Keith panicked. He threw all caution to the wind the moment he heard the Sand Wolves. He didn’t want to have a repeat of what occurred only hours earlier. He frantically dashed to the oasis while furiously kicking up clouds of dust. They irritated his lungs as he heavily heaved air from sprinting.

  Sand Wolves were quite weak by the standards of Hunters, but they were still ranked beasts nonetheless. Unlike the Wolves of Earth, they were roughly half their size and their appearance was more akin to coyotes than they were wolves. A few Sand Wolves could face an entire pack of Earth’s Timber Wolves without so much as breaking a sweat.

  They were vicious and cruel. Although they weren’t very intelligent, Sand Wolves were unexpectedly cunning and full of guile. They were driven by nothing else save for their primal instincts.

  Typically, the easiest way to deal with Sand Wolves was to be in a group, and kill them off one by one while warding off the rest of the pack. If a Hunter was alone, then the best method to kill Sand Wolves was to mortally wound them with traps, then go in for the kill. Of course, all of this could be disregarded if the Hunter had overwhelming strength.

  However, knowing how to deal with Sand Wolves and actually killing them were two completely different matters all together. The worst thing a newbie could do was fight head-on against a pack of Sand Wolves; it was as if they were asking for death. This was especially true in Keith’s case. As someone who wasn’t awakened, fighting against Sand Wolves was no different than opening the doors of Hell and waltzing right in.

  ‘What to do? What to do? Come on, think!’ Keith dove into the Oasis grounds as he heard the Sand Wolves howls growing louder and louder. Clearly they had locked onto his scent. He was naïve for assuming that they wouldn’t track him. So much for two years of experience, he was certain that he’d made even more mistakes than the ones he already knew of. All the rudimentary knowledge he’d acquired from books and his real life experiences were all useless if he didn’t know how to apply said knowledge.

  Racking his brains for any solution he could think of, Keith’s gaze soon fell on the vines of the trees. He didn’t have much time, only a few minutes at best. He didn’t even have enough time to come up with a suitable trap, let alone build one. Fighting head on was suicide. His only choice…. Was guerilla warfare?

  Although he would never claim to be knowledgeable about plant life on Earth, not even to mention the countless other realms plants, he could say that he knew about the vines he was gazing at.

  Dashing to the nearest tree, Keith climbed it while ignoring the pain from his wounds. He could feel blood seeping through the gauze. His wounds probably had been aggravated because of his all-out sprint.

  Once he was roughly fifteen feet off the ground, Keith sat on a branch and tore vines from the tree. With multiple vines nearly ten feet long, he slowly began to braid them together while ignoring the howls of the Sand Wolves closing in. All life had to be tenacious in order to survive in a wasteland. This included the plants. Each of the vines was already individually tough and could resist the cuts of his dagger as if they were rope with steel wire inlaid within. If braided together, they would be even stronger.

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  Braiding three vines together, Keith wrapped it around his waist and interlaced it between his legs and thighs, creating something almost akin to a harness he could sit in. Then, he wrapped it around the thickest and most stable branch he could find on the tree he’d climbed.

  Although it was primitive and created haphazardly in a stressful situation while under time constraints, Keith was roughly sixty percent sure that the vine and tree branch wouldn’t snap under his weight. With the limited time he had to make his harness, he would accept those odds. Keith finally laid his eyes on the Sand Wolves beneath him. This entire time, he did his best to ignore them and their howling. He focused solely on calming his nerves and creating the harness.

  The Sand Wolves were emaciated and yet they still looked ferocious. With matted fur a golden-brown color, they blended into the surrounding desert. However in the oasis they were easily spotted. Their ribs protruded, and their claws were black. The eyes of the Sand Wolves were bloodshot and pure red. The red eyes gave the impression of cruelty and uncontrollable rage. White foam dripped from the lead Sand Wolf’s mouth. It was the alpha and larger than the rest. Whether or not it was rabies or any type of illness he knew of, Keith wasn’t sure. Luckily he wasn’t bit by the Alpha Sand Wolf and he planned to keep it that way.

  “Alright Keith, in order to survive, there is only one method, guerilla warfare. Take it slow. Don’t let your nerves get the best of you. Most of all, don’t hesitate or lose focus due to the sight of blood.”

  Keith gave himself a pep talk as he looked at the Sand Wolves before him. His chosen method was truly lackluster and had a high chance of failing. It was a reckless plan, but it was all he could think of.

  With his harness, he planned to gather momentum by swinging from one tree to another while striking at the Sand Wolves as he swung by. While he was used to blood and seeing things slaughtered, but doing it himself made him nervous. The worst thing he could do was hesitate to attack or kill, if he did it would cost him his life. Failure was not an option.

  There were many things that could go wrong. He could get tangled in the vines and his harness. His spear could easily break. Maybe the vine would snap the moment he jumped down even though it should be able to support his weight of roughly one-hundred and sixty five pounds. He was six feet tall, and still growing. His body was mostly muscle and well-toned. If he wore clothing, it was hard to notice his muscles. But when he was shirtless, his body would most definitely not be considered scrawny, even if he was a bit thin…

  Steeling his nerves and trying to kill off any emotions in his heart, Keith looked at the tree directly in front of him, and then he looked at the Sand Wolves below him. They already knew he was there. They had been trying to climb the tree and kill him for awhile now. Their yapping had long become white noise in his ears.

  Taking a deep breath, Keith brandished his weapon. His heart and mind were as calm as he could possibly be, despite this, his body still shook involuntarily. He knew better than anyone that he wasn’t invincible. He didn’t need the Hunters Association or anyone else to tell him that, he’d already heard how useless he was all of his life. He was destined to do nothing, and go nowhere in life. He was supposed to die on the streets. Maybe those people were right, but if that was his destiny, he would fight it.

  Keith expelled all thoughts from his mind. Bone chilling fear invaded the depths of his body and soul as he shook. Taking one last deep breath, Keith tugged on his harness to make sure it was secure.

Then… he jumped off the branch.