves flinched at the blur and began their attack without waiting for their alpha’s command, leaping forward with all their bodyweight and crashing upon the row of shields.

An arrow glanced its intended target by the side, cutting a small gash and eliciting a pained growl from the alpha wolf as it backed off slightly to gauge the rest of the group. The scout party was clearly ready for the potential predators of the forest. The archers had heavy arrows and hefty bows to prevent them from breaking from the force of the increased weight. But even with their preparation, they were outnumbered. One mistake and they could take heavy casualties. With the alpha out of range the two archers shot alternatively to keep several of the wolves back to decrease the pressure on the shield wall below them.

One of the Leverens bashed one of the wolves in the head with her kite shield to disorient it before taking a step forward and smashing the reinforced edge of her shield down on its neck. She kept kneeling in position as the wolf writhed violently in its death throe. Once she confirmed the wolf had exhausted its life she quickly stepped back into the formation. Two others tried the same method of attack but to no avail. The archers had better results, by isolating their fire when a chance appeared they were able to pick off another wolf from their vantage point.

“Good hit, Emia! Show the greenhorns how it’s done with a shield,” the leader exclaimed as she notched another arrow.

With another of its member down, the alpha wolf stopped idling in the sidelines and jumped in with its mate to join the rest of the pack in the offensive. Being the alpha, it was a size larger than the other wolves, and because of its slight injury from earlier and having already lost three of its pack, it lost any intention to play with its prey. After a few barks, three wolves split from both sides and sidestepped off to the flanks of the party.

“Watch out, they’re going to try to break our formation!” the female Leveren with the shield, Emia, warned, “Lock shields and ground them.”

Anticipating the attack could break through their shields, they pulled their weapons back in order to utilize the magic in their shields. Taking advantage of their coordination, the shields of the warriors put together can create a magical protective barrier for a short time. Patrols being equipped with an enchanted shield with a barrier spell is commonplace. The shields were crafted to work together with adjacent shields to enhance the spell.

With the wolves being agitated enough to go all out it should last long enough to wear down the pack somewhat and give them the advantage they need to break through the situation. Fully linking their shields together, each of the six warriors slammed their kite shields into the ground with their weapons held back and out of the way.

The archers took out two more wolves at the expense of their last arrows. Heavy arrows are effective even against these ironhide wolves but the downside is their weight and size, reducing the number of arrows they can carry with them. The two jumped down to the center of the formation before the barrier came up and prepared their weapons. The leader pulled a gladius from the sheath between her back and quiver and moved into a fighting stance by crouched, ready to pounce when the barrier goes down. The other archer drew a long, curved dagger from his back and took the same stance.

The pack leapt in with great ferocity, slamming into the magical shield like it was a wall. They tried gnawing, clawing and ramming into the barrier to no avail. Within a minute of their aggressive attacks however, the barrier began to flicker at its translucent golden borders. The sound of broken glass followed by sizzling was heard in the air as the barrier broke as if it was ripped apart with traces of golden wisps of light disappeared into nothingness.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

-----

“Oh, there they are.” Kura said as they saw the group in the distance.

“That was a lot more difficult than I thought,” Buxley added.

“I thought you two were good at finding things, clearly I was wrong,” Lennox quipped tiredly.

hey’ve been running around for several minutes, and because Kura had rushed the speed boost spell, it didn’t account for their stamina. Whilst still carrying his herb-laden pack, Lennox found it to be draining period of movement. The other two on the other hand didn’t seem to be affected, even with their larger packs.

“You try finding sounds in a forest, it echoes everywhere! We probably should’ve just stopped and used Kura’s wisps.”

Within fifty meters ahead of them were the backs of the wolves exposed to them. The group getting attacked appeared to be in a last stand as their barrier began to flicker. Abruptly stopping, Kura began to go through the simplified motions of a rooting spell, unlike before with the grodling and vanter, there wasn’t enough water here to entrap the beasts in a quagmire. Not to mention the people they’re trying to help would be affected too. However this was one of the few spells he had prepared beforehand on his staff, it is quicker but also less effective.

Within seconds the spell was completed and a green circle of light spreat from underneath his feet. Green globes also appeared around four of the closest wolves’ feet a blink-of-an-eye later, roots came out subsequently and entwined around their legs, preventing them from moving around. Before the root spell was even finished, Buxley had dropped his own pack and closed the distance, using the last traces of the speed boost from Kura.

Yelling out fiercely, Buxley did a knee-slide and aimed at the lower joints of the wolf closest to him. Easily cutting through the roots that held the wolf still, the blade didn’t stop until Buxley passed through the beast. The wolf fell down in pain as it desperately tried to get back on its feet without any of its paws.

Without halting, Buxley let himself into a roll and reoriented himself to another wolf right next to him. Brandishing the enmak for a downward side sweep, he threw all his bodyweight into the strike at the wolf’s neck. The wolf ducked in time to avoid the strike and struggled violently to break free from the roots and ended up body checking Buxley when his sweeping strike missed.

Meanwhile, the wolves in the front attacking the group had just broken through the barrier and the shield wall and a melee ensued with the two groups.

Twenty meters away from the melee and behind some trees were Lennox and Kura.

“What happened? Why aren’t you casting any more spells?” Lennox asked as he peaked out from his cover next to Kura. He was a researcher with zero combat experience, he’d be more obstructive blindly going in trying to do something than staying back. Lennox had asked with no small amount of regret in his voice in his helplessness.

“They’re too close, none of the spells I know right now would help them without messing with the battle tempo of that scout party too,” Kura responded.

“Damn, isn’t there anything else we can do?”

“There is, can you climb up that tree and keep out of sight?”

“I can, but how’s that going to help?” Lennox responded as he crouch-walked over to the tree with thick branches Kura had pointed towards.

“Don’t mind it, stay safe, I’ll be right back,” Kura said without concern, he dropped his satchel and charged into the battle.

“Wait! Where are you going?”

Buxley flew a couple feet away from where he was standing. Even constrained, the wolf was powerful, Buxley got up quickly and steadied himself by using the weighted pommel of his enmak before moving into a defensive stance. The wolf gnawed the remaining parts of the roots that held him and began its mad charge at Buxley. At that moment, Kura arrived next to the wolf just as it opened its mouth to attack Buxley’s guard. With the staff’s head shaped like a three-fingered hand clutching a multi-faceted gem, Kura performed an upward sweep on the underbelly of the canine beast, causing it to whine loudly in special kind of pain and jumped back to avoid a follow up attack. As the beast limped awkwardly on one side, Kura went around it in order to isolate it from the rest of its pack. Two of the other wolves that were rooted from before was quickly taken down by the party during the start of the melee. The Leveren group had the advantage on the wolves now with still eight against three, and the onus is on them to finish the fight.

“Thanks, Kura.”

“Not at all, cousin, hah, imagine if that was an axe.”

“Let’s finish this quickly.”

“Will you be alright with this one?”

“Yea, no worries, I’ll manage.”

Taking that as a cue, Kura backed off slightly, technically he doesn’t have a real weapon that could kill the beasts so best he could do was create a distraction. Buxley’s arm ached but he shrugged it off and readied his stance against the wolf. Two wisps appeared on the sides of Buxley, darting forward to land on the wolf it immediately released a discharge shocking it. If anyone else had touched them, they too would receive a shock, but because wolf was isolated, Kura could use his spells again.

Using the distraction created by Kura, Buxley dashed forward and slashed downward with his blade, followed by a forward thrust, aiming for one of the wolf’s leg. Slightly piercing through the hide before it managed to dodge to the side the wolf realized the Urren’s weapon is sharper than its hide could handle. Against this particular blade, its natural defenses were like an axe to a tree. It howled for help from its pack mates but to no avail, only the alpha, its mate, and one more wolf remained and six of the Leveren were uninjured and encircling them.

With hesitation the alpha howled and barked several times before their three turned tail and ran towards Buxley and Kura’s fight.

“Whoa!”

Simultaneously, both yelled and dove out of the way as the alpha’s group rushed towards them. Having created a distraction, the wounded wolf Buxley was fighting joined the escaping trio and bolted off into the woods. The battle was over with only four of the original thirteen wolves remaining. Two of the Leverens laid on the ground, one was grasping his leg while the other was unconscious.

“Does anyone have or know healing magic?” Kura asked.

When they replied no, Kura sprinted back to where they dropped their packs and took out his leather-bound book. The Leveren grasping his leg had a chunk of flesh missing from the side of his left thigh. The wolf had sheared through the leather armor with a single bite. One of the veterans was wrapping it up as best he could. A moment later, Kura came back with the page for the healing spell already opened.

“Excuse me, Sir,” Kura said before taking a stable position on his knees with the book resting on his lap. Without explaining to the others he began the same multi-element healing spell he used for Lennox.

Before anyone could ask what he was trying to do the painful cries from the injured Leveren ceased within seconds of the multi-colored glow as a soothing feeling fell over him. A couple of the others were looking after the unconscious Leveren who had been knocked out when he was slammed into the trunk of a tree. The rest were circled quietly around Kura to observe his work. They knew better than to interrupt a mage channeling a spell, especially one trying to heal one of their own.

Lennox came over to where Buxley was standing, slightly behind Kura and dropped their packs roughly on the ground. Buxley gave Lennox an accusing look for the noise but gave a nod of thanks before turning back to Kura.

“Sorry, I didn’t realize your packs were so heavy,” Lennox whispered to Buxley.

“Kura enchanted them with a locking spell.” Buxley explained as if that was all the explanation he needed.

Before Lennox could inquire further, he was smacked hard on the back. He ended up sprawling face first on the ground with an “oomph”. Everyone turned to see the commotion before several of them recognized the familiar face.

Getting up from the ground and sweeping the leaves off his clothes and a couple coughs, Lennox gave an awkward grin.

“Hey, Amurai. I’m back,” he said with a sing-song voice.

“Why hello, you little idiot. Ancients be damned, where have you been?” The Leveren party leader asked through gritted teeth. It was clear she was absolutely livid.

“In the forest, as you can see,” Lennox stated, rubbing his chin from his crash landing.

“Why I ought to—”

“Wait, wait,” Lennox interrupted her before she could strike him again for being smart, “Let’s wait until we make camp first.”

Grunting in exasperation, she issued orders to her party watching their reunion instead of skinning and prepping the wolves.

“After the wounded are healed, we can make for the outpost, it’s only half a day’s trek from here. Gather however much we can from the wolves, leave the rest of it behind.”

“Wait a moment, Ma’am, if Kura sets up a barrier, we could rest here without worry of other beasts coming near this,” Buxley said, “After healing them my cousin won’t have the strength to make that distance. Neither would the injured.”

“Hmm, point taken,” replied Amurai, “but will he have enough mana to set a barrier large enough for all of us?”

“I can,” Kura said as he slowly stood up, the healing was done for now, “the barrier won’t take too much to create and sustain.”

“Ah, nice. Very well, then.”

Issuing out new orders for her party, they began collecting the bodies to a smaller area as others went to gather firewood. Kura on the other hand began setting up the barrier for the night. The two wounded were brought closer to the center of the camp where the fire would be. Buxley offered to make the rejuvenating soup he made for Lennox for the wounded. Lennox offered to help him as he knew some herbs that could increase the effects of the soup.

Sundown came quickly as the camp was finished being set up. Dinner tonight was a variety of wolf meat dishes as Buxley and the cook for the Leveren party worked together to make a feast. A fight against ironhide wolves while being outnumbered and they came out with minimal casualties, it was a night worth celebrating.