the tribe atop the mountain.

Running instinctively to the old nest of the goblins, Alex jumped on the other side of the cluster, landing atop the rock cluster. Running the side of the rock, he threw himself at the frozen waterfall, climbing at breakneck speed. Each time the ice under him would threaten to break, he unconsciously used his innate skill, freezing the part back together.

While his body pulled it a crazy stunt, Alex was pouring over all his knowledge of pack oriented animals, along with his meagre knowledge of Danmachi.

'This can't be a coincidence; wolves wouldn't risk their lives in such a storm. Even if they had thick fur, the temperature should be around -48 right now.' Though him, searching a respond for such an event.

-More so that we are at the foot of the mountain, higher, with the winds, the temperature felt should be even lower.- Nodded CS; it too completely threw off by the wolves erratic actions.

Perking he hears the howling winds harshly wiping his body, Alex caught the uninterrupted series of howls nearly drowned in the wind.

'That does make any sense! It as if...' Though him, before his eyes widen and body momently stop, before moving with even more vigour. 'It's a territory war!'

-Of course!- Shouted CS, now understanding the situation after Alex words.-It's not a pack of hundreds, but packs! THeir fighting over a piece of land! But why now and why there?-

'I think I know.' Alex grimly told, still climbing the hundreds of metres tall waterfall.' Don't you think the situation seems awfully similar to the one we found ourselves not long ago?' Spatted Alex, knowing that the monster was most likely not fighting against each other for just territory.

-We are in full swing of winter, right in the middle of the mating process. If your right, that would mean...- Started, but seemingly unwilling to finish as he said what he thought would make it real.-

'... That their hunting for food, and what easier to target, than a settlement of humans trapped in the mountains, cut off all help' Finished Alex, spurring his body to climb the last metres of the waterfall.

~~~

Barely arrived at the top, Alex only took a minute to catch his breath before focussing all his sense to tracks the howls. He didn't need to strain much. Now hundreds of metres from the grounds, he was much nearer than before, allowing him to quickly caught them.

Still hearing the howls, yelp and resounding snapping maw, Alex launches himself at the assault of the white expanse. Even after climbing the five hundred metres tall waterfall, Alex was far from climbing more than a fifth of the mountain.

He didn't have time to be stumped by the strange weather or geography of the area. Looking briefly at the pics raising in front of him, he instinctively knows which route to take.

It was the first time his instincts were kicking so strongly, but as the child of the winter and lord of the mountain, they weren't a better time and place for Alex to fully explore his heritage.

Bolting on the snow-covered ground, Alex wasn't the less impaired by the snow, seeming to fly on it. Running at a speed that would leave the best sprinter of his old world in the dust, Alex exhilarated at the fantastical workout he was given.

Even under the euphoria, he didn't lose his mission out of sight but instead used it, fuelling him to reach the place faster.

Trekking in the snow for at least two hours, Alex passed valleys, pics, pass and arduous mountain slope. Nothing seems to stop him; not even passage was even mouflon would have fallen to their death.

~~~

Slowing both his speed and breath, Alex could now clearly hear the sound of battle ongoing on the other side of the slope. The blizzard had lessened to a simple stinging wind now, allowing him a better vision.

Carefully looking over, Alex gaze hardens at sight. As he feared, a settlement had been attacked. He could see the bright red of shed blood on the pure white snow even from his position. Some corpses were savaged by groups of wolves, while the larger number of them face the other packs.

The numbers of wolves were staggering; he could easily make hundreds. But what was the most disturbing was the fact that it wasn't just beasts. While a pack ravaged the settlement, around thirty or so, those seem to be invaders and stranglers of ashen grey and silver wolves. Most of the similars wolves were forming a ring around the settlement, about a hundred plus, if he trusts CS count. In between were another population of wolves, lesser but larger.

The second population seems to be torn between launching an assault at those in the settlement and attacks those surrounding them, but each time they attempted a breakthrough, those outsides would throw themselves at them.

~~~

On one side were a total population of nearly two hundreds wolves, both ashen and silver grey. This species seems relatively small, around a metre and half in length, barely taller than eighty centimetres. The silver wolves seem taller and larger, around a third more than the lesser, ashen grey. Their particular morphology would make Alex think of a badly turned lycanthropy case. Their heads were that of wolves but with shorter features. Their body, in particular, was the cause of his though. Their back and belly had a disturbing short fur of the entire body, turning thicker and longer on the paws and tails. Their limbs, too, were a twister mix of paw and hand, still beast-like but more human.

The silver wolves shared this trait too, but on a lesser scale, turning them more beast-like.

'Kobold! That why I thought the howls were different, their monster, not beast!'

On the other side, the wolves trapped in between were assuredly beast. What stopped Alex to immediatly launch an assault was the fact the pack of fifty was keeping with the monster overwhelming them four to one. The wolves had nothing of those of Alex world. Be it his original or the HP world, he never seen such monster of a beast. From their look, they were similar that the Great Plain wolf, with a coat of white, black and grey. But rather than being the slim build, he knows them, those shared traits with the MacKenzie wolves. If that wasn't enough, they dwarfed their cousin. The one he sight were colossuses, long of four metres, high of nearly two.

It wasn't just the fact that they were twice the size of the largest wolves of the largest species, but their wid and stockiness was a frightening sight for an average human.

~~~

Just as he was about to move, CS shout, freezing him in place.

-Don't move! Look at the settlement!-

Following CS words, Alex gazes shifted to form the standoff to the end of the settlement. He caught a golden spot moving from house to house, trying to avoid the feasting kobolds in the settlement. His hand tightened in a fist at the sight survivor trying to make its way outside.

Not wasting any more time, his right hand darted to his shoulder. Barely brushing the flat cube on his right shoulder, a bow appeared in his hand. Mimicking is action with his left hand; an arrow appears in his left.

~~~

After successfully created a second type of cube, using runestone supported by ambient magic and magic steel, Alex had immediatly crafted a specific cube for storing his weapon. Using runestones as a cornerstone, each would support a part of the array, not needing to input magic on them as the coast was lesser than what they absorb. While it wasn't an economical solution for runestone, it allowed Alex to save runecore; the fact that it was easier to obtain runestone helped, too.

He only needed a space of a metre and seventy centimetres tall, ten centimetres large for his bow. Using shrinking runecore until founding another solution, Alex had a cube a centimetre and seven long, a centimetre wide and a millimetre thick. The cube for his arrows was barely larger, 1.5*1.5*1.5 and could contain hundreds of arrows inside. His throwing knives had similar storing cubes. All this made it extremely easy for him to equip and use his weapons, as all his cube had in-build feather-light and summoning scheme incorporate in them. He didn't even need many resources, hob-goblin cores for surface above a metre, variant for less, along with a Dungeon core. This saved him up quite a bit of his limited resources and was easy to incorporate into his armour.

But the cube wasn't the only upgrade; his arrows, too, had been. With the shaft made of processed ironwood, Alex was free to channel his magic in them. The arrows head, made in magic steel, were embedded with runes-cores.

This was Alex response to how to use his magic more efficiently. Rather than cast flashy coloured light, he used the tool has his disposition to made a new system of magic. He was far from complete and much cruder but possess much more power than wizard spell. What Alex did was to use parseltongue, the oldest magic language he knows. Turning the language in rune, he would shape the goblins core and carve the rune in. As the core possess inner magic, all Alex would need was to power them, thus activating the rune. Like runes, their shape would decide the spell used. For now, he was only able to use single words, but this was enough.

~~~

Nocking the arrow, Alex aimed at a group of four wolves devouring a burly man, still clutching a sword in his grip. Taking a deep breath before holding his form, Alex channelled a sliver of magic in his arrow before firing.

Alex was a good fifth hundred metres from the settlement from his position, but the arrow needed less than two seconds to struck. The second it landed, the kobold head it hit burst like a watermelon. The other three hadn't time to react as the magic affected them. Their brain and head turned to mush by the blast of kinetic energy released by the blasting curse.

Even in channelling a silver of energy, creating a blast zone of only fifteen centimetres around the impact zone, the rune had enough power to inst-kill the three. Before the arrow hit, Alex was already starting his second shoot, aiming for another group.

Raising from his position, he slowly started to make his way to the settlement.

~~~

In the settlement, the golden spot Alex witnessed turned to be a young woman. In her arms was a little girl, barely older than nine. Alaya, along with her daughter Ais were part of a small tribe of hunters. All the member of the tribe shared a common trait, their golden hair and eyes. As a hunter tribe, they established themselves in the mountains, near their prey. Due to the high where they established their settlement, they had nearly no contact with the external world. A small caravan of the guild would come thrice a year, a spring, summer, and autumn start, to trade commodity they need for their hunts' furs.

When the winter started, the elders predicted a harsh season; the snow was early and thick. Due to those conditions, the settlement knows that predators would soon exit the wood to gather large amounts of preys. What worried the elder the most was the Northen wolf, the largest predator in the mountain. The wolf was vicious and strong beyond ordinary people strength. With such a harsh season coming along their mating period, the settlement immediatly prepared for an assault, as they know they were never the top predator around.

As the weeks passed, the tribe started to grow more and more stressed. The predator had yet to show itself, and with each passing day, the danger was raising.

Barely a month in winter the disaster struct, but not from who they feared. Another predator had shown itself, monsters. If the Northern wolf was a threat, facing the monster first told them that they would surely face destruction.

Had the wolves struck first, they could have hope to avoid utter destruction, as the monster would have smelt their passage, but now? They know that the first would be attracted by the presence of the second.

~~~

Their fears were answered the following morning. The worst had been to have the two packs face each other, taking potshots at the powerless tribe trapped in their settlement.

As they saw it coming, they had long since stored enough food to stay enclosed in their house. Even then, Alaya exited the relative safety of her home with her daughter. She knows that the settlement was lost, and it was only a question of time before they were all slaughtered. Unwilling to let her daughter submit such fate, she took her chance. Sneaking through the distracted monster was child play for the huntress.

What she was worried about was the second part. She had already steeled her mind, knowing she would need to be a bait for the monsters and wolves to allow her little Ais to flee.

It was at this moment that she saw it. The arrow had been near soundless, and only the sound of the bursting head alerted her. She turned wildly at the unexpected sound, only to see a group of four monsters die. When she saw the arrow, her gaze immediatly snapped to its origin.

She barely distinguishes a form raised at the top of the ridge before another arrow decimated another group. She couldn't help but feel some flicker of hope rise in her chest when she saw that someone was near.