30 The Power of Potions

From the road ahead, a few brown dire wolves appeared in the open, leisurely approaching the two humans that were shoulder to shoulder. While the wolves were annoyed by the disturbance of humans near their homeland, more meat was always welcome as their hunger never quelled with the amount of hunting they had done. The Osna Sail trail was not a path that many humans traveled, and they often had to rely on hunting the small creatures like rabbits and squirrels that lived atop the mountainous ledge where trees could extend as far as the eye could see.

"Azel, you have such a dirty mouth! The worst happened the moment you said something!" Baxtor complained.

"Maybe they were just waiting for us the moment we entered Osna Sail." Axel whispered.

Both of them were not in a state where they could last in a battle for more than a few seconds. Axel set Baxtor down and pulled out his Short Sword. His arms trembled slightly when holding it with one hand, so he decided to adopt a two handed hold on the sword. The scene of holding a one-handed sword with two hands looked like a little kid holding a mini-baseball bat, ready to play a junior league game.

"Azel, don't worry about me! Just run away by yourself! I will be try to stop these wolves!" Baxtor shouted as he tried to get up. He attempted to get up by himself several times but could only manage to kneel on one knee. The damage to his back had been quite substantial and moving too much would be dangerous in the long run.

"No way! We are brothers thicker than blood remember! Even if it's the end of the world, we will fight together and die on the same day!" Axel replied back with passion.

Baxtor almost wanted to bawl. He had truly become brothers with a great young man.

"Alright, let's fight it out with these beasts until they cry in fear!" Baxtor yelled as he pulled out his bow in a quick fashion. While he was still kneeling on one knee, it didn't affect his accuracy for marksmanship. The downside was that his wound would open up after a few shots, and that could be fatal after he lost his stamina.

Axel did not waste any time and rushed up to the nearest brown dire wolf ahead. He activated 'Smash' and stabbed into one of the wolves suddenly. The wolf was so taken by surprise that by the time it tried to retaliate, Axel was already pushing its body forward, and it flew back like a cannonball.

"Sh*t!" Axel thought to himself. He had known that a 'Smash' used with a two handed sword had greater effects, but he was only holding a one handed sword in a two handed sword stance.

Before he could step back to catch his breath, two other brown dire wolf had already followed up to avenge their fallen comrade. Axel could only block their fangs while holding the sword with one hand on each end of the sword.

"Paaaaaatttt! Paaaaatttt!"

Two extremely powerful shots nailed into the eyes of each respective wolf attacking Axel. They were forever asleep on the ground, and this allowed Axel to finally catch some breath.

"Nice Magmum Shot Mr. Baxtor!" Axel complimented in succession.

"No sweat my brother! But I don't think I can shoot more than 2 of those anymore, or else I will bleed out to death!" Baxtor exclaimed.

"Don't worry! Leave the rest to me!" Axel replied.

After catching his breath, he noticed there were another group of 3 wolves that had advanced from the darkness. Is there a leader directing these brown dire wolves? Axel thought there would always be an Alpha in the group when a huge pack of wolves came to assault their prey. Although they were mainly spread out in the game of Mabinogi, Axel knew that this world was much crueler and difficult in terms of dealing with the unknown dangers.

This time Axel did not rush in with a 'Smash', as the powerful skill would leave him unguarded afterwards. Instead, Axel grabbed a rock and threw it at the nearest wolf. Now running away slightly, the wolf followed Axel's lure and Axel decided to attack the wolf normally. Three quick strikes were made in succession and the wolf that was about to lunge at Axel was thrown backwards in mid-air like a rubber ball.

"Let's keep doing this!" Axel thought to himself.

After continuing the same strategy with the remaining 2 wolves, another wave of 3 wolves came out to replace their fallen comrades.

"Azel, we should just run back to the direction we came from! We can't keep fighting the endless mobs like this!" Baxtor warned Axel with concern.

Axel nodded and at this moment, he remembered something crucial that he had forgotten for the longest time. He looked in his inventory bag and saw:

[MP 30 Potion (5) ]

"F**k!" Axel exclaimed. He felt that he had made the dumbest choice to fight these wolves. Due to the constant events of fleeing from one danger to another, he had completely failed to remember one of the dungeon chest rewards from the Alby Dungeon he had cleared with Master Max a while ago. If he had used this in the beginning, he would not have to waste his energy fighting this never ending pack of wolves.

Without a second thought, he drank all five MP 30 Potions as if he was binge drinking and he felt his mana pool bulge up slightly.

"Acccck!!!!!" Axel screamed. He had not expected the mana potions to taste so digusting. It was as if he had consumed sewer water mixed with an acid like liquor. It seems like he would refrain from drinking potions unless his life was in grave danger in the future.

"Mr. Baxtor, quickly grab onto my arm now!" Axel yelled as he retreated away from the wolves.

Right as Axel came near Baxtor, Baxtor gripped Axel's arm tightly and they both disappeared in thin air. The wolves that had seen the incident could only shake their heads and go back from where they came from.

...

At the end of the mountain ledges of Osna Sails, two figures appeared out of nowhere. There was a signpost that said,

"To Dunbarton."

One of the figures almost collapsed on the ground. He was inhaling so hard that it looked like he was going to suffocate.

"Azel, are you alright???????" Baxtor asked he patted Axel's back.

"I'm fine, I'm just really low on mana, haha...." Axel replied.

"Alright let's take a breather before we enter through the portal to get to Dunbarton!" Baxtor said as he let Axel sit down to take a rest.