Kirk was breathing heavily. Several dreadwolves stood before him, their evil eyes glaring at him. Each of these terrifying creatures was much bigger and stronger than a regular Earth wolf. And they were way more aggressive and dangerous. Even a single dreadwolf could pose quite a threat to a regular person. But dreadwolves hardly ever roamed the forest alone. Instead, they formed a pack consisting of at least a dozen creatures.

Kirk had already killed some of the pack’s dreadwolves, but there were several of them still alive. All of them were wounded, having been slashed or pierced by Kirk’s sword. They were now wary of him, knowing he wasn’t as easy prey as the one they usually hunted. But Kirk himself was tired too, exhausted even. The fight had been going on for just a few minutes, but it was intense and brutal.

While he wasn’t wounded, he was very tired. To continue to fight the dreadwolves, he needed to drink a stamina potion to get some additional energy. There were some risks involved with that, though. He knew that when the effects of the stamina potion wore off, he would get so tired he might even black out. But it was too early to worry about that. For now, he had to defeat the remaining dreadwolves at any cost, otherwise there wouldn’t be the need to worry about dealing with the side effects of stamina potions.

Kirk held a round shield in one of his hands and a sword in the other. To take a stamina potion from one of the pouches on his belt, he needed to sheath his sword. He was cautious about doing it, though. The dreadwolves watched him carefully, waiting for the right moment to attack. They weren’t stupid. They knew the sword in his right hand was the real threat to them. They would surely attack him if they saw it sheathed.

So instead of taking out a stamina potion, Kirk did something else. He held his shield in front of him and concentrated on his active ability called Power Burst. As soon as he thought about the ability, he received a mental reply that it was ready to use. He activated it with a thought and instantly burst into a run toward the wild animals, his movement speed greatly increased.

He rammed his shield into the nearest dreadwolf with so much force the creature got knocked over. Without slowing down, he continued to charge forward, bashing his shield into every creature that stood in his way. A few seconds later, his Power Burst was deactivated, going into cooldown. Kirk instantly stopped running and spun around. Most of the dreadwolves had been knocked over by his shield. Some of them had already gotten up, but they were still disoriented and wouldn’t be able to fight for a few seconds.

However, he’d missed a couple of creatures. They growled as they approached him. He had no strength left in him to fight. He had to drink a stamina potion right now. He slid his sword into its sheath and took a small bottle from a pouch on his belt. He quickly drank the potion and tossed the empty bottle aside. Invigorated, he reached for the hilt of his sword. But before he could draw his weapon, one of the dreadwolves jumped at him.

From the corner of his eye, he spotted a flash of light, and a fraction of a second later, a fireball flew from the right, hitting the dreadwolf in midair. The magical projectile exploded, hurling the scorched body of the now-dead creature to the ground. The other forest predators spun to face the new threat. Nina stepped from the bushes where she’d hidden to restore some of her energy after the first minutes of the battle.

Nina didn’t wear any armor at all, being lightly dressed, so she always stayed a safe distance from enemies while Kirk bore the brunt of their attacks. Having restored some of her energy, she returned to the battle. And none too soon—a moment later, and the dreadwolf would have bitten into Kirk’s face. She’d just saved his life.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

She cast a fireball, killing another of the remaining dreadwolves. The rest of them began to move in her direction. Now that Kirk had drunk one stamina potion and recovered some of his energy, he could fight in full force again. Shouting a battle cry to distract the remaining forest predators from his companion, he charged at them.

It didn’t take Kirk and Nina long to deal with the rest of the dreadwolves. They could now continue their trip home. They had been walking home after having fulfilled a bounty before they were suddenly attacked by the wolf pack. Now that all the dreadwolves were taken care of, they resumed traveling home, hoping they wouldn’t be interrupted by another monster attack.

At some point, several pine-like trees they walked through opened out into a small clearing. Kirk took a few steps into the open and came to a sudden stop when he saw something terrifying up ahead.

He raised a hand to signal for Nina to halt because he didn’t want her to see it. But she’d already come abreast of him, and she gasped when she saw what he was staring at.

“What the—” she said in a terrified voice.

In the middle of the clearing lay a human dead body. It was a man. The body was completely naked and carved open from neck to crotch, allowing its internal organs and entrails to spill out.

“What kind of creature could do something like that?” Nina whispered.

“It was no animal,” Kirk said.

Nina turned her head to look at him with wide-opened eyes. “You mean a person did this?!”

“Yes. No animal could do it. This wound must’ve been inflicted with a large dagger. Besides, see those cuts there?”

Strange symbols were carved into the dead man’s body.

“What are those?”

“I’m not sure. But it wasn’t a simple murder. I’m certain that some kind of magical ritual was performed here. You are a mage. Can you sense it?”

When somebody used a spell, some kind of magical residue lingered in the air for some time. Regular people weren’t able to sense it, but experienced mages like Nina could. When she concentrated, she immediately realized that a lot of magic had been used here to create some kind of an extremely powerful spell.

“You’re right,” she said.

“The poor bastard must’ve been sacrificed,” Kirk concluded.

“By whom? And to what end?”

Kirk just shook his head. “I have no idea. But do you remember what I told you when we just met? That there were no rules or laws to obey in this world?”

“I remember,” Nina said grimly. “You said I was lucky that it was you who found me and not some bad people.”

“Right.” Kirk nodded at the maimed dead body. “And whoever did this isn’t just bad. They are truly evil. I have no desire to meet with whoever is responsible for this. So let’s get the fuck out of here.”

“You think they may still be somewhere nearby?” Nina asked, looking around in fear.

“I don’t know. They are probably long gone. But just in case, we better not linger here. So let’s get a move on.”

And he started to walk away from the scene. Nina got truly scared. She thought she would never be so frightened again. Since Kirk saved her life and she teamed up with him, everything was fine, and she was lulled into a false sense of security. But she was now just as scared as she’d been when she’d just awoken in this alien world.

What scared her the most, however, wasn’t even the sight of the maimed body, but the fear she saw in Kirk’s eyes when he glanced at her before hastily leaving the clearing.

It was the very first time when Nina saw him scared.