Two hours before dawn, the ‘golden trio’ and Rick met at the border of the town. A grumpy Iris was dragging a sleepy Cyrus, and even Hakon was displeased with waking up so early. Despite their arguments, the hunter had insisted on leaving at such a time. According to him, the sunny morning was perfect for hunting and shouldn’t be wasted on traveling.

The divergences didn’t stop during their meeting time, Rick soon understood why hunters would operate alone; the party was too slow. The speed problem became even clearer once they entered the forest and started exploring. He couldn’t time it, but they would slow him down by at least a few hours a day. Still, he didn’t complain and just followed their agreement.

The day before, they had agreed on ambushing a grey wolf pack that would roam closer to Rick’s hunting area border. Even though the beasts were only copper tier, their numbers would fetch a nice loot. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t be able to approach the wolves without being noticed; the party was too noisy. The hunter considered ambushing the wolves by himself, but what would be the use of that?

So, Rick proposed a change of plan before they got into the wolves' territory. The trio complained, of course, but they didn’t pursue the matter since their supposed inadequate abilities were the reason why the hunter backed down on their original plan. Well, there were pros and cons to hunting in a bigger group.

Fortunately, their number was beneficial when deciding on a new plan. After some minutes of back and forth, a brand new plan was formed and Rick felt much more confident. The hunter’s knowledge about the beast’s behavior was still the key to their plan, but having more minds on it and more pieces to arrange made a huge difference.

After experiencing the power of knowledge, the borderlander had become a diehard fan of books. So, when he went to the bookstore to meet the trio, he also used one of his reading credits to check the grey wolves on the beastiarium. The magic creature was a carnivore wind essence beast that lived in windy plains close to a water source. Because of its essence, the wolf was especially fast.

The combination made the pack deadlier. Unhindered, they would pursue and attack any prey that dared to enter their plains. But unfortunately for beasts, they were living in a forest and were limited by the environment. Specifically, this pack was living in a small valley south of the mountains. The place had stronger winds and fewer trees, but it was surrounded, offering the perfect opportunity for ambushes.

When he stumbled on the valley and the wolves, Rick had been tempted to give it a try. Thankfully, he was sensible enough to understand his limitations. Being pursued by grey wolves didn’t leave a good chance of survival, even in a forest. However, now he had a party to support an attack, and though they couldn’t execute a proper ambush, they could get close enough.

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Sometime around noon, Rick left the trio on a landmark and moved alone to the edge of the valley. The depression started at the feet of the mountains and stretched towards the Wall for six or so kilometers. At top speed, it would take him more than ten minutes to cross it, but locating the wolves could be done in under a minute. And so, he did.

Their soon-to-be prey was drinking from the stream, one kilometer north of his position in the direction of the mountains. The plan would put him at risk, but the adventurers were in an even worse position. If it went sideways, he would be able to hide inside the shelter and they would be left to fend off the beasts. Of course, he would leave them for dead unless the situation became unsalvageable.

Since the beasts were in a good position for their plan, Rick returned and they started the preparations. Half an hour later, everything was in place and they set the plan in motion.

Alone, the hunter went back to the valley border and confirmed the position of the wolves. The pack of five was a little closer to his position, but the plan was still doable. With a slinger at hand, he started launching small rocks at the beasts. All the rocks missed the target, but hitting wasn’t his goal. The wolves became enraged by the sudden attack and once they spotted the solo nosy offender, they sprinted towards him.

A second later, Rick started running towards the ambush point. He even dropped the slinger in fear. There was a big difference between planning, and actually running from wind essence beasts. He only needed to cover a half kilometer before the wolves reached him, but the beasts were at least three times faster.

Dodging trees and bushes, the hunter got his fair share of cuts and bruises. Fortunately, half a minute later he spotted the agreed location. Even so, he didn’t slow down, putting even more effort into running; angry howls could already be heard behind him. It would be a close call.

At such speed, Rick could only try to angle his path to avoid ruining their preparations. If he damaged the trap, it would all be for nothing. Still, he didn’t have time to pause, the wolves had caught up with him, only a few meters behind. The adrenaline-fueled his long steps, and just when he felt a threatening breath on his back, a fire grid ignited through the ambush site.

Unfortunately, one wolf had already crossed the fire line that should protect Rick from them. Iris, who was now chanting fire cantrips to ignite the lines of flammable grass, had to wait for him to cross the last line before casting, but the damn beast had reached him first.

Instead of cursing his luck, Rick threw himself in the direction of a spear, which had been prepared beforehand. Surprisingly, the wolf, that could have threatened the boy’s life with an effortless bite, gave up the pursuit and turned away trying to escape from the fire. Good thing that Rick had refrained from cursing the Gods and his luck.

Regardless, Rick held the spear tightly and prepared to defend himself. Even so, the beast couldn’t care less about him, it was disoriented and horrified, trying to find a path of escape. Just like the beastiarium said, the grey wolf was extremely averse to fire, its instinct upon seeing it was to run.