Rescue (1)

Warden found civilization. At last, after running for over half an hour, he found a village. Unfortunately, it was on fire. More than half a dozen houses were burning with smouldering flame, driving away the surrounding darkness of the night. 

Sadly, fire wasn't their most prominent problem, as it appeared the village was being seized by packs of dire wolves. 

The Little Bunny squeaked urgently, stopping before the broken fences of the village. Warden didn't answer its call as his eyes fixated on the wolves, devouring the mangled corpses of men. There were dozens or so corpses of dire wolves and half a dozen men, their blood, and gore smearing all around, giving a disconcerting feeling of the place.

A deep seethed bitterness surged through his heart. He drew closer, drawing his sword. The beast sensed his presence, lifted its head, and charged at him. 

The little bunny crept behind him as he held the blade up, pointing it forward. He didn't move and let the beast come at him. No inferior feelings such as fear or uncertainty consumed him, only an icy rage at the mindless animals for destroying the village. 

The dire wolf leapt at him, hungry maw opening to devour him. Warden drilled his blade through its head in one clean sweep, killing it instantly. 

[Copper grade energy harvested.] 

[+0.5 Strength]

Killing one of their companions seemed to have alerted the other wolves, as more than half a dozen of them joined up to charge at him. Warden began moving as well, pulling the little bunny over his shoulder. He stormed to the prey closest to him and beheaded it in one clean sweep.

Imbuing his sword with the dark purple energy, he received no resistance. Moreover, his power seemed to be rising the more he killed these wretched creatures. 

He leapt over a wolf, running his blade over its head, barely missing a few inches to seal its life. Two more wolves pounced at him from two different directions. Warden chose to deal with the one at his left, his sword meeting its ravenous maw in full determination. 

Finally securing its demise, he turned to his right to find the bunny had leapt up from his shoulder and was now in a tussle with a wolf far higher of its station. It was barely fending off the wolf's advances, but determined to prove its usefulness. 

Unfortunately, a little bunny was far from being an opponent of a feral wolf as high as Warden's waist. Just when the wolf was about to dig its claw into the flawless white bunny, he came to the bunny's rescue, kicking away the beast's claws. 

A sharp purple energy flashed from his leg at the very moment of contact. The wolf's claw burst out into blood as Warden drew the bunny up with his free arm. His body was sore, but once again began to reach the exhaustion phase the more he fought. However, Warden didn't stop. He killed the ravenous beast as cleanly and efficiently as possible.

Each one took a couple or three blows before they died. Thankfully, the warmth oozing off the dead creatures kept his exhaustion at bay. 

[Copper grade energy harvested.] 

[+0.3 Strength.] 

[+0.5 Strength.]

[+0.2 Mind]

[...] 

[+1.2 Strength.] 

[...]

Warden cleaned his blade and face, not giving a second look at the system notification. More howls and people's screams were coming from the village, the more time he took, the dire the situation would be for him. 

He dashed into the village, each foot taking more than just a couple of metres as the purple energy helped him to reach higher and higher. Of course, using the purple energy would exhaust him faster, but Warden decided he would rest all he wanted after he saw through the people's survival. 

If he could save even one more person, it would all be worth it. 

Inside the village, people were already fending off the beasts. He saw more than a dozen deaths already, their mangled corpses being devoured by the beast. Something about the gore clawed at his heart, as Warden released the last of the reservation. 

The little bunny squeaked at his shoulder at the first notice of a huge predator, inching closer to devour a man. Another figure was on the ground, behind the standing wounded man, blood on her face and upper body. She seemed to have given up already, but the man met the wolf's advances, even though he barely had any strength to latch onto. He seemed to be gruesomely wounded, with claw marks all over his figure. 

Warden leapt from his track and almost flew a few metres to land in their vicinity, drawing the huge predator's attention from them. 

The dire wolf was his chest high, or even higher, its face mangled with skull and bones sticking out, yet he felt an odd familiarity from it. 

"Why do I feel like I have seen you before?" he muttered as the bunny leapt up from his shoulder towards the two wounded warriors who fought for the village. 

"Aren't you the wolf that was after the bunny?" he said, as the beast howled horrifyingly in return. The straight scar he inflicted on its face was barely visible with its face burned, but Warden could feel his remnant of energy. There was a certain sensation to it that he wouldn't mistake.

"How did you get so much fatter in just one day?" 

Not just fat, the dire wolf seemed to have gone through a metamorphosis, already a foot taller and a few larger. Its claws and fangs were far more predatory, eyes glowing more menacingly. With most of the skin in its head gone, it looked far more disconcerting.

"Come on," Warden braced himself, "I'm not going to let you run this time." 

With that, he charged at the beast, his speed hardly slowed even though he stopped. In one moment he was a dozen paces away from the monster, the next he was swinging his sword into its body. 

Sadly, the wolf had grown agiler in the meantime as well, leaping up to meet his challenge. The beast was far higher than him in physicality, but it didn't have a man's intelligence or way regarding energy manipulation. 

In any other instances, the beast would have managed to pounce on him despite his charge, but Warden already saw through its change. So when the beast tried to pounce at him with superior speed, he feinted his attack and leapt on top of it, his sword grazing along on top of it. 

Dark blood oozed where the sword connected, unfortunately, the wound was too shallow to be effective. 

This is going to be a bit tougher than I imagined, he thought.