Dante had the wolf in his sights, he charged forth swearing bloody murder. The wolf was still staring at him, seemingly dumbfounded as Dante started sprinting towards it. He showed no signs of slowing down, he had a face of thunder, scrunched and grimacing. The wolf’s eyes widened in horror, its mouth gaping wide, it released its hold over the deer.

Dante didn’t care for the deer, he wanted revenge. The wolf seemed to hesitate for a moment before turning around and dashing away from him, leaping into the tall grass and out of sight. Dante lost sight of the wolf, he barrelled forth into the grass with abandon, swinging his hands wildly in anger. His hands were a whirlwind as he successfully cleaved at the grass with his claws, they were miniature death-bringing scythes. ‘Fuck! I can’t see her.’

He paused for a moment to take in his surroundings, utilising his heightened senses, he picked up a faint trail in the tall grass where it had been brushed aside, he could also see broken tufts of earth and grass where the wolf had scrambled to get away from him. Using his newly improved speed he tried to chase after her by following the trail.

After some time had passed, he had not encountered any further sightings of the wolf. Dante weighed up the benefits of continuing the chase, ‘How had this wolf found me? It must have been tracking me, but how? With my cloak, I thought I would be untraceable.’

He continued following the trail with more caution than the initial chase. While he followed the trail, he wondered how he had been found so quickly by the wolf. He had a moment of clarity when thinking about how he could have been followed, he had flashes of memory where had been testing his claws on trees. Dante groaned, raising his hands to his face in an attempt to palm away the bad memory of his poor decisions, his body tensed up and he moved his hands away before he touched himself. He had almost stabbed his face with the wickedly sharp mana infused claws. ‘Get it together Dante!’

He continued tracking the wolf that had followed him to this town, he didn’t want to risk it escaping and warning the pack of wolves.

****

A shadow bolted through the woods, ducking under branches that whipped and clawed at her. The wolf scrambled through bushes and tufts of fur got caught up in brambles that couldn’t quite pierce her tough skin. The hideless was persistent and somehow was having no trouble tracking her. ‘Damn it all Waya, you just had to go ahead and prove Maikoh right!’

Waya panted as she used her superior speed and endurance to make more distance, moving further away from the Hideless, the irony that she was now the one being chased was not lost on her. Waya decided she had to change tactics, just running wasn’t working. Using training that her father had instilled in her, she started creating false trails and double backing upon herself. Then headed back towards the town which she hoped would provide some refuge from the enraged hideless man.

The sunburned in the sky, it was noon and the sun was at its peak. Waya was hiding in one of the old buildings. She had managed to lose the hideless some time ago. Now she was spying through a small hole that revealed the verdant greenery that had swamped this abandoned town. She saw the man who had been chasing her return to the town. The man looked incredibly frustrated, swinging his arms and making loud noises which Waya assumed were not very pleasant words in the Hideless’s language.

Waya thought about what had happened earlier, she replayed the scene through her mind. She was hunting the deer, successfully subduing it and was ready to make the killing blow. Then she was startled to see the hideless she had been trying to track was charging towards her. ‘Was he hunting me this whole time? No...that doesn’t make sense.’

A sudden clarity of what must have happened passed through her mind. She pawed at her face in realisation, an immaculate imitation of what Dante had tried to do earlier, a way to try and forget a bad memory. Her paws resting on her snout, the realisation of how the awkward encounter had happened. ‘He must have been hunting the same deer! Of all the rotten luck. Maikoh, I'm sorry.’

It didn’t help that she failed to finish the kill when hunting, the deer was no longer where Waya had left it. It must have played dead, using its natural defence mechanism as an absolute last resort when faced with a superior predatory animal. After being released from Waya’s jaws, and with Dante chasing after Waya, the deer was left with plenty of opportunities to escape. The deer must have been long gone by now.

Waya reflected on her realisation that Dante was hunting the same deer, she remembered the dehydrated and malnourished state he was in when she had found him after the battle in the woods. A thought flashed her mind, she might have a way to bridge the divide between her and this man. She snuck out of the building and ran into the woods, a plan forming in her head.

****

Dante had returned to the town after having spent hours chasing the wolf, he was frustrated, exhausted and his rumbling stomach had returned with vengeance. ‘That wolf, for all its stupidity of running right into me, is unnaturally cunning and stealthy.’ Dante thought about how in his attempt to chase after it, had been led into several dead ends. His attempt to follow the Black wolf's tracks had caused him to waste too much time, he was sure it was too far away to chase by now. In the end, he decided to see if the deer was still in the town, so he decided to give up and return.

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Unfortunately for him, the deer was gone. He mulled over the decision of whether to leave the town, he feared the prospect of the wolf returning to the pack to warn them of his location and then leading them straight to him. He felt if it came down to that, he would have a better opportunity fighting them off in an urban setting. Dante could barricade himself inside a building, he could try and find something to throw at them. He thought about how he had the advantage in this terrain, ideas burned in his head about how he could rain hell from above using the height advantage, he could access the upper floors of buildings and climb onto the roofs.

Thinking about how he still wanted to search some of the buildings to see if he could find any other useful resources, he set forth to carry out his plans of creating a defensive position, finding weapons and searching the rest of the town.

Most of the buildings Dante had searched yielded nothing of real value, any food and medicines had long perished. He found some rope, but when testing its strength, it snapped and crumbled in his hands before he managed to apply his full force.

Dante stood outside another store, feeling a bit defeated after searching many buildings and not finding anything particularly useful. He tried another shop where the building was mostly intact. He tried to peer through the grime-covered window of the shop, it was too filthy and he couldn’t properly make out exactly what the store held. Making his way to the door of the building, he attempted to kick it open, the glass on the door shattered but the door remained in place. The door frame was slightly bent from his initial kick, so he decided to continue kicking it several more times until he was able to climb inside.

Once he had bent the door enough to allow him access, he scrambled inside the shop, his eyes gleaming with joy ‘Jackpot!’ It was like cracking open a time capsule, he had just found himself inside a camping store which looked to be in good condition considering the time that had passed. He searched through all the shelves within the store, checking how well some of the equipment held together. He was disappointed to find a substantial amount of it was almost completely useless. He managed to scrounge together some camping supplies. Amongst the things he had found was an outdoor sleeping bag, some cooking equipment such as pots and pans. He found some pressurised gas containers, when he shook them they still had gas inside them, he was hopeful they could still be used.

One of his best finds was a multitool knife, not exactly the best to use as a weapon in contrast to magical claws. He stuffed all his newly acquired loot into a larger travel backpack. Satisfied with his haul, he set out to complete the second half of his plan.

Despite having not managed to find any food and having the bad fortune of encountering the same wolf that had attacked him the other night. Dante managed to remain fairly positive. He had established a comfortable fort inside a church. He had created a decent barricade using the pews against the large door at the entrance. He set up camp inside the church bell tower, where he had a decent view of the landscape and the town. Too much of the day had passed for him to set out again in search of any source of sustenance. After his search of the town, he was much better equipped to try and hunt something the next day.

From his view in the belltower, he watched out of the window as the sun began to set in the distance. He had a gas burner running next to him, a small treat to keep him warm and provide some light while he observed the town from safety. He had tried to take in the landscape, but even from the heightened position, all he could see for miles around him were trees. He shifted in his seated position when he noticed a shadow dart out from the trees near the town. ‘It’s that wolf again, And it’s alone!’. He continued to watch as the wolf cautiously made its way through the town, the wolf sniffed the air and searched the buildings one by one. Dante’s heart rate increased, he tried to not allow himself to get too worked up, he just didn’t know if there were other wolves nearby. It was getting dark and he didn’t want to take the risk of being drawn out of his position of safety, especially with the way the wolf had easily escaped him earlier in the day, leading him on a wild goose chase.

****

Waya could sense that she was being observed, but every building she approached showed no signs of the Hideless. ‘Has he left already?’ She worried that she had lost her opportunity again, if he escaped this time, she wasn’t sure how confident she would be to track him down again. She knew she had gotten lucky with some of her deductions that allowed her to find him in the first place.

She cautiously crept through the town, worried she would be ambushed by this man who had such a fierce temper and wielded the old magic that she desired so much. As she kept searching through the town, there was an unsettling feeling of being watched that never left her. The sun was setting and stars pierced through the darkness of the night sky. When Waya looked up she couldn’t ignore a dim source of light inside one of the buildings, it was high up and easy to miss, but with her excellent vision, she was certain she saw something shift inside the tower. Waya approached the large building, it was imposing with its high grey stone walls, there were unusual images in what looked to her like coloured ice that depicted the extinct hideless, they seemed to tell a story that she couldn’t understand.

Waya continued forward, certain this was the correct place. She walked right up to the building entrance, in front of the doorway she dropped something from her mouth and ran back to a safe distance away from the building. She howled into the night and then left.