Chapter 3: Scouting

After Mar wakes up from the howling wolves, he decides to scout around the cavern. Mar waits until it is day time to scout. The wolves are still not visible from the tree he is on, so Mar decides to explore the cavern cautiously on foot. Mar stumbles as he gets down from the tree he shakes his head at his blunder. He gets on his feet and remains focused at the task at hand. Mar gingerly walks from tree to tree going towards the source of the sound he heard last night. Mar knows he has seven arrows remaining to fight with. He hopes that he won't have to rely on his destructive arrow skill since it destroys an arrow in the explosion. If there are more than seven enemies Mar will have to get creative with his attack as, if he shoots them all from a distance he will run out of arrows. Mar will need to kill the enemy in batches so that he can collect his arrows after his kills. Mar keeps walking until he finds a big bush that blocks his path. Mar carefully brushes back some of the leaves and looks towards the middle of the forest, he sees a stone chest and a pack of wolves protecting it.

Mar spots six wolves in total. All of them are sleeping under the shade of the forest. One of the wolves looks bigger than the others and has a darker coat. The darker coat will be hard to see when night comes which makes it a scary opponent. If he can Mar want's to fight the big one alone and in the day time. Mar has two options, wait until the wolf pack is moving and lure one of the wolves away from the pack to fight, or shoot and kill one of the wolves now. The bigger wolf would be good to get rid of now but Mar has a feeling that it will wake up and dodge the arrow he fires at it before it hits. It is not an opponent to take lightly.

Mar instead decides to target one of the five normal sized wolves. He is going to shoot the wolf farthest away from him so that he can run the opposite direction of where the wolves will be going, when they inevitably go to check on their companion. With the plan set, Mar gets ready to act, he takes one of the arrows out of his quiver. He slowly brings the arrow over his head and onto his bow string. A small *click* is heard, only by Mar, it signals the arrow being nocked onto the string. He is ready to shoot. Mar gets ready to shoot, he draws the bow back and calmly focuses on his target. As soon as he fires the arrow he must stealthily run away. His bowstring is fully drawn back and he fires towards his target.

*Thwick*

The arrow struck the targeted wolf right in the neck causing it to whimper loudly in pain. The pained sound the wolf made quieted quickly as it succumbed to blood loss and died. All the while, Mar had escaped and ran back to the initial tree he had slept on. Feeling satisfied with his hunt for the day, Mar began planning how he was going to take out the rest of the wolves, he had six arrows left and five opponents to kill.

A few hours passed and the wolves had been silent. This gave Mar the confidence to attempt to take out another wolf and go with his initial plan. He was going to lure one away from the pack and kill it. This strategy will work as long he doesn't draw more than one or two wolves away at once. Mar will be able to slowly whittle down the pack's numbers until it is just him and the big wolf left.

Mar slowly walks around the center of the forest, where the pack is located, and looks through the brushes that shield him from the wolves. He can see that the pack had taken the dead wolf elsewhere, away from their living area. Only a trail of blood could be seen from where the dead wolf had been dragged away. All five of the remaining wolves were awake but they looked agitated and nervous. Clearly uneasy that there is an intruder.

Mar plans for how he will lure one of the wolves away from the pack, as he is thinking he sees two wolves leaving the center of the forest, going somewhere. Mar quickly follows from afar and finds them going to a lake to drink water. This was perfect for Mar, one wolf going alone would be better but two is still manageable. Mar gets ready to shoot as soon as one of the wolves starts drinking, the other is serving as a lookout. Mar decides to throw a small rock into the lake to draw the wolves attention. Mar picks up a decent sized rock and throws it with all his might, he immediately gets into a stance to shoot the wolf who is on lookout.

Mar nocks his arrow fast and draws it back immediately.

*Plop*

Both wolves look towards the rock that hit the water.

*Thwick*

The wolf on lookout whines in pain as an arrow impales it in the neck.

The wolf who was drinking water looks towards its companion and then towards a bush where a faint glimmer of metal can be seen.

The wolf looks at the Mar's arrow curiously. The arrow is released from the bowstring and is traveling straight towards the wolf.

The wolf dodges at the last second but the arrow still manages to hit on the wolf's right shoulder.

"Damn it!", Mar yells in his head. "That second shot was supposed to be a clean kill but the wolf somehow saw me!" Mar runs out from the bush he was in, throws his bow on a nearby bush, and runs towards the two wolves, one dead and one wounded. He draws his knife from his pocket and tries to finish the fight with the wounded wolf quickly before any more wolves come. He arrives right in front of the wounded wolf, it tries to back up slowly as it knows it is wounded. Mar closes in on the wolf and fakes a strike with his knife, making it seem as if he was committing to the attack. The wolf sees this and moves slightly to the side, dodging the feint, and it tries to bite Mar's arm. Mar revels in his successful bait and quickly draws back his arm. He thrusts the dagger into the surprised wolf's neck and pulls it out right away. He watches the wolf die of blood loss and he settles his breathing, he had won.