Nobody had time to react, nobody except the adrenaline fueled Hailey. With barely a millisecond to spare, she got her bow between her throat and the mouth of the wolf. The wolf clamped down on the bow, whipping its head around trying to force it out of Hailey’s hands.

Mike was about to go help, but another wolf pounced towards him before he could help. Martin seemed to be in a similar situation, as was John. Deciding that he wouldn’t be able to help his team if he was killed, he shifted his attention to the wolf in front of him.

The wolf tried a similar tactic by leaping towards his throat, only to miss and be thrown over Mike's shoulder. The canine landed on its back with a thud, exposing its underbelly for a brief moment. Mike didn't let the opportunity go to waste, swinging his maul towards the chest of the wolf. Unlike the foxes, a single swing wasn't enough to take them down.

He could feel the hammer sink in, indicating broken, or more likely shattered ribs. The wolf got up and tried circling around behind him, a good deal slower than before. Mike moved in, going for the kill. He swung his hammer in a swift left to right motion, and hit the creature's neck, killing it. Turning to his group, he saw them all in various degrees of urgent danger. Martin had a second wolf attacking him along with the first. He withstood the attacks due to the metal armor he wore, but Mike wasn't sure how much longer that was going to last.

John was on the ground, his staff jammed sideways into a wolf's mouth. He seemed to be losing the fight of strength. Hailey had somehow gotten on the back of her wolf, pulling the bow back with all her weight to keep it in the wolf’s mouth. Running towards John, he quickly dispatched the wolf with a sideways blow to the head. John got up, running over to help Hailey, while Mike went to assist Martin.

Mike ran over to Martin, who had just fallen over, holding his sword straight up. The sword in question was entirely impaled through the torso of one of the wolves. The body of the wolf acted as a shield as Martin moved it to block the other wolf. All the while Kenny had hidden in a bush as soon as the fight started.

Mike swung his hammer, severely breaking the front left leg of the wolf being blocked. The wolf turned its attention to him, before turning tail and running towards the alpha wolf.

“Shit!” Mike shouted. If the alpha came over and entered the fray, it was bound to be a much more dire fight. Even with a broken leg, the wolf was still faster than Mike was. Giving up the chase after just a few yards, he turned back to help kill the wolf on top of Martin, only to see it dead on the ground, Martin pulling his sword out of its side. They both nodded without a word, and ran over to help the other two. To the surprise of both of them, the wolf lay dead, a sizable hole blasted through wear its heart once was.

“What the hell happened here?” Martin said, staring at the utterly defeated wolf.

“I just threw as much mana at it as I could, and while it was expensive, the results speak for themselves.” John said, beaming with what Mike thought was pride. Definitely not a psychotic smile at blowing the heart out of a creature.

“We don't have time to talk much longer, one of the wolves escaped, and ran towards the alpha. We need to get ready for that big mutt to attack.” Mike cut in.

“Why can’t we just run?” Hailey asked, “We have a better chance finding food elsewhere than fighting that thing.”

“Won't work,” Mike responded with no hesitation, “Even the injured wolf outran me, these things are far faster than us.”

As he finished his sentence, he heard a howl from the direction of the cave den. The alpha had gotten up from its seated position, looking in their direction. He seemed to stare into the very soul of Mike, piercing his very being, before howling a second time. A notification appeared in the corner of his vision, giving him information he very much disliked.

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*Debuff gained. Wrath of the Pack.*

Mike was not sure what the debuff did, but he didn't have time to find out as the alpha, along with three other wolves, including the injured one, ran towards their direction. They all got ready, getting into a formation with Mike and Martin in front, John behind them, and Hailey behind him.

“I’ll take the injured one out first, so we don’t have four-” Mike was cut off by an arrow flying over his head, piercing the skull of the injured wolf, killing it instantly. “Ok, I’ll handle the one on the right. John, do you think you could do that mana thing again on the big guy?”

“No luck,” John said, making some kind of bullet between his hands with mana. “That one blast took over half of my mana pool, so it's not something that's happening more than once.”

“I can fend off the alpha while you three handle the other two.” Martin said, raising his sword in front of him.

“Got it.” Mike said, readying his trusty hammer.

The wolves reached them, instantly breaking their expectations. Each and everyone of them targeted Mike, with a ferocity so terrifying you would think they were rabid. Mike was forced to backpedal, holding the handle of his maul in the way of any potential attacks. The other three members followed, focusing their attacks on the 2 small wolves. Both were quickly killed, and all four began focusing on the alpha.

John finally released that magic bullet he had been making, which pierced cleanly through the side of the beast, exiting out just behind its opposite shoulder. Hailey shot more arrows, most of them missing. A few lucky shots stuck into the torso and neck of the beast, and one in particular hit its eye, blinding it and ruining any depth perception it had. Martin Cut a deep gouge into the rear of the wolf, causing blood to gush from the gaping wound.

The wolf bled so heavily by this point, that even if it killed them it was unlikely that it would survive. Mike was forced to drop to the ground as the mouth of the wolf slipped past the hammer, almost closing around his whole head. The beast was truly massive, which he realized quickly when it was literally on top of him.

He did the only thing he could think of in that moment, and drove his feet upwards into the belly of the beast. To his surprise, the wolf went almost a foot in the air before landing on its side, getting up quicker than the heavily injured wolf, Mike finally killed it by caving its skull in with a powerful downward swing. The wolf died unceremoniously, with its entire body tensing up before relaxing.

*Debuff removed. Wrath of the pack.*

“Well that was intense.” Martin joked through heaving breaths. He was out of breath, as was everyone in the group. They gathered the bodies before sitting down to rest. They sure as hell were not getting their kills stolen after all of that. They looked through their notifications.

John had one of the more interesting ones, as he had apparently made an uncommon spell when he did his fancy mana blast on the first wolf. Other than that, they had all leveled up from the ordeal. After hearing about the skill, Mike checked his own notifications, the effort to open his menu taking but a few seconds this time.

*Wolf (level 3) slain x3*

*Alpha Wolf (level 5) slain*

*Debuff cleansed: Wrath of the pack [An escaping member you injured alerted the alpha of the pack. The pack now sees you as priority number 1 when determining who to target.]*

*Class level up! Warrior (level 2)*

*Race level up! Human (level 1)*

*fragments obtained*

He looked at the level up notification in particular, pleased his effort was rewarded. Looking at his stats, he put every free point into agility, as he didn't like how much faster the wolves were than him. He looked at his stats after all was allocated.

Strength: 16

Constitution: 11

Agility: 11

Wisdom: 7

Intelligence: 9

Charisma: 8

Perception:8

Fortitude: 10

Feeling the instant gratification of seeing numbers go up, he waited for the others to finish viewing their gains. He wasn't going to make the mistake of meditating in the middle of where a battle just took place a second time. They all rested, allowing their Health and stamina to recover, and in John's case, mana. Kenny finally hopped over, instantly sensing something. He hopped over to Hailey, nuzzling her right arm, which was covered in blood. He had assumed it was from a wolf, until he saw the wound closing that was hidden by the blood all around it.

“Why didn't you tell us you were hurt?” Mike asked, a bit upset. It was important to the group that these things were shared so they could help one another.

“Because, well, I am not saying now, I realize how stupid my reasoning was.” She said, face as red as the blood all around them.

“You need to make up for not telling us about the wound by telling us the reason you hit it.” Martin said.

“I thought,” She paused, taking a nervous breath,” I thought you would kill me, since I would turn into a werewolf. I can see that it may seem a little silly.” She wouldn’t make eye contact with any of them as they all stared at her, trying to hold back laughter. It all fell apart when John let out a small giggle, prompting everyone to laugh heartily at the poor girl's expense.