Dante cursed himself for his excitable behaviour and his rotten luck, he was being hunted down on his first day arriving on this world. He could see flickers of reflective eyes in the darkness, some blinking, others moved around. Then the worst was the eyes that just stared at him, motionless, unmoving and staring deep into his soul.
Their eyes were unblinking and intelligent, they seemed to scrutinise him for weaknesses. He felt the stares boring into him, making him feel small, like the rodents that buried themselves underground to hide from their predators.
‘Ok, how the hell am I getting out of this situation Dante?’ He tried to reflect on how he fought the hound in the darkness, the only combat experience he had outside of video games and schoolyard fights. ‘You can’t make this up, It’s the same shit all over again!’ He bemoaned his situation.
Dante recalled how holding out his arm gave the hound a target that wasn’t a seriously vulnerable point. Dante knew he would be fucked If any of these creatures managed to claw or bite into the soft bits between his legs, his neck or other exposed arteries on his body.
It quite frankly wasn’t an ideal situation but he couldn’t think of any other options, using his arm last time afforded him ample opportunity to retaliate and counterattack. He hoped it would work again, if any of these creatures decided to take the bait, they would experience Dante's wrath.
He clenched his teeth and held out his arm again, bracing himself for the pain that was to come. He stood in a defensive posture to shield himself from the predators. Clenching his other fist, ready to strike at the first opportunity. ‘I’m stronger, I have more constitution and I should be able to hit harder or whatever the ‘Natural-born killer’ title provides. It’s also an opportunity to increase my hand to hand combat skills. Let's see what the effect of all my new combined attributes does for me’.
Dante psyched himself up, trying to remain positive in a shitty situation, he needed to believe he was capable of surviving the night. He felt like he was in a strong defensive position, not much was exposed of his body.
He lamented not deciding to climb a tree when he had the chance, but he had vague memories of when he had watched nature tv shows. He recalled how some animals like bears, wild cats and other creatures would practically run up trees, he was damned either way. At least this way, hiding in the hole of the tree, he just had to protect the front. Thinking back to a moment ago when the spear was ripped from his hands, he thought ‘How the fuck was I supposed to know they were intelligent enough to disarm me?’
A cold breeze stirred around him as he broke out into a cold sweat, the night air bringing his scent to the wolves that surrounded him, the wolves licked their hungry maws baying for his blood. He heard them howl into the night as confirmation that the hunt was on.
****
The younger wolves were eager to demonstrate their hunting prowess. They darted around the woods, leaping between trees and scurrying under bushes, gradually making their way towards the tree where Dante was huddled.
They were hoping to flank their prey and catch him unawares, but he was too well concealed. The young wolves worked themselves into a frenzy, frothing at their mouths. They had to constantly fight for scraps and this was their opportunity to demonstrate that they didn’t fear the creature they were hunting, they could smell the fear of their prey in the air. The delicious smell caused them to drool as their hungry stomachs rumbled and protested.
“Maikoh, watch me” Waya, a small female wolf cried out to her brother. This was her first time hunting the hideless, the hideless were creatures that didn’t appear to have much fur. They were creatures that had abandoned their wild and natural sides, they had succumbed to the evolutionary effects of mana turning them into humanoids.
The hideless were usually intelligent and used the environment to protect themselves, they used tools such as trees that were sharpened, or stone that could split their head open. They often remained in large packs, very rarely was there an opportunity to hunt one. Waya wasn’t scared though, she was excited by the smell of sweat and fear coming from her prey. She had never tasted a hideless before, it increased her desire to get a rare chance to try this rare delicacy.
Waya rushed forward seeing one of the creature's limbs held in front of it, an easy target, she opened her jaws and clamped down. Sweet hot liquid gushed into her mouth, ‘So good!’ she thought, her eyes widening at the taste.
She couldn’t wait to take a bigger piece of hideless’s flesh, with her teeth still digging into the arm of her prey, she violently shook her head trying to weaken it or tear away some of the flesh. She tugged at the arm and her paws dug deep into the ground, she was hoping to pull her prey from its safe position so her brother could also have a bite.
“Waya watch out!” Maikoh howled. Before Waya could respond, pain burst from her nose, white stars blocked her vision and she yelped. The involuntary reaction caused her to release the delicious limb she had been holding onto. She skittered away from the source of the pain. The sudden fear of being struck dulled her thoughts, her sensitive nose felt like it was on fire. She shook her head and then pawned at her face, trying to rub the pain away.
Waya blinked away tears, she vaguely saw her brother Maikoh charging in to take her place. She saw him leap from a distance before colliding into Dante’s arm. Taking a large bite, he securely latched himself onto the arm and shook his head, drawing out high pitched sounds from their prey. The hideless screamed out guttural cries, making the same strange noise over and over again.
“Fuck! Fuck! FUCK!!!”
Waya watched as the hideless’s free arm started beating down on her brother, smashing constantly on Maikoh’s head and clawing at her brother's eyes. She could hear her brother's whimpers, but he refused to let go. It seemed to anger the hideless man even more, she could tell her brother's determination to not let go only caused their prey to fight even harder to shake Maikoh off.
“Someone help him!” Waya howled, the other adult wolves continued to circle or just stare. Some laughed at the sport, or watched at how young and inexperienced their Direwolf ‘siblings’ were. The adults were waiting for the prey to weaken before they tried to attack and take their piece of meat. Let the kids earn their place in this pack, the older wolves thought that these kids didn’t belong with them anyway.
‘What should I do? Why aren’t the elders helping?’ her panicked thoughts at seeing the hideless snarl and scream as he continued to strike at her brother caused her to make the rash decision to help her brother.
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Waya charged forward again. She leapt towards the free limb that the hideless kept using to strike at Maikoh. She flew through the air, her ears perked as she heard a different set of strange noises come from the hideless.
“Arghhh, I've got you this time!”
Her trajectory couldn’t be changed, she continued towards Maikoh’s side. The hideless made eye contact with her, he had a sinister smile that told her she fell into his trap. The hideless's paw was balled up and flew towards her nose again.
White light burst again, then darkness.
****
[Hand to hand combat increased to 4%]
‘One down' Dante thought as his fist struck the wolf that had first bit him, the wolf collapsed on the floor. He took small satisfaction in knocking the creature out, he took another glance to confirm that it was still unconscious before returning to more immediate concerns.
“Get the fuck off of me!” Dante yelled at the other small wolf that had taken a beating from him. The persistent wolf remained clamped onto his forearm. The wolf’s eyes darted to the ground, it seemed to take notice of the fact that the other wolf had collapsed on the floor after Dante’s retaliatory strike that knocked it down.
The damned wolf suddenly released itself and ran to the aid of the unconscious one. Was this the same wolf that had refused to let go despite his attempts to batter at it? His clawing, punching and kicking hadn't worked, yet the sight of one of its pack being injured caused it to flee.
Seeing the wolves take care of each other, struck him as unusual behaviour in the heat of combat. ‘These are wild animals right?’ Dante bared his teeth, blood was dripping from his arm. He observed the persistent wolf that had taken a beating from him moments ago, his eyes widened as he saw that it started to drag away the other even smaller wolf, taking it into the safety of darkness.
He took account of the damage he had taken, his bloody arm was already starting to coagulate, stemming the flow. The blood that dripped from his arm left long streaks of red down his body, it seemed to rile the wolves up even more. He heard more howling and movement nearby.
The only positive he took from the whole encounter was how quickly the bleeding slowed down, and how little actual damage he had taken in contrast to his fight with the hound in F’s cave. He figured that his 2 points of Constitution had already displayed the slightly improved resistance to damage. Otherwise, he might have already bled to death.
It wasn’t all positive though, he started to feel faint, his footing stumbled a bit, he slapped his face and psyched himself up again for the next encounter. ‘I can’t keep this pace up all night, I need a better way of fighting back’. Dante looked around to see if the spear that was ripped from his hands earlier was still around. There was nothing that could be used as a weapon in his field of vision.
A larger wolf this time charged towards Dante, so he huddled into the tree hole again. Raising his damaged arm ready to fight it off. But the larger wolf darted away at the last moment.
Dantes senses were heightened by the impending danger, breathing heavily, feeling exhausted and hungry. Dante’s tongue felt like sandpaper in his mouth, a bone dry feeling was a constant reminder that hadn't managed to find any water in the day.
The large wolf charged again, this time it didn’t seem as though it was a feint. The wolf lowered its head on its approach, trying to bite at the softer more exposed bits between Dante’s legs.
“No you fucking don’t!” Dante smashed his elbow down on the wolf's head, driving its head into the ground. The wolf was stunned and didn't move for a moment. Dante took the opportunity to keep smashing down with his elbow. After several strikes, he started hearing a crunching cracking noise before the skull collapsed on itself.
The same unusual phenomenon as when he killed the hound occurred, Silver white streams of thin threads left the dead wolf and then travelled towards Dante. His body drank up the threads of experience. He noticed there weren’t as many threads as there was when he killed the hound, they were also not as bright.
‘Fuck me, the barehanded bonus is ridiculous! Are those threads experience converted by the system?’ Dante thought to himself delirious and excited.
Thinking of how he managed to fend off 2 wolves and kill another he thought to himself ‘Maybe there’s a chance I’ll make it through the night after all.’
[Hand to hand combat increased to 5%]
[ Grey Wolf level 2 Killed (1 of 34)]
[Gained 102 Combat experience]
‘34 wolves! Are you kidding me?! I’m so dead’. Dante’s sudden and brief second wind blew away from him as he read the total number of wolves that were out there hunting him.
****
“Waya, wake up!”
Maikoh nipped at his sister, trying to rouse her from unconsciousness up. Thinking back to the battle ‘That hideless was vicious, how could he keep fighting after we bit into him?' He was confused, most hideless who were alone and without sharp branches and stones wouldn’t put up much of a fight. But this one was just too vicious.
This hideless reminded him of his father Maikah who fought the Grey pack, he recalled how in his last moments his father gave everything he had until his final howl.
‘Such a strange creature’. He looked at his unconscious sister who was beginning to stir.
“Mai...Maikoh, is that you?” Waya’s weak whining stirred Maikoh’s heart. He thought he was going to lose her this time. Maikoh lowered his head towards his sister, rubbing his head against hers.
“It’s me sister, so glad you decided to finish your nap. Are you ready to join me on this beautiful night?”
“Don’t make fun of me!” Waya nipped her brother's ear. Maikoh jumped away from his sister laughing “Sorry sister, I couldn’t help it!”
“Is it over Maikoh, is the hideless dead?” Waya asked hopefully.
Maikoh growled, “No, he is persistent and vicious. Look over there, watch how he fights the pack.”
He pointed his nose towards the fighting. Now that they were a safe distance away from the rest of the pack, they were able to properly observe the hideless that they had just attempted to hunt.
Waya looked towards where her brother pointed, she stared in fascination as the hideless rained down punches, elbows and knees at any Grey wolf that approached him. He was covered in blood, his own and also the blood from the wolves. It was an astonishing sight. He was overwhelmed by several adult wolves, yet holding his own. Littered around the entrance of his hiding space were bodies of dead and injured wolves.
Waya's eyes widened at the site, the behaviour of this man was certainly not what she would consider prey. ‘Did I just see the hideless bite part that wolf's ear off?!’
“You’re right” Waya agreed with her brother “he is vicious, like us.” She licked her mouth remembering the taste of blood, it had almost cost her life.
They both continued watching the pack and their miserable attempt to hunt the hideless. They smirked as they saw the continued failed attempts to draw the hideless away from the hole in the tree. This ‘prey’ refused to submit to the Grey wolf hunting pack.