Prey

There was a chorus of yips and barks, as the wolves within the clearing called out to the others, Zac hunched down where he was, he was still a distance away from the mother and child, and he desperately hoped the wolves wouldn't come by him while he hid.

Without being able to transform, and with only his mana core, he would be defenseless before them.

The leaves at the opposite side of the clearing rustled, and a Forest Wolf emerged, looking around the clearing for a moment, before its eyes locked onto Fredrick.

Then, moments later, another wolf ran out of the surrounding first, followed by another, and another, and soon enough, there were countless wolves in the clearing.

Zac peeked out from where he huddled, the wolves around too quickly to count them accurately, but there had to be almost twenty within the clearing.

This wasn't a large pack, but there were enough wolves that Fredrick was in danger, as well as the woman and child behind him.

From where he was crouched, Zac could hear the quiet sobbing from the tiny woman hiding behind Frederick, as well as the squeals of the unaware child in her arms.

'I've got to do something' Zac told himself, trying to psyche himself up to run to the two of them and have them run away why he helped Fredrick hold them off. He looked around himself for a broken branch, or a rock, or any kind of weapon.

"Incoming!" A loud high pitched yell sounded out, and Zac looked up to see a dark blur descending from the sky, it dove down toward Fredrick, and Zac watched in amazement as a lump detached from the blur, slamming into the ground next to Fredrick.

"Sorry we're late." The figure that had slammed into the ground next to Fredrick brushed himself off and said with a grin, patting the enormous man on the shoulder, standing almost as tall as him.

The wolves backed up in confusion, growling and snarling, looking at the new arrival in the clearing that had come flying out of the sky.

Zac looked on in amazement at the new arrival, just like Frederick, he wore combat fatigues, but where Fredrick's were draped strangely over his angular machine parts, this man's were almost bursting, thanks to his enormous frame, covered in rippling muscle.

The man was muscular beyond belief, his arms as wide around an average man's waist, and his legs enormous tree trunks. A chiseled face, almost comically small in comparison to his body, sat atop the man's thick neck, a mop of blonde hair on his head, the sides of his head shaven.

"Saw your flare. This zone is big enough for a pack, but I didn't think that we'd see one this far from the center." The man said as he removed a huge metal bat from a sling on his back, slapping it against his palm.

"Well, they're here. I've got two survivors outside the clearing, hopefully they're hiding. These two the wolves will get to with even the slightest opening. Let's take them out quick." Frederick quickly said to the other man, his arms whirring into action as he stepped forward.

"Alright, you that eager to get into action? I'll watch these two then, Ying's circling above, he could only spot me when he saw your flare." The man said as he stepped back, standing right next to the woman and child.

The man knelt down next to the crying woman, murmuring something that Zac couldn't hear, meanwhile, Frederick was striding straight to the mass of wolves that were cautiously stalking closer to the pair of them.

"You little s****! Frederick yelled, his hands folding into his arms, the fingers coming together and the claws coming together to form a sharp, drill like point. His hands started to spin at the wrist, and he leapt forward, the pistons in his legs hissing as Fredrick launched himself into the mass of wolves.

Frederick's arms spun through the wolves, stabbing through their skulls with expert accuracy, while his legs allowed him to leap high into the air and come back down, crushing others with the enormous metal slabs that were his feet.

Some wolves stalked toward the other man, but the dark blur that was surely Ying, dove down, sweeping by the wolves and decapitating as he rushed past, Zac only able to see a flash of steel as he did so.

"You'll be okay." The enormous, muscled man whispered over and over to the woman, whose sobs had quieted down as she realized that she just might not die to the pack of wolves.

Meanwhile, Zac was lost for words, he watched in amazement as the Augmented easily took out wolf after wolf.

But even with three of them in the clearing, one of them watching from high above, the Augmented missed one of the wolves sneaking out of the clearing, disappearing into the forest.

It was the larger of the wolves that had snuck away, the one that had initially howled to call the others, it stalked around, in a circular path around the clearing, aiming for the prey that lay behind the enormous muscled man.

However, as it circled around, its nose picked up the scent of new prey, strong enough that it would have been left behind moments ago.

The wolf picked up its pace, running along with tis nose on the ground, as it followed Zac's trail.