It had been a few days since the incident at the river with Fluffball and everything had calmed down and returned to their normal daily routine. Travel all day while the sun was up and then stop at night to build fires in order to ward off the night's extreme cold.
Fluffball was also healthy and had been behaving himself since then. Luckily Akira did not have any permanent damage to his feet. He only had to endure a day or two of uncomfortable standing.
Akira placed a piece of wood on the burning fire sending sparks up into the air. A pot of water was boiling over the fire making a simple fish soup.
Fluffball had recently taken a liking to sleeping on Akira's shoulders whenever the sleds stopped.
He was never more than a few feet away from Akira and if Akira tried to go anywhere without him he would yap and whine forcing Akira to either carry him or allow him to follow behind him.
With the dangerous monsters, they were encountering daily most of the time Akira was forced to carry Fluffball or let him lay on his shoulders to make sure nothing came and tried to eat him while he wasn't looking.
A few of the large Reindeer that pulled their sleds had been attacked at night causing them much trouble so his worries were not unfounded.
Akira removed the lid and stirred the fish soup causing a large puff of steam to escape into the cold air. A deep fish aroma filled the surrounding area as many different types of fish were being cooked in several different ways.
Fluffball's ears twitched a few times before picking up his head and looking into the darkness just outside of the fire's light.
He jumped off of Akira's shoulder and started to growl at the darkness.
“What is it?” asked Akira as he pet Fluffball to calm him down.
'It's nothing to worry about,' said Nox as he yawned.
Fluffball began yapping loudly looking at Akira then at the darkness. Due to his misadventure a few days before he did not move away from Akira impatiently waiting to see what Akira would do.
By now Akira's personal guards were on full alert and had already transformed. Their hands were on their weapons while they sniffed the air for any unseen enemy.
Akira picked up a burning branch and used it as a torch to light the dark edges of the camp as he walked forward.
Fluffball followed right beside Akira growling the whole time. The two transformed werewolf warriors flanked Akira on either side ready to jump in front of him to block any surprise attack.
Nox watched them lazily as he laid near the warm fire.
Akira took two more steps forward and held the burning branch above his head. No matter how hard he looked all he could see was white snow.
Fluffball started to growl even louder and before Akira could stop him he jumped towards a nearby snowbank.
That was when Akira saw it. [Baby Snow Puffball lvl 6].
The small creature that had caught Fluffball's attention was staring at the boiling soup over the fire with drool coming out of its mouth.
The [Baby Snow Puffball] was the size of a small watermelon and was just as round and covered in nothing but white fur.
It had no arms or legs, just a large mouth with sharp teeth and two large black eyes.
The trance that the [Baby Snow Puffball] was in was snapped as Fluffball jumped towards him.
Fluffball clumsily crashed landed into the snowbank headfirst just short of the [Baby Snow Puffball].
Seeing something was trying to attack it, the [Baby Snow Puffball] began rolling towards the top of the snowbank to get away from the clumsy wolf pup.
At the top of the snowbank, it stopped rolling and opened its large mouth revealing its sharp teeth. A few squeaky coughs continued to escape its mouth while it had a creepy smile on its face.
Fluffball removed his head from the snow and searched for the white-furred puffball.
When he found the [Baby Snow Puffball] on top of the snow mound continuously smiling and letting out its squeaky coughs he became angry and charged up the snowbank.
“Fluffball...”
Ding!
Requirements met!
You have unlocked the passive skill [Companion combat training].
In order to unlock and upgrade this passive skill, you must allow your companion to fight on its own or put it through certain training scenarios by sparing with your companion.
A combat companion is useless if all it does is receive experience points.
With this passive skill, your combat companion will be able to learn things 2x faster.
“Sir should we take care of that thing or do you want to?” asked one of his guards as they looked at the small Puffball who was now fighting with Fluffball.
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“No, Fluffball needs to learn to fight and this monster is a great match for him,” said Akira as he held up a hand to stop his guards from killing the weak [Baby Snow Puffball].
The guards relaxed their stances but still had a hand on their weapons while they looked around searching for any other monster that might show up.
Nox came over to Akira and sat down to watch the two fight.
Akira watched as the [Baby Snow Puffball] rolled around while Fluffball chased after it.
Fluffball was getting increasingly angry as he kept running in circles trying to catch the [Baby Snow Puffball]. He stopped chasing after the [Baby Snow Puffball] and stared at his foe that was still rolling around.
The [Baby Snow Puffball] noticed that Fluffball had stopped moving and also stopped.
The two stared at each other ignoring the growing crowd that had come to see what all the commotion was.
It was Fluffball who made the first move as he jumped through the air sending snow flying everywhere as he launched himself towards the [Baby Snow Puffball].
Fluffball crashed headfirst into the [Baby Snow Puffball] stunning both of them as they stumbled and rolled around disoriented in the snow.
Ding!
Fluffball has learned the skill [Headbutt]!
Headbutt: both the attacker and the target are stunned for an undetermined amount of time depending on both attacker and the target's strength.
Fluffball was the first to recover and staggered towards the [Baby Snow Puffball] who was still rolling back and forth.
Using his small front claws Fluffball attacked the [Baby Snow Puffball].
Ding!
Fluffball has learned the skill [Scratch]!
Scratch: leaves a nasty scratch on the enemy it may even draw blood if the attack is strong enough!
Fluffball started to bite the [Baby Snow Puffball] and scratch it with his front paws.
Ding!
Fluffball has learned the skill [Gnaw]!
Gnaw: chew on the target and make them wet and soggy. If the teeth become stronger the attack might do something!
Akira sighed after seeing the useless skills that Fluffball was learning.
“I guess I'll have to teach you how to fight properly later,” mumbled Akira.
Nox let out a few chuckles at seeing the two fumble around.
It was only a few minutes later when the [Baby Snow Puffball] who had lost several patches of fur and was now covered in frozen saliva stopped moving. Its eyes were closed and its mouth was shut.
Fluffball took this as his win and stood on top of the [Baby Snow Puffball] and let out a loud squeaky yap declaring victory. He looked towards Akira for praise.
Unfortunately, his celebration was premature as the [Baby Snow Puffball] rolled around and bit down onto one of Fluffball's legs.
Fluffball let out a loud whimper as his leg was bitten and became bloody.
He tried to pull his leg out but the [Baby Snow Puffball] clamped down onto his leg like a metal hunting trap.
No matter how hard Fluffball scratched or gnawed at the [Baby Snow Puffball] it still did not budge.
Akira moved quickly the moment he saw the blood with Nox following right behind him.
He picked up the whimpering Fluffball who still had the [Baby Snow Puffball] attached to his leg.
Akira easily pried the Puffball off of Fluffball's leg and punted it away from their camp like a leather ball.
Nox took off after the monster to make sure and chase it away for good.
Akira Hurried back to the campfire to check on Fluffball's leg.
The blood covering his little furred leg made the wounds look worse than they were.
Fluffball had only received minor punctures that were not that deep and the wounds would heal within a few days to a week if taken care of properly.
“Hold still,” ordered Akira as he took a canteen of hot water that had been warmed near the fire and used it to clean Fluffball's wounds.
Fluffball let out a few whimpers as the hot water washed away the blood from his leg. Akira made sure to quickly dry the leg to stop the water from freezing.
When the wound was washed and dried Akira took out some clean bandages from his bag and tightly wrapped the leg.
Fluffball licked Akira's hand as thanks for bandaging his wound and tried to stand up but let out another pained whimper as unable to stand on his foot.
“You won't be able to walk on it for some time. You'll have to stay on the sled or my shoulders until you are fully healed.”
Fluffball looked away from Akira shyly.
“Next time you should make sure that your opponent was really defeated before you celebrate,” said Akira as he ruffled Fluffball's fur and scratched behind his ears.
He couldn't be mad at him as he was still young and inexperienced but hopefully, he would be able to learn from this as he had with the river incident.
“What was all the commotion over there?” asked Burkin as he bit into a steaming fish that was skewered by a wooden stick.
“Nothing that important. Fluffball got in a fight with a small puffball monster,” said Akira.
Burkin stopped chewing and looked at Akira.
“Did you make sure to kill it?” asked Burkin.
“No, I just kicked it away and Nox chased it off. It was just a little guy so there was no need for me to worry about it,” said Akira.
“We need to leave now!” said Burkin as he finished his cooked fish in just two bites.
“Why?”
“You let it escape so now it is most definitely going back to its parents! If we don't leave now we will have to fight them!”
Not wanting to see if Burkin's advice was wrong, Akira ordered everyone to pack up camp and head south. He placed Fluffball in his usual blanket and put him on the sled before getting on the back of the sled and heading south.
Not more than ten minutes had passed when a loud howl roared out from where they had been camping just a short time ago.
Akira looked behind him to see a large two large hills rolling around looking for something near the dim coals of the fires that had been hastily put out.
[Puffball Yeti lvl 80], [Puffball Yeti lvl 83].
“See! I was right! If we had stayed behind we may have been able to defeat them but I'm sure our mission would have become a failure as many warriors would have been wounded and we would be forced to return to the main camp again. This is not the northlands showing sympathy to a monster because it is cute or weak will get you killed,” said Burkin.
“Understood, Everyone, let's keep heading south to get as far away from them as we can,” said Akira.
He felt ashamed because it was just as Burkin had said he had shown sympathy to the [Baby Snow Puffball] because the mounter was so weak and at a low level. It seemed that not only did Fluffball have something to learn so did he.
The two large monsters roared as they tore through the large snowbanks searching for the culprit that had gnawed, bit, and scratched the [Baby Snow Puffball].