The pup's howl drew the attention of both the Wolfertinger male and the giant treant. The treat probably thought I was with the chimeric assailant while the Wolfertinger father most likely wanted his pup back.

They were having nothing. I dashed across the forest, leaping over roots and abusing my Skill to reduce terrain penalties to take the fastest route, be it through bushes too big to go around in a timely manner or just straight between rocks that should be too tight for me to pass through at these speeds.

I could swear I heard giggles behind me. No time to dwell on it.

A flash and a peal of thunder had me leaping in the air. It wouldn't help in a direct hit as the lightning would connect to the ground anyway but saved me from the static electricity coursing through the ground. With all the metal sandwiched between leather my armor had; I didn't want to get zapped by the attack's AOE.

Then I heard the rocks crashing through the tree branches and diverted my path to the left. Seconds later, a boulder the size of my living room landed on the forest floor and bowled over some trees like they were... bowling pins.

Fuck. Shouldn't a treant care about the trees? Why would you kill your cousin Wilson just to catch me, Mr. Treant?

I plucked a whistle from my pocket and blew on it. The whistle imitated a bird call from a species that was not native to these lands. It pierced through the forest and hopefully someone in the caravan heard it.

The Wolfertinger adult howled. The Wolfertinger pup howled. Lightning struck. Less than thirty seconds from the last. I jumped too late to avoid getting zapped. I fell on all fours as my muscles twitched. I should've bought that lightning protection amulet on credit, dammit. Or begged Alice for one. I climbed back on my feet as I heard the massive wings flapping behind me. I looked behind me and gasped.

Damn, the male Wolfertinger had more than ten meters of wingspan. Small arcs of electricity coursed over between the branches of its antlers already. The wolf snout growled at me, ready to tear my flesh apart.

I ran straight forward, blowing the whistle stuck to my lips. Then I drew an arrow and prepared. To avoid losing momentum, I performed a spin jump and fired backward at the Wolfertinger male. The arrow bounced; the damage denied by the monster's HP. I landed a bit before I could finish my spin, rectify my heading, and keep running.

Would its HP threshold divisor also be five? Why did it matter? The thing got twice as much resources as I did. All I could do was to keep ahead of it.

With all the trees in the way, the Wolfertinger male had to land and chase me on foot. Damn. I remembered how fast these things could jump forward. I drew another arrow and did the same trick shot. Jump spin, fire when facing backward, hope I had enough angular momentum to do a three-hundred-and-sixty spin. I had to practice this one more. The arrow bounced off of its snout once again. The antlers were almost entirely glowing. I would take a lightning bolt on my butt if I didn't do something.

But what could I do? Before the monster could fire its magic, though, the sound of breaking tree branches announced another massive petard sent our way. It crashed over the Wolfertinger male, who tried to jump out of the way at the last moment. The monster flapped its wings to get more sideways momentum, a dreary mistake.

The treant scored the first hit of its fight. The bounder landed over the wing and the Wolfertinger male whined loudly in pain. The lightning discharged into a tree to my right, carving the plant in two and causing it to burn. A heavy cloud of smoke billowed from it. Thunderous footsteps shook the forest ground. The treant was coming.

I kept running. With the monster pinned under the boulder, it was my chance to escape. I blew the whistle for the umpteenth time. I almost sighed in relief as I heard the reply whistle. The one the Captain carried.

I leaped over a root and sideswiped a bush. The soldiers and mages were already prepared for battle. Hector stood in the middle, to the left of the Captain. That kite shield was ready to defend the heir to the City if needed.

"Reporting!" I shouted. I wasn't out of breath only because of my Stamina. My SP was close to the single digits, though. "The Wolfertinger male can shoot lightning every twenty seconds, a bit more if he has to aim or wait for an opportunity. It is a hybrid caster/fighter. My estimate of its level may be under or it might have gained several levels hunting since its female died. It might be over level forty. The thing throwing rocks after the winged monster is a treant, towering thirty meters. It is damaged from the lightning bolts but still able to throw these massive boulders. One of the rocks clipped the Wolfertinger's left wing. I don't believe it will be able to fly. The wing is pinned under the boulder. The treant was closing in."

I could still feel the ground shake.

"We cannot let the treant steal MY kill!" Hector said as he ran off into the woods.

"Master, wait!" The lieutenant said as he followed. The officer made a gesture to his subordinates.

"Charge!" The leader of the rangers said. The soldiers rushed forward, followed by the two mages.

I stayed behind to catch my breath. With the two arrows I shot at the Wolfertinger, my assist in the kill was guaranteed. And since I accurately reported the treant, I would receive a notification from my PP.

I checked my Status. Hunting through the trip granted me another level, the seventeenth. I also earned seventy notifications for kobold kills, which granted me fifty-four Attribute points through my Parallel Progression. While I thought it was too little, I had no way to tell what happened. Either the mine had too little kobolds or something else went wrong. I would only know the truth once I returned to the city.

Soul Scout (rare) Level 17 Strength 183 Dexterity 180 Endurance 174 Intelligence 117 Wisdom 159 Clarity 11 Charisma 12 Health (HP) 326 Mana (MP) 56 Stamina (SP) 239

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

My stats were developing nicely. Intelligence wasn't keeping up with Wisdom or Dexterity, which might not let me work at full speed but for combat, Having Strength and Dexterity evenly matched was superb. I was ridiculously buffed for my level.

I could stay and not go. My job was to scout. But the fear I felt while running was slowly converting into anger. Sixteen-year-old me was still rash and impulsive. For the fourth time, I threw caution to the wind and rushed into the fray.

*

*

The men shouted. The Wolfertinger male howled and barked. And the treant creaked and pounded. It was chaos. A boulder flew and I heard one of the rangers scream and then go suddenly silent.

Bows fired. Orders were issued. A lightning bolt flashed and briefly illuminated the forest.

The soldiers must have used some sort of group movement feature or a spell to get that ahead while I made up my mind.

Ahead, a giant wooden arm swooped down and went with one of the soldiers in its hand. The Wolfertinger had ripped off its own wing, bled from the stump, and desperately tried to fry Hector. The two mages shot beams of fire at the treant while the lieutenant and the soldiers harassed both monsters.

To defend itself from the fire, the treant moved the arm that was holding the screaming soldier into the flames. The mages either didn't care, didn't notice, or couldn't stop their magic in time. The poor man was incinerated by friendly fire fire.

It was awful. The treant plucked another tree from the ground and swung it at the mages. The lieutenant intervened with that instantaneous movement and set his kite shield against the tree. For a moment we thought the shield held. Then, with a creaking snap, the treant bashed the lieutenant and both mages twenty meters deeper into the forest. I heard bones break but I could only hope their HP soaked the worst of the collision.

A screech of metal being scratched came from the fight between Hector and the Wolfertinger. Hector shouted in surprise but held his ground. Then, another flash of lightning struck the lordling square in the chest. With a second flash of light, it was neutralized.

I stared in shock. Then, I let out a sigh of relief. Of course, Hector would come prepared with something that could neutralize a Wolfertinger's strongest weapon. Hells, I bet most of his gear if not everything was enchanted.

I stared between the two fights. I didn't want to engage the treant and my arrows wouldn't do shit to the wooden behemoth. I couldn't let the soldiers to their deaths either.

I aimed at the treant's eyes. Each of them had at least four arrows marked with the ranger's fletching. Yet, the treant seemed to have no problem seeing where its targets were. Another soldier was crushed underfoot.

Shaking my decision paralysis, I fired five arrows at the treant in as many seconds. They did jack shit even though the treant had no more HP since before I first laid eyes on him.

The arrows didn't bounce so it wasn't immune to piercing damage but it might as well be.

I could shoot the Wolfertinger's heart. That might create a feud with Hector. I didn't need to have him as my enemy. So, I did nothing. I couldn't do anything. Except for the thing my Class was named after.

With all this noise, other curious and brave creatures might come to investigate the fight or even to slay the wounded victor. I scanned our surroundings for these kinds of interlopers. What I found surprised me.

> Your knowledge and training improved your Scouting Skill to rank IV; All of your senses' range, accuracy, and the resistance to distractions, overwhelming input, or hindering debuffs increase by 7.5% per rank.

Goodness. What a moment to improve a Skill. But the perception boost allowed me to find some well-hidden giggling creatures.

Fairies.

The treant killed another soldier. Soon, it would go after the rangers. Or it would finish off the male Wolfertinger. Hector was in the way.

I averted my gaze to not let the fairies know I spotted them. But now, it felt like a veil had been lifted. I couldn't perceive the giggles before but now they were like a gaggle of bells was chiming in all the high notes at the same time.

The little critters were watching the fight like arena junkies watched Gladiator fights.

I drew three arrows and kept two between my fingers and one nocked. If the Wolfertinger overpowered Hector, I would intervene. A volley of flaming arrows flew at the giant tree-creature. That pissed the treant so much that the treant killed the last soldier and went after the rangers. They were kiting the treant away from Hector's fight.

With a mighty effort of will, the Lieutenant stood up. He limped and dragged his left leg behind him. It was clearly broken and only held in place by the plate armor he wore. The two mages were hopefully only unconscious.

Hector sagged and almost had his head bitten off by the Wolfertinger. He drank an orange potion and his energy immediately spiked. With redoubled effort, he engaged the Wolfertinger. The monster was exhausted, had lost a lot of blood and a whole wing to boot. Only that and Hector's dangerous alchemical boosts and relatively safe magical items kept the monster from just murdering the man.

And yet, in his maniacal high from the orange potion, Hector let his guard down. I saw as if in slow motion as the Wolfertinger rammed its antlers at Hector's face and used the opening his parry gave it to shove the sword arm up and bite Hector's right arm tight below the shoulder.

The monster shook its head violently. The Lieutenant screamed. His instant movement feature didn't activate because he either had a broken leg or the feature was off cooldown. He shouted in frustration and cursed profusely.

The Wolfertinger yanked Hector's arm off its socket. Only the masterwork armor kept the arm from being ripped off. Yet, it hung at an impossible angle in the mouth of the monster.

Hector's blade hit the forest floor. The Wolfertinger was about to use its body weight to push Hector into the ground.

And I got my opening. One, two, three arrows flew straight at the Wolfertinger's heart. When the first struck, the monster froze in shock. The second caused it to let go of the arm and howl in pain and desperation. The third arrow struck. Its gaze met my eyes and it sniffed. It howled. The pup in my backpack howled.

Pure surprise shifted its expression from pain to hatred. It recognized me. The Wolfertinger barked and charged its antlers. Even with three arrows in its heart, it still had the will to keep fighting. Just like the female, he too would die fighting to defend his brood.

A flash. I got blinded for a moment. I blinked and fought to make the purple spots in vision fade. But I was still alive. Alive and unharmed. I could see my Status window even when my eyes didn't work and my HP was not zero. I didn't feel any pain.

A clang rang right in front of me as the air spread the smell of burnt flesh. The forest was rather silent but for the giggles of the fairies above me and the treant's footsteps fading in the distance.

My sight finally returned. The newest rank of my Skill already proved its worth. I had no doubt that the thirty percent resilience bonus to my senses helped a lot.

And I saw utter devastation.