“How far are we from the Blue Wolf Tribe?” Dodging to the side, a shadow pounced on the location she had just been at. Jessica spoke with a raised voice with her daggers drawn.
“Around a month depending on the patrol routes. Anywhere from a week to a month, we should make contact.” An egregious cry of pain threaten to overpower Saleh’s reply.
Currently, the two were being attacked by a small pack of snow wolves. Contrary to their original thought. Cassie’s snow wolf wasn’t as useless as it appeared.
Having been the first to notice the polar bear, the snow wolf had alerted them in a different fashion a week prior. Having been resting, the wolf started to whine before Cassie had them release it. It ran into the snow.
Neither knew how it did it, but the large horse sized wolf disappeared into the snow that was less than half its size. Once it returned, it had brought with it a much smaller snow wolf. Leading them to the location of where it came from.
A small group of four wolves were found. Two were in perfect condition, outside large chunks missing from their necks. The other half had clearly been chewed through. In total, it was a group of five, counting the one it brought back.
None of them had mana. At least from anything Jessica or Saleh could tell from the pelts of the remaining two. That was to say, this snow wolf that had been bringing them around had wiped out a small group of snow wolves without any injures. And from the traces, without any trouble. It was a fairly impressive kill count from the perspective of a transport animal.
At the moment, they were being attacked by a small pack of snow wolves. If they had to guess, they were part of the group that was killed off prier. In total, there were around forty. Of that, only ten of them were graded. Only the pack leader was Grade E.
Inspecting her arm that now had blood leaking from it. Jessica pulled out her dagger from the culprit, “That makes seven. What are you at?”
Jessica was standing to the front of the carriage, while Saleh was standing to her side. It was unknown where Cassie’s snow wolf had disappeared to. Every once in a while a snow wolf would be attacked by the snow and disappear. Always a non-graded one.
“Hm, I would say about fifteen? They sent all the graded ones your way. I can’t tell if it's sending all the normal ones my way to stop me from casting. Or if it thinks you’re easier to deal with. Either way, this is getting annoying.”
What he said made sense, she had only killed two non-graded wolves. Of the nearly ten Grade F snow wolves, she killed what she believed to be half. In the distance was the Grade E pack leader surrounded by what seemed to be the last Grade F snow wolves in the pack.
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Even if all Saleh had to deal with were normal wolves, they weren’t easy to deal with when they were sent in waves, intending for you to slowly waste your mana and energy.
Surprisingly, the wolves knew how to fight extremely well in a group. Making matters worse, killing a wolf didn’t affect the rest. They were able to minimize their ability to use mana to easily counter them by using wave attacks to cover for their fellow wolves.
This increased the difficulty because at any given time, there was still more waiting to fight. Neither of the two were in a bad position. Jessica had taken one hit that caused a deep slash on her arm, while Saleh was able to get out with just damage to his clothes.
The biggest issue was that they were ready to flee at any moment. While Jessica and Saleh were now in a snow field reeking of blood. This only being their third time contacting with animals.
That didn’t mean, nothing would be drawn out by the large amount of blood spilled here. While it could be said that being so close to the Blue Wolf Tribe patrols meant they were almost safe. One had to remember why there were patrols in the first place.
As if sensing the shift in the pack’s momentum, the large snow wolf burst out of a small mound of snow. This didn’t just startle the pack wolves, even Jessica and Saleh were a bit startled by this action.
Outside the normal hunting patterns of a snow wolf, the pack was using the cunning of a normal pack of wolves. Cassie’s snow wolf was the abnormal one that hid in the snow. Only showing its presence when a pack wolf would disappear in the snow, as if there was a hidden monster in this field.
The snow wolf didn’t just appear, it had rushed out at a considerable speed. Aiming straight for the pack leader. Not ten feet away, neither Jessica nor Saleh could follow its movements in the snow. It was no surprise it was able to get that close. Its guts were another matter.
Having reacted too slow, the Grade F pack wolves could only try to be reactionary. By that time, they needed to chase after the behemoth of the same species. Not entertaining the thought, the pack leader didn’t take the fight straight on. Trying to create distance as its Grade F follows moved in to try and stop it.
Jessica and Saleh were rushing forward. Cassie’s snow wolf had attacked from behind the pack leader. With it creating distance, it was moving closer to them. There was about thirty yards between the two parties, with at least fifteen to twenty normal wolves in between them.
Without the command, or the other wolves to be in a position to offset the difference in strength. Jessica and Saleh were able to easily slice through their resistance.
It was bad to leave Cassie in the carriage. However, they both believed the carriage would be fine from normal wolves. The bigger issue was, if Cassie’s snow wolf was injured, the carriage would be stuck in this field.
If that became true, they would need to abandon the carriage as the field was filled with blood and corpses. Even doing their best attempt at cleaning the field for a satisfying result, would end in failure. Maybe nothing would come the first day, or second. By the third and fourth, the chances of something coming continued to raise with each passing day.
Moving through the snow with Cassie would be difficult. Therefore, the two simultaneously decided to make sure the snow wolf was fine. Jessica believed Everblood was still there.
In the worst case, they failed the escort. Nothing would happen to Cassie. If they saved the snow wolf, and didn’t force her to tread through the snow, it was at least a somewhat positive impression.