Karrlund

  Morning came too quickly for my liking, wrenching me from my dreams. However, as soon as I opened my eyes I could feel there was something wrong. A quick check of my tent showed me that nothing had been stolen but that didn't stop me from worrying. Then, I heard the howl. It shook me to my core, freezing me to the spot for at least a second. Reaching for my armour, I shakily slid it on and pulled the straps tight. I didn't have time to get my helm on properly nor some of the less important armour pieces like the fanplate or rerebrace so I just went without, picking up the spare shield and belt before wrapping it around my waist. Slotting my my sheathed axe into the designated gap was fluid and practised so it didn't take too long in the end.

  To sprint outside was the first urge I had once I had all of this but I delayed myself by a few seconds in order to get a couple daggers for anyone who rushed and forgot their own weapons. As soon as I'd collected all three of the daggers in my tent I pulled aside the curtain, perhaps accidentally ripping it, and ran towards the noise.

  By the time I'd made it, about half the guards had already gathered, including Pavolia and Emrik. "Is Lucius not joining us?" I turned to the Captain in charge of Lucius and he shook his head, mumbling something about him disappearing with the lady he was meant to protect. Pavolia instantly started interrogating the poor guy and I left her to it. Obviously she was just stressed because she knew what that howl was same as me. I walked over to Emrik and leaned in close. "Can we take a Dire wolf?"

  Emrik turned to me and sighed. "As long as it is isn't too far into the evolution we can. The really good stat multipliers wont take effect until it's level 20 as a Dire Wolf. Otherwise it will be difficult to live, let alone win." He melted into the shadows and disappeared for a short while. In that time Pavolia walked back over to me looking downcast. Her eyes wouldn't meet mine and she was scowling at the floor with intensity.

  "Neither Lucius is classed as missing, and so is his charge. Last seen they were both leaving the camp together, Lucius about three to four strides behind Feyre." She sighed. "And it was in the direction of the howling." She looked up at me then. "That was a Dire Wolf right? Does Emrik think we can take it?" I didn't want to lie to her, but if I said no she'd probably not try as hard in the fight. So I nodded and she smiled. "That's a relief. You're uh... quiet today Karrlund. Are you alright?"

  "I am. Still waking up if I'm honest." I grinned lopsidedly at her and looked into the forest. Knowing that Lucius and Feyre could possibly have run into a Dire Wolf gave the entire group a much needed motivation to fight it. So it began, a party of 20 went into the woods. We didn't have a formation but we all knew what to do. Dire Wolves were the third evolution of Wolves and on par with an average Gold Ranked Party in the first twenty levels. The only problem was once it got all its stat boosts from level twenty one and onwards. At that point it would probably take a Wyrmscale ranked party or perhaps even higher to defeat.

  Emrik appeared next to Pavolia and called out to us. "I checked using the Ring on the level of the wolf! It's Race Level Four! Basically newborn!" The group cheered and ran with renewed vigour. After all, it being that low level, even as a Dire Wolf, meant my Party should be able to handle it. I joined them in the war cry and we charged forwards, to either save or avenge the two who had ran into it.

  Pavolia

  I tried to join in with the war cries of my fellow guards, truly I did, but there was nothing in me except resolute acceptance. I couldn't help but wonder what sort of horrible fate Feyre and Lucius could have befallen to the Dire Wolf. Furthermore, I didn't want to allow myself any hope just for it to shatter so I squashed any thoughts of either of them surviving such a dangerous encounter. It wasn't long before we reached where Emrik had seen the beast last. I quietly prepared some activation spells to go off as soon as I saw it.

  We didn't have to wait long. By the time my third spell had finished being prepared it stepped out from the waning shadows of night and into a small patch of grass. Blood dripped from its maw and I could've sworn it looked almost smug as it looked out over the group that had assembled to kill it.

  As I made those observations my spells went off and Karrlund yelled some commands to the spear wielders of the other Party. "Lock shields! Prepare for a dash attack! Back line ready your spells and arrows!" He paused as my spells hit the Dire Wolf directly, it didn't even try to dodge. A small smoke cloud was created from the force of the explosions and I watched with bated breath, perhaps it was an extraordinarily weak or stupid Dire Wolf and I had just killed it.

  Unfortunately, that isn't what happened at all. Instead what happened was nothing. It still stood there, looking smug with itself as it looked down on us. I looked down and felt an overwhelming urge to just give up, I hadn't used any particularly strong spells but they would still have done far more damage than whatever Feyre or even Lucius could have done to the Beast. Karrlund chose that point to use [Taunt] and the Dire Wolf's head snapped towards him, eyes glowing slightly red, like charcoal. Suddenly, it made a mad dash at him and promptly got impaled on the spears of the shield wall that was in between them. Some of the men cheered. I wanted to scold them for celebrating before anything was final but I didn't. They'd learn soon enough.

  They did. The beast was stuck on their spears, sure, but that didn't last long because it recovered quicker that any of us could expect. It swiped its paw and sent an entire group of men flying, each of them landing hard and not getting back up, one of them being caught by a razor sharp claw and losing his arm with a sickening shriek of pain.

  I growled and reached out with my hands, pointing at the Dire Wolf with both palms open. "A binding flame and an early grave... Help me along the path I pave... [Hellfire]!" It was an instant cast and a purple line of flame spurted out of my hands, landing on the Dire Wolf and spreading across its whole body like a soft blanket. A soft blanket of pain and blistering heat. "Quickly! While I have it bound and immobile!" I silently willed the [Hellfire] to wrench the Dire Wolf down, forcing it to it's knees in a sense and making it almost powerless to resist. Karrlund and Emrik dashed in, Emrik slashing threefold at the hind and Karrlund going for a direct headshot.

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  Even that didn't seem to hurt it any more than a superficial wound. Karrlund roared in rage, activating [Hungry for Blood] before the Dire Wolf could even attempt to fight back. He hacked into it with his axe faster than my eyes could follow. All I saw was a blur, blood spurting, another blur and more blood. Over and over again did Karrlund slam his axe into the creature as I held it down with magic. Our allies encircled it and started stabbing into its side with their spears as Emrik assisted keeping the beast on the ground.

  In the end it was a well executed hunt but, had Karrlund and I not been there, it would have had a very different outcome if the injuries we sustained from just one attack was anything to go by.

  "Lucius wouldn't have stood a chance by himself. I guess that was either his or Lady Feyre's blood that we saw dripping from its maw?" I turned to whoever spoke, probably accidentally glaring, but before I could say anything the notification came through.

  [System]

  [You have slain an [Advanced Rogue]/[Berserker] [Dire Wolf] Level 4 with the help of allies]

  [EXP Gained = 350]

  [Notice: Slain as a Party, Party Rules state all EXP is shared equally. All 25 members will get their share]

  [EXP earned = 14]

  Emrik ran over and looked up at me. He grit his teeth for a second as if contemplating something. Eventually he came to a decision and relaxed before he started speaking. "I'm sorry Pavolia... All we found was Lucius' corpse and now that we only have 25 in the part, not 26 well I don't need to explain it to you hun. I don't know whether this is a good thing or not but we can't find her corpse so either Feyre was eaten whole or she died somewhere else." He looked almost hopeful and it became even harder for me to not have hope myself. I hadn't known Feyre very long at all but the things we'd talked about made me feel like I knew her really well and I grew attached.

  I shook my head and sighed. "Don't, Emrik... That isn't fair..." He winced and bowed his head, obviously hearing something in my voice. He pulled me close and I leant into him. I shook and he patted my back, gently stroking my hair. "I don't know why I care so much... I barely knew her but..." He shushed me and held me tighter. Leading me away from the main group, he took me to a large tree. Beside it was obviously Lucius' corpse, noticeably missing his belt. I looked at Emrik and then back at the corpse. "Do you think the belt fell off or..." I didn't voice my suspicion but Emrik knew. He was smart so he definitely knew what I was insinuating.

  "You think she took it huh? Could be... Either way I'm sorry honey but we can't stay here to look for her... Tyrril is our priority and if there are Dire Wolves here then I want to get him as far away as possible." I sighed and he pet my head lovingly. I leaned into him again and summoned a small flame. We waited until the rest caught up and Karrlund looted Lucius of all remaining valuables and useful items. Then I sent the flame forwards and we all bowed our heads as his corpse burned.

  Feyre

  I didn't stop running for a long time. I constantly felt a sense of overwhelming dread whenever I slowed right up until I heard another howl. This one was a lot closer and wasn't a [Skill] as far as I was aware, just a normal wolf's howl. The sense of dread left me soon after than and I let out a breath that I didn't even acknowledge I'd been holding for the past few seconds. I grit my teeth and drew Lucius' arming sword. It was better than nothing and, frankly, I wanted to get back at the Dire Wolf for mocking me.

  I stomped my foot and yelled into the bushes. "Come and get me ya mangy mutts!" That annoyed them for sure, if the cacophony of sprinting paws was anything to go by. I glared into the bushes and waited, two hands on the handle in an Ox Guard. The first wold burst from the bushes and sprinted at me, jaw open wide and ready to bite.

  I did the only sensible thing and swung in a downwards arc, using the weight of the sword as well as my own strength to cut deep into flesh and crack skull, killing the mutt almost instantly. That wasn't the only one that was a bit early to the party though. Another three basically flew out of the bushes and rushed at me, growling and snarling. I stepped back and made sure there was nothing coming from behind me before lunging and impaling one wolf not dissimilar to what I did to the Bandit. I wrenched back in a hurry and brought my sword up just in time to take the brunt of the impact of a claw swipe.

  I wasn't used to the sword and blocking the claws ended up doing little to stop it slashing across my temple. I hissed and, with both hands back on the hilt, made a diagonal cut and lopped off one of the front legs before spinning and thrusting into the third wolf who had thought it would try to sneak up on me, stupidly. Stomping on the crippled wolf's head I heard a satisfying crunch. There was a small break in the wolves so I ripped a bit of the shift off, watching in awe as a new section was made to replace it, and used it to wipe the blood welling along my forehead and threatening to blind me as it trickled down my face.

  I didn't have long as more and more wolves seemed to come from the bushes. Mostly I could kill them with just one or two strikes. A few managed to nick me with their claws, one even managing to sneak up on me and get a solid bit into my calf. It didn't get to live to do anything with that though as I slammed the pommel into its face, breaking at least the eye socket and bursting a blood vessel in that eye. I then unsheathed the Carnwennan dagger and impaled it straight through the spine, killing it painfully but quickly.

  I decided that revenge against the Dire Wolf by killing all of its minions wasn't worth my life so I retreated as I fought, slowly getting into more sparsely spaced trees until there was only one or two every twenty feet or so. The ground behind me gave into a gradual incline until The wolves were at a major disadvantage, me being able to kick one and it take two others rolling down onto rocks and dirt was one. Eventually, the mutts gave up and stalked back into the forest, glaring at me. I smirked and plopped myself onto a rock, all my adrenaline wearing out and leaving me absolutely exhausted.

  "Phew... Don't think I could have carried on much longer... Why did Lucius have to have such a heavy Arming sword?" I complained to the brightening sky and the rising sun. Its warm rays met my gooey and warm blood leading to an overall outcome of warming me. The golden light slowly crept into focus until all I saw was gold and green.

  The forest was, yet again, peaceful and beautiful. The crimson ruby rivers ran down me as the sapphire streams of opal blue ran down the mountain and through the emerald expanse. It had such a significant effect that I, if only for a second, felt like I could die right then and there and be happy. Of course, that foolish statement didn't last. I was going to live, and I was going to thrive. "I'm going to become even stronger than that horrible Dire Wolf."