7: Night Wolves
1505 Words
"Be careful, those are Poison Plants, those plants have thin thorns on their stems that could paralyze and kill a grown man." Grant told the two about the plant they were about to step on.
"Oh! You saved us there!" Lance said and gave Grant a thumbs up while walking forward
"Look out-" Grant tried to ward Lance but it was too late, a branch swayed on Lance's face and hit him.
"Argh!" Both Grant and Kit laughed while Lance is on the ground holding his face
They continued to tread the forest grounds while hunting for beasts.
They get points when they slay a certain beast,
Rabbits are equal to 1 point. while larger animals like boars are equal to 3-5 points, and dangerous animals like Bears, Tigers, and Wolves are equal to 10 points.
A team must at least get 50 points to pass the exam, the teams must consist of 3 members each, Grant joined the two, Kit and Lance since they're the only ones he felt comfortable.
"All right, we have 2 days to hunt, we will do our best. This forest is as big as a kingdom so it's impossible not to see any beasts here." Lance said to them
"Ready your weapons, and be wary of your surrounding." Kit followed
"And look for herbs." Grant said with a straight face
""What's with you and herbs?"" Both Kit and Lance has the same thing going through their minds.
After readying their weapons, they set out. Kit readied his iron sword given by Roger, Lance has his steel sword and Grant has a greatsword with him.
"Let's go." Lance said
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Earnest was on the other side of the forest, casually swaying his sword towards the beasts majestically
His noble companions, are collecting the needed parts for the exam
Such as rabbit ears, boar tusk, bird feather, bear claws and more.
Since Earnest used some kind of trick, an incense which lures in beasts to him.
"Hmm, this incense is quite powerful, in mere minutes a large of beasts have come and attacked us," He said, it was given by his father which came from the black market.
"You're amazing, Lord Earnest!" The two nobles kept flattering him, but Earnest doesn't really care about praises, all he wants is to get out of the forest.
"It's disgusting out here." He mumbled as he looks at his boots covered in mud and grass.
"Tsk, I wanna get out." He said, now he got serious and continued hunting for beasts.
Right now, they have an amount of 35 points, which is pretty fast.
"We have 2 days, but I want to finish this." Earnest said as he kept swinging his sword towards the boars.
"Do you there are wolves here?" The noble with Earnest asked
"Wolves are nocturnal, they would not be around in the day." Earnest answerd while cleaning his sword
"How about goblins? O-Or ogres?" The other noble followed
"If they somehow get in my way, they'll be killed by me." Earnest answered with a hint of arrogance and pride.
"Let's go." Earnest then went along their way after collecting the beast parts.
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"Now!" Lance signaled and got out of their bush, he thrusts his sword onto the boars' side, the boar screamed in pain but the blow dealt by Lance left quite a damage.
Grant kicked the other boar with his bare strength and the boar rolls and hits a tree
Kit was there and stabbed the boar on the sides, the boar could do nothing but scream out.
After killing the boar, Kit removed the tusks and stored it on the sack they got, the sack has plenty of beasts parts already, mostly rabbit ears and boar tusk.
"Bleed out the boars, those can be dinner." Kit said, Grant carried both of the dead boar and hooked them on the tree.
The boars completely bled out and laid down on the grass, since boar meat is precious they took extra care harvesting the meat.
Kit took out a knife and cut the boar in it's belly, same with Lance. Kit learned how to properly cut open a boar and other beasts from Roger, he taught Kit the basics and let him do it.
After harvesting the boars, they set out to search for more beasts.
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Earnest's team continued killing every beasts they can find. Its already close to dusk the sun's going down soon.
"We're gonna find a good place to camp." Earnest said after sheathing his sword.
They walk around the forest, after many trees and beasts, they finally found a good spot to camp.
"This should do, I don't really like camping next to a tree," Earnest said as he puts down his sword, bag and sat down on a rock.
The other two nobles did the same, they rested for about 5 minutes and one of the nobles decided to start a fire,
After gathering stones and twigs he put them altogether and light it with his fire magic.
The flame burned the twigs faster and the noble put much larger wood on the flame
The sun has completely set, the fire made the three warm.
The other noble took out fruits from his bag and gave them to Earnest and the noble.
It was a Featillio, a yellow round like fruit that only grows in the Eastern Forest.
As the sun goes down, the darkness completely enveloped the whole forest, only the fire lights up the surrounding, the fire crackles and the cricket sounds are the only ambient sounds they hear.
Earnest takes out a well-made leather from his bag and puts it down on the ground.
He lied down and looked up to the stars, which twinkles as the moon hides behind the clouds.
All of the sudden, they were startled by a moving sound, sounds of footsteps and it's getting near them
"W-What was that?!" The noble asked, he took out his sword from the ground and unsheathed it from its scabbard.
Earnest also got up and did the same, the footstep is completely near and what came out of the bushes is a trainee just like them, but he's covered in wounds and blood all over his leather armor.
"H-Help!" The trainee begged as he found relief and hope as he saw Earnest
"What happened!" Earnest asked, he helped the young man who's covered in wounds and sat him on the rock
"Speak." Earnest said
"W-Wolves, dark as the night, with fangs stronger than steel. They have red eyes that glows up on the night, t-those were the rumored wolves!" The young man spoke of his experience and started cowering in fear.
"T-They have a whole pack of wolves, about six of them attacked our camp. I-I was lucky enough to ran away and escape, the other trainees with me were killed by those wolves!" He started crying, he held down his wound on his left stomach area.
"Arnold, give him some aid." Earnest said, he took out a few bandages and gave it to the noble who's named Arnold.
"W-Why would me, a noble treat a commoner like him!" Arnold retaliated
"Bring that noble pride of yours and put some bandages to this young man. He's in need of aid." Earnest said calmly but his eyes weren't calm at all.
Arnold has no choice but to take the bandage and administer it to the young man.
All of the sudden, a howl was heard not far from where they are.
"They're close, f**k!" Earnest couldn't hide his fear and lost his composure for a second, but he recovered fast.
"You two, make sure he's okay, put the fire out and help that guy, we're running." Earnest picked up his bag and equipped his sword on his waist belt.
The two carried the young man after putting the fire out.
"Let's go! It will be troublesome if those wolves caught up to us. They can smell blood from afar, hurry up." Earnest said
They started running away and headed to the smoke coming from afar, they might need more help
Then a series running was heard behind them. When Earnest looked behind him, he saw a couple of red eyes closing on them."
"Shit." Earnest stopped and waited for the wolves to close in.
"Earnest?!" Arnold screamed, he stopped but was prompted by Earnest to run
"Let's see if you all can take this." Earnest held up his hands towards the direction of the wolves
When he saw the black wolves closing in he shouted
"Flash!" A wave of bright light assaulted the wolves' eyes. They all were blinded, since the Night Wolves' eyes are sensitive to light when it's night, they were stunned and stopped pursuing
Earnest ran away and caught up to the other nobles
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"There! It's cooked!" Kit said as he handed out roast meat, the meat was from the boars they killed.
Lance happily ate the meat, as well as Grant.
It's more delicious because Grant suggested to put some herbs to the meat before roasting.
While eating they saw a bright light suddenly exploded not afar from them.
Then they saw two trainees carrying one wounded trainee
They helped them, and Arnold suddenly looking behind frantically
"Where is he?!" Arnold asked nervously
"Where is who?!" Lance asked back
"Earnest! He held back the wolves, but we lost him!" Arnold was about to go inside the forest again but he saw someone running.
It was Earnest, but behind him was the wolves
"f**k!" Arnold exclaimed.
- Writer
