30 Chapter 30 – End of winter

Year 1, Winter, Third Month, Fourth Week.

In the snowy path leading to the water stream.

The team was moving steadily looking for new targets. Despite still having meat, the team decided to hunt for more resources.

Surprisingly, Karl wasn’t with them. His work was getting increasingly difficult so he decided to skip the hunt. Fortunately, the team carriers were used to collecting magic materials and extracting the beasts’ blood.

The team decided to maintain two ex-carriers solely collecting materials, and brought some of the other training teens to occupy the carrying position. Even if they weren’t battle-ready they could help to carry the LCs while getting some live battle experience.

This time around, Tael was more relaxed. Although he didn’t show, he was afraid of letting the team down in the last hunt, so he had to keep his senses on maximum all the time.

Diana wanted to use this opportunity to give the other team members some leading experience, so instead of Tael, she asked Toni to lead in this hunt.

Toni wasn’t a person that one would normally call a leader. He wasn’t very good at commanding or making fast decisions, but he also had qualities that could help him lead. He was a good listener and had good relations with everyone, and of course, he would be the first to protect the team.

Diana wasn’t keen on giving up command, but her plans weren’t humble, she was thinking of making several hunting teams in the future, so she would need to train leaders.

Tael was feeling more light not only because he wasn’t leading this time, but also because the Chief announced that they would try to lower the tributes, which took a huge weight from his back.

Two years ago, Tael’s father died and his mother had to step up to fill in his work. Now, she started to feel back pains for working too much and even got bedridden for a couple of months.

Because of the tribute increase, his mother’s condition was getting worse and she couldn’t stop working. When the Chief talked about having 200 villagers staying in the village, he quickly asked if his mother could be placed in the village until she recovers completely. Chief Omero approved and also extended this to others in similar conditions.

Tael decided to not rest until the village was a better place to live, a place where his mom didn’t need to suffer so much.

Previously, he wasn’t lazy or anything, in fact, he always trained diligently. But now, he was even more eager to improve. He started to train even harder, every morning before training at the central square he would train in the freezing snow to increase his resistance.

Also, he was giving more tasks to the other archers, he wanted to make the archers the deadliest group in the team.

Tael walked steadily copying the pace of his teammates, while his ears were tuned to sense all the sounds in the wind.

Since he started using the LQ wind crystal, his hearing has got better, recently he could listen to sounds much further than before. Unfortunately, he couldn’t differentiate a falling branch from a beast.

Tael signaled for the team to stop, and focused on hearing a new strange sound. Something was moving near the stony hills. He told Toni and they decided to go check what was happening.

The closer they got, the better Tael sensed something amiss. When they got near a stony path, between two stone walls they saw a pack of nine white wolves fighting with a large yellowish bear.

The bear looked furious, probably it was waked from his hibernation, while the wolves seem to be very hungry.

The wolves kept circling the bear and from time to time, they would launch an attack. However, the massive bear would fend off any attack by smashing the attacker with his paw, if the wolves didn’t retreat on time they would probably die.

The three bodies by the stone walls could confirm what would happen once a wolf was caught by the attack. Even so, the bear was also in a deadlock, if it launched a full attack the wolves would attack its back and it would be finished.

When the bear growled the team could only sigh at the intimidating fangs, but nothing compared to its massive paws. Each paw should weigh more than 50 kg, and its swings seem to carry even more strength.

Even Toni, that wasn’t used to making elaborate plans, saw an opportunity in the battle and decided to wait for the right moment to intervene.

Toni was the current leader and thus responsible for making their attacking plan. He gave a bitter smile and looked at Tael trying to get his help, who responded with a negative head swing, he would have to do it by himself.

Since they had time to prepare and they could control the place of engagement, this was a perfect situation for an ambush.

‘Should I divide the team into groups?... The last ambush worked, so I should do something similar... If the archers could get on those stones, they would shoot freely from above... We can easily corner the beasts if we approach silently...’

Toni took some minutes to consider their approach.

The place where the beasts were fighting was surrounded by stone walls, probably, the bear had come here to hibernate in one of the caves, but its rest was interrupted by the hungry wolves. After deciding on their attack plan, the team moved to their positions.

Tael led the group of archers back, looking for an appropriate hiking point. Soon, they started to move on the stones towards the direction of the battle.

The plan was to get to a vantage point above the battle area, so they could shoot the beasts without being attacked. However, in case they were attacked by other beasts, Toni sent a small protection team formed by a defender and an attacker.

The path through the stones wasn’t easy, so it would take Tael’s group some minutes to get there. While they were climbing their way up, Toni was silently leading the rest of the team to a chokepoint, their job was to slay any beasts that tried to escape.

Toni was initially calm, but how could he remain calm being responsible for so many lives? He was hoping that the wolves would take the bear down before fleeing

In five minutes, Toni asked them to stop, he judged that this was as far as they could go without being noticed. They stopped approximately 200 meters from the battle location behind a big rock.

Sania sighed annoyed, if it was up to her, they would walk at least 50 meters more, but Toni was too cautious. She understood that Toni was a very important figure in the team, but in her opinion, he wasn’t fit to lead.

The beasts’ battle was still in a stalemate, now two more wolves have dropped dead and another one was badly hurt, but the bear wasn’t unscathed, it had a nasty wound on its arm.

Sometime later, a wolf tried to attack the bear and got to its already wounded arm before the paw could crash it. The bear growled from pain and quickly smashed the biting wolf in the stone wall behind it.

The wolf cried and dropped lifeless in the ground, but before the bear could turn back three more wolves jumped on it. When the other wolves realized that the attack was successful they also moved forward to attack.

The bear was furious, it tried to swing its paws and body to get free from the attackers, but when it was successful smashing one away, another one would take its place, biting it everywhere.

Soon, the bear was severely wounded in many places. Following its instinct, the bear tried to get rid of the wolves by crashing itself against the rocks.

The wolves were getting through the bear’s tough skin and it was only a matter of time until they could defeat it. Unfortunately, the bear’s crazy attempts to save itself took down two more wolves, and only four wounded remained.

The bear was too wounded but the battle could easily turn sides, the wolves' instinct made them give up on their prey and escape the area. The bear growled in victory and tried chasing its fleeing enemies.

The wolves ran towards the team until a volley of arrows rained on them, taking down the two wolves in the rear.

Without stopping to check on their fallen pack members, the two remaining wolves increased their speed. Unfortunately for them, in the chokepoint, shields blocked their path.

After finding new enemies, the wolves followed their first instinct and threatened the team baring their fangs. But before they could do anything, two shields quickly retreated opening a small gap. Samia and Sania advanced faster than the wolves were expecting and trusted their daggers on each wolf’s head. If the wolves weren't tired and wounded, they would surely offer more resistance.

Toni signaled for a defender and attacker to walk behind and guard their back. Then, the team moved to slay the bear. Toni was nervous, but his steps showed resolve. He wasn’t sure how to defeat the bear, but one thing was clear, his shield wouldn’t last against the bear’s attacks.

‘I’m sorry Karl, you’ll have to make me another shield...’

Before the team engaged the bear, the archers discharged all of their arrows on it, only keeping one for an emergency. Unfortunately, only one of Tael’s arrows hurt the bear, the other arrows only made it angrier.

Toni thought that the wolves’ plan of attack was good enough and decided to copy it.

“We’ll engage it from two sides. Our shields would probably break after its attack, so you have to block it with two shields. I'll get its attention, when the bear attacks me, all the others move on it, try to repress it. Once the bear falls or gets pinned down, the attackers should try to kill it. Remember that if you’re caught by its paw you’re down for.”

The team nodded in agreement and started the attack.

After being thrown by the snake’s attacks, they trained a synchronized defense to resist stronger impacts. They would try to place two shields evenly and share the impact.

The repressing tactic was a move that Toni learned from Old Bill and refined it himself, which allowed defenders to use their shields for attacking. They would move their shield in a diagonal downwards position suppressing the enemy.

The bear noticed the approaching team while it was dragging the bodies to its cave. It growled trying to scare them away.

The team separated and surrounded the bear from opposite directions. The bear kept growling but didn’t attack, it identified the attackers as inferior but it was too wounded from the previous battle.

The team moved forward to enclose the bear but were stopped by its swinging paws. Toni continued taunting the beast until it moved on him.

When the bear swung its paw in his direction, the scared Toni could only activate the shield's Arrays and meet the attack. Despite being wounded, the bear’s strength was huge, the shield broke and Toni was launched back.

The group didn’t waste time and move to suppress the bear, using the repressing move to push it to the ground and backward. The push wasn’t enough to make the bear fall but it made it retreat.

The group tried pushing it a second time before it could swing its paw, which made the bear lose balance but again it didn't fell. Unfortunately, before they could make a third attempt, the bear swang his paw smashing their shields and throwing them to the ground.

When Toni was launched, he took the chance to get another shield with the defender protecting their back. With a new shield, he ran back just in time to see the defenders falling.

He gathered all his strength and crashed with the beast from behind, his shield made sine of breaking, and he yelled:

“Quickly, kill it! I can't hold it…”

The fallen bear growled and tried to get away. The shield cracked and Toni was launched off the bear.

Right on time, Samia jumped and slashed the bear’s face with her dagger. Whilst her sister found a gap in the bear’s leg and thrust into it.

The scene became very bloody. The twins started to move in and out thrusting their daggers into any open wound they could find. The bear continued to swing its paw wildly, trying to keep them away.

Soon, the bear stopped struggling, wounds bleeding everywhere in its neck, eyes, ears and other parts. Toni finally resumed breathing.

Toni ended up with a purplish wound on his belly and Samia got a nasty scratch on her right arm. But otherwise, everyone was mostly okay and nobody would need to be carried back.