Completely terrified Kyle wasn’t able to react in time to gather his mana. His fear has gotten a hold of him, disabling his ability to focus his mana to cast spells. The howling of the wolves held a weak fear effect making it extremely effective on Kyle who was already afraid, to begin with. He kept trying to convince himself to treat all of this just like a highly realistic game.

Yet just like a chain reaction coming from that single howl of the scouting wolf the rest of the pack responded intensifying the fear effect of their howls. One after another began to appear as they began to surround the tree beneath them. There were exactly thirty of them in varying sizes. One wolf especially stood out as its size overshadowed the rest of them. The alpha of its pack standing well over two meters tall with residuals of blood still coating its jaws. Its fur was shiny and clean being in a much better state than any other wolves. If you compared these wolves to the regular wolves back in their world. They possess much bigger claws that were superior to regular wolves with mightier jaws. Their tails seemed special as well, but Nathan couldn’t determine exactly why.

If a regular wolf would be helpless of hunting a creature that has climbed a tree they weren’t at all. With the howl of their alpha, they began to move in leaving deep marks in the tree as they shredded it with their claws. They worked in unison with great pace if nothing was done the tree they were on would fall any minute now.

"Kyle we're gonna die if you don't start blasting them with fire!" His fear of being ripped apart alive by wolves was greater than the fear he felt towards the wolves themselves. It took him twice as long as it would have normally, but Kyle was still able to cast a ball of fire at the wolves down below. With them, all bunched up the fire was able to spread as their fur coughed on fire. But that was as far as their luck could carry them as the fire even spread to the very tree they were on.

Seeing the hesitation Kyle had started to show as soon as the fire had started to spread to the tree they were on Nathan yelled out.

"Keep burning them, take out as many as you can!" Nathan's shout was able to wake Kyle up from his panic as he began to cast his magic one again. One ball of fire after another hit the pack of wolves diminishing their numbers greatly before they retreated out of Kyle's range as they watched the tree slowly burn up.

They were running out of time as the smoke from the burning tree started to engulf them as the heat kept increasing on top of the burning tree. Still, Kyle had managed to kill a good chunk of the wolves as they burned to death while still leaving a great deal of them with burned wounds. It was enough for Nathan to level up as he checked his system notification.

| Level 2 forest wolf has been slain x7 |

| +10(-50%) Experience |

| Level 3 forest wolf has been slain x4 |

| +30(-50%) Experience |

| Level 4 forest wolf has been slain x1 |

| +60(-50%) Experience |

| Level up |

This level up had given Nathan the chance he needed as he added his skill point into shared power raising its effectiveness.

| Shared power | 2/5 |

| You and the spirit can share part of each other's power. |

| +20% of each other's base stats. |

| Name: Nathan Bandon |

| Level: 2 |

| Class: Spiritualist |

| Status: Haunted |

| Strength: 7(5) |

| Vitality: 6(4) |

| Agility: 7(5) |

| Sense: 11(10) |

| Magic power: 5(3) |

| Mana: 3 |

| Attribute points: 3 |

Nathan was under great pressure as he tried to figure out a way out of their current situation. They couldn’t run away from a pack of wolves no matter what they did but they had a small chance of winning if they stood their ground against them. If Nathan invested every attribute point he had into agility it should give him enough speed to dodge a much greater portion of the attacks coming his way. But that would leave Kyle to defend on his own, Something he wasn’t capable of. While investing everything in vitality should enable him to tank more attacks from the wolves while guarding Kyle and staying next to him. Investing all his points into vitality could only work if Kyle still had some mana left to kill the majority of wolves while Nathan defends him.

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"Kyle how much mana do you have?"

"Uhm... 3 mana after the level up!" The smoke and flames had only become more intense and Kyle with his weaker vitality wasn't taking it as well as Nathan.

"We are going to jump down and stand our ground. I will take on as many of the wolves as I can!" With that statement, Nathan invested all his attribute points into vitality as he jumped down from the tree while holding Kyle. The higher vitality made the fall barely bearable even from a height of about four meters.

As soon as the wolves noticed they had jumped from the tree the howl of the alpha signaled them to attack as the remaining eighteen wolves including the alpha at the back began to rush towards them as they traversed the forest ground pursuing their prey that was running away from the burning tree into a clearing that was just perfect for them.

“Cover me!” Nathan had suddenly stopped as he utilized his senses to the highest degree as the world around him slowed down by a tiny bit. Gathering his mana into his blade he released a soul slash at the charging wolves. Just as his soul slash hit the wolves, a ball of fire blasted a cluster of wolves as well, setting them ablaze as their fur caught on fire.

His sword intercepted the lunge of a wolf. Leaving his side wide open for another wolf to attack him only to be shredded by the upgraded claws of Nicole. The wolves hadn’t just mindlessly attacked them head-on as by the time two of the lunging wolves were killed the rest of them had managed to form a circle around them cutting off any escape roots they could take.

Without giving them any chance to recuperate they began to charge straight at them. Six of them went for Nathan while another six went for Kyle. By now both of them had completely lost track of where the alpha had gone as just taking on six wolves took immense focus for both of them. Instead of using his fireball skill Kyle began to channel his mana directly into the staff as he began to discharge a constant wave of flames from the tip of his staff. He arced the flames to cover all 6 of the wolves as he began to roast them alive. Nathan wasn't idle either as he sent out another soul slash that hit two of the wolves forcing them to stop their rush. His sword shattered into pieces against the skull of another wolf leaving him wide open. This wasn't ignored as a wolf pounced at him trying to take a chunk out of his neck. Its bodyweight knocked him to the ground, almost causing him to miss the chance to defend against its bite. It's fangs sunk deep into his arm leaving bloody holes, but before it could do even more harm the broken sword pierced its eye socket ending its life.

As Nathan lied on the ground from the corner of his vision, he managed to just see a sight he won't ever forget. From Kyle's flames, the alpha had emerged using his own flames as a way to conceal its actions. The bloody jaws of the alpha tore a huge chunk out of Kyles’s body. Not even able to utter a scream as his body crumbled to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut. His body disappearing into particles of light only leaving behind his fire staff.

Nathan's mind went blank as he saw the death of his last teammate. Yet the alpha couldn't care any less about what mindset his prey was in. Almost his whole pack had been wiped out with the exception of the pregnant females and pups in its cave. It was absolutely furious right now even at this point he could see it’s pack being killed in front of it.

Nicole had been actively killing off all the remaining wolves on Nathan's side all this time leaving only the alpha and three severely burned wolves still standing. The three of them had already killed twenty-six of them.

Clenching the broken sword in his hands turned Nathan's knuckles white while the veins in his arm bulged. He understood Kyle hadn’t truly died here. But he wasn't able to protect him and what if one day his weakness will cause him to lose Nicole once again! It wasn't something he could accept.

His anger was channeled into his mana as it gathered into his broken sword sending out two soul slashes in a row towards the dashing alpha. Its speed was great enough to dodge the majority of the slash as it got bearly nicked by the edge of the slash. Its bloody jaws snapped shut millimeters from Nathan's falling body only keeping his life due to a pull from Nicole. Her delicate hands had morphed into demon-like claws leaving ten wounds on Nathan's shoulders from her pull. She didn't just stop there as the same claws changed their trajectory almost instantly going straight for the face of the alpha. Even with its thick hide, they dug deep into its skin crippling one of its eyes while tearing off a chunk of its nose.

But the wolf's viciousness shouldn't be underestimated as its fangs began to turn into a deep shade of red as mana began to gather into them, activating it’s skill as it snapped at Nicole’s claws. Due to the mana in its fangs, it was able to do damage to Nicole as both her arms were now stuck in its mouth. Seeing that the wolf was hurting Nicole the last shred of hesitation Nathan held towards killing another living being he had held this long had shattered.

Regaining his balance with a stomp Nathan sprung into action as the broken blade pierced the singed mane of the wolf. The shattered blade completely broke inside its body as sharp metal fragments tore its flesh apart. Instinctively it had let go of Nicole's arm from this blow. Only to begin receiving a barrage of claw attacks. But that in itself wasn't even half as bad as Nathans follow up move. His now empty hand had burrowed into the wound he just created as the fragments of the shattered sword dug into his hand while pushing and cutting up the insides of the wolf even more. After that, it didn't take long for the alpha to collapse. By the time its body fell to the ground, Nicole had already taken care of the wounded wolves as Nathan began to receive a barrage of system messages as the fight was officially over.

| Your teammate has fallen in battle disqualifying him from the tutorial. |

| Experience will be transferred to you based on your level standard. |

| Level 2 forest wolf has been slain x1 |

| +20(-50%) Experience |

| Level 3 forest wolf has been slain x11 |

| +30(-50%) Experience |

| Level 4 forest wolf has been slain x5 |

| +80(-50%) Experience |

| Level 5 Elite forest alpha wolf has been slain |

| +300(-50%) Experience |

| Level up |

| Tutorial feat has been accomplished. |

| Exterminating a wolf pack. (Solo) |

| You have fought alone against a pack of vicious wolves and came out victorious. |

| Rewards: Wolf-bone sword, 1 Skill point, 2 attribute points, Wolf-blood elixir. |

After killing all those wolves Nathan had leveled up only once while any other level 2 would have reached level 4 and been more than halfway towards level 5. Yet he wasn't feeling a shred of regret, just a sense of relief seeing that Nicole was still fine after taking the attack of the alpha only being a bit more transparent then he usually perceived her as.

"I'm glad you're alright." Even with both, his hand's a bloody mess with deep gashes on his shoulders he was smiling as he looked at her.

She was still here with him.