5 The Woods (1)

"...and those are the locations in the woods that you will search.", Mr. Sanchez finished his sentence.

He was explaining and pinpointing locations on the map of the woods of the possible places where the treasure might be.

"Got it?", Mr. Sanchez asked.

"Yes.", Kate nodded while Allen answered in a dull way.

"Okay, go do it." Mr. Sanchez dismissed the two of them.

With the tavern owner's dismissal, the two of them left quickly.

***

Jumping from roof to roof of the buildings in the town, Allen felt the cold breeze of the night bashing to him.

Regardless of him wearing the dark attire that was provided by Mr. Sanchez, he could feel the coldness sticking on his garments and passing through them towards his skin.

Kate made another jump and landed on the roof of the other slightly taller building in front of them.

Seeing the distance and the height of the structure from his current location, Allen gulped in his saliva and backed off some distance from the edge.

Then he started running forward. As soon as he was near the boundary, he jumped with all his might.

For the first time, Allen felt the most bliss in his life. He felt like a baby bird flying on the air in their initial flight.

And like any other baby bird on their first flight, they would crash back down to the ground:

Near the other roof, his momentum suddenly disappeared and he started falling back to the earth.

After getting a euphoria from jumping through the air, a sense of doom covered him afterwards as he felt he was going to fall down the ground.

But then he stopped falling and felt that something was touching his wrist.

He looked up and spotted Kate holding his hands. She then pulled him up the roof.

When he was fully pulled up, he laid down on the roof and started panting.

"Can you try to jump even higher next time? I won't recover your body if you died jumping.", Kate scolded under her hood.

"Sorry, I thought it was enough. I waa afraid that I would put too much force.", Allen who was wearing the black garb, said under the mask. The mask he was wearing was the same one he used when he dispatched the man.

At first, Allen thought it was impossible to jump over buildings with his physique, but the clothes he was wearing weren't ordinary.

The kid suspected that they were like the magically enhanced ones that he had read from his mother's books.

"Hurry up we don't have much time!", Kate urged him as she jumped towards another roof.

"Huh?" Allen saw that Kate was already on another roof, so he scrambled back up and followed her.

***

Meanwhile, in a courtyard of a residence...

"Sir Warren!", a figure made out of smoke called out to a child wearing a robe and carrying a staff. "I'm sent by master to protect you."

"Ehh?", Warren turned around and saw the figure. "I already told you I don't need any help!"

"But master would then restrict you from coming to the woods.", the figure said.

"B-but... alright then! You can come with me!", Warren stopped complaining and exited through the main gate with the figure.

***

On the other hand, Allen and Kate already arrived outside the woods.

"There are some dangerous beasts here in the woods, it's best that we should stick together." Kate said as he signaled Allen to follow her, "Our clothes could integrate us into the darkness, but some of the monsters could still sense us."

The dangerous beasts in the woods, although classified as 'dangerous', they never exited the woods for their own safety and thus, there were no records of human deaths involving them for a long time.

But Kate and Allen were going towards them head-on! It would be a predicament to battle one head on as their strength relies on sure death sneak attacks.

If they were magicians instead, they could just battle their way through the woods while killing all the monsters on the way easily with their spells.

Allen followed her and took out his dagger in case of emergency, and they both headed towards the first location.

In just a few minutes, the both of them reached the first spot.

"Wait.", Kate signaled Allen to stop. "See that." Then she pointed towards a red-eyed wolf circling around the area.

"It's a Bloodthirsty Wolf, it has killed a lot of living beings in the forest, you can see it from it's eyes. Watch me how I'll kill it.", Kate took out her dagger and disappeared in a flash.

Allen was caught off guard and just focused looking on the bloodthirsty wolf.

Afterwards, a figure in black appeared above the Bloodthirsty Wolf and slashed towards the monster's neck. The beast didn't have the time to react and it's head was already separated from the body!

The figure landed beside the wolf's head and waved at Allen, it was none other than Kate.

All these actions from Kate taking out her dagger until killing the wolf may take time to explain but it happened only in a few moments!

Allen's jaw dropped under the mask. In spite of not understanding what just occurred, he knew that Kate was obviously not an ordinary assassin.

Kate called out to Allen to come over. Allen approached him then he saw Kate taking out an orb and she crushed it with her hand.

A few seconds passed and nothing happened. 

Kate frowned and said, "The treasure's not here, come on, let's go to the next spot."

"Alright.", Allen answered and he followed Kate towards the next spot.

...

On the way to the next spot...

"Awk...", the screech of a hawk echoed throughout the location where Kate and Allen currently was.

When Kate heard that, she pulled Allen back and hid behind a tree where the hawk's sight wouldn't see them.

Allen was about to take a look when Kate prohibited him from doing so. The latter took out a glass shard from her sleeves and used its reflection to check on the hawk.

"It's a Skeletal Hawk. It came from a necromancer. Though, it's probably the apprentice instead.", Kate then hid the glass shard back in her sleeves. "We should wait for it to get out of this place before we move again."

Allen nodded and the both of them waited for a few more minutes until the hawk left the area.

"Let's go.", Kate said.

...

Afterwards, they finally reached the next spot where the treasure might be hidden.

Allen this time saw that there were two bigger bloodthirsty wolves fighting each other in this area.

"I might need your help this time.", Kate looked at Allen and the boy looked back. "Can you distract the other one for a few seconds?"

"Yes.", Allen nodded and hid his dagger.

"Alright, I'm going to wait for your signal if you're ready.", Kate said.

Allen carefully went into position behind one of the wolves and picked up some rocks; after which, he waved at Kate.

Kate nodded and disappeared in a flash.

-sou-

A dagger slash could then be heard, suddenly one of the wolves neck bled, but didn't die yet.

The other Bloodthirsty Wolf saw what occurred and prepared to pounce on Kate who was about to land on the body of the other wolf when it felt a rock was thrown on its head.

As another rock was thrown at it, the beast turned around and saw Allen!

When the kid felt the wolf began to eye him, his whole body started to get the chills.

The wolf then pounced on Allen, however, the kid got to avoid it and the beast missed him. Because Allen dodged the beast, the latter kept coming towards the tree from behind him earlier.

-crack-

The tree broke in half due to the momentum of the monster! But the monster only shook it's head and let out a grunt!

Allen couldn't help but yelp when he witnessed what happened to the tree, he could've become a human meat paste if he didn't dodge in time!

...

At the same time, Kate, who was on top of the other wolf, looked what the other wolf had done to the tree and thought, 'Damn it, the other one is actually an alpha!'

Now, she could only pray that Allen won't die... or else she would be in big trouble.

...

'What to do, what to do?', Allen thought as he dodged another pounce of the alpha Bloodthirsty Wolf.

'I know I read something about Bloodthirsty Wolves, think Allen, think!', the kid then avoided another lunge of the wolf by a few centimeters. He could even feel the wind created by the wolf brushing through his body.

Afterwards, Allen remembered something about the said beast, 'That's it!'

The boy ran as fast as he can towards the darkness. Seeing that its prey was running away, the wolf's hunter instincts kicked in and chased after Allen.

The kid entered the darkness and disappeared from the wolf's sight. If the one who was chasing Allen was a normal wolf, it could've still saw the kid even in the darkness, however, because it's a Bloodthirsty Wolf, it only focused on one thing, its strength for killing and slaughter! Due to that, its senses specially its eyesight was much weaker than a normal wolf and couldn't see through the blanket of darkness.

As for its sense of smell? It was needed to fully focus to use its keen sense, but would it use that during a battle?

The answer is obviously no! Even for an alpha.

Afterwards, the wolf lunged towards the darkness and a crack could then be heard.

"Gah...", it also heard quiet, yet painful shout afterwards. The beast rejoiced thinking that it had caught it's prey.

Kate on the other hand widened her eyes when she heard it, making her almost falling down from the wolf that she was tackling.

The clouds covering the moon cleared up and moonlight descended. When the light reached the area where Allen and Kate was battling with the two wolves, the wolf that was fighting Allen saw that it was pinning down a newly destroyed tree!

A figure suddenly jumped from a tree beside the wolf and landed on its back! The beast felt that there was a something on its back and frantically tried to shake it off!

"Stay still... and give me your forehead!", the figure said as he finally stabilize his position on the wolf's neck; the figure then took out a dagger and stabbed towards the forehead of the beast!

Of course, the figure was none other than Allen.

"Awooo...", the wolf howled in pain and shook a few more times before it crashed to the ground with a thud.

"Huff... huff... huff...", Allen exhaustedly lied down on the dead body after he retrieved the dagger from the wolf's forehead and muttered. "Good thing William forced me to read those books for him everyday. I guess inteligence isn't useless in a battle after all."

-thud-

Allen heard a thud, he then to the direction of that noise and saw the other bloodthirsty wolf's head on the ground, separated from its body.

Kate jumped down from the now headless body of the wolf and approached Allen. When she noticed the dead wolf he was standing on, she couldn't help but nod.

"You killed a bloodthirsty alpha wolf... by yourself?", Kate asked.

"Yes.", Allen nodded as he jumped off the body of the wolf. One could see the beads of sweat running down from his forehead.

"How?", Kate asked. She knew that this boy right in front of him doesn't have any experience when it comes to battling!

"I've read something about these monsters.", Allen answered.

"But it's an alpha!", Kate said.

"Erm... even if it's an alpha, it's still a Bloodthirsty Wolf, right?", Allen scratched the back of his head; he then wiped the blood off the dagger and hid it in his sleeves.

Kate didn't argue anymore and just thought, 'Master is right, knowledge is actually helpful in battles.' One of the things she hated the most was reading! But seeing knowledge on the test, she planned to try to read books when they would get back to the tavern.

The girl took out an orb and crushed it. However, after a few seconds, Kate frowned again and said, "It's not here either, let's go to the next location."