Hunting

Max and his group were able to locate the beasts shortly after they arrived in the forest.

Ernie was able to track them down efficiently and using his wind magic to boost his speed, inspecting a huge area starting from the last place the pack of beasts was known to be. He kept flickering in and out of Max's vision, his speed being too much for Max to get a sight of despite Ernie also wearing heavy metal armor.

"They should be directly in front of us, I can round it up to about 100 meters from here" Ernie approximated while inspecting the prints left on the ground. They looked fresh and were many, this signified a group of beasts meaning they were on the right way.

"Max, do you know the importance of finding tracks before finding the beasts?" Bryce asked, thinking of Max as a beginner hunter.

"Normally when hunting beasts, you don't know what awaits for you and tracks usually hold a lot of information. The number of imprints, their different sizes and shapes, and even the depth sometimes holds a lot of important details." Max responded, already aware of stuff like this.

He had been a hunter for a few years now and even though he didn't fall under the category of information gatherer he still knew important information such as this, this being one of the few skills that stick on you out of need.

Max walked right next to Ernie, looking around while counting all the pawprints he saw.

"There are seven different pawprints, one of which is a lot bigger than the others. The big one is surely the leader of the pack, our middle-grade magical beast." Maxx said before looking around once more, inspecting the prints a bit more while forming an idea in his head.

"I believe that it's a pack of seven magical wolves, six are low-grade while their leader is a middle-grade beast. I can't seem to figure out anything else" Max said after finishing assessing the tracks.

All three of his teammates were highly impressed, they thought that Max will have trouble during his first mission but it seemed like treating him as a beginner was the wrong way to approach him.

"Great deduction Max, everything falls in place with the list of local wild beasts and the pawprints are also one hundred percent made by a canine, a wolf is highly probable of making them. The only question now is, why wolves? It's strange as they are predators lurking a lot deeper in the forests, walking in bigger packs and with stronger units." Bryce quickly remarked which made Dylan give his opinion on the matter.

"The quest said that the beasts newly arrived in here so maybe they were the only survivors of a fight. Even being kicked out of the pack can't be excluded. Their forces, not being enough to remain in the deeper parts of the forest, had to retreat in the outer parts where they would have a chance to live at least." Dylan informed the others, his theory making sense but something like this was rarely seen.

"It doesn't matter anyway, our mission is to kill them so no need for a life story" Ernie retorted, seemingly annoyed at the monologue the three were having.

"As much as I hate saying it, I side with Ernie right now. We should first focus on the mission, after we finish it we can discuss about it somewhere else. You three might be strong enough to stay around these parts of the forest with no reason to care about your surroundings but this doesn't apply to me. I am still wondering what Breathing Technique I will be choosing after all... What I am trying to say is that I'm the most vulnerable here and it constantly makes me uncomfortable." Max surprisingly backed Ernie and the other two nodded, taking an understanding towards Max's position in here.

They made their way forward, following the tracks the wolves left behind.

It took a while, about then minutes to catch up to them as it seemed that the wolves were also moving away from them at their own pace, going in a straight line all along.

Max and the others found it strange but still followed them at a steady pace, around ten meters behind the group of wolves.

It was understandable for Max to be able and move while not making a sound, after all, he wore a set of light armor. The strange thing was the sound generated by the other three as something was out of place, they moved fast and nimble like Max while also looking like they weren't tired, this was understandable as they were stronger than him in the first place but what Max wondered about was the fact that their armor stopped making the clanking sound that was present every time they made steps.

It was then when Dylan shouted unexpectedly.

"I'll initiate the fight!" He said before increasing his speed to his maximum, being about two times faster than before.

The wolves immediately stopped in their march, looking back behind them after being alerted of Dylan's shout. They turned around and as they did one of the wolves at the back whimpered for less than a split second before the sound was cut off, replaced by a disturbing crunching sound.

Dylan arched his ax straight into the slowest wolf of the pack, its bones being broken down and its life taken away almost in an instant.

The wolves growled madly as they realized what happened, a red glint present in their eyes making them look more ferocious than before.

Two of the wolves closer to Dylan jumped immediately at him, droll leaking out as they opened their mouths wide going straight for a bite.

Dylan was able to avoid one of the wolves completely but wasn't able to do the same for the other one, getting his armor grazed by its claws and leaving some minimal damage on it.

Max and the other two caught up right that moment and were thinking of a way to fight. It was true that they planned a formation before but it didn't work against wolves. Even at lower grades, they knew how to fight as a team; this was one of their innate instincts after all and the worst that could happen at this moment would be getting surrounded by them.

"Let's help Dylan kill those two" Bryce commanded and as soon as he did, Ernie moved as well.

Max was caught off guard by this, not expecting to charge right at that moment. This left him in the rear, just behind both Ernie and Bryce who unleashed their full speeds as well.

Max tried to keep up with them but wasn't able to, being left behind them while they each launched an attack on a wolf each.

Max stopped to look around, his front was covered by his three teammates and he couldn't ask any of them to move and give a path to him as they were currently fighting in an upside-down 'U' formation with Max sealing the way for wolves to get behind them.

Max was able to easily spot one of the three remaining wolves sneaking his way behind the three, trying to attack from behind.

He attacked the wolf once it was close enough, now each of them being engaged into a fight while fighting back-to-back.

The wolves were nimble and were able to dodge the attacks of the iron axes that Max's teammates wielded, making it troublesome for any of them to kill one.

'This proves to be harder than I was expecting' All of them thought at the same time, feeling slightly irritated by the attack pattern the wolves showed.

A loud howl was heard and the leader wolf charged in towards them. He was at least two times as big as the other wolves and he surprisingly didn't attack at the beginning, waiting and looking at them showing signs of interest.

He sprinted towards the front-line, his march bringing feat to Dylan who was currently facing towards his direction. His addition to the battle made the three in the front tense up and as they did their eyes started glowing in different colors, Dylan's and Bryce's eyes glowing red while Ernie's glowed a bright blue.

The wolf closed into the three in almost an instant but before getting close enough to be attacked he jumped high into the air, avoiding them completely as he passed them with ease.

"MAX!" Bryce quickly shouted, his silhouette blurring as the wolf he faced before was split in two horizontally, falling on the ground with a sickening splashing sound.

Max reverted his gaze from the wolf that surprisingly backed down after colliding with Max's shield no more than four times in total, looking towards the voice that called him.

Instead of seeing a person he instead was surprised to see a shadow looming over him, sharp objects protruded out of this shadow, gleaming over with light not able to be seen anywhere else on the horizon.

Max's pupils quickly dilated, his body turning fidgety and his breath growing restless. Max placed his shield between him and the shadow as an automatic reaction and it was enough to save his life for now.

A thud was heard and Max was flung into the ground, his lungs hitting the cold earth and as the last breath left his body urgently, he knew that recovering his breathing was an impossible task.

The giant wolf wasted no time, immediately swinging his claws at Max who covered himself with the shield, trying not to get killed while trying to think of something.

The last wolf who had yet to fight anyone sprinted at Bryce who tried marching toward their leader, keeping him busy for his superior to finish his work.

"GO AWAY!" Bryce shouted as once again his body blurred, his motions being made in an instant.

He was finally free after slicing the wolf in two and was able to see Max with the wolf sitting above him.

"NO!" Bryce couldn't stop his tears anymore as he saw Max not being able to hold his shield, being flung aside as the wolf went in for a bite that could split the latter's body apart.

Max looked at the sharp teeth that descended on his body, the world seemingly moving a lot slower than before. He saw all the times he fought, killed beasts, and then used their bodies to make money for himself.

This cycle that he repeated so many times that he didn't even have enough fingers to count on even if he included his feet. Has it finally happened? Has the cycle turn against him?

He reached out his arm upward as a last and futile attempt, he knew that his life will be ended but his body didn't give up, it couldn't give up.