Chapter 6

"Fuck!" Nicholas whispered.

The wolf running in from the left was the missing F-rank wolf. He had the bad luck of running into it at this moment. The distance to the guards was yet about another kilometer. The wolves following behind him were already tired. They weren't trying to attack him aggressively, but were trying to tire him out. But the wolf that came now was a different story.

Nicholas did a forward roll as the F-rank wolf pounced on him. The wolf still clawed his shoulder as it vaulted over him. Nicholas leapt to his feet, not even looking at the wound on his shoulder, and began running. With this, he had again created a distance of a few meters between him and the wolves.

The wolves followed behind, biting his leg now and then. Suddenly, he felt his speed slowing as the F-rank wolf bit his shirt and held on. He twisted to his left and gave a blow with his free left hand. His shirt tore as the wolf tripped and tumbled into the pursuing wolves with a piece of his shirt still in its jaw. Nicholas, recognizing this opportunity, increased his pace and with a burst of energy fled towards the route of the patrol guards. There were just some tall bushes in front of him. Once he was past those, he would be in the clearing through which the road passed.

Two military off-road vehicles were on their routine patrol route. The vehicles had sightly wide tires; the top was a metallic grid with no covering. Its design enabled guards to even stand in the back of the vehicle and look out. Owen Clark, an F-rank hunter, was sitting in the front vehicle beside the driver. He was the captain of this patrol team.

He let out a long sigh as he turned to the guard who was standing and examining the surroundings with binoculars and asked with a bored voice, "See anything, Parker."

"Nothing unusual, sir." Parker replied. The clearing was clear, with no animals or monsters to be seen. Animals usually avoided coming into this clearing. It had been months since they had to take any action. The animals that usually came out were monsters even weaker than F-rank. F-rank monsters were rare in these surroundings. There had been merely one instance of sighting an E-rank monster. In that case, they hadn't engaged the monster but reported it. Hunters from the World Hunter Association sent a mission to subdue that monster. For weak monsters, F-rank or lower guns and other weapons were sufficient. The guns could even fell some F-rank monsters, those that were weak to physical attacks.

"Keep looking," Owen said. He let out another sigh and was about to close his eyes when he picked the subtle sound of footsteps in the distance.

"Can you guys hear that?" he asked, looking much more awake.

Parker picked up the sound, too. He concentrated on trying to locate the sound above the sound of the vehicles. Turning his binoculars to his right, he could see some movement in the bushes on his right.

"It's coming from our right about 500 meters away. It should be more than an animal. We should be able to see it in some time." Parker said.

"Stop!" Owen yelled. The vehicles screeched to a stop. There were 2 other soldiers in the front vehicle, apart from the driver, Owen, and Parker. The vehicle in the back also contained 5 soldiers.

"Everyone apart from the drivers, get out and take positions. Keep the engines running. Parker you keep watching." Owen yelled orders. He himself rushed out with his rifle and his sword by his side. The other soldiers rushed out in an orderly manner. They spread out in a single file and took positions ready to shoot.